Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Music News & Vinyl Record Notes

Eagles Announce West Coast Tour

The Eagles have mapped a few additional West Coast dates that will follow their upcoming three-night engagement at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles this spring.

After tackling the April 16, April 17 and April 20 LA shows - the band's first-ever performances in the legendary venue - the group heads to Phoenix for an April 21 appearances, then back to California for concerts in Anaheim (4/25), Sacramento (4/27) and San Jose (4/30), before closing out the run May 9 in Vancouver. Dates are shown below:

04/16 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
04/17 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
04/20 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
04/21 - Phoenix, AZ - US Airways Arena
04/25 - Anaheim, CA - Honda Center
04/27 - Sacramento, CA - ARCO Arena
04/30 - San Jose, CA - HP Pavilion
05/09 - Vancouver, British Columbia - GM Place

The new shows all go on sale to the public February 8, with the exception of the Vancouver date, which becomes available beginning next Monday (2/1). Tickets will be available at all Ticketmaster locations, via Ticketmaster charge-by-phone (800.745.3000) or online at Ticketmaster.com.

During the run, the band will continue to support 2007's "Long Road Out Of Eden," which was the group's first new studio album since 1979's "The Long Run."

================================

Mark Ronson recruits Santigold, Scissor Sisters for new album

Singer/producer to release 'The Business' later this year

Mark Ronson has revealed that he has collaborated with Santigold, Scissor Sisters, Cathy Dennis, rapper Pill and Miike Snow for his forthcoming new album, 'The Business'.

The singer/producer told NME.COM that he hoped to release the album, the follow-up to his 2007 hit 'Version', this spring or summer. He also said that unlike 'Version', which featured covers of songs by Kaiser Chiefs and Coldplay among others, all the songs will be original. Despite having a no cover version policy this time, Ronson explained that he had been writing new material with some of his previous collaborators.

"There's no covers, and no horns," he explained. "It's written with some of the people that actually wrote the songs I covered on the last album and that I didn't actually even know at the time.

"It's quite interesting to write songs from scratch with those people, like Dave [McCabe of The Zutons] who wrote 'Valerie', and Nick [Hodgson, of Kaiser Chiefs].

He said the album would be released "probably May, June depends how quick I can get it done."

================================

BOSTON's TOM SCHOLZ Says 'Impostor' Tried To Impersonate Him For A Solo Show

According to The Pulse of Radio, BOSTON guitarist Tom Scholz is up in arms over an "impostor" who tried to impersonate him for a planned solo show for $5,000. Scholz said in a statement that make no mistake — neither he nor BOSTON will be playing any dates in 2010.

"The most upsetting part of this is knowing your name has been used to swindle people out of their hard-earned money," he said. "Over the last few years, I've seen countless examples of con artists trying to make deals, pass themselves off, or sell tickets to unsuspecting fans by using the name BOSTON but this is the first time I've seen someone actually use my personal name as a come-on."

He went on to say: "If anyone has doubts about an advertised appearance by BOSTON, or anyone claiming to be performing as a part of BOSTON, they should check our website, BandBoston.com, or contact Agency For The Performing Arts, or our publicist, Gail Parenteau."

================================

THE OCEAN: New Album Details Revealed

THE OCEAN's upcoming albums are going to be entitled "Heliocentric" and "Anthropocentric". They are due for April and October 2010 releases.

The concept at the base of both albums is a critique of Christianity from different philosophical and personal angles.

While the songs, art and lyrics of "Heliocentric" tell the story of the rise of the heliocentric world view and its effects on Christian belief from medieval times to Darwin and Dawkins, "Anthropocentric" challenges the views of creationists and other modern fundamentalists who still believe that the earth is at the center of the universe.

Musically, "Heliocentric" covers the largest range of dynamics and styles to date: "There are a few really calm songs with mainly piano and vocals, as well as some crushing heavy tunes. There is a very special atmosphere to it that pervades the album," comments guitarist Jonathan Nido.

"Our new vocalist, Loic Rossetti, has immensely widenened the musical spectrum of this band and there are some songs on the album that even those people who have conceived of this band as being unpredictable and daring would have never imagined," adds Robin Staps. "But this is exactly what makes it a 150% THE OCEAN album".

"Heliocentric" continues where the Proterozoic half of the "Precambrian" album left off, with dense, epic songs and big orchestrations. "Anthropocentric" is going to be a bit more straightforward rocking and technical, whilst tapping the full dynamic range from acoustic pieces to eclectic heaviness as well.

The albums were mainly recorded in the mountainous isolation of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, the highest city of Europe. The band decided to record and mix the album with the band's house sound engineer Julien Fehlmann. "We wanted to be in control of every single detail, and we have an amazing studio at hand here." the group explains. "Soundwise this is by far the best-sounding album we have done to date".

The lyrics and snippets of every song of the album can be previewed at:

www.theoceancollective.com/heliocentric
www.myspace.com/theoceancollective

================================

Shirley Manson hints at new Garbage album

Manson hints that band have been in the studio recently

Shirley Manson has hinted that her band Garbage are to release new material soon, with the singer implying that the band have been in the studio together recently.

Manson dropped the hint in a message to fans posted on her Facebook page after the Grammy awards yesterday (February 1).

Although she didn't explicitly say they band were recording together again, she did allude to bandmates Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig, the last of whom was celebrating Green Day's '21st Century Breakdown' (which he co-produced) picking up the Grammy for Best Rock Album.

"Guess who I just spent a week in the studio with?" Manson wrote, before adding, "Would you be pleased if I said one of them was called Steve and one of them was called Duke and another was a Grammy-winning producer?"

Garbage's last studio album, 'Bleed Like Me', was released in 2005.

================================

SLAYER, MEGADETH, TESTAMENT Announce New Dates For 'American Carnage' Tour

SLAYER and MEGADETH are thrilled to announce the new, confirmed routing for the "American Carnage" North American Tour, which will commence with the rescheduled "Canadian Carnage East" dates in Quebec City on Friday, July 23. SLAYER will then head to Europe for a run of festival dates, returning to kick off the "American Carnage" leg in Albany, NY on August 11.

"American Carnage" will play 26 dates across the United States and Eastern Canada up to the Labor Day weekend, ending in Portland, Oregon on September 4. TESTAMENT will be special guest on all shows. Tickets purchased for the "American Carnage" shows when they first went on sale late last year will be honored for these rescheduled dates.

Due to venue availability and other conflicts, the shows originally scheduled in El Paso, Houston, Nashville, Duluth, and Louisville cannot be rescheduled at this time, and ticket holders may obtain refunds at point of purchase. However, new cities have been added to the "American Carnage" itinerary, with dates now scheduled in Cleveland, Kansas City, San Diego, and Sacramento. The confirmed, complete itinerary is below.

The "American Carnage" tour, originally scheduled to take place in January and February, had to be put on hold due to SLAYER's vocalist/bassist Tom Araya's ongoing, minimally-invasive treatments for what was diagnosed as a cervical radiculopathy, an occupational hazard for the rocker who is known for aggressively swinging his long mane of hair while performing. Right after the first of the year, Araya made the difficult decision to undergo a surgical procedure, called an anterior cervical discectomy with fusion, a relatively routine practice with an excellent recovery rate. That surgery took place early last week.

"The doctors said that Tom's surgery went very smoothly and was a resounding success," said Rick Sales, longtime SLAYER manager. "He's home now, doing really well, and he said the numbness in his fingers had already diminished considerably."

Shortly after the surgery, SLAYER's Kerry King received a text from Tom: "Awake and feeling good, actually whatever he did, it feels better."

The "American Carnage" tour will mark the first time that SLAYER, MEGADETH and TESTAMENT will have toured the U.S. together since 1991's epic "Clash of the Titans" tour, making this truly a "must-see" event.

SLAYER recently announced the rescheduling of its headline tour in Europe, and MEGADETH and TESTAMENT are currently on tour together playing U.S. cities that will not be on the "American Carnage" itinerary.

"American Carnage" North American tour dates:

Jul. 23 - Pavillon de la Jeunesse, Quebec City, QC CANADA
Jul. 24 - Heavy MTL, Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montreal, QC CANADA
Jul. 26 - Metro Centre, Halifax, NS CANADA
Jul. 27 - Moncton Coliseum, Moncton, NB CANADA
Jul. 29 - Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, ONT CANADA
Jul. 30 - John Labatt Centre Center, London, ONT CANADA
Aug. 11 - Glens Falls Civic Center, Glens Falls, NY
Aug. 12 - Izod Center, East Rutherford, NJ
Aug. 14 - Tsongas Arena, Boston, MA
Aug. 15 - Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
Aug. 16 - Chevrolet Theatre, Wallingford, CT
Aug. 18 - Tower City Amphitheatre, Cleveland, OH
Aug. 19 - Joe Louis Arena, Detroit,MI
Aug. 20 - UIC Pavillon, Chicago, IL
Aug. 21 - Roy Wilkins Auditorium, Minneapolis, MN
Aug. 23 - Cap Fed Park @Sandstone, Kansas City, KS
Aug. 25 - Magness Arena, Denver, CO
Aug. 26 - Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, NM
Aug. 27 - Dodge Theatre, Phoenix, AZ
Aug. 29 - Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre, San Diego, CA
Aug. 30 - Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, CA
Aug. 31 - Cow Palace, San Francisco, CA
Sep. 01 - Arco Arena, Sacramento, CA
Sep. 03 - Wamu Theatre, Seattle, WA
Sep. 04 - Washington County Fairgrounds, Portland, OR

================================

Classic 'Afro-Rock' Compilation to be Re-Released

If ever something should be called crate digging, it's the first 'Afro-Rock' compilation on Kona Records.

The release that helped spark the last decade's fascination with Afrobeat will be reissued by Strut this month. The compilation, originally released in 2001, showcased lesser players in the continent-wide interest in Western styles of music and the great fusion of styles that followed.

Indeed, before Duncan Booker (Kona Records) began his search for rare and out of print vinyl, the liner notes assert that most of the tracks hadn't "been heard outside of Africa," and that they weren't necessarily heard on that continent much either, having been recovered from dusty, "remote" corners of the continent off of utterly worn and heavily-used vinyl and master copies.

With tracks from Sierra Leone's Geraldo Pino, Kenya's Steele Beautttah, and rarities from Zaire (including a 12-minute groove called "Yuda" by Dackin Dakino), there's a clear effort to present the volume as a pan-continental representation of the great African funk/rock fusion experiments of the 1970s.

Lookout for three extra tracks on this release previously not available on the Japanese release, including an untitled piece by Ishmael Jingo.

No comments: