The Assembly of Dust has evolved from being a group of friends coming together to back lead singer Reid Genauer as he embarked on a solo career after his departure from the seminal jam-band Strangefolk in August of 2000, to developing into a tight cohesive unit with their own distinct style and sound.
As far the Mule Year's Eve run went, this opening night was the meat-and-potatoes end of it: unglamorous and not entirely surprising in setlist, guest list and general delivery.
The Drive-By Truckers have set an April 25 release for their sixth studio album, “A Blessing and a Curse.” As previously reported, the 11-track set is largely made up of freshly written tunes, as opposed to including songs from the group’s hefty back catalog of unreleased material.
“Most everything on it is real new,” group member Patterson Hood told Billboard.com in October. “Lord knows I’ve got a backlog of songs, but when we went into the studio I pretty much ignored it. Everything else we’ve written since we started recording.”
“Blessing” gets off to a rocking start with the Replacements-inspired “Feb. 14,” and is further highlighted by the rootsy, emotional “Daylight,” the Rolling Stones homage “Aftermath USA” and the reflective, six-minute-plus “Goodbye.”
Closer “A World of Hurt,” which features spoken lyrics from Hood, was inspired by the early 2005 birth of his daughter. “It’s about figuring out a way to turn the demons that can threaten to destroy you when you’re an angry young man into something that you live with and maybe even do well with, and I think certainly that’s been the case with me,” he said.
The Truckers will preview the new material during a Jan. 19-21 stand at the 40-Watt Club in their Athens, Ga., homebase, and have a handful of other shows on tap through mid-April. Hood has solo gigs on tap for Jan. 25 and Feb. 6 at Athens’ Flicker.
“A Blessing and a Curse” is the follow-up to 2004’s acclaimed “The Dirty South,” which reached No. 5 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart.
Here is the track list for “A Blessing and a Curse”:
“Feb. 14”
“Gravity’s Gone”
“Easy on Yourself”
“Aftermath USA”
“Goodbye”
“Daylight”
“Wednesday”
“Little Bonnie”
“Space City”
“A Blessing and a Curse”
“A World of Hurt”
Source billboard.com.
Wu-Tang Clan principal Ghostface Killah has put the finishing touches on his fifth album, “Fishscale,” due Feb. 28 via Def Jam. The set is led by the single “Back Like That,” which features up-and-coming Def Jam labelmate Ne-Yo. Production on the project was supplied by MF Doom, Pete Rock, Madlib and J. Dilla, among many others.
Rock produced “Be Easy,” which hit the streets on mixtapes last fall, while Wu-Tang cohort Raekwon appears on four tracks, including “Kilo.” Ghostface’s manager tells Billboard.com the song “Wu United” features all the members of the Wu-Tang Clan, who are regrouping in February for their first tour since 1997. Kanye West is also working on a track for the project.
“Fishscale” is the follow-up to Ghostface’s 2004 Def Jam debut, “The Pretty Toney Album,” which opened at No. 6 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 219,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Ghostface is also tipped to appear on Raekwon’s sequel to his 1995 solo album “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx,” but no release date has yet been confirmed.
As for the Wu-Tang tour, Ghostface’s manager says all the members of the act will participate. At deadline, 10 shows were confirmed, beginning Feb. 7 in New Haven, Conn., but discussions are underway for additional summer dates. Both Raekwon and RZA hinted at the possibility of a Wu outing in prior interviews with Billboard.com, with RZA stressing that group members should be thinking about something other than money when it comes to Wu-Tang’s future.
Here are the Wu-Tang Clan’s tour dates:
Feb. 7: New Haven, Conn. (Toad’s Place)
Feb. 8-9: Boston (Palladium)
Feb. 10-11: Philadelphia (Electric Factory)
Feb. 12: Baltimore (Sonar)
Feb. 13: Washington, D.C. (9:30 Club)
Feb. 14: New York (Hammerstein Ballroom)
Feb. 17: Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (Revolution)
Feb. 18: St. Petersburg, Fla. (Jannus Landing)
Feb. 19: Orlando, Fla. (Hard Rock Live)
Source billboard.com.
Electronic-folk four-piece Animal Collective are preparing to kickstart a North American tour in support of their latest, surprisingly pop-packed effort, Feels, on February 21st in Boston.
The album, which features the energetic, choral-pop tracks “Grass” and “Did You See the Words,” is a kind of turning point for the Brooklyn collective, with its roots in ecstatic, free-form jams. “The music has a lot to do with love and loving in our lives in the past year,” says drummer Panda Bear.
The group’s intense live show tends towards the improvisational, sometimes breaking into dancing and drum circles.
“For us,” says guitarist Deakin, “playing music together is happiness.”
Perhaps in a nod to their more raja-inflected songs, popular Nepali folk singer Prem Raja Mahat is slated as one of Animal Collective’s opening acts.
Animal Collective North American tour dates:
02/21: Boston, Paradise Rock Club
02/22: Montreal, La Sala Rossa
02/23: Toronto, Lee’s Palace
02/24: Lansing, MI, Temple Club
02/25: Chicago, Logan Square Auditorium
02/26: Minneapolis, First Avenue
03/1: Seattle, Neumo’s
03/2: Vancouver, Richard’s On Richards
03/3: Portland, Wonder Ballroom
03/4: Sacramento, The Library
03/5: San Francisco, The Fillmore
03/7: Los Angeles, Vanguard Theatre
03/14: San Diego, Epicentre
03/15: Tucson, Solar Culture
03/19: Atlanta, Variety Playhouse
03/20: Asheville, NC, Orange Peel
03/21: Washington, DC, Black Cat
03/22: Philadelphia, Starlight
03/23: New York, Webster Hall
03/25: New York, Bowery Ballroom
Source Rollingstone.com.
King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp visited Microsoft Corp.’s campus recently to record sounds that could be used in the forthcoming version of the company’s flagship Windows operating system.
A Microsoft Web site posting shows a dark, 25-minute video clip of Fripp recording ethereal sounds that, the posting says, could be used for the audio cues found in Windows.
“So, what was he (Fripp) doing on campus? Recording the various sounds we’ll all hear in Windows Vista,” Robert Scoble, a Microsoft technical evangelist and prominent employee blogger, wrote in text accompanying the posting.
Vista, the first new version of Windows in five years, is due out sometime this year. The site says the recording took place a few weeks ago on Microsoft’s Redmond campus.
But King Crimson fans may not want to get their hopes up just yet.
A spokeswoman for Microsoft’s outside public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom, said in an e-mailed statement that it was too early to say what sounds will be included in Vista.
“We haven’t made any decisions and it’s very early stages,” the statement said.
The video was posted Jan. 5 on Microsoft’s Channel 9 Web site, which aims to be a forum for employees and customers to discuss Microsoft products.
Fripp was a co-founder of the progressive rock group King Crimson and also has worked with such musicians as Brian Eno.
Source yahoo.com.
Octone/J Records recording artist Michael Tolcher will be part
of the lineup for the inaugural Dave Matthews & Friends Cruise, which sets sail from Miami and Port Canaveral, FL on two separate Royal Caribbean ships, Sovereign of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas, on February 3. The lineup for the 3-day cruise includes Michael Tolcher, Bob Weir & Ratdog, G. Love & Special Sauce, Ozomatli, and the North Mississippi All Stars. The ships will port in Nassau and Royal Caribbean
The 10 finalists for the inaugural New Pantheon Awards have been chosen, Billboard.com can exclusively reveal. The award, which continues the mission of the now-defunct Shortlist Prize in recognizing noteworthy albums that have sold less than 500,000 copies in the United States, will be handed out Feb. 6 at a Los Angeles venue to be announced.
Among the titles that will battle for the New Pantheon prize are Animal Collective’s “Feels” (Fatcat), Antony and the Johnsons’ “I Am a Bird Now” (Secretly Canadian), Fiona Apple’s “Extraordinary Machine” (Epic), the Arcade Fire’s “Funeral” (Merge) and Bloc Party’s “Silent Alarm” (Vice/Atlantic). Last fall, “I Am a Bird Now” took the Mercury Music Prize, the U.K. award on which both the Shortlist and the New Pantheon are modeled.
The remaining five finalists are Death Cab For Cutie’s “Plans” (Atlantic), the Decemberists’ “Picaresque” (Kill Rock Stars), Kings Of Leon’s “Aha Shake Heartbreak” (RCA), M.I.A.’s “Arular” (XL/Beggars Banquet) and Sufjan Stevens’ “Illinois” (Asthmatic Kitty).
The albums were selected by a panel of listmakers that includes Elton John, Elijah Wood, Beck, Margaret Cho, John Legend, Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, Keith Urban, Ric Ocasek, Shirley Manson, Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, Suzanne Vega, Dave Matthews and Keith Urban.
The final Shortlist Prize, handed out in November 2004, was won by TV On The Radio’s “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes” (Touch & Go).
Source billboard.com.
Particle is poised to return to the stage this spring with a fresh lineup, new material, a tour, and a DVD. The bands first live performance of the New Year will be on Friday February 24 at The Henry Fonda Theater Hollywood. Billed as Particle: Transformations, the show will be filmed for a DVD to be released this summer and will feature an array of special guests. Tickets will go on sale this Saturday January 14 at 10am, and are available online at goldenvoice.com. Additional information about the evening’s festivities and guests will follow over the next few weeks.
Particle is excited to announce it’s signing with Shout! Factory, who will release the Particle: Transformations DVD nationwide. Produced by Captured Live Productions, it will be the bands debut DVD, and a follow-up to 2004’s ‘Launchpad’ released by Or Music.
They will mount their spring tour and return to road warrior status with an appearance at South by Southwest before traversing the country for the better part of April. Particle has also confirmed that they will headline the Joshua Tree Music Festival this May in Southern California.
