Rachael Yamagata’s new video for her song “Elephants,” is awaiting you below. Check it out and see her live.
tour: Elephants
tour: September 20 – Asbury Park, NJ – The Wonder Bar
September 21 – Pittsburgh, PA – Diesel
September 22 – Washington DC – Birchmere
September 24 – Philadelphia – Johnny Brenda’s
September 25 – New York, NY – Joe’s Pub (two shows that night) – SOLD OUT
September 29 – Boston, MA – Café 939 @ Berklee College of Music
October 1 – Chicago, IL – Lakeshore
October 2 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line
October 4 – Seattle, WA – Chop Suey
October 5 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
October 6 – San Francisco, CA – Café Du Nord
October 7 – Los Angeles, CA – Largo at the Coronet http://www.rachaelyamagata.com/ http://www.myspace.com/rachaelyamagata
UK dance rockers South Central will be centering on North America with The Owl of Minerva. The album is a collection of South Central’s finest work of the last two years; music that’s never been available on CD or mp3. Taking its title from nineteenth century philosopher Hegel’s assertion that “any historical condition can only be understood just as it passes away,” this release also marks the formation of South Central’s own imprint, Egregore Music. South Central has remixed artists including Klaxons, Van She, The Whip, Metronomy, Shy Child, Maccabees and Shitdisco, among many others. The Owl Of Minerva is released December 9 on Egregore Music.
tour: September 17 – Subterranean – Chicago, IL (w/ Helicopters)
September 18 – Pygmalion Festival – Champaign-Urbana, IL (w/ Pontiak, Wye Oak)
September 26 – Music Hall of Williamsburg – Brooklyn, NY (w/ Denali) http://www.myspace.com/forms http://www.theforms.org/
War Tapes icy atmospheric self-titled EP is out, and the band have a few shows coming up as well.
audio: Dreaming Of You
tour: Sep 21 The Fillmore w/ Tiger Army San Francisco, California
Sep 24 EP RELEASE PARTY @ Club Moscow 18+ Hollywood
Oct 15 Club A.D.D. @ Nicholby’s Ventura, California
Oct 23 Octoberflame 2008 @ The Grove w/ Tiger Army & Vnv Nation Anaheim, California http://www.myspace.com/wartapes
tour: 10/03 @ Spaceland, Los Angeles, CA (Shiloe Rec. Rel. Party)
10/04 @ Eagle Rock Music Festival, Los Angeles, CA (5pm, Kingsize Soundlabs Stage)
10/24 @ Viper Room, Los Angeles, CA http://www.thehumanvalue.com/
The Dark Romantics have a fine bit of dark and sexy out by way of their new album, Heartbreaker. Also available from the band is the Lonely/Roads 7″ (from New Granada Records) featuring the original ‘Lonely..Alone’ as the A-side, and a cover of Portishead’s ‘Roads’ as the flip. This release is limited to 1000 copies.
Shugo, pronounced “shoe-go”, will stop in Davenport, IA at Daytrotter before heading to New York City to play Mercury Lounge with Jon Natchez (Beirut), Perrin Cloutier (Beirut), Lawson White (So Percussion), and Bryan Devendorf (The National). Shugo will also be visiting California with Beach House, and the Great White North with a couple members of Holy F*ck, before hitting the road with The Magnetic Fields.
tour: 09/13 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle (The Wire’s Adventures in Modern Music)# 09/23 New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge! 09/30 Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland^
10/03 Montréal, QC @ Pop Montréal% 10/23 Jersey City, NJ @ Loews Jersey Theatre* 10/24 Columbus, OH @ The Southern Theatre* 10/25 Philadelphia, PA @ The Merriam Theater*
10/26 Washington, DC @ Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University* # with Flying Lotus (Best New Music on Pitchfork), Lau Nau, Blues Control
! Jon Natchez (Beirut), Bryan Devendorf (The National), Perrin Cloutier (Beirut), Lawson White (So Percussion) w/Twi the Humble Feather
^ Supporting Beach House & Lazarus
% Contrived, Julie Fader, Brian Borcherdt (Holy F*ck), Off the International Radar, DJ Graham (Holy F*ck)
* Supporting Magnetic Fields with Jon Natchez (Beirut)
Guys like the Brewis brothers serve as a shining light when an overly cynical mind such as my own becomes dismayed by the lack of true inertia in pop music. That in itself is a long conversation we will avoid for the most part, although likely beginning pre-void with Bowie and Eno in Berlin with the vastly important album Low; following to avant-guard heroes such as P. Gabriel, Kate Bush, even Gary Numan for a while, and a few others, not to mention Talk Talk.
Sunderland’s Peter Brewis brings The Week That Was, an album that has captured me like few I’ve heard, not just this year, but this decade. Smart visionary pop influenced in spirit and elegance by a different sort of eighties and elsewhere(the aforementioned), having nothing to do with angular dance funk, JD, GOF, Wire, or whatever else we’ve been inundated with far too much of this millennium. Such a fine work thematically, made up of concise movements caught up in well written inventive melody as much as cleverly occupying their own aural space. Proving the point from the beginning on “Learn To Learn,” The Week That Was takes huge drums, pronouncing them with a wonderfully detached reverb (certainly we’ve heard this one before, though not often, and not for a while) giving off the impression that this new tribalism is split between two sonic atmospheres, not to mention philosophical conundrums. There are certainly beautiful pop moments that could be extracted and enjoyed on their own, such as “The Airport Line,” carrying quite the future-present vibe highlighted by a sprinkling of so many things in perfect economy, and capped off even more favorably by a fabulous string melody creating reason for another refrain. “It’s All Gone” appears with fluctuating synth and the isolated gallantry of Kate Bush wrapped with P. Gabriel, steadily escaping the egg, stirred on by indulgent trance inducing marimba. The world of The Week That Was is brave and vibrant, coming across as necessary, important, and most of all….wise, immaculate entertainment.
video: Scratch The Surface
U.S. west coast dates: 11/28/08 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir ^
11/29/08 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey ^
12/2/08 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American ^
12/3/08 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour ^
12/4/08 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour ^
12/5/08 – Pomona, CA @ Glass House ^
12/6/08 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah ^
^ w/ The Sea & Cake
Rachael Yamagata’s new video for her song “Elephants,” is awaiting you below. Check it out and see her live.
