Friday, February 20, 2009

End o' week musings


I am sooo stoked!! Yes, it's Friday. Yes, it's a payday Friday. But better than that-- it's the Friday before my vacation. I'm sorry, dear readers, but you will be berift of all that great news I send your way for the next week. I'm not sorry because I deserve this time off and need the break from the world to recharge...

Last Saturday I headed out to the Avalon in Hollyweird to catch the HorrorPops show. I just love that band! Patricia Day is just wonderful when she takes the stage with her standup bass and vintage attire. Their set was terrific and the fans didn't want them to stop. Unfortunately, they had to because of time.

My night was still young, so I headed over to Tina's Tavern in West Covina to catch some music from my friend DJ Rexx. It was super crowded there and took almost 20 minutes to get a beer. I did manage to find a seat, though. I hung out for an hour or so and then headed home to get some much needed sleep.

Monday I took my friend Vernor (who also works with me at the newspaper and is the movie critc for DaBelly.com) for his traditional birthday pizookie at BJ's restaurant. We had sensible lunches first and then splurged on the warm chocolate chunk cookie topped with scoops of vanilla bean ice cream. I had to do the singing because the waitstaff simply brings the dessert with a quick "Happy Birthday." It was funny because the waitress gave me the greeting and had to repeat it when I told her it was Vernor's big day not mine!

Wednesday was a cool day too. I went to the Pacific Asia Museum (http://www.pacificasiamuseum.com/) in Pasadena to talk with curator Julian Bermudez about the new exhibit, "The Samurai Re-Imagined: From Ukiyo-e to Anime." The show includes woodblock prints, animation cels and drawings, movie posters, traditional weapory, a suit of armor and more. If you like anything samurai - traditional or contemporary - you should check this out.


After my visit, I returned to my office to give Bill Medley a call. Medley is one of the Righteous Brothers and he will be in concert at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts at the end of March. He was very gracious and we had a nice chat. Both of those stories should be found at http://www.sgvn.com/ next week or so.

Last night I went to dance practice. My knee is still bugging me, but it went a bit better this time. It's a little scary to not be able to move as well as I used to, I know I need to keep at it and it will come back with time and patience.

Tonight I am going to the Southern Rock Night show at Paladino's in Tarzana. Joe Walla Band is playing and will also be taping a show for television. They're always great live so I'm looking forward to the concert.

Tomorrow I have a big day planned. I'm going to go to my yoga class, then head to Strings in Glendora to see Vin Fizz Flyer. Yes, they're playing from 8-10 a.m. - weird, but worth it. 'Sides I'll be all mellow from yoga so they'll get me perked up and ready for the rest of my day. I have a ton of errands and other little things to do.


If I'm not too worn out, I'm going to go to the final taping of "Marty's Corner" at KCAT studios in Hacienda Heights. The show isn't ending, the studio is closing. The show's producer has not announced what their next plan of action is, but he has assured its fans that the show will go on.


Sunday I will be packing and doing any last minute things before hitting the road... errr... seas. I will be spending the week on a cruise. This will be my first cruise too so I'm extra excited. I promise to bring you back some good stories.

Lastly, I would like to take a sec to send out some congrats. I managed to catch "Eleventh Hour" on television last night and who was that dirty junkman?? None other than my handsome drummer friend Ric Sarabia! I keep seeing his mug popping up on the TV~ you go, dude!!


In rotation this week: Orange Sky, W.A.S.P, Brides of Destruction, Joe Walla and Annie Moscow.


Photos we got 'em: Samurai Jack, female warrior Tomoe Gozen and a comic book cover by artist Stan Sakai (see similar art at the Pacific Asia Museum exhibit), a cat that made me smile and my cruise ship.


Thought of the week: Be the ant with the spirit of the grasshopper. Do you remember the story about the ant and the grasshopper? The ant worked and worked while the grasshopper played and sang. It rained and the ant had a nice home and plenty to eat while the grasshopper was outside cold and hungry. The moral was about being prepared.





I think it can be bad to be too much one way or the other. The grasshopper obviously enjoys life and loves to have a good time, but he doesn't really take good care of himself. The ant toils away and has everything he needs, but is he never stops to smell the roses. It's better to have balance. Word hard, but find time for laughter. Save your money, yet don't hesistate to get out and have some fun. Live without regrets, but not without reguards. Be responsible for yourself and take every opportunity to live your life to the fullest.

Keep on rockin'
Mickie

Relay for Laffs to benefit American Cancer Society

At the Ice House In Pasadena
A Comedy Show to Benefit Relay for Life
Saturday, April 25, 2009, 6:00 PM (Arrive Early to Be Seated)

Join us for the 3rd Annual "Relay for Laffs"
Featuring Scott Shimamoto, Robert Lee and other Hot Comedians.

Proceeds will Benefit Relay for Life Arcadia.

This Event Has Sold Out 2 Years in a Row
Tickets will Sell Out Fast!!

$15.00 per ticket
(18 yrs & older, 2 beverage minimum)

Don't Forget to Make Dinner Plans at One of These Restaurants which will also be Donating Part of Their Proceeds to Relay for Life

http://www.arcadiarelay.com/relayforlaffs.html

San Dimas Experimental Forest tour offered Feb. 28

The US Forest Service will have its monthly Naturalist led tour on Saturday February 28th 2009. This month we will be visiting the San Dimas Experimental Forest. Due to the history of this area this is one of our most popular, and interesting programs. The forest was established in the 1930's, to study the effects of weather, fires, soils ,vegetation growth, and forest rehabilitation.

We will meet at the Education Center, and car-pool to the forest, Mike Oxford will meet us there, to conduct the tour.

This is an excellent outing for families, scout groups,or anyone interested in their local mountains. The tour will start at 9AM and last until about 1:30 PM, meet at the San Gabriel Canyon Environmental Education Center, which is located 0.7 miles PAST the East Fork Bridge on Hwy. 39 above the City of Azusa.

Cost is $ 5.00 per person. Note: Due to limited space this tour will be limited to 30 visitors. Please call (909) 892-2879 for reservations

Visitors should bring water, lunch, sturdy walking shoes, sun screen, insect repellent, cameras,binoculars and dress in layers for the weather (it may be very cool). Hiking will not be strenuous but we will be hiking over uneven and rocky terrain. Make sure that your vehicle is in good working order , and you have a full tank of gas.

If you have questions or concerns contact Steve Segreto at (909) 982-2879

Leonard Cohen to tour in April

As Leonard Cohen took to the historic Beacon Theatre stage Thursday in New York for his first stateside performance in fifteen years, AEG Live announced a run of North American engagements including nights in New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles and a sunset performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California. Tickets for some dates go on sale to the public beginning Friday, February 27th, 2009 with additional on sale dates following on March 2nd and March 9th, 2009. For ticket sale information visit www.LeonardCohen.com.

The North American engagements will extend the phenomenal series of performances Mr. Cohen performed recently in the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The performances have been overwhelmingly received abroad; with over 80 five star reviews. As the London Daily Telegraph plainly stated, it is "an extraordinary night of music."

As he has been throughout his most recent tour, Mr. Cohen will be joined by Sharon Robinson and the Webb Sisters – who have wowed crowds around the world with their rich and complementary background vocals. Also joining Mr. Cohen on stage are Roscoe Beck (bass, vocals), Neil Larsen (keyboards & Hammond B3 accordion), Bob Metzger (electric, acoustic & pedal steel guitar), Javier Mas (bandurria, laud, archilaud, 12 string acoustic guitar), Rafael Gayol (drums, percussion), Dino Soldo (sax, clarinet dobro – keys).

"We are delighted to finally bring this phenomenal tour to the USA. Having spent the last 12 months touring the World, from Romania to Australia from London to Rome, America will now get the opportunity to see the show that has enthralled over 750,000 concert goers across the World to date. Not one to miss lightly,” commented Rob Hallett, President of International Touring / AEG Live.

“AEG Live is honored to continue this extraordinary journey with Mr. Cohen. Now it's time to take North America,” added Elliott Lefko, Vice President, Goldenvoice/AEG Live.
Columbia Records has previously announced that, on March 31, 2009, they will release Leonard Cohen's Live In London, a musical chronicle of the legendary singer-songwriter-musician-poet's historic July 17, 2008 concert at London's O2 arena.

Additionally NPR will broadcast select songs from Leonard Cohen's Beacon Theatre performance at www.nrp.org on Wednesday, February 25.

LEONARD COHEN NORTH AMERICAN DATES

4/2 Michael and Susan Dell Hall at Long Center Austin, TX
4/3 NOKIA Theatre at Grand Prairie Grand Prairie, TX
4/5 Dodge Theatre Phoenix, AZ
4/7 Copley Symphony Hall San Diego, CA
4/10 NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE Los Angeles, CA
4/13 Paramount Theatre of the Arts Oakland, CA
4/17 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival Indio, CA
4/19 General Motors Place Vancouver, BC
4/21 Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre Victoria, BC
4/23 WaMu Theater at Qwest Field Events Center Seattle, WA
4/25 Rexall Place Edmonton, AB
4/26 EPCOR Centre’s Jack Singer Hall Calgary, AB
4/28 Credit Union Centre Saskatoon, SK
4/30 MTS Centre Winnipeg, MB
5/03 Orpheum Theatre Minneapolis, MN
5/05 The Chicago Theatre Chicago, IL
5/09 Fox Theatre Detroit, MI
5/11 Merriweather Post Pavilion Columbia, MD
5/12 Academy of Music Philadelphia, PA
5/14 Palace Theater Waterbury, CT
5/16 Radio City Music Hall New York, NY
5/19 Copps Coliseum Hamilton, ON
5/21 Pavillon de la Jeunesse Quebec City, QC
5/22 K-Rock Centre Kingston, ON
5/24 John Labatt Centre London, ON
5/25 National Arts Centre – Southam Hall Ottawa, ON
5/29 Wang Theatre Boston, MA
6/02 Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO

We Have Band coming to New York

Welcome to the world of We Have Band. The London-based three-piece that have everything going for them despite having been together for little over a year, not had any releases to their name (yet) and played just 50 live gigs. Described as a 'disco rock trio' who 'wear their influences like a flak jacket' they are Darren Bancroft (vocals, drums, percussion, sampler), Thomas WP (vocals, guitar, bass, programming) and Dede WP (vocals, percussion, sampler).

Having all originally met at EMI (all three of them were working desk jobs in the HQ), it was just last year that married couple Thomas and Dede informed Darren about the name of a new band they'd created and as Darren says "basically on the strength of the name I was like right I'm in!"

Indeed he is not the only one, the Guardian and NME recently wrote about how brilliant the title of We Have Band works, with the former discussing all possibilities of franchising the We Have bit and using it as a generic brand. Maybe one day, but for now the guys are focussing solely on their music having recently had their tracks 'Hear It In The Cans' and 'You Came Out' featured on Kitsune Maison 6 and the Puregroove compilation and this, their debut single 'Oh!' is out now in the UK on super hip indie 50 Bones (Little Boots,The Virgins).

Their sound is catchy, fun, familiar and classic-sounding but also unarguably their own, it's We Have Band, and that comprises of dark dance rhythms, washy electronic synths, post punk funk bass and individual pop vocals from each member, layered in a way that really makes them sound like nothing else today.

At the core 'Oh!' is an energetic dance track of the highest order, driven by layers of "oh, oh, oh's", frantic percussion and ESG inspired bass, it is also a great pop record and it will sound just as at home on the radio as it will on the dancefloor. In truth it's the perfect introduction to WHB as it sums up their sound just right but leaves you wanting more, which is exactly what will happen next year, including the release of their debut album scheduled for summer '09. Until then, check their myspace and come and see them play live at one of their many up-and-coming shows. We Have First Single. They Have Big Future.


US Dates
Friday March 13th 11:00pm - TRASH at The Studio @ Webster Hall (LIVE) - NewYork
Saturday March 14th 8:00pm - Piano's (LIVE) - New York
Saturday March 14th 12:00am - Le Royale (DJ SET) New York
Monday March 17th 10pm The Delancey - New York

www.myspace.com/wehaveband
www.myspace.com/50bonesrecords

Dri to tour with Handsome Furs in support of album

For a female musician in the mix since she was 18, Dri has seen and done it all and these songs work through what mattered ("Don't Wait"), what matters ("Two Are One"), what a girl wants ("Indria", "Hot As Hades"), what a girl needs ("Inspiration"). What makes her happy is connecting with the music and as a distillation of her talents and influences, "Smoke Rings" is all Adrianne.As a sense of her seductiveness, however, "Smoke Rings" is pure Dri."Smoke Rings" was recorded in Lawrence, Kansas by Jim Vollentine and mixed in Austin, Texas by Jim Vollentine. Mastered by Howie Weinberg.

US Dates With Handsome Furs
3/15 – Empty Bottle – Chicago IL
3/16 – Off Broadway – St Louis MO
3/17 – Mojo’s – Columbia MO
3/19 – SXSW – Austin TX
3/20 – SXSW – Austin TX
3/21 – The Loft – Dallas TX
3/23 – Jackpot – Lawrence KS

Tracklisting
1. Two Are One
2. Don't Wait
3. Indria
4. You Know I Tried
5. Inspiration
6. Free Tonight
7. Meet Me Out
8. Hot As Hades
9. What's Real
10. Goodnight, Baby
11. Smoke Rings

Bonus 4-Track Remix EP (Part 1):
1. Two Are One (One Are Two remix by Homeowner)
2. Goodnight, Baby (Coke Week X remix)
3. Meet Me Out (1,000,000 Light Years remix)
4. What's Real (Say My Name remix)

RANGE LIFE
http://rangeliferecords.com/Dri

MYSPACE
http://myspace.com/drismokerings

VIRB
http://virb.com/drismokerings

LAST FM
http://www.last.fm/music/Dri

WEB STORE
http://store.saddle-creek.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?%20Screen=PROD&Store _Code=SCOS&Product_Code=RLR-004-2&Category_Code=Range_L20ife_Code=SCOS&Product_Code=RLR-004-2&Category_Code=Range_L20ife

THE ANNIVERSARY
http://www.myspace.com/theanniversary69

"Timeless" concert Sunday at CalState LA

SECOND CONCERT IN VTECH’S “TIMELESS” SERIES PAYS TRIBUTE
TO GRAMMY-NOMINATED PRODUCER J DILLA ON FEB. 22

Carlos Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Will Perform “Suite for Ma Dukes”
Live for the First Time; Opening DJ Sets by J.Rocc and House Shoes

WHO: Detroit native James Yancey, best known as J Dilla, is said to have produced the most revered sounds in hip-hop from the mid-1990s through today. Before his death in 2006, Dilla worked with major musicians, including A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul, Common, Janet Jackson and more.

Virtual production powerhouse duo Carlos Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson have worked together on a wide variety of projects for several years. They have produced albums for Build An Ark, Mia Doi Todd, Grace Woodroofe and Ariana Delawari (alongside David Lynch), and released the duet album, “Carlos Nino & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Fill the Heart Shaped Cup.”

World champion turntablist and founder of Southern California’s internationally-acclaimed DJ crew, the Beat Junkies, J.Rocc delivers exciting and dynamic sets without “killing” the original recordings. He has produced albums with the Beat Junkies and Babu of Dilated Peoples and has shared the stage with hip-hop phenomenons Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Jurassic 5.

Internationally lauded as Detroit’s hip-hop ambassador to the world, DJ House Shoes has been deemed “Best Hip-Hop DJ” in Detroit four times at the Detroit Music Awards.

WHAT: Niño, Atwood-Ferguson, J.Rocc and House Shoes pay tribute to the late J Dilla at the second concert in VTech’s “Timeless” series. Headliners Niño and Atwood-Ferguson, backed by a 36-piece orchestra, will showcase J Dilla’s legacy through interpretations of his music in their contemporary chamber music style. DJs J.Rocc and House Shoes will open with sets built around J Dilla’s legacy.

WHERE: Harriet and Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex
California State University, Los Angeles
5151 University Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90032

WHEN: Sunday, February 22, 2009
7 p.m. (doors) – 11 p.m.

ABOUT: The “Timeless” series, presented by VTech Communications, in conjunction with Mochilla and ArtDontSleep, is a forward-thinking review and homage to the arrangers/composers who have influenced hip-hop in the most profound ways. VTech, whose new music- and Internet-streaming radio device will be available this spring, sponsors a variety of music events nationwide.

Upcoming shows in the series also include:
· Sunday, March 15 – Arthur Verocai with an all-star Brazilian band including Airto Moreira, Mamao and Carlos Dafe and opening sets by Madlib and DJ Nuts
· Sunday, April 5 – David Axelrod with special guests TBA

"Sing Opera!" screenings Feb. 26 and March 1

Sing Opera! - a documentary film produced and directed by Jessica Sanders and Frieda Lee Mock that chronicles 65 intrepid singers from the Los Angeles Children's Chorus as they prepare for the 2007 world premiere of the family opera “Keepers of the Night” - has been selected to be showcased at Hollywood's elite International Family Film Festival (IFFF), which is open to the public.

The film screens twice, on Thursday, February 26, 2009, at 2 p.m., and Sunday, March 1, 2009, at 2 p.m., at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood.

Keepers of the Night is an opera by composer Peter Ash and librettist Donald Sturrock that was commissioned by LA Children's Chorus, led by Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson, and premiered in July 2007.

Sing Opera! follows the choir's young singers from early rehearsals to the opera's opening night, as they work with professional opera singers to learn what it takes to stage a production grander than anything they have known. The film follows on the heels of the Academy Award-nominated film Sing!, also produced by Sanders and Mock, which follows a year in the life of the choir.

With its theme of “Great Stories Bring Families Together,” the 14th Annual IFFF chose films from a record number of submissions representing 23 countries, 24 states and 29 film schools. The festival was founded in 1993 to educate, cultivate and elevate the family film genre by advocating and encouraging the creation and sharing of family films and screenplays through film exhibition, panels, networking and screenplay readings.

Raleigh Studios is located at 5300 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, CA, 90038. Tickets range from $10.00 per screening or event, $40.00 for an All-Day Screening Pass (does not include Special Events), to $250.00 for an All-Festival Pass.

Seating is limited, and reservations are recommended.

For tickets and information, visit www.iffilmfest.org or call (661) 257-3131.

Yes releases statement on canceling tour

OFFICIAL STATEMENT REGARDING THE "IN THE PRESENT TOUR"

(Los Angeles, CA - Thursday, February 19, 2009) - The “In The Present Tour,” featuring YES’ Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Alan White is canceling the remaining scheduled shows including their performance at The Wiltern on February 27, 2009. Tickets for the February 27th concert can be refunded at point of purchase.

Founding YES member, Chris Squire, underwent surgery on his leg on February 11, 2009. The operation was successful and Chris is on his way to a full recovery.

However, Chris has been advised by his physician that he needs a one month rest period, hence the reason for the cancellation of the rest of the tour dates.

As previously stated, Chris and the rest of the band wishes to apologize for any inconvenience that this might have caused to their fans and hopes to see them again soon.


www.livenation.com

Gangi to perform at Apple Store in Glendale Saturday

APPLE STORE AT GLENDALE GALLERIA PRESENTS LIVE FREE CONCERT: GANGI

WHAT: LIVE at the Glendale Galleria Apple Store is GANGI. Inspired by a vast plethora of sources, GANGI’s music is derived from 60s and 70s garage and psychedelic rock, the sampling culture and beat heavy elements of electronic genres and the lyrical style and sensibility of American folk music.

GANGI, the Los Angeles based duo, will perform songs from their most recent album, A. Acting as DJs playing off of each other, the duo creates an entirely unique dialogue. As Matt Gangi’s dream-like vocals, guitar playing and melodies meet Lyle Nesse’s electronic samples and intense tribal drumming, a rich, layered and new textural sound is achieved.

WHEN: Saturday, February 21 at 7pm

WHERE: Apple store – second level
Glendale Galleria
Glendale, CA

Southport Weekender Vol. 8 mixed by Ashley Beedle and King Britt

Since its launch the acclaimed Southport Weekender album series has featured mixes from some of the world’s DJ elite including Jazzanova, Mr. Scruff, Kerri Chandler, Gilles Peterson, Jazzy B, DJ Spen, Tony Humphries, Quentin Harris and many more. Having rocked the rafters of Southport Weekender 43 festival this past November, versatile music heavyweights Ashley Beedle and King Britt continue the infectious party vibe with Southport Weekender Vol. 8 on suSU music.

For those in North America (and perhaps unaware), Southport Weekender is Europe’s most unique and best loved indoor soulful music festival. In fact, the Southport Weekender is celebrating 21 glorious years of festival madness with two events every year! Attracting 5000+ party folks to the indoor Pontins Holiday Complex in Southport, it’s dubbed as the “UK’s friendliest party.” Southport features four arenas, boasting a heavyweight selection of cutting edge and classic soulful music from House, Jazz, broken beats, drum n’ bass, Hip-Hop, deep house, R&B, Soul, Jazz Funk, Rare Groove, Nu Soul with amazing performances from the world’s DJ Elite, Live acts and PA’s.

With Southport Weekender Vol. 8, Ashley Beedle and King Britt provide a selection of tracks that embodies the spirit of what this festival is all about. Each artist delivers a fantastically eclectic mix riddled with delightful soulful classics, contemporary dancefloor nuggets and exclusive new tracks. Here, Beedle offers his own “Heavy Disco Edit” of Peven Everett’s “Surely Shorty” while King Britt drops in his own exclusive remixes of Ursula Rucker “Electric Santeria” and Zaki Ibrahim “Money,” to name a few.

ABOUT ASHLEY BEEDLE
Ashley Beedle is a guy who's been involved in more projects than we can possibly name. The versatile artist is as happy slinging reggae, funk, rock, soul, disco and jazz on the metal platter, as he is house music; and his productions have been championed by an equally wide range of decksmiths from Danny Tenaglia and Fabio and Grooverider to Gilles Peterson and John Digweed.

Affiliations: Shock Soundsystem, Ballistic Brothers, Black Science Orchestra. X-Press 2, Delta House Of Funk, Disco Evangelists, Roots Revolution, Jamayka Boys, Black Jazz Chronicles and Afro Art, Warbox, Ralph und Beedle, Mavis, London Heavy Disco Review, etc.

ABOUT KING BRITT
King Britt is a pioneer of all things soulful, rhythmically textured and melodically provocative. This Philadelphia native has found a way to escape the strictures of a single category of music by expressing his creations through deep house, hip-hop, broken beat, nu-jazz, funk and afro-tech. Whether it’s film scoring for Hollywood, rocking a dancefloor in Tokyo or consulting for the leading urban lifestyle brands, there are no limits to what King Britt will do next.
Affiliations: Philadelphia, Digable Planets, Sylk130, “King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan,” “The Nova Dream Sequence” and Scuba

Southport Weekender Vol 8 is released April 21, 2009 on suSU Music

SOUTHPORT WEEKENDER VOL. 8

TRACKLISTING:
CD1 MIXED BY ASHLEY BEEDLE
1 THE DELLS - WALK ON BY
2 FAZE ACTION - WE DON'T KNOW HOW
3 ASHLEY BEEDLE - HEIGHT
4 LEO ELSTOB - HOW HIGH?
5 ROOT SOUL FEAT. VANESSA FREEMAN AND MIKE PATTO - SPIRIT OF LOVE (PHIL ASHER'S RESTLESS SOUL BOOGIE MIX - YOSHI EDIT)
6 X-PRESS 2 FEAT. KISSING THE PINK - ENJOY THE RIDE (ASHLEY BEEDLE'S MAGIC SESSION VOCAL)
7 BLACK GHOSTS - IT'S YOUR TOUCH (ASHLEY BEEDLE'S HEAVY DISCO EDIT)
8 CRAZY P - STOP SPACE RETURN
9 PEVEN EVERETT - SURELY SHORTY ( ASHLEY BEEDLE'S HEAVY DISCO EDIT )
10 JOEY NEGRO AND THE SUNBURST BAND - OUR LIVES ARE SHAPED
11 LEE MCDONALD - I'LL DO ANYTHING FOR YOU ( PATCHWERKS REMIX )
12 DON DOWNING - DOCTOR BOOGIE
13 ISAAC HAYES - I CAN'T TURN AROUND (ASHLEY BEEDLE'S KING CHOCOLATE MEMPHIS 2 CHICAGO RE-EDIT)
14 D NOTE - THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS (BALLISTIC BARRIO BOOM MIX)
15 NATURAL SELF - IN THE MORNING
16 THE LONDON HEAVY DISCO REVUE - ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

CD2 MIXED BY KING BRITT
1 ZAKI IBRAHIM - MONEY (KING BRITT REMIX)
2 EDWIN STARR - WAR (KING BRITT REMIX)
3 BUNNY MAC - LET ME LOVE YOU (BUGZ DUB)
4 MARTIN SOVEING - CABO PARANO
5 GLENN LEWIS - STAY WITH ME (TERRY HUNTER DUB)
6 TEDDY DOUGLAS - WHATCHA GONNA DO (HARLUM VOCAL MIX)
7 JOEY NEGRO - SAMBA PARTY
8 JELLYBEAN BENITEZ - LATINA
9 DJ OJI - ESTEBAN (MARK MENDOZA EDIT)
10 URSULA RUCKER - ELECTRIC SANTERIA (KING BRITT FIVESIX MIX)
11 LUCA BACCHETTI - NIGHT OVER KWAZULU
12 SOLOMONIC SOUND - MASH DOWN
13 UP BUSTLE AND OUT- DANCE YOUR TROUBLES AWAY (KING BRITT REMIX)
14 JOHN TEJADA - .DESIRE FEAT NICOLETTE
15 DJ DOZIA - LATIN HIGH
16 SVEN VAN HEES - TSUNAMI (BUSCEMI REMIX)
17 SUSANA BACA - LA NOCHE (REMIX)

Mumiy Troll North American debut pushed to April 7 release

Russia’s biggest band Mumiy Troll (http://mumiytroll.com/ ) announced today their debut North American release Comrade Ambassador will be distributed via DisManic and Ryko Distribution (http://t.ymlp143.com/uswavauhqafameuacauemj/click.php) on the band's own imprint, Mumiy Troll Records, pushing the release date from March 24 to April 7, 2009.

“I am so pleased DisManic and Ryko Distribution are on board to get our debut release in North America Comrade Ambassador into the hands our American and Canadian fans,” said Mumiy Troll Lead Singer Ilya Lagutenko. “We have had eight releases in Russia and Eastern Europe but this is the first time our music will be available in stores and online from California to Canada. We are committed to touring and supporting Comrade Ambassador for our Russian friends and our new American fans as well.”

Mumiy Troll took North America by storm this past January during their first ever coast-to-coast tour which found the band playing sold out shows in New York, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and Seattle. In Toronto, fans lined up around the block in the snow for two hours to get into the sold out show. Promoters and fans alike were impressed with the drawing power of the band, which included new American fans that were introduced to the band by friends in the Russian community. The rest of the music industry will take notice when Mumiy Troll makes their first appearance at the annual South By Southwest Music Conference (http://sxsw.com/ ) in Austin, Texas.

Confirmed shows are:
03/03 @ The Independent, San Francisco, CA
03/04 @ The Independent, San Francisco, CA
03/05 @ The Roxy, Los Angeles, CA
03/06 @ The Roxy, Los Angeles, CA
03/19 @ Speakeasy, Austin, TX (SXSW showcase)

This tour has inspired American-dwelling Russians to celebrate the culture of their motherland and introduce it to their American friends. In Washington DC, the Russian Cultural Center hosted a reception and press conference during Inauguration Week to kick off the Mumiy Troll tour.  In Los Angeles, the UCLA Department of Slavic Studies and the City of West Hollywood are celebrating Mumiy Troll’s shows with the creation of the first annual Russian Winter Festival on March 7. This event of Russian film and arts will include a screening of the Oscar-nominated short film “Lavatory Love Story” (“Ubornaia istoriia – liubovnaia istoriia”) as well as the 2008 Cannes Film Festival Winner for Best Debut “Everybody Dies, Except Me.”

More information is available at http://www.farfrommoscow.com/.

“We’re incredibly lucky to have Mumiy Troll play in Los Angeles for two rare club dates at The Roxy on March 5th and 6th,” says Russian Winter Festival organizer David MacFadyen. “Mumiy Troll is the most important rock band from the world’s biggest country. Â Don’t forget that these four musicians play at massive festivals all around the world; the best way, therefore, to connect music fans all the way from Moscow to Los Angeles is to showcase Russia’s most popular outfit in such an intimate setting.”

Early reviews of Comrade Ambassador have extolled it as “delightfully fresh” (NewCity Chicago), “a vodka-chasing mix of Bauhaus and Pearl Jam” (Minneapolis Star Tribune) and “sparkling pop” (The New Yorker). Comrade Ambassador is Mumiy Troll's ninth studio release since they formed in Russia before the fall of the Soviet Union, and consists of 14 tracks taken from the band's two most recent releases, AMBA (2007) and VIII (2008), with a bonus previously unreleased Russian-language cover of The Mamas & the Papas' classic “California Dreamin’”.

ABOUT MUMIY TROLL
Originally founded in Vladivostok, Russia in 1983 Mumiy Troll (pronounced MOO-mee troll) earned early success in Moscow with startling albums and live performances that burst with energy, warmth and debauchery. The band's signature "rockapops" sound has taken the band to dizzying heights in Russia where they graced the covers of Russian editions of GQ, Time Out, Rolling Stone and Hello! Today, they are set to conquer the United States with their debut release, Comrade Ambassador. Mumiy Troll is: Ilya Lagutenko – vocals, guitars, songwriting; Yuri Tsaler – guitar, keyboards and saxophone, Eugene "Sdwig" Zvidionny – bass; Oleg Pungin - drums.

For more band info visit http://t.ymlp143.com/usyanauhqagameualauemj/click.phpen.

Color of Violence readying effort

After dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight as one-half of the wildly popular screamo band From First to Last, Travis Richter (guitars/vocals) and Derek Bloom (drums) have purposefully set aside their knack for mainstream success with their new band the Color of Violence.

Youthanize, as the title implies, is a grinding, surf-y testament to the wit, irony and artistry of two talented musicians working without restrictions or expectations. Taking their music back to the underground from whence they came, Richter and Bloom are here to provoke and inflame, yes, but mostly just to have some f'ing fun.

"The premise of the band was to be spontaneous and lighthearted while at the same time making intense music." says Richter. "I feel like the whole mood of punk music has changed. Or maybe it hasn't and I have just romanticized the hell out of the whole thing. Either way, I look at the early 80's punk movement, even just on the west coast, there is so much diversity, from bands like the Weirdos to Black Flag to Bad Religion to X. Take it worldwide and you get bands like GISM, Siouxsie Sioux or the creatures, Nina Hagen, etc. I don't see that anywhere now. That boldness, that excitement, that diversity. I'm not saying that we are on the level of any of those musicians, because we aren't, all I mean is that this record isn't a chugga-chugga blah-blah fuck me I'm angry kind of record. We tried to improv just about everything on the spot in the studio and tried to bring more to the table than the status quo for the genre. At its heart I feel like this is a punk record in that sense."

Youthanize takes you back to an early era of grindcore/screamo and presents it with an almost indie sophistication. Tracks like "God Gave Me Deeze Nutz," "Christina, Christina," "Me and My Enormous Spirtitual Erection," and the cover of the Pixies' anthem "Rock Music" take unconventional guitar riffs, brutal production and unpredictable arrangements to create an unsettling and completely modern listen.

"It may not be groundbreaking, and it may not sell any copies, but we tried to be ourselves and experiment," concludes Richter, "and were all really happy with the way it turned out, so fuck it."

For More Information:
www.Epitaph.com
www.Myspace.com/thecolorofviolence

Razorlight to tour in support of new effort

With excitement building towards the March 10th U.S. release of their third album, SLIPWAY FIRES – featuring the Top 5 UK single “Wire To Wire” – London-based Razorlight will return to the states for two weeks of tour dates and promotions next month. The tour will open in Boston on Monday, March 9th (at Middle East), then on to New York the next night for the official album release celebration at Hiro Ballroom March 10th. March 11th, Razorlight will perform on The Late Show with David Letterman.

After shows in Philadelphia, Chicago, Nashville, and Atlanta, Razorlight will return to the SXSW (South By Southwest) Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas – where they were discovered five years ago in 2004. In addition to a night time gig at Stubb’s opening for PJ Harvey, Razorlight will perform at one of Filter magazine’s “Revenge Of Cedar Street” daytime showcases at the Cedar Street Courtyard on 4th Street in Austin (sponsored by Santa Monica’s KCRW radio), open to all badge holders. (Please see complete itinerary below.)

Razorlight’s U.S. television premiere of “Wire To Wire” took place on NBC’s Last Call with Carson Daly Friday, February 6th. The video for “Wire To Wire” – directed by two-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Stephen Frears (The Queen, The Grifters, High Fidelity) – was recently added to mtvU. The full-length audio version of “Wire To Wire” can heard on the band’s MySpace site, www.myspace.com/razorlight, which also features one-minute excerpts of four new album tracks: “Hostage of Love,” “North London Trash,” “Burberry Blue Eyes,” and “Tabloid Lover.”

Razorlight – principal songwriter and mastermind, front-man and lead singer/guitarist Johnny Borrell, guitarist/vocalist Björn Ågnen, bassist Carl Dalemo, and drummer Andy Burrows – have been charming UK fans for nearly five years, since the summer 2004 release of their debut album, Up All Night, on the Universal International imprint. After working the club scene, they soon found themselves playing large scale venues around the UK and Europe as guests of Queen (with Paul Rodgers), Oasis, Richard Ashcroft, and the Rolling Stones.

Two years later in the summer 2006, their self-titled album Razorlight rose to #3 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. The album spun off three hit singles on the Continent: “In The Morning” (#3 UK), “Before I Fall To Pieces” (Top 20), and “America,” which went to #1 in the physical and digital marketplace. The following year (2007) closed out with two BRIT Awards nominations for Razorlight, for Best British Band and Best Song (“America”). The pace continued at the annual NME Awards, with Razorlight receiving nominations for Best Band and Best Album. At the same time, Johnny Borrell has become the subject of increasing media scrutiny in England. In 2007, he graced the cover of British GQ’s 10th Annual Men of The Year issue, alongside Lewis Hamilton, Orlando Bloom, Sir Michael Caine and Gordon Ramsay. The band has appeared on the covers of British Vogue, NME, and Q magazines.


RAZORLIGHT ON TOUR

Mar. 9 Boston, MA Middle East
10 New York, NY Hiro Ballroom (album release)
12 Philadelphia, PA North Star Bar
14 Chicago, IL Double Door
16 Nashville, TN 12th and Porter
17 Atlanta, GA The Loft
19 Austin, TX SXSW
20 Austin, TX SXSW – Filter Magazine
21 Austin, TX SXSW Official Show @ Stubb’s
24 San Francisco, CA The Independent

The Blind Boys of Alabama to be featured on Gospel Music Channel Monday

Gospel Music Channel (http://www.gospelmusicchannel.com) television network will give viewers an exclusive sneak preview of the new concert DVD release from the legendary group The Blind Boys of Alabama when it world premieres Live in New Orleans on Monday, Feb 23 at 8:00 p.m Eastern Time (encore at 11:30 p.m.)

The concert DVD of Live in New Orleans hits stores the next day, Feb. 24 via Saguaro Road Records (www.saguaroroad.com ).

Live In New Orleans was filmed at the city's historic club Tipitina's during the 2008 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Inspired by the Blind Boys' GRAMMY Award winning, critically-acclaimed album Down in New Orleans, the DVD continues their heartfelt tribute to the Crescent City and includes guest appearances by old friend Susan Tedeschi as well as New Orleans-born acts the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Dr. John, Henry Butler and Marva Wright.

Live in New Orleans combines new songs and old favorites, with selections from the Down in New Orleans disc performed alongside songs from the Blind Boys' other GRAMMY-winning CDs as well as several classic gospel tunes. The Blind Boys were honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Recording Academy as part of the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. The prestigious honor came just weeks after the band was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional Gospel Album category for their 2008 release Down In New Orleans.

The Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes honorees for their tremendous artistic accomplishments and impact on music. Already winners of four Grammy Awards, this tribute welcomed the group into a venerated club that includes the likes of Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis.

The Blind Boys of Alabama thrill and inspire audiences the world over. Formed in 1939, The Blind Boys still continue to create critically acclaimed recordings and reach new career heights even today.

In recent years the group has won FOUR consecutive Grammy Awards, were featured on "60 Minutes," "Regis & Kelly," "The Tonight Show" and the "Late Show with David Letterman", performed on the 2005 Grammy Awards telecast, and appeared in the 2003 movie "The Fighting Temptations" alongside Beyonce and Cuba Gooding Jr. They sang a Phil Collins tune in Disney's "Brother Bear" animated film, and were also the inspiration for the Steven Bochco TV series "Blind Justice."

The Blind Boys have also been inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and awarded the NEA's Heritage Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement, as well as many other prestigious honors, earning them the true distinction of "living gospel legends."

Blind Boys of Alabama are Jimmy Carter, Eric 'Ricky' McKinnie, Joey Williams, Tracy Pierce, Billy Bowers and Ben Moore.

Gospel Music Channel is the fastest-growing network in television and can be seen in more than 40 million homes on various cable systems around the country and on DIRECTV on channel 338.

Milke readying debut effort

Milke are inspired by the third French wave of Kitsune artists, electro pop, Stuart Price and The DFA, mixed with the pop sensibilities of Eurythmics, The Cure, Talking Heads, Stevie Wonder and Prince.

FROM ALCHEMY PR (UK): In a year that will no doubt be flooded with instantly forgettable haircut bands, Milke’s art pop will cement the early A&R and tastemaker buzz that greeted them at the end of 2008.

Though no less impeccably coiffeured, Milke’s songwriting, melodies, and production will see their songs move from blogs to radio with ease. Limited debut single ‘She Says’ received heavy support in the UK from Annie Mac, Pete Tong, XFM, Ed Banger DJs, and beyond. New single, ‘Love Get Out Of My Way’, mines the same rich vein.

Milke are inspired by the third French wave of Kitsune artists, electro pop, Stuart Price and The DFA, mixed with the pop sensibilities of Eurythmics, The Cure, Talking Heads, Stevie Wonder and Prince. With a KLF approach to creativity (minus the sheep slaying), Milke sing about displacement, mental illness, love and love-lost, obsession and sex. This release comes out on Friendly’s label, Gulp, home of Joe and Will Ask, and New York scream/rap/pop act Black Peter Group.

The duo comprises Andrew Friendly (music) and Ra (vocal, lyrics). Under the producer/DJ moniker of Friendly, Andrew has released acclaimed albums and numerous club tracks including “The Bump and Grind” and “2Black2Gay.” He’s also remixed Justice, We Have Band, The Rivers, INXS, and many more.

As with the best dynamics in pop duos, Ra sits at the other end of the musical table. Raised in an Australian hippy commune, his education came from classical and jazz schools. The pair met via Ra’s work on the Black Grass album.

When performing live, Milke expand to a four piece (Ra on vocals and guitar, Andrew on keyboards and backing vocals, Luke on drums, and Dave on bass). They’ve supported The Faint, Fugiya and Miyagi, and played alongside The Clik Clik, Dan Black, Hadouken, Man Like Me, and Nick Nell. Venues have included Cargo, Computer Blue, 333, Hoxton Bar, 93 Feet East, and Catch22, with festival dates including Bloom, Glade and Encompass.

“Love Get Out Of My Way” is a taster of Milke’s debut album, due for release later this year.

Milke Bio:
Milke is a band project between electro/ breaks producer Andrew “Friendly” Kornweibel, and singer/ guitarist Ra. They met after Andrew heard Ra singing on a track by Black Grass, five minutes of Google-ing later and they had exchanged emails and had CDs in the post. The rest is quite possibly history.

Milke is an act of two distinct worlds colliding, and the results are bigger than the sum of the parts. Ra’s incredible voice mixed with Andrew’s cutting edge production, together honing their skills on writing ‘proper’ songs, with huge choruses, solid structures, dynamic and hooky top lines. It’s important to note, Milke do not place themselves amongst the current crop of haircut bands that will be forgotten within a year. Instead they are closer aligned with the biggest acts of the previous three decades, building on a foundation of honed songwriting, production and melodies. With the best part of an album under their belt packed full of anthemic songs, a debut single that became an underground club hit, massive new singles on their way, and a super tight four piece live band hitting the clubs, Milke are on the way to being one of 2009’s big new acts.

Artist: Milke
Title: “Love Get Out Of My Way” (Single)
Label: Gulp Communications
Release Date: March 17, 2009

01. Love Get Out Of My Way
02. Love Get Out Of My Way (Designer Drugs Remix)
03. Love Get Out Of My Way (Daniel Wang Remix)
04. Love Get Out Of My Way (Fireman Remix)
05. Love Get Out Of My Way (Qoso Remix)

On The Web:
www.myspace.com/milketheband
www.myspace.com/gulpcommunications

Fireworks to tour in support of debut release

The Detroit, MI band Fireworks -- Brett Jones (guitars), Chris Mojan (guitars), David Mackinder (vocals), Kyle O'Neil (bass), Tymm Rengers (drums) — will release their debut album, ALL I HAVE TO OFFER IS MY OWN CONFUSION, March 24 on Triple Crown Records.

The album—produced by New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert and mixed by Paul Miner (H20, Atreyu, Thrice)—is a breath of fresh air; energetic anthems that serve as a perfect combination of pop-punk with hardcore breakdowns and feel good “sing-alongs” bursting with infectious hooks.

FIREWORKS entered an Orange, CA recording studio with Gilbert for two weeks, where he helped FIREWORKS turn their songs into eleven raucous, lively tracks that encompass a broad range of styles. “Detroit,” a fast-paced, punk rock number about growing up, and “Show Me Your Vanishing Act One More Time,” a rollicking, punchy song, offset the slower, more pensive tones of “2923 Monroe St.” and “Come Around.” The entire album is a refreshing collection of punk-tinged, pop-inspired rock songs that surge with the band’s passion for making music and are aided by Gilbert’s ear for a good melody.

“Chad brought a lot of awesome ideas to the table and really pushed the best out of us,” bassist Kyle O’Neil says.

FIREWORKS has spent the last three years on the road, touring with bands like Hit the Lights and Set Your Goals, and garnering a solid, devoted fan base since mid-2006. Their dynamic live performance, sincerity and ability to engage fans gets them a leg up as ALL I HAVE TO OFFER IS MY OWN CONFUSION hits the stores.

“We gained our own DIY following,” O’Neil notes. “I think those fans are pretty loyal and willing to stick with us. It’s so helpful to already have a fan base when your debut album comes out. We touch a lot on friendship and on growing up on this record. It’s about a lot of different things. We really have something honest to say. I hope our fans identify with it. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish: write songs that people can identify with.”

Fans can check out FIREWORKS at any of the following stops:

All dates with This Time Next Year:

Tue 3/10 Baltimore, MD Charm City Art
Wed 3/11 Doylstown, PA Moose Lodge
Thu 3/12 Wallingford, CT American Legion
Fri 3/13 Allston, MA ICC
Sat 3/14 Manchester, NH Rocko’s
Sun 3/15 Syracuse, NY The Lost Horizon
Mon 3/16 Latham, NY The Landing Zone
Tue 3/17 Buffalo, NY The Attic
Wed 3/18 Toronto, ONT. Adrift Clubhouse
Thu 3/19 Lansing, MI Snyder-Phillips Hall-East
**Fri 3/20 Southgate, MI Modern Exchange
Sat 3/21 Kent, OH The Vineyard
Sun 3/22 Chicago, IL Beat Kitchen

**Official record release party.

www.myspace.com/fireworksmusic
www.facebook.com/pages/Fireworks/8863626837

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Final "Marty's Corner" taping at KCAT

The LAST Marty's Corner from KCAT.

This Saturday February 21st at 8pm will be the final Marty's Corner from KCAT Channel 3 in Hacienda Heights.

Guests will include...

--Good friend of the show, Comedian Tom Riehl: www.myspace.com/tomriehl

--Comedy troupe, Atomic Bomb Comedy: www.myspace.com/theabcpage

--Rock Band, Mississippi Man: www.myspace.com/mississippimanmusic

----Plus we have more guests that we will announced soon.

Come be part of the studio Audience one last time...

KCAT
316433 Wedgeworth Dr.
Hacienda Heights, CA91745

About 2 weeks ago, the KCAT Board of Directors voted to close TV Station KCAT Channel 3. The station has served the cities of Hacienda Heights, City of Industry, Valinda, La Puente, Bassett, Avocado Heights, North Whittier and South Whittier for over twenty years. Marty's Corner has been fortunate to be apart of this amazing Community resource. And Marty's Corner isn't the only program that will be missing from KCAT's playback list... The Hacienda Heights 4th of July Parade, Concerts in the park, the Industry Pro Rodeo and so many more community made TV shows.

On a personal note, I have interned, worked, and volunteered hours upon hours to this TV station for the last 13 years, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. KCAT is my Club House, my safe haven, and my second home. I'm going to miss the place.

-- One door closes, Others will open up.

Click here to watch a fun video
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=52530112

John Garside
Director: Marty's Corner.

Support local music at Mr. T's Bowl

Mr T' s Bowl
5621 1/2 FIGUEROA ST
Highland Park 9004 / 323-256-7561
-----------------------

Thur Feb 26th
club flotsom
9 pm Porter
10 pm Out of Town
11 pm Magnus Hitch
12 pm My Secret Alphabet
---------------------------

Fri Feb 27th
Psych Bill
HWE,
Ojos Rojos,
White Manna,
and one others...
no cover
---------------------------

Sat Feb 28th
New London,
The Nite Birds
The Holy Angel Fire
and others...
DJs
$5.00 cover
----------------------------

Tue Mar 3rd
♫Niña Bruja♪ Presents:
call for line up
No cover
-----------------------------

Wed Mar 4th
Layabout,
DarkHorse
and others...
No cover
-----------------------------

Support local music at Juanita's

JUANITA'S
5930 York Blvd
Highland Park CA 90042
323-254-4200
---------------------------

Thur Feb 26th
9:00p The Mixer: Jungle, Reggae, Funk, Oldskool Hip Hop, Dubstep & More
--------------------------

Fri Feb 27th
9:00p Pachamama, Buyepongo
$5
---------------------------

Sat Feb 28th
The Power Cords
Toy Robot
and others..
N0 cover
----------------------------

Sun Mar 1st
Sunday at Juanita's
show starts at 7pm
Edmund Welles: the bass clarinet quartet
Brian Walsh quartet
No cover
----------------------------

Mon Mar 2nd
Fish Circus
and others...
No cover
-----------------------------

Tue Mar 3rd
call for line up
-----------------------------

Wed Mar 4th
call for line up

-----------------------------

Thur Mar 5th
8:30p Brooklyn & Boyle invites You to Natural Mystic,
An Open Mic
No cover
---------------------------

JUANITA'S
5930 York Blvd
Highland Park CA 90042
http://www.myspace.com/juanitasrestaurantandbar

for booking gigs write to Gus at culturalenabler@gmail.com

Its a cool place, with coffee, beer and wine bar (wine cocktails), great food...and a great outside area to chill..no cover most nights...

Don't park in Carrow's parking lot you will get towed park on York or across the street in the auto garage lot..c

Ellen Snortland to host Women's History Program at Altadena Library

Women’s History Program: Robin Maxwell with Signora da Vinci hosted by Ellen Snortland

Critics have called this seventh in a series of historical novels by Maxwell “utterly engrossing and glittering with color. Lorenzo the Magnificent, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci and his courageous, passionate mother, Caterina, walk through the pages of this book, radiating life and touching the heart. I will never see the Mona Lisa with the same eyes again.”—Sandra Worth, author of The King's Daughter. This special Women’s History Month event, slated for Monday March 9 at 7:00 p.m., will be hosted by news columnist and Altadena resident Ellen Snortland.

This presentation will be held in the Altadena Library Community Room, at 600 East Mariposa Street, in Altadena. For more information please call 626-798-0833 or visit the library’s website at www.altadenalibrary.org.

Dengue Fever to perform at San Francisco International Film Festival

The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23–May 7) announces one of the highly anticipated special events of each year’s Festival, the annual pairing of live music with an iconic silent film. Dengue Fever (http://t.ymlp143.com/usjakauhwarauyqjapauemj/click.php) will perform the world premiere of their newly composed original score for the first cinematic adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s adventure yarn The Lost World at the historic Castro Theatre (429 Castro Street, San Francisco, Ca., 415-621-6120) on Tuesday, May 5 at 8:00 pm.

“The Lost World is a classic exploration of man’s fascination with his own prehistory. It contains amazing animated sequences and inventive costumes and sets depicting a land that time forgot,” said Film Society Programming Associate Sean Uyehara. “Today, audiences can also read the film as a campy silent documenting how we used to think of the age of dinosaurs. It is full of anachronistic cultural stereotypes regarding science, marriage and race. Like the territory depicted in the film, Dengue Fever’s music comes from a time and place that no longer exists. The band, which hails from Los Angeles, plays 1960s style psychedelic Cambodian pop. The band and film both evoke the same kind of nostalgia for a place that may never have existed.”

Dengue Fever’s repertoire isn’t simply Cambodian music or a Cambodian/American hybrid. Bollywood glitz, psychedelic rock, spaghetti Western twang, klezmer, ska, funk and Ethiopian jazz all contribute to the band’s unique sound. Dengue Fever’s most recent release, Venus On Earth (M80 Music) has garnered rave reviews since its release in January 2008. Rabid interest from the press and college radio (where it reached #14 at CMJ) generated coverage in Los Angeles Times ("Sexy and eclectic, it's world music for the cool kids”); SPIN Magazine (“Venus On Earth feels impulsive and rich, rippling with surf psychedelia and exultant brass swing” (4 stars); and Paste Magazine (“The maturing, polyglot sound of America's urban future. (3 Stars.") Additionally, The Times of London (“If there is any justice in pop music, we’ll all catch Dengue Fever before the year is out”) as well as The New York Times, Global Rhythm, Mojo, Uncut, NPR’s “Fresh Air”, Entertainment Weekly, Songlines and fRoots have praised the band's latest offering.

The plot surrounding The Lost World begins with a journal which points to the existence of dinosaurs in current times. An expedition is formed to find these lost creatures. Harry Hoyt’s adaptation of The Lost World (1925), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam, stars Bessie Love, Lewis Stone, Wallace Beer and Lloyd Hughes. Willis O’Brien’s pioneering stop motion special effects of prehistoric beasts encountered by a scientific expedition are a precursor to his remarkable animation achievements for 1933’s King Kong. The Lost World was entered into the National Film Registry in 1998. The Lost World will be shown in a restored print with simulated tinting from the collection of the George Eastman House.

Tickets for this world premiere event at the Castro are $15 San Francisco Film Society members/$20 general. For tickets and information go to http://t.ymlp143.com/usbafauhwatauyqjafauemj/click.php or call 925.866.9559.

ABOUT DENGUE FEVER
Dengue Fever is Chhom Nimol – who sang regularly for the King and Queen of Cambodia - Ethan Holtzman (keyboards), Zac Holtzman (guitar), David Ralicke (horns), Senon Williams (bass) and Paul Smith (drums). The band’s music has been featured in a number of film and television shows including CITY OF GHOSTS, MUST LOVE DOGS, BROKEN FLOWERS, HBO’s hit series TRUE BLOOD and twice on Showtime’s, WEEDS. They have released three albums, Dengue Fever, Escape From Dragon House, Venus On Earth and are set to release their DVD/CD soundtrack to the documentary Sleepwalking Through The Mekong on April 14, 2009.

Esotouric to offer Charles Bukowski bus tour

Charles Bukowski Bus Tour Rolls To Newly Landmarked L.A. Home

WHAT: Esotouric's "Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's LA" bus tour

WHEN: Saturday March 14, 12pm-4pm, departs from Philippe The Original, 1001 N Alameda, Downtown LA

COST: $58/person, includes coffee and donuts served at Bukowski's favorite Pink Elephant Liquor Store

MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

On March 14, Esotouric, the company whose offbeat bus tours expose LA's secret history, rolls out its popular and occasional Charles Bukowski bus tour, HAUNTS OF A DIRTY OLD MAN. The tour departs from Philippe The Original, the legendary downtown sandwich shop where postal worker Bukowski often ate while employed across the street at the brutal Terminal Annex sorting facility.

The tour is hosted by Richard Schave, one of the forces behind the recent successful campaign to have Bukowski's one-time bungalow on De Longpre Avenue in East Hollywood declared an historic-cultural monument. This is the first time the tour has been offered since the official landmark sign went up on the site, making for a perfect photo op.

HAUNTS OF A DIRTY OLD MAN spans Bukowski's personal city, from the Skid Row bars where he tuned his young writer's ear to the voices of old rummies to the once-genteel Crown Hill apartments where he fought with his first love Jane, favorite bars and liquor stores, "Barfly" locations to the downtown library, where he discovered his "God," novelist John Fante.

German born, Bukowski spent most of his life in L.A., working for the US Postal Service, as "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" columnist for the underground press and writing the screenplay for the autobiographical "Barfly." The city and its characters are everywhere in the work, so this tour celebrates the artist within his city with visits to places that were important to him and to his work.

Esotouric has made its name with true crime bus tours (Black Dahlia, Pasadena Confidential) and explorations of literary LA (Raymond Chandler, John Fante, James M. Cain). Now they turn their creative attentions to Bukowski, the prolific poet, novelist and screenwriter whose rough-hewn tales of boozing, wild women and rotten jobs never obscure the deep vein of sweetness and hope that runs through all his work.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule:
Sat Feb 21- Raymond Chandler's LA
Sat Feb 28 - Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' LA
Sat March 7 - The Lowdown on Downtown: The Secret History of LA
Thurs March 12 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat March 14 ­ Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's LA
Sat March 21 ­ Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice
Sat March 28 ­ Pasadena Confidential
Sat April 4 - Wild Wild Westside
Thurs April 9 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat April 11 - Raymond Chandler's Bay
Sat April 18 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat April 25 - Raymond Chandler's LA

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com

Chris and Thomas on tour in March

Defend Music recording artists Chris and Thomas will be hitting the road this winter in support of their critically acclaimed album Land of Sea.The Los Angeles-based indie folk duo recalls moments of great troubadour couplings such as Simon and Garfunkel while retaining their own distinctive, cinematic sound which has earned them press accolades.

NPR’s Song of the Day calls the album track “Take These Thoughts” “a warm, harmony-drenched roots-pop gem that hits its mark with glorious efficiency… Chris and Thomas are nothing if not born to sing simultaneously.”

Web authority the All Music Guide asserts that the album is “Filled with homespun lyrical wisdom and poetic touches revolving everyday concerns and matters of the heart, gorgeous music, and fabulous picking…A timeless set.” American Songwriter declared that the duo is “…the sound of two voices in the closest of harmony, like the spirit of shared soul…this is authentically heartfelt, resonant music.”

MOJO Magazine in the UK said this of the album: “One’s from Memphis, one’s from Munich, but their voices fuse like twins on this excellent full-length debut, a very close runner up to album of the month. They can sound like Joe Pernice channeling Simon & Garfunkel or young Crosby & Nash lost on a moonlit prairie. This is evocative and impressive stuff.”

Chris and Thomas’s voices blend perfectly and the live atmosphere is a beautifully intimate experience, complete with humorous asides as in-between song banter. They are truly a duo who sounds phenomenal on recording but are equally powerful in the live setting.The duo will be performing a few songs from their forthcoming release Into The Sun due out this fall.

Please don’t miss your chance to catch these amazing musicians live and/or to let your readership know about them.

Tour dates are as follows:
03/05/09 Orchard Valley Coffee Campbell, CA
03/06/09 Painted Sky Studios Cambria, CA
03/07/09 The Plough and Stars San Francisco, CA **
03/11/09 Monterey Live Monterey, CA
03/14/09 Duncan House Concerts Ventura, CA ***
03/15/09 Frog N Peach San Luis Obispo, CA
03/17/09 Hotel Café Los Angeles, CA
03/19/09 Coffee Gallery Backstage Altadena, CA
03/20/09 Gypsy Den Santa Ana, CA
03/21/09 C and D’s Welcome Café Redondo Beach, CA

**Venue is located at Clement Street at 2nd Avenue (415) 751-1122.

*** Must email scottd13@roadrunner.com for an invite.

www.myspace.com/chrisandthomas
http://www.chrisandthomas.com/epk/
http://www.chrisandthomas.com/webbook.pdf

UCLA Herb Albert School of Music to present "It's a Woodwind World"

WHAT: The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music presents "It's a Woodwind World" on Wednesday, March 4, 2009, at 8 p.m., at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall. The event features UCLA faculty members Sheridon Stokes (flute), Jonathan Davis (oboe), Gary Gray (clarinet), John Steinmetz (bassoon), Brian O'Connor (horn) Doug Masek (saxophone) and Neal Stulberg (piano), plus outstanding woodwind students.

These extraordinary faculty members will perform Bernard Heiden's "Intrada" for woodwind quintet and saxophone; Bruce Broughton's “Hudson River Valley”, an octet for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and 2 horns (West Coast premiere); Bill Dobbins' "Meet Me at Dreamland" for saxophone trio; Saint-Saëns' "Caprice on Danish and Russian Airs" for flute, oboe, clarinet and piano; and David Gillingham’s “American Counterpoint”, a trio for flute, clarinet and saxophone.

The music chosen for this program includes the standard woodwind quintet but also includes saxophone and piano so that the variety of styles transcends from a French romantic showpiece by Saint-Saens to a brand new work by Academy Award winning film composer, Bruce Broughton. The connecting thread throughout the whole concert is that each work has its own unique "story" attached to it. Also, with the addition of saxophone(s), the repertoire can naturally tend toward jazz-influenced works, e.g. "American Counterpoint" and "Meet Me at Dreamland".

WHEN: Wednesday, March 4, at 8:00 p.m.

WHERE: Schoenberg Hall, UCLA

COST: $15 general admission, $7 seniors and students (with ID)

For more information, call (310) 825-2101, or visit www.cto.ucla.edu

PARKING: Campus parking is available for $9 in Lot 2 (enter the campus at Hilgard and Westholme avenues).

Asobi Seksu's new effort is out with tour set for March

Asobi Seksu releases its highly anticipated new album Hush today exclusively on AmieStreet.com. The album will be sold for one week only at the special price of $7. On February 17th, Hush will be available for purchase at all music retailers. The album will be sold on CD, Vinyl and download formats via Polyvinyl Record Co.

AmieStreet.com is a place to discover, download and share music of every genre, from all over the world. On AmieStreet.com, songs start free and increase in price up to 98 cents, based on their popularity among members. From the most recognizable musicians to the most promising unsigned acts, Amie Street surfaces the best new music as chosen by the community.

AmieStreet.com was founded in 2006, by three then Brown University seniors, and is now headquartered in New York City.

European & US Tour Dates
Mar 02 Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa
Mar 03 Toronto, ON @ El Mocambo
Mar 04 Pontiac, MI @ The Pike Room at Crofoot Ballroom
Mar 05 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Mar 06 Bloomington, IL @ Illinois Wesleyan U.-Young
Mar 07 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
Mar 10 Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Mar 11 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
Mar 13 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Mar 14 Los Angeles, CA @ Troubador
Mar 15 San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
Mar 19 Austin, TX @ SXSW
Mar 20 Austin, TX @ SXSW
Mar 21 Austin, TX @ SXSW
Mar 22 Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves
Mar 23 Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon
Mar 24 Memphis, TN @ Young Avenue Deli
Mar 25 Atlanta, GA @ Eyedrum
Mar 26 Chapel HIll, NC @ Local 506
Mar 27 Baltimore, MD @ The Ottobar
Mar 28 Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
Mar 29 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
Mar 30 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East
Apr 02 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom

Cut Off Your Hands to kick off tour Saturday

After debuting on Speak n Spell Records in 2006 with the bristling Shaky Hands EP, Cut Off Your Hands quickly set stages and airwaves on fire across Australia and beyond. And with steady attention to touring and the production of melodic, musical gems their avid fan base and the cavalcade of media hyperbole has only continued to grow.

With their nationwide billing on 2007’s Laneway Festival and jaunts to Los Angeles, SXSW and New York really getting the ball rolling, it was, tellingly, the band’s first visit to London that would prove their watershed moment.

Having been bewitched by the band in Texas, the lovesick indie-maven Steve Lamacq (hosting John Peel’s old show on BBC6) wasted no time in pulling them into his Maida Vale studios for a live performance when he knew they were in town. All of a sudden the boys from the antipodes were a bright pin punched on the British musical ‘map’, and as a consequence, their remaining shows were rammed full of hungry industry folk.

It was also while in London that the group, through various channels and the snowballing momentum, found themselves working with ex-Suede guitarist and Producer de jour, Bernard Butler, for the first time. Their second EP, Blue on Blue, being the fruit of their labours. While the recording’s lead tracks, ‘Still Fond’ and ‘Oh Girl’, settled quickly into the higher echelon of the radio charts at home, things continued to move for the band abroad.

For the release of their debut English 7” - the double a-side Still Fond/Closed Eyes – through vinyl-ists Fandango was followed almost overnight by the inking of a deal with 679 Recordings (home to The Streets, Mystery Jets and Death From Above 1979).

Through the heady rush of record deals, single releases and the imminent debut LP however, the group’s dedication to their first love, the live arena, never waned. Incessantly in the van, Cut Off Your Hands forged solid friendships with fans and bands alike through UK tours with the whip-smart Foals, the legendary Edwyn Collins and Florida’s Black Kids - not to mention shows with The Duke Spirit and Les Savy Fav.

All this while also treading the festival circuit, playing eight shows in just three days at last year’s CMJ festival in New York before winging their way to Iceland’s epic Airwaves festival and a return to Australia to play Falls Festival and the full Australasian tour of Big Day Out - alongside Bjork, Dizzee Rascal and LCD Soundsystem.

Now based in the dynamic environs of Hackney, London, the band have finished juggling life on the road with life in the studio, (for now) having put the final coat on their debut LP ‘You and I’, with Butler once again at the helm. With such an amazing album waiting in the wings, Cut Off Your Hands couldn’t be set in a better position to win over the World’s hearts.

Right. That’s about enough of the press spiel...let’s hear what Nick Johnston - Cut Off Your Hands’ Iggy-like, whirling dervish of a front-man - has to say about Bernard, recording and the record...

“For the album we all felt Bernard was the best for our band. He just seems to understand us as a group more than most. He’s very hands-on with the pre-production, with a clear vision for how each instrument has a part to play in bringing the best out of a song.

"For the first time I’ve written songs with the studio in mind, as opposed to writing for our live show. Once again, this has been just treating each song in the way that best suits the song. Bernard’s really adamant in pushing to treat each song on its merits. Some songs worked straight away, whilst others came together slowly, only sounding amazing once we put all the vocals and overdubs on.

"There’s a whole lot more instrumentation on the record this time as well. BB was really keen to make a record which had points of difference to separate us from the droves of British guitar bands around right now. And we've taken a few more risks than usual. Bernard has taken us (as players) out of our comfort zones, deconstructing the way we think. But it's a good, healthy thing - risk taking- because when it works out you progress. I feel that the new songs are definitely an organic progression. In that the songs from the EP Blue On Blue were completely melody based, but all fairly similar. They were bouncy and energetic. Hopefully we've made a LP which listens in a far more dynamic sense than the two previous EPs.

"Our pop sensibility has come lately. (While writing the record) I was listening to a lot of doo-wop - in particular Phil Spector produced groups like the Ronnettes, and the Crystals - and I've been obsessed with how melodically centred those old songs are. It's what makes them still relevant and exciting to someone like me, a 23 year old, 50 years later. I also began seriously taking an interest in 1950's artists such as Roy Orbison, Ritchie Valens and Elvis. I found that I was no longer that interested in weird sounds, or noisy groups, all I wanted to hear and recreate were beautiful vocal melodies that are calculated but appear so effortless.

"We feel we've really matured as songwriters quite a bit since the last release, and we think that maturity is demonstrated in the depth of this record. I’m happy that Bernard has been so eager to take risks with our music, and has aimed to make a record we'll still be listening to in years to come.”

North American Dates
2/21 - Richard’s on Richards w/Ra Ra Riot & Telekinesis - Vancouver BC
2/22 - Lucky Bear w/Ra Ra Riot - Victoria BC
2/24 - Doug Fir Lounge w/Ra Ra Riot & Telekinesis - Portland OR
2/25 - Neumo’s Crystal Ball Reading w/Ra Ra Riot & Telekinesis - Seattle WA
2/27 - The Independent w/Ra Ra Riot, Telekinesis & The Hooks - San Francisco CA
2/28 - El Rey Theatre w/Ra Ra Riot & Telekinesis - Los Angeles CA
3/1 - The Loft-UCSD w/Ra Ra Riot & Telekinesis - La Jolla CA
3/2 - Detroit Bar w/Ra Ra Riot & Telekinesis - Costa Mesa CA
3/7 - Kilby Court w/Future Cop & Theophilus - Salt Lake City UT
3/8 - Hi Dive - Denver CO 3/9 - Slowdown - Omaha NE
3/10 - 7th Street Entry - Minneapolis MN
3/12 - Rock Island Brewing Company - Davenport IA
3/13 - Darkroom w/Life During Wartime Party, DJ's Bald Eagle & Mother - Chicago IL
3/15 - Firebird w/Headlights, Pomegranates & Gentlemen Auction House - St Louis MO
3/16 - Conservatory w/Pack A.D. & El Paso Hot Button - Oklahoma City OK
3/24 - The Cinemat w/Passion Pit & Ra Ra Riot - Bloomington IN
3/25 - Musica w/Passion Pit & Ra Ra Riot - Akron OH
3/26 - Blind Pig w/Passion Pit & Ra Ra Riot - Ann Arbor MI
3/27 - Water Street Music Hall w/Passion Pit & Ra Ra Riot - Buffalo NY
3/28 - Westcott Theatre w/Passion Pit & Ra Ra Riot - Syracuse NY
3/30 - Horseshoe Tavern - Toronto ON

http://www.myspace.com/cutoffyourhands
cutoffyourhandsblog.blogspot.com
www.frenchkissrecords.com

White Rabbits to release new effort in May

After spending the better part of two years on the road (including festival stops at Lollapallooza, Glastonbury (UK), Sasquatch, Monolith and tours with The Walkmen, Spoon, Richard Swift, The Cribs, White Denim and Tokyo Police Club) White Rabbits hunkered down in their Brooklyn practice space to set about re-envisioning the dark pop of their debut Fort Nightly, while adding new sounds and influences to achieve an original work. The result is It’s Frightening, their second full-length album.

White Rabbits signed to tbd records (US home to Radiohead/Other Lives/Hatcham Social) and erected a makeshift studio in their basement rehearsal space to demo new material. Band members popped in and out over the course of several months lending ideas and personality to a new batch of songs that defy instant categorization. After enlisting tourmate, friend and songwriter Britt Daniel (Spoon) as producer, the pair began the process of exchanging demos between Brooklyn and Portland.

White Rabbits recorded It’s Frightening over the course of four weeks, only taking a break to play the Transmusicales Festival in Rennes, France. The sessions were recorded by visionary engineer Nicholas Vernhes (Animal Collective, Deerhunter) at Rare Book Room in Brooklyn, NY.

Taking special care to recreate the unhinged nature of the original demos, the band utilized the wide range of tools in the analog-friendly studio to shape the personal spirit infused in the new tracks. Upon the completion of tracking, White Rabbits traveled to Austin, TX to mix the record with studio wizard Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail Of Dead) using his exceptional ears to transform It’s Frightening into a uniquely rewarding headphone experience.

It’s Frightening plays like a classic reel of tape from start to finish. Opening with the visceral drums of “Percussion Gun,” it is clear that time-off from the road has served the band well. The many highlights include the emotional centerpiece “Company I Keep,” the new sonic territory of “Lionesse” and the macabre lyrics of “Right Where They Left.”

Fans of Fort Nightly will find much to go weak in the knees over and new listeners are in for an awakening as White Rabbits flip the switch on an already impressive beginning. It’s Frightening is a journey into the playfully dark musings of Everyman.

The lineup remains the same: Stephen Patterson (vox/piano), Jamie Levinson (drums), Matthew Clark (drums, guitar), Alex Even (guitar), Gregory Roberts (guitar/vox) and Adam Russell (bass). A U.S. tour will follow the May release of It’s Frightening.

Tracklisting
1. Percussion Gun
2. Rudie Fails
3. They Done Wrong / We Done Wrong
4. Lionesse
5. Company I Keep
6. The Salesman (Tramp Life)
7. Midnight and I
8. Right Where They Left
9. The Lady Vanishes
10. Leave It At The Door

T-Shirt Hell issues final message

From T-Shirt Hell:

It's been an unbelievable experience for all of us over the last 7 1/2 years. We hope we've made your lives more enjoyable and are proud to have championed freedom of speech and the right to make jokes about anything and everything.In our closing message to you, we bring you some good news and some really bad news. The good news is, we're bringing back ANOTHER 9 shirts (making a total of 44) from our storied past as our final goodbye. Here's the bad news.

http://www.tshirthell.com/hello.php

Rascal Flatts sponsored by J.C. Penney and continue tour

Multi-platinum selling group Rascal Flatts played in New York City last week and have become the first country act to sell out Madison Square Garden three consecutive times on three consecutive tours- 2006’s “Me & My Gang Tour,” 2007’s “Still Feels Good Tour” and this year’s “Bob That Head Tour.” Nearly 45,000 fans attended the three tour stops at Madison Square Garden. The “Bob That Head Tour” will run through March 14 with Epic/Columbia Nashville's Jessica Simpson opening.

“We love the energy when we play in the Garden,” says Joe Don Rooney, lead guitarist. “There is nothing like performing for our fans in New York City!

Since their career launched in 2000, Rascal Flatts has sold over 18 million albums, scored 10 #1 singles and five of their albums are multi-platinum sellers. Their new album Unstoppable is due in stores April 7.

Remaining dates:
2-25 Boise, ID Idaho Center
2-26 Salt Lake City, UT Energy Solutions Arena
2-28 Denver, CO Pepsi Center
3-5 Memphis, TN FedEx Forum
3-6 New Orleans, LA New Orleans Arena
3-12 Phoenix, AZ Cricket Wireless Pavilion
3-13 San Diego, CA Cricket Wireless Amphitheater
3-14 Irvine, CA Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
-------------------------------------------------

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) today announced its official sponsorship of the “Rascal Flatts American Living Unstoppable Tour” presented by JCPenney. The tour will promote American Living, the retailer’s affordable, all-American lifestyle brand developed exclusively for the JCPenney customer by Polo Ralph Lauren’s Global Brand Concepts. The fully integrated two-year sponsorship will kick off June 5, with the tour hitting approximately 60 cities across the nation each year.

In conjunction with the tour, Rascal Flatts has written a new song inspired by the spirit of the brand titled “American Living,” which will serve as the soundtrack for the new American Living commercial. The song will only be available on a special version of the Unstoppable CD sold at JCPenney stores.

“Representing true Americana, Rascal Flatts’ music transcends genres and resonates strongly with our customers – the more than half of America that shops at JCPenney each year,” said Mike Boylson, chief marketing officer for JCPenney. “With Rascal Flatts’ significant crossover appeal and passion for the brand, our fully integrated sponsorship of ‘Rascal Flatts American Living Unstoppable Tour’ is a perfect canvas to highlight American Living and its true American values.”

Rascal Flatts’ support of American Living began when the band played at the launch party for the brand in February 2008.

“No brand better represents Rascal Flatts than American Living,” said Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts. “We’ve felt a strong connection to American Living since it first launched last year. High-quality and affordable, American Living represents a classic, American lifestyle – it’s a brand we wear and are proud to share with our fans.”

“American Living” Tribute Song:
The new Rascal Flatts song “American Living” will be available exclusively on a special version of their new Unstoppable album, to be sold at JCPenney beginning on April 7. All net proceeds from the sale of albums will be donated to the JCPenney Afterschool Fund, which provides children in need with access to life-enriching afterschool programs that inspire kids to be smart, strong and socially responsible.

As part of the fully integrated sponsorship, the original song will also serve as the soundtrack for a new JCPenney commercial featuring the band and the American Living brand. The commercial is set to air May 17 – June 6 on prime time and cable television programming.

American Living on Tour:
Rascal Flatts will share their passion for American Living throughout the upcoming tour:
Rascal Flatts band members – Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney – will wear American Living apparel in concert.
The American Living commercial, as well as behind the scenes footage from the filming of the commercial, will run on two large side stage screens during the concerts.
The band’s fleet of semi trucks and the JCPenney touring bus will feature imagery of the brand.
Special American Living merchandise promoting the tour will also be available for purchase at concert venues.

In addition, fans interested in learning more about Rascal Flatts and the American Living brand will be able to enjoy an online experience, set to launch April 1. Visitors to the site will be able to watch interviews with the band on the road and enter a sweepstakes to win concert tickets.

A complete list of tour dates and concert venues for the “Rascal Flatts American Living Unstoppable Tour” presented by JCPenney will be announced later this spring. JCPenney’s partnership with Rascal Flatts will also include the sponsorship of the band’s 2010-2011 tour, which will also highlight the American Living brand.

New discovery at La Brea Tar Pits

The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, part of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County family of museums, today announced an endeavor of discovery and research so enormous that it could potentially rewrite the scientific account of the world-famous La Brea Tar Pits and their surrounding area—one of the richest sources of life in the last Ice Age, approximately 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. Project 23: New Discoveries at Rancho La Brea, undertaken in the heart of urban Los Angeles, has to date uncovered over 700 measured specimens including a large pre-historic American Lion skull, lion bones, dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, juvenile horse and bison, teratorn, coyotes, lynx, and ground sloths. Most rare of all is a well-preserved male Columbian mammoth fossil, about 80% complete, with 10-feet long intact tusks found in an ancient river bed near the other discoveries.

This latter fossil is the first complete individual mammoth to have been found in Rancho La Brea. In recognition of the importance of the find, paleontologists at the Page Museum have nicknamed the mammoth “Zed.”

“The name signifies the beginning of a new era of research and discovery,” according to Dr. John Harris, Chief Curator, Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. “Zed is a symbol of the potential of Project 23 to revolutionize our knowledge about this area.”

When Zed was removed from the ground, his fossilized remains were encased, along with their surrounding soil, in plaster “jackets” and taken to the Page Museum. In the Museum’s famous Fish Bowl laboratory paleontologists are carefully excavating the bones from these jackets in public view. Every time a jacket is opened, the fossil is meticulously cleaned and the surrounding matter—soil that is filled with thousands of tiny fossils of plants, fish, snails and other organisms—is removed and carefully studied. As Zed’s parts are prepared, many of them go on view in the Museum. Currently, Zed’s huge tusks are being cleaned and prepared inside the Museum’s Fish Bowl lab.

The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits is famous as one of the world’s largest and most diverse collections of Late Pleistocene fossils—objects so important that the last 300,000 years of the Pleistocene is known to scientists as the Rancholabrean Land Mammal Age. Paleontologists at the Page Museum now estimate that Project 23 could double the collection by three to four million specimens. These finds may inform decades of new research on subjects including global warming, geological change, biodiversity and life cycles.

So that scientists may focus on Project 23: New Discoveries at Rancho La Brea, the Page Museum has temporarily halted excavations at Pit 91, one of the world’s most plentiful urban excavation sites. A public observation area remains in place. As excavations continue, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Family of Museums will develop Project 23-related experiences for the Page Museum’s annual visitors.

“This is an outstanding example of how research, collections and exhibitions come together at the Natural History Museum and its family,” stated Jane G. Pisano, president and director. “Whether conducting basic science or arousing wonder in our visitors, we work across the institution to learn, educate and inspire.”

Uncovering Project 23: New Discoveries at Rancho La Brea
When the neighboring Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LACMA, began construction in and around the parkland, scientists at the Page Museum had the opportunity to survey areas that would otherwise have been inaccessible to them. The subsequent paleontological salvage operation proved to exceed all expectations.

Under the guidance of Page Museum scientists, 23 enormous intact blocks were lifted out of the earth, crated with wooden planks into “tree” boxes, which ranged in size from 5x5x5 feet (weighing 3 tons) to 12x15x10 feet (weighing 56 tons) from the sixteen asphaltic deposits salvaged from the site. Project 23: New Discoveries at Rancho La Brea gets its name from the reference to the number of extracted crates—with each box bearing its own number (1-23) and excavations for the massive new project. In recognition of their expertise, the Page Museum and the Natural History Museum were given ownership of these asphaltic deposits recovered during the course of construction.

Rather than beginning at ground level and digging into the ooze of asphalt or “tar pit” to expose trapped specimens as they’ve done for the last century, Page Museum paleontologists will begin their Project 23 excavations at the top of each earthen block, uncovering fossils buried in a sediment composite of sand and asphalt. In addition to discoveries of mammal fossils, finds to date include turtles, snails, mollusks, abundant tree trunks and complete insect and leaf mats, all of which are expected to provide important environmental data.

Zed the mammoth was not part of the 23-crate finds but was found as an individual specimen in a neighboring area.

The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
Originally known as the County Museum of History, Art and Science, and housed in the first dedicated museum building in Los Angeles, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County was constructed in 1913 in Exposition Park in part, for the purpose of holding extraordinary finds from excavations conducted in the early 1900s. Soon after the Museum opened to the public, the owners of Rancho La Brea granted the Museum the sole right to excavate their land. (They later deeded the 23 acres of Rancho La Brea to Los Angeles County and donated its abundant fossils to the Museum.) The Natural History Museum’s first aggressive dig, begun in 1913, was the largest excavation undertaken at Rancho La Brea prior to Project 23.

The George C. Page Museum, created as an on-site exhibition and research facility, opened at the tar pits in 1977, at which time the Natural History Museum returned the fossil collection to Rancho La Brea. The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits and the William S. Hart Museum are members of the family of museums headed by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

In 2010, the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park will reopen its renovated 1913 Building. Among the major exhibits to be unveiled will be the new Age of Mammals Hall featuring skeletons from the Rancho La Brea Collection.

About the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits:
The world-famous Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits is part of the Natural History Family of Museums, which also includes the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in Exposition Park and the William S. Hart Museum and Ranch in Newhall, California. Located in the heart of metropolitan Los Angeles, the Page Museum represents one of the world’s most famous fossil localities, the only active urban paleontological excavation site in the United States. This unique Southern California attraction displays Ice Age fossils—including saber-toothed cats, mammoths, dire wolves and mastodons—from the 10,000 to 40,000-year-old sticky asphalt deposits commonly known as the La Brea Tar Pits. Also on display are the fossilized remains of microscopic plants and seeds, insects and reptiles. Daily, visitors can watch scientists and volunteers clean, repair, and identify fossils inside the glass-enclosed paleontology laboratory. Outside the Museum, in Hancock Park, iconic life-size replicas depict several of the extinct mammals that once roamed the Los Angeles Basin.

Hours and Admission:
The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits is located on “Museum Row” in Los Angeles at 5801 Wilshire Boulevard, at the corner of Curson Avenue, east of Fairfax. It is open every day from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $7 for adults, $4.50 for students and seniors, and $2 for children ages 5-12. Admission is FREE for children under 5 and Museum members. Admission is also FREE for everyone on the first Tuesday of every month. Parking is $8, $6 with museum validation. For more information, visit the Museum’s website at www.tarpits.org or call (323) 934-PAGE.

IAMX to release new effort in May

It's not often that a band infiltrates the essence of your being, where you live and breathe their music and their words. But for many, the Berlin-based IAMX has created a diehard cult who wait for their every move with bated breath. With their third album, IAMX has created another masterpiece in the Kingdom of Welcome Addiction (release date: May 19, 2009 on Metropolis Records) in which the glam noir stylings of IAMX get an organic and much more intimate makeover.

"I always imagined IAMX as a broad project," explains the uber-creative and intensely intelligent band leader Chris Corner. "I feel completely free to experiment in every aspect - with humour, with sincerity, with sex, with anger, with fragility. I am a very private person but I felt, with a more organic approach, I could begin to explore and expose another angle. IAMX does have two sides: the rabid animal and the bleeding heart. I am trying to show a warmer, more concerned side with this album."

Kingdom of Welcome Addiction is a foray into the sensitive side of IAMX. While earlier IAMX material was swathed in rhythmic dance beats and hard electropop, his vulnerability remained shielded from this form of armor and rarely emerged except for glimpses from his recent live television performances in late 2008 on Fearless, Vlaze, ManiaTV, etc. The naked and raw emotions are embracingly welcomed on this album and coddled with care, from the vulnerable shuffle of "Tear Garden" to the regal march of "Kingdom of Welcome Addiction" to the late-night primal dancefloor rhythms of "Nature of Inviting".

His exposure of his tender underbelly however couldn't be more apparent (and beautifully presented) than in the ethereal ballad "I Am Terrified," that's filled to the brim with emotion, passion and pain. The slinky "My Secret Friend," featuring a duet with the Grammy-nominated Imogen Heap, further pushes the boundaries for IAMX's music, as this is the very first duet Chris has ever done.

"I would never subject anyone to the full attack of my hypersensitivity but ,yes, I felt it was time to bring out sincerity," he says of the songs. "I have long been avoiding simple statements personally and creatively. Life is simple. Everybody is vulnerable and I feel comfortable with that now. In fact, it has added risk and depth for me, standing by such exposing and, on the face of it, banal words."

Originally breaking through the mainstream as one of the founding members of Sneaker Pimps, Chris Corner has been building his empire from within the broken walls of Berlin in the past few years. Frustrated from the industry forays of his former band, he built IAMX in his own vision without any input from outside sources. What he's created is a timeless catalog of dark and primal dance/rock music that is perfectly at home in a dark and swanky club as it is in a huge and expansive music hall, which has been put to the test with his multiple sold-out tours through the U.S. in the last two years.

Ever the philosophical and incredible thinker, Chris explains the origin of the album's title, Kingdom of Welcome Addiction as thus:"IAMX is my subversive little kingdom. I feel a bit like a mutant Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator. It is here, and in the environment it has created, that I feel at home. Almighty, dynamic, omnipotent. I imagine everyone has such a place , a dream , or a persona . The drug of all drugs. The power of reason, passion, change and independence. Addiction in the positive."

Tour dates are as follow:
June 2
TT the Bear's Place
Cambridge, MA

June 4
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY

June 6
Subterranean
Chicago, IL

June 9
Slim's
San Francisco, CA

June 12
El Rey Theatre
Los Angeles, CA

www.myspace.com/iamxwww.iamx.eu/