Noah and the Whale at the Bowery Ballroom (05/01/09)

Photo: Winnie Cheung (more)

Noah and the Whale’s brilliant new album The First Days of Spring, just came out last month on Interscope/Cherrytree Records and the band begins a three night residency tonight (Nov 2) at the Mercury Lounge in support of it. The festivities actually kicked off on Sunday night (Nov. 1) with a Q&A and screening of Charlie Fink’s 45 minute companion film to The First Days of Spring at Pianos. The film was shot on location in London and Surrey with an ensemble cast including model Daisy Lowe and is included with the deluxe edition of the CD.

As some of you may know, I’m a sucker for chamber pop, and this album won me over right off the bat, it reminds me of The National, but with more melancholy and less rock posturing. It’s sweeping and cinematic and every time it ends and I just want to cue it up and all over again. Like I said, you can make comparisons to The National, but there’s so much more than that to this record, it starts off rooted in sort of a pop/rock chamber vibe and then veers off into instrumental, orchestral, and even choral territory for a few songs. Not until we hear the song “Stranger” and the electric guitar reappears, are we reminded again that we started out listening to a pop album. One thing I really love about The First Days of Spring is the fact that it works so well as a complete work of art, or a as a concept record, if you will. While I think there are a lot of great songs on this album, I honestly feel that just listening to one song as a single does this album a disservice, each track really needs to be enjoyed in the larger context. This has to be one of my favorite records of the year, and when you account for complete plays, probably the one I’ve listened to the most in 2009.

Tickets are still available for the Noah and the Whale shows at the Mercury Lounge, and I suggest you snap one up while you still can. Atlantic recording artist Robert Francis is set to play the middle slot for all three nights and the opening slots will be filled by Alex and Janel (11/2), Essie Jain (11/3) and Sharon Van Etten (11/4) respectively. Trailer for the First Days of Spring and more Noah and The Whale tour dates after the jump.

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Looking to give U2 and The Boss a run for their money, New Jersey’s own Bon Jovi is set to inaugurate the New Meadowlands Stadium with a three night concert run in May of 2010 (Buy Tickets). Those newly announced shows are part of a huge stadium tour in support of their forthcoming album entitled The Circle, which is due to fly off the shelves at Walmart (and other fine places records are sold) on November 10, 2009. The Circle is available as a single audio CD or as a CD/DVD package with the accompanying documentary film entitled When We Were Beatiful, (which just premiered last week on Showtime). If that wasn’t enough, November is Bon Jovi month at NBC/Universal which means the band will appear exclusively across the various network platforms in musical appearances, interviews, and TV guest-starring roles. To that effect, Bon Jovi will appear live on the Today show on all four Wednesdays in November, including a final concert performance on the plaza on November 25th [NJ.com].

Tickets for Bon Jovi at the New Meadowlands stadium go on sale to the general public on October 31, 2009 at 10AM. More Bon Jovi tour dates after the jump.

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Passion Pit at Mercury Lounge (09/18/09)

When you’re hot, you’re hot I guess. Tickets for the newly added 3rd(!) Passion Pit show at Terminal 5 on January 10, 2010 go on sale Friday, October 30 at 11AM. Rural Alberta Advantage is opening for the first night, openers for the second and third night have not been announced yet. (Their first two Terminal 5 shows on January 8 and 9 are already sold out.)

All Passion Pit tour dates after the jump.

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Pearl and The Beard at Pianos (06/23/09)

DOWNLOAD: Pearl and The Beard – “Oh, Death!”

The good folks of Pearl and The Beard were gracious enough to play my Cross Pollination show waaaaay back in June of 2009 and I’m embarrassed to say that it has taken me up until now (4 months later) to post those photos. In any event, there is good reason to post today, Pearl and The Beard are playing a big show at Joe’s Pub tonight (Oct 27), their excellent debut record God Bless Your Weary Soul, Amanda Richardson is being released nationally today with new artwork and a bonus track, they’ll be on WNYC’s Soundcheck this afternoon, and their album is streaming on Spinner.com right now. If you don’t have this record yet, I strongly suggest you pick it up, it is truly one of my favorite releases of the year.

More Pearl and The Beard pictures, tour dates and an awesome new video for their “Will Smith Medley” (really, it blows me away how good this video is) after the jump.

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Not content to sell out to Giants Stadium twice, “the biggest band in the world” has just announced that it will return to the New Meadowlands Stadium on July 19, 2010 (Buy Tickets) to cap off the second North American leg of their 360º tour. On sale dates for the new block of U2 North American tour dates will take place in October and November, check U2.com for more information.

The 2010 shows will continue to feature the massive stage set the band has been using over the last year, designed by long-time U2 associate Willie Williams in collaboration with architect Mark Fisher, an “in-the-round” design that seeks to afford every fan in attendance an unobstructed view of the band on stage.

According to TheWrap.com, the “170-ton, $40 million, four-pronged stage [is] so enormous, its overhead so costly,” that the band still hasn’t broken even on the tour, even after four months on the road in the US and elsewhere. [LiveDaily.com]

In other U2 news, tomorrow (Oct 27) Island/Universal will release four different 25th Anniversary editions of The Unforgettable Fire, the album that cemented their path to superstardom.

Limited Edition Box Set: containing 2 CDs (remastered album and bonus audio CD), a DVD with live footage, documentary and videos, a 56 page hardback book with liner notes by The Edge, Brian Eno, Danny Lanois, Bert Van de Kamp and Niall Stokes, and 5 photographic prints

* Deluxe Edition: containing 2 CDs, the remastered album, and the bonus audio CD which features B-sides and previously unreleased material, a 36 page booklet with liner notes by The Edge, Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Bert Van de Kamp

* CD format: featuring the remastered album

* 12″ vinyl format: 16 page booklet with liner notes by Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Bert Van de Kamp
[U2.com]

More U2 tour dates after the jump.

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The real Phish fall 2009 tour dates have been announced and they are pretty much 100% out of sync with the unconfirmed ones I posted back in July. Tickets for the MSG shows (Dec 2-4, 2009) go on sale Friday, October 23 at 11AM. (There was a musictoday presale but that ended on October 16, sorry for the late notice folks.)

More Phish fall 2009 tour dates after the jump.

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Kyp Malone at the 2009 Sasquatch! Festival (05/24/09)

Photo: Drake LeLane
DOWNLOAD: Rain Machine – “Give Blood”

Kyp Malone’s regular band is taking a hiatus for about a year, but that’s not slowing him down, Kyp recently released a solo record under the name of Rain Machine and now he’s out on tour with his new band to support it. He premiered his new material at The Bell House in September and next week he’ll be making his penultimate tour stop at the Bowery Ballroom on Oct 24 with Sharon Van Etten, Violens, Imaad Wasif, Threes And Nines, Stricken City as part of the CMJ Music Marathon (Buy Tickets). But wait… that’s not all, though Saturday is Kyp’s next to last headlining gig, it has just been announced that he’ll be opening for indie rock stalwarts, Pixies, on their upcoming Doolittle tour. If you don’t have tickets already, they might be a little tough to come by right now, but Rain Machine will be performing on night 3 (Nov 25) of the Pixies Hammerstein residency. Tickets for the Bowery CMJ show are still available, but I’m also giving away a pair of tickets to that show to one lucky reader who emails me at contests@bumpershine.com and tells me the name of Kyp Malone’s other band. A winner will be selected and notified on Wednesday, October 21. (Note: All contest entrants will be added to the Anti- records mailing list, unless they choose opt out in the body of the email.)

Listen to Kyp Malone’s interview with Ben Sisario (who surprisingly didn’t mention the Pixies at all) on last week’s New York Times Music PopCast.

More Rain Machine tour dates after the jump.

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The Swell Season at The Virgin Mobile Festival (08/09/08)

Photo: Tim Griffin

The Swell Season w/ special guest Josh Ritter
January 19, 2010
Radio City Music Hall
New York, NY
Internet Presale: Thursday, October 15 10AM – 10PM EDT
Presale Password: HESTRICT
General Onsale: Friday, October 16 12PM EDT
Buy Tickets

More Swell Season tour dates over here.

If you live down under and you’re a Pavement fan, I guess today is your lucky day!

Pavement will launch their highly anticipated reunion tour on March 1, 2010 in Auckland, New Zealand and then continue on to Australia. All shows except Golden Plains go on sale at 9:00 AM local time on Friday, October 23. This is the only time the tour will stop in the two countries.

In other news that I only tweeted about, Pavement is curating All Tomorrow’s Parties UK next year (May 14-16, 2010) at the Butlin’s Holiday Centre in Minehead. Tickets for that music geek extravaganza are on sale now at atpfestival.com

PS So the tour starts in New Zealand now?

All Pavement NZ and Australia 2010 dates after the jump.

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Fanfarlo at The Bell House (09/22/09)

Photo: Jon Klemm

The next day included yet more radio which whilst fun was starting to take it’s toll on us. The show that night, which was, at the risk of sounding repetitive, also sold out, took place at uber cool Brooklyn venue [The Bell House] with uber cool Swedish band Wildbirds And Peacedrums who you should definitely check out. Somehow i had managed to loose my shoes before the gig so was forced to perform bare foot. As Jeremy had earlier told me my feet were ‘sexually attractive’ i was feeling pretty confident. There was a pretty good vibe after this show as it was the last show of what was an grueling mini-tour that hopefully increased our fan base and not just our carbon footprint. For both New York shows we were joined on stage by Jon Natchez (Beirut) who played accordian and sax and is all round awesome. [Fanfarlo.com]

Like I said in the title of the post, Fanfarlo’s brilliant debut record gets a “proper” US release on Tuesday (October 13) via Atlantic Records. If you crave the physical object, and you haven’t picked up your copy of Reservoir yet, (it’s been available on their website since the summer), then I highly recommend you go out to your local record store and pick one up tomorrow.

I caught Fanfarlo at the Bell House in September and I was really impressed with the way the songs on the album played live (and the number of people in the audience who knew the words to most of the songs). But, just in case you missed that show (or the one at Bowery the night before), do not be alarmed, Fanfarlo will be back for CMJ and they’ll be playing 4 shows in 3 days (2 CMJ showcases and 2 free parties). More photos from The Bell House show, a set list, and all CMJ tour dates after the jump.

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Bob Dylan – Christmas In The Heart

Bob Dylan (who really never stops touring) just announced 3 shows at the United Palace Theater on Nov 17-19, 2009 (Buy Tickets). Tickets for those shows are on presale right now and the password is SMITHERS, regular on sale begins Friday, October 9 at noon. In other Dylan news, Bob has a Christmas album (Kenny G did one right?) coming out next week (Oct 13), the proceeds of which will be donated to charity.

Bob Dylan will release a brand new album of holiday songs, Christmas In The Heart, on Tuesday, October 13, it was announced today by Columbia Records. All of the artist’s U.S. royalties from sales of these recordings will be donated to Feeding America (http://feedingamerica.org), guaranteeing that more than four million meals will be provided to more than 1.4 million people in need in this country during this year’s holiday season. Bob Dylan is also donating all of his future U.S. royalties from this album to Feeding America in perpetuity. [BobDylan.com]

More Bob Dylan tour dates after the jump.

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DOWNLOAD: “Wunderlust King” (BBC Sessions) – Gogol Bordello
DOWNLOAD: “Troubled Friends” (Gypsy Punk Sessions) – Gogol Bordello

Internationally acclaimed Gypsy punk powerhouse GOGOL BORDELLO will release the ultimate fan piece LIVE FROM AXIS MUNDI, a CD/DVD featuring all of the fan favorites live for the first time on DVD. LIVE FROM AXIS MUNDI will also feature a CD of previously unreleased tracks including “Stivali E Colbacco” from the Super Taranta! sessions, the popularly requested “Troubled Friends” from the Gypsy Punk sessions, “Roumania,” a demo of “60 Revolutions” and an instrumental version of “Immigrant Punk.” The CD also features six tracks from the band’s BBC sessions, recorded on BBC-Radio 1’s “In The Company Of (with Colin Murray)” in March 2008. LIVE FROM AXIS MUNDI will be available on SideOneDummy Records on October 6, 2009.

In support of their new live release, Eugene and his crew will be making their way to Webster Hall for a three night stand on December 27-29, 2009. Tickets for those shows go on Amex presale starting Wednesday, October 7 at noon, regular on sale begins Friday, October 9 at noon.

Live From Axis Mundi trailer, CD/DVD track list and more Gogol Bordello tour dates after the jump.

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DOWNLOAD: “Horchata” – Vampire Weekend

Today brings us news that Vampire Weekend’s highly anticipated second album entitled Contra, will be released in the US on January 12th, 2010 via XL Recordings. You can stream “Horchata” (the first single) below, or download it directly by clicking here.

In other VW news, apparently Ghostface Killah is a fan of the band:

Q: You’ve just remixed the Noisettes’ “Never Forget You.” Who else would you like to collaborate with?

GHOSTFACE: I love Pink. She don’t give a [damn] about [anything].

Q: Vampire Weekend is a group you said you liked. How’d you first hear about them?

MR. CARUSO: My son, he’s 15, left his iPod in the car, and that was on it.

GHOSTFACE: You know how kids be, they on [stuff] before you be on [stuff]. But he knew what he was talking about. The beat was like something I never heard before. It was interesting. It sounded like they could’ve had have some Jamaican in it. I try to listen to all music with an open head, a clear head, try not to say just because I don’t know it, it’s weak. [NYTimes.com]

Track list for Contra and all currently announced Vampire Weekend tour dates after the jump.

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UPDATE (10/06/09): This show has been cancelled due to visa issues.

Basia Bulat

DOWNLOAD: “Gold Rush” – Basia Bulat

Canadian chanteuse and Bumpershine favourite Basia Bulat is making her first NYC appearance in a long while on Wednesday, Oct 7 at The Bell House (Buy Tickets). At Wednesday night’s show, she’ll be showcasing songs from her forthcoming album, Heart Of My Own, set for a January 26, 2010 release on Rough Trade. The Bell House is her first and last stop US stop before heading out on a small European tour (I’d imagine we’ll see some more North American tour dates come January).

Rough Trade Records is excited to announce the forthcoming album from Basia Bulat. Entitled Heart Of My Own, the album will be in stores on January 26, 2010. This album is the follow up to 2007’s Oh, My Darling which generated a groundswell of support from both the press and fans alike. NPR called the first single “In The Night” “one of 2008’s great singles” and Spin.com said, “Oh, My Darling’s lucky thirteen tracks showcase Bulat’s soothing, throaty voice and her dead-on aptitude for poignant, classic songwriting. From gracefully sad to hopeful and joyous, she exudes an earthy, organic quality to the music’s mystic, Phil Spector-like backbone.”

Heart of My Own was recorded with [former Arcade Fire drummer] Howard Bilerman (who was at control panel for Oh, My Darling as well) and nearly all the songs were written while on the road: traveling between cities, crossing the Canadian prairies, searching for a place to stop in the Nevada desert, trailing through the Smoky Mountains, standing in the bright dusk of a summer night in the Yukon.

More Basia Bulat tour dates, Heart Of My Own cover art and track listing after the jump.

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Langhorne Slim CD Release Show at Cameo Gallery (09/29/09)

Photo: Jon Klemm
DOWNLOAD: “I Love You, But Goodbye” – Langhorne Slim

Last Tuesday (Sept 29), Sean Scolnick, aka Langhorne Slim, played an intimate live set at Cameo Gallery in celebration of the release of his new album, Be Set Free, which came out the same day on Kemado records. I was a big fan of Langhorne’s last self-titled album, and I’ve also liked what I’ve heard from the new one quite a bit. Though it’s still primarily a Roots/Americana album, on more than one track Sean’s vocals remind me a little bit of Pete Townshend and perhaps if The Who played country infused folk music they might sound a little bit like Langhorne Slim (okay maybe that’s a bit ridiculous, but I swear I hear it). In case you missed the CD release show, you can catch Mr. Slim at The Bell House on October 15, 2009 (Buy Tickets) and then a little over a month later at Le Poisson Rouge (Buy Tickets) on November 21, 2009.

More tour dates and photos from the Cameo set after the jump.

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