Artist: Psycatron
Genre(s):
House
Discography:
7th Night - 7th Morning (Vinyl)
Year: 2004
Tracks: 1
Friday, 27 June 2008
Sam Sparro September / October Tour Dates Confirmed
Sam Sparro has just finished supporting Robyn on tour and now he's announced a full headline jaunt for September and October.
These ten gigs follow on from this weekend's Glastonbury Festival appearance and next month's Wireless and iTunes Festival. A single, '21st Century Life', will also be coming soon on July 28th.
September Tour Dates:
23 - Glasgow ABC
24 - Sheffield Leadmill
25 - Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall
26 - Manchester Academy 2
28 - Nottingham Trent Uni
29 - Newcastle Academy
30 - Bristol Colston Hall
October Tour Dates:
2 - Norwich UEA
3 - Brighton Corn Exchange
4 - London Shepherds Bush Empire
See Also
John Hiatt the 'Same Old Man' on new CD; singer seems the picture of contentment
FRANKLIN, Tenn. - Isn't this the same guy they once called an angry young man, America's Elvis Costello?
Today, John Hiatt seems the picture of contentment on the farm he shares with his wife, Nancy. The kids are grown, the house is quiet and the empty nesters feel like newlyweds. "We're like all romantic again after 22 years," Hiatt gushes, "and it's new territory."
Which brings us to his new album, "Same Old Man," recorded at home for the first time amid the hay fields and the shady lanes.
To describe the disc as "mature" would be an understatement. It's a middle-aged man's love letter, his travelogue to a long and durable relationship.
"When we got married we each had a kid, so we never had a time together when we didn't have kids," said Hiatt, the father of three children ages 20, 24 and 30. "Now we're the kids. I'm 55 and she's 48."
Besides recording "Same Old Man" at home, he also self-produced for the first time. His daughter Lilly sings backup on two of the tracks, yet another first.
"I felt like it was time for me to take all the responsibility for a change," he said. "I think I knew what I wanted to hear. At least I had an approach I wanted to try. And I didn't want to share that. I didn't want somebody else's ideas on top of that."
It's an uncluttered record - mostly guitar, bass and drums behind Hiatt's craggy voice - that's clever and sweet without being maudlin. On the title cut he sings, "You start out tryin' to change everything, you wind up dancin' with who you bring. I loved you then and my love still stands. Honey, I'm still the same old man."
Hiatt's doing what he's always done: making music about his life and the people in it. What's different is his frame of mind. Through the '70s and much of the '80s he was addicted to drugs and alcohol - "mentally, physically, morally and spiritually bankrupt" is how he puts it.
"I'd reached that point where I couldn't get sober. I didn't know how to get sober and it had stopped working, the drugs and alcohol. In a way they didn't work anymore. It was just miserable. You were trapped. You didn't have any choice except to keep doing it."
He bounced from label to label and from folk rock to new wave to Americana. His lyrics could be cynical and darkly funny, and he was lumped with angry punk songwriters of the time like Costello and Nick Lowe.
"When I was on Geffen and MCA it was all about getting a hit, and you don't know what a hit is and they don't know what a hit is and you get discouraged because you start doubting yourself," he recalls. "I remember asking Geffen one day, 'I don't know why you signed me because I don't know what it is I do that you like, because it doesn't seem to be anything."'
Once he'd finally sobered up, he found his mark with the rootsy "Bring the Family" in 1987. The album put him on rock radio, but maybe more importantly it put him in the path of other artists who began mining his catalogue. The list of people who've covered his tunes is remarkable: Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, Jewel, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Don Henley, Kenny Rogers, Bon Jovi, Iggy Pop, Linda Ronstadt, Willie Nelson, Joe Cocker, Suzy Bogguss, Roseanne Cash, Three Dog Night and many others.
"I think he writes songs that must be personal to him but are not so personal that they're alienating to cover," said Jewel, who toured with Hiatt early in her career and also recorded his "Have a Little Faith in Me." "They're open enough that they can be about anybody's life."
Though flattered, Hiatt says he never set out to have people cover his songs; that part of his career was a happy accident.
"I'm not really good at writing for other people. It just sort of happens that I write with some regularity and I've been lucky that people want to cut the songs. If I had to rely on that, I don't know that it would work out. I'd probably go crazy after a few years."
-
On the Net:
http://www.johnhiatt.com/
See Also
Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page awarded honorary doctorate
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Surrey.
Page was made a Doctor of the University for services to the music industry.
The ceremony took place at Guildford Cathedral on June 20.
Page was awarded an OBE in 2005 for his charity work with the children of Brazil's slums, and was also made an honorary citizen of Rio De Janeiro.
Page was made a Doctor of the University for services to the music industry.
The ceremony took place at Guildford Cathedral on June 20.
Page was awarded an OBE in 2005 for his charity work with the children of Brazil's slums, and was also made an honorary citizen of Rio De Janeiro.
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Liz Hurley "Regrets" Not Having Children With Hugh Grant
Liz Hurley wishes she and ex-boyfriend Hugh Grant had children together.
The 'Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery' actress also said she thinks Grant's perfect woman would be Sandra Bullock.
"Sometimes Hugh and I can get morbid and say we could have had five children by now, because we were together since we were 21," Hurley tells Harpers Bazaar magazine.
"But there was never a time when either of us wanted it. So you can�t really regret that."
Grant and Hurley dated for 13 years and have remained the best of friends since their split in 2000 -- she married Indian businessman Arun Nayar last year.
'Love Actually' star Grant, 47, is godfather to her son Damian -- from a brief relationship with millionaire Hollywood producer Steve Bing -- and is often pictured with Hurley and her new husband.
Grant is currently single after splitting from longterm partner, socialite Jemima Khan, and Hurley says that she hopes he�ll find the female equivalent of Nayar.
"Women flock to Hugh. He�s like Austin Powers: Everyone worships him," She says, adding that Sandra Bullock -- his co-star in Two Weeks Notice -- would�ve been "a great match for him."
See Also
SPC nabs pair of Cannes selections
CANNES - At the close of the Festival de Cannes, Sony Pictures Classics was finalizing North American buys on two fest titles.
After reports SPC would leave the fest empty handed, the distributor nabbed the Dardenne Brothers' Albanian immigrant in competition drama "The Silence of Lorna" and Bent Hamer's Un Certain Regard portrait of an elderly Norweigan train driver, "O'Horten." As previously reported, SPC is also taking home James Toback's docu "Tyson."
The distributor is taking advantage of a soft market with deals said to be in the low- to mid-six-figures. SPC is one of the few studio specialty divisions with a strong appetite for foreign fare, making Cannes a typically fertile shopping ground for them.
See Also
5ive
Artist: 5ive
Genre(s):
Rock: Pop-Rock
Discography:
Versus (EP)
Year: 2004
Tracks: 3
A British boy-band in the tradition of Take That -- and backed by the same management team which launched the vocation of the Spice Girls -- 5ive comprised Scott Robinson (underclothes of selection: Calvin Klein drawers), Sean Conlon (Calvins as well), Rich Neville (another Calvin man), Jason Brown (tight-fitting shorts) and Richard "Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene" Breen (silk shorts). Their debut 5ive The Album was released in mid-1998; Unvanquishable followed deuce geezerhood afterwards.
Hip hop arrives in hippy land
BRITAIN'S famous Glastonbury music festival gets underway tomorrow, with all eyes on how well US rapper Jay-Z goes down with the generally more hippie audience.
In a radical departure from the indie rock and guitar bands commonly associated with Glastonbury, the festival has recruited the New Yorker in a bid to reach out to a younger audience. But the gamble may have backfired as 3000 tickets remained available as the gates opened Wednesday - the first time since 1993 that the festival had not sold out. Last year, the 137,500 tickets went in one hour, 45 minutes. Michael Eavis, who runs the festival on his dairy farm, admitted they have "stuck their necks out on this one." "We're changing the style of the event all the time. We're improving it and looking for the next best thing all the time," he told BBC radio. Organisers have staunchly defended the choice of Jay-Z, despite the slow ticket sales and sniping from Glastonbury veterans like Oasis guitarist Noel Gallager. The key moment this year is set to be on Saturday, when the rapper headlines the Pyramid Stage. He could face stiff competition from Massive Attack, who are on the Other Stage at the same time. The festival, held on Worthy Farm near Glastonbury in Somerset, south-west England, is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. The event, which turns more than 320ha of rolling countryside into a tent city, started with 1500 people in 1970 and has its roots in hippiedom. Friday night's headliners on the main Pyramid Stage are Kings of Leon, backed up by The Fratellis, Editors, The Gossip and The Feeling. On the second Other Stage, Panic at the Disco close the show, following The Enemy, We Are Scientists and Foals. Last year's Glastonbury - headlined by Arctic Monkeys, The Killers and The Who - was a wash-out, with persistent downpours turning the entire site into a muddy swamp. Eavis, 72, admitted he almost scrapped the festival following the mudbath. The cost of clearing up 30,000 mucky tents and 180,000 tent pegs was £800,000 ($1.67 million). "Last year I thought 'I don't think I can go through this again'. But it's like having a baby - it's painful at the time but you get over it, don't you? "I'll certainly go until I'm 80, which is seven years." On Saturday, ahead of Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, Manu Chao, The Raconteurs and James Blunt are set to perform on the main stage, while Massive Attack follow Hot Chip, Elbow and Duffy. Sunday traditionally has a golden oldie slot on the Pyramid Stage, but this year boasts two: Leonard Cohen and Neil Diamond. The Verve top the bill, followed by Cohen, Goldfrapp, Diamond and John Mayer, while on the Other Stage, Groove Armada headline, backed up by The Zutons, Pigeon Detectives and Mark Ronson. Elsewhere during the festival, Fatboy Slim, Sinead O'Connor, Joan Baez, Katie Melua, Pete Doherty, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Jimmy Cliff, Will Young, Joan Armatrading, Eddy Grant, Suzanne Vega and John Cale appear on the outer stages.
In a radical departure from the indie rock and guitar bands commonly associated with Glastonbury, the festival has recruited the New Yorker in a bid to reach out to a younger audience. But the gamble may have backfired as 3000 tickets remained available as the gates opened Wednesday - the first time since 1993 that the festival had not sold out. Last year, the 137,500 tickets went in one hour, 45 minutes. Michael Eavis, who runs the festival on his dairy farm, admitted they have "stuck their necks out on this one." "We're changing the style of the event all the time. We're improving it and looking for the next best thing all the time," he told BBC radio. Organisers have staunchly defended the choice of Jay-Z, despite the slow ticket sales and sniping from Glastonbury veterans like Oasis guitarist Noel Gallager. The key moment this year is set to be on Saturday, when the rapper headlines the Pyramid Stage. He could face stiff competition from Massive Attack, who are on the Other Stage at the same time. The festival, held on Worthy Farm near Glastonbury in Somerset, south-west England, is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. The event, which turns more than 320ha of rolling countryside into a tent city, started with 1500 people in 1970 and has its roots in hippiedom. Friday night's headliners on the main Pyramid Stage are Kings of Leon, backed up by The Fratellis, Editors, The Gossip and The Feeling. On the second Other Stage, Panic at the Disco close the show, following The Enemy, We Are Scientists and Foals. Last year's Glastonbury - headlined by Arctic Monkeys, The Killers and The Who - was a wash-out, with persistent downpours turning the entire site into a muddy swamp. Eavis, 72, admitted he almost scrapped the festival following the mudbath. The cost of clearing up 30,000 mucky tents and 180,000 tent pegs was £800,000 ($1.67 million). "Last year I thought 'I don't think I can go through this again'. But it's like having a baby - it's painful at the time but you get over it, don't you? "I'll certainly go until I'm 80, which is seven years." On Saturday, ahead of Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, Manu Chao, The Raconteurs and James Blunt are set to perform on the main stage, while Massive Attack follow Hot Chip, Elbow and Duffy. Sunday traditionally has a golden oldie slot on the Pyramid Stage, but this year boasts two: Leonard Cohen and Neil Diamond. The Verve top the bill, followed by Cohen, Goldfrapp, Diamond and John Mayer, while on the Other Stage, Groove Armada headline, backed up by The Zutons, Pigeon Detectives and Mark Ronson. Elsewhere during the festival, Fatboy Slim, Sinead O'Connor, Joan Baez, Katie Melua, Pete Doherty, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Jimmy Cliff, Will Young, Joan Armatrading, Eddy Grant, Suzanne Vega and John Cale appear on the outer stages.
Steely Dan adds fresh dates to summer mix
Steely Dan [ tickets ] continues to add new shows to the tail end of the band's current North American "Think Fast" tour, which hit the road running last week in Florida.The veteran jazz-rock band--led by co-founders Walter Becker and Donald Fagen--is currently in the middle of a six-night engagement at New York City's Beacon Theatre, with the next show in the stretch scheduled for tonight (6/18).The newly added shows mostly come near the end of the outing, which is currently set to wind down in late August. Details are below. Tickets are now on sale for most of the tour's dates.The ongoing tour marks the third straight year that the band has launched a major tour after a career spent largely avoiding the business of touring altogether. Last year, the group toured North America, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand with a 10-piece band that included drummer Keith Carlock, bassist Freddie Washington and guitarist Jon Herington.Steely Dan continues to tour behind 2003's "Everything Must Go." The group's previous album, 2000's "Two Against Nature," was the pair's first new studio release in 20 years and earned the band three Grammys in 2001, including Album of the Year.Both of the band's principals have remained busy separately on the recording front, with Becker's second solo album, "Circus Money," hitting stores earlier this month. Becker, who plays bass on the set, leads a five-piece band that also includes Keith Carlock (drums); Jon Herington (guitar); and Jim Beard and Ted Baker (keyboards) on the album's 12 tracks. The disc was produced by Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Shawn Colvin).Fagen's third solo album, "Morph the Cat," was released in 2006.
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
The back story to Justin Vernon's 2007 album is enough to attract widespread media interest. An album of haunting, sparse, lonesome and primitive songs, 'For Emma, Forever Ago' was recorded over a particularly good winter for the Wisconsin native (hence his moniker, a bastardized take on the French for 'good winter' - 'bon hiver').
Hibernating away from the duel break-up of two relationships - that with a girl and that with a band - Vernon retreated, alone, to an isolated cabin in the cold Wisconsin mountainside for four autumn/winter months. Locked away in his own self-imposed solitary confinement, he wrote, recorded and produced an album which could have only stemmed from such isolation.
Self-released, with only 500 copies made initially, 'For Emma, Forever Ago' rapidly grew legs, spiking the interest, first of Pitchfork, the influential US indie-music website, and then 4AD, home of The Pixies, to earn a 2008 release within the wider-world.
While 'For Emma, Forever Ago's inception is key to understanding it, Vernon is much more than a good story, or a romanticised example of the artist at work. 'For Emma, Forever Ago' is a great record, teeming with beauty and full of perfectly rounded, exhilaratingly poignant songs.
Stripped down, uniformly quiet, hushed and confessional, Vernon exhumes the starkness of Elliott Smith, the wistful-lyrics of Will Oldham and the primitive, sense of isolation so expertly conveyed by Sigur Ros. In many ways, 'For Emma, Forever Ago' is the kind of record you might get should the Icelandic four-piece embark on an Americana, Neil Young folk project.
The hushed production and lo-fi recording bares the faintest hiss - the evidence of something innocent and organic - and this contributes much to 'For Emma, Forever Ago's inherent beauty. From opener 'Flume' you can sense the isolation, the cold wood cabin, the fire in the corner and the wolves lurking out by the surrounding blanket of snow. Layered vocals stamp all over the production and further heighten the ghostly quality of the record, as a coral of spirits open the wistful 'Lump Sum'.
'Skinny Love' lets us in as to the 'where's and why's' of the ethereal mood Vernon has conjured up. As the album's title might suggest, the death of love haunts the album, and here his hushed vocal seeks, or silently begs for love's preservation - "Come on skinny love just last the year/ Pour a little salt we were never here," he sings, before the depth of his hurt and anger becomes apparent ands his vocal switches from hushed and hurt to primitive and possessed. He asks: "Now all your love is wasted?/ Then who the hell was I?/ Who will love you?/ Who will fight?/ Who will fall far behind?" It makes for four sublime minutes of raw emotion distilled within fine melody and sparse, moving music. It's a song which maps out the record's centre.
'The Wolves (Act I and II)' continues the record's theme of heartbreak with the opening line "Someday my pain, someday my pain/ Will mark you." As the song builds to a crescendo, Vernon asks "What might have been lost?" before calling for time in his isolation. "Don't bother me", he insists. Again it's an emotional, ghostly moment which captures all that is unsettling in heartbreak.
This further permeates the record as the album continues. In lesser hands such an emotionally volatile subject can be handled too mournfully, merely resulting in an elongated moan - hence the distain by many of the lovelorn singer/songwriter.
Vernon however, neatly side-steps the pot-holes in the terrain by placing his vocal low in the mix and singing almost exclusively falsetto to mask his lyrics, instead unveiling the emotion through the music. On 'Creature Fear' his words are almost inaudible but the mood and the feeling of the song leaves no room for misunderstanding as to what he's conveying.
'For Emma' sees three voices - a him, her and narrator - all sung by Vernon, tell the story over a mid-tempo folk song as Vernon laments and gets through his anguish. "With all your lies," he sings, "You're still very lovable."
And loveable is eminently what 'For Emma, Forever Ago' is. For all its evident pain, hurt and raw emotion, Vernon has crafted something stunningly striking, which you'll find yourself seeking solace in time and time again.
It's an over-used expression, but this is truly an album delivered direct from the rawest recesses of the heart.
One of the year's finest releases.
Steve Cummins
Hibernating away from the duel break-up of two relationships - that with a girl and that with a band - Vernon retreated, alone, to an isolated cabin in the cold Wisconsin mountainside for four autumn/winter months. Locked away in his own self-imposed solitary confinement, he wrote, recorded and produced an album which could have only stemmed from such isolation.
Self-released, with only 500 copies made initially, 'For Emma, Forever Ago' rapidly grew legs, spiking the interest, first of Pitchfork, the influential US indie-music website, and then 4AD, home of The Pixies, to earn a 2008 release within the wider-world.
While 'For Emma, Forever Ago's inception is key to understanding it, Vernon is much more than a good story, or a romanticised example of the artist at work. 'For Emma, Forever Ago' is a great record, teeming with beauty and full of perfectly rounded, exhilaratingly poignant songs.
Stripped down, uniformly quiet, hushed and confessional, Vernon exhumes the starkness of Elliott Smith, the wistful-lyrics of Will Oldham and the primitive, sense of isolation so expertly conveyed by Sigur Ros. In many ways, 'For Emma, Forever Ago' is the kind of record you might get should the Icelandic four-piece embark on an Americana, Neil Young folk project.
The hushed production and lo-fi recording bares the faintest hiss - the evidence of something innocent and organic - and this contributes much to 'For Emma, Forever Ago's inherent beauty. From opener 'Flume' you can sense the isolation, the cold wood cabin, the fire in the corner and the wolves lurking out by the surrounding blanket of snow. Layered vocals stamp all over the production and further heighten the ghostly quality of the record, as a coral of spirits open the wistful 'Lump Sum'.
'Skinny Love' lets us in as to the 'where's and why's' of the ethereal mood Vernon has conjured up. As the album's title might suggest, the death of love haunts the album, and here his hushed vocal seeks, or silently begs for love's preservation - "Come on skinny love just last the year/ Pour a little salt we were never here," he sings, before the depth of his hurt and anger becomes apparent ands his vocal switches from hushed and hurt to primitive and possessed. He asks: "Now all your love is wasted?/ Then who the hell was I?/ Who will love you?/ Who will fight?/ Who will fall far behind?" It makes for four sublime minutes of raw emotion distilled within fine melody and sparse, moving music. It's a song which maps out the record's centre.
'The Wolves (Act I and II)' continues the record's theme of heartbreak with the opening line "Someday my pain, someday my pain/ Will mark you." As the song builds to a crescendo, Vernon asks "What might have been lost?" before calling for time in his isolation. "Don't bother me", he insists. Again it's an emotional, ghostly moment which captures all that is unsettling in heartbreak.
This further permeates the record as the album continues. In lesser hands such an emotionally volatile subject can be handled too mournfully, merely resulting in an elongated moan - hence the distain by many of the lovelorn singer/songwriter.
Vernon however, neatly side-steps the pot-holes in the terrain by placing his vocal low in the mix and singing almost exclusively falsetto to mask his lyrics, instead unveiling the emotion through the music. On 'Creature Fear' his words are almost inaudible but the mood and the feeling of the song leaves no room for misunderstanding as to what he's conveying.
'For Emma' sees three voices - a him, her and narrator - all sung by Vernon, tell the story over a mid-tempo folk song as Vernon laments and gets through his anguish. "With all your lies," he sings, "You're still very lovable."
And loveable is eminently what 'For Emma, Forever Ago' is. For all its evident pain, hurt and raw emotion, Vernon has crafted something stunningly striking, which you'll find yourself seeking solace in time and time again.
It's an over-used expression, but this is truly an album delivered direct from the rawest recesses of the heart.
One of the year's finest releases.
Steve Cummins
Dj Tapolsky pres. Purple Unit
Artist: Dj Tapolsky pres. Purple Unit
Genre(s):
Drum & Bass
Discography:
Special K
Year: 2005
Tracks: 1
Manuel Gottsching
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