Tag Archives: Jim James

March 21, 2013 · 10:52 am

New Album: The Flaming Lips – The Terror (Out April 16)

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THE TERROR by The Flaming Lips has a new U.S. release date of April 16th (U.K release date remains April 1).  As previously mentioned The Terror is The Lips’ thirteenth studio album and was produced by long-time collaborator Dave Fridmann and The Flaming Lips at Tarbox Road Studios.

Wayne Coyne explains, “Why would we make this music that is The Terror – this bleak, disturbing record…? I don’t really want to know the answer that I think is coming. Maybe this is the beginning of the answer.”

The Terror is a bold and expressive journey that has evolved over The Lips’ nearly 30-year tended garden of sonic delights that ebbs and flows with extraordinary splashes of light and shade, pleasure and pain, sadness and hope, and the knowledge that to expect the unexpected is half the fun of The Lips’ experience.

The Terror will be available as a special Direct To Consumer, Limited-Edition Silver Vinyl double-LP set, housed in a two-pocket gatefold jacket with printed sleeves.  Those who pre-order will receive an instant download of “Sun Blows Up Today” and the digital album delivered on release date, April 16th.  Suggested retail price is $35.98.

The Terror CD edition pre-order includes an instant download of “Sun Blows Up Today” and the digital album delivered on release date, April 16th. Suggested retail price is $10.98. Go to:http://store.flaminglips.com/ for pre-order details on both

In other LIPS news, the band hosted two magic events at SXSW this past week, including a no-frills first-ever performance of YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS in its entirety live from The Warner Sound at The Belmont in Austin, TX. The intimacy of a small room packed to the bricks was the perfect setting to see the band up close performing some the songs from their certified gold album for the first time ever without any stage production made for special night. The show was filmed live by NPR.

Even more impressive was the first-ever performance of The Terror in its entirety the following night at Auditorium Shores, which set an all-time attendance record for a show at that venue in the history of SXSW drawing in excess of 30,000 attendees. Jim James of My Morning Jacket (who opened the show) joined the band on-stage for a particularly moving version of “Do You Realize??”. The Auditorium Shores show was broadcast live by Sirius/XM.

Tracklist:

  1. Look…The Sun Is Rising
  2. Be Free, A Way
  3. Try To Explain
  4. You Lust
  5. The Terror
  6. You Are Alone
  7. Butterfly, How Long It Takes To Die
  8. Turning Violent
  9. Always There…In Our Hearts

Confirmed Tour dates:

  • Mar 29             Sao Paulo, Brazil            Lollapalooza Brazil
  • April 3              NYC, NY                          The Late Show w/David Letterman
  • Apr 28              Kansas City, MO            Sprint Center w/ The Black Keys
  • April 29           Indianapolis, IN             Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
  • Apr 30             Pittsburgh, PA                Consol Energy Center w/ The Black Keys
  • May 2               Atlanta, GA                     Aaron’s Amphitheater at Lakewood w/ The Black Keys
  • May 3               Nashville, TN                 Bridgestone Arena w/ The Black Keys
  • May 4               Chattanooga, TN           Track 29 w/ JEFF The Brotherhood
  • May 5               Memphis, TN                 Beale St. Music Festival
  • May 10             Napa, CA                         Bottle Rock Festival
  • May 16             Montclair, NJ, USA       The Wellmont Theatre
  • May 20             London, UK                    Roundhouse
  • May 21             London, UK                    Roundhouse
  • May 22             Brighton, UK                  Dome Concert Hall, Brighton Festival
  • May 24             Paris, France                  Villette Sonique Festival
  • May 25             Düdingen, Switzerland    Bad Bonn Kilbi
  • June 14             Hultsfred, Sweden         Hultsfred Festival
  • June 15             Aarhus, Denmark           Northside Festival
  • July 11              Raleigh, NC                      Time Warner Cable Pavilion w/The Black Keys
  • July 12              Simpsonville, SC            Charter Amphit/Heritage Park w/The Black Keys
  • July 13              Louisville, KY                 Forecastle Festival
  • July 31              Costa Mesa, CA              Pacific Amphitheatre
  • Sep 6                Isle Of Wight, UK           Bestival
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November 12, 2012 · 2:15 pm

Jim James – “Know Til Now”

“I wanted the album to sound like it came from a different place in time,” says Jim James. “Perhaps sounding as if it were the past of the future, if that makes any sense—like a hazy dream that a fully-realized android or humanoid capable of thought might have when it reminisces about the good old days of just being a simple robot.”

“I take walks a lot,” says James, “and as I walk, songs kind of build in my mind, and I start adding and subtracting things. So I had a full vision for a lot of the songs on this album before I even recorded one note.” These visions have now manifested as Regions of Light and Sound of God, the first solo album from the singer, songwriter, and guitarist for My Morning Jacket, which will be released February 5th on ATO Records. Over the course of fifteen years and six studio albums, James has been the focal point of a group that has grown into one of the most acclaimed and successful rock and roll bands in the world. With this project, he reaches into new territory that extends, but doesn’t break from, MMJ’s accomplishments.

Until now, James had never felt the call to create a longer-form album on his own. “I’m very lucky to play in a band with guys that I love, who are great at what they do,” he says, “so on MMJ records, I don’t have a need to play bass or keys or what have you. But as a person and as a musician, I love to play every instrument under the sun, and I wanted to make a record where I played all the instruments and produced/engineered it myself.”

The results are nine songs that resist easy categorization, from the hazy space-funk of the opening “State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.)” to the chiming, operatic pop of “A New Life.” On Regions of Light and Sound of God, nothing is what it seems—touchstones from old-school R&B or island folk or hip-hop flicker into focus and then disappear; a delicate instrumental is titled “Exploding.” It’s complex but cohesive, intimate and hypnotic where My Morning Jacket might turn more wide-screen and epic.

For Regions of Light and Sound of God, there was one specific source that shaped many of the songs, and even figures into the album title—a pioneering 1929 graphic novel called God’s Man, by Lynd Ward. Told entirely through wordless woodcuts, the book chronicles an artist’s struggle with temptation and corruption, along with finding true love. As work on the album proceeded, James was inspired to write music that could accompany the book. “God’s Man came to me at a very important time,” he says. “Some of the things happening in the book were happening to me in real life, in a very strange and painful, then a very beautiful way.”

Solo albums by members of bands, especially lead singers, can often be scattershot, collections of odds and ends built up over the years with no true sense of purpose. But Regions of Light and Sound of God is precisely the opposite—the clarity with which Jim James came into this album rings from first note to last. “The album knew what it wanted to be,” says James. “The songs would tell me what they wanted to be, and I just had to search around and find those sounds to bring them into this world.”

Stream: Jim James – “Know Til Now”

Download: Jim James – “Know Til Now” (in exchange for an email address)

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April 17, 2012 · 10:51 am

Preservation Hall Announces Jazz Fest and Summer Line-Up

Preservation Hall Jazz Band is excited to announce their upcoming summer tour dates. Kicking off their tour on May 5th at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (where they will be performing twice) and touring until August.

The Hall Band’s first performance at Jazz Fest will be starting at 4:25pm, Saturday, May 5th at the Economy Hall Tent. On May 6th, the Preservation Hall band and friends will close out Jazz Fest on the Gentilly Stage with a mega performance featuring a number of special guests including Steve Earle, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Ani Difranco, Allen Toussaint, Trombone Shorty, Bonnie Raitt, Wendell Eugene, and Lionel Ferbos.

As part of the Superfly During Jazzfest Concert Series, Preservation Hall Crescent City Revue featuring Preservation Hall and Friends will also perform on Saturday, May 5th at the brand new Joy Theatre, located in downtown New Orleans on Canal Street. Reminiscent of the revues of the 1920s, PHJB will be joined by a number of guests including The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Ivan Neville, Stanton Moore, Ernie Vincent, Leo Nocentelli, Benny Jones, Uncle Lionel, Little Freddie King, David Torkanowsky, and many more to be announced. Opening for this all-star revue will be the New Orleans Rock Cabaret The New Orleans Bingo! Show.

Also being announced is this year’s 8th Annual Midnight Preserves Lineup which will feature intimate limited-seating performances at Preservation Hall featuring both national and local artists. This year’s lineup includes Steve Earle, Theresa Andersson, Henry Butler, Tao Seeger, and much more! The Midnight Preserves series will also feature the Hall’s most admired bands paying tribute to legendary Hall musicians. Proceeds from the series will benefit The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program. Tickets are limited and available now at TICKETFLY.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band will also be releasing a limited edition 10” vinyl of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band Live at Carnegie Hall in advance of the full-length concert to be released later this year. The vinyl will only be available exclusively during Jazz Fest and includes “Sweet And Low Down,” “That’s Enough,” “Saints Go Marchin In,” “Bourbon Street Parade,” and “Tootie Ma.” Only 504 copies will be available for sale.

PHJB Tour Dates

5/5: Economy Hall Tent @ New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

5/5: New Orleans, LA @ Joy Theater

5/6: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

5/11: Black Mountain, NC @ Lake Eden Arts Festival Lakeside

5/12: Bethlehem, PA @ Arts Quest River Jazz Festival

5/18: Montreal, QC @ Montreal Chamber Music Festival

5/19: Brooklyn, NY @ The Great Googa Mooga in Prospect Park

5/20: Ridgefield, CT @ Ridgefield Playhouse

5/25: Chillicothe, IL @ Summer Camp Music Festival

5/26: Minneapolis, MN @ Orchestra Hall

5/27: Cumberland, MD @ 5th Annual Del Fest

6/2: Brookfield, WI @ Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts

6/7: Coral Gables, FL @ Coral Gables Congregational Church

6/10: Salt Lake City, UT @ Red Butte Garden (with The Del McCoury Band)

6/16: Croton-on-Hudson, NY @ the Clearwater Festival

6/17: Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl

6/22: Vancouver, BC @ Centre for the Performing Arts

6/23: Victoria, BC @ TD Victoria International Jazz Fest

6/29: Las Vegas, NV @ The Smith Center for the Performing Arts

6/30: Las Vegas, NV @ The Smith Center for the Performing Arts

7/1: San Francisco, CA @ Sigmund Stern Grove

7/4: San Rafael, CA @ Marin County Fair

7/6: Irvine, CA @ Irvine Barclay Theatre

7/12: Grand Rapids, MI @ Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park

7/13: Wichita, KS @ The Orpheum

7/14: Louisville, KY @ Forecastle Music and Arts Festival

7/25: Interlochen, MI @ Interlochen Center for the Arts Kresge Auditorium

7/26: Boston, MA @ Boston Globe Summer Arts Weekend in Copley Square

7/27: Boston, MA @ Boston Globe Summer Arts Weekend in Copley Square

7/28: Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival 2012

8/2: Wellfleet, MA @ Wellfleet Preservation Hall

8/8: Fryeburg, ME @ Fryeburg Academy Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center

8/9: Waterford, CT @ B.O.M.B. FEST Harkness Memorial State Park

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March 20, 2012 · 10:44 am

The Flaming Lips Exclusive Album for Record Store Day

In between one-off shows scattered around the world in the past several months The Flaming Lips have still found time to record a series of unique and experimental sessions for an album featuring a diverse cross-section of heavy friends from every corner of the musical cosmos. The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends includes vocal and musical assistance from such disparate playmates as Yoko Ono, Nick Cave, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Bon Iver, Ke$ha and many more.

Some of these tracks have already appeared on previously released, extremely limited edition color vinyl 12″ EPs released in past months, which sold out as soon as they became available. Most of the tracks on the album are being released here for the first time and will surprise even the most ardent LIPS fans.

The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends will be pressed on two high-quality, multi-color vinyl discs housed in separate custom art jackets and poly bagged together. No two discs will look exactly alike. This double album will be very limited and released exclusively for RECORD STORE DAY. Once it’s gone, it will not be repressed again making THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS the most anticipated RSD release this year.

Track-listing for The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends is as follows:

Side 1:

Side 2:

  • Supermoon Made Me Want To Pee (featuring Prefuse 73)
  • Children Of The Moon (featuring Tame Impala)
  • That Ain’t My Trip (featuring Jim James of My Morning Jacket)
  • You, Man?  Human?  (featuring Nick Cave)

Side 3:

  • I’m Working At NASA On Acid (featuring Lightning Bolt)
  • Do It! (featuring Yoko Ono)
  • Is David Bowie Dying? (featuring Neon Indian)

Side 4:

  • The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (featuring Erykah Badu)
  • Thunder Drops (featuring New Fumes)
  • I Don’t Want You To Die (featuring Chris Martin of Coldplay)

About Records Store Day:

Record Store Day is managed by the Music Monitor Network and is organized in partnership with the Alliance of Independent Media Stores (AIMS), the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and celebrates the culture of independent record stores by playing host to in-store events/performances, signings and special product releases on a global scale on Saturday, April 21st, 2012.

For more about National Record Store Day, please visit www.recordstoreday.com

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