PHANTOGRAM @ HOB anaheim 01.16.25 // THE PORTABLE INFINITE

All photos taken by Martin Worster   

Frank Black Shares 'Teenager Of The Year' Reissue LP, 2025 Tour Dates On Sale l LP Out Now via 4AD

Frank Black Shares Limited Edition 'Teenager of the Year' 30th Anniversary Tour Edition On Double Gold Vinyl 2025 Tour Dates On Sale Now LP Out Now via 4AD

To celebrate Frank Black’s landmark solo album, Teenager Of The Year turning 30, 4AD release a one-time vinyl pressing on 17th January, to accompany a tour of North America plus Paris and London, where Frank Black and the original band will be performing the album in its entirety.  This special vinyl tour edition of Teenager Of The Year, has been remastered for the first time from its original analogue studio tapes. Sounding as essential as the day it was released, the limited 30th  Anniversary Tour Edition is cut at 45 rpm for optimum playback and is being pressed on double gold vinyl. The album also comes in a gatefold sleeve with liner notes by both Frank Black and producer Eric Drew Feldman. A 24-bit digital version is being released on the same day. Originally recorded amid a rich songwriting vein, just as the Pixies had been placed on hold, Frank Black’s ambitious double album Teenager Of The Year came out in May 1994, just one year after his fantastic self-titled solo debut. Recorded with scene legend Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, Pere Ubu, The Residents), Teenager Of The Year, is now widely regarded as the defining statement of his solo career and the best album the Pixies never made. “Sometime in the early 80s, I'd have to look up the date, I matriculated high school. This school held an awards banquet for some of the departing students at the school. I received an award called the TEENAGER OF THE YEAR award; my brother received the same award the following year. Our award was a 50 dollar credit for textbooks, a TEENAGER OF THE YEAR medallion (my mother still has this), and also the banquet hall dinner, soup to nuts. My brother and I had no complaint about the award (it was given for being all-around-good-guy as best as we could determine). But for such a grand title to be given as TEENAGER OF THE YEAR, I felt the glory had not been amplified enough. In 1993, I was doing “solo recording” sessions with Eric Drew Feldman in Los Angeles. We had settled on a core band with Nick Vincent and Lyle Workman, occasionally augmented by Joey Santiago and Moris Tepper. Though we had to change studios numerous times for actual forest fires and earthquakes, the whole process was such an addictive musical buffet that Eric and I couldn't stop. We did some vocals at a studio rumored to be owned by Sergio Mendes; in the control room was a wall of television screens broadcasting the brush fire which crept toward us. We eventually evacuated to someplace else. We never met Sergio but we saw him perform a few weeks later when we vacated to Las Vegas after the Northridge earthquake, which had trapped the TEENAGER OF THE YEAR tapes in a studio vault for some time.  Our zeal plus empathy from our financiers, they safely observing our travails from London, was enough to keep the money flowing until Eric and I relented and declared “Consummatum est”.  We tried to make it grand. 22 in 62. I called it TEENAGER OF THE YEAR. It is 30 years old now, and the original band will perform the record at various venues in early 2025. 4AD has remastered the LP for a fresh printing. Enjoy.” Black Francis 2024 Meredith, New Hampshire. Pitchfork placed Teenager Of The Year in their Top 100 albums of the 90’s saying “beneath its veneer lie the moments brilliant enough to rival any of the Pixies’ 1990’s work, and Black’s greatest lyrical achievement.” The album is also included in the book “ 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”, while The Quietus in 2014 said “Teenager Of The Year feels like a lost Pixies album in the way Ram feels like a lost Beatles album. It’s colossal, it teems with innovation.” "Headache" - Official Music Video “Initially it was a 14-song album. It was mixed. Eric Idle was staying nearby. He kept telling me to change the songs around. Al (Clay)had to run off and go to his next project. We weren’t completely happy with what we had. The solution: record more songs. Eight more were born. Whole shebang was remixed by David Bianco. The day before we were to start the remix, the 1994 Northridge earthquake occurred. Charles, Jean (Charles’ first wife) and I escaped to Las Vegas, ate many shrimp cocktails, and we saw Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’99 perform. Sergio was especially good. After about five days we returned to the mixing studio and the deed was done.” Eric Drew Feldman.* To order the limited Teenager Of The Year 30th Anniversary Tour Edition go to: https://frankblack.ffm.to/teenageroftheyear30 Performed by: Frank Black on vocals and guitars Eric Drew Feldman on bass and keyboards Lyle Workman on guitar Nick Vincent on drums plus features by Joey Santiago - lead guitar on tracks 8,15,20,21 and 22 Moris Tepper - lead guitar on tracks 11 and 17 The Teenager Of The Year Tour starts on 15th January at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco and includes 11 US and Canadian shows before going over to perform in Paris on Tuesday 4th February and the iconic London Palladium on Thursday 6th February. Teenager Of The Year Tour Dates:  January  16th - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore  18th - LA, CA - The Orpheum 19th - El Cajon, CA - The Magnolia  22nd - Denver, CO - The Paramount 24th - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue  25th - Chicago, IL - The Metro  26th - Chicago, IL - The Metro  28th - Detroit, MI - St Andrews Hall 29th - Toronto, ON - History  31st - Boston, MA - House Of Blues  February  1st - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Street 4th - Paris, France - Le Trianon  6th - London, UK - The Palladium

SON LUX Release New EP 'Risk of Make Believe' via City Slang, All Streaming & Digital Sales Going To LA Fire Relief Efforts

SON LUX RELEASE RISK OF MAKE BELIEVE EP  VIA CITY SLANG LISTEN NOW ALL STREAMING & DIGITAL SALES OF THE EP GOING TO LA FIRE RELIEF EFFORTS FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE

Photo credit Alex Kozobolis | download high-res here Son Lux, the band of composers enlisted to score 2023’s genre-defying Best Picture, Everything Everywhere All At Once, is back with their first release of new music since their prismatic 49-track soundtrack. Risk Of Make Believe (out now - January 17th, 2025) is a new EP that encapsulates what made the experimental rock trio a perfect fit for the film: an unlikely alchemy of beguiling sounds and heart-on-sleeve passion. It is further evidence of Son Lux's wild creativity, voracious appetite for experimentation, and ability to distill seemingly disparate universes of sound into a signature unmistakably their own. Listen to the EP here. The band has announced today that all streaming and digital sales of Risk of Make Believe will go to LA fire relief efforts for the foreseeable future.  Friends, today we release our new EP, Risk of Make Believe, on all digital platforms. It feels strange to be sharing new music that has brought us such joy while we’re also feeling such heartbreak for our friends and colleagues experiencing myriad levels of loss due to the LA fires. As someone proud to call this city home, it’s been devastating watching this happen in my own backyard, and while my family and home have been spared any damage, it’s not lost on me that the collective trauma of loss will be deeply felt among our creative community for some time. With that in mind, we have decided to donate all proceeds from this EP for the foreseeable future to @sweetreliefmusiciansfund, a non-profit who have long been supporting musicians in need. They’re collecting funds to specifically address the loss of music equipment, medical bills related to the event, and vital living expenses. Their website also includes a growing list of mutual aid organizations in the LA area. This effort feels small in the face of so much need in the world, but it’s at least one thing we can do that feels right. Thank you for listening, and let’s take care of each other. 💙 - Ryan Lott Patience and ease pervade the EP’s title track, “Risk Of Make Believe.” The song begins with what sounds like drums through a vocoder up in the choir loft. Ian Chang and Rafiq Bhatia join with a precise but pliant groove, drums and bass moving together as if in slow motion. What unfolds is an unhurried song that never feels restless in its gradual evolution. Ryan Lott sings, “What’s the risk of make believe?” weaving a plea to give oneself permission to change through tessellations of crystallizing guitar.    “Don’t Say It’s Too Late,” the EP’s second single (December 5th, 2024), features Grammy Award-winning arranger and string player Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Paul Simon, John Legend, yMusic). The interplay between Lott’s voice, electronics, and strings creates a sweeping winter ballad balancing longing and loss, precariously reaching for the hope of reconciliation.   More traditional tracks give way to a pair of slowly unfurling songs on the meditative back half of the EP. Fans of the band will recognize the minimal, repeated refrains as a return to Son Lux’s roots. “Cocoon” holds space for metamorphosis over seven minutes, its spare, cyclical form belying a steady, relentless revolution. Detuned Tunis drums and prepared guitars shed like a chrysalis from around a choir of Lott’s evolving vocals, propelled by Chang and Bhatia’s sinewy rhythm section sensibility.  The EP closes with “Take Your Time With Me,” a slow-burn anthem that showcases the band's ability to reconcile hooky pop and thrilling experimentation. Spacious clearings of sound give way to technicolor thickets, with Chang’s drumming thrillingly pitting splatter-paint abstraction against nod-inducing viscerality. The EP leaves us right where we began—imagining and longing for whatever reinvention might follow.

Album art by Andrea Hyde | download high-res here Tracklist Haiku Risk Of Make Believe Don’t Say It’s Too Late Cocoon Take Your Time With Me On Son Lux: “Exhilaratingly unpredictable at every turn.” – Consequence of Sound “One of the most important bands in contemporary music.” – Under the Radar Mag On Everything Everywhere All At Once: “Every bit as chaotic and ambitious as the plot of Everything Everywhere All At Once, Son Lux’s soundtrack is an audacious, exploratory collection of songs.” – The Vinyl Factory “Son Lux’s score is a remarkable juggling act that oscillates from ominous to awe-inspiring and back again, with a few playful digressions along the way.” – Indiewire On Tomorrows: “Embraces chaos with an audacious range and unremitting sincerity.” – Pitchfork “A three-part series of austere beauty, white light and black rock, rooted in layers of haunting electro-acoustic samples.” – Composer Magazine Follow Son Lux: Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear 10th Anniversary Single LP Remastered Edition To Be Released Worldwide From Sub Pop on February 14th, 2025

On February 14th, 2025, Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear, his internationally acclaimed second album, will be available as a single LP for its 10th anniversary along with a digital-only companion release of demos that were initially released on cassette in 2015.  The digital companion piece (“I Love You, Honeybear Demos, etc.” ) also includes a solo acoustic performance of Nirvana’s ”Heart Shaped Box” recorded for SiriusXM during the …Honeybear cycle.  While his excellent debut, Fear Fun, would “introduce” the world to the singer and songwriter, it was the love and brutal honesty showcased in I Love You, Honeybear that would elevate Father John Misty’s career. The album became his most successful release to date.
 
Tillman wrote the following for the album’s release: “I Love You, Honeybear is a concept album about a guy named Josh Tillman who spends quite a bit of time banging his head against walls, cultivating weak ties with strangers, and generally avoiding intimacy at all costs. This all serves to fuel a version of himself that his self-loathing narcissism can deal with. We see him engaging in all manner of regrettable behavior…
 
“My ambition, aside from making an indulgent, soulful, and epic sound worthy of the subject matter, was to address the sensuality of fear, the terrifying force of love, the unutterable pleasures of true intimacy, and the destruction of emotional and intellectual prisons in my own voice. Blammo” (Read full bio here).
 
Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear debuted at number 17 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. It appeared on over 70 year-end lists for 2015, with “Album of the Year” honors from the likes of PASTE, Time Out New York, Under The Radar, GQ (UK), and Drowned in Sound with additional Top 20 placements from the likes of Billboard, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Exclaim, BBC, The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, and Rolling Stone. The album would also earn “Best of the Decade” notices from the likes of Pitchfork, PASTE, NME, Aquarium Drunkard, and Consequence of Sound. Last week, I Love You, Honeybear made Rolling Stone’s  The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century list.
 
The success of Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear led to incredible late-night performances of album tracks “Bored in the USA” on The Late Show with David Letterman, “True Affection” on Late Night with Seth Meyers, “Chateau Lobby (#4 For Two Virgins)” on Later…with Jools Holland, “I Love You, Honeybear” on Conan, “The Ideal Husband” on Jimmy Kimmel Live’s outdoor stage, and “Holy Shit” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Father John Misty also earned a 2016 Brit Award nomination for “Best International Male Solo Artist” alongside Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and The Weeknd. 
 
I Love You, Honeybear single LP edition is available to preorder worldwide from Sub Pop. LP preorders from Sub Pop Mega Mart in North America, Mega Mart 2 in the UK and EU, Father John Misty’s Official Website, and select independent retailers worldwide will receive the limited Loser edition on Pearlescent Red vinyl. There is also a Coke Bottle Clear vinyl available in Canada (all vinyl colors available while stock lasts!). As for the aforementioned I Love You, Honeybear demos, those will also be available on all DSPs on February 14th.
 
Also in February, Father John Misty will begin his international headline touring in support of Mahashmashana, his acclaimed new album from 2024, which begins February 12th in Chattanooga, TN at The Signal and runs through Wednesday, April 16th in London, UK at eartH Theatre (Rough Trade Outstore).
 

February 2025 North American Dates
Wed. Feb. 12 - Chattanooga, TN  - The Signal (FJM Only)
Thu. Feb. 13 - Atlanta, GA - The Eastern * [Sold Out]
Fri. Feb. 14 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium * [Sold Out]
Sat. Feb. 15 - Louisville, KY - Old Forester’s Paristown Hall * [Sold Out]
Mon. Feb. 17 - Columbus, OH - Kemba Live! *
Tue. Feb. 18 - Detroit, MI - The Fillmore *
Wed. Feb. 19 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE *
Fri. Feb. 21 - Toronto, ON - Massey Hall * [Sold Out]
Sat. Feb. 22 - Boston, MA - MGM *
Sun. Feb. 23 - Kingston, NY - Ulster Performing Arts Center *  [Sold Out]
Tue. Feb. 25 - Brooklyn, NY - Kings Theatre * [Sold Out]
Wed. Feb 26 - New York, NY - Beacon Theatre*
Fri. Feb. 28 - Philadelphia, PA - The Fillmore Philadelphia * [Sold Out]
Sat. Mar. 01 - Washington, DC - The Anthem *
 
* w/ Destroyer
 
April 2025 UK/EU Dates
Thu. Apr. 03 - Oslo, NO - Sentrum Scene + [Sold Out]
Fri. Apr. 04 - Stockholm, SE - Fållan +
Sat. Apr. 05 - Copenhagen, DK - Copenhagen Opera House +  [Sold Out]
Sun. Apr. 06 - Berlin, DE - Huxley’s +
Tue. Apr. 08 - Paris, FR - La Cigale + [Sold Out]
Wed. Apr. 09 - Brussels, BE - Ancienne Belgique +
Thu. Apr. 10 - Utrecht, NL - TivoliVredenburg + [Sold Out]
Sat. Apr. 12 - Edinburgh, UK - Usher Hall + [Sold Out]
Sun. April. 13 - Liverpool, UK - Jacaranda Records Outstore  [Sold Out]
Sun. Apr. 13 - Manchester, UK - O2 Apollo Manchester + [Sold Out]
Mon. Apr. 14 - Brighton, UK - Concorde 2 (Outstore) [Sold Out]
Mon. Apr. 14 - Brighton, UK - Brighton Dome + [Sold Out]
Tue. Apr. 15 - London, UK - Royal Albert Hall + [Sold Out]
Wed. Apr. 16 - London, UK - eartH Theatre (Rough Trade Outstore) [Sold Out]
Sun. Jun 22 - Leeds, UK - O2 Academy Leeds
Mon. Jun. 23 - Nottingham, UK - Rock City
Wed. Jun. 25 - Gateshead, UK - Glasshouse International Centre for Music
Thu. Jun. 26 - Cambridge, UK - Corn Exchange
Fri. Jun. 27 - Liverpool, UK - L’Olympia
Sat. Aug. 23 - Galway, Ireland - Leisureland
Sun. Aug. 24 - Dublin, Ireland - Collins Barracks (Wider Than Pictures)
Tue. Aug. 25 - Belfast, UK - Ulster Hall
Wed. Aug. 26 - Cork, Ireland - Cork City Hall
Thu. Aug. 28 - Glasgow, UK - Barrowland
Sat. Aug 30 - Birmingham, UK - Moseley Folk & Arts Festival
Aug. 28 - 31 - Dorset, UK - End of the Road Festival
 
+ w/ Butch Bastard

Anoushka Shankar Announces Final Chapter Of Album Trilogy Series With New Single “Hiraeth”

Anoushka Shankar Announces Final Chapter Of Album Trilogy Series With New Single “Hiraeth” 

Listen Here

11x Grammy-Nominated Sitarist And Composer’s New Experimental Album ‘Chapter Iii: We Return To Light’ Out March 14 On Leiter

North American Tour Kicks Off In March With Performances At Big Ears Festival + Stops In Los Angeles, New York And More

PRE-ORDER/PRE-SAVE ‘CHAPTER III: WE RETURN TO LIGHT’ 

 

Friday, January 17th, 2025 – Anoushka Shankar, the acclaimed sitarist, producer, composer, and now 11X GRAMMY-nominated artist, today announces the third and final installment of the trilogy of mini-albums she began in 2023 honoring the ever-shifting nature of her experience on earth through, each seeking to capture singular, fleeting moments in time with an act of trust: choosing new collaborators and walking into the recording studio with no more than an initial creative impulse. Chapter III: We Return To Light will be released on Nils Frahm’s LEITER label on March 14,  and today’s announcement is accompanied by the Goa trance-influenced track “Hiraeth,” the first song she composed for the project. 

Listen to “Hiraeth” here: https://ltr.lnk.to/Hiraeth

“Three chapters, three geographies,” Shankar scribbled in a diary at a café in Goa on New Year’s Day two years ago, manifesting the ambitious trilogy with nods to her roots, across continents and collaborators. Where Ch I: Forever, For Now – produced by Arooj Aftab and featuring Nils Frahm – conjures the immense stillness and beauty of a sun-kissed garden, the Peter Raeburn-produced Ch. II: How Dark It Is Before Dawn veiled the garden over, giving rise to the womblike power of darkness. The second chapter is up for Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album at this year’s GRAMMYs, and her featured role on Jacob Collier’s song “A Rock Somewhere” is up for the Best Global Performance, marking Shankar’s 10th and 11th nominations.

Watch an impassioned live performance from the two recently in Amsterdam here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgVRqM_PT5k 

Central to Ch. III is the mindfulness of India at the root of all her music. For the record, she joined with London-based, Indian multi-instrumentalist Sarathy Korwar, a leading voice in the British jazz scene along with composer and sarod player Alam Khan, son of the famed Indian classical guru, Ali Akbar Khan. Together, the three tap into Shankar’s fascination with Goa Trance – India’s electronic music export -  which began in her twenties, when she escaped to the beach state and chased dance floor epiphanies in secret forest raves, participating with wild, youthful abandon.

“Hiraeth,” the first song the trio worked on together, features looping melodies and backward sarod lines, an idea seeded by Khan and developed with Korwar and Shankar. For close listeners, it features an Easter egg in the form of the popular Hindu classical, Raga Palas Kafi, created by Ravi Shankar. Similarly, “Dancing on Scorched Earth” sees the artists locking into each other’s rhythms, radiating a collective intensity built on a foundation of hypnotic simplicity. “I discovered my love of a POG pedal on this track to really enjoy that lower octave crunchiness on my sitar,” says Shankar. 

On Ch. III, Shankar fully embraces a looping and bending sound technique, adding a further dimension to her voice and bringing her music outside of Western definitions of “neoclassical” and even further away from sub-continental norms of “fusion,”  a dated, catch-all banner for collaborative, experimental music. 

The trilogy closes with “We Return to Love,” based on one of Shankar’s favorite ragas, “Manj Khamaj,” played on a beautiful major scale with a twinge of nostalgia. It’s an apt conclusion as the recording was made famous by Shankar and Khan’s fathers who famously concluded many concerts and recordings with it. 

This is where the story ends, where the music returns to ancestral echoes while carving a path for modern Indian sounds, where all three artists step into a space of deep-rooted celebration. Ch. III’s final frame is of someone stepping out from a forest rave into the quietude of a shoreline. The feeling is a mix of nostalgia and renewal. It echoes Shankar’s journey through those Goa raves where all she could do was follow a sign and a person, except it’s now Shankar who is signposting the listener. With Chapter III: We Return to Light, feet meet the water, marking the end of a journey, a return to love, and a place of rest—a perfect, radiant conclusion to the trilogy.

Following the album release Shankar will perform at Big Ears festival in Knoxville and begin a headlining tour with stops in Los Angeles, Houston, Toronto, New York City, and more. See below for a full list of tour dates and stay tuned for more to come from Anoushka Shankar.

Photo Credit: Carly Hildebrant

PRE-ORDER/PRE-SAVE ‘CHAPTER III: WE RETURN TO LIGHT’ 

‘Chapter III: We Return To Light’ Tracklist:

1. Daybreak
2. Hiraeth
3. Dancing On Scorched Earth
4. We Burn So Brightly
5. Amrita
6. We Return To Love

 

Anoushka Shankar 2025 Tour Dates:

March 13 - The Moore Theatre, Seattle

March 14 - Bing Concert Hall, Stanford

March 15 - Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles

March 16 - Epstein Family Amphitheater, San Diego

March 18 - Eisemann Center, Richardson

March 19 - Cullen Theater, Houston

March 20 - Hodgson Concert Hall, Athens

March 22 - Auburn University, Auburn (Alabama)

March 23 - Ruby Diamond Concert Hall, Tallahassee

March 25 - Massey Hall, Toronto (Canada)

March 28 - Town Hall, New York

March 30 - Big Ears - Tennessee Theater, Knoxville