 |
Sam Phillips finishing 5th EP + full album
8/13/2010
---------------
Sam Phillips is hard at work finishing up the 5th and last EP release for her Long Play project at www.samphillips.com (you can hear music by going to the site and hitting the "Launch" button at the upper right hand corner), as well as the full length album, also to be initially released
exclusively to members of the Long Play community. At least nine songs have been tracked for the as-yet-unnamed album which is expected out just before the end of the year. A physical release of the album to the general
public will follow in 2011. Phillips is planning on playing U.S. dates in Spring and Fall following its release. This year Sam's been featured on
NPR's top rated "World Cafe" show twice as well as on the cover of Variety, the Sunday Los Angeles Times, AOL's Spinner.com, in Billboard et
cetera.
The last EP in the Long Play series comprises specially chosen covers --one from the 1930's, one from the 1960's and one from the 00's --
recorded with the help of Sam’s longtime musical cronies Eric Gordain, Jay Bellerose and Jennifer Condo. She’s also remaking two of her own songs,
one that she’d recorded in 1990 and one that she gave to Jimmie Dale Gilmore originally. Phillips says this music is “intended for late night
listening.” This EP will be released around the beginning of September.
This and all the EPs are intended as pportunities for experimentation, searching for fresh inspiration, taking risks and having “selfish fun.”
They’re a chance to explore artistic possibilities that wouldn’t have been supported by music industry framework conventions of “album cycle”
marketing and promotion. This being a digital release Phillips is continuing crafting the songs right to the point of release.
Long Play is a unique and ambitious web-based art and music installation featuring short films, original essays, candid footage of her at work in
the studio, photographs by and of her and other exclusive material as well as the new music. Phillips explains, “In creating Long Play I
thought about how I would love to be able to get a glimpse into the creative process of people I admire, be it musicians, filmmakers, authors, etc.” The Long Play will provide just that kind of access to this artist’s creative process through October 2010.
The other features of Long Play are also crucial as they’re the means by which Phillips can expose what inspires her: the events, people,
environments as well as other arts and artists – be they filmmakers, painters, authors or other musicians. Long Play functions as a magazine,
diary, radio program and museum all edited, written, hosted and curated by Phillips, documenting the rich matrix of resources that fuels her creative life.
For those joining the Long Play community as paying members it’s like taking out an art-museum membership: they’re able to visit the
installation at their convenience, download music, read Sam’s journaling, see and hear her recording, view the short films. In other words they’ll share her creative odyssey. Moreover community members can enroll in an exclusive social network comprising others who follow Phillips’ career.
The first release via Long Play was Hypnotists in Paris, her collaboration with The Section Quartet string ensemble, followed by the Christmas
collection Cold Dark Night, Magic For Everyone and then Old Tin Pan.
Earlier this year, Phillips’ song “Reflecting Light” appeared in the film Crazy Heart (which earned two Oscars!) and on the accompanying soundtrack
album. Her composition “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us” appeared on the Grammy-winning, multi-platinum Raising Sand album by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Gilmore Girls, the critically acclaimed 2000-2007 television show for which Sam composed and performed the musical score, recently went into worldwide syndication. | Chapin Sisters release "Two" in Sept. touring w and w out She & Him
7/6/2010
---------------
Los Angeles-based The Chapin Sisters will be touring for the bulk of 2010 singing back-up for She & Him, touring the world. They’ll also be playing select dates in their own right, both headlining and opening for She & Him. They will be premiering material from their sophomore recording Two which is being released in September along with repertoire from their full length debut album Lake Bottom LP.
Lily & Abigail Chapin are singing, songwriting sisters who perform under the name The Chapin Sisters. They are known for pristine harmonies and haunting melodies that have gained comparisons to sister acts of old and Appalachian family groups, yet their songs and arrangements have a very contemporary aspect, with elements of pop, blues, folk, and even psychedelic rock.
In 2004, the Chapin Sisers’ acoustic cover of Britney Spears “Toxic” began popping up on Los Angeles radio stations; the trio may have been singing through smirks, but they converted the dance-pop grind into a genuinely unnerving (maybe even prescient?) saga of self-destruction. That gothic sarcasm carries over to their debut album, where they overcome a precious conceit – three sisters singing in immaculate three part harmony over spare acoustic arrangements – by folding in black comedy “Don’t want to live sad and lonely/So go get a rock/And just stone me”). Amanda Petrusich/Spin
For their forthcoming new album, Two – Lily and Abigail, along with co-producers Jesse Lee (Gang Gang Dance) and Louie Stephens (Rooney) retreated to an old family farm in rural New Jersey where they put-together a studio and recorded. Two incorporates lush keyboards, layered percussion, electric guitars and warm, rich vocals tones, in addition to the staple acoustic guitar and three part-harmonies that the sisters are already known for. It will be released in North America (US & Canada) on August 31st and in the UK/Europe in January 2011.
"My baby hates me and it's nobody's fault but mine/He said he'd leave me but he sure is takin' his time…." The opening lines of the group's upcoming album distill the mix of tart attitude and folk harmony bliss that mark the Chapins-two daughters of singer Tom Chapin and a half-sister whose dad is Wes Craven (!)-as a worthy destination as they set up camp for a weekly residency. Richard Cromelin/Los Angeles Times
This Summer, Lily & Abigail will be touring with She & Him (Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward) as members of their band and will be opening many of the shows as well. So, the sisters released an EP of live-in-studio tracks – Oh, Hear The Wind Blow to sell at these shows. It was recorded over a weekend this Spring in Silverlake, CA with their live band The Brothers Brothers - Dan Horne (Mezzanine Owls), Louie Stephens, and Aaron Sperske (Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti).
Harry Chapin was their uncle, but you won't be able to flag a Taxi here. Instead you get the always-winning combination of gorgeous sororal harmonies applied to unsettling, intriguing original songs. Highly promising. Ken Barnes/Blogs.usatoday.com/listenup
Their first full-length record, Lake Bottom LP was collaboration with their other sister, Jessica Craven, who has sense taken a leave of absence to spend time with her new baby. Produced by Thom Monahan (Lilys, Devendra Bandhart, Vetiver) and Mike Daly (Whiskeytown, Grace Potter), the record was critically acclaimed and was named on of the LA Weekly’s Top Ten Records of 2008. It is being released in the UK/Europe this Summer.
There’s a sinister tenderness to this L.A. trio’s sad, soft, gorgeous folk. Comprised of Abigail and Lily Chapin (daughters of children’s music notable Tom, nieces of 70’s legend Harry) and Jessica Craven (daughter of horror director Wes, stepdaughter of Tom), the Chapin Sisters use eerie harmonies to great effect in their meditations on love lost and losing. Their full length debut opens with all three singing in unison:
“My baby hates me, and it’s nobody’s fault but mine.” That track, “Let me Go,” sets the album’s mood and tone – think suicidal. There’s “Kill me Now,” for instance, a tidily cheerless number on which they implore,“Don’t’ want to live sad and lonely, no no/ So go get a rock and stone me.” Depressing sure, but cathartic in a neurasthenic sort of way, too – there’s something enjoyable about the way the sisters spread their misery. Standouts include “Can’t We Please,” an appeal to an ex-boyfriend for mercy (“My demons they dance/ on the bones of our romance”); “Don’t Love You,” in which they inform a potential suitor that, despite how they might act, they’re not really interested in love, they’re probably just drunk; and “Girlfriend,” where they repeatedly explain to a crush how they “don’t like your girlfriend.” The stories marry well to their elegant balladry, and the sisters’ neo-Victorian sensibilities add up to a lingering, almost ghostly result. This is after-dark music that’s meant to creep out you. And it does. Jonathan Durbin/Paper
Abigail and Lily were born in Brooklyn New York. They couldn’t help but pick up a thorough grounding in traditional American roots music and folk-rock from their father, 3-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter Tom Chapin. He, along with their grandfather Jim Chapin, a jazz drummer, and their uncle, singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, created an environment wherein music held an almost sacred purpose, of bringing people together, whether it be for family, humanitarian purposes, or joyful release. When the family relocated to New York’s Hudson Valley, Lily and Abigail attended a Waldorf school whose arts-based education added training in orchestral music and the complicated harmonies of Shape-note songs and old English folk ballads. Through elementary and high school they sang on over a dozen studio albums.
Since graduating from college and pursuing music professionally, the sisters have recorded vocals on albums by: Vetiver, Lavender Diamond, Gary Louris, Ann Magnusen, Will Oldham and Marie Sioux, among many others.
www.thechapinsisters.com
www.myspace.com/thechapinsisters
CHAPIN SISTERS TOURING: Opening for She & Him and then performing as part of She & Him’s band
07/07 Washington, DC @ 9:30 club (duo) - SOLD OUT
NOTE: opening for & then part of She & Him's touring band
07/09 Atlanta, GA @ Botanical Gardens (duo) - SOLD OUT
NOTE: opening for & then part of She & Him's touring band
07/10 Birmingham, AL @ Sloss Furnaces (duo)
NOTE: opening for & then part of She & Him's touring band
CHAPIN SISTERS TOURING: performing on their own
07/31 Los Angeles, CA @ Roots Roadhouse at Echo/Echoplex (with full band)
08/02 New York, NY @ The Living Room (as duo)
08/06 Lunenburg, Nova Scotia @ Lunenburg Harbour Folk Festival
NOTE: Children's Stage - TBA (45)
Wharf - TBA (30) w/Tom Chapin
08/07 Lunenburg, Nova Scotia @ Lunenburg Harbour Folk Festival
NOTE: Morning Harmony Worlkshop
Young Singers Saturday morning - 11 am
Story Songs - St. John's - TBA (60)
Bandstand - TBA (30) w/Tom Chapin
08/08 Lunenburg, Nova Scotia @ Lunenburg Harbour Folk Festival
NOTE: Gospel concert - one or two songs
Mainstage - 7:30 pm (30) w/Tom Chapin
09/15 San Francisco, CA @ Café DuNord (as duo)
09/16 Los Angeles, CA @ Echo Lounge (with full band)
10/12 Portland, ME @ One Longfellow Square (as duo)
10/15 Boston, MA @ The Red Room @ Café 939 (as duo)
10/25 Arlington, VA @ IOTA Club & Cafe (as duo)
10/30 Alden, ME @ The Nightcat (as duo)
11/01 Pittsburgh, PA@ Thunderbird Café (as duo)
11/02 Ann Arbor, MI @ The Ark (as duo)
11/03 Kent, OH @ The Kent Stage (as duo)
11/04 Oberlin, OH @ Cat’s in the Cream Coffeehouse/Oberlin College (as duo)
11/05 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern (as duo)
11/09 Zumbrota, MN @ Crossings at Carnegie (as duo)
11/10 Minneapolis, MN @ Dakota (as duo)
11/14 Evanston, IL @ SPACE (as duo)
11/16 Louisville, KY @ Ear X-tacy (as duo)
11/30 Bellingham, WA @ Green Frog Café & Acoustic Tavern (as duo)
12/02 Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios (as duo)
12/09 Fenton, CA @ Don Quixote’s International Music Hall (as duo)
| Melora of Rasputina in "Women, Art & Community" art show
7/2/2010
---------------
Melora Creager, founder of cello-rocking trio RASPUTINA is among artists
participating in the "OPENING HELEN'S TRUNK - Women, Art & Community"
show.
This is being held:
July 23 - October 15, 2010
at the Farmington Museum at Gateway Park
3041 East Main Street • Farmington, NM
This exhibit features six women artists and a turn of the century trunk
and explores identity, legacy, community and creating art through film,
writing, music, and sculpture.
Creager's piece is the original artwork for Rasputina's 7th full length
album, "Sister Kinderhook" which was just released to excellent critical
response. All the work was hand embroidered by Melora. She'd found the
basic materials in a box of her mother's family keepsakes. The ground is a
half-finished linen, too small for a tablecloth, too big for a
handkerchief. It was her maternal grandmother's and she discovered the
green thread for the leaves she created wadded up in side the linen. She
did the embroidery while mixing the new album in L.A., her new baby by her
side. Melora observes:
"I love the idea that I'm infiltrating a crass, male dominated business
with my obscure, hand-stiched ideas; that I'm stitching while I'm mixing
at some slick LA recording studio.
"It's subterfuge and a joke on 'the business'."
The other artists represented in the show are Sarah Teofanov, Uma
Krishnaswami, Liz McIlvaine,Ramona Emerson, and Sarah Cooke.
For more information on this exhibit call Debbie at 505-599-1174
| reunited Swans announce US tour, new album
5/12/2010
---------------
Michael Gira's re-activated Swans will be undertaking their first U.S. performances in 13 years, celebrating the Fall release of the first new Swans album since Soundtracks For The Blind (1997). The album was recorded by Jason LeFarge at Seizure’s Palace in Brooklyn and is currently be remixed by Gira with Bryce Goggin (Antony & The Johnsons, Akron/Family) at Trout Recordings.
Michael Gira founded the seminal NYC band Swans in 1982. Quickly infamous for their punishing, brutal and repetitive onslaughts of sound, extreme volume levels, and the self-abusing, abject shouts and growls of Gira's sloganeering vocals, Swans gradually transformed over 15 years, ultimately venturing into harsh mechanical proto-industrial rock, to sprawling shifts of texture and perspective (see the bucolic atmospheric folk idles and martial stomps of their much heralded Children of God double LP from 1987), to gentle acoustic-based songs, and finally on to their ultimate statement, Soundtracks For The Blind (1997) which somehow incorporated all of these elements at once, across well over 2 hours of music in one album. At this point, Gira called it quits after 15 years of relentless touring and productivity, and disbanded Swans. Since 1999 Gira has released his music under the name Angels Of Light. He writes the songs for Angels Of Light on acoustic guitar and orchestrates them using a shifting cadre of musicians, employing a wide variety of instrumentation such as strings, wind, brass, electric guitars, electronics and choral vocals. The songs are often eccentric and extreme, in keeping with Gira's love of soundtrack music. Though nominally more traditional than Swans, Angels Of Light is often just as hard hitting through different means. The most recent album by Angels Of Light is We Are Him. When not recording, writing music, or touring, Gira spends his time producing and releasing music through his label Young God Records. He's been responsible for such notable talents as Devendra Banhart, Lisa Germano, Akron/Family, Larkin Grimm, and James Blackshaw.
Recently, Gira decided to Re-activate Swans. Here's what he has to say about that decision at the YGR website:
"About reconstituting Swans:?? …there was a point a few years ago during a particular show when I was on tour with Angels Of Light, with Akron/Family serving as the backing band. It was during the song The Provider. Seth's guitar was sustaining one open chord (very loudly), rising to a peak, then crashing down again in a rhythm that could have been the equivalent of a deep and soulful act of copulation. The whole band swayed with this arc. Really was like riding waves of sound. I thought right then, "You know, Michael, Swans wasn't so bad after all..." . Ha ha! It brought back - in a flood - memories, or maybe not memories, more a tangible re-emersion in the sensation of Swans music rushing through my body in waves, lifting me up towards what, I can only assume, will be my only experience of heaven. It's difficult - and probably pointless - to try to describe this experience. It's ecstatic, I suppose - a force of simultaneous self negation and rebirth. Really, I probably only experienced this a handful of times to such an extreme extent during the entire 15 year history of Swans. All the elements have to align perfectly, and you can't force it, though you might constantly strive for it. I don't mean to be too lofty here, but it's a fact. I'm talking about my own experience of the music (though I'd hope people in the audiences along the way might have experienced a similar episode). When I ask myself if I believe in God, I start to say NO, but then I remember that sensation, and I'm not so sure. So I want more of that, before my body breaks down to such an extent that it won't be possible any more. So I'm doing it. ??Naturally, some of the material for this new record will be songs, centered around the voice and words. Other parts (I'm hoping) will be reaching for what I've described above. One thing I want to point out right now: THIS IS NOT A REUNION. It's not some dumb-ass nostalgia act. It is not repeating the past. After 5 Angels Of Light albums, I needed a way to move FORWARD, in a new direction, and it just so happens that revivifying the idea of Swans is allowing me to do that. I'll be using what I learned in the last several years to inform the way this new material develops, while carrying forward from where Swans left off with its final album Soundtracks For The Blind, and in particular, Swans Are Dead. If you have expectations about how Swans should be, that's your business, but it would be a disservice to both of us if I were to make music with your needs in mind, and the music would certainly suffer as a result. In any event, I certainly never thought this day would arrive, but it's inevitable, it's here, it's fate, so I'm succumbing to it. ??Helping me in this quest are the fantastic musicians and friends listed below. I'll enter the studio with the songs, we'll hash them out together, someone will come up with something unexpected, then that will lead to new ideas, the song will take a different trajectory and the material will grow on its' own. This is what I'm hoping, anyway. ??Here's the main musicians (though probably a lot of guests on the recording). These are the people best suited - in terms of my relationship with them and their particular musical attributes - to help move the music forward:
Michael Gira / guitar / voice / mendicant friar act (original swans) ; ??Norman Westberg - guitar (original swans)?? ; Christoph Hahn - guitar (mid period swans and most angels)?? ; Phil Puleo - drums, percussion, dulcimer etc etc (final swans tour and most angels); ??Chris Pravdica - bass and gadgets (flux information sciences / services/ gunga din)?? ; Thor Harris - drums, percussion, vibes, dulcimer, curios, keys, etc etc... (angels, now also with Shearwater) … at the time of this writing the album is still in progress. Additional guests so far include Devendra Banhart; Bill Rieflin (drummer for REM) and Grasshopper of Mercury Rev… "
Younggodrecords.com
Swans U.S. tour dates
Sept 28 Philadelphia, PA @ Trocodero Theater
Sept 29 Washington, DC @ Black Cat
Sept 30 Boston, MA @ Middle East downstairs
Oct 01 Montreal, QC @ Le National - Pop Montreal fest
Oct 02 Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace
Oct 04 Detroit, MI @ Crofoot Ballroom
Oct 05 Chicago, IL at Bottom Lounge
Oct 08 Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple.
Oct 09 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom |
|
|
