After 30 years working on their respective ongoing music projects, Vince Clarke (Erasure / Yazoo / Depeche Mode) and Martin L. Gore (Depeche Mode) come together for the first time since 1981 as VCMG to release a brand new album preceded by a series of EPs.

VCMG is the fruit of initially tentative discussion and subsequent enthused collaboration where Vince and Martin, both influential as pioneers in electronic music, get to exercise their lifelong love of the genre as the techno inspired VCMG.

As Vince explains: "I've been getting into and listening to a lot of minimal dance music and I got really intrigued by all the sounds... I realised I needed a collaborator... so it occurred to me to talk to Martin."

Says Gore: "Out of the blue I got an e-mail from Vince just saying, 'I'm interested in making a techno album. Are you interested in collaborating?' This was maybe a year ago. He said, 'No pressure, no deadlines,' so I said, 'OK'."

VCMG released an EP called Spock in December and will follow that up with an LP this year (2012). Listen to "Spock" and check out the EP's remix-filled tracklist below.

Erasure played Austin recently, as part of a round of tour dates supporting their new LP Tomorrow's World. That tour hit Terminal 5 in NYC on 9/13 and 9/14.

Listen to some Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure & VCMG below...

Continue reading "VCMG (Vincent Clarke + Martin Gore) EP released; LP coming"

photos by Zach Dilgard

"I thought I had great seats for the first night of Depeche Mode's 2-night stand at Madison Square Garden in New York City, but tonight my seats were ridiculous! I was in section 1 on the floor of the arena and it was another dream come true.

The setlist (which you can see after the jump) was pretty much the same, but last night [8/3], Martin Gore performed "Little Soul" and "Home" and tonight he did "Jezebel" and "A Question of Lust" [8/4]. Also, last night, they played "Come Back" and tonight they played "Miles Away/The Truth is." Both nights were fantastic! The crowd was every bit as into it as they were last night as Depeche Mode rocked the Garden again." [According to G]

For opener Peter Bjorn and John, last night's MSG show was their third NYC show in two days. Their fourth was also last night - at Rockwood Music Hall (at 1am). Pictures from MSG Night One HERE. More pictures from MSG Night Two, and the setlist, and a video, below...

Continue reading "Depeche Mode & PB&J @ MSG (night 2) - pics & setlist "

Nouvelle Vague in Dublin 2008 (voss)

French cover band Nouvelle Vague will be playing a show at NYC's Irving Plaza on Wednesday, June 17th. It's the group's only US date on its list of upcoming shows so far. Tickets are on sale.

The band's last LP was 2006's Bande à Part, which, "like their eponymous first album, is a collection of Bossa Nova cover versions of 1980s New Wave tracks." [Wikipedia]

Though there's no 100% official word on a new record from the band, info is scattered about regarding a new album called NV3 which may be coming out on June 3rd which is not long before the Irving Plaza show. Apparently...

Nouvelle Vague reaches the point where a song, although already perfectly rendered in its original version, can still become a completely different one, to the extent that sometimes the public doubts whether it is a "cover" or not.

Nouvelle Vague's approach is so unusual that some of the original authors accepted to participate in the recording of the "NV3" cover of their own songs.

This is the statement of this 3rd album.

We never hear of any artists singing on covers which dissemble so much from the song their originally wrote nearly 30 years ago, or even covering their own song.

There are a variety of musical tones proposed by Nouvelle Vague on this third album such as Bluegrass, Country, Folk, Americana, Pop...

And the loop is looped when we hear on a "Nouvelle Vague" cover the voice of Martin Gore (Depeche Mode), Ian McCullough (Echo and The Bunnymen), Barry Adamson (Magazine), Terry Hall (The Specials), Samy Birnbach (Minimal Comact) or Chris Bailey (The Saints)...

More about Nouvelle Vague and all tour dates below...

Continue reading "Nouvelle Vague playing NYC, releasing NV3 (more covers, but with original singers too?) "

As I already alluded to at the end of yesterday's post, there are a quite a few different dance events coming up this weekend - parties, afterparties, indoor, outdoor, in warehouses, on roofs, in galleries - but first you have to make it through Thursday and Friday which offer the following options:

Continue reading "Thursday & Friday night in Dance w/ Showtrotta"