Jay Reatard preps for singles comp, tour

homepage photo by Jeff Allen

Two things follow in the wake of Tennessee-born garage-punk maven Jay Reatard: chaos, and sweet sweet vinyl 7"s. Over the last three months he's unloaded a barrage of singles on our willing ears, thanks to a partnership with Matador Records. Fortunately, the releases went off without a hitch, unlike Matador's previous headaches with releasing eight 12" Mission of Burma singles eight weeks in a row. For those of you with a slightly-less-than-obsessive bent, you now have the chance to own your very own CD/DVD compilation, cleverly titled Singles 06-07. A recent press statement from In The Red Records tells all:

"Culled from now long out-of-print singles on In The Red, Goner, Squoodge, P. Trash, and Stained Circles, in pressings which ranged from 500 to 3000, Singles 06-07 highlights 17 songs of Jay at his most creative and hyper-melodic. Here Jay plays all the instruments on all the songs (save one guitar part on "All Wasted" by Alix Brown of Angry Angels), and recorded, mixed, and mastered all the recordings. The deluxe package also includes four live concerts capturing Jay's blistering, breakneck shows from Philadelphia, Las Vegas, New York City, and The Netherlands."

The statement goes on to detail some exciting additions to his upcoming summer tour, replete with shows with class acts like Spoon and Les Savy Fav. His sophomore album with Matador is due in early 2009. Go catch Reatard live, unless you're afraid of getting kicked in the face.

July
6 - Roskilde, Denmark @ Roskilde Festival
14 - Philadelphia, Pa. @ Johnny Brenda's
15 - Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Prospect Park Bandshell (with Spoon)
17 - Providence, R.I. @ Lupo's (with Spoon)
19 - Chicago, Ill. @ Union Park (Pitchfork Music Festival)
20 - Minneapolis, Minn. @ Triple Rock (with Cheap Time)
21 - Fargo, N.D. @ The Aquarium (with Cheap Time)
24 - Seattle, Wash. @ Capitol Hill Block Party (with Les Savy Fav)
25 - Vancouver, B.C. @ Commodore Ballroom (with Les Savy Fav)
26 - Portland, Ore. @ Doug Fir (with Cheap Time)
28 - San Francisco, Calif. @ The Independent (with Cheap Time)
30 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ Echo (with Cheap Time)
31 - San Diego, Calif. @ The Casbah (with Cheap Time)

Aug
1 - Mesa, Ariz. @ Hollywood Alley (with Cheap Time)
3 - Austin, Texas @ Red 7 (with Cheap Time)
4 - Dallas, Texas @ Club Dada (with Cheap Time)

Related links:
Jay Reatard's blog
Matador Records: Jay Reatard
Jay Reatard on MySpace

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