Nouvelle Vague U.S. Dates
This week find Parisians Nouvelle Vague playing a handful of rare U.S. dates on either coast:
Jun 17 2009 Irving Plaza, NY NEW YORK
Jun 18 2009 La Maison Française, Washington DC Washington DC
Jun 19 2009 Grand Ballroom - Regency, SF SAN FRANCISCO
Jun 20 2009 Henry Fonda Theatre, LA LOS ANGELES
Their new album, NV3, features original vocalists on the band's new cover versions: Martin Gore, Ian McCulloch, Terry Hall, and Barry Adamson to name a few. Check Nouvelle Vague's myspace page for a taste of their remodeling ability. They worked wonders with Depeche Mode's stale "Master and Servant." The song has always been about sex, obviously, but never sounded sexy until now. This time around Nouvelle Vague paints these new wave and punk classics with American colors of bluegrass, country, and roots music along with their usual jazzy takes. The remakes are no less stunning.
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Frank Black + Violet Clark = Grand Duchy
It started as an experiment, co-mingled with dreams, and then an album was born. Grand Duchy stopped by our neighborhood recently. We took pictures. They sound like this.
photographs by Chris Ziebarth
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Neil Halstead "Elevenses" Video + Tour
If you hadn't noticed, I'm a Neil Halstead fan and he released the video for "Elevenses" this week. The video, directed by Chris Piazza, was made for the bargain basement price of $99. A dour economy + clever marketing = cheap fun for everyone! Halstead's upcoming UK dates follow.
Neil Halstead Tour Dates:
May 15 2009 – Brighton, UK – Great Escape Festival, Red Roaster Cafe
May 17 2009 – Manchester – Rugby Lounge
May 18 2009 – London – Water Rats w/ Lach
May 20 2009 – Birmingham, Midlands – Birmingham Academy
May 21 2009 – Oxford – Oxford academy
May 24 2009 – York, Northeast – York Duchess
May 25 2009 – Liverpool, Northwest – Liverpool Academy
May 26 2009 – Newcastle, Northeast – Newcastle Academy
May 27 2009 – Glasgow, Scotland – Captain’s Rest
May 28 2009 – Leeds, Northeast – A Nation of Shopkeepers
May 30 2009 – Milan, Italy – Teatro dal Verme
Jun 8 2009 – Barnstaple, Southwest – Lilico’s
Jun 20 2009 – Croyde, Southwest – Goldcoast Festival
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New Masthead and Logo
In case you haven't noticed, we updated the 3hive logo and masthead. It's been a month or so now, but we still hadn't properly propped Christopher Ziebarth for putting it all together. Props Chris.
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Bishop Allen Video
Justin from Bishop Allen sent over the link to their new video for "Dimmer." Says he, "It involves homemade props, a jell-o mold, rear projection and some truly fancy scissor-work. We were hoping to make something that felt like videos from when we were kids, and we discovered MTV, and it blew our minds. This, of course, when MTV was a much different animal.
Also, we're following our upcoming US tour with a bunch of European dates. For more: bishopallen.com or myspace.com/bishopallen."
We remember those golden days of MTV too Justin and we appreciate your efforts at keep keeping it real a la MTV circa '81. Their new album comes out today. Get yourself some Grrr...
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Neil Halstead U.S. Tour
Neil Halstead's U.S. tour begins this week and continues throughout March. UK and European dates should be announced soon.
Mar 5 2009 8:00P Doug Fir Lounge - Portland, Oregon
Mar 6 2009 8:00P The Triple Door - Seattle, Washington
Mar 8 2009 8:00P Great American Music Hall - San Francisco,
California
Mar 10 2009 8:00P Largo @ the Coronet - Los Angeles, California
Mar 11 2009 8:00P Casbah - San Diego, California
Mar 12 2009 8:00P The Rhythm Room - Phoenix, Arizona
Mar 14 2009 8:00P The Walnut Room - Denver, Colorado
Mar 16 2009 8:00P Jackpot Music - Laurence, Kansas
Mar 17 2009 8:00P Rock Island Brewing Company - Rock Island, Illinois
Mar 18 2009 8:00P Turf Club - St Paul - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mar 19 2009 8:00P Schubas - Chicago, Illinois
Mar 20 2009 8:00P Pike Room - Pontiac, Michigan
Mar 21 2009 8:00P The Drake Hotel - Toronto, Ontario
Mar 23 2009 8:00P Beachland Tavern - Cleveland, Ohio
Mar 24 2009 8:00P Club Cafe - Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
Mar 25 2009 8:00P Talking Head club - Baltimore, Maryland
Mar 27 2009 8:00P The Union Hall - Brooklyn, New York
Mar 28 2009 7:30P Joe's Pub - New York, New York
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New Phoenix Single
I like Phoenix. And they like you. To prove it, they just released their new single "1901" as a free download. Gotta go here to get it. No email or log in necessary. The band will issue their full album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix on May 25th.
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The Chap's First U.S. Tour
03.12 Lexington, KY @ The University of Kentucky
03.13 Ann Arbor, MI @ The Blind Pig w/ Nomo
03.14 Hamtramck, MI @ Throwbridge House of Coffee
03.15 Chicago, IL @ Schubas w/ Nomo
03.17 Forth Worth, TX @ Lola's Sixth w/ Deastro
03.18 Austin, TX SXSW @ Club 1808 (8:30pm)
03.18 Austin, TX SXSW @ Mohawk (12am)
03.21 Austin, TX SXSW @ Urban Outfitters (2pm)
03.24 Atlanta, GA @ Eyedrum
03.26 Poughkeepsie, NY @ Matthew's Mug (Vassar College)
03.27 New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
03.28 New York, NY @ Cake Shop w/ Deastro
Official Chap propaganda via Ghostly Intl:
Last summer, London-based pop quartet The Chap released their third album, Mega Breakfast, on Ghostly International. Months have gone by, and we're still confused, delighted, and dancing our asses off. Now The Chap are finally jumping the proverbial pond for their first US tour in history, hitting dates on the East Coast, the Midwest, and in Austin for the South By Southwest festival.
The Chap's Mega Breakfast contains multitudes, mixing and matching genres with a record collector's ear and an ADD attention span. Prince-style micro-funk, chorale singing, prog-rock guitar heroics, minimalist electro - it's all there, executed with precision, care, and a knowing wink. But to call it sarcastic would be to sell The Chap short - really, it's a half-joking, half-deadly-serious Situationist art project, with moments of severe catchiness and luminous beauty interspersed with self-reflexive jokes about "proper" rock-song material and the absurdity of world music.
Of course, The Chap live experience is something completely different, showcasing The Chap as a sinewy, Tupperware-tight ensemble (who "look like teachers," apparently) that combines electronic savvy and instrumental prowess in exhilarating, often hilarious ways. Viciously rocking out one moment and staging dance routines the next, The Chap are the sort of live band that needs to be seen to be believed.
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Mobius Band Valentine's EP
Pulling together a Valentine for a special someone? Cover this in chocolate: a free covers EP courtesy of the Mobius Band boys. Enjoy a la mode, or grabbed it zipped here.
1. Say You Will (Kanye West)
2. Love Hurts (Felice & Boudleaux Bryant, as performed by the Everly Brothers)
3. Lullaby (Dixie Chicks)
4. Satellite (TV on the Radio)
5. At My Window (Townes Van Zandt)
6. You Don't Know How it Feels (Tom Petty)
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Some More Favorites from 2008
THEN, our friend Emily put together this amazing list of her favorite songs from TV commercials and television shows from last year. This list is actually much more interesting than my playlist, so I'm gonna move it up to the top of this post. There, that's much better. Check it out.
Here's the playlist highlighting the most played artists last year on Play It As It Lays, the show I do on KUCI. Just a little somethin' somethin' before it gets too late to talk about all the good records of '08.
Play It As It Lays #345
Frequent Flyer Edition (the most played artists of 2008)
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
BUSINESS CLASS
Stereolab--three women [4ad]
The Notwist--good lies [domino]
Stars--the night starts here [arts & crafts]
Ladytron--tomorrow [nettwerk]
CSS--left behind [sub pop]
Ursula 1000--electrik boogie *fort knox five remix [esl]
Lyrics Born--i like it, i love it [anti/quannum]
Daedelus--gett off your hi-hats [ninja tune]
Mother Mother--hay loft [last gang]
Mogwai--batcat [matador]
Autolux--audience no. 2 [none]
FIRST CLASS
The Duke Spirit--lassoo [shangri-la]
Clutchy Hopkins--3rd element [ubiquity]
Ratatat--bird priest [xl]
#1! The Raveonettes--dead sound [vice]
The Raveonettes--come on santa [vice]
COACH
The Wombats--kill the director *css remix [kids in america]
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin--modern mystery [polyvinyl]
Darker My Love--two ways out [dangerbird]
The Hold Steady--sequestered in memphis [vagrant]
Black Kids--i'm not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance with you [almost gold/columbia]
Fujiya & Miyagi--sore thumb [deaf dumb + blind]
The Bamboos--funky buttercup [tru thoughts]
Jamie Lidell--another day [warp]
Los Campesinos--ways to make it through the wall [arts & crafts]
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