 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
| Oregon Calendar |
|
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
|
Show Details |
||||||
|
||||||
Show Details |
|||
|
|||
Wilco rose from the ashes of the seminal roots rockers Uncle Tupelo, who disbanded in 1994. While Jay Farrar, one of the group's two singer/songwriters, went on to form the band Son Volt, his ex-partner Jeff Tweedy established Wilco along with the remaining members of Tupelo's final incarnation, which included drummer Ken Coomer as well as part-time bandmates John Stirratt (bass) and Max Johnston (mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and lap steel). Guitarist Jay Bennett rounded out the group, which in 1995 issued their debut album, A.M., a collection of spry country-rock tunes that followed the course established in Tweedy's earlier work. Wilco's sophomore effort, 1996's two-disc set Being There, marked a radical transformation in the group's sound; while remaining steeped in the style that earned Tweedy his reputation, the songs took unexpected detours into psychedelia, power pop, and soul, complete with orchestral touches and R&B horn flourishes. Shortly after the release of Being There, which most critics judged to be among the year's best releases, Johnston left the group to play with his sister, singer Michelle Shocked, and was replaced by guitarist Bob Egan of the band Freakwater. At the same time, while remaining full-time members of Wilco, Stirratt, Bennett, and Coomer also began performing together in the pop side project Courtesy Move. In 1998, Wilco collaborated with singer/songwriter Billy Bragg on Mermaid Avenue, a collection of performances based on unreleased material originally written by Woody Guthrie.
Their stunningly lush third album, Summerteeth, followed in 1999 and met with critical acclaim but only average sales, initiating tensions with their label, Warner Bros. 2000 saw the release of Mermaid Avenue, Vol. 2, which featured more selections from the band's collaborations with Bragg on Woody Guthrie's unfinished songs. Following this release, longtime drummer Ken Coomer decided to amicably leave the band and was replaced by the Chicago-based Glenn Kotche. The band then focused on recording their fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which ultimately led to the departure of guitarist Jay Bennett, and further tensions with their label. Unwilling to change the album to make it more "commercially viable," Wilco bought the finished studio tapes from Warner/Reprise for a reported $50,000 and left the label altogether. Leaked tracks from the album surfaced on the Internet in late 2001, and the stripped-down lineup of Tweedy, Kotche, Stirratt, and multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach embarked on a small tour to support -- or drum up support for -- their unreleased album. Nonesuch Records picked up the album and the official release came out in early 2002 to widespread critical acclaim. Meanwhile, an independent film documenting the drama surrounding the album entitled I Am Trying to Break Your Heart followed in the fall of 2002. During the down time after the album was recorded, Tweedy composed and recorded the film score to the Ethan Hawke film Chelsea Walls, which ended up being released around the same time as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
Wilco toured extensively following the release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and in 2003 began work on their next album, A Ghost Is Born. While sessions went smoothly compared to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, after the album was finished Leroy Bach left the band in a split that was described as mutual and amicable; guitarist Nels Cline, keyboardist Mike Jorgensen, and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone joined Wilco for their subsequent tour. Shortly before the album's release, Tweedy surprised many fans by announcing he had entered a drug rehabilitation facility to treat a dependency on painkillers, prescribed to treat a long history of migraine headaches aggravated by panic disorder. Tweedy discussed his heath problems in depth, along with the often tangled history of Wilco and Uncle Tupelo, in Wilco: Learning How to Die, a biography of the group written by rock journalist Greg Kot, published to coincide with A Ghost Is Born's release in the spring of 2004. The following year, the group released Kicking Television: Live in Chicago, a 23-track collection recorded in the Windy City's Vic Theatre, an album that was later deemed one of the Top 20 best live albums by Q Magazine. In 2007 Wilco's sixth studio album, Sky Blue Sky, hit shelves.
YACHT is one of the many creative alter egos of Jona Bechtolt, a musician and multimedia artist who embraces an eclectic but playful blend of electronics, acoustic percussion, and noises of all sorts. In the latter part of the '90s he began working with electronics. In 2003, Bechtolt unveiled YACHT, his solo project, with the largely instrumental album Super Warren MMIV, released by States Rights Records. A year later, Bechtolt teamed with the Marriage label for a 10" vinyl YACHT album Mega 10", which was re-released as a CD with accompanying DVD of Bechtolt's digital filmmaking. The third YACHT album, I Believe in You. Your Magic Is Real, arrived in the spring of 2007. When not occupied with YACHT or the Blow, Bechtolt has worked as a collaborator and/or accompanist for Devendra Banhart, Bobby Birdman, Mirah, Little Wings, the Microphones, and many others, as well as remixing tracks for Architecture in Helsinki and White Rainbow. In addition, Bechtolt is the founder of the Urban Honking blog collective, helmed the online reality-show satire The Ultimate Blogger, and has created performance pieces under commission to New York City's New Museum of Contemporary Art and the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art. By 2009, Bechtolt had transformed YACHT from a solo project to a full-fledged duo, recruiting vocalist (and respected science writer/theorist) Claire L. Evans to sing on the critically well-received See Mystery Lights.
Philadelphia indie pop act Dr. Dog is part of a long tradition of D.I.Y. pop oddballs who blend unapologetic '60s pop worship with lo-fi recording techniques and a complete disregard of current trends. Dr. Dog began as a part-time offshoot of the more traditional Philadelphia indie rockers Raccoon, and recorded 2003's Toothbrush.
When My Morning Jacket's Jim James hand-picked Dr. Dog to open for his band on an East Coast tour supporting their first major-label album, It Still Moves, the band's almost nonexistent national profile began to rise. 2005's Easy Beat was picked up for distribution by the indie label National Parking. Following its release, the band toured again with My Morning Jacket and M. Ward and performed several well-received sets during the 2006 South by Southwest Festival in Austin. The stopgap EP Takers and Leavers was released in September 2006 in advance of We All Belong, which arrived in early 2007. Throughout the rest of that year, Dr. Dog began posting previously unreleased tracks on their website; the songs were later released as Passed Away, Vol. 1 in March of 2008. In the summer of that same year, the group released Fate.
The Coup, part of the sub-genre of political hip hop, hits the stage with a
full band characterized by bass-driven backbeats overlaid by humorous,
cynical lyrics. "I used to write in a very abstract way. But now I realize
that where you meet the struggle is in your day-to-day. In your
relationships, in the ways you react to things. My analysis of the system
goes farther than just where the money goes. I'm interested in the human
toll." ~ Raymond "Boots" Riley
"Riley, the son of a Black Panther Party lawyer, may be the most directly
political rapper ever, and he is willing to put his principles where his
lyrics are... but even when he's smashing the State, Boots makes it seem
like fun."
~ Michelangelo Matos, TIME OUT New York
"Boots isn't just complaining -- he's showing the way." ~ Jason Fine,
Rolling Stone
"This Oakland rap entry's politically charged commentaries remind you of
Chuck D.'s old observation that hip-hop is the CNN of black America, a forum
for ideas and debate that aren't found in the mainstream media. The Coup's
language gets rough in places, but the dialogue is important and the beats
are frequently explosive." ~ Robert Hillburn, Los Angeles Times
Putting a 21st century spin on the hip late-'60s world of Burt Bacharach, Sly Stone, and Barbarella, Denmark's the Asteroids Galaxy Tour had barely let their demo out into the world before fame came calling thanks to Amy Winehouse and the iPod family. Multi-instrumentalist Lars Iversen and vocalist Mette Lindberg formed the Asteroids in 2007. Thanks to a freshly pressed demo landing in the right hands, their debut gig was an opening slot at the request of Winehouse when the superstar singer visited the duo's hometown of Copenhagen. Soon after they were signed to the major label Universal who released their debut single, "The Sun Ain't Shining No More," in 2008. As the Asteroids were preparing their debut album and expanding their live lineup to a six-piece, their B-52's-flavored, retro-party single was featured in a television commercial for Apple's iPod Touch MP3 player.
Denver-based band The Fray was formed in 2002 by school friends Isaac Slade (vocals, piano) and Joe King (guitar, vocals). They soon began regular two-man jam sessions that led to writing songs in a style pitched between the arena-friendly style of U2 and the authentic rock of bands like Counting Crows. Rounding out the lineup are drummer Ben Wysocki and guitarist Dave Welsh. After being signed by Epic Records in 2004, they released their debut album, How to Save a Life in 2005, which became an instant hit. The Fray recently released their self titled sophomore album which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200.
Portland Cello Project pays tribute to Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power on the 20th anniversary of the album's release.
Bringing together members of THE DWARVES, KMFDM and MURDOCK; THE SPITTIN' COBRAS formed in February 2008 in Seattle. The band is comprised of Jules Hodgson (guitar), Alx Karchevsky (vocals), Jake Hagan (bass) and Andy Selway (drums). The Spittin' Cobras music is a melding of classic hard rock, metal and punk. The band delivers rock solid songs with authority and skill, keeping things simple but possessing the technical prowess to musically turn on a dime when needed.
The band signed to Seattle-based label One Eyed Records in May 2009. their debut release Year Of The Cobra is gaining a reputation as the go-to CD for lovers of contemporary hard-rock-n-roll thanks to Alx's razor-wire vocals, Jules's guitar pyrotechnics, Jake's driving bass licks and Andy's hard hitting beats. The Spittin' Cobras have one purpose: To Rock hard and make sure everyone else does too! After numerous shows the band has gained the reputation as an uncomparable live act and are set to bring their brand of no-nonsense rock 'n' roll good times to the rest of the world.
POGUES tribute band featuring Chris Funk and Jenny Conlee of the DECEMBERISTS, Ezra Holbrook of DR THEOPOLIS, Scott McCaughey of THE MINUS 5, YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS & REM sideman, Hanz Araki of THE WHYOS & PAPERBOYS, Jesse Emerson of AMELIA, singer CASEY NEILL, and DEREK BROWN of the EELS, and FERNANDO
Drive-By Truckers released several albums of gutsy, often ironic roots rock (1998's Gangstabilly, 1999's Pizza Deliverance, and the live effort Alabama Ass-Whuppin') before settling down to compose their unlikely magnum opus, The Southern Rock Opera, a two-act, two-CD work based loosely on the history of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, who met in college, started the group in 1996. The two initially played in a punk inspired band called Adam's House Cat. Hood's father, David Hood, was a Muscle Shoals session player whose bass ended up on such well-known records as the Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There." The vision for the rock opera took shape as Hood began to address his own Southern roots. Far from being solely about Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Southern Rock Opera is also a coming-of-age tale about a guitar playing kid wrestling with his Southern upbringing. In the narrative, the youth moves North, takes up punk, and tries to shed his accent; but then, inevitably, he reconnects with his past through Southern rock. The project was recorded primarily live in Birmingham, AL, and boasts a three-guitar attack (à la Skynyrd) and a sound that swings from nervy, powerful rock & roll to a bruised, jagged tone that recalls Neil Young's Crazy Horse.
The underground success of Opera caught the ear of roots rock label Lost Highway who re-issued the album in 2002. Unfortunately for the label, many people who would have purchased the album already had a copy, and unfortunately for the band they were released from their contract just as their first album for the label was finished being recorded. After only a few months of "between-label limbo," the band was picked up by New West records who released Decoration Day in mid-2003. Touring and further lineup changes followed the album's release, with Shonna Tucker replacing bassist Earl Hicks joining Hood, Cooley, drummer Brad Morgan and guitarist/songwriter Jason Isbel, all of whom play on 2004's The Dirty South.
When Tears for Fears sang, "Kick out the Style/Bring back the Jam," in "Sowing the Seeds of Love," one can imagine the lads in Kaiser Chiefs raising their mugs of ale in agreement. Comprised of vocalist Ricky Wilson, guitarist Andrew White, bassist Simon Rix, keyboardist Nick Baines, and drummer Nick Hodgson, Kaiser Chiefs resurrected the mod spirit of the Jam in "I Predict a Riot," supercharged class of '77 power pop that quickly electrified the British press when it was released in 2004. The song was inspired by Wilson's days as a club DJ in Leeds, England, where the group was also formed. The single and Kaiser Chiefs' pogo-inducing, boot-stomping live performances had them pegged as rising stars in the neo-new wave revolution with Franz Ferdinand, Dogs Die in Hot Cars, and the Futureheads. When Kaiser Chiefs' first 7" "Oh My God" reached Number 66 on the U.K. charts -- a startling achievement for an unsigned band -- doors opened for the group to share the stage with larger acts, consequently grabbing the attention of A&R scouts who wanted to sign them "I Predict a Riot," on the other hand, reeled in U.S. modern rock radio programmers caught in a blooming new wave revival. Without an American label deal, Kaiser Chiefs (named after the South African football team) crash-landed on some of the biggest U.S. alternative stations with the "I Predict a Riot" import single in late 2004. That same year they recorded their debut album Employment for the U.K. label B-Unique. The album was released domestically in the U.S. in spring 2005.
Once in danger of being relegated to "one-hit wonder" status, the power pop outfit Nada Surf soldiered onward after the success of 1996's "Popular," following up a brief residence on the Billboard charts with a slew of solidly crafted albums. Founders Matthew Caws (vocals, guitar) and Daniel Lorca (bass) were longtime school friends, having studied together at the Lycée Français de New York in upper Manhattan. After Lorca spent some time abroad in the late '80s, the two reunited after graduation to form Because Because Because in 1991. By 1993, they had jumped ship and shifted their focus to a new project, Nada Surf, whose first two indie releases won the band a contract in Spain. They then recorded an LP for the European label, only to have their original drummer quit. Ira Elliot (formerly of the Fuzztones) was brought aboard just as the group's European deal fell through, and the band's luck returned when their demo found its way to Ric Ocasek, who offered to produce additional sessions if Nada Surf wished to re-record the material.
Glitzy and sassy with a DIY spin, the Ting Tings are for hipsters who aren't ashamed to unfold their arms, clap along and bust a move. Based at Islington Mill, a former cotton spinning mill near Manchester turned art and recording space, the Brit twosome of Katie White and Jules De Martino started playing off-the-cuff performances for their friends. Word spread, and their impromptu sessions became the hottest ticket in Manchester. Major labels quickly took notice, and they were signed to Columbia Records. Even before releasing their debut album, We Started Nothing, in May 2008, the Ting Tings got a boost of exposure from an iTunes ad featuring the song "Shut Up and Let Me Go." With White providing a feisty bite of snotty shouts and sharp guitar and De Martino offering an inventive mix of chopped beats and quirky effects, the two unite a sound that draws from indie party bands such as Bloc Party and CSS while taking cues from garage rock groups like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Kills.
When Donavon Frankenreiter was 10 years old, he got his first surfboard. Six years later, he picked up his first guitar. It was the beginning of a wildly creative journey: His improvisational twin obsessions have carried him around the globe and into his fans' hearts. As Frankenreiter prepares to release his fourth album, Glow, this fall, the 37-year-old singer/songwriter/pro surfer admits he still thrives on simply taking the plunge. "We don't have a set show, if we did, I would go crazy," he says. "You never know what's going to happen. I love that element of surprise with music and surfing -- you never catch the same wave twice."
Growing up in southern California, Frankenreiter was drawn first to guitar gods like Clapton and Page, then to songwriters like Dylan and Marley. Ska-punk soundtracked his moves in surfing films, but his first high school band was so inspired by Pearl Jam, they named it Peanut Butter and Jam. His next outfit, a Southern rock group, scored a spot on the Warped Tour and was promptly pummeled with debris whenever their harmonies followed acts like Sick of It All. He continued to play rhythm guitar with a cover band, staying comfortably out of the spotlight, until one day something clicked: he needed to branch out on his own.
Good pal Jack Johnson was starting up Brushfire Records, and offered Frankenreiter a shot, producing his first album of folk songs -- including the hit "Free" -- along with famed Beastie Boys collaborator Mario Caldato, Jr. Frankenreiter followed his 2004 self-titled debut with a full-band record, 2006's Move by Yourself (Lost Highway), where he plugged in and chronicled his life on the road. Joe Chiccarelli (The White Stripes, My Morning Jacket) produced 2008 disc Pass It Around, which featured guests Ben Harper and G. Love, and marked a major musical turning point for Frankenreiter: "The first time I started working with other writers." He kept up the spirit of collaboration on 2010's Revisited, a track-by-track reinterpretation of his debut disc through a Hawaiian lens. After relocating to Kauai fulltime with his wife and sons Ozzy and Hendrix three years ago, Frankenreiter became enamored with the sounds of the islands. "It started off with ukulele and my voice and [guitarist] Kirk Smart added slack key guitar, lap steel, and everything else, and it just kind of grew from there," he says. "It's really neat to hear an alternative version of what happened seven years ago."
Revisited proved a fascinating challenge, but Frankenreiter hasn't spent the last year focused on the past. And as soon as he got into a room with producer Mark Weinberg, he knew he'd found the perfect partner for Glow. "I wrote 'Keeping Me Away From You' with Mark the first time I ever met him in 30 minutes," Frankenreiter says of the warm, wistful mid-tempo track. "He looked at me and went, 'Wow, that was quick.' I asked, 'Does that normally happen?' " They recorded the entire album over three days at California's Pulse Studios, utilizing a band of crack players to amp up the original acoustic arrangements into gorgeously polished chill-out rock with U2-esque guitar flourishes ("Shadows"), lush strings ("Keeping Me Away From You"), and bluesy organ wails ("Hold On").
"In Your Dreams" is about the haunted home Frankenreiter lived in as a kid, where he imagined "the houses talking to me." On "All Right," what the singer calls "a bitching drum pattern" built on a synthesizer gives way to organic drums, finger-picked guitars and Frankenreiter's smoky vocals as he croons a soothing lullaby: "Let the good life shine/it's gonna be all right."
"The first thing I do is grab a surfboard or guitar if I'm depressed or bummed -- I think that's why a lot of my songs are positive and uplifting, because those two things make me happy. I've really enjoyed living in the moment, enjoying what's going on right now," he says. The disc's title track captures this sentiment perfectly: Riding a sweet, syncopated acoustic strum, the song swells into a beautiful chorus as Frankenreiter sings, "I want to see you glow/I want to see your daylight shining all around your heart."
"The sounds are something I've never had on my records, ever," Frankenreiter says, adding he just played his acoustic guitar on the album and was pleasantly surprised by the addition of echo and delay on the disc's electric guitars. "I don't want to say it's a risk, but I don't know what people are going to think," he admits.
But in true Donavon Frankenreiter fashion, there's little room for stress on Glow. The album's 10 tracks are the perfect antidote to trying times: warm, organic, and overwhelmingly hopeful. And Frankenreiter is ready to bring the new tracks to his international fanbase as he continues to crisscross the globe on more surfing and musical adventures. "If there's anything I learned, it's that you really gotta be yourself," he says, reflecting on his career. "You can't fool people in music if you want to stick around for a long time."
First and foremost, you have Donavon the husband and father Next you have Donavon the pro-surfer. And of course, you have Donavon Frankenreiter the musician, who is about to release his third, and probably most important album to date titled Pass It Around (Lost Highway).
Donavon's first record, 2004's Donavon Frankenreiter was made with the aid of his long time friend Jack Johnson, and spawned the AAA radio hit "Free". In 2006, Donavon signed with Lost Highway and began to find his own musical voice with the appropriately titled Move By Yourself. On Pass It Around, Donavon collaborates and injects new sounds in ways he had not attempted prior. "On Pass It Around, I definitely had a lot of ideas and it was fun putting trust in other people."
Cults' twinkling experimental pop arrived in a shroud of mystery early in 2010, when the group posted three songs on their Bandcamp page. One of those songs was "Go Outside," which mixed dream pop haze with girl group harmonies (and, fittingly, samples of Jonestown leader Jim Jones) and earned the band acclaim from publications including Pitchfork and NME. Eventually, Cults' core duo was revealed as guitarist Brian Oblivion and vocalist Madeline Follin. Later in 2010, Cults released Go Outside as a single on Forest Family Records and performed shows with bands including Best Coast. Early in 2011, the group made its U.K. debut and signed to Columbia Records; Cults' self-titled album, which featured production by Shane Stoneback, arrived in the middle of that year.
Finding the pop music around them dull and mannered, Kasabian mixed a bit of the Stones, Happy Mondays, and Primal Scream with DJ Shadow-influenced electronics to take the British press by storm. Named after Linda Kasabian, Charles Manson's getaway driver turned state witness, Leicester's Kasabian stole a page from Sun Ra and the Band, as the group's members moved into a remote old farmhouse to brew their music. Communal life and shelf after shelf filled with albums by their favorites (Neu!, the Beatles, DJ Shadow, Primal Scream, Blackalicious) produced a rocking sound that wasn't afraid of electronics and harked back to days of baggy pants and druggy dancing. With acerbic answers during interviews, swaggering lead singer Tom Meighan quickly became a darling of the press, and the band's revolutionary logos and sleeve art added to the excitement. Fold-out poster sleeves, 10" versions, and hand-stenciled covers accompanied 2004 singles like "Club Foot," "L.S.F," and "Processed Beats." It all added up to Kasabian's self-titled debut going Top Five on the U.K's album chart in October of 2004.
Gotye (pronounced "go-ti-yay" or "Gauthier") is the alias of Australian electronic pop trickster Wally de Backer. Born in Belgium and raised in Melbourne, de Backer began making music in his bedroom as a teen, and for several years fronted the rock band Downstares. After the group dissolved, he gravitated toward cut-and-paste electronic music, and in 2003 issued the first Gotye album, Boardface. Like Drawing Blood followed two years later, notching the cult hit "Learnalilgivinanlovin" and earning J Award consideration from the influential Aussie radio station Triple J. De Backer concurrently served in the Melbourne pop trio the Basics. In 2011 Gotye released Making Mirrors, featuring a duet with vocalist Kimbra, "Somebody That I Used to Know."
The gritty English trio Band of Skulls craft bluesy and ballsy slabs of atmospheric indie rock that echo the work of contemporaries like the Kills, Duke Spirit, and the Black Keys. Formed by Russell Marsden (guitar and vocals), Emma Richardson (bass and vocals), and Matt Hayward (drums) while attending college in the city of Southampton, the band (which was originally called Fleeing New York) recorded a buzz-worthy demo in 2008, which resulted in its full-length debut album, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, in 2009 and an accompanying international tour.
With a voice that's somewhere between Joni Mitchell and Nico, Ingrid Michaelson carries the tradition of the female singer/songwriter into the 21st century. Befitting a musician of the digital age, Michaelson first gained wide exposure through spots on TV soundtracks. Born and raised on New York's Staten Island to an artist mother and classical composer father, Michaelson began exploring music through piano lessons at the age of four. After college, she toured with a national theater troupe and spent her free time writing songs, later compiling them for her debut album, Girls and Boys, which was released on Michaelson's label, Cabin 24 Records, in January 2007. Three months later, she won a national songwriting contest sponsored by Mountain Stage, a radio program produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and distributed worldwide. Four songs from her debut were also featured prominently in the prime time television drama Grey's Anatomy and commercials for clothing company Old Navy.
Emerging from the creative cocoon that has enveloped them since wrapping up promotional efforts for their 2007 grammy-nominated debut †, Xavier de Rosnay & Gaspard Augé, the influential Parisian duo known as Justice, have announced the impending release of their second album Audio, Video, Disco. The new effort is at once looser and heavier than previous releases, using the combined musical vocabulary of rock and electronic to conjure a laidback, brut effort existing on the outer fringes of pop.
Audio, Video, Disco was created in the duo's home studio, with all instrumentation performed by the group themselves. The duo crafted an epic masterpiece that exchanges the "night in the city" setting of their debut with an "afternoon in the country" atmosphere.
† established the group as an international force and the duo have responded with a huge album that panders to no one, equally at home blaring from a dance club soundsystem or performed in an arena. Don't be surprised when it finds its home in the latter.
M83 mastermind Anthony Gonzalez releases his sixth record and first double disc album, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.
Graduating from the fuzzy, fumbling emotional cobwebs and draped ambiance of past records, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming careens past its audience. Brazenly stretching out along the horizon, spilling glittery, golden arms of sound across the landscape, it holds your breath hostage without you even noticing you were missing it. If it seemed that Anthony was basking in the sunshine-drenched days of his youth when he released Saturdays in 2008, then it can be said that in 2011, at the age of 30, he is tempestuously charging towards his future with Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.
Relocating to Los Angeles from Antibes, Gonzalez surrounded himself with players pivotal to completing his childhood dream of a double disc record. Producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck, NIN, The Mars Volta, Goldfrapp) and guitarist Brad Laner (from 90's band Medicine) had been hugely influential on Anthony growing up and now were central to the new record's creation.
Anthony and Justin met backstage in 2009 at Scotland's T In The Park. Later, "he came to me very genuinely stating that 'he was a fan and that he would love to work with me,'" explains Gonzalez. "I love when people do that because I can tell it's coming from the heart. He was sincere and that's the way I like to work with people."
A lot of kids are raised in musical families, but few had the introduction to music that Ben Kweller had. Nils Lofgren was one of his Kweller's father's buddies during Lofgren's days with Bruce Springsteen. Young Kweller, not even old enough for kindergarten at the time, would try to be like the famous guitarist when he picked up his own toy version of the instrument. He played the piano since his very early childhood and, by the age of eight, Kweller had graduated from toy guitars and simply tapping the ivories to penning his own tunes..
In 1993, with Bryan Blur on bass and John Kent on drums, Kweller established Radish. The group made its mark on the local Dallas scene, not far from Greenville, TX, where Kweller was raised. When Radish disbanded in 1999, Kweller headed east, where he stayed only a short time before relocating to Brooklyn, NY, the following November. Not yet 20 years old, he signed with Island Records as a solo artist. He spent time touring with such artists as Juliana Hatfield, Guster, Kristen Hersh, and Evan Dando. He also collaborated with Ben Folds and Ben Lee for a series of dates down under in 2003 and appeared on Folds' limited-edition EP The Bens. Kweller's sophomore effort, the much more subdued On My Way, followed in spring 2004. Two years later, he returned with his self-titled third album, on which he played all the instruments.
Featuring thrilling fuses of alternative pop/rock's most intensified marks, Snow Patrol's compositions combine songwriting aptitude with guitar rock's sharpest strains. Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar), Mark McClelland (bass, keyboards), and John Quinn (drums) embodied the Northern Irish three-piece that started off as a duo. Lightbody and McClelland first got together in Dundee, Scotland, where they were studying, prior to the addition of Quinn, who completed the lineup. Signing to the U.K.'s Jeepster label in 1998, they released their debut album in August of that same year. Songs for Polar Bears turned out to be a huge success across the U.K., where they also discharged their music in several live concerts, gaining a large fan base. The British trio graduated soon after, and decided to move from Dundee to Glasgow in late 2000. When Its All Over We Still Have to Clear Up showed up as their second full-length in April 2001. Producer Chris Lord-Alge signed on for the release of Final Straw, which appeared stateside in April 2004.
There's a scene in Murray Lerner's film ("Festival"), about the 1963 Newport Music Festival, where Peter, Paul and Mary are shown obliging a resounding call for an encore with the protest song, "If I Had A Hammer." Peter and Paul face each other from the sides and Mary faces the audience of tens of thousands, shaking her blonde hair and bearing down on a song about making change. She would, they would hammer out danger and a warning all over the land. Delta Spirit have five hammers and they swing them the way Mary bobbled her head back in '63 for her close-ups, the way Mary sang as if her knees were on fire and her mouth was brimming with more ire laced with optimism than she knew what to do with. These Californians have more in common with the dirty haired, dirty fingernailed folk groups of the nascent years than they do any of their contemporaries. They're suited for reminiscent hopefulness and the gracefully youthful fusion of hostility and all-encompassing passion for all things that can set a smile ablaze or turn the hairs on arms and backs of necks into little beds of nails at the flick of a switch. They make lists of things they like, including all of the people they love, their home, pretty girls, desserts, bodies of water, justice and America. They believe there's still hope for it and in all of the rooms contained within the hallways of the band's newest offering, "Ode To Sunshine," they make you understand that, when it's all boiled down, what we all ultimately live for is catharsis and a fulfillment of body meeting land, air and sea harmoniously. They're about bodies meeting bodies, pressing skins to skins. They're about reminding you to listen more than you talk. They're about urging you to put stock in the happiness of others, not just your own. They make it obvious that we have to go somewhere to be somewhere. We have to feel something to really live. They sing of the soul searchers. They sing for the soul searchers. They are the soul searchers.
With his whimsical, melancholy music, Yann Tiersen has become a sought-after composer, not only for his soundtrack work, but in his own right. Borrowing from French folk music, chanson, musette waltz, and street music, as well as rock, avant-garde, and classical and minimalist influences, Tiersen's deceptively simple style has been likened to Chopin, Erik Satie, Philip Glass, and Michael Nyman.
The Paris-based composer became popular outside his native country for his score to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie, but like most seemingly overnight successes, he had been working for years before the film's success brought him international acclaim.
Long before The O.C.'s resident hipster Seth Cohen proclaimed his love for the band, the Bellingham, Wash., natives were cranking out sweet, cozy melodies for reflective romantics. After the success of a cassette put together by Ben Gibbard in 1997, the vocalist and guitarist decided to transform his solo project into a full-fledged band. When guitarist Chris Walla, bassist Nick Harmer and drummer Nathan Good came aboard, Death Cab For Cutie were born. The band took its name from a Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band song that appeared in the Beatles movie Magical Mystery Tour. By 1998, Death Cab's debut, Something About Airplanes, was released, recalling the off-kilter guitar pop of Built to Spill and the quietly passionate storytelling of Elliott Smith. The band went on to create three more LPs before signing to Atlantic Records and releasing the Grammy-nominated Plans in 2005. Nearly three years later, Narrow Stairs revealed a slightly changed Death Cab, which cited heavy metal as an influence. Though more Band of Horses than Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the brawnier approach worked; it was their first album to top the Billboard charts. - SBENSON
Hailing from Duluth, Minnesota, Trampled by Turtles (TBT) is an original, non-traditional bluegrass band whose raucous live performances put a unique spin on the genre, tweaking the tradition with their own mix of punk, alt-country, rock and pop.
"We enjoy traditional bluegrass but we all grew up immersed in rock 'n roll and I think our band reflects those qualities," lead vocalist and guitarist Dave Simonett says.
Throughout the past four years TBT has toured the country, performing everywhere from punk-rock basement parties to such storied venues as the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and the Bowery Ballroom in New York. And the band's diverse musicality has struck a chord among their peers who have asked the band to join them onstage, including Low, Camper Van Beethoven, Pedro the Lion, Nickel Creek, Cracker, The Bottle Rockets, Ike Reilly, and others.
Minneapolis alternative weekly City Pages has applauded the band's live performance, writing: "Trampled by Turtles play a fast, stomping bluegrass that inverts the normal poses of audience and band. The Turtles mainly sit down to rock out, while their fans stand up, jump around, and fill out the empty floor space in front of the stage all the way to bar close."
Trampled by Turtles have recently released Trouble, their third studio album. The Minneapolis/St. Paul publication Pulse of the Twin Cities states "this year's Trouble features some of their best work yet." And goes on to say "the disc alternates between sweet country crooners and breakneck barn burners, and it's everything you'd expect from a group who is mastering the art of balancing between traditional and groundbreaking string-based music."
Indie rock trio Foster the People make atmospheric, psychedelic, and dance-oriented pop. Formed in Los Angeles in 2009, the band features keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Mark Foster, bassist Cubbie Fink, and drummer Mark Pontius. The trio's single "Pumped Up the Kicks" received significant airplay on KROQ in 2010, and the band quickly began receiving significant online attention. They released a self-titled EP in January of 2011 which featured the song.