Chuck Brown, who is widely accepted as the pioneer of the funk sub-genre go-go, died today (May 16) at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 75. Also known as the "Godfather of Go-Go," Brown was hospitalized earlier this month due to pneumonia. He had been performing up until close to his death, but cancelled recent shows due to his health. Brown's career dates back to the '60s, but it was in the '70s that he had the greatest impact, as he became synonymous with the regional funk movement known as go-go, which revolved around Washington, DC. He is best remembered for the 1979...Read More
Despite the implications of Alberta Cross's name, the band actually formed in London, UK, and is now based out of Brooklyn. Even though they're not Canadian, the band are still going to be stopping in our country this summer when they tour in support of their latest album, Songs of Patience. The sophomore LP arrives on July 17 via ATO/MapleMusic Recordings. According to a press release, the album was created during an arduous process that saw the musicians bouncing between cities before scrapping and reworking some of their already recorded material. They eventually pared...Read More
PJ Harvey caused a massive stir with her last album, 2011's Let England Shake, which earned her a spot on the Exclaim! cover and the coveted Mercury Prize. Her newest music, however, will be released in a far more low-key fashion, as she has contributed a couple of new tunes to What Is This Film Called Love?, a documentary by Irish critic Mark Cousins. The Wire notes that Harvey has offered up two new songs just for the occasion: "Horse" and "Bobby Don't Steal." The film also includes the previously released title track from 1995's To Bring You My Love....Read More
A few months ago, we complained that Shintaro Sakamoto's overlooked 2011 pop rock masterpiece, How to Live with a Phantom, didn't look as if it would be getting a domestic North American release anytime soon. We're happy to report that's finally been rectified, since the album -- which came out in Japan through Zelone Records -- will be arriving here via Other Music Recording Co. While Sakamoto rose to rock'n'roll stardom in his native Japan as the frontman for the late, great Yura Yura Teikoku, How to Live with a Phantom marks his first solo effort. A description from the...Read More
On top of dishing the dirt on their new LP 12:34, Vancouver-based pop punk trio Needles//Pins recently explained to Exclaim! that they would be hitting the road this June to support the upcoming album. While their tour schedule was still in the works at the time, the band have now revealed the dates. Needles//Pins will bang out their peppy new tunes at a record release show May 26 at Vancouver's Astoria Hotel, but their "It's 12:34 Somewhere" trip won't actually start for another couple of weeks. The first proper gig of the tour takes place June 7 at Edmonton's Wunderbar, and from...Read More
Way back in September, veteran New York rapper Masta Ace announced he had put the finishing touches on his collaborative album with metal-faced hip-hop icon DOOM, MA DOOM: Son of Yvonne. It's been a while since that announcement, but it looks as if the record will arrive this summer. A listing at UndergroundHipHop.com [via Prefix/HipHopDX] says that the album will drop July 17 through Fat Beats Records. That's its artwork up above. As previously reported, MA DOOM: Son of Yvonne finds Masta Ace spitting on top of a bunch of beats taken from DOOM's instrumental...Read More
Longtime thrashers and recent Exclaim! cover stars Lamb of God released their seventh full-length Resolution, their "most musically ambitious to date," this past winter, but the Richmond, VA metal vets will tear up the new tunes in the sweatiest of conditions on their upcoming North American summer tour. The eight-week adventure kicks off in Seattle August 1, but the band will head up north the next night to start a string of shows in Canada that will take them from Vancouver out to their appearances at both Heavy TO and Heavy MTL. The act will dip back into the U.S. for the...Read More
Jack White and his Third Man Records recently claimed the title of selling the most expensive flexi-disc ever with his balloon-launched "Freedom at 21," but as far as we're aware, that record has yet to be verified by any source other than the label itself. Well, it turns out that Jack has been gunning for the record books for some time, and once even tried to get the White Stripes recognized by the folks over at Guinness World Records. During a recent conversation with astronaut Buzz Aldrin for Interview Magazine, Jack explained that he and Meg attempted to set a record during...Read More
Influential techno-minded sonic experimenters Moritz von Oswald Trio are set to return with their third album Fetch. The four-track record is slated to arrive on June 18 via Honest Jon's Records and marks the follow-up to 2011's acclaimed Horizontal Structures. Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav Delay) and Max Loderbauer reprise their roles in the von Oswald-led group, though they were joined in the studio by a number of other artists. Marc Muellbauer delivered the bass and Tobias Freund contributed effects, while Sebastian Studnitzky took on trumpet and Jonas Schoen played...Read More
T.I. dropped his Fuck Da City Up mixtape over New Year's, and now the recently incarcerated rapper is getting ready to release his latest album. And while he's been dropping hints about the collection for some time now, we finally have a release date to mark down on our calendar. T.I.'s album Trouble Man will arrive on September 4, a due date he announced on The Angie Martinez Show on New York's Hot 97 FM. Rap-Up notes that the album looks to feature appearances from Trey Songz and Usher, and T.I. previously promised that the latter pair-up will result...Read More
Vancouver Island's Rock of the Woods festival is back for its second run this year, and will bring out BC-based bands like Rococode and the aptly named British Columbians when it hits the Glenora Farm in the Cowichan Valley July 27 to 29. A press release explains that while last year's inaugural fest took place in Bamberton, BC, the fest has moved about 100 kilometres west to Glenora Farm. Other acts who have been announced so far include Mindil Beach Markets, Acres of Lions, Sunhawk, Carmanah, Kingdom Cloud, Chris Ho and Pickwick. More artists will also be announced in the coming months. ...Read More
Having delivered the mostly acoustic Asleep in the Floodplain in 2011, Ben Chasny's next Six Organs of Admittance record, Ascent, will apparently pull a 180 and dial up the distortion tenfold. Allegedly swapping out the folk part of the psych-folk tag, the album arrives August 21 on Drag City. A press release explains that Chasny is no stranger to face-peeling guitar scrawl, regularly performing live with a full electric band and delivering the occasional on-record whitewash guitar drone, but Ascent has turned the project into a "full-tilt rock band." The record...Read More
The July 10 release date Dirty Projectors' latest album, Swing Lo Magellan, is growing ever closer, and in anticipation of the new long-player, the experimental pop act have unveiled the album cover for the new collection. That's it above. As you can see, it shows Dirty Projectors leader Dave Longstreth displaying his air guitar moves. We're guessing that the backwoodsy setting is in Delaware County, NY, where Longstreth worked on the album in a year-long writing and recording session. If you'd like to own a physical copy of the album rather than just looking at the artwork...Read More
It's time for another edition of Exclaim!'s Reader Feedback Roundup. This week saw you guys sounding off on a bunch of different topics, and here's just a taste of what went down.
In perhaps the biggest story to hit the music world this week, Against Me! lead vocalist Tom Gabel publicly announced plans to begin living as a woman named Laura Jane Grace. Some of our readers were philosophical about the transition. ScallywagNYC observed, "Which is to say one's identity isn't always attached to what lies between one's legs…" Other readers simply expressed their support for the singer's choice, writing "And the Brave Sonofabitch of the Year Award goes to..." and "HERO."
Then there was the cringe-worthy news of a "grunge rock" Mickey Mouse toy, which looks suspiciously like Kurt Cobain. One reader likened this commercialization to the 2Pac projection at Coachella earlier this year. "Jes' waitin' for his hologram to tour," said Phil, while other commenters got a little more apocalyptic. Dan Lather wrote, "The End is here. We're just spinning in circles now."
Iggy Pop was also in the news again this week for his collaboration with Top 40 artist Ke$ha and his spat with record label Virgin EMI. A picture ran with the article showing Iggy in his trademark bare-chested pose. Reader Doug quipped, "It's good to see that Iggy doesn't even wear a shirt when he's in the studio. He must save so much money."
Toronto-based singer Simone Schmidt of alt-country band One Hundred Dollars, meanwhile, drew some responses with news of her solo project Fiver. Clever reader, Adam Eh, commented on our Facebook post, "Wow, that's a significant devaluation from $100 to a fiver."
Hamilton, ON group the Rest are finally set to release their new record Seesaw on June 12 via Auteur Recordings, though getting to this point hasn't been an easy task. The album began "under the most heartbreaking circumstances," when friend and producer Dan Achen passed away. Achen produced the Rest's first two LPs, and upon his passing, the members "decided to honour him by recording at his converted church studio, in the same manner that we would have if he were there." Once the record was completed, however, the indie rockers ran into more trouble when an "unexplainable...Read More
Ontario folk ensemble the Strumbellas recently released their debut album, My Father and the Hunter, and they're covering all their bases as far as promoting it is concerned. That means releasing a music video and embarking on a Canadian tour. The trip kicks off later this month and will find them travelling from Ontario all the way to the West Coast. Later in the summer, they will also play at Guelph, ON's Hillside Music Festival. See the schedule below. Scroll past that to see the video for "The Sheriff," directed by Michael Maxxis. This chilly clip shows a masked demon...Read More
This week marks the release of Squarepusher's latest full-length, Ufabulum, on longtime label home Warp Records. After delving into jazz fusion (2008's Just a Souvenir), bass instrumentation (2009's Solo Electric Bass 1) and full-band performance (2010's Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator) on his past few albums, the IDM pioneer has returned to his glitch-heavy roots, a move Tom Jenkinson says was a very intentional one. "I got to the point where I was sick of playing instruments, having to sit down in the studio and having to rattle out takes on a guitar or...Read More
After another week of sifting through the newest music on the market, we've compiled a list of some of the week's latest album releases. Here are just some of the reviews up for grabs in our Recently Reviewed section.
To start, Best Coast are back with The Only Place, the sophomore effort from the Bethany Cosentino-led project. Will this one live up to expectations or do we have another case of the sophomore slumps? Read our review and find out.
Then there's Simian Mobile Disco doing what they do best, delivering satisfying electro tracks on their most recent offering Unpatterns, while Squarepusher has given us his 13th full-length in Ufabulum.
Next, Vancouver's Apollo Ghosts have released their anticipated Landmark album, which follows their critically acclaimed and Polaris Music Prize long-listed Mount Benson, and Montreal's Parlovr return with another slab of jangly indie pop with Kook Soul.
Finally, Leeroy Stagger and His Band produces some of his best music on his seventh album, Radiant Land, earning an Exclaim! Mark of Excellence this week, while A Whisper in the Noise craft artfully morose tunes on their fourth effort, To Forget.
While Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward marked his exit from the metal act's reunion plans earlier this year after alleging the contract he was offered was unfair, fans were no doubt hoping both sides would come to an agreement before the group's scheduled appearance at this weekend's hometown gig in Birmingham. Well, unfortunately that's not the case, so the drummer has made it known he's officially out... for now. In a lengthy post on his website, Ward confirms that he was not able to come to terms with his bandmates, though not for lack of trying. Apparently he was approached to play the...Read More
We already knew that Metric would be teaming up with Canadian Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) to score the new David Cronenberg flick, Cosmopolis. Now we've got some more details about that forthcoming soundtrack, which is even more star-studded that we originally thought. In addition to three brand new Metric songs -- "Long to Live," "I Don't Want to Wake Up" and "Call Me Home," which were recorded last November -- the album will feature a contribution from Somali-Canadian hip-hop star K'naan. His song "Mecca"...Read More
POP & ROCK: Beach House - Bloom
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