Anti Blog

(Listen to the entire show here)

Philadelphia rock n roll band Dr. Dog are about to release their vital new album called “Be The Void.” In anticipation the group visited the studios of WNYC to preview some new songs on the show Soundcheck. You can listen to the show above or by going here.

(pic Clare Flynn/NPR)

The Swell Season featuring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova will be performing an intimate set in Los Angeles at the legendary McCabe’s Guitar Shop on February 12, 2012. The Swell Season have made a habit of calling McCabe’s home when in the area having performed there a number of times. This will be the first show the duo has played since October 2010 and their first time back in Los Angeles since headlining a sold out Hollywood Bowl show in July 2010. At the time the duo were touring in support of Strict Joy their follow up to the Grammy nominated Once soundtrack.

While The Swell Season has been relatively quiet over the last year their music and name has not. The documentary, The Swell Season debuted at Tribeca Film festival and went on to play at numerous festivals and theaters across the country. It comes out on DVD on March 13, 2012. Once The Musical opened this past winter to rave reviews and quickly sold out its entire three month run at The New York Theatre Workshop. The musical has now moved to Broadway and opens on March 18, 2012 at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre.

Separately both Marketa and Glen have remained active. Marketa released her debut full length Anar on Anti Records in fall of 2011 and has toured continually in support of it. Glen has been busy recording and touring. He supported Eddie Vedder in summer 2011 and headed to Europe on his own headlining run later that fall. This coming year is going to prove busy for both of them with further recording projects and touring (see dates below).

This show quite innocently came together as the two find themselves in Los Angeles for an event with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Proceeds from this show will be going to two charities that close friends of Glen and Mar have championed for some time. The first is the animal shelter, Camp Cocker (http://www.campcocker.com) and the second is Batonga Foundation (www.batongafoundation.org), which provides secondary education to girls in Africa.

For more info on this show go here.

The agent provocateur of hip hop Sage Francis needs some sun. As a result, he has just announced a series of West Coast live dates. If you like your hip hop with an incendiary mix of politics, social observation, atheism, all of it propelled by blasts of visionary sound and beat, you will enjoy this.

3/15 Las Vegas at Daddy Mac’s
3/16 Los Angeles at The Troubadour
3/17 San Francisco at the Independent
3/18 San Diego (Solana Beach) at the Belly Up

John K. Samson is the singer-songwriter for the acclaimed indie rock band The Weakerthans and he just released his highly anticipated full length solo album, Provincial, this January 24th via Epitaph-Anti Records.

Samson has also released an intensely evocative cinematic clip for the song “Longitudinal Centre” from Provincial. The footage provides a perfect visual companion to the poignant up-tempo track. To watch the video please go here.

Provincial contains newly recorded versions of songs from Samson’s previous two EPs, City Route 85 and Provincial Road 222, alongside a collection of beautifully evocative new tracks. The songs traverse four routes woven into the prairie landscape of Manitoba, the Canadian province where Samson lives. They are hymns for the departed and rockers for the living, songs about dying villages, Icelandic longing, snowplows, broken glass, satellites, hockey skates, and staff room romances.

The Weakerthan’s were born out of the Winnipeg-punk-scene. The group’s breakthrough album Reconstruction Site and its celebrated follow up Reunion Tour deftly merged a melodic punk with Bob Dylan-Ray Davies lyrical insights, earning a wider fan base and establishing Samson as a songwriter of immense talent. Paste Magazine wrote of Reunion Tour, “If such a prize existed, it would be the leading candidate for this year’s Punk Pulitzer.”

John K. Samson & The Provincial Band Tour Dates

3/7 Kingston, ON at The Grad Club
3/8 Ottawa, ON at Mavericks Bar
3/9 Montreal, QC at La Sala Rossa
3/10 Boston, MA at Brighton Music Hall
3/11 Philadelphia, PA at Union Transfer
3/13 Washington DC at Black Cat
3/15 New York, NY at Bowery Ballroom
3/14 Hoboken, NJ at Maxwell’s
3/16 Pittsburgh, PA at Club Cafe
3/17 Buffalo, NY at Mohawk
3/18 Hamilton, ON at The Casbah
3/20 London, ON at The Aeolian Hall
3/21 Guelph, ON at E-Bar
3/22 Toronto, ON at Great Hall
3/27 Winnipeg, MB at West End Cultural Centre
3/28 Regina, SK at The Exchange
3/29 Edmonton, AB at The Royal Alberta Museum Theater
3/31 Vancouver, BC at The Biltmore
4/1 Seattle,WA at Tractor Tavern
4/2 Portland, OR at Doug Fir
4/5 San Diego, CA at The Casbah
4/6 Los Angeles, CA at The Troubadour
4/7 San Francisco, CA at Bottom of the Hill
4/8 Santa Cruz, CA at The Atrium
4/11 Bellingham, WA at The Shakedown
4/13 Calgary, AB at The Palomino
4/12 Kamloops, BC at Hero’s Pub
4/14 Saskatoon, SK at Amigos Cantina

Supremely talented songstress Jolie Holland stopped by the Horseshack to record her third Daytrotter Session. Along with an interview she performed four songs, Wreckage, Tonight, Honey Girl and Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down.

“Holland sings on “Honey Girl,” “The valley of tears that I must cross/Just to keep the blaze from catching up with me/Just to keep from getting the blues.” She makes the valley of tears feel as if it’s something that she has to cross daily on her commute to and from wherever she’s staying that night. The flames are licking at her heals, charring her soles and the blues are a silent killer and they’ve never lost her scent. They trail her and track her down no matter what she does. The blaze might be stopped by the trail of tears, but the blues will only be encouraged by it. Holland will never be a silly-heart. She’ll never be able to shake off her plight of being someone who is able to speak to the sadness that she strangely enough seeks to dine with and perhaps get to the bottom of.”

To read the rest and listen to Holland’s Daytrotter performance, go here.

Writer and amateur baseball pitcher Kevin Bronson has a review of Wilco’s beautiful Tuesday show at the Hollywood Palladium on his site Buzz Bands. There is also a gallery of really superb photos.

“Over 2 hours and 15 minutes,Wilco projected themselves as musical changelings, equally adept as purveyors of tight pop-rock or as sonic adventurers. That it all held together so well spoke volumes about the prowess of the players — bassist John Stirratt, guitarist Nels Cline, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone and drummer Glenn Kotche — as well as the subtle power of Tweedy’s voice as sort of a narrative thread.”

To read the entire review and see the pics,  go here.

Well of course it’s Wilco with Popeye and friends in a clip for “Dawned On Me” from the band’s Grammy-nominated new record “The Whole Love.” This collaboration with King Features presents the first hand-drawn Popeye cartoon in more than 30 years. Directed by Darren Romanelli. Now check out Olive Oyl’s dance moves.

The supremely talented songstress Markéta Irglová dropped by NPR’s World Cafe to talk about her new solo album Anar discussing the symbolism she incorporated into the record as well as her thoughts on the Broadway production of Once and the idea of another album from The Swell Season.

World Cafe Playlist: “We Are Good,” “For Old Time’s Sake” and “Go Back”

To listen go here.

Revered singer Kate Bush is premièring a new video from her acclaimed new album 50 Words For Snow at NPR’s All Songs Considered today. The beautifully evocative cinematic clip is for her song “Lake Tahoe” and features stark shadow puppetry – featuring a dog moving through a stark landscape searching for its owner – perfectly compliments the music’s haunting sense of dramatic longing.

Bush told NPR that despite the video’s abbreviated running time, she intended the clip to be viewed as a complete work: “The video exists as a self-contained piece, it is called ‘Eider Falls at Lake Tahoe’. It has all been created in camera with shadow puppets, one of my favorite art forms because of its simplicity. It is something that I’ve wanted to do for years and it was great fun to make.”

50 Words For Snow features 7 new tracks set against a background of falling snow, with a total running time of 65 minutes; through a highly evocative musical and lyrical landscape. The record features a number of special guest musicians including Elton John.

Critical Acclaim For 50 Words For Snow:

“An intriguing triumphant return” -Huffington Post

“Thirty years into her career, Kate Bush’s sensual world is still enrapturing disciples from Fever Ray to Florence and the Machine, but there are no substitutes.” – Spin

“Bush’s most striking work since 1989’s The Sensual World ” – Paste