Category: news

No comments

Bits: Cadillac Sky, Big Boi, Mark Lanegan & Isobell Campbell, Juniper Tar, Local Natives, Lou Barlow & the missingmen, Suckers

  By ,

  • Because it’s Cadillac Sky Week here at NTSIB, we have to kick this off by reminding you that their excellent album Letters in the Deep is available NOW. Get it.

  • Hypetrak has a Big Boi song for you to hear and enjoy that re-teams BB with Andre 3000, along with Dungeon Family cohort Sleepy Brown, but which may not appear on Big Boi’s solo joint coming next month due to apparent record label bullshit.

  • Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell are teaming up yet again. Their third collaboration, Hawk, will be released on August 24 with U.S. tour dates in the works.

  • At the time of this writing, there are 18 hours left to help fund the Juniper Tar tour documentary. They have some pretty nifty reward levels, including a private house concert for big-bucks donors in the Milwaukee area.

  • Aquarium Drunkard’s forthcoming (June 22) digital compilation, L’Aventure, a collection of covers from Television’s album Adventure will feature Local Natives doing “Careful”. Hear it here.

  • Lou Barlow has recorded an EP with the missingmen, =Sentridoh III, and Pitchfork has the sweet track “Losercore” available for listening.

  • One of the nicest things you could do for yourself this week would be to head over to Spinner and take a listen (or twenty) to the new Suckers’ album Wild Smile.

No comments

Bits: The Wu is coming through, Strummerville by Letts, the story of K Records

  By ,

  • There’s never a shortage of news from the Wu-Tang Clan, and our first four items are devoted to them. Up first: The Wu will be playing the Rock the Bells festival tour at the end of August, performing their masterpiece Enter the Wu-Tang Clan (36 Chambers) in its entirety. This year’s bill also includes Rakim, KRS-ONE and Slick Rick, among others.

  • Raekwon has released a new mixtape, Cocainism, Vol. 2, and you can download it here.

  • Pollen, The Swarm Part 3 is on its way, and you can download the first track, “Roll with Killer Beez”, here.

  • It was inevitable: RZA is making a kung fu film. The Man with Iron Fists was co-written by RZA and Eli Roth and will be directed by and star RZA.

  • Filmmaker Don Letts has produced a documentary about the creation of Strummerville, the foundation that carries on Joe Strummer’s work of promoting music from beyond the fray, and the DVD of the film is being sold exclusively through the Strummerville site where you can also watch a trailer for the film.

  • Pitchfork’s One Week Only feature this week is The Shield Around the K, the story of K Records, the independent label founded by Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening in 1982 and still operating to this day.

And because you know I can’t let an opportunity to push the Black Keys pass, here’s a web exclusive of the guys performing the excellent “Ten Cent Pistol” during their appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last week. (And you can see their televised performance of the bangin’ “Howlin’ for You” here.)

http://widget.nbc.com/videos/nbcshort_at.swf?CXNID=1000004.10045NXC&widID=4727a250e66f9723&clipID=1231142&showID=243

No comments

Bits: free Jay Bennett album, Hell and Half of Georgia and The Famous shows, listen to Peter Wolf Crier, the Black Keys on late night

  By ,

  • The Jay Bennett Foundation, an organization supporting music and education started by the late musician’s mother and brother, will be releasing Bennett’s final solo album, Kicking at the Perfumed Air, as a free download on July 10 (a portion of physical album sales will go to the foundation). You can take a listen to two of the songs from the album at Pitchfork.

  • NTSIB friends Hell and Half of Georgia and the Famous have shows coming up. HaHoG will be playing Alex’s Bar in Long Beach, California, on June 5, and the Famous will be playing at the first annual Brewfest, hosted by the San Francisco Giants, on May 29 at AT&T; Park in San Francisco.

  • Inter-Be, the debut album by Peter Wolf Crier, is up for free listening at Spinner.com. They’ll be playing the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland on July 22 with the Builders and the Butchers and Heartless Bastards. There’s no way that show could be anything but killer.

  • Because you know we can’t help ourselves mentioning them right now, the Black Keys will be playing The Late Show with David Letterman tonight and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tomorrow. If you’ll be in NYC tomorrow, you can enter the Band Bench Sweepstakes for a chance to hang out in the bleachers on stage for the performance.

This sweet-ass video of the excellent “Too Afraid To Love You” from the new Black Keys’ album, Brothers, gives a glimpse into Dan and Pat’s time at the historic Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11883860&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

“Too Afraid To Love You” by The Black Keys from Jorge Ortiz on Vimeo.

No comments

Bits: Happy Black Keys Day!, Alan Moore box set, Dio lost, Curtis remembered, Conrad Plymouth travels

  By ,

  • I’m tempted to make this an all-Black Keys Bits post, but I won’t. That being said, holy shit, the new album drops today and it is glorious. And they’re giving away a copy of the deluxe, limited-edition CD over at HearYa.

  • Comic book genius Alan Moore is in music news again as he collaborates with photographer Mitch Jenkins and a roster of musicians, including Mike Patton, on a box set that includes a story written by Moore, illustrated by Jenkins with an accompanying score on CD or vinyl.

  • Metal legend Ronnie James Dio lost his battle with cancer on Sunday, and today marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis.

  • Our friends Conrad Plymouth give a brief glimpse of their journey to SXSW.

  • And back around to the Keys. In concert with the official release of Brothers is the premiere of the video for the lead single “Tighten Up”. The guys continue their fine video tradition of hilarity and violence. With no dinosaur puppets in sight.


The Black Keys “Tighten Up”
http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=104927443,t=1,mt=video
The Black Keys | MySpace Music Videos

No comments

Bits: This Is Jim Jones, Sleigh Bells, Trent’s new joint, Liquid Swords II, Murder by Death & whiskey, litrock, Frank the Funkasaurus Rex wrecks ya

  By ,

If you have somehow missed the puppet dinosaur craze, please meet Frank the Funkasaurus Rex. Frank loves him some tits ‘n’ tubs, and we love Frank.

Addendum: So, that scroll across the bottom? Not a joke. TBK was seriously pissed about this video. Sorry, guys. Wish I had known before.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_PrT25o8Vs]

No comments

Bits: Shel Silverstein songs, Alan Moore opera, No Depression fest, save 924 Gilman, produce a Juniper Tar doc, RSD is crafty

  By ,

  • Did you know that besides the poems that were so dear to many of us in our youth, Shel Silverstein was also responsible for songs like “A Boy Named Sue” and “The Cover of the Rolling Stone”? A cadre of folky and country artists have contributed to an album of Silverstein’s songs, called Twistable, Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein, that will be released on June 8. Pitchfork has a couple of songs from contributors My Morning Jacket and Andrew Bird for you to listen to.

  • A favorite of NTSIB, writer Alan Moore is working with Damon Albarn and Gorillaz to produce an opera about magician/mathematician John Dee (if you are familiar with Moore, you know this is completely unsurprising), and Pitchfork has some info on that, too.

  • Another favorite of NTSIB is the venerable magazine-now-community-website No Depression, and they have announced the line-up for their always impressive festival. This year’s festival will include Swell Season, Lucinda Williams, Cave Singers, Punch Brothers, Alejandro Escovedo, Chuck Prophet and Sera Cahoone.

  • Respected punk venue 924 Gilman is in danger of closing down due to a ridiculous rent increase. Here’s what you can do to help keep it going.

  • High Frequency Media is planning a Juniper Tar tour documentary, and you can become a producer.

  • There’s a nice write-up of the Record Store Day activities in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood from a crafter’s perspective at the Jo-Ann Fabrics blog.

Yours Truly shares this video from SXSW of Nathaniel Rateliff playing “Boil & Fight”, but we’re particularly enamored of his rendition of Roger Miller’s “Oo-De-Lally” at the beginning.
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11039579&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=b32bed&fullscreen=1

Nathaniel Rateliff “Boil & Fight” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

No comments

Bits: Mike Watt photo exhibit & I Need That Record free viewing extended

  By ,

  • Mike Watt’s photo exhibit, Eye-gifts from Pedro, at the Track 16 Gallery has been extended to May 16th and the Watt from Pedro Show will be a live remote broadcast from the gallery on the 16th.

  • I Need That Record! will be featured on Pitchfork for another week. It’s a must-watch documentary for anyone who cares at all about music.

No comments

Bits: R.I.P. Guru, Kings Go Forth debut, Ketch Secor deejays, Arcadia re-issue, Hip Hop Alley mixtape

  By ,

  • After having survived a heart attack last month, Gang Starr MC Guru has died of cancer at the age of 43.

  • Kings Go Forth release their debut album, The Outsiders Are Back today. Good, classic stuff.

  • From Old Crow Medicine Show: “You can now listen to archives of “The Old Time Hour with Ketch Secor” at the WSM website. Go to the WSM archives, click the arrow in upper right hand corner of the player, scroll right and click ‘Guest Hosts’. Then scroll down to find Ketch’s shows – and stay tuned for next’s month’s show.”

  • Who remembers the Duran Duran one-off side-project Arcadia? NTSIB remembers it fondly and has discovered that the album, So Red the Rose, is being re-issued. You can take a listen at Spinner.

  • Pigeons & Planes and the Music Ninja bring you a pretty sweet mixtape called The Hip Hop Alley, featuring Big Boi, Mos Def and Damian Marley & Nas, among others.

  • I’m just going to say London, Pixies, and drop this here.

If you haven’t already, it’s high time you introduced your face to the Dirtbombs.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-53uojoesME]

No comments

Bits: Rekkid Store Day, Hell & Half of Georgia show, Hank’s Pulitzer, Rush for real, Prine tribute

  By ,

  • Record Store Day is coming April 17! As the NTSIB hermitage is newly-equipped with a rekkid playa after years of watching the old vinyl collection sit quiet and sad, we are super jazzed for this Christmas of the music world this year. I’ll be celebrating the day at Music Saves, so if you’re there that day and happen to grab the last Black Keys 12″ before I’ve gotten my hands on a copy and you feel a sharp blow to the back of your head and then wake up in a pool of your own vomit to find that TBK 12″ gone, well…
  • Hell and Half of Georgia have a free show coming up on April 24 at Canter’s Kibitz Room in Hollywood. They also have new swag in the form of a pretty rockin’ Tee-shirt.
  • Did you know there’s a Pulitzer Prize for music? Yep, and Hank Williams was awarded one this year. I spotted a blog earlier answering the question of why Hank was awarded the Pulitzer for music, but was that really a question? Is “because he was fucking awesome” not answer enough?
  • Rush is touring. That’s right. Rush.
  • A John Prine tribute album will be hitting stores on June 22 featuring contributions from the likes of Old Crow Medicine Show, Justin Townes Earle, the Avett Brothers, Conor Oberst, Deer Tick and more.

We’ve been a little undecided on our feelings about Megafaun, but this performance they staged for La Blogotheque has certainly gone a long way in endearing them to us.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10851413&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Megafaun – His Robe / A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

No comments

Bits: Lolla’10, Yuri’s Night, Lou Barlow tour, TBK in NYC2, new Big Boi jam

  By

  • While we don’t post too many festival line-ups unless A.A. Bondy or the Felice Brothers are involved (we play favorites, we admit it), the Lollapalooza 2010 line-up is pretty great. Standouts for us: Jimmy Cliff, the Black Keys, Cypress Hill (we saw them on a previous Lolla go-’round, and they had one of the best sets of the day), Mavis Staples, Mumford & Sons, Dawes and Royal Bangs. It’ll be a something-for-everyone weekend.

  • If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, you should be getting tickets for Yuri’s Night at the NASA Ames Research Center this Saturday because the entertainment lineup is straight-up awesome. Les Claypool, The Black Keys, Common, N.E.R.D. and more. We ain’t got nothing like that going for the CLE celebration.

  • Lou Barlow will be touring with Mike Watt’s missingmen, though sans Watt, in June.

  • After the quick sell-out of the Black Keys’ upcoming Summerstage show, a second date has been added. Go get you some, NYC.

  • Pitchfork has a new Big Boi track, “Shutterbugg”, for you to listen to. BB has signed with Def Jam, so his solo album should finally see the light of day.

If it was possible to have carnal relations with music, while we would have a steady conjugal visiting schedule with the entire Black Keys catalogue, we would also have a tawdry affair with Lou Barlow’s “Gravitate”.

http://www.lala.com/external/flash/SingleSongWidget.swf