Late Night Guide: Bat For Lashes

Bat For Lashes will be performing on The Late Show with David Letterman this Friday, May 1, 2009. 

I have not had much investment into this band, however their video that was featured on I Hope Your Ears Bleed certainly caught my attention.  So check them out, I know I will.

Mat Kearney Announces New Album and Tour Dates

Mat Kearney just released the first single off of his upcoming album, “Closer to Love.”  In this heart-wrenching tune, Kearney reminds us that the inevitable storms in life that we all must face, should do more than simply break our spirit and bring us to our knees.  This song is a reminder that God uses these so-called “tragedies” to bring us closer to Him.   It is a pretty solid track, and is available for download on iTunes.

Kearney seems to pick up right where he left off with this sophomore effort.   He’s branching out a bit on this song, with a different percussive sound than anything heard on Nothing Left to Lose, but he fortunately for us the song stays true to his sound. The new album, City of Black & White, is due out May 19th.  Let’s hope this single isn’t a fluke, and for once a breakout Christian artist can avoid the sophomore slump.  He heads out on tour with Keane early next month.  You should definitely go out and see him if he comes your way.

The Lovers Are Losing – Keane

SUPPORTING KEANE:

May 9              Los Angeles, CA          Hollywood Palladium

May 10            Anaheim, CA               The Grove at Anaheim

May 12            Salt Lake City, UT       Kingsbury Hall

May 13            Denver, CO                 Ogden Theatre

May 15            St. Paul, MN                Myth

May 16            Chicago, IL                  Aragon Ballroom

May 19            Washington, DC           Constitution Hall

May 20            Upper Darby, PA         Tower Theater

May 21            Boston, MA                 Bank of America Pavilion

May 23            Toronto, ON                The Sound Academy

May 24            Cleveland, OH             Time Warner Amphitheatre

May 26            Montclair, NJ               The Wellmont Theatre

May 27            New York, NY            Radio City Music Hall(Sold Out)

HEADLINE DATES:

June 19            Knoxville, TN               Bijou Theatre

June 20            Birmingham, AL           City Stages

June 21            Charlotte, NC              Amos

June 22            Charleston, SC            Music Farm

June 25            Norfolk, VA                Norva

June 26            Richmond, VA             The National

June 29            Milwaukee, WI            Summerfest

June 30            Bloomington, IL            Bluebird

July 2               Grand Rapids, MI        Intersection

July 3               Detroit, MI                   Comerica Cityfest

July 5               Duluth, MN                  Bayfront Festival

July 6               Green Bay, WI             Meyer Theatre

July 7               Madison, WI                Majestic

July 10             Minneapolis, MN         Basilica Block Party

July 11             Kansas City, MO         Beaumont

July 15             Memphis, TN               Minglewood

July 16             Columbia, MO             The Blue Note

July 17             Omaha, NE                  Slowdown

July 19             Denver, CO                 Mile High Festival

Music Video of the Week: Oi Va Voi “Everytime”

This video is an absolute technical marvel.  Keep this in mind while watching, these are NOT computer generated special effects:

Oi Va Voi “Everytime” from Katarzyna Kijek on Vimeo.

The director gave this short description on how it was acheived:

Video made with shredding machine. Every third frame of the footage was printed, shredded and shot three times blended with adjacent frames by different stripes configuration.

Ridiculous.

Avett Brothers Announce New Album

One of my most recent obsessions has been the alt-country and bluegrass trio the Avett Brothers.  With Seth Avett on the guitar, Scott Avett on the banjo, and Bob Crawford on the stand-up bass, you get one of the most unique and passionate musical acts you’ve ever heard.  There is something very raw and yet so refined about Seth’s songwriting.  Their music doesn’t feel like some phony reproduction of the past.  Rather, it is a pure and unadulterated sound that invokes such strong emotion. One perfect example of this is the lead single from their most recent release, The Gleam II.  “Murder in the City” is easily the best song of last year, maybe even the best song of the decade.  It is rare for a music video to capture my attention for more than a minute these days, and rarely will a song finish without my eyes straying to something else on my computer screen.  So it was even more amazing when this simple video, shot of nothing more than the two brothers sitting on a hotel bed, singing and playing the song on the acoustic guitar, was able to captivate my full attention.

So now that you’ve received a proper introduction to the Avett Brothers, I am sure that you will be excited to know that they set to release a new album this year and are in the middle of a 48 show tour. I and Love and You, due in stores on August 11th is their 10th studio effort and will be produced by Grammy award winner Rick Rubin, who has worked with pretty much everyone, from Johnny Cash to Jay-Z to Justin Timberlake to Jakob Dylan.  This is easily my most anticipated album for the rest of 2009.  So if you trust my musical opinion in the slightest, I want you to listen to “If It’s the Beaches”, one of the best love songs of the past decade.  Then I want you to check out this list below and buy tickets to the show nearest your home, that is if they are still available.

The Avett Brothers – If It’s the Beaches

The Avett Brothers 2009 Tour Dates