Let Us Anticipate Interpol - El Pintor 9/9/2014

Not you, Alfred. We already know you HAAAAAAATE them. The rest of us can anticipate to our heart's content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoaAP11p3sI

Hello friends,

It’s been a long time coming but we’re finally ready to share some new album news. We’d like to announce the release of our upcoming new album, El Pintor. We wrote & recorded the bulk of the album in 2013 in NYC and finished mixing it in London during the early part of this year. We’re very excited to share the album with all of you. The album was recorded at Electric Lady Studios & Atomic Sound by Mr James Brown and mixed by Mr Alan Moulder at Assault & Battery studios. We had a lot of fun making this record and can’t wait for you to hear it. The album will be released on September 9th in North America and September 8th in all other territories. You can pre-order the album here. We also took the opportunity to capture some background film footage of the recording of the album. A first in our history. You can view a clip here.

1) I like the name! I like it a lot.
2) I don't hate the cover; it's a good harkening back to what their aesthetic feels like it should be
3) Good god Kessler and his selection of mouthwatering reverb on those vintage amps
4) I have the amazing ability to recognise HEY IT'S BRANDON from literally half a second of the back of his head.

I liked the new songs a lot, live. They really reminded me of early Ride. I think I will be anticipating this greatly.

Parents, hide your daughters!

Quiet, you!

I mean, Paul Banks has even gone and cut his hair exactly like Imperial Phase Bernard Sumner just to impress you, and you *still* won't love him.

Thanks for the heads' up, Branwell. Will anticipate!

Do we have a thread for youtubes of musicians puttering around in the studio? Because if not, I think we really need to make one.

Really kinda feel like Kessler is making a big slutty "please adore us?" ploy with his blatant Branwell-baiting gear show-offs lately.

I mean this... just... come on, man. Stop it.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/fdcd2c5906bf934b456baab9c6aab23b/tumblr_n6k4vtUm1R1rd1g7mo1_1280.png

Followed by that whole LISTEN TO THE HUM OF MY VINTAGE AMPS. LISTEN TO THEM! segment.

Track listing now:

1. All the Rage Back Home
2. My Desire
3. Anywhere
4. Same Town, New Story
5. My Blue Supreme
6. Everything is Wrong
7. Breaker 1
8. Ancient Ways
9. Tidal Wave
10. Twice as Hard

(Trying really hard not to read "Ancient Ways" as a Macfarlane man-off.)

I only like the first album but I always think maybe they'll turn out a good one again. Who knows.
Guitarist is looking weirdly thin.

Cautiously optimistic for this one.

Took me a bit to figure out the title was an anagram.

http://cdn2.pitchfork.com/news/55453/35103735.png

i have a bad feeling about this

can't be any worse than the last one. or (most of) the one before.

came across this recently, so cute! Sam's first gig. it's from the 10th anniversary edition of TOTBL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKQkseydlDE

I'm pretty sure it can and probably will be worse than the last two, they look just so. not. into. it.

except kessler

Ha! I thought the acronym was so obvious that I didn't understand why everyone suddenly went "OMG it's an acronym!" It took me a while to realise it was actually Spanish words rather than some random Acrid Avid Jam Shred spew of acronymic letters.

I think after having a long break, and doing a couple of solo records, the other two are actually quite into it. Banks just has one of those faces that looks perpetually grumpy, even when he's happy. He has that same face when he's making out with supermodels, so that's just... his face?

If the songs are anything like they are live, it is actually going to be good. (But then again, I feel like the only person in the world that actually loves the S/T album so don't trust me.)

I'm pleased to see that Brandon got actual credits etc. on the record, though.

the s/t is halfway decent... "summer well" esp. is of totbl/antics caliber. "barricade" too. the chorus of "memory serves" is good. most of it feels and sounds like plastic food

cf. "Song Seven" with anything from the s/t... it's like everything after 2004 has had the life sapped out of it and filled with polystyrene

I'm pretty sure it can and probably will be worse than the last two, they look just so. not. into. it.

to be fair they have always looked so not into it except kessler

Ha! I thought the acronym was so obvious that I didn't understand why everyone suddenly went "OMG it's an acronym!" It took me a while to realise it was actually Spanish words rather than some random Acrid Avid Jam Shred spew of acronymic letters.

To be fair, I didn't even see the cover art until just now, which really makes it plain as day.

i'm looking forward to this but i'm a fan of most of our love to admire (think the only song i outright don't like is "all fired up")

the s/t is okay but also oddly lifeless yeah. still like "lights"

High point of S/T is Always Malaise for me. I don't get the plastic/polystyrene complaints at all. If anything, on the S/T it's like they were trying too hard to be GROWN UP and WE ARE SRS ARTISTS with all those lugubrious little Philip Glass piano frills and the like.

Tumblr is so much better at getting excited about this album. It was quite funny how they accidentally spoilered themselves. (To the point where I do wonder if it was deliberate.) The album has been finished for ages, Brandon told me back in March that it would be out in September, but no one was announcing ~anything~. Then Sam told literally one fan at a gig, and the news was ~all over the internet~ in about 20 minutes. It never fails to amaze me, how organised fanbases can be at dispersing news, and how useless record companies etc are at stopping it. The official announcement was literally rolled out the next day. Like, I do just wonder if that was on purpose.

to be fair they have always looked so not into it except kessler

To be fair, Carlos was quite good at looking ~into it~ but, y'know, the hell with that guy.

to be fair they have always looked so not into it except kessler

no they used to look cool and aloof now they just look sad, bored, and deflated. the dream is gone. feels like their inspiration is dried up completely and this new record/tour is out of obligation

Nope, that's a pretty good assessment of the last tour, and the state they were in *then*. No one is *making* them do it at this point (not even Kessler) - if they didn't want to do it, they wouldn't be doing it. All of them have solo projects now (except Kessler) to keep them busy. I think after a long break, they have actually decided that this is what they wanna be doing.

i watched a video of all the rage back home. dirgey directionless intro that the crowd talks over. i like how pb starts singing like 'evil' during the loud part but eh. this is like... cruiseship level imo. fucking bummed

y does paul never tweet :(

Paul never tweets because he forgot the password to his twitter. No, really.

cmbtslcsrmvl ---- yea?

Lock up your daughters indeed.

http://37.media.tumblr.com/a5a7e8d7a4158bb91a7d6bb8cb3c47da/tumblr_n3rty7ydpx1r81z5zo1_1280.jpg

^^^^^so clearly ~not into it~

good god i have to quit smoking pb looks ~20 years older than he is

carlos looks weird in that pic

Kessler just looking relieved that he is no longer the shortest member of the band, any more!

it's not an acronym

Mixing up the words "acronym" and "anagram" is the kind of error that only a pedant would get excited about.

But, y'know, go ahead and cue a thousand OMG BRANWELL DOESN'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ANAGRAM AND AND ACRONYM!!! posts like I know you're just dying to do because of a stupid malapropism.

I was going to guess maybe it was a spoonerism, but wrong fucking band.

Oh, and they're back too.

Haha, no, PintorLOL would have been a moonerspism. I do those in speech all the time. :-/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RdCBpCeJZQ

Lord help us all, Kessler has learned how to do YouTube comments.

(Also, whoever filmed that has not got the memo that the bassist is no longer the most popular member of the band.)

((I am ashamed to admit that I did spot the back of mine own head in the video.))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u6DvRyyKGU

song sucks

You suck.

anagramwise, they really missed out by not naming the album Porn Lite.

damnnnnn true

https://38.media.tumblr.com/62d7265b8a4360bd549c3c41a6961c56/tumblr_n8hdgftqCU1sr0iqdo3_500.jpg

Dan, true.

Interpol quotes, out of context:

http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzyzosbkDD1qlz7h1o2_500.gif

Seriously, they are just a preposterously good-looking band. (Even their behinds.)

i was a casual fan since antics came out when i was 12, liked OLTA when it came out, then got super duper fucking obsessed with them when i was 16 and madly in love with a girl. it was such a great time. i'll always love Interpol for those first two perfect records. i thought Paul Banks circa 2000-2005 was the coolest fucking dude on the planet, i dressed like him, i watched and listened to hours of interviews and bootlegs, i mean total obsession. it was great. the only way i can think of right now to describe my reaction to them post-2005 is they're just not as subtle. they've been unspooling their beautiful weird inexplicable coolness into boring and uninspired songs, lame vocal tics... ehhh, honestly, it's most disappointing to me that kessler isn't able or doesn't want to progress as a musician or a guitarist, in his playing, his melodies, or his tones.

no, they've never done that guitar part live

Spazz. If you were 12 when Antics came out, that makes you 22 now. It's HIGHLY LIKELY that you will no longer enjoy the music you liked when you were a pre-pubescent now that you are in your early adulthood. You do not like the music now, because you are not the same person now. I was embarrassed as fuck, when I was 22, by the music and artists I liked when I was 12. (I came back to that music in my 30s, and was surprised to find that I had changed, my opinion on that music had changed back to good.) It's called growing up.

I've given three specific examples in which Kessler has progressed as a musician (tonebends, piano, trills) and you're just ignoring that in favour of the example of: one chord from a song they wrote fifteen years ago?

It's not going to be helpful to either of us to continue this conversation.

But "I don't like them any more" is not the same thing as "they have run out of ideas and failed to progress."

but it is. "They have run out of ideas and failed to progress" leads to "I don't like them anymore."

You can say "you've reversed the sentence" but that's how it works

"A 22 year old doesn't like the same things he liked when he was 12" is not the same thing as "the band have run out of ideas."

And you never liked them, Alfred, so I don't know why you're taking this tack.

You know what I liked when I was 12? Duran Duran. They'd just released Rio and it blew my mind, and changed my life and I went back and absorbed the first album, and read every interview I could get my hands on, and they deeply informed my preteen ideas of What Glamour Was, and What Music Was, and all that shit.

Then puberty happened, and punk rock happened, and I grew up, and when I was 22, OMG, I was really into My Bloody Valentine and Ride and Lush and Stereolab and amazing exciting music like that, and OMG, it was so fucking *embarrassing* that I had ever liked Duran Duran.

But if you asked me, in 1993, what was wrong with Duran Duran, I wouldn't have said "eh, I grew up", I would have talked about how shallow LeBon's lyrics were and how tedious their idea of glamour was, and what was with all those dumb songs about fashion and girls. And my god, they had made no musical progression at all, they were still mucking about with synths like it was the goddamn fucking 80s and didn't everyone know it was all about shoegaze and Cathedrals of Sound now? I mean, for fucks sake. The Wedding Album, how limp, how lifeless, how embarrassing, i mean, yeah, I still have this nostalgic sense that Rio was once very important to me, but my god, don't ask me to listen to this Come Undone and Ordinary World bullshit, they are totally out of ideas, and my god, Nick Rhodes hasn't even changed his haircut, let alone his sound, there's no development here, and this is a TERRIBLE. ALBUM.

Of course, I was wrong. Duran Duran were a band with a specific style, but with many peaks and troughs, and huge amounts of development and change and progression over the years. I was just embarrassed, at 22, that the band they were in 1993, was not the band I remembered from childhood. It wasn't that Duran Duran hadn't changed, it was that I had. A lot.

And of course, now I listen to Come Undone and know that 22 year old me was a fucking idiot.

But you know, growing up, that's how it works.

I look forward to the day when bands are obliged to fill in personal development plans with smart objectives so that progress becomes objective and measurable, avoiding this rather subjective debate.

I'm about to be REALLY FUCKING MEAN. Avert your eyes.

https://33.media.tumblr.com/d1dfb918879f11833e0389769ea47f4b/tumblr_nbpavnAORU1qgze9ho1_400.pnghttps://38.media.tumblr.com/52ac9b477a8c19be6294477e38c37781/tumblr_nbpavnAORU1qgze9ho2_500.png

One of these men is 40. The other is 35. One of these men is a nonsmoking vegetarian. The other? Well, the less said the better.

CHOOSE YOUR LIFESTYLE WISELY, KIDS.

OK, that was deeply and unacceptably mean.

JE NE REGRETTE RIEN!!!!

Sometimes I think BraNwell is the only person on this forum who understands fandom.

No, I just think I'm the only person left who actually *is* still a fan, as opposed to a jaded music critic or jaded wannabe music critic. Sigh. :-/

ILM is not a kind place to fans.

ILM is not a kind place to fans

this record is good, the only song that edges out of their comfort zone is "tidal wave" and it's probably the best song here, the rest is kinda just reexploring the boundaries of antics but i'm into that

I feel really disloyal loving Tidal Wave (which is probably my favourite song - that or Everything Is Wrong) because it's the only song that Brandon *doesn't* play on.

(Oh! It's Roger Manning Jr of Jellyfish/Moog Cookbook etc. No wonder.)

omg roger manning jr.

Bran, like I said, I didn't become OBSESSED with Interpol - complete fandom - until ages 16-18. Also, I never said I didn't like TOTBL, Antics, or parts of OLTA anymore. I still listen to them regularly. There are so many bands that I became OBSESSED with at the same time or several years earlier, that I still follow and am surprised & impressed by. I hope you don't think I'm any less of an Interpol fan than you, if I wasn't I wouldn't have bothered to listen to everything they do and each member does despite being continually disappointed, because of the quality of the early work. I have not grown out of Interpol. I want them to make something good. They have, IMHO, run out of ideas and keep writing and re-writing the same songs into the ground. It doesn't resonate with me.

one thing i don't quite get is when branwell suddenly became a huge interpol fan. did not know about this at all until some veiled references a year ago or so.

When? February 2014.

How? Can You Force Yourself To Like A Record Through Blunt-Force Repetition?

I did a project to see if I could make myself like an album I'd previously hated by listening to it 22 times in a week. I accidentally made myself completely obsessed with the band in the process.

WHY? Two words: Brandon Curtis. (I think my obsessed with Secret Machines and Los Bros Curtis is long documented on this board.) He made me go see them back in February and again over the summer and I was kinda like a cat watching them, like "hmmmmm" and when I told him "I don't want to see your new band any more, I'm starting to get kind of a crush here" he started deliberately feeding me all kinds of KesslerFacts to deliberately provoke and feed the crush. And now I'm obsessed with Interpol.

I'm trying to work out what it is that produces and drives obsessions like this, and I definitely think that, like, other people loathing them (and being hugely outspoken about it) really actually drives and reinforces that kind of "no one loves them like I love them!" sense of persecution that really feeds obsession. I'm finding it very curious as a phenomenon, even as I'm being tossed about on the horns of the obsession.

Y'know, when I accused them of "turning into Ride" I didn't think they'd go whole hog and use the cover for Nowhere as the backdrop of their current stage design:

http://38.media.tumblr.com/b421a323fdd1e5153848f3ee5855559c/tumblr_nc1b4mWdhZ1tfqokdo1_1280.jpg

Seriously, that's kinda shameless, guys.

New video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu1SEZNPcBk

(For Twice As Hard, which is weird, coz I thought they recently filmed a video for My Desire? Guess I was wrong about that.)

First the surfing, now the boxing? Hmmm. They do seem to presenting themselves in a certain way at the moment, and that way is coded particularly sporty and, well, jock, to use the American term. It's... well, it seems a deliberate counter-image to their previous image. But personally, I still find it, well, hmmmm. Wish Paul could keep his little hobbies out of the band, eh, but who am I to complain.

p.s. Number 7 on the album charts in the US. Apparently!

I think the first three songs on the new album are stupendous, but I haven't been able to get into the rest of the record. That's par for the course with everything after the debut: 3 or 4 songs I absolutely love, and then a bunch of filler I'll never again listen to. Not that I'm complaining: put 'em together, those 3 or 4 songs per record are worth it.

That's ridiculous because this specific album is so back-loaded. If it were up to me, I'd skip the singles and listen to the album from My Blue Supreme on out. (Heh, iTunes tells me that's exactly what I tend to do.)

But I do realise I may just be listening for a different band.

album gets more oceanic as it gets deeper.

speaking of there are a lot of ocean metaphors on this one? or maybe i'm just noticing

Yeah, there's a lot of sea, of ocean, of tide, the colour blue. It seems to be a recurrent theme. (I still wish The Depths wasn't left off the album, either.)

Finally bought it this morning at Target. $9.99, two bonus tracks ("Malfeasance" and a live version of "Slow Hands").

Annoyed about that bonus track not being available in the UK. I still haven't heard it. :-(

Surprised Boots (or whatever) didn't make the same deal Target did. Or do big grocery/drugstore chains in the UK not get deluxe versions of albums?

Boots don't sell albums! I suppose the bigger Sainsburys or whatever might sell the top 10 albums, but they certainly don't make a draw of it.

Ugh, Interpol are on One Week One Band this week, and even just the first fucking entry has reminded me of all the reasons that I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAATED them for so long.

http://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/post/98130387039/an-introduction

Every. Single. Fucking. Cliche. just trotted blithely out. I don't hate the band any longer, but I really REALLY hate the way that people write about them. I mean, clearly I enjoy feeling conflicted, but seriously, just... argh.

Paul Banks on Comedy Bang! Bang! today

(the podcast)

Wow, what do I haaaaate more, Paul Banks or ~comedy~.

(There's a reason Kessler is my favourite; he goes on podcasts to talk about yummy vegetarian food for an hour.)

In other news, Kessler has just announced that he's done a solo album of Selected Ambient Works to be released under the name Big Noble next spring.

"It’s a good record to probably hear with headphones and walking around and letting the sounds of the city or nature or wherever you’re at kind of seep into the background."

Yes, I'm just waiting until he arranges for Robert Macfarlane or somebody to design some special nature walks to hike while listening to the album, to maximalise the "relevant to my interests" target-shaped appeal of this idea.

*wanders off muttering something about how he can stop trying to get me adore him now because it's already worked*

I recently found out that a friend's BFF once dated Sam Fogarino. I didn't pry for any juicy details.

please do though

Does anyone have a WSJ account? This is behind the paywall. :(

http://online.wsj.com/articles/interpols-dan-kessler-on-five-electrifying-albums-1412287964

Curious as to which his favourite PJ Harvey album is (I'm guessing the other 4 are all Fugazi records)

Daniel Kessler, 40, is the guitarist for American rock band Interpol. The group's latest album, "El Pintor" (Matador/Soft Limit), came out last month. He spoke with Marc Myers:

I sound American, but I didn't move there with my family until 1985, when I was 11. I was born in London and lived outside Paris from age 6 to 11.

Music hit me early. My two older brothers were constantly listening to something interesting and covered their walls with magazine cutouts of rockers.

I started playing guitar when I was 14 but didn't start on the piano until I was an adult. I've always loved music on the edge.

The Clash, "Sandinista!" (1980) // The band's follow-up to "London Calling" remains a fascinating listen, mostly because it marries punk with dance beats, '60s soul, reggae, electronic, rockabilly and other forms that were all crashing together then. Each track is completely different from the last.

Tappa Zukie, "In Dub" (1977) // Tappa Zukie is a Jamaican reggae DJ and producer. I discovered this album in a reggae record store in New York's East Village. Dub is reggae with high levels of production, and liberties are taken to bend the music, like elongating the snare drum or bass.

Aphex Twin, " Richard D. James Album" (1996) // Aphex Twin is an alias for Richard D. James, an English electronic musician and a melodic genius. The music here has aged well. When released, the album created an entirely new genre and had an everlasting influence on me.

Fugazi, "In on the Kill Taker" (1993) // I love Fugazi's energy. On this album, you can hear the progress of punk from hard core to a more innovative interpretation. The band's two guitarists-- Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto--play these tremolo-picked riffs that are really interesting.

PJ Harvey, "To Bring You My Love" (1995) // This album is incredible from start to finish. The production is terrific, especially on "Working for the Man." It's kind of loose and relaxedin the best of ways, with these little moments and big surprises. I was obsessed with it.

Thank you so much! You've made my day!

#RelevantToMyInterests

http://www.factmag.com/2014/10/23/interpol-my-desire-factory-floor-remix/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FactMagazineMusicAndArt+%28FACT+magazine%3A+music+and+art%29

(Maybe I should have put this on the Factory Floor thread instead because it sounds like FF are hitting their Technique phase rn)

OK, I fully understand that the interface between "Interpol fans" and "people who are interested in weird little wibbly SAW type noodlings" is precisely ONE, but we have a release date for Big Noble*?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWEwGG2SVNE

*Kessler's ambient side-project with Joseph Fraioli, which is basically big reverb-laden shoegaze guitars over the top of ambient electronic textures because: because he is trying to kill me, that's why.

Release date of February 3rd. I'm kind of excited. Because of all the boys I adore, the one I thought least likely to ever come out with an album of SAWs, Kessler was probably the least likely.

i would much rather read PB's poetry, i don't mean that sarcastically, i would buy like 3 copies of his poetry book if he wrote one to give to friends

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/music/interpol-interview-theres-something-about-new-york-its-still-pure

Fogarino: God, oh, yeah. Carlos had his pants pinned with the seams together. It all looked good in the photographs, but when you got up close to it, it just, like, whew. Everybody thought, Oh, they’re in their Prada suits. No, it’s just this vintage-store stuff, pieced together—J.C. Penney jacket, Sears pants. It was all crap.

<3 so much <3

(They still looked 10x better in shitty JC Penny suits than most dudes will ever look in Prada. Sigh.)

http://38.media.tumblr.com/010e19e8dc8e90fc6f237c961e0c0902/tumblr_nez7zsaw411qllbb8o1_1280.jpg

I recognise at this point that absolutely no one cares about this but me, but... two pieces of news in the past few weeks.

1) Kessler finally released his long-threatened Shoegaze / Selected-Ambient-Works project, Big Noble.

http://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/big-noble-first-light

It is possibly the most Branwell-friendly collection of music ever made, so much so that I'm slightly suspicious and feel like I'm being pandered to. Of course I love it. How could I not? I'm still not recovered from him eating ice cream and helping old ladies across the street.

2) Carlos D is writing a book. Sorry, 'writing' is far too pedestrian a term for what Carlos is doing. Carlos 'has begun drafting a book of autobiographical essays'. It will be the most annoying book ever written. I will no doubt read it eight times. Oh, and he's written and has been performing a one-man-show performance art / talk at the audience about himself monologue called Boy, Interrupted.

https://40.media.tumblr.com/c1a3c1f0810a76f87a5274ccebdf738f/tumblr_njewx0GV6A1qgze9ho6_1280.png

Promo photos like this make me suspicious that Mr D might be getting into ~evolutionary psychology~ and I know that he is on a 15-year quest to become the most ANNOYING human being in the history of annoyingness, but I really will beat him about the head with Mary Midgley books if that's the course he's chosen to go down.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/574dc62e816235d8b495bf977c06cc27/tumblr_njb342bfsB1rjw8sqo1_400.jpg

(Yeah yeah, I know, there is a dedicated ILX Carlos D thread I should be putting this on, but it's full of herpes and Jon Williams and I'm not sure which is a greater impediment.)

damn I think this might be my fave Interpol record now, flab-free and rich with detail. also a surprisingly good summer album. probably all the surfing mentions help.

"my desire" isn't terrible but boy do i miss carlos