Paul McCartney has asked fans for support on “Meat Free Monday.”
Former Beatle and singer-songwriter recorded a video message asking the public to not eat meat once a week to help reduce carbon footprints. The request comes a week before the UN Global Summit.
The campaign was launched by the McCartneys and Rt Hon Gregory Barker MP, Climate Advisor. For more information visit pledge.meatfreemondays.com.
Tonight, Foo Fighters will perform in Richmond, Virginia for the first time in 16 years to play a crowdfunded concert at The National. Following Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who honored David Bowie with his day, Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones has declared September 17th as “Foo Fighters Day”.
In the proclamation, Jones recognized “this fan-orchestrated event that brought Foo Fighters back to Virginia’s capital city.” Four Foo Fighters fans, in March, began to sell tickets to the hypothetical gig at $50. By the time the crowdfund ended, 1,400 tickets were sold and the band booked flights to Richmond.
Sunday night, Foo Fighters closed England’s first Invictus Games with a 14-song set spanning the their career. That included their upcoming LP Sonic Highways. Foo Fighters did not play any songs off of it in full, they did perform a bit of a new song, “Outside,” which was put in the middle of “The Pretender.”
Leonard Cohen is now streaming his new album, Popular Problems, ahead of the official release which is on September 22.
The LP comes out the day after Cohen’s 80th birthday is his 13th studio album. It was co-written with Patrick Leonard, who also produced the album, and worked with Cohen on his last album, 2012’s Old Ideas. There are no plans for live dates around the this album. The stream for the album is available on NPR.
Popular Problems is Cohen’s second release since his return in 2008 after a 15-year break. The album has nine tracks, although it does not include his new song, “I’ve Got A Secret,” which he performed at a Dublin gig in 2013.
Popular Problems Tracklist:
“Slow”
“Almost Like The Blues”
“Samson In New Orleans”
“A Street”
“Did I Ever Love You”
“My Oh My”
“Nevermind”
“Born In Chains”
“You Got Me Singing”
1. Crystallized – Young the Giant
2. Hannah – Freelance Whales
3. Fader – The Temper Trap
4. You & I – Local Natives
5. Here (In Your Arms) – Hellogoodbye
6. We Intertwined – The Hush Sound
7. On Your Porch – The Format
8. Hallelujah – The Hello Sequence
9. Abandon – French Kicks
10. Pass Away – Pomegranates
11. Roman Candles – Suckers
12. Lose Your Mind – So Many Wizards
13. Away For the Weekend
14. Walkability – Way Yes
15. Day Glo – Brazos
16. Love Is All I Got – Crystal Fighters
17. Lions In Cages – Wolf Gang
18. Face the Facts – The Little Ones
19. Teen Lovers – The Virgins
20. Temple – Kings of Leon
The cold front going through Austin did not stop Kings of Leon, Kongos and Young the Giant performing at their best. If anything, the gloomy weather added a memorable touch to the show. And nothing beats a free general admission ticket from Nacho Followill, Kings of Leon’s cousin and guitar technician.
Opening the night, Kongos, played song after song, stopping only to introduce themselves and their songs and their friend, MO Gordon for a cover of “Come Together” by the Beatles with their own twist. An alternative rock band consisting of four South African brothers with their last name as their pseudonym, Johnny (accordion), Jesse (percussion, vocals), Daniel (guitar, vocals), and Dylan (bass guitar, lap guitar, vocals) are based in Phoenix Arizona but originally born in South Africa. The young band recently released their latest album, Lunatics, off of their label, Epic Records. The energy that came out of Kongos is phenomenal and goes to show how invested they are in what they do. Their set included their recent hit single, “I’m Only Joking.”
Following Kongos was the popular Young the Giant. Opening with Anagram, the band continued playing songs from their new album until there was a technical mishap during the opening piano slide on “Mind Over Matter.” Waiting for the piano to be fixed, Sameer Gadhia (vocals) beckoned bassist, Payam Doostzadeh to do a hair flip with his sensationally long hair. Immediately after, the piano began to work again and the band continued on. Recently coming off their own tour, Young the Giant, consisting of Sameer Gadhia (vocals), Jacob Tilley (guitar), Eric Cannata (guitar), Payam Doostzadeh (bass guitar), and Francois Comtois (drums), have been supporting Kings of Leon alongside Kongos since the beginning of the Mechanical Bull Tour in support of their recent album, Mind Over Matter.
The main act, Kings of Leon came in with a bang with their song, Supersoaker, and continued through their setlist virtually nonstop, playing hits such as “Family Tree,” and Temple.” Watching Kings of Leon perform in such a large and beautiful venue mind-boggling with their lights and background imagery throughout the gig. It came as no surprise that the had show sold out with such an impressive band. Kings of Leon, Caleb Followill (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Matthew Followill (lead guitar, keyboards), Jared Followill (bass, keyboards), and Nathan Followill (percussion, drums), have been a band since 1999 and have recently released their sixth LP, Mechanical Bull. Still touring in support of the album, the band had recently had to cancel tour dates following a bus accident in which a pedestrian “jumped in front” of their tour bus and causing Nathan Followill to break a few of his ribs. However, the band powered through their setlist and ended with fantastic pyrotechnics while playing their smash hit, “Sex On Fire.”
And nothing beats a free general admission ticket from Nacho Followill, Kings of Leon’s cousin and guitar technician.
Julian Casablancas has said that the popular indie rock band, The Strokes, could possibly begin working on material in January.
Casablancas, while addressing the much asked question about when they would start the follow up to their latest album, Comedown Machine, stated, “In January we might meet up and work on some ideas. Everyone is psyched. Everything is in a really cool place.”
In his interview with BBC 6 Music Breakfast Show, Casablancas talked about the working relationship of the band, who recently performed their first shows since 2011.
“We haven’t started on anything,” Casablancas began about new material. “But it was cool and we played some shows and the vibe is finally… I don’t know if we ever had that good a working friendship foundation [in our] work relationship, but now we finally have that. We’ll always have the creative vibe.”
Casablancas also spoke about his intentions for the band earlier this year, saying that they are, “trying to carry on as friends, taking it easy, recording a couple of songs, and do[ing] a couple of shows.”
Indie-rock quartet, Bombay Bicycle Club, have said that Apple are being “invasive” for automatically putting U2’s new album on all their subscribers’ iTunes account.
‘Songs Of Innocence’ was place into the library 500 million accounts on iTunes Tuesday (September 9).
The album automatically being placed has raised questions about iTunes holders’ privacy, and in a recent conversation with NME, Bombay Bicycle Club guitarist Jamie MacColl said: “I thought the move was quite invasive. A lot of people are up in arms because they don’t like U2. I don’t have an opinion on the band itself, but I do think the method is a little bit in your face.”
The indie rock band, OK Go, accused Apple of ripping off a video of theirs for a promotional clip during their global product launch Tuesday.
OK Go manager Andy Gershon in a recent interview said he met with Apple to pitch a concept that involves one continual camera that goes around a room and shows various messages depending on the the camera’s perspective. When Apple declined, the band hired the company 1stAveMachine and made the concept into their video for “The Writing’s On the Wall.” OK Go posted the video to YouTube in June and since it’s posting, it has since gained 10 million views and won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Visual Effects.
When Apple premiered their new video “Perspective”, which looks eerily similar to “Writing’s On The Wall” and was created by the same company that worked with OK Go, there is no surprise that the band was shocked at this realization. Apple hire 1stAveMachine as producers and the company even used the same exact director behind OK Go’s video. “The videos speak for themselves,” said Gershon.
OK Go is considering legal action against Apple, according to Gershon. However, Stanford law professor Mark Lemley noted that the band could possibly not have much of a case. Lemley said there is precedent for an “idea submission case,” which is when someone who pitched an idea in private can seek charges if the idea is used without their involvement. However, these cases tend to require a non-disclosure agreement, and OK Go does not seem to have one. Lemley also stated that if the band does try to take charges, taking legal actions is “unlikely to succeed.” He added, “That said, from a PR perspective, I’d say it wasn’t a smart move by Apple.”
Any complaints of plagiarism could be quite bad for business as the company spent $100 million into this advertising campaign. The best part of this entire ordeal is that if Apple did actually plagiarize, it would invalidate “Perspective” as a “tribute to people who have always seen things differently.”
In December, Rhode Island based Deer Tick will be celebrating 10 years of being a band. With five studio albums under their belt, the anniversary is impressive due to the fact that the majority of the band members are in their twenties.
To commemorate the occasion, the band announced a six-night residency at the Brooklyn Bowl. During five of the nights, the band will cover classic album in full, and be joined by special guests.
Starting on December 26th, during the first night of the residency, the band will perform their own 2007 album, War Elephant, in its entirety before covering NRBQ’s Tiddlywinks. Deer Tick will thenLou Reed’s Transformer, The Beatles’ Meet The Beatles, Devo’s Q: Are We Not Men?, and Elvis Costello’s My Aim Is True, in that order. The band with include some of their own songs throughout each show. The final night, on New Year’s Eve, will have a set made up of fan-requested songs.
Presale starts tomorrow (9/10) and with the code DEERTICK10 used at checkout. Regular tickets will available Friday, September 12th at noon.
Deer Tick 2014 Tour Dates:
09/17 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club
09/19 – Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium
09/20 – Hartford, CT @ Infinity Hall Hartford
09/25 – Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey Bar + Grill
09/27 – Marfa, TX @ El Cosmico Festival
12/26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl
12/27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl
12/28 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl
12/29 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl
12/30 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl
12/31 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl
The Melodic Tree 