Indianapolis-based label Joyful Noise Recordings has launched a monthly flexi-disc subscription service that will deliver new recordings from of Montreal, Deerhoof, Tortoise, Lou Barlow, Akron/Family, Danielson, and more. Each release is limited to just 500 copies on clear, single-sided flexi-discs and the tracks will not be made available online.

A subscription to the series costs $4/month. A “Deluxe” subscription is also available for an extra $20 for the first month, and $4/month after that, and includes a limited edition, hand-numbered wooden case for the flexi-discs featuring the artwork of Casey Roberts. Click here to sign up.

Meanwhile, two of the artists participating in the series, of Montreal and Deerhoof, will tour together in early 2012. of Montreal’s new album, Paralytic Stalks, is out February 7th via Polyvinyl.

Thursday we checked into the Sheraton downtown (which was great and was in walking distance to everything) and headed off to Foundation Bar for the Superchunk listening party for their forthcoming album Majesty Shredding. Soon after we headed to Berkeley Café for EAR PWR, Pictureplane, Double Dagger, Javelin, and Future Islands. We also found ourselves at an after party where we saw Shit Horse, Lonnie Walker, and an Akron/Family jam session that featured Brad Cook from Megafaun and Adam Heathcott from Hometapes. We were there until 5:30 a.m.. We’re not completely recovered from it.

One of the best things about Hopscotch was that not only were there great out of town bands, but that local labels and businesses were prominently featured as well. Friday’s festivities included the Hometapes “Friend Island” day party at Pour House (Collections of Colonies of Bees, All Tiny Creatures, Megafaun, and more) and the Tamplin’s Last Local Band, Local Beer party that included a record fair of local labels (Holidays for Quince, Merge, 307 Knox, Trekky Records, Odessa Records, etc.) We hate to admit it, but we were pretty exhausted from the night before and had a pretty chill night on Friday. We ate fried pickles and saw The War on Drugs at Tir Na Nog.

Photo by Alyssa DeHayes

We’re big fans of the club crawl-styled festival, much better than standing in a field. Much smaller than SXSW and CMJ, Hopscotch was different in that it was less music industry-focused and more fan-focused. There were a few panel-type events in the day, like the Hip-Hop Planet: Music and Its Work in the World that featured event organizer Greg Lowenhagen, Chuck D from Pubic Enemy, Christopher R. Weingarten (Village Voice, Rolling Stone, @1000TimesYes), Charlie Smarts (Kooley High), Mark Anthony Neal (Professor of Black Popular Culture at Duke) and others. Saturday night festivities included The Love Language on the main outdoor stage, Balmorhea, Nomo, Bear In Heaven, and Tortoise at Lincoln Hall, and Megafaun at Kings.

This is just a sample of the line up from Hopscotch Music Festival. We couldn’t be everywhere, and there were a lot of performances that we missed; tough choices had to be made. Hopefully Hopscotch returns next year. We will most definitely go again. -Mario Speedwagon

Gallery by Alyssa DeHayes

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With a single gig at the end of July in Chicago, IL, most of the tour’s dates cover a show a day from September 2nd in Buffalo, NY to the closer on September 12th in Washington, DC. However, during that span, they’ll make stops at Moe. Down, ATP New York, and the Hopscotch Music Festival. Plus, with so much time between gigs, you have to think these post-rockers will add more gigs. Please?

As always, stay tuned for more tour dates and news as it’s announced. In the mean time, get your tickets at Ticketmaster.com.

Tortoise 2010 Tour Dates:
07/29 – Chicago, IL @ Jay Pritzker Pavillion
09/02 – Buffalo, NY @ Soundlab
09/03 – Herkimer, NY @ Moe. Down
09/04 – Monticello, NY @ ATP New York 2010
09/05 – South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground *
09/06 – Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse *
09/07 – Boston, MA @ Paradise *
09/08 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe *
09/09 – Richmond, VA @ The National *
09/10 Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel *
09/11 – Raleigh, NC @ The Lincoln Theatre (Hopscotch Music Festival)
09/12 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat

* = w/ Greg Davis & Ben Vida

Last week, the first track off the Yanni’s album, Santorini, got the Beck’s Record Club treatment. Funky 7/4 grooves were mixed with Thurston Moore singing about fire, and Beck singing about a Bluethooth® to great success. This week, we shift gears and move more towards Tortoise’s comfort ground toying in experimental free-rock and contemporary avant-classical influences with track two of Yanni’s album, “Keys To Imagination” (via Some Kind Of Awesome).

The ingenuity and imagination in this room is mind-blowing as they flow in and out of various grooves and styles while still keeping the structure of this god-forsaken Yanni song at the heart of the cacophony. Kudos to you all, you’ve got the Midas touch. Check out both versions of “Keys To Imagination” below.

Presumably, look for “Until The Next Moment”, track three off of Yanni’s Live At The Acropolis, next week.

Beck last took on INXS’ classic album – Kick – with the help of indie heavyweights like St. Vincent and Liars, but heads began to roll once word got out that Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Chicago’s post-punk rhythm kings, Tortoise, would be joining Mr. Hansen in the studio. I mean, what was Beck doing essentially using one of the rock’s most unique acts as a session band? Well, now we have our answer.

On June 6th, the crew apparently holed up at Hollywood’s Sunset Sound Studios and casually recorded their interpretation of Yanni’s (yes, this Yanni) 1994 epic set– Live at the Acropolis. Tortoise’s Douglas McCombs told Time Out Chicago that Beck asked his band to play a “broad spectrum of music that was sort of appropriate,” but now the Record Club’s official website reveals just how technical – and broad – that music was.

The drummer’s count into the song goes “One, two, five, six, seven, two!” and additional studio musicians were “brought in to read a heavily doctored score with interpolations of everything from Stravinsky to Shania Twain.” Which begs the question, “How much time does Beck actually have now that he’s not confined to a record deal?!”

Below, find a video of the band taking on one of Live’s first and one of its best tracks – “Santorini” – where Beck & Co. add a hip flavor to the percussive intro featured on the original track. Watch Moore add to the overall zaniness of the instrumental track by improvising lyrics like “Burn, burn, burn it up baby/I got a brand new pack of matches/And I’m ready to set fire to this crazy city.”

More tracks will be revealed soon, but until then just tell us if there’s anything else the Record Club could cover that would actually top this.

The high-profile players reportedly go together this past weekend, while Tortoise was touring the west coast. No word on which album the group chose to cover, but Tortoise bassist/guitarist Douglas McCombs told Time Out Chicago that the the group played “broad spectrum of music that was sort of appropriate.” I’m going to guess it was something loud then.

Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for more details on that reported collaboration between Beck and Stephen Malkmus. Plus, Diplo tweeted that he also recently hit the studio with Beck. The dude is all over the place these days.

Broken Social Scene, Animal Collective’s Panda Bear, and Public Enemy will lead the 120 bands set to play the city’s 10 venues between September 9th and 11th. Other notables include Atlas Sound, Fucked Up, Tortoise, Lucero, Megafaun, No Age, The Love Language, and 9th Wonder & Friends. Indie up-and-comers like Best Coast, The Golden Filter, Bear in Heaven, Javelin, and Washed Out are also confirmed to perform. Find the complete 2010 bill here.

Prices for weekend passes will range from $45 to $120, with single tickets for the City Plaza shows (where Panda Bear, Broken Social Scene, and Public Enemy are playing) set at $30. Everything will go on sale starting tomorrow, April 1st. Visit the festival’s website for more information.

The sparse crowd that decided to show up on time wasn’t quite ready for eccentric, experimental opening act Lichens. Robert A.A. Lowe, bassist and vocalist from seemingly dormant Chicago post-rock act 90 Day Men. I’ve seen Lowe do his thing before, and it seems he relishes putting himself on his toes. I’ve seen him envelope a small, gallery space with looped vocal melodies, acoustic guitar and gong; however, this show was a different story.

Lowe took the stage, placing a cup of tea next to his chair and stretching his neck. He made a single popping sound into a microphone, looped it, and silently shifted the pitch to make an arpeggiated sample of vocal pops. The smug, yuppy crowd there to see Tortoise howled “rock ‘n roll” and “woo” while Lowe went to work on the first step of his musical process.

Next, he added layers of ethereal falsetto, each chillier and lither than the last. Guttural hums and breathy, sub-bass rumbles followed next, Lowe’s arms stretching, fingers tracing the air, head arced like some forlorn, hipster mystic. The piece was majestic, transcendent; Lowe knows melody and harmony, crescendo and decrescendo, build and release.

But, this was a Tortoise show after all, a celebration of their return to Chicago after a nine day tour. As promised, the set was chock full of tunes from the new Beacons of Ancestorship, but also plenty of old favorites. “Gigantes” and “High Class Slim Came Floating In” were particularly strong, garnering plenty of dancing through the now full room. Newly beard-ed multi-instrumentalist Dan Bitney seemed to be enjoying the show more than his bandmates, rhythmically flailing and swinging his arms around. The drumming, provided by one or two of Bitney, John McEntire and John Herndon at various points in the set, remained frenetic, impulsive and charging.

But, as McEntire had suggested in our interview (unfortunately, in his mind), the biggest applause of the night came for the “golden oldies.” Standards standard Monica drew massive applause. The vibraphonic plink of “Eros” got people bobbing as well. The latin swin of “I Set My Face to the Hillside” warmed the place up some, as well. But, the encores were the true heart of the set.

After being lured back out by plenty of shouts of “Johnny Herndon is a rock star” and “Woo! Tortoise!”, the quintet jumped into punky Beacons track “Yinxianghechengqi”, Bitney again acting the wild rock star part, swinging his axe around as he riffed out the piece. The epic and much-loved “TNT” followed, yet the crowd was not sated. An eventual second encore followed, opening with the ultimate album opener, “Seneca”. From Tortoise’s superb Standards, the opening double-drumming cymbal rolls and tom fills crashed around like the beginning of the perfect national anthem. The funky tune chugged along, filling the hall with swinging appendages and bobbing heads. And, as if the closing clap-along wasn’t an epic enough way to end a set/concert/evening/tour, the group swam through a serene version of Millions Now Living Will Never Die favorite “Glass Museum” to end the night.

I’m going to go ahead and assume everyone left Lincoln Hall satisfied. Even those less than receptive to the astoundingly talented Lichens got a near two hour set from their local favorites. And, for those of us that appreciate both halves of that equation, so much the better.

Photography by Martin Hamedani.

——

Just under a week before a shot tour, I was able to ask multi-instrumentalist John McEntire a few questions about their newest disc, their connections to the jazz world, and the difficulties of playing exactly what the fans want.

It’s All Around You and Beacons of Ancestorship are pretty different, would you say that’s true?

I think so, yeah.

Particularly it seems like there are more synths and samples in the forefront as the albums come.

Yeah, I mean, especially on the last one, on Beacons we made a conscious decision to try to get away from some of the signature sounds that we have, with mallet instruments and things. I think a necessary consequence of that was to use more keyboards and synths.

I’ve read that you guys write and record in a sort of piecemeal way. Could you describe that?

Well, I would say that generally what happens is that we all get together and bring in little fragments of ideas that we have developed individually, which can be anything from very, very simple things, like a rhythm or a small chord progression or something like that, anything from something that small up to practically finished songs, which happens occasionally. And then we just, either in the practice space or the studio, start to develop these ideas as a group. And it usually takes a while to get somewhere where we’re happy with. There’s a long process of trying things and throwing things away, coming back and trying again, eventually getting somewhere we feel like we’ve done justice to the original idea.

You guys all have a lot of other projects you work on. Does that make it confusing on which ideas to bring to what projects?

Not so much, you know. Occasionally there’s just like scheduling conflicts. But in most instances they can get worked out. I think it’s been good for everybody to have other outlets for what they want to do. It’s worked out well, to be pretty honest.

I’ve seen Jeff Parker and John Herndon playing in jazz and improvised music shows around Chicago. How do you think Tortoise fits into the jazz world?

Well, honestly, I don’t think it does at all. Other than the fact that Jeff and Johnny happen to be great jazz musicians. That’s about it.

But, would you say there’s been some jazz influence on your music?

No. Not at all. Personally, I don’t think so. I think that we get tagged with that because of some very superficial things, like, we use a vibraphone or that we don’t play three chord songs all the time. But, no. I mean, the things that I think of that I think kind of define jazz do not exist in what we do as a group.

On Beacons, there are a few songs that are more straightforward rock or punk based, particularly “Yinxianghechengqi.” Why did these songs come out at this point in your career?

I suppose…with every record, this is probably true about everybody, with every record that you make there’s kind of a pushback from the last record, to try to do something different. That was definitely the case with us on this one. As much as we all liked It’s All Around You, I think there was a feeling that it was a little too…In retrospect it was a little too…Soft, in a sense. There were a lot of things that were kind of mid tempo. While they were nice tunes, they didn’t really exude any…urgency. So, yeah. It was kind of a conscious decision, that was for us a little more aggressive.

There’s also some dubstep and hip-hop influence on the record, at least in what I hear.

I mean, I guess so, in a way. I don’t think it was super conscious. The stuff crept in. Maybe one of the tracks you’re referring to is “Penumbra”, the little short one with some samples and stuff. That was one Johnny came up with. That was a real obvious kind of Jay Dee type track. Not obvious, but, you know, it comes from that sensibility. The one you’re talking about with the dubstep, “Northern Something”, which is…I don’t know how that one came about, to be honest (laughs). I don’t think we were trying to reference that specifically. What happened was, we had the riff, the synth part or whatever. And we were like, okay, what should we do with this? How are we gonna make a beat work with it? That was the only thing we could do (starts beat-boxing the rhythm), and so it just stuck.

Where did the title Beacons of Ancestorship come from?

It’s quite a long story, actually. If you’re really interested, you might want to look it up online. Because, it’s actually really fascinating. I can give you an outline of it, though: It’s the title of a book.

I’m intrigued now. I’m going to have to go look it up.

Yeah. The author’s name is John Barton Wolgamot.

So…The upcoming tour is only nine days long. Are you guys avoiding longer tours now?

Well, somewhat, I guess. We’ve done a lot. Last year, on the back of the record. We have a few more coming up this year, too. It’s a situation where we’re doing more, shorter runs.

Did you enjoy playing a fan-picked set at last summer’s Pitchfork Festival?

No. Not at all.

Not at all?

No.

Any reason for that?

The most recent thing we played in that set was 12 years old. Especially when we have a new record out. Why are we playing this festival playing the golden oldies. It doesn’t make sense.

Was there any temptation to just throw in some of the new material?

There was. For sure. I don’t know. I felt like we had to stick with the rules.

Was there a contract that said you had to follow the vote?

No, we didn’t. We endured many discussions where we were like “We should just do whatever the fuck we want.” But everybody was like “Well, you know, we signed on to do this thing as such, so we should just stick with it.”

Did that reaction have any affect on what you’re going to play on this tour? Is it only going to be Beacons material?

No, no. We still do a bunch of back catalogue stuff. I think we’re playing about three quarters of the new record.

As Broken Social Scene gears up for the release of its yet-to-be-titled fourth studio album, the aforementioned characteristics will once again be on display. For one, the long overdue followup to 2005′s Broken Social Scene features many of the band’s original members. The album was written and arranged by BSS’ current core six-piece, including singer/guitarist Kevin Drew, singer/bassist Brendan Canning, drummer Justin Peroff, guitarist Charles Spearin, singer/guitarist Andrew Whiteman, and (newcomer) gutiarist Sam Goldberg. What’s more, BSS’ alum Leslie Feist, Stars’ Amy Millan and Evan Cranley, Metric’s Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw, Jason Collett, Do Make Say Think’s Ohad Benchetrit, John Crossingham, Marty Kinack, Julie Penner, Leon Kingstone, and Lisa Lobsinger return to lend their musical talents as well.

Still not done… Also appearing on the record are several other indie heavy-hitters making their BSS debut, including Tortoise and The Sea and Cake’s John McEntire, who produced the album, The Sea and Cake’s Sam Prekop, Tortoise’s Doug McCombs, Pavement’s Spiral Stairs!, former Death From Above 1979 singer/drummer Sebastien Grainger, Poi Dog Pondering’s Susan Voelz, Helen Money’s Alison Chesley, and The Weakerthans’ Jason Tait. WOW!

Of course, gathering this mind-numbing collection of artists wasn’t necessarily the easiest thing in the world to do, as Kevin Drew explained in a recent interview with Pitchfork:

“There was a point where it looked like it was going to be a core-member record and we weren’t going to get those people because they were so busy; Stars were making a record, Metric was on the road. We thought, “It’s OK, we can do this without them. We can move on. It’s not like that anymore.” But when we brought Johnny [McEntire] to Toronto and set up it was immediately like old times. So, right at the end, everybody made it on,” Drew said. Where can we send McEntire thank you cards?

Drew went on to note that the end result is particularly focused on “the times” — ” We had lots of conversations about how we could sing about our views and opinions without trying to make a poor man’s R.E.M. song” — and will once again convey quite a bit of emotion. “We’ve always been a band that sings about exactly what’s inside of us and exactly what’s happening outside as well. Like, if we’re screaming, let’s have something to scream about,” he added.

BSS will support the release by partaking in another one of those characteristics — a live concert. This May, the band will embark on dates in both the U.S. an Europe, particularly highlighted by the band’s personally curated Toronto Island Concert on June 19th. Pavement and Band of Horses are also playing. On stage collaboration, please?

This year is seriously kicking ass.

Broken Social Scene 2010 Tour Dates:
05/01 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
05/03 – Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre
05/07 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
05/13 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy
05/14 – Minehead, UK @ All Tomorrow’s Parties
05/17 – London, UK @ Heaven
05/18 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
05/19 – Cologne, DE @ Burgerhaus Stollwerck
05/21 – Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie
06/19 – Toronto, ON @ Toronto Island Concert

But two constants have remained at the band’s core, despite their varied styles and releases: supremely tight, technically amazing, damn near perfect rhythms and an utter mastery of atmosphere. Whether it’s the frenetic slap of “The Taut and the Tame”, the haunting chimes of “Ten Day Interval” or the galloping whinny of “Dot/Eyes”, there’s never a moment where the members of Tortoise sound anything but in control, which is something you wouldn’t expect from a “post-rock band” that utilizes more ambience, dub and jazz as they do rock.

The road paved by Standards and 2004′s It’s All Around You (the band’s most recent official release, not including 2006′s cover album collaboration with Wil Oldham and the Lazarus Taxon rarities box set), had the band moving away from the sparse, scattered sound of their legendary albums Millions Now Living Will Never Die and TNT, towards fuzzy, yet cluttered soundscapes. From the brilliant opening blast on Standards, it was clear the album would be full of bombast. While a lot of Tortoise’s music had used electronic samples and sounds as background or added depth to traditional instrumentation, All Around You dropped the electronics into the fore. And Beacons combines the best of these two trends into one great album.

Only a band like Tortoise could pull off an album opener with a name like “High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In”. And pull it off they do; a prickly yowl backed by a thumping rhythm section is quickly taken over by a concrete synth melody before falling away into a stuttered, jazzy swing. But the fuzzy synths return to dominate the scene, a whorl of psychedelia that wouldn’t be out of place on Animal Collective’s new disc, if the backbeat were a little weirder. The guitars that open “Prepare Your Coffin” (another badass track name) crunch and soar like old Tortoise records, but just a little more compact. The African rhythm at the beginning of “Northern Something” is suddenly pitted against a sputtering, quacking synth-fuzz-attack.

Where so many jazz-rock fusions go flat, Tortoise soars. Instead of falling into one specific type of jazz or rock, the group is clearly comfortable and familiar with the genres enough to reach into different sub-genres. “Gigantes” opens with a latin-esque guitar line and a quick shuffle, but later finds a moment of bop clarity where an on/off radio feedback interacts with arching, plinking synth lines. “Yinxianghechengqi” kicks off, literally, with a scream, before rumbling through a punky, yet still jazz friendly tune reminiscent of John Zorn’s Naked City. “Monument Six One Thousand” features a slick, dubby rhythm section walloping away as an achy guitar line drops in at exactly the wrong moments in the time signature, a blissfully awkward and where bobbing your head on the threes seems so right.

None of this should be of any surprise to a Tortoise fan, though. The group keeps altering their sound in little ways, but never obfuscating their vision. The myriad little changes and unexpected moments will keep long time fans very happy and should win over a few new listeners as well.

Check Out:

Buy:
Beacons Of Ancestorship

Of course, the new international tour is just a small taste of what these fellas have been dishing out recently. In promotion of the highly anticipated Beacons of Ancestorship Tortoise not only offered up the album’s first single “Prepare Your Coffin”, but released with it a brand new accompanying video as well. The rather austere black and white video follows a young man on an architectural journey presumably around the city of Chicago, IL. Focusing mostly on abstract ceilings and floor space, the video relies heavily on its use of angles, shadows and obscure close-ups. It’s truly a visionary accompaniment to the instrumental and heavily guitar ridden track, “Prepare Your Coffin” and if the rest of Beacons of Ancestorship follows in its footsteps we should anticipate an intense thrill-ride of jazzy, psychedelic and highly experimental rock music.

Currently the new track is available for a free download below, but hurry, we’re not sure how long this promotion will last. Also, check out the new video below and keep in mind that Tortoise expects to drop an even longer list of US dates for later this year!

Check Out:
“Prepare Your Coffin”

“Prepare Your Coffin”

Tortoise 2009 Tour Dates:
05/29 – Buffalo, NY @ Tralf Music Hall
05/30 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Bell House
05/31 – New York, NY @ World Financial Center Winter
06/11 – Athens, Greece @ Synch Festival
07/11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
07/13 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
07/15 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
07/17 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
07/19 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
07/20 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
07/24 – Tokyo, Japan @ Fuji Rock Festival
08/14 – St. Malo, FR @ La Route Du Rock
08/22 – Hasselt, BE @ Pukkelpop

And like the box set, cover album, side-projects, and nearly every other thing Tortoise has done in its twenty year existence, the trip to the library was successful. Just look at some of the ways the band is describing the 11-track Beacons of Ancestorship:

Tortoise remains unique in the world of contemporary music for their boundless intellectual curiosity, their unmistakable compositional voice, and their synthesis of seemingly contradictory sound worlds far from their doorstep.

A characteristic Tortoise album is one that traverses an encyclopedia of styles and reference points, a document of where musical intersections and dialogue are occurring at a given moment in time. Beacons of Ancestorship is no different, with nods to techno, punk, electro, lo-fi noise, cut-up beats, heavily processed synths, and mournful, elegiac dirges.

There are many moods, styles, and modes in the Tortoise songbook, of course—often, in the course of a single composition. Consistent throughout, however, is what might be called a pervasive element of group play, or ensemble-mindedness, as opposed to emphasis on a virtuoso soloist or frontman. (Think Robert Altman versus Robert Plant.)

Ok, I’m going to stop it there, or my head might explode.

Basically, here’s what you need to know: Tortoise has a new album coming out on June 23rd via Thrill Jockey. It’s entitled Beacons of Ancestorship. It sounds like it’s going to be really good. Additionally, the first track on the album will be included on a Thrill Jockey compilation, Records Toreism, being released on Record Store Day on April 18th, and the band will be releasing a series of 5″ records following the album’s release. And finally, on July 17th, Tortoise will play the Pitchfork Music Festival with Built to Spill, The Jesus Lizard, The National, and maybe The Flaming Lips…

Beacons of Ancestorship Tracklist:
01. High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In
02. Prepare Your Coffin
03. Northern Something
04. Gigantes
05. Penumbra
06. Yinxianghechengqi
07. The Fall Of Seven Diamonds Plus One
08. Minors
09. Monument Six One Thousand
10. de Chelly
11. Charteroak Foundation

Tortoise 2009 Tour Dates:
05/29 – Buffalo, NY @ Tralf Music Hall
05/30 – Brooklyn, NY @ Bell House
05/31 – New York, NY @ Bang on a Can Marathon
06/12 – Athens, GR @ Synch Festival
07/17 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival