Thursday, August 20, 2009

Music News & Notes

Memory Tapes Reveals Debut Album

Moniker-crazed one-man-band Dayve Hawk splits the difference between his Weird Tapes project (dancey, electro) and his Memory Cassette project (hazy, wistful) with Memory Tapes (dancey, yet wistful!). After the incredible, New Order-style single "Bicycle", we now get news of the debut Memory Tapes LP, dubbed Seek Magic and out September 29 via Sincerely Yours/Acephale.

To start, the record is primarily being released on vinyl-- first run records will be light blue with some special "white/blue haze" LPs thrown in just in case you didn't get the idea that this shit is fucking hazy. But if you're still into CDs, you'll have to travel to London's Rough Trade shop to pick up Seek Magic because that's the only place on earth selling it on compact disc.

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Kraftwerk Announce Massive Eight-Disc Box Set, Reissue Series

Kraftwerk, the German legends that pretty much invented electronic pop music as we know it, are due to reissue eight of their albums in a massive box set called 12345678: The Catalogue. Five of the albums will also be reissued as individual titles.

The box is due October 6 in the U.S. from EMI. It'll feature the following discs: 1974's Autobahn, 1975's Radio-Activity, 1977's stone classic Trans-Europe Express, 1978's The Man Machine, 1981's Computer World, 1986's Techno Pop, the 1991 remix comp The Mix, and 2003's Tour De France. (The band's first three albums are not included.)

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Of Montreal Multi-Instrumentalist James Husband Readies Solo Album

James Huggins, one of the Athens, Georgia band's multi-instrumentalists, is getting set to do just that. Huggins, who records as James Husband, will release A Parallax I, his proper solo debut, on October 27 via Polyvinyl. Husband recorded the album between 2003 and 2008 in Athens and Stockholm, with help from his of Montreal bandmate Dottie Alexander, Swedish pop starlet Jenny Wilson, and Andy LeMaster of Now It's Overhead.







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Portishead's Barrow Forms New Band

Portishead producer and multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow is such a perfectionist that his group has only managed to release three albums in the past 15 years. So it's probably good that Barrow and his new band Beak> are putting some restrictions on themselves; it's the only way they'll ever get anything done.

Barrow formed Beak> earlier this year with two fellow Bristol musicians, Billy Fuller and Matt Williams. The band already has an album ready to go. Their self-titled debut will be out October 19 in the UK on Barrow's own Invada, and Ipecac will release it the next day in the U.S. So how did Barrow make an album so quickly after spending more than a decade on Portishead's Third? Easy: He forced himself.

The band has some pretty rigorous guidelines in place. They record all their music in one room and they don't use overdubs. The band wrote their entire album over the course of one 12-day session. In a statement about Beak>, Barrow says, "It's really good to create music under different conditions than you're used to."

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Dr. Dre's The Chronic To Get Expanded Re-Release

The Chronic Re-Lit will be in stores September 1, with seven bonus tracks and a DVD.

One of the most iconic rap albums of all time, Dr. Dre's 1992 solo debut, The Chronic, will be re-released on September 1. The digitally remastered version of the multiplatinum gangsta rap landmark, with such hits as "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang" and "Let Me Ride," will feature all 16 original songs and seven new tracks uncovered in the Death Row Records vaults, according to the label's new CEO.

In addition to the extras on the Chronic disc, there will also be a link to the new Death Row Web site, where six more songs from the vault will be available as well as information on a remix contest that will result in a promo-only vinyl album that will be serviced to club DJs.

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Warhol's Jackson Sells For $1 Mil


Andy Warhol's 1984 portrait of Michael Jackson has sold at auction for over $1million.

The auction took place at The Vered Gallery in Long Island, New York with the painting going to an anonymous bidder.

The gallery has remained tight-lipped about the exact price, but it was confirmed that the portrait sold for in excess of $1million






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New Sinatra Live Box Set Coming on November 3


It has been a great decade for Frank Sinatra fans. Due to an ongoing effort by his various labels and the Sinatra family, fans have gotten a number of new recordings including the box set of Las Vegas performances from 2006 and, now, a new 4-CD/1-DVD box of New York based concerts.

Sinatra: New York features performances from over a 35-year periods, starting with a 1955 appearance with Tommy Dorsey up through a June 1990 show at Radio City Music Hall. Overall, there are 77 previously unreleased tracks (55 on CD and 16 on DVD) along with a book with rare photos and tributes from Martin Scorsese, Tony Bennett, Yogi Berra, and Twyla Tharp, liner notes by Nat Hentoff, and essays by William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist and French Connection; George Kalinsky, official photographer for Madison Square Garden for over 40 years; Tom Young, engineer for Sinatra; Joe & Sal Scognamillo, owners of Patsy’s Italian Restaurant in New York City; and Frank Sinatra Jr.

The included performances are:

•February, 1955 at the Manhattan Center as a surprise guest during a Tommy Dorsey show.

•September, 1963 at the United Nations Manhattan Office, accompanied only by the piano of Skitch Henderson.
•April 8, 1974 at Carnegie Hall during his first tour after "retiring" in 1971.

•October 12, 1974 at Madison Square Garden. This is the show the night prior to the Main Event concert that was broadcast live on ABC-TV.
•June 28, 1980 at Carnegie Hall (DVD) during a two-week engagement at the venue.
•June 1984 at Carnegie Hall.
•June 1990 at Radio City Music Hall
Note that the last two shows, both contained on the fourth CD, appear to be highlights and not complete concerts.

For a preview from the DVD, go to sinatra.com to see a performance of The Lady is a Tramp.

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Three Days Grace Unveil Album Cover


Three Days Grace have premiered the album art for Life Starts Now! The album is set to hit stores September 22nd via Jive Records, with the first single off the record titled “Break.”










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SECRETS OF THE MOON: 'Privilegivm' Release Pushed Back A Week

Due to "the complex production," the release date of "Privilegivm", the new album from German progressive black metallers SECRETS OF THE MOON, has been pushed back one week, and will now be made available in Germany and Austria on September 18, and in other European countries on September 21 via Prophecy Productions.

A release date for North America will be announced soon.

The "Privilegivm" cover art, which was designed by "France's best media artist" Metastazis, can be viewed below.

According to the band, "Privilegivm" will be available in three different formats:

* First edition digipack CD, including the bonus track "A Million Suns"
* Limited gatefold double LP, including the bonus track "A Million Suns" and poster
* Limited luxus box featuring the digipack CD, two seven-inch singles with remixes by Esoteric, In Slaughter Natives, Melek-Tha and Inswarm plus one patch/armlet.

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