Bunny Munro sells beauty products and the dream of hope to the lonely housewives of the south coast of England. Set adrift by his wife’s suicide and struggling to keep
Marshall Crenshaw, noted guitarist/singer-songwriter has been making music for nearly three decades. His 1982 top 40 hit, “Someday, Someway” may always be synonymous with his name, but fans recognize him as an accomplished musician, actor and writer as well.
Anti-Flag are known for their outspoken views on American government, but most recently they have been on the Warped Tour, spreading the punk ethos.
Marco Benevento has built a solid reputation as a world class piano player and an imaginatively creative and dexterous composer. His contribution as one half of the Benevento/Russo Duo has exposed him to many, many fans that found out about the band almost solely through word of mouth. Since releasing his 2008 solo album, Invisible Baby, Benevento has been out on the road with a prized collection of musicians focused primarily around the albums contributors; Tea Leaf Green’s Reed Mathis, Critters Buggin and Tori Amos drummer Matt Chamberlain, and Andrew Barr from The Slip.
Growing up in South Africa, trumpet player Hugh Masekela used music as an act of defiance against apartheid. He went into exile in New York City in the 1960s, recorded a number one hit (“Grazing in the Grass”) and watched Jim Crow and segregation crumble in America. He married the South African singing legend Miriam Makeba and returned to South Africa to play with Paul Simon on the “Graceland” tour. He watched apartheid crumble, writing music for Nelson Mandela. In between, he toured the world many times while making music that can be searing, romantic, political and joyful all at once.
Southampton, UK newcomers Band of Skulls will hit the road this summer for their first national US tour. The band begins thetour on July 23 in Portland, OR and will
Cheap Trick were one of the first bands, if not the first, to play what we now know as Power Pop. Three decades later, you can hear Cheap Trick's sound in countless bands and that could be perceived as gratifying or annoying by someone like Rick Nielsen who did it first, but he sees it as a reflection of the how Cheap Trick operates more than an homage to their sound.
TO Records is excited to announce that Rodrigo y Gabriela will release their newstudio album, entitled 11:11, on Tuesday September 8th. 11:11 was recorded in Ixtapa,Mexico and produced by Rodrigo
Signing with a new record label (Savoy/429 Records) Cracker returns with the usual suspects: Lowery’s long-time partner, Johnny Hickman, drummer Frank Funaro and bassist Sal Maida. Taking a new approach to their creative process, Sunrise is a collaborative effort by all four bandmates. Surprisingly self-disciplined, they took one week every two months between tours to write together over the course of a year. The result was a creative outpouring with a strong common thread – all four musicians came of age playing in the origins of punk and new wave and once again found those sounds rising up.
Multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer and arranger Roger Joseph Manning Jr. will have to add ‘Guru’ to his list of titles. While discussing the release of his latest album, Catnip Dynamite (Oglio), Manning waxes philosophical on the virtues of self-reliance and individuality, themes that have more or less defined his career and have equipped him with a razor-sharp focus in articulating his profound musical message time and again.
