Canadian post-rock fans – I bring you reasons to rejoice! Broken Social Scensters/Do Make Say Thinkers/KC Accidentalists have been working on a new album. Kevin Drew (of BSS) wrote the songs and recorded them at his mate Ohad Benchetrit’s studio. The music is played by Kevin, Ohad, and Charles Spearin, which leads one to wonder – Is this a BSS album, a KC Accidental album, or a DMST album? None of the above. It’s Kevin Drew’s solo album, despite calling it Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew, “Spirit If…”

A press release put out by Arts&Crafts (the record label for BSS, Feist, among others) states that the new album is all from Kevin’s musings and favorite activities. Specifically, the album is about “fucking, fighting, fearing and hope.” Broken Social Scene’s other core founding member, Brendan Canning is working on Broken Social Scene Presents… Volume 2 while a BSS Presents tour is in the works for this fall. Watch the Arts&Crafts website for updates, and of course HearingTest news. If all this musical crossbreeding has you completely confused, check the wiki pages in the links to sort it all out. Canadians are just more Social than most, eh?

LINKS

the pitchf*#k report
Broken Social Scene website
Do Make Say Think website
Arts&Crafts
Broken Social Scene Wiki
Do Make Say Think Wiki

One Tour Date Left For DMST

28 JULY 2007 Guelph, ON – Hillside Festival

HIGH QUALITY LIVE RECORDINGS

If you absolutely adore Do Make Say Think AND you’ve always wanted a killer quality digital audio file of one of their live shows, then today is a very lucky day for you!  Here is a link to a fantastic site that archives live show recordings for many bands and offers them FREE for download!  In addition to everything being DRM-FREE, you have your choice of formats: high bit-rate mp3s, plus high quality formats like FLAC, OGG, Vorbis, etc.  Every situation is different so go check it out!
The Live Archive

More News For Arts&Crafts Artists

Arts&Crafts News also has these events to announce:
Stars added to V-Fest in Toronto
On September 9 Stars will join The Smashing Pumpkins, The Killers, Metric, The Hives, Tokyo Police Club and many more at this years V-Fest in Toronto. Tickets are available at all Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.ca, Rotate This, and Soundscapes.

Apostle Of Hustle to play New York and Chicago residencies
Apostle Of Hustle will play a 4-night residency at The Mercury Lounge in New York, and a 3-night residency at Schubas Tavern in Chicago. Visit the Ouija page for all the details.

Technorati Tags: music, news, album, rock, CDN, DMST, BSS, FLAC, mp3, OGG, DRM, jazz, classical

On July 10th, the wonderful label/catalog known only as ANTI- will release to the public the recording of Healing the Divide: A Concert for Peace and Reconciliation which was hosted by the Lincoln Center in NYC on September 21, 2003. This concert was the grand finale on the Dalai Lama’s 2003 US tour and featured live performances by Tom Waits, Kronos Quartet, Greg Cohen, Philip Glass, Anoushka Shankar and more. In fact, here is the cd tracklist:

TRACKLIST FOR Healing The Divide:

01 Speech by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
02 The Gyoto Tantric Choir – “Invocation”
03 Anoushka Shankar – “Nivedan”
04 Nawang Khechong and R. Carlos Nakai – “Peace Chants”
05 Phillip Glass and Foday Musa Suso – “The Gambia”
06 Tom Waits and Kronos Quartet with Greg Cohen – “Way Down in the Hole”
07 Tom Waits and Kronos Quartet with Greg Cohen – “God’s Away on Business”
08 Tom Waits and Kronos Quartet with Greg Cohen – “Lost in the Harbor”
09 Tom Waits and Kronos Quartet with Greg Cohen – “Diamond in Your Mind”
Healing The Divide is a non-profit organization created in 2002 in NYC that according to wiki, “maintains an international focus on conflict resolution, as it works in four “program” areas: health, justice, peace, and education/culture.” According to HTD’s own website:

Healing the Divide was created to challenge existing, failed modes of thought and action and to foster the kind of revolutionary transformations needed to break the bonds of ignorance, intolerance and injustice.

According to the press release:

All of the artists, Anti- Records, and Healing the Divide are donating all their proceeds from sales to Healing the Divide’s Tibetan Health Initiative, a program that provides health insurance and medical care to impoverished Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns living in refugee settlements. Each CD purchase provides one year of health insurance.

Tom Waits is quoted in the release as describing his involvement with the concert thus:

I’m no fool. It’s a spiritual insurance policy. Hell, at my age, the next group I put together, everyone may be playing a harp. All kidding aside, I owed His Holiness a favor. He did all my papers in school.

The cd will be available in stores and by download from iTunes starting on July 10th, and a DVD of the concert is also in the works according to some sources.

Technorati Tags: music, news, cd, classical, jazz, sitar, dalai lama

Alto-sax legend and free-jazz pioneer, Ornette Coleman received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize In Music for Sound Grammar.
Coleman is widely recognized as the pioneer of the free-jazz style with his major-label debut album in 1959, The Shape Of Jazz To Come on Atlantic Recordings. Nearly 50 years later, he recorded the album that would win the prestigous prize : his 2006 release, Sound Grammar. According to it’s review in All About Jazz in September 2006 :

Sound Grammar, a live set recorded in Germany in October 2005, features a quartet with his son Denardo on drums and two bassists—Gregory Cohen (picking); and Tony Falanga (bowing). The two-bass dynamic creates a texture that feels viscous and frictional at the same time, a perfect backdrop for the saxophonist’s piercingly resonant tone, which finds the “sound of expressed reality.”

Sound Grammar is Coleman’s first release in 10 years and surpasses studio recordings made at the peak of his career, in 1996. It is the first jazz album to be awarded a Pulitzer, and Coleman is only the second jazz artist to be awarded. Wynton Marsalis received one in 1997 for an oratory piece called “Blood on the Fields”, about slavery.

This is Ornette’s year! The esteemed musician was also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievment Award, and Sound Grammar was a nominee for Grammy’s “Best Jazz Instrumental Album” in 2007.

Coleman and his quartet will be touring Europe plus a few US stops this summer. Dates are listed at the end of this post.

The webpage for the Pulitzer Prize In Music has more info on the award as well as the names of nominees for the category.

Ornette Coleman website

Bio on All About Jazz

TOUR

US
June 17, 2007
Bonnaroo, Tennessee, USA

EUROPE
July 6, 2007
Kongsberg, Norway
July 9, 2007
Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
July 11, 2007
Perugia, Italy
July 13, 2007
Pescara, Italy
July 15, 2007
North Sea (Rotterdam), The Netherlands
July 18, 2007
Warsaw, Poland
July 20, 2007 Vitoria, Spain

US
September 23, 2007
Monterey, California, USA
September 26, 2007
Los Angeles, California, USA

LA PHIL PRESENTS – SHADOW OF STALIN SPECIAL EVENTS:

RUSSIAN CHANSON EXPLORES UNDERGROUND MUSICAL MOVEMENT
PRAVDA RE-IMAGINES RUSSIAN CULTURE FOR LATE-NIGHT DJ AND VJ MULTI-MEDIA EVENT

the LA Philharmonic Association published a press release today with the following information :

On Thursday, May 24 and Saturday, May 26, Walt Disney Concert Hall hosts two unprecedented events that explore the influence of political oppression on artistic expression during the Stalin era. These two contemporary programs are presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic as part of Shadow of Stalin, a series of programs that examine the effects of government decisions on creativity.

Denver-based indie-gypsy-folk group DeVotchka performs on Thursday, May 24, at 8 p.m. in a program that explores Russian Chanson, an anti-folk musical movement with its roots in injustice and disappointment in Russian life. DeVotchka’s instrumentation includes guitar, bouzouki, piano, trumpet, violin, accordion, piano, sousaphone, double bass, theremin and percussion. They perform original material in the style and spirit of Russian chanson, as well as original songs written by great chanson songwriters. Saul Williams, a leader of the spoken word/slam poetry movement, and star of Slam, winner of the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, also performs. Special guest to be added.

On Saturday, May 26, from 10 p.m. – 3 a.m., a line-up of DJs, VJs, artists and musicians converge at Walt Disney Concert Hall for PRAVDA – a progressive exploration of the sounds, sights, and philosophies of the Stalin era. Amon Tobin, Cut Chemist, DJ Spooky, J-Rocc, Peanut Butter Wolf, and Mumbles with special guests dublab soundsystem, collaborate to remix the music of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Mosolov, complemented by improvised visuals from iconic Russian films, painting live onstage by Norton Wisdom, and mobile video projection produced by MC This. Film footage from Battleship Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky, The Cranes are Flying, and Soy Cuba, as well as rare clips from Russian documentaries, interviews, and propaganda films give a historical reference point against modern interpretations of Russian culture. Additional special guest artists to be announced.

info :

May 25 (8pm)
Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A. CA

DeVotchka
Saul Williams
Special guest tba

May 26 (10 pm-3 am)
Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A. CA
$30-50 seats

Amon Tobin
Cut Chemist
DJ Spooky
J-Rocc
dublab soundsystem
Peanut Butter Wolf
Mumbles
Shostakovich
Prokofiev
Mosolov

also – iconic Russian films, painting live onstage by Norton Wisdom, special guest Thomas Golubic, and mobile video projection produced by MC This.

oh, but wait, this is the the best part—

At midnight on May 26th, Christoph Bull gives a special dramatic organ performance, and for the first time since Leon Theremin conducted the original ten Theremin Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 1932, the concert is recreated with ten theremin players on the stage at Walt Disney Concert Hall. In celebration of the birthdate of the late Robert Moog, pioneer of this electronic instrument, the evening also features a special tribute to Moog, whose company is the leading manufacturer of theremins today.

WOWSA! i’m so excited right now, i’m emitting variable frequencies!!

this might be a splendid week to visit the southern side of the sunny state! i hope there is not intentional trickery hidden in that description – it says that 10 theremin players will be on stage together, but never clarifies that they will be playing any instruments! surely they would not be playing air theremin. oh wait, all theremins are air played, i suppose. well, hopefully you see what i’m getting at… oh, and Moog’s Theremin company is called Big Briar, if you should want to find a very reasonably priced “aether instrument” of your own. especially after experiencing a Theremin Orchestra!

For a complete listing of Shadow of Stalin events, please visit:
LAPhil.com/ShadowofStalin

read the entire press release with lots more information at – LA Philharmonic Association

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Tori Amos stands up against President Bush with her new album, American Doll Posse. in a conversation with the singer that is reported by VH1 news, she states :

“If for one minute the generation who is about old enough and eligible to vote thinks this is about one person, then we’re all very foolish,” Amos said. “We need to wake up and realize that just because we think we’re in a democracy, there is a little bit of a seduction there. They’re not overtly burning books and they’re not doing this and that, but they’re doing exactly what they want to do, and we’re distracted. It’s funny — they’re not burning books, they’re just throwing more information at us, and drowning us in it. You have to be able to think for yourself and not get manipulated.”

pretty astute perspective and statement from an influential lady. the album sounds incredibly interesting – apparently she called upon different Greek goddesses to help her to develop the four archetypes that Amos uses to express the different aspects of the album : Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, Persephone, the emotional and idealistic side, Athena, the warrior woman, and Aphrodite the sensual side of the artist. in the photo, you can see the archetypes, from left to right they are : Santa, Clyde, Isabel, Tori, and Pip.

Amos also stated, in reference to the political resistance expressed in the album, “The way to really combat the right wing is to not be subservient to them on any level, particularly when it comes to ideology,” she continued. “Therefore, you better offer up another ideology that can combat theirs…”

read more at VH1.com : Tori Amos and at Tori Amos.com

The album, American Doll Posse is due to be released on May 1. you can hear one track from it, “Big Wheel”, now on her site.
Track Listing :
Yo George
Big Wheel
Bouncing off Clouds
Teenage Hustling
Digital Ghost
You Can Bring Your Dog

Mr. Bad Man
Fat Slut
Girl Disappearing
Secret Spell
Devils and Gods
Body and Soul

Father’s Son
Programmable Soda
Code Red
Roosterspur Bridge
Beauty of Speed

Almost Rosey
Velvet Revolution
Dark Side of the Sun
Posse Bonus
Smokey Joe
Dragon

THE AMERICAN DOLL POSSE WORLD TOUR
there are active links for each of these on her website…..

May 28 ROME, ITALY TEATRO SISTINA
on sale now at ticketone.it
May 30 FLORENCE, ITALY TEATRO VERDI
on sale now at ticketone.it
May 31 MILAN, ITALY TEATRO SMERALDO
on sale now at ticketone.it
June 2 PARIS, FRANCE LE PALAIS DES CONGRESS
on sale now at fnac.com or ticketnet.fr
June 3 AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS HMH
on sale now at easyticket.nl
June 4 HAMBURG, GERMANY MUSIKHALLE
on sale now at karsten-jahnke.de
June 6 DUSSELDORF, GERMANY PHILIPSHALLE
on sale now at eventim.de
June 7 MUNICH, GERMANY PHILHARMONIE
on sale now at eventim.de
June 8 VIENNA, AUSTRIA STADTHALLE
on sale now at musicticket.at or novamusic.at
June 10 STUTTGART, GERMANY BEETHOVENSAAL
on sale now at sks-russ.de
June 11 NURNBERG, GERMANY SERENADENHOF
on sale now at eventim.de
June 13 COPENHAGEN, DENMARK FALCONER
on sale now at www.billetlugen.dk
June 14 OSLO, NORWAY NORWEGIAN WOOD FESTIVAL
on sale now at billettservice.no
June 15 FINLAND PROVINSSIROCK
Weekend passes on sale now at lippupalvelu.fi
Day passes on sale 4/16
June 17 BERLIN, GERMANY TEMPODROM
on sale now at eventim.de
June 19 WARSAW, POLAND SALA KONGRESOWA
on sale now at ticketpro.pl
June 21 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC CONGRESS CENTRE
on sale now at ticketpro.cz
June 22 BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA INCHEBA HALL
on sale now at ticketportal.sk
June 24 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY ARENA
on sale now at ticketpro.hu
June 26 LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA HALA TIVOLI
on sale Mar 12 2007 at concerts.at
June 27 GRAZ, AUSTRIA Kasemattenbühne
on sale now at oeticket.com
June 29 ZURICH, SWITZERLAND KONGRESSHAUS
on sale now at ticketcorner.com
June 30 FRANKFURT, GERMANY ALTE OPER
on sale now at eventim.de
July 1 WERCHTER, BELGIUM WERCHTER FESTIVAL
on sale now at rockwerchter.be
July 3 LONDON, UK HAMMERSMITH APOLLO
on sale now at ents24.com
July 4 LONDON, UK HAMMERSMITH APOLLO
on sale now at ents24.com
July 5 MANCHESTER, UK APOLLO
on sale now at ticketmaster.co.uk
July 7 EIRE, IRELAND OXEGEN FESTIVAL
on sale now at oxegen.ie
July 8 KINROSS, SCOTLAND T IN THE PARK
on sale now
July 13 BUCHAREST, ROMANIA SALA POLIVALENTA
On sale 4/5/07 at phoenix.ro and bilet.ro
July 15 ISTANBUL, TURKEY MASSTIVAL
On sale 4/9/07 at masstival.com and biletix.com

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Iceland’s Amiina, the 4 enchanting ladies known for their string work with Sigur Ros, released their new album Kurr today. It is the debut album released on Amiina’s new label, Bláskjár Records. Their website :: amiina.com :: says that Kurr will be available to purchase at shows on their tour of US and Canada.

march 21 Madison (Café Montmartre )
march 22 Minneapolis (The Varsity Theatre)
march 23 Chicago (Lakeshore Theater)
march 25 Cleveland (Cambridge Room, House of Blues)
march 26 Detroit (Magic Bag)
march 27 Toronto (Rivoli) SOLD OUT!
march 28 Montreal (Le National)
march 30 Philly (World Café Live)
march 31 Boston (The Remis at Museum of Fine Arts)
april 1 DC (9:30 Club)
april 2 NYC (The Wordless Music Series)
april 6 Cincinnati (Cincinnati Now Festival)
april 9 Seattle (Triple Door)
april 10 Portland (Doug Fir Lounge)
april 12 San Francisco (Swedish American Hall)
april 13 Los Angeles (Silent Movie Theatre)
april 14 San Diego (House of Blues-5th Avenue Stage)

you can also purchase the album, as well as listen to each track, from their :: webstore :: not sure if those ship before the tour is over though. i wasn’t able to find that info.

In my mind, this news :

Centuries-old watchtower found in Trondheim

seems somehow related to this news :

SUNN 0))) IN BERGEN, NORWAY THIS WEEKEND!!

Bergen is fairly far from Trondheim, but not compared to the distance to the US. What centuries old entities might the Sunn O))) folks meet this weekend? I do hope there will be something recorded!

Go to this Bit of News for some interesting background history and the excitement of 13th century Norway and King Sverre.

Edgar Baitzel, 51, Opera Administrator

John Thow, 57, Composer

Baitzel led the Los Angeles Opera to financial success during his term as administrator since 2001.

Thow was a professor at UC Berkeley and a composer of chamber and symphonic works.

from the font of information this week, Southern Lord drops yet another tidbit about how we can best experience the power of the DRONE!

sunn 0))) will be making a rare appearance in a special performance in Bergen, Norway this weekend.
SUNN O))) @ BOREALIS FESTIVAL
March 18th – Bergen Cathedral, Bergen
(Lineup: Anderson, SOMA, Ambarchi, Csihar, Steve Moore,TOS, Lasse Marhaug)

for more info :
Borealis Festival webpage and
Visit Norway Article

oh, how i wish i could teleport to all the places that i want to be! Sunn O))) are amazing, especially in concert. i highly recommend seeing this if you are able to. they put on a very dramatic ritual metal performance. O’Malley and Anderson are super nice guys as well

Sunn O))) plays “Drone Metal” sometimes referred to as stoner metal. It is a genre that was created or made famous by the band Earth, which i have also been posting news about lately. Sunn O)))’s take on it is to play one note on electric guitar, and let it sustain for a long time. as this note lingers in the air, its harmonics morph and synchronize, producing other tones and sounds. this is enhanced by the interaction between guitar and amp, as the guitar is moved closer to or further from the amp, feedback and resonant frequencies come into play. it’s a very powerful effect, which is why i suggest hearing it live. it is best experienced LOUD!

Wrong Music updated their website (finallY)!!! Not only does it have news of the National Noise Day in Brighton on May 31 2007, but it also has a new release from DJ Scotch Egg!

This is what it says about the new release :

SCOTCHHAUSEN RELEASED (Without wrong music logo on it, how anoying)

13 March

adaaflap and wrong music present .. DJ SCOTCH EGG – Scotch Hausen WNG014/VINYL/10″ …
…SCOTCH HAUSEN is DJ SCOTCH EGG’s follow up to 2005’s must have gabba gameboy 7″ SCOTCH CHICKEN, in which he pays tribute to avant-garde pioneers like karlheinz stockhausen, terry riley, philip glass, johann sebastian bach and er moondog…

some may recall a previous post from mogger, Robotanist, which featured the black and white video of DJ Scotch Egg conducting the Gameboy Orchestra in a performance of “SCOTCHHAUSEN” from February 07’s full album release, “Scotch Bach”. If you missed it, click here to see the video…

Yes, it’s true. Amazon will now offer a selection of 2000 hand-picked titles from classical, opera, and vocal classical music.
If you want to read about it from Seattle’s Business Wire, just click here.

The digs from that article :

The Classical Music Blowout Store, found at www.amazon.com/classicalblowout, also provides Amazon.com customers who might be new to classical music lively introductory audio profiles to some of the great composers and performers. Classical music fans can also visit www.amazon.com/classical to discover the latest releases from highlighted classical artists, as well as the largest selection of deep-catalogue classical music available.