(HVM) Diary of a Concert Whore

SHOW ALERT: Arts & Crafts Time w/ the Darcys, NO and Reuben and the Dark

posted by Unknown | Sunday, March 2, 2014 | 6:14 PM

Hey kids, it's time for Arts & Crafts! No, this will not involve Play Dough or macaroni and glue- not unless bring your own.

Arts & Crafts is a boutique independent record label based in Toronto and 10 years ago they launched a 'tour package': aka a touring bill made up exclusively of Arts & Crafts bands. The bands on that initial tour were Broken Social Scene, Feist and Stars. Bands currently on the Arts & Crafts roster still include Feist and Broken Social Scene as well as Moby, In The Valley Below, Deer Tick and more and during March and April the Arts & Crafts tour package tradition continues featuring The Darcys and Reuben and the Dark, both of Canadian descent, and NO from Los Angeles.

Los Angeles happens to be where this party kicks off: March 8th at one of LA's finest venues, the Troubadour. As tours go, this is a fairly fine matchup of A&C's musical assets: the art rock of the Darcys meeting the shiny noir of NO divided by the indie harmonies of Reuben and the Dark, all rotating their performance slots throughout the tour. And each band has a new release and new music among them to tour: on February 18th NO released El Prado, last October came Reuben and the Dark's Rolling Stone and September brought the Darcys' Warring (check our review here) where the art rockers craft cool and dramatic layers of sound that have a dreamscape-quality. An audio/visual aide:

Labels: Arts & Crafts, Canada, Echo Park, Los Angeles, NO, Reuben and the Dark, The Darcys, The Troubadour, Tour

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Prep Return w/ New Album, Club Dates

posted by Unknown | Monday, December 17, 2012 | 8:13 AM

12/13/2012

“The war is over, let the battle begin-
The album was officially completed and wrapped in the studio on 12-12-12…
ROBERT LEVON BEEN*”

This was the Facebook announcement that many have waited for with breath bated and the many collectively exhaled.

Because it meant that a certain wondrous thunder was about to roar again: Los Angeles based trio Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have wrapped up their seventh studio album (due out March 2013, title unknown) and follow up to 2010’s stellar Beat The Devil’s Tattoo. Nine months from beginning to end as the band entered the studio in March of this year, Been summed up this finale with, “Not a moment to late…and not a moment to soon.”

This on the heels of their mid-November announcement of three intimate West coast club shows to close out the year. Shows in the types of spaces which they and their music seem to thrive where BRMC will road test some of the new material on some of their most avid fans. The fortunate few/locations/venues and dates are:

Dec. 19th @ Slim’s, San Francisco, CA (SOLD OUT)
Dec. 20th @ The Catalyst (the Atrium), Santa Cruz, CA (tix available HERE)
Dec. 21st @ The Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA (SOLD OUT)

The musical landscape always welcomes the return BRMC (Peter Hayes, Robert L. Been and Leah Shapiro); they are one of the most disarmingly understated, hard working, notoriously enigmatic bands yet the quality of the atmospheric fuzz, psychedelic and blues infested noise they make resonates louder than anything they could possibly say. Except when Been said, "Peter, Leah and myself are dying to get out of this studio right now and back into the fight. It's taken us a long while getting back on our feet, but the time has come." And it’s that ethos that continues to endear them to the many.

Come Spring 2013, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club takes on Europe and the UK with the first leg of their world tour. Check the dates right HERE so that you can catch this rock and roll gang doing what they do best.

Labels: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, BRMC, Leah Shapiro, Los Angeles, Peter Hayes, Robert, The Troubadour, Tour

BUILT TO SPILL Hit The Road In 2012- TOUR DATES

posted by Unknown | Monday, January 9, 2012 | 3:26 PM

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on, Built To Spill?

Apparently it is now. Let's just work under the assumption that there's new BTS material on the way/in the works since 2009's There Is No Enemy as the guys are stepping out on a little bit of a tour. No news on any forthcoming new tunes yet, but keep an ear out. In the meantime here's the schedule of their upcoming mini-tour:

2/23- The Fillmore San Francisco, CA
2/24- Visalia Fox Theater Visalia, CA
2/25- Uptown Theatre Napa, CA
3/8- Spanish Moon Baton Rough, LA
3/9- One Eyed Jacks New Orleans, LA
3/11- Denton 35 Festival Denton, TX
3/12- Fitzgerald's Houston, TX

Dig what Built To Spill consider to be "Conventional Wisdom":

Labels: Built To Spill, News, Tour, Video

William Elliott Whitmore On Tour...Finally

posted by Unknown | Monday, July 18, 2011 | 9:11 AM

The last time that I saw him live was in 2009, but no matter how many times I hear the man sing, he never fails to emotionally manhandle me. He's William Elliott Whitmore: an Iowan son and a man born of the roots and rich soil of his Iowa. With a voice of pure and unadulterated blues and folk, wrapped with rugged rasp and soul that one might think was honed half a decade at the foot of Ray Charles and the temple of Jim Beam, Whitmore shines a warm level of beauty, sincerity and depth on music that's far more aged than he actually is.

His songs are natural and speak to and of the land that he obviously loves so much; it's his most fertile source of inspiration. Basically, Whitmore sings of life as he knows it, sees it, feels it; there's pain, joy, and the complexity of the human condition simply spoken not only with words, but with every pick of his banjo or strum of his guitar, and whether you live in New York City or Phenix City, AL the pictures that he paints are crop fields to wander through just waiting for the listener to harvest.

Are you in love yet?

His latest album "Field Songs" hit stores on July 12th and the man is on tour to support it. Dates are below and you, my NYC lovelies, are first in line so get on it.

WILLIAM ELLIOTT WHITMORE - 2011 TOUR DATES
07.18.2011 Bowery Electric New York, NY
07.19.2011 Mercury Lounge, New York, NY
07.20.2011 Bar, New Haven, CT
07.22.2011 Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA
07.23.2011 Great Scott, Allston, MA
07.24.2011 Red Palace, Washington DC,
07.26.2011 Club Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA
07.27.2011 Trampled by Turtles Southgate House, Newport, KY
07.28.2011 Off Broadway, St. Louis, MO
07.29.2011 Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL
07.30.2011 Riversong Music Fest, Hutchinson, MN
08.09.2011 North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND
08.19.2011 Rollin' on the River Music Fest, Keokuk, IA
09.10.2011 Blues Fest, Columbia, MO
09.23.2011 Slim's, San Francisco, CA USA
09.24.2011 Bootleg Theatre, L.A., CA

Labels: News, Tour, Video, William Elliot Whitmore