Just weeks before one of New England’s premier music venues shut its doors
permanently, Winooski, Vermont’s Higher Ground pronounced their last month standing would be a memorable run. Therefore, it was only fitting that two bands that have played some of the most memorable shows in the club were invited back to draw the Higher Ground curtain one final time – Amfibian and The Seth Yacavone Band.
Unearthing a side project that borders on spectral instrumentals and acerbic pieces, Joel Peterson
A number of new summer dates have been announced by Wilco in support of its upcoming June 22nd release
Tori Amos is planning to release a concert DVD along with a CD of unreleased material this spring.
The DVD, Welcome To Sunny Florida, was filmed last September during a concert Amos did in West Palm Beach during the tour for her most recent album, Scarlet
The Beta Band will release their new single “Out-side” on June 28. The track is the second to be lifted from their latest album Heroes To Zeros and will come out on CD and vinyl.
The video for “Out-Side” is to be written and directed by the band and according to drummer Robin Jones it will be “a remake of ‘The Carnival Of The Animals’ starring humans instead of animals.”
Details of B-sides are yet to be confirmed.
The Beta Band are currently on tour around the UK
Glasgow Barrowlands (May 3)
Aberdeen Beach Ballroom (4)
Newcastle University (5)
Manchester Academy (7)
Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall (8)
Bristol Carling Academy (10)
Portsmouth Pyramid Centre (11)
Nottingham Rock City (12)
London Coronet (13)
Source NME.com.
A record 50,000 fans turned out on Saturday and Sunday for the fifth Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., headlined on respective days by Radiohead and the Cure. The event also featured the first festival appearance by the reunited Pixies and a sensational Saturday-closing set by pioneering German electronic/rock act Kraftwerk.
Despite a throat problem that forced frontman Thom Yorke and his Radiohead bandmates to cancel a show earlier in the week in Australia, the band was in fine form during its 20-song Saturday set. Six songs from its latest album, “Hail to the Thief,” were sandwiched in between such favorites as “Creep,” “Paranoid Android,” “My Iron Lung” and the rarity “Planet Telex.” Coachella is expected to be Radiohead’s only North American gig of 2004.
The Cure unveiled several tracks from its upcoming self-titled release, due June 29 via Geffen, including new single “End of the World” and album opener “Lost.” The group dipped into its extensive back catalog for such tracks as “Fascination Street,” “Just Like Heaven” and “Love Song.”
The Pixies’ early evening set on Saturday lived up to all the hype, as the quartet ripped through tracks like “Gouge Away,” “U-Mass,” “Debaser” and the sing-a-long “Here Comes Your Man.” Kraftwerk conjured a visual bonanza later in the evening, climaxing with its four members decked out in glowing neon suits for “Music Non Stop.”
Other events of note included the first live appearance of Desert Sessions, led by Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme; a guest appearance by the B-52s’ Fred Schneider during Junior Senior’s Saturday performance; a guest trumpet solo by the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea during the Evens’ set on Saturday; and the finale of Basement Jaxx’s Sunday set, which found three singers and five costumed gorillas leading the crowd through “Where’s Your Head At?”
The larger crowd contributed to performance tents that were more crowded than at any previous Coachella, most noticeably during Beck’s solo acoustic set on Saturday. But organizers deemed the fest a success, proclaiming on Saturday, “Today was truly magical.”
Source billboard.com.
Undermind, Phish’s first studio album since 2002’s Round Room, is due in stores June 15th on Elektra Records. The album was recorded at the Barn in Vermont and mixed at Real World Studios in England by producer Tchad Blake (Tom Waits, Los Lobos, Soul Coughing, Peter Gabriel). Of the fourteen new tracks, many have never been performed live, including “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing”, “The Connection” (the album’s first single), “Nothing”, “Access Me”, and “Tomorrow’s Song”. “Army of One”, a familiar solo number at Vida Blue and Phish shows, gets a full band treatment here, and “Secret Smile” features string arrangements by noted composer/arranger Maria Schneider.
The first pressing of the album will include a special bonus DVD of the 26 minute short film Specimens of Beauty, directed by longtime Phish photographer Danny Clinch, that chronicles the recording of the album in Vermont.
UNDERMIND TRACK LISTING:
1. Scents and Subtle Sounds (Intro)
2. Undermind
3. The Connection
4. A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing
5. Army of One
6. Crowd Control
7. Maggie’s Revenge
8. Nothing
9. Two Versions of Me
10. Access Me
11. Scents and Subtle Sounds
12. Tomorrow’s Song
13. Secret Smile
14. Grind
Source Phish.com.
