Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg has traveled the world, with and without his band, for two decades—but he’s rarely been a tourist. When he’s not working as a musician, he’s often been involved in scientific research on rare birds, a passion that’s taken him to the outer edges of the world, including the far-flung islands of the Falklands [LINK TO QUIETUS ARTICLE] , the Chatham Islands of New Zealand, the Galápagos, a tiny Inuit village in the Canadian Arctic, an Aboriginal settlement in the croc-filled swamps of northern Australia, and the Masoala peninsula of Madagascar.
But his most recent trips have been some of his greatest adventures. Meiburg, who published entertaining and wide-ranging interviews last year with author Peter Matthiessen [LINK] and Iraqi activist Zainab Salbi [LINK] in The Believer, is currently at work on a book for Knopf about the evolution of the wildlife and landscapes of South America, as seen through the eyes of the strange, intelligent birds of prey called caracaras and the prescient, melancholy 19th-century naturalist and novelist William Henry Hudson.
As part of his research for the book, Meiburg spent six weeks this spring in the wild interior of southern Guyana, traveling many miles up the Rewa river into remote, ancient forests with three Guyanese Amerindian men: Brian Duncan, Jose George, and Rambo Roberts, and a Canadian biologist named Sean McCann, who earned his PhD for proving that contrary to previous researchers’ speculations, the weird forest-dwelling birds called red-throated caracaras do NOT secrete a natural wasp repellent. Guyana is home to some of the least disturbed rain forests in all of South America, and in the upper reaches of the Rewa Meiburg and McCann searched for and found a nest of red-throated caracaras and marveled at the birds’ loud, unique “dancing” displays, group-living habits that make them seem more like social primates than birds of prey, and their diet of wasps’ nests; the birds’ flamboyance, ferocity, and oddness have earned them the pejorative but fond nickname, in Guyana, of “Bush Auntie-Man”.
But Meiburg’s journey was about much more than birds. The Rewa flows through a primeval region where people are very infrequent visitors, where rarely-seen wildlife like giant otters, tapirs, capybaras and pumas stared at Meiburg and his companions in surprise, and the river itself was full to bursting with unnerving creatures including 150-pound catfish, the giant, air-breathing scalefish called arapaima, the ghastly, long-toothed vampire fish or paiara, coelacanth-like aymara, electric eels, stingrays, piranhas, and glowing-eyed black caimans as long as a canoe. It was a trip into a world that remains as it was thousands of years ago, a primeval and Edenic place that still exists today, even as international mining and logging interests bear down on it.
Meiburg will describe this journey (which also includes encounters with the world’s largest spider) as part of his book, (due out in 2018), but he’s available to write a piece about it now. He also documented the trip in photographs and audio recordings.
In addition, Meiburg is an enthusiastic backpacker. His South American adventures were bound to a river, but in the US he’s spent a great deal of time lately in the Grand Staircase/Dixie National Forest region of southeastern Utah, where he especially loves the doug firs, volcanic boulders, and patches of snow on the 10,000-foot crest of Boulder Mountain and a thirty-mile stretch of narrow, waterlogged canyon called Death Hollow, which he hiked last year wearing a wetsuit and a dry bag (and to which he’s keen to return). He recently pointed fellow musician Andrew Bird toward a more famous canyon in the area called Coyote Gulch; Bird was so absorbed by the canyon’s remarkable acoustics that he recorded an album there. Meiburg is an adventurer and polymath of a kind we don’t often see these days; your readers would love spending some time with him.
Shearwater’s new album, Jet Plane and Oxbow, comes out January 22nd on Sub Pop.
NYC native Greta Kline began writing songs under the pseudonym Frankie Cosmos in late 2011. Kline’s songs are short and melodic, each poetically telling her story. Her songwriting is inspired in part by Arthur Russell, Connie Converse and poet Frank O’Hara.
Unstoppably prolific, Kline began self-releasing a steady stream of home recorded albums on Bandcamp. In 2013, Kline began to focus more on performing and recording with the help of her newly formed 4 piece band. Kline’s years of songwriting and production culminated in the recording of her first studio album Zentropy, released in 2014. Her debut was met with critical acclaim, gaining her a Rising feature from Pitchfork and ranking as the #1 pop album of the year by New York Magazine.
Frankie Cosmos’ upcoming EP, Fit Me In, is a one-off experiment in “fitting” Kline’s songwriting into an electronic sound, characteristic of current pop culture. The EP is a collaboration with Aaron Maine of Porches, who produced the songs using mostly electronic equipment in place of the live band instrumentation. Frankie Cosmos’ forthcoming album will be the first made with four band members and is slated for release from Bayonet Records in 2015.
Dutch Symphonic Metal sensation DELAIN are known for extremely catchy refrains, bewitching hooks and melodies, symphonic bombast and of course a good dose of Metal! That’s DELAIN and that’s how Symphonic Metal will sound on this upcoming special tour with Anneke van Giersbergen of THE GENTLE STORM and their label mates in AMBERIAN DAWN.
You can get a special VIP upgrade now, that includes the following:
-1 Hour entry before show
-VIP Laminate with lanyard
-Meet & Greet with the band
-Signed exclusive postcard
-A two song acoustic set performed by Delain
This special European tour will start at the end of October and wind up in early November with stops in the European hot-spots of France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. DELAIN are definitely ready to take over here:
DELAIN With THE GENTLE STORM und AMBERIAN DAWN:
/w AMBERIAN DAWN + The Gentle Storm
22.10.15 UK - Bristol / The Marble Factory
23.10.15 UK - Birmingham / Institute Library
24.10.15 UK - Manchester / Academy 2
25.10.15 UK - London / O2 Academy Islington
27.10.15 CH - Solothurn / Kopfmehl
28.10.15 FR – Strasbourg / La Laiterie
29.10.15 FR – Paris / Divan Du Monde
30.10.15 BE – Vosselaar / Biebob
31.10.15 DE – Andernach / Juz Live Club
02.11.15 DE – Munich / Backstage Halle
03.11.15 IT – Milan / Live Club
04.11.15 AT – Graz / Explosiv
05.11.15 HU – Budapest / Club 202
06.11.15 SK – Bratislava / Randal Club
07.11.15 PL – Warsaw / Club Progresia
08.11.15 DE - Berlin / K17
PARADE GROUND composed of two brothers Pierre and Jean-Marc PAULY started performing live in 1981.
They were pioneers of Cold Wave and Electronic Body Music.
Their first single, 'Moan on the sly', was released in 1983 and they remained active until now (However they decided not to release anything between 1988 and 2007, being involved in other artistic projects like novels-writing and plastic art ).
Their style has evolved during the eighties, passing from an icy and radical cold wave to a more dancing sound with noticeable rhythmics and exclusively synthetic melodies mixed up with dreamy visual dadaism.
They regularly collaborated with members of Belgian band FRONT 242, were produced by English producer Colin NEWMAN of WIRE and wrote and composed on two FRONT 242 albums in 1994.
A Room With A View is a missing link in band's long careerer. All tracks originally were recorded at Lights studio Brussels in 1988 and officially released only in 2012 as extra limited tape (no wonder it was sold out rapidly) on Other Voices Records. Now you have the chance to get it both on collector's LP and CD!
You can preorder now, the album will be available in October 2015
Tracklisting:
A1 A Room With A View 3:06
A2 Green File 4:18
A3 Conquerors 3:08
A4 Crying Over Them 3:17
B1 Miss Ivory Girl 4:12
B2 Me In My Love 3:17
B3 Cursed Be My Name 4:07
B4 Give It To Me 4:12
Montreal garage-punk band The Gruesomes to reissue Gruesomania via Artoffact Records
Montreal-based garage-punk act The Gruesomes will reissue Gruesomania via Artoffact Records.
Formed 30 years ago in 1985, the Montreal-based garage-punk band The Gruesomes are one of Canada's enduring legacies. They took their name from the scary neighbors on TV’s The Flintstones and carefully crafted an image of matching black turtlenecks, Beatle boots and bowl haircuts, combining it all with a snotty punk musical style. Early shows relied more on the group’s energy and humor than actual musical ability, but despite this (or because of it) The Gruesomes became an instant club favorite.
Less than a year after picking up instruments for the first time, The Gruesomes recorded their debut LP for Og Records, Tyrants of Teen Trash. The album sold well in both Europe and North America and dominated the number one position on alternative playlists across the country.
But it wasn't until 1987's Gruesomania that the band really hit their stride as one of the world's best garage acts. And indeed Canada's rock encyclopedia, Have Not Been the Same has called Gruesomania The Gruesomes' "calling card," while Exclaim! Magazine referred to it as "the missing link between the Stooges, New York Dolls and Black Haloes."
Artoffact Records is honored to present a reissue of Gruesomania, one of the best and most iconic garage-punk albums of its era. The album combines horror-shtick with the best in garage, surf, and rock'n'roll, and anyone who wants a slice of Montreal-punk in its most outrageous form should consider this a must-have. The new vinyl reissue is a remastered, numbered edition of 500, with bonus poster. Black vinyl is available, as is a limited collector's edition on gruesome green.
