Pulp "Common People"

Gil Scott-Heron (RIP 1949-2011)

Major influence on music and poetry, Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011).

Nick Cave reissues

We are giving these four Nick Cave CDs from the 1990s: Let Love In, Murder Ballads, The Boatmans Call, and No More Shall We Part. One lucky winner. Please make a comment below or follow us on Twitter.

More info about these reissues on the official site: www.nickcaveandthebadseeds.com

Video info:

Watch exclusive videos from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' classic The Boatman's Call below and feel free to embed and share.

The Boatman's Call along with Let Love In, No More Shall We Part and Murder Ballads were all recently reissued as Collector's Editions.

They can be purchased at iTunes or via your local record shop to get your hands on the amazing artwork.

"(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?"

http://emicat.edgeboss.net/qtime/emicat/nickcave/nickcave_are-you-the-one_400x224.mov

http://emicat.edgeboss.net/qtime/emicat/nickcave/nickcave_are-you-the-one_640x360.mov

"Into My Arms"

http://emicat.edgeboss.net/qtime/emicat/nickcave/nickcave_into-my-arms_400x300.mov

http://emicat.edgeboss.net/qtime/emicat/nickcave/nickcave_into-my-arms_640x480.mov

The Horrors "Still Life"

New song by The Horrors. New album in July 2011.

Brian Jonestown Massacre "Hide and Seek"

Brian Jonewtown Massacre LIVE in Spain.

Gavin Friday "catholic"

Extraordinary music legend Gavin Friday releases new album "catholic" today (digital) with physical release date slated for August. (MB3/EMI)

4 star Reviews from Uncut, Q, Mojo and more!

"torchy, mirror-ball beauty. These are his silkiest arrangements, but shadowy undercurrents ensure the tension never lets up."

- MOJO 4 stars

"Friday shamelessly rekindles the Eno/Lanois unforgettable shimmer, croons against the dying of the light, and somehow emerges defiantly alive."

- Uncut 4 stars

"Echoes of Yeats writing about the violent heart... the music policy is sui generis, nocturnal-futurist with Friday's yearning half falsetto melodies drifting past moonscapes lit by neo ambient and late night club pulses " - Hot Press

" In short, it's a captivating listen from a distinguished performer. Welcome back, Gavin.

– Q Magazine 4 stars

"16 years off the circuit don’t seem to have withered his pen" - The Post (Ireland)

DOWNLOAD "ABLE" MP3:

http://download.themusebox.net/gavin_friday/able.mp3

"Able, the album's opening salvo, is an elated blast of stadium-bating synth-rock that is more uplifting than elegiac. Writhing in the song's spiralling keyboard sounds and gently chiming guitars, Friday purrs in his inimitable style about love, loss and letting go. Buoyed by a pulsating bass line and Friday's gruff half-spoken vocals, the song simmers and boils into a rousing frenzy of poeticism and rock panache, like U2 imbibing the introspective talents of Leonard Cohen."
Q Magazine Track of the Day

“Able” is an unexpected masterpiece that gives us a glimpse of what is to come from Friday’s new album.” – Pop In Stereo

16 years since his last album, it’s time to salute anti-hero Gavin Friday, who returns to form with his new album “catholic” set for digital release in North America on May 17th with CD to come in late August on MB3 Records/ EMI Music.

In recent years, Gavin Friday’s career has been dominated by cinema, soundtrack and theatre. So its no surprise that their collective, lush shadow looms over catholic. Friday takes conventional song structures and scores them, adding Bowie-synths, sci-fi swirls, epic strings and Germanic rhythms. Friday still puts the same energy and passion into his work that he did as a founding member of seminal post-punk band, Virgin Prunes.

Fittingly enough, “catholic” comes to us at a time of upheaval, of political chaos, and of spiritual, financial and moral bankruptcy. Our world is a very different place since Friday’s last album, Shag Tobacco, was released. The intervening decade and a half coincided with a prolific work period for the singer. From award winning soundtracks - William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, In America, The Boxer, Get Rich Die Tryin' (with Quincy Jones) and three songs to In The Name Of The Father which featured two collaborations with U2’s Bono ("In The Name Of The Father", "Billy Boola") and a Golden Globe nomination for “You Made Me The Thief of Your Heart” as sung by Sinead O’Connor - to collaborating on Nothing like the Sun with Gavin Bryars and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Then there was his acting debut (in Neil Jordan’s Breakfast on Pluto ), Scott Walker collaborations and a Kurt Weill show at Dublin Theatre Festival. In personal terms, he endured illness, the end of his marriage and his father’s death. To some, the personal is political; but Gavin Friday is clear that this is “an emotional, not a political, album”. The singer likens catholic to “waking from a deep sleep, of letting go and coming to terms with loss”. And somewhere in the middle of all that, there are slivers of love, contentment and romance.

“Sometimes when you’re building songs, they tell you ‘look after me’ or ‘fuck off, and leave me alone’”

PRINCE @ the Troubadour TONIGHT!

PRINCE @ the Troubadour two shows, May 11th

Alessi's Ark: US Tour

FOLLOW ALESSI'S ARK ONLINE: 2 New Digital Singles Available Now + US Tour Dates Announced British folk-popstress Alessi's Ark has just released the second in a series of digital singles on Bella Union records. The first released was the incessantly sweet song, "Wire," about young love and connecting to someone. "The song's edges are blurred enough to make it feel like reverie. 'Wire' is steeped with age. It's alluring in its openness and honest fragility," says a music blogger. The latest single is a cover of 60s teen pop icon Lesley Gore's "Maybe I Know." Made famous by her still nearly ubiquitous hit "It's My Party," which she recorded at the age of 16, and others like the early feminist anthem "You Don't Own Me." Alessi feels a special kinship with Gore as a result of herself also being thrust into the spotlight in her teen years; she signed on the dotted line with Virgin Records UK when she was just 17. "Last summer, I heard 'Maybe I Know' for the first time after my good friend Jake (Bellows) dreamt I performed it at a school party. He sent a YouTube link to Lesley Gore performing the song and it got stuck in my heart and brain immediately," says Alessi. Click the player below to check out her version of Gore's song via her new music video. Purchase "Maybe I Know" and "Wire" Now iTUNES - AMAZON - BELLA UNION iTUNES (Exclusive) US Tour Dates Announced for June June 7 Cambridge, MA @ Club Passim June 8 NYC, NY @ Joe's Pub (opening for John Grant with Heidi Spencer) June 9 NYC, NY @ Joe's Pub (opening for John Grant with Heidi Spencer) June 10 Philadelphia, PA @ World Café June 11 Washington DC @ Bella Café, June 12 Richmond, VA @ Steady Sounds (3pm record store instore) June 14 Durham, NC @ The Casbah

Where were you when you first heard SLOAN?

John Grant: US Tour

JOHN GRANT on tour w/ Heidi Spencer

Late this past March, John Grant left Austin’s SXSW festival on a trans-Atlantic flight in a state of bliss. It’s little surprise as the reviews of his select SXSW performances, backed by pals and Queen of Denmark producers Midlake, were some of the most superlative in his much-deserved, hard-fought rise to national attention…

Following SXSW and more soul-stirring performances in Europe, Grant is set to return to the U.S. in June for a select set of dates including a homecoming of sorts in Denver, CO, home of his long-time band The Czars, and culminating in two very special nights at the lush and intimate Joe’s Pub in New York City.

Called “…a more emotionally raw Rufus Wainwright with today’s most astonishing baritone,” by bloggers, Grant’s personal songs are unmistakably intense live. That intensity comes directly from John’s struggles growing up gay in small towns in the Midwest and later in life, with drugs and alcohol. With Queen of Denmark – and highlighted in songs like “Jesus Hates Faggots” – Grant’s personal battle to find worth and acceptance have finally translated into the bone crushing honesty and emotional power those around him always knew him to be capable of.

“…startlingly beautiful songs mostly unadorned, quietly backed by Midlake's soothing folk-rock… [“Jesus Hates Faggots”] was so honestly tender that you felt like turning to your neighbor and giving him or hera bless-you hug.” – SPIN

Stream Queen of Denmark

Watch a live version of QOD track “It’s Easier” from Brussels, Belgium shot in stunning high-definition black & white

Opening for John when he hits The Independent on June 2 is Bella Union label mate and Milwaukee songstress Heidi Spencer & The Rare Birds.

John Grant Tour Dates

6/2/2011 San Francisco, CA The Independent w/ Heidi Spencer

6/3/2011 Los Angeles, CA Largo at the Coronet Theatre w/ Heidi Spencer

6/4/2011 Denver, CO The Walnut Room w/Heidi Spencer

6/8/2011 New York, NY Joe's Pub w/Heidi Spencer and Alessi’s Ark

6/9/2011 New York, NY Joe's Pub w/Alessi’s Ark and Heidi Spencer

The Cure

THE CURE "REFLECTIONS" CONFIRMED FOR VIVID LIVE

One of the world's most enduringly influential bands, The Cure have today been confirmed to perform for Vivid LIVE at The Sydney Opera House, curated by Modular's Stephen "Pav" Pavlovic.

Hear how The Cure became the voice of generations with the performance of three releases that etched them into our consciousness.

The Cure will be appearing onstage with a uniquely evolving line-up of band members past and present, The Cure "Reflections" will see the band perform their first three albums live, in their entirety, in an extraordinary concert experience exclusively for Vivid LIVE on May 31 and June 1.

From the punchy, offbeat, starkly unadorned songs of Three Imaginary Boys, through the increasingly shadowy and quixotic pieces of Seventeen Seconds, to the singular melancholic grandeur of Faith, this is a rare chance to experience the origins of one of popular music's greatest stories.

In a coup for Vivid LIVE, this will be the first, and only, time The Cure perform these albums in succession.

The Raveonettes @ Trobadour tonight

The Raveonettes played a crazy live show last night. Tonight they begin a two night stand at the Troubadour. Both shows are sold out. It's going to be wild. They will be playing many songs off the new album Raven in the Grave, plus some hits from all five albums.

T.S.O.L.'s Jack Grisham talks 'An American Demon'

Jack Grisham book party today in Long Beach 2pm-6pm.