Beck, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Muse, the Shins and Rogue Wave lead the lineup for the California edition of the Download Festival, to be held Sept. 30 at Shoreline Amphitheatre outside San Francisco.
Wolfmother, Coheed & Cambria, Kinky and the Mutaytor will also perform at the event, tickets for which go on sale Sunday (July 30).
As previously reported, 311, Jurassic 5, the Wailers, G. Love & Special Sauce and the Dropkick Murphys will perform at the East Coast version of Download, set for Aug. 20 at the Tweeter Center outside Boston.
Download inaugurated its American edition last fall at Shoreline Amphitheatre with a bill featuring the Killers, Modest Mouse, the Arcade Fire, Doves and H.I.M., among others.
Source billboard.com.
Skerik’s Syncopated Taint Septet have announced West Coast tour dates in August 2006 to support their new album, Husky, on Hyena Records. The seven-piece unit, who hail from Seattle, claim a five-front horn line featuring Skerik on tenor saxophone, Craig Flory on baritone saxophone and clarinet, Dave Carter on trumpet, Hans Teuber on alto saxophone and flute and Steve Moore on trombone and Wurlitzer electric piano. The septet is rounded out by the keenly perceptive rhythm section of Joe Doria on Hammond B-3 organ and John Wicks on drums. As is always the case with ST7, they could easily be dubbed ST8 for the invisible eighth member behind the soundboard.
Skerik formed the Syncopated Taint Septet in 2002, recruiting some of Seattle’s finest musicians for the group. He named the band “Syncopated Taint,” borrowing a term used by America’s first ever drug czar Harry J. Anslinger to describe the nation’s moral decay in the 1930s and ’40s as caused by the combination of jazz and marijuana. Skerik, himself, helped launch the acclaimed underground experimental noise unit, Critters Buggin (who were ultimately signed to Stone Gossard’s Loose Groove record label) and the widely popular soul jazz quartet, Garage A Trois, featuring Stanton Moore, Charlie Hunter and Mike Dillon. In a support role, Skerik has served as a saxophonist with the likes of Roger Waters, Mark Eitzel, Tuatara and Ivan Neville’sDumpstaphunk among numerous others. To this day, he remains a key member of Les Claypool’s various working and recording bands.
The first leg of West Coast dates are as follows:
August 23 / Easy Street Records / Seattle, WA (Free In-store Performance)
August 24 / The Tractor Tavern / Seattle, WA
August 25 / The Nightlight Lounge / Bellingham, WA
August 26 / Music Millennium / Portland, OR (Free In-store Performance)
August 26 / Goodfoot Lounge / Portland, OR
August 27 / CD World / Eugene, OR (Free In-Store Performance)
August 27 / WOW Hall / Eugene, OR
August 28 / Six Rivers Brewery / McKinleyville, CA
August 29 / Harlows / Sacramento (with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey)
August 30 / 12 Galaxies / San Francisco, CA
August 31 / Moe’s Alley / Santa Cruz, CA
September 1 / 14 Below / Santa Monica, CA
pitchfork reports that Mat Brooke has left Band of Horses, and “it doesn’t look as if he has plans to hop back on. The group’s co-founder (along with fellow ex-Carissa’s Wierd member Ben Bridwell) hasn’t been touring with the band, although he played an integral part in the creation of Horses’ debut album, Everything All the Time.”
An official statement from the band reads, “Mat was originally in the band to help with songwriting, and that due to his other projects taking off, he is no longer in the band.”
For more info see: pitchfork
Their most melodic and accessible album since 1998’s Stunt, which featured hits like “Call and Answer,” “It’s All Been Done” and Billboard chart-topper “One Week,” Barenaked Ladies Are Me will be released in multi-platform versions. While the physical 13-song CD will be in stores September 12, the band will also offer the album digitally to fans in two different packages that same day. One of these will feature the 13 songs from the physical album plus two bonus tracks, while the other will be a 27-song digital package called Barenaked Ladies Are Me: Deluxe Edition. These will be offered on digital service providers as well as the bands website (www.bnlmusic.com).
In addition to the 27-song digital package, Barenaked Ladies Are Me: Deluxe Edition will be made available on a physical USB flash memory stick, which will also include bonus materials.
“The music industry is in a state of reinventing itself,” adds vocalist/keyboardist Kevin Hearn. “We are very fortunate to be able to create and sell our music as we see fit.”
Self-produced by BNL (with some engineering help from Stunt producer/engineer Susan Rogers), the band teamed up for the first time with renowned engineer Bob Clearmountain (Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Rolling Stones) to mix the album. The finished product is their most cohesive and holistic set of songs to date. More than ever, the Barenaked Ladies wrote together, jammed together and lived together, raising each other’s standards and blurring the lines of who wrote what. As a result, Barenaked Ladies Are Me more accurately represents a group dynamic where everyone work shopped each other’s ideas into full Barenaked Ladies songs.
Over the years the band has undergone an extensive evolution from a purely atmospheric jazz fusion band to what Glide has referred to in the past as a, “power rock trio that has only begun to scratch the surface of potential.”
A reel-to-reel tape containing a never-before-released Jimi Hendrix studio track, “Station Break,” will be auctioned Oct. 26 as part of the Ocean Tomo Fall 2006 Live Intellectual Property Auction in New York. The purchaser will also receive half ownership in the New York common law copyright and half the proceeds from any future licensing.
“Station Break” was recorded in 1966 at Allegro Sound Studios in New York during the same session that yielded such instrumentals as “No Such Animal,” “I’m a Fool for You” and “Kato’s Special.” The tape was located in 1994 by Jerry Simon, who produced the session. Other master recordings from the session were offered for sale on eBay in 2005.
Source billboard.com.
Former Guided By Voices leader Robert Pollard will on Oct. 10 release his second Merge solo album of the year, “Normal Happiness.” As first reported here in November, the set features “16 two-minute pop songs,” according to Pollard, who crafted the material from ideas that went unused on his 2004 soundtrack to the Steven Soderbergh film “Bubble.”
As with January’s “From a Compound Eye,” the new album is collaboration with producer Todd Tobias. “I spent two-and-a-half days in the studio doing my vocals and guitar and he spent two weeks finishing it,” Pollard tells Billboard.com. “It has gotten to the point where it’s like, just do it, Todd, and I don’t care what you do. I trust you entirely. I don’t know how many projects I have done with him, maybe 10, but the success ratio is 100%.”
Source billboard.com.
At long last, the ultimate rock-concert spectacle has arrived on DVD: Pink Floyd
On the evening of a dust storm following a 110 degree scorcher, there was enough empty lawn space at the Cricket Pavillion to set up a par 3 golf hole. The show was clearly undersold as opener Michael McDonald delivered his gray haired/blue eyed soul. Through his work with the Doobie Brothers and his solo catalogue, McDonald has one of the most recognizable baritones in rock history, as you can’t walk into a supermarket without hearing him play through the PR.
Park The Van Records has announced two upcoming albums from the infectious Philadelphia five-piece, Dr. Dog. Gearing up for the release of the band’s fourth full-length album, still untitled, on February 13, 2007, Park the Van Records will release ‘Takes and Leavers,’ an exclusive six song EP, on September 12, 2006. Dr. Dog will hit the road beginning September 7th, co-headlining dates with The Cold War Kids before heading to Houston, TX on September 14th, to begin a tour as the main support for The Raconteurs.
Tour Dates:
With The Cold War Kids:
September 7th The Casbah San Diego, CA
September 8th Troubadour Los Angeles, CA
September 9th Caf
