Music News & Notes

COMEBACK KID: Releases New Song and Reveals Special Enhanced Album Details

Hardcore band COMEBACK KID is preparing for the release of their fourth studio album Symptoms + Cures on August 31. Produced by Eric Ratz (Cancer Bats, Billy Talent) and Kenny Luong (Cancer Bats, Billy Talent), fans can get a taste of the new record by visiting the band’s MySpace page, where the first track “Do Yourself A Favor” has been posted: http://www.myspace.com/comebackkid.










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Screen Vinyl Image Announces New EP, 7″ and Tour Dates

Virginian shoegazers Screen Vinyl Image have announced the release of two new records, along with a few new tour dates. The first release will be the Ice Station EP, which will be issued first as a limited run of 200 cassette tapes, followed by the “Siberian Eclipse” 7″ in the fall (both on Fan Death Records). The Ice Station cassette includes the new songs “Siberian Eclipse” and “New Visions,” as well as live tracks from the band’s show with Spectrum at the Velvet Lounge in Washington, DC, in May and a few other songs from the Ice Station (SVI’s own studio) sessions. Another single, “Too Much Speed,” is also slated for release in the fall on Custom Made Music.

Tour Dates:

07/23 – Washington, DC – The Submarine (with Bloody Knives and Space Tigers)

08/15 – Washington, DC – Velvet Lounge (with Telltale and Soren Well)

08/21 – Kalamazoo, MI – Kalamashoegazer Festival at The Strutt (with Glowfriends, Brief Candles, Olympus Mons, Pilot Cloud, Love Culture, 800 Beloved, Crash City Saints, Rosen Association)

09/03 – Washington, DC – Velvet Lounge (with W/ Night & The City, Hot Cha Cha, Hiding Places)

09/17 – Philadelphia, PA – Pilam (with Ceremony, The Vandelles, Sounds of Kaleidescope, Stellarscope, 28 Degrees Taurus)

09/18 – Baltimore, MD – The Otto Bar (with The Flying Eyes and The Vandelles)

10/16 – Baltimore, MD – Talking Head Fan Death Records Presents (with Puerto Rico Flowers and Pfisters)

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Fatal Embrace Releases Most Recent Album on Vinyl; Three Versions to Choose From

Thrash vets Fatal Embrace have released their newest album, "The Empires of Inhumanity," on vinyl through Iron Shield Records.

Available in classic black, quirky green or brutal orange splatter, the package includes the gatefold sleeve with complete album art and a poster. These limited edition releases are priced to sell, however:

Black: 275 copies, 12 euros
Green: 150 copes, 14 euros
Splatter: 100 copies, 16 euros

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Ex-MEGADETH Guitarist MARTY FRIEDMAN To Release New Solo Album Next Month

Former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman will release his tenth solo album, "Bad D.N.A.", in Japan on August 25 via Avex. The CD was produced by Marty and engineered by Steve Hardy and Shinnosuke Miyazawa (LADY GAGA, GUNS N' ROSES) this April/May at The Village in Los Angeles, California.

According to a posting on Friedman's web site, "Bad D.N.A." is "a natural progression, picking up where 'Loudspeaker' and 'Tokyo Jukebox' left off and adding its own twists and turns."

The first Japanese pressing will include the first music video for the title track, "Bad D.N.A.", directed by Visual Trap, which has directed all of the videos for DIR EN GREY.

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Record Store Day News

HEART - The Sisters Wilson are back with a new album in August, but this Tuesday you can pick up a special heart-shaped red vinyl single, featuring their new song, "WTF" and a special live version of their classic "Magic Man." Welcome back, ladies!

COMING IN AUGUST TO INDIE RECORD STORES:

The HIVES Tarred & Feathered vinyl 7" EP!
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World soundtrack—on vinyl!

J.P., CHRISSIE & THE FAIRGROUND BOYS - Chrissie just keeps on making us smile here at RSD HQ. This time it's about the new record, FIDELITY!, but also about the story behind it, kind of a really kick-ass rock version of a made-for-tv movie: Bad-ass rocker girl meets scruffy Welsh guy, dares him to write a song, likes the song, likes the boy, boy and girl hole up in a hotel room in Cuba, write an album, form a band, rock out happily ever after. The album actually probably tells the stories better. But until FIDELITY! is released in August, hear some new music on a special indies-only 7", which streets this coming Tuesday. What's on the 7"? A brand new song, "If You Let Me" and "Skinny Love", a Bon Iver cover, recorded live in Chicago.

Find the latest info at http://www.recordstoreday.com/

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Devo Head Out On Tour

After releasing "Something For Everybody" to critical acclaim in June, Devo is heading out on a North American tour beginning July 23rd in Kansas City, MO. USAToday.com raves "Something For Everybody" "delivers plenty of humor and hooks," while RollingStone.com says "combining the punk-funk fury of Devo's earliest recordings with synth pop, this ninth disc is frantic and wall-to-wall catchy."



Tour Dates:

•7/23 - Kansas City, MO - City Market
•7/24 - Des Moines, IA - Simon Estes Riverfront
•7/26 - Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue
•7/28 - Atlanta, GA - Chastain Park
•7/30 - Richmond, VA - The National
•7/31 - Clifton Park, NY - Northern Lights
•8/1 - Montreal, QC, Canada - Osheaga Music & Arts Festival
•8/4 - Columbus, OH - Ohio State Fair
•8/5 - Chicago, IL - Congress Theatre
•8/6 - Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza 2010
•9/4 - Squamish, British Columbia - Live at Squamish
•9/18 - Phoenix, AZ - Arizona Fall Frenzy

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Katy Perry Teenage Dream Album Cover

Singer Katy Perry finally unveiled the cover for her new album “Teenage Dream”, which comes out on August 24, 2010. The cover artwork is a portrait of Katy by one of her favorite artists, Will Cotton, whose work has been a major inspiration for the singer’s forthcoming album.









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Robyn announces new album details

RobynMusicRobyn has revealed the tracklisting and cover art for her new album.

Body Talk Pt 2, the second in a trilogy of records the Swedish pop singer plans to release in 2010, will feature eight new tracks including 'U Should Know Better', a collaboration with Snoop Dogg.

The album, whose cover art appears to the right, also includes songwriting and production contributions from longtime Robyn cohort Klas Ahlund, M.I.A. associate Diplo, Swedish DJ duo Savage Skulls and Kleerup, with whom she previously collaborated on the 2007 UK chart-topper 'With Every Heartbeat'.



The album tracklisting in full:

•'In My Eyes'
•'Include Me Out'
•'Hang With Me'
•'Love Kills'
•'We Dance To The Beat'
•'Criminal Intent'
•'U Should Know Better' ft. Snoop Dogg
•'Indestructible' (acoustic version)

Michael Fremer Album Review

ALBUM REVIEW:
Grant Green (reissue)
Matador


Blue Note/Music Matters MMBST 84442 2 45rpm 180g LPs


Produced by: Alfred Lion
Engineered by: Rudy Van Gelder
Mixed by: Tony Sestanovich
Mastered by: Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman at AcousTech
Produced for Release by: Michael Cuscuna

Review by: Michael Fremer
2010-07-01


With the rhythm section of McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Sonny Rollins’ bassist of choice Bob Cranshaw behind him, the long underappreciated Grant Green’s take on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things” superficially sounds like a transcript lifted from Coltrane’s 1961 Atlantic album of the same name from a few years earlier.
It’s even taken in the same 6/8 time. But listen more carefully and behind the similarities comes guitarist Grant Green’s very different take on the tune’s melodic thrust. Tyner follows Grant’s lead and the result is an adrenaline rush of precisely struck, ultra-clarified notes.

Unlike Coltrane, who takes off into uncharted territory before returning to the tune (that was the first jazz album I ever bought as a kid and that long solo always made me feel like I was walking a tightrope until the group got back to the melody), Green manages an elegant solo that doesn’t wander too far both melodically and rhythmically while sustaining and building the song’s joyful emotional backdrop.

You can listen to Elvin and McCoy alone and get sufficient pleasure from this album. Both adapt different, you could say more sunny personas to accompany Green compared to how they sound with Coltrane. If you love Wes and don’t know Mr. Green, this record will knock you down from Green’s first solo on the title tune, which he penned. There are but four extended tunes on this 1964 recording that strangely stayed in the can until a 1979 Japanese release. An American CD first appeared in 1990.

The sound here, remixed from the original Van Gelder recording is remarkably good and sounds more modern in the best sense of that word than some other albums of the time. It sounds nothing like a “typical” Blue Note, being drier, more detailed and punchier than usual. Being able to hear Green pick notes from an intimate perspective adds to the pleasure. The piano and drums too are very well recorded. An easy album to recommend.

Thanks to Michael over at http://www.musicangle.com  for the exclusive rights to reprint this material.

Copyright © 2008 MusicAngle.com & Michael Fremer - All rights reserved Reprinted by Permission

A new generation of fans are giving records a spin

By Chris Serico • cserico@lohud.com • July 22, 2010

If the refrain that the Internet has killed the music industry sounds like a broken record, consider this: A whole generation has never even heard a record spinning unless a disc jockey's involved.

Yet, the same Internet that slashed so much of the music industry is enabling some local entrepreneurs to continue to profit from a product that might seem counterintuitive: vinyl.

It's not just boomers nostalgic for their youth, either. College kids, collectors, and yes, even those boomers looking for a vintage "Frampton Comes Alive," album are fueling a resurgent interest in LPs.

John Bastone, 49, who ran the Record Room on North Avenue in New Rochelle in the late '80s, and Exile on Main Street in Mount Kisco in the mid-'90s, is one of them.

Within three years of opening the latter store, a Sam Goody branch opened around the corner, and Borders opened directly across the street. Bastone closed the store's doors in about 2004.

However, he and his wife, Margaret, continue to sell CDs and vinyl from their White Plains home. Via their website, recordriots.com, and eBay, Amazon.com and regional record conventions — including one held in May at the New Rochelle Radisson — Exile CDs makes most of its revenue through digital music, but vinyl has helped keep the business afloat.

"It's still a portion of the market," he says. "Even though it's 10 times as popular as it was ... a year ago, it's still a fraction of what it was back in its heyday."

Tony Pradlik can relate. A fellow White Plains resident, Pradlik worked at several record stores — two in Yonkers and another in New York City — before shutting down Rockin' Rex in the '90s. In recent years, he's returned to selling music, but now he's doing it from his house, and on the Internet (www.the-rockin-rex.com), in lieu of a traditional storefront.

The venue has changed, but love for big, round records has not, he says.

"There's always been interest (in vinyl)," Pradlik says. "It's never died."

DJs and hard-core collectors comprise a niche demographic that has sustained the vinyl business for Bastone since the digital revolution. When he visits Purchase College, which he's done eight to 12 times per year for 18 years, students also pay for their penchant for vinyl records — or at least the large album covers that contain them.

"Vinyl outsells CDs when I'm there," he says. "College kids are driving the resurgence of vinyl. I have a theory that kids who live on college campuses (think) 'Why would I spend $5 to $10 on a poster when I can go to a flea market or a yard sale or a street fair and find records for a dollar and just hang up the cover?' ...

For them, it wasn't retro. For them, it was something totally brand new."

There's also value in purchasing common vintage vinyl records.

"You can find a lot of $1, $2 and $3 records, and buy a lot more music for a much cheaper price," Bastone adds.

There's also consumer interest in rarities. Pradlik says some vinyl records never made the leap to digital formats due to legal disputes over music rights, musicians dying off, and other reasons.

For both record dealers, the steadiest and most popular vinyl sales are those featuring classic rock acts, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, iconic jazz artists, such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and soul legends.

"A lot of the DJs and new bands who use old soul records are looking for beats and samples," Bastone says.

Punk records from the '70s and '80s also generate interest among Pradlik's clients.

"That kind of stuff is through the roof now," he says.

The trend has prompted record labels to issue and reissue albums on vinyl, allowing for additional interest and sales.

Bastone has hopes for bringing a record convention to the Westchester County Center, provided the cost isn't prohibitive. He believes the vinyl trend is best buoyed by the experience of listening to a record when the needle hits the groove.

"If you have a brand new piece of vinyl and a brand new CD, the fact is a CD could never sound as good as a record," he says. "And I'm not an audiophile , but any audiophile can tell you that. You get that warm, fuzzy feeling that you're not going to get from ... your iPod or your CD."

Pradlik agrees: "It's about time travel. You can put yourself back in the time this thing was made, even if you weren't from that era."

Source:  http://www.lohud.com

Lee Ritenour’s 6 STRING THEORY

It’s hard to believe that 2010 marks 50 years since Lee Ritenour starting playing the guitar, setting in motion a career that legends are made of. A career that has earned him 19 GRAMMY® nominations, a GRAMMY Award, numerous #1 spots on guitar polls, A Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian SJ Awards, and the prestigious “Alumnus of the Year” award from USC. During his illustrious career, he has recorded over 40 albums, with 35 chart songs and was a founding member of the group Fourplay, considered the most successful group in contemporary jazz. As a young guitarist his diverse musical style became the foundation of over 3,000 sessions, covering a broad spectrum of artists ranging from his first session at 16 with the Mamas and Papas, to Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Simon & Garfunkel and Frank Sinatra. On his latest endeavor, 6 String Theory, Ritenour celebrates the instrument that has allowed him this blessing, the guitar; — by producing and assembling a star-studded tribute with the greatest and soon- to- be greatest guitarists of our time.

Set for release on Concord Records /Monster Music on June 29, 2010, for 6 String Theory, Ritenour is also among the twenty legendary world class guitarists starring on the recording, which he produced along with John Burk of the Concord Music Group. Joining him in this tribute to the guitar, the all-star line-up includes: George Benson, BB King, Slash, Steve Lukather, John Scofield, Robert Cray and Vince Gill among many other superstars. Blending rock, blues, jazz, acoustic, country and classical, they come together for a seamless project that promises to take the listener on a musical journey and exploration of the guitar. Also featured on vocals are BB King, Robert Cray, Vince Gill, Keb' Mo', Taj Majal, Joe Bonamassa and Jonny Lang.

Ritenour also had a musical mission to help launch a new star of the guitar. To do so, he partnered with Yamaha Corp., Berklee College of Music, Monster Music, D'Addario Strings, and Concord Records to hold the international talent search, The Yamaha 6 String Theory Guitar Competition. Hundreds of contestants from over 45 countries posted YouTube videos to enter the competition with six finalists from around the world (one in each musical category) selected at a finals competition in Los Angeles in March 2010. Winning top honors was 16-year-old classical guitarist, Shon Boublil, from Montréal, Canada, who as the winner made his debut recording performance on 6 String Theory and received a four-year full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music.

Ranging from 16 year old Shon, 18 year old, Joe Robinson (winner of Australia's Got Talent) and BB King in his young 80s, 6 String Theory covers it all, from amazingly talented upcoming guitarists to the greatest guitarists of our time. It also shows the high esteem for which Ritenour is held by his peers enabling him to assemble such an awe inspiring cast of musicians to celebrate their mutual love of the guitar. Blending together styles, ages and musical colors, Lee Ritenour’s 6 String Theory promises to be one of the greatest guitar recordings ever made!

Lee Ritenour’s 6 STRING THEORY:
1 Lee Ritenour
2 BB King
3 George Benson
4 John Scofield
5 Steve Lukather
6 Vince Gill
7 Slash
8 Pat Martino
9 Mike Stern
10 Neal Schon
11 Robert Cray
12 Keb Mo
13 Taj Majal
14 Jonny Lang
15 Joe Bonamasa
16 Andy Mckee (acoustic virtuoso 30 million YouTube hits)
17 Guthrie Govan (Guitar Player Magazine New Talent of the Year 2009)
18 Joe Robinson (18 years old won Australia's Got Talent)
19 Hotei (Japan's rock guitar superstar)
20 Shon Boublil (16 year old winner of Yamaha 6 String Theory Competition)


Official Sites & Social Networking Links:

http://www.leeritenour.com/

http://www.sixstringtheory.com/

http://www.myspace.com/leeritenour

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Angeles-CA/Six-String-Theory-Project/124918237000

Tour Dates & Info:

http://www.leeritenour.com/tour-dates

Buy Link:

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/albums/6-String-Theory

Date City Venue

7/21 Hollywood, CA Hollywood Bowl w/Dave Grusin, John Scofield, Keb Mo & Taj Mahal

7/23-25 Oakland, CA Yoshi's with Dave Grusin

8/10-15 New York, New York Blue Note

8/19 Highland Park, Illinois Ravinia Festival

8/24-29 Seattle, WA Jazz Alley with Dave Grusin


Please note new contact info!

Christina Cherkezian | LBi
Associate, Social Media and ePR
Christina.Cherkezian@lbi.com
tel +1 646.792.6103
295 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012
www.lbi.com/us