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MMW: Tour Dates Band & Solo Projects

February 24th, 2010 | No Comments

Medeski Martin & Wood Announce More Tour Dates

Medeski Martin & Wood, who is on tour now, have announced West Coast, Japan and festival tour dates though June. The tour will take them through all the major cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland. Each member will also be touring solo with Medeski hitting the U.S. and Russia, The Wood Brothers briefly touring the East Coast in March, and Billy Martin announcing three special performances.

MMW

MMW Tour Dates:

02/24/10- Crystal Bay Club Crown Room – Crystal Bay, NV
02/25/10 – McDonald Theatre – Eugene, OR
02/26/10 – Roseland Theater – Portland, OR
02/27/10 – Showbox at The Market – Seattle, WA
04/08/10 – Janus Osaka – Osaka, JAPAN
04/09/10 – The Bottom Line – Nagoya, JAPAN
04/10/10 – Shibuya O-EAST – Tokyo, JAPAN
06/04/10 – Red Rocks Amphitheatre – Morrison, CO
06/05/10 – Free Press Summer Fest – Houston, TX
6/10-6/13 – Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival – Manchester, TN*
*Performance date to be determined

John Medeski Dates

3/11/10 – Music Hall Theater – St. Petersburg, RUSSIA**
3/12/10 – DK Gorbunova – Moscow, RUSSIA **
3/14/10 – Central Dom Oficerov – Kiev, UKRAINE **
3/26/10 – High Meadow PAC – Stone Ridge, NY (Benefit for High Meadow School)
3/27/10 – BB Kings NYC, NY (Benefit for New England Conservatory)
4/17/10 – Wanee Music Fest with The Word Live Oak, FL
4/23/10 – Bearsville Theatre with Grizzly Adams – Woodstock, NY
4/30/10 – The Kimmel Center – Philadelphia, PA (Organ Jam)
**with Fedorov, Volkov, Ribot and Smith

The Wood Brothers Dates

03/05/10 – The State Theatre (s/f Levon Helm) – Ithaca, NY
03/11/10 – Rams Head on Stage – Annapolis, MD
03/12/10 – Capital Ale House – Richmond, VA
03/13/10 – The Grey Eagle – Asheville, NC
03/14/10 – The Visulite – Charlotte, NC
03/16/10 – The Jewish Mother – Virginia Beach, VA
03/17/10 – Jammin’ Java – Vienna, VA
03/18/10 – Mexicali Live – Teaneck, NJ
03/19/10 – Bowery Ballroom – New York City, NY
03/20/10 – The Midnight Ramble (s/f Levon Helm) – Woodstock, NY

Billy Martin Dates

03/09/10 – Rose Live – Brooklyn, NY
Part of Rose Live’s Drummer Series, this series focuses on drummers as leaders. Billy will play one solo set and a
second set with the Fang Percussion Ensemble.
04/21/10 – Hattiesburg, MO with Marco Benevento
04/23/10 – New Orleans, LA with Marco Benevento

Medeski Martin & Wood Tour Dates ::: Medeski Martin & Wood News ::: Medeski Martin & Wood Concert Reviews


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Week-Ahead Comment 22 Feb 2010: Markets ease

February 20th, 2010 | No Comments

LAST FRIDAY, Singapore market players woke to a 25- basis point hike to 0.75% in the US Federal Reserve’s primary discount rate. The Fed described the move as a “further normalisation of [its] lending facilities”, adding that its actions “should not lead to tighter financial conditions for households and businesses and do not signal any change in the outlook for policy”. But try telling that to the markets. Last Friday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 528 points or 2.6% to 19,894 following the announcement, while Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 212 points or 2% to 10,123.

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The New Deal: A New Era

February 18th, 2010 | No Comments

By: Matt Beck

The New Deal

As a mentor of mine is famous for saying, “If you’re not gaining, you’re losing,” and it is this exact mentality that drives the New Deal. This Toronto-based live-tronica trio has been at the forefront of all things jam since their inception almost 12 years and 750 shows ago. Following an impromptu jam session that was later released as their first record, This Is Live, the band knew they were on to something fresh and rapidly spiraled away from Toronto’s acid-jazz scene.


Now they are ten albums deep. The newest, Live: Toronto 7.16.2009, will be available for digital download on February 23 with hard copies hitting the street next month. Tempted by the novelty of a “Live from Tokyo” record, the band originally thought they’d release one of the shows from their successful Japanese tour earlier that summer. However, this recording ended up being the stand out.


“There are a lot of different things that have to be right for a New Deal show to become a live record, and this show really stuck out as a nice offering of where we’re at right now musically,” explains drummer Darren Shearer. “We never discuss our show before we play; we just go out and perform. Some shows don’t translate well in a recording. If you were there and were rockin’ out with us, it might make sense, but it may be a little too intense on record. It may not be something you’d listen to in your car.”

Jamie Shields by Brad Johnson

Shearer continues discussing tND’s progression and why they chose to release the new record through SCI Fidelity rather than their own label, Sound+Light.

“We did the major label thing and we found that they generally didn’t know what to do with us. They were happy with the fact that we’d gone from zero to hero, drawing 1,000 people in our city without having a record out and nothing on the radio, that we were able to play New York City and Los Angeles and draw decent crowds so early in our career; they were intrigued by that,” says Shearer. “What they ended up doing, which was real ironic, was promoting to our existing audience. It was part idiocy and part insulting because our audience is way more in-the-know than the record company. You don’t need to tell our audience that we have a new record out – we drop one little message on Facebook and everyone knows. We really hoped they would break new ground for us, but they just didn’t do that. We were moving up, up, up, then we signed a record deal and our career started plateauing.”


For the release of the new live record, SCI Fidelity just made sense. They already have the infrastructure, the customer base, and a good track record of getting this music out to the people who love it. Especially in light of the band’s other projects, it was a no-brainer. Bassist Dan Kurtz is touring and recording with retro-pop sensation Dragonette, keyboardist Jamie Shields runs a successful commercial music studio, and Shearer operates a children’s creative arts program in Toronto and shoots documentary films all over the world.

The New Deal by Brad Johnson

“We are realizing that there are so many parts of the world that want to be hit up with our music,” says Shearer excitedly. “We broke Asia, which was amazing. There is a full replica of the jam band scene there, which proves how truly international this music is. It communicates to people in a very profound way, and that can be done anywhere. A cool thing about the New Deal being an instrumental band is that we can play to any language. As far as they’re concerned, we’re playing in Japanese.”


Shearer says, “We’re all in this together.” Their stage setup reflects this, with Shearer and Shields facing each other stage front with Kurtz standing center stage and slightly back, forming an all-powerful triangle. This not only allows them to fully absorb the crowd vibe but also enables them to maintain constant communication. Using hand signals and lip-reading to dictate the musical key, tempo and genre allows them to seamlessly flow throughout the show. With the ongoing goal of always taking it bigger, the band is also very excited to introduce a new lighting design. Unlike many other touring bands, the New Deal wants their display to remain analog; think Blue Man Group.

Continue reading for more on the New Deal…

 


We broke Asia, which was amazing. There is a full replica of the jam band scene there, which proves how truly international this music is. It communicates to people in a very profound way, and that can be done anywhere. A cool thing about the New Deal being an instrumental band is that we can play to any language.

-Darren Shearer

 

Photo by: Brad Johnson

The New Deal’s musical style concentrates on tension and release, soaring peaks and dark valleys that insight pure frenzy in a live crowd. Don’t let the New Deal’s sporadic touring fool you. They are fully aware of how to build anticipation and avoid sonically drowning their fans. All of their shows are recorded digitally, however, they resist releasing each show as many bands are choosing to do these days, although their open trading policy allows hungry fans to keep pace.

Darren Shearer by Brad Johnson

“We discovered early on that we didn’t want to do the New Deal thing all the time. We want to have families and other musical projects. Be that as it may, we love when the New Deal comes together and connects, especially with our audience. [We want it to] feel new and fresh as opposed to feeling like we’re banging ourselves into the ground, touring our faces off,” says Shearer. “Playing improvised sets every single night, night after night after night, is a bit taxing. That being said, the last couple tours, for some reason, the shows go by SO fast. We used to take three or four breaks per set. Now there are times that we don’t even take one. Time flies when you’re having fun, as they say. I’m not jaded or bitter by where we’re at right now. It’s totally fine.”


The New Deal is a true passion project for these guys. Shields and Kurtz have known each other since grade school, and their first band was The Weathermen Groove Tube, who counted Shearer among their fans. Shields single-handedly posted messages on music boards across the U.S. and sent free copies of tND’s first demo (which eventually became This Is Live) to the first 100 interested people, resulting in up to 500 people attending their shows on their first tour across the States.


“A refreshing aspect about improvised music is that you get to play what you want. New Deal sets end up being a real reflection of where each individual is musically,” says Shearer. Bear in mind that tND has only rehearsed three times in their entire career, and only because a singer joined a tour in 2003. “Dan has brought a lot to this band over the last few years. With his recent forays into the pop-electro scene, he has brought a new aspect to the band that Jamie and I have grabbed a hold of and gone with as well. We bring what we want to the stage without ever talking about it.”

The New Deal

“I think improvisation has a stigma attached to it – just jam out forever until the club lights come on – which is not what the New Deal does. Although it’s improvised, we actually try to create real songs in real time; songs that have an intro, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus so it feels like its not just one big long jam,” explains Shearer. “Jamie is amazing at putting together structure so it always resolves back. People feel like they are getting songs, which is what we wanted from the beginning. They get a whole movement of music with four or five songs within it.”


While Kurtz tours the U.K. and Canada extensively with Dragonette, Shearer and Shields host their pet project, The Join. The purpose of The Join is to take the New Deal sensibility and bring it to other players. It provides an invigorating and evolving way of spreading the message of improvisation by inviting a revolving cast of players to “join” them. “[It's] being able to play with your good friends and using that as a cool platform to explore,” says Shearer. The Join currently have three March dates booked in the Midwest with Aron Magner and Marc Brownstein of The Disco Biscuits and have previously jammed with David Murphy of STS9, Marco Benevento and Joe Russo of The Duo, and Tom Hamilton and Clay Parnell of Brothers Past.


It is a new era for the New Deal. They are opening new markets, delving into places in America that they haven’t hit before, and exponentially increasing audiences where they have. Many jam band fans have a natural electronic sensibility, which is apparent in the direction of music today. Bands like the New Deal continue to perplex the mainstream, which is totally fine, and as long as they continue to progress the art form, an awesome mixture of people will continue to get off on it.

The new record will be available for download from thenewdeal.com on February 23.

The New Deal has a few shows starting February 23 in Charleston, SC. Complete New Deal tour dates available here. As previously mentioned, The Join has three March dates booked in the Midwest. Complete Join tour dates available here.

JamBase | Canada

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16 Entertainers Who Died In The Act

February 16th, 2010 | No Comments

The massive ranks of those who live to entertain, are sometimes thinned by the Darwinian forces of dramatic irony. Wether on stage, on screen, or on a high-wire, the cold, bony finger of Death himself has pointed at many a star. Heart attacks seem to be a prime culprit, obviously some entertainers enjoy culinary pleasures [...]

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Japan wants deal to scale down ‘scientific’ whaling

February 10th, 2010 | No Comments

Japan plans to propose scaling down its annual ‘scientific’ Antarctic whale hunt if it is allowed to step up commercial whaling in its own coastal waters instead, a fisheries official said Wednesday. Tokyo will present its proposal to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) at its annual

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Evening Crunch Crumbs: Jamie Lynn Spears Casey Aldridge Split; John Lennon Museum Toyko Closing; “True Blood” Casting News

February 6th, 2010 | No Comments

-In news that will surprise absolutely no one: Jamie Lynn Spears has traded in Baby Daddy Casey Aldridge for an older model….
-A New York boy was nearly tossed out of school for playing with a Lego gun….
- Photographs of Marilyn Monroe lounging around a New York apartment nine months before her death went up for [...]

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“The Fast & The Furious 5″

February 4th, 2010 | No Comments

The adrenaline-pumping The Fast & The Furious franchise is revving its engine for a fifth installment, Variety said Thursday.

Universal has greenlit the project — tentatively-titled Fast Five — will find the Dom Toretto and Brian O’Conner on the run from the law. The feature is expected to reunite director Justin Liu and series stars Vin [...]

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Devendra Banhart: March Dates

February 3rd, 2010 | No Comments

DEVENDRA BANHART ANNOUNCES MARCH DATES IN SUPPORT OF WHAT WILL WE BE

Devendra Banhart

Devendra Banhart and band will be playing U.S. tour dates this March in celebration of the release of What Will We Be, his sixth full length release and debut for Warner Bros. Records.

Banhart exploded on the international music scene in 2002 quickly winning a coterie of devoted fans as well as an unusually hefty amount of critical kudos right from the outset. The new album was recorded in the sleepy Northern California town of Bolinas throughout the Spring of 2009, and was co-produced by Devendra and Paul Butler (from U.K. outfit Band Of Bees).

The touring lineup will be Banhart on vocals and guitar, Noah Georgeson on guitar and backing vocals, Greg Rogove (Priestbird) on drums and backing vocals, Luckey Remington (The Pleased) on bass and vocals and Rodrigo Amarante (Los Hermanos, Little Joy) on guitar and backing vocals.

Devendra Banhart Tour Dates

02/04/10 Thu Unit Tokyo, JP

02/05/10 Fri Unit Tokyo, JP

03/18/10 Thu Showbox at the Market Seattle, WA

03/19/10 Fri Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC

03/21/10 Sun The Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR

03/23/10 Tue The Warfield San Francisco, CA

03/24/10 Wed The Wiltern Los Angeles, CA

More dates to be announced soon.

For more on Banhart see our recent, exclusive feature/interview here.


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The Dead Weather: Spring Dates

February 2nd, 2010 | No Comments

THE DEAD WEATHER ANNOUNCE SPRING U.S. TOUR DATES

The Dead Weather

The Dead Weather has announced a 13-city Spring jaunt that includes appearances at Coachella and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Tickets are available now for subscribers to The Vault, Third Man Records’ groundbreaking online subscription service, and available to the general public starting Friday, February 5.

The dirge rock four-piece, consisting of celebrated musicians Dean Fertita (Queens of The Stone Age), “Little” Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs, The Greenhornes), Alison Mosshart (The Kills) and Jack White (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs), have traveled the world over since their debut Horehound was released in the summer of 2009 – leaving in their wake storms of fans enthralled by the bluesy rock quartet’s gritty rhythm and incessant energy.

This newest series of dates follows the band’s first-ever Australian tour.

The Dead Weather Tour Dates

03/17/10 Wed Logan Campbell Center Aukland, NZ

03/19/10 Fri The Forum Theatre Melbourne, AU

03/20/10 Sat The Forum Theatre Melbourne, AU

03/23/10 Tue Tivoli Theatre Brisbane, AU

03/26/10 Fri Enmore Theatre Sydney, AU

03/29/10 Mon Metro City Perth, AU

03/31/10 Wed Zepp Tokyo Tokyo, JP

04/15/10 Thu The Fillmore San Francisco, CA

04/17/10 Sat Coachella Music Festival (Empire Polo Grounds) Indio, CA

04/18/10 Sun Pearl Concert Theater Las Vegas, NV

04/20/10 Tue Sunshine Theater Albuquerque, NM

04/22/10 Thu Cain’s Ballroom Tulsa, OK

04/23/10 Fri Capitol Federal Park at Sandstone Bonner Springs, KS

04/24/10 Sat The Pageant St. Louis, MO

04/26/10 Mon House of Blues Orlando, FL

04/27/10 Tue WorkPlay Birmingham, AL

04/28/10 Wed Minglewood Hall Memphis, TN

04/30/10 Fri Stubb’s BBQ Austin, TX

05/01/10 Sat House of Blues Houston, TX

05/02/10 Sun New Orleans Fairgrounds New Orleans, LA


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SQ11 completes green test flight, says SIA

February 2nd, 2010 | No Comments

Singapore Airlines says SQ11 successfully completed an experiment on eco-friendly flight, achieving fuel savings of more than 10 tonnes and a reduction in carbon emissions of more than 33 tonnes.

The Boeing 747-400, which departed Los Angeles on Jan 31, arrived in Singapore early this morning via Tokyo.

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Big Day Out | 01.22 & 01.23 | Australia

February 2nd, 2010 | No Comments

Words and Images by: Alex Anastas

Big Day Out :: 01.22.10 – 01.23.10 :: Olympic Park Showgrounds :: Sydney, Australia

Muse :: 01.22 :: Big Day Out :: Australia

The Big Day Out traveling music and arts festival rolled into Sydney for its only two-day stand of the whole tour. Annually playing in six cities across Australia and New Zealand since 1992 (there wasn’t a festival in 1998), past BDOs have featured a veritable who’s who of the rock and alternative music scene in the vein of Lollapalooza, including but not limited to such headliners as Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, Primus, Rage Against the Machine, Beastie Boys and The Chemical Brothers. The Big Day Out stage has also seen Australian acts exposed to a much larger audience and helped launch the now successful careers of bands like Silverchair, John Butler, Jet and Powderfinger. Loaded with great hard rock, 2010′s lineup of 70+ acts across eight stages was no different, with some experienced Big Day Outers like headliners Muse, The Mars Volta and Powderfinger, as well as a few true heavy metal gods to keep the headbangers happy, including Mastodon and fest closer Fear Factory.

Friday, January 22

Normally in Sydney if the old mercury pushed over 100-degrees on a long holiday weekend, rest assured most of the 53,000+ fans that turned up ready to party at the Olympic Park Showgrounds would have been pool or oceanside, Aussie beer clutched firm in hand. Being the Big Day Out, however, this was a party that would not be deterred even by the multitude of cops with sniffer dogs at the main gates. Infiltrating inner city bus and train stops from the early hours of Friday and Saturday, scantily clad hipsters and young music fans flocked in droves to the venue. Annually the host of Sydney’s Royal Easter Show, the animal habitat Showgrounds surround the state-of-the-art park built for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

DJ MDX :: 01.22 :: Big Day Out :: Australia

Entering these grounds at midday was like being thrown into an inner city back street blender without a map (they had already run out of those by this point). Having been to the previous three Sydney BDOs, I pretty much knew the drill of where to look for drinking wristbands and other key facets of the day such as free potable water stations, but I pitied the newbies. Signs were fairly non-existent and the rising temperatures definitely helped to play tricks on one’s mind. After meeting my friends at the outdoor Green Stage for the final shimmering melodies of British pop upstarts The Temper Trap, I decided we should heed the bannered message one fan was displaying high and proud to “soldier on” through the incredible heat. We instantly sought refuge in the spacious dance party Boiler Room venue for some tech savvy spinning by the prolific DJ MDX, otherwise known as Mark Dynamix. Armed with an assortment of breakbeat mixes, MDX and the four LED panels flanking the huge airline-hanger space really got the party going. Not in any rush to leave the comforting shadows of the indoor Ferris wheel, we stuck around the Boiler Room for Itch-E and Scratch E featuring MC Scribe on guest vocals. Playing 16 years after first debuting on the Big Day Out stage, DJs Paul Mac and Andy Rantzen threw out lusciously danceable techno beats while New Zealand’s Scribe rapped “Fresh” over the top, much to the delight of the now packed room. And packed in they were, awaiting the highly anticipated, often over-hyped spasmodic A.D.D. mash-up artist Girl Talk. The crowds surged towards the stage for a better look at the musician otherwise born as Gregg Gillis. As his (paid?) stage-riding freaks and geeks shot toilet paper and confetti out of leaf blowers, Girl Talk blended in a lot of Australian shout-outs, including Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” with Snoop Dogg’s “What’s My Name,” as well as AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” with Rihanna’s “Umbrella.”

Lily Allen :: 01.22 :: Big Day Out :: Australia

Having had our fill of the start-stop Girl Talk work-out, we sought late afternoon refuge at the Hot Produce outdoor stage for a little plucking from folk outfit The Middle East. The mellow five-piece delighted with sparkling harmonies and several stories from the road providing a welcome juxtaposition to the frenetic dance party in the Boiler Room. This proved to be a quick stop-over on our way to the main stage for East-London “Rude Boy” Dizzee Rascal. With his gold-capped teeth glimmering in the hot Aussie summer sun, many a bikini-topped girl rode the shoulders of her respective fella while taking in some of Dizzee’s old-skool sounding hit singles, including “Dance Wiv Me,” “Dirtee Cash” and “Holiday.”

Both the outdoor main showground stages (titled Blue and Orange this year) as well as two of the other outdoor side stages (named Green and Essential) always had an act going, with stage hands frantically preparing the next stage for musicians to begin the second the previous act finished up. This aspect of the Big Day Out makes the experience extremely stimulating and action packed. Thus, as soon as Dizzee Rascal finished his performance at 6 p.m. on the nose, the infamous Lily Allen was ready to get going. The sunset arrived, much to the delight of the heat exhausted crowd, as Allen launched into her MySpace sensation “Smile.” Dancing wildly in bare feet around the stage in a gaudy silk dress, Allen sang her bubble-gum pop numbers like “Fuck You” in double time, taking the occasional break to sit coyly on the edge of the stage and tease the crowd with “Littlest Things,” proclaiming, “Us English are not used to this shit-hot heat.”

Forgoing the now intensely packed Boiler Room’s Calvin Harris show for The Mars Volta, I was not sorry at all. Playing to an intimate audience crowded right up to the main stage, the Volta played this first day a bit safe, perhaps still a bit woozy from their barn burner of a show at the Hordern Pavilion two nights before. However, the band did not disappoint at Saturday’s gig.

The Mars Volta :: 01.22 :: Big Day Out :: Australia

Escaping to some much-appreciated respite in the VIP air-conditioned bar high above the main stage in the venue’s skyboxes, I watched Powderfinger’s show from a distance. Even though the devoted fan base sang along to every track and drank up every sobering minute of the experienced band’s one-hour set, our crew just couldn’t get into it. Perhaps it was the long day’s sun finally catching up or my eager anticipation of the final main stage act.

Muse did not disappoint. Playing many tunes off of their recent award-winning fifth studio album, The Resistance, the world dominators also displayed proficient chops on fan-favorite tracks off hit Haarp. Offering far and away the most advanced light show of the night, Muse used the speaker stacks to their immediate left and right to project live video feeds from the stage as well as clips from their innovative music videos. Adding irresistible icing to the cake, the English trio also employed sharp green lasers. This visual eye candy, the very special tribute encore to Aussie legends AC/DC, combined with their revolutionary anthems like opener “Uprising” and “United States of Eurasia” provided an amazing soundtrack to march out of the festival grounds to.

Muse Setlist: Uprising, Supermassive Black Hole, New Born, Undisclosed Desires, Interlude, Hysteria, Nishe, United States Of Eurasia, Helsinki Jam, Resistance, Starlight, Time Is Running Out, Unnatural Selection

E: Back In Black (AC/DC cover with Nic Cester of JET), Plug In Baby, Knights of Cydonia

Continue reading for Saturday’s coverage of Big Day Out…

Saturday, January 23

Big Day Out 2010 :: Australia

Walking into the 100th Big Day Out on an even HOTTER 110-degree day, the Kill Bill inspired jump-suited Bluejuice had the audience trying their hardest to get down to their dirty blend of electro disco, hip hop and rock. The radio hit “Vitriol” closed their set, making way for a day packed with heavy metal and hard rock. Kicking off the heavy portion of the day with Perth veterans Karnivool, the prog-rock riffers utilized their technical proficiency, looping multiple organic, distorted sounds while former Birds of Tokyo frontman Ian Kenny led them through some Maynard Keenan inspired vocal takes – even their backdrop looked like something out of a Tool video. Truly a talented outfit, and definitely a band to watch.

Next on the main stage was Mastodon, a heavily praised progressive metal band from Atlanta, Georgia. Mastodon strings several of their groundbreaking concept albums together creating an ongoing backstory often used as the impetus for music videos and even video games. Their intricate composed sections and Zen-like concentration on tunes such as “Blood and Thunder” got the sweat drenched crowd ready for the day ahead.

Skipping British dance rockers Kasabian for a casual stroll around the grounds led us back to the Green/Essential Stage for a wonderfully blissful set closing cover of The Cranberries’ “Dreams” by electronic five-piece Passion Pit, leaving everyone around me grinning ear to ear. While the stage was being prepped, one of my favorite albums, Pink Floyd’s Meddle played softly in the background, setting the circus scene for The Decemberists. Assembling about 10 years ago in Portland, Oregon, frontman Colin Meloy and his merry band of multi-instrumentalists led the crowd on a storytelling wave featuring such epics as “16 Wives.” It appeared that many Aussies in attendance had never listened to them before, which only made it that much easier for The Decemberists to leave Sydney with some new fans.

Fear Factory :: 01.23 :: Big Day Out :: Australia

Not eager to wander elsewhere, we stuck around to see what all the fuss was about with the “future of British Rock,” The Horrors. Then, it began to rain. Back to back days of 100+ stickiness gave way to a chaotic but relieving downpour, forcing many revelers to search for cover. Our sanctuary was found in the often forgotten Lily World Stage, where a cabaret of sorts was playing out in the form of Clairy Baby Browne and the Bangin Rackettes. Dancing in 1950′s brassieres and corsets for the wearily saturated audience, this harmonizing quartet of female gospel crooners entertained while backed by a multitude of Dixieland players. Flamboyantly dressed Mariachi MCs wandered the crowd, strolling past wrestling crash mats and adding to the truly “happening” feeling of it all.


Although they played the same exact setlist as the previous day, Saturday’s performance by The Mars Volta was definitely something else. Perhaps the thunder overhead electrified the much larger main stage crowd, as well as the musicians themselves. Perhaps it was something in the water backstage making Omar Rodriguez Lopez‘s guitar runs that much more lightning quick. I’m not quite sure, but whatever it was, the whole band was on fire, especially the playful stage energy shared by Omar and vocalist Cedric Bixler Zavala.

The Mars Volta Setlist: Son et Lumiere, Inertiatic ESP, Cotopaxi, L’Via L’Viaquez, Goliath, Tiptoe Through The Tulips (Tiny Tim cover), Cicatriz ESP, Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)

Muse‘s Saturday show was just the opposite of the Volta – very flat and not nearly as interesting as their Friday performance – leading to many of the throngs walking out early to hit the late night shows. Lucky for those who ventured onward, Fear Factory was an experience I’ll never forget. Ear-piercingly loud and fast, with very fast licks, it left me musically satiated as we headed back to the real world of a Saturday night in Sydney, 100 Big Days Out behind us.

Continue reading for more pics of Big Day Out in Sydney…

Friday, January 22:

Dizzee Rascal

The Middle East

Powderfinger

The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta

Muse

Muse

Muse

Continue reading for more pics of Big Day Out in Sydney…

Saturday, January 23:

Lily World Stage MC

Bluejuice

Clairy Baby Browne and the Bangin Rackettes

Chris Funk – The Decemberists

Karnivool

Kasabian

Mastodon

The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta

Muse

JamBase | Down Under
Go See Live Music!


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Sun Eye Candy: John Lydon

January 31st, 2010 | No Comments

HEY, JOHNNY ROTTEN, YOU’RE MIDDLE AGED!

A hearty, happy 54th birthday to John Lydon! As the frontman/shit instigator for the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd. (PiL) he’s shaken up the musical establishment, left bruises on his contemporaries, hawked up more spit on stages than almost anyone but Joan Jett, and coincidentally made some of the most memorable (and forgettable) rock of the past 40 years. Love him or hate him (or perhaps most appropriately, a swirled mixture of the two), but there’s really no way to NOT react to Lydon, who excels at getting a rise out of even the most jaded amongst us. For example, JamBase’s Associate Editor – a Lydon vet since the early ’80s – once saw the man perform two songs before revealing that he had a banana lodged in his bum, which he then gave to a fan in the front row. Such antics are commonplace and intrinsic to Lydon’s, uh, charm. He’s one of those beasts put here to scatter the herd and incite riots, big and small. So, we say screw the Queen, God save Johnny Rotten!

We begin our natal day salute with some sandpaper PiL fun captured in the early ’80s in Tokyo.

Still a dead sexy spot of rebellion despite being covered by some god awful establishment acts in the ensuing decades, “Anarchy In The UK” will be a musical middle finger held aloft around the globe for as long as young men and women have a need to tell off those in charge.

There’s a great many Public Image Ltd. echoes in the current crop of Brooklyn indie acts rising in fame and popularity. Lydon just got to this sound about three decades before y’all!

Here’s Johnny and PiL’s Keith Levene chatting about their high minded notions for the band. It’s hard to know how much of what Lydon says is pure cheek and how much pure inspiration.

Today’s highly lucrative pop-punk acts have done little to improve on this one.

The sessions for 1986′s Album, where these two cuts are plucked from, featured Bill Laswell, Ginger Baker, Nicky Skopelitis, Tony Williams, Bernie Worrell, Jonas Hellborg, Steve Vai and other revered jam/jazz scene luminaries. It remains one of the great distillations of ’80s Cold War fear and apprehension.

And one for the Queen, and we think they really mean it, man.


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Railways and slime moulds: A life of slime

January 21st, 2010 | No Comments

Network-engineering problems can be solved by surprisingly simple creatures

FROM adhesives that mimic the feet of geckos to swimsuits modelled on shark skin, biologically inspired design has taken off in recent times. Copying nature’s ideas allows people to harness the power of evolution to come up with clever products. Now a group of researchers has taken this idea a step further by using an entire living organism—a slime mould—to solve a complex problem. In this case, the challenge was to design an efficient rail network for the city of Tokyo and its outlying towns.

Slime moulds are unusual critters—neither animal, nor plant nor fungus. If they resemble anything, it is a colonial amoeba. Physarum polycephalum, the species in question, consists of a membrane-bound bag of protoplasm and, unusually, multiple nuclei. It can be found migrating across the floor of dark, damp, northern-temperate woodlands in search of food such as bacteria. It can grow into networks with a diameter of 25cm. …

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James Taylor & Carole King Tour

January 15th, 2010 | No Comments

JAMES TAYLOR AND CAROLE KING NORTH AMERICAN TROUBADOUR REUNION DATES SET

King & Taylor by
Kevin Estrada

Iconic recording artists Carole King and James Taylor unveiled North American dates for the Troubadour Reunion tour. This once-in-a-lifetime event marks a rare concert experience bringing two of the most beloved singer-songwriters on tour together – intimate and in the round – for the first time in four decades.

North American dates begin on May 7 in Portland, OR, and extend through June 19 in Boston, MA. The tour will travel to over 20 major venues and cities nationwide including Madison Square Garden in New York and a three-night stand at The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Tickets for the North American leg of Troubadour Reunion go on sale January 23 (unless otherwise noted). King and Taylor will also perform together on The Today Show and The Late Show with David Letterman on January 20.

The idea for the tour was conceived after a series of six performances Taylor and King gave at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in 2007 to celebrate the famed venue’s 50th Anniversary. The shows sold out immediately and garnered rave reviews from fans and critics alike.

Joining King and Taylor on tour will be their original band mates; guitarist Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar, drummer Russ Kunkel and bassist Lee Sklar, famous in their own right as The Section. Also joining The Section will be Rudy Guess, Robbie Kondor, Arnold McCuller, Kate Markowitz, and Andrea Zonn.

James Taylor and Carole King Tour Dates
01/20/10 Wed Late Show with David Letterman New York, NY

01/20/10 Wed The Today Show New York, NY

03/26/10 Fri Rod Laver Arena Melbourne, AU

03/27/10 Sat Rod Laver Arena Melbourne, AU

03/29/10 Mon Adelaide Entertainment Centre Adelaide, AU

03/31/10 Wed Brisbane Entertainment Centre Brisbane, AU

04/01/10 Thu Brisbane Entertainment Centre Brisbane, AU

04/03/10 Sat Hope Estate Winery Hunter Valley, AU

04/06/10 Tue Sydney Entertainment Centre Sydney, AU

04/10/10 Sat Vector Arena Auckland, NZ

04/14/10 Wed Budokan Hall Tokyo, JP

04/16/10 Fri Budokan Hall Tokyo, JP

05/07/10 Fri Rose Garden Arena Portland, OR

05/09/10 Sun Key Arena Seattle, WA

05/11/10 Tue HP Pavilion San Jose, CA

05/13/10 Thu Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles, CA

05/14/10 Fri Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles, CA

05/15/10 Sat Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles, CA

05/19/10 Wed Jobing.com Arena Glendale, AZ

05/21/10 Fri Sprint Center Kansas City, MO

05/22/10 Sat Sommet Center Nashville, TN

05/24/10 Mon Allstate Arena Rosemont, IL

05/25/10 Tue Xcel Energy Center Saint Paul, MN

05/27/10 Thu The Palace of Auburn Hills Auburn Hills, MI

05/28/10 Fri Air Canada Centre Toronto, ON

05/30/10 Sun Value City Arena (Schottenstein Center) Columbus, OH

06/02/10 Wed Time Warner Cable Arena Charlotte, NC

06/03/10 Thu Gwinnett Civic & Cultural Center Duluth, GA

06/05/10 Sat BankAtlantic Center Sunrise, FL

06/06/10 Sun St. Pete Times Forum Tampa, FL

06/08/10 Tue Verizon Center Washington, DC

06/10/10 Thu Wachovia Center Philadelphia, PA

06/12/10 Sat Mohegan Sun Casino Uncasville, CT

06/15/10 Tue Madison Square Garden New York, NY

06/19/10 Sat TD BankNorth Garden Boston, MA

07/03/10 Sat Tanglewood Lenox, MA

07/04/10 Sun Tanglewood Lenox, MA


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New Mastersounds, Trom Shorty Salvador Santana Tour Dates

January 14th, 2010 | No Comments

THE NEW MASTERSOUNDS TOUR WITH TROMBONE SHORTY AND SALVADOR SANTANA

The New Mastersounds

Kicking off 2010 with an international tour including Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom, The New Mastersounds are already jet setting their way across the globe. The band’s first U.S. tour will begin March 3 in Boulder, CO at The Fox Theatre with San Francisco Bay Area musician (and son of 10x Grammy winner Carlos) Salvador Santana. Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue will be co-headlining on select dates.

The New Mastersounds will be touring in support of the fan driven November 2009 release Ten Years On. The band also released Plug & Play on Fontana/One Note Records in March 2009, providing a steady flow of new music for their live shows. The New Mastersounds’ live shows have been met with overwhelming enthusiasm; Encore Online says “upon listening to their deep, open-ended and warm sound it’s apparent why they are blowing up on the international funk scene and are now taking America one show at a time.”

Led by guitarist and producer Eddie Roberts, The New Mastersounds feature Joe Tatton on keys, Pete Shand on bass and Simon Allen on drums.

The New Mastersounds Tour Dates

01/20/10 Wed Club Quattro Nagoya, JP

01/21/10 Thu Club Quattro Osaka, JP

01/23/10 Sat Club Quattro Tokyo, JP

01/24/10 Sun Club Quattro Tokyo, JP

02/05/10 Fri Beat Club Tomelloso, ES

02/06/10 Sat BoogaClub Granada, ES

02/07/10 Sun Fender Club Getafe, ES

02/11/10 Thu Sala Apolo 2 Barcelona, ES (w/ Salvador Santana)

02/12/10 Fri Wah Wah Club Valencia, ES (w/ Salvador Santana)

02/13/10 Sat Tempo Club Madrid, ES (w/ Salvador Santana)

02/26/10 Fri Jazz Cafe London, GB (w/ Salvador Santana)

02/27/10 Sat The Wardrobe Leeds, GB (w/ Salvador Santana)

03/03/10 Wed Fox Theatre Boulder, CO (w/ Salvador Santana)

03/04/10 Thu Steamboat Grand Steamboat Springs, CO (w/ Salvador Santana)

03/05/10 Fri Agave Avon, CO (w/ Salvador Santana)

03/06/10 Sat Ogden Theatre Denver, CO (w/ Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue & Salvador Santana

03/08/10 Mon Belly Up Aspen, CO (w/ Salvador Santana)

03/10/10 Wed Belly Up Tavern Solana Beach, CA (w/ Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue & Salvador Santana

03/11/10 Thu El Rey Theatre Los Angeles, CA (w/ Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue & Salvador Santana

03/12/10 Fri The Catalyst Santa Cruz, CA (w/ Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue & Salvador Santana

03/13/10 Sat The Fillmore San Francisco, CA (w/ Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue & Salvador Santana

03/14/10 Sun Hopmonk Tavern Sebastopol, CA (w/ Salvador Santana)

03/15/10 Mon Tahoe Biltmore Crystal Bay, NV (w/ Salvador Santana)

03/17/10 Wed Wonder Ballroom Portland, OR (w/ Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue & Salvador Santana

03/18/10 Thu Neumos Seattle, WA (w/ Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue & Salvador Santana

03/21/10 Sun Melkweg Amsterdam, NL (Jam in the Dam)

03/22/10 Mon Melkweg Amsterdam, NL (Jam in the Dam)

03/23/10 Tue Melkweg Amsterdam, NL (Jam in the Dam)


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Passion Pit: Spring Tour Dates

January 12th, 2010 | No Comments

PASSION PIT ANNOUNCE SPRING TOUR DATES

Passion Pit

2009 was a whirlwind year for Boston’s Passion Pit. They were nominated for an MTV VMA for their video “The Reeling”, won Best Album from Boston’s WXPN, and topped Pitchfork, Stereogum, NY Post, NPR, Paste Magazine, Boston Music Award, Popmatters and many more end of year lists in 2009.

After amazing stops at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Monolith, Treasure Island, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Passion Pit kicks off 2010 with three of the fastest moving sold out shows at NYC’s Terminal 5 and a Spring Tour.

Passion Pit Tour Dates

01/15/10 Fri Mt. Smart Stadium Auckland, NZ

01/17/10 Sun Parklands Gold Coast, AU

01/20/10 Wed Metro Theatre Sydney, AU

01/22/10 Fri Olympic Park Showgrounds Sydney, AU

01/23/10 Sat Olympic Park Showgrounds Sydney, AU

01/25/10 Mon Corner Hotel Melbourne, AU

01/26/10 Tue Flemington Racecourse Melbourne, AU

01/29/10 Fri RA&HS Showgrounds Adelaide, AU

01/31/10 Sun Claremont Showgrounds Perth, AU

02/04/10 Thu Club Quattro Osaka, JP

02/05/10 Fri Duo Music Exchange Tokyo, JP

02/06/10 Sat Harajuku Astro Hall Tokyo, JP

03/01/10 Mon Le Botanique Brussels, BEL

03/03/10 Wed Bristol Academy Bristol, GB

03/04/10 Thu Leeds Metropolitan University Leeds, GB

03/05/10 Fri Manchester Academy Manchester, GB

03/06/10 Sat ABC Glasgow, GB

03/08/10 Mon University of East Anglia (UEA) Norwich, GB

03/09/10 Tue Nottingham Rock City Nottingham, GB

03/11/10 Thu HMV Forum London, GB

03/13/10 Sat Olympia Theatre Dublin, IR

03/26/10 Fri Ultra Music Festival Miami Beach, FL

03/28/10 Sun The Town Ballroom Buffalo, NY

03/29/10 Mon Pullo Center York, PA

03/30/10 Tue House Of Blues Cleveland, OH

03/31/10 Wed Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH

04/02/10 Fri Congress Theater Chicago, IL

04/03/10 Sat Turner Hall Ballroom Milwaukee, WI

04/04/10 Sun First Avenue Minneapolis, MN

04/05/10 Mon Beaumont Club Kansas City, MO

04/07/10 Wed Ogden Theatre Denver, CO

04/08/10 Thu In The Venue Salt Lake City, UT

04/10/10 Sat McDonald Theatre Eugene, OR

04/11/10 Sun Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC

04/12/10 Mon Roseland Theater Portland, OR

04/14/10 Wed Freeborn Hall Davis, CA

04/15/10 Thu The Warfield San Francisco, CA

04/24/10 Sat Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN

04/30/10 Fri World’s Fair Park Knoxville, TN

05/01/10 Sat Bowdoin College Brunswick, ME


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High-Level CIA Officers: “Reform” of Intelligence Agencies Has Made It MORE DIFFICULT to Stop Terrorism

January 9th, 2010 | No Comments

Two former high-level CIA officers have said that the government’s recent “reform” of the intelligence services has made it more difficult to fight terrorism.Specifically, Jack Rice – a former CIA field officer – told Keith Olbermann yesterday that the…

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Wilco: March/April U.S. Dates

January 4th, 2010 | No Comments

WILCO ADD MARCH/APRIL U.S. DATES

Wilco

Wilco will play a run of 16 concerts in Eastern U.S. cities beginning in Miami, FL on March 22 and culminating in Pittsburgh, PA on April 11. The concerts are presented as
“An Evening with Wilco” and will feature extended, varied sets exploring material from each of the accomplished Chicago sextet’s seven studio albums.

The tour includes concerts in
Clearwater, Savannah, Atlanta, Durham, Richmond, Bethesda, Montclair, Providence, Boston,
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and features Wilco’s first concert appearances in the cities of Scranton, PA, Concord, NH and Hartford, CT.

Ticket presales for these new dates are set for Wednesday, January 6 at 10 a.m. EST via the band’s official website.

All other tickets go on sale Friday, January 8 and Saturday, January 9. Please check Wilcoworld.net or individual venue websites for exact on sale dates and times.

These tour dates continue what is already promising to be a busy start to the New Year for Wilco. In late January the band heads to Los Angeles to perform as part of the 2010 MusicCares Person of the Year concert honoring Neil Young and they make their debut performance on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on January 28. In February they embark on a previously announced tour that includes concerts in the Pacific Northwest, the upper Midwest and their most extensive Canadian tour in their 15-year history. Previously announced tour dates in Japan, New Zealand and Australia follow in April and May. Complete tour dates below.

Wilco’s latest studio album, the Grammy-nominated Wilco (The Album) has landed on many critic’s year end polls as one of the best albums of 2009, and Rolling Stone magazine recently cited Wilco’s 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as the third best album of the decade.

Wilco Tour Dates

02/07/10 Sun Adams Event Center Missoula, MT

02/09/10 Tue Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Portland, OR

02/10/10 Wed Paramount Theatre Seattle, WA

02/12/10 Fri The Royal Theatre Victoria, BC

02/13/10 Sat David Lam Park Vancouver, BC

02/15/10 Mon Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium Edmonton, AB

02/16/10 Tue Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium Calgary, AB

02/17/10 Wed TCU Place Saskatoon, SK

02/19/10 Fri DECC Auditorium Duluth, MN

02/20/10 Sat Overture Center for Arts Madison, WI

02/21/10 Sun Wharton Center For The Arts East Lansing, MI

02/23/10 Tue Hamilton Place Theatre Hamilton, ON

02/24/10 Wed Centennial Hall London, ON

02/26/10 Fri Imperial Quebec City, QC

02/27/10 Sat L’ Olympia Theatre Montreal, QC

03/01/10 Mon National Arts Centre Ottawa, ON

03/03/10 Wed Halifax Metro Centre Halifax, NS

03/22/10 Mon The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theater Miami Beach, FL

03/23/10 Tue Ruth Eckerd Hall Clearwater, FL

03/25/10 Thu Johnny Mercer Theater Savannah, GA

03/26/10 Fri Fox Theatre Atlanta, GA

03/27/10 Sat Durham Performing Arts Center Durham, NC

03/29/10 Mon The National Richmond, VA

03/30/10 Tue Strathmore North Bethesda, MD

03/31/10 Wed Scranton Cultural Center Scranton, PA

04/02/10 Fri The Wellmont Theatre Montclair, NJ

04/03/10 Sat The Wellmont Theatre Montclair, NJ

04/04/10 Sun Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel Providence, RI

04/06/10 Tue Orpheum Theatre Boston, MA

04/07/10 Wed Capitol Center for the Arts Concord, NH

04/09/10 Fri The Bushnell Center For The Performing Arts Hartford, CT

04/10/10 Sat Electric Factory Philadelphia, PA

04/11/10 Sun Carnegie Music Hall Pittsburgh, PA

04/22/10 Thu Big Cat Osaka, JP

04/23/10 Fri Zepp Tokyo Tokyo, JP

04/27/10 Tue Civic Theatre Auckland, NZ

04/28/10 Wed Town Hall Wellington, NZ

04/30/10 Fri Tivoli Theatre Brisbane, AU

05/01/10 Sat The State Theatre Sydney, AU

05/02/10 Sun Factory Theatre Sydney, AU

05/05/10 Wed The Forum Theatre Melbourne, AU

05/06/10 Thu The Forum Theatre Melbourne, AU

05/28/10 Fri Primavera Barcelona, ES

09/12/10 Sun End of the Road Festival Wiltshire, GB


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Japan Airlines shares soar on credit lifeline

January 4th, 2010 | No Comments

Japan Airlines shares skyrocketed on Monday after the government agreed to expand a financial lifeline to the troubled carrier, easing fears that it might file for bankruptcy. JAL stock soared 24 yen, or 35.8 per cent, to 91 by the lunch break as investors welcomed Tokyo’s decision at the

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The 15 Greatest Dystopian Films Of All Time

December 28th, 2009 | No Comments

Dystopian films cover such a rich and wide variation of themes that picking the top 15 is just about impossible. Pretty much every film in which the future is shitty is considered dystopian, so that means everything from post-apocalyptic to corporate control to biological viruses. It’s a huge field, but here are doubtlessly some of [...]

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