The Mars Volta: The Bedlam In Goliath (Album Review)

It’s good to see that The Mars Volta don’t depend on death for inspiration and inspired music. When they first formed after the bifurcation of At The Drive-In via De Facto, their debut Deloused In the Comatorium traced the imaginary narrative of their friend, the late Julio Venegas, as he fought his way through a drug-induced coma (before waking in real life and jumping from the Mesa Street overpass into interstate traffic). The tour undertaken to support that album saw the heroin-related death of their sound manipulator Jeremy Ward and, in turn, birthed the inspiration for their second album Frances The Mute. It might sound in bad taste to suggest it but their third album Amputechture was not noticeably less dense or itchily packed full of ideas and riffs, but it was undeniable that without a tangible theme or concept the album, while it didn’t lack focus, was perhaps was slightly light on soul.

So they have returned to the concept album for their fourth outing; luckily, this time no one died. But the band will tell you that it was a close call. The back story is long and (necessarily) confused but goes something like this. While passing through a flea market in Jerusalem an old man beckoned MV guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez into his antiques shop (the establishment will be familiar to anyone who has seen Hellraiser, or read any Poe or Lovecraft) and sold him a Ouija board, known as the Soothsayer. The talking board came to take the place of a new drug when the band were on a long tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and began put them in touch with several characters including the titular Goliath, a trio of voices belonging to a daughter murdered in an honour killing, her mother and the voice of an ugly and jealous male spirit keen on drowning out the females. So their story goes, the board became an obsession and provided about 80 per cent of the lyrics for Cedric Bixler-Zavala on the album and began demanding payment in kind. After this all manner of chaos broke out around the recording of the album, their long-time producer had a nervous breakdown, band members got flooded out of their homes, entire tracks went missing. Scared that an evil force was trying to break through into our reality, the shock-haired guitarist stole the board back and buried it in the desert.

So they say.

Anyway, as luck would have it, the vinyl version of this excellently unhinged album folds out into your very own copy of a ‘positive soothsayer’, so you too can help fight the bad male spirit, keep Goliath in his pan-dimensional prison and maybe halt the building of a fourth runway at Heathrow as well.

But this story, no matter how preposterous, has been just the tonic for The Mars Volta and spurred them on to even grander sonic experiments and assaults on the senses. For the most part, this is the heaviest record that they’ve recorded and the most far-out as well. Omar’s obsession with free jazz/rock fusion and ‘70s Miles Davis is more fully realised here, calling to mind his highly experimental, self-titled album released on the Dutch imprint Willie Anderson two years ago. Speaking in general terms Cedric’s vocals have been processed, harmonized and twisted out of shape in more ways than you would have thought possible. The Volta aren’t stupid enough to spoon feed you the exact details of their barmpot story, meaning that it’s possible to ignore if you’ve got little in the way of tolerance for Dungeons and Dragons capers with your progressive music, but sonically it acts as the backbone. The berserk opener ‘Aberkinkula’ nails their already well defined acid freak-out sound to Middle Eastern scales like a punk/prog (prug/pronk) The Devil’s Anvil. ‘Metatron’ is hyper-accelerated Lalo Schiffrin in car chase mode before warping into warp-fast computer game theme-styled power metal before skidding to a halt in the more pastoral prog scenery of Aphrodite’s Child. In fact, each track is composed from so many riffs, ideas, styles et cetera that it would literally take you weeks to dissect the entire album, so dense is its structure.

In some ways The Mars Volta are the perfect example of how a band can be successful and still boundary pushing and, it should be said, their shtick is amazing. Buried Ouija boards? Tormented giants from other dimensions? Nervous breakdowns? Ghosts in the machine? This is the stuff of rock legend and it’s made for a brilliant album and, just like The A-Team, this time they did it with no casualties.
(by: John Doran)

Vampire Weekend- A-Punk (Music Video)

Kingblind Downloads

Lightspeed Champion – Dry Lips

The Helio Sequence – Keep Your Eyes Ahead

Robert Pollard – Love Your Spaceman

Vampire Weekend – A-Punk

Blue Scholars – Butter & Gun$ (Loyalty) [Live @ KEXP]

Chris Walla – Sing Again

RIAA Wants to Increase Filesharing Damages to $1.5 Million an Album, Just for Laughs

The amount that the RIAA gets in statutory damages in filesharing lawsuits is already completely bananas, but they still aren’t happy. The problem? Compilation CDs. A rascally pirate could rip 10 tracks from 10 CDs, say they came from a compilation and then only be culpable for one album. That’s not right! The RIAA would then be cheated out of money they could use to polish the rubies on the ends of their walking sticks!

So what are they doing? Pushing the PRO-IP Act through Congress that’ll increase the statutory damages for compilation albums to a whopping $1.5 million. Yes, if you get busted sharing a soundtrack or compilation album with multiple artists on it, the RIAA wants to count each track as its own album. You know, just for the heck of it.

With statutory damages already so out of the league of the rational and the justifiable, increasing the damages this much might actually happen. I mean, if they could justify $150,000 an album before, is it really such a leap to make that $1.5 million?

The moral of the story? Be careful and don’t get busted
(via Gizmodo)

Modest Mouse, The National Opening R.E.M. Tour

R.E.M. has drafted Modest Mouse and the National as support acts for its upcoming tour of North American theaters and arenas, which begins May 23 in Vancouver. The outing comes on the heels of the April 1 release of R.E.M.’s new Warner Bros. album, “Accelerate.”

Although an official announcement was made today (Jan. 28), the National frontman Matt Berninger spilled the beans during an interview last week with Australia’s Triple J radio.

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe has been a vocal admirer of the New York-by-way-of-Cincinnati band in recent months, and attended one of its shows in London last year.

Modest Mouse has been off the road since mid-December; the group’s 2007 Epic album, “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sunk,” was its first to feature former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr.

Here are R.E.M.’s tour dates:

May 23: Vancouver (Deer Lake Park)
May 29: Los Angeles (Hollywood Bowl)
May 31: Berkeley, Calif. (Greek Theatre)
June 3: Morrison, Colo. (Red Rocks)
June 6: Chicago (United Center)
June 8: Toronto (Molson Amphitheatre)
June 10: Raleigh, N.C. (Walnut Creek)
June 11: Columbia, Md. (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
June 13: Mansfield, Mass. (Tweeter Center)
June 14: Wantagh, N.Y. (Jones Beach)
June 18: Philadelphia (Mann Center
June 19: New York (TBA)
June 21: Atlanta (Lakewood Amphitheatre)

The Whigs:: Mission Control (Album Review)

“Like a vibration, my reputation is making the rounds at bars,” snarls Parker Gispert, kicking off The Whigs’ second full-length, Mission Control. It’s wishful thinking: For the most part, The Whigs manage little more than cross-breeding the dullest aspects of Strokes-esque formalist garage-rock with the all-volume, all-the-time approach of the Foo Fighters at their least subtle. With drums drained of nuance and guitars always overpowering, the basic song structures sound formulaic. The few songs with radical differences stand out as models of power-pop craft: A brass section makes the title of “I Got Ideas” believable, while stripping down “Right Hand On My Heart” to guitar, drums, and vocals for most of the running time shows terrific promise lurking underneath.

EMI and NY Daily News to give away free downloads

EMI has teamed with the New York Daily News to offer the newspaper’s readers the chance to download two songs of their choice from over 120,000 top EMI tracks. Each copy of the Daily News on Super Bowl Sunday and Grammy Sunday will include a special code redeemable by visiting the newspaper’s website. In addition to the songs of their choice, visitors to the website will receive exclusive access to “It’s Love,” an unreleased track from Ringo Starr’s new album, Liverpool 8. There’s no word yet as to iTunes compatibility, which is the albatross around the neck of any music giveaway. While EMI and the Daily News are both excited about the partnership, they should realize as Amazon has, that until the playing field changes music downloads that don’t go into iTunes often go unredeemed.

Gnarls Barkley Feeling ‘Odd’ On New Album

Gnarls Barkley has christened its sophomore album “The Odd Couple,” and will release it in April via Downtown/Atlantic. The duo of Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo is still finishing the project, having recently recorded with live musicians in Los Angeles.

There’s no track list just yet, but “The Odd Couple” is confirmed to feature one song previewed for Billboard last summer that finds Cee-Lo proclaiming, “Who’s gonna save my soul now?”

The album is the follow-up to Gnarls’ runaway hit 2006 debut, “St. Elsewhere,” which has sold 1.345 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

As previously reported, Danger Mouse’s production talents will be on display on several upcoming projects, including new albums from the Black Keys, Martina Topley-Bird and the Shortwave Set.

Can serialization save the album format?

The Wall Street Journal is worried about the death of the album format, and has proposed releasing songs serially as a possible solution. The idea of serialization, first proposed in a blog post by Internet millionaire Mark Cuban, was picked up by Jason Frye of The Wall Street Journal, who sees releasing songs over a period of time as extending the life of the album format a little bit longer:

“Dispensing with the album as a consumer item doesn’t necessarily mean tossing it aside as an art form. Do today’s readers think less of Charles Dickens’ novels because they first appeared as serials? Radiohead is an album-oriented band, but wouldn’t its recent experiment with In Rainbows have generated as much or even more buzz if the songs had appeared over time? Would fans of Sgt. Pepper’s, The Wall or American Idiot think less of those albums if the first journey through their component songs had taken weeks or months?”

Serialization is an interesting idea, but worries about the demise of the album may be slightly premature. There are of course fewer people buying an entire album by artists such Rihanna or Soulja Boy, but even if there wasn’t an option to buy a single track from these recordings listeners would be constantly hitting the rewind button. The added sales of individual songs might actually even out, as many more listeners are willing to plunk down a dollar for the new ear worm instead of the ten dollars required to purchase the whole album. Even though this is happening in one aspect of the recording industry, there are still plenty of artists making whole albums worthy of purchase. Despite the iTunes popularity index, it’s hard to believe that fans of bands like Wilco, My Morning Jacket, and the Drive By Truckers are happy buying only the singles from the albums.

Kingblind Downloads

Vampire Weekend:: Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Black Mountain:: Tyrants

Black Mountain:: Druganaut

OKKERVIL RIVER:: Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe

Gutter Twins:: Idle Hands

Grand Archives:: Torn Blue Foam Couch

Iron and Wine – Innocent Bones

BLACK MOUNTAIN- In The Future (Album Review)

There were definitely some Pink Floyd elements in the Black Mountain mix before, but the Vancouver fuds really let the Floyd flag fly on In The Future, from the Hipgnosis-inspired sleeve art to the spacey noodling through epic jams about nothing in particular.

Obviously, they’ve been drinking in all the press hype since the release of their self-titled debut and decided they needed to make a grand statement that would play equally well in sports arenas and open fields of mud to a hairy horde waiting for the Flaming Lips to get onstage. They put their cloudy heads together and came up with the power-chord-slashing and hobbitty keyboard werping goods but wisely didn’t lose all the dirty distortion and strummy acoustic bits. Mission accomplished. The limited two-CD version comes with three extra songs for the same price as the single disc.

Reformed garage legends finally make it to Blighty

Pioneering Seattle garage rock band The Sonics are set to play their first ever UK show on March 21.

The band, who formed in 1959, and helped laid the foundations for modern rock ‘n’ roll with distortion heavy classics ‘Psycho’ and ‘The Witch’, will play The Forum after reforming for north American dates last year.

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds announce European tour

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have announced the dates for their first UK tour in three years.

The run of gigs will follow the release of their new album ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!’, the band’s 14th, on March 3.

The first single from the album, also called ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!’, will be out February 18.

Tickets will be available from 9am this Friday (February 1).

The band will play the following dates:

Lisbon Colliseum (April 21)
Porto Coliseum (22)
San Sebastian Polideportivo (24)
Barcelona Razzmatazz (25)
Marseilles Docks Du Suds (26)
Amsterdam Music Hall (28)
Paris Casino Du Paris (29)
Brussels Forest National (May 1)
Dublin Castle (3)
Glasgow Academy (4)
Birmingham Academy (5)
London Hammersmith Apollo (7)
Oslo Spektrum (16)
Stockholm Annexe (17)
Copenhagen KB Halle (19)
Berlin Tempodrom (21)
Prague Sazka Arena (24)
Vienna Gasometer (25)
Zagreb In Music Festival (June 3)
Belgrade Arena (4)
Salonika Moni Lazariston (6)
Athens Lycabetus Theatre (7)

Page: No Chance Of Zeppelin Tour Until September

Don’t expect to see Led Zeppelin on the road near you this summer. The current incarnation of the veteran rock act, which reunited for a triumphant Dec. 10 concert at London’s 02 Arena, has no plans to play live — until at least after September, says guitarist Jimmy Page.

Speaking in Tokyo today (Jan. 28), Page said, “The amount of work that we put into the 02, both for ourselves rehearsing and also for the staging of it, was probably what you’d put into a world tour anyway.”

He noted that Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant “also has a parallel project running [with Alison Krauss], and he’s really busy with that project, certainly until September. So I can’t give you any news on anything at the moment.” Page and Krauss released their album “Raising Sand” on Rounder late last year and begin a world tour in Louisville on April 20.

Page admitted that the scale of media interest about Led Zeppelin’s O2 performance put the band under a certain amount of pressure during rehearsals, but insisted the Led Zep chemistry was still there.

“We’d all agreed to take it very, very seriously and have a really good time at the same time,” Page said. “We worked out the songs we were going to play, and it was exhilarating, it was fantastic. Every week was a week to look forward to.”

Page was speaking during Japanese promotion for the band’s recent “Mothership” (Swan Song/Atlantic) compilation. Asked if loyal fans who had bought Led Zeppelin product in various formats over the years should buy “Mothership,” Page replied, “Please don’t — I don’t want you to buy it.”

He explained that “Mothership” was designed to replace the 1999 compilations “Early Days” and “Latter Days,” whose packaging and presentation Page was dissatisfied with.

“The overall packaging just did not have the quality of what we expect from Led Zeppelin and what I think everyone else expects from Led Zeppelin,” Page said. “It just made sense to have something done so we don’t have to think about it again.”

Drive-By Truckers:: Brighter Than Creation’s Dark (Album Review)

At their best, which is most of the time, the Drive-By Truckers deliver some of the most honest and emotionally rich contemporary American rock ‘n’ roll – fierce, lyrics-driven, and deeply in touch with the interwoven coils of country and soul that give Southern music its unmistakable regional character. “Brighter Than Creation’s Dark,” the eighth album from the Athens, Ga., band with Alabama roots, is vintage Truckers for the stories it tells: portrayals, in the first person or the third, of lives far too achingly real and imprinted by such forces as crystal meth, the manufacturing recession, and the Iraq war to warrant the distancing moniker Gothic. The songcraft of leader Patterson Hood and longtime accomplice Mike Cooley is unfailingly intimate no matter how furious the guitar heroics. Yet this is also as sonically diverse a record as the Truckers have made, as bassist Shonna Tucker writes and sings for the first time (the amicable departure of Jason Isbell having freed up a writing slot), while the pedal steel of John Neff offers a sublime and haunting presence. [Siddhartha Mitter]

Jane’s Addiction Raids Vaults For Boxed Set, DVD

Although it appears most of Jane’s Addiction’s studio outtakes/rarities have been accounted for and issued, classic live recordings are another story. Now, Jane’s drummer Stephen Perkins is looking into assembling a box set that will focus on memorable and previously unheard live performances from the group.

“We’re working on it,” Perkins said. “As far as the packaging and the content, it’s going to be loaded. We’re hoping to step it up into kind of a more ‘collector’s item’ sort of situation. As far as the content, I’ve got a whole six or seven boxes full of stuff. We’re going through it with Warner Bros., and seeing what’s appropriate — what’s usable as far as, ‘How far do we want to go with lo-fi?’ In a perfect world, I would hope to see it out by the summer, but I don’t think that’s possible. Maybe fall.”

It appears as though Perkins is more interested in collecting the uncommon rather than the common for the as-yet-to-be-titled set. “I’m partial to grabbing some live shows — live stuff that I recall being a really splendid night as far as the band having a good time on stage,” he says, saying he’d favor shows featuring Bauhaus covers as opposed to routine versions of “Ted, Just Admit It” or “Ocean Size.”

“There’s all those great ‘91 Lollapalooza shows, where Ice T would join us, or Siouxsie, or Dave [Navarro] would go out with Living Colour,” Perkins says. “All these little combinations I know were recorded — we just have to find them.”

Perkins is also looking into assembling an accompanying DVD, which should include all three previously issued Jane’s home videos: 1989’s “Soul Kiss,” 1993’s “Gift” and 2003’s “Three Days” — with extras. “How they’re actually going to slice it up is being discussed,” he says. “But there is a lot of visual footage and a lot of audio footage. I’ve got a lot of stuff nobody’s seen — home footage. And when Warners takes a look at stuff in their vault, we’ll see what they pull out.”

With the impending arrival of the boxed set, questions are bound to come up regarding the possibility of a reunion of Jane’s Addition or the band born from its ashes, Porno For Pyros.

“There is talk always about it, but I guess talk is one thing,” Perkins says. “To really sit down, make it happen and rehearse — we’re not up to that point anywhere. [But] I think everyone loves playing those songs in both those bands and we miss it.”

Arcade Fire “Black Mirror” (Video)

Amy Winehouse is going back to rehab, I say yes, yes, yes!

LONDON, England (CNN) — British singer Amy Winehouse entered a rehabilitation clinic Thursday as part of her ongoing battle against drug addiction, her record label said.
art.winehouse.cnn.jpg

The cover of British tabloid The Sun shows a video still of Amy Winehouse smoking a glass pipe.

“Amy decided to enter the facility today after talks with her record label, management, family and doctors,” the Universal Music Group said in a written statement. “She has come to understand that she requires specialist treatment to continue her ongoing recovery from drug addiction and prepare for her planned appearance at the Grammy Awards. … Amy entered the facility by mutual agreement and continues to receive the full support of all concerned.”

Because she entered the clinic, Winehouse’s scheduled appearance at an awards show in France on Saturday was canceled, the statement said.

Her decision followed the leak earlier this week of a home video that showed her smoking something in a glass pipe minutes after she is heard saying she had just taken six tablets of the anti-anxiety drug Valium. Video Watch the video of Winehouse and a glass pipe »

The Sun, Britain’s best-selling daily tabloid newspaper, made the 19-minute video public on Tuesday. It said it was shot the previous Friday in Winehouse’s East London home. The Sun posted an edited version of more than two minutes on its Web site.

In the video posted online, Winehouse walks around her home in a dark tank top, talks to a friend on her cell phone, and talks to the person shooting the video.

At one point, Winehouse says, “I just took about six Valium.”

Sitting on her bed, she then lights a glass pipe and inhales. What was in the pipe was unknown.

On Wednesday, Scotland Yard said it was looking into the video after receiving it from The Sun.

Winehouse has become famous for her battles with addiction. Her hit song “Rehab” describes her reluctance to enter a rehabilitation center. She previously entered rehab last summer.

In October, Winehouse and her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, were arrested at a Norwegian hotel for marijuana possession, and soon afterward fans booed her on stage as she slurred and stumbled her way through her gigs.

In December, tabloids published pictures of Winehouse with a mystery white powder in her nose. She was also photographed wandering barefoot on a London street, wearing only jeans and a bra and appearing disoriented.

Fielder-Civil is currently behind bars in London on charges of perverting the course of justice following a bar fight.

Her parents have publicly expressed concern that their daughter is succumbing to the pressures of fame.
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Winehouse received six nominations for next month’s Grammy Awards, including record and song of the year for “Rehab” and best album for “Back to Black.”

“Amy is the most talented and important musical artist of her generation and has made huge strides on her road to recovery,” the record label’s statement said Thursday. “Universal Music Group wants nothing more than to see her take the time she needs to come back to full health and fulfill her incredible potential with the label.

British Sea Power member knocked out after 12-foot fall

British Sea Power’s sometime corner player Phil Sumner was knocked out last night (January 23) during the band’s gig at the after a 12-foot fall.

Sumner had climbed an amp stack during the band’s performance of ‘A Rock’ during the encore, then he decided to jump off. He landed on his chin and was knocked out and cut.

An ambulance was called and Sumner was taken to a nearby hospital.

Sumner suffered concussion and a broken molar plus had to have stitches on his chin, but is expected to make a full recovery.

The band had already been hit by injury, with drummer Woody currently out of action after slipping a disc in his back while using a dustpan and brush.

Tom White of is currently filling in for him on the UK tour.

REM unveil new album tracklisting

REM have unveiled the tracklisting for their eagerly awaited new album ‘Accelerate’ .

The 11-track follow-up to 2004’s ‘Around The Sun’ is out on March 31, and was produced by Jacknife Lee.

One of the songs, ‘I’m Gonna DJ’, was recorded during the ‘Around The Sun’ sessions, but was not included on that record. However, it was a regular in the band’s set on their 2004/2005 world tour.

The other ten songs, including first single ‘Supernatural Superserious’, were previewed at the band’s five-night ‘working rehearsal’ at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre in June last year.

The band filmed a video for ‘Supernatural Superserious’ in a New York lingerie shop on Monday (January 21).

According to the band’s official website, the tracklisting for ‘Accelerate’ is:

‘Living Well’s The Best Revenge’
‘Man Sized Wreath’
‘Supernatural Superserious’
‘Hollow Man’
‘Houston’
‘Accelerate’
‘Until The Day Is Done’
‘Mr Richards’
‘Sing For The Submarine’
‘Horse To Water’
‘I’m Gonna DJ’

Boredoms sign to Thrill Jockey, ready new release

Legendary Japanese psych-rock act Boredoms is now on legendary indie rock label Thrill Jockey. The band’s first release for Thrill Jockey will be the latest in Boredoms’ ongoing Super Roots series. Due in April, Super Roots 9 is a recording of a show Boredoms put on in Japan on Christmas Eve of 2004. Super Roots 9 will be the first live recording Boredoms has ever officially released. The album will feature original artwork by Boredoms leader Eye. Super Roots 9 will be available for purchase before its release date directly from the band on Boredoms’ upcoming U.S. tour

Kingblind Downloads

The Whigs: Like a Vibration
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The Octopus Project: I Saw The Bright Shinies
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Samantha Crain: Traipsing Through the Aisles
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Joe Jackson: The Invisible Man
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His Name is Alive: Bismillahi ‘Rrahmani ‘Rrahim
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Saturday Looks Good: To Me: Make A Plan
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Dirty Pretty Things: ‘We wanted to give new album away, Radiohead style’

Dirty Pretty Things frontman Carl Barat has revealed that he wanted to give the band’s forthcoming new album away free, Radiohead-style.

Barat explained that his idea was quickly knocked down by his manager, Alan McGee.

“I wanted to give the album away on the internet like Radiohead did,” he said. “I saw what they did and said, ‘Oh, that’s great, let’s do that too,’. But Alan told me straight off that it wasn’t going to occur. Ah, well.”

Barat went on to reveal details of his band’s forthcoming second album, produced by Nick Leman in Santa Monica, over the tail end of 2007. The follow-up to 2006’s ‘Waterloo To Anywhere’ is due to be released this spring.

The band recorded 20 songs, including ‘Plastic Hearts’, ‘Come Closer’, ‘Blood On My Shoes’, ‘Buzzards and Crows’ and ‘This Is Where The Truth Begins’ (which is also contender for the album’s title), with 12 set make the final cut.

“We didn’t record live – it’s the first time I’ve ever recorded like that,” explained Barat. “It was a bit unnerving – the three albums I’d done before [two Libertines albums and ‘Waterloo To Anywhere’] had all been recorded live.

“But there’s a lot of melody in these songs, and you risk losing that if you just thrash around.

“It’s a bit easier on the ear,” Barat added, suggesting that the new album will differ from the band’s debut. “I don’t mean easy listening by any means, but we got a bit ‘Black Flag’ on the last one,” he declared. “This one’s a lot more considered, but the passion and intent is the same.

Some of the songs which will make the final cut, such as probable first single ‘Plastic Hearts’, are already live favourites, but Barat is quick to warn fans not to expect standard replications of the songs on the album.

“The songs have changed a hell of a lot since we started playing them live,” he said. “When we played them first we were freestyling, but now we’ve even got strings on some of them. Well, it’s strings through a keyboard effect so it’s cheating – but it’s still strings! We’ve got some weird drum sounds too – some really, er, block rockin’ beats.”

Guillemots announce release date of their second album

Guillemots have announced that their second album will be called ‘Red’, and will be out in March.

The follow-up to the 2006 LP ‘Through The Windowpane’ will come out shortly after the release of the band’s first single in over a year, ‘Get Over It’, on March 17.

The Verve are aiming for ’spectacular’ return

The Verve have spoken about their forthcoming new album, which they are putting the finishing touches to now.

Bassist Simon Jones explained that he hoped the results would be “spectacular” on the belated follow-up to 1997’s ‘Urban Hymns’.

“There’s ‘Sit And Wonder’ – that’s the one we were doing at the gigs,” Jones explained.

“That was born out of a 25-minute jam, and we just edited it down into a song. That’s kind of the method we’ve always used, ever since the early days. We all take away the tracks, and make a note of all the bits that are good, then just put them together.

He added: “Then there’s ‘Appalachian Springs’, which is a song of Richard (Ashcroft, lead singer)’s, but one where there’s just three chords going round and round so we can still jam through it as a band. And ‘Mona Lisa’, that’s a much more strictly written, Richard-y type thing.”

These more structured Ashcroft moments will be balanced out by the likes of ‘Judas’ – a song born out of a full band jam, with Nick McCabe’s guitar playing leading the way.

Jones described ‘Rather Be’, a song set for the album, as having “a string line looping around three chords all the way through – kind of like ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ did, although it’s not really anything like that”.

He said: “It needs arranging, but that’s a pretty strong one. It’s very vocally led that one, with loads of great intertwining vocal lines, kind of making a chorus even though the chords haven’t changed. Richard’s a bit of a master at that.”

The band, who are recording their first record in over a decade at the at State of The Ark studios in Richmond, Surrey, are aiming to get the record out towards the end of the spring, in time for festival headline slots this summer.

“For us now it’s just a case of getting the balance between Richard’s songs and the more jam-based songs,” the bass player concluded. “If we can get the balance right, then it’s gonna be a spectacular record, without a shadow of a doubt.”

Tapes ‘N Tapes will release their second album ‘Walk It Off’ in Spring.

The follow-up to 2006’s ‘The Loon’ has a release date of April 8 for the USA, and was produced by David Fridmann in New York, reports Pitchfork.

The tracklisting for ‘Work It Off’ is:

‘La Ruse’
‘Time of Songs’
‘Hang Them All’
‘Headshock’
‘Conquest’
‘Say Back Something’
‘Demon Apple’
‘Blunt’
‘George Michael’
‘Anvil’
‘Lines’
‘The Dirty Dirty’
‘Link-arrow’

Portishead, Johnson, Waters To Headline Coachella

Jack Johnson and former Pink Floyd principal Roger Waters will headline the 2008 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, to be held April 25-27 at Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif. Also near the top of the bill are the Verve, Kraftwerk, Death Cab For Cutie, My Morning Jacket, Spiritualized, Cafe Tacuba and the Raconteurs.

The Breeders, the reunited Love And Rockets, Rilo Kiley, Justice, M.I.A., Sasha & Digweed, Fatboy Slim, Madness and Battles are also on the bill, which was revealed today (Jan. 21) at a Mexico City press event. Tickets go on sale Friday.

Coachella, which will be held April 25-27 at Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif., will be Portishead’s first show on American soil in nearly a decade. The pioneering U.K. act has a new, as-yet-untitled album due in April internationally, with U.S. details still pending.

The newly reunited Verve will also be touching down Stateside for the first time since splitting in 1999, while the Raconteurs, featuring the White Stripes’ Jack White, will be plugging their sophomore album, due in late spring or early summer.

Autolux, the National, Animal Collective, Tegan & Sara, Mum, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Aesop Rock, Minus The Bear, Spank Rock, Diplo, Vampire Weekend, Cold War Kids, Flogging Molly, Turbonegro, Chromeo, Simian Mobile Disco, the Streets, the Field, Les Savy Fav, Rogue Wave, Cut Copy, VHS Or Beta, Black Mountain, Kid Sister, Manchester Orchestra and Modeselektor will also perform at Coachella.

Also announced today were details on a new festival in New Jersey’s Liberty State Park, being launched by Coachella promoter AEG Live/Goldenvoice. The first All Points West event will be held there on Aug. 8-10; Radiohead has been tipped by sources as one of the headliners.

Here is the lineup for the 2008 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival:

April 25:
Jack Johnson, the Verve, Raconteurs, the Breeders, Fatboy Slim, Tegan & Sara, Madness, the Swell Season, the National, Animal Collective, Slightly Stoopid, Mum, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Stars, Battles, Aesop Rock, Midnight Juggernauts, Does It Offend you, Yeah?, Minus the Bear, Spank Rock, dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip, Diplo, Adam Freeland, Santo Gold, Jens Lekman, John Butler Trio, Vampire Weekend, Dan Deacon, Architecture In Helsinki, Sandra Collins, Busy P, Cut Copy, Black Lips, Datarock, Professor Murder, Reverend and the Makers, the Bees, Porter, Rogue Wave, Modeselektor, American Bang, Lucky I Am

April 26:
Portishead, Kraftwerk, Death Cab For Cutie, Cafe Tacuba, Sasha & Digweed, Rilo Kiley, Dwight Yoakam, M.I.A., Hot Chip, Cold War Kids, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, DeVotchKa, Flogging Molly, Mark Ronson, Turbonegro, Scars On Broadway, Islands, Enter Shikari, Calvin Harris, Boyz Noize, Junkie XL, Cinematic Orchestra, Jamie T, The Teenagers, VHS or Beta, Carbon/Silicon, Erol Alkan, Yo Majesty!, Little Brother, Bonde Do Role, St. Vincent, Akron Family, MGMT, Institubes DJs (Surkin, Para One and Orgasmic), James Zabiela, Sebastian, Kavinsky, Dredg, The Bird and the Bee, Grand Ole Party, New Young Pony Club, 120 Days, Yoav, Electric Touch, Uffie

April 27:
Roger Waters, Love & Rockets, My Morning Jacket, Spiritualized, Justice, Gogol Bordello, Chromeo, the Streets, Metric, Danny Tenaglia, Simian Mobile Disco, Booka Shade, Murs, Dmitri from Paris, Autolux, the Field, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Les Savy Fav, The Cool Kids, Sons & Daughters, Sia, Holy F*ck, Black Kids, Black Mountain, the Annuals, Kid Sister w/A-Trak, Man Man, Duffy, I’m from Barcelona, Manchester Orchestra, Deadmau5, the Horrors, Austin TV, Shout Out Louds, Plastiscines, Brett Dennen

Super Furry Animals:: Hey Venus! (Album Review)

I really enjoy two songs on this album, only two, and I’ll tell you why.

But first I want to warn that it’s fun for me to bitterly pick on the Super Furry Animals, especially with this new album, for the same reason that in most circumstances I would ravenously defend them (feasting yearly on their entrails), and I’ll tell you why.

Would you like to know how much I truly love Rings Around the World (2001)? With every tri-corner of my wicked, dickish heart; to the very bowels of my soul — no doubt plundered excessively for self-deprecating humor. I’ve been wrecked by “It’s Not the End of the World?” and broke into that mechanical circus wail in the middle of church, spent days trying to abandon the chorus of “Sidewalk Serfer Girl” only to meet unfamiliar students in the hall and overhear them singing, “…I’d do anything.” I jumped up and down really fast when some girl from the audience at an SFA show at the Metro climbed onstage to play violin behind “Run! Christian, Run!” and Gruff mentioned that she had only met them before the show and casually offered. My adoration for them is simple, more tin man than scarecrow. Fairy tales and doody jokes, then big savage pop behind — or probably on top, grinding — wearing a lascivious leotard. My love is cheap and that’s why it lasts.

So, Hey Venus! is a bit of a disappointment to hug and kiss. As David Goldstein’s said, forcing me to agree at gunpoint because I desperately pined to shit on this record, “I kind of lump SFA in with the New Pornos in that they’re incapable of making a ‘worst’ record — some of them just seem better than others.” But, he’s wrong on one point: Phantom Phorce (2004) was actually a concept album (Venus only dons the wool) and it hurt all over, remix deal or not. Still, Hey Venus! isn’t the annual output of a band deranged, compelled by the rude and sinful forces of whimsy, so much as just confident, bored, and creepy stolid.

I shouldn’t be worried, I know. Candylion (2007) blew over quickly, a cardboard cutout of Rhys’s first, catchier, grossly more fun and indulgent solo Yr Atal Genhedlaeth (2005), an album that ground its teeth on inky surf guitar and fat harmonies of similar beach breeding; there, in that year-or-so, was a noticeable, sharp decline. Love Kraft (2005) just turned out as expected, lush and tactile but, with the exception of a sacred, paroxysmal “Cloudberries,” the polyglot-white “Lazer Beam,” and the needling “Oi Frango,” stitched into something obvious and, at that point after a decade of albums that seemed almost subversively backwards, felt an appropriate culmination of tropes and tradition surrounding a band swarthy enough to champion a Tolkien-thick bestiary, ready to draw their loyal, accomplished relationships with producer Mario Caldato, Jr. and fuzzy cartoonist Pete Fowler to an intimate capsheaf.

If it wasn’t for the press intonations of turning, Hey Venus! wouldn’t seem as new-leaf as a Furry fan could imagine; Dave Newfeld (dude who crap kicked out of him in New York; Broken Social Scene maestro that doesn’t currently snog Feist) produces and Keiichi Tanaami (geriatric Japanese psyche-detritus; seriously, that album cover is killing me) helms the sleeve art, but Newfeld’s live recording approach obscures the band’s typically impeccable melodic sense with escutcheons of track overdrive and Tenaami’s art forgoes oddity for hardlined horror. A track like “Baby Ate My Eightball” dodges the porcelain birth canal of “Show Your Hand” or “Suckers” by sounding disjointed, swelling to unctuous grunts and winding lilting harmonies around lambent reverb. The best SFA songs are barber poles, dripping popsicles, wieners wrapped in holiday ribbons — the salt and silt that resident electrolysist Cian Ciaran can traipse through, embellish, build, and then set to pasture with rocket cannons and stilts. Which is why “Fire In My Heart” is so damned explosive; why “Some Things Come From Nothing” gorgeously rolls out end over end, pushed by a starshine squiggle and placating synth; why “Gathering Moss” should be eponymous for the very genesis of the band; and why “Carbon Dating” is the best four-plus minutes here.

Ciaran’s song wastes its aggregate patience within the ringing Village Green Preservation Society (1968) intro, so the rest, encapsulated in plaintive piano and a swooning ape-man waltz, is unaffected, marbled bliss, a shallow gimmick and refreshing for it. Bunf Bunford’s “Battersea Odyssey” follows, suitably drowned, sinister before handclaps draw whales and cuddly urchins from whatever dark blue depths wherever. Maybe this time around I just like everything Gruff Rhys didn’t pen even though he acts the Animal most adept at crafting Hey Venus! as faster, headier, more efficient than anything the band’s done since Fuzzy Logic (1996); his ostensible pick-up after the spelunking of the past two releases is all admirable and shit, probably opting for meatier live experiences, but nothing really builds here, nothing sidles against haphazard brilliance, nothing situates. It simply exists. “The Gift That Keeps Giving” is as it will ever be, a French horn the only seam showing, and Rhys harmonizing with himself sounds as utterly effortless as the trick ever has. For that immutability it will be cast into the void, one daring, lonely piece of the first Super Furry Animals album to not succeed as a thorough unit.

So, Hey Venus! is like a really good haircut: it’s brisk, light around the ears, and after so many ‘do permutations it’s bound to get some compliments about how civilized it looks, how grown up. Not as fast as Gruff might want you to think, as it follows the destiny of every Furry album and slows into cotton by the closing song, but it does seem inexplicably lighter — less jostle, more hustle. Which is fine; for every love like mine, craving saturation, that extra chorus and five more vocal tracks, seven minutes to find the kernel, there’s your opposite love, the “Man Don’t Give a Fuck” love, the “Chupacabra” love, so maybe it’s time we admit it, together. Time I get juxtaposed with u.
(Review by: Dom Sinacola)

Daniel Johnston to tour

Outsider music icon Daniel Johnston is soon to hit the road again. Johnston of course has a history of mental afflictions, but apparently he doesn’t suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. Rather than head down to warmer climes in the dead of winter, Johnson will gig throughout snowier sites. God Bless Daniel Johnston!

Tour dates:
02.05 Detroit, MI: The Majestic
02.06 Chicago, IL: Metro
02.07 Milwaukee, WI: Turner Hall
02.08 Minneapolis, MN: First Avenue
02.09 Omaha, NE: Slowdown
02.20 Boston, MA: Roxy
02.21 New York, NY: Highline Ballroom
02.22 Philadelphia, PA: Trocadero Theater
02.23 Washington, DC: Black Cat
02.24 Baltimore, MD: Ottobar

Magnetic Fields:: Distortion (Album Review)

Noise has had a long and distinguished pop career. These days, Phil Spector is best known as a bewigged eccentric whose retrial for murder is due to begin later this year. In the early Sixties, however, as a producer he upended pop music with his Wall of Sound technique, swamping the pretty vocals of girl groups like the Ronettes with a saturated instrumental roar. No one had ever heard anything like it.

Distortion fed back again in the late Seventies, with punk. In 1984, sulky Scots the Jesus and Mary Chain took the butterfly-in-treacle rush of girl-group Spector and added more feedback to create haiku-like squalls. Happily, they’re touring again, as are their peers My Bloody Valentine.

Enter wry New Yorker Stephin Merritt, Mr Magnetic Field. Merritt is a pop auteur of great distinction, if not wide renown; he probably earns more comparisons to Cole Porter than royalties. He might be best known for his songs accompanying the Lemony Snicket series of children’s books rather than the Magnetic Fields’ triple album of 1999, 69 Love Songs. (But was ‘Girls in Their Summer Clothes’, on Bruce Springsteen’s Magic album, a Merritt tribute?) Merritt also suffers from hyperacusis, an over-sensitivity to sound, a poignant side-note to this album.

Because on Distortion, the Magnetic Fields set out to out-Jesus the Mary Chain and out-Spector Phil, encasing his pithy melodies in the sort of whistles and groans that usually prefigure an eye-watering bill for the boiler. Every instrument purposely feeds back, including the cello, accordion and even the piano, which Merritt hopes is a first.

If all this sounds like a studio experiment, rest assured: the melodies speak louder than the din. Merritt’s lady-like foil Shirley Simms is at the fore, hawking the tunes hard. But the finest moments are Merritt’s. Normally, he sings like a depressed bloodhound, but on ‘Too Drunk to Dream’, he chirrups away, rhapsodising the perils and succour of being ’shit-faced’.

A lovely addition to the noisy canon and a barbed new year tonic.

Franz Ferdinand Gets ‘Dirty’ On New Album

“The idea of making a dirty pop record — this is what has been on our minds,” Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos said of the band’s ongoing studio sessions in Glasgow. A new, as-yet-untitled album is expected from the group this summer via Epic.

“It’s the opposite of punk/pop, which took something that was wonderful and removed all the dirt,” Kapranos says. The approach is best-heard on “Ride Together,” a “full-on upbeat, riding across the desert rock song. A lot of the other stuff is more rhythm- and dance-based,” he says.

After demoing material in Glasgow, the group intended to record the album in a proper studio in London. But after trial sessions there, “we decided the ones we did in Glasgow sounded much better,” according to Kapranos. “There was a real dirtiness, edge and attitude.”

“We’ve decided we’re going to do it up here, ourselves,” he continues. “It’s funny, because logically everything is wrong. We should go to a big studio and spend millions. But logic is never appropriate when you’re making music. You’ve gotta trust your instincts. This stuff made us want to get up and dance.”

Aiding the band’s new sonic endeavors are some old Russian synthesizers. “We found this thing called a Polyvox, built by a Russian engineer in the late ’70s,” Kapranos says. “He’d heard what a Moog was and had heard the sounds, but had no idea how to make one. He worked out how it would be made and made his version of what he thought a synth would be.”

He concludes, “For me, the imperfections are what makes it perfect, like the cheapest, shittiest guitars through practice amps.”

Costello Refurbishes ‘Model’ Yet Again

Continuing in Hip-O/UMe’s Elvis Costello reissue series, the labels will on March 4 release “This Year’s Model” bolstered with previously unreleased material and a bonus live disc.

Originally released in 1978, the Nick Lowe-produced effort will include 11 B-sides and alternate takes of the set’s songs; highlights include live versions of “Neat Neat Neat,” demo versions of three songs and an unreleased studio version of “This Year’s Girl.”

The bonus disc contains Costello and the Attractions’ Feb. 28, 1978, concert at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C., a 17-song set that includes songs from his 1977 debut, “My Aim Is True,” as well as from “This Year’s Model.”

“This Year’s Model” was previously reissued with different tracks by Rykodisc in 1993.

Here is the track list for “This Year’s Model”:

DISC ONE:
“No Action”
“This Year’s Girl”
“The Beat”
“Pump It Up”
“Little Triggers”
“You Belong to Me”
“Hand In Hand”
“(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea”
“Lip Service”
“Living In Paradise”
“Lipstick Vogue”
“Night Rally”
“Radio, Radio”
“Big Tears”
“Crawling to the USA”
“Tiny Steps”
“Running Out Of Angels” (demo version)
“Greenshirt” (demo version)
“Big Boys” (demo version)
“Neat Neat Neat” (live)
“Roadette Song” (live)
“This Year’s Girl” (alternate Eden Studios version)
“(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea” (alternate
Basing Street Studios version)

DISC TWO:
“Pump It Up”
“Waiting For the End of the World”
“No Action”
“Less Than Zero”
“The Beat”
“(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes”
“(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea”
“Hand In Hand”
“Little Triggers”
“Radio, Radio”
“You Belong to Me”
“Lipstick Vogue”
“Watching the Detectives”
“Mystery Dance”
“Miracle Man”
“Blame It on Cain”
“Chemistry Class”

These artists ‘expected’ to play Coachella

As we reported yesterday, the latest Coachella rumor floating is that there will be an East Coast version in the summer. A couple of the older rumors include David Bowie as a headliner and a set from the reunited My Bloody Valentine. Don’t count on either of the latter two, the Los Angeles Times reports, er, blogs.

But the Times was told by an unnamed source that the festival might include a surprising veteran act. And it lists these bands and artists as “expected” to play the desert festival in April:

Death Cab for Cutie
The Breeders
Justice
Jens Lekman
Junkie XL
The Verve
UNKLE
Cold War Kids
Chromeo
Autolux
Spiritualized
Portishead
VHS or Beta
Dan Deacon
Brett Dennen
The Cinematic Orchestra
Battles
Kid Sister
Crystal Castles
Louis XIV

Daft Punk: Alive 2007 (Album Review)

What more could a Daft Punk fan ask for than Alive 2007, hard evidence of the enigmatic French electronic duo’s adulation-filled summer tour? Recorded at the Palais Omnisports Paris Bercy stadium in Paris last June, the album plays like both a continuous best-of and a remix project, with the occasional, unobtrusive swells of a crowd in awe.

Naturally, because this is Daft Punk, innovation is a given. Songs you thought you knew are put through the spin cycle – each track deftly fastens together at least two of their best – so even if you’re the level of devotee who owns Homework in every format, you’ll still be impressed by this heavy load.
(Jason Richards)

X to tour

Hard to believe it’s been thirty-one years since X first started blazing a trail for L.A. punk. To commemorate that anniversary, the band will head out on what it’s calling the “13-31 Anniversary Tour” in March. The jaunt will feature the band in its original lineup of John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom, and D.J. Bonebrake.

Tour dates:

03.19 Chicago, IL: Metro/Smart Bar
03.21 Madison, WI: Barrymore Theatre
03.22 Minneapolis, MN: The Cabooze
03.25 Denver, CO: Bluebird Theater
03.26 Aspen, CO: Belly Up
03.28 Boise, ID: Big Easy Concert House
03.29 Portland, OR: McMenamins Crystal Ballroom
03.30-31 Seattle, WA: Showbox
04.09 Solana Beach, CA: Belly Up
04.10 Los Angeles, CA: Henry Fonda Theatre
(via prefix)

Miami Indie Lays Claim To Early Beatles Tracks

An independent Miami label says it plans to release never-before-heard Beatles live recordings made in 1962 at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany.

Fuego Entertainment, which distributes music through Koch, has entered into a joint venture, Echo-Fuego, with British producer/promoter Jeffrey Collins to put out his catalog holdings. They say those include a live Beatles performance of 15 songs at the club.

No release date has been set for the recordings, which the label claims are the first to feature drummer Ringo Starr as part of the group. Other Beatles recordings from the Star Club have been released, but Fuego says its collection includes previously unheard tracks, such as covers of Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues” and Maurice Williams’ “Do You Believe.”

Other live Beatles tracks the label says it holds also include “Twist and Shout,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Hippy Hippy Shake,” “A Taste of Honey,” “Money,” and “Ask Me Why,” which can be heard in other recorded Beatles performances at the Star Club.

Collins, who now lives in Florida, says he got the original tapes at the time from a DJ he’d booked for the club the night of the Beatles’ performance.

When he got the tapes, which the label says were recorded with the club’s permission, “they were in terrible condition,” says Collins. Decades later, he was able to digitally remaster them “to make them sound coherent,” but says Apple Corps rebuffed his 1996 overture to release the tracks.

The lack of a release date illustrates the obstacles involved in releasing Beatles-related product. “Through legal channels, we will be making these albums available for release,” says Collins. “The Beatles know these tapes exist and their lawyers know these tapes exist. It’s a matter of certain legalities.”

“We don’t have a comment as such but not surprisingly are looking into the claim,” says a spokesperson from Apple Corps., which maintains the Beatles’ business affairs.

Fuego Entertainment president/CEO Hugo Cancio says for $4.95, fuegoentertainment.net is offering a full-track stream of the live “I Saw Her Standing There,” plus clips of other live Beatles songs in its collection; downloads of a track each by Ahmir and rapper KRS-One; and early download access to its recording of Jimi Hendrix’s “Rainbow Bridge” concert.

Astute Beatles fan are already calling foul. According to Steve Marinucci, who runs Abbeyrd’s Beatles Page, of the four tracks on the Fuego site, only “A Taste of Honey” is unheard, and the “Lovesick Blues” cover isn’t even by the Beatles at all. As for the sound quality, Marinucci says they are no better than earlier “Star Club” releases, which are decidedly lo-fi.

Meanwhile, the company’s rights to the Hendrix material have already been disavowed by the late guitarist’s estate and its subsidiary enterprise, Experience Hendrix. “Experience Hendrix serves notice that it will take all legal action necessary to remove this bootleg material from the market and recover damages against Fuego Entertainment and associated parties for infringement as authorized under applicable law,” the company said in a statement.
(Via Billboard online)

The Verve may withhold album from EMI

Things just keep getting worse and worse for the beleaguered EMI, and it looks like Verve fans are the ones who are gonna suffer (as if the wait hasn’t been long enough). The Verve may join the ranks of Robbie Williams and Coldplay by threatening to withhold its next album until the band is assured that the company is financially healthy and it can count on marketing.

The Telegraph reports that a group of managers led by Jazz Summers, who reps The Verve, is scheduled to meet with EMI owner Guy Hands. “Why would we deliver a record when EMI is cutting back on the marketing and is in financial difficulty.”

Hands has already said that the days of multi-million dollar advances are over, the Financial Times reports.

“He has got no clue of what this business is about,” Summers told the Telegraph. “You only have big advances because you are not getting any royalties.”

As we previously reported, EMI has been in a downward spiral since it was purchased by Hands’ private equity company back in September for $6.3 billion.

Grammy Producers Ask for Strike Waiver from Writers Guild

The Grammys’ producers have asked the Writer’s Guild of America to grant an interim agreement–similar to the one struck between the Guild and David Letterman’s production company Worldwide Pants–that would allow its members, as well as members of the Screen Actors Guild like Beyonce, to work on and attend the show. A decision will come Monday at the earliest, although producers have said that the show will go on regardless. According to Variety, Grammy bigwigs tried to pull at the WGA’s heartstrings by pointing out that the telecast “generates funds to be used for school programs, to assist musicians in times of need and lobbying efforts in Washington.” “Lobbying efforts,” eh? Like these? You may want to just stick with talking about the schools there, guys.

Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back

From college dorm rooms to high school sleepovers, an all-but-extinct music medium has been showing up lately. And we don’t mean CDs. Vinyl records, especially the full-length LPs that helped define the golden era of rock in the 1960s and ’70s, are suddenly cool again. Some of the new fans are baby boomers nostalgic for their youth. But to the surprise and delight of music executives, increasing numbers of the iPod generation are also purchasing turntables (or dusting off Dad’s), buying long-playing vinyl records and giving them a spin.

Like the comeback of Puma sneakers or vintage T shirts, vinyl’s resurgence has benefited from its retro-rock aura. Many young listeners discovered LPs after they rifled through their parents’ collections looking for oldies and found that they liked the warmer sound quality of records, the more elaborate album covers and liner notes that come with them, and the experience of putting one on and sharing it with friends, as opposed to plugging in some earbuds and listening alone. “Bad sound on an iPod has had an impact on a lot of people going back to vinyl,” says David MacRunnel, a 15-year-old high school sophomore from Creve Coeur, Mo., who owns more than 1,000 records.

The music industry, hoping to find another revenue source that doesn’t easily lend itself to illegal downloads, has happily jumped on the bandwagon. Contemporary artists like the Killers and Ryan Adams have begun issuing their new releases on vinyl in addition to the CD and MP3 formats. As an extra lure, many labels are including coupons for free audio downloads with their vinyl albums so that Generation Y music fans can get the best of both worlds: high-quality sound at home and iPod portability for the road. Also, vinyl’s different shapes (hearts, triangles) and eye-catching designs (bright colors, sparkles) are created to appeal to a younger audience. While new records sell for about $14, used LPs go for as little as a penny–perfect for a teenager’s budget–or as much as $2,400 for a collectible, autographed copy of Beck’s Steve Threw Up.

Vinyl records are just a small scratch on the surface when it comes to total album sales–only about 0.2%, compared to 10% for digital downloads and 89.7% for CDs, according to Nielsen SoundScan–but these numbers may underrepresent the vinyl trend since they don’t always include sales at smaller indie shops where vinyl does best. Still, 990,000 vinyl albums were sold in 2007, up 15.4% from the 858,000 units bought in 2006. Mike Dreese, CEO of Newbury Comics, a New England chain of independent music retailers that sells LPs and CDs, says his vinyl sales were up 37% last year, and Patrick Amory, general manager of indie label Matador Records, whose artists include Cat Power and the New Pornographers, claims, “We can’t keep up with the demand.”

Big players are starting to take notice too. “It’s not a significant part of our business, but there is enough there for me to take someone and have half their time devoted to making vinyl a real business,” says John Esposito, president and CEO of WEA Corp., the U.S. distribution company of Warner Music Group, which posted a 30% increase in LP sales last year. In October, Amazon.com introduced a vinyl-only store and increased its selection to 150,000 titles across 20 genres. Its biggest sellers? Alternative rock, followed by classic rock albums. “I’m not saying vinyl will become a mainstream format, just like gourmet eating is not going to take over from McDonald’s,” says Michael Fremer, senior contributing editor at Stereophile. “But there is a growing group of people who are going back to a high-resolution format.” Here are some of the reasons they’re doing it and why you might want to consider it:

Sound quality LPs generally exhibit a warmer, more nuanced sound than CDs and digital downloads. MP3 files tend to produce tinnier notes, especially if compressed into a lower-resolution format that pares down the sonic information. “Most things sound better on vinyl, even with the crackles and pops and hisses,” says MacRunnel, the young Missouri record collector.

Album extras Large album covers with imaginative graphics, pullout photos (some even have full-size posters tucked in the sleeve) and liner notes are a big draw for young fans. “Alternative rock used to have 16-page booklets and album sleeves, but with iTunes there isn’t anything collectible to show I own a piece of this artist,” says Dreese of Newbury Comics. In a nod to modern technology, albums known as picture discs come with an image of the band or artist printed on the vinyl. “People who are used to CDs see the artwork and the colored vinyl, and they think it’s really cool,” says Jordan Yates, 15, a Nashville-based vinyl enthusiast. Some LP releases even come with bonus tracks not on the CD version, giving customers added value.

Social experience Crowding around a record player to listen to a new album with friends, discussing the foldout photos, even getting up to flip over a record makes vinyl a more socially interactive way to enjoy music. “As far as a communal experience, like with family and friends, it feels better to listen to vinyl,” says Jason Bini, 24, a recent graduate of Fordham University. “It’s definitely more social.”
(by:KRISTINA DELL for Time Inc.)

Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (Album Review)

Home demos are intended to be just that: noncommercial private recordings used to document the first flushes of an idea, a creative impulse, a sketch for a thematic or musical direction. For an audience, then, eavesdropping on their favorite songwriter’s creative process can offer a thrilling glimpse of an artist at work. It’s safe to say that “Alone” – a vigorously eclectic but mostly charmless collection culled from more than a decade’s worth of Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo’s home recordings – is strictly for hard-core fans of the geek-pop underdogs. The slower, slightly heavier demo for the band’s nerd-rock smash “Buddy Holly” is a cool collector’s bauble and the album’s only previously released track. But the highlights are few and far between. Apparently, devotees have been waiting for Cuomo to crack open his archive of unpolished, undiluted brainstorms since, like, forever. “Alone” brings to mind the old adage of be careful what you wish for. [Jonathan Perry]

Indie Buzz Band Vampire Weekend Preps Debut

With U.S. and European tours already under its belt, New York buzz band Vampire Weekend has something else to celebrate: its long-awaited self-titled debut hits stores on Jan. 29 via XL Recordings.

The 11-song set was mostly culled from sessions the group did in early 2007 with the intent to circulate the material to labels. Two new songs, “M79″ and “I Stand Corrected” were recorded and added to the final track listing after Vampire Weekend signed with XL.

“I feel like a lot of people have heard of us, starting in the summer, and they’ve been writing about a speculative way,” bassist Chris Baio said “Maybe they’ve only heard three MP3s or seen us live. I think we’ve all been pretty anxious to have it out there.”

Vampire Weekend’s sound has been likened to the Afro-Caribbean vibe of albums like Paul Simon’s “Graceland,” and listeners will find it fully present on the debut.

“I think this version represents our full sound,” Baio says. “There were some sections where drum parts were changed; some vocals might have been redone, and I re-recorded bass for one song. Little touch-ups [like] that might not make a difference to most listeners but made a difference to us.”

This spring, Vampire Weekend will launch a U.S. tour, including a few Southeast dates with the Walkmen. And although much of the first half of this year is mapped out, Baio says that the group is already plotting its next album.

“We’ve had most of these songs out for over a year,” he points out. “We have one full new song that we play live that’s going to be on the next album. Maybe [we'll] do an EP in between the two albums. We just need to figure out what our tour commitments are. We’ve definitely been talking about [recording], though.”

Here is the track list for “Vampire Weekend”:

“Mansard Roof”
“Oxford Comma”
“A-Punk”
“Cap Cod Kwassa Kwassa”
“M79″
“Campus”
“Bryn”
“One (Blake’s Got A New Face)”
“I Stand Corrected”
“Walcott”
“The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance”

New policies needed for iTunes to maintain dominant download position

As Macworld begins, the Apple Corporation is facing unprecedented challenges to its supremacy in the music download market. The recent emergence of the iPod compatible Amazon download store as an entity in the real world and Universal’s refusal to renew its contract to provide music for iTunes may finally cause Apple to reconsider the way it does business with companies that provide content for its store. Though Apple still controls a solid seventy percent of the music download business and, according to Business Week, has a comparable advantage in the video download market, the company needs to rethink its policy toward pricing if it is going to remain competitive. In addition to competition from Amazon, Microsoft is convinced that its Xbox 360 has enough online services to make a significant dent in Apple’s dominance. Also, as more users move toward using their portable devices for movies and television, Apple will need the support of companies like Universal and NBC Universal to offer competitive content. Though changes are probably afoot, what remains unclear is what effect Apple’s policy changes will have for the millions of consumers chained to their iPods. [Via Business Week]

Brit Awards 2008 – the nominees…

are…

British male solo artist: Jamie T, Mark Ronson, Mika, Newton Faulkner, Richard Hawley.

British female solo artist: Bat For Lashes, Kate Nash, KT Tunstall, Leona Lewis, PJ Harvey.

British group: Arctic Monkeys, Editors, Girls Aloud, Kaiser Chiefs, Take That.

British album: Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare, Leona Lewis – Spirit, Mark Ronson – Version, Mika – Life In Cartoon Motion, Take That – Beautiful World.

British breakthrough act: Bat For Lashes, Kate Nash, Klaxons, Leona Lewis, Mika. (Winner chosen by BBC Radio 1 listeners)

British live act: Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Klaxons, Muse, Take That. (Winner chosen by BBC Radio 2 listeners)

British single: Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love, Mika – Grace Kelly, Take That – Shine, Kaiser Chiefs – Ruby, Sugababes – About You Now, Mark Ronson Ft Amy Winehouse – Valerie, Kate Nash – Foundations, The Hoosiers – Worried About Ray, James Blunt – 1973, Mutya Buena – Real Girl. (A live public vote will decide the winner on the night)

International male solo artist: Bruce Springsteen, Kanye West, Michael Buble, Rufus Wainwright, Timbaland.

International female solo artist: Alicia Keys, Bjork, Feist, Kylie Minogue, Rihanna.

International group: Arcade Fire, Eagles, Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, White Stripes.

International album: Arcade Fire – Neon Bible, Eagles – Long Road Out Of Eden, Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, Kings of Leon – Because Of The Times, Kylie Minogue – X.

Lupe Fiasco:: Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool (Album Review)

Tireless hall monitor aesthetics and suspect taste be damned, Lupe Fiasco’s narrative gifts and labyrinth flow carry weight. Alas, the game isn’t kind to virtuosos who don’t slow down workout regimens long enough to revel in ironic minstrelsy. Tough to imagine this guy getting any more famous, but now he’s manifested and presented hip-hop’s doomsday device: a missile set to vaporize rogue states of underground promoters, producers, and rappers – the kind to dish out $1,500 for 15 minutes of stage time before Chamillionaire rocks a car show. Welcome to The Cool. Welcome to not having a nerdy, bearded Northerner with specs wax worldly. Welcome to not having to listen to that Def Jux, tongue-twisting shit with no bounce just to feel better about jamming so much violence and misogyny. Welcome to cutting off dated neo-clowns like Common so they can pursue clothing lines and stock roles in action flicks. Soundtrakk’s distinct production, his mechanic hybrids of syrupy soul, strings, and laser-beam synthesizer provide the canvas. And when Lupe rattles off stardom’s pitfalls, and on about gentrification, AIDS, children murdering infidels in blind faith, his Japanese custom threads, touring’s effect on romance, and representing Chicago to the fullest, he attacks. Make no mistake, The Cool’s stuffy and its plot a bitch to decipher (only four joints detail the story), but every 16-bar verse is stuffed, even the glitzy Snoop collab, “Hi-Definition,” with zingers garnishing crates of encrypted metrical compositions that demand critical analysis from student groups of no more than four, no less than two to a table.

Coachella Promoters Launching NYC-Area Fest

Sources say Coachella producers AEG Live/Goldenvoice will stage a summer festival with major headliners at Liberty State Park, just across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan. The event will not carry the Coachella brand.

Liberty State Park has hosted a handful of concerts in recent years, most notably a Radiohead show shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The new event gives AEG/Goldenvoice a major summer presence in the area, where it will compete with the new Vineland festival. That event, promoted by C3 Presents and Melvin Benn’s Festival Republic, will be held Aug. 8-10 at a 500-acre, privately-owned farm in Vineland, N.J., about 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, an announcement is expected in the coming days revealing the lineup for this year’s Coachella festival, to be held April 25-27 in Indio, Calif.

Clinic coming back with new album, touring

Break out the surgical masks! Everyone’s favorite dolled-up-like-docs band Clinic is about to get busy again. The Liverpudlian group’s new album, Do It!, is slated for an April 8 release on Domino. Clinic crafted the record in the band’s own studio, and it was mixed by Jacquire King, who has done similar work for Kings of Leon. A month after the album’s release, Clinic will embark on a North American tour.

Tour dates:
05.08 New York, NY: Music Hall of Williamsburg
05.09 Boston, MA: Paradise
05.10 Montreal, QC: La Sala Rossa
05.11 Toronto, ON: Lee’s Palace
05.12 Chicago, IL: Empty Bottle
05.13 Minneapolis, MN: 7th Street Entry
05.16 Vancouver, BC: Richard’s on Richards
05.17 Seattle, WA: Neumo’s
05.18 Portland, OR: Doug Fir
05.19 San Francisco, CA: Independent
05.20 Los Angeles, CA: Troubadour
05.23 Austin, TX: Emo’s
05.24 Baton Rouge, LA: Spanish Moon
05.25 Atlanta, GA: The Earl
05.26 Chapel Hill, NC: Local 506
05.27 Lancaster, PA: Chameleon Club
05.28 Washington, DC: Black Cat
05.29 Baltimore, MD: Sonar
05.30 Philadelphia, PA: Johnny Brenda’s
05.31 New York, NY: Bowery Ballroom

My Morning Jacket returning with new album, shows

It doesn’t have a name yet, but the highly anticipated new album from My Morning Jacket is now slated for a June 10 release via ATO Records. It will be the follow up to 2005’s groovy, expansive Z. The band fleshed out new songs during a stay in Colorado before moving on to New York City to record the tunes. Speaking of the Big Apple, My Morning Jacket will put on its first ever show at the legendary Radio City Music Hall on June 20. Before that, the band will perform some gigs deep in the heart of Texas. My Morning Jacket will join Yo La Tengo for a show at Houston’s Verizon Wireless Theatre March 10. Then MMJ will play a SXSW show at the Austin Music Hall March 13, with frontman Jim James following with a solo show March 15 at the St. David’s Church in the Texas capitol.

Kingblind.com get’s new servers

Kingblind.com is updating our servers. Will will return in a couple of days.. Servers are UP!! and we are back.. Sorry for the delay!!

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