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Posts Tagged ‘album’

Fort Knox Five: Album/Tour

July 18th, 2009 | No Comments

Fort Knox Five: Remix Album & Tour

Fort Knox Five

In 2008 Washington, DC breakbeat funksters Fort Knox Five released their debut album Radio Free DC, which USA Today hailed as “One of this year’s most exciting, most eclectic funk albums.” After the release of Radio Free, the African influenced big-band sounding group followed a rigorous touring schedule, which included stops in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Holland, South America, and throughout the USA.

As summer kicks into gear, the Fort Knox Five have released Radio Free DC Remixed. A collection of remixes from up and coming talent including Deekline & Ed Solo, A Skillz, Nick Thayer, The Nextmen, Thomas Blondet, Jon Ohms, Rob Paine, Shimon, Neighbour and Sub Swara among others. These producers deliver 16 primetime, party rocking mixes that cross the genres of hip-hop, breaks, electro, dubstep, disco and dub. Download the remixes at fortknoxrecordings.com.

Fort Knox Five Summer Dates:

07/17/09 Fri Indian Lookout Country Club Mariaville, NY

07/24/09 Fri Hush Nightclub Victoria, BC

07/25/09 Sat Bass Coast Project Squamish, BC

08/01/09 Sat Hi Fi Club Calgary, AB

08/02/09 Sun Hoodoo Lounge Banff, AB

08/07/09 Fri Shambhala Music Festival Salmo, BC

08/08/09 Sat Shambhala Music Festival Salmo, BC

08/15/09 Sat Camp Zoe Salem, MO

09/25/09 Fri Earthdance (Black Oak Ranch)

Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin: Dog Ears Music: Volume Eighty-One

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

This week’s column features Ralston Bowles, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt & Dolly Parton, Arthur Crudup, Lola Flores, Colored Shadows and The Impressions.

Regina Spektor:Far

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

By: Dennis Cook

Regina Spektor‘s fifth album cements the notion that she isn’t just another comely chica at a piano. With a steady hand, curiously angled wit and on-point melodic sense, Far (released June 23 on Sire/Warner) makes a good argument that she’s Randy Newman‘s curly-topped little sister.

“You went into the kitchen cupboard/ got yourself another hour/ and you gave half of it to me/ We sat there looking at the faces of the strangers in the pages/ till we knew them mathematically/ They were in our minds until forever/ but we didn’t mind/ we didn’t know better.”

The above verse opens the album as Spektor’s confident, quasi-classical piano and Matt Chamberlain‘s drums skip with child-like glee before we’re soon in that kitchen making computers out of macaroni pieces and counting up our feelings. She simultaneously tickles the places in our brains that adore Paul McCartney and e.e. cummings, poetry in populist motion. Far goes down so smoothly that it’s only on repeat that one realizes how many big thoughts Spektor has stuffed into her ditties – views from space, astute observations on faith and how one laughs in the face of, well, all the horrors outside our windows. She’s especially succinct and adroit at handling God on “Laughing With,” which neatly foils notions of flat atheism by citing all the situations no one is laughing at God (and noting that “God can be funny,” something fundamentalists of all stripes frequently forget). But even when she’s not so sky-high-minded, Spektor ladles up music that’s bright and danceable and oh-so-smart without ever breaking a sweat (and she’d catch that perspiration with her eyelashes anywayÂ…).

Moods shift flexibly, where the big blue planet, humanizing reverie of “Blue Lips” is sandwiched between the bouncing inducement to just move “Eet” and “Folding Chair,” the niftiest summer number this season. There’s little she seems incapable of handling with style and a personal character that’s rarely less than seductive and almost never grating in the way that kindred iconoclastic ancestors like Jane Siberry, Nina Hagen and Kate Bush can often be. And like honey to a bee, she’s attracted some clever collaborators. Besides Chamberlain (your go-to skin thumper for girly singer-songwriters when he’s not a Critter Buggin), there’s ELO’s Jeff Lynne, Reggie Watts (Maktub), veteran producer David Kahne (Tony Bennett, Stevie Nicks, Sublime) and engineering comer Jacknife Lee (U2, Snow Patrol, Bloc Party). Often multiple studios and many hands projects like this come across as scattered and overly manipulated but Far‘s vision is all Spektor, who sings with characteristic carelessness, a strong voice utilized like a flaming baton – wild and beautiful despite all the practiced sureness underlying each move.

Far feels timely, a song cycle that’s absorbed the general feeling of being overwhelmed and frightened that marks the early 21st century but refuses to be cowered despite the acknowledged weight of it all. Where it would be easy for Spektor to capitalize on her nook on VH1 and their ilk, she’s sidestepped the spotlight being proffered for a richer and, I dare say, nobler path. Far drives down to the deep strata of us with laughter and sincerity, a giggling hallelujah just when we need one.

JamBase | Tickled Blue
Go See Live Music!

Les Claypool: Deep Into The Fungi

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

By: Matt Dalley

Les Claypool by Jay Blakesberg

With his wildly experimental music and eccentric personality, electric bass legend Les Claypool has been freaking out the eardrums of music fans worldwide since the 1980s. The role he took as lead singer and bass player for alt-rock trio Primus sent Claypool skyrocketing into the public eye. After Primus went on hiatus in 2000, a few musical side projects, the occasional show with Primus and a plethora of other endeavors led the bass virtuoso to his current gig – selling out venues across Americas while promoting his most recent work of solo aural art, Of Fungi and Foe (released March 17 on Prawn Song).

As one of the music industry’s more ambitious players, Les Claypool didn’t always have the luxury of a cult following like he does today, rather his beginnings are quite humble. It was during his freshman year of high school that his enjoyment of listening to music began to evolve into a passion for playing it.

“We [Les and his father] went down to Al’s Music, he knew Al, and we bought this Fender P-Bass copy. I pulled weeds all summer to pay for the damn thing. And because there weren’t that many bass players back then – everybody wanted to be Eddie Van Halen – I was in big demand immediately. So, I was instantly in a band,” remembers Claypool.

Claypool has come a long way since high school. Currently, it’s not uncommon for the musician to be found galloping around a large stage at a massive music festival, appearing at ease in front of tens of thousands of fans. However, his first public performance couldn’t have been any more to the contrary. “My first gig was in the cafeteria at our high school and I was so nervous I stood sideways ’cause I couldn’t look at the audience,” Claypool reminisces.

Post-high school, Claypool accrued valuable experience by playing in a number of local bands, including an R&B outfit that primarily played to the occupants of biker bars in Northern California. “I was playing for Hell’s Angels pretty much every weekend. That was good discipline for me,” he comments. “I learned a lot in those days.”

With his dues fully paid, Claypool formed Primus in 1984. Primus spent years moving up the musical ladder of fame. Out of the six studio albums Primus released, two (Sailing the Seas of Cheese and Pork Soda) attained platinum status. Although Primus acquired international recognition and a Grammy nomination, their obscure sound remains challenging to categorize.

Les Claypool

“We’ve been listed as alternative back in the day. We were progressive metal at one point in time. We were punk funk. When we opened for U2, we were listed as a grunge band,” explains Claypool. “We’ve played with all these different artists through all these different things, so I don’t really know what to call it or how to define any of this.”

In the early 2000s, when Primus took a hiatus, Claypool had the opportunity to focus on other projects. However, even before Primus took the break, Claypool had other combos in the works. Formed in 2000, Oysterhead was one of the more well-known projects Claypool played a role in. Oysterhead involved Phish’s six-string shredder Trey Anastasio and drummer Stewart Copeland from The Police. Oysterhead’s only release, 2001′s The Grand Pecking Order, garnered three-and-a-half stars from Rolling Stone and a world tour.

During the Oysterhead days, Claypool also spent time with another side project, Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. The group, that included the likes of Skerik, Jack Irons, Tim Alexander and Mirv, was originally concocted for the Mountain Aire Festival in Calaveras County, California. The lengthy band name is an allusion to Mark Twain’s 1867 work “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country.” The collective, often simply referred to as the Frog Brigade, released one studio album, Purple Onion, and two live album’s, Live Frogs: Set 1 and Live Frogs: Set 2. The latter of the two live albums is a cover of Pink Floyd’s entire epic Animals album.

Les Claypool by Jay Blakesberg

Another major endeavor, Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains, began seemingly by chance. Praxis and Les Claypool were both slated to play Bonnaroo in 2002. When Praxis bass player Bill Laswell found himself unable to perform, the entire band was nearly dropped from the bill. Saving the day, Claypool stepped in and volunteered his talents by offering to jam with the available members which included keyboard wizard Bernie Worrell, best known for his work with Parliament-Funkadelic and The Talking Heads. Also sharing the stage was the mysterious, mask-donning guitarist Buckethead and drummer Bryan “Brain” Mantia. Although the impromptu group played no pre-rehearsed songs, members of the band felt great about what happened that fateful day in Tennessee.

“The first note I ever played with Bernie Worrell was in front of 5,000 people,” says Claypool. “We just enjoyed it.” Jamming remained a popular theme of Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains, often referred to as C2B3, especially as the band recorded and released their only album, The Big Eyeball in the Sky.

Continue reading for more on Les Claypool…

It’s a bit darker and eerier than some of the stuff I’ve done in the recent past. It’s very textural, somewhat tribal, sort of abstract Americana.

-Les Claypool on Of Fungi and Foe

Photo of Claypool by Jay Blakesberg

The concept of jamming has spanned into other aspects of Claypool’s diverse career. The jam scene finds itself at the center of the 2008 release, Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo. The mockumentary, which Claypool wrote, directed and starred in, follows the rise to fame of the fictional jam band Electric Apricot. Hilarity ensues as the Grateful Dead worshiping neo-hippie members of the Electric Apricot attempt to record an album and play an opening slot at the famed (and fictional) jam festival Festeroo. Massive ego problems combined with drug and alcohol related issues frequently plague the quirky group.

Les Claypool by Fil Manley

At face value, one may interpret the film as Claypool taking a jab at the jam scene, but Claypool feels as though the film is a parody of creative people taking themselves too seriously, not specifically freeform musicians. “The film is more taking the piss out of the four creative individuals. It’s taking the piss out of the creative mind,” Claypool comments. “People within the [jam] scene find the film very endearing.”

Even on his current tour, improvised music can regularly be found creeping out of the Ampeg bass amps located on stage. Although his various projects may not be one of the first to come to mind when the term ‘jam band’ is spoken, Claypool still finds improvisation to be an important aspect of his work.

“I find the [jam] scene, especially as I’ve moved through it over the past several years, it’s not so much about the style of music you play, because it covers many different styles,” says Claypool. “It’s about the approach to music. It’s about keeping the parameters loose and keeping the borders, of songs and what not, open.”

Claypool is able to expand the borders of jam music without using one of the jam scene’s cornerstone instruments, the electric guitar. Much of his recently released and live work is sans guitar. This non-standard instrumentation forces the emphasis of a song into other areas than guitar soloing. Bringing a smile to the faces of low-end enthusiasts everywhere, the bass guitar is frequently found in the front of the mix. And the basses Claypool utilizes are sometimes as unconventional as the music he uses them to play. His instruments range from a bass that closely resembles a banjo to a six string bass to the Whamola, which looks like a very thin stand up bass with only one string and a lever at the top. Claypool creates a tone by hitting the string with a stick. He then moves the lever up and down to adjust the pitch. The Whamola bears an odd resemblance to the Grim Reaper’s scythe and can create sounds similar to a car revving up.

The Whamola provides the percussive bass sounds that can be heard on “Mushroom Men,” the opening track from Of Fungi and Foe. The song “Mushroom Men” began as part of a soundtrack Claypool was working on for the Nintendo games Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars and Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi. The video games center around tribes of living and warring mushrooms that call Planet Earth their home.

Les Claypool by Jay Blakesberg

Also based upon a soundtrack is “Booneville Stomp,” which can be found on his newest release. This time, Claypool steps away from sci-fi and takes a dive into the horror genre by writing the song for the 2008 release Pig Hunt, which chronicles the story of a 3,000 pound wild boar that wreaks havoc on the marijuana fields of Northern California.

“Basically I had this material lying around that I did for these scores that I really enjoyed. So, I took the material and put lyrics to them and arranged them. I brought in some other material that I had, some stuff that I had lying around, some stuff I did with Eugene Hutz [Gogol Bordello] in sort of a drunken frenzy. And when I eventually had something that seemed cohesive, I slapped it all together and put a title on it,” comments Claypool.

Even though Claypool developed parts of the release for exciting video games and a thriller movie, he doesn’t feel that the album is putting the ‘fun’ in fungi. “It’s a bit darker and eerier than some of the stuff I’ve done in the recent past,” muses Claypool. “It’s very textural, somewhat tribal, sort of abstract Americana.”

In order to recreate the highly original “Abstract Americana” in a live setting, Claypool enlists the help of Mike Dillon (marimba, vibraphone, junkyard percussion), Paulo Baldi (drums) and Sam Bass (cello). The quartet is currently completing a tour though the Americas, but the ever-ambitious artist has no plans to slow down.

“I’ve got some other pots on the stove. I’m not sure what’s going to be moved to the front burner at this point in time,” he says. “I do have to go to Europe later in the year. I’m going to Australia later in the year with this band. I’m trying to get a couple of film projects off the ground. I’m working on another book. Mostly I just need to get my tractor running so I can finish mowing my damn field.”

Les Claypool tour dates available here.

JamBase | Bottom End
Go See Live Music!

Levon Helm:Electric Dirt

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

By: Tim Dwenger

One of the great spirits of American music, Levon Helm, has returned with Electric Dirt (released June 30 on Vanguard Records), a stellar follow-up to 2007′s Grammy winning Dirt Farmer. Like Dirt Farmer, Helm’s new offering features a wide variety of cover tunes but this time the record showcases Helm’s return to songwriting on the bittersweet “Growin’ Trade.” The ballad, which he penned with former Bob Dylan guitarist Larry Campbell (who also produced the album), laments the plight of an American farmer who has been forced to turn his family’s cotton plantation into a pot farm in order to make ends meet. It’s a plight that is close to Helm’s heart as he grew up on a cotton farm in Arkansas in the 1940s and he’s immortalized it beautifully with this song.

From the get-go, the record shows that Helm’s still in fine form behind the kit and at the mic with a strong, horn-bolstered take on Garcia/Hunter’s legendary country shuffle “Tennessee Jed.” From there Helm and a top notch band of seasoned musicians launch into a guided tour of Southern musical history as elements of back porch blues, gospel and Dixieland seep into the arrangements of songs by the likes of The Staples Singers, The Stanley Brothers and Muddy Waters.

Though most of these arrangements were put together by Campbell, Helm renewed a partnership with another legendary musical name, Allen Toussaint, during the sessions for Electric Dirt. The pair had worked together back in the early ’70s when Toussaint was called into handle the horn arrangements for The Band’s 1971 New Year’s Eve concert (documented on Rock of Ages), and it’s clear he hasn’t lost a step either. His contributions to album closer “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free” and a rollicking take on Randy Newman’s “Kingfish” are two of the standout cuts on the album.

Helm’s warbly tenor may be a little shakier than it was 40 years ago but it’s every bit as heart-warming and soul-wrenching as it was in his days with The Band. Electric Dirt is a powerful album that adds to Helm’s already monumental legacy and further cements his place as a true American musical legend.

JamBase | Keepin’ On
Go See Live Music!

Whitney Houston â€œI Look To Youâ€ Album Cover

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Whitney Houston just unveiled the album cover for her long-awaited comeback LP, I Look To You, dropping September 1.
What do you think? Is it jazzy enough?
The disc will be the diva’s seventh studio album and represents a return to the industry after a seven-year hiatus that included a divorce from former husband Bobby Brown and [...]

Califone: New Album

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Califone Will Release Their New Album All My Friends Are Funeral Singers

October 6 On Dead Oceans

Califone

The critically acclaimed Chicago post-rock act Califone is set to release their forthcoming album All My Friends Are Funeral Singers October 6 on Dead Oceans. The album marks the highly anticipated follow-up to 2006′s Roots & Crowns, which The New York Times calls “enthralling,” and Paste praises as “Acoustic Delta blues, back-porch Appalachia, folk-pop and syncopated funk marinate in futuristic sounds, like Mississippi John Hurt, Neil Young and Curtis Mayfield transported through Four Tet‘s chop shop.”

The Chicago-based band consists of multi-instrumentalists Tim Rutili, Jim Becker, Joe Adamik, and Ben Masseralla. On All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, produced by longtime collaborator Brian Deck (Iron & Wine, Gomez, Modest Mouse), the band employs a wide range of instrumentation and electronic effects to create a dense collage of sounds. Instruments range from the traditional (guitar, violin, banjo, percussion) to the unusual (optigan, stylophone, baritone ukulele, mbira, thumb piano).

Primary songwriter and vocalist Tim Rutili, whose artistic endeavors stretch beyond music and include the creation of surreal short documentaries, music video and film scores, recently wrote and directed his first feature-length film. The screenplay for the film draws on the same themes and inspirations as the album, and many of the songs were written at the same time and contain the same images and characters. The film, also titled All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, will be submitted to film festivals early next year. Califone will incorporate a full-length presentation of the film during their live performances, adding a new element to the band’s live show.

Nationwide tour dates will be confirmed shortly.

Keyboard Shorcuts to browse Picasa Web photos quickly

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Picasa Web is a free online space to store loads of photos. With lot of photos around, you need to know a quick way to browse them without spending too much time clicking. Thankfully, Picasa Web interface support keyboard shortcuts to browse photos quickly.
Picasa Web Keyboard shortcuts
After login into Picasa Web account, click on any [...]

US justice comes knockin’ on Guns N’ Roses blogger’s door

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses

A US blogger who leaked part of Guns N’ Roses’ latest album has been ordered to appear in an anti-piracy commercial.

Kevin Cogill was also sentenced in a Los Angeles court to a year’s probation and two months of home confinement.

Cogill admitted copyright infringement last year after posting nine songs from the Chinese Democracy album online.

His public service announcement for the Recording Industry Association of America is expected to air during the Grammy Awards next January.

Cogill had faced a maximum of one year in federal prison, a $100,000 (£61,000) fine and five years’ probation.

Apology

He apologised for his actions in court on Tuesday, saying he had not meant any harm by posting the tracks on the Antiquiet website.

"I never intended to hurt the artist," Cogill told Judge Paul L Abrams.

"I intended to promote the artist because I’m a fan."

His lawyer argued against a prison term, saying Cogill had lost his job as a result of the case.

Chinese Democracy, Guns N’ Roses’ first new album in 17 years, was released last November, costing more than $13m (£7.9m) to record. </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

New Work From Mark Knopfler

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

MARK KNOPFLER’S GET LUCKYTO BE RELEASED ON WARNER BROS. SEPTEMBER 15

Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler, of Dire Straits fame, will release his sixth studio album Get Lucky on September 15.

Recorded at Knopfler’s British Grove Studios in West London, the 11-track Get Lucky was co-produced with longtime collaborators, engineer Chuck Ainlay and keyboardist Guy Fletcher in addition to several other musicians.

The album explores a lifetime of musical roots. “The first itinerant person I ever met would sing in soul bands in winter, then work part-time in fairgrounds or ‘go pick fruit down south’ when the weather turned warm,” Knopfler said. “I was about 15 years old, stuck in school and envious. Get Lucky came from him and other traveling characters I went on to meet in places I’d find myself working short-term, like farms, warehouses, building sites, before I got lucky with my songs.”

Mark Knopfler tour dates available here.

Rihanna Prepping â€œLegendaryâ€ Album

July 14th, 2009 | No Comments

INFphoto.com
Rihanna is hoping to recapture the Grammy-winning magic of her hit 2007 single “Umbrella” with the release of a “legendary” new album. The hitmaking islander is teaming up with five of today’s hottest music stars for her next effort.
Jay-Z, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams, and Soulja Boy are some of the industry heavyweights being [...]

The Avett Brothers: Album Due 9/29 & Huge Tour

July 13th, 2009 | No Comments

THE AVETT BROTHERS I AND LOVE AND YOU IN STORES SEPTEMBER 29

NPR MUSIC EXCLUSIVE FIRST LISTEN BEGINS SEPTEMBER 22

The Avett Brothers

North Carolina-based rock band, The Avett Brothers, are gearing up for the release of their highly anticipated American Recordings/Columbia Records debut, I and Love and You, which hits stores on Tuesday, September 29, 2009. I and Love and You was recorded in Malibu, California and produced by multi-Grammy Award winning producer, Rick Rubin. The thirteen songs that make up this new record defy pigeonholing and can best be described as an amalgam of rock, folk, pop and country. The band has spent years touring, recording, performing and perfecting this blend of music styles with their signature lyrics and vocals. I and Love and You will also be available at participating Starbucks company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada and wherever music is sold.

In addition beginning Tuesday, September 22, 2009, NPR Music will host an Exclusive First Listen of I and Love and You on their website, www.npr.org/firstlisten, where fans will be able to get a sneak peak of the new album a week prior to release. NPR Music’s distinctive Exclusive First Listen series recently showcased new music from such innovators as Wilco, Moby, Bjork and Neko Case.

The story of The Avett Brothers has been told by word of mouth until now. Come witness what thousands have been loyally following and speaking about for years…

THE AVETT BROTHERS ON TOUR:

7/09 Norfolk, VA Harrison Opera House

7/10 Richmond, VA The National

7/11 Roanoke, VA Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre

7/12 Louisville, KY The Riverfront Belvedere

7/16 Saint Augustine, FL St. Augustine Amphitheatre

7/17 Lake Buena Vista, FL House of Blues

7/18 Tampa, FL The Cuban Club

7/19 Fort Lauderdale, FL Parker Playhouse

7/24 North Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues

7/25 North Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues

7/30 Buffalo, NY Lafayette Square

7/31 Syracuse, NY The Westcott

8/01 Newport, RI Fort Adams State Park (Newport Folk Festival)

8/02 Northampton, MA Calvin Theater

8/04 Dewey Beach, DE Bottle & Cork

8/08 Charlotte, NC Bojangles Coliseum

8/14 Ozark, AR Mulberry Mountain (Festival)

8/15 Kansas City, MO The Crossroads

8/16 Omaha, NE Sokol Auditorium/Underground

8/19 Telluride, CO Sunset Plaza @ Mountain Village

8/20 Steamboat Springs, CO Summer Concert Series (Howelson Hills Amp)

8/21 Boulder, CO Boulder Theater

8/22 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre

8/25 Salt Lake City, UT Red Butte Garden

8/26 Boise, ID Knitting Factory Concert House

8/28 Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre

8/29 Jacksonville, OR Britt Festival

8/30 San Francisco, CA Outside Lands Music Festival

9/01 Arcata, CA HSU Van Duzer Theater

9/03 Reno, NV Grand Sierra Theater

9/04 Camp Mather, CA Strawberry Music Festival

9/05 Los Angeles, CA Orpheum Theatre

9/17 North Charleston, SC North Charleston P.A.C.

9/18 Augusta, GA Westobou Festival/Riverwalk

9/19 Tallahassee, FL The Moon

9/20 Tuscaloosa, AL Bama Theatre

9/22 Oxford, MS The Lyric Oxford

9/24 Memphis, TN Minglewood Hall

9/25 Little Rock, AR Robinson Center Music Hall

9/26 Tulsa, OK Cain’s Ballroom

9/27 Dallas, TX Granada Theater

9/29 Baton Rouge, LA Baton Rouge River Center Theatre

10/1 New Orleans, LA House of Blues

10/2 Austin, TX Austin City Limits

10/3 Midwest City, OK Rose State PAC

10/5 Murray, KY Lovett Auditorium Center

10/15 Baltimore, MD Rams Head Live

10/16 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory

10/17 New York, NY Terminal 5

10/18 Boston, MA House of Blues

10/20 Iowa City, IA The Englert Theatre

10/21 Madison, WI Barrymore Theatre

10/22 Urbana, IL Canopy Club

10/29 Huntington, WV Keith Albee Theatre

10/30 Louisville, KY Louisville Palace

10/31 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium

Number Of Teens Illegally Sharing Music Falls Dramatically

July 12th, 2009 | No Comments

They are the record companies’ bogeyman: the 15-year-old in their bedroom ripping off a star’s latest album and sharing it with their friends has been blamed for bringing an industry to its knees.

Sun Spin: Jackson Browne

July 12th, 2009 | No Comments

CLASSIC ALBUM SPOTLIGHT RETURNS WITH A TOOL FOR LIVING THROUGH TOUGH TIMES

Now there’s a world of illusion and fantasy
In the place where the real world belongs
Still I look for the beauty in songs
To fill my head and lead me on

Some albums slip past our defenses, touching places we might rather have left alone, tender spots that never quite scab over. While perhaps not always consciously welcome, it is these albums that become the bedrock of our listening, informing our lives and offering cold comfort and understanding when both are in short supply in the “real world.” Jackson Browne‘s third album, Late For The Sky (1974) is such a marvel of unvarnished honesty flecked with romantic understanding, true empathy and poignant awareness of human frailty. The intervening 35 years have done nothing to diminish the instantaneous emotional zap this record produces when the needle hits the groove. All its quietude and wise-beyond-its-years resonance (he was just 25 when he recorded it) is preserved in music crafted with extraordinary attention to detail in every respect.

With angels sleeping beside him along hitchhiked roadsides, Browne wrestles with torn and empty dreams and how one goes on when their tank is empty. It’s a place all of us reach from time to time but few of us possess the acumen and insight to turn our own low tides into something that reaches other’s shores. Where it’s easy to lash out in such moments, blame someone else for our circumstance, Browne spreads it around, never sparing himself a healthy measure:

Now the things that I remember seem so distant and so small
Though it hasn’t really been that long a time
What I was seeing wasn’t what was happening at all
Although for a while, our path did seem to climb

Late For The Sky is one of the templates for the so-called California Country sound, where Nashville’s slick slide meets the sativa vibe of oceans, forests and dirty blue jean, long-haired thinking. The album is a direct descendent of what Gram Parsons was moving towards and a mighty influence on future generations, a less acknowledged but just as crucial instigator as Neil Young’s Harvest. In some ways, Browne is even more successful in marrying musical sophistication and grand scale to hyper-personal themes than Young’s early attempts on say his debut. The way the words, ideas and music intertwine here is breathtaking and never seems forced. Like the best sets, there’s an internal logic that ties everything into intricate knots, where each element is as it should be. Rock is generally a touch messier (and perhaps happily so) but artistry of this level brings to mind John Barth’s line, “In art as in lovemaking, heartfelt ineptitude has its appeal and so does heartless skill, but what you want is passionate virtuosity.”

Passion lies at the center of Late For The Sky, which examines relationships with clear eyes (“when you see through loves illusions, there lies the danger/ And your perfect lover just looks like a perfect fool”) and the individual’s place in the universe (“dreaming I can make it right/ if I closed my eyes and tried with all my might”). Track after track explicates some heart truth or thought stirred staring at night skies, alone and wondering. It is an exposed place for any writer and yet Browne sings in a sharp, strong voice of things usually held close to the chest, sharing of himself in a way that aids our own self-examination, his bravery perhaps, if we’re lucky, becoming our own. And always without undue sentimentality:

Everyone I’ve ever known has wished me well
Anyway that’s how it seems, it’s hard to tell
Maybe people only ask you how you’re doing
‘Cause that’s easier than letting on how little they could care

Frequently it is David Lindley‘s exquisite guitar work that speaks directly to these deep places in us, bypassing language to vibrate our soul with pure, emotion soaked sound. And he’s equally gorgeous and effective on violin (dig his soaring through closer “Before The Deluge”), but it’s most often his unbelievably powerful slide work that takes one’s breath away. The cry he unleashes at the beginning of “Farther On” is every bit the equal of Lightnin’ Hopkins or any other celebrated bluesman, but Lindley never falls back on blues cliches, forging a new language inside rock with his slicing poetry.

The whole core band – Doug Haywood (bass), Jai Winding (keys), Larry Zack (drums), Lindley (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, steel guitar and fiddle) and Browne’s own guitar and keys – is pretty damn together, playing with intuitive grace further amplified by tremendous backing vocals from Don Henley, Terry Reid, J.D. Souther and Dan Fogelberg. Long before he was cutting his own albums, Browne was a respected Los Angeles songwriter whose tunes had been cut by a host of late ’60s/early ’70s luminaries. Even at his young age, he was already a respected man about town, and the pros gathered around him here reflect that.

It would probably be enough to score a spot on Rolling Stone‘s 2003 list of the Top 500 Albums of All Time if it were just a king size bummer fest, but Late For The Sky turns on its heels midway. The second side positively skips, finding fortitude and black tinged jubilation that feels real, sustainable, genuine:

Walking slow down the avenue
Through my old neighborhood
Don’t know why I’m happy
I’ve got no reason to feel this good
Maybe it’s because I’m all alone
And I’ve got no place to go
And everywhere I look I see
Another person I’ll never know

I got a thing or two to say
Before I walk on by
I’m feeling good today
But if die a little farther along
I’m trusting everyone to carry on

What the last half seems to say is, “There’s life after the flood.” No matter what the world throws at you, no matter the hurt or confusion we currently feel, we heal, rebuild and move on. Browne’s subsequent career has continued to reflect these themes but they’ve never been more beautifully articulated than Late For The Sky, a bonafide classic to be sure.

Track Listing

Side One:
1. Late for the Sky
2. Fountain of Sorrow
3. Farther On
4. The Late Show

Side Two:
1. The Road and the Sky
2. For a Dancer
3. Walking Slow
4. Before the Deluge

Sat Eye Candy: Cat Stevens

July 11th, 2009 | No Comments

NICE TO HAVE YOU BACK, ROADSINGER

Today, like every other day,
We wake up empty and frightened.
Don’t open the door to the study.
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

We woke with this Rumi poem playing on repeat in our heads. And then, in a flash, it occurred to us what the perfect soundtrack for such poetic philosophizing might be – Cat Stevens. These days he goes by the name Yusuf Islam but the brave, yearning heart of what makes him tick is beating very, very strong. His new album, Roadsinger: To Warm You Through The Night, is a slow stunner (JamBase review), and it’s sparked us to explore his back catalog anew. And folks, there’s much we need to hear today, now, in this tumultuous moment we find ourselves in.

Like Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” there’s something prayerful and innocent about our opener. If there’s a gentler, more quietly blessed way to wake up then we haven’t found it.

It’s a beautiful thing to see him come back to his old songs, finding a way to fit them into his more pronounced spiritual path of recent years, realizing the great stockpiles of understanding and truth hiding in his “pop songs.” To wit, this thoughtful stroll through one of his best from 2007.

Love is a hard thing in his work. It’s something that requires much of us, demanding a patience and depth of understanding few of us can muster most of the time. And sometimes he distilled this concept into something wonderfully tough like this blues-tinged jewel from his 1976 Earth Tour.

His recent return to recording in the past few years has shown him to be a vigorous, funny, fiercely engaged musician with still a lot to say in his songs. This is a primo performance of one of the standouts off 2006′s An Other Cup.

Here’s a dark turn from the new album delivered with restrained style on Jools Holland grand BBC program.

And it isn’t always dark clouds and naval gazing. Sometimes he just tossed off a killer ditty that reminds you what a fine nuts ‘n’ bolts composer he can be.

Stevens’ music will always be inexorably liked to the cult film Harold And Maude, which seems to touch a nerve in each subsequent generation where liking the movie lets one know they’re amongst fellow freaks. Here’s Doug Martsch of Built to Spill performing Stevens’ centerpiece tune from the soundtrack.

The highway our feet travel may be long, rocky and full of unexpected twists and dead ends, but if we’ve tucked the right songs into our bindle we’ll be alright. It’s a true joy to have this man making music again. We conclude with the title tune from his latest offering and his 2006 Nobel Peace Price concert performance of perhaps his best known anthem.

And don’t forget, you can eyeball video sweetness 24/7 with JamBase TV.

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Aspects of Physics New Album

July 11th, 2009 | No Comments

Aspects of Physics to release Marginalized Information Forms 3 on July 21

Aspects of Physics

San Diego-based modern music-makers Aspects of Physics are not, as the name might imply, fixated on considerations of science. They’re a San Diego-based group that was formed in 1993 and exhibits distinct unhurried minimalism as they blend organic rock and electronic elements in a slew of slow-cooked music stew.
Comparisons to storied Krautrock acts were inevitably drawn but Physics was its own beast, at once loud and subtle, lumbering on to the new millennium with both membership modifications. San Diego native Rob Crow (Pinback, Goblin Cock, Optiganally Yours et al.) is said to have never really been officially enlisted, but when he consistently showed up guitar-in-hand to make valued contributions at his Physics pals’ gatherings, he became an assumed, enduring part of the equation.
MIF3 is the final album in a three-part series by Aspects of Physics Â— spanning five years, seven members, and countless pieces of individual audio bits and bytes painstakingly pieced together to form the cohesive Marginalized Information Forms series. Whereas part one in the series represented the marriage of electronic and rock sensibilities and part two focused more on their electronic leanings, part three shifts towards the more organic live-rock-band side of the equation. MIF3 returns Aspects of Physics back to their roots of amp stacks and drum kits. Taken as a whole, the MIF series runs the gamut from the bleeps and bloops of synths and computers to the distortion and dynamics of guitars and the human condition.
Track List:
1. Logo (Other)
2. Level 3
3. Unwindings Are Sound
4. Oscilloscape
5. That Which Resists
6. Underclock
7. Default Actions
8. Psyklur
9. Junoverse
10. Swip Melp

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Lou Barlow: Album & Tour

July 10th, 2009 | No Comments

Lou Barlow Readies His Solo Release And Preps For Tour

Lou Barlow

On October 6, Merge Records will release Lou Barlow‘s new album, Goodnight Unknown. In the four years since his career-redefining, mostly acoustic record Emoh, Lou Barlow has reunited with Dinosaur Jr. and reissued three of Sebadoh‘s classic albums. But as the brilliant new Goodnight Unknown illustrates, he’s hardly living in the past. Borrowing the live-band energy of Dinosaur Jr. and the stylistic reach of Sebadoh, Barlow has built on Emoh‘s full production and written a set of immediate, melodic pop songs that Lou describes as, “a cross between my later work with Folk Implosion and my earlier work with Sebadoh… to my ears, anyway.”
From the surging opening track “Sharing” to the surprisingly soulful performances on “The Right,” Goodnight Unknown benefits from Barlow’s tunefulness and his decision to record the record relatively quickly, with old friends and new. The Melvins‘ Dale Crover adds inspired drum work throughout, and Goodnight Unknown‘s urgent sound owes just as much to frequent Barlow collaborator Imaad Wasif (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Alaska!). The record’s considerable power also stems from the new talents on board, including producer Andrew Murdock and Lisa Germano.
Lou Barlow + The Missingmen will be on tour throughout the fall opening for Dinosaur Jr. The Missingmen are guitarist Tom Watson and drummer Raul Morales. Lou “stole” them from Mike Watt for this tour, and is excited to be bringing you the full band experience of Goodnight Unknown.
Goodnight Unknown Track Listing:

1. Sharing

2. Goodnight Unknown

3. Too Much Freedom

4. Faith In Your Heartbeat

5. The One I Call

6. The Right

7. Gravitate

8. I’m ThinkingÂ…

9. One Machine, One Long Fight

10. Praise

11. Take Advantage

12. Modesty

13. Don’t Apologize

14. One Note Tone
Lou Barlow + the Missingmen on Tour:

09/30/09 Wed Phoenix Concert Theatre Toronto, ON

10/03/09 Sat The Middle East Cambridge, MA

10/04/09 Sun Northern Lights Clifton Park, NY

10/07/09 Wed Toad’s Place New Haven, CT

10/08/09 Thu 9:30 Club Washington, DC

10/09/09 Fri Theatre of Living Arts (TLA) Philadelphia, PA

10/10/09 Sat Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH

10/11/09 Sun Crofoot Ballroom Pontiac, MI

10/13/09 Tue Majestic Theatre Madison, WI

10/14/09 Wed The Pageant St. Louis, MO

10/15/09 Thu The Vic Theatre Chicago, IL

10/16/09 Fri Headliners Music Hall Louisville, KY

10/17/09 Sat Variety Playhouse Atlanta, GA

10/22/09 Thu Granada Theater Dallas, TX

10/23/09 Fri Warehouse Live Houston, TX

10/26/09 Mon Beaumont Club Kansas City, MO

10/27/09 Tue Slowdown Omaha, NE

10/29/09 Thu Boulder Theater Boulder, CO

10/30/09 Fri Aggie Theatre Fort Collins, CO

10/31/09 Sat Urban Lounge Salt Lake City, UT

11/03/09 Tue Marquee Theatre Tempe, AZ

11/04/09 Wed Belly Up Tavern Solana Beach, CA

11/05/09 Thu House of Blues West Hollywood, CA

11/06/09 Fri The Fillmore San Francisco, CA

11/07/09 Sat Wonder Ballroom Portland, OR

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George Harrison:
Let It Roll: Songs of George Harrison

July 10th, 2009 | No Comments

By: Ron Hart
align=right src="http://images.jambase.com/bands/Wednesday/HarrisonRoll.jpg">

Over the last ten years, Capitol/EMI has been notorious for treating its reissue campaign of George Harrison‘s post-Beatles catalog like some kind of under-appreciated stepchild whose parents force ugly new clothes and disgusting new food onto.
First was the 30th Anniversary reissue of the Quiet One’s masterpiece, All Things Must Pass, from early 2001, considered by many to be the single greatest work by a Beatle outside of the band itself. In addition to the ghastly “colorization” of the original album artwork that would even make the people who tarnished It’s A Wonderful Life cringe, whoever engineered the remaster somehow buried the vocals and guitars even deeper in the mix than original producer Phil Spector had already done initially with his Wall of Sound recording style. Then, there was the label’s 2005 hatchet job on Harrison’s sublime 1971 double-live album chronicling his acclaimed Concert for Bangladesh. While the remastering job of the actual live cuts themselves was great, they cut out the majority of the breaks between songs, destroying the natural flow of the concert that made you feel as though you were right inside Madison Square Garden when listening to the original LP. And worst of all, Capitol finally got its way with the album artwork. After losing its original battle with Harrison over the cover concept – that stunning, iconic image of a malnourished refugee child sitting cross-legged in front of an empty bowl of food, which the suits thought was too depressing and would hurt album sales and then wound up becoming a bestseller and winning the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1973Â—the label went with the cover they had wanted all along, an image of Harrison from the accompanying concert film, for the reissue (and doing so after Harrison’s tragic demise due to cancer in November 2001, thus adding a whole new layer of sleaze to the whole predicament). Meanwhile, the label’s 2006 reissue of 1973′s Living In The Material World as well as the box set covering the albums released on the guitarist’s own Dark Horse imprint were modest campaigns that somewhat offered a reprieve for fans otherwise annoyed by the label handling of the Quiet One’s catalog thus far, in that it vastly improved upon the original issues in both sound quality and packaging (although some beefier bonus material would have been nice).
Now comes Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison, a single-disc retrospective released by the EMI group on June 16 touting itself as the first-ever collection spanning the length of George’s career. Compiled largely by George’s widow Olivia Harrison and engineered by legendary Beatles producer George Martin’s son Giles Martin, who did such an outstanding job in 2007 mashing up classic Fabs tracks for the soundtrack to Cirque de Soleil’s Beatles-themed production Love at the Mirage in Las Vegas, the 19-track collection focuses primarily on Harrison’s biggest successes as a singles artist, something he was much stronger at as opposed to his former mates John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who exhibited supremacy creating both killer hit songs and outstanding full-length albums to back them up. Harrison, meanwhile, produced albums that basically consisted of one or two really great songs backed by a majority of filler material that was neither here nor there. True, Harrison did produce some gems in his solo career beyond All Things Must Pass, notably 1973′s Living In The Material World (which, to its credit, EMI did a masterful job reissuing back in 2006) and his 1987 comeback album, Cloud Nine. Not to mention 2002′s posthumous swan song Brainwashed and his pair of experimental solo albums he released while still with The Beatles, 1968′s Moog-tastic Electronic Sound and 1969′s Indian-flavored drone-fest Wonderwall Music, both of which remain woefully out of print at press time.
While there have been George Harrison compilations in the past, none have chronicled the span of his entire career. And though Let It Roll is not exactly a completist’s ideal set, as this collection could have easily been beefed up to anthology status given there are much stronger points in Harrison’s solo catalog than, say, Ringo Starr, but it certainly does an excellent job in gathering the guitarist’s sonic crÃ¨me de la crÃ¨me. Sequenced not by chronology but almost seemingly by vibe, the 19 tracks that ultimately made the cut here interweave as though they have existed side by side on the same long player for all these years. For instance, the segue between Brainwashed‘s “Rising Son” and Cloud Nine‘s phenomenal tribute to his old bandmates, “When We Was Fab,” flows one into the other so perfectly. The same can be said for the blending of “Blow Away” off Harrison’s eponymous 1979 effort into the thankfully-included “Cheer Down” from the Lethal Weapon 2 soundtrack, not to mention “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)” going into Let It Roll‘s title track, “The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp,” originally featured on All Things Must Pass. And while stubbornly elitist Beatles fans (like this writer) might wonder why the likes of “Old Brown Shoe” and “Blue Jay Way” were excluded from the fray here, the inclusion of his big three from his Fab Four output – “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Something” and “Here Comes The Sun” – is imperative to any collection with GH’s name on it, and the fact that the versions came from the Bangladesh concert album seems more appropriate for this project. Another great inclusion on this set is Harrison’s rarely-spoken-of cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Don’t Want to Do It,” which was originally featured on the soundtrack to 1985′s comedic bomb Porky’s Revenge (which should give you a good clue as to why it was little heard).
Sure, one can rail against the powers that be who oversaw the creation and production of Let It Roll and their failure to include such glaring absences as “You” off his 1975 EMI swan song Extra Texture and “Crackerbox Palace” from 1976′s diamond-in-the-rough Thirty Three & 1/3 – his first release on Dark Horse. It’s understood there are only 80 minutes on a CD, but these omissions – not to mention the exclusions of such rarities as Harrison’s working version of Ringo Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy” or “Bangla Desh,” the 1971 charity single that spearheaded the famed concert and has only appeared on album once via 1976′s The Best of George Harrison collection – could have made this very good single-disc set into an excellent double-disc compendium.
Nonetheless, any Beatles fan, be they casual or hardcore, would benefit from adding Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison to their CD shelves, as it is gorgeously packaged in a tastefully designed digipak with a 28-page booklet loaded with great information and amazing photos, making it one of the finer justices given to any kind of Beatle-related reissue in recent years (don’t even get me started on the John Lennon stuff). A quality George Harrison best-of has been a long, long time coming, and one can only be grateful that EMI has finally done right by this amazing man and his cherished legacy.

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Rosanne Cash New Album:
w/ Boss, Elvis, Rufus, Tweedy

July 9th, 2009 | No Comments

ROSANNE CASH TO RELEASE HER NEW ALBUM, THE LIST, OCTOBER 6

SPECIAL GUESTS INCLUDE ELVIS COSTELLO, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, JEFF TWEEDY AND RUFUS WAINWRIGHT

Rosanne Cash

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash will release her 12th studio album, entitled The List, on Manhattan Records on October 6, 2009. The new LP features Cash’s contemporary interpretations of 12 classic songs culled from a list of essential country tunes that her legendary father Johnny gave her in 1973, filtered through her own unique, sophisticated perspective.
Known primarily for her stellar songwriting, Cash showcases her incredible voice on The List Â— her first-ever covers record. As a result, the album is Rosanne Cash like you’ve never heard her before as she embraces her heritage and sings for the pure love and beauty of these songs which have shaped who she is as an artist.
Produced and arranged by Grammy winner John Leventhal (Cash’s husband, who also contributes guitar work throughout), The List includes Cash’s covers of songs with assistance of notable musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy and Rufus Wainwright.
The List is the first album Cash has made since she underwent surgery in 2007 for a benign brain condition, from which she has fully recovered.
Track Listing for The List:

1. Miss the Mississippi and You
2. Motherless Children
3. Sea of Heartbreak (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
4. Take These Chains From My Heart
5. I’m Movin’ On
6. She’s Got You
7. Heartaches by the Number (w/ Elvis Costello)
8. 500 Miles
9. Long Black Veil (w/ Jeff Tweedy)
10. Silver Wings (w/ Rufus Wainwright)
11. Girl From the North Country
12. Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow

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Mariah Careyâ€™s new single coming out soon

June 11th, 2009 | No Comments

We all thought her next project was to raise a family but apparently that’s not what Mariah Carey has been working on. The diva will drop a new album titled Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel on September 16th.
Big names, such asÂ Timbaland, The-Dream, Tricky Stewart and Jermaine Dupri have worked on her album.Â The first [...]

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