Detail of the cover illustration of Red Cross Magazine, January 1918
Wires and Waves isn't really a "music news" blog. Sometimes I wish it was - it's a lot easier to aggregate the headlines from Pitchfork.com than write about actual music every day. But Wires and Waves is about my experiences as a fan of music, so I'm making an exception today for a big news story that relates to my formative years as a music fan. In my late teens, a couple of my favorite bands, Guided By Voices and Pavement, were on Matador Records - for the first time, I realized that some record companies had an "identity" and "personality". I could buy an album released by Matador Records with some degree of surety that it would be interesting to me. I took chances on Helium, Bailter Space, Chavez, and Silkworm without being dissapointed.
Last week, Matador announced that they will have a 3-day concert bash in Vegas this fall, featuring many of the great acts from their glory days. The reunited classic lineups of Pavement and Guided By Voices will be joined by Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth, and some later-period favorites like the New Pornographers and Belle & Sebastian.
For me, the real news here is the Guided By Voices reunion, featuring the lineup that played on those first albums for Matador (Robert Pollard, Mitch Mitchell, Tobin Sprout, Greg Demos, and Kevin Fennell). These guys represented a unique incarnation of GBV - they were the original basement heroes that churned out lo-fi masterpieces on 4-track and then turned them into arena-rock anthems in concert. Seeing Pollard lead these guys through a set of '90s GBV classics will be worth the price of admission alone at Matador At 21 in October.
"Watch Me Jumpstart" by Guided By Voices
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