BREAKING!

Dispatch: Matrix Offices Ransacked…Again. Journalist Hospitalized…Again
Sydney S. Pistol is recovering from a serious groin injury after having been punched in the balls by assailants looking for renegade musical genius and holder of the sacred musical key to free energy, Billy Fong. Pistol’s balls are expected to heal in time for Land of Talk next week. Matrix Music offices have now relocated and we will only be sending dispatches from the road. Pistol describes his assailants as Persian and there is no doubt the escalating tension in Iran has something to do with the power Fong holds over the energy industry. …read more

Essay: It’s Not About the Photograph, by Ian Orti
The pixels will never capture the sound. They will never capture the stratospheric levels of serotonin that will always be better than drugs. They will not capture sweaty backs or the whiskey-tinged taste of a tongue deep inside your mouth in those precious moments when we wish time would just stop.…read more

AND THE 2008 BILLY FONG AWARD GOES TO…
Every story has an arc. If it’s a good story it will have a good arc with a notable transformation from beginning to end. ..…read more

VIDEO: Sonic Youth

LIVE REVIEWS
Victory Chimes Ring For Ghosts Of Montreal
If it weren’t for the pain killers I wouldn’t have gone out. An old lady at the community centre where I was chasing down a lead slipped me a muffin laced with nature’s own and the next thing I knew I was leaning on the bar at Divan Orange staring at my black reflection in the pint of stout. It was a typical night for November. Shitty and wet. But these are ripe conditions if you’re the kind of person I am who enjoys a solid band in a near empty venue..…read more

Mina May Puts Local Bands on High Alert
In the course of one live show at one near empty venue – the city’s bar has just been raised very very high.…read more

Andy Harpoon Finds Pop, Loses Love in Halifax
He’s a little worse for wear, but he’s back from the Halifax Pop Explosion, a single man again.…read more

Diplodocus Destroys City
There are likely many many painful pairings of knees and ankles from the amount of flat-out ‘jump-around-like-it’s-the-apocolypse’ dancing, and if all went well for the young hedonists that inhabit these sweaty Montreal dancefloors, then there are likely many many damp t-shirts strewn across the bedroom floors of friends, lovers, and strangers.…read more

Hollywood Holt Show Thwarted by Mattress Fire
Okay so here’s the deal. I was supposed to go to this show but I didn’t. During my pre-show nap, my mattress caught fire when a candle ignited it causing a minor house fire. So…here’s a video so you can decide for yourself.…click to view

Land of Talk Chart Course for 2009
Even with one bum leg in a brace and an ass parked on a stool Powell’s soft lyrics combined perfectly with the band’s cut-throat rock n roll grit to deliver clearly one of the best shows of the year, another in a string of amazing shows in the same venue this fall which have included the Silver Jews, Silver Apples, and The Walkmen. In other words, expect very very big things from Land of Talk in 2009.…read more

L’Embuscade Joins American Terror List
“What the fuck is an Embuscade?” I said to my colleague. “Maybe it’s a riddle,” she said. I toyed with the word. Scrambed the letters as I rattled the change together for a stout at the bar. Scum Da’bee. No. Mad Bees’ Cum…too many ‘m’s. Fucking band. They would probably suck. Not so…What I heard could easily double as the soundtrack to a volcano.…read more

Chilean Pitches Tent at Watson Twins Show
Funny how pessimism has a way of turning its back on a man. No longer able to stand, we found our Chilean a high school chemistry book to cover his boner for the Watsons so he could make it over to the merch table where he uttered what every sexy set of twins wants to hear: “You remind me of those girls from The Shining.”…read more

Two Journalists Feared Dead
From the editor…”Esteemed MMM Journalists and bounty hunters have gone missing and are reported to have sustained injuries on rock battlefield over the weekend. It’s Sunday Night and the weekend isn’t even close to being over. It began with an excited dispatch about the most underrated and indie band from a place called the Land of Talk and ended with a final emergency message received late Sunday evening with allegations that Iggy and the Stooges had just set fire to rock n’ roll at a place called Osheaga.” …read more

The Organ Are Back!
So how about two free downloads courtesy of RCRDLBL?…download now

TOP STORIES
Fingers and Glover Reported Dead
Update: Autopsy reports from Brasilian government have confirmed the death of two Matrix Magazine journalists, M. Fingers and Dandy Glover. The pair went missing last August while undercover working to locate missing musical prodigy, Billy Fong . Autopsy reports revealed the two suffered from gunshot wounds to the back. Expressions of sympathy may be made to the Billy Fong Foundation or to a local bartender near you.

INTERVIEW: Kevin Laing on The Besnard Lakes, PromArt, and Beating the Meat
On summer break from touring, we caught up with Besnard Lakes drummer and bearded Robert Redford doppelganger on a stormy night in August over adult beverages and warm tea in the hottest nightclub north of Havana.…read more

Essay: “Everything About Rock n’ Roll iis Bullshit”
When it comes to music, the only thing a person can rely not to bullshit them are the hairs on the arms and neck that rise without warning when the music enters the blood stream.…read more

INTERVIEW: Said The Whale Reveal Fong Mystery Key
The trail was getting cold and our editor refused to cover our return expenses. Then it happened: a click on the telegraph wire. “See what the orca says.” Seeing sound? Cryptic indeed. Before we could figure anything out, we turned to our most intimate knowledge of the missing prodigy rusted source: the bottle.…read more

INTERVIEW: Jennifer Herrema on Billy Fong
Word on the telegraph wire had been hush. We’d heard nothing of the child genius for weeks. Rumours were circulating…Fong was dead…a bus accident in the Andes. But a tip on the wire led us to the RTX (Rad Times Xpress), an underground railroad that slices across the United States to rock icon Jennifer Herrema in South Beach, LA.…read more

Andy Harpoon Thwarts Assassination, Swears Bloody Revenge

Thankfully Andy Harpoon is now recovering well in the safety of his own home after defending the life of musical genius, Billy Fong, from an assassination plot. The apartment where he is squatting is under 24 hour protection…When asked why he believed the assailants to be Russian, Harpoon replied, “They were speaking Russian.” …read more

Miracle Soap Saves Fingers’ Leg From Gunshot Wound
Hospital was not an option. We were too close to Fong. Arriving at a hospital with a gun shot would inevitably involve police. We were in far too deep to have the police involved and with ramifications reaching to the upper echelons of just about every international corporate and political organization including OPEC, Iran, and Casio, it was unclear who could be trusted.…read more

DOWNLOADS
Recently from RCRD LBL:

Silver Jews
“Candy Jail” from the album ‘Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea’…listen now

MSTRKRFT
Exclusive new song went up on MSTRKRFT’s RCRD LBL page this week via their partner label Dim Mak. It’s the only place to get it. “Bounce featuring N.O.R.E” (And yes, that is N.O.R.E as in the rapper of “Superthug” fame)…listen now

White Denim- “Goldie Locks” (third single from their RCRD LBL exclusive EP:…listen now

Dirty On Purpose
“The Thing About Getaways” (third single from their RCRD LBL EP “Dead Volcanoes”):…listen now

Ladytron
“Black Cat” - new track from their forthcoming LP “Velocifero”:…listen now

Sam Champion - Uncle Drums
Cut Copy - Hearts On Fire (Joakim Remix) via partner label Modular
Bix - Uni Versal (featuring Jonsi from Sigor Ros)
Bloody Beetroots - We Are From Venic (La Serenissima Remix)

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