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Friday, January 29, 2010Friday's Earful: The Secret Machines; The National; Peter Gabriel; Earl Greyhound
By: David Schultz
 Unfortunately, the departure of Ben Curtis from the band in 2007 to concentrate on School Of Seven Bells with Alejandra and Claudia Deheza seemed to sap the rush out of the Machines. Their last studio effort with Phil Karnats rounding out the trio flashed glimpses of past wonder but too often Secret Machines plodded forth with a joyless mechanical march. They remain compelling, even if they’ve yet to get back in step with where they were at the middle of the last decade. Around Christmas time, Curtis and Garza played a Secret Machines show as duo when a snow storm stranded Karnats outside the City limits. Village Voice profilee nyctaper caught the show and wherever he goes, high-quality recordings follow. LOOKING AHEAD, INSTEAD OF BACKWARDS: When the weather gets warmer, The National will be releasing their follow-up to Boxer and take to the road. They’ll play the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN, where guitarist Bryce Dessner will co-curate, hit up parts of Europe and both American coasts, including a hometown June 16 show at Radio City Music Hall. On the west coast, Menomena’s Brent Knopf’s side project, Ramona Falls, will open. In support of Scratch My Back, his album of cover songs that will be released in the US on March 2, Peter Gabriel will embark on The New Blood Tour. Leaving guitars and drums at home, Gabriel will be accompanied solely by an orchestra he’s named the Scratch My Back Experience. The tour will bring Gabriel back to America for the first time in close to seven years with shows announced for Radio City Music Hall in New York City (May 2, May 3) and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.  Labels: Earl Greyhound, Peter Gabriel, The National, The Secret Machines Monday, December 28, 2009Earvolution's Ten For 2010
By: David Schultz
 April may have been the cruelest month for T.S. Eliot but for the music business, December can be quite a bear. Practically every new release of value that could come out between Thanksgiving and the New Year gets shelved until the dropping of the ball in Times Square and rock stars like to spend the holidays with their families just like the rest of us. The dearth of excitement results in the Christmas season proliferation of Year In Review compilations and Best Of lists. With the New Year right around the corner, here are some things to get excited about in 2010.Grace Potter & The Nocturnals: Not The T-Bone Burnett Album -791486.jpg) Throughout the majority of 2009, all the news from Potterville pointed to the new Grace Potter & The Nocturnals album being a collaboration with legendary producer T-Bone Burnett that was rumored to be heavy on the Grace but light on The Nocturnals. That’s now last year’s story. Yet to be titled, GP&TN’s 2010 release will be the fruits of their labors with songwriter/producer Mark Batson and will feature the entire band, including new members Catherine Popper and Benny Yurco. A few of the new songs, namely “Oasis,” “Tiny Light” and “Medicine,” have anchored the band’s set list on their recent tour with Brett Dennen, giving credence to guitarist Scott Tournet’s claim that their latest “sounds more like GPN than ANY other album.”U-Melt: Perfect World  On February 23, U-Melt’s third studio effort, Perfect World, will be released on Harmonized Records, offering up studio versions of live favorites like “Pura Vida,” “Elysian Fields” and the exquisite title track. In conjunction with the release, the band will embark on a tour of the East Coast, introducing their new guitarist Kevin Griffin, who will be replacing Rob Salzer, one of U-Melt’s founding members. Unquestionably, the departure of Salzer will be a game-changer but there’s no call for pessimistic prophecies; there’s too much talent in this band. Rather, it will be intriguing to watch and listen to how they evolve with Griffin. On February 20, U-Melt will celebrate Perfect World’s release with their debut at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom. Pavement Reunion  If Pavement had released Slanted and Enchanted or Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain nowadays instead of the early 90s, they would be among the most hyped bands in the history of the blogosphere. As Pavement’s heyday came in the era when indie-rock described a business model, not a genre, they didn’t garner an extraordinary amount of attention. Notwithstanding the fact that “Cut You Hair” had a steady run on MTV’s 120 Minutes or that they sold out four shows at Central Park’s Summerstage a year in advance, Pavement’s modest success in the 1990s will not equate with the inordinate number of people that will boast about how much they loved Stephen Malkmus and company back in the day. Pavement’s reunion will be a pretty significant and cool event; the unrealistic number of exaggerated accounts of their former greatness from those who claim to have been all over Pavement back in the 90s will not.Peter Gabriel: Scratch My Back  With his last studio effort coming in 2002, Peter Gabriel’s most significant accomplishment over the past few years has been getting reverently namechecked by Vampire Weekend in “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.” Not typically known as an interpreter of other’s material, Gabriel will release Scratch My Back, an album exclusively of covers, on February 15. Gabriel’s latest will include his take on David Bowie’s “Heroes,” Paul Simon’s “The Boy In The Bubble,” Bon Iver’s “Flume,” Arcade Fire’s “My Body Is A Cage” as well as versions of songs from Elbow, Lou Reed, The Magnetic Fields, Randy Newman, Regina Spektor, Neil Young, Radiohead and The Talking Heads.Blues & Lasers New Album  At the beginning of 2009, when Grace Potter & The Nocturnals had some down time, Scott Tournet revved his Delta blues project up to fifth gear, working many shows as a headliner, including one of the first gigs at the newly opened Brooklyn Bowl. As their debut album had only five songs, there was a lot of room to break out some new tunes and Blues & Lasers has a store of good ones on tap. With GPN business taking precedence, scheduling may be the bigger issue in getting to hear what B&L is up to. In the meantime, Tournet, Benny Yurco and Matt Burr are bringing a small taste of the B&L fireworks to the Nocturnals stage.Pete Townshend At The Super Bowl  Ever year since the NFL has gone into overcompensation mode for the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction, they trot out their classic rock superstar du jour at half time and unleash a slew of hired morons to rush out and act like they’re more excited than Michael Jackson left unsupervised in a pre-school. As it’s for TV, pros like Springsteen, Jagger and McCartney can ignore the nonsense and enjoy being the focal point of the spectacle. This ridiculous Hollywood crap seems like the exact sort of phoniness that drives Pete Townshend nuts and the ornery guitarist has never been too good at hiding his scorn. When The Who appear at the Super Bowl in February - no doubt, to play “Baba O’Riley,” “Behind Blue Eyes” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” - it’s a matter of time before Townshend explodes the myth of how happy those fans on the field truly are. Maybe he bonks one on the head like they’re Abbie Hoffman and they call it a senior citizen malfunction.Backyard Tire Fire: Good To Be  Produced by Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin, Backyard Tire Fire’s latest studio album, Good To Be, will be released on February 16. Not only are the Midwestern rockers one of the greatest bar bands with whom you could ever want to throw back a few beers, they are one of the more thought-provoking, Ed Anderson’s songs coming from the part of the soul that country and blues singers have mined for decades. Over the summer, BTF previewed a few of the album’s new songs when they came through New York City. No huge direction changes seem forthcoming but it’s clear that working with Berlin has had marvelous benefits. This may be the year that the Backyard Tire Fire catches on and Anderson finally gets his much deserved recognition.The Kinks Reunion  Nearly every group from the Sixties that had the manpower to get the band back together in the modern day has found it impossible to resist the financial allure of the reunion tour. Long before the Gallaghers and Robinsons started borrowing their act, Ray & Dave Davies were pushing sibling rivalry and brotherly love to its limits, much to the detriment of The Kink’s perpetual longevity. Just recently, Ray Davies gave the first indication in many years that he and his brother had the inclination to play together once more as The Kinks, a proposition that had been greatly hindered by the lingering effect of Dave Davies’ 2004 stroke. Rather than experiment in front of arenas full of people, The Kinks’ guitarist will play some “low-key” shows as the first baby step towards a full-blown Kinks reunion.Vampire Weekend: Contra  Vampire Weekend’s self-titled first album compiled all of the songs that had made them one of the most buzzed about bands in New York City onto a full-length release. Already vetted, its success was nearly a foregone conclusion. If the new songs starting to trickle out ahead of Contra’s January 12 release date are any indication, it looks like not only will we get more of the band’s warm and fuzzy mix of punk rock simplicity and Afro-pop rhythms, we’ll also get to recycle all those Ivy League jokes we’ve had to shelve for the last year or so.A Genesis Reunion With Peter Gabriel  In 2010, Genesis will join The Stooges, Jimmy Cliff, The Hollies and ABBA as the latest inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The induction ceremonies tend to reunite band mates who haven’t been able to find the time to play together, or - in the case of Van Halen and Blondie - speak to each other, over the past few years. Let’s hope that the occasion gives Peter Gabriel time to catch up with Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins and discuss a Genesis reunion, an event that none of them seems to have much of an aversion to doing. We can only hope that the next Genesis tour will have less “I Can’t Dance” and more lead singers dressed as buttercups.The Daily Earfuls will return in 2010. Happy New Year!! Labels: Backyard Tire Fire, Genesis, Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, Pavement, Peter Gabriel, The Kinks, The Who, U-Melt, Vampire Weekend Thursday, July 09, 2009Thursday's Earful: Peter Gabriel; Youssou N'Dour In the Mid-Eighties, World of Music, Arts & Dance co-founder Peter Gabriel regularly brought Youssou N'Dour on tour with him, introducing the Senegalese superstar to audiences outside of Africa. Customarily, N'Dour would open each show with his own band and return for Gabriel's encore to provide backing vocals for "In Your Eyes" and "Biko." For the 3rd annual WOMAD Charlton Park festival in Wiltshire, England, taking place July 24-26, the two will share a bill once more with the former Genesis lead singer headlining Saturday night and N'Dour and his band, Super Etoile de Dakar, as Sunday night's featured attraction.Labels: Peter Gabriel, Youssou N'Dour Tuesday, February 17, 2009Peter Gabriel To Protest At The Oscars You can bring Peter Gabriel to the Oscars, but you can't make him sing. The cerebral singer, long an activist for human rights, is giving the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences a nice little headache. Nominated for Best Song for "Down To Earth," his contribution to Wall-E, Gabriel has opted against performing on the broadcast after learning that he and the other two nominated songs would be given approximately ninety seconds each as part of a mid-show medley. Given the long and often ghastly performances from years past, it's hard to figure how the Academy could want to limit Gabriel's exposure or M.I.A.'s, whose "O Saya" from Slumdog Millionaire is also nominated. Then again, this is the same group that opted to nominate nothing over Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler."If someone else sings "Down To Earth" while Gabriel watches on, it will bring to mind the 1985 Oscar telecast when Amy Irving sang "Against All Odds" while Phil Collins inexplicably sat in the audience. Perhaps the Oscars have an anti-Genesis bias or maybe just really dig Mike Rutherford? Interestingly enough, that year Collins, Ray Parker, Jr. ("Ghostbusters") and Kenny Loggins ("Footloose") all lost to Stevie Wonder, who took home the award for the diabetes-inducing "I Just Called To Say To Say I Love You." Labels: Peter Gabriel Wednesday, August 13, 2008Gabriel Finally Finishes Big Blue Ball It's been so long since Peter Gabriel has released a new album, you would be forgiven for wondering why Vampire Weekend name checked the former Genesis lead singer in "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa." The charismatic live performer has finally finished work on Big Blue Ball, an album he started in the early 90s when he was deep in the thrall of his world music obsession.The album, which has been gatherng dust for more than a decade, includes duets with Sinead O'Connor and Tim Finn. In order to get the collection into shape, Gabriel has called in Waterboys frontman Karl Wallinger to help him get it ready for a 2009 release. It will be Gabriel's first album since 2002's Up, which took him a relatively quick 10 years to complete. Labels: Peter Gabriel Tuesday, January 30, 2007Peter Gabriel Drums Up Support for Witness
And The Eyes Of The World Are Watching Now
In an era where YouTube makes it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to broadcast their every whim, Peter Gabriel is making a plea to harness video voyeurism for good. At the World Economic Forum in Davros, Switzerland, Gabriel engaged in a little fundraising for Witness, his latest venture which seeks to document human rights abuses throughout the world on amateur video cameras. "With the phone and Internet, anyone, any place, can tell their story," said the politically-conscious singer. A longtime supporter of Amnesty International, Gabriel provided one of the defining performances of the Eighties during the 1986 Conspiracy Of Hope concert at Giants Stadium. With 80,000 people singing along to "Biko," Gabriel not only made one high school junior realize that music can do so much more than entertain, he motivated many in attendance to join the Nobel Prize winning organization with his understated "the rest is up to you." Labels: Peter Gabriel
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