Sigur Rós Announce First US Tour of 2003
Band relocates to Diceland after taking in VH1's "I Love the 80s" special

In an attempt to lure fans from the upcoming Joan of Arc tour, Sigur Rós have appended a 16-date tour of the U.S. onto their forthcoming February European jaunt. After pummeling the Europeans with their falsetto crooning and grandiloquent instrumentation for 15 climactic, world-weary days, the quartet will embark on their second US tour in support of ( ), beginning mid-March. The appropriately untitled tour will, once again, find the band exorcising their musical demons with pseudo-intelligible gobbledygook and pontifical hooey, guaranteed to procure a rise out of Radiohead leftovers and GY!BE aficionados.

If this sounds inviting, you best do some mad surfin'-- pre-sale tickets have been popping up all over the net. The two dates in Washington DC are already available at 930.com, and the New Orleans and Boston concerts can be pre-ordered via Ticketscammer beginning January 13th and 25th, respectively. Tourdates:

02-11 Glasgow, UK - Barrowlands
02-12 London, UK - Apollo
02-13 Paris, FR - Le Grand Rex
02-15 Hamburg, Germany - Kampnagle
02-16 Malmo, Sweden - KB
02-17 Stockholm, Sweden - China Theatre
02-19 Copenhagen, Denmark - Falconer Salen
02-20 Berlin, Germany - Arena
02-21 Munchen, Germany - Herkulesaal
02-23 Mainz, Germany - Phonixhalle
02-24 Lyon, France - The Auditorium
02-25 Barcelona, Spain - Razzmatazz
02-27 Madrid, Spain - La Riviera
02-28 Opporto, Portugal - Teatro Sa da Bandeira
03-01 Lisbon, Portugal - Coliseum
03-15 Boston, MA - Berklee Performance Center
03-18 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
03-19 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
03-21 New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall
03-22 Upper Darby, PA - Tower Theatre
03-23 Cleveland, OH - The Odeon
03-25 Pittsburgh, PA - Byham Theater
03-26 Louisville, KY - Brown Theatre
03-27 Atlanta, GA - The Tabernacle
03-29 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues
03-31 Houston, TX - Verizon Wireless Theatre
04-01 Austin, TX - Austin Music Hall
04-02 Dallas, TX - Granada, Theatre
04-05 Las Vegas, NV - The Joint
04-07 Los Angeles, CA - Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
04-08 Oakland, CA - Paramount Theatre

.: Pitchfork Review: Sigur Rós: ( )
.: Sigur Rós: http://www.sigur-ros.com

Sigur Rós (fansite): http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk

Beulah to Disband After Final LP, Tour
Ben Stein to morosely chant bandname outside venue, peddle Clear Eyes to weeping indie youth

The slow, silent decay of the once-mighty Elephant 6 empire continues with the announcement that flagship E6 signing Beulah will be disbanding in 2003 following a final LP and tour. Roger Moutenot (of Yo La Tengo production repute) will record the band's fourth album in San Francisco beginning next month-- their first in a "live setting" as opposed to their previous method of laboriously home-recording each track individually. "We spent over five hundred hours recording the last one piece by piece and sometimes too much time is just that," Beulah's Bill Swan writes on the band's official website. "I mean, it was fun to sit around in the studio TV room watching [reruns] while one of the guys labored over playing a single part perfectly to a click track for four hours, but..."

Beulah, formed by Swan and former co-worker Miles Kurosky in 1995, were the first band to be signed to Robert Scheider's Elephant 6 label and invited to join the E6 collective proper (not just as "extended family"). Each of Beulah's subsequent releases was issued on a different label, which has caused extensive difficulty in keeping the group's back catalog in print. Beulah's beloved 1999 sophomore album, When Your Heartstrings Break, was initially issued on Sugar Free and remains unavailable (though a reissue is in the works for early 2003). A third album, 2001's The Coast Is Never Clear, was released by the now-defunct Capricorn imprint Velocette.

No official reason was given for the split, save a desire to ditch the starving-artists routine and pursue other goals. "This record (our fourth and final) should come out next fall barring something unforeseen," Swan writes. "As usual, we will tour to support it (there will be more than one round of touring). Then, not as usual, we are going to call it a day, go home to our wives, girlfriends and kids, get real jobs and become adults." As previously reported, the Elephant 6 collective ceased use of the fanciful moniker and logo last year and plans to eulogize the phenomenon with a final label compilation sometime in 2003.

Beulah: http://www.beulahmania.com

Rainer Maria Ready New LP, Tour w/Mates of State
Sleeveless zebra-stripe t-shirts send fans spiraling into vertigo; concert ends in frustration, contempt, people pretending to be zebras

Emo-rockers Rainer Maria will be hitting the road this winter with the Mates of State for an undoubtedly adorable tour of whatever people call this country we live in. The co-headlining, co-ed romp kicks off on January 30th in New York City and comes to a full-circle close on March 15th back in Brooklyn. Rainer Maria will be supporting their forthcoming record, Long Knives Drawn, which is due on January 21st from Polyvinyl Records. Caithlin de Marrais will also be busy supporting her brand new foxy hairdo, while that one dude parades around like a zebra in that stripey shirt on their webpage. Tourdates:

01-30 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
01-31 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
02-01 Cambridge, MA - Middle East
02-02 Lancaster, PA - Chameleon
02-03 Pittsburgh, PA - Attic
02-04 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
02-05 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
02-06 Madison, WI - Luthers
02-07 Chicago, IL - Metro
02-08 Urbana, IL - Courtyard Café<br> 02-09 Bloomington, IN - Rhinos
02-11 Grinnell, IA - Grinnell College
02-12 St. Louis, MO - Creepy Crawl
02-13 Lawrence, KS - Bottleneck
02-14 Omaha, NE - Sokel Underground
02-15 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre
02-16 Salt Lake City, UT - TBA
02-18 Seattle, WA - TBA
02-19 Portland, OR - Meow Meow
02-20 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
02-21 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
02-22 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
02-23 Pomona, PA - Glass House
02-24 Tucson , AZ - Solar Culture
02-27 Austin, TX - Emo's
02-28 Fort Worth, TX - Ridglea Theatre
03-01 Houston, TX - Mary Janes
03-03 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
03-04 Pensacola / Tallahasse - TBA
03-05 Tampa, FL - TBA
03-06 Orlando, FL - TBA
03-07 Miami, FL - TBA
03-08 Gainesville, FL - TBA
03-09 Atlanta, GA - Echo Lounge
03-10 SC - TBA
03-11 Chapel Hill, NC - Cat's Cradle
03-12 Richmond, VA - TBA
03-13 DC / Baltimore - TBA
03-14 Philadelphia - TBA
03-15 Brooklyn, NY - TBA

In other Rainer Maria news, Polyvinyl has already begun shipping online orders of Long Knives Drawn. So if you just can't contain yourself another week, order it up and see if the postal service can beat out your local record store. It just might happen if you wet yourself! As an added incentive, the first 500 orders will get an exclusive two-song CD repressing containing Rainer's first single, "New York 1955". Tracklist:

01 Mystery and Misery
02 Long Knives
03 Ears Ring
04 The Double Life
05 The Awful Truth of Loving
06 The Imperatives
07 Floors
08 CT Catholic
09 Situation: Relation

As for the Mates, everyone's favorite married duo who isn't the White Stripes just finished up a seven-inch split single with Katy Davidson of Dear Nora fame. Mates Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel cover an old Jackson Brown tune, "These Days", while Davidson tries her hand at Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country".

.: Polyvinyl Records : http://www.polyvinylrecords.com

Pitchfork Review: Rainer Maria: http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/r/rainer-maria/look-now-look-again.shtml
Pitchfork Review: Mates of State: http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/m/mates-of-state/our-constant-concern.shtml
Rainer Maria : http://www.rainermaria.com
Mates of State : http://www.matesofstate.com

Ben Kweller Hits the Road
Expected to fight plaque, gingivitis every step of the way

We all know that Ben Kweller, known among friends as "germ killer" and "plaque slayer," has great dental hygiene, but if you're curious about how entertaining this kid can be onstage, wonder no more. The 20-year-old Kweller has dusted off his fake I.D. and is set to bring his own very sincere brand of power-pop to the teeming masses across America in early 2003. Now, we know what you're thinking: "Hey, I'm a member of the teeming masses and it's already 2003! What gives?!" Silence! Pitchfork has the answers:

02-01 Bethlehem, PA - Lehigh University - Private Show *
02-02 Indianapolis, IN - Emerson Theater
02-05 Minneapolis, MN - Ascot Room @ The Quest
02-06 Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck
02-07 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater
02-08 Salt Lake City, UT - Club X-Scape
02-12 Spokane, WA - Fat Tuesday's
02-13 Vancouver, BC Canada - Croatian Cultural Centre
02-14 Seattle, WA - Graceland
02-15 Portland, OR - B. Complex
02-19 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
02-20 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
02-21 Los Angeles, CA - Roxy Theatre
02-22 Los Angeles, CA - Roxy Theatre
02-23 Mira Mesa, CA - The Epicentre
02-24 Tempe, AZ - Bash on Ash
02-26 El Paso, TX - E9 @ Club 101
02-27 Dallas, TX - Tree's
02-28 Austin, TX - Emo's Alternative Lounging
03-01 Houston, TX - Engine Room
03-03 Oklahoma City, OK - The Green Door
03-05 Nashville, TN - Exit/In
03-06 Cincinnati, OH - 20th Century Theater
03-07 Chicago, IL - Cabaret Metro
03-08 Detroit, MI - St. Andrews Hall

* means you ain't getting in

The similarly named Brendan Benson will open for Kweller on the first leg of the tour, which runs from February 1st to the 26th. Centro-Matic will also join in the tour on the 20th, and carry on through March 8th, when the tour comes to a close in filthy Detroit, Michigan. As befitting the under-age Kweller, all of these dates are all-ages.

Pitchfork Review: Ben Kweller: http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/k/kweller_ben/sha-sha.shtml
Ben Kweller: http://www.benkweller.com

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