Beach Boys @ The Grammys

Though the Bonnaroo lineup won't be announced until later today (via Spotify), Knoxville.com has supposedly leaked some of it via a photo gallery which includes Beach Boys, Radiohead, Bon Iver, Phish, Foster the People, Alice Cooper, Ludacris, Black Star, Skrillex, Punch Brothers, The Avett Brothers, The Shins, Flogging Molly, Feist and Aziz Ansari. We can't know for sure if this is all correct, but I did hear that the Beach Boys were playing, and many of those bands have been rumored for a while, and the Beach Boys have promised more dates, so... well, we'll see soon! UPDATE: Yep, they are!

If it is all true, I really hope that this time Foster the People stay off the Beach Boys' stage unlike at the Grammys, as you can watch below...

Continue reading "Beach Boys played the Grammys, playing Bonnaroo? (we'll know for sure soon)"

Now a three-time Grammy winner, Levon Helm, former drummer of the Band, took the award for best Americana album last night, with his record Ramble at the Ryman.

Unfortunately, Helm was unable to attend the awards show due to an undisclosed "medical procedure" which also forced the postponement of his February 10th show at the Wellmont Theater in NJ. He's also sitting out of the next Midnight Ramble. His site reads: "Levon will be undergoing a medical procedure that will necessitate his absence from the February 25th Ramble. We wish him the best and we know he will have a speedy recovery. We'll continue with the normal Ramble schedule with special guests joining the band." We also wish him the best and a speedy recovery!" The last Ramble happened on 2/4 (they've been on a break since).

Things are looking good though because tickets are already on sale for a makeup NJ show taking place April 6 at The Wellmont Theatre. All tickets purchased for the canceled performance will also be honored at the show in April. Levon's next scheduled show is March 2nd in MA. All dates are listed below.

Opening for Helm at Wellmont, is Deer Tick, who will also be headlining their own NJ show at The Stone Pony on April 20 (tickets).

All Levon Helm, and all Deer Tick tour dates are listed below.

Continue reading "Grammy-winning Levon Helm recovering from a procedure, schedules new NJ show; Deer Tick too (dates)"

Willie Nelson @ ACL Live in 2011 (more by Tim Griffin)

Willie Nelson has a number of dates scheduled for the next few months including two in the NYC area happening on May 16 and 17 at Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ. Both shows are billed as "Willie Nelson & Family", and as you can see from one of his recent Austin shows, they truly will be family affairs. Tickets ($95.00, $75.00 & $45.00) go on sale Friday (2/17) at noon with a presale starting Wednesday (2/14) at noon. All dates are listed below.

In related news, if you were watching the Grammys last night, you probably know that a Chipotle commercial aired with Willie Nelson covering Coldplay's "The Scientis.t" You can purchase his cover of the track on iTunes and watch the video for the commercial (which has actually been out since August) below.

All dates and video below...

Continue reading "Willie Nelson covered Coldplay for Chipotle, announces more dates, 2 NJ shows"

Forget about Arcade Fire and Bonny Bear, who the heck is this old dude playing the Grammys???

Continue reading "Who is Paul McCartney?"

Continue reading "Who is Bonny Bear?"

Congrats Justin! (for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Album)

As seen over 1,000,000 times on YouTube, and now in Target commercial that aired during the Grammys (!), Denise from Staten Island's great PS 22 Chorus can belt out some Adele. Check out the ad, and the original cover video that helped make her famous, below...

Continue reading "Denise from PS22 Chorus in Adele/Target commercial that aired during the Grammys (video)"

Justin Vernon & My Morning Jacket before the Grammys (by dariusjagjag)

Someone from Jagjaguwar tweeted the above picture not long before Justin Vernon shouted out "Jagjaguwar" to end his acceptance speech at the Grammys pre-show this evening (2/12).

Bon Iver won "Best Alternative Music Album", beating out Radiohead, My Morning Jacket, Foster the People & Death Cab Cab For Cutie. Other pre-telecast winners include Adele, Foo Fighters (who beat Mastodon, The Decemberists and TV on the Radio), Skrillex (who won three already and beat Cut Copy, Robyn, Deadmau5 and others), Kanye West (who also won three already), The Civil Wars (who won two already and beat Fleet Foxes), Levon Helm, Alison Krauss, Tinariwen, Louis CK, Cee-Lo, and Booker T Jones who won "Best Pop Instrumental Album" for the 2nd time, and nervously thanked Biz Markie, Questlove, Gabriel Roth (of Daptone Records), Matt Berninger (of the National), and Lou Reed.

Arcade Fire also won another Grammy already (for Best Recording Package).

A Numero Group Syl Johnson release was up for two Grammys but lost in both categories.

And that was just all the stuff they don't show on TV. The regular show with all the big awards (and possibly more for Bon Iver) starts at 8pm EST, Whitney Houston tribute included.

UPDATES:
* Jack Black makes "indie cred" joke that includes "Bon Iver" while introducing Foo Fighters
* Denise from PS22 in Adele commercial

today in NYC
* ASSSSCAT 3000 @ UCB
* Omar Lords @ Zebulon
* Laura Veirs @ Joe's Pub
* Ed Vallance @ The Ace Hotel
* Fred Armisen, Azita @ Union Pool
* Bjork @ New York Hall of Science
* Cherish The Ladies @ City Winery
* Pretty Good Friends @ Union Hall
* Theologian, Alberich @ The STone
* School of Rock @ Highline Ballroom
* Screaming Females @ Generation Records
* Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra @ Brooklyn Bowl
* Il Abanico, Dear Lions, The Split @ Spike Hill
* Guns N' Roses, The Chelsea Smiles @ Terminal 5
* The Queens of FELA on Broadway celebrate the Grammy's @ Knitting Factory
* Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys @ B.B. King Blues Club and Grill
* Soft Spot, Parmaga, Buffalo Stance @ Death By Audio
* Beast Make Bomb, Shake the Baron, Sea Monsters, Flagland @ Glasslands
* James Blake (DJ set), The Chain, Airhead @ Le Poisson Rouge
* English Dogs, The Casualties, Toxic Holocaust, Havok @ Europa
* Psychobuildings, Amil Byleckie Band, Trip Dicks @ Big Snow Buffalo Lodge
* Daniel Neumann, Maria Chavez, Alfredo Marin, Zeljko McMullen, Doron Sadja, Tristan Shepherd, Mario Diaz de Leon, Ben Vida, Sabisha Friedberg @ Roulette
* Communion featuring David Wax Museum, Aoife O'Donovan, Jones Street Station, Julia Easterlin @ Public Assembly

Check out some photos from Arcade Fire's 2004 show at Mercury Lounge on the BrooklynVegan Facebook.

Hopefully Bjork is feeling better.

Follow @BrooklynVegan on Twitter.

In case you were wondering, no Slash (pictured above) is not in the current lineup of Guns N Roses that plays Terminal 5 tonight.

The Grammys, now overshadowed/advertised by the tragedy that is Whitney Houston's death, air tonight on CBS at 8 p.m. EST. A last minute Whitney tribute was put together for the TV show and will include Jennifer Hudson and Chaka Khan.

In related and also sad (no disrespect to Whitney!) news, Foster the People and Maroon 5/Adam Levine are performing with the reunited Beach Boys at the Grammys. Adele will also be peforming on the show, but Justin Vernon will not be (because he refused to agree to whatever horrible collaboration they wanted him to do).

As previously mentioned...

Bon Iver was nominated for four high profile Grammys (though not "Album of the Year" which is what Arcade Fire won). Adele & Katy Perry nominated for a zillion, and other nominees include The Black Keys, Foster the Peepee, Cee Lo, Duck Sauce, Robyn, Cut Copy, Skrillex, Deadmau5, Coldplay, Radiohead, Mumford & Son, Mastodon, Wilco, Death Cab For Cutie, My Morning Jacket, Jay-Z, Kanye West, The Civil Wars, Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm, Fleet Foxes, Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, Patton Oswalt, Louis CK, Weird Al, Danger Mouse, Memory Tapes, TV On the Radio, and A Tribe Called Quest.

The Kills played a 10th Anniversary show at Terminal 5 last night. More about that later, but you can check out the video from their performance on Letterman two nights earlier, below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Sunday? (Grammys)"

Note: not a recent photo of The Allman Brothers

Speaking of the Allmans at the Beacon, the tradition continues... The Allman Brothers will return to Beacon Theater for their annual residency in March, this time hitting the venue on March 9-10th, 13-14th, 16-17th, 20-21st, and 24-25th for shows. Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday 1/6 at 10AM.

In related news:

The Recording Academy today announced its 2012 Special Merit Awards recipients. This year's Lifetime Achievement Award recipients are Allman Brothers Band, Glen Campbell, Antonio Carlos Jobim, George Jones, the Memphis Horns, Diana Ross, and Gil Scott-Heron; this year's Trustees Award honorees are Dave Bartholomew, Steve Jobs and Rudy Van Gelder; and Celemony and Roger Nichols are this year's Technical GRAMMY Award honorees.

Mastodon fans (more by Greg Cristman)

Bon Iver was nominated for four high profile Grammys (though not "Album of the Year" which is what Arcade Fire won). Adele & Katy Perry nominated for a zillion, and other nominees include The Black Keys, Foster the Peepee, Cee Lo, Duck Sauce, Robyn, Cut Copy, Skrillex, Deadmau5, Coldplay, Radiohead, Mumford & Son, Mastodon, Wilco, Death Cab For Cutie, My Morning Jacket, Jay-Z, Kanye West, The Civil Wars, Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm, Fleet Foxes, Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, Patton Oswalt, Louis CK, Weird Al, Danger Mouse, Memory Tapes, TV On the Radio, A Tribe Called Quest, etc...

Maybe you heard about or saw record exec Steve Stoute's letter in the NY Times on Sunday. In it, he slams the Grammys for giving awards to bands nobody ever heard of and brought up the "coincidence" of Arcade Fire performing right before and after they won Album of the Year.

Arcade Fire's manager has responded, in the form of a letter to industry analyst Bob Lefsetz, and this is what he said:

Bob

Arcade Fire had the final slot on the Grammys as the ratings are low at the end of the broadcast. It really is that simple. We were one of the least known acts on the bill for a network audience. Don't you think I wanted a better slot for the band?
The reason we got a second song was also simple. No big plot. We had no guarantee of air time, but it was simply to play out the end credits of the show, if we're even had that much. The show never runs like clockwork to an exact time so the end is always loose. As it happened, the broadcast was covered by sponsors messages and the end credits.
For the Grammys international broadcast our main performance, along with that of Mumford and Sons and the Avett Brothers was completely cut from the show. Our end title performance was bastardised because they cut out ads/sponsor messages completely. It was a bit of a farce. You'd think we'd be given a little more after the fact.

Arcade Fire deserved the win this year. They made the best album. If the award was names "Album Sales Of The Year" award, there would be no discussion. Stoutes letter was nice piece of self publicity. Did he see Kanye's tweets when we won and the praise he gave us?? He needs to tune in. Eminem made a big selling album but it was far from being his best work. Katy Perry made a big pop record that simply didn't have weight or credibility. Gaga's repackage, great album but it was a repackage of the main release. I think everyone felt it was going to be Lady Antebellum's moment having won 5 out of 6 awards to that point. We all felt that way too.

I'm proud of this band and what they have achieved. We didn't lobby any organisation for this nor did the band play the game. We paid our own overhead to do the event, thus the lack of on stage gimmicks. No label picked up the tab.

Arcade Fire are now one of the biggest live acts in the world. It's not all about record sales. It's about making great records and it's about building a loyal fan base. Ther band make great albums, they're not a radio driven singles band. On top of that, they own their own masters and copyrights and are in complete control of their own destiny. Things couldn't be better.

Excuse any typos as I'm on my blackberry

Best regards
Scott Rodger

Continue reading "a letter from Arcade Fire's manager (in reaction to Steve Stoute's Open Letter to The Grammys)"

Florence & The Machine at Terminal 5 (more by Chris La Putt)

"ARETHA TRIBUTE
Enough to put Aretha six feet under.
Note to Christina... SUBTLETY! And just because you're in the public eye that doesn't mean anybody wants to pay to see you. What planet are you living on? AND LOSE THE HAND!
As to why Florence and Martina were there...can you say DEMOGRAPHICS?
At least Jennifer Hudson can sing, even if she does look like a completely different person."
[Bob Lefsetz]

The NYC show comes during a run of summer shows that include other headlining performances and some gigs with U2 as part of their 360 Tour. All dates are listed below.

In the meantime, you can catch Florence Welch on the Oscars in a couple of weeks. She'll perform "If I Rise" from the 127 Hours soundtrack with composer AR Rahman . Video of last night's Grammys performance is below.

Speaking of U2 (who's Spiderman Broadway musical is getting hammered right now), tickets are still available for their show at the Meadowlands on Jul 20th with Interpol who also open a bunch other dates on the rescheduled tour.

Interpol are now on tour with School of Seven Bells and will play their headlining show at Radio City Music Hall this week (on 2/17). Tickets are still available. In March they head to Europe with Matthew Dear before returning to tour even more leading up to their run with U2. All dates for everyone and a video from the Grammys below...

Continue reading "Florence & the Machine playing Summerstage, touring w/ U2 before Interpol do (2011 tour dates)"

"who is this arcade fire band?" - Erik

"Am I the only one who doesn't know who "Arcade Fire" is?????" - Reisa

Arcade Fire just won "Album of the Year" at the Grammys. WEIRD.

P.S. The Black Keys won best alt-album.

Video below...

Continue reading "Who is this Arcade Fire? (Album of the Year Grammy winners) "

Arcade Fire Grammy Awards ad

At least one member of Arcade Fire is ready to start winning at this year's Grammys.

"I checked with the London bookies online and we've got 9-2 odds, which is not bad," proclaims 28-year-old multi-instrumentalist Will Butler. "Right when we were nominated, we were 11-1. I wish I'd put my money down then."

He's probably not the only one.

It seems a fairly safe bet that the Montreal indie-rock septet will finally take home some hardware this year. Thanks to their acclaimed third album The Suburbs, they're getting more Grammy love than ever before.

The Suburbs is nominated for album of the year against Eminem's Recovery, Lady Antebellum's Need You Now, Lady Gaga's Fame Monster and Katy Perry's Teenage Dream.

It's also up for alternative album alongside Band of Horses' Infinite Arms, The Black Keys' Brothers, Broken Bells' self-titled disc and Vampire Weekend's Contra.

Finally, their song Ready to Start is vying for best rock performance by a duo or group, taking on Jeff Beck and Joss Stone's I Put a Spell on You, The Black Keys' Tighten Up, Kings of Leon's Radioactive and Muse's Resistance.

If they win, it will be their first trip to the Grammy podium. (They already have a pair of Junos, and are up for five more at this year's festivities.) [Toronto Sun]

Tonight is the Grammys. This is who is performing:

Avett Brothers, Dr. Dre., Bob Dylan, Adam Levine, and Mumford & Sons, Arcade Fire, Eminem, Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga, Miranda Lambert, Muse, Katy Perry, and Barbra Streisand; Yolanda Adams, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride and current nominee Florence Welch in a special Aretha Franklin segment; nominees Justin Bieber and Usher, with Jaden Smith; nominees B.o.B, Bruno Mars, and Janelle Monáe; nominees Drake and Rihanna; nominee Cee Lo Green, with Gwyneth Paltrow and the Jim Henson Company Puppets; Mick Jagger with Raphael Saadiq; and Esperanza Spalding performing with members of the GRAMMY Jazz Ensembles and GRAMMY Camp.

Wild Nothing and Abe Vigoda play their first of two NYC shows together tonight.

What else?

The National played Milk Studios Wednesday. Kanye West didn't play, but he was hanging out at the "Best New Menswear Designers in America Fall 2011 Collections event" at Ace Hotel last night. Creep (with Nina Sky) are playing Tribeca Grand tonight.

We know Arcade Fire won't be playing any Fashion Week shows - not because they're not fashionable, but because they're playing a show in LA tonight. The occasion is that, like Dr. Dre and Bob Dylan, they're in California to play the Grammys on Sunday.

Leave your Fashion Week tips in the comments.

Arcade Fire @ MSG (more by Bao Nguyen)

PRESS RELEASE:

"Now our parents will get off our backs about getting a real respectable job!!!!!"--Win Butler

Arcade Fire's critically acclaimed opus The Suburbs has been nominated for Album Of The Year, arguably the highest possible honor of the 53rd annual Grammy Awards.

The Suburbs has received a total of three nominations: Album Of The Year, Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals for The Suburbs' "Ready To Start" and Best Alternative Music Album.

Reached for comment in London, where the band is in the midst of a two-night stand at the O2 Arena, Arcade Fire's Win Butler said, "We are very proud of the record we made and feel incredibly blessed that so many people have gotten it! For those of you who don't understand how gambling works, if something is 100 to 1 odds and you put down 10 dollars, you win 1000 dollars... I'm just saying."

The Suburbs was released August 3, 2010 on Merge Records, debuting at #1 on the U.S. Top 200 and selling nearly 400,000 copies as of press time. The record has been supported by an extensive world tour that has included two nights at New York's Madison Square Garden and a November 13 appearance on Saturday Night Live. The current run of dates will conclude December 12 in Glasgow.

The 53rd annual Grammy Awards will take place at Los Angeles' STAPLES Center on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011, and will air live on CBS from 8 - 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

Continue reading "Arcade Fire react to their Grammy nominations"

And the nominees for "Album of the Year" are:

* The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
* Recovery by Eminem
* Need You Now by Lady Antebellum
* The Fame Monster by Lady Gaga
* Teenage Dream by Katy Perry

Also funny: Mumford & Sons are up for Best New Artist against Justin Bieber (and Drake, Florence & The Machine, and Esperanza Spalding)

Robyn is up for Best Dance Recording against Lady Gaga (and Goldfrapp, La Roux, and Rihanna).

Arcade Fire are also nominated for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals against Muse, Kings of Leon, The Black Keys, and... Jeff Beck & Joss Stone.

The Black Keys also landed in the "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" along with... Dave Matthews.

The Black Keys and Mumford & Sons and Kings of Leon and Muse are also all in the "Best Rock Song" category.

"Best Alternative Album" category:

* The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
* Infinite Arms by Band Of Horses
* Brothers by The Black Keys
* Broken Bells by Broken Bells
* Contra by Vampire Weekend

Other names that got nominated: Cee-Lo, Janelle Monae, Big Boi, John Legend & The Roots, Jay-Z, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Flight of the Conchords, Devendra Banhart (for "Best Recording Package"), Oh No Ono (ditto), Anais Mitchell (ditto), Danger Mouse, Gorillaz, and Carol Burnett. Full list at the Grammys site.

"[A Grammy] definitely doesn't hold as much credence in the indie world," said Amy Phillips, news editor of online music tastemaker and news site Pitchfork.com.

Though the Grammys occasionally have bestowed their highest reward on albums that pretty much everybody agrees are great - such as OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, in 2004, or The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, in 1998 - the Recording Academy's choices usually don't match those of the music press.

(And that's as true this year as ever, despite the academy's efforts to get hipper and younger. After wins in the last two years by Herbie Hancock and the duo of Robert Plant and Alison Kruass, there's a notable absence of geezer entries in the top categories this year.)

That's because the critical consensus of what makes for good pop music in 2010 has coalesced around indie bands - all of them at least partly based in Brooklyn - such as Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors and, most of all, Animal Collective, which won the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll, published earlier this month.

You won't find any of those bands up for any Grammy Awards. But you will find all of them on 2009's Top 10 list from Pitchfork, the online music magazine whose 1-to-10 scoring system - down to scientifically precise decimal points - is taken as gospel in the indie universe. (Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion garnered a world-beating 9.6.)

As Chuck Eddy skeptically pointed out in his essay accompanying the Pazz & Jop poll, eight of the Pitchfork Top 10 also made the P&J Top 10, suggesting that "indie-rock is suddenly better than everything put together." [Philadelphia Inquirer]

The Ting Tings, Silversun Pickups, and MGMT all appear in the Grammy's Best New Artist category. David Byrne & Brian Eno, Death Cab For Cutie, Depeche Mode, Phoenix, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs are all up for Best Alternative Music Album (the latter two also made the top 10 albums list in Pazz & Jop).

UPDATE: Phoenix won it.

"I'm sure Lady Gaga will do something amazing, and I can't wait to see that," said Pitchfork's Phillips. "That's really good, but the awards themselves don't seem to be relevant.

"I think what people don't really realize is that it's all industry people voting for themselves. The fact is that it's taken so seriously, and it really shouldn't be." [Omaha World-Record]

Continue reading "good albums don't win Grammys (tonight), Pazz & Jop 2010 looks like Pitchfork, & other obvious statements "

Beast @ CMJ 2009 (more by Chris La Putt)

Lady Gaga was nominated five times. Considering her rocket to fame over the last year, many were expecting more for her. But at least the contests are going to be really interesting: Beyoncé, [Taylor] Swift and Lady Gaga are going head to head in three of the most important categories: album, record and song of the year. Will one of them sweep, or will the lady vote be split?

One of the usual complaints about the Grammys is that it over-rewards older, established, familiar acts at the expense of newer, fresher ones. MGMT, the Brooklyn synth-rock duo, was nominated for best new artist, a big coup although not unexpected. But some of the shoulda-been names that have been circulated and Tweeted: Grizzly Bear, another acclaimed Brooklyn group; Regina Spektor, a young New York songwriter who started in the underground and has found some mainstream popularity; Diane Birch, a young soul-style singer, just the revivalist type the Grammys usually adore; and the Decemberists, an alt-folk-rock band from Portland, Ore., that released an ambitious concept album this year. [NY Times]

One surprise (for me anyway) came this year in the video category. Montreal's Beast were nominated for "Mr. Hurricane". That video with a list of some of the other nominees, below...

Continue reading "Beast's 'Mr. Hurricane' video & other 2009 Grammy nominees "

Bandega: What venue do you consider to be your "home", where you feel most comfortable, with the crowd and the place itself?

Eric Johnson of Fruit Bats & The Shins: The shortlist would be Schubas, Hideout and Empty Bottle in Chicago, Mercury Lounge in New York, Modified in Phoenix, Fernwood in Big Sur, and Opolis in Norman, Oklahoma.

The Shins were nominated for the "Best Alternative Music Album" Grammy for their 2007 Sub Pop album Wincing the Night Away. Muppets interviewed them backstage at the 2008 event. That video and all dates below...

Continue reading "The Shins - updates 2009 tour dates, Muppet interview"

by Black Bubblegum

TMBG performing ninja moves avec their golden statuettes

Not to put too fine a point on it, but tickets are still available for They Might Be Giants at Le Poisson Rouge on Feb 28th, part of their previously mentioned residency.

After the sold out success of their last show, the band will once again perform their platinum album Flood in it's entirety, as well as a warm up set of songs new, old and possibly brand new. Flansburgh and Linnell will be backed up by their super-killer band Marty Beller on the drum, Dan Miller on guitar and Danny Weinkauf on bass. The show will also include an appearance by The Tricerachops Horns featuring Dan "The Machine" Levine on trombone, Curt Ramm on trumpet, and Stan "The Optimist" Harrison on saxophone and clarinet.

TMBG are also happy to welcome back their good friends all the way from Belfast, Northern Ireland--the always great, never late duo you can't overrate: Oppenheimer!

In other TMBG news, congrats to the guys on their Grammy win for "Best Musical Album For Children", Here Come The 123's! If you missed that broadcast, check it out here and scroll to 41:30 to see TMBG... and don't forget to check out an about-to-pop MIA, Lil Wayne, TI, Kanyeezy, and Jay-Z as well as Radiohead with a marching band.

And TMBG's winning streak in the kid's department continues. Their song, sung by John Linnell, is featured on the Coraline soundtrack.

This song was recorded for the movie Coraline. Due to cuts, this is the only song TMBG ended up providing for the film. It takes place when Coraline's other father (voiced by John Hodgman) shows how his piano plays him rather than he plays the piano. He proceeds to sing a song about how great Coraline is. The repeated mention of eyes and buttons plays on the fact that the Other Father's eyes are buttons. [this might be a wiki]

They Might Be Giants were one of the last musical guests on Late Night With Conan O'Brian, but not THE last musical guest. Video from the February 12th episode is also, below...

Continue reading "They Might Be Giants - a Grammy, Coraline & FLOOD AGAIN"

IM ON TV!

TODAY I WENT ON T.V

I did CNN HEADLINE NEWS

CNN LATIN AMERICA

AND TAVIS SMILEY ON PBS WHICH WILL AIR AS I POST THIS!!!

tomaro
im gonna do
al jazeera
france 24 and
ap t.v

I want you to know that , everyone has been asking me on the shows to talk about the sudden popularity im experiencing, the babies, the grammies the oscars etc

and i want you to know that this has been part of the plan from day 1.

this is the only oppotunity i have had to do something about the genocide in Sri Lanka and im seizing that oppotunity

so for a lil while im gonna go from being

M.I.A. TO I. Y. F.

IN YA FACE!!!!!!!!!!!
[M.I.A.]

She left the above message on her MySpace blog before the Grammys. On the Tavis Smiley show she talked about being accused of being a terrorist, being the only Tamil in the Western media which gives her the platform to speak for the Tamil civilians, not to be confused with the Tamil Tigers. Watch the video below...

Continue reading "M.I.A., still pregnant?, on TV - planned to be popular, doing something about Tamil civilian genocide (video)"

Alison Krauss & Robert Plant @ ACL 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Rounder Records, a venerable independent label based in the Northeast, released "Raising Sand," and it has become one of its biggest hits. Its multiple nominations were old hat for Alison Krauss, who before Sunday had already won 21 Grammy Awards. But none was for a project quite this adventurous.

"We ostensibly come from such different places on the musical map," Robert Plant said in a media conference backstage Sunday. "Alison showed me so much I had never been exposed to."

That Plant is still learning new tricks is a testament to his artistry. That he's not touring with a reunited Led Zeppelin is a sign of enduring integrity. That's a lot of money to be passing up, even if "Raising Sand" did win five Grammys.

But Plant was having none of it. The singer again was confronted with the inevitable question Sunday about his future involvement in any Zeppelin tour.

"How old are you, man?" Plant responded. "Because you look older than me. You try to do 'Communication Breakdown' in these pants." [Chicago Tribune]

"Kimya and guest performer Eliot" (hortensejones)

So you're up for a Grammy with the "Juno" soundtrack.

Kimya Dawson: (Heaves a sigh) Yeah. (Laughs)

Was it weird for you to be on the No. 1 album last year?

Uh, it was funny. But it was pretty silly. I mean, the songs were in a movie that was really, really popular; and it was just a really good movie. So I think that the way the movie made people feel really made my music more relatable. ... It wasn't like (boatloads) of people were suddenly getting what I do.

Have you gotten calls to appear on other soundtracks?

I've got a few songs on a film that's coming out (that) just premiered at Sundance called "Unmade Beds." And it's (made by) an Argentine director named Alexis Dos Santos. He made a film called "Glue" a few years ago that had a few of my songs in it. ... He had invited me to perform at the premiere last week. But I had started a community choir in Olympia; and our first performance was that night, so I couldn't miss that.

Kimya Dawson is playing Europa in Brooklyn on March 10th with Shellshag. Tickets are on sale. The show is one day before she plays the REM tribute show at Carnegie Hall which is one day before she plays SUNY Purchase. All dates below...

Continue reading "Grammy winner KIMYA DAWSON - 2009 tour dates (Europa)"