Post-March Spring Break: St.Vincent and a lot of other music news

St.Vincent: her new album is called "Actor" and will be released on May 5th.



Tracklist:

1. The Strangers
2. Save Me From What I Want
3. Neighbours
4. Actor Out of Work
5. Black Rainbow
6. Laughing With a Mouth of Blood
7. Marrow
8. The Bed
9. The Party
10. Just the Same but Brand New
11. The Sequel

Pretty sweet new song "The Strangers" is up on her MYSPACE PAGE and her website



‘Actor’
is available for pre-order now. Early CD and LP orders come with a free
limited edition 7” featuring the album track “Actor Out of Work,” and
the exclusive, non-album track “Bicycle” on the flipside. more info

ST. VINCENT 2009 U.S. TOUR DATES
5/19/2009 Somerville, MA Somerville Theatre
5/20/2009 New York, NY Webster Hall
5/21/2009 Philadelphia, PA Unitarian Church
5/22/2009 Washington, DC Black Cat
5/24/2009 George, WA Sasquatch!
5/25/2009 Portland, OR Aladdin Theater
5/27/2009 San Francisco, CA Bimbo’s 365 Club
5/28/2009 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre
5/30/2009 San Diego, CA Casbah
5/31/2009 Phoenix, AZ Modified
6/2/2009 Denver, CO Bluebird Theater
6/3/2009 Omaha, NE Slowdown Jr.
6/4/2009 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
6/5/2009 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theater
6/7/2009 Chicago, IL Epiphany
6/10/2009 Lexington, KY The Dame
6/11/2009 Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge
6/12/2009 Manchester, TN Bonnaroo
6/16/2009 Birmingham, AL Bottle Tree
6/18/2009 Dallas, TX Granada Theatre
6/19/2009 Austin, TX Mohawk

I may have to do that pre-order deal. First Ave again?..BLECH! I should check The Entry's calendar. I suppose given Jeremy Messersmith and Amanda Palmer's
acoustic/quiet sections of their show, maybe the lack-of-soundproofing
won't affect Annie's show as much if it's more electric stuff. Dunno.
It still won't eliminate interference between songs.

maudlin of the Well's
free digital album will be available in only a few weeks online! I did
put about $12 I recall towards that donation. I'm definitely looking
fwd to it, and cautiously hoping the amount of Kayo Dot influence is
minimal in the writing. motW = good, Kayo Dot = bad (mostly).

Sound & Shape - The Love Electric (EP) (2009)

Maybe the best EP of this early season. A lot of what I dig in the Mars Volta-kind of sound.

40/50

myspace page



Sholi - Sholi (2009)




Sholi's myspace

Bought
this disc used a few days ago @Zia in AZ on vacation. I had sampled
them previously, but wasn't certain about how much I'd like em. As it
turns out, I do like them, but am not blown away or anything (yet).
It's a consistent album start-to-finish. Riffy, experimental, somewhat
stripped-down at times. Sort of a mix of Deerhoof and The Skeletons just guessing off the top of my head. A bit like the Grammatics
album, with song-after-song having some part or energetic section that
works, but overall I'm not sure if it'll place quite as high.

Closer to my kind of "experimental" music anyway.

70/100

a whole slew of new bands I'm checking out, but sadly, Sholi and perhaps 2 others The Flying Tourbillon Orchestra and Japanese "Progressive Post-Rock" band Presence of Soul
are the only ones that have worked for me thus far. But I got like 15
or so new names between blogs and Alternative Press's new "100 Bands
You Need To Know for 2009" issue. TFTBO and Sound & Shape, ironically were not among *the 100* though.

Mastodon finally leaked (a full version, the drop date is Tuesday 3/24 like the New Decemberists) and the new dredg album may not be far away either as the 1st teaser/review
was posted there. Usually w/ new reviews -> many promos sent out
-> a leak. June 9th it's been pushed back to, but we may have a
similar CWA situation with a very early leak. I don't mind, the band
probably overall doesn't either given they know they have a large and
loyal fan-base that will buy it anyway.

Porcupine Tree: New album is due September 21st. It will consist of 2 cds. 1 being 1 single 55minute song, the other individual songs.

I seriously doubt this will be a top 10 candidate just based on how much filler this could have. Really fucking sad, as Steven Wilson
seems to be getting highly predictable. But maybe I'll be wrong about
that. a 3-album winning streak this decade (Lightbulb Sun, In Absentia,
Deadwing) would suggest potential comeback, but INSURGENTES sadly doesn't support the chances of that.


The new Dream Theater album comes out on June 23rd, like Soundscape. It's called "Black Clouds & Silver Linings."
6 Songs on cd 1. A 2nd cd of covers and then I guess an
all-instrumental version of it on another disc depending on which
version you get. Plus it's being issues on vinyl.

I'll likely,
like some of it, but find a lot of it to be wanking filler and/or
cheesy lyrics. But I'd love to be wrong. The band need a kick in the
ass, but it hasn't come with their last 3. More piano and analog synths. More organic or even acoustic.
But 6 songs for them means a few epic tracks, with in all likelihood
will include the necessary extended proggy parts they enjoy. Fine. I
just don't expect much more at this stage. But like I said, it would
mean a lot for me, for them to comeback and make a statement like SCENES FROM A MEMORY or even 6 DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE.

also
not a top 10 candidate just based on how huge and deep a year 2009 very
likely will be. A top 50 likely, for what it's worth.

Blackfield also may have a new album out in 2009. Coheed and Cambria and Alter Bridge were a couple of others.

Oceansize
has a new EP they are working on right now too that should be out in
the Fall. They're on twitter if anyone is up for reading more about it.
Keywords: Mike Vennart

The Dear Hunter are working on ACT III
in the studio right now; really they have for a few months. They have I
guess 14 or 15 songs (or movements), 1 being an in instrumental.
Another having a working title "Poison Woman" that I guess has
a ragtime feel to it. Their goal to have it out is "by Spring" but
given how little info is finalized, my money is Aug/Sept-ish.

Subterranean Masquerade I got a message back from on myspace about "In Pastille Colors"
the other day. But really no info about if/when it'll be out. Just that
they've been working on it for the better part of 3 years.

Orphaned Land on the other hand will be finally releasing "The Neverending Way ORWarriOR" finally in October (projected). Steven Wilson
is NOT producing (apparently, whatever that means), but will be mixing
and playing keyboards on it. And done via mail/email I guess given
schedule. Perhaps the reason he's not technically producing it now is
due to that and not being able to be in Israel with the band. I put on
2004's "Mabool" last week and I can't deny, that album has some
awesome moments throughout; that with Wilson on board and their
progression as songwriters since, it could be a big sleeper for Metal
album, or just plain a top 5 or top 10 album for '09.

fuck, I got a ton of other pieces to add, but of course time is always at a shortage. TV and the Synecdoche, NY DVD among others. I now have a portable DVD player.

Gophers (Men's basketball) lost badly to Texas
in the NCAA's. It's not surprising. They weren't playing that well, and
team's have figured out how to defend and score on them. If their press
doesn't work (or they DON'T USE IT OFTEN, AND EARLY) they don't win
usually. 2009-2010 is their year, but I'm not convinced Tubby's that
great a coach (here at least, and yet). So far, my bracket looks pretty
good like most, with mostly favorites winning. I'd rather have seen American beat Villanova just to screw up others brackets. I have Louisville beating North Carolina I recall in the National Championship game.

Catching up on TV. Castle is good. Breaking Bad I also am on board with. Bryan Cranston is very different, but still quite entertaining in it. I don't get what all the fuss is about that dry 50's drama Mad Men on American Movie Classics Channel. I was highly underwhelmed and bored. The audiences for Breaking Bad and that show seem pretty different, yet they air them back-2-back on Sunday nights for some reason.


Y: The Last Man I read the 1st graphic novel "Unmanned" over my Spring Break in Arizona. It's from Lost writer Bryan K. Vaughn
Really intriguing Post-apocalyptic story. There's 8 more I guess, and I
have almost all of them on request now at the library. Being a fan of Jeremiah
and the use of that story setting, I am looking forward to going
through the rest of the series. When I'm done, I'll try and write a
more thorough review. It's nice to have some reading, even if they seem
more like glorified, but closer-to-real-world comic books. They take a lot less time to finish (presumably).