Tim Kasher, the man behind both Cursive and The Good Life, is prepping his first solo record for an October 5th release via Saddle Creek records. The album, entitled The Game of Monogamy, is purported to be more ornate than anything Kasher has been involved with in the past, according to his press release, with “theatrical arrangements” and “lush instrumentation.” A glance at the tracklisting below suggests that this will adhere to Kasher’s lyrically thematic tendencies.

The Game of Monogamy tracklist:

1. Monogamy Overture
2. A Grown Man
3. I’m Afraid I’m Gonna Die Here
4. Strays
5. Cold Love
6. Surprise, Surprise
7. There Must Be Something I’ve Lost
8. Bad, Bad Dreams
9. No Fireworks
10. The Prodigal Husband
11. Monogamy

I like to think of myself as a pretty big Fugazi fan, having seen them live five or six times over the years, but the news of the band’s upcoming massive live archive website isn’t as exciting to me as it seems to be for everyone else. With literally hundreds of shows being digitized and archived it will be an extensive and daunting compilation of concerts. I’m just not sure how many times I’d want to suffer through the inevitable lectures from Ian Mackaye about “friendly dancing,” which were always a buzzkill at Fugazi shows- not so much because I wanted free reign to smash into fellow concert goers but because it always came off so patronizing and cheesy. The band’s staunch PC-ness always rubbed me the wrong way, and this was the dreaded reminder at practically every show. But I suppose the completeness of this archive wouldn’t be the same without them. Plus, Fugazi never half-assed a show, so the music should outweigh any sort of embarrassing banter. And from a historical perspective, this website will provide newer, younger fans a chance to hear the band, warts ‘n all, at every juncture of its career, since they weren’t around to experience it first hand. Dischord plans to announce the unveiling of the website later this year.

Fascinating. (via MeFi)

Via Logan Via Dangerous Minds

Squeeze has always sort of been a guilty pleasure of mine.

Former Idolator honcho Maura Johnston interviews one of my heroes, Mark Robinson (of Teenbeat, Unrest, and Cotton Candy fame), in a cool, informative, and laid back Q&A session over at eMusic. In it Robinson discusses the nostalgic personal touch of home-dubbing cassettes, Unrest’s reunion tour, his proclivity for patterns in numbering, and his favorite designers. I failed to make the three-and-a-half hour drive to Chapel Hill last Sunday to catch the Unrest show, which I knew I would immediately regret. So, I will have to stock up on any leftover merch if/when it shows up in the Teenbeat store to make up for it.

I doubt it’s news to anyone that Sting is an insufferable twat, but Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times had the point hammered home in a recent interview that The Guardian has snarkily whittled down to its most abhorrently pretentious bits, which I am more than happy to share with you now:

“Ask Sting about the 19th-century aluminum double bass he keeps near his bookshelves,” we learn, “and he will say he uses it to play ‘one little piece of Purcell every day and that’s it’.” Other exquisite decor details? “Mention the two chess sets he keeps on his coffee table and he’ll tell you about the matches he played against the grandmaster Garry Kasparov. (‘Of course he beat me every time. But you know, he can’t sing.’)”

I try to block things like this out of my head when I listen to Reggatta De Blanc.