Recently announced:
Hey Champ, 6/15, Headliners Music Hall
Mount Carmel, 6/15, Zanzabar
The Weird Weeds with Alcohol Party plus Anwar Sadat and w.n.b.a., 6/23, The Mammoth
Pujol with Animal City, 6/29, TBA
Lotus Plaza with Natives, 7/07, Zanzabar
Blues Control with Sapat, 7/26, Zanzabar
Gigamesh with OK Deejays, 7/27, Zanzabar
Langhorne Slim with Jessica Lea Mayfield, 8/17, Headliners Music Hall
Will Bernard
Outdoor Living
(DRECK TO DISK/A-TRAIN)
Guitarist Will Bernard has been recording albums since 1998, yet remains under the radar to many. As versatile as he is, he keeps his focus on funky jazz variations on his new release, with his trio of drummer Simon Lott and organist Wil Blades. Bernard’s experience playing with the renown Dr. Lonnie Smith and in Stanton Moore’s trio serves him well on this disc of eight originals and one tune by Blades. Whether comping or digging deep in his leads, Bernard plays with passion and grit. Lott’s New Orleans lineage comes to the fore on the second line opener, “Nature Walk.” Booker T. would feel at home with the soulful “Morgan Deux,” while Bernard’s judicious slide on “Nooksack” adds bluesy depth. “Point Blank” provides a moody, understated interlude, before three more songs reignite the beats. Jazz was originally dance music, and Bernard and company bring it full circle on this disc. — Martin Z. Kasdan Jr.
Theo Bleckmann
Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush
(WINTER & WINTER)
Most of the music I enjoy tends to fall under my pop thesis of music that makes you want to fight, fuck, or dance (with broad interpretations of each). Music that leans on art-for-art’s-sake usually bores me to tears or annoys me with overbearing pretense. I shouldn’t want to don a suit to listen to a record; music can be ‘important’ without being an impotent gallery piece. Just looking at the title above made me clench my, let’s say teeth. Reading further, at the words “German-born jazz singer,” turned the clenching south. Though one misstep middle, “Violin,” is laughably bad, Hello Earth! is a surprisingly interesting and engaging listen. Interpreting an artist like Kate Bush is brave; its payoff slight. “Watching You Without Me” is a beautiful piece, and the now oft-covered “This Woman’s Work” closes on a high note. — Damien McPherson
Go to http://forecastlefest.com/partners/talenthouse-contest/ to enter.
Influential Montreal post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor are scheduled to play Headliners Music Hall on October 13th.
3 Inches of Blood
Long Live Heavy Metal
(CENTURY MEDIA)
3 Inches of Blood have been unabashed in their delivery of cheesy music and lyrics, though Long Live Heavy Metal doesn’t live up to past albums’ replay factor. The corny glam influenced “Metal Woman,” opens the album poorly and falls flat in a cliché-fest of weak ballad rehash. Thankfully, “Leather Lord” follows up with a Judas Priest swagger and catchy chorus. After the first two tracks, the rest of the album is a repetitive blur of decent, yet far too similar songs, save for the thrash-tinged “My Sword Will Not Sleep” and galloping flair of “Leave It On The Ice”. The tongue-in-cheek title Long Live Heavy Metal is a dead giveaway to its old-school nature. While it blurs into an indistinguishable mess, it’s still a fun ode to the past with some modern edge. — Austin Weber
News from our friends in Coliseum:
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce that Mike Pascal will no longer be a member of Coliseum. For over seven years, Mike has been our bass player and like a younger brother to me. He joined the band in Fall 2004 for our first extended tour and made his recorded debut in Coliseum on the Goddamage EP a few months later, playing every show since then and on every following release. We’ve traveled the world together and had more great times than I can count. While this is difficult at the moment, Mike’s departure from the band is the right thing for him and I know we will all be better for it.
There are certainly times when I’ve considered throwing in the towel and putting an end to Coliseum, but ultimately I remain as inspired and passionate about the band as ever. There are always peaks and valleys and there have been times when I felt like we were fighting a losing battle, but the good has always outweighed the bad. Coliseum played its first show just over eight years ago and I am humbled by all we’ve accomplished, all the people we’ve met, all the places we’ve played, all the bands we’ve toured with and all of the great guys who have been members of the band. I feel incredibly lucky to continue to have Carter as a bandmate and Temporary Residence as our label. We are very excited about the new material we’ve been writing and look forward to recording the fourth Coliseum album this Fall.
We will play our show with Tragedy in Louisville on May 18th with a friend filling in on bass and will take our time finding a new permanent member. Thanks for your continued support, it means the world to us.
Ryan Patterson
April 30, 2012″
From our friends at Drag City:
“2012 is shaping up to be a celebratory year for Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. First there’s Will Oldham on Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – the upcoming book of his reflections on a truly idiosyncratic approach and ethos that have seen him rub shoulders and share stages/recording space with the disparate likes of Johnny Cash, R. Kelly, James Earl Jones and Bjork in a quarter century stretch of fearless artistry. The wonderful Norton-published conversation with long time collaborator and friend Alan Licht illuminates the scope and scale of Bonny’s unique vision, allowing never-before-gleamed insight into the ideas of mystery, intimacy, spontaneity and community that run deep through his formidable canon of work.
Between 1993′s There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You Palace Brothers debut and last year’s Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy return Wolfroy Goes To Town, Bonny has released no less than seventeen studio albums, twenty five EPs and five live albums. The integrity of his output has remained a constant, and his journey through (and indelible impression on) the storied landscapes of American country, folk, punk and indie-rock is incomparable.
Whether starkly primitive and intensely spare as the Steve Albini-recorded Arise Therefore (1996), rich with haunted grace like I See a Darkness (1999) or swinging with an almost straight-up country lushness on Greatest Palace Music (2004), these albums (along with the no-less revolutionary Joya (1997), Ease Down the Road (2001), and Master and Everyone (2003)) represent a golden era for Bonny as a writer – his powerfully affecting, deeply human meditations on sex, death, isolation and longing achieving a rare universal understanding despite being rooted in a fiercely intimate system of belief.
For less compulsively prolific and relentlessly creative artists it may be tempting to sit back and enjoy such a handsome retrospective at this moment in time but that is plainly not the Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy way. Enter another new release, the Now Here’s My Plan EP – a collection consisting of new versions of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy classics created for release in accompaniment with the Will Oldham on Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy book. Now Here’s My Plan features members of the Wolfroy Goes To Town band with whom Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy currently tours and records.
Track listing:
I Don’t Belong To Anyone
Beast For Thee
No Gold Digger
After I Made Love To You
I See A Darkness
Three Questions
The Wolfroy players are Ben Boye, Van Campbell, Emmett Kelly, Danny Kiely and Angel Olsen.”
Marisa Monte
O Que Você Quer Saber De Verdade
(BLUE NOTE)
Brazil has not been lacking in new and exciting singers of late. Breaking one in the US, however, has been more of a struggle. Sure, NPR loves some Bebel Gilberto and Ceu, but I’d love to wave a magic wand and make Sabrina Malheiros a star here; her work with Nicola Conte is brilliant. Similarly, singers like Aline de Lima, Rosalia De Souza, and Mariana Aydar all deserve some shine up North. That Blue Note plucks Marisa Monte and her nondescript O Que Voce album for international exposure is a disappointment. This is little more than aural wallpaper, an inoffensive bit of slightly askew ‘newness’ for soccer moms to feign worldliness on their way to Target. Every other song borrows a riff from something more familiar, so as to not turn anyone off. That a couple of the riffs sound like they’re from Folgers commercials is nauseating. — Damien McPherson
