An Evening With The Tragically Hip

Ticket Pre-sales for the tour start on Tuesday, March 3rd at 10:00am for Registered Users of thehip.com. Make sure you are registered and logged into thehip.com when the password and links become available on this Tuesday March 3rd at 10:00am. - more on this story

Kylesa Join Mastodon Tour

PR reports: Kylesa, the co-ed psych-sludge quintet from Savannah, will join Mastodon for their forthcoming tour launching Apr. 10 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Static Tensions, the band's new album which is set for a Mar. 17 release on Prosthetic Records, is already earning high praise with Revolver awarding it four stars and adding that the new set features the "sweetest and sunniest hooks of their career." Decibel Magazine has given the record a 9 out of 10 rating and remarked that it's the group's best release to date. - more on this story

far Return

PR reports: Vagrant Records is proud to announce that far has signed to the label. The recently reunited quartet is currently wrapping up their fifth full-length release in The Airport studio in Southern California with producer and guitarist Shaun Lopez at the helm and an early spring release date is expected.

"We had no idea all this would happen," says vocalist Jonah Matranga. "We were just planning on getting to know each other again and playing a few shows, in between everything else we've got going on. But now, all of a sudden, the songs are coming, and it feels really good. All we've ever promised as people and as a band is that whatever we put out, whenever we come around, we're gonna mean it."

Matranga adds, "Vagrant is a label that has been smart, hard-working and great to their bands for years and years now. They know where we come from and what we've always been about, which helps a lot. We feel really lucky to be working with them." - more on this story

Beth Orton Revisits the Trailer Park

PR reports: Legacy Recordings Celebrates the 10th Anniversary of Indie/Folk Classic Beth Orton Trailer Park with a 2 CD Legacy Edition available everywhere March 10th.

In 1996, British pop was dominated by all manner of UK and U.S. boy groups, girl groups, and commercial hip-hop. The timing couldn't have been more inappropriate for the discovery of 25-year-old singer-songwriter Beth Orton, an artist with an intuitive blend of folk and jazz vocal sensibilities. England – and later America – slipped into a trance whenever Orton's hypnotic single "She Cries Your Name" spun across the airwaves. Her major market debut album, Trailer Park, gathered a quorum of true believers who honored the record with a trio of prestigious BRIT Award and Mercury Award nominations, including a BRIT win for "Best British Female."

A year later in '97, Orton scored another coup when her Best Bits EP enlisted the enigmatic folk-soul-jazz-blues charm of Chicago's legendary Terry Callier on two of its tracks. One of them, a remake of the mid-'60s Florida folk standard "Dolphins" (written by Coconut Grove's Fred Neil, of Midnight Cowboy's "Everybody's Talkin'" renown) sent Triple-A/Americana radio into a new fit of ecstasy. Beth Orton was given the keys to alt-folk city, and became an important influence on the West Coast neo-folk of Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and others, while earning a strong following from such influential (and now departed) publications as No Depression and HARP. - more on this story

American Idol David Archuleta Doing Something For Disaster Relief

PR reports: One of the most recognizable teens in America, American Idol runner-up David Archuleta, is putting his celeb power to good use by helping teens nationwide take action around disaster relief. He will be the face of a campaign launched by DoSomething.org, one of the largest organizations for teenagers in America, and sponsored by the Dunkin' Brands Community Foundation, which is dedicated to serving those who serve -- especially in times of crisis.

The new disaster relief program includes a dedicated online content section providing easy ideas and action guides for teens to take action, a weekly $500 grants program giving teens the seed money they need to start their own programs, and a Disaster Relief Bootcamp for teen leaders running disaster relief projects.

"I know as well as anyone that teenagers have the power to do something. So I'm genuinely excited about this cause and organization," says David Archuleta. "When I heard about the opportunity to get involved with DoSomething.org, I jumped at the chance. Thanks to this program, when a disaster strikes, teens will be part of the relief solution." - more on this story

Rainbow's Most Spinal Tap Moment

antiMusic reports: Nightwatcher recently spoke with Joe Lynn Turner about the Over The Rainbow project (basically Rainbow with Ritchie Blackmore's son taking his famous father's place). During the interview Nightwatcher asked Joe about his most "Spinal Tap" moment and got far more than he bargained for! Here is just a snippet of that classic exchange!

Ritchie really was one of the biggest jokers of all. He'd always be pulling all kinds of tricks. Whether it was krazy gluing your room... He'd krazy glue the lock to your room, so you'd never be able to get your key in. Because once the glue sets, forget about it. One time, when Chuck Burgi was in the band, we went back upstairs from the bar to get into our room really quick. I think we wanted to do some drugs or whatever we were doing in those days. We put the key in, and it froze. When we turned it, it snapped right off. Then we saw Ritchie tip toeing down the hallway. We knew he had krazy glue'd the lock at that moment. All these things were happening, always. (Laughs) But there are so many stories, too numerous to count. It was really fun though, it was a blast. Once I was accepted into the band, I was part of the jokes on everyone else. Then, you were quote, unquote, legal to join in the fun. "Yeah, let's fuck with Roger and put all of his furniture in the bathroom." (Laughs) That was another good one. You take all the furniture in the room, put it in the bathroom, with the mattress in there last. Now you've got the mattress, and you have maybe a 6 inch space through the door that you can peek over, if you can even get up there to do it. Everything's in there, lamps, everything. So, when you go into your room, and go to turn on the lights, nothing.

These guys were crazy. They used to take sh*t and wipe it on light bulbs. Your room would look completely normal, you'd turn on the light, be on the phone to home, or be writing, whatever. Then you'd smell this foul, fecal matter. You'd be like, "What the hell is this?" Then you'd realize that there was this smear of crap on your light bulb. Once it heated up, it would just permeate the room. (Laughs) Incredible. It would go on and on and on. Like garlic on your toothbrush, in case you were going to pick up some girl. You'd run into your bathroom, go to brush your teeth, so you have a sweet smelling mouth, and there's garlic powder all over it. (Laughs) And you can't get rid of that. You'd be tasting it for 4 or 5 days. - more on this story

More On The Cursive Dollar A Day Deal

PR reports: Yesterday, Saddle Creek and Cursive began offering the band's new album Mama, I'm Swollen as a digital download for only $1 through the Saddle Creek website, launching a special promotion to allow fans to buy the album early at a lower cost.

For the next eight days, the new album will be available as a digital download at a pro-rated price that will increase by $1 each day (i.e., the price is $2 today, $3 on March 3rd, $4 on March 4th, etc.). When the record hits stores on March 10th, the digital album will then remain at the regular price of $9.

The band will be on the road during March, playing eight shows around the release of Mama, I'm Swollen and leading up to multiple performances at SXSW.

Cursive will also make their national television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman on Friday March 13th. - http://saddle-creek.com/

80s Film Songs Revamped

PR reports: Hollywood, Mon Amour, the collection of 80s movie songs reimagined and reinvented by Marc Collin, one of the producers behind Nouvelle Vague, is coming out today, March 3.

For the album, Collin strove to redefine outmoded film songs into something that transcended studio technique. He made a point of choosing different singers than the ones who appeared on his previous records, finding the perfect complements to his 60s-tinged arrangements, his vintage keys, in a multinational group of vocalists, including Australia's Nadeah, Britain's – and former Morcheeba singer – Skye, the US's Juliette Lewis, Brazil's Cibelle, Denmark's Katrine Ottosen, and France and Israel's Yael Naim.

The results are simpler, but not simplified, versions of what once were generally mega-produced hits. In "A View To A Kill," for example, by John Barry – one of the Parisian's greatest influences – Collin sought to prove that indeed that 80s were not ones of drought for the famed composer. The original, a synth-heavy number originally performed by Duran Duran, is turned into a contemplative reflection by Skye. The same goes for Juliette Lewis's take on David Bowie's "This Is Not America," which Collin reworked as if it were recorded in the 70s – and ends up being the better for it – or Ennio Morricone's "It's Wrong For Me To Love You," which serves to remind listeners why indeed the Italian is considered one of the greatest film-scorers ever. - more on this story

Audrye Sessions Hitting The Road With Manchester Orchestra

PR reports: Bay area band Audrye Sessions announced today tour dates with Manchester Orchestra in support of their recently released, critically lauded and radio championed eponymous debut album. Dates with Manchester Orchestra begin April 21st in Nashville and run through the Spring ending June 4 in Orlando.

The album, recorded with producers Andrew Scheps (U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash) and Matt Radosevich (The Hives, Taking Back Sunday) received a 4 ½ star rave review in Alternative Press. The band was recently breaking band at RollingStone.com and Billboard recently wrote that the first single, "Turn Me Off," has a soaring chorus and catchy melody that could be hit material."

"Turn Me Off" just broke into the Top 50 at Modern Rock Mediabase chart and will be featured in the March 31 episode of 90210. The video for the song was named Buzzworthy at MTV and previously at sister station MTVu it won a "Freshman" video contest. - more on this story

Radio Moscow Go Soph in April

PR reports: Brain Cycles is Radio Moscow's second album, due out on Alive Records, April 14th.

It's a new psychedelic trip into the musical territory originally charted by artists such as Randy Holden, Groundhogs, Peter Green and Flower Travellin' Band, just to name a few.

The first vinyl pressing of Brain Cycles comes with a free bonus CD, limited to 800 copies and features an alternate cover. - more on this story

. Zappa Plays Zappa Live

Dweezil Zappa is the closest thing to having Frank on stage as we are ever going to see. He has developed an encyclopedic knowledge of his father's music, and enlisted a team of crack musicians to recreate Zappa's exhaustive catalogue. (4 stars) - Read the full Zappa Plays Zappa Live review

. Sweet Cobra - Forever

With a name like Sweet Cobra, a band better be capable of knocking out some teeth. Thankfully, this Chicago quartet does plenty of just that on their sophomore effort Forever. - Read the full Sweet Cobra - Forever review

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