Majewski was born in Marquette, Mich., on Dec. 9, 1973. The son of an American diplomat, he spent much of his childhood in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere. He met fellow Maryland Institute College of Art student Mira Billotte in Baltimore in the late 1990s and they hit it off, occasionally playing music when he wasn’t playing in his band Murder. In 1998, Mira and her sister Christina decided to form a band with their brother on bass. He declined, and the two turned to Majewski. They called the group Quix*o*tic.

“Our first gig was on April Fool’s Day in ’98,” says Mira. “Then we toured every year after that.” The band eschewed the fast, aggressive sound D.C. was known for at the time and opted for a more challenging brand of post-punk. The quieter, distanced sound was more delicate than Quix*o*tic’s contemporaries; the band had an affinity for difficult No Wave sounds and ’60s R&B melodies refracted through a creepy lens. During Majewski’s tenure, the band formed its own label and self-released a single, “Heliotrope,” and an album, Night For Day, for which Qui*x*otic went into the studio with Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto.

“The first time we went to Europe, we played at an installation curated by [Sonic Youth’s] Kim Gordon in Holland,” says Mira. “She asked everyone that participated in the show to give her a piece, either visual or writing, and she had it printed in this book that was published by Purple magazine.” Majewski and his bandmates each had their art published in a limited-edition book alongside names like Jim O’Rourke, Thurston Moore, Chan Marshall, and the director Spike Jonze.

Not long after Majewski joined Quix*o*tic, he met Kristina Mazzocchi, then of the band The Long Goodbye. The two dated for seven years, and briefly formed a band called Cut Purse that played about three shows. “He was so talented and different,” says Mazzocchi. “He was a sensitive badass—someone you’d want to know.”

Mazzocchi remembered an incident at the old Black Cat. “I was hanging out onstage with Quix*o*tic, when all of the sudden Eddie Vedder walks up. He says, ‘Hey man, I really like your band, do you guys wanna come hang out at my show tomorrow night?’” The band went out with Pearl Jam and Sonic Youth the following evening. Mazzocchi said, “It was just so bizarre and representative of how other musicians felt about [Majewski] and Quix*o*tic. They inspired other musicians.”

After parting ways with Quix*o*tic in 2001, Majewski and Mazzocchi moved to New York. Majewski quickly jumped into the art world, first working for Team Gallery and later for the visual artist Banks Violette. In 2006, Majewski formed Orphan with drummer Speck Brown, and created art and videos for the band. The duo earned praise from Vice magazine and The New York Times, blazed through South by Southwest in 2008, and played a gallery opening in Berlin the same year. Orphan played the Whitney Biennial last spring, and released two full-lengths and a split.

“I think [Majewski] was pretty proud of Orphan, to be honest,” says Brown. “He was really the greatest musician I’ve ever played with in my life. He was the most caring, considerate, and intelligent person that I’ve ever known, and really a sensitive guy. It’s a terrible shame, because he had a lot to offer.”

Punk? Pop? Whatever. Fast-paced, no-bullshit rock & roll from The Jam is hard to beat. Give this live take of "In The City" a shot while you're tripping out on Reese's pieces.

You're not alone with Sonic Youth. Throw on theclassic "Teenage Riot" (it seriously never gets old) and rock out to Thurston Moore's ecstatic visions of a "hyper nation" of '90s kids, 'cause you know they're all restless, too.

Scrappy D.C. guitar-rock trio The Cheniers crank out lo-fi pop gems that beg for your caramel-covered enthusiasm. Check 'em out on Sunday at Black Cat after you polish off the last of your Mars bars.

2009 Umbrella Music Festival: Our pals over at the Chicago Reader noted in their ’09 Fall Arts Guide that the Umbrella Music Festival “is eclipsed only by the Chicago Jazz Festival as the most impressive and adventurous jazz event of the year.” Since those guys seem to know what they’re doing, we’ll take their word for it. This year’s event—which, for the fourth turn of the calendar, “celebrates jazz and improvised music from Chicago and beyond”—extends over four days and includes performances from Matthew Shipp and a quartet that includes Tortoise’s John Herndon. But the clear highlight is a closing-night performance of compositions by Joe McPhee arranged by Ken Vandermark for a nonet which features both players. Tickets for events vary in price, but most (if not all) still seem to be available. The first night’s slate of events is entirely free.

2009 Troika Music Festival:  Down in North Carolina’s Research/College Triangle (that’d be the area defined by the cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill), organizers will present a locally-focused festival on November 5, 6, and 7. They call it Troika Music Festival (it’s cause, you know, three cities…triangle…you get it), and though the honchos say that they like to promote things Durham, they appear happy to include “critically acclaimed acts visiting from elsewhere”—even those from Raleigh and Chapel Hill. This year’s notables include Dead Oceans’ Bowerbirds, Merge Records’ The Love Language, and Future Islands, which may be so only for the fact that its MySpace page says the band hails from Baltimore. As of this writing, tickets were still available.

All Tomorrow’s Parties: On November 24, the folks over at Warp X will release All Tomorrow’s Parties, a film which is, according to press, “a kaleidoscopic journey into the parallel musical universe of the cult music festival of the same name.” Because the thing was reportedly born of the efforts of “over 200 filmmakers, fans and musicians,” we here at Fesitval Watch believe that this translates roughly to: A confusing mélange of film and video footage chopped together in an attempt to make live musical performances interesting for suckers stuck watching them at home.

In any case, ATP the film features (again, from press) “performances from an eclectic mix artists including: Battles, Sonic Youth, Belle And Sebastian, Patti Smith, Animal Collective, Grinderman,  Iggy and the Stooges, Portishead, Mogwai, Slint, Grizzly Bear, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Gossip, Daniel Johnston and The Boredoms [!!!].” Basically, it’s a best-of culled from the entire history of the festival. As such, it might be worth your dollars—even if its collage-y nature spells the need for a couple of aspirin (or perhaps, something a bit more illegal).

As for the live event, tickets are sold out for both of the next ATP festivals—December’s “Nightmere Before Xmas, 2009” (curated by the reunited My Bloody Valentine) and “Ten Years of ATP.” For those of you who happen to be headed over to the Butlins Holiday Centre for either of those shows, festival organizers have filled the gap between weekends with a four-day series they’re calling “In Between Days.” Performers include Fuck Buttons, Dirty Three, Mum, Om, Growing, and Deerhoof. As of this writing tickets (at 100 Pounds per person, lodging and “self-catering” included) were still available.

Heavy on Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon because, well, they're fun to watch.

Sonic Youth performs again tonight at the 9:30 Club, doors at 7pm. The Entrance Band are opening. Like last night's show, tonight's is sold out, but tickets seem to be readily available on Craigslist.

More photos (and a setlist) after the jump, as well as at the full Flickr photoset.

Setlist:
Sacred Trickster
No Way
Calming the Snake
Poison Arrow
Catholic Block
Antenna
Leaky Lifeboat
Walkin Blue
Malibu Gas Station
The World Looks Red
Anti-Orgasm
Massage the History
Silver Rocket
What We Know
Making the Nature Scene
The Sprawl
Cross the Breeze

If you follow this blog with any regularity, you're probably already aware of my thoughts regarding the band's 1995 album Washing Machine (a masterpiece, clearly). If not, read them here along with contributions by Malitz, Marc Masters, and others.

The new Sonic Youth album, The Eternal, leaked this week. Yesterday, our own Aaron Leitko got heartfelt and nostalgic about actually paying for it and listening to it via Matador's pretty sweet buy-early program.

Full Disclosure: I have nothing to say about the album. I have not heard the album. I don't want the crummy leak and I'm too broke to spring for the advanced payment plan. That doesn't mean I haven't been tempted to just download thing. The most interesting content so far has been the blog comments after the leak and after the Web Sheriff busts them. It's like a cop busting a college dorm. Everyone screams Oh Shit and scatters. Then the stupid sense of entitlement sets in. And then really stoopid anger blossoms.

The pre-Web Sheriff comments are all nerd audiophile bird droppings:

"how’s the quality ? i dont want to spoil the moment"

And:

"do you have another version besides webrip?"

And:

"pretty listenable if you ask me, though audiophiles might become deaf after hearing. heh"

And soon, the fear starts to set in:

"beware, websheriff will come soon"

After the web sheriff arrives. The leak is pulled down. Regret sets in:

"damnit, not fast enough"

And then, there's begging:

"pleazzz someone post link in comments- hearin a preview is not gonna stop me from buyin when it comes out- need my sonik tooth!!!"

And:

"We need a web Robin Hood"

Soon enough, a Robin Hood arrives with a fresh link for the album download.

But there's still anger at the difficulty of stealing this record.

"Have you noticed how Matador records has become the most evil label on the net? They are relentlessly pursuing and threatening bloggers. I love Sonic Youth and would normally buy the album, but will ban it just because of Matador’s actions....have a look around, they are terrorizing the real music bloggers as well. Sometimes for playing music they sent them in the first place."

So, the lesson: Matador Records=the new terrorists.

*The Eternal will be physically released on June 9.

Anyway, that was the birth of my long-running Sonic Youth fanboy-ism, which culminated earlier this week in my purchase of the band's new album, The Eternal, through Matador's Buy Early Get Now program.

Instead of holding out for a promo, or stealing it via leak, I figured I would suck it up and honor the band by, you know, paying for its music. This was not cheap: The double LP, plus bonus LP package, cost me a little more than $40. There's a bunch of bonus stuff, though, including an early stream of the record and mp3 outtakes. Also, I bought the most expensive version available, so I really only have myself to blame.

But purchasing The Eternal has reintroduced me to a record-buying behavior that I experienced frequently in '95, but had forgotten as of late: trying hard.

During the '90s, when CDs cost up to $18 a piece, buying music was not an entirely frivolous investment. If you were a pre-teen at the time, like I was, that sum represented a lot of time logged raking leaves and chopping back pyracantha bushes. And if you didn't immediately enjoy that record–be it Naked City's self-titled record or White Zombie's La Sexorcisto–you just had to listen to it over and over again until you enjoyed it. It was, after all, on your dime. In the Mp3 era, when music can be obtained quickly, easily, and cheaply, there's no financial incentive to trust anything but your initial impressions of a record. You can just throw it in the virtual trash can and move on to the next band.

When I streamed The Eternal for the first time yesterday, I was kind of disappointed. As Sonic Youth albums go, it's in the Experimental Jet Set Trash and No Star vein–not bad, but sort of stuck in a holding-pattern. Maybe I was just in a bad mood. It's better than that Grizzly Bear record, for sure. At any rate, I just dropped $50 on this thing, so rather than snarking it on this blog, I'm going to listen to that audio-stream as many times as it takes for me to start enjoying it. By the time the physical product shows up in my mailbox, on-or-before June 9, hopefully I'll have converted myself.

And if not, well, at least there's that live bonus-LP.

Dave Matthews Band: "Funny the Way It Is"
Give Dave Matthews a little credit. He’s the guy who brought pathos to the jam-band world. While Phish’s Trey Anastasio was singing about tires, worms, and mango-footed children, Matthews was giving Teva-wearing Americans a glimpse of the darker side of his psyche with songs about addiction, death, and sleazing your friend into a one-night-stand. On “Funny the Way It Is”, Matthews grapples with the fact that even while he’s kicking back with a jimi thing at a palatial estate built on a foundation of Bonnaroo ticket stubs, somebody, somewhere is suffering. Which brings him down. On the bright side, Boyd Tinsley doesn’t rap.

Deerhunter: "Rainwater Cassette Exchange"
For some reason, indie-rock bands either want to be all commune-pastoral or American Apparel-urban. No band wants to let the lonely, washed-out, emptiness of the suburbs into its aesthetic. But Deerhunter really nails the psychedelic strip-mall vibe, though. Maybe it's because they're from Atlanta and not Brooklyn. At any rate, the ambling, clattering space-rock of "Rainwater Cassette Exchange", would make a perfect iPod soundtrack for a stroll around an abandoned ShopKo.

The Bats: "Castle Lights"
Don't let Flight of the Conchords fool you, New Zealand has more to offer than garish synth-pop send-ups. No, there's also some pretty good jangle-pop. For instance, this new song by The Bats, which maintains all of the mumbly, three-chord, goodness of the band's heyday.