Alexander Laurence's Blog, page 2446

New Release from Yuna "Come Back" On Verve

 IMPACTING NOW!"COME BACK" The first single from Nocturnal  1. Yuna - Come Back (Radio Edit )03:18  2. Yuna - Come Back (Album Version)03:27  Just finished up opening for Maxwell!

TOUR DATESJune 7 - Pasadena | June 21 - The Woodlands, TXJune 22 - Austin | June 23 - DallasJune 25 - Tucson | June 26 - Santa Barbara, CA June 27 - Solana Beach, CA | June 29 - San Francisco July 9 - Los Angeles | July 12 - Grass Valley, CAJuly 13 - Grass Valley, CA | July 17 - Santa Monica, CAAugust 31 - Portland | September 3 - Boulder, CASeptember 4 - Denver | September 5 - Pomona, CASeptember 6 - Los Angeles

Almost 2,000,000 Facebook Fans1.1 Million Twitter FollowersYunamusic.com

Peter Matthew Bauer Announces US Tour Dates

Peter Matthew Bauer (The Walkmen) Announces US Tour DatesDebut LP 'Liberation' Streaming Now On Pitchfork Advance, Out June 24th On Mexican Summer

Stream 'Liberation' On Pitchfork
Listen To " Latin American Ficciones" On Pitchfork Here Listen To " Philadelphia Raga" On SPIN Tour Dates6-24 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's
6-25 Washington, D.C. @ Rock & Roll Hotel
6-26 Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade
7-8 Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite
7-9 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
7-11 Seattle, WA @ Barboza
7-12 Portland, OR @ Bunk Bar
7-13 Missoula, MT @ The Palace
7-15 Minneapolis, MN @ Icehouse
7-16 Madison, WI @ The Frequency
7-17 Columbus, OH @ The A&R Music Bar
7-18 St. Louis, MO @ The Firebird
7-19 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall (w/ Real Estate)
7-20 Louisville, KT @ Tim Faulkner Gallery
7-21 Nashville, TN @ High Watt
7-23 New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa
7-24 Dallas, TX @ The Loft
7-25 Houston, TX @ Walters Downtown
7-26 Austin, TX @ Holy Mountain

Parquet Courts new album

PARQUET COURTS "SUNBATHING ANIMAL" OUT NOW, WATCH THE VIDEO FOR "BLACK AND WHITE" DIRECTED BY AUSTIN BROWNParquet Courts "Sunbathing Animal", the incredible follow up to 2012's critically acclaimed "Light Up Gold", is out now and available to purchase from iTunes.

To celebrate the release, the band have shared an official video for current single "Black and White", directed by Johann Rashid and Parquet Courts guitarist Austin Brown. The video takes a stroll through Brooklyn's Bed Stuy neighborhood, coming to a close outside the very same window that the previously released "Sunbathing Animal" video was shot in front off.

Watch: Parquet Courts - Black and White
Watch: Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal

Parquet Courts have just completed a brief US stint, but will be back on the road later this year for appearances at Lollapalooza and Pickathon festivals, with an official Lollapalooza aftershowannounced at the Empty Bottle.

Menace Beach Premiere 'Tennis Court' On SPIN

Menace Beach Premiere 'Tennis Court' On SPINDouble A-side "Tennis Court / Lowtalkin" Out September 1st On Memphis Industries, New Album Forthcoming This Year 


7" Tracklisting1. Tennis Court
2. Lowtalkin UK Tour DatesJul 11 East Village Arts Club, Liverpool
Jul 12 Sub89, Reading w/ the Cribs
Jul 25 Tramlines, Sheffield, w/ the Cribs
Aug 01 Ynot Festival, Derbyshire
Aug 10 Beacons Festival, Skipton
Sep 20 Southsea Festival, Portsmouth
Listen To 'Tennis Court' On SPIN!
Menace Beach is Ryan Needham (vocals, guitar) and Liza Violet (vocals / guitar / synths), Nestor Matthews (Drums), Matt Spalding (Bass) and MJ (guitar) plus a revolving cast of friends and acquaintances
Having served notice of their intent with the ‘Lowtalker EP’ earlier this year, Menace Beach will release a double A-side ‘Tennis Court / Lowtalkin’ on Memphis Industries on 1st September.
Just a little bit of background: after several un-treated breakdowns and a subsequent rash decision to relocate to Leeds, Ryan and Liza shacked up with MJ (Hookworms) to re-imagine their crackly 8-track demos.  Joining them on the session, were friends Nestor Matthews (Sky Larkin) Matt Spalding, and Robert Lee (Pulled Apart By Horses) who fought their way through Liza’s rats nest of cables and home-made synth modules to blast through the songs during another all-nighter, having so much fun in the process that they all decided to stick around.
Both tracks were recorded, produced and mixed in the spring of this yearm with MJ at his Suburban Home studios in Leeds. Friend of band Lan Mcardle of Joanne Gruesome was on hand to lend her admirably shouty pipes to both tracks (the line “with nothing in it” in ‘Tennis Court’, and the “lowtalkin’” yell that propels the track of the same name), and where ‘Tennis Court’ shows off Ryan and Liza’s inclination towards fuzzed out, psyched up melody, ‘Lowtalkin’ is a sub-two minute blast of exhilarating noise.

Menace Beach are playing UK dates across the summer as they prep their debut album
 

JANELLE MONÁE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL THIS SUNDAY

JANELLE MONÁE WILL TAKE THE STAGE THIS SUNDAY AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL
This Sunday, the one and only “Electric Lady” will perform at Los Angeles’ famed Hollywood Bowl as a part of KCRW’s World Festival. http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/tickets/janelle-monae/2014-06-22
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Janelle Monáe recently performed at Governors Ball and Bonnaroo... here’s what people are saying about her live show:
“ Janelle Monáe turned in what was probably Bonnaroo's single-finest set…”– Pitchfork
“… Monáe's set delivers on every level from there on out. I had chills through the whole performance.”– Stereogum
“ Janelle is known for her blistering live sets: Her band is tight, her backup singers can wail, and she has a swaggering groove that guides the whole vibrant ship.”– Rolling Stone
“ Stage presence is something that can’t be taught, and nowhere is that more evident than at a Janelle Monáe show. Monáe’s just got it, and whatever “it” is, it’s clearly something she was born with, something she can flip on and instantly deliver a phenomenal performance.”– Paste Magazine
“… Monáe arguably gave the weekend's most thrilling performance. The sci-fi-inclined R&B singer is the once and future Q.U.E.E.N., and the rightful heiress to OutKast's top-tier billing.”–  Spin
“Janelle is not of this earth. That much became clear watching her set Friday, during which the diminutive, excellently coiffed singer blasted through a powerful set that included hits like "PrimeTime" and "Electric Lady."”–  People
Check out Janelle Monáe’s latest music video “PRIMETIME” feat. Miguel http://youtu.be/Oxls2xX0Clg [image error]

Cold Specks Unveils "Absisto" Video, Tracklist Revealed

COLD SPECKS
STEREOGUM  UNVEILS NEW VIDEO FOR ‘ABSISTO’ 

NEW ALBUM  NEUROPLASTICITY OUT AUGUST 26TH, 2014

TRACKLISTING REVEALED



Cold Specks, who will release the new album Neuroplasticity through Mute on August 26th 2014, has unveiled a striking new video for ‘Absisto’. Filmed on location in Canada and directed by Ian Pons Jewell, watch it here. 


Recorded at Montreal’s Hotel2Tango and Toronto’s Revolution Recordings studios, the album was produced by Jim Anderson and mixed by Anderson and Ben Hillier (Blur, Depeche Mode). Neuroplasticity  is the follow-up to the highly acclaimed debut, I Predict a Graceful Expulsion, and is available to pre-order now (links below).
Neuroplasticity  track listing:1. A Broken Memory2. Bodies at Bay3. Old Knives4. A Quiet Chill5. Exit Plan6. Let Loose The Dogs7. Absisto8. Living Signs9. A Formal Invitation10. A Season Of Doubt
Cold Specks, aka Al Spx, has returned, two years and a world map of tours after 2012’s I Predict a Graceful Expulsion. Hailed as a masterful and wholly original debut, the follow-up is radically expanded. The 26 year-old Canadian singer, under the sobriquet Al Spx, began work on Neuroplasticity  while holed-up in a cottage in Wick, Somerset, UK during the winter of 2012. “The record was mapped out in the cottage. I was there for about three months,” she says, “'A Formal Invitation', 'Old Knives' and 'Absisto' were essentially written there. They are the more unusual songs on the record. I may have been reflecting on my surroundings. Have you ever been to Glastonbury? It's a pretty fucked up place.”
When Cold Specks wasn’t writing or touring, she was pinballing between asks from an enviable roll call of collaborators and award panels. Shortlisted for the Juno Award and Polaris Prize, Spx also worked on Moby’s album and was invited to play with Joni Mitchell at the singer’s 70th birthday last year, alongside the likes of Herbie Hancock. She contributed to Ambrose Akinmusire's new record for Blue Note and the latest Swans album ‘To Be Kind’. These last two partnerships have left a significant impression on ‘Neuroplasticity’. The indomitable Swans founder Michael Gira appears midway through on ‘Exit Plan,’ and Akinmusire joins him on the intense closer ‘A Season of Doubt’ as well as permeating most of the record with trumpet lines of an anguished, cracking frailty.
‘Absisto,’ by the way, is the Latin verb for withdraw or depart, and neuroplasticity is the process by which it is thought human brains learn. The album dwells upon just this sense of the dark and unknown. It is bleaker than before perhaps but the wintry feel of Cold Specks material, self-described last time as ‘doom soul,’ has the quiet power of seeds cracking through ice. The thematic fixation with blood, animals and earth that spills in from the previous LP ensures that the notion of obliteration remains cradled by some intractable cosmic order, however torrid.

Pre-order the album on iTunes, CD or LP.
Watch 'Absisto' here.Listen to ‘Absisto’ here.

COLD SPECKS: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | SOUNDCLOUD

The Coathangers announce huge N. American tour

THE COATHANGERS ANNOUNCE FULL N. AMERICAN TOUR! 
Photo Credit: Ryan Russell   
WATCH "FOLLOW ME" HERE FEATURING MASTODONLISTEN TO "SPRINGFIELD CANNONBALL" HERE The Coathangers aka the road warriors, announce another full on North American tour which kicks off this week in Athens, GA at the legendary 40 WATT and steers them to co-headlinine Burger-a-go-go Fest with Dum Dum Girls, Bleached, Best Coast and Shannon and the Clams. Their fourth full length, Suck My Shirt (out now on Suicide Squeeze Records) is a hard hitter - spikey, jarring guitar riffs, raspy vocals and solid melodic hooks.  If you haven't yet - you've gotta catch their rowdy, house-show vibe performance that showcases the ladies' alluring spontaneity and happy accidents of earlier releases yet proves the (now) trio to be as far more deliberate and locked-in than ever!
THE COATHANGERS LIVE DATES:
6/20: Athfest - Athens, GA 6/21: Brooklyn Night Bazaar - Brooklyn, NY  6/26: Mothlight - Asheville, NC  6/27: Tin Roof - Charleston, SC    6/28: The Jinx - Savannah, GA  6/29: Liberty Bar - Tallahassee, FL  6/30: Underbelly - Jacksonville, FL  7/2: Will's Pub - Orlando, FL  7/3: Crowbar - Tampa, FL  7/4: Will Call - Miami, FL  7/5: The Atlantic - Gainesville, FL  7/7: Nobby's - St. Augustine, FL  7/24: Siberia - New Orleans, LA7/25: Fitzgerald's - Houston, TX7/26: Red 7 - Austin, TX7/27: Club Dada - Dallas, TX7/28: Ten Eleven - San Antonio, TX7/30: Sisters - Albuquerque, NM7/31: 191 Warehouse - Tucson, AZ #8/1: Soda Bar - San Diego, CA8/2: Burger-a-Go-Go - Los Angeles, CA $8/6: The Echo - Los Angeles, CA8/10: Santa Rosa, CA w/ Pizza Punx 8/11: Don Quixote's - Santa Cruz, CA8/12: Rickshaw Stop - San Francisco, CA8/13: Holland Project - Reno, NV8/14: Doug Fir - Portland, OR8/15: Cobalt - Vancouver, BC8/16: Pizza Fest - Seattle, WA8/18: Urban Lounge - Salt Lake City, UT8/19: Larimer Lounge - Denver, CO8/20: Czar Bar - Kansas City, MO8/21: Firebird - St. Louis, MO8/23: JJ's Bohemia - Chattanooga, TN9/5: Andy Animal's Meltasia - La Fayette, GA
# - w/ Ceremony and Nothing$ - w/ Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, Bleached, Shannon and the Clams

The Coathangers are:Julia Kugel (Crook Kid Coathanger - guitarist)Meredith Franco (Minnie Coathanger - bassist)Stephanie Luke (Rusty Coathanger - drums)

Flashlights Bummer Summer out June 24 on Hard Rock Records

Flashlights' Bummer Summer Out June 24 On Hard Rock RecordsStream Bummer Summer At Impose Magazine      Stream: Bummer Summer at Impose Magazine         Flashlights will release their new album, Bummer Summer, on June 24 via Hard Rock Records. In anticipation of the release Impose Magazine is streaming the album in full the week before street date. Impose says, "Every song here tells a different story of difficulties, seasons of change, past friendships, and situations to see us through summer 2014." Bummer Summer is available for pre-order now at iTunes. Earlier this spring, Pure Volume premiered the lead track from the upcoming album, "Failure." Pure Volume said, "Taking inspiration from '90s indie heroes Sebadoh, Archers of Loaf and Superchunk, Flashlights' riveting guitar pop continues to evolve in a big way on their upcoming full-length album." Flashlights' Terry Caudill told Pure Volume, "We've been waiting to release something new for so long! This track is about when your expectations fail you and it makes you sad. The ending is EPIC." "Failure" is also available to stream and share via  SoundCloud. Flashlights also recorded the track for Balcony TV in Los Angeles. The sessions is streaming now atYouTube. Look for Flashlights summer tour dates to be announced in the coming weeks. 
Who exactly are Flashlights? They tour in a van and sleep on couches. They have a strange affinity for cats and Pokemon. They're called Flashlights and they are a rather spectacular band from the decidedly unspectacular Brevard County, Florida. What began as a solo acoustic project for 24-year-old singer/guitarist Terry Caudill in 2007 has added various members from the local punk scene before settling on their current lineup of Tony Oriza on guitar, Will Powell on bass and Melissa Hopkins on drums.

They made a pretty good record in 2011 called I'm Not Alone and now they've just finished a new one. It's called Bummer Summer and it's even better. Produced by Scott Hutchison and Andy Monaghan of Frightened Rabbit, it's full of songs about dead end jobs and lousy living conditions, heartbreaks and hangovers. And, of course, there are also songs about cats.

Creaky and hissy, you would be forgiven for confusing it with early Archers of Loaf, Superchunk orBuilt to Spill. Caudill's voice has been favorably compared to the likes of Lou Barlow and Jeff Mangum. Bummer Summer lives up to its name but it also manages to find hilarity in humility and beauty in the bleak.

Bummer Summer is out June 24th on Hard Rock Records and the band will be taking to the highway this summer and into the fall, following up on the momentum of their recent national tour with Miniature Tigers and Total Slacker.  Bummer Summer will be available on all digital services, CD and a red and purple color vinyl LP.  Even Grumpy Cat would totally approve.
 1. Failure (stream)2. Don't Take Me Seriously3. All Cats Are Beautiful4. Bottle Kids5. Best Friends6.  Sometimes It's Hard to Speak7. Islands8. April 24th9. Bummer Summer10. Blue Dream
For more info, please visit:
http://flashlightsmusic.bandcamp.com/https://www.facebook.com/flashlightsmusichttps://twitter.com/flashlightsband

THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ANNOUNCES RETROSPECTIVE

THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ANNOUNCES 
RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION OF COMPOSER,
MUSICIAN, AND ARTIST BJÖRK NEW YORK, June 18, 2014—The Museum of Modern Art announces that it will present a full- scale retrospective dedicated to the multifaceted work of the composer, musician, and artist Björk in 2015. Organized by Klaus Biesenbach, Chief Curator at Large at MoMA and Director of MoMA PS1, the exhibition  Björk  draws from more than 20 years of the artist’s daring and adventurous projects and her seven full-length albums—from Debut (1993) to Biophilia (2011)—to chronicle her career through sound, film, visuals, instruments, objects, costumes, and performance. The installation will present a narrative, both biographical and imaginatively fictitious, cowritten by Björk and the acclaimed Icelandic writer Sjón Sigurdsson. Björk's collaborations with video directors, photographers, fashion designers, and artists will be featured, and the exhibition culminates with a newly commissioned, immersive music and film experience conceived and realized with director Andrew Huang and 3-D design leader Autodesk. Björk will be on view from March 7 through June 7, 2015; MoMA is the sole venue.

“Björk is an extraordinarily innovative artist whose contributions to contemporary music, video, film, fashion, and art have had a major impact on her generation worldwide,” said Mr. Biesenbach. “This highly experimental exhibition offers visitors a direct experience of her hugely collaborative body of work.”Biophilia Is First App to Enter MoMA’s CollectionMoMA announces the acquisition Biophilia (2011), a hybrid software application and music album with interactive graphics, animation, and musical scoring. Created by Björk with M/M Paris, Sjón, Scott Snibbe, Kodama Studios, Touch Press, Relative Wave, Nikki Dibben, Stephen Malinowski, and John F. Simon, Jr., it is the first app to enter the Museum’s collection, joining other digital design works such as fonts, video games, visualizations, icons, and custom interactive pieces. The app is  a gift of Björk and her record label, One Little Indian.

Wire Document And Eyewitness Re-Issue out August 18th on Pink Flag

Wire Document And Eyewitness Re-issue Out August 18th On Pink Flag  

Listen: 12XU (Fragment) via SoundCloud  
When informed that Wire were planning to reissue  Document and Eyewitness , Rough Trade bossGeoff Travis (who released the original vinyl version in 1981) commented that the band were "completely mad."  Such is the reputation of  Document and Eyewitness  - an entry in Wire's discography that has had as many vehement detractors as enthusiastic supporters.  For those unfamiliar with  Document and Eyewitness , it really doesn't do the album justice todescribe it simply as a collection of live recordings from three turn-of-the-80s Wire gigs. What makes it more than that is the unorthodox nature of the main performance and the way it was presented on record.  The centrepiece of the original vinyl release was a recording of the final gig of Wire's 70s phase (albeit one that took place in February 1980). This was a concert at the Electric Ballroom that grewout of the band's performance art-based residency at the Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre the previous November.  Delivering a traditional rock gig - or even fully realized songs, for that matter - was not a priority at theElectric Ballroom, and Wire's set was composed of largely new (and often under-rehearsed) work, accompanied by a series of artistic actions and interventions. The annotated track list gave some indication of the band's broader approach to performance and entertainment on the night: this included such delights as an individual beating a gas cooker with a hammer, a woman pulling two bound men across the stage, an illuminated goose and massed percussionists sporting newspaper headdresses. One band member donned an exaggerated beekeeper's veil, while others wore morris-dancing bells. Veering back and forth between the playful and the unsettling, this was a combination of performance art and absurdist farce, in more or less equal measure.  The evening was memorable, above all, for the unusually hostile reaction from sections of the audience, which has perhaps elevated it beyond a simple passing moment. If the crowd was expecting a standard gig, the level of outrage, expressed in vociferous abuse - and with the odd thrown bottle - suggested that the band's intentions were lost on those in attendance, who were instead confounded, bored and exasperated by the apparent artistic pretensions on display. What is beyond doubt is the fact that the documentation and presentation of the spectacle has lent an air of seriousness and intentionality to something that was considerably more about experimentation than deliberate career choice.   A recording (marred by technical issues) was made for posterity, and by spring Newman, Lewis, Gilbert and Grey had begun to pursue their own projects beyond Wire. A year on from the Electric Ballroom gig, however, Rough Trade came to the band with a proposal to commit something of that night's events to vinyl. The approach was to couple selected live tracks with a spoken commentary on the proceedings by long-term Wire fans Adrian Garston and Russell Mills. Hence the title, Document and Eyewitness .For the album, the Electric Ballroom material was supplemented with recordings from a July 1979 show at the Notre Dame Hall (a straightforward band performance), along with one track ("Heartbeat") from a March 1979 gig in Montreux, during Wire's stint as the support act on Roxy Music's Manifesto tour.      This release-cycle provides a wider view of the period, bringing in as much additional material as can be accommodated within the confines of the media. It takes as its core the Electric Ballroom, Notre Dame Hall and Montreux shows (remastered from the original tapes and pitch-corrected where necessary) and adds further texture with studio and rehearsal room recordings. 
Document And Eyewitness Cover Art     DOCUMENT AND EYEWITNESS (DOUBLE VINYL) PF21 LP: Packaged in a gatefold sleeve. Disc 1 is the same as the original vinyl, albeit remastered and re-edited. Disc 2 features the original selection from the Notre Dame Hall show on side one and the two singles and B-sides on side two.
Disc 1
Side One: 01. 5/10 / 02. 12XU (Fragment) / 03. Underwater Experiences / 04. Everything's Going to Be Nice / 05. Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars) / 06. We Meet Under Tables
Side Two: 07. ZEGK HOQP / 08. Eastern Standard / 09. Instrumental (Thrown Bottle) / 10. Eels Sang Lino / 11. Revealing Trade Secrets / 12. And Then... Coda
Tracks 01-12 from Electric Ballroom   Disc 2
Side One: 13. Go Ahead / 14. Ally in Exile / 15. Relationship / 16. Underwater Experiences / 17. Witness to the Fact / 18. 2 People in a Room / 19. Our Swimmer / 20. Heartbeat Side Two: 21. Our Swimmer / 22. Midnight Bahnhof Cafe / 23. Second Length (Our Swimmer) / 24. Catapult 30Tracks 01-12 from Electric Ballroom. Tracks 13-19 from Notre Dame Hall. Track 20 from Montreux. Tracks 21-22 from "Our Swimmer" (1981) single. Tracks 23-24 from an unreleased 1981 single.