Bumbershoot, Seattle’s Annual Music and Arts Festival starts tomorrow (Aug 30) and continues throughout the Labor Day weekend. Music critic in-residence Drake Lelane will be on the scene in Seattle Center this weekend reporting on all the comings and goings at the festival. Take a look at the (very impressive) partial list of Bumbershoot performers after the jump. Check out the entire mind-blowing lineup over here.
Preorders will begin September 8th for SCORE! Merge Records: The First 20 Years, a deluxe subscription-only box set with special artwork and packaging. Quantities will be limited to the number of subscribers who enroll between the September 8th start date and the end of 2008.
The first two volumes will kick off a series of 14 custom-curated compilations spanning our catalog, each featuring the curators’ handpicked Merge selections as well as original artwork. These compilations and additional content will be delivered only to SCORE! subscribers throughout Merge’s 20th anniversary year of 2009.
The curators of the first volumes will be Peter Buck of R.E.M. and Phil Morrison, director of Junebug, The Upright Citizens Brigade and numerous music videos. Curators for future volumes will include Amy Poehler, David Byrne, author Jonathan Lethem, artist Marcel Dzama, Momofuku chef David Chang and many more to be announced.
Additionally, the entire SCORE! project will benefit specific charitable causes handpicked by the curators. [Merge]
Albert Hammond, Jr. at The Mercury Lounge (07/01/08)
Fashion plate and Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. apparently doesn’t like to shop off the rack, (unless it’s his own that is). This fall he’ll become another one of the countless straight male rockers to have produced his own line of clothing. Could a guest judging spot on Project Runway be far behind?
His line of suits, designed with celeb stylist Ilaria Urbinati (who’s dressed James McAvoy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the ladies of The L Word), will be for sale this fall at her store in L.A. “I want to make suits that I’m going to have for myself,” Hammond says. [NYMag.com]
According to NY Times, Rufus Wainwright has dropped his plans to compose a work for the Metropolitan Opera in a dispute over the language of the libretto (they wanted English, he wanted French).
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Mr. Wainwright said another stumbling block was the date of a potential production at the opera house. The earliest the Met could offer, he said, was in 2014. “They work on that sort of scale; I wanted to get it out as soon as possible,” he said, adding wryly, “because I’m an impatient pop star.”
He said his opera, about a day in the life of an aging soprano in 1970s Paris, would have its premiere next July at the Manchester International Festival in England. He said he was orchestrating the score now. [NYTimes.com]
Other new works in progress for the Met include a collaboration between composer Nico Mulhy and one between writer Craig Lucas and composer Michael Torke, writer Michael Korie and director Des McAnuff.
The Nike+ Human Race, the world’s biggest one-day running event, will take place on August 31, 2008. In conjunction with the event, a live music performance will take place in each of the 25 designated race cities. In New York, The All-American Rejects will play a post-race concert on Randall’s Island. Check out the press release below for more city and concert information:
In London, runners will be treated to an exclusive performance by world-renowned American DJ, songwriter, musician and singer Moby in the city’s famed Wembley Stadium. Other all-star artists confirmed to play at the Nike+ Human Race include chart-topping rock band All-American Rejects in NY; hometown favorite Fall Out Boy in Chicago; R&B songstress Kelly Rowland in Paris; dance-electro-pop duo The Pinker Tones in Madrid, Turkish pop sensation Kenan Dogulu in Istanbul; the Fantastic Four in Munich; Beijing-based singing duo Yu Quan in Shanghai and American rock band Boy Likes Girl in Singapore.
On September 1, 2008, Montreal’s Stars will release a new EP entitled Sad Robots which features new songs, written and recorded this past summer at Studio Plateau in Montreal, Quebec. Also, a free new live version of the track “Going, Going, Gone”, from the LP Nightsongs, will be available via MP3 the day the album is released. In case you forgot, Stars are also about to go on tour, they’ll be playing Terminal 5 on October 20, 2008 (buy tickets).
All Stars tour dates and Sad Robots EP track listing after the jump.
Pat, the coolest blogger on Staten Island, is throwing a little anniversary bash this Saturday for his erstwhile music blog, Pop Tarts Suck Toasted, (though personally I don’t mind them that way). The show is $7 and features the following bands:
Though Terminal 5 is hardly a “club” in the traditional sense, I guess some people will find this show kind of appealing. Personally, it’d probably take Tom Waits or the Rolling Stones to get me back to T5.
Oasis is pleased to announce a rare club show in New York prior to the release of their upcoming album. This intimate show will take place at Manhattan’s Terminal 5 on Friday, September 12th.
Tickets cannot be purchased through normal outlets. Instead fans must register with the band’s official web site to be eligible for a chance to purchase up to two tickets . Visit Oasisinet.com for more details.
The appearance at NY’s Terminal 5, which will be re-configured for the show, provides an extraordinary opportunity to see Oasis perform new material from their forthcoming studio album “Dig Out Your Soul” to be released Oct 7. on Big Brother Recordings/Reprise.
Applications for ticket purchase exclusively through oasisinet.com are now open and will close at midday on Wednesday the 3rd September.
Tickets limited to 2 per successful applicant, and must be collected at venue will call on evening of show.
Last night, Swedish indie pop-rocker Kristofer Ragnstam played a charged set to an almost capacity and dare I say, polite, crowd at Piano’s. He’s over here promoting his new record, Wrong Side of The Room which came out last week on the Bluhammock Label. He’ll be in town for a few more NYC dates (though other than the Hamptons on August 29th, I can’t tell you where he will be playing) on this tour before he heads off to play some European shows in September. Keep checking his MySpace page for venue updates I guess.
Drake’s new Swedish obsession (and Peter Bjorn and John’s former muse), Lykke Li, will show off her danceable ditties to the mesdames et messiuers who were lucky enough to score tickets to tonight’s (Aug 28) sold out show at Le Poisson Rouge. Ms. Li is also in town to promote a new record (which Drake admired and I enjoyed), her Bjorn Yttling produced debut LP, Youth Novels. If you missed the boat on tonight’s show, don’t worry, you can still dance, dance, dance at her next show at MHOW on October 20.
Final Fantasy, (aka Canada’s Owen Pallett), will be releasing two new EPs in the fall, Spectrum, 14th Century and Plays to Please. He’ll also be keeping busy co-writing the score to Richard Kelly’s next film, The Box, starring Cameron Diaz.
On September 30, Spectrum will drop as a CD EP and ten-inch via Toronto’s Blocks Recording Club, and Play will be released on October 21, also as a CD EP (via Slender Means Society and States Rights) and on ten-inch (via Blocks). Each EP will come as limited-edition run of 1,000, and each will help tide fans over until the release of Heartland, which comes with an ambitious story arc set in an imaginary realm Pallett calls Spectrum. [Exclaim.ca]
Intrepid readers may remember that I mentioned that a new Final Fantasy LP, Heartland, was scheduled for a spring 2008 release. However, as you can see from the Exclaim! piece above, that record still has no firm release date. Here is what Owen told New York magazine on why he is taking his time between records.
“If I didn’t have to worry about what blogs all over the world were going to say about my new record, it would have been done by now,” he says. In other words, it’s not that Pallett doesn’t care what people think—it’s that he’s acutely aware of their expectations. [NYMAg.com]
John McCain appeared with Daddy Yankee at a Phoenix area High School on Monday where he received the reggaeton star’s endorsement. To me, this ranks right up there with Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley.
McCain built up the suspense by withholding the guest’s name at first, but then gave it away, saying, “One of his most famous songs, I know you’re very familiar with: ‘Gasolina’ ” — drawing gasps of surprise from the crowd — and then finally said, “Well, here he is, Daddy Yankee.”
Though McCain has sometimes shown surprising familiarity with rap stars and pop culture references because of the musical tastes of his daughters, it is unlikely that the conservative Republican would have made a point of mentioning the song had he known that the “Gasolina” lyrics are loaded with sexual references. Although there’s some debate about what the word “gasolina” means in this context, one thing is certain: It’s not a petroleum product.
Asked whether McCain knew about the sexual allusions, a campaign spokesman said he had no comment. [L.A. Times]
This week (or last week as the case may be) Drake takes a deep look at Light In The Attic’s stellar reissue of Rodriguez’s Cold Fact, fawns over Swedish pop-star Lykke Li, and tries to be fair and balanced about Jaguar Love. -ed.
Drake’s Take: New Releases 08.19.08
It’s a deep week for releases, topped by the latest Swedish pop star to grace our shores, Lykke Li, and the debut of Jaguar Love (The Blood Brothers rise again). Elsewhere there are new releases from Stereolab, Delta Spirit (an early look,) Ra Ra Riot, Juliana Hatfield, The Stills, Jennifer O’Connor, Don Caballero, Uh Huh Her, Jeff Hanson, David Byrne, Human Highway and the great reissue of the 1970 cult classic from the enigmatic Rodriguez.
The 22-year old Swedish former professional dancer has created an album beyond her years, swirling together the pop sounds of her countrywomen (Robyn, El Perro Del Mar, Anna Ternheim) while injecting a bit more into the equation, and for the longest time, I couldn’t figure out what that ‘more’ exactly was. Sure, Björn Yttling (Peter, Bjorn & John) co-wrote and produced the spare sound, but it wasn’t until I noticed that two of Lykke’s favorite artists are Madonna and Tom Waits that it all started to make sense. The Madonna thing has been brought up before, but it’s the Waits influence that makes her sound different. Instead of a junkyard for rhythmic sounds, Lykke seems to be hanging out in a child’s music room, employing instruments that are both cute and don’t quite work like their adult counterparts do. Much as been made about her advance single, “Little Bit,” with it’s suggestive lyrics, and Lykke seems to recreate that magic in many of the other songs, like “Dance, Dance, Dance” and “I’m Good, I’m Gone” but there are also misteps here that almost derail the whole effort (“Complaint Department,” two spoken word pieces too many). Still, given that she’s so new to songwriting, it’s easy to forgive her for indulging. Can’t help looking forward to seeing what she does on her second album.
It’s an old story, really. Man records record. No one buys it. Records another one. No one buys it. Moves on to do other things. Then, unbeknownst to him, he becomes an underground star in South Africa. Sixto Diaz Rodriguez lived out this age old story (with a twist) and his album Cold Fact (1970) finally gets a reissue (first time on CD here in the US) this week. Rodriguez comes off like a cross between Bob Dylan, Donovan and Arthur Lee of Love, mixing poetic folk with drug-fueled psychedelica, as best exemplified in the opening track, “Sugar Man”:
Sugar man met a false friend
On a lonely dusty road
Lost my heart when I found it
It had turned to dead black coal
Silver magic ships you carry
Jumpers, coke, sweet Mary Jane
The plaintiff folk however quickly gives way to the power chord attack of “Only Good for Conversation,” and it’s at this point you realize that this is truly a special album. “My statue’s got a concrete heart / But you’re the coldest bitch I know — so help me”. Motown guitarist Dennis Coffey discovered him in a club, playing with his back to the audience and coaxed him into the studio, backed by Motown’s Funk Brothers, to record Cold Fact, adding a nice punch to his otherwise plaintive protest folk. It’s a story and album that’s done justice by Light in the Attic’s usual attention to detail in liner notes and packaging, as is their specialty. Now that Rodriguez has toured Australia (1981, playing with the likes of Split Enz, Men at Work and Midnight Oil) and South Africa (1997, documented in the documentary, Dead Men Don’t Tour,) one hopes he’ll soon make the rounds here as well.
Rising from the ashes of the much beloved The Blood Brothers comes Jaguar Love, and as much as I like their debut Take Me to the Sea, I know it’s bound to disappoint folks on both sides of the BB aisle (those who like, those who don’t really know). The upper-register vocals of Johnny Whitney along with Cody Votolato’s guitar work make the Blood Brothers’ connection unmistakable, but it’s lean to pop conventions are bound to frustrate more than a few hardline BB fans, which is too bad. Meanwhile, folks not accustomed to Whitney’s vocals are usually repelled instantly (again, too bad). “Vagabond Ballroom” reminds me of the mighty aMiniature (with an organ,) “Highways of Gold” might be as close to conventional as The Blood Bros. ever got, and there’s even a ballad, “Georgia,” which is rightfully earned by the surrounding moments of sonic brilliance. Because everyone knows ballads are a privilege, not a right.
