The Daily Swarm

(photo credit)

One little noted fact from last night’s Neil Diamond mini-set at New York’s Bitter End nightclub: that mustachioed man with glasses on the guitar to the right is none other than Matt Sweeney, he of Chavez and Zwan fame. He’s all over the new Rick Rubin-produced CD too.

via Columbia Records:

Neil Diamond greeted the long line of fans stationed outside The Bitter End on Bleeker Street, saying hello and posing for pictures. Once inside the club, Diamond, backed by a small band consisting of members from both his studio and touring musicians, gave an energized acoustic performance of “Solitary Man”, “Don’t Go There”, “Home Before Dark”, “Pretty Amazing Grace”, “Kentucky Woman”, “Cherry, Cherry” and “Sweet Caroline”.

Steve and Barry’s, the massive mall retailer that is set to open its nearly 300th store sometime this fall in the former Manhattan Tower Records space on Lower Broadway, is known for its sub-$10 prices for every item of clothing, celebrity designers, and long lines at the checkout counters of its warehouse-sized stores across the country. Steve and Barry, the company’s founders, refer to their business as “the Google of fashion.” And while the New York Times’ Thursday Styles section takes the parallels between the former and future tenants of 692 Broadway to some absurd extremes, one section stand out for the lessons these two Long Island rag merchants could teach the ailing record labels:

Howard Schacter, the company’s chief partnership officer, said Steve & Barry’s monitors its subcontractors carefully and demands ethical business practices. The key to its low prices, he said, is a razor-slim profit margin.

Then, too, Steve & Barry’s doesn’t advertise, but rather relies on word of mouth.

Steve & Barry’s also saves small — for example, by using discount hotels, like Motel 6 and Econo Lodge, for travel, assigning one printer to 50 employees and myriad other ways.

On a tour of their offices, where designers’ cubicles are retrofitted into dreary, sometimes windowless nooks, Mr. Shore and Mr. Prevor pointed out aging furniture that Mr. Prevor found in his parents’ basement and a filing cabinet that bore the logo of a fruit-and-vegetable distributor. (There was a large stack of papers spilling onto the floor next to it.)

It is not a country club, but the offices are lively and full of 20-somethings, many of them recent college graduates — the director of stores was a music major at Harvard — attracted at being able to take on significant responsibilities fairly early in their careers, and also by the likelihood that Steve & Barry’s will eventually go public. TA Associates, a private-equity firm that backs Eastern Mountain Sports and Jenny Craig, bought a minority stake in 2006.

“To be great, you have to have these ridiculous, insane prices, and not sacrifice quality,” Mr. Shore said.

UPDATE: US Tour Dates:

09–22 New York, NY – Roseland
09–23 New York, NY – Roseland
09–25 Toronto, Ontario – Ricoh
09–27 Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom
09–30 San Francisco, CA – The Concourse
10–01 Los Angeles, CA – Santa Monica Civic
10–02 Los Angeles, CA – Santa Monica Civic

The last time Kevin Shields performed live with My Bloody Valentine was July 5th, 1992 in Los Angeles at The Palace Theater, setting off a countdown clock for their return to an American stage that has been slowly, softly ticking for more than 16 years. But that alarm is about to ring, as the newly reunited band – which makes its highly anticipated return to the stage this June in London before embarking on a short turn through some of Europe’s top festivals – is planning a U.S. tour this September.

Frank Riley, the group’s long time booking agent who started working with My Bloody Valentine more than two decades ago, confirms that the band will play shows in 6–8 U.S. cities.

Currently, only one show is confirmed: a headlining slot at the soon-to-be-announced All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in upstate New York the weekend of September 20–21. Kevin Shields My Bloody Valentine is curating the event, which will be similar to the British promoter’s weekend-long UK festivals at holiday camps in Camber Sands and Minehead. The New York weekender will be the first stand-alone U.S. All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival since 2003 and 2004 events in Los Angeles (curated by Matt Groening and Modest Mouse); the promoters have recently teamed with Pitchfork for “Don’t Look Back” nights at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, which features bands like Public Enemy and Sonic Youth performing entire classic albums. ATP is also promoting the first My Bloody Valentine shows in London this June.

ATP New York 2008

UPDATE: Pitchfork:

On the weekend of September 19–21, My Bloody Valentine will perform in the United States for the first time in 16 years. The occasion? ATP New York, the new American branch of the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival. It will take place at Kutshers Country Club in Monticello, New York.

And… jesus… as if a My Bloody Valentine headlining set wasn’t enough, ATP New York unveiled just the beginning of its completely astounding 30-act lineup, curated by both MBV and ATP:

My Bloody Valentine
Built to Spill performing Perfect From Now On
Meat Puppets performing Meat Puppets II
Thurston Moore performing Psychic Hearts
Tortoise performing Millions Now Living Will Never Die
Shellac
Mogwai
Polvo
Fuck Buttons
Autolux
The Drones
Low
Wooden Shjips
Edan with Dagha
Thee Silver Mount Zion Orchestra

Billboard:

Billboard can reveal that My Bloody Valentine has personally reached out to some of the artists to join the bill, including Irish singer/songwriter Gemma Hayes. MBV frontman Kevin Shields guests on Hayes’ upcoming album, “The Hollow of Morning,” due May 2 in Ireland and May 5 in England.

As Drowned in Sound noted today, David Byrne announced this week that his long-rumored return to the studio with Brian Eno is nearly complete:

The dream art-rock team of David Byrne and Brian Eno will return with new, strange fruit soon, the former Talking Heads man told NME.com recently.

Speaking at an event in New York, Byrne revealed that the duo had rekindled the relationship they formed in the late 70s/early 80s which resulted in three Talking Heads records and 1981’s classic My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.

“I’m finishing up a record with Brian Eno, a musician that I worked with 30 years ago,” Byrne said following an appearance with Paul Simon at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on the 9th of April. “We did a record together of songs, and that’ll come out.”

The NY Daily News adds:

Byrne told us he’s collaborating with their mutual friend Brian Eno “for the first time in 20 years. Brian had written a lot of music, but needed some words, which I know how to do. What’s it sound like? Electronic gospel. That’s all I’m saying.”

Sources say the album will likely be released via Nonesuch, but probably not until 2009 before the end of the year.

In the meantime, David Byrne’s booking agent at William Morris Agency, Mark Geiger, has been soliciting offers from a number of different promoters around the United States for Byrne/Eno live shows, promising the set list will consist of at least 40% Eno-era Talking Heads material. No word yet on if he’s had any takers. Most of the tour is already booked.

UPDATE: Enoweb:

According to Opal, Brian will not be touring with David Byrne, so it looks like wires getting crossed at Daily Swarm’s source.