Lavender Diamond

Entries tagged with: Lavender Diamond

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DOWNLOAD: Devon Williams - Your Sympathy (mp3)

West Coast singer-songwriter Devon Williams is currently touring his new album on Slumberland, Euphoria, and will be in NYC this weekend. He plays Cake Shop on Friday (12/2) and Glasslands on Saturday (12/3).

You may remember Williams from his early '00s band Osker or his stints with Lavender Diamond and Neverever. Euphoria, coproduced by Violens Jorge Elbrecht and Destroyer knob-twiddler Dave Carswell, is eubuliant pop colored with baroque strings and arpeggiated guitars. You can download "Your Sympathy" at the top of this post, and stream a few more tracks at the bottom, including a radical Violens remix of Tower of "Thought."

Continue reading "Devon Williams on tour, playing 2 NYC shows --- (2012 dates)"

posted at 9:40 AM on November 29, 2011 in MP3 | music | tour dates | Comments (7)

Decemberists

The Decemberists have announced the first leg of their Spring 2009 North American tour in support of The Hazards of Love, their ambitious new album to be released by Capitol Records on March 24th. The 16-date run will kick off May 19th at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, and include a June 10th performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York, as well as a set at the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee.

A limited number of pre-sale tickets go on sale today to the public on a first-come, first-served basis at http://www.decemberists.tickets.musictoday.com. General ticket on-sales begin on Friday, February 13th. Full venue and ticketing information is available at The Decemberists' website. More upcoming tour dates will be announced shortly.

On tour, The Decemberists will present a full performance of the album, a 17-song suite that tells the tale of a woman named Margaret who is ravaged by a shape-shifting animal; her lover, William; a forest queen; and a cold-blooded, lascivious rake. Joining the band on stage will be Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden who deliver the lead vocals for the female characters. The band announced last week that they will give the debut live performance of The Hazards of Love when they headline NPR Music's South by Southwest showcase at Stubbs in Austin on March 18th.

30 seconds after I posted the Radio City date, the whole tour appears in my inbox. All dates below...

Continue reading "The Decemberists - all of their 2009 tour dates & a presale"

posted at 2:56 PM on February 9, 2009 in music | tour dates | Comments (21)

Rakes Song

On March 24th, Capitol Records will release The Decemberists' The Hazards Of Love, the follow-up to the group's 2006 breakthrough, The Crane Wife, which NPR listeners voted their favorite album of the year. With their fifth full-length album, the Portland-based quintet of Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, Nate Query and John Moen solidifies its standing as one of the most innovative creative forces in music today. In an age when singles rule and the death of the album has been pronounced by many, The Decemberists - who will be featured in a live session on NPR's "World Café" today - have fashioned an anomaly: a record that demands to be listened to from start to finish and reveals more with each subsequent play. The 17-song suite, recorded with the band's longtime producer, Tucker Martine, is rooted in ancient language and imagery, yet entirely modern and accessible.

Eager to share a bit of the new music with fans before street date, The Decemberists are making "The Rake's Song" available as a free download beginning today at www.decemberists.com.

The album began when Meloy - long fascinated by the British folk revival of the 1960s - found a copy of revered vocalist Anne Briggs's 1966 EP, titled The Hazards of Love. Since there was actually no song with the album's title, he set out to write one. Soon he was immersed in something much larger than just a new composition.

The Hazards Of Love tells the tale of a woman named Margaret who is ravaged by a shape-shifting animal; her lover, William; a forest queen; and a cold-blooded, lascivious rake, who recounts with spine-tingling ease how he came "to be living so easy and free" in the aforementioned "The Rake's Song." Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden deliver the lead vocals for the female characters, while My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Robyn Hitchcock and the Spinanes' Rebecca Gates appear in supporting roles. The range of sounds reflects the characters' arcs, from the accordion's singsong lilt in "Isn't it a Lovely Night?" to the heavy metal thunder of "The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing."

"There's an odd bond between the music of the British folk revival and classic metal," says Meloy. "A natural connection between, like, Fairport Convention and Black Sabbath - of course, Sandy Denny from Fairport even sang with Led Zeppelin on 'The Battle of Evermore.' I think there's a shared sense of narrative and ambience, of moving beyond the first person in your writing. And I thought it would be interesting to mess around with that."

The Decemberists will tour this spring, playing The Hazards Of Love straight through for the show's first half and older material for the remainder. Ambitious, yes - but this is a band that doesn't shy away from major stage productions, having performed The Crane Wife with full orchestral accompaniment on several 2007 dates, including a stop at the historic Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Upcoming tour dates will be announced shortly.

The Decemberists also have another new song on the Dark Was the Night comp, as does My Brightest Diamond who recently played a show at (le) poisson rouge.

Jim James's most recent NYC show took place at Madison Square Garaden. Robyn Hitchcock's was at Symphony Space.

Stay tuned for those tour dates (Terminal 5 again probably?). The track listing for The Hazards Of Love is below...

Continue reading "The Decemberists - new MP3, new album details w/ Jim James, Shara Worden, Robyn Hitchcock, Becky Stark..."

posted at 1:35 PM on January 15, 2009 in MP3 | music | Comments (11)

Devon Williams

"As the leader of one of most infamous Socal and Epitaph punkrockbands during the late '90s and early 2000s, Devon Williams from Osker has inpired hearts and souls all over the world. Even since the bands break-up in 2002, Osker is still considered one of the most underrated punkrockbands Epitaph ever had to offer. Since then he has moved on to different musical projects such as the folk quartet "Lavender Diamond", his own "Fingers-Cut Megamachine!" and more recently his pop/rock band called Devon Williams & The Obvious Answer. They just put out their first full-length called Carefree" [Never Go Inside]

LA's Devon Williams is on tour with the reunited 18th Dye, and for that reason both artists will be in NYC on Saturday night (11/29), but for one night they won't be on the same bill. 18th Dye managed to get themselves on the super Santos bill of Marnie Stern and Gang Gang Dance, SO Devon will be playing at Cake Shop instead. Check out a video of Devon and band performing in Amoeba Records over the summer, and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Devon Williams - 2008 Tour Dates (18th Dye), live video "

posted at 12:49 AM on November 29, 2008 in music | tour dates | Comments (3)

Becky Stark & Amanda Palmer as Citizens Band members (Dese'Rae L. Stage)

Lavendar Diamond's Becky Stark opens both Human Highway shows. Those are Monday/tonight @ Cake Shop & Tuesday @ Joe's Pub.

posted at 1:58 PM on September 15, 2008 in music | To Do | Comments (34)

Citizens Band

THE CITIZENS BAND presents "The Panic is On" - Sept. 7th / 8th / 9th @ Spiegeltent

Visionary musical troupe The Citizens Bandare taking over the Spiegeltent for a three-night extravaganza. The Citizens Band is a sexy, ribald musical troupe renowned for their dazzling song and dance performances. "The Panic Is On," their sixth original show in three years, finds the troupe trapped in a makeshift bomb shelter, where they're forced to find common ground and hope in a terror filled world. Performing a spirited mix of classic songs and original compositions, they ponder such issues as fear mongering, war, immigration, xenophobia, poverty and their own dreams for political change. These shows also mark the troupe's debut performance with director Gordon Greenberg (Jacques Brel is Alive and Well, Assisted Loving), and features special guests Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond and Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls.

The good news: Nina, Becky and Amanda. The bad news: neither CB regulars Craig Wedren or Angela McCluskey appear in this show.

Craig is probably too busy working with Nina's husband.

Amanda Palmer also performed her own show at the same venue earlier this year.

posted at 2:31 PM on September 8, 2008 in music | To Do | Comments (6)

Through the Wilderness

Manimal Vinyl Records presents an ambitious tribute album to Madonna called listen Through the Wilderness. It features covers of Madonna classics by Giant Drag, The Tyde, Lavender Diamond, Mountain Party, Winter Flowers, The Chapin Sisters, Ariel Pink, Siddhartha, Jeremy Jay, Golden Animals, Alexandra Hope, Pangaeans, Jonathan Wilson, Lion of Panjshir, The Prayers and The Bubonic Plague. 25% of the profits will be donated to Raising Malawi. [listen on MySpace] (via)