Julie Ann Bee -- who records under the name Sea of Bees -- is releasing her sophomore effort tomorrow, a follow-up to her 2009 debut Songs for the Ravens. The new album, Orangefarben, is being released on Team Love Records. And just so you know: the 25-year-old Bee, raised by a strict, religious family in a conservative suburb of Sacramento, is newly out-of-the-closet. A video of the lovely, catchy song "Broke" is below.
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Tonight, Friday, April 27, Jack White will be featured in a live American Express Unstaged event, directed by Gary Oldman. Watch the preview video below, and then tune in here online tonight at 9 p.m. EST, 6 p.m. PST for the live stream direct from New York's Webster Hall.
White's Blunderbuss (Third Man Records/Columbia) was released earlier this week to critical acclaim ("one of the best" albums of the year hailed The New Yorker).
On the touring front, White has confirmed an all ages matinee show at the Scottish Rite Theater in Detroit on May 24, a headline appearance at one day of the Roskilde Festival taking place July 5-8 in Denmark, shows in Australia at Festival Hall in Melbourne on July 25, Hordern Pavilion in Sydney on July 26 and headlining the Splendour In The Grass Festival at Belongil Fields in Byron Bay, a headline show at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado on August 8, and a performance at the Outside Lands Festival taking place August 10-12 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. A complete and constantly updated tour schedule can be found here.
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Nicki Minaj has premiered the video for her hit single, "Starships." Her new album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded is out now.
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Merriweather Post Pavilion kicks off its 2012 season with its annual Sweetlife Food and Music Festival, sponsored by delicious local salad chain Sweetgreen and headlined by Swedish electronic whippersnapper AVICII, rapper Kid Cudi and indie darlings The Shins. Also on the bill: Fun., Zola Jesus, Ben Browning of Cut Copy and local band BLUEBRAIN offering a DJ set. Local farmers will also offer hearty, organic grub at this "carbon neutral event." Tomorrow, Saturday, April 28. Gates open at noon. Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, Md. Tickets are $75 to $125. Call 800-551-SEAT or visit merriweathermusic.com.
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Scissor Sisters is launching a North American tour at the Las Vegas House of Blues on June 15 in support of their forthcoming album, Magic Hour. A ticket pre-sale begins Thursday, April 26, at 10 a.m., with tickets on sale to the general public on Friday, April 27 at 10 a.m. For your enjoyment, we've included a link to their first video from the new album.
6/15 -- Las Vegas, NV -- House of Blues 6/16 -- Los Angeles, CA -- Hollywood Palladium 6/17 -- Oakland, CA -- Fox Theater 6/19 -- Seattle, WA -- Paramount Ballroom 6/20 -- Vancouver, BC -- Commodore Ballroom 6/23 -- St. Paul, MN -- Harriet Island Regional Park River's Edge Music Festival 6/24 -- Chicago, IL -- Vic Theatre 6/25 -- Kansas City, MO -- Crossroads KC 6/27 -- Royal Oak, MI -- Royal Oak Music Theatre 6/28 -- Toronto, ON -- Sound Academy 6/29 -- Montreal, QC -- Olympia De Montreal 6/30 -- Boston, MA -- House of Blues 7/2 -- Washington, DC -- 9:30 Club 7/5 -- Philadelphia, PA -- Electric Factory 7/6 -- New York, NY -- Terminal 5 7/7 -- New York, NY -- Terminal 5
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If you haven't yet seen JD Sampson and MEN's new music video for "Make Him Pay," a track from their new Next EP, you really should check it out. You'll be happy you did, especially if you're a man who appreciates men for their manly ways.
Meanwhile, here are some upcoming tour dates, if you happen to live in California, Hawaii or Colorado.
4/27 -- Boulder, CO @ Communikey Festival
5/10 -- Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
5/11 -- San Francisco, CA @ The Rickshaw Stop
5/12 -- San Diego, CA @ Bar Pink
5/17 -- Honolulu, HI @ Next Door (Acoustic Appearance)
5/18 -- Honolulu, HI @ Soho
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"Back to the Stars" is the first single from Alphanaut's forthcoming LP Little Sun, due out this summer. The album is a concept-driven work about the life cycle of Dingo, beloved dog to Alphanaut's driving creative force, Mark Alan. Dingo passed away in October 2009 from Canine Lymphoma and each of the album's songs is a chapter in the story of his life. Eight of the thirteen songs on the album are told from Dingo's perspective, including "Back to the Stars."
The animated video was directed by Tonda Ros and "features Dingo as he leaves Earth to explore space, visits friends from the past, and ultimately transcends into another universe and time."
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Maroon 5 announced their highly anticipated fourth studio album Overexposed, slated to debut June 26. The album's first single, "Payphone," features Wiz Khalifia and is available on iTunes now.
Overexposed is definitely our most diverse and poppiest albums yet," says Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine. "We had a great time recording it. I can’t wait for our fans to hear the record, as well as hitting the road to play it live for everyone later this year."
Watch the video for Payphone below:
San Diego-based Hill Like Elephants recently released its debut album, The Endless Charade (Requiemme Records/BMG Chrysalis). Their video single, "Invisible Ink," is below. More about the band after the jump.
The Wanted performed their latest single "Chasing the Sun on NBC's The Voice last night. The group's U.S. debut EP drops on Tuesday, April 24.
Orbital has returned with their first album in eight years. The British electronica music legends -- Paul and Phil Hartnoll -- have created in Wonky a work that quite possibly matches, if not surpasses, their prior efforts. The album reached #11 on the UK charts last week and is making its U.S. debut today on iTunes.
What follows are three video singles from the album. The title track video -- featuring vocals by Lady Leshurr -- is notably strange, complete with singing felines and a kicker ending that, if not a touch morbid, is at least fairly amusing. The video for "New France," featuring Nola Jesus, is similarly patently strange, and involves a plushie toy that comes to life and who then does the nightlife scene proud. The third video, "Never," is placid by contrast -- despite its high-speed race through London's streets -- yet Orbital's trancelike music here is, well… utterly entrancing and thoroughly addictive.
Indie-rock darlings The Dandy Warhols will release their eighth studio album on April 24, though it is streamable now exclusively at Rolling Stone. Entitled This Machine , it was recorded over the course of 2011 at The Odditorium, the group's "rock clubhouse/ entertainment megaplex/studio."
Sci-fi writer Richard Morgan wrote the band's official Bio for the album in the form of four short stories. Download it here.
Finally, the video for the single "Sad Vacation" is now up on Vevo. Watch it below.
Nelly Furtado has just announced the title and release date of her fifth album. It will be called The Spirit Indestructible and will be released on June 19. The first single "Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)" will be available tomorrow, April 17.
From the press release:
Furtado co-wrote each song on The Spirit Indestructible, which, in keeping with her musically eclectic nature, finds her working with an array of collaborators from across the musical spectrum, including hip-hop songwriter-producer Salaam Remi (Furtado's "The Night is Young," Nas), pop songwriter-producer Rodney Jerkins (Michael Jackson, Beyonce and Lady Gaga), veteran metal producer Bob Rock (Metallica), Dutch DJ and EDM producer Tiesto, rock songwriter and producer John Shanks, and Jamaican reggae producer Da Genius. A deluxe version of the album will feature several bonus tracks, including Furtado's collaborations with Fraser T. Smith (Adele), producer and Passion Pit lead singer Mike Angelakos, and a track featuring the Kenyan Boys Choir that Furtado produced herself.
"I began writing these songs around the time I released my Spanish album Mi Plan," Furtado says. "I was in a great headspace, feeling refreshed and ready to really deliver in English again. This album is all about positivity, youth, good energy, and the relentlessness of the spirit. I want people to live this music the way we did when we wrote it. I want them to jump, dance, scream, laugh, cry, love, and vibe to it, and to turn it up very loud everywhere."
The Spirit Indestructible is Furtado's first English-language studio album since 2006's double-platinum Loose, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, was certified multi-platinum in 32 countries, and sold 10 million copies worldwide. Loose also spawned three hit singles, including the No. 1's "Promiscuous" and "Say It Right," both of which earned Furtado Grammy Award nominations.
Last night, April 12, Katie White unceremoniously took to the 9:30 Club stage after the house lights had dimmed. Wearing a ball cap low on her head and sporting bagging clothes, White slunk to center stage all while repeatedly shushing the boisterous sold-out crowd.
Later, she told the crowd to "shut up." Of course, it was in service of the Ting Tings, her nervy pop partnership with fellow Brit Jules de Martino. White was shushing the crowd for "Silence," the slow-to-build opening track from Sounds from Nowheresville, the duo's second set, released last month. The album itself is slow-to-build – but the more you listen to it, the more you come to appreciate its pop craftsmanship. The album finds the Ting Tings continuing to straddle the divide between dance and punk, with a little hip hop thrown in, creating a fun, spunky blend of pop that recalls forebears from Blondie to New Order to the Beastie Boys as well as contemporaries such as the Gossip, Le Tigre/JD Samson + MEN, even a little Robyn. And also Pink, whom the Ting Tings opened for in 2009.
"Hold your tongue now," White chanted as "Silence" opens, "and let them all listen to your silence." The crowd listened all right. There was a fair amount to watch, too. The LED show lights, in particular, were a perfect shade of mood-enhancing intense. Both White and de Martino, who spent much of the time behind his drum set, strapped on guitars from time to time, with assistance from their guitar gofer, seen constantly running around. At another point White banged on the centerpiece bass drum sporting the Ting Tings logo, banging it so hard it fell from its stand.
"Every time we come here you're so wonderful," White buttered up the crowd toward the end of the short, roughly 75-minute show. It was one of the rare times White actually talked to the crowd or made much of an effort to engage rather than simply perform music. While half of the material was new, there were the hits from the band's 2008 breakthrough, the cheekily titled We Started Nothing: chiefly "Shut Up And Let Me Go" and That's Not My Name," the unforgettable ditty that closed the show as part of a one song, pseudo-encore.
The duo then exited the stage nearly as quickly and as resolutely – as quietly too – as White had entered. Almost as if they couldn't wait to be let go.
9:30 Club Set List
Silence
Great DJ
Hang It Up
Give It Back
Guggenheim
Hit Me Down Sonny
We Walk
Fruit Machine
Shut Up And Let Me Go
Hands
That's Not My Name
Tickets remain for Saturday, April 14, at 9 p.m., at Rams Head Live!, 20 Market Place, Baltimore. Tickets are $25. Call 410-244-1131 or visit ramsheadlive.com.
Additional remaining shows on The Ting Tings' U.S. Tour:
April 13
Philadelphia, Penn.
The Trocadero
www.ticketfly.com
April 16
Atlanta, Ga.
Variety Playhouse
www.ticketmaster.com
April 17
Birmingham, Ala.
Workplay Theater
www.workplay.com
April 18
New Orleans, La.
House of Blues
www.livenation.com
April 20
Houston, Tex.
Fitzgerald's
www.ticketweb.com
April 21
Dallas, Tex.
Granada Theater
www.tickets.granadatheater.com
If you're into this kind of ear-punishing hardcore, then you're going to love this freshly-released video from OFF! The song is called Wipe Out and it's from their forthcoming album, due out on May 8. Even if it's not your so-called cup of tea, at 1:14 it's short enough to warrant a look, if only for the playful final few shots, including one of a skateboard being splintered in two.
American and international tour dates follow the jump.
Melody Gardot will release her new album The Absence on May 29. It's the follow-up to her 2009 critically-acclaimed best-seller, My One and Only. If this minute-long teaser is any indication, we're pretty much sold on her voluptuous sound.
Here's the music video for "Happy Pills," the lead single from the forthcoming Norah Jones album, Little Broken Hearts. The album is produced by Danger Mouse and is scheduled for release on May 1 by EMI's Blue Note Records.
Photography by Frank W. Ockenfels
On her new album, Slipstream, the legendary blues rocker Bonnie Raitt covers Scottish singer Gerry Rafferty's 1978 hit "Right Down the Line." The video, by Steve Lippman/FLIP, features couples, several of whom are gay, filmed in the San Francisco/Noe Valley neighborhood. It's a stunning take on a classic song. Rafferty, also known for the hits "Baker Street" and "Home and Dry," passed away in January, 2011.
Rufus Wainwright just released the video for "Out of the Game," featuring Helena Bonham Carter in a most inventive manner. "Out of the Game" is the debut single from Wainwright's upcoming album of the same name, to be released by Decca on May 1.
The Norwegian quintet, Orbo & the Longshots, just released "Highway Tears," their new single and video. The band, described as "rootsy rock," will release its first U.S. album on May 22. So far their tour is taking them to Music City Roots in Nashville, Tenn., on May 23 and to DelFest in Cumberland, Md. on May 27. More dates to be announced soon.
The quintet takes its names from the initials of the group's charismatic founder, guitarist and frontman, Ole Reinert Berg-Olsen. He's joined by Longshots Ine Tumyr (vocals, percussion), Reidar Opdal (piano, vocals) Paul Inge Vikingstad (bass) and Stian Tumyr (drums).
Prairie Sun is the group's sixth album, but the first released in the U.S. According to the group, "We play rock 'n roll with a rootsy American twist-some gospel, some country, blues and more-and this time out, we found a way to blend the way we sound live and the way we sound in the studio on one album."
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