Bob Dylan will release his 35th studio album, Tempest, this year on September 11 on his label home of 50 years (!) Columbia Records. He produced the album himself under his producer pseudonym Jack Frost, which he's used on other past releases. The album is his first new release of original material since 2009's Together Through Life. That's the cover art above, and the tracklist is below.

Dylan will support the album on a tour with Mark Knopfler which culminates in a Brooklyn show at the new Barclays Center on November 21. That makes a total of two folk legends playing the new Brooklyn arena in 2012. Tickets for the Brooklyn show go on sale September 14 at 10 AM.

As mentioned, Dylan is also currently on an international summer tour which wraps up a few hours away from NYC at Tag's Summer Stage on September 1 in Big Flat's NY. Tickets for that show are still available.

A list of all dates and the Tempest tracklist are below.

Continue reading "Bob Dylan releasing 'Tempest,' announces 2012 tour w/ Mark Knopfler, playing the Barclays Center (dates)"

by Andrew Sacher

Thomas Dolby is releasing his first album of new material in 20 years this summer. The album is called A Map of the Floating City and features an array of guest musicians including Regina Spektor, Imogen Heap, Mark Knopfler, and Eddi Reader. Dolby is giving an exclusive sneak preview performance of songs from the album this Friday (2/25) at The Greene Space at 2 PM. He's performing the songs with New York string quartet Ethel and accordion player Rachelle Garniez. Opening the show is the Jamaican group The Jolly Boys. Tickets are still available. If you can't make it you can always listen on WNYC.

Despite being one of the pioneers of electronic pop music, in a press release on his website, Dolby has said of the new album:

"I marvel at the new landscape of the music business - distribution via the Internet and recording technologies I barely dreamed of when I started out," he continues. "But this album does not sound electronic at all. I have zero desire to add to the myriad of machine-based, synth-driven grooves out there. The Net has made a music career approachable for thousands of bands - but I hear too few single-minded voices among them. What I do best is write songs, tell stories."

Dolby's initial plan was to release three EPs leading up to the release of the album. His first EP, Amerikana, was released last June and his next EP, Oceanea, comes out officially on March 28. A music video for "The Toadlickers" off of the Amerikana EP is featured below. The third EP, entitled Urbanoia, is no longer coming out. Instead he has chosen to create an "online multiuser event entitled 'The Floating City,' where you "won't need to buy a download of the 'Urbanoia' EP; but to hear it, you'll need to play the game and find your way to the party." Looks like Thomas Dolby is blinding us with science.

Currently, Dolby's performance at The Greene Space is his only announced date, but his press release says, "A multi-city live tour is likely for 2011."

Videos and the next EP's cover art is below...

Continue reading "Thomas Dolby releasing EPs & a guest-filled album, performing live in NYC on Friday (and on the radio)"

DOWNLOAD: Crosby, Stills & Nash - Long Time Gone (MP3)

Central Park Summerstage concerts, NYC, 2008
04/20 - Vienna Teng
05/30 - Duran Duran (tix)
05/31 - Duran Duran (tix)
06/13 - Mavis Staples & Stephanie McKay
06/21 - kokayi, JLove Calderon, La Bruja, Lemon, Will Power
06/28 - Vieux Farka Toure
07/23 - Mark Knopfler (tix)
07/27 - The Skatalites
07/29 - Crosby, Stills & Nash (tix)
08/02 - Thollem (SmhSmh) & Germaul Barnes (BitahkizAyeli Movement & Sound)
08/03 - José James
08/06 - Sonny Rollins (tix)
08/09 - Latin Alternative Music Conference presents Scud Hero & ??

ALSO, according to the NY Times:

Crosby, Stills & Nash; Mavis Staples, the experimental Brooklyn rockers Battles and Black Dice; DanceBrazil; and the Mexican pop singer Julieta Venegas will be among the performers at Central Park SummerStage this year, the City Parks Foundation has announced. Crosby, Stills & Nash will play on July 29 in one of the six paid benefit concerts during this 23rd SummerStage season. The other performances, along with the Afro-funk scion Seun Kuti and the vintage-soul revivalists Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, are free, beginning with Ms. Staples's concert on June 13. The complete lineup will be announced in April.