Baltimore-based electronic duo Matmos (Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt) will tour the US next month in support of their new album, The Marriage Of True Minds, out February 19 on Thrill Jockey Records. To give a taste of what’s to come, SPIN.com premiered a live performance of Matmos covering the Buzzcocks’ “ESP” at Thrill Jockey’s 20th Anniversary show in Baltimore last September. The performance begins sinister and slow eventually speeding up to a fleet-footed jangle and climaxing with a spaced-out refrain. All the while, images of slithering worms and quacking ducks flicker across the screen, warping your mind in the process. Do you believe in ESP, indeed!
WATCH/SHARE THE “ESP” (BUZZCOCKS COVER) VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/55397260
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/55397260 w=500&h=281]
Matmos – ESP (Live at Thrill Jockey 20th Anniversary) from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.
MATMOS TOUR DATES
Mon. Feb. 11 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge *
Tue. Feb. 12 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall *
Wed. Feb. 13 – Montreal, QC @ Il Motore *
Thu. Feb. 14 – Toronto, ON @ TBA *
Fri. Feb. 15 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle *
Sat. Feb. 16 – Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center *%
Tue. Feb. 19 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir ^
Wed. Feb. 20 – Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s ^
Thu. Feb. 21 – Vancouver, BC @ Media Club *
Sun. Feb. 24 – San Francisco, CA @ Public Works *
Mon. Feb. 25 – Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery *
Thu. Feb. 28 – Austin, TX @ TBA
* w/ Horse Lords
% w/ Josef Van Wissem
^ w/ Mouse on Mars
The Marriage Of True Minds is Matmos’ first new full-length album in five years and follows 2012’s The Ganzfeld EP, which was the culmination of four years of parapsychological experiments based on the Ganzfeld (“total field”) experiment. Test subjects were put into a state of sensory deprivation by covering their eyes and listening to white noise on headphones, and then Matmos member Drew Daniel attempted to transmit “the concept of the new Matmos record” directly into their minds. The resulting transcripts of the videotaped psychic experiments became poetic and conceptual scores used by Matmos to generate the nine songs on this album, which prominently features vocalists and voices for the first time in Matmos’ work. Guest musicians include Dan Deacon, Dominique Leone, DJ Dog Dick, Leslie Weiner and Holger Hiller (Palais Schaumberg), Jason Willett (Half Japanese), Angel Deradoorian, Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak) and more.