Pitchfork: Tortoise Kick Off Tour With Daniel Lanois Tonight

Tortoise Kick Off Tour With Daniel Lanois Tonight

Tonight, Tortoise and Daniel Lanois will begin a tour notable not for its longevity, expansiveness, or festival dates, but for its originality. Before you get too excited, remember that originality has spawned such awful inventions as butter spray, the beer hat, and of course, those baby bottles meant to be worn around the necks of daddys to mimic... well, you get where that's going.

Tortoise and Lanois be co-headlining and collaborating on this adventure, with Tortoise playing both independently and as backup for Lanois. Yeah, big ol' WTF right there. Lanois, known for his production with Brian Eno, U2, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, etc. etc. etc. as well as his this-dude-should-have-stuck-to-behind-the-scenes-work release Belladonna, will mesh his pedal steel guitar antics with Tortoise's post-rock instrumentals. Our advice: call your dealer beforehand. Those visuals at Intonation were psychedelic, man.

According to Billboard.com, Tortoise will be road-testing new material for their next Thrill Jockey album on this tour, which is tentatively due in late 2006. Bassist Doug McCombs told Billboard, "Our last album was kind of crammed full of melodies, and for whatever reason, we felt like every song we wrote for it, the natural thing was to try and put a melody on top to make it real concrete. We've kind of been shying away from that. A few things we've been working on, we've left them in a more open area where they could be flexible. They don't have to be so grounded in a strict melodic structure." McCombs also said that he's working on a new Eleventh Dream Day album.

As for that long-anticipated Tortoise / Will Oldham covers album, which was due to come out October 11 on Overcoat, we'll just have to keep waiting. It's now scheduled for release early next year.

Slow and steady wins the race:

10-06 Boston, MA - Somerville Theatre
10-07 New York, NY - Irving Plaza
10-08 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts
10-10 Chicago, IL - Park West
10-11 Madison, WI - Barrymore Theatre
10-12 Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line
10-14 Boulder, CO - Fox Theatre
10-15 Park City, UT - Suede
10-17 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom
10-18 Seattle, WA - Neumos
10-19 Portland, OR - Aladdin Theatre
10-20 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
10-21 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
10-22 Los Angeles, CA - The Avalon