Author: bella.king

The Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. Bruises Chairlift

2. Oh! You Pretty Things – Au Revoir Simone

3. Dressed in Dresden – The Hundred in the Hands

4. Lay Your Cards Out – Poliça

5. House – Kindness

6. Depak Ine – John Talabot

7. You – Gold Panda

8. Motion – Balam Acab

9. Carbonated – Mount Kimbie

10. A New Error – Moderat

11. Arcadia – Apparat

12. The Birds – Telfon Tel Aviv

13. Everything You Do Is A Balloon – Boards of Canada

14. Tokyo Ghost Stories – Arovane

15. Slow Down – Infinite Scale

16. 2112 Crescent Heights – Yasume

17. Deep – Melorman

18. Amatur Cartography – Obfusc

19. Soft Warmly Straw Coat – Near the Parenthesis

20. Zvenya – Winterlight

Prince has a bank vault filled with unreleased music

It is a known fact that Prince has had a trove of unreleased music but a recent feature in the Guardian reveals specific details about the collection. In the feature, it revealed that Prince has a physical vault in his Paisley Park estate in Minneapolis.

Mobeen Azhar from The Guardian talked with many longtime Prince associates. The vault even goes as far back to before the release of Purple Rain according to his former sound engineer, Susan Rogers. 

“I joined Prince in 1983 when he was preparing to do Purple Rain. I realized it would be smart for me to get his tapes together in one place. I was aware there were a lot of pieces missing. It became an obsession. I wanted us to have everything he’d ever recorded. I called up the studios he’d been using and said: ‘Have you got any Prince tapes’? This is his legacy. We need to protect these things. It’s an actual bank vault, with a thick door. It’s in the basement of Paisley Park. When I left in 87, it was nearly full. Row after row of everything we’d done. I can’t imagine what they’ve done since then.”

Brent Fischer who, over the last 30 years has worked with Prince, said that 70% of their collaborations are yet to be released. 

“There are a lot of songs that were sent to us clearly with the idea that they would never be released. They were almost comical songs that he would work out with his horn players. There was lot of wild horn parts and experimentation with samples. I’d like to see ‘All My Dreams’ come out. We enjoyed that song so much. I think it’s nine-and-a-half minutes. It’s this epic journey.”

Azhar had also shared Alan Leeds’, Prince’s former manager’s, anecdote about how a federal investigation was launched about the leaking of material even though it was likely that it was Prince’s fault. 

“We actually organised a federal investigation but we never got it down to one source. Prince gave the combination to the vault door to way too many of the staff at Paisley, in my opinion. He was careless. I remember driving Prince to the airport and on the way back I saw there were tapes in the glove compartment, tapes under the [sun] visor, tapes in the back seat. He would ride around listening to his unreleased music and just leave things all over the place.”

It is yet to be revealed whether or not the music in the vault will ever be released but according to Leeds, Prince once said “that one day he’d just burn everything.”

The full article can be found the Guardian‘s website. Azhar also created a documentary named Hunting for Prince’s Vault which will air on BBC over this weekend.

Nick Cave releasing a book filled with his barf bag notes

Singer-songwriter Nich Cave is prepping to release a book written entirely from notes he wrote down on airplane barf bags. The Sick Bag Song is due to be out in June through Canongate.

The book was written during Cave’s 2014 North American tour with the Bad Seeds and “began life as notes scribbled on airline sick bags during the 22-city journey and grew into a restless, full-length, epic poem, seeking out the roots of inspiration, love and meaning.” The book will be available in two versions:

– The Unlimited Edition (publishing 8th April 2015) features the boxed hardback edition of The Sick Bag Song, an audio download of Nick Cave reading the book (unabridged) and the eBook.

– The Limited Edition (limited to 220, publishing 4th June 2015) includes a sick bag signed and personally customised by Nick Cave with notes, doodles and musings, a signed and numbered special edition of The Sick Bag Song book, a limited pressing of Nick Cave reading the book on a white vinyl double LP. Anyone purchasing the limited edition will also receive a copy of the Unlimited edition.

The “Unlimited Edition” will cost $45 while the “Limited Edition” will cost $1,124 and are categorized by city, for each of the cities on the tour. Pre-orders for both versions have begun and are available here.

Watch an official trailer below which features the first few lines of the book.

Cave will go on a short book tour in support of the book:

04/08 – Los Angeles, CA @ Egyptian Theatre
04/10 – New York, NY @ Florence Gould Theatre
04/16 – London, UK @ Porchester Hall

Insound shutting down after 16 years

After 16 years it has been announced that the online music store, Insound, will shut down at the end of March.  

Insound has been a source for buying independent music, merchandise, and more for years. 

Insound was launched in 1999. They had a community of music fans from the beginning with live chats with bands, videos, and an attempt with social media. Between 200-2003, the website released EPs that were limited edition from various artists such as the Rapture and Bright Eyes as part of their Insound Tour Support Series. The website helped begin careers of bands such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah by selling the bands’ self-released albums before they were more available anywhere else. 

The same people who worked at Insound ran the record label Tiger Style releasing the music from Les Savy Fav, Ted Leo, Low, the Album Leaf, American Analog Set, Ida, and more.

Osheaga Music festival announces 2015 lineup through mobile driving game

Montreal’s Osheaga Music Festival released its 3015 lineup in a immensely creative way today by releasing a mobile driving game called The Road to Osheaga which gives the users the ability to find out the names of the artists through collecting musical notes.

Some of the lineup includes The Black Keys, Kendrick Lamar, Florence and the Machine, St. Vincent, Alt-J, The Decemberists, Hot Chip, Weezer, Nas, Tyler the Creator, Interpol, The Kills, Caribou, Run the Jewels, Future Islands, The War on Drugs, and Father John Misty.

Also on the lineup is Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, The Avett Brothers, Of Monsters and Men, Brand New, Tove Lo, Charli XCX, Gary Clark Jr., Action Bronson, ScHoolboy Q, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Young the Giant, Patrick Watson, Twin Shadow, First Aid Kit, Toro y Moi, Philip Selway, MS MR, Viet Cong, Alvvays, Slyvan Esso, Milky Chance, Marina and the Diamonds, Raury, Strand of Oaks, Glass Animals, San Fermin, and Young Fathers. 

The music festival will take place the weekend of July 31st – August 2nd at the Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal. The full lineup will be released on March 24th which is the same day that tickets go on sale. 

Ryan Adams announces live album for Carnegie Hall

Ryan Adams performed two career-spanning shows at Carnegie Hall in New York in November. Adams now is set to release a compilation of recordings from both nights into a live album through is Pac-Am Records. 

The album, named Live at Carnegie Hall, spans 42 tracks including “My Winding Wheel”, “Am I Safe”, “Come Pick Me Up,” and previously unreleased songs, “This Is Where We Meet In My Mind” and “How Much Light.” The album is set to be released on April 21st in a six album 180-gram box set and will also be available digitally.

The abridged version entitled Ten Songs From Live at Carnegie Hall will be available then as well. The track list includes 10 tracks including the previously unheard songs. The abridged version is due out on June 9th in an 140-gram vinyl, CD, and a digital download. 

Pre-orders have begun for both albums here. The tracklisting for both can be found below.  

Live at Carnegie Hall Tracklist:
01. Gimme Something Good
02. Oh My Sweet Carolina
03. Damn, Sam (I Love A Woman That Rains)
04. My Winding Wheel
05. Trouble
06. Nobody Girl
07. On Broadway
08. Halloween
09. New York, New York
10. Please Do Not Let Me Go
11. Rats In The Wall
12. Why Do They Leave
13. Sylvia Plath
14. Crossed-Out Name
15. This Is Where We Meet In My Mind
16. If I Am A Stranger
17. Amy
18. English Girls Approximately
19. Avenues
20. Come Pick Me Up
21. Oh My Sweet Carolina
22. My Winding Wheel
23. Dirty Rain
24. My Wrecking Ball
25. New York New York
26. Friends
27. Am I Safe
28. Ashes And Fire
29. Gimme Something Good
30. Why Do They Leave
31. Off Broadway
32. The Hardest Part
33. The Rescue Blues
34. Lucky Now
35. Dear Chicago
36. Desire
37. How Much Light
38. Firecracker
39. Kim
40. Call Me On Your Way Back Home
41. Black Sheets Of Rain
42. Come Pick Me Up

Ten Songs From Live At Carnegie Hall Tracklist:
01. Oh My Sweet Carolina (11/15)
02. Nobody Girl (11/15)
03. New York, New York (11/15)
04. Sylvia Plath (11/15)
05. This Is Where We Meet In My Mind (11/15)
06. My Wrecking Ball (11/17)
07. Gimme Something Good (11/17)
08. How Much Light (11/17)
09. Kim (11/17)
10. Come Pick Me Up (11/17)

The Vaccines release details about new album “English Graffiti”

English rock band the Vaccines have released details for their upcoming third album, English Graffiti, which is due out via Columbia Records on May 26. This follow-up for critically acclaimed 2012 Come of Age is the first album recorded by the band in the United States at at Tarbox Road Studio in New York and was co-produced by Dave Fridmann who also produced The Flaming Lips, Tame Impala, and Sleater-Kinney’s The Woods and Cole MGN who produced Ariel Pink and Beck. Earlier this month, the band released the first single, “Handsome.”

English Graffiti track list:

1. “Handsome”
2. “Dream Lover”
3. “Minimal Affection”
4. “20/20”
5. “(All Afternoon) In Love”
6. “Denial”
7. “Want U So Bad”
8. “Radio Bikini”
9. “Maybe I Could Hold You”
10. “Give Me A Sign”
11. “Undercover”

The Vaccines tour dates:

March 16 -20 – Austin, TX @ SXSW 
March 25 – Paris, FR @ Fleche D’or, Paris
March 27 – Nottingham, UK @ Rock City 
March 28 – Hartlepool, UK @ Borough Hall
March 29 – Glasgow, UK @ Old Fruitmarket
March 30 – Scunthorpe, UK @ Baths Hall
April 1 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
April 3 – Porstmouth, UK @ Pyramids 
April 4 – Bath, UK @ Pavilion, 
April 5 – Folkestone, UK @ The Leas Cliff Hall 
April 7 – Norwich, UK @ UEA
April 8 – London, UK @ Brixton Electric SOLD OUT
May 22 – Liverpool, UK @ Sound City
June 6 – Seaside Heights, NJ @ Seaside Heights Beach*
August 1 – Aviemore, Scotland* 
August 15  –  Walla Walla, WA @ Whitman College*
August 22 – Salida, CO @ Vandeer Ranch*

* = Mumford & Sons Gentlemen of the Road tour (w/ Alabama Shakes, Flaming Lips + more)

The Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. For Emma – Bon Iver

2. Glory – Radical Face

3. Stay Alive – José González

4. Passion Play – William Fitzsimmon

5. For A Nightengale – Fionn Regan

6. I Don’t Know – Lisa Hannigan

7. Love No Less Worthy – J. Tillman

8. Charlie Darwin – The Low Anthem

9. The Story I Heard – Blind Pilot

10. Orange Sky – Alexi Murdoch

11. To Be Alone With You – Joshua James

12. Mr. Pitiful – Matt Costa

13. Giant of Illinois – Andrew Bird

14. You Are The Best Thing – Ray LaMontagne

15. Better Than Love – Griffin House

16. Relator – Pete Yorn, Scarlett Johansson

17. Quiet Town – Josh Rouse

18. Out On A Limb – Joseph Arthur

19. I Was Just Thinking – Teitur

20. Drifting – Tina Dico

Kevin Smith confirms new Clerks and Mallrats films

Actor and director Kevin Smith has announced that he will begin work on a third  Clerks film which will be the sequel to 1995’s Mallrats.

The filming for Clerks III will begin in May in Philadelphia. Both Jason Mewes and Smith will return as their roles as Jay and Silent Bob. Rosario Dawson, Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, and Marilyn Ghigliotti are also set to return to the film.

At the same time, Mallrats 2 production will begin in 2016. Smith told Tucson radio station Rock 102 KFMA: “It’s half scripted right now and we’re pulling our loot together. We’ve got up until the beginning of 2016. By the time we get to May 2016, we’re going to be shooting.”

Smith explained that the concept for Mallrats 2 “kind of came out of nowhere. Lately I’ve been doing this thing where I’m like ‘Do you want to do what’s good for your career or do you just want to have fun?’ Nobody’s clamoring for a ‘Mallrats’ sequel, but I would love to make one. It’s been like 20 years.”

The original Mallrats cast included starred Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Shannen Doherty, and Jeremy London as well as Mewes and Smith.

In the midst of these announcements, Smigh is also working on both another horror film in the concept of his 2014 project Tusk entitled Moose Jaws as well as a hockey film named Hit Someone. 

Originally wanting to retire after Clerks III, Smith said his creativity was rejuvenated with the success of Tusk.  

Iron & Wine releases Dreamers and Makers Are My Favorite People short film

Sam Beam from Iron & Wine worked with the production group, Picture Show, to make a short film entitled Dreamers and Makers Are My Favorite People. The film has live footage of Beam performing in Cleveland, West Virginia at the Jerry Run Summer Theater. It was also announced that alongside the first volume of the new archival series from Iron & Wine. Watch the whole film below and it is also avaliable for purchaseNow, you can watch the whole thing below; it’s also available for purchase.