James Blake returned to BBC Radio 1’s Residency last night, and was joined by Justin Vernon from Bon Iver, as Pitchfork pointed out. The two talked about a number of topics and Blake closed the show by playing a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound Of Silence,” which was dedicated to a friend who passed away in New Year’s Eve. Even though he swaps his rippling guitar for his usual synths, creating a minimal, faithful cover, listen to it here. Hear the entire mix here via the BBC.
Kendrick Lamar announces tour dates for the Kunta Groove Sessions Tour
Kendrick Lamar is finally ready to go on the road to support his latest album, To Pimp A Butterfly. The MC has announced his plans for the Kunta Groove Sessions Tour, which will take place in October and November.
The eight-city leg will have Kendrick with backing band The Wesley Theory, named after the opening track off To Pimp A Butterfly, as well as Black Hippy collaborator Jay Rock. Dates have been announced for Atlanta, Dallas, Washington DC, and Oakland, and more details for the other four shows will be out soon.
Kendrick’s upcoming tour schedule also includes a one-off performance at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra and a series of radio station festivals.
Kendrick Lamar 2015 Tour Dates:
10./20 – Washington, DC @ Kennedy Center
10/22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center (Power 105.1 Presents: Powerhouse)
10/24 – Columbus, OH @ LC Pavilion (106.7 The Beat Presents: The Beat Birthday Bash)
10/25 – Chicago, IL @ United Center (WGCI Big Jam) #
10/27 – Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle *
10/29 – Dallas, TX @ South Side Music Hall *
11/01 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre *
11/08 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum (Real 92.3 Presents: The Real Show) ^
11/10 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater *
* Kunta Groove Sessions Tour w/ The Wesley Theory and Jay Rock
# = w/ Future, Meek Mill, Fetty Wap, Rae Sremmurd, Dej Loaf
^ = w/ Future, Jeremih, Fetty Wap, Rae Sremmurd
Austin City Limits 2015: the best moments
Austin City Limits came to a close on Sunday night and it is time for us to reflect on the best moments of the weekend. The beautiful city of Austin hosted their 12th annual festival this yea and it has one of the most diverse lineups in its history.
Billy Idol still has it going on at 60. It seems as though we were transported back to the 1980’s as Billy Idol and his band came out sporting Idol’s classic blonde hair and clad in leather and denim. Still looking great at 60, it seems like Idol and the band haven’t aged at all in terms of energy. Playing hits like “Dancing With Myself” and Rebel Yell” (although having to restart “Rebel Yell” three times and sarcastically saying “one more time and if we can’t do it this time, I’m retiring”). It was an energetic set was jam-packed with hits and new material, which seemed to drag the show a little bit. However, the band can still put on a dynamic show 34 years later.
Father John Misty did everything you could ever imagine him doing, and even more. He walked out, immediately raised his mic stand behind his back and continued to do his usual pretend striptease as Misty and the band went straight into their set. Although there were not as much sarcasm as expected from him during the set, he still made fun of those filming with their iPhones and even faked filming on a lucky fan’s phone, moving around and holding the phone out. His performance was dramatic, smooth, and entertaining as one would expect from Tillman.
Tame Impala brings a psychedelic mood to the festival as they played a variety of songs from their catalog of albums and EPs including their debut album, Innerspeaker. Moving from song to song, the band accommodated to their hour-long set, joking about the heat and spraying water bottles over the front rows of fans during an instrumental break in between the songs. Kevin Parker’s voice was as trippy as it is when Tame Impala is in the studio. Even though they played shorter than they should have, it was a still a stunning set.
High intensity is the simplest way to put Twenty One Pilots’ set as they played through their songs, ranging from hit to hit from “Tear In My Heart” from their smash album, Blurryface to “Car Radio” from Vessels. Running around across the stage, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun seemed to be relentless and filled with energy. They also initially came out in ski masks and Joseph with the classic black on his body that represents insecurities that he and everyone face that suffocates them. The highlight of the set was when Joseph climbed their stage, the Samsung stage, the largest stage at the festival, and performed the rest of “Car Radio” (or at least tried to with microphone issues) at the top of the stage, holding onto the Texas flag.
As dreamy as in the studio, José González performed at Tito’s Homemade Vodka stage and seemed to put his audience into a trance with his enthralling yet quiet voice and fascinating instrumentals. Without talking much, González went through his set, which included a Junip song and new songs from Vestiges & Claws. The light show that went on worked perfectly with his calming music and the setting sun behind the audience. His set was like the calm before the storm at the hectic, crowded, and sold out Saturday of the festival.
Although coming on ten minutes late and the occasional slip of lyrics, The Strokes performed a worthy set for being closing out the first weekend of the festival. With the occasional snark from frontman Julian Casablancas, the band played through the majority of their discography including a large chunk of their hits including “Reptilla,” however disappointing a number of fans by not playing “Under the Cover of Darkness.” It was a special set as there have been rumors of the band having internal conflicts, but still recording a new album. Nonetheless, the band still sounded and performed as intensely as ever, even performing a one song encore, if it should be called that as they left the stage initially twenty minutes before they should have.
There is one word to describe the Foo Fighter’s headlining two-hour set on Friday night: rambunctious. The band tore through their career-spanning hits, from “Best of You” to the set opener, “Everlong.” Still in the “throne” Grohl performed as energetically as ever, lecturing the crowd how to scream like him, claiming his secret his “vocal juice” (his champagne and beer). It was, to say the least, expected from everyone in the crowd that Gary Clark Jr. would join the band on stage as they recorded What Did I Do? / God As My Witness with him at the legendary Austin City Limits studio in Austin with him and Clark performed at the next stage an hour before. Nonetheless, it was as rowdy and loud as anyone would expect from the Foo Fighters, even twenty years after their debut album. Die-hard fans and the casual listener can all agree that this set proves that the band still has it going on.
Joey Bada$$ and Glass Animals collaborate on “Lose Control”
The dissimilar worlds of New York hip-hop and British pop met on “Lose Control,” a joint track from Joey Bada$$ and Glass Animals.
The intense verses like the ones found on Joey’s debut, B4.Da.$$ lead the way by the signature slinky production form Glass Animals’ Zaba LP. It is an unlikely but surprisingly good collaboration. Listen in here.
Joey and frontman for Glass Animals, Dave Bayley discussed the track with Noisey UK:
Joey:
“We were in New York and the session that was supposed to start at 11am, actually started at 11pm. I fuck with Dave heavy – we understood each other’s vibe straight away and worked through the night to create this fire. Nobody got hurt.”
Dave Bayley:
“I got hold of Joey’s mixtape back in 2012 and was hooked. A couple months ago I heard he was into Glass Animals so I got in touch, and when I was in Brooklyn he came by the studio one night. I started playing him some sounds. Within an hour we had the beat and he was like “I’m ready.” He got into the booth and put down pretty much the entire thing in one fell swoop…dude is so talented.”
Austin City Limits Weekend 1 in photos
Austin City Limits
Isabella King, the sole writer for the Melodic Tree is currently at Austin City Limits and as the connection to the Internet is not ideal, there will be no posts for today , the 3rd, and tomorrow, the 4th, but, no fear, we will be back up on Monday with photos of the amazing festival and the best moments of the festival!
Talk soon.
Ryan Adams performs his Taylor Swift covers at the Daily Show
To cap off his first week as host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah welcomed Ryan Adams for a performance of his covers album of 1989. Noah explained in a pre-show interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the singer-songwriter was not booked for being music’s flavor du jour currently.
“He took Taylor Swift and… remade that to much acclaim and has done exceptionally well, and I really appreciate that … He’s done in essence what we’ve done here—he’s taken something that was loved by many, cherished by many, and has created a new version of it for himself. And people have gone, ‘Wow, this is amazing. We can still like Taylor Swift but we can also like Ryan Adams’ 1989.”
Adams and his band performed “Bad Blood” first for television. For the web, they played “Style” and “Blank Space,” and Adams spoke briefly about how the album was created. Watch all the clips here.
Austin City Limits reveals 2015 webcast schedule
Austin City Limits will live stream a variety of this weekend’s performance on Red Bull TV.
The Strokes, Run the Jewels, Father John Misty, ASAP Rocky, Alabama Shakes, The Decemberists, Gary Clark Jr., Royal Blood, Brand New, Billy Idol, Kurt Vile are among the scheduled artists.
Watch here, or watch through the Red Bull TV’s app on Android, iOS and Windows phone, through Apple TV, and Samsung TV’s Red Bull channels, and a free app on Amazon Fire TV, Kindle Fire, Nexus Player, Roku Players, Roku TV models, and Xbox 360.
Friday, October 2nd:
02:15pm – Talking in Tongues (1)
02:15 – Asleep at the Wheel (2)
03:00 – Royal Blood (1)
03:00 – In the Whale (2)
03:45 – Meg Myers (2)
04:00 – Nate Ruess (1)
04:30 – Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors (2)
05:00 – Leon Bridges (1)
05:15 – Brand New (2)
06:00 – Walk The Moon (1)
06:15 – Albert Hammond Jr. (2)
07:15 – Moon Taxi (1)
07:15 – Cherub (2)
08:15 – Gary Clark Jr. (1)
08:15 – George Ezra (2)
09:15 – Flosstradamus (1)
09:15 – Run the Jewels (2)
Saturday, October 3rd:
02:15pm – Waters (3)
02:30 – Milo Greene (1)
02:30 – Glass Animals (2)
03:15 – Echosmith (1)
03:30 – Misterwives (2)
04:00 – Father John Misty (1)
04:30 – Shakey Graves (2)
04:30 – San Fermin (3)
05:30 – Houndmouth (2)
07:20 – Alabama Shakes (1)
07:30 – G-Eazy (2)
07:30 – TV on the Radio (3)
08:20 – deadmau5 (1)
08:30 – ASAP Rocky (2)
08:30 – Unknown Mortal Orchestra (3)
Sunday, October 4th:
02:15pm – Boom Forest (3)
02:30 – BØRNS (2)
03:00 – Jidenna (3)
03:15 – Lord Huron (1)
03:30 – Daughter (2)
03:45 – Amason (3)
04:30 – The Decemberists (1)
04:40 – Ben Howard (3)
05:30 – Vance Joy (1)
05:30 – Sylvan Esso (2)
05:30 – Strand of Oaks (3)
06:30 – Of Monsters and Men (1)
06:30 – Kurt Vile and the Violators (3)
07:30 – Hozier (2)
07:30 – NERO (3)
07:45 – Billy Idol (1)
08:45 – The Strokes (1)
09:30 – Dwight Yoakam (2)
Coachella organizers reportedly planning another New York City festival
New York City has been known to be a graveyard for failed music festivals, but the success of Governors Ball has caused promoter AEG Live to give the city another chance.
AEG is known for several successful US music festivals such as Coachella, Hangout Music Festival and Firefly Music Festival, but it previous NYC event, All Points West, lasted only two years before being axed.
However, New York Daily News reports that plans are underway for a new AEG-produced festival named Panorama, which would occur in June 2016 at the Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, which was also the site of the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair.
Festival organizers of Governors Ball are understandably upset over the idea of another New York City mega festival happening so close.
“The timing of this corporate-run festival would threaten our ability as a small business to continue putting on the kind of event that has showcased the best artists, created hundreds of local jobs and put millions of dollars back into the city’s economy,” Tom Russell, of Founders Entertainment said, which puts on Governors Ball, in a recent interview with the Daily News.
AEG has not officially commented on the Daily News’ report yet.
Deerhunter create interactive Fading Frontier Influences map
Deerhunter’s new album, Fading Frontiers is set to be released on October 16th through 4AD. In anticipation, Bradford Cox has drawn an interactive map of influences that went towards the album. The map includes influences from artists like R.E.M., Tom Petty, Caetano Veloso, Al Green, J.G. Ballard, Pablo Neruda, old linen, iced Earl Grey tea, “souless new car smell,” the car accident Cox was in last year, and more. Clicking on most of the entries will take you to a video, Wikipedia page, PDF, and so on associated with it. One phrase takes you to a page about Cox’s dog, Faulkner.
In an interview with Vulture, Cox talked about the influences. Discussing “the decline of the music industry,” he said:
The music industry is a giant shrieking ghost. It means nothing. It never meant much. It’s just an appalling apparition. It has no vitality. How can you expect much from someone who thinks only of profit? They’re simple creatures. I might sound so arrogant. I’m not a socialist in any dogmatic way. I don’t believe that I have the answer. I think John Cassavetes had the best answer for the creation and distribution of art: Pay for it yourself, do it yourself.
Preordering Fading Frontier is through the 4AD store will get you a screenprinted copy of the map.






