Saturday, November 21, 2009

Warner Bros. Records and DEVO Announce the Release of THE ULTRA DEVO-LUX Edition Limited Package

The Ultimate Two CD/Two DVD Re-Mastered Edition of Seminal Recordings from Ohio Art-Rock Pioneers Available Exclusively Online

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electro-art-rock iconoclasts DEVO celebrate their early recorded works from the Warner Bros. Records vaults with an expanded Ultra Devo-lux, Limited Edition four-disc set of their first and third groundbreaking albums: Q: ARE WE NOT MEN? A: WE ARE DEVO! and FREEDOM OF CHOICE, available online only through www.clubdevo.com this holiday season.

Both albums have been re-mastered from the original analog recordings and housed in DEVO-luxish packages with a plethora of audio and video bonus material including the Live at the Forum, London 2009 concert video. The package also includes an original 7-inch colored vinyl single of “Jocko Homo”/”Mongoloid,” plus an original 18” x 30” foldout poster and 16-page booklet. The DEVO-LUX package will be sold for $49.99. Each order will include a digital audio download delivered upon order. A limited number of orders will also include autographed B/W 8x10 vintage DEVO promo photos from the Warner Bros. Records vaults. These are the definitive versions of the band’s classic works, supremely packaged and loaded with previously unreleased rarities made available for the first time ever.

Just how DEVO-LUX are we talking here? This special collector’s edition contains the complete audio CD of Q: ARE WE NOT MEN? A: WE ARE DEVO! — the Brian Eno-produced album re-mastered from the original analog recordings, plus three previously unreleased demos from the DEVO archives. These ultra-rare recordings were committed to tape by the band between 1975 and 1977, including one track produced by Joe Walsh (Ex-James Gang and future Eagle). Believe it! These early recordings provide a unique view into the primitive early world of DEVO.

The second audio disc is comprised of the complete Devo-produced third album, FREEDOM OF CHOICE, also re-mastered from the original tapes. Bonus tracks include the rare six-track DEV-O LIVE EP, recorded live at the Warfield in San Francisco circa 1980. The package also includes three more previously unreleased demos from the DEVO vaults that were recorded at Modern Music Rehearsal Studio in Hollywood, CA, and the Record Plant in Los Angeles in 1979, and are available now for the first time ever and exclusive to this release only.

The first DVD disc contains the debut album performed live in its entirety from The HMV Forum in London 2009, and includes behind-the-scenes footage and more, exclusive to this release only. The second DVD disc is comprised of four classic DEVO video clips. Little did anyone know what kind of global impact these unique short promotional films would have upon the music world for years to come.

THE ULTRA DEVO-LUX LTD. EDITION PACKAGE will sell out quickly so don’t delay. Act now and achieve total audio and video bliss before it’s too late because as we now truly know, Devolution Is Real!

THE ULTRA DEVO-LUX LTD. EDITION Track listings:

Disc 1 (Audio):

Q: ARE WE NOT MEN? A: WE ARE DEVO

1. Uncontrollable Urge 3:11
2. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 2:41
3. Praying Hands 2:48
4. Space Junk 2:15
5. Mongoloid 3:44
6. Jocko Homo 3:39
7. Too Much Paranoias 1:58
8. Gut Feeling/(Slap Your Mammy) 4:58
9. Come Back Jonee 3:49
10. Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin') 2:40
11. Shrivel-Up 3:04

Bonus Demos:

1. Uncontrollable Urge (demo) 3:08 (Produced by Joe Walsh at The Record Plant LA, CA., 1977)
2. Social Fools (demo) 3:42 (Recorded at Audio Recording Studio Cleveland, OH., 1975)
3. Sloppy (demo) 2:21 (Recorded at Manray Studio, Akron, OH, 1976)

Disc 2 (DVD-Video):

Q: ARE WE NOT MEN? A: WE ARE DEVO

Performed Live at the HMV Forum, London 2009:

1. Uncontrollable Urge 3:26
2. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 3:07
3. Praying Hands 2:48
4. Space Junk 2:17
5. Mongoloid 3:38
6. Jocko Homo 4:32
7. Too Much Paranoias 2:26
8. Gut Feeling/(Slap Your Mammy) 4:19
9. Come Back Jonee 4:21
10. Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin') 2:25
11. Shrivel-Up 3:05

Disc 3 (Audio):

FREEDOM OF CHOICE

1. Girl U Want 2:55
2. It's Not Right 2:20
3. Whip It 2:37
4. Snowball 2:28
5. Ton O' Luv 2:29
6. Freedom of Choice 3:28
7. Gates of Steel 3:26
8. Cold War 2:30
9. Don't You Know 2:14
10. That's Pep! 2:17
11. Mr. B's Ballroom 2:45
12. Planet Earth 2:45

DEV-O LIVE EP: DEVO Live at the Warfield, San Francisco, CA. 1980:

1. Freedom of Choice Theme Song 2:46
2. Whip It 2:41
3. Girl U Want 2:56
4. Gates of Steel 3:17
5. Be Stiff 2:50
6. Planet Earth 2:32
Bonus Demos:

1. Snowball (demo) 2:49 (Modern Music Rehearsal Studio, Hollywood to 4-track 1979 )
2. Gates of Steel (demo) 3:28 (Modern Music Rehearsal Studio, Hollywood to 4-track 1979)
3. Time Bomb (demo) 2:54 (Recorded at the Record Plant, LA 1979)

Disc 4 (DVD-Video):

Bonus Videos:

1. Satisfaction 2:38
2. Whip It 2:47
3. Freedom of Choice 3:25
4. Girl You Want 2:58

All product details can be found at…
www.clubdevo.com

Keep an eye on the site for additional DEVO 2010 details coming soon. Until then contact: Warner Bros. Records Publicity:

National Spudboy: Rick Gershon 818-953-3473 / rick.gershon@wbr.com
Regional Spudgirl: Amanda Van Goethen 818-953-3211
Amanda.vangoethen@wbr.com

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Producer's new program could be more sweet music for PBS

By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"My Music Presents: Ed Sullivan - The Sixties," which will be shown on WQED on Nov. 28, will include archival footage from The Beatles' appearance on the "The Ed Sullivan Show."T.J. Lubinsky, the former WQED producer who created the doo-wop-themed pledge specials that proved enormously popular for PBS stations nationwide, has continued to create several PBS programs each year since leaving WQED in 2003 and striking out on his own with TJL Productions.

The producer, who works out of a home office in Gibsonia, ignited the doo wop craze 10 years ago and his programs have raised millions for PBS stations over the past decade.

For his latest program, he moves into a slightly more recent era with "My Music Presents: Ed Sullivan -- The Sixties" (9 p.m. Nov. 28, WQED-TV).

It's not Lubinsky's first experience working with the video image of Sullivan: In 2001, Lubinsky repackaged "The Ed Sullivan Show" for PBS stations. For the new all-archival-footage program, Lubinsky edited together the music acts -- The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, Herman's Hermits, The Doors, Petula Clark -- and left Sullivan's plate-spinners on the cutting room floor.

Sullivan actually isn't seen much, except to introduce the acts, with narrator Jay Thomas setting the cultural scene and narrating brief interludes between classic performances.

But this latest pledge special was not an easy sell.

"There was a lot of resistance to this show," Lubinsky said. "I don't know if it's because certain management at PBS felt it maybe was too old, but it was a real challenge to get people to focus on the fact that this is The Beatles, The Doors, the Stones.

"It's a great relationship [with PBS] but people are generally unfamiliar with new, untested areas. There's risk and such pressure for funding. ... Thankfully, nine times out of 10, the shows still work."

Lubinsky said although some may think of "The Ed Sullivan Show" as old news, the music featured on the program remains popular with many viewers.

"My Music Presents: Ed Sullivan -- The Sixties" was tested earlier this year on PBS stations in Detroit, San Francisco and Iowa and it did well. It was the biggest fundraiser for a single-play special in three years at the Detroit station, according to a producer there.

Of course, they can't all be hits.

"The one we did on movie songs was a big bomb," Lubinsky acknowledged. "I learned when you try to be master of all, you're master of none. It was too broad with music from the '50s, '60s and '70s and too many people and [viewers] couldn't connect to any one person."

The two-hour Sullivan show -- about 80 minutes without the pledge breaks that were taped earlier this year in San Francisco -- will air in about 85 percent of the country, Lubinsky said, which is pretty standard for his pledge specials.

Although his programs are produced and edited locally, Lubinsky hasn't taped a show in Pittsburgh in many years -- costs for some labor unions proved prohibitive -- but he's hoping to end that drought next year.

His next big project: Developing a "Hullabaloo" special, using footage from the 1965-66 NBC prime-time variety series. He'll continue to provide pledge shows to PBS through 2013 and possibly beyond, according to a PBS spokesman.

PBS senior vice president and chief TV programming executive John Wilson said Lubinsky's shows have been "among the consistent top-performing programs we've offered our stations, so they look forward to them and know their audiences like them and are willing to support them."

Unlike some pledge programs, Lubinsky's shows do not deviate wildly from part of PBS's mission to provide cultural programming.

"One of the things we want, whenever possible, is to make sure the pledge schedule is connected to the regular schedule so the audience that's watching for 'Great Performances' and 'Austin City Limits' and 'Soundstage' find something appealing to them in pledge drive where they can express their support," Wilson said. "It's connecting the dots between our pop music performance programs and pledge specials."

For Lubinsky, the goal with his shows is to connect music and viewers' memories.

"We try to bring the audience back to the point that they're in their living room again," he said. "Music is the vehicle but the real goal is connecting that crowd and audience.

"Anybody who grew up in the late '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s, this is how we all got together," he said of Sullivan's show. "This was 'American Idol' before there was 'American Idol.'

SOURCE: http://www.post-gazette.com

Music News & Notes


Gibson Guitars Raided Over Alleged Use Of Rare Madagascan Timber
Their Tennessee HQ is stormed...


Gibson Guitars is under investigation in the US for allegedly using illegal wood to make their instruments. Federal agents stormed Gibson's headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee on suspicion of the company using threatened Madagascan rosewood smuggled in via Germany.

The search took place under the Lacey Act which seeks to hinder trafficking of illegal wildlife, plants and fish. The US Fish and Wildlife Service seized a variety of items including wood, computers, files and guitars from Gibson HQ.

A statement from Gibson Guitars reads: "(We are) fully cooperating with agents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as it pertains to an issue with harvested wood".

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Arctic Monkeys Planning New Album

Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders has revealed the band have already begun working on ideas for a follow-up to this year’s album ‘Humbug‘.

Speaking to BBC6 Music, Helders said: “We’re already talking about when we can record again, but I still enjoy being on tour as well. It’s good to have time to work stuff out, then at least you can start doing the quality control before and actually record what you think is decent, rather than recording hundreds of songs to then find out you only like 10 of them.”

It remains to be seen as to whether the new tracks will continue the harder sound that dominated their third album, which was produced in part by Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme.

The Sheffield band are currently on a large UK arena tour and recently completed two sold-out shows at London’s Wembley Arena, playing a set which relied heavily on songs from their new album.

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Spoon Reveal First Transference Dates

Spoon's next album, Transference, is due January 25 in Europe via Anti- and January 26 in North America via Merge. And in the coming months, lucky folks in the U.S. and Europe will get a chance to hear Spoon play some of these songs live. Spoon's catalog of spiky new wave jams is already pretty huge, and they've always been totally smooth and on-point onstage, so you're pretty much guaranteed a good night out if you hit up one of these shows.

Spoon:

12-03 Kansas City, MO - Midland Theatre
12-04 Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre #
12-11 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *
12-12 La Jolla, CA - RIMAC Arena
12-31 Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theatre !
02-14 Glasgow, Scotland - King Tut's
02-15 Manchester, England - Academy 3
02-16 London, England - Electric Ballroom
02-18 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
02-19 Cologne, Germany - Luxor
02-20 Berlin, Germany - Frannz Club

# with Phoenix, Passion Pit
* with Black Joe Lewis
! with Jay Reatard