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1. Feb 2008: Vivian Girls start making a name for themselves on the scene
2. Sep 2008: Frankie Rose leaves Vivian Girls to play with Crystal Stilts full time
3. Sept 2008: Ali Koehler replaces Frankie Rose in Vivian Girls
4. July 2009: Frankie Rose makes her 1st appearance as Dum Dum Girls member
5. Sept 2009: Frankie Rose leaves Crystal Stilts & starts Frankie & the Outs
6. Dec 2009: Best Coast getting popular, announce tour w/ Vivian Girls
7. June 2010: Frankie Rose leaves Dum Dum Girls to focus on Frankie & the Outs
8. July 2010: Ali Koehler leaves Vivian Girls and joins Best Coast
9. July 2010: Fiona from Coasting replaces Ali in Vivian Girls

(note: dates may not be exact)

A video of Best Coast covering WAVVES' "I'm So Bored" at Primavera Sound in May, and a picture of Coasting, below...

Continue reading "Vivian Girls drummer Ali Koehler leaves VG for Best Coast! (Frankie Rose still just in the Outs)"

by Black Bubblegum

They say that the clothes make the man, but in the music world, the drummer makes the band. That's the only way to explain the string of successes that have followed Dave Witte since he first sat behind the kit as a member of the influential yet under-appreciated Human Remains. Since then, Witte has played with some of the greatest bands in the heavy underground, laying the back beat to names as powerful as Municipal Waste, Discordance Axis, Anodyne, Black Army Jacket, Melt Banana, and we can't forget about Burnt By The Sun.

Burnt By The Sun recently released their swansong, Heart of Darkness, via Relapse Records. In celebration of this last LP, the band will embark on final tour of Europe in October with only one US date scheduled: October 2nd at Cake Shop with Tombs, Black Anvil, Bloodhorse, and Torchbearer. Considering the band members' current undertakings, it isn't out the question to say that this could be their last show for a very very long time.

With that as a primer, I fired some questions at Dave Witte about Municipal Waste, the end of Burnt By The Sun, and the possiblity of him returning to the kit for Human Remains, Discordance Axis or Black Army Jacket. The conversation is below....

Continue reading "an interview w/ Dave Witte (of Burnt by the Sun, Municipal Waste, Human Remains, Black Army Jacket...)"

Newport's jazz festival - which this year has been christened George Wein's CareFusion Jazz Festival 55 - once again will bring some of the music's biggest and most popular practitioners to Fort Adams State Park in Rhode Island. But buried within this weekend's schedule, and relegated to a smaller stage, is a trio making a once-in-a-lifetime appearance in our neck of the woods: a free-jazz group called By Any Means.

The trio of alto saxophonist Charles Gayle, bassist William Parker, and drummer Rashied Ali play with a potency and urgency that can make your hairs stand on end. They also just happened to have made one of the greatest albums in free jazz, a 1993 date called "Touchin' on Trane,'' a collection of tunes inspired by, rather than composed by, John Coltrane. (For contractual reasons, the album was released under the artists' individual names rather than by By Any Means.) In 2008, more than 20 years after it formed, By Any Means finally released a proper album, a superb two-CD set called "Live at Crescendo'' that was recorded at a club in Sweden.

Now, for the first time, the New York-based trio will play a date in New England, at one of the most revered events in jazz lore - the Newport jazz festival.

It's not as though By Any Means has been touring extensively and merely skipped by us through the years. Free jazz is an acquired taste, sort of a professional jam session, and even its most popular artists draw relatively small crowds. By Any Means has performed only sporadically - disbanding for years at a time before regrouping - and even in a good year these guys play together only five or six times.

Though the trio claims to have no leader, Ali, 75, is its senior and most famous member. He played with Coltrane during the saxophonist's final years, most notably on the groundbreaking duo album "Interstellar Space,'' on which Ali made his mark as a drummer who eschewed keeping time and instead improvised completely independent of structure.
[Boston Globe - August 7, 2009]

Rashied Ali didn't end up performing with By Any Means at the Newport Jazz Festival on August 9th. His brother Muhammad took his place. And now, along with the news of Les Paul, comes word that "Rashied Ali died on 12 August 2009 in a New York City hospital after suffering a heart attack and undergoing heart surgery." RIP. Videos below...

Continue reading "Rashied Ali, RIP"

DOWNLOAD: Drummer - Feel Good Together (MP3)

Drummer, the new band featuring Patrick Carney, drummer for the critically acclaimed duo The Black Keys, is poised for the release of their debut album, Feel Good Together. The album is set for release September 29 on Carney's label, Audio Eagle. Carney, who plays bass for the group, joins up with four long time friends-all Ohio-based drummers-to bring the project to life. Drummer is rounded out by: Jamie Stillman of Teeth of the Hydra, formerly of Party of Helicopters (guitar), Jon Finley of Beaten Awake, also formerly of Party of Helicopters (vocals, guitar), Stephen Clements of Houseguest and Six Parts Seven (keys, vocals) and Greg Boyd of Ghostman and Sandman (drums). The band will embark on a fall tour in support of the new album.

So this is what Patrick has been doing while his Black Keys band-mate Dan Auerbach has been touring around in support of his own solo album.

Drummer is playing a one-off show in August in Ohio, and then heading out on tour with Royal Bangs in October. That trip kicks off at Southpaw in Brooklyn on October 8th (tickets on sale Friday), and then hits Mercury Lounge in Manhattan on the 10th (tix now on AmEx presale). An MP3 from their debut album above. Cover art and tour dates below...

Continue reading "Drummer - a band w/ the Black Keys drummer... on bass & other Ohio drummers - 2009 tour dates, MP3"