WOO HOO, new music from Jason Collett this week!
Jason Collett – “Out of Time” (MP3), “Charlyn, Angel of Kensington” (MP3)
Why? – “The Hollows” (MP3)
Bigelf -“Bats in the Belfry II” (MP3)
Wussy – “Rigor Mortis” (MP3)
Love in October – “Circa 1989” (MP3), “I Dream of Marie Antoinette” (MP3)
Brad Laner – “Outcold” (MP3)
Aloha – “Body Buzz” (MP3)
There has got to be something going on behind the scenes with Razorlight that isn’t being made public. Frankly, I don’t know that I’d recognize a Razorlight song if I heard it on the radio, but when the band recently told Billboard.com that they were hoping to conquer America with an upcoming seven date tour, I had to shake my head a bit. Seven dates? Yeah, that’ll leave a long lasting impression on American audiences.
Lead singer Johnny Borrell, who was last seen bouncing around Austin at SXSW in March with Kirstin Dunst on his arm, told Billboard, “My feeling’s always been that if people in America get to hear the music of Razorlight, they’ll fall in love with it.”
Yesterday somebody posted the following blog entry on the Razorlight MySpace page:
Razorlight have been forced to make changes to their November US tour. The band very much regret that due to record label issues beyond their control they’ve been left facing impossible last minute logistics to complete the run of shows and are therefore obliged to pull out of the Chicago, Seattle, San Fransisco and Los Angeles dates. Razorlight would like to apologize to the fans who have already bought tickets and hope people understand that they’re putting in place as much US activity as they can. Meanwhile, the dates in Boston, Brooklyn, New York and Toronto will go ahead as planned with The Von Bondies supporting plus Gran Ronde. The band will be attempting to re-schedule the remaining shows as soon as possible.
Sounds like the band’s “fans” aren’t too pleased and any attempts in the future to conquer America may be met with a lot of apathy from people who no longer care about Razorlight.
I guess this is the “hit” from the new album. Not bad, but certainly not “conquering America” worthy.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=A5AYN_EJhwg[/youtube]
Blind Melon played the whole reunion thing smartly. They did two weeks worth of dates at smaller clubs in early October to test the waters, see if people still cared, especially given that the band has a new singer. With a 12-year gag between live shows, Blind Melon still managed to sell out each of the first 10 or so dates and played both old and new material with a number of great surprises (and surprise guests) thrown in.
Keith, a regular poster on the Blind Melon message board, put together a really cool “unofficial” tour video mixing elements of his travels to see the band, old songs, new songs, live concert footage and the debut appearance of Shannon Hoon’s 12-year-old daughter Nico as she joined the band to perform the song “Change”.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=AvxGTCQ1aSo[/youtube]
There are a bunch of great live videos from the tour on YouTube so if you’re interested, do some searching and you’ll be rewarded.
Nine new tour dates have been announced and it’s pretty safe to assume that given the nature of the first run of dates, these most likely will sell out so if you are thinking about checking them out and don’t already have tickets, you might want to grab some now.
November 23 2007 : Allentown, PA @ Crocodile Rock Cafe
November 24 2007 : Ridgewood, NJ @ Blend
November 27 2007 : Lancaster, PA @ The Chameleon
November 28 2007 : Falls Church, VA @ The State Theatre
November 30 2007 : Charlotte, NC @ Tremont Music Hall
December 3 2007 : Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
December 5 2007 : Ft Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room
December 6 2007 : St Petersburg, FL @ The State Theatre
December 7 2007 : Tallahassee, FL @ The Beta Bar
Chris Stills – “When The Pain Dies Down” (MP3)
Wild Sweet Orange – “Wrestle With God” (MP3)
Digby – “What’s Not Plastic?” EP (ZIP) (like it? How ’bout a little donation for the band?)
No Kids – “For Halloween” (MP3)
As Tall As Lions – “Ghost of York” (MP3)
Quinn Walker – “By the Riverbank” (MP3), “Plenty of Water for Mud” (MP3), “Save Your Love For Me” (MP3)
Rings – “Mom Dance” (MP3)
Caught Adam Franklin’s show in Columbus last week and felt very honored to do so as the ex(?) Swervedriver frontman played a set of consisting entirely of solo originals rather than dipping into the Swervedriver catalog and did so in the very comfy confines of a club (Andyman’s Treehouse) that, if there are 50 people in the room, feels very tight. Without the sonic propensity of Swervedriver behind him, Franklin still managed to recall his roots which lean towards the shoegazing, Pink Floyd-psychedelic side of things (the lengthy closing track, “Ramonesland” was really rather incredible). A few days before the show it was announced that Franklin’s former band would be getting back together for a reunion tour in 2008 and Franklin spoke to Billboard about the plans for 2008.
I captured Franklin and band performing “Seize the Day” though the recording has two strikes against it as the club was dark and my camera doesn’t do so well with loud audio. But you can still enjoy the atmosphere and appreciate the size of the room he was playing.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=A7RXExKJ1jo[/youtube]
MP3: Adam Franklin – “Seize the Day” (CD version)