photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

Fleet Foxes, touring in support of their new Sub Pop album Helplessness Blues, played their first of two shows at United Palace Theater in NYC last night (5/18) with the Cave Singers. Pictures from the show, including one of the setlist, are in this post.

They do it again tonight, then appear on Fallon Friday, and finish the tour in Upper Darby, PA on Saturday. Fleet Foxes' other upcoming dates, mostly scheduled in July, now also include Austin City Limits in September. All of them are listed below.

You'll notice on the Wednesday night setlist it says "solo break." That's when Robin Pecknold came out and played "Oliver James" to lead off the encore. Robin, who toured solo with Joanna Newson not too long ago, released a free 3-song solo EP even more recently. That EP, which contains a duet with Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear and a Chris Thompson cover, can be downloaded and streamed, under the rest of the pictures, below...

Continue reading "Fleet Foxes & the Cave Singers played United Palace (night 1 pics & setlist, more dates & Robin's free EP too)"

Joanna Newsom in Michigan in March (more by Graeme Flegenheimer)

[Joanna Newsom] opened her 75-minute set with four songs from her ambitious recent full-length, "Have One on Me," before weaving in older titles from her previous two albums, "Ys," from 2006 (which featured arrangements by Van Dyke Parks), and her infectious 2004 debut, "The Milk-Eyed Mender." It was delivered via a singing voice that's as pure is it is dynamic, one that has matured from an at-times grating shriek early in her career into an instrument able to offer a smooth, well-tended tone with measured phrasings and octave-spanning curlicues. At this point feeding her pitch-perfect vocals into an Auto-Tune program would probably cause the software to collapse in on itself.

Newsom performed to a sold out Orpheum audience that rivaled Justin Bieber fans in their ardor. The singer had to spend an inordinate amount of time between songs affectionately swatting away random hollered compliments. A male fan raced to the stage and tossed her a bouquet, and a woman was intercepted by a security guard near the front row as she made a beeline for the musician. "We love you, Joanna!" was the richest insight the crowd had to offer when she queried her fans on their collective mood. [LA Times]

Joanna comes back to New York on Tuesday, November 23rd for a show at Carnegie Hall (where she plays the 2,804-seat Stern Auditorium). Tickets go on sale Monday, August 9th at 11am.

Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes has been opening for Joanna, and in Oakland on August 2nd they covered the Sheryl Crow (and Kid Rock) song "Picture" together. A video of that and Joanna's full schedule (a few more North American shows, then Europe and Israel in September) is below...

Continue reading "Joanna Newsom playing Carnegie Hall, touring & covered Sheryl Crow & Kid Rock w/ Robin Pecknold (dates)"

by Andrew Frisicano

Tinariwen @ (Le) Poisson Rouge in April (more by Tim Griffin)

Malian band Tinariwen recently won the 2009 Uncut Music Award for best album (given by Uncut Mag) for their record Imidiwan:Companions. The 11 member jury, which included Billy Bragg and Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold, voted the album the "most inspiring and rewarding" of the past 12 months over the seven other entries including Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear and Dirty Projectors. For a better idea of the sizable competition, the shortlist of nominees is below.

Tinariwen, who made a good impression at Coachella and played NYC's LPR both in April, will be coming to North American this February. The trip includes a pair of NYC shows: they return to Highline Ballroom on February 18th and then play a rare Brooklyn show (their first?) at The Bell House on February 19th. Ticket info TBA.

Also coming to the Highline in 2010 will be Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traore for a show on Saturday, April 17th, as part of the World Music Institute Presents: Songs of Mali series. Tickets are on sale. World Music Institute will also bring Nigarian juju legend King Sunny Ade to the Highline Ballroom on April 9th. Tickets are on sale.

For Rokia, the Highline show is somewhat of a makeup show after her Summer 2009 tour was cancelled.

On Friday, March 26th another Music of Mali show will happen with Bassekou Kouyate (who play the ngoni, a West African lute) at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. That'll be the New York debut of his band and Mali's "first ngoni quartet," Ngoni ba. Tickets are on sale now.

Videos of all four with the Uncut shortlist and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Tinariwen win an award, announce tour dates ++ upcoming King Sunny Ade, Rokia Traore & Bassekou Kouyate shows too"