Susanna Hoffs summer solo album on tap

photo by Rebecca Wilson

Susanna Hoffs - singer/songwriter/musician and founding member of the Bangles - returns with a new solo album, Someday, on July 17.

Produced and orchestrated by Mitchell Froom, it’s an intensely personal song cycle that doubles as a musical love letter to the music of the 1960s, which “has always been my reference point for everything,” says Hoffs. The self-released work will be distributed by Welk Music Group.

Los Angeles fans will get a preview of Someday when Hoffs plays a solo show at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica on April 28. The set will include new songs, along with Bangles hits and some of her favorite covers.

“This album was inspired by my yearning to sing songs that were as melodic and emotional as my favorite music of the 1960s,” Hoffs says. “We recorded ten original songs, eight of which I wrote in a flurry over a period of a few months with Andrew Brassell. He’s a 27-year-old musician from Nashville, who’s been on the indie club scene there since he was a teenager. So the project started with me, this talented boy from Nashville, two guitars and a reverb pedal.”

The tracks include the summery groove of “This Is the Place,” the evocative “November Sun” and the lilting “Picture Me,” with its Bacharach-style sophistication, lush retro arrangements and modern state-of-the-art production enclose Hoffs’ one-of-a-kind voice in an aural tapestry of velvet and lace.

 

Someday also features updates of two older songs. One of them is “Raining,” which she wrote with Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers back in 1989. “I rediscovered an old cassette of it in a box, and Brassell and I did a rewrite of it to bring it up to date,” she says. “And then there was ‘November Sun,’ a song I’d been carrying in my pocket since 1998. The melody was so natural to sing, and it had a baroque folk/pop style that ended up becoming the template for the rest of the album.”

Froom (known for producing Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Paul McCartney, Suzanne Vega, Crowded House) first met Hoffs when he played the signature keyboard riff on the Bangles’ “Manic Monday” in 1986.

 

After hearing Hoffs perform the new songs on acoustic guitar at his home studio, Froom enthusiastically signed on to produce Someday. In addition to his behind the scenes magic, Froom played keyboards throughout the recording.

 

Additional musicians include Elvis Costello’s Imposters rhythm section - drummer Pete Thomas and bassist Davey Faragher - who played on the album’s initial sessions in 2011, with Val McCallum and Brassell playing guitar. A few of the songs were tracked with Michael Urbano on drums and Bob Glaub on bass.

MuteMath on Honda Civic Tour 2012

MuteMath will hit the road with Linkin Park and Incubus for this year's Honda Civic Tour. The tour kicks off in August (see below).

The New Orleans band also head to Australia for a headlining run this May in support of their current album Odd Soul. They recently released a new single from Odd Soul, "Allies," as well as an accompanying video which features footage from their last headlining tour.

Tour dates:

4/20 Nashville, TN @ Vanderbilt

4/21 Houston, TX @ Woodland Pavilion Buzzfest

5/5   Bendigo, VIC (AUS) @ Groovin the Moo

5/6   Townsville, QLD (AUS) @ Groovin the Moo

5/10 Brisbane (AUS) @ Zoo

5/12 Maitland, NSW (AUS) @ Groovin the Moo

5/13 Canberra, ACT (AUS) @ Groovin the Moo

5/15 Melbourne (AUS) @ Corner Hotel

5/16 Sydney (AUS) @ Hifi

5/17 Melbourne (AUS) @ Corner Hotel

5/19 Bunbury, WA (AUS) @ Groovin the Moo

5/20 Perth (AUS) @ Amplifier

5/26 Little Rock, AR @ Riverfest

6/23 St. Paul, MN @ River's Edge Music Festival

6/24 St. Paul, MN @ River's Edge Music Festival

Honda Civic Tour:

8/11 Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live  8/12 Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena  8/14 Boston, MA @ Comcast Center
8/17 Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Bank Center
8/19 Atlanta, GA @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
8/21 Detroit, MI @ The Palace of Auburn Hills
8/22 Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
8/24 Chicago, IL @ First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre  8/25 Indianapolis, IN @ Klipsch Music Center
8/27 Dallas, TX @ Gexa Energy Pavilion
8/28 Houston, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
8/30 Denver, CO @ Comfort Dental Amphitheatre
9/4 Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena

9/5 Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
9/7 Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
9/10 San Diego, CA @ Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre

Millencolin rarities collection due

Swedish punk outfit, Millencolin celebrate twenty years with the release of The Melancholy Connection on May 29.

This assemblage of B-sides, a follow up to 1999's The Melancholy Collection, features two new songs and twelve rarities spanning from their album  Pennybridge Pioneers through today.

The CD is paired with a 90-minute DVD that takes fans inside the making of Pennybridge Pioneers with never before seen archival footage, interviews with the band and live performances. Fans can preview a trailer for the CD/DVD budle by going here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS8o_3liGvM 

“We've released a lot of songs since Pennybridge Pioneers that were not released on our previous albums, so we thought it was about time to put them all on one,” says band member Erik Ohlsson.

“We recorded a bunch of new songs in our own studio where we also recorded our previous album Machine 15 from 2008, and picked two of them for this release. We’re really excited about the new stuff we recorded! We're taking it back to our roots and mixing it with the new sound we've developed over the last years.”

With nearly two million records sold worldwide, the Örebro based quartet of vocalist/bassist Nikola Sarcevic, guitarists Erik Ohlsson and Mathias Färm and drummer Fredrik Larzon have put together a collection of material that allows fans get an inside look at the past twenty years which have brought Millencolin to where they are today.

“We had a lot of footage archived from the Pennybridge Pioneers recording that we shot ourselves,” says Ohlsson.  "No one has ever seen any of that footage and since we have new live footage from the 10th anniversary tour of the album, now would be a perfect opportunity to make somthing out of it."

Record Store Day exclusives: Buck Owens, The Knack

I was lucky enough to receive one of the Owens packages and can attest it is very cool-looking (haven't opened it yet though) - especially for country music fans.

Omnivore Recordings will have two exclusive releases for Record Store Day on April 21.

The LA-based record label will issue an original, limited edition, vintage 1970 Buck Owens coloring book coupled with a four-song flexi-disc, and digital download card, of rare live material from the legendary country music Hall of Famer and pioneer of the Bakersfield Sound.

Alongside that unique collection, the label will also issue a 10" authorized bootleg EP from 1978 featuring L.A.’s pre-fame, power pop group The Knack. Both Buck Owens and The Knack are vinyl only, limited edition releases exclusively for Record Store Day and available only at participating retailers.

BUCK OWENS: 1970 COLORING BOOK with RED, WHITE OR BLUE FLEXI-DISC (2500 COPIES)
 

Commissioned by Buck Owens in 1970, these original, uncirculated vintage coloring books have been safely stored by Buck Owens Enterprises for over 40 years! Original copies are sought-after by collectors and they are now officially being made available to the public this spring, for the first time since 1970.

Omnivore Recordings is hand coupling a limited edition of 2,500 original stock coloring books with a newly pressed flexi-disc that includes four rare live tracks. The story told in the coloring book culminates in Buck & The Buckaroos playing a concert with four of Buck’s biggest hits “Act Naturally,” “Together Again,” “I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail,” and “Crying Time” specifically highlighted and named below the double-page spread (and you can color it in). The flexi-disc and digital download card included with this coloring book feature rare live versions of those exact songs, curated from Buck Owens & The Buckaroos historic performance at the White House for President Lyndon Johnson on September 9, 1968.

This collector’s bundle features a red, white or blue flexi-disc (your choice), which is viewable from the outside of the package and contains all four of the above-mentioned songs. The album Live At The White House, from which the tracks are drawn, was recorded in 1968 and issued almost exactly four years later on September 5, 1972 and has never been reissued in any form.

Just in time for this election year, Omnivore Recordings will release Live At The White House in its entirety for the first time on CD. This reissue also features a bonus, previously unissued, set that was recorded specifically for the astronauts of Apollo 16 in 1972.

“We at Buck Owens Productions have enjoyed working with a record label that thinks outside the box set!” said Jim Shaw, longtime keyboardist for the Buckaroos, and executive of Buck Owens Productions. “Omnivore constantly surprises and delights us with their creative ideas.”

THE KNACK: LIVE IN LOS ANGELES, 1978 - 10" SPLATTER-COLORED VINYL (1,500 COPIES)

Culled from The Knack’s late-frontman Doug Fieger's personal tape archive, Live In Los Angeles, 1978 captures The Knack at their pre-fame height, right before they would sign to Capitol and hit the big time.

An authorized bootleg, this EP is being presented for the very first time as an historical document to the band and Los Angeles’ late-’70s musical era. The Knack Live in Los Angeles, 1978 is limited to an edition total of only 1,500 10" records on red/yellow splatter-colored vinyl.

Side one of the 10" features two audience-recorded live songs that capture the spirit and atmosphere in The Troubadour the night they were recorded in 1978. Side two features two tracks exclusive to this release, and were recorded at a rehearsal in 1978. “Romeo Eyes,” was never recorded in the studio and appears here for the first time anywhere. All tracks have been restored by legendary Knack producer, Richard Bosworth (KISS, Neil Young, Warren Zevon), and all are previously unreleased.

A: Live in Los Angeles, 1978
1. Let Me Out            2. My Sharona

B: Anawalt Rehearsal, 1978
1. Romeo Eyes         2. Art War

“The Knack has the most ardent and loyal fans in the world,” said sister, and successor of Fieger’s estate, Beth Falkenstein. “This release is the best way to thank them for keeping my brother's legacy alive. And to have some of Doug's personal friends at Omnivore at the helm of this project makes it all the more moving.”

In May, Omnivore Recordings will release a full 14-track CD set by The Knack titled Havin' A Rave-Up: Live in Los Angeles, 1978.

For more information and to find your local shop and availability, please visit www.RecordStoreDay.com/venues and www.OmnivoreRecordings.com.

English Beat reissues coming this summer

I can't wait to hear these English Beat reissues. Read on for details...

Shout! Factory has announced a reissue campaign of The English Beat catalog, beginning with a July 10 release of a new single-disc compilation titled Keep The Beat: The Very Best Of The English Beat  and a new box set titled The English Beat: The Complete Beat.

 The five-CD box set features all three studio albums with bonus tracks, remastered from the original tapes; two discs of bonus material - most of which is previously unreleased on CD - three sessions recorded with the legendary John Peel for his show on BBC Radio 1, tracks from a live show recorded at Boston’s Opera House, and 12” and dub versions of some of the band’s biggest singles; also, there's  a booklet with rare photos and an essay by music scholar Alex Ogg. Both releases have been produced in collaboration with the band.

Those buying the box set on Shout! Factory’s website will also receive a bonus – the first ever release of The English Beat: Live At The US Festival, in a 2-disc CD/DVD set, part of Shout! Factory’s new line of US Festival releases. Pre-order at http://www.shoutfactorystore.com/prod.aspx?pfid=5257717.

Rollingstone.com just premiered 2 tracks from Keep The Beat, which are available to stream now http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/song-exclusive-the-english-beats-which-side-of-the-bed-and-save-it-for-later-20120411.

Ogg writes in The Complete Beat essay:

“While The Beat’s original lineup played together for four short years, their brief but memorable existence yielded three increasingly experimental albums that continue to reward repeat visits, five of the finest hit singles of the era and, often forgotten in the ledgers of great bands, hundreds of intoxicating live shows. They were a core part of the still-influential 2Tone movement, but beyond that, they were intrinsically a wonderfully gifted songwriting unit, drawing on a serendipitously assembled cast of contributors who found themselves able, through either skill or simple instinct, to fluently combine reggae and pop traditions without compromising either. This box set incorporates practically their entire recorded output, and the absolute dearth of chaff is a small and lovely miracle.”

The Dave Wakeling-led version of English Beat are currently on tour and appeared at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony over the weekend, performing their hits “Save It For Later,” “Mirror In The Bathroom,” “Tears Of A Clown” and “Tenderness.”

THE ENGLISH BEAT TOUR DATES
Apr 16 Wooly’s Des Moines , IA
Apr 17 The Waiting Room Omaha , NE
Apr 19 ACM @ UCO Rocks Bricktown Oklahoma City , OK
Apr 21 Blueberry Hill St. Louis, MO
Apr 22 Skully’s Columbus , OH
Apr 25 Count Basie Theatre* Red Bank, NJ
Apr 26 Carnegie Hall of Homestead * Munhall , PA
Apr 27 Rams Head Tavern* Baltimore , MD
Apr 28 Roseland Ballroom* New York , NY
May 04 Saint Rocke Hermosa Beach , CA
May 05 Mozambique Restaurant Laguna Beach , CA
May 10 Dixon May Fair Dixon , CA
May 11 The Canyon Club Agoura Hills , CA
May 18 Avalon Ballroom Santa Clara , CA
May 26 Downtown LV Outdoor Festival Las Vegas , NV
May 27 The Bunkhouse Las Vegas , NV
May 31 The Canyon Club Agoura Hills , CA
Jun 01 Belly Up Tavern Solana Beach , CA
Jun 02 Fiesta Del Sol Solana Beach, CA
Jun 22 Motorcity Casino Hotel Detroit , MI
Jul 04 Palisades Charter High School Pacific Palisades , CA
Jul 20 Stephen Talkhouse Amagansett, NY
Jul 27 Monte De Oro Winery Temecula , CA
Jul 29 The Hangar @ Orange County Fair Costa Mesa , CA
*w/ Squeeze 

Keep The Beat: The Very Best Of The English Beat Track Listing

1. Mirror In The Bathroom
2. Doors Of Your Heart
3. Save It For Later
4. Twist & Crawl
5. The Tears Of A Clown
6. Best Friend
7. I Confess
8. Ranking Full Stop
9. Whine & Grine/Stand Down Margaret
10. Get-A-Job
11. Jeanette
12. Too Nice To Talk To
13. Can’t Get Used To Losing You
14. Sole Salvation
15. Hands Off . . . She’s Mine
16. End Of The Party

For more information, visit myspace.com/officialbeatspace

PiL reunion album news

Public Image Limited has confirmed their first studio album in 20 years - This is PiL - will be released on May 28.

It will be released on PiL’s own label, PiL Official, via Cargo UK Distribution. The new material was recorded in the UK last year.

 

A 4-track EP entitled "One Drop" will be issued for Record Store Day on April 21.

The EP is comprised of the songs "One Drop,” “I Must Be Dreaming,” “The Room I Am In” and “Lollipop Opera,” also be available on the album.

Says John Lydon, "'One Drop' is about my early youth in Finsbury Park. Fantastic! Hello, we’re all teenagers don’t you forget it! At any age, stay young. "Lollipop Opera" is basically a beautiful bunch of background noise and music to sum up Britain and all its wonderful ambidextrousness! "The Room I Am In" well that’s about drugs and council flats. And there’s a tragedy that still continues. "I Must Be Dreaming" well, you know, I must be to put up with these governments.”

Following their live performance at BBC Radio 6 Birthday Celebrations at Queen Elizabeth Hall last month, PiL also played two special shows at London’s Heaven showcasing more new tracks. The track “One Drop” has received airplay from BBC Radio 6, XFM and Absolute Radio.

Widely regarded as one of the most innovative and influential bands of all time, PiL's music and vision earned them 5 UK Top 20 Singles and 5 UK Top 20 Albums. With a shifting line-up and unique sound, John Lydon guided the band from their debut album First Issue in 1978 through 1992's That What Is Not, before a 17-year hiatus. John then resurrected PiL in 2009 playing live worldwide. Now after 20 years, yet another new and unique chapter is set to unfold in the shape of new PiL material.

Public Image Ltd. live line up/wrote and recorded the new material...

John Lydon: After fronting the Sex Pistols, John Lydon formed PiL in 1978. Outside of PiL, John has released several solo records and collaborations. He also brings quality TV to the masses.

Lu Edmonds: Multi-instrumentalist and former guitarist in The Damned Lu joined PiL in 1986 recording and playing on the album "Happy?" and co-writing the album "9" adding yet another dimension to the PiL sound.

Bruce Smith: Former drummer in The Pop Group and The Slits became percussionist for PiL also in 1986 playing and recording on the albums "Happy?" and "9." Seen as a drumming virtuoso, Bruce Smith brought his unique style into the fold.

Scott Firth: A bass player/multi-instrumentalist that has collaborated and played with a variety of top musicians and bands including Steve Winwood, John Martyn, and Elvis Costello. 

Album track listing

1. This Is PiL
2. One Drop
3. Deeper Water
4. Terra-Gate
5. Human
6. I Must Be Dreaming
7. It Said That
8. The Room I Am In
9. Lollipop Opera
10. Fool
11. Reggie Song
12. Out Of The Woods 

Concert review: James enthralls Los Angeles before Coachella

Nowadays, it’s common for a band to vanish at some point in a concert and reappear elsewhere in the venue to do an acoustic segment.

James turned that tradition on its head during a captivating gig at LA’s El Rey Theatre on Thursday – a precursor to Coachella Festival appearances yesterday and April 20.

As the lights went dark, lead singer Tim Booth (pictured left), trumpeter/backing vocalist Andy Diagram and guitarist Larry Gott emerged from behind the soundboard to start the rapturous “Lose Control.” Then the three musicians casually strolled onstage.

Nearly two decades ago, the Manchester, U.K. alt-pop group enjoyed its biggest Stateside success with the album “Laid” and the title track. That stirring hit single was dispatched early in the 90-minute set as the crowd went wild. Surprisingly, nothing from 2010’s solid “The Morning After the Day Before” was played.  

Booth shook himself into a frenzy during the compelling “Oh My Heart,” while the bright and punchy “Waterfall” (off excellent 2008 comeback effort “Hey Ma”) was among several show highlights.

Others included the spiritual, uplifting “Seven” and “Say Something” - where Booth climbed atop a railing adjacent to the floor area and was propped up by fans as he made his way to the back of the El Rey - “Born of Frustration” and a mesmerizing “Waltzing Along,” assisted by most of the band on backing vocals.

Noticing a child up front without anything to protect her hearing, the alert front man asked why she didn’t have “ear defenders.”

The septet elevated the transcendental dance qualities of “Play Dead” and drummer David Baynton-Power provided martial beats (along with multi-instrumentalist Saul Davies) on the dramatic '80s-era tune “Medieval.”

Come encore time, a rapturous “Out to Get You” made expert use of space and had an extended violin ending by Davies. Finally, both “Sometimes” and “Tomorrow” were shimmering pop gems as always.  

Photos by Ida Miller