Sam Beam to Produce Next Rosie Thomas Album, Sam Beam’s Beard to Play Bass
By Nobodaddy on 12-04-2008
Shocker Alert: Seattle Indie-Folker Rosie Thomas is planning on enlisting Indie-folker Sam Beam, who of course fronts the Indie-Folk outfit Iron and Wine, to produce her Indie-Folk follow-up to 2006's Indie-Folk affair These Friends of Mine. Hey, sometimes you’ve just gotta think outside the box, man.
Thomas, who is currently touring in support of her recently-released Christmas album, A Very Rosie Chistmas, claims that this totally radical, totally experimental, and highly unorthodox collaboration has been brewing for some time, critics be damned. "We've been talking about doing it for a year," Thomas said. "I think it's going to be different because we write different kinds of things [ed: ?!?]. I'm just going to come up with a bunch of songs, and when I like them I'm going to give them to him and he's going to start putting them together musically." (I wonder who used to do that job before...)
Uh, but yeah, in all fairness, Thomas does have a slightly different vibe planned this time around. Namely, she intends to “move the rhythm up a bit... go for a more soul-filled feeling" on her forthcoming tunes, which she says comes, of all people, at the behest of the dowdy, flannel-wearing Beam. "He was really pushing me for years; ‘I want you to write that Motown record you've always wanted to write,’" notes Thomas, who apparently also can’t believe that Sam Beam likes R&B. "I just start laughing, 'cause it's like, ‘Sam, look at you. You have a beard. How can I go to you to write this kind of stuff?' But I know he has it in him. It'll be fun, regardless." Well, it can’t be that hard, Rosie. This guy seems to manage just fine.
Thomas says she's written a few things already but plans to start working in earnest after the New Year, when she goes to either New York, Los Angeles, or Nashville to hunker down. "I tend to need to get away to write, get out of my comfort zone," she explains. "That's when I feel most creative." Yeah. Me too, Rosie. Say, I think I’ll get away after the New Year and maybe ask the label to fly me on down to... oh wait, I have a day job.
A Very Rosie Christmas Tour:
Tokyo Police Club Tour in December, February, And March – No Word Yet On January
By C. Schell on 12-03-2008
Because of the famous company Tokyo Police Club have been keeping lately, I feel kinda like a writer for Us Weekly. OMFG Rivers Cuomo (Weezer)! That guy from Blink-182 (Angels & Airwaves, Blink 182)! Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives Sports Night)! Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives, The Golden Girls)! These are just a few of the beautiful people who TPC have met during a busy 2008. Some 2008 highlights? Releasing their Saddle Creek debut album, Elephant Shell (TMT Review), embarking on headlining tours, playing half-full U.S. arenas while opening for alt-nerd-rockers Weezer, and guestspotting as a band not named Tokyo Police Club on Desperate Housewives.
Even with all those accomplishments in 2008, you'd think the band would take the rest of the year off. Nope. Instead, the band is set to start another little tour following an appearance on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson on December 10. This tour will take them to Canada with fellow syrup-drinking leaf-lovers Metric, The Dears, and Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains.
The band's pace for 2009 seems to mirror that of 2008, as they have just announced a U.S. tour beginning February 24 in Providence, RI that runs for about three weeks and covers about two-thirds of the States. Harlem Shakes, Ra Ra Riot, and Born Ruffians, respectively, will open those shows. After the tour is over, the band will begin work on the follow-up to Elephant Shell.
Tourdates:
