Yeah Yeah Yeahs have this week published their upcoming new album, Mosquito, in its entirety, two weeks ahead of the official April 16th release date. In addition, they are at the beginning of a somewhat haphazard tour that will have them playing Coachella and a handful of U.S. dates before heading out for England early next month and then back and forth between Europe & the UK and the U.S. through July. They have already played about 10 shows and festivals thus far in 2013. [Read more…]
This article features the latest in an ongoing series of “Rock Talk” podcast audio interviews for the Rock Subculture Journal. Today’s guest is Steve Marker with Garbage. The band is finishing a tour in the United States currently (and I will be covering their show in Las Vegas at The Pearl Theater at The Palms Casino Resort next week), and news has begun to circulate about the possibility of a new studio album coming early next year. Steve was kind enough to talk with me today about the music industry in general, being part of the band, what they have planned for Record Store Day this year and more.
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Thomas Mars, vocalist for French alternative rock band Phoenix, was a man of few words in-between songs at their Coachella headlining warm up gig at Freeborn Hall at U.C. Davis last night, but the show was extremely interactive. By the second song of their approximately hour and a half set, he was already at the edge of the stage, leaning into the audience. By the time the high energy show came to an end, he’d sung one song on the front rail of the all standing/GA venue, made his way deep into the crowd sometime thereafter, and eventually crowd surfed atop the sold out capacity crowd. It was among their first live shows in several years, and they played a lot of material from their highly anticipated forthcoming fifth studio album, Bankrupt!, due April 22nd.
“Yeah, we rule a very tiny kingdom…” Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid’s modest response to a fan shouting out “you rule” in-between songs during their lengthy set, gesturing to the crowd within the historic Fillmore in San Francisco as they celebrated with their “Vivid 25th Anniversary Tour” last night. The band literally attacked the stage, with drummer Will Calhoun busting a large hole in the kick drum two songs in, with their explosive live performance of their classic Grammy Award-winning 1988 hit, “Cult of Personality”. Playing Vivid front to back, the group put on an amazing concert that underscored what a great work that album was, taking us back to a time when albums mattered, as well as showcasing their innovative blending of disparate musical styles and genres into something really unique and powerful.
Since this was a pretty special experience and International music event, I thought I would share some thoughts and photos in summary here, mostly in an effort to genuinely promote and recommend this event to those who might not have heard of it or ever considering attending themselves. The 9-day event took place in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, a coming together of twin ski/resort towns to put on Caprices Festival, hosting dozens of musical artists spanning many different genres and styles. I actually only ran into a couple of Americans during the nine days of concerts (both had come out from New York for Tori Amos), so I think spreading some more information about the event on a U.S.-based site might bring out more people from the United States for future incarnations of this annual event, which celebrated it’s 10th anniversary this year, which also happened to mark some big changes and growth in size and line-up. [Read more…]
Having recently returned from my trip to Crans-Montana, Switzerland for Caprices Festival, I thought I would share some thoughts and feelings about the ski resort town that hosted the event for those who might have an interested in going there as a travel destination. Since I am not into skiing and snow-related sports, it was not a vacation spot at the top of my list, as it obviously offers a lot of recreation opportunities that do not appeal to me on a personal level. Even so, I really loved exploring the town and completely enjoyed myself, and plan to return for the same festival next year and look forward to making another visit to the two ski resort towns. [Read more…]
I did not make it to Après-ski and Modernity until the final day of Caprices Festival in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, which actually worked out great as far as Modernity went, as it was the sunniest day and very clear out, so I had a nice opportunity to take in the beautiful mountains from an amazing vantage point. However, at the time I stopped in at Après-ski, there was no scheduled live music (hence the photos of the empty space). I did shoot some video of the amazing views of the Swiss Alps from Modernity, which sits atop the ski slopes during the 9-day long music fesitval, just a short 20 minute walk and fun ride up the mountain from the main arenas and areas for the main part of the annual music festival. [Read more…]
The Killers have an incredibly aggressive tour schedule plotted out for 2013, including headlining many festivals as well as their own stand alone shows – all throughout the world, in support of 2012’s Battleborn. The Rock Subculture Journal covered two of the shows in December 2012, the second of which in their hometown of Las Vegas was especially awesome; sadly, they hit bad weather on their way to headlining one of the nights of Caprices Festival in Switzerland last week and were not able to make the show. [Read more…]
Heart with Ann and Nancy Wilson, recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, will be taking their new album, Fanatic, out on the road for an extensive Summer tour, beginning in June. In support will be Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience. Special packages have been released for some of the dates via VIP Nation, with more to come soon. These packages include up front seats as well as meet and greet opportunities with the band. [Read more…]
Pop and rock legend Prince will be hitting a number of small venues along the U.S. west coast and one date in British Columbia next month. We will be playing two shows per night over two consecutive nights in Vancouver, BC, Seattle, WA, San Francisco, CA, Las Vegas, NV, Phoenix, AZ, San Diego, CA, and Anaheim, CA. Ticket information is expected next week. [Read more…]