Chris Isaak’s new album, First Comes The Night,produced by Paul Worley (Dixie Chicks, Lady Antebellum), Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell) and longtime Isaak collaborator Mark Needham will be released on Vanguard Records on November 13th. Recorded primarily in Nashville and Los Angeles, First Comes The Night is Isaak’s 13th studio album consisting of 12 new songs. A second configuration – a deluxe version with five additional cuts – will be released simultaneously. It is Isaak’s first recording of all original songs in over six years. First Comes The Night is the follow up release to Isaak’s critically acclaimed 2011 Beyond The Sun, his breathtaking tribute album to Sun Records, Sam Phillips and the visionary artists who helped shape the early sounds of rock n’ roll.
“I totally enjoyed recording in Nashville – a city filled with terrific musicians and what an honor to work with such great producers. As for the new songs, I like to mix it up so there’s some dark ones, funny ones and romantic ones. You have to absolutely play these songs after the break up while you’re cleaning the house.” — Isaak
With a stellar reputation as one of the best and funniest live performers out there, Isaak, a non-stop touring, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, actor and talk show host is heading to Australia momentarily to take on the role as one of the panel judges on the new season of X Factor Australia.
Isaak’s vocal style has garnered enormous acclaim and his songs have been featured in numerous films including “Blue Velvet,” “Married to the Mob” and “Wild at Heart.” His vast repertoire of long-running hits include “Wicked Game,” “Forever Blue,” “Baby did a Bad Bad Thing” and “Somebody’s Crying.” He has appeared on many TV shows – most recently “Hot in Cleveland”, has acted in several films and starred in Showtime’s The Chris Isaak Show and the Chris Isaak Hour on the Biography Channel.
This Tuesday, September 1st, Isaak is scheduled to perform on the 9th Annual ACM Honors taking place at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness has shared Ferry Corsten’s remix of his Top 15 Alternative Chart topper “Cecilia and the Satellite”. The track merges Corsten’s singular trance sound with Andrew’s soaring vocals for a shimmery dance jam that opens into the original’s inspiring chorus.
McMahon’s self-titled album, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, is out now on Vanguard Records. The disc had smashing Top 5 debuts upon release where it was #2 on the iTunes Alt Albums chart, #3 on the Billboard Indie Albums chart, #4 on the Billboard Alt Albums chart and #5 on the Billboard Rock Albums chart.
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness will also play several festival dates along with some one-off shows this summer, including Big Guava Festival and Firefly. All current tour dates are listed below.
TOUR DATES
04/25/15 – Frisco, TX @ Toyota Stadium (102.1 Edgefest) 05/03/15 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion (DC 101 Kerfuffle) 05/08/15 – Tampa, FL @ MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre (Big Guava) 05/30/15 – Virginia Beach, VA @ 17th Street Park (Patriotic Festival) 06/07/15 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Farm Bureau Insurance Lawn at White River State Park (Alt 103 ALT-imate Birthday) 06/18/15 – Dover, DE @ The Woodlands (Firefly Music Festival) 06/19/15 – Richmond, VA @ The National w/ X Ambassadors & Grizfolk 06/21/15 – Scranton, PA @ Pavilion at Montage Mountain (92.1 FUZZ Fest) 06/23/15 – Lansing, MI @ The Loft w/ X Ambassadors 06/25/15 – Milwaukee, WI @ Summerfest 2015 06/26/15 – Des Moines, IA @ Wooly’s w/ X Ambassadors 07/10/15 – Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre 07/11/15 – Denver, CO @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater (KTCL Channel 93.3’s Big Gig) 07/25/15 – Kansas City, KS @ Sporting Park (96.5 The Buzz Beach Ball) 09/01/15 – Tokyo, JP @ Club Quattro 09/02/15 – Osaka, JP @ Soma 09/04/15 – Honolulu, HI @ The Republik 09/06/15 – Columbus, OH @ Arena District (Fashion Meets Music Festival)
I posted about this song back in August, but just recently Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness’s song “Cecilia And The Satellite” has been playing all over the place. And now, there’s an awesome video for the track that has renewed my love for it.
In the vibrant clip, the song’s narrative is beautifully illustrated with images of Andrew himself and the song’s namesake, his baby daughter, Cecilia. Olivier Agostini directed the gorgeous clip, starring newcomer Anastasia Krivosheeva as a grown-up Cecilia. The track just cracked the Top 20 at Alternative radio and is growing exponentially in support and spins.
Check it out:
Andrew will also be available today to answer questions on Reddit as part of their Ask Me Anything feature at 6pm EST.
McMahon’s self-titled album, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, is out now on Vanguard Records. The disc had smashing Top 5 debuts upon release where it was #2 on the iTunes Alt Albums chart, #3 on the Billboard Indie Albums chart, #4 on the Billboard Alt Albums chart and #5 on the Billboard Rock Albums chart.
McMahon recently wrapped an extensive and successful run of headline tour dates with Fences and Hunter Hunted opening. He will be heading to the UK for a string of solo dates beginning in February 2015. All current tour dates are listed below.
He also appeared last week at an NYC benefit for the Ally Coalition with Bleachers, Rachel Antonoff, Lena Dunham, Janeane Garofalo and a host of other entertainers to raise awareness and funds in support of LGBTQ equality.
TOUR DATES
12/09/14 – Fresno, CA @ Fulton 55
12/14/14 – Tulsa, OK @ Brady Theater
12/15/14 – Mesa, AZ @ Mesa Amphitheater
01/21/15 – State College, PA @ Levels
01/22/15 – Clifton Park, NY @ Upstate Concert Hall
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness has shared the cover art for his upcoming self-titled album, which will be released on Vanguard Records on October 14, 2014. The striking image was created by Jimmy Marble. AMITW’s first single, “Cecilia and the Satellite,” is already getting strong airplay across radio formats and is available now on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify.
Andrew is currently on tour with Matt Nathanson and Gavin DeGraw and will be performing tonight at Central Park’s Summer Stage. For other tour dates, updates and more information visit: http://www.andrewmcmahon.com/
Rock band O.A.R. are well known for their incredible live performances that have seen them play to sold out audiences in iconic venues such as Madison Square Garden and Red Rocks. The band has built their following off of extensive touring as well as a string of hit singles such as “Love and Memories,” “Shattered,” and now their current single “Peace.” “Peace”–the brand new song from their upcoming album–is a first for the band’s new label Vanguard Records.
“Peace” is the kind of anthemic song that has made O.A.R. a successful recording and touring band for well over a decade, garnering immediate major market airplay at radio stations across the country. Beginning today, fans can purchase the single on iTunes.
O.A.R. is currently finishing up the new album which was written and recorded in Nashville, Maryland, and New York City. It’s the band’s first studio album for Vanguard and their 8th overall. O.A.R. has also released five live albums, including their acclaimed CD/DVD from Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside of Denver.
O.A.R. SPRING 2014 SHOWS
Thursday, April 24 Las Vegas, NV Brooklyn Bowl Vegas
Friday, April 25 Las Vegas, NV Brooklyn Bowl Vegas
Saturday, April 26 Las Vegas, NV Brooklyn Bowl Vegas
Monday, April 28 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up
Tuesday, April 29 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up
Friday, May 2 Los Angeles, CA The Troubadour – SOLD OUT
Saturday, May 3 Los Angeles, CA The Troubadour
Sunday, May 4 Los Angeles, CA The Troubadour
Tuesday, May 6 Anaheim, CA House of Blues
Wednesday, May 7 Ventura, CA Majestic Ventura Theatre
Thursday, May 8 Reno, NV Knitting Factory
Friday, May 9 San Francisco, CA The Independent – SOLD OUT
Saturday, May 10 San Francisco, CA The Independent – SOLD OUT
Sunday, May 11 San Francisco, CA The Independent
Wednesday, May 14 Portland, OR Roseland Theater
Thursday, May 15 Seattle, WA Neptune
Welk Music Group President Kevin Welk stated, “I have been looking to work with O.A.R. for a long time. Everyone at Vanguard is excited to partner with them on one of their best recordings to date.”
To celebrate the new single “Peace” and upcoming album, the band is kicking off “O.A.R.’s Extended Stay” club tour, playing special intimate shows, multiple nights at club size venues in April and May.
“This year we are bringing our Extended Stay tour out west so we can see fans we’ve missed for a long time,” said O.A.R. lead singer Marc Roberge. “We’re going to play some cuts off the new album, but really digging deep into the catalogue to make up for lost time.”
Multi-platinum pop group Barenaked Ladies are celebrating their 25th anniversary in grand style: they just released a lyric video for “Boomerang,” the lead single off their new album Grinning Streak (out June 4th on Vanguard Records) and are gearing up for this year’s much-anticipated “Last Summer On Earth Tour.” (See my post about it here.)
Led by “Boomerang,” the songs on Grinning Streak unfold with the blend of immediacy, tunefulness and witty sophistication that made such BNL hits as “Pinch Me, “Brian Wilson,” “If I Had $1,000,000” and the chart-topping “One Week” modern-day classics. “Pop is a form that I love—it can be high-energy and intricate,” says Robertson of the genre the band has championed throughout the last quarter century. “When I think of pop music, I think of the Cars and Squeeze—interesting melodic rock is what I gravitate toward and what I’m always striving for. I want guitar-heavy pop/rock that’s intelligent, evocative and thought-provoking. I want it to be singable and relatable, and I want there to be other layers in there for the people who want to go deeper—because not everybody does. I’ve heard so many times, ‘I love you guys ’cause your songs are just fun and easygoing.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m glad you enjoy them, but there’s a dark underbelly that you haven’t mined.’”
Indeed, there’s much more to the Barenaked Ladies than initially meets the ear. Suck on the candy-coated surfaces of Robertson’s songs long enough and you never know what you’ll encounter in their “emotional centers,” as Robertson puts it.
He wrestled with the songs for the new album over an extended period as he plumbed the depths of his psyche in search of just those emotional centers. Along the way, Robertson experienced periods of stress, though not to the degree he’d endured while writing the material for the band’s previous studio album, 2010’s All in Good Time. That one was their first project following the departure of Steven Page, who’d founded the band with Robertson in 1988, reconfiguring the BNL as a four-piece.
“This is the second record since all of that turmoil,” Robertson notes, “but it’s still a part of what we’re going through and what informs who we are. On the last record, there were some songs that were directly about the band split, but this record is much more about the emotional rebuilding after that process. Looking back on the maelstrom of all that upheaval, I wanted to convey a sense of hope, reconciliation and healing with these songs. ‘Off His Head,’ for example, is about pushing through difficulty. There’s a double chorus at the end that I flipped, because I didn’t want it to end with, ‘Wishing you were dead.’ That’s part of being exasperated and at your wit’s end. But what I like about this song is that it says you just do it. You think it’s hopeless, but there’s a reason you’re pushing through it. The song says you can let all these things ruin you, or you can take it on the chin and stand up again.”
“Boomerang” metaphorically examines the aftermath of a breakup, but on a deeper level it recounts an impassioned interior dialogue. “It’s a really personal song that says, ‘You can be done with me, but I’m not done with you,’” Robertson explains. “For me, it’s about feeling relevant—because, as I started to approach this record, there was a period where I felt like I didn’t know what to say and I didn’t know who cared. But then I realized, y’know, I care. I like what I do, I’m a good songwriter and I’m gonna write—I’m gonna express things. So that song is about getting your confidence back—or, as one of my colleagues would say, getting your swagger back.”
Already breakout stars in their native Australia, Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes, who fuse a unique blend of soul, blues, doo-wop, jazz and R&B with Clairy’s powerful, soulful vocals at the forefront–have signed with the U.S. label Vanguard Records and will release their debut album Baby Caught The Bus on May 21. Their first single “Love Letter” is now #1 Most Added at Triple A Radio this week, while Baby Caught The Bus climbs to #15 Most Added. “Love Letter” also hit Amazon’s “Hot Singles: 20 Songs We’d Like to Date”. The band will have their Tuesday, April 9th Los Angeles, CA show at The Troubadour taped for future airing on an episode of NBC TV’s “Last Call With Carson Daly.”On Thursday, April 11, they’ll perform live on Los Angeles’ KCSN “Afternoon Music Mix with Sky Daniels.” That can be heard in the greater Los Angeles area on 88.5fm or around the world online at www.kcsn.org.
Baby Caught The Bus is gaining strong praise from the media, in his album review for No Depression, Grant Britt declared, “Melbourne’s Clairy Brown & The Bangin’ Rackettes is the best stuff to come along in decades. This thing opens with a bang. ‘Love Letter’ leaps out at you like a Stax 45, blowing you back to the ‘60s through a funky time warp. Baby Caught The Bus is a treasure trove for r&b lovers, a ‘60s time capsule, a show and dance ensemble concept that’s been away far too long. Import this one to your collection immediately for maximum satisfaction.”
The group just launched their U.S. tour at SXSW in Austin and are already blowing away U.S. audiences. In his live review for Bust Magazine at SXSW, writer Christian Detresdescribed the group’s performance “With a peal of trumpet and a trill on a snare, Clairy Browne and her girls ginned up a stompy 60s revival that had the crowd dancing and spilling their vodka lemonades all over the floor.”
Clairy Browne & the Bangin’ Rackettes first gained international attention when “Love Letter” was featured in Heineken’s award-winning campaign The Switch and has surpassed 1 million views online!
Rolling Stone called it “one of the ten hottest summer package tours of 2012” and Entertainment Weekly spotlighted it on their “2012 Summer Must List.” We’re talking, of course, about the Barenaked Ladies’ uber-successful “Last Summer On Earth,” a rollicking roadshow that tore through more than 30 arenas and amphitheaters during its near-sold-out run. Back by popular demand, this year’s lineup sees the multi-platinum-selling Ladies joined by Ben Folds Five and Guster for a hot-ticket-tour set to kick off June 17th at the Verizon Theatre in Dallas, TX. The “Last Summer On Earth 2013” will hit 30 arenas and amphitheaters across the country, with public sale beginning today at Ticketmaster.com and Livenation.com.
As an added bonus, those who purchase tickets for “The Last Summer On Earth” will receive a voucher for a download of the Barenaked Ladies’ much-anticipated new album to be released June 4th on Vanguard Records, featuring the single “Boomerang.”
It’ll be a busy summer for the Barenaked Ladies (guitarist/vocalist Ed Robertson, bassist/vocalist Jim Creeggan, keyboardist/vocalist Kevin Hearn and drummer/vocalist Tyler Stewart), who are celebrating their 25th anniversary with the release of a brand-new studio album (their twelfth, for those keeping count) and their first for new label Vanguard Records. The band is putting the finishing touches on the album, which was recorded in Toronto with producers Gavin Brown (The Tragically Hip, Metric), Howie Beck (Feist, Josh Rouse) and Mark Endert (Maroon 5, Train). Over the course of the past twenty-three years, Barenaked Ladies have amassed an international fanbase whose members number in the millions. Their plethora of career highlights includes eight Juno Awards and multiple Grammy nominations, more than 14 million albums sold worldwide and a series of hit singles, including No. 1 hit “One Week,” as well as “Pinch Me, “Brian Wilson,” “If I Had $1,000,000” and many more, along with the theme song for the hit CBS television series, “The Big Bang Theory.”
Ben Folds Five is touring in support of The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind, the group’s first album of new music in 13 years. The groundbreaking pop trio of pianist Ben Folds, bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee launched in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in‘94 and released debut album Whatever And Ever Amen in ‘97. A slice of pure pop perfection, the album introduced the ballad “Brick,” which broke the band commercially and sold more than two million copies worldwide. BF5 recorded its last album, ‘99’s The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner, which included the single “Army,” before disbanding in 2000. (The trio reunited for a one-off live performance of The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner on MySpace in 2008). In 2011, the original three members of Ben Folds Five came together to record three new studio tracks for The Best Imitation Of Myself: A Retrospective, a career-spanning anthology. The band’s magic rekindled in the new tracks, BF5 gave its first concert in more than a decade to a spellbound audience at New York’s Mountain Jam Festival on June 2, 2012. That inspired a short run of key US summer festival dates, including Bonnaroo, Milwaukee Summerfest, and Old St. Patrick’s Church Block Party in Chicago which set up a massive comeback tour with dates in the US, UK, Australia, and Japan.
Guster recently self-released Guster: Live Acoustic, a collection of live recordings from their 2012 acoustic tour. It’s been eight years since Guster released a proper live album – 2004’s Guster On Ice – and two years since their last studio album, Easy Wonderful. The sixteen tracks from Live Acoustic are a musical tribute to the varied faces and places that made last year’s travels one of the most remarkable in Guster’s impressive career. Known to open up for themselves in disguise as psychedelic rockers “Trippin’ Balls” and as Christian Southern Rock outfit “The Peace Soldiers,” Guster has also shared the stage with the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony in recent years. Singer Ryan Miller has branched out into scoring films – including 2012’s beloved Sundance standout Safety Not Guaranteed. Bandmate Adam Gardner has started his own non-profit called “Reverb,” which works with bands, artists, and venues to reduce the music industries environmental footprint.
Dates are as follows:
June 17 Dallas, TX Verizon Theatre
June 19 Denver, CO Red Rocks
June 20 Salt Lake City, UT USANA Amp
June 22 Santa Barbara, CA Santa Barbara Bowl
June 23 Los Angeles, CA Greek Theatre
June 25 Saratoga, CA Mountain Winery ●
June 26 Saratoga, CA Mountain Winery ●
June 28 Boise, ID Botanical Gardens
June 29 Seattle, WA White River Amp
June 30 Missoula, MT Big Sky Brewing Company
July 3 Fargo, ND Newman Field ●●
July 5 Columbus, OH LC Pavilion
July 6 Cincinnati, OH (Venue TBA March 29)
July 8 Lansing, MI Commonground Festival
July 9 Chicago, IL Charter One Pavilion ●
July 11 Toronto, ON Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
July 12 Detroit, MI DTE Energy Music Theatre
July 13 Nashville, TN The Woods at Fontanel
July 15 Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion
July 16 Boston, MA Bank of America Pavilion ●
July 18 Philadelphia, PA Mann Music Ctr
July 19 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena
July 20 Holmdel, NJ PNC
July 21 Bangor, ME Waterfront Park
July 23 Lenox, MA Tanglewood
July 25 Charlotte, NC T W Cable Uptown Amp
July 26 Alpharetta, GA Verizon Wireless Amp
July 27 Charleston, SC Family Circle Stadium
July 28 Raleigh, NC Red Hat Amphitheatre
July 30 Brooklyn, NY Celebrate Brooklyn! at the Prospect Park Bandshell
Greg Laswell’s “Come Back Down,” the first single from his new release Landline is this week’s Single of the Week on iTunes! The song features Sara Bareilles on backing vocals.
Laswell’s new album, Landline, is available today on Vanguard Records! Landline is his first album since 2010’s Take A Bow, and his fourth full-length. Laswell, a talented producer and musician in his own right, self-produced the record. Landline’s 11 new tracks were recorded by Laswell in a church-turned-house in a small lobstering town in down-east Maine. His nomadic tendencies caused him to relocate from Los Angeles to New York City, eventually ending up at the church-turned-house that is owned by his wife’s parents. The album’s title was inspired by the fact that the home-recording-studio had no cell-phone reception, forcing Laswell to use landlines for all of his calls. The album features collaborations with a number of well-known female singers, including Ingrid Michaelson, Sia, Elizabeth Ziman (of Elizabeth and the Catapult) and Sara Bareilles (on the album’s lead single ‘Come Back Down’). Inspired by hip-hop records that he was listening to while writing and recording the album, Laswell decided he wanted to work with and feature female vocals alongside his own. Each singer brings a new element and personality to the songs, whether it’s Bareilles’ energy that caused Laswell to re-record his vocals, or the fact that he co-wrote the album’s title track with Ingrid Michaelson when the power went out one night.
Check out this video Laswell also recently made for album track “Back To You,” which he filmed himself.
Laswell will also begin touring in May and June to support Landline. The tour begins on May 15 on the East Coast before heading out across North America to the West Coast and circling back around to the East Coast, ending with three shows in New York City, Washington DC, and Philadelphia. Along the way he will play shows in Los Angeles and Chicago, and many more markets. Not only will Laswell play these headlining shows, but he will follow them up with a number of dates supporting Ingrid Michaelson as well.
My bff and I hanging with Matt at a private concert in the Palms in Las Vegas
As his single “Faster” swiftly climbs the radio charts, Matt Nathanson has launched his “All Night Noise” headlining tour. Kicking off this past Sunday night in New Orleans, the tour will take Matt across the country for a 6-week run. Fans will have the opportunity to keep in touch with Matt in each city through Tout, a social media technology company with a multi-platform approach to social video, enabling users to easily and quickly capture real-time video status updates via smartphone or webcam that can be shared instantly. Matt will be utilizing Tout’s unique capabilities to share videos with fans from the road. Matt is the first musician to utilize the technology while on tour, offering his fans a truly unique interactive experience behind the scenes. Matt is encouraging his fans to Tout from the shows they attend and tag their moments with #AllNightNoise so they can all share in the experience. Visit Matt on Tout here.
All Night Noise Tour Dates:
9/28 Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
9/30 New York, NY @ Terminal Five
10/1 Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
10/2 Pittsburgh, PA @ Diesel
10/4 Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
10/6 Toronto, ON @ The Opera House
10/8 Boston, MA @ House of Blues
10/8 Boston, MA @ Newbury Comics (Faneuil Hall Marketplace In-Store Performance & Signing)
10/11 Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
10/12 Pontiac, MI @ Clutch Cargo
10/14 Madison, WI @ The Capitol Theatre
10/15 Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre
10/18 St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
10/20 Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
10/21 Salt Lake City, UT @ Club Sound
10/22 Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory
10/23 Portland, OR @ Music Millennium (In-Store Performance & Signing)
10/23 Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
10/25 Vancouver, BC @ Venue OR Commodore
10/28 Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
10/29 Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern
10/30 San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
10/31 Phoenix, AZ @ Marquee
11/2 Austin, TX @ La Zona Rosa
11/4 Birmingham, AL @ The Backroom @ Workplay
11/5 Nashville, TN @ The Cannery Ballroom
Matt Nathanson’s new album Modern Love comes on the heels of 2007’s break-out success Some Mad Hope, which catapulted the San Francisco-based Nathanson from darling of the touring circuit with a devoted cult following to a bonafide hit maker and one of the premiere songwriters on the music scene today. Known for his legendary live shows that are both wildly funny and emotionally provocative, Nathanson took a year off the road to record Modern Love – the first break he has taken from touring in his 15 year career. The success of Some Mad Hope and “Come On Get Higher” gave Nathanson a sense of accomplishment and confidence that allowed him to take a new approach to Modern Love, taking bigger risks and diving deeper into his vast array of musical influences. The writing process started by exploring songs that were more physical and groove-based, drawing from influences such as Depeche Mode, ACDC and Talking Heads. By the time the eleven songs, written and produced with his longtime collaborator Mark Weinberg, were completed, Nathanson was marveling at the new territory they had covered. From the “Depeche Mode groove” in “Mercy (Less Drowning, More Land)” to the ecstatic opening track and first single “Faster,” to the soaring “Run,” which features Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush, Modern Love is a luminous and bold departure.
Musically Amusing 