Set-pieces & Scene Reports.
5/10/11
Did you know I write a quarterly column for the literary rag InDigest? My new column is up; it's a rant - well, an op-ed of sorts - about the "troubadour" and "patronage" models of making a living for musicians, and why the fact that people don't really buy that many CDs is more a crisis for people on the periphery of the music "industry" than the people that make it.
3/31/11
On April 16, I'll be a guest on Radio Happy Hour, a "live-mystery-meets-late-night-talk-show, that engages guest stars in wildly right-angled conversations that careen between interviews, performances, and an audience quiz show. At the center of the show is an old-time radio murder mystery/comedy, where the guest star is written into the storyline as him or herself. Past shows have seen Norah Jones as a motel manager; Michael Showalter as the host of his very own cable fitness show; Andrew W.K. as the iconic John Bender character from The Breakfast Club; Tunde Adebimpe as the founder of a wilderness camp for ineffectual men; Kumail Nanjiani as a ventriloquist with a southern dummy; Craig Finn & Tad Kubler as brothers and Chuck Klosterman as their dad on a doomed road trip to a small town called Manhattan, Minnesota. The show regularly stars host/creator Sam Osterhout, actors Robin Reed and Matt Skibiak, as well as music by Rich Bologna." It's at Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St., NYC at 1pm.
3/14/11
Art by Nicholas Gazin.
Coming April 29: Anti-Social Music's debut record, "Sings The Great American Songbook," was received as everything from "punk's next breath" (Real Detroit Weekly) to "nearly unlistenable" (Pitchfork). Never ones to take a hint, the incorrigible new-music collective celebrates its tenth anniversary year with "Anti-Social Music Is The Future Of Everything," a state-of-the-union grab bag that restates ASM's whiskey-soaked and combat-booted commitment to new chamber music as the last bastion of socially unacceptable sounds. Produced in part by group founder Franz Nicolay, the album finds room for processed water droplets, triangle-driven bastard ragtime, a rec-room mass, the aptly-named "grunt work for the avant-garde," and a nihilistic setting of Hunter S. Thompson's suicide note. With artwork by Vice Magazine's Nicholas Gazin, Anti-Social Music reminds you that things are bad, they're likely to get worse, and that string quartet on the deck of the Titanic probably wasn't all that in-tune either.
My Old Kentucky Blog debuts the first mp3 from the album, Kamala Sankaram's "Fear" from "Bitter Suite," here. Check out Anti-Social Music at facebook.com/antisocialmusic and antisocialmusic.org.
2/24/11
Excited to announce that I'll be supporting Frank Turner in May on his first solo acoustic UK tour in some time. Tickets are on sale Monday 9am and will sell out quickly! Frank is claiming it'll be "like the Three Amigos on Charlie Sheen's drugs," so, you know, I'll do my best.
FRANK TURNER (solo)/FRANZ NICOLAY/BEN MARWOOD UK TOUR
May 9 - Arc, Stockton
May 10 - Doghouse, Dundee
May 11 - PJ Molloy's, Dunfermline
May 13 - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
May 14 - Library, Lancaster
May 15 - Telfords Warehouse, Chester
May 16 - Brudenell, Leeds
May 17 - FRANZ NICOLAY @ Packhorse, Leeds
May 18 - Night & Day, Manchester
May 19 - Cathedral Crypt, Sound City Liverpool
May 20 - Sugarmill, Stoke
May 22 - Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton
May 23 - Guildhall, Gloucester
May 24 - St. George's, Bristol
May 25 - Komedia, Bath
May 26 - New Slang, Kingston
May 27 - St. Paul's Church, Cambridge
May 28 - Playfest, Norwich
May 29 - Wedgwood Rooms, Portsmouth
May 30 - Railway Inn, Winchester
June 1 FRANZ NICOLAY @ Windmill Brixton, London UK
Also, I co-produced thie "Follow Me" EP for The Debutante Hour in January; MTV's Iggy blog raves about it here. NYers should check out their video & release show March 5 at Bowery Electric, there's a great lineup: http://on.fb.me/gbBnvB.
2/23/11
I have a track on the "Live Fast Get Folked" compilation from the DIY collective Start Something NJ, available for download at startsomething.tumblr.com. It's called "It Is Never A Mistake To Say Goodbye" and was a Bushwick Book Club song based on Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle." This recording is from the "Luck & Courage" demo sessions.
2/20/11
I'll be on tour, but Opera On Tap is including my "Note On A Subway Wall" in their New Brew program February 26. It's curated by Anti-Social Music's Kamala Sankaram and also includes music by Daniel Felsenfeld, Stefan Weisman, Taylor Ho Bynum, Eve Beglarian, Lisa Bielawa, Andrea La Rose, Nick Brooke, Kirke Mechem, Steven Sondheim, David Mallamud, and Foreigner. It's at Barbes (9th st. and 6th Ave, Brooklyn) 7 pm - free!
Also, I've started writing a quarterly musi column for the online literary mag InDigest. The first installment, on fear and performing, is up here.
1/26/11
Starting next month in Brooklyn, I'll be out on an exhaustive seven-week US tour co-headlining with the great songwriter David Dondero, including SXSW dates. You know he's great because NPR's All Songs Considered named him one of their "Ten Greatest Living Songwriters", alongside Bob Dylan and Tom Waits; and Conor Oberst calls him his biggest influence. Plus he was This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb's drummer for a couple years. Anyway, interesting guy. We start in Brooklyn with Poor But Sexy (who you may have seen opening the Dismemberment Plan reunion dates), and are doing a few shows with O'Death in southern CA along the way. AND! Hamell On Trial (Righteous Babe) was just added to the Harrisburg show, which I'm excited about - I used to go see him every time he played NYC when I was in college.
FRANZ NICOLAY/DAVID DONDERO SPRING TOUR
Feb 25 - Union Pool, Brooklyn NY (w/ Poor But Sexy)
Feb 26 - Main Street Music 20th Anniversary IN-STORE (w/ Dave Hause)
THEN: Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA
Feb 27 - Black Cat (backstage), Washington DC
Feb 28 - The Southern, Charlottesville VA
Mar 1 - Local 506, Chapel Hill NC
Mar 2 - The Milestone, Charlotte NC
Mar 3 - New Brookland Tavern, Columbia SC
Mar 4 - Caledonia, Athens GA
Mar 5 - The Earl, Atlanta GA
Mar 6 - The Rookery, Macon GA
Mar 7 - Will's Pub, Orlando FL
Mar 8 - New World Brewery, Ybor City FL
Mar 9 - Sluggo's, Pensacola FL
Mar 10 - Bottle Tree, Birmingham AL
Mar 11 - Ole Tavern, Jackson MS
Mar 12 - VENUE CHANGE: Fairfield Studios, Shreveport LA
Mar 13 - Dan's Silverleaf (35 Conferette Festival), Denton TX
Mar 16 - INSTORE: Cactus Records (5:30), Houston TX
THEN: The Mink, Houston TX
Mar 17 - SXSW: Annie's West, 4:30pm, Austin TX
THEN: House party, midnight, 801 Robert E. Lee Blvd. Austin TX
Mar 18 - SXSW: Steven F's Bar (1am ie early Sat am), Austin TX
Mar 20 - Club Congress, Tucson AZ
Mar 21 - Sail Inn, Tempe AZ
Mar 22 - Tin Can Alehouse, San Diego CA (w/ O'Death)
Mar 23 - Echo, Los Angeles CA (w/ O'Death)
Mar 24 - Muddy Waters, Santa Barbara CA
Mar 25 - Black Box Theater, Merced CA
Mar 26 - Beatnik Studios, Sacramento CA
Mar 27 - Hemlock Tavern, San Francisco CA
Mar 30 - Sam Bond's, Eugene OR
Mar 31 - Mississippi Studios, Portland OR
Apr 1 - Red Room, Kennewick WA
Apr 2 - O'Malley's, Tacoma WA
Apr 3 - Sunset Tavern, Seattle WA
Apr 5 - Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City UT
Apr 6 - Illegal Pete's IN-STORE EAT & GREET (5pm), Denver CO
THEN: Hi-Dive, Denver CO
Apr 7 - Slowdown, Omaha NE
Apr 8 - Firehouse, Normal IL
Apr 9 - The Firebird, St. Louis MO
Apr 10 - Schuba's, Chicago IL
Apr 11 - The Treehouse, Columbus OH
Apr 12 - Bug Jar, Rochester NY
Apr 13 - The Smiling Moose, Pittsburgh PA
Apr 14 - Abbey Bar, Harrisburg PA (w/ Hamell on Trial)
Apr 15 - Cakeshop, NYC
12/31/10
So, the last couple years I've put together an audio yearbook - 50 or so songs that were the soundtrack to my year. So here's year four (in two parts, 'cause better-quality mp3s), everything from Perry Como to GG Allin. It's in no particular order, so put it on shuffle. Hope you like, and happy new year!
Part 1
Part 2
12/18/10
Poster by Brian Carter & Sophie Nicolay
This should be a cool thing. I'm doing a UK tour with old buddies Dave Hause (The Loved Ones/Fat Wreck Chords) and Jack Terricloth & Sandra Malak (World/Inferno Friendship Society). Four punk rockers in a small rental car, driving on the wrong side of the road in cold and rainy January, what could possibly go wrong?
Be sure to get there early if you're coming to these shows - we'll be rotating the running order every night, playing some songs together, making it up as we go along, so you don't want to miss it.
Jan 7 - The Gaff, London
Jan 9 - Adelphi, Hull
Jan 10 - Vault, Derby
Jan 11 - The Croft, Bristol
Jan 12 - The Sink, Liverpool
Jan 13 - Tiger Lounge, Manchester
Jan 14 - The City Cafe, Edinburgh
Jan 15 - Packhorse, Leeds
Jan 16 - Windmill Brixton, London
Jan 17 - Prince Albert, Brighton
Jan 18 - Southampton TBA
12/16/10
Our bassist Brad Kemp made a four-part video tour blog on the recent Franz Nicolay & Major General tour with Stornoway, featuring live performances, footage from inside out Daytrotter session, bloody deer carcasses, Muppets and Leatherface covers, and a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel. You can see all four at www.youtube.com/franznicolay.
11/18/10
Art by Sophie Nicolay & Ariana Nicolay.
"Anti-Social Music vs. Franz Nicolay: Unlucky & Discouraged" is a remix and re-imagining of tracks from Franz Nicolay's recent "Luck & Courage" LP by members of the long-running NYC composer-performer collective Anti-Social Music, which celebrates its tenth anniversary early next year. It includes a track from Dischord Records' Beauty Pill (featuring Anti-Social Music's Jean Cook) which is their first release in three years; as well as works from composers Pat Muchmore, Brad Kemp, Kamala Sankaram, and Peter Hess (Balkan Beat Box).Ê
Magnet Magazine called Anti-Social Music's debut release Sings The Great American SongbookÊ#1 of "10 Records You Missed in 2005", and saidÊ"If Yo-Yo Ma and Ian MacKaye scored an Alfred Hitchcock film, Anti-Social Music might sleep through it[...]Imagine an orchestra wearing formal attire and combat boots, then replace the conductor's baton with a bottle of Jack Daniel's." Time Out New York said "Shunning the gilded concert hall, the Anti-Social Music collective has tackled the new-music concert scene with the DIY fury of punk."
Anti-Social Music members Jean Cook, Brad Kemp, and Maria Sonevytsky will be members of Nicolay's band on his upcoming tour with Stornoway.Ê
"Anti-Social Music vs. Franz Nicolay: Unlucky & Discouraged" is available for free download at franznicolay.bandcamp.com and antisocialmusic.bandcamp.com.
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Also, I'm happy to announce that I'll be producing (with Dan Brennan) the new full-length by Pearl And The Beard in December!. Their last record, "God Bless Your Weary Soul, Amanda Richardson," was one of my very favorites of last year.
11/2/10
Vinyl pre-orders are up, from our friends Sabot Productions. You get the bonus track "Rock, Rinse, Repeat" as an mp3 download, and the first pressing is on clear vinyl.
10/5/10
I did a cover of "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) for "Subterranean Homesick Blues: A Tribute to Bob Dylan's 'Bringing It All Back Home'"; which also features people like the Morning Benders, Mirah, Laura Veirs, J. Tillman of Fleet Foxes, and so on. It's streaming at Rolling Stone, and on sale today. Thanks to Sxip Shirey, Brian Viglione, Brad Kemp, Emilyn Brodsky, Jocelyn Mackenzie, and James Frazee for working on it with me!
10/2/10
Your pals and mine at Punknews are now streaming "Luck & Courage". If you like what you hear and you're in the U.S., you can buy it right away at iTunes. Pre-orders are also available now at Team Science Records (US) and Decor Records (UK).
Also check out new tour dates with Two Cow Garage and Stornoway.
9/26/10
Several intriguing pre-order packages are circulating for "Luck & Courage." Interpunk has a free patch-and-pin set with your order; Team Science has T-shirts and gorgeous silkscreened posters autographed by me and my sister Sophie who designed the record.
UK/EUers can get the disc with a bonus track at Decor Records, and the vinyl will be out in October (also with bonus track) on Sabot Productions.
9/23/10
Artwork by Ariana Nicolay.
It was a chilly week in March. "Fight Dirty" had finally come out. Guignol hit the road to play a punk house, a college, and a dive bar outside of Boston. We saw Chuck Schumer in a strip-mall bookstore. And we stopped off at U-Mass Lowell's venerable radio station WUML to play a live set on-air. And guess what? We played pretty good!
So for you, we offer "Guignol: Live on WUML" for exclusively digital download at guignol.bandcamp.com (where the rest of our catalog is also streaming). 8 tracks, 30 minutes, all with a nice spit-and-polish from Danny Shatzky at good ol' Vibromonk Studios. (More about Guignol at guignolband.com).
9/22/10
I recorded a version of "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) [feat. Sxip Shirey]" for the awkwardly-titled Subterranean Homesick Blues: A Tribute to Bob Dylan's "Bringing It All Back Home", which will be out digitally October 5. Other artists on the comp include the Morning Benders, Peter Moren (of Peter Bjorn and John), Castanets, Asobi Seksu, Mirah, J. Tillman (Fleet Foxes), and Laura Viers. Pitchfork has all the info, as does the label Reimagine Music.
I also recently produced and did a string arrangement for an Emily Hope Price song called "Manek & Ilona" on the new Pearl and the Beard EP. Well, they've got it online and you can check it out at blackvesselep.com.
8/11/10
Paste Magazine has more about my new album, "Luck & Courage," including the cover and tracklisting:
Artwork by Sophie Nicolay.
1. Felix & Adelita
2. This Is Not A Pipe
3. Have Mercy
4. My Criminal Uncle
5. Z for Zachariah (feat. Emily Hope Price)
6. Job 35:10
7. James Ensor Redeemed
8. Anchorage (New Moon Baby)
9. The Last Words of Gene Autry
10. Luck & Courage
"It's who you leave behind, it's not who you save/That you'll be judged by."
In Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut coined the term "a nation of two" to describe that stage of love in which a couple seems to be creating their own self-contained world, with its own language and culture. In Franz Nicolay's haunted and redemptive new album Luck & Courage (out October 12, on CD/Digital from Team Science Records and vinyl from Sabot Productions in the US; and Decor Records in the UK/EU), he expands the idea and writes the history of the rise and fall of one such country, one inhabited by the titular characters Felix & Adelita - in Latin and Spanish, luck & courage.
"They're untethered," Nicolay says of the protagonists. "She's a sometime bartender, he's been in the service, he's a little violent and she's a little distant; they don't really live in any one place - and they've accustomed themselves, at some point, to the idea that ultimately their lives are going to be their own responsibility, so that when they find themselves together, almost against their will, their nation of two is doomed before it even begins. They're so used to leaving things behind, they don't remember how to stay - a battle between the pull of domesticity and the habit of packing up and moving on. And so their story, and the story of their nation of two, becomes the story of a plague-ridden, Cormac McCarthyian country as its society collapses."
"It is not raining, my shoe is not untied/I have not been unhappy my whole life."
Nicolay's band on Luck & Courage is Brian Viglione (The Dresden Dolls) on drums, Yula Be'eri (World/Inferno Friendship Society) on bass and Maria Sonevytsky (The Debutante Hour) on piano. Other guests on the record include Mark Spencer (Son Volt) on pedal steel, trumpeter Ben Holmes, guitarist Jared Scott (Demander), Ken Thomson (Gutbucket) on saxophones; and featuring cellist Emily Hope Price (Pearl and the Beard), who co-writes and duets with Nicolay on "Z for Zachariah," a love song from a plague to its victims. Luck & Courage was made Brooklyn in two weeks in spring 2010, with producer Jim Keller (Willie Nelson, Franz Ferdinand).
"When you leave again, leave something of you with them."
OLDER NEWS, TOUR DIARIES, AND MORE...
