Music News & Notes

The Pipettes confirm new single, tour

The Pipettes have confirmed the details of their comeback single and a spring UK tour. The girl-group will release 'Stop The Music' on CD, limited edition red vinyl and download on April 19 through Fortuna POP. In support of the release and forthcoming album Earth vs. Pipettes, the band will play a number of live dates in April and May. The current lineup of The Pipettes features Gwenno Saunders and her younger sister Ani.



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Dan Deacon to Release Remix EP

Last year, Dan Deacon released the heady album called Bromst, a stark departure from the day-glo raveups he'd made in the past. Next month, a new EP will include remixes of a few tracks from Bromst.

On April 19, the British label Amazing Sounds will release the extremely limited Woof Woof EP-- just 500 vinyl copies are being pressed up worldwide

The EP will also include remixes from Allez-Allez and Luke Abbot. That's the cover art up there, and you can see the tracklist below.
Woof Woof:

01 Woof Woof (Original Mix)
02 Woof Woof (Hudson Mohawke Remix)
03 Build Voice (Allez-Allez Remix)
04 Surprise Stefani (Luke Abbott Remix)

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The Grascals Set New Album Release

The Grascals, one of bluegrass music's most highly awarded and acclaimed bands, will release their brand new CD, The Famous Lefty Flynn's, on Rounder Records March 30, just a few days before the band hits the road as a part of Hank Williams Jr.'s Rowdy Friends Tour, an opportunity that will showcase bluegrass music to tens of thousands of music fans. As a guest on the CD, Williams also joins the band for a quintessential country/bluegrass version of "I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome," written by his dad, Hank Williams, and the Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe.

Known for their seamless harmonies, soaring trios and stellar instrumental talents, The Grascals rose to critical acclaim in 2005 when they won Emerging Artist of the Year at the International Bluegrass Music Association Awards. This was only the beginning as they catapulted to the top of their genre, being named 2006 and 2007 Entertainers of the Year the following two years. The Boston Globe said, "DJs rhapsodize about The Grascals as though they were the second coming of Bill Monroe. The hype machine is at full throttle, but the Grascals justify every scrap of it… astonishing instrumentalists."

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Acid Tiger (members of Converge, Thursday) detail debut LP

More details have been announced regarding the upcoming debut from Acid Tiger. The band, which features Ben Koller (Converge, United Nations) and Lukas Previn (Thursday, The A.K.A.s, United Nations), will release their eponymous debut on April 27, 2010 through Deathwish Inc.

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Band of Horses Album to be released on May 18th by Brown Records/Fat Possum Records/Columbia Records

PRNewswire/ -- Band of Horses, the Low Country's premier rock n' roll outfit, will release their third full length LP, entitled Infinite Arms, on May 18th through Brown Records/Fat Possum Records/Columbia Records.

The album package will feature the photography of the band's long time collaborator Christopher Wilson.

Produced by Band of Horses with additional production from Phil Ek, mixed by Dave Sardy, and recorded over a 16-month period, the songs on Infinite Arms project the essence of the different locales across America that became the setting for the recording and songwriting process behind the album. The rich musical heritage of Muscle Shoals, AL, the sublime beauty of Asheville's Blue Ridge Mountains, the glamorous Hollywood Hills and the vast Mojave desert all influenced the sounds on Infinite Arms and helped yield the group's most focused and dynamic recordings to date. The serene woods of Northern Minnesota and the band's native Carolinas inspired the songwriting, lending the compositions an air of comfort and familiarity.

Band of Horses are Ben Bridwell, Creighton Barrett, Ryan Monroe, Tyler Ramsey and Bill Reynolds. Long time touring members of the group, Infinite Arms marks the recording debut of Ramsey and Reynolds, while Barrett and Monroe graced the last album, Cease to Begin. Through touring together in support of Cease to Begin and during breaks in the Infinite Arms recording process, the band have become a cohesive force with all members making invaluable contributions to the unmistakable sound that founder Bridwell has crafted since the band's inception. As Bridwell himself concedes, "in many ways, this is the first Band of Horses record."

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Artwork For Special Edition Of 1349's DEMONIOR Revealed

Norwegian black metal act 1349 have unveiled the cover art for the North American and European special edition of their upcoming album, "DEMONIOR." The album will be released by Indie Recordings throughout Europe on April 26, and by Prosthetic Records in North America on April 27.

For the band's fifth full-length release, 1349 decided to suck out the fiercest and most potent energies from every single member and surroundings, channeling it into songs that are pulsating with uncanny atmospheres, rawness and nerve shattering intensity. The whole process of getting the material on record was like one long, exhausting black magic summoning that could not be allowed to go wrong.

"DEMONOIR" is without a shadow of a doubt 1349's darkest, most sinister and brutal work to date, and in this case it comes to mean that the band has gone from the utterly extreme to the genre-expanding and mindboggling. Black Metal cannot, and will never be the same.

"DEMONOIR" will be available in North America as a digipack CD and a limited edition 12" picture disc LP.

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An email to my inbox:
The greatest political songs of all time

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2010/03/greatest-political-songs

We'd love their opinions on what is worthy, or unworthy, of canonisation.


A top 20 will be chosen by PSA members and a judging panel later in the month.


To mark its sixtieth birthday, the Political Studies Association is compiling a list of the greatest ever political songs. As you can see below, their longlist is a varied beast, ranging from Verdi's opera Aida, to the righteous Afrobeat of Fela Kuti, to Woody Guthrie's folky "This Land is Your Land" -- the latter a favourite of US progressives in the 1950s and 1960s that had a brief resurgence in 2009 when it was performed (including the "communist" verses) at Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony.


Annie Lennox & Aretha Franklin - "Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves"

Anon. - "Bella Ciao"

Barry McGuire - "Eve of Destruction"

Billie Holiday - "Strange Fruit"

Billy Bragg - "Which Side Are You on?"

Bob Dylan - "The Times They Are a-Changin'"

Bob Marley - "Redemption Song"

Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA

Carl Bean - "I Was Born This Way"

Cecil A Spring-Rice - "I vow to thee my country"

Charles A Tindley - "We Shall Overcome"

Charly García - "Nos siguen pegando abajo"

Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle - "Le Marseillaise"

Donovan - "Universal Soldier"

Edwin Starr - "War"

Elvis Costello - "Tramp the Dirt Down"

Enoch Sontonga - "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika"

Eugène Pottier - "The Internationale"

Fela Kuti - "Zombie"

Gil Scott Heron - "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

Horst Wessel - "Die Fahne hoch"

Jim Connell - "The Red Flag"

John Lennon - "Imagine"

Joni Mitchell - "Big Yellow Taxi"

Leornard Cohen - "The Partisan"

Li Youyuan - "The East is Red (???)"

Marvin Gaye - "What's Going on?"

Midnight Oil - "Beds Are Burning"

Nena - "99 Luftballons"

Nina Simone - "Mississippi Goddam"

Pete Seeger - "Where have all the flowers gone?"

Peter Gabriel - "Biko"

Plastic Ono Band - "Give Peace a Chance"

Public Enemy - "Fight the Power"

Randy Newman - "Political Science"

Rage Against the Machine - "Killing in the Name"

Robert Wyatt - "Shipbuilding"

Rolling Stones - "Gimme Shelter"

Sex Pistols - "God Save the Queen"

The Beatles - "Revolution"

The Clash - "Know Your Rights"

The Cranberries - "Zombie"

The Jam - "Eton Rifles"

The Police - "Invisible Sun"

The Special AKA - "Free Nelson Mandela"

The Strawbs - "Part of the Union"

Tracy Chapman - "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution"

U2 - "Sunday Bloody Sunday"

UB40 - "1 in 10"

Verdi - "Chorus of Hebrew Slaves"

Victor Jara - "Te Recuerdo Amanda"

William Blake - "Jerusalem"

Woody Guthrie - "This Land Is Your Land"

Stop by the site and add your own two-cents worth, there are many songs that can and should be included.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2010/03/greatest-political-songs