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May 1st hits tomorrow and that brings us officially into a-ha U.S. touring time.
The band will play Los Angeles at Club Nokia May 15th and 16th. Shows in New York, Chicago and Toronto will also take place.
In anticipation of the upcoming Los Angeles dates, we present to you a revisit to the epic video (and follow up to the massive Take On Me), The Sun Always Shines On TV. Video complete with creepy mannequins of course. The countdown begins.
We love this "unplugged" shot of Dan Black. What's interesting here is that the photo was taken by 16-year-old up-and-coming English photographer Eleanor Hardwick. It was actually difficult to choose just one photo from her selection of Black shots. Check out the runner up here.
Visit Hardwick's official site to see more of her work. One to watch for sure. She infuses interesting concepts into her work and strays from the typical.
Flowers will step away from The Killers to give us his first solo outing titled Flamingo. No known release date yet besides "coming soon", but we've got to admit the audio tease on his newly launched site intrigues us.
Check it out at www.brandonflowersmusic.com. You can also sign up for more info.
Hopefully good stuff to come.
Dave Gahan, Robert Smith, Editors, Friendly Fires, Suede's Brett Anderson, Nick Rhodes and others are offering quotes, video messages, and more in their support to save the excellent BBC Radio 6 Music.
The station is in danger of being shut down and cut off. Check out whose supporting over on the Joy of 6 website.
A few highlights below -
Dave Gahan posted the following message:
6Music is simply the station of choice for the true music fan. Where else could you listen to Iggy back to back with Sigur Ros, MGMT and Led Zep? If the BBC axes 6Music it would be one of the biggest broadcasting injustices ever.
In the words of Robert Smith:
RADIO 6 IS AN IMPORTANT, VIBRANT AND INNOVATIVE RADIO STATION LISTENED TO AND LOVED BY HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PASSIONATE MUSIC FANS. IT IS ONE OF THE FEW WAYS - IF NOT THE ONLY WAY - FOR MUSICIANS NEW AND OLD UNWILLING OR UNABLE TO CONFORM TO ANY DULL NOTIONAL MAINSTREAM TO BE HEARD BY A NATIONAL AUDIENCE. IT CAN AND DOES PLAY SONGS FROM MANY DIFFERENT GENRES AND DECADES, CHALLENGING AND ENTERTAINING THE LISTENER IN EQUAL MEASURE.
I HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED THE BBC SHOULD OFFER REAL CHOICE IN HONORING ITS SEMINAL MISSION STATEMENT - TO EDUCATE, INFORM AND ENTERTAIN - UNDERSTANDING THAT THIS MAY AT TIMES REQUIRE IT TO ACT MORE AS A PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTER THAN A COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE. IF THE CORPORATION GETS RID OF RADIO 6 IT WILL BE GUILTY OF REDUCING REAL CHOICE, AND OF ACTIVELY ENCOURAGING THE LITERALLY STUPEFYING GROWTH OF A DISMAL HOMOGENEOUS X-DRIVEL CULTURE.
KEEP RADIO 6 ALIVE!
And Editors put their words to video:
Fantastic album cover. Probably our favorite of 2010 (so far). Diamond Eyes is due May 4th.
Beautiful shot.
Yep, it's true. 2010 marks the official return of Adam Ant. Ant's been playing actual shows, a few weeks back he joined Gary Numan on stage for Cars, and he's announced a new album - his first since Wonderful released back in 1995!
Ready for the title? It's a long one -
Adam Ant Is The Blueblack Hussar in Marrying The Gunner's Daughter
Ant is said to be collaborating with an unnamed member of Oasis, as well as Mozzer's Boz Boorer, who has worked with Ant in the past. Also on board, former 3 Colours Red guitarist Chris McCormack and longtime writing partner to Ant, Marco Pirroni.
Ant recently spoke to NME about the record and had this to say:
According to Ant, the album is a "live record that lends itself to performance" and will feature a "kind of concept. It's a very old fashioned, old school, step-by-step album".
Very interesting. More details to come as they arise.
Far, anybody remember Far? We've got to admit, we'd forgotten all about the Sacramento band, yet we used to be big fans. We'd rock out to the records, and we even followed front man Jonah Matranga beyond the band's dissolution to his new project (at the time) Online Drawing. Smile was an insanely great track with the R2-D2 accompaniments.
Anyway, the good news is, Far reunited and they are back in business. New album At Night We Live is due May 25th on Vagrant Records.
Jonah and crew will play two SoCal shows -
May 21 The Troubadour, Los Angeles - purchase tickets
May 22 The Glass House, Pomona - purchase tickets
Our Bay Area readers can check them out in SF at Slim's on May 29th, or catch their hometown gig in Sacto on May 18th at The Empire. Full list of national dates here.
Listen to the new single Deafening over on the band's official site.
Interesting to to have a Far record and a Deftones (Diamond Eyes, May 4) hitting in the same month. It feels like the good old 90's rocking all over again.
May marks the return of ROCK to The Red Radio speakers.
Excited to have them back.
Jose González is stepping aside from his usual work and re-connecting with his band Junip.
Junip's been on and off for the past decade. The band's first 7" was released back in 2000. González and his two bandmates, Elias Araya and Tobias Winterkor, plan to release a Junip EP and full-length later this year.
To get a little taste of what the guys have been working on, head on over to the official Junip site for a free download of a track called Rope and Summit.
Junip will play the Eagle Rock Arts Center on June 16th. No word on when tickets will be on sale just yet. We've never seen a show at the Arts Center, but the location looks like it will warrant a pretty great, non-traditional setting.
Glimpse a few photos here.
SF friends can catch them at the Rickshaw Stop a few nights later on the 18th.
