Bonk! Guess what folks: if somebody throws a bottle at Morrissey during a show, he’s not going to take it well.
But during his second song, Black Cloud, he stepped forwards to the front of the stage to shake the hands of fans when a plastic bottle of beer was hurled at him. The singer stood up and said ‘goodnight’ to the stunned 8,000-strong crowd before walking off stage.
One dipshit in Liverpool ruined it for everybody. You don’t fuck with the Mozfather.
According to a post on fan site True To You, Morrissey would like it to be known that he “has not received a royalty from EMI since 1992” and “last received a royalty payment from Warners ten years ago.”
This comes in response to his former labels releasing some new vinyl box sets. The 7″ Singles ’88-’91, is due October 12 in the UK from EMI, and The HMV/Parlophone Singles ’91-’95 is due November 2. No US release is scheduled for those. Also, Warner/Rhino UK is releasing a box of the Smiths‘ four studio albums, remastered 180 gram vinyl (bundled with MP3s). But Moz was not consulted and does not approve.
Morrissey: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, wiki
For a while now, Brooklyn has been a hotbed of cooler than thou indie bands and freaky neo-hippies; I don’t know what is going on over there. Maybe that little borough has an unusually high unemployment rate that allows these kids to lounge about making records and scouring vintage shops. Whatever…keep the good jams coming.
The Jaguar Club is our latest find and they indeed hail from Brooklyn but exhibit more of an association with mid-80s Manchester than the neo-funk or synth driven palette of their neighbors. There’s more than a bit of the Smiths lurking in the corners of their basement and the minimalist approach to recording would make our friends in MGMT quiver at the thought of being so exposed. Singer/guitarist Will Popadic’s vocal styling won’t be for everyone. The band’s one-sheet cites Morrissey and Interpol‘s Paul Banks as inspirations and neither exhibit a dynamic range but each (especially our beloved Moz) offer a distinct personality that our newbie is still trying to find. But check them out and let’s see how they develop on their debut self-released LP And We Wake Up Slowly, out on September 1.
MP3: The Jaguar Club – “Sleepwalking”
Tour dates after the jump…
MP3: Morrissey – “Maladjusted” from Maladjusted (Expanded Edition) out now on Island (UMG).
The 1997 album, produced by Steve Lillywhite, has been re-sequenced by Morrissey and remastered, adding several b-sides and ditching two songs (“Roy’s Keen” and “Papa Jack”). Packaging includes a new cover, a 24-page booklet, a new essay by Morrissey, and rare photos.
This was during my Morrissey blackout period, so I might actually have to pick this up…
Morrissey has canceled the first four dates of his World Tour in support of his new album, Years of Refusal. He was set to kick off on February 28 in Bacon Raton, Florida, but has canceled all dates in the Sunshine State. Affected dated include:
• Boca Raton, FL Mizner Park (February 28)
• Orlando, FL Hard Rock Live (March 1)
• Jacksonville, FL Florida Theater (3)
• St. Petersburg, FL Jannus Landing (4)
The tour is now set to begin on March 6 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
My question is, why in the hell is Mozzer launching his world tour in the deep south of the United States???
More at The NME.
Video: Morrissey – “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris”
Classic Morrissey. Pugg rock! And the grey in his hair suits him. Then again, he’s always looked like a middle-aged man even back in his twenties.
From Years of Refusal, out February 17 on Lost Highway.
Continue reading New Morrissey video: I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris
Billboard reports that Morrissey has inked a U.S. deal with Lost Highway for the release of his new album, Years of Refusal, produced by Jerry Finn and due February 17.
Lost Highway, of course, is the Americana label that boasts folksy artists such as Ryan Adams, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, and Lucinda Williams. In the “foreigner” column, they’ve also got Elvis Costello and Van Morrison. Looks like Lost Highway is encroaching on Anti‘s territory of picking up veteran artists who are no longer profitable enough for a major label. But unlike Anti, which is a legitimately independent label, Lost Highway is a division of UMG.
Even odder than the label (or the cover art) is the fact that Jeff Beck guests on the track “Black Cloud.” So this means Morrissey is following in the footsteps of Rod Stewart and Donovan. Strange company.
Tracklist and tour dates after the jump…
There’s been a lot of hot air being blown around over this tabloid article from the UK’s Daily Mirror: Morrissey and Johnny Marr heal rift raising hopes of a Smiths reunion. But come on. Look at the content, and you’ll see this is all silly speculation:
Singer Morrissey, 49, and guitarist Johnny Marr, 45, are said to have healed their bitter rift and are now regularly in touch with each other.
One source said yesterday: “The very fact they are talking again is the most hopeful thing in years. The industry has been buoyant with talk of them getting back together.
“A lot of people think of them as the best thing since the Beatles. They’d fill stadiums many times over.”
We’d love to see it. But it’s not going to happen. Johnny Marr just joined the Cribs, for one thing, and they’re going on tour next year. Plus, Morrissey very publicly loathes Smiths drummer Mike Joyce, who sued Morrissey and Marr in 1996 over profits from the Smiths, and was awarded over £1 million in back pay. And without Joyce and bassist Andy Rourke, it’s not the Smiths. It would be cool to see Morrissey and Marr together, but it wouldn’t be the Smiths.
Not to mention the fact that Morrissey has said, “I would rather eat my own testicles than reform The Smiths, and that’s saying something for a vegetarian.”
Ever notice how these kinds of headline-grabbing rumors start up every time somebody’s got a new album to promote?
MP3: The Smiths – “Rusholme Ruffians” (courtesy of Rhino, but not included on The Sound of the Smiths: review.)
The Smiths – The Sound of the Smiths (Rhino)
I’ve been a fan of the Smiths for over twenty years, back before they broke up. The first I heard of them was a 90-minute cassette with Meat is Murder on one side and the just-released Queen is Dead on the other, taped for me by a kid in my high school French class. (Jeff Young, if you’re out there, thanks!)
A few months later, I got a hold of a taped copy of Louder Than Bombs. By the time Strangeways, Here We Come came out, I had gone back and bought up their entire catalog of albums and had started to build up my collection of singles. I bought Strangeways on tape on its release date. Or my girlfriend did. I can no longer remember. Within a year, I got my first CD player and replaced all those tapes (and tapes of tapes) with shiny compact discs. I thought the sound quality was amazing, and compared to those hissy tapes, it was.
But that was twenty years ago, and digital audio quality has made incredible advances since then. Just listen to the remastered Rolling Stones ABKCO releases compared to their original CD incarnations for undeniable evidence.
Two of my favorite bands, the Beatles and the Smiths, have not yet had their catalogs properly remastered since they were originally issued on CD in the mid-eighties. And they need it.
