Damien Jurado Begins Tour April 1; Don’t Be A Fool, It Ain’t No Joke
By Shelley Su on Mar 11 2009
Surprise! Damien Jurado's tour starts on April 1, the day for pranks, hoaxes, and shenanigans. But this is no joke. The Seattle-based indie folk rocker will be promoting his latest album, Caught In Trees (TMT Review), released on the Secretly Canadian label. With a solo career that's lasted more than a decade, Jurado's willingness to experiment with recording techniques and his intense, Raymond Carver-like lyrics have kept him on a veritable Who's Who list of indie rockers.
Check out the still frame to his "Caskets" video here. This guy's serious, even in suspenders. Damn, Damien!
Tourdates:
04.01.09 - Spokane, WA - Empyrean Coffee House
04.03.09 - Boise, ID - Neurolux*
04.04.09 - Provo, UT - Velour*
04.05.09 - Denver, CO - Hi-Dive*
04.07.09 - Omaha, NE - The Waiting Room*
04.08.09 - Iowa City, IA - The Picador*
04.09.09 - St. Paul, MN - Turf Club*
04.10.09 - Chicago, IL - Schubas*
04.11.09 - Bloomington, IN - Russian Recording*
04.12.09 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Blind Pig*
04.14.09 - Toronto, ON - The Drake Hotel*
04.15.09 - Montreal, QC - Il Motore*
04.16.09 - Cambridge, MA - TT The Bear's Place*
04.17.09 - Brooklyn, NY - The Bell House*
04.18.09 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Chapel*
04.19.09 - Vienna, VA - Jammin' Java*
04.21.09 - Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle*
04.22.09 - Birmingham, AL - The Bottletree*
04.23.09 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl*
04.24.09 - Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone Cafe*
04.25.09 - Nashville, TN - The Basement*
04.27.09 - Norman, OK - The Opolis*
04.28.09 - Denton, TX - Dan's Silverleaf*
04.29.09 - Austin, TX - Cactus Cafe*
05.01.09 - Tucson, AZ - Club Congress*
05.02.09 - San Diego, CA - Casbah*
05.03.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland*
05.04.09 - Santa Barbara, CA - Muddy Waters*
05.05.09 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill*
05.07.09 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge*
05.08.09 - Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe*
* Laura Gibson
Grab Your Doobies and Twist Your Baseball Caps Backwards – Cypress Hill Are Back!
By Kat Gardiner on Mar 10 2009
Upon hearing that early-’90s THC-laced hip-hop quartet Cypress Hill are coming back with their first new album in five years, I took a mad bong rip. How else can a person possibly celebrate such news? I asked my dealer, Little Mike (he's actually quite large), and he started telling me how he saw them live once in ’98 on their IV tour, "...and there was this, like, giant inflatable raft man. No, it was a monkey, man, but inflatable, and sitting on a large, like, golden throne, man. Haha, it was totally, like real gold, too. And the monkey was smoking this phat joint, man! It was awesome! And they had a big gong on stage that they hit sometimes."
The new album is slated to be released this fall on Suburban Noize Records. It hasn't been named yet, presumably because they keep forgetting the title they had settled on the previous night.
Fleet Foxes Can’t Stop Touring, Or People Might Stop Talking About Them
By Nobodaddy on Mar 10 2009
Ah, the sophomore year of the buzz band! Why, I remember waaaay back in aught eight, back during the days of the Bush Administration and all of its economic prosperity, when the world was first introduced to the young, fresh, clean-cut, short-haired stylings Fleet Foxes. Yes sir, those were the salad days for frontman Robin Pecknold and his proud folk-rock combo, taking the public by storm with the stirring one-two punch of the Sun Giant EP and its interrelated Fleet Foxes (TMT Review) LP last spring. All glory was theirs in the ensuing summer (and fall and winter) of love, their cups overflowing with festival dates, media coverage, women, and year-end-list-mania. Mark my words: 2008 was the year of Fleet Foxes!
But now its 2009. The honeymoon is over, and Robin’s rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle has aged severely, causing many to look away. Hard times have hit the U.S. and world economies, and what are Fleet Foxes doing with themselves now, you ask? Why, they’re playing a handful of spring dates around the west coast of the U.S., just like how your band is. Ain’t that showbiz for you? Oh well; I wonder when that Pains of Being Pure at Heart band is coming to town?
“Handful of dates” Tour 2K9:
04.12.09 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
04.13.09 - Arcata, CA - Arcata Community Center
04.14.09 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
04.15.09 - San Francisco, CA - Palace of Fine Arts Theatre
04.16.09 - Santa Cruz, CA - Rio Theatre
04.18.09 - Indio, CA - Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
04.21.09 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
05.25.09 - George, WA - Sasquatch Music Festival
Remaining Beatles Reunite for David Lynch’s New Age Benefit; Rumors Finally Squelched Regarding What Paul McCartney Sounds Like Backwards
By Kat Gardiner on Mar 10 2009
On April 4, at the Radio City Music Hall, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr -- former members of obscure pop group, The Beatles -- will be reuniting for the first time since 2002 for David Lynch's "Change Begins Within" concert, which benefits his foundation for "Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace."
David Lynch, presumed ghostwriter for such sites as timecube.com as well as numerous Dr. Bronner's soap bottles, has also started his own foundation based on Sting's body movements and transcendental meditation. Turns out David Lynch doesn't only enjoy midget dream sequences, hate the iPhone, make really bizarre commercials full of floating blue lips, but is also a leading promoter of transcendental meditation being taught in elementary schools.
The show also features performances by Donovan, Eddie Vedder, Moby, Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper, Bettye LaVette, Paul Horn, and My Morning Jacket's Jim James. My only hope is that Donovan and Sheryl Crow dress up as John and George and get into a fist fight/make-out session with Paul and Ringo while David Lynch's oversized head hovers 10-feet above the stage, green and holographic, singing "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" to itself in reverse while Moby and Eddie Vedder waltz across the stage complementing each other profusely. Then Bettye LaVette will crawl on stage, smell a bottle of perfume, scream, laugh, cry, and fully climax, before she flies off, stage right, at which point Ben Harper wakes up in a cold sweat, relieved it was all just a dream. "Or was it?" he asks himself as he looks around to find that Paul Horn and Jim James are lying next to him, scandalously, in his California King.
Come on. It's entirely possible that this could happen, and you know it.
J Dilla’s Work Subjected To Posthumous Collection, Features Tracks By Artists He Made Sick Beats For
By Scott Lauer on Mar 10 2009
Honestly, I really can’t stand nine-out-of-ten tribute albums. Most of them feel less like a genuine tribute and much more like a chance to cash in on the loss of a talented artist. But for those of you unfamiliar with the production work of Jay Dee -- who passed away in 2006 -- Dillanthology, Volume 1 might be a neat collection to check out.
The album will feature some of J Dilla’s finer production with musicians such as Common, Erykah Badu, and De La Soul to name a few. It will be the first of several marketed as “a tribute to his memory and spirit.” Meanwhile, future volumes will include Dilla’s remix work and production on his own musical efforts.
Dillanthology, Volume 1 will hit shelves March 31, thanks to Rapster. However, for a more fitting tribute to the late master, please check out Madlib's Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6.
