Brother Ali hits the Wreckroom Sunday

Elizabeth Shepherd launches Rewind @ Hugh's Room, tonight

Tour Schedule

October
26-27 Umea Jazz Festival, Umea, Sweden

November
01 A-Trane- Berlin, Germany
02 Blue Note, Dresden, Germany
03 JazzClub Birdland - Lubeck, Germany
04 Prinz Willy- Kiel, Germany
07 Pizza Express- London, UK
08 Badcuyp- Amsterdam, Holland
10 Jazzapanazz- Nimes, France
16 Upstairs- Montreal, QC
26-28 CIMA Mission- Tokyo, Japan
30 Massey Hall- Toronto, ON (opening for Molly Johnson)

December
01- Iris Jazz Club- Buffalo, NY
02- Sophistcations Jazz Cafe- Syracuse, NY TBA
04- Rockwood Music Hall- New York, NY
05- Two Moon Cafe- Brooklyn, NY
07- Nelson Odeon- Nelson, NY TBA
08- Goodbye Blue Monday- Brooklyn, NY
11- AVA Lounge- Pittsburgh, PHA
12- Tin Angel- Pittsbugh, PHA
13- Godfrey Daniels- Bethleham, PHA
14- Night Town-  Cleveland, OH
15- Cliff Bell's- Detroit, MI

Remembering Tim Maia on his day

Eleni Mandell performs Magic Summertime in Kansas City

TOUR DATES
9/29 – Denver, CO – L2 Arts & Culture Center
10/1 – Phoenix, AZ – Musical Instrument Museum
10/2 – Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up Tavern
10/3 – Los Angeles, CA – Troubador
10/4 – Sacramento, CA – 24th Street Theatre

LINKS
site http://elenimandell.com/
FB page
Yep Roc store

Slim Twig trashes Montreal's fancy PHI Centre for new Altered Ego video

Here's the zany new Slim Twig video for the song Altered Ego from our man's latest opus Sof' Sike (Paper Bag) shot by George Fok at Montreal's multi-disciplinary PHI Centre art space. While Slim is the main focus of the action, he co-stars with the costumes created by Renata Morales who has whipped up similar weirdness for Arcade Fire, Grimes and Zola Jesus among others. See if you can spot which one of the three dancers is Slim's significant other Meg Remy of US Girls infamy.

Slim Twig plays the Great Hall on Friday as part of Paper Bag Records' 10th Anniversary celebrations.



You can get your very own copy of Slim Twig's Sof' Sike album directly from the Paper Bag Records site.

Tiombe Lockhart directs Lee Fields clip

To coincide with the limited release of the Lee Fields & The Expressions' Faithful Man seven-inch – which comes backed with a stripped down version of the song on the flip with Fields supported by the soulful doo wop harmonizing of The Del Larks –  the Truth & Soul label has released this dramatic new video.

Along with Fields (appearing live in Toronto at the Opera House on Friday, October 5), the clip stars Justin Wallace Wade and Desiree Godsell and was shot at the Tender Trap in Brooklyn and Le Poisson Rouge in NYC under the direction of singer/songwriter Tiombe Lockhart (see Platinum Pied Pipers, Cubic Zirconia) who really needs to put out a new album of her own soon. Check out the stylish clip:
 

Experimental Music Wednesdays @ Pressed in Ottawa

Alexis O'Hara kicks off season 2 of Experimental Music at Pressed on Oct.3

Experimental Music on Wednesdays 
at Pressed (750 Gladstone Ave, Ottawa)
Season 2: October 3 - November 14  

8pm - 11pm,  just $5 at the door!

Oct 3: Adam Saikaley / Pat Johnson / Alexis O'Hara / Matty McGovern
Oct 10: Mark Molnar / David Jackson / Taline Bedrossian
Oct 17: Gary Franks / Raas / Eric Roberts
Oct 24: Linsey Wellman / Christian Richer / Lamb Rabbit
Oct 31: Hard Science / Deccomposing Pianos / Matt Morel
Nov 7: Find The Others / Kingdom Shore / Sacha Gabriel
Nov 14: Rolf Klausener / Jesse Stewart / Lidija Rozitis

LINKS
FB page

Amped up Gary Clark Jr. stuns Bonnaroo crowd waiting for the Beach Boys

Happy Birthday Gary Bartz!

David Olney debuts Gold Diamond Ring

LINK
site http://www.davidolney.com/

Soft Machine on French TV in 1968

Billie Joe blows up at iHeartRadio Fest

Peter Buck debuts new band in Seattle

R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck debuted his new project Richard M. Nixon (featuring pals Bill Reiflin and Scott McCaughey) with a nine-song set at Seattle's Sunset Tavern last night. Here are four song clips from their performance:

Mitt Romney's gift to Jon Stewart

Don't miss Soft Moon @ The Drake tonight

Insides by The Soft Moon from the Zeros LP out October 30
  

LINKS
FB page
label www.capturedtracks.com

Elijah Wood voices Soundcarriers single

Recording sessions for the decidedly dope new Soundcarriers single for Great Pop Supplement began with a different approach to the band’s two previous albums, “Harmonium” (2009) and “Celeste” (2010).  A vast disused warehouse provided the catalyst for an upfront sound, more akin to the band’s live shows than their studio material. Within these latest sessions, a certain alchemy happened: by using the building as a natural reverb chamber, an expansive and deep sound was produced, and a sound that everyone present knew, could never be recreated.

“Boiling Point” was captured in it’s raw, organic form. A quick-fire burst of motorik groove. Through playing the track live and purposely recording hot to tape The Soundcarriers hit us with their spiralling rhythms and the crack and bubble of organically distorted instrumentation.

“This is Normal” is born out of a locked-in rhythm section telepathically communicating through four strings and a beaten-up kit. Woven into that is the improvised playing of guest musicians Jesse Chandler (of Midlake) and Miles Newbold (of the Natural Yogurt Band) rotating through a menagerie of keyboards, percussion and flutes. An instructional narration by celebrated thespian and noted Brazilian record hound Elijah Wood compliments this abstract groove which, quite rightly, requests the listener to relax.

The SOundcarriers single is being released by Great Pop Supplement as a limited-run 500 copy white vinyl 45 and a download. The vinyl version includes both an extra track “EFF.R”, a sealed Soundcarriers turntable strobe pack and sleeve notes from Shindig! bon vivant Vic Templar.

Have a listen to The Soundcarriers' This Is Normal featuring Elijah Wood:

RIP James Crawford, 1934-2012

New Orleans rhythm and blues great James "Sugar Boy" Crawford passed away on September 15.

Rose Maddox on Country Style USA '56

Before They Were Famous: Morrissey

From the Mailbag page of Melody Maker's July 24, 1976 issue...

 

One For The Weekend: Wanda Jackson

Here's the entertaining new video for Wanda Jackson's cover of Freddie King's Tore Down directed by Seth Graves and featuring The Ettes' bad girls Lindsay "Coco" Hames and Maria "Poni" Silver along with a cameo by a hungry Ron Jeremy.



Wanda's version of Tore Down is taken from her new album Unfinished Business which was produced by Justin Townes Earle and includes the rockabilly queen's interpretations of Bobby Womack's It's All Over Now and Wilco's revision of Woody Guthrie's California Stars. Sugar Hill is putting it out October 9, just in time for her 75th birthday on October 20.  Check out the preview clip below:

New film spotlights Memphis DIY music scene

Watch the trailer to Robert Allen Parker & Nan Hackman's forthcoming documentary below

"I Can't Wait" by Star & Micey
LINKS
Meanwhile In Memphis FB page
Goner Records http://www.goner-records.com/
Star & Micey http://starandmicey.com/

El Mocambo's neon palms sign gets relit

Happy Birthday Paul Williams!

JSBX blasts back with Meat + Bone

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Meat + Bone album is out now. Check the Black Mold clip below.

See Antibalas @ Lee's Palace tonight!

Antibalas tear the roof off of Lee's Palace tonight with DJ Tim Perlich. Doors open at 8 pm.

Chan Marshall's vision of zombie apocalypse

Chan Marshall has created an intriguing video for Cherokee off Cat Power's new Sun album

 

Jacky Terrasson bangin' in Bordeaux

Pianist Jacky Terrasson wowed the crowd at the Saint-Emilion Jazz Festival in France recently with his show-stopping Harry Potter-meets-Michael Jackson medley featuring vocalist Cécile McLorin with Minino Garay (percussion), Burniss Travis (bass) and Justin Faulkner (drums). Have a look:

Yet more stuff due from Guided By Voices

While the indie rock world braces itself for the release of Robert Pollard's Jack Sells The Cow album – his second solo effort of 2012 – Guided By Voices will put out their third full-length of the year, The Bears For Lunch on their own Guided By Voices Inc. label in November. And there's more on the way.

Evidently, they're now threatening to release a new GBV album every six months after that with the next one, tentatively titled English Little League quite possibly already in the can. You can be sure that the sleeve art is done since Pollard typically completes it before the band records a note. I'm guessing he comes up with many of the entertaining song titles first too. Here's his artwork for The Bears For Lunch along with the tracklisting:

"King Arthur the Red"
"The Corners are Glowing"
"Have a Jug"
"Hangover Child"
"Dome Rust"
"Finger Gang"
"The Challenge Is Much More"
"Waving at Airplanes"
"The Military School Dance Dismissal"
"White Flag"
"Skin to Skin Combat"
"She Lives in an Airport"
"Tree Fly Jet"
"Waking Up the Stars"
"Up Instead of Running"
"Smoggy Boy"
"Amorphous Surprise"
"You Can Fly Anything Right"
"Everywhere Is Miles From Everywhere"

Introducing Hannah Williams & The Tastemakers

The 9-piece UK deep soul crew Hannah Williams & The Tastemakers just issued their first single, Work It Out accompanied by a snazzy Bulletproof Tiger video clip (below).  Even though they've unabashedly copped the arrangement of This Is A Man's World for the number,  the fact that they're even aware of James Brown's pre-70s work is a promising sign for a new group these days and bodes well for their forthcoming  debut album A Hill Of Feathers set for release on Record Kicks October 15. Have a look...

LINKS
label http://recordkicks.bandcamp.com/track/work-it-out
FB page

RIP drummer Johnny Perez, 1943-2012

"I was the magic of that groove. ‘Mendocino,' that was me." - J.P.

One For The Weekend: Calexico

A message from Calexico:
Our new album Algiers is out now (on Anti- in North America and City Slang in the UK).  It’s named after the neighborhood in New Orleans where the bulk of the music was recorded.  Our longtime friend and co-producer Craig Schumacher, along with the staff at The Living Room Studio, did an incredible job capturing the energy and ambiance of the new songs. Algiers is full of the variety and dynamics that have long been associated with our band’s sound, including the instrumentation that we take with us on tour: trumpets, keyboards, vibraphone, steel guitar, acoustic bass, nylon string guitars and John’s vintage drums.  We’re really proud of our new album.
You can order it directly from this site

The video for Splitter has premiered.  Check it out!

See Alabama's Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires @ The Silver Dollar Thursday

Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires photo by Brett Falcon

See JD McPherson's new Fire Bug clip

JD McPherson tears up the Horseshoe in Toronto on Tuesday, October 9

Cherrystones brings the noise for Red Nails

Deep digging UK DJ/producer Cherrystones aka Gareth Goddard and Godsy is releasing a super limited version of his the forthcoming 12-track Red Nails double album in an edition of 100 copies with screen printed outer and inner sleeves as well as hand-stamped labels. Red Nails will be available September 17 but the Fat City site is now accepting pre-orders while supplies last.

A follow-up to his similarly limited run My Snow Does Not Melt album released in 2010 using his Godsy handle, Red Nails moves away from the brooding reverb-soaked dirges of My Snow with a more confrontational approach involving heavily pounding beats and snarling synths. If My Snow Does Not Melt could be considered a soundtrack for a French kitchen-sink drama that doesn't exist, then the music of Red Nails might be the backing tracks for a particularly gruesome gangsta rap album yet to be made.

Red Nails is being released on the Brutal Music label which should give you an idea of where Goddard's coming from this time out. Have a listen to Bruised Meats and the demo for Honey's Pot which doesn't sound radically different from the finished version:


Bruised Meats by Cherrystones



Honey's Pot (demo) by Cherrystones

Happy Birthday Roy Ayers!

Flying Lotus previews new songs in short film Until The Quiet Comes

A preview of music from the forthcoming Flying Lotus album Until The Quiet Comes appears in the following short film of the same name directed by Kahlil Joseph. The album, featuring vocal cameos by Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu, is set for release by Warp on October 2  and Flying Lotus is scheduled to play the Danforth Music Hall on October 13.


Music, in order of appearance:
See Thru To U (feat. Erykah Badu)
Hunger (feat. Niki Randa)
Getting There (feat. Niki Randa)

Flying Lotus - Until The Quiet Comes

1. All In
2. Getting There w/ Niki Randa
3. Until the Colours Come
4. Heave(n)
5. Tiny Tortures
6. All the Secrets
7. Sultan’s Request
8. Putty Boy Strut
9. See Thru to U w/ Erykah Badu
10. Until the Quiet Comes
11. DMT Song feat. Thundercat
12. The Nightcaller
13. Only if You Wanna
14. Electric Candyman w/ Thom Yorke
15. Hunger w/ Niki Randa
16. Phantasm w/ Laura Darlington
17. me Yesterday//Corded
18. Dream to Me


LINKS
site www.flying-lotus.com
label http://warp.net/records/flying-lotus/see-thru-to-u-erykah-badu-album-preorder/

Happy Birthday Otis Redding

Toronto's Hits & Misses closing Sept. 15

Sad but regrettably true, Toronto's punk rock vinyl emporium Hits & Misses (799 Queen West) will be shutting it's doors on September 15. Hopefully owner Pete Genest will re-open at a new location but no such plans have yet been announced.

That means you only have a week to buy all those amazing singles and LPs you really wanted but never found time to make it down to the shop next door to Rotate This. For the next seven days Hits & Misses be open from 12 noon until 8 pm with Andrew WK spinning his favourite records in-store for your listening pleasure on Sunday (September 9). Watch for further news updates posted on the Hits & Misses site

Andre Williams enters Election 2012 fray with "Blame It On Obama" video

Andre Williams' Blame It On Obama single will be released digitally on September 11. His new studio album Life is due October 2 via Alive Naturalsound Records on CD as a digital download and black vinyl, as well as limited purple vinyl (l00 copies) as a mailorder exclusive.

Los Fleshtones canta Los Johnny Jets

While on tour in Gijon, Spain during February of 2010, The Fleshtones dropped by the studio of Dr. Explosion mainman Jorge Muñoz-Cobo Gonzalez and recorded four rockin' tunes in Spanish just released by Yep Roc as the Quatro x Quatro EP. According to the Fleshtones' frontman Peter Zaremba, the concept of recording en Español has actually been in the works for 35 years and, like many twisted Fleshtones tales, it has a strange Ramones connection.

“The story of this record goes way back to our original bass player, Marek Pakulski, finding a bunch of albums including Los Johnny Jets A Go Go in the trash in front of Joey Ramone’s Lower Eastside tenement one night in 1977, ” explains Zaremba. “Johnny Jets were a typical Mexican ’60s rock and roll group – covering top-ten hits of the time like Wooly Bully in Spanish with varying degrees of competence – just the thing to appeal to The Fleshtones. Rather than the Spanish language versions of overly-familiar tunes like Hang On Sloopy, what really caught our ears were two more-or-less original tracks No Tengo Dinero and Todos Queremos A Lupe (which seemed to at least be inspired by Johnny Thunder’s 1962 hit Loop De Loop). We decided we would record these two songs ourselves as soon as possible. If nothing else, The Fleshtones are good for their word!”

True enough, Los Fleshtones' limited-edition Quatro x Quatro EP is now available on 180 gram vinyl or as a digital download from the Yep Roc Store



Fleshtones vs. Johnny Jets – No Tengo Dinero 

Fleshtones vs. Johnny Jets – Todos Queremos A Lupe

Flowers of Hell to issue covers album in October

Trans-Atlantic experimental orchestra The Flowers of Hell have announced that their fourth album will be an orch-pop covers project called Odes set for release on October 2 via Optical Sounds. A significant departure from the Flowers of Hell's typical dreamscapes, Odes will feature conventional verse-chorus structures as you might expect from the repertoire selected from the work of Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Siouxie & The Banshees, Klaatu, Stereolab, Fleetwood Mac, Plastic People Of The Universe and Joy Division whose classic tune Atmosphere (see the animated video clip below) is the lead off track. The group is launching the album in Toronto at the Tranzac on Friday September 21.

Odes (Optical Sounds)

1. On Avery Island - April 1st (Neutral Milk Hotel)
2. Atmosphere (Joy Division)
3. Muchomurky Bile / Destroying Angel (Plastic People Of The Universe)
4. Walk On The Wild Side (Lou Reed)
5. Run Run Run (The Velvet Underground)
6. The Last Beat Of My Heart (Siouxie & The Banshees)
7. Mr. Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan)
8. Super Electric (Stereolab)
9. Over And Over (Fleetwood Mac)
10. O Superheroin (Laurie Anderson - Lou Reed)
11. Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft (Klaatu)




Atmosphere by The Flowers of Hell

One For The Weekend: Ted Lyons & His Cubs

Before being repurposed by Terry Zwigoff as a catchy opening for his 2001 film Ghost World and crudely copped last year for a Heineken beer spot "The Date," this dazzlingly choreographed sequence was originally created by Herman Benjamin for Raja Nawathe's 1965 Bollywood suspense thriller Gumnaam built around a Shankar Jaikishan composition powerfully voiced by the legendary Mohammed Rafi. Had Ted Lyons & His Cubs  – who appear on the bandstand synching the song Jaan Pehechan Ho (We Should Get To Know Each Other) for the film – actually performed and recorded the tune the following five minutes and thirty surreal seconds of masked hip-shaking madness could've been the greatest promotional music video ever. Some 47 years on, the stand-alone clip remains strangely captivating thanks largely to Benjamin's magnificent moves – that's Herman fronting the band as "Ted Lyons."

RIP Joe South, 1940-2012

Crazy Clip of the Week: Psy's Gangnam Style