by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: Bibi Tanga - "Be Africa" (Dave Sitek Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Little Dragon - Blinking Pigs (MP3)

Little Dragon @ Le Poisson Rouge in 2009 (more by Matthew Taplinger)

Little Dragon announced an early 2011 US tour promoting the release of their upcoming third full length album. The tour makes two stops in New York at Music Hall of Williamsburg on January 20 and Bowery Ballroom on January 21. Tickets are on sale. No openers mentioned yet.

Little Dragon are currently on an international tour (Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand) supporting the Gorillaz, whose most recent album Plastic Beach features Little Dragon on two tracks; "Empire Ants" and "To Binge." LD vocalist Yukimi Nagano also performs both songs live with the band (you may have seen her do it at MSG or on Letterman).

Speaking of Gorillaz, Damon Albarn has announced not only an upcoming Gorillaz album, but two other albums as well. According to an interview with Stuff, Albarn has plans for a second album by The Good, The Bad, & The Queen, and for an album by a new band he's a part of. The new band features Tony Allen (also of The Good, The Bad, & The Queen), Flea, and some of Albarn's "favourite African musicians will be involved also."

Stuff also asked Albarn if Blur, who released a DVD documentary this year, have any plans for a world tour or new album. Albarn responded, "There won't be another world tour for me - for anything - for five to six years; it would seem unlikely. I have a young daughter and it's just not feasible, it's too long away from home. This has been great, but it's too much after a while and so, no, there won't be any tours for me for a while, I should think."

Albarn has also been recording a new Gorillaz album on tour with his iPad. He told NME "I've made it on an iPad - I hope I'll be making the first record on an iPad," he said. "I fell in love with my iPad as soon as I got it, so I've made a completely different kind of record." Albarn wants to release the album "before Christmas."

Gorillaz recorded a new single "Doncamatic" with British R&B singer Daley which will be officially released on November 22 in three formats. The CD version also includes a Joker remix of the song, the iTunes EP adds the third track "Album Mix Tape," and the 7 inch single is "Doncamatic" with the Paul Harris remix of "Empire Ants" on side B. All three formats are currently available for pre-order. There's also a video for the song. You can watch it below.

Little Dragon also recently collaborated with Dave Sitek on one of the tracks off this year's Maximum Balloon release. Sitek more recently remixed the track "Be Africa" by France's Bibi Tanga . It has nothing to do with anything really, but it's being offered as a free download, so grab that mp3 above.

The Gorillaz video and all tour dates below...

Continue reading "new Damon Albarn albums & a Gorillaz video, his iPad, Little Dragon tour dates & Dave Sitek too"

photos by Bao Nguyen

"If anyone tells you the Gorillaz show at MSG on Friday was anything less than incredible, they're lying to you. Some bands you wish to see in their earlier stages, but now is the time to see Gorillaz. They have never been better, and there's no guarantee they can top this. This is their prime time, and the brilliance of their collaborative musical geniuses was amplified in concert. Not only did we see Damon Albarn in flesh - a personal idol - but he was accompanied by the incredible artists that were featured on Plastic Beach: Mos Def, Lou Reed, Bobby Womack, De La Soul, Little Dragon, members of The Clash, etc. Co-creator of Gorillaz, visual man Jamie Hewlett also peeped out from backstage to say hello - to whom Damon planted a big ol' kiss. The entire show was almost too epic to be true... You know when all your favorite superheroes get together and form a league? That is what this was. And this 'league' leader, frontman Damon Albarn, was clearly having the time of his life. He was constantly dancing, jumping around, running around the stage, hugging people - never keeping still unless he was playing the piano. Reminded us of his good old Blur days, sigh. They played almost all of their latest album and included old time favorites like "Clint Eastwood" and "Feel Good Inc."" [morningafterpills]

After launching their tour in Boston, Gorillaz and N.E.R.D. played the giant NYC room that is Madison Square Garden on Friday night (10/8). As the quote above points out, there were many special guests in the house, some of whom are on the whole tour and some who just stopped by for the New York show (like Jay-Z though he was just there to watch).

More pictures, some videos and the full show setlist, below...

Continue reading "Gorillaz played MSG w/ N.E.R.D., Lou Reed, Mos Def & many other special guests (pics & setlist) "

Gorillaz @ Coachella (more by Rachel Carr)

"With blown minds still reeling from a record-breaking one-off headline appearance at this year's Coachella festival, Gorillaz have confirmed that their worldwide "Escape To Plastic Beach" tour will begin in North America with a 20 date stretch commencing October 3 at Montreal's Bell Centre and including the band's first ever performance at Madison Square Garden on October 8."

Press release continued, with tour trailer video, below...

Continue reading "Gorillaz will tour North America this year, play MSG (presale) "

Gorillaz @ Coachella (more by Rachel Carr)

Videos from last night's episode of Colbert, below...

Continue reading "Gorillaz stopped by the Colbert Report (videos) "

Trip-Hop legends Massive Attack have released their new video for "Paradise Circus" (ft. Hope Sandoval) in support of their album, Heligoland, set to release February 9th via EMI's Virgin Records. The Toby Dye directed video features former porn star, Georgina Spelvin, and her candid look on filming the infamous adult film, The Devil in Miss Jones. Original shots of the '73 hit (NSFW) are interlaced with Spelvin's honest take on her physical and emotional state during the production of the film nearly forty years ago.

Heligoland, Massive Attack's highly-anticipated 5th studio album, will feature guest vocals from Damon Albarn, Marina Topely-Bird, Guy Garvey and Tunde Adebimpe. Longtime cohort, Horace Andy, is also set to return alongside Massive Attack founding members Robert Del Naja (3D) and Grand Marshall (Daddy G). The prelude to Heligoland, the Splitting the Atom EP, is available now.

It feels like forever that I've been waiting to hear the new Hope Sandoval-contributed Massive Attack track and it's well worth the wait though I could do without the distracting commentary by Georgina. I hope there's a version without her. I don't really think that The xx sound like Hope Sandoval, but this song definitely sounds a little like The xx. Listen/watch (NSFW) the video with the album art and tracklist, below...

Continue reading "Massive Attack - new album w/ guests & a NSFW porn video for the track featuring Hope Sandoval "

"Legendary trip-hop duo Massive Attack have announced the release of their first new material in three years - an EP of four new tracks due for release on October 6th from Virgin Records. The lead song "Splitting The Atom" features Robert Del Naja (3D), Grant Marshall (Daddy G) and Horace Andy, while TV On The Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe guests on "Pray For Rain". The EP also has remixes of two new tracks; "Psyche" featuring Martina Topley-Bird is given the re-rub by Van Rivers & The Subliminal Kid who have recently remixed Bat For Lashes and The Big Pink, while the Guy Garvey fronted "Bulletproof Love" is stripped back to a minimalist reworking by Christoff Berg, who alongside Van Rivers & The Subliminal Kid produced the Fever Ray eponymous album.

Massive Attack will release their much anticipated fifth studio album In February, 2010. This time around sees collaborations with Damon Albarn, Hope Sandoval, Martina Topley-Bird, Guy Garvey and Tunde Adebimpe.

Over the last three years Robert Del Naja has written and produced soundtracks for a number of films and documentaries, including 'Trouble In The Water', '44 Inch Chest', 'In Prison My Whole Life' and 'Gamorra', the latter for which he won the David Di Donatello Award for Best Song. Earlier this year, Massive Attack won the Outstanding Contribution to British Music Award at the Ivor Novello Awards. Massive Attack will headline this year's Bestival on Friday, September 11th ahead of their first full UK tour in three years that begins on September 17th in London."

In related news, Hope Sandoval has a new Warm Inventions album and is touring, and says Mazzy Star will be back.

STREAM: Amadou & Mariam - Sabali (produced by Damon Albarn) (MOV)
STREAM: Amadou & Mariam - Welcome to Mali (MOV)


Back on November 21st I asked, "What is the best album of 2008?" In that post I listed the top ten albums according to Metacritic's aggregated critic-rating statistics. At the time, The Bug held the number one spot for his album "London Zoo".

Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali was released on November 17th in the UK and hadn't even been listed on Metacritic yet. It appeared on the site a week or two after that, and it in turn knocked The Bug down to the number two spot. To this day "Welcome to Mali" holds the title of best rated album of 2008... even though it doesn't come out in the U.S. until March 24, 2009.

In June A&M will visit our country again, to give us some more of their great live shows...

The singer Mariam Doumbia and her husband, the guitarist/vocalist Amadou Bagayoko, have been making music together since they first met and fell in love at the Institute for Young Blind People in Bamako, Mali's capital, three decades ago. Over the last few years, they have achieved remarkable critical and popular acclaim in Europe and North America.

Amadou & Mariam are especially beloved for their live shows - they recently performed in the Africa Express event that was part of the BBC Electric Proms festival; the concert also featured Johnny Marr, The Magic Numbers, Damon Albarn, and Hard-Fi as well as numerous African artists. They will be headlining a Spring tour and will be opening for Coldplay in July.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for a June 8th headlining date at Webster Hall in NYC. Last time they were here was for All Points West.

All dates below...

Continue reading "Amadou & Mariam - 2009 Tour Dates, new album, streams"

Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett stated in an interview with CBC News on 17 September 2008 that they will be doing another Gorillaz album. Hewlett says that from their work on Monkey, "we just learned more about what we do, musically and artistically. That's a great place to come at when we come to another Gorillaz album. It doesn't have to be animation and music." Hewlett also expressed annoyance at having to draw the band members again, "I'm so fucking bored of drawing those characters. But then we had a moment where we had a new angle on it... I'm gonna adapt them." In a later interview Hewlett said, "they'll be the same characters, but a little bit older and told in a different way." An article by the Toronto Star stated that the duo hope to begin work on the album in January 2009. Albarn also said that he wants "to work with an incredibly eclectic, surprising cast of people." On January 14, 2009, Damon Albarn made an appearance as a guest DJ on BBC Radio 1, premiering demos of new Gorillaz songs.

Thighs Wide Shut is streaming the three new tracks.

In related news, Damon's other band, Blur, is also keeping busy again.

Blur will play a live show in Hyde Park in Summer 2009. Graham Coxon will join Alex James, Dave Rowntree and Damon Albarn onstage for this first time since their Royal Festival Hall performance in 2000. The concert will take place at London's Hyde Park on Friday 3rd July 2009, and tickets will be on general sale from 9am Friday 12th December 2008 at www.livenation.co.uk. [BLUR] (thx cmandel)

Making his Lincoln Center Festival debut former Blur frontman Damon Albarn, is joined by a host of diverse musicians from the UK, Africa, and the United States, for The Honest Jon's Revue, a musical "chop up" (Nigerian slang for "feast"). Albarn, co-founder of the virtual band Gorillaz, has gathered musiciansfrom his label, Honest Jon's, named in tribute to the landmark London record shop of the same name thathas been selling rare and obscure music to discerning buyers for 30 years. Under Albarn's musical stewardship, a wonderfully eclectic group of musicians--the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Simone White and Malians Kokanko Sata, Afel Bocoum and Lobi Traore--will play together and separately, for one show only on Saturday, July 12, in Avery Fisher Hall

Tickets are on sale (thx Bao). More details below....

Continue reading "Damon Albarn & the Honest Jon's Revue is happening @ Lincoln Center in NYC --- tickets on sale"

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker played his first of two solo shows at Webster Hall in NYC last night. How was it? Who opened? It surely wasn't The Long Blondes or Little Man Tate. Any duets with Beth Ditto?

Jarvis Cocker @ Webster Hall, NYC - April; 22, 2007 (CRED)

In other news, Blur frontman Damon Albarn says 'no more Gorillaz albums'.

The Blur singer said that the only project left for the cartoon band will be a film featuring a score composition, that has previously been linked to filmmaker and Monty Python mastermind Terry Gilliam.

Damon's other band The Good The Bad and The Queen played Webster Hall back in March. Jarvis and Damon are both playing Coachella later this week.

In addition to the six previously announced shows, Damon Albarn and company will play at least two more shows while they're here:

new TGTBATQ dates
March 12 @ The SOHO Apple Store, NYC 2pm
March 17 @ The FADER FORT, SXSW 3pm

Previously
* The Good, The Bad and The Queen and the tickets on sale
* The Good, The Bad & The Queen | 2007 Tour Dates
* Damon Albarn forms a band | the Good The Bad And The Queen

"Damon Albarn has formed a new band, according to reports. The Blur and Gorillaz star is understood to be rehearsing with a group called the Good The Bad And The Queen. Albarn is said to have recruited Paul Simonen, formerly of the Clash, to play bass, along with ex-Verve guitarist and part-time Blur member Simon Tong. Tony Allen, Fela Kuti's drummer, is also in the band, who will release their debut single in October, claim this month's Mojo magazine." [Yahoo News]