Category — Concerts

The release of Metallica’s new album, Death Magnetic, is not the only newsworthy event this week. It was announced today that Sonic Youth has signed with Matador Records to release their 16th studio album, reportedly entitled The Eternal. Matador part-owner, Gerard Cosloy, wrote:

“For Matador, the opportunity to work in partnership with a group who’ve made such an profound impact on our roster/hometown/collective consciousness was one to jump at. Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley will commence recording the new Sonic Youth LP/CD this autumn and we look forward to sharing further details in the very near future.”

Seems like Thurston is staying as busy as ever, still running his own label, Ecstatic Peace!, and doing shows aside from Sonic Youth including The 50th Anniversary Fender Jazzmaster Concert this Friday. The show will also feature artists such as Tom Verlaine, Nels Cline, Lee Ranaldo & J Mascis. The event, which takes place at the Knitting Factory in New York, will not only be an opportunity for musicians to honor their favorite guitar, but a great chance for music fans to catch their favorite indie-rockers all in one place. (I wonder if Mascis will be playing his signature Jazzmaster).

More info on the show and each artist performing here.

More upcoming shows of interest:

Sonic Youth:
10-09 Milan, Italy - Alcatraz
10-10 Bolzano, Italy - Museion
10-11 Bolzano, Italy - Stahlbau Pichler

Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo:
09-12 New York, NY - Knitting Factory *
* with Nels Cline, Tom Verlaine, J Mascis

Thurston Moore:
09-17 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street #
09-19 Monticello, NY - Kutshers Country Club (ATP New York) #
09-27 New York, NY - Stone (as Northampton Wools)
# performing Psychic Hearts

Kim Gordon:
09-26 Saratoga, CA - Montalvo Arts Center (Kim Gordon Meets Phantom Orchard)

Lee Ranaldo:
09-28 Urbana, IL - Krannert Center for the Performing Arts *
* with Bang on a Can All-Stars, Glenn Kotche

This weekend at The Virgin Music Festival in Toronto (as posted about here yesterday), Noel Gallagher of Oasis was attacked on stage. It is possible that someone got fed up about Noel Gallagher bashing Radiohead, or Jay-Z or any number of other rock stars, but wow, to take it out on him in person is a little much.

The footage of the incident is available on youtube and shows Noel Gallagher getting pushed in the back very hard (at about 1:30 on the video), causing him to fall face first into his monitors. After this happens, the attacker begins to approach Liam Gallagher before he is tackled by about 5 or 6 security personnel. Pretty unbelievable.

Source.

Now, you might be asking me why I am posting about the Virgin Music Festival in Toronto (yes, I know it’s In Canada) when I never mentioned the one in Baltimore. You might also be wondering why I would bother calling it a music festival when I know full well that Jack Johnson isn’t on the lineup. But then you would have just answered your own question. At just a little more than halfway through the fest, we’ve already got an array YouTube videos to sift through. Check out footage of Foo Fighters playing Learn To Fly . And don’t forget the customary drunk guy who climbs a tree and gets kicked out . With an arguably better lineup than the Baltimore fest, I wouldn’t mind traveling the extra mileage to Toronto. All I can say is, maybe next year you’ll be seeing footage of me up in that tree.

Here are some more videos from the fest to check out:

• Bloc Party - Helicopter
• Against Me! - Trash Unreal
• Spiritualized
• MGMT - Time To Pretend

Pitchforkmedia has a new interview with Beck up where he discusses several interesting things. A few of them are the fact that his first massive hit single “Loser” was created as part of a side project and that he’s working on recording an album directly to vinyl. Well worth checking out.

Also, Beck will be taking the stage at the Hollywood Bowl on September 20th with Spoon and MGMT as openers. It will also mark the first time ever that Beck will be joined by his father David Campbell. Campbell is a string arranger and composer and has played on some classic albums himself. In this instance, he will conduct the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Strings along to his son’s music. This should be a unique show on Beck’s current tour. The rest of those dates below…

09-19 San Diego, CA - Street Scene Festival
09-20 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
09-22 Phoenix, AZ - Dodge Theater
09-23 Albuquerque, NM - Kiva Auditorium
09-25 El Paso, TX - Abraham Chavez Theatre
09-27 Austin, TX - Zilker Park (Austin City Limits Festival)
09-29 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater
09-30 Minneapolis, MN - Wilkins Auditorium
10-02 Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom
10-03 Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom
10-05 Toronto, Ontario - Sound Academy
10-06 Montreal, Quebec - St. Denis Theatre
10-09 New York, NY - United Palace
10-10 New York, NY - United Palace

There are many actors who moonlight as wanna-be rockstars. And many who probably shouldn’t. This list includes Billy Bob Thornton, Keanu Reeves, The Bacon Brothers. Yes, you heard me right, The Bacon Brothers. Though he did play guitar in a band called The Kids, Johnny Depp has always been cool (or lucky?) enough to stay under the radar for most “Top 10 Worst” lists. Possibily because he joined the band in high school, before moving to Los Angeles to become an oscar-winning actor.

On Friday, Depp loaned his celebrity to his former band to play a show in honor of their later manager and to raise money for children with special needs. He played a Fender Telecaster and sang backup vocals at the show, which took place at Club Cinema in Pompano Beach, Florida, and benefited the Dan Marino Foundation. Check out a video of the performance here.

As you sit here reading this, the 2008 Democratic convention is well underway in Denver. To some, Denver may seem out of reach. But fortunately for Obama, the indie rockers are on his side. After all, what better way to infiltrate the youthful minds of America than through music? On Wednesday, bands like Silversun Pickups, Cold War Kids and Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah joined forces with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to bring you Unconventional ’08 and, of course, show support for Obama.

Videos of these performances are beginning to pop up on YouTube. You can check out some of them here:

Cold War Kids – St. John
Nada Surf – Blankest Year

Later in the evening, when all the guitar amps and distortion pedals were put away, indie artists such as Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, Zooey Deschanel of She & Him and Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley gathered at the Manifest Hope Gallery for some acoustic jams. Drawing out hipsters in record-setting numbers (which I can only imagine resembled an endless mirage of flannel shirts, unwashed hair and super-tight pants), this is the event that has been receiving the majority of attention in music blogs. See for yourself here.

And if you aren’t jealous enough yet that you missed this once-in-a-lifetime chance to shotgun PBR with the guy who plays Jin on Lost, then why not rub it in a little bit more and check out the awesome artwork that was on display in the gallery.

My Bloody Valentine’s headlining set at the Fuji Rock Festival was captured on professional video, and video is available online for the song “To Here Knows When”.

The footage is great of the band and stage setup, the band really does sound good live. I noticed that of course Kevin Sheild’s is playing a Fender Jaguar and 2nd guitarist/vocalist Belinda Butcher is playing a Fender Mustang.

“To Here Knows When” live at the Fuji Rock Festival.

Metallica just played two of England’s biggest rock festivals, Reading and Leeds. A live soundboard version of their new single “The Day That Never Comes” from Leeds is available online via YouTube. The band’s “MetClub” series lets fans download soundboard versions of live shows for a fee, this one apparently leaked to youtube.

The sound of the song is a little muddier than the studio version, but overall it’s decent. From what I’ve seen it appears James Hetfield has been playing a lot of Gibson Explorers and also Les Pauls recently. I personally like the way these sound a lot more than the ESP’s he plays a lot. The structure of the song is kind of dangerously close to the band’s classic track “One” but its probably better than most of the tracks currently on Modern Rock radio.

An initial list of bands have been confirmed for CMJs Music Marathon in New York City (October 21-25). Among them are Broken Social Scene, Deerhoof, They Might Be Giants, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Virgins, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, A Place To Bury Strangers, Beach House, Cool Kids, Crystal Castles, Del McCoury Band, Donavon Frankenreiter, Gang Gang Dance, Jay Reatard, Lykke Li, Minus The Bear, Roisin Murphy, the Dears, Juliana Hatfield, Annuals and Yo Majesty.

There are some good bands playing this year. Also, this seems like a great mix of electric guitar based indie music as usual and more dancey and hip-hop focused artists.

Also of note is the panel discussions that will be taking place. If you’re a in a band, run a label or manage an artist, these could be really informative and worthwhile.

“Among the early confirmed panels are Essential Resources For Independent Labels, Internationally Licensing the Future, Artist Managers: The New Labels?, A New Media Fat Trimming Session and Bands As Brands.”

I probably will not get the chance to go to this as its in NYC, but I hope to hear about the panels in more detail after the event takes place.

Source.

Metallica have announced a North American run of tour dates with support along the way coming from The Sword, Down, Machine Head and Lamb Of God.

Members of the bands fan club will get access to tickets first before they go on sale to the general public. The band’s new record “Death Magnetic” will be released on September 12th and the first single from the album “The Day That Never Comes” will be released to radio later this month.

Full Tour Dates:

All October/November dates with Down and The Sword :

October 21 - Glendale, AZ Jobing Arena
October 23 - Albquerque, NM Tingley Coliseum
October 25 - Kansas City, MO Sprint Center
October 26 - Des Moines, IA Wells Fargo Arena
November 1 - Portland, OR Rose Quarter
November 3 - Salt Lake City, UT Energy Solutions Arena
November 4 - Denver, CO Pepsi Center
November 6 - Omaha, NE Qwest Center
November 8 - Moline, IL iWireless Center
November 9 - Columbus, OH Schottenstein Center
November 17 - St. Louis, MO Scottrade Center
November 18 - Tulsa, OK BOK Center
November 20 - Houston, TX Toyota Center
November 22 - Little Rock, AR Alltel Arena
November 23 - New Orleans, LA New Orleans Arena

All December dates with Lamb of God and The Sword:

December 1 - Seattle, WA Key Arena
December 2 - Vancouver, BC GM Place
December 4 - Calgary, AB Pengrowth Saddledome
December 7 - Edmonton, AB Rexall Place
December 12 - Ontario, CA Citizens Bank Arena
December 13 - Fresno, CA Save Mart Center
December 15 - San Diego, CA Cox Arena
December 17 - Los Angeles, CA The Forum
December 20 - Oakland, CA Oracle Arena

All January dates with Machine Head and The Sword:

January 12 - Milwaukee, WI Bradley Center
January 13 - Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena
January 15 - Washington, DC Verizon Center
January 17 - Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Center
January 18 - Boston, MA TD Banknorth Center
January 26 - Chicago, IL Allstate Arena
January 29 - Uniondale, NY Nassau Coliseum
January 31 - Newark, NJ Prudential Center

Source.