Category: news

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Bits: Cadillac Sky, Stephen Calt, The Magnetic Fields, mr. Gnome, Twain, The Low Anthem

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  • Bryan Simpson has announced his departure from Cadillac Sky. An announcement about his replacement is forthcoming. We are grateful to Bryan for the great music he’s given us and wish him much happiness.

  • Dust-to-Digital reports the passing of blues biographer Stephen Calt, author of King of the Delta Blues: The Life an Music of Charlie Patton and I’d Rather Be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues among other tomes.

  • Now on to better news: the Magnetic Fields would like to bring their film Strange Powers to your town. Learn how you can help make it happen.

  • mr. Gnome has almost completed it’s third album and has announced tour dates starting in November.

  • Mat Davidson of the Low Anthem has released his second album with his project Twain. Interesting stuff. Check it out.

Speaking of the Low Anthem, we’ve been slowly falling in love with them since seeing them open for the Avett Brothers last winter. Here’s a nice little docu-video on them.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0yAMMCCgg4?fs=1]

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Bits: The Twilight Singers, Infantree, Devo, The Mississippi Sheiks, Matador at 21

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  • The first taste of the new Twilight Singers album is available. Get a free download of “Blackbird and the Fox” here.

  • My Old Kentucky Blog premiered the video for Infantree’s “Slaughter House” today. Check it out. MOKB may be on the fence about the song, but we love it.

  • Devo will be heading out on a tiny, little tour at the end of the month, so hope you Devotees are ready to travel.

  • (Additionally, you can get ready for Halloween by purchasing a Devo costume from their webstore. Yeah, that’s… I don’t know what to make of that.)

  • If you are a casual blues fan, you may not have heard of the Mississippi Sheiks – you may not even realize there were blues bands back in the 1930s since all the focus is usually on the man-with-a-guitar bluesmen of the time – but you’ll likely know their songs as covered by other artists. No Depression is running a contest to win a Things About Comin’ My Way: A Tribute to the Music of the Mississippi Sheiks DVD, CD, poster and T-shirt. Contributors include Van Dyke Parks, Dave Alvin and Alvin Youngblood Hart, among others.

  • If you didn’t make it to the Matador at 21 celebration in Las Vegas this past weekend, check out the recap at Stereogum to decide just how bitter you should be about missing it.

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Bit: Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Low Anthem

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If you live in the American South, you’re going to be pretty fortunate come December because the Low Anthem and Carolina Chocolate Drops will be touring together there.

Dec 4, Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA

Dec 7, Mercy Lounge – Nashville, TN

Dec 8, Bijou Theatre – Knoxville, TN

Dec 9, The Orange Peel – Asheville, NC

Dec 10, Neighborhood Theatre – Charlotte, NC

Dec 11, Lincoln Theater – Raleigh, NC

That thing you smell right now is the scent of my envy.

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Bits: The Flaming Lips, The Due Diligence, A Place to Bury Strangers, Liars, The Like, Gin Blossoms

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  • Pitchfork is featuring a doc on the making of the Flaming Lips’ Embryonic, and since the week is almost over, you’d better get over there.

  • Hooray for the Due Diligence! Isaac Gillespie and company surpassed their Kickstarter goal, so I Will Wreck Your Life will get a vinyl pressing, and the album is streaming at their Bandcamp site.

  • “But what I really want to do is direct…” A Place to Bury Strangers are holding a contest for aspiring music video directors. Create a video for APtBS’ song “Deadbeat” and upload it to the Deadbeat contest YouTube channel for a chance to win a signed boxset, 4 tickets to an APtBS show of your choice and have your video posted to all APtBS websites with credit as the official video.

  • Additionally, do yourself a favor and see A Place to Bury Strangers live:

    9/30 – Nashville, TN – Next Big Nashville Festival at Exit In with Yeasayer, Waaves, & Javelin

    10/1 – Durham, NC – Duke Coffeehouse

    10/2 – Richmond, VA – Strange Matter with Ceremony & Soundpool (Killer Pimp Night)

    10/3 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge with Chapterhouse, Soundpool & Ulrich Schnauss

    10/15 – Minneapolis, MN – Whole Music Club at University of Minnesota

    10/26 – Brooklyn, NY – Death By Audio with Japandroids

    10/30 – West Palm Beach, FL – Respectable Street

    11/3 – New York, NY – Billboard Showcase at Gramercy

    11/11 – Monterrey, Mexico – Escenica

    11/13 – Mexico City, Mexico – Festival Sonorama

    Leave your pansy earplugs at home.

  • This could be worth wading into the murky depths of iTunes: Liars have released a live EP of their May 27 Shepherd’s Bush gig, cleverly entitled Live at Shepherds Bush Empire, exclusively through iTunes.

    Tracklisting:

    1. Scissor

    2. Proud Evolution

    3. The Overachievers

    4. Clear Island

    5. A Visit from Drum

  • I finally watched We Jam Econo: the Story of the Minutemen last night! This is not news. It’s just an excuse to post this video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79D1ifOhGb4?fs=1]

Jennifer adds:

  • The Like are on a U.S. west coast tour now-right-now.

  • The Gin Blossoms’ new album No Chocolate Cake is streaming on AOL Music.

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Bits: The Black Keys, Andrew Bird, Neil Young, Sweet By and By, the Felice Brothers

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  • With the proceeds from a benefit concert played in Akron, Ohio, last autumn to honor Alfred McMoore – the artist who inadvertently named the band – the Black Keys Alfred McMoore Memorial Endowment Fund has been established to support community services for Akron residents like McMoore who suffered from schizophrenia.

  • Andrew Bird will reprise his popular Gezelligheid concerts in December with dates in DC, Boston and Chicago.

  • Neil Young’s highly-anticipated, Daniel Lanois-produced album Le Noise is up on NPR’s First Listen.

  • A reminder for those in Northern California: The Yolo Throwdown Car and Music Festival is coming up this weekend, featuring the Sweet By and By, who are slated to hit the stage around 3:15 P.M.

  • Our good friend Digger has been counting down the top ten Felice Brothers songs of their career so far, which includes the brilliant “Marie”.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izAAG1QEX_k?fs=1]

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Bits: Infantree, Justin Townes Earle, Vic Chesnutt & Elf Power, Neil Young, A Place to Bury Strangers

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  • Infantree’s first full-length album, Would Work, is out today, and you can take a preview listen at Spinner (also up: Watchmen, Black Angels and Grinderman, among others).

  • No Depression wants you to interview Justin Townes Earle, and they want to compensate you for it. Submit a question for JTE, and you could win an autographed copy of his new album, Harlem River Blues

  • Pitchfork‘s One Week Only feature is currently running a documentary of Vic Chesnutt’s 2009 European Tour with Elf Power.

  • For those excited about the new Daniel Lanois-produced Neil Young album, Le Noise, Stereogum has a preview for you in the form a video for “Angry World”.

  • A Place to Bury Strangers has a five-song EP – “I Lived My Life To Stand In The Shadow Of Your Heart”, “Girlfriend” and three remixes of “I Lived” – and you can download the Secret Machines remix from Mute. APtBS will be kicking off a fall tour with a free show at Thirteenth Floor in Massillon, Ohio, on September 24 and swinging through Cleveland on September 27 (more on that next week).

They Shoot Music Don’t They talked Oliver Ackermann of A Place to Bury Strangers, tagged “the loudest band in New York”, into going acoustic for an evening stroll in Yppenplatz, Vienna. Sweet results.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG-VGMT0R8Q?fs=1]

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Bits: Conrad Plymouth, Americana Music Fest, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Plastic Ono Band, The Afghan Whigs, Ohio Hip Hop Awards, The Black Keys-ish

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  • Conrad Plymouth has another beautiful song, a demo called “They Keep Everything So Clean”, up at their Tumblr.

  • The Americana Music Festival starts up tomorrow, and if you can’t make it to Nashville for the festivities in person, npr.org will be simulcasting the awards and honors show Thursday evening, according to the Carolina Chocolate Drops Twitter account (though I have yet to find any information about it on npr.org).

  • Speaking of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, here’s a nifty mini-lesson from Dom Flemons on playing the bones.

  • The Plastic Ono Band has a pair of all-star gigs coming up in NYC on October 1 and 2. Special guests include RZA, Mike Watt, Iggy Pop, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Perry Farrell, among others.

  • Cincinnati, Ohio’s Midpoint Music Fest on September 23-25 will include a couple of Afghan Whigs-related highlights in the form of photographs by John Curley and a documentary entitled Ladies and Gentlemen: The Afghan Whigs. Details here.

  • The Ohio Hip Hop Awards and Music Conference will be hitting downtown Cleveland September 17-19. Details here.

  • And because I’m trying to get used to being a self-promoting hooer blogger, I invite you all to check out the guest post I wrote for the lovely Brucini over at the Black Keys Fan Lounge. It was an honor to be asked and a pleasure to do it.

  • I wanted to close this out with the new Flaming Lips Black Cab Session, but the embed is inoperable, so follow the link for a little delight.
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Bits: Justin Townes Earle, The Walkmen, James Blackshaw, ATP, Roadside Graves, The Black Angles, Kermit Ruffins, Ray Davies

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  • NPR’s got it going on in their First Listen feature, with Justin Townes Earle’s Harlem River Blues and the Walkmen’s Lisbon in the rotation right now. Additionally, although it’s a little older now, is the latest from A.A. Bondy-favorite James Blackshaw.
  • Also at NPR, an All Tomorrow’s Parties preview playlist from NTSIB favorite Jim Jarmusch, which includes T-Model Ford, Raekwon and Ohio’s Greenhornes.
  • Muzzle of Bees brings us some special downloads from a lost session Roadside Graves recorded for Aquarium Drunkard.
  • Spinner offers a free download of the Black Angels’ “Telephone”, which has nothing to do with who you’re thinking of, as well as “I Got a Treme Woman” by Kermit Ruffins.
  • There’s a Ray Davies collaboration album in the works, which will reportedly include Frank Black, Bruce Springsteen and the late Alex Chilton, among others. Pitchfork gathered some reports for you.

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Bits: Conrad Plymouth, Infantree, Megafaun, Folgers, Wu-Ta

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  • Conrad Plymouth’s beautiful EP is available on 10″ clear vinyl. Get it.

  • Another gorgeous song from Infantree, “Slaughterhouse”, is available for free download.

  • Megafaun and Fight the Big Bull will be joined by guest Justin Vernon and Sharon Van Etten for a series of shows, taking place September 17-19, that will cover songs from Alan Lomax’s Sounds of the South collection. The shows will be recorded for a future live album release.

  • If your life has heretofore been incomplete due to a lack of Johnny Cash singing to you about coffee from your phone, be ready to experience nirvana. Folgers has posted a series of free ringtones of their jingle performed by Cash, Aaron Neville and Michael McDonald, among others. I can’t make it all the way through the Michael McDonald one for fear of suffocating from laughter.

  • The Wu-Tang Clan are in the middle of the Rock the Bells tour, during which they are performing 36 Chambers in its entirety. Check out the Clan turning out “M.E.T.H.O.D. Man”.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOLR6U3Cpn8?fs=1]