News

John Cale releases touching tribute to Lou Reed

Lou Reed passed away at the age of 71 one year ago from today. Former Velvet Underground bandmate, John Cale, commemorated Reed’s vast legacy, and their own history by sharing a reworked version of his Music for a New Society single, “If You Were Still Around.” The tribute is matched with an equally emotional video.

The video has background images of Cale’s time with Reed and the Velvet Underground along with with Cale’s own performance.

Cale released a statement about Reed, saying:

A Moth and a Candle met. They decided to become friends. Everyone enjoyed watching their discourse – especially the risk takers. Then one day a big rain came. The Moth couldn’t fly and the Candle puttered out. Everyone laughed in bitter awe and blamed the rain. Most however knew the deeper truth – the Candle remains lit and the Moth will stay close.

Beady Eye announces split

Beady Eye, fronted by Liam Gallagher, have announced their split. Gallagher tweeted the news Saturday morning, tweeting, “Beady Eye are no longer. Thanks for all your support. LGx.”

Gallagher formed the band in 2009 sith former Oasis guitarists Gem Archer and Andy Bell and drummer Chris Sharrock. As well as former Kasabian bassist, Jay Mehler. Beady Eye originally began as an attempt to continue musically as the lineup of Oasis after members decided they would “not quit making music together” even though Gallagher had a messy departure from Oasis in August 2009. They released two studio albums, Different Gear, Still Speeding and BE.

Gallagher gave no reason to the split, the band could have just simply dwindled. Archer suffered a skull fracture last fall after falling down stairs of his home, which led to the cancellation of tour dates. They played a series of shows earlier this year in the UK, but have been inactive since a Japanese stint in March and Coachella in April. NME points out that the band had also split with their manager, Scott Rodger, this past January.

The Decemberists announce new album

The Decemberists have announced their latest album, What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World. The title and artwork for the album was shown on a mural in Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

Singer Colin Meloy himself made an appearance at the mural and performed a brand new song from the album, “Make You Better”.

What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World is the band’s seventh studio album and follows their 2011, The King Is Dead. It has not been revealed yet of a release date.

The Grateful Dead to release documentary to celebrate 50th anniversary

The Grateful Dead will be celebrating their 50th anniversary with a full-length documentary out next year. The movie, authorized by the band, will be directed by Amir Bar-Lev and Martin Scorsese as executive producer.

The untitled project will follow the band from their origins in 1965, put light on the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, and close with what the band is doing right now. Interviews will be conducted with the surviving band members, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir will all be interviewed for the project, along with more people in the band’s history. The interviews will be spread amongst with never-before-seen concert and behind-the-scenes footage.

Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, and Weir said in a statement, “Millions of stories have been told about the Grateful Dead over the years. With our 50th Anniversary coming up, we thought it might just be time to tell one ourselves and Amir is the perfect guy to help us do it. Needless to say, we are humbled to be collaborating with Martin Scorsese … The 50th will be another monumental milestone to celebrate with our fans and we cannot wait to share this film with them.”

Scorsese said, “The Grateful Dead were more than just a band. They were their own planet, populated by millions of devoted fans. I’m very happy that this picture is being made and proud to be involved.”

SXSW announced preliminary music lineup

Returning to Austin between March 13th and the 22nd is the widely popular South by Southwest. The music part of the showcase takes place between March 17th through 22nd. Organizers announced a list of preliminary acts set to play over the course of that week.

Among that list are: The Dodos, Jessie Ware, The Pop Group, Thee Oh Sees, Carl Barat and The Jackals, Twin Peaks, The Twilight Sad, The Big Pink, Ben Kweller, Mew, Courtney Barnett, Twerps, Black Milk, Bishop Nehru, Alvvays, Pharmakon, Lust For Youth, Dry the River, Hey Marseilles, Moon Duo, The Octopus Project, Sleep ∞ Over, Ume, The Stone Foxes, Jonathan Toubin, Warm Soda, Natural Child, The Lonely Wild, Civil Twilight, Cheerleader, and Angus & Julia Stone. In all, over 1,000 acts will perform in Austin during SXSW.

Mark Duplass, actor/director is set to be one of the keynote speakers for SXSW’s film portion.

Badges to attend SXSW are available on the festival’s website.

Chance the Rapper announces that he will release a new album, entitled “Surf”

After releasing the Acid Rap mixtape last April, Chance the Rapper released a string of singles, standlone tracks, random collaborations, and remixes, limiting himself at how much he puts the out. In a recent interview with Billboard, the Chance said he has for a new album entitled, Surf, that he recorded with The Social Experiment, his band. Te album which will be available for free download and could be released by the end of the year.

Chance clarified that this new album would be “the first Social Experiment project” and not a solo album. The album will also feature trumpet player Donnie Trumpet (aka Nico Segal).

Chance explained: The band has been backing me on a lot of the shows, so when you go to a Chance the Rapper show it’s billed as a Chance the Rapper show, and even though you bought a ticket for a Chance the Rapper show, you end up going to a Social Experiment concert, you know? And you get the full experience of the musicality of four seasoned players.”

Chance seeking to to explore new influences, since he is now a band leader, delved into theater, which he incorporates into his live shows. Saying, “It’s something different. It’s something new. It’s a bit of theater, It’s a culmination of going to all these dope concerts and seeing cool Broadway plays. A lot of influence has come from The Lion King musical. You could probably tell if you listen to ‘Arthur’. We’ve been trying to take in all these cool, different outside cultural experiences and make that into a free listenable project. That’s the new thing.”

Also, Chance has been collaborating a number of big-named artists such Pharrell, Frank Ocean, Rick Rubin, the members of Migos, J. Cole, and Emily King.

London Grammar Postponed Tour Dates

Indie rock outfit, London Grammar, have postponed dates on their upcoming North American tour which was supposed to begin this month. The band rescheduled the affected dates to January and February 2015. Tickets purchased for the November tour will be valid for the new dates.

The tour is in support of their debut album, If You Wait.

The statement reads:

“Due to unavoidable scheduling conflicts, it is with great regret that we have had to postpone our tour dates in November. We apologize to all of our fans for any inconvenience caused and look forward to seeing you in January and February 2015 for what we hope will be a very special tour.” – Dan, Dot and Hannah / London Grammar

London Grammar 2015 Tour Dates:
01/21 – Toronto, ON @ Sound Academy (upgraded from Club Soda)
01/24 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre (upgraded from Port City Music Hall)
01/26 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues
01/27 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5
01/29 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
01/30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
02/02 – Indianapolis, IN @ Deluxe at Old National Centre
02/03 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
02/06 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theatre
02/07 – Oakland, CA @ The Fox Theatre

Pearl Jam Plays New Song “Moline” and Perform No Code in Entirety In Moline

Alternative Nation brings up the fact that fans at Pearl Jam show in Moline, Illinois last night were given huge surprises.

Pearl Jam set include a completely unannounced performance of their fourth studio album, No Code in its entirety. This marked the second time in the their history that they played an album in whole in concert, according to Eddie Vedder.

The band also debuted a brand new song called “Moline” to start their first encore. Vedder wrote the song 10 minutes before the show and said it was related to the band’s single, “Better Man”.

The song and setlist are below.

Setlist:

Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town

No Code
Sometimes
Hail Hail
Who You Are
In My Tree
Smile
Off He Goes
Habit
Red Mosquito
Lukin
Present Tense
Mankind (Tour debut)
I’m Open (Tour debut)
Around the Bend

Given to Fly
Interstellar Overdrive (Pink Floyd cover)
Corduroy
Mind Your Manners
Brain of J.
Infallible
Even Flow
Gone
Garden
Porch

Encore
Moline (New Song)
Bee Girl
Imagine (John Lennon cover)
In Hiding
Lightning Bolt
Do the Evolution
Jeremy
Why Go

Encore 2
Eruption (Van Halen cover)
Alive
Fuckin’ Up (Neil Young cover)
Yellow Ledbetter

 

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Leah Shapiro to Get Brain Surgery

Drummer for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Leah Shapiro has shared the news that she will have surgery to treat Chiari Malformations in her brain. The “structural defects” made it virtually impossible for her to play the drums it has altered her balance, sense of coordination, and caused symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, and tingling/numbness in her hands.

The band has since canceled all tour dates for now. Shapiro expressed sadness over missing the upcoming dates, Shapiro, however, has remained optimistic about her recovery. In a personal message posted on the band’s Facebook page earlier, she wrote:

I wanted to share something very personal with you in the hopes that my experience can help others.
A few weeks ago, I started experiencing some unusual symptoms, including dizziness, insomnia, headaches, tingling/numbness in my hands, stiff neck & pain. Even for a drummer, these symptoms were unusual for me so I went to the doctor to get it checked out.

After having some pretty exotic tests, they have diagnosed me with something called Chiari Malformations, or CMs for short. Essentially, CM’s are structural defects in part of the brain and skull which control balance and other functions, such as the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, which is the liquid that surrounds and cushions the brain & spinal cord.

CM has different causes. Some are caused by structural defects in the brain & spinal cord that occur during pregnancy. It can also occur later in life through a number of different causes. But however it happened, I’ve got it and as bad as it is, I’m grateful that they caught it now so that I can have it addressed before things get worse.

The good news is that there’s a surgical solution for it that is usually effective. The bad news is that when Rob, Pete & I tried to rehearse this week for the Moon Block Festival on Saturday, I realized that the effects of this illness has made it impossible for me to play drums. I just can’t do the music any justice right now. And so, it is with deep regret that we’re going to have to pull out of the show on Saturday. The festival site at http://www.moonblockparty.org will have information on the show. I still urge you to attend the show, as there are a lot of great bands playing there.

As you can imagine, I’m hardly looking forward to having my skull cracked open and my brain operated on, but it’s the only thing that’s going to help me get better. And while the thought of not being able to play drums for several months while I recover from the surgery totally sucks, I’m determined to make a full recovery and get back to playing music with Rob & Pete as soon as I can.

If you want to learn more about the disease I have, there are several good sites on the internet that provide information, including this one: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/chiari/detail_chiari.htm
Thanks in advance for your positive thoughts and for your understanding.

Love,
Leah/BRMC
xx

Foo Fighters Premiere New Song, “Something From Nothing”

Foo Fighters released their first single from their new album, Sonic Highways. The single, “Something From Nothing,” which was recorded in Chicago, is ferocious and hypnotic, but it’s not as Foo Fighters song without Dave Grohl’s signature growl.

The premiere is one day before the band’s TV series documenting the making of the album starts on HBO.

Sonic Highways will be officially released on November 10th via Rockwell Recordings. Recording the album across the country at various recording studios, the band documented the process on the HBO show. The album also has multiple of guest, including Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), Joe Walsh (The Eagles), Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick), and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Listen to the song below.