"Without the band I would be playing ELTON JOHN standards on a cruise ship." COLDPLAY's CHRIS MARTIN has no plans to quit the group.
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Friday, 27 June 2008
Elton John - The Things They Say 8575
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Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Voodoo Experience nabs R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails, STP
R.E.M. [ tickets ], Nine Inch Nails [ tickets ] and a reunited Stone Temple Pilots [ tickets ] head the list of performers signed up for the latest edition of fall's Voodoo Experience festival in New Orleans.The Oct. 24-26 event expects to host more than 90 acts spread out on six stages in historic City Park, with a lineup that also includes Death Cab for Cutie, Wyclef Jean, Panic at the Disco, Erykah Badu, Dashboard Confessional, DeVotchKa and many others. A complete list of names can be found at the festival's website.The festival will be highlighted by a series of special performances, including a gospel brunch featuring The Blind Boys of Alabama backed by The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, with the two iconic institutions performing together for the first time.General admission tickets for the festival go on sale today (6/23) on a first-come, first served basis, with weekend passes going for $115, and a limited number of $450 VIP passes--which include all three days admission, in/out permission, special viewing areas and more--also being offered.Created in 1999, the festival returns in 2008 to New Orleans for the10th straight year, a streak that held despite the massive damage done to the area by 2005's Hurricane Katrina.
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Pete Doherty Dead In New Art Exhibit
A Glasgow art exhibition has displayed a range of pictures by Scottish artist Peter Howson, depicting troubled rocker Pete Doherty as dead.
The six pastels of The Babyshambles frontman slumped in various poses has created a stir, however, Howson defends his work saying he understands the controversial musician and his battle with drugs and alcohol.
"Pete Doherty is someone who has really interested me over the last few months," Howson explains. "His spiral downwards reminds me of what I went through myself and I can identify with the way he is acting. Me wanting to paint him dead was pointing the finger at him and saying 'You can influence a whole generation'. He could, if he wanted to, become the right kind of hero."
A spokesman for Doherty responded to the exhibition saying, "Peter Howson has never met Pete as far as I am aware, so I don't know where he's getting his inspiration from. We have not seen the drawings and I don't see how Peter knows that much about Pete's lifestyle."
NEXT: Samuel L. Jackson Signs Television Deal
Photo courtesy of Jasmine Worth.
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
Angela Balakrishnan on Unlit events - part house party, part gig
It's a balmy Friday night, and I'm walking around and around, trying to find a house. I have no idea whose house it is, nor who or what will be there. All I've been told is that I'll be welcomed, I'll discover exciting new musical talent, and I'll meet people from all walks of life. The event, known as Unlit, will be, according to its creator, "one of the most beautiful, magical nights you can possibly experience".
Part house party, part gig, each Unlit event is hosted by anyone willing to open their home to strangers, and is free to anyone wishing to attend. Over the past 10 years, Unlit has developed from an underground movement to a viral internet phenomenon, the results all taking place in the comfort of your very own living room (or, more likely, someone else's).
At the centre of it all is Jont, a 34-year-old modern-day beatnik who spent his student days putting out an underground poetry journal called The Mad Cow, before deciding to launch his own club night. "I was bored with being a poet and preferred playing," he says. "It seemed like a natural evolution and I liked the idea of playing my songs to 20 or 30 people. That way it could have the most effect. It was a minimalist thing."
And so Unlit began, the early nights hosted at the 12 Bar in London's West End, with performances by the likes of Tom Baxter and the Duke Spirit (then known as Solomon), both now successful acts. Still keen to keep his own songwriting going, Jont moved to LA in 2003 when he found a new manager. He took Unlit with him, and there it developed into the distinctive gig/party format that is now so popular. "For the first time, I had my own flat," says Jont. "I thought, 'What would I like to do with this space?' The answer was to make it a venue once a week and make the most beautiful and magical night. It's all very personal. Unlit is very reflective of myself, as well as the person hosting it."
One musician who performed frequently at the LA Unlit nights was Sam Sparro, now riding high in the UK charts. "Back then, I didn't have much of an outlet for singing my songs," Sparro says. "It gave me the opportunity to get my stuff heard, and hear other people sing as well. I met some amazing people."
Back to my search. I finally find the address in south London. Jont is there, clutching his guitar, dressed in a blue trilby, open-necked shirt, colourful beads and velvet blazer adorned with flowers. News about the party broke online just four days before, but the address - a 17th-century former stables and printworks, lent for the evening by film director Richard de Aragues and his wife Caroline - is packed out.
Jont closes his set with a few tracks from his new album Supernatural, and then it is all wide smiles and excited chatter as the night slips into another long party. Also on the bill tonight is Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier from Sudan, relating his experiences in quickfire rap, and singer Vanessa Brown. Around the house, strangers meet strangers, while friends who have not seen each other in months, even years, bump into each other and reflect on how even a city like London can be a small world. Others go up to Richard and Caroline with wine and chocolate, to thank them for hosting the night.
"It's amazing how people take this leap of faith and can be generous and respectful of each other," Jont says. "And it's taught me not to bother waiting around for things to happen to you. I've had so many deals and bands fall through. I know the best way to make things happen is to create them myself".
· For more Unlitdetails, see: jontnet.com
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Markantonio
Artist: Markantonio
Genre(s):
Dance
Discography:
Audiological Evolution
Year: 2005
Tracks: 4
Mater Tenebra
Jessica Alba - Jessica Alba Marries Cash Warren
JESSICA ALBA married CASH WARREN in a secret ceremony on Monday (19May08).
The 27-year-old actress's representative Brad Cafarelli has confirmed to People.com a wedding took place, but no other details are available as WENN goes to press.
Alba is currently eight months pregnant with her first child. Warren, 31, is the father.
The Fantastic Four actress recently said of her relationship with Warren, who she met on the set of the 2005 superhero movie, "It wasn't lust, or 'this is my soulmate'. It was, 'Oh, I'm going to know you for the rest of my life.' It was easy."
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Switches
Artist: Switches
Genre(s):
Indie
Discography:
Heart Tuned to Dead (Preview)
Year: 2007
Tracks: 16
Playing tough, witty, and hook-laden stone that exists in a time warp where glam rock and Britpop ar the talk of the British Isles at the same time, Switches ar the inspiration of booster cable vocalist and guitarist Matt Bishop. Bishop claims he was already writing songs on a tiny guitar made for him by his father (a BBC locomotive engineer) at the age of five, and began recording them on a Fisher-Price cassette machine, creating overdubs by playing back his creations on his mom's stereo system and singing along with them. (Bishop adds that since he only knew two or trio chords at the time, most of these songs tended to resemble T. Rex.) As he grew sr., Bishop became an obsessive partizan of all things rock, and as a adolescent he gradatory to a four-track porta-studio which he secondhand to proceed his experiments in unlocking the secrets of record book output. When he went away to college, Bishop began putting together a striation with like-minded classmates, and with Ollie Thomas on lead story guitar, Max Tite on bass, and Jimmy G on drums, Matt Rock and the Others was innate. In 2002, the chemical group south Korean won a university-sponsored Battle of the Bands, claiming number 1 prize -- the opening slot on a countrywide go by the Darkness. Convinced they had a future on music, Bishop and his match fall by the wayside schoolhouse and resettled to Guildford, where they began severely working up songs and changed their name to Switches. After signing to the independent Degenerate Music label, the stria recorded an eclecticist five-song demonstration and flew to the United States to represent a showcase at the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, TX. Between the demonstration and their manic alive show, Switches made a major impression on American A&R work force, and they sign a deal with Atlantic Records. Writing material in 'tween tours with the likes of Graham Coxon, Hard-Fi, the Rakes, and Louis XIV, Switches released their debut EP, Message from Yuz, in the summer of 2006. With ternion singles following in later 2006 and early 2007, Switches in conclusion released their first full album, Heart Tuned to D.E.A.D., on April 23, 2007.
Leleo, Maravilhas
Though pretty much unknown in the UK, Brazilian singer and guitarist Leleo has been moving and shaking on Rio de Janeiro's music scene for around twenty years, initially with his group, Band Bel, and then in collaboration with the likes of Ivo Meirelles, Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento and
Marcello D2. This new project with local poet/lyricist Bernardo Vilhena is what he calls 'acid samba', as in a kind of hybrid of acid jazz and samba. Even so, though the record label might suggest otherwise, Leleo seems to be taking more of his musical cues from MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) heroes like Jorge Benjor, and also maybe something of the middle-of-the-road tendencies of Ceu Jorge.
On the rockier numbers like the opening Ela Briga Comigo, Leleo's voice has that slightly strained hoarseness that many Latin rock singers seem to adopt, and not everybody will warm to, but otherwise it's not especially distinctive. The vocal seems slightly tweaked by a vocoder on the smoother numbers like Ferias and certainly on Motoboy, a peppy pop song
about Brazilian bike messengers taking over London. Sounding tailor-made for any number of racy ad campaigns, programmer Lucas Marcier has definitely done some inventive messing with this.
Apart from the backing vocals, the odd cuica (friction drum) and some of the percussion, the samba flavour isn't particularly strong until about half-way through the disc when the coolly swinging Quem Me Salva E O Samba (Samba is My Saviour) and Sambanana appear, livening things up agreeably. But then there's the obligatory smoochy ballad in the penultimate track Santa, which glides by almost unnoticed.
At only 33 minutes, this is a pretty slim album in more ways than one, and with so many great records constantly coming out of Brazil, it's hard to see how this intermittently pleasant but fairly unexceptional one is going to stand out from the crowd.
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Young Knives 'dedicate' tiny gig to Tony Blair
Young Knives played a tiny gig last night (June 11) at The Star Of Bethnal Green venue in east London to around 150 fans.
During the set the band mock-dedicated a song to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and bassist The House Of Lords joked that he wanted to pass water on his fans.
You can see footage of the gig by clicking on the video below.
Kicking off the 12-song set with 'Fit For You', the Oxford-based band played a high-octane set which saw singer/guitarist Henry Dartnell bursting into the crowd and ending up on his back.
"How nice to be crammed into a tiny room, sweating with The House Of Lords quipped the frontman before playing 'Terra Firma'. Before playing 'Lightswitch' he said, "This song is for people who you think are going to be the big man, but they don't [end up being that]. Like Tony Blair."
Later in the set The House Of Lords joked, "I love you, audience. I want to get you all in a bath and urinate on you."
Then, during the following 'Weekends And Bleak Days', Henry Dartnell leaped into the crowd and fell down, playing guitar manically while flailing on his back on the venue floor, much to the crowd's delight.
Young Knives played:
'Fit For You'
'Counters'
'Terra Firma'
'Coastguard'
'Lightswitch'
'Dyed In The Wool'
'Weekends And Bleak Days'
'I Can Hardly See Them'
'Rue The Days'
'Turn Tail'
'The Decision'
'The Current Of The River'
See footage of the show by clicking on the video below.
Jun 18, 2008 at South Parade Pier, Portsmouth -
More Young Knives tickets
During the set the band mock-dedicated a song to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and bassist The House Of Lords joked that he wanted to pass water on his fans.
You can see footage of the gig by clicking on the video below.
Kicking off the 12-song set with 'Fit For You', the Oxford-based band played a high-octane set which saw singer/guitarist Henry Dartnell bursting into the crowd and ending up on his back.
"How nice to be crammed into a tiny room, sweating with The House Of Lords quipped the frontman before playing 'Terra Firma'. Before playing 'Lightswitch' he said, "This song is for people who you think are going to be the big man, but they don't [end up being that]. Like Tony Blair."
Later in the set The House Of Lords joked, "I love you, audience. I want to get you all in a bath and urinate on you."
Then, during the following 'Weekends And Bleak Days', Henry Dartnell leaped into the crowd and fell down, playing guitar manically while flailing on his back on the venue floor, much to the crowd's delight.
Young Knives played:
'Fit For You'
'Counters'
'Terra Firma'
'Coastguard'
'Lightswitch'
'Dyed In The Wool'
'Weekends And Bleak Days'
'I Can Hardly See Them'
'Rue The Days'
'Turn Tail'
'The Decision'
'The Current Of The River'
See footage of the show by clicking on the video below.
Jun 18, 2008 at South Parade Pier, Portsmouth -
More Young Knives tickets
Brand New Heavies
Artist: Brand New Heavies
Genre(s):
Dance
Discography:
Elephantitis CD2
Year: 2007
Tracks: 12
Elephantitis CD1
Year: 2007
Tracks: 14
Heavy Rhyme Experience Vol.1
Year: 2000
Tracks: 10
Pioneers of the London acid jazz view, the Brand New Heavies translated their dearest for the casimir Funk grooves of the 1970s into a advanced sound that carried the torch for classical soul in an epoch henpecked by rap. Formed in 1985 by drummer/keyboardist Jan Kincaid, guitar player Simon Bartholomew, and bassist/keyboardist Andrew Levy -- longtime school friends from the London suburb of Ealing -- the Brand New Heavies were in the beginning an subservient unit inspired by the James Brown and Meters records its members heard patch clubbing the rare groove scene in trend at the moment. The triad shortly began recording their own music, gaining tremendous exposure when their demo tracks were spun at the influential Cat in the Hat Club.
Finally adding a memorial tablet section, the Brand New Heavies built a cultus following end-to-end the London clubhouse circle, surviving the shift that sawing machine the rare rut shot fade in the ignite of bitter theater. After an earlier recording deal with Cooltempo yielded the unmarried "Got to Give," the Heavies -- now including vocalist Jay Ella Ruth -- signed with the fledgeling indie label Acid Jazz; recorded on a budget of just 8,000 pounds, the group's self-titled LP appeared in 1990 to firm critical applaud, resulting in a licensing handle with the American company Delicious Vinyl. With Ruth now kO'd of the band, Delicious Vinyl hand-picked N'dea Davenport as her successor, insisting the Heavies re-record tracks from their debut for their first U.S. elbow grease, also an eponymous release that appeared in 1992.
After scoring at house with "Dream Come True" and "Stick around This Way," the unmarried "Never Stop" presently landed on the American R&B charts, with the Heavies the first base British group to accomplish such a feat with a debut exclusive since Soul II Soul several years earlier; a subsequent New York functioning augmented by rappers Q-Tip (A Tribe Called Quest) and MC Serch (3rd Bass) elysian the mathematical group to begin absorbing hip-hop, and that summertime they turn off Heavy Rhyme Experience, Vol. 1, an album including edgar Guest appearances by rappers including Main Source, Gang Starr, Grand Puba, and the Pharcyde. 1994's Brother Sister, which went pt in Britain, was Davenport's last recording with the Heavies in front start a solo career; she was replaced by singer Siedah Garrett in sentence for 1997's Shelter. Two years later, the group reappeared with a British best-of album entitled Trunk Funk: The Best of the Brand New Heavies; the claim was recycled the next class for an American compilation, Trunk Funk Classics: 1991-2000, which featured a new birdcall recorded with Davenport. In early 2006 it was proclaimed that Davenport would be reuniting with the group. A new album, Get Used to It, was released after that year and was followed by a tour of the U.K. and Europe.
Will Haven
Dhol Foundation
Artist: Dhol Foundation
Genre(s):
New Age
Discography:
Big Drum: Small World
Year: 2001
Tracks: 12
The multi-membered Dhol Foundation (named later a North Indian membranophone made from a heavy wooden shell) combines elements of both greco-Roman Indian music with the unmistakable rhythms of mankind music, creating a completely original and compelling sound. The group's leader is Johnny Kalsi, wHO conditioned his tricks of the swop from beingness a member of the acclaimed Bhangra band Alaap. Shortly later joining, Kalsi began experimenting with large beat generation and contemporary terpsichore steps, and later numerous admirers inquired if he'd teach them how to wager this style, he formed one of the largest Dhol institutes in all of England -- the Dhol Foundation. In 2001, Kalsi was united by several students to criminal record the Dhol Foundation's debut album, Big Drum: Small World.
Indiana Jones for Cannes Festival?
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