Category — Shows

It was reported earlier this year that the drummer of the Strokes, Fabrizio Moretti, had joined up with his girlfriend, Binki Shapiro and singer/songwriter Rodrigo Amarante to form a band called Little Joy. Their album, will be released November 4th on Rough Trade Records, also home to such acts as Arcade Fire, Low and Jenny Lewis.

Check out this interview for interesting tidbits (like how they named their band after a bar down the street from me in Echo Park).

Little Joy will begin a tour this fall, performing with acts such Devendra Banhart and Gregory Rogove’s Megapuss, who Moretti will also be drumming for on tour.

Little Joy Tracklist:
01 The Next Time Around
02 Brand New Start
03 Play the Part
04 No One’s Better Sake
05 Unattainable
06 Shoulder to Shoulder
07 With Strangers
08 Keep Me in Mind
09 How to Hang a Warhol
10 Don’t Watch Me Dancing
11 Evaporar

Little Joy Tour Dates (w/Megapuss):
09-24 San Diego, CA - Casbah
09-25 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
09-26-27 Big Sur, CA - Festival in the Forest
09-28 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
09-30 Seattle, WA - Neumos
10-01 Portland, OR - Doug Fir

Nick McBrain, the drummer of Iron Maiden, joined the stage with The Mystic Orchestra’s “Flashback-The Classic Rock Experience” in Florida on Sunday, August 31st. According to the official website, the band consists of 25 world-class musicians who perform a 3-hour show consisting of 30 of the best classic rock songs ever recorded. “Flashback” is a tour that “enhances the original songs by adding richer sounds, intelligent lighting, video animations and special effects.” Artists covered during the performances include Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Video of McBrain’s appearance for Deep Purple’s song “Smoke On the Water” can be seen here.

According to one fan, “It was like going to the ultimate reunion tour of all time…I encourage any rock fan to definitely check this tour out.” Tickets range from $20-$170 bucks a pop. Remaining tour dates for “Flashback-The Classic Rock Experience” can be found here. Get ready to break out the bong…

The Outside Lands music festival took place this past weekend in San Francisco and while I was not present to review it PitchforkMedia was, of course. They have some great photo’s up of Radiohead with their high-tech LED light show, Beck, Wilco and Tom Petty, among others.

The festival boasted a pretty good lineup of major headline acts and smaller but well-known indie acts such as; Broken Social Scene, Drive-By Truckers, Andrew Bird, The Walkmen, Devandra Benhart and more.

Outside Lands Festival Pictures.

Now in it’s 16th year the Montreal Drum Fest will be held October 24th, 25th and 26th. This year’s edition of the festival features an impressive lineup of great drummers.

“Headliners are: Legend Lenny White (Innovation, Istanbul, Vic Firth, Remo), Simon Phillips (Zildjian, Tama, Pro-Mark, Remo),  Morgan Agren & the Mats/Morgan Band (DW, Sabian, Vic Firth), The Yamaha Groove Hour with Canadian drummers Paul Brochu, Mark Kelso and Larnell Lewis, Wolfgang Haffner (Meinl), Johnny Rabb (Roland) and Tommy Clufetos (Sonor, Sabian).”

For more information about the festival, visit Montreal Drum Fest online.

The Steve Albini fronted Shellac have tour dates now booked. It’s a rare occassion that the band tours and when I first noticed the dates I thought “great I can finally see them live!” but as usual most of the dates are out of the US or not close enough.

Shellac Tour Dates:

09-15 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot *
09-16 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe *
09-17 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa *!
09-18 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
09-21 Catskills, NY - ATP New York
10-27 Galway, Ireland - Roisin Dubh
10-28 Dublin, Ireland - Button Factory
10-31 London, England - Forum (Release the Bats ATP)
11-02 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC

* with Chris Brokaw
! with A Place to Bury Strangers

Source.

Europe’s annual Download Festival is hitting 2 US cities this weekend. The lineup seems to feature a few older reunited bands such a The Jesus and Mary Chain and Gang of Four, as well as a lot of newer acts.

The Download Festival on Saturday (7/19) happens in the San Francisco area at the Shoreline Amphitheatre. The Sunday (7/20) version will be occurring at Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, with another version of the festival occurring in Camden, NJ on August 2nd.

This is an interesting way of planning a festival as most occur for 2 or 3 days in the same location. For the full festival lineup and more information go to downloadfestival.com

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Seattle drone-rockers Earth at The Echo. To start off, I was pretty surprised to learn the show would be going on at The Echo and not a larger venue. Earth is one of those bands where you know they’re critically acclaimed, but you have no idea how big they really are. The band slowly took the stage, lead-man Dylan Carlson thanked the crowd and began.

The band’s set mainly consisted of songs from their recently released Southern Lord album “The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull” although not played in exact album running order. Highlights included “The Driver” and Rise To Glory” both of which showed how much the band’s sound has progressed from distorted drone metal to their current style.

The band’s chemistry on this night was evident. Band leader Dylan Carlson’s Telecaster was clean, crisp and piercing, laced with different kinds of delay, flange and various other effects. The guitar playing worked in tandem with Don Mcgreevy’s bass playing and Steve Moore’s keyboard, filling in any empty spaces. The results of which were beautiful soundscapes and dreamy passages. However, the real pulse of the band live was drummer Adrienne Davies. It appeared as if someone had put her into slow motion, as she drummed away on each song, keeping the beat of the song with her body. Her drumming definitely brought the whole experience together.

Opening band Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter were a great support choice. Sykes lyrics and singing were folky and trippy at the same time, and her band’s gentle twang perfectly set the stage for Earth to take the stage. I’d advise anyone who can to check out this tour.

Nine Inch Nails released their new album “The Slip” (which features the famed Josh Freese), for free in May. Now Trent Reznor has decided to release a physical version to coincide with Nine Inch Nails upcoming US arena tour.

“Each of the 200,000 discs arrives with a DVD of the band rehearsing Slip tracks live, plus a 24- -page booklet and stickers. The set hits Canada and the States July 22, with a Japanese release date is still TBA. A virtually identical set– sans the limited/numbered business– is due in the UK and Europe July 21, and whenever the Australian edition is released, it, too, will be available in this manner.

In addition, an unnumbered/unlimited gatefold vinyl set, featuring a single 180 gram LP of the disc and a 24-page booklet, is due August 4 in the UK and Europe and August 5 in the States. Further info on the Japanese and Australian releases can be expected shortly.”

The 180-gram vinyl version sounds the most interesting to me, as I’ve already got the free version on my iPod. This should also sell well as vinyl is making a resurgence. Nonetheless, very cool way of doing things. Release your record for free to your fans as a sort-of thank you, and then if people still want to buy the physical copy, make it available. Nice work Trent.

Source.

Here are NIN’s current tour dates…

07-25 Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival
07-26 Seattle, WA - Key Arena at Seattle Center *
07-28 Edmonton, Alberta - Rexall Place *
07-29 Calgary, Alberta - Pengrowth Saddledome *
07-31 Winnipeg, Manitoba - MTS Centre *
08-02 Minneapolis, MN - Target Center *
08-03 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
08-05 Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre %
08-07 Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena %
08-08 Worcester, MA - DCU Center %
08-09-10 Baltimore, MD - Pimlico Race Course (Virgin Mobile Festival)
08-12 Knoxville, TN - Knoxville Civic Coliseum %
08-13 Duluth, GA - Gwinnett Arena %
08-15 Oklahoma City, OK - Ford Center #
08-16 Houston, TX - Toyota Center #
08-18 Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center #
08-20 Saint Louis, MO - Scottrade Center #
08-22 Cleveland, OH - Quicken Loans Arena
08-23 Auburn Hills, MI - Palace of Auburn Hills #
08-25 Toledo, OH - Seagate Convention Center #
08-27 East Rutherford, NJ - Izod Center $
08-29 Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center $
08-31 Lexington, KY - Rupp Arena ^
09-02 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheater %
09-03 Salt Lake, City UT - The E Center of West Valley %
09-05 Oakland, CA - Oracle Arena %
09-06 Inglewood, CA - The Forum %
10-24-26 New Orleans, LA - Voodoo Music Experience

* with Crystal Castles
% with Deerhunter
# with A Place to Bury Strangers
$ with Does It Offend You, Yeah?
^ with White Williams

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Russian Circles again. The bouncers/door people at the Troubadour were less than friendly, but thats to be expected from a meat-head door staff at a nightclub. Anyway, I arrived late to the show, just before Russian Circles were about to play, so I missed Young Widows and Daughters, who I had seen once before and didn’t really care for.

Russian Circles tore through newer songs from the “Station” album and selections from their first full-length “Enter” as well. My favorite track on the new album is definitely “Youngblood” and I was really glad to hear them play it last night. The band nailed it flawlessly with that precise and heavy guitar riffing, the whole way through. Other highlights were “Carpe” which was great as well.

What’s really amazing is how good Dave Turncrantz is on drums. I’ve complimented his drumming before but last night I got to see him from the side, and I was watching him the most out of all the band members. His kit was a basic 4-piece setup with 2 crash cymbals, a ride and hi-hat. His drum kit was setup on the floor with no drum riser of any kind. I unfortunately didn’t get to see what kind of kit he was playing, as the place was pretty packed and I couldn’t get any other angles. But I have a feeling it was a Gretsch (as pictured above).

However, what I did get to see was his use of creative fills and great sense of rhythm. It’s kind of obvious to mention, but the band would be nothing without this guy’s drumming. He propels the song’s into other passages with ease and does a lot of nasty, complicated fills usually culminating in the climax of the song. He also has a great sense of pushing and pulling the song, which is almost jazz-like.

I’m glad to see that an instrumental band that writes complicated material, can pack out a place like The Troubadour. If Russian Circles are coming through your area, you really should check them out.

So I’ve been out of town for the past week on vacation. There’s been a ton of stuff going on…

I will be checking out Russian Circles this coming weekend and there will definitely be a review posted here, and hopefully some live photos. This show should be great and will be the second time I will have seen them live. The first time, last year, the band was just starting to play one or two tracks from their (then) unreleased “Station” album and I only caught 15min of their set. I’m looking forward to this show…

Just a few days after I will be checking out Earth live at The Echo and I will post a review here again, as well as try to get some live pics, if possible.

Some current drummer news bits…

The Foo Fighters played Wembley Stadium in London a few days ago (June 7th), and were joined by none other than Jimmy Page and Jon Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. Dave Grohl manned the drums for one song, and video is available on YouTube. It’s always great to see him playing drums. He didn’t have his own usual Tama drum sets, but instead sat in on Foo drummer Taylor Hawkins’ kit. Check out more on that here…

Foo Fighters & 1/2 of Led Zeppelin

Also, Meg White of the White Stripes “sat in” on a Raconteurs gig two days ago in Detroit. The audience thought they might be getting a surprise White Stripes performance but that didn’t happen.

Source.