Watch Nick Hakim and his band perform live from the Pitchfork headquarters, and catch them on tour in North America and Europe this fall – see all tour dates below and get tickets here:
VEVO also spent a day with Nick Hakim as he mentored NYC student artists in songwriting and production, and explained what arts education means to him. Check it out:
Gill Landry of Old Crow Medicine Show has announced the release of his new studio album, ‘Love Rides A Dark Horse,’ due Oct. 6 on ATO Records. The first single and video from the 9-song collection, “Berlin,” was premiered today at American Songwriter.
Following his critically acclaimed, self-titled 2015 ATO debut, ‘Love Rides A Dark Horse’ reflects the better part of a year Landry spent picking up the pieces of a failed relationship. Touring and recording alone during this period, he wrote with unflinching honesty about depression and expectation and desire.
“Love and hate need each other for either to have meaning and I feel like it’s the same way with people,” says Landry. “I’d like to believe love always wins coming down the stretch—it just might not be the way you envisioned it. In my experience love often isn’t what I expected and wouldn’t be half as good if it was. That basically is what I wrote this album about. The dark horse is the unexpected winner.”
‘Love Rides A Dark Horse’ breaks new ground for Landry with contributions from fiddler Ross Holmes (Mumford & Sons, Bruce Hornsby), keyboard player Skylar Wilson (Andrew Combs, Rayland Baxter), and drummer Logan Matheny (Roman Candle, Rosebuds). The songs spill over with gorgeous female harmonies by Klara Soderberg (First Aid Kit), Karen Elson and Odessa. Landry’s own vocals are front and center with the arrangements built around his husky baritone, often calling to mind Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. EndFragment
Landry will perform at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville in September. More tour dates will be announced soon – get tickets at http://www.gilllandrymusic.com/tour/:
September 14 – Nashville, TN – High Watt*
October 2 – New York, NY – Rockwood Music Hall (stage 2)
November 22 – Manchester, UK – Night & Day**
November 23 – Edinburgh, UK – The Voodoo Room**
November 24 – Newcastle upon Tyne, UK – Live Theatre**
November 26 – Nottingham, UK – The Maze**
November 27 – London, UK – The Borderline**
November 30 – Escondido, CA – California Center for the Arts^
December 1 – Los Angeles, CA – The Globe^
December 2 – San Luis Obispo, CA – The Fremont Theatre^
Watch Benjamin Booker perform his searing new song “Right On You” on CONAN:
Benjamin recently released a new live session of his song “Overtime” – watch it below, or check it out as part of Stereogum’s August cover story. Benjamin heads out on a fall headlining tour kicking off September 8 – see below for a full list of dates, and head to his website for tickets.
Aug 26 – Moontower Music Festival – Lexington, KY
Sept 8 – Wonder Ballroom – Portland, OR
Sept 9 – Biltmore Cabaret – Vancouver, BC
Sept 10 – Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Sept 13 – The State Room – Salt Lake City, UT
Sept 15-17 – Telluride Blues & Brews Festival – Telluride, CO
Sept 27 – El Rey Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
Sept 29 – Belly Up – Solana Beach, CA
Sept 30 – Crescent Ballroom – Phoenix, AZ
Oct 3 – Trees – Dallas, TX
Oct 4 – White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX
Oct 6-8 – Austin City Limits – Austin, TX
Oct 9 – The Basement East – Nashville, TN
Oct 10 – Old Rock House – St. Louis, MO
Oct 11 – The Bottleneck – Lawrence, KS
Oct 13-15 – Austin City Limits – Austin, TX
Oct 16 – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL
Oct 17 – Magic Stick – Detroit, MI
Oct 18 – Mod Club – Toronto, ON
Oct 20 – The Sinclair – Cambridge, MA
Oct 22 – Music Hall of Williamsburg – Brooklyn, NY
Oct 23 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
Oct 25 – The Loft – Atlanta, GA
Oct 26 – Saturn – Birmingham, AL
Oct 27-29 – Voodoo Festival – New Orleans, LA
By atony|Posted in news, featured|Tagged benjamin booker|Comments Off on Watch Benjamin Booker on CONAN – Fall Tour – New Live Sessions
Head to Okayplayerto listen to Jamie Lidell’s remix of Nick Hakim’s song “Cuffed”, featuring guitarist Marcus Machado. Okayplayer calls the remix “high-octane electric soul with all the requisite bite”. Download or stream the remix HERE, and grab Nick’s debut album ‘Green Twins’ now: http://smarturl.it/nh_greentwins
By atony|Posted in news, featured|Tagged nick hakim|Comments Off on Listen to Jamie Lidell’s remix of Nick Hakim’s “Cuffed” and catch Nick on tour
Sorry Is Gone, the highly anticipated new full-length album from Jessica Lea Mayfield, will be released September 29 on ATO Records and is now available for pre-order.
In advance of the release, the official music video for the album’s title track is premiering today at NPR Music. Of the song, NPR Music’s Bob Boilen praises, “Jessica Lea Mayfield is taking back her life. ‘Sorry Is Gone,’ the title track to her next album, is a song of empowerment that finds the singer moving past a difficult period in her life…Despite the weight of that, the song feels breezy, flowing and freeing.” Watch/share the video HERE.
The 11-track record was recorded at Water Music and Electric Lady studios with producer John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Phosphorescent). In addition to Mayfield, the album features a variety of world-renowned musicians including Seth Avett on backing vocals and keys, drummer Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth, Sun Kill Moon), bassist Emil Amos (Grails, Holy Sons) and guitarist Cameron Deyell (Sia, Streets of Laredo.) with additional production from Patrick Damphier (The Mynabirds).
Of the record, Mayfield comments, “The whole record is about me taking my life back, without really realizing it. I realized I’m the only person that is going to look out for me. I have to be my main person. No one else.” She continues, “I have to sing about things and write about things that have happened to me as therapy. That’s what connects me to other music I listen to. I want music to make me feel things. This is my inner dialogue, and my chance to get the last word.”
In support of the release, Mayfield will embark on an extensive tour this fall including shows at NYC’s Baby’s All Right, DC’s Songbyrd, Nashville’s The Basement East and Chicago’s The Empty Bottle among many others. All tickets go on-sale this Friday, July 28. See below for complete details.
Sorry Is Gone is Mayfield’s first solo album since 2014’s Make My Head Sing…, which was released to widespread acclaim. Of the album, Rolling Stone asserted, “…Mayfield’s echo-laden bluegrass vocals mesh with scorching electric guitar lines to render remarkable results,” while Pitchfork praised, “There’s something certainly compelling about this raw, minimalist sound” and NPR’s Fresh Air proclaimed, “The music is heavy, but it soars.” Additionally Interview Magazine declared, “Mayfield sounds like she’s finally arrived” and USA Today affirmed, “Her evolution as an artist has been fascinating to hear.” Most recently, in 2015, Mayfield collaborated with Seth Avett on Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield Sing Elliott Smith.
SORRY IS GONE TRACK LISTING
Wish You Could See Me Now
Sorry Is Gone
Meadow
Maybe Whatever
Soaked Through
Safe 2 Connect 2
Bum Me Out
WTF
Offa My Hands
World Won’t Stop
Too Much Terrible
JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD TOUR
October 12—Columbus, OH—Rumba Cafe
October 13—Lakewood, OH—Mahall’s 20 Lanes
October 14—Pittsburgh, PA—Club Cafe
October 15—Toronto, ON—The Rivoli
October 17—New York, NY—Baby’s All Right
October 19—Boston, MA—Great Scott
October 20—Philadelphia, PA—Boot & Saddle
October 21—Washington, DC—Songbyrd
October 23—Charlottesville, VA—The Southern
October 24—Cat’s Cradle Back Room—Carrboro, NC
October 25—Knoxville, TN—The Open Chord
October 26—Asheville, NC—The Altamont
October 27—Atlanta, GA—The Earl
October 28—Charlotte, NC—Stage Door Theater
November 3—Nashville, TN —The Basement East
November 8—Indianapolis, IN—Hi-Fi
November 9—Chicago, IL—The Empty Bottle
November 10—Milwaukee, WI—The Back Room at Colectivo
November 11—Minneapolis, MN—7th Street Entry
November 12—Madison, WI—The Frequency
November 14—Davenport, IA—The Raccoon Motel
November 15—Des Moines, IA—Vaudeville Mews
November 16—Kansas City, MO—The Riot Room
November 17—St. Louis, MO—Off Broadway
November 18—Louisville, KY—Zanzabar
By atony|Posted in news, featured|Comments Off on NPR announces new Jessica Lea Mayfield album ‘Sorry Is Gone with video
Melbourne, Australia’s Slow Dancer – the moniker of singer, songwriter and multi- instrumentalist Simon Okely – has a new record, In A Mood, out now on ATO Records. Okely’s debut record is now also available on vinyl for the first time in the US on 180-gram vinyl. With this announcement, GoldFlakePaint also revealed a new clip for the Surrender stand-out “Took The Floor Out.” Additionally, Slow Dancerwill serve as support for Hurray For The Riff Raff‘s upcoming European tour. Before that, the band will return to the US for a headline tour, as well as dates supporting ATO labelmate Margaret Glaspy. In A Mood has been praised by NPR, Billboard, NYLON, VICE, among others as a stand out label debut for Okely.
“[‘Don’t Believe’ is a] soulful serenade to a detached lover, it blends laid-back drums, soft guitar and fuzzy, plucky synthesizers to make a smooth ’70s sound.” – NPR
“Silky smooth…spindly and soulful” – Stereogum
“‘It Goes On’ sounds completely effortless, and it’s the ease with which Slow Dancer flits between country-influenced guitar licks to something closer to indie-rock that makes him such a fascinating prospect.” – DIY
“Okely’s soulful, Stax-inflected vocals and stinging guitar work stand out in any crowd.” – Billboard
“It’s all happening for fresh-faced indie-R&B upstart Slow Dancer, so you’d better go ahead and get acquainted with his music now” – Paste
“pairing soulful ’70s instrumentation with devastating lyricism” – NYLON
“An album that seeps into your consciousness…In a Mood creates a blanket of sound, each layer blending smoothly, a sonic gradient of guitar, organ, strings, bass, and vocals.” – Noisey
Simon Okely is lost in time. Or at least, his songs as Slow Dancer sound that way: warm, near-whispered indie-rock love letters to the 60s and 70s rhythm and blues records his parents would play on family car rides down Australia’s winding west coast, heavy on nostalgia and even heavier on imagination. His 2014 debut Surrender was a melt-your-heart, Fleetwood Mac-with-Neil Young licks “pop postcard” from another time, another place. Now returning in 2017 with In A Mood, Okely is aiming even higher, featuring a “more expansive, more ambitious” sound that’s “less about the stories we tell ourselves when in love and more about the moods that can come creeping over a relationship” at any time. It’s no wonder his music is already striking a chord with fans of Mac DeMarco, Tobias Jesso Jr, Connan Mockasin and more, with his latest single accumulating over a quarter of a million Spotify streams in just a few weeks.
Okely grew up near West Australian city Perth, in a “tiny farming town” where, as a small kid, he would bring a toy ukulele to church every Sunday and strum along as though he was playing the hymns. After growing up and learning the guitar aged nine, he inherited his grandmother’s piano and gradually became fascinated with the intense, intimate folk of Nick Drake, rhythm and blues vanguards Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett and his parents’ favourite Van Morrison.
After moving to Melbourne in 2013, Okely began writing as Slow Dancer in 2014, naming the project after a lyric from a song on Surrender that was “essentially an instruction manual for slow dancing with someone who is experiencing apathy.” Key to the Slow Dancer sound is the environment Okely writes and records in: alone, entirely at night, in a bedroom that “somehow crams in a drum kit, a piano, some guitars, and a bed,” he laughs. “This has always been my journal, my love letter to the music I love. My concentration will always be on making the music that pleases me, and if it pleases other people too, that’s also great. It’s been a wonderful ride so far.”
Simon Okely is lost in time. You should get lost in time with him.
US Tour:
18 Sep – The Mercury Lounge – New York, NY
21 Sep – The Sinclair – Boston, MA^
22 Sep – Gateway City Arts – Holyoke, MA^
23 Sep – Patro Vys – Montreal, QC
27 Sep – The Drake – Toronto, ON
29 Sep – The Hideout – Chicago, IL
30 Sep – Icehouse – Minneapolis, MN
3 Oct – Barboza – Seattle, WA
4 Oct – Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR
7 Oct – Café du Nord – San Francisco, CA
9 Oct – Resident – Los Angeles, CA
10 Oct – Hotel Café – Los Angeles, CA
^ with Margaret Glaspy
European Tour:
17 Oct – Koko – London*
18 Oct – Arts Club – Liverpool*
19 Oct – Whelans – Dublin*
21 Oct – Saint Luke’s – Glasgow*
22 Oct – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham*
23 Oct – Trinity Centre – Bristol*
25 Oct – Wedgewood Rooms – Portsmouth*
26 Oct – Point Ephemere – Paris*
* with Hurray For The Riff Raff
By atony|Posted in news, featured|Comments Off on Slow Dancer’s debut album ‘Surrender’ available now + tour with Hurray For The Riff Raff
The Claypool Lennon Delirium are back with “Lime & Limpid Green”. Previously a Record Store Day exclusive, we’ve pressed 3,000 new copies on a new beautifully colored green splatter 10” vinyl – featuring covers of classics from Pink Floyd, King Crimson, The Who, and Flower Travellin’ Band. Available digitally and on vinyl everywhere now.
Los Angeles punk band The Bronx will be releasing its fifth album V on September 22. The new album was produced by Rob Schnapf (Elliot Smith, Beck, FIDLAR) and will be released by ATO Records. Pre-order it now: http://smarturl.it/thebronxv
Listen to the track “Sore Throat” below:
The Los Angeles-based quintet — singer Caughthran, guitarist Joby J. Ford, guitarist Ken Horne, bassist Brad Magers and drummer David Hidalgo Jr. (replacing Jorma Vik, who departed the band in 2016) —has lost none its pugnacity. V is as hard-hitting,confrontational and relevant as ever. And while it may or may not sound more grown-up than their vein-bulging early releases, they will not apologize either way.
“It has the angst and social commentary that has characterized us from the beginning,” guitarist Joby J. Ford says, “only now the angst is aimed at more than just superficial things and the social commentary is directed at more than just people who like different music than us.”
The band has gained notice for their dual lives they have lived for the past eight years, maintaining an alter ego as Mariachi El Bronx that is as true to that form of music as their hardcore is to the punk ethos. In any iteration, The Bronx are the real deal, ready for the next fight.
Pre-order V now: http://smarturl.it/thebronxv
By atony|Posted in news, featured|Tagged the bronx|Comments Off on The Bronx announces new album “V” out September 22nd
