St. Vincent Serving as Bandleader on Late Night with Seth Meyers

Next week, on Monday August 11th and Tuesday August 12th, Annie Clark, St. Vincent, will be leading the house band for late night, the 8G Band. She will be the replacing Fred Armisen those two days as he films the highly-anticipated fifth season of Portlandia.

Even though the 8G band has had a variety of guest musicians joining the band, the band was only ever lead by Armisen. However, knowing how St. Vincent has been able to impress crowds, including a sometimes judgmental Saturday Night Live crowd.

Earlier this year, St. Vincent took a short performance as the front woman of Nirvana during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction.

Jack White’s Lazaretto is Best-Selling Album of the Year

Jack White, a true enthusiast of everything related to vinyl, broke sales records with his sophomore solo album Lazaretto. The album at number 27 on the charts and the album has sold over 60,000 copies of its vinyl. Therefore making it the best-selling vinyl LP of 2014 and the best-selling of all time since Vitalogy by Pearl Jam. The Arctic Monkeys’ AM, sold 29,000 is the second best-selling vinyl copy, but that is a mere second to Jack White.

Modern Sky Festival Coming to U.S.

The Modern Sky Festival is expanding to the United States in October after being successful in China. The first festival is set for October 4th and 5th at Rumsey Playfield, Central Park in New York City. The lineup features Cat Power, The Blood Brothers, Liars, Stars, The Both (Aimee Mann and Ted Leo), a tribute to Nigerian funk musician, William Onyeabor. There are also various Chinese bands performing such as Zhang Xuan, Re-TROS, Queen Sea Big Shark, and Second Hand Rose.

Festival passes, which include two-day, one-day, and VIP, are avaliable at the festival’s website.

Divided Heaven Announces Tour in Japan

Divided Heaven, singer-songwriter, announced dates for later this month with RYOKO from Yamanashi. This is the second international tour for Divided Heaven, initially touring extensively in Europe. Also, they played several dates during Warped Tour and separate shows alongside that.

Touring in support of their sophomore album, Youngblood, which was released March 25th of this year on Say-10 Records.

Singer-songwriter Jeff Berman pulls lyrical inspiration from the places he has lived in and from the various bands he has played with, such as Protagonist.

August 28 – Bush Bash – Kiowa
August 29 – Moon Step – Tokyo
August 30 – Colo Bockle – Enzan
August 30 – Sun King Café – Katsunuma
August 31 – Kazoo Hall – Kofu

Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

1. Fred Astaire – San Cisco

Cello Song- The Books

Hold Me – Royal Teeth

Vagabond – MisterWives

On My Way – Passion Pit

Bang Bang You’re Dead – Dirty Pretty Things

Can You Discover? – Discovery

Please Be Kind – the Tins

Stuck in My Id- Reptar

Polish Girl – Neon Indian

All – Blackbird Blackbird

avec mes mecs – Humans

Skeleton Key – Love Inks

Zoom – Last Dinosaurs

Gold Snafu – Sticky Fingers

Hung On Tight -Snakadaktal

Heart Break – Clubfeet

Tree House – Gold Fields

Climbing Walls – Strange Talk

Empty Streets- Ghost Beach

Melodic Tree’s Weekly Playlist

Man Proposes at Arcade Fire Concert

At Arcade Fire’s concert in Mountain View, California Wednesday night, as the band finished playing “Neighborhood #1,″ a man proposed to his girlfriend in the front row. When Win Butler saw what was going on, he handed the man his microphone and began to sing to the couple.

Proposals at concerts have been popular lately, happening at a Paul McCartney show and Bonnaroo as of recently.

Watch a fan-captured video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObdvoVU36nU

Said the Whale Announces Tour

Said the Whale, Vancouver-based indie rock band, announced a small U.S. tour beginning in late September. The band consists of Ben Worcester (guitar and vocals), Tyler Bancroft (guitar and vocals), Spencer Schoening (drums), Jaycelyn Brown (keyboards), and Nathan Shaw (bass)

Said the Whale released their fourth full-length studio album, Hawaii, in September 17th 2013.

Sept 26 – Spokane, WA @ The Bartlett
Sept 27 – Portland, OR @ Lola’s Room
Sept 28 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Sept 30 – San Francisco, CA @ Hotel Utah
Oct 1 – Fullerton, CA @ The Slidebar
Oct 2 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
Oct 3 – Tucson, AZ @ The Flycatcher
Oct 4 – Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg HiFi

The New Pornographers Create Their Own Signature Coffee

Following the lead of St. Vincent, who recently teamed up with Intelligentsia Coffee, the New Pornographers are creating their own brand of coffee, Brill Brew.

Drawing it’s name from the band’s first release in four years, Brill Bruisers. Collaboration began when Intelligentsia invited Carl Newman to sample coffee after the company heard the band were avid coffee drinkers. The coffee is described as “cheerful and sweet” and said to have flavors of “mango, nectarine and green apple shine.”

Newman said in a statement, “As absurd as it may seem for us to have a signature blend, I think it is important that there is some sort of marker, some flag planted in the earth, so that whoever walks into Intelligentsia, whoever drinks this, will know: ‘The New Pornographers really really loved coffee.’”

Pre-orders for the coffee are available and with every purchase, there is a free download to the Brill Bruisers LP. A bundle is also available, which comes with two tote bags and two coffee mugs.

Brill Bruisers is due out August 26th, and the New Pornographers have a tour lined-up in the fall in support, including a date at Riot Fest Toronto.

Foo Fighters Have Finished Album Eight

Butch Vig, producer, announced on twitter that the untitled LP has been finished recording and mixing. Big tweeted: “We are officially done with the new Foo Fighters album. 23 straight days mixing! IT’S EPIC!!!” The album remains untitled and could be their longest yet. The album will hit shelves in November.

The release will come a month after the premiere of Grohl’s HBO series, entitled Sonic Highways, documenting the process of recording the LP. Sonic Highways follow the Foo Fighters as they travel to eight recording studios and work with Joe Walsh from the Eagles, Gary Clark Jr., and Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick.

The band already have shows in support of the LP, confirming dates in South Africa, the UK, and Las Vegas at the Life is Beautiful festival in the fall. They have also played surprise shows in Nashville, Washington D.C, and New Orleans.

PBR Throwing a Music Festival in Portland

Pabst Blue Ribbon, a predominantly hipster beer, is throwing a music festival featuring hipster bands in Portland, the hipster capital of the world. The first annual Project Pabst takes place in venues across Portland on September 26th-28th. Performances for this festival include Modest Mouse, Guided By Voices, Tears For Fears, GZA, Phosphorescent, Violent Femmes, Shabazz Palaces, Constantines, Rocket From the Crypt, Speedy Ortiz, Menomona, The Thermals, Surfer Blood, Lord Huron, Red Fang, High on Fire, Craft Spells, Deap Vally, Small Black, and more to come.

Tickets are available at the festival’s website.