Chicago’s getting a free public talk by Martin Schmidt of Matmos next week! Part of Gallery 400‘s arts exhibition space at the University of Illinois at Chicago, this is sure to be nerd central with probably annoying questions by pseudo intellectual hipsters, but I can’t stay away from Martin’s mormon-suit realness! Tuesday, October 20th at 5pm, Art and Design Hall, First Floor, 400 S. Peoria Street (at Van Buren Street) 312-996-6114.
It was right before The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast was released when Matmos played a free show at the Chicago Cultural Center. I had just found out the day of and ran over (I was laid off at the time and had SO much free time and NO money) and of course the show was amazing. A merch table once-over had me attached to a small plastic casing with a black and white cover and all it said was “For Alan Turing.” I asked, and Martin told me who Alan Turing was and that the tour-only 3″ CD was an outtakes package for the record. I bought one for me and one for a friend’s birthday.
Alan Turing has been making the headlines because people have been demanding an apology for his treatment by the British government (I signed a petition a few weeks back). Turing was a mathematician and army vet and is credited with cracking enemy codes that led to the conclusion and win of World War II. Afterward, he was exposed as being a homosexual and was chemically castrated. Two years later, he committed suicide and it wasn’t until today (this happened in 1952, people) that the British Prime Minister has issued a public official apology. So…more than 50 years later and all I can think of is how long we’ll have to wait for an apology from our government’s treatment of transfolk, and the complete lack of effort to include them in the conversation. At the time of Alan Turing’s conviction. homosexuality was still considered a disorder, and trans gender is considered that today. W.T.F.
Longtime listeners/short term readers how freaky Think Pink Radio is about Matmos. With May 6th, the release date for their new record fast approaching, little trickles of mp3′s have been digitally making way for excitement and pants peeing. Supreme Balloon being an entire album made from synthesizers, it’s bound to be great headphones music, carnivals, psychedelic BBQ’s, and traveling. Thankfully, Drew Daniel and MC Schmidt are web savvy enough to be ok with people already having some of the songs. Stereogum has “Unbeliever,” a track that will be a B-side or on an import version or something (you can get it if you subscribe to their newsletter), meanwhile “Rainbow Flag” is available on Matador’s Matmos page, and “Polychords” is one of the tracks on the new Matador MP3 sampler “Intended Play: Spring 2008″. You can get “Polychords” below and “Supreme Balloon” at the previous post but as a courtesy, head over to Stereogum for that B-side, buy Supreme Balloon from Matador, and support their upcoming tour. Dates after the jump.
–Stinky Pinky
UPDATE: Here is the video for another new song from Supreme Balloon, “Exciter Lamp:”
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On Monday, Matmos revealed some details about their new record.
1) It is called Supreme Balloon and comes out on May 6th.
2) There are no microphones used on this record: it is all synths including modern and old synths and also and Indian drum machine that mimic tablas.
3) It will have a number of superstar guests: Jay Lesser, Matthew “Safety Scissors” Curry, and Jon Leidecker (aka “Wobbly”), Bay Area classical pianist Sarah Cahill, and a living treasure of American jazz, Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra.
4) You can hear a new song, Rainbow Flag at the Matador site, (but as of right this second, you cannot). So just keep reading and you can get it.
5) The vinyl and digital versions will come with a extra track.
YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!
–Stinky Pinky
I had a nice combination of not at all/surprised when I found out Matmos moved to Baltimore, probably mostly spurred by Drew Daniel finally getting his doctorate and becoming faculty at Johns Hopkins University. A haven for recent music trends and obvious character, it dawned on me that what Baltimore needed was a couple of gay sound artists to make me like it more. What ended up being more intensely not at all/surprising was when I read that Dr. Drew wrote an installment of the 33 1/3 series of books, published by Continuum, for Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats. From the 33 1/3 blog:
“On 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Throbbing Gristle modeled a critically new and highly promiscuous way of relating to or inhabiting musical genre – where punk rock was passionate and direct, TG were arch and mysterious, perverse and cold. Including original interviews with all the members of the band, this is a fascinating study of a highly unusual and enduringly influential group.”
With other volumes of 33 1/3 including tributes to Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis, Pixies’ Doolittle, and MC5′s Kick Out the Jams (there have been 59 so far) and a who’s who of music critics including J. Niimi and Colin Meloy, this has become a pretty compelling analysis of critical obsession.
–Stinky Pinky
