Watch: Phosphorescent Performing Live for Pitchfork

In anticipation of the weekend and a great show next week, watch the live performance, courtesy of Pitchfork.tv,  from Matthew Houck, aka Phosphorescent...I do believe all the songs (excluding the last) are from Muchacho and will be part of the setlist (listed below)...simply copy and paste the address below into your browser and enjoy...







Terror in the Canyons
The Quotidian Beasts
Song for Zula
A New Anhedonia
Down to Go
Los Angeles

See you at the show...tickets can be purchased here.


http://pitchfork.com/tv/outside-in/1938-phosphorescent/3134-perform-live/#ooid=drb2RmYTo7UjExno244zSphlciBiv8uo

Who Will Release Black Heart Procession & Three Mile Pilot Records?

It was sad news in February when Touch & Go Records announced that they would cease the distribution arm of their operation. It was also originally stated that the actual label would stop releasing music, but that statement has been revised to a sort of "we will when we can". The full story was in Pitchfork in February and was so widely commented on in music blogs that I didn't mention it here. Now I have occasion to do so.

While checking my MySpace pages I came across a blog post (posted March 9) from Pall Jenkins of Black Heart Procession and Three Mile Pilot. I am reposting here because I hope that there is someone reading this that can step up and help out.

hey this is pall--- anyone want or know anyone who wants to release the new black heart record --- just let us know --- we need a good company --- touch and go is no longer releasing new records --- so all the bands have to find new homes -- sad times --

You can contact Pall through the MySpace page: The Black Heart Procession

Band of Horses Poo

I thought I was never gonna write about Band of Horses again, but the dude just can't let it go. I saw this story on Stereogum a couple days ago about Band of Horses selling "Funeral" to be used on the Walmart website as well as an upcoming Ford commercial. I wasn't gonna say nuthin'. Then I see that it was addressed on Pitchfork and as they do there, they gave him a chance to voice his side of the story, or at least respond to accusations of "selling out" or whatever. Since he kinda brings me up again, I'm posting his letter here.

Dear friends,

As you may have heard, there's been some recent discussion of a couple of licenses for BoH songs. Just to provide some clarification...

I did allow Wal-Mart to use a song for a new website they created and have also given permission to Ford Motor Company to license a song from our new album. Because some people see Wal-Mart as a huge, evil corporation, they seem to be especially bummed about this license and see us as posers and/or corporate whores as a result.

I'd like to just state for the record that we let all kinds of folks use our songs in all kinds of mediums - TV, films, school projects, etc... My personal stance is that once that music is recorded and released to the world then I don't really care where it goes. "The Funeral" has been licensed to death (ha, wretch) at this point and if somebody wants to throw down some duckets for it, then feel free. It also beats the hell out of stealing batteries from Wal-Mart to sell them back for 8 bucks.

As for Ford: I drive a 1986 F-150 that still runs great. Maybe I'll get the a/c fixed with the cash they kicked down. I'm also stoked that people will hear our song on TV and we might pick up some new listeners in the process. I see no negative.

That's our reasoning and I'm okay with it. I hope fans of the band are, too.

We promise to use the money to buy camcorders (at Wal-Mart) for people to film "The Funeral," so I can get mad and crap my diaper. Fuck it.

-bb"

Does the guy have the biggest chip on his shoulder or what? Yes, Ben, the world is out to get you.

Incidentally, Band of Horses will not be playing San Diego on their fall tour.

The Final Band of Horses Post

I'm gonna try to make this the last Band of Horses post ever on this site. But, since the whole thing is in this week's Blurt, I thought I would properly direct new readers to all of the links within this site.

From the Reader:

Whiny Foal- Rosey Bystrak's blog (www.sddialedin.com) has fueled the debate over fans shooting concert videos to post online. After a July 6 Band of Horses show at 'Canes, Bystrak posted, "So there I am with my tiny Sony digital camera... While playing the super emotional song 'Funeral,' [singer Ben Bridwell] flips me off and midsong yells, 'I see you recording me.' I look around and at least five other people are taping him, and he calls me out.... There's nothing worse than a...whiny baby onstage." After the song, Bridwell launched into a tirade against concert tapers who post on YouTube.

"Several bands have e-mailed me to thank me for posting pictures or YouTube footage of them," blogged Bystrak, "and [they] even link to me on their respective websites, but apparently Band of Horses is...too cool...to accept whatever publicity they can get."

Pitchforkmedia.com asked Bridwell about the incident. "It was really annoying," he said. "It was just scratching at the surface of what's happening to shows lately. Everybody's got a camera in their pocket, and they turn it on to just, I don't know, exploit us in some way or further their own projects or whatever the fuck they're doing with their websites and shit...as far as I'm concerned, it just looks like someone trying to record a really shitty performance to post somewhere and embarrass us forever."

Pitchfork's report then turned up on Idolator.com and the U.K.'s Drowned in Sound, with readers posting comments defending and/or berating both Bystrak and Bridwell. "In a day, I went from about 250 hits to almost ten times that," says Bystrak. "I opted to not respond to comments, and I still won't, because most likely they've come and gone and are now hating on the next indie-nation whatever."

-- Jay Allen Sanford

Here's the post that launched a thousand blogs. OK, more like 6. And not until a couple weeks after the incident happened. But still, it got under quite a few commenters' skins.

I mention it a little here. Then I read that the singer, Ben, was complaining about having to play his "hit", so I posted about that here.

Then the shit hit the fan when Pitchfork linked to my story and drove a whole bunch of new traffic my way. This post was written at the end of that long day, and has all the links of sites who picked up the story (that I knew about), including the original Pitchfork interview with Ben, and updated links throughout that weekend. Most of those posts have their own comments that are interesting, to say the least.

And here's a very old unrelated post about BoH when they won three Plug Awards. At the time, I thought they were joking. In a way, I now think maybe they were dead serious.

Now, I'm dusting off my hands and I'm done with this. Here's my sitemeter for the last 30 days and life has definitely gone back to normal. Just the way I like it.

Band of Horses: Taking the high road

I was contacted on Friday by Pitchfork and they asked me if they could link to my blog regarding the Cane's show and the "incident" and I actually asked a few friends their advice about it... I mean of course a link on Pitchfork is huge, but I wasn't sure I was ready for the onslaught of hate I would receive. "All press is good press," my friends assured me.

I mean there was the actual incident, then there was my 4 a.m. drunk rant that night on MySpace, then a couple days later, I posted it on this blog where most of my audience are still friends of mine and for the most part supported me. I did acknowledge my whiny rant:

"...resulted in a 4 in the morning rant on my MySpace. In hindsight, I'm less pissed about what went down and the truth is that in reading my rant was chock full of expletives which then makes me no better than the guy I'm calling a whiny bitch. He was doing what he does, I was doing what I do."

But people will skim through that and take from it all what they will. I figured Pitchfork would talk to Ben to get his perspective and all, and of the nearly 1000 posts I have, I'm a little bummed that this was the one to get attention. I mean, it's one thing to rant on a MySpace bulletin, where I know my friends have my back, and then even here on this blog where most people, at least those who've bothered to comment, like what I'm doing here, but it's another thing entirely to have Indie Nation reading here and pitching in their two cents on something that they didn't witness and didn't experience. Worse is that they are only going to read one post, and in that, just the "juicy" shit where I rant like I'm in junior high.

Anyway, they did an extensive interview with Ben Bridwell about all of it and I don't know what to say except I feel like shit about all of it. I know plenty of people who no matter what, will think I'm an asshole, that I'm a thief, that I'm a bitch, whatever. Awesome. I will not censor any of the commentors who link to this site from P4K and hate me. But I did want to thank Ben. Because mostly behind all my rage and anger about what happened, the truth is that it just really hurt my feelings. He could've launched right back at me, because I'm sure he's read my rant (courtesy of P4K), but instead, he took the high road and sounds like he actually cares about what happened and that he's really sorry about the way it all went down. I could go on defending my position about everything, but all of this makes me really just wanna put the whole thing behind me.

So that said, thanks to Randall, because the follow up removes any of the sour I had. Thanks to SubPop for the e-mail and for not demanding that I kill the YouTube. I'll keep the new stuff for myself. Thanks to Pitchfork for the hype. Thanks to my friends for having my back. And again, thanks to Ben for being more of a man than most men would be in this situation.

Two Degrees of Separation: Dialed In--> Rafter -> Sufjan

I am happy to say that through this lovely little blog I have met Rafter Roberts and seen him several times in various variations of Rafter Band, Bunky and playing along with some of the bands he's worked with like Castanets just this past Sunday. (Not trying to embarass you, Rafter...)

You know I try to avoid Pitchfork Media regurgitation, but labelmate Sufjan Stevens interviewed Rafter on the Asthmatic Kitty site. You can read the P-fork article here. And the actual interview here.

Yay. Shine a light on San Diego, shine a light.