In stores today: Josh Ritter

Bringing in the Darlings, the new EP from singer-songwriter Josh Ritter, is out today on Pytheas Recordings.

 

The limited edition CD/vinyl/digital release features six new songs. Of the stripped-down, stand-alone EP, Ritter has said, “As time goes on, it’s good to remember that recording is not necessarily a long process. It’s always a fun process, and what you’re trying to do is balance the art form of the recording with the excitement of recording it. I think there’s a certain spark when something’s written and it rolls off the tongue easily, and you can always hear the person’s excitement when it’s happening."

In conjunction with the EP’s release, the music video for the song “Love Is Making Its Way Back Home” just premiered on Etsy. The video, created by Erez Horovitz and Sam Cohen of Prominent Figures, was made with over 12,000 pieces of construction paper, shown as it was shot, with no effects added in post.

 

Of the creative process, Cohen comments, “The video for ‘Love is Making It's Way Back Home’ was definitely the most labor intensive video we’ve been a part of—and with my background in stop-motion collage animation, and Erez having worked on videos for OK Go, that’s kind of saying a lot. The video was made in several stages: storyboarding, computer animation, converting the computer graphics frame by frame to paper cutouts, and photographing those roughly 12,000 cutouts into about four minutes of paper animation. The video you see in the end is purely physical frame-by-frame animation. Everything you see is photographs of paper with no effects whatsoever.”

Ritter is currently writing and recording his next full studio album—the follow-up to 2010’s acclaimed release So Runs the World Away.

Daryl Hall, who has taken fans inside his home for the critically acclaimed, nationally televised web series Live from Daryl’s House, is now ready to take his show on the road.

The award-winning program, which recently marked its 50th episode, is set for a seven-city U.S. tour: The Live from Daryl’s House Nu-Soul Revue featuring Daryl Hall and the LFDH Band with special guests Sharon Jones plus Allen Stone. 

Philly chef Tony Luke, who has also appeared on the series, will also host a video cooking segment on how to prepare his world-famous cheesesteak.

The past five years have seen Live from Daryl’s House receive a Webby Award for Best Variety series and an O Music Award from MTV. 

Live from Daryl’s House is syndicated nationally and shown weekly in over 80% of U.S. homes in the nation’s top 200 media markets, as well as all of the top 10, including New York (WPIX), L.A. (KTLA), Chicago (WGN), Dallas (KDAF) and Houston (KIAH).

 

The show has also cleared in such key markets as Philadelphia (CBS-owned KYW), Boston (KBIN) and Atlanta (WATL), as well as a number of NBC, Fox and CBS-owned affiliates across the country. Most stations are airing a full hour with two original shows back to back on Saturday nights. The first week of the show did a .2 in national Nielsens, with the second week increasing 50% and several stations adding airings.

The episodes of Live From Daryl’s House have featured well-known performers like Booker T (of the MGs), Blind Boys of Alabama, Rob Thomas, Train, Smokey Robinson, The Doors’ Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek, Toots Hibbert, Nick Lowe, K.T. Tunstall, Todd Rundgren, Keb Mo, Dave Stewart, Goo Goo Dolls’ John Rzeznik and Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump,  along with newcomers such as Nikki Jean, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Mayer Hawthorne, Eric Hutchinson, Chromeo, Matt Nathanson, Parachute, Plain White T’s, Sharon Jones, Diane Birch, Fitz & the Tantrums, Neon Trees and Guster. 

Here’s the current touring schedule with more dates to be added:

April 11 - Montclair, NJ (Wellmont Theater)

April 12 - Boston, MA (House of Blues)

April 14 - Atlantic City, NJ (Music Box Borgata) 

April 18 - Minneapolis, MN (Orpheum)

April 20 - Washington, DC (Warner Theatre) 

April 21 – NYC (Beacon Theatre) 

Marty Stuart on tour now; tears it down in April

Grammy-winning Americana artist Marty Stuart unveils Nashville, Volume 1: Tear The Woodpile Down, his latest album for Sugar Hill Records, on April 24.

The ten song collection, almost entirely written by Marty, features his touring band The Fabulous Superlatives. Nashville staples Buck Trent, Kenny Lovelace, and Robbie Turner are joined by Hank Williams III and Lorrie Carter Bennett (The Carter Family) on harmony vocals. 

Marty Stuart arrived in Nashville on Labor Day weekend, 1972. “I came to Nashville from the land of Jimmie Rodgers, looking for a place, a place to belong inside the world of country music.  It was a country boy Hollywood, the air castle of the South, a dream factory.” Forty years, a decade worth of hits and a full round of hillbilly stardom later, Stuart has hillbilly rocked himself back to the bosom of traditional country music. 

“When I reconnected with traditional country music I found myself, my calling,” says Stuart. “The kind that is timeless, beautiful, beyond trend, the empowering force, the reflection of a people and a culture. The kind of country music that the working man and scholars alike call home. The job seemed to be to champion it, love it, protect it, care for its people, attempt to write a new chapter for it and to make sure that everybody understands that it’s alive and well in the 21st century.”

Stuart has done that with his acclaimed collection of country music memorabilia and treasures which currently tours across the country, and with his Marty Stuart Show on RFD TV which provides a platform for some of Nashville’s classic artists to perform on a nationally syndicated program.

“When I first came to Nashville . . . the most outlaw thing you could possibly do around here was to take country music and blow it up into rock & roll.  Mission accomplished! Today, the most outlaw thing you can possibly do in Nashville, Tennessee is play country music.” With Tear The Woodpile Down, the latest chapter in the Marty Stuart story, he’s doing just that.

Tour dates:

2-17 - Duncan, OK - Ropin A Dream Gala and Concert

2-18 - Miami, OK - Buffalo Run Casino

3-09 - Newport, KY - Newport Syndicate

3-10 - Cartersville, GA - The Grand Theatre

3-16 - Alto , NM - Spencer Theatre

3-28 - Durango, CO - Fort Lewis College Concert Hall

3-29 - Macon , GA - Ocotillo Performing Arts Center

3-30 - Prescott, AZ - Yavapai College Performance Hall

3-31 - Chandler, AZ - Chandler Center For The Arts

4-07 - Conroe, TX - Crighton Theater - Sounds of Texas Music

4-21 - River Forest, IL - Dominican University - Performing Arts Center

4-22 - Viroqua, WI - The Temple Theatre

4-28 - Franklin, TN - Franklin Theatre

4-29 - Wilkesboro, NC - Merlefest

5-25 - Maryville, TN - The Shed

5-26 - Big Stone Gap, VA - Gathering Of The Gap Festival

Dandy Warhols announce track listing for 'This Machine'

The Dandy Warhols' eighth studio album This Machine will be released on April 24 via The End Records.

Singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor describes it as "stripped down, woody and extremely guitar centric." One track, "Autumn Carnival," was co-written by David J. "We've been told that its our gothiest [album]," continues the singer. "I thought it was our grungiest, so I'm really hoping it's a hit with goths who are...really outdoorsy?"

 

Track listing:

1. Sad Vacation
2. The Autumn Carnival
3. Enjoy Yourself
4. Alternative Power To The People
5. Well They're Gone
6. Rest Your Head
7. 16 Tons
8. I Am Free
9. Seti vs Wow Signal
10. Don’t Shoot She Cried
11. Slide

World Party box set due

I first heard a box set was in the works last year and am glad to see it finally coming to fruition. I've interviewed Kurt a few times over the years and always marvel at his genius. Read on for more info.

World Party has confirmed the April 10 release of “Arkeology”: a five-CD collection of 70 never-before-heard tracks packaged in a unique Any Year Diary for fans’ personal use.

Spanning the band’s 25-year history, “Arkeology” is at once a new album—with songs finished as recently as 2011—and an unreleased, unheard history of rare studio gems, live sessions, concert recordings, radio interviews, covers, demos and B-sides.

As much a throwback to the 60’s rock that World Party leader Karl Wallinger grew up loving as it is a reinvention of it, “Arkeology” showcases some of Wallinger’s strongest work to date. New songs like “Waiting Such a Long Time” (2008), “Everybody’s Falling in Love” (2011), and “Photograph”—a sprawling piano anthem recorded over a period of seventeen years (1994 to 2011)—are more evidence of Wallinger’s already-known talent for writing infectious pop hooks.

The entire collection is packaged in the Any Year Diary, a 142-page, full-color day calendar for fans’ personal use that features rare photos, clips of articles, and World Party memorabilia from Wallinger’s personal archives, as well as his notes and commentary about various shows and recordings.

“The reason it’s all inside an any-year diary,” Wallinger says, “is because I just got so sick of the CD packaging. I’m glad the whole CD format is dying, but I really didn’t want to put something out that was only digital.”

“Arkeology” also provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse at Wallinger’s quirky humor and love of studio experimentation with several genre-bending demos, some recorded as early as 1985. A pitch-shifted, effects-heavy rendition of “What is Love All About” (from 1993’s Bang!) for instance, wouldn’t be out of place on a contemporary R&B record. And live versions of familiar hits—including an ascendant crowd sing-along of “Ship of Fools” from Boulder, CO in 1998, and fan favorites like “Love Street” from 2006’s Bonnaroo Festival—capture the band at some of its finest moments.

The Cribs return this spring

The band's recent work with Johnny Marr was strong. I'm curious to hear the new material...

Wakefield, London and Portland converge as one with news that The Cribs are set to release their fifth album, In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull, on May 8, through Wichita Recordings. It marks a return to three-piece status and another chapter in the trajectory of the Jarman brothers.

Recorded at Dave Fridmann’s Tarbox Road studio with Fridmann at the controls, a short self  produced session at London’s Abbey Road and a few days with enigineer Steve Albini, the band clocked up the miles recording the follow up to 2009’s UK Top Ten album Ignore The Ignorant.

First single “Chi-Town” had a worldwide exclusive first play on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 show. 

In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull track listing:

1. Glitters Like Gold                                              
2. Come On, Be A No-One
3. Jaded Youth
4. Anna
5. Confident Men                                              
6. Uptight                                                          
7. Chi-Town
8. Pure O                                                         
9. Back To The Bolthole
10. I Should Have Helped
11. Stalagmites
12. Like A Gift Giver
13. Butterflies
14. Arena Rock Encore

US tour dates

4/03 - Portland, OR - Holocene
4/04 - Seattle, WA - Crocodile Café
4/07 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
4/09 - Chicago, IL - Schubas
4/10 - Pontiac, MI - The Pike Room
4/11 - Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace
4/13 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
4/14 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall

A limited number of presale tickets for the North American dates are available on the band's Facebook page now.

In stores today: Tennis

Album review

Tennis  

Young and Old

[Fat Possum]

B+

 

Denver band Tennis – whose principle members Alaina Moore (vocals/keyboards) and Patrick Riley (guitar/bass) met as philosophy majors at the University of Colorado – first emerged with Cape Dory early last year.

 

The acclaimed, NPR-approved debut album was a charming, lo-fi bedroom recording loosely based on their long personal sailing journey across the eastern seaboard. It evoked 1960s girl groups and Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, while sharing a vintage music aesthetic with modern acts like She & Him, Cults and Best Coast.

 

Highly engaging sophomore effort Young and Old finds the married couple and drummer James Barone following a similar path. Co-producers Pat Carney of The Black Keys and Roger Mountenot (They Might Be Giants, Yo La Tengo) help the group attain more sonic clarity.

 

All ten carefree tracks fall within the three-minute mark, never wearing out their welcome. On “Origins,” Moore sings sweetly about doomed love to prominent pop keyboards and Riley’s reverb-drenched washes of electric guitar.

 

Sunny organ, jangly guitars and heavenly vocals in “Traveling” are tailor-made for bopping around, while “Petition” could’ve fit on an early Amy Winehouse album. Other highlights include “Robin” - a sprightly ode to a feathered friend, the appropriately-titled “Dreaming” and haunting, organ-dominant “Never to Part,” where Moore wraps her delicate pipes around a lyric concerning a virgin girl about to be hitched.

– George A. Paul