Austin, Texas’ White Denim, highly regarded as one of the best live acts out there, has started their spring tour to promote their upcoming album Stiff (due out March 25th). They just rocked the BBC 6 Music Festival, and now they’re back in the United States. You can find all the official tour dates here.
Here’s the new single, “Ha Ha Ha Ha (Yeah)” from Stiff. I look forward to hearing the whole record.
Psych rockers (and a favorite band of my wife) Elephant Stone have released a new single, “Where I’m Going,” from their upcoming album Ship of Fools. As my wife put it, “I was hooked in the first five seconds.” The band has mixed a bit of electro into their raga-influenced psych-rock, and it works very well.
They’ve also announced March tour dates. Catch them if you can.
03/10 – Toronto, ON @ Sneaky Dees w/ Champion Lover and Bad Girls TICKETS
03/11 – Indianapolis, IN @ Joyful Noise w/ Vaadat Charigim TICKETS
03/12 – Little Rock, AR @ Vino’s Brew Pub TICKETS
03/14 to 03/17 – Austin, TX for SXSW TICKETS
03/18 – Memphis, TN @ Hi-Tone w/ R. Ring TICKETS
03/19 – Cincinnati, OH @ MOTR Pub TICKETS
03/20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right w/ Las Rosas and Fascinator TICKETS
04/14 – Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa w/ The Mad Alcemy Liquid Light Show TICKETS
Keep your mind open.
The fifth annual Spring Awakening Festival of electronic dance music is coming to Chicago for the first time. The festival will be held June 10-12 in Chicago’s Jackson Park. Three-day passes are already on sale for as low as $191.82 (that includes all taxes and fees).
Like many other cool festivals, Spring Awakening offers a layaway option for tickets with a down payment of $47.25 and three payments after that spread out over three months.
This will be the biggest EDM festival in Chicago since the North Coast Fest (usually held in September). A three-day music festival for under $200.00 is hard to beat.
Keep your mind open.
This is a music blog, so when I saw a commercial for tomorrow night’s Grammy Awards I said, “I suppose I have to write about that now.” I wasn’t thrilled about it because I haven’t been thrilled about the Grammy Awards at any point in my life.
I haven’t been thrilled about the Grammys because the Grammys don’t cover music that thrills me. There are no big televised award shows for psychedelic, shoe gaze, dark wave, punk rock, outlaw country, or world music. The Grammy Awards cover music that isn’t on my radar, which shows how far my radar is from contemporary popular music. For instance…
Record of the Year
I’ve heard one of the five nominees – “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars. Before reading the list of nominees, however, I couldn’t have told you who did this song. It was a song I first heard as a parody in a YouTube video about the last Avengers movie.
Album of the Year
I’ve heard of all but one of the nominees (Chris Stapleton). I hope Alabama Shakes win because they actually rock.
Song of the Year and Best New Artist
Two categories in which I have no idea about any of the nominees. I don’t know if I’ve heard any of the nominees for Song of the Year, and you could tell me that all the Best New Artist nominees are actually the members of Slipknot without their masks and I’d probably believe you. Speaking of Slipknot…
Best Metal Performance
Who knew that Slipknot was (A) still making records and (B) nominated for a couple Grammys this year? Not I, because I’m not a fan of “bro rock” or screamo. Good for Slipknot and their fans, I guess, but I think it would be hysterical if Ghost wins since they have their tongues firmly in cheek. I’m also wondering why Motorhead wasn’t nominated, because Bad Magic is the best metal album in years.
Best Dance / Electronic Album
I was happy to see Caribou’s Our Love is nominated. I don’t have the record, but Caribou is playing at Levitation Austin this year and was already high on my must-see list there. Flying Lotus is also playing there, and he’s nominated for Best Dance Recording.
Other categories
I have no idea who any of the country nominees are, and I barely know any of the rap nominees. I’ve heard of some of the rap nominees, but couldn’t name one song by any of them. I haven’t bought a rap album since Mos Def’s last record and I haven’t found a country record I’ve liked since Corb Lund’s 2012 record.
I don’t know if I’ll watch the Grammys. I may be too busy doing other stuff, like writing about music I actually enjoy. Let me know what you thought, however, of the winners, losers, performances, and appearances.
Keep your mind open.
My favorite music festival, Levitation Austin, has released their daily line-ups and additions to the three-day music festival.
I was happy to see the return of France’s Wall of Death, psychedelic rockers Holy Wave, German electro artist Klaus Johann Grobe, and the Arcs (which lets me see one half of the Black Keys, since it’s Dan Auerbach‘s psychedelic band) on Friday.
Saturday’s additions that excite me are electro artist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, spaghetti western rockers Federale, electro artist Bayonne, and David J and the Gentlemen Thieves – which might be the closest I ever get to a Bauhaus or Love & Rockets reunion.
Sunday has added (among others) Magic Wands and Ween to the list. I’m keen on hearing the Magic Wands, and I’m sure the Ween performance will be packed.
Single day tickets are also now available. The festival hasn’t announced who will play the Thursday night pre-festival kick-off shows downtown yet, but they’re always worth seeing.
Keep your mind open.
If you’re a fan of Joy Division and / or New Order, you owe it to yourself to check out the PledgeMusic offer now available from (original Joy Division and New Order bassist) Peter Hook and the Light.
“Hooky” and his band performed the entire Joy Division catalogue on May 19, 2015 and recorded the performance. This three-disc live recording is available through the PledgeMusic offer, as are live December 2014 recordings of the New Order albums Unknown Pleasures, Closer, Movement, Power, Corruption & Lies, Low Life, and Brotherhood. You can get all these live albums either in groups of two or all six (plus an orchestral version of Unknown Pleasures) in a special autographed package.
The official dates for Levitation Vancouver will be June 16-18, 2016. The shows will take place at Malkin Bowl and downtown venues. No lineup has been announced yet, but we should hear the first batch soon.
Levitation Chicago is March 10-12, 2016 and Levitation Austin, the largest of the Levitation festivals, is April 28 – March 01, 2016. All of them are excellent festivals and shouldn’t be missed.
Dark wave rocker Luis Vasquez, otherwise known as The Soft Moon, has started a GoFundMe campaign after his band’s van was broken into during a gig in Oakland on January 26th. The total loss was well over $10,000 and included not only instruments and Soft Moon merchandise but also luggage and personal effects.
Please consider donating to help them recoup the loss. Go see them on tour if you can’t make a donation, or at least spread the word about the campaign.
Tour dates as of today:
2/1/16 — Portland @ Holocene
2/2/16 — Vancouver @ Venue
2/3/16 — Seattle @ Barboza
2/6/16 – Denver @ Marquis
2/8/16 — Minneapolis @ Amsterdam Bar & Hall
2/9/16 — Chicago @ Thalia Hall
2/10/16 — Columbus @ Rumba Café
2/11/16 — Toronto @ Lee’s Palace
2/12/16 — Montreal @ La Sala Rosa
2/13/16 — Brooklyn @ Market Hotel
2/14/16 — Brooklyn @ Saint Vitus
2/16/16 — Philadelphia @ Boot & Saddle
2/17/16 — New Haven @ Bar
2/19/16 — Pittsburgh @ Cattivo
2/20/16 — Baltimore @ Ottobar
2/21/16 — Norfolk @ Work Release
2/22/16 — Chapel Hill @ Cat’s Cradle
Don’t miss them if you have the chance to see them. A Soft Moon show is a visceral experience.
British house / techno gods Underworld have released “I Exhale,” the first single from their upcoming album Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future. The track is an immediate club hit and brilliant in its simplicity of booming bass and synths, stream of consciousness lyrics, and dance beats. It’s an instant cure to seasonal affective disorder.
You can pre-order Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future (the band’s first album in six years) now. They’ll also be playing Coachella this year, so don’t miss them if you’re out west.
Young Irish rockers The Strypes have released their first live record, currently available on iTunes UK and Soundcloud, Live in Tokyo 2015. It has ten tracks of their great blues-laced, raucous pub rock that draws influences from early Rolling Stones all the way to Arctic Monkeys. These lads only get better with each record.
