Author: bella.king

The Helio Sequence announces new album

The Helio Sequence will release their upcoming self-titled album May 19th from Sub Pop. The 10-track album will be their sixth and is the follow-up to Negotiations, released in 2012. It was produced and mixed by the band in the Old Jantzen Building in Portland and mastered by Greg Calbi, who also worked with Father John Misty, Sleater-Kinney, and The War on Drugs, at Sterling Sound.

The album came from a session of “The 20-Song Game” according to a press release:

Songwriters would arrive in their studios at prearranged times and spend all day recording 20 complete songs. When they were finished, they’d have a party, listen to the results and talk about the process — of taking the good with the bad, of letting creativity push past constraint, of simply making music in the moment. Brandon Summers and Benjamin Weikel took the spirit of the “The 20-Song Game” to heart, and forged ahead writing a new record.

In May of 2014, inspired by the “20-Song Game”, they began arriving each morning in their Portland space — housed in the cafeteria and break room of an old warehouse — with the mission of making as much music as possible in one month.

The first preview of The Helio Sequence comes from “Stoic Resemblance,” which you can listen to below.

The Helio Sequence Tracklist:
01. Battle Lines
02. Stoic Resemblance
03. Red Shifting
04. Upward Mobility
05. Leave Or Be Yours
06. Deuces
07. Inconsequential Ties
08. Seven Hours
09. Phantom Shore
10. Never Going Back

The Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. Somebody – Jukebox the Ghost

2. My Fater Was A Horse – Wild Light

3. Love Underground – Robbers on High Street

4. The Suggestion Box – Aqueduct

5. Cinnamon – The Long Winters

6. Hopeless – The Wrens

7. Sleepdriving – Grand Archives

8. Undertaker – The Moondoggies

9. The Way We Move – Langhorne Slim

10. I Feel Weird – Steel Train

11. My Name is Trouble – Nightmare of You

12. Strange Attractor – Animal Kingdom

13. Eleven a.m. – Bears

14. Onshore – LA Font

15. Find Me A Place – Jupiter One

16. Hey Now Now – The Cloud Room

17. A Strange Education – The Cinematics

18. Fever – Takka Takka

19. Modern Day Saint – Via Audio

20. Man of the People – Middle Distance Runner

Damien Rice announces world tour

Singer-songwriter Damien Rice has expanded his world tour. The new dates go from the end of April to the beginning of August. Rice will play shows in major cities in the US and Europe.

See the full list of shows below.

Damien Rice 2015 Tour Dates:
03/31 – Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle
04/01 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
04/03 – Washington, DC @ The Lincoln Theatre
04/04 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre
04/07 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
04/08 – Philadelphia, PA @ Academy of Music
04/11 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall
04/13 – Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theatre at Old National Centre
04/14 – Chicago, IL @ Auditorium Theatre
04/15 – Minneapolis, MN @ Carlson Family Stage at Northrop Auditorium
04/17 – Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater
04/20 – Portland, OR @ Keller Auditorium
04/21 – Seattle, WA @ Marion Oliver McCaw Hall
04/23 – Oakland, CA @ The Fox Theater
04/24 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre
04/27 – Mexico City, MX @ El Plaza Condesa
05/29 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound Festival
06/09 – Edinburgh, UK @ Usher Hall
06/11 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
06/13 – London, UK @ Live at Chelsea
06/17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Prospect Park Bandshell
06/18 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
06/20 – Columbus, OH @ LC Pavilion
06/21 – Chicago, IL @ Prirzker Pavilion
06/22 – Toronto, ON @ Echo Beach
06/27 – Wechter, BE @ Rock Werchter
07/12 – Dublin, IE @ The Iveagh Gardens
07/13 – Cork, IE @ Ireland Live at the Marquee
07/16 – Galway, IE @ Galway Arts Festival Big Top
07/20 – Paris, FR @ Le Grand Rex
07/22 – Lucerne, CH @ Blue Balls Festival
08/02 – Copenhagen, DK @ Koncerhuset
08/04 – Berlin, DE @ Tempodrom

Björk pulls new album from Spotify

Björk’s latest album, Vulnicura, is not on Spotify at the moment. In a recent alvum with Fast Company, she explained that “streaming thing just does not feel right. I don’t know why, but it just seems insane.”

She went on to detail:

To work on something for two or three years and then just, Oh, here it is for free. It’s not about the money; it’s about respect, you know? Respect for the craft and the amount of work you put into it. But maybe Netflix is a good model. You go first to the cinema and after a while it will come on Netflix. Maybe that’s the way to go with streaming. It’s first physical and then maybe you can stream it later.

Her upcoming video for “Stonemilker” on Vulnicura will be made available on the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset. Björk was asked later in the interview if she would consider releasing an album on the Oculus Rift as she released Biophilia as an app.

She responded with: “You can do apps cheaply,” she said. “Apps was kind of punk, actually. It was like starting a punk band again. Filming for Oculus Rift is not.”

The Haxan Clock has contributed the sound design to the “Black Lake” which is a part of her upcoming Museum of Modern Art showing which opens on March 7.

Read the interview here and watch the trailer for “Black Lake” below.

Jonny Greenwood to record new album in India

In a recent interview with The Sunday Guardian, guitarist for Radiohead, Jonny Greenwood said that he has been in a fort in India recording with Shye Ben Tzur, an Israeli composer, and a dozen local artists.

“We’ve been living here for nearly three weeks and recording an album here, in the [Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur],” Greenwood said. “The Maharaja allowed us use of the fort, and we’ve basically been living here with 12 Indian musicians and we’ve made a record.” The guitarist had performed at the World Sacred Spirit Festival with the group, where they performed the new material live before recording the mix of “Arabic, Indian and western music.”

Greenwood also added: “It’s been amazing, actually, working with Indian musicians,” saying that the culture there makes making music a part of him “rather than just being an occupation. It’s different; there’s music everywhere. Like when we’re playing and recording or rehearsing with these musicians, when they take a break, they go and play more. That’s not true in England.” He also said: “some of the musicians are so young, it’s great. One of the dholak players, he’s 16, and I just sit and watch him play and learn so much from how he thinks about music. He’s amazing.”

Greenwood also commented later in the interview on the progress on Radiohead’s upcoming album. “We’ve done a couple of months of recording, and it has gone really well,” Greenwood said, saying he hasn’t listened yet to the sessions. “But we left it at a good place when we last stopped. We’ve certainly changed our method again. It’s too involved [to explain how]. We’re kind of limiting ourselves; working in limits. So we’ll see what happens. It’s like we’re trying to use very old and very new technology together to see what happens.”

Listen to Tobias Jesso Jr’s session on BBC Radio

Singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. is set to release his highly anticipated debut album, Goon, next month. The recording process for the album took place in San Francisco, Nashville, and Los Angeles. The production features Chet “JR” White from Girls, Patrick Carney from the Black Keys, and Ariel Rechtshaid. Jesso has recorded a session at BBC’s Maida Vale studios in support of the upcoming album.

The singer performed “How Could You Babe” as well as a new song called “Bad Words” as well as covering “Thirteen” by Big Star. Listen to the session http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02kt1s1/player“>here.

Tobias Jesso Jr. 2015 Tour Dates:
03/22 – Toronto, ON – The Drake
03/24 – Washington, DC – Sixth & I
03/25 – Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle
03/26 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
03/27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
03/28 – Boston, MA @ Middle East Upstairs
03/30 – Vancouver, BC @ Electric Owl
03/31 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
04/01 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
04/03 – San Francisco, CA @ Brick + Mortar
04/04 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo

Brandon Flowers has announced sophomore solo album, The Desired Effect

Brandon Flowers, lead singer from The Killers, has announced is second solo album, The Desired Effect. This album is his follow-up to his 2010 Flamingo and is set to be released on May 18th. The album was produced by Ariel Rechtshaid who has also worked with bands such as Vampire Weekend, HAIM, and Charli XCX.

Flowers revealed the news through a handwritten note that he posted on his website which says “Ariel and I have been collaborating in the studio, working twogether [sic] in the spirit of conversation, contention, and at long last, sweet contrition. No one has yet seen or heard the change. But soon, we all will.”

Flowers also said in a previous album that unlike Flamingo, the tracks on this album will be only partially inspired by Las Vegas, his hometown. He said, “People are going to interpret it how they will, but there’s only a little bit of Vegas in there.” He claimed that Rechtshaid was “incredible” influence while he was recording and would push him outside of his comfort zone.

Read the note above and watch the album teaser video here.

Calexico releases new song “Falling From The Sky” with Ben Bridewell

The folk rock band Calexico is set to release a new album on April 16th, entitled Edge of the Sun through ANTI- Records. This upcoming album is the follow-up to Algiers and has a list of guest artists such as Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam, DeVotchKa’s Nick Urata, Neko Case, and Carla Morrison, a Grammy-winning Mexican singer.

The Tucson-based band released “Falling From The Sky” as a preview to the album and is a captivating collaboration with Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses. Listen to the track below.