Author: bella.king

John Frusciante to release acid house album under the name Trickfinger

John Frusciante seems to have played in every genre imaginable with his solo career, his time as the guitarist for Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Mars Voltac and various collaborations with Black Knights and Duran Duran. However, now Frusciante wants to tackle the world of electronic music.

He will release a self-titled album under Ticklefinger, his acid house pseudonym, on April 7th on Acid Test. The eight track album is a continuous work since he explained that he was serious about electronic music since 2009. Frusciante explained that when he began to record, the music was “all experimental acid house,” and his “skills at making rock music” did not fit well into Trickfinger at all.

Frusciante has released the album’s opener, “After Below” in anticipation. Listen to it here.

Read his complete message about the album and his love for acid house below.

I started being serious about following my dream to make electronic music, and to be my own engineer, five years ago. For the 10 years prior to that, I had been playing guitar along with a wide range of different types of programmed synthesizer and sample-based music, emulating what I heard as best as I could. I found that the languages machines forced programmers to think in had caused them to discover a new musical vocabulary…

In 2007, I started to learn how to program all the instruments we associate with acid house music and some other hardware. For about seven months I didn’t record anything. Then I started recording, playing 10 or so synced machines through a small mixer into a CD burner. This was all experimental acid house, my skills at making rock music playing no part in it whatsoever. I had lost interest in traditional songwriting and I was excited about finding new methods for creating music. I’d surround myself with machines, program one and then another and enjoy what was a fascinating process from beginning to end.

Trickfinger Tracklist:
01. After Below
02. Before Above
03. Rainover
04. Sain
05. Exlam
06. 85h
07. 4:30
08. Phurip

Twin Shadow releases details about new album Eclipse

Twin Shadow shared information about his upcoming album, Eclipse, which is set to be released on March 17th. The artist, also known as George Lewis Jr., has both shared the cover art for the album and tracklist but he also shared a video teaser and a note on how Eclipse was recorded. Watch the video trailer here.

He wrote:

My whole world seemed to come apart during the recording and touring of my first two albums. It seemed to break off into two large chunks; one relating to self awareness and confidence and the other being a desire to seek out the best in people around me. They began to drift slowly away from each other. Balancing the two became an almost impossible task and I feared having to choose one or the other.

Before the start of the recording of Eclipse I felt these things pull even further away, and in thinking I had lost both, I felt a deep solitude. When I began recording in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery (where I built my studio), I forgot about these things and focused only on what was in front of me: practical things, mundane things, things that simply kept me busy and not bored.

Without realizing it during this period, the things I lost hold of began to move towards each other again. Through this shift many things began to re-establish themselves; including loving relationships, a strength in the dynamic between my mother & I, as well as energetic states of mind and general excitement to play music. Things were aligned again without me trying to control them.

Twin Shadow Eclipse track list:

1. “Flatliners”
2. “When The Lights Turn Out”
3. “To The Top”
4. “Alone” feat. Lily Elise
5. “Eclipse”
6. “Turn Me Up”
7 “I’m Ready”
8. “Old Love/New Love” feat. D’Angelo Lacy
9. “Half Life”
10. “Watch Me Go”
11. “Locked & Loaded”

The Jesus Mary Chain celebrate 30th anniversary of Psychocandy with tour

The Jesus and Mary Chain announced that they will celebrate the 30th year since the release of their popular Psychocandy with a leg of shows. The band have announced UK tour dates already which will go through February and then they will tour in the United States and Canada. Although the east coast has no shows yet, there are shows set for the rest of the country and Canada.

The Jesus and Mary Chain North American tour dates:
May 1 – Toronto, Ontario @ Canadian Music Week
May 3 – Detroit, MI @ St Andrew’s Hall
May 5 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera
May 7 – Dallas, TX @ The Bomb Factory
May 9 – Austin, TX @ Levitation (Austin Psych Fest)
May 11 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
May 13 – Vancouver, British Columbia @ Vogue Theatre
May 14 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox
May 16 – San Francisco, CA @ Warfield

The Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. 40 Watt – ELEL

2. Toxin – Mating Ritual

3. Wait and See – Monogem

4. Glow – IYES

5. U Make Me Feel Good – astronomyy

6. Sienna – The Night VI

7. Steal You Away – Gold Spectacles

8. Magpie – Khushi

9. We Prefer the Dark – Bat and Ball

10. Charlamagne – Malpas

11. Everest – Looks

12. Young in Mind – Waitress

13. We Are Ordinary People – ATTU

14. Goodness – Liu Bei

15. Paper Shell – Frett

16. The Fisherman – Thor Rixon

17. Rosary – Deaf Kid

18. Aurescent – Kodak to Graph

19. Conflict – Different Sleep

20. Ocean Tides – Kyson

Pond releases video for “Man It Feels Like Space Again”

Pond have recently released a surreal video for the track, “Man, It Feels Like Space Again,” which comes from their upcoming album with the same name.

The track is the newest to be released from Pond’s upcoming album after “Sitting Up On Our Crane” and Elvis Flaming Star.” Man, It Feels Like Space Again is set to release on January 26th. This will be the band’s sixth album, which follow-ups their 2013 Hobo Rocket.

Black Keys cancel upcoming shows due to Patrick Carney’s shoulder injury

Blues rock band, The Black Keys, were forced to cancel most of their tour dates due to a shoulder serious injury drummer Patrick Carney sustained.

The entire European tour which was supposed to begin on February 16th and go through March 10th has been cancelled. The band said in a press release, “Due to prior scheduled commitments and venue availability, efforts to reschedule the original dates were unsuccessful; therefore all tickets will be refunded in full at their point of purchase.”

Carney suffered a dislocated shoulder after a wave slammed into him into the floor of the ocean in early January. He was hospitalized for a brief amount of time.

The band wants to return to touring in April for their Australian tour.

The Black Keys 2015 Tour Dates:
02/16 – Zurich, CH @ Hallenstadion
02/17 – Milan, IT @ Mediolanum
02/19 – Munich, DE @ Zenith
02/20 – Berlin, DE @ Max-Schmeling-Halle
02/21 – Warsaw, PL @ Torwar
02/23 – Amsterdam, NL @ Ziggo Dome
02/24 – Antwerp, BE @ Sportpaleis
02/25 – Dusseldorf, DE @ Mitsubishi Electric Halle
02/27 – Manchester, UK @ Phones 4U Arena
02/28 – Birmingham, UK @ LG Arena
03/01 – Glasgow, UK @ SSE Hydro
03/03 – London, UK @ The O2
03/04 – Cardiff, UK @ Motorpoint Arena
03/05 – Leeds, UK @ First Direct Arena
03/07 – Lyon, FR @ Halle Tony Garnier
03/09 – Paris, FR @ Zenith
03/10 – Paris, FR @ Zenith
04/02 – Brisbane, AU @ Riverstage
04/03 – Byron Bay, AU @ Byron Bay Bluesfest
04/05 – Yarra Valley, AU @ Rolling Green at Rochford Wines
04/07 – Melbourne, AU @ Margaret Court Arena
04/10 – Sydney, AU @ Qantas Credit Union Arena
04/11 – Hunter Valley, AU @ Rolling Green at Bimbadgen Winery
04/14 – Perth, AU @ Red Hill Auditorium
04/16 – Adelaide, AU @ Entertainment Centre Theatre
04/18 – Christchurch, NZ @ Horncastle Arena
04/19 – Auckland, NZ @ Vector Arena
04/22 – Tokyo, JP @ Studio Coast
04/23 – Tokyo, JP @ Studio Coast
05/28 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound
05/30 – Athens, GR @ Rockwave Festival
06/06 – Hunter Mountain, NY @ Mountain Jam
06/07 – New York, NY @ Governors Ball Music Festival
06/12 – Isle of Wight, UK @ Isle of Wight Festival
06/14 – Aarhus, DK @ NorthSide Festival

Parquet Courts to release Live at Third Man Records

The indie rock band Parquet Courts played a set at Hack White’s Third Man Records in June. The recording of the performance will be released on March 3rd.

Named Parquet Courts: Live at Third Man Records, the band played 11 tracks from their discography including Sunbathing Animal “Black & White,” “Always Back In Town,” and “Dear Ramona” from Sunbathing Animal.

Listen to the clips of live versions of “Vienna II” and “Sunbathing Animal” here and see the tracklist below.

Parquet Courts: Live at Third Man Records Tracklist:
01. Duckin & Dodgin
02. Bodies
03. Black & White
04. Vienna II
05. Always Back In Town
06. Dear Ramona
07. Descend
08. Instant Disassembly
09. Raw Milk
10. Into the Garden
11. Sunbathing Animal

The live album is the latest of the installment in the label’s direct-to-acetate live album series. Previous bands and artists that have performed were The Shins, King Tuff, Divine Fits, and The Kills.

Damon Albarn writing an Alice in Wonderland musical

Never working on only one project at a time, Damon Alban in this last year released a solo album, worked with Brian Eno and Nick Zinner to rework “In C” by Terry Riley, and teasing a new Gorillaz album. He is now working on a theater production of Alice in Wonderland.

After composing the operas, Monkey: Journey to the West and the Dr Dee, Albarn is writing music for an adaption of the classic, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll. The musical is entitled Wonder.land, and will be put onto the stage next July at the Palace Theatre in Manchester as a portion of the Manchester International Festival. Rufus Norris will be the show’s director and has previously worked with Albarn for Monkey.

This version of Alice in Wonderland has been reworked to the digital age and follows the story of Aly, a 12-year-old girl, who creates an alter-who named Alice and puts herself into a virtual world.

“I’m fascinated by the idea of going down a rabbit hole, the otherworldliness and what that might mean,” Albarn explains.

Nikolai Fraiture from the Strokes starts new band, Summer Moon

Nikolai Fraiture from the Strokes starts begins a new band, Summer Moon. Fraiture is in the band on bass and vocals. Also in the group is Tennessee Thomas, the drummer of The Like, and Erika Spring from Au Revoir Simone, and guitarist Lewis Lazar.

The band already have a website and although there is no music yet, the band made their live debut at a birthday party for Thomas in Brooklyn, New York. The Examiner reports that their music is “harder than the melodic pop of both Strokes and Like, with Tennessee Thomas giving it jet propulsion.”

Fraiture worked with Au Revoir Simone for a cover of “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star in June of last year. Everyone said the collaboration was a one-off and that it was unlikely to record more together in the future.

The Strokes, on the other hand, were announced to headline for Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Also on the list are Pixies, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Tame Impala and James Blake.

The Strokes also confirmed that they were a headlining act at the Primavera festival in Spain in May.

Modest Mouse release new song and video

Modest Mouse recently released new song, “Coyotes” along side a video that follows the story of a coyote riding a train through Portland.

Fan site, Interstate-8, pointed out that the song is inspired by the real story of a coyote that took the MAX light rail train in Portland in 2002. To watch, visit Interstate-8.

The new track will be on the upcoming Strangers to Ourselves which is set to come out March 3rd. The track will be available for purchase digitally tomorrow and the 7-inch vinyl for the song will be included in the first 2,500 pre-orders of the new album from the official website.

Strangers to Ourselves was announced last month and it is the band’s first studio album since We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank in 2007.