John Barry, the UK composer who wrote theme songs in technicolor for classic movies like Goldfinger (one of the 11 James Bond films he wrote music for) and Midnight Cowboy, died from a heart attack in New York at the age of 77.
Video: Shirley Bassy - Goldfinger
Video: Nancy Sinatra - You Only Live Twice
» en.wikipedia.org
» johnbarry.org.uk (extensive fan site)
Hard hitting blues rockers Black Country Communion tours in the North of England in July. The tour starts two days after their headlining slot at the High Voltage Festival in London.
Live dates:Tickets: 24h Box Office: 0871 230 1101, seetickets.com and thegigcartel.com.
Dutch alternative rock band De Staat burst upon the scene in 2008 with their Wait For Evolution album, an adventurous rock album that covered all bases of the field, including a couple of new ones that were discovered by Torre Florim, who had been working on and of on this project for eight years. While that one was basically a solo album, with a couple of friends helping out with background vocals and the odd guitar bit and bass line, the follow-up Machinery is a group effort, with Florim still very much in control.
De Staat sound like nobody else, but they sound like a lot bands thrown together, without losing focus and clarity. Think Grinderman mixing with Tom Waits, the Pixies, the Black Keys, and early Talking Heads. A self declared mix of Dead Weather and Steve Reich, Machinery sounds industrial and heavy, enlivened with a catchy back beat for a songs like Psycho Disco. The Black Sabbath monster riffs of Serial Killer and Rooster-Man could have been used for an updated soundtrack for Fritz Lang's M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder.
Watch Greg Hess of the sketch group Cook County Social Club regretting being a fan of the Dave Matthews Band.
It has been twenty years since Rodrigo Leão last show in The Netherlands. He will be playing with his Cinema Ensemble at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on April 20. Rodrigo Leão is Portugal's leading composer, mixing classical, pop and folk music. He worked with Tindersticks singer Stuart A. Staples on his most recent album A Mãe.
Video: Rodrigo Leão & Cinema Ensemble - Histórias, Vida Tão Estranha & Cordal
(official video for the A Mãe album - live @ the Casino, Estoril)
German neo-psychedelic duo xrFarflight will release their new album under the spell of the cyclops' view! on March 4. A current free EP has three outtakes and one track of the album.
Multi-instrumentalists Karsten Genz and Daniel Gädicke joined forces in 2003 with a shared passion love for early Pink Floyd and Soft Machine. With dreamy lyrics inspired by fairy tales and sci-fi and a pasoral feel it's the perfect soundtrack for a picnic on a sunny day in Spring. Taking it's title from the very first line in the album's opener spacecramp, the songs flow like a lazy brook with a few treacherous undercurrents to keep it interesting. Tracks like walkin' the snowman and and a fat, ill-tempered baby bring back The Kinks in their Village Green Preservation Society phase, while insects sound a lot like early Bowie, just before he went stellar, shedding the last bit of his folk roots.
Under the spell of the cyclops' view!, is a self-released album and will be released on CD and LP. Pre-order it form the band's website.
Tracks:
The producing dust EP contains three tracks that were recorded during sessions, but they didn't make the album. Download it for free from the band's website.
Tracks:Nadja Rüdebusch of Binoculers joines the band on stage during their live shows.
Live dates:* w/ Binoculers
% w/ Yakari
$ w/ The Monochrome Set
UK funk jammers The New Mastersounds fly to Spain to play a string of club dates. They will be road testing new material, half of which has vocals by the band themselves, a departure from their instrumental approach. There have been vocals in the past, but then they always brought in a guest singer to take of that.
Live dates:MP3: The New Mastersounds - San Frantico
(live @ Mountain Jam VI - Hunter Mtn Ski Area, NY - 2010/06/04)
Watch Swedish synth-pop duo This Vision perform an unplugged version of their new song We Were Much Too Young. Recorded by Jan Blennerup at the Folkets Hus in Helsingborg, November 21, 2010.
Singer Marcus Lantz and synthesizer player/programmer Christian Hartmann recorded two more songs in this empty, darkened theater: The Boy With a Heart of Glass and Heaven Can Wait.
Electric versions of all three songs will be included on their forthcoming new album on their own label Devotion Records.
Watch Grégoire Fray of Belgian band Thot play an acoustic version of Ortie. Recorded in his living room for the new music blog The Noisy Exhibition that will be launched on February 1st.
Live dates:
Swiss dectet FIDOplaysZAPPA entered in the studio in the Spring of 2010 to record Too Big To Fail, an acoustic tribute to Frank Zappa and a few originals in the vein of moustached maestro.
It is a respectful album, on the verge of overdoing it. They follow te originals like overzealous St. Bernhard, jazzing things up a little with mixed results. Black Napkins is just a notch above late night dinner background music, while Let's Make The Water Turn Black is turned into enjoyable brass fest. What is missing are the tongue-in-cheek vocals that were such an essential part of the Zappa experience. The stand out player is Martin Medimorec, who channels vibes and marimba player Ruth Underwood rather well. Too Big Fail is an album for people who are not ready yet to handle the real stuff.
As for the originals, only Colonia 4711, a piano piece, is a memorable tune. The sixteen minute plus Musician's Salary is overlong piece of free jazz meets 20th Century classical music that could have been interesting when they had taken out the uninteresting bits, which means that it would have run for about four minutes or so.
FIDOplaysZAPPA:
Dave Muscheidt: vocals, general grumpiness
Oli Fredli: piano, keys
Stef Strittmatter: guitars, vocals
Martin Medimorec: vibraphone, marimba, percussion
Pascal Grünenfelder: bass, vocals, bandleaderism
Remy Sträuli: drums, vocals
Dave Blaser: trumpet
Alex Hilbe: alto sax, baritone sax
Ueli Pletscher: tenorsax
Christoph Huber: trombone
Too Big To Fail is a-released album on Czar Of Crickets. Buy it from the band's website.
Tracks:
It all started in 2007 in the USA and it gets bigger every year: Record Store Day; a celebration of rare CD's and DVD's, and of course limited edition vinyl. Buy it at your favorite local independent record store.
Record Store Day 2011 is Saturday, April 16. Start saving now.
Watch Thunder Power perform their new song Night Creatures. Filmed by Love Drunk, a video/audio recording studio led by Django Greenblatt-Seay who films Nebraskan bands. This one was shot at The New BLK gallery in downtown Omaha.
Thunder Power, is a collective musical outlet of a group of friends that originated in Omaha in 2006, head to the studio this May to recorded their first proper full length.
Bill Laswell (bass), Brian Carroll (better known as Buckethead - guitar) and Bryan "Brain" Mantia (drums) go nuts on their new album Profanation: Preparation for a Coming Darkness. Operating as Praxis they have come up with funky post-grunge heavy metal collection of songs that are rammed into your skull. A ton of guests have joined for the fun, including Iggy Pop, Mike Patton, Doctor Israel, Wu-Tang protégé Killah Priest and Jamaica-born toaster Hawk.
It's like a soundtrack for a post-apocalyptic blockbuster. All the loudness aside, Iggy Pop steals the show with a laconic vocals for Furies, sounding like a Wagnerian priest introducing the Valkyrs. Another stand-out track is Ruined, with Buckethead cutting loose on guitar, sounding like Vernon Reid meeting David Gilmour, with Brain dropping bombs on the bass drum. Breather tracks are the menacing dub Babylon Blackout and the album's closer End Time, with mournful guitars playing on top of funeral march drum. Not a party record as such, but it will go down like a storm during doom themed gatherings.
Profanation: Preparation for a Coming Darkness is released on M.O.D. Technologies. Release date: February 8.
Tracks:» myspace.com/billlaswell
» brainbeatz.com
» bucketheadland.com
DATAROCK, the dance rock band from Norway, have announced a big single release. Build around a five track EP called Catcher In The Rye, it's more like a clearance sale on a 4GB USB stick with their new album Music For Synchronization, their latest two albums, a concert film entitled Never Say Die, music videos, photos, and dozens of remixes, instrumentals and rarities.
The Catcher In The Rye extravaganza is released date on March 21.
Watch Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel lipsynching Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) for UK music TV show Top of the Pops. It was a #1 hit in the UK. It was one of the three Harley songs to be used in the Todd Haynes 1998 rock musical Velvet Goldmine. Also used for the soundtrack of 1997 movie The Full Monty.
Phish has announced the second batch of Summer Tour 2010 LivePhish remasters. Once again the shows were remastered by Fred Kevorkian from Jon Altschiller's original live mixes.
Release date: February 1st. Also available on CD in select record stores.
The Death Kit single "Devadasi" b/w "I Can Make You Love Me" is a family affair. The b-side is a remix by ...music video? and the 7 inch comes with a download card for two bonus tracks: Tracy Shedd covers of I Can Make You Love Me and a Death Kit remix of the Tracy Shedd song Tear It Up. The original version was released on the split single with Wet & Reckless, the other band that Death Kit members Jessica Galt (during live shows playing bass) and Whitney Blank are part of.
Mid-tempo post-rock disco wil have to do as to describe this package. Keyboards and tinkering in the studio resulted in a glossy feel, that is featured most prominently in Devadasi (Hindu for "a woman who serves god"). The female as an unsolvable enigma is a subject to continues to inspire an Death Kit has come up with a bass line for this song that is solid and highly danceable. The ...music video? remix of their I Can Make You Love Me track was obviously inspired by this. As for the bonus tracks, Tracy Shedd's acousitc interpretation of Can Make You Love Me couple with Summer of Love vocals work quite well. The weak spot is the final track. Tear It Up is nearly suffocated by all the new layers and tons of echo that have been added to the original.
"Devadasi" b/w "I Can Make You Love Me" is released by Fort Lowell Records on 7 inch cream vinyl, limited to 500 copies. Comes with a digital download card. MP3s are mastered for digital playback. Vinyl challenged? Look for it at the usual digital outlets. Release date: February 22.
Tracks:
Upcoming jam band Turbine is in the midst of an East Coast tour of the USA. The band has a kid in a candy store approach to musical genres. From honky-tonk to funk to jazz via rock and back.
Live dates:HCTF review of Sounds in the Hall.
"Produced for Jim Dickinson". The liner notes of the new North Mississippi Allstars album Keys to the Kingdom make it crystal clear that Luther and Cody Dickinson wanted this album to be a celebration of the legacy of their father, the Memphis music legend Jim, who passed away in 2009.
With an impressive guest list of guest musicians (Mavis Staples, Ry Cooder, Spooner Oldham, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Gordie Johnson and Jack Ashford) Keys to the Kingdom is entering pretty near the top of Southern blues rock albums. Recorded in their homemade studio, it is a concept album of sorts, with angry songs This A'Way and Jumpercable Blues to capture the anger that is the first stage of grief. All songs are originals the cover of Bob Dylan's Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again, a song suggested by their father they'd play as a one-chord hill country blues song. This less is more turns out pretty good and Luther Dickinson is a better singer than Dylan ever was.
The album's highlights are the deep blues song >New Orleans Walkin' Dead and the album's final song, the laid-back country honk Jellyrollin' All Over Heaven, with a great dobro and the subtle piano of Spooner Oldham in the coda.
North Mississippi Allstars:
Luther Dickinson: guitar, vocals
Cody Dickinson: drums
Chris Crew: bass
Keys to the Kingdom is released on the band's own label Songs of the South Recordings. Release date: February 1.
Tracks:Video: North Mississippi Allstars - Jellyrollin' All Over Heaven
Video: North Mississippi Allstars - Hear The Hills
* Supporting Robert Plant
Dutch scratch DJ extraordinaire Kypski will be releasing his new track Breaking the Vow of Silence on January 28. It's a collaboration with Slemper (ft. Monks Silence).
The audience is encouraged to bring their own gizmos to the "Satisfaction" EP release show at Ekko to create their own scratch sounds. The best sounding one is awarded with a two hour Kypski scratch masterclass. Also on the bill at Ekko: Skip & Die showcasing their new EP Muti Murder.
Live dates:
Joel Nass (vocals, guitar) and Amber Garvey (keyboards, vocals) are The Violet Lights, a Los Angeles based rock duo. Their debut EP Sex & Sound is a mash-up of Britpop, NYC garage rock and West Coast guitar musings. Energetic and catchy, these five tracks have obviously been influenced by the echo heavy stuff that George Harrison wrote The Beatles (by way of Oasis).
They made good use of the acoustics of Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, CA. Never mind that there's some leakage, it only beefs the sound. The lead single Your Love/Not Enough will get them some airplay, but the stand-out track is Substitute, with a guitar motif in the chorus that brings back The Shirts.
They perform live as a quintet, with lead guitarist Billy McIntyre, bassist Kyle Kozlowski, and drummer Mike Walker.
Sex & Sound is a self-released album. Release date: May 24. Buy it from the band's website.
Tracks:Beady Eye, the Britpop supergroup featuring Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer, Andy Bell and Chris Sharrock, will release their Different Gear, Still Speeding album on March 1st in the USA and Canada on Dangerbird Records. The band will release it on February 28th on their own label for the rest of the world. Steve Lilywhite was in the producer's seat.
The new single The Roller is another Sixties pastiche and will be available on iTunes in February.
Graham Parker has been at it for a little over 35 years, releasing album after album filled with three minute soulful storytelling rock songs. He never released a live DVD until now, which is odd for an performer who can captivate an audience with his performance, not to mention his totally-at-ease banter between tracks, explaining the song's background and cracking jokes. The show at the intimate Stage One of the FTC in Fairfield, CT was filmed, a no-thrills document of the proceedings on stage on Friday April 23, 2010. Backed by The Figgs, a band that he has been working with on and off with since the late Nineties.
On Live at The FTC Parker showcases six songs from his latest studio album Imaginary Television, a collection of songs for TV shows that never happened. With a huge back catalog such as his, he cherry picks gems from the past such as White Honey from his 1976 debut album Howlin' Wind, and Blue Highways the under appreciated Eighties highlight of his career, from The Mona Lisa's Sister album. He may not sound as angry as he did in his early work, but he isn't slowing down. Songs like Beancounter (of his 1997 album Acid Bubblegum and the new 1st Responder, (the story about a dad who has to get his son out of a jam, because he nicked a car, hasn't got a car himself, so he has to steal one himself to save his kid) all draw from the same well: stories about people getting into trouble and trying to deal with the ensuing mess.
Aussie band Cut Copy came up with the memorable album In Ghost Colours in 2008, a blend of dance, Eighties disco, Sixties West Coast pop, and - a rare thing for dance tinged band - meaningful lyrics. The long awaited follow-up Zonoscope sounds like the love child of Echo and The Bunnymen and Duran Duran. A bit of AHDH is lurking in the backbeat.
With their update of psychedelic pop catapulted into the 21st Century, the band paints trippy broad musical sheets with pinpoint precision.
Cut Copy:
Dan Whitford: vocals, keyboards, uitars
Tim Hoey: guitar, sampler
Ben Browning: bass
Mitchell Scott: drums
Zonoscope is released on February 8 in North America on Modular (February 4 in Australia and February 7 in Europe).
Tracks:
A distressed animal looking for its teeth. Long Island band Tiger Riot tries really hard not so sound mainstream and fails miserably. Their album Look Up! is destined for the cut-out bin.
They got lucky getting signed by a label, but something has gone terribly wrong when they laid down the tracks, ending up with brain dead AOR crap with a touch of emo. A waste of time and natural resources. Avoid.
Look Up! is released on Brookvale Records. Release date: February 1st.
Bluesy hard rockers Black Country Communion will be on tour in Germany in the Summer. Singer/bass player Glenn Hughes, drummer Jason Bonham and keyboard player Derek Sherinian and guitarist Joe Bonamassa are currently working on a new album.
Live dates:They also will be playing at the High Voltage Festival at Victoria Park, London, on July 24.
(Thru thehighwaystar.com)
The Pixies will be on tour in Canada and the USA in April and May, performing their Doolittle album in its entirety. A free live EP, containing four tracks of the 2009 tour, can be downloaded from their website.
Live dates:
Amanda Palmer tackles The Ship Song, the Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds classic. It is a track of her latest album Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under.
» amandapalmer.net
» nickcaveandthebadseeds.com
HCTF review of Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under.
This year's edition of the Wanee Festival is held at the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL on April 14th – 16th. It looks like a busy festival for guitarist Warren Haynes, who will be playing with his own band and most likely will be joining The Allman Brothers Band and Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk on stage.
Tickets go on sale today at 10AM EST through WaneeFestival.com and LiveNation.com.
Lineup:
People say I play real loud. I don't, actually. I'm recorded loud and a lot of that is because we have good engineers. Mick knows what a good drum sound is as well, so that's part of the illusion really. I can't play loud.
Charlie Watts
Watch the Mogwai video for Rano Pano, a track off of their forthcoming album Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will.
The new DeVotchKa album 100 Lovers drops March 1st. The band is heading out on a Spring US/Canadian Tour in March. Before that they play a hometown show in Denver at the Fillmore Auditorium.
Live dates:
The new Amos Lee album Mission Bell drops January 25th on Blue Note. HCTF has two copies of the album and one limited 7" single. Want to win? Contact HCTF. Winners picked at random. However, it won't hurt to explain why you should be picked.
Update: all gone. Winners have been notified.
Watch De Staat perform Sweatshop on Dutch TV show De Wereld Draait Door - 2011/01/17.
Glorious glissandos. There are plenty of them on The Color, the new album by Brooklyn Yellowbirds. Fronted by Sam Cohen (Apollo Sunshine) this sextet lays down psychedelic folk that sounds weird, but friendly. With carefully applied ambient sounds that transport back to the Pink Floyd ca. 1970, it sounds like Arcadia has been transported to Texas, where Cohen grew up.
Burbling keyboards, deceptively simple drums, distorted guitars and first and foremost the vocal harmonies has written audiophile over it in large, friendly letters. The title track is an 101 on how to construct a modern day pop song, while Our Good Days Are Gone could have been released by The Kinks, with the lyrics taking on hard hitting power chords and a tidal wave of keyboard notes.
Yellowbirds:
Sam Cohen: vocals, guitar, autoharp, bass, drums, drum machine, synth, percussion, ambient tracks
George Lewis Jr.: bass, vocal harmonies
Brian Geltner: drums, percussion, vocals
Max Koepke: nylon string acoustic guitar, autoharp, backing vocals
Wynne Bennett: organ
Alecia Chakour: vocal harmonies
The Color is released on Royal Potato Family. Release date: February 15.
Tracks:
The new Joe Bonamassa album Dust Bowl drops March 21st In the UK (March 22nd in the USA). Special guests on the album include John Hiatt, Glenn Hughes and Vince Gill.
The blues guitar maestro will be on an extensive world tour in the first half of this year.
HCTF review of Joe Bonamassa: Live From Royal Albert Hall.
The Plcotones recorded eight show during their 2010 Dutch tour. The best tracks have been selected for an as yet untitled new live album, which will be released this Spring. Anton Goudmit (guitar), Efraïm Trujillo (saxophone), Jeroen Vierdag (electric and double bass) and Martijn Vink (drums) continue their quest spreading their blend of jazz, funk and self-invented genres.
The new album will be presented at De Melkweg in Amsterdam.
Live dates:MP3: The Ploctones - Rrrita
MP3: The Ploctones - Paka Marijat
The Black Crowes wrap up their Say Goodbye To The Bad Guys with a shrot European tour. This will be the final shows for mow. The band recently announced they are going on an indefinite hiatus after to spend time with family and work on other projects.
Live dates:HCTF review of Croweology.
Akron/Family have another freebie. Silly Bears is a track off of their forthcoming album S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT.
Phish has picked a few shows of the Summer Tour 2010 for their remaster releases. Available on iTunes and CD in select record stores.
The shows were remastered by Fred Kevorkian from Jon Altschiller's original live mixes.
Watch the Kim Wilde video for Kids In America. The UK singer scored big time with this New Wave song in 1981. The song was written by Ricky (her brother) and Marty (her father) Wilde.
Bass player Mike Gordon hits the road again in March, with the same road-tested five-piece line-up.
Following five highly acclaimed tours in '08, '09 and '10, Mike returns with the same five-piece lineup, including longtime collaborator Scott Murawski on guitar, Vermonters Craig Myers on percussion and Tom Cleary on keyboards and Brooklyn drummer Todd Isler.Livce dates:
A limited number of tickets are available NOW via a very fast real-time fan presale at mikegordontickets.rlc.net for all shows. The fan presale ends this Thursday, January 20th 5PM EST. Tickets will then go on sale through traditional outlets beginning Friday, January 21st.
Video: Mike Gordon - March 2011 Tour
HCTF review of Moss.
G. Love has been operating on the fringe of the jam band scene. A welcome guest on the festival circuit, he never really made it to the spotlights. Teaming up with the Avett Brothers, an rootsy Americana act on the rise, could be a wise career move in terms of sales.
His new album Fixin' To Die is the result of that partnership. Everything is cool and froody as long as stays on the bluesy back roads, but tons of fail abound when he tries his hand at seminal sad songs such as The Velvets' Pale Blue Eyes and Paul Simon's 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. He just sounds too cheerful delivering those lyrics.
Fixin' To Die is released on Brushfire Records. Release date: February 22.
Tracks:Video: G. Love - Fixin' To Die
Live dates:
The Get Up Kids are now the comeback kids. After splitting in 2005, the Kansas punk rockers reconvened in the studio in 2009. The 2010 EP Simple Science did quite well and now there is a new full-length. On There Are Rules it's business as usual: dense, shifting rhythms picking a fight with the guitar and keyboards. It feels bit overcrowded. Think The Stranglers and Green Day recording in the same room.
Recorded mostly live on of analog 2" tape There Are Rules sounds angry and muffled - like hearing the next door neighbours having a shouting match.
There Are Rules is released the band's own Quality Hill Records imprint. Buy it from their website. Release date: January 25.
Tracks:
Funky neo soul band The Right Now have a couple of gigs lined up. They kick off in their hometown Chicago, supporting Fitz & The Tantrums and JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound.
Live dates:HCTF review of Carry Me Home.
Icelandic quartet Lockerbie is part of the local post-rock boom. Singing in their native tongue the band stands out for using a piano as the main instrument. They are offering a free 3-track EP through Bad Panda Records. Bad Panda Records is a netlabel releasing a new Creative Commons licensed song every Monday.
MP3: Lockerbie - Sumar (intro)
MP3: Lockerbie - Laut
MP3: Lockerbie - Snjóljón
Watch Iggy Pop tackle Pablo Picasso, the Jonathan Richman classic. Recorded during an acoustic show for Spanish TV in 1989.
A bit of news from Washington, DC one-man band Daddy Lion. Jeremy Joseph is working on a new album.
Still very much a work-in-progress The Scientist's Lament serves as a freebie. Nice interplay between acoustic and electric guitars.
The Steepwater Band take a little break from the road. The Chicago blues rock trio are planning to write new songs for the next album. They will the stage in again mid February.
After a busy and successful year, your TSB is going to take a little break from the road for the next 5 weeks. The guys are going to re-charge their batteries a bit, but they also are beginning to write and work on the songs that will shape the next studio album, with plans to record this spring, here in Chicago.Live dates:
HCTF review of Live at the Double Door.
Leading Dutch alternative rock band De Staat will release their sophomore album Machinery on Mascot Records on March 4 (March 7 in the UK on Cool Green Recordings). Lead singer and songwriter Torre Florim:
I often hear we sound like a machine when we play live. I thought it would be fun to expand on that on this record and emphasise the mechanical elements in the music. We played a lot of rhythms, and also created crazy sounds with the guitars. I didn't want to exclusively focus on the rhythmic parts, but instead wanted to change the way we approached the tools of a conventional rock band setup. During the process of writing and creating the music, the album developed an industrial flavour that reminded us of a machine.
Video: De Staat - Machinery EPK
Live dates:
Jonathan Richman, one or rock 'n' roll rare originals, has new album out, entitled O, Moon. He will be on tour in the USA with drummer Tommy Larkins in the USA throughout February and March.
Live dates:Watch the Gang of Of Four video for You'll Never Pay For The Farm, a track off of their new album Content.
The album release show takes place at London Heaven, London on February 2. Their North American tour kicks off in Toronto on February 4.
Live dates:
