The visionary composer Yann Tiersen will e performing live on the popular KCRW radio show “Morning Becomes Eclectic” today at 11:15 am. He will be playing works from his epic new album Skyline.

To listen live or stream the podcast, just go here.

Rollingstone.com is currently premiering a brand new song from the upcoming solo album by singer Kelly Hogan. The track is called “Plant White Roses” and was written by Stephin Merritt of the band Magnetic Fields.

To hear and download an MP3 of Kelly Hogan singing “Plant Whites Roses” care of Rolling Stone, just go here.

Hogan will release her highly anticipated new album entitled I Like To Keep Myself In Pain this June 5th via Anti-records. On the record she utilizes her phenomenal singing voice to interpret compositions penned for her by musical luminaries including M. Ward, Vic Chesnutt, the Mekons’ Jon Langford, John Wesley Harding, Robyn Hitchcock and more. She is back by an all-star band consisting of R&B legends Booker T. Jones and James Gadson (Bill Withers, Beck) as well as talented young lions Gabe Roth (of Daptone Records, the Dap-Kings) and Scott Ligon (NRBQ).

Hogan will be touring this summer, supporting dates for Glen Hansard (The Swell Season), Wilco, Neko Case and Andrew Bird.

Kelly Hogan Live Dates:
05-28 Millennium Park – Chicago IL headline
06-07 Duck Room at Blueberry Hill – St. Louis MO (Twangfest!)
06-08 Space – Evanston IL headline
06-09 Fitzgeralds – Berwyn IL headline
06-20 The Wiltern – Los Angeles CA w/ Glen Hansard
07-03 Adler Theatre – Davenport IA w/ Wilco
07-13 The National – Richmond VA w/ Neko Case
07-14 North Carolina Museum of Art – Raleigh NC w/ Neko Case
07-15 Forecastle Festival – Louisville KY
07-16 Mr. Smalls Theatre – Pittsburgh PA w/ Neko Case
07-17 Rams Head Live – Baltimore MD w/ Neko Case
07-18 Greenfield Lake Amphitheatre – Wilmington NC w/ Neko Case
07-20 Atlanta Botanical Garden – Atlanta GA w/ Neko Case
08-11 Spreckels Theatre – San Diego CA w/Andrew Bird
08-15 Chataqua Auditorium – Boulder, CO w/Andrew Bird
08-17 Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre – Denver, CO w/Andrew Bird
08-18 Caldera Festival – Jackson WY w/Andrew Bird

New Orleans musical powerhouse Galactic perform “Hey Na Na” with Living Colour’s Corey Glover on vocals in the studios of KEXP radio in Seattle.

To watch three more performances, just go here.

At an intimate NYC warm-up show for his forthcoming solo album Rhythm and Repose, renowned Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard pulled an audience member on stage to sing the Irish ballad “The Auld Triangle.” That audience member was another Irish singer named Bono.

Tom Waits salutes Epitaph-Anti founder Brett Gurewitz for being awarded the 2012 NARM Independent Spirit Award for his achievements in music. Sublime.

Tom Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan have once again donated one of Tom’s rare oil stain photographs to the Summerfiled Waldorf School & Farm annual online auction.

The piece is an extremely rare, limited, signed and framed Tom Waits photograph, as featured in the Winter 2005 issue of Francis Ford Coppola’s award winning literary magazine, Zoetrope All-Story. Tom was the guest designer for this Winter 2005 volume, the most popular issue yet released. Matted and framed and autographed by Tom Waits. This is a collectible photo which you cannot find anywhere. Unique and thought provoking.

Proceeds go to the Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm to support 35% of their students.The auction closes this May 19th. To find out more just go here.

Today, Wednesday May 9th, the influential Los Angeles based public radio station KCRW will feature Glen Hansard’s beautiful new song “Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting” as their Today’s Top Tune.

To listen to and download the track off Hansard’s anticipated solo album Rhythm and Repose, which comes out June 19th, just go here.

In the wake of author Maurice Sendak’s death on Tuesday, here is Christopher Walken (or an excellent impersonator) reading his classic Where The Wild Things Are.

The incomparable Sean Rowe covering the Violent Fems song “Gone Daddy Gone.” Enjoy!

In support of his phenomenal new album Skyline, the immensely talented Yann Tiersen will be appearing live on the radio tomorrow at 9:30am PST on KEXP 90.3FM Seattle.

If you don’t live in the rainy fog engulfed landscape of the Pacific Northwest, you can stream the performances on-line at KEXP.org by going here.

Heralded Irish songstress Lisa Hannigan will be teaming up with revered musician and producer Joe Henry for a series of very special live performances this summer. Henry recently produced Hannigan’s acclaimed full length record Passenger as well as his own thirteenth album release Reverie. The artists will perform side by side, with backing by musicians John Smith and Ross Turner in an evening of re-imagination and collaboration, interpreting old songs and rearranging new ones. Tickets for these special performances will go on sale to the public this Saturday May 5th.

Lisa Hannigan continues to receive praise for her second full-length Passenger, which charted #1 in Ireland, and has garnered attention from NPR Music who hails Hannigan’s voice as “gorgeous,” and Rolling Stone who explains “her folksy songs move with deceptive power.” The new album follows her 2008 Mercury Prize nominated debut album Sea Sew that The Los Angeles Times described as “charmingly idiosyncratic,” and which People Magazine called “dreamy.” In addition to her solo work, Hannigan contributed significantly to Damien Rice’s platinum-selling debut O and critically lauded follow-up 9. She also sang with the legendary Herbie Hancock on a rendition of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” for his Imagine Project alongside the Chieftains and Toumani Diabaté. More recently, she contributed vocals on a track for the T-Bone Burnett produced Chieftains album, Voice of Ages.

Joe Henry is a multi Grammy winning producer with credits that include Solomon Burke, Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Ani DiFranco, Bettye LaVette, Mose Allison, The Carolina Chocolate Drops and many more. His latest album Reverie is a raw and beautifully evocative album created when Henry and his fellow musicians convened in Henry’s hallowed basement studio for days of joyous sonic exploration. The magazine American Songwriter described Reverie as “a raw, raucous and messy masterpiece” while the New York Daily News called Joe Henry “one of America’s best songwriters (not to mention finest producers).”

An Evening with Lisa Hannigan and Joe Henry
June 8 Chicago, IL Park West
June 10 Toronto, ON The Phoenix
June 11 Montreal, QC Corona
June 13 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club
June 14-15 New York, NY Highline Ballroom
June 16 Philadelphia, PA Theater of Living Arts
June 17 Washington, DC Sixth & I
June 19 Los Angeles, CA El Rey
June 21 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
June 23 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom
June 24 Seattle, WA Tractor

On their latest episode of the popular NPR radio show All Songs Considered, hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton peruse this week’s recommended listening. Included is Yann Tiersen’s enthralling track “Monuments” from his April 17th Anti release Skyline.

Listen to them discuss their picks and here Tierson’s epic song here.

Spin.com is premiering a brand new Dr. Dog video for the band’s song “Lonesome.” The rollicking track is from the group’s latest album Be The Void which Esquire Magazine recently described as “a glorious rally cry, like a band finally finding itself.”

The imaginative clip delivers a joyful and unpredictable scenario involving kidnapping, dancing and defilement. It was created by renowned director George Salisbury who has worked with such artists as The Flaming Lips (Christmas On Mars, Watching The Planets, Stardeath and White Dwarfs – Borderline).

Be The Void combines the group’s meticulously crafted pop with a far leaner and meaner sound which perfectly captures the rough and tumble energy of their renowned live show. The Philadelphia band entered the studio with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and confidence. “It was reminiscent of when we were starting out and were these fearless weirdoes in a basement, so confident and reckless and bold,” guitarist-vocalist Scott McMicken adds. “It was really liberating.”

With its infectious beats, spirited choruses and guitars edged with warm distortion this is the unmistakable sound of a band whose moment has arrived. Catch Dr. Dog as they continue to take their raucous sound across North America.

Dr. Dog Live dates:

May 04 Beale Street Music Festival Memphis, TN
May 18 Hangout Festival Gulf Shores, AL
Jun 14 Frendly Gathering Windham, VT
Jun 23 Red Rocks Amphitheater (with Wilco) Morrison, CO
Jul 14 Forecastle Festival Louisville, KY
Jul 21 Susquehanna Bank Center (with Wilco and Avett Brothers) Camden, NJ
Jul 27 SoundTown Music & Camping Festival Somerset, WI
Aug 03 Lollapalooza Chicago, IL
Aug 10 Outside Lands Festival San Francisco, CA
Aug 26 LouFest St Louis, MO
Sep 15 Bristol Rhythm and Roots Festival Bristol, TN
Sep 20 Rumsey Playfield in Central Park NY, NY

The acclaimed musical collective Lost In The Trees has just announced a series of North American live dates in support of their acclaimed new album A Church That Fits Our Needs. Included will be a very special benefit performance in support of The Jed Foundation, the nation’s leading organization working to reduce emotional distress and prevent suicide among America’s 20 million college students. The event will occur on June 7th at Gotham Hall in New York City.

For ticket information go here

The Jed Foundation first contacted the band after one of the founders heard Lost In The Trees’ singer-songwriter Ari Picker on the NPR radio show All Things Considered being interviewed about the group’s powerful new record A Church That Fits Our Needs and how it was directly inspired by Picker’s own mother’s suicide.

Picker commented, “Mental illness has been a tall hurdle in my life, and I’ve needed a lot of help to get to a healthy place. Having the support from an organization like the Jed Foundation can make all the difference. I’m so thankful to all who helped me along the way, and I admire all the people who are making the steps towards a healthier place in their own lives.”

A Church That Fits Our Needs is a work of vaulting ambition, a cathedral built on loss and transformation. In 2009 Picker lost his mother, an artist in her own right, when she took her own life. With the new record he set about transforming the events into a musical tribute. While this might sound like a somber affair, it is anything but. The group utilizes rhythm as its own emotional language, never losing the propulsive inevitability and vitality of great rock and roll.

View a visually striking new video for the band’s song “Golden Eyelids” with watery translucent imagery providing a potent visual accompaniment to the intensely personal emotions conveyed in this affecting song. Just go here

LOST IN THE TREES Tour Dates:
6/7 – NYC, Gotham Hall (Jed Foundation benefit)
6/13 – Charleston, SC – The Pourhouse*
6/14 – Jacksonville, FL – Underbelly*
6/15 – Orlando, FL – The Social*
6/16 – Tampa, FL – Crowbar*
6/18 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl*
6/19 – Birmingham, AL – The Bottletree*
6/20 – Memphis, TN – Hi-Tone Café*
6/21 – Jackson, MS – Duling Hall*
6/22 – Hot Springs, AR – Low Key Arts*
6/23 – Nashville, TN – 12th and Porter*
6/24 – Lexington, KY – Cosmic Charlie’s*
6/26 – Charlottesville, VA – The Southern*
6/27 – Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle*
6/28 – Charlotte, NC – Visulite Theatre*
7/28 – Northampton, MA – Calvin Theatre #
7/30 – New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place #
8/1 – Millvale, PA – Mr. Small’s Theatre #
8/2 – Grand Rapids, MI – Meijer Gardens #
8/3 – Greensboro, NC – Center City Park #

Each year, the Brooklyn Philharmonic recruits an eclectic group of non-orchestral musicians to pair up with resident composer-mentor Randy Woolf to compose and perform an original piece with a full orchestra as part of the Outside-In Fellowship program.

This year, the philharmonic has commissioned a work by artistic renaissance man Tim Fite. Tim’s piece “Copy_Cat” will be performed with the Philharmonic on May 2 at Brooklyn’s Galapagos Art Space. For info go here.

In this intimate “Tiny Desk” concert at the NPR Music offices, the supremely talented songstress Jolie Holland performs songs from her 2011 Anti release Pint of Blood.

Singer-songwriter Frank Turner has gone from struggling pub-singer to an internationally recognized sensation who sold out Wembley Stadium last week. To commemorate the event, Turner enlisted his tattoo artist buddy Matt Hunt to document it on his upper arm during the performance.

This past Tuesday afternoon, many of us began to receive and share word that Levon Helm was in the final stages of his long and heroic battle with cancer.

By that evening, Levon was not yet gone, but neither was he fully among the living. As we understood from his family, he was hovering at the doorway between this world and the next … still taking the air of mortals in shallow and halting breaths, but with his eyes rolled back against the drawn curtain of his times. And we hovered with him.

Yet already in that moment, for many of us sadly absorbing the falling shoe of this news and preparing for the other to drop, he had assumed the flickering posture of memory; of those who had danced alive in our high beams, throwing shadows that moved like ancient black rivers; of those who have pointed the way forward from so far behind us that they shall forever, henceforth, stand ahead on the pathway like an omen of what is still to come; of those disappeared into omnipresence, like word into deed, fear into mercy and grace.

Levon entered my life when I was so young as to have had no notion that my gate needed a guard; thus, he waltzed right in while I was completely vulnerable to his raucous and ranging alchemy, and he changed me. Like children pulled into ministerial service when still in single digits, I looked unquestioningly upon Levon Helm as my church elder … a deacon who spoke our gospel; who swung- and sung-out time in glorious illumination of its wild and elastic poetry.

In the same way that his great friend and sometimes-boss Bob Dylan connected the dots between Jimmy Reed, Arthur Rimbaud and Muhammad Ali, so Levon drew the second line that had Howlin’ Wolf, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Marvin Gaye and Hank Williams all dancing out in front of the same New Orleans funeral parade. (They all walked liked Bo Diddley and didn’t need no crutch.) He brought soul and an open heart to the darkest corners of rock music — in a troubled era he helped shape and define — and a rural humility to the grandest stages.

As I awaited word of the inevitable — while we all waited — I found there was nothing I could do but listen. And when I did, I was moved; was moving … leaning, as implied, from past tense into present action; loosing my mind to what my body already knew, to the instinctive sway of my knees and shoulders in the face of unease; and I was reminded how much of our true intelligence resides in our physical frames’ southern hemisphere.

Yes, all I could do was listen and move, and it is what we will all do today. But then, that is all Levon Helm ever asked of any of us.

– Joe Henry (LA Times)

Bonnie Raitt’s new album Slipstream has just debuted at #6 on Soundscan making it her highest charting record in 18 years. On the album the veteran musician covers two songs penned by musician-producer Joe Henry, who also produced four of the record’s tracks. Raitt recently told the LA Times the two had recorded “at least an album’s worth of material, saving the rest to release later.” The two artists were introduced to one another by the legendary New Orleans musician and mutual friend Allen Toussaint.

Henry is a multi Grammy winning producer whose additional credits include Solomon Burke, Bettye LaVette, Mose Allison, The Carolina Chocolate Drops and more. He recently produced a new album by Grammy award winning country singer Rodney Crowell as well as the debut album by English soul singer Natalie Duncan entitled “Devil in Me.” In addition, singer Tom Jones covers Henry’s song “All Blues Hail Mary” on his new record and Henry co wrote the track “Falling Free” on the new Madonna album. Henry recently performed a duet with Kris Kristofferson at the Woody Guthrie Centennial in Los Angeles.

Joe Henry’s last album Reverie was described as “a raw, raucous and messy masterpiece” by American Songwriter Magazine.

Acclaim for Joe Henry’s Reverie:

“Reverie is a mesmeric, all-acoustic invocation of it’s title, creaky old acoustic guitars, yellowed piano ivory and the rattle and thump of bandaged-sounding drums conjuring a late-night jam at the junk shop” –Mojo

“Henry follows up the excellent “Blood from Stars”—a 2009 record that drew comparisons to the work of Tom Waits—with the equally excellent “Reverie,” an acoustic-based collection of songs that build on a blues and folk foundation but range as far and wide as any album this year.” – The New Yorker

“Wonderful, stirring and impressive” – Uncut

“Levon was the glue, not just in The Band, but in all of what people think of when they think of North American music. He was a great unifier; a great glue. He unified blues and country, rural and city, and even North and South. Luckily he showed us all the way to keep it together and let it swing.”

- Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)

The Irish Independent has an interesting story about the Colin Davidson painting which graces the cover of Glen Hansard’s incredible new solo album “Rhythm and Repose.” which comes out June 19th. It seems Davidson made the finals of the UK’s prestigious BP annual portrait Awards last year with his oil study of Hansard.

“I’ve loved Glen’s work for 20 years — so it was a huge honour to get the call from him to ask if he could use my picture for his album sleeve. But it’s probably Glen doing me a big favour because his profile is so big in the US right now,” Mr Davidson told the Independent.

The oil-on-linen work ‘Thread of Light’ was completed last year after an introduction by a mutual friend, Belfast singer Duke Special.  ”When Glen came to my studio for the sitting, we listened to some CDs together,” said Mr Davidson. ”I didn’t want it to be very formal. I’m much more interested in something totally unposed where the subject forgets that I’m there. That’s how you capture who people truly are.”

Mr Davidson’s portraits can be seen as part of the 181st Annual Exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Ely Place, Dublin, until July 30. You can read the story here.

NPR Music recorded the acclaimed ensemble Lost In The Trees performing songs from their new record A Church That Fits Our Needs live at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. Enjoy.

Anti- Records is thrilled to announce the release the first digital single from the new Kelly Hogan solo album I Like To Keep Myself In Pain. The song is a contemplative and soulful track called “We Can’t Have Nice Things” written for Hogan by author Jack Pendarvis and songwriter Andrew Bird. The track is available via iTunes here.

As Hogan explains, “My dear friend Jack Pendarvis sent these lyrics. He thought it would turn out like this George Jones she-left-me type of song. But I had asked Andrew Bird, who I have worked with a long time, to write me a song. He asked if I had any lyrics he could write with so I sent him Jack’s. He sent them back with this amazing music and it turned into this really deep soul-searching, psychological song.”

On I Like To Keep Myself In Pain, her new album that arrives in stores June 5th, Hogan curates an ambitious and moving labor of love, mining the perfect intersection between classic pop, country and soul. She uses her sublime voice to interpret compositions penned for her by musical luminaries including M. Ward, Vic Chesnutt, Magnetic Fields, the Mekons’ Jon Langford, the Handsome Family, Bird, Freakwater’s Catherine Irwin, John Wesley Harding, Robbie Fulks, Gabriel Roth and Robyn Hitchcock.

Hogan is backed on the album by an all-star band consisting of R&B legends Booker T. Jones and James Gadson (Bill Withers, Beck) as well as talented young lions Gabe Roth (of Daptone Records, the Dap-Kings) and Scott Ligon (NRBQ).

Kelly Hogan Tour Dates:

05-28 Millenium Park Chicago IL
06-07 Duck Room at Blueberry Hill, Twangfest! St Louis MO
06-08 Space Evanston IL
06-09 Fitzgeralds Berwyn IL
07-13 The National Richmond VA
07-14 North Carolina Museum of Art Raleigh NC
07-15 Forecastle Festival Louisville KY
07-16 Mr. Smalls Theatre Pittsburgh PA
07-22 The Hideout Chicago IL
07-22 The Hideout Chicago IL

Care of Rolling Stone comes this new video for Glen Hansard’s song “Love Don’t Leave Me Now” off his upcoming solo debut, Rhythm and Reponse, out this June 19th on Anti.

As the clip’s director Heidi Rose explains, “It’s like going out on a trip to an exotic island: It’s summer, it’s full of hope, it’s exciting, it’s alive, it makes you want to dance and sing along. That is what Glen’s ‘Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting’ feels like. We shared this feeling with a group of young men and women, who very spontaneously and generously got involved in the making of our video.”

Musician Tim Fite is a complete artist. His visual work has been exhibited at galleries in NYC, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Puerto Rico. Having gained a renowned following in the spheres of music, illustration, printmaking and live performance, Fite is now exploring the world of orchestral composition with his debut string quartet piece entitled ”Copy_Cat.”

On May 2nd, Fite will perform this original 12 minute string quartet piece with the Brooklyn Phil Chamber Players as part of the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s prestigious Outside-In composer program. The program pairs non-orchestral composers from diverse musical backgrounds with resident composer- Randall Woolf and artistic director Alan Pierson to write an original string quartet built on the distinctive musical style and of each fellow. The piece is then performed by the Brooklyn Phil Chamber Players.

As Fite explains, “Copy_Cat is my first ever, real deal, written on paper, musical composition. In it, I am trying my hand at rotating self-similar forms, tampering with call and response, and cracking a narrative egg on the edges of repetition and interruption. I had a lot of fun teaming up the string quartet with all the booms and jingles of my sample arsenal – almost as if I was trying to get the traditional instruments to “copy cat” the less traditional ones. During the performance, I am looking forward to adding voices into the mix – both my own and those in the audience. There will be some call and response chanting, singing, and meowing! Thank you to the Brooklyn Phil for giving me the chance to do this, and to Randal Woolf for being such a generous and talented mentor.”

To watch a video about this unique program, go here.

Fite’s latest Anti Records release Ain’t Ain’t Ain’t was described by Paste Magazine as “an album about accepting your past, your mistakes, your place in the world, about relating to the common experiences of one’s fellow human beings, even when it may seem impossible.”

Fite’s musical catalog has addressed a wide array of subjects including: love, death, injustice, poverty, greed, dirt, rats, heaven, hell, freedom, shopping, shooting, mistakes, police and teenagers. These themes have been imaginatively visualized in Fite’s multi-media stage-show; a darkly whimsical affair that deftly merges music, illustration, video, and light carpentry. In the past Fite has shared stages with the likes of Man-Man, Les Claypool, Azure Ray, Porter Wagoner, St. Vincent, Fleet Foxes and others.

While previous works addressed adult issues with a youthful exuberance, in many ways, his new album Ain’t Ain’t Ain’t is their thematic opposite. The central focus of the record is the pain, hope and unbridled passion of one’s teenage years. Unlike previous works which were created using a collage of samples, on Ain’t Ain’t Ain’t the Fite played and recorded instruments in the studio. The leaner sound reveals him to be a classic songwriter of startling ability.

To watch a revealing short documentary on Tim Fite, go here.

Acclaim For Tim Fite’s New Album:

“Growing up is full of its own ups and downs, something which Tim Fite’s Ain’t Ain’t Ain’t portrays quite well. Take a listen to enjoy a journey through youth.” – The Aquarian

“It’s fitting that Fite’s been doing a lot of soul-searching since Ain’t Ain’t Ain’t is an album about exactly that. It’s an album about accepting your past, your mistakes, your place in the world, about relating to the common experiences of one’s fellow human beings, even when it may seem impossible…Ain’t Ain’t Ain’t isn’t just Fite’s most lyrically universal album – it’s also his most musically expansive.” – Paste Magazine

“At the heart of the album is “We Are All Teenagers”, invoking milestones that we may be nostalgic for or, in some cases, glad to be rid of: prom, being late for school, puppy love. But the inescapable groundwork for who we are is laid out during these nascent years, whether we like it or not, and Fite has managed to harness this youthful chaos into a mature and accomplished album.” – Consequence of Sound

Tim Fite Tour Dates:
Apr. 11 – Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
Apr. 13 – Washington, D.C. – U Street Music Hall
Apr. 14 – Philadelphia, PA – North Star Bar
Apr. 17 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
May 02 – Brooklyn, NY – Galapagos Art Space with the Brooklyn Philharmonic
May 25 – Asbury Park, NJ – Asbury Lanes with O’Death
May 26 – Hoboken, NJ – Maxwells with O’Death

Musician and Academy Award-winner Glen Hansard will performing at the opening night of the first-ever Sundance London film and music festival this April 26th. The performance is intended to enhance the conversation between filmmaker, actor and Sundance founder Robert Redford and 12-time Grammy Award winning musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer T Bone Burnett about the relationship between film and music.

Redford and Burnett will then share their recollections of achieving great musical moments with the many filmmakers, actors and musicians they’ve collaborated with throughout their storied careers joined by Nick Hornby (High Fidelity),

Hansard is best known as the principal songwriter and vocalist/guitarist for Irish group The Frames and as one half of acclaimed duo The Swell Season. His acting credits include appearing in BAFTA-winning film The Commitments, as well as starring in Once, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award. His song “Falling Slowly” from Once, co-written with Markéta Irglová, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2007 and earned him several other major nominations or awards. Hansard contributed two songs to the The Hunger Games, and been active in the promotion of Once, The Musical, which opened on Broadway. His first solo album, Rhythm and Repose, will be released June 18.

About his experience at the Sundance Film Festival, Hansard said: “The Sundance Film Festival was the springboard for Once and all its subsequent success. We will be forever grateful to Sundance for seeing the potential in our film when no other film festival did.”

To purchase tickets or for more information, go here.

In case you haven’t seen it and need to rediscover your faith in human goodness, have a look at the above video. A nine year old boy – who built an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad’s used auto part store – is about to have the best day of his life and it might brighten yours as well.

Grinderman are pleased to announce that Grinderman 2 RMX – a collection of remixes, reinterpretations & collaborations based on the songs contained in the band’s 2010 critically celebrated album Grinderman 2 is now streaming in full at Stereogum.com. The album will be released April 17, 2012.

To stream Grinderman 2 RMX, go here.

Grinderman 2 RMX’s many outstanding tracks include “Super Heathen Child” – a collaborative version of Grinderman’s “Heathen Child” (MOJO Honours Song Of The Year 2011) which teams the band up with legendary guitarist Robert Fripp (King Crimson, David Bowie, Eno); an exclusive previously unreleased remix of “Bellringer Blues” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ guitarist Nick Zinner; a remix of “Mickey Mouse & the Goodbye Man” by producer/-musician Joshua Homme (Queens of the Stone Age); “When My Baby Comes” by Cat’s Eyes (a duo consisting of Horrors’ front-man Faris Badwan and soprano Rachel Zeffira); “Evil” reinterpreted by Silver Alert (Grinderman’s Jim Sclavunos) and The National’s front man Matt Berninger; and Grinderman’s original demo version of “Evil”, “First Evil”.

Grinderman 2 RMX tracklisting:
Grinderman / Fripp “Super Heathen Child”
A Place to Bury Strangers “Worm Tamer”
Nick Zinner “Bellringer Blues” (exclusive)
UNKLE “Hyper Worm Tamer”
Joshua Homme “Mickey Bloody Mouse”
Cat’s Eyes with Luke Tristram “When My Baby Comes”
Barry Adamson “Palaces Of Montezuma”
Silver Alert (featuring Matt Berninger) “Evil”
SixToes “When My Baby Comes” (exclusive)
Andy Weatherall “Heathen Child”
Factory Floor “Evil”
Grinderman “First Evil”

Yann Tiersen will be releasing his new album Skyline on April 17th. The recordfinds Tiersen taking a confident step forward, cementing the sound of its darker sister, the critically acclaimed Dust Lane.

Says Tiersen, “Strangely while Skyline musically comes across as lighter and happier than Dust Lane the subject matter is somewhat darker – there is certainly a sense of moving on and what thoughts are left having dealt with loss”.

Spotify is currently streaming the record in full. To have a listen, just go here.

Brooklynvegan.com is premiering a striking new video from the band Lost In The Trees. The clip is for the group’s song “Golden Eyelids” from the band’s revered new album A Church That Fits Our Needs which Billboard Magazine called “Stunningly beautiful.” In the video, watery translucent imagery provides an potent visual accompaniment to the intensely personal emotions conveyed in this affecting song.

Watch the new Lost In The Trees video at BrooklynVegan.com here.

In addition, tonight the NPR show All Songs Considered will be featuring a LIVE video and audio broadcast of Lost In The Tree’s performance at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC.

To watch Lost In The Trees perform live care of NPR just go here.

The new Lost In The Trees record A Church That Fits Our Needs is an immensely ambitious work inspired by loss and transformation. In the summer of 2009, the group’s writer, composer and singer, Ari Picker, lost his artist mother when she took her own life. Picker has transformed the event into an evocative and moving musical tribute. Far from being a somber affair, the classically trained composer has utilized rhythm as its own emotional language, never losing the propulsive vitality of great rock and roll.

Critical Acclaim For Lost In The Trees’ “A Church That Fits Our Needs”:

“Stunningly gorgeous” – Los Angeles Times

“This 12-track song cycle is as moving and life affirming as it is moribund and gut wrenching… A Church That Fits Our Needs succeeds on nearly every level.” – All Music

“It’s as if a soul is being lifted to the heavens.” – Under The Radar

“Picker’s high and warbling voice conveys the fragility of existence with nearly every phrase, and the orchestral songs elucidate the intense wonder of life.” – The New Yorker

“Stunningly intimate songs that deserve unmitigated attention” – Wall Street Journal

Philly rock and roll band Dr. Dog appear on CNN to talk about songwriting, their signature vocal harmonies and the instrumentation of their raucous sound.

Here’s some great footage of Glen Hansard (The Swell season, Frames) performing an acoustic set at an amphitheater in the woods at last year’s Incubate Festival. Enjoy

Dr. Dog will be performing on Last Call With Carson Daly on Tuesday April 10th at 1:35a/12:35 central. The episode will re-air the next day on FUSE at 12:30p/11:30a central. The group will be playing in support of their superb new record Be The Void which NPR recently proclaimed, “a fun, rocking, swirling look at a meaningless and mysterious world.” For more info, go here.

The Philadelphia band has also announced a number of music festivals including The Beal Street Music Festival on May 4th, The Hangout Festival May 18th, (with Wilco, The Flaming Lips and Jack White), The Friendly Gathering on June 14th and the My Morning Jacket-curated Forecastle Festival on July 14th..

Be The Void combines the group’s meticulously crafted pop with a far leaner and meaner primal sound which perfectly captures the rough and tumble energy of their renowned live show. The band entered the studio with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and confidence. “It was reminiscent of when we were starting out and were these fearless weirdoes in a basement, so confident and reckless and bold,” guitarist-vocalist Scott McMicken explains.

“The band returns to the sunburnt sprawl of its first few records. You’ve got your big, bulbous melodies, your rattly unplugged strums, your mile-long solos; in vocalists Scott McMicken and Toby Leaman, you’ve got yourself a veritable two-man harmony factory stocked with enough whisky and cigarettes to get you through the spring.” – Pitchfork

Dr. Dog Live Dates:

May 05 Beale Street Music Festival, Memphis, TN
May 19 Hangout Festival, Gulf Shores, AL
Jun 16 Friendly Gathering, Windham, VT
Jun 22 WYEP Summer Music Fest, Pittsburgh, PA
Jul 14 Forecastle Festival, Louisville, KY
Jul 21 Xponential Festival, Camden, NJ
Jul 27 Somerset Amphitheater, Somerset, WI
Jul 28 Bele Chere Festival, Asheville, NC

Care of NPR Music comes a new video for the Glen Hansard song “Philander.” It’s the first single from Hansard’s upcoming solo album Rhyme and Repose out June 19th via Anti.

As NPR describes, “In the course of four minutes, Hansard bounces through the stages of grief. He denies that his love ever left, singing, “She never said goodbye / Only see you later,” then quickly flips to anger, spitting out, “Come on you little actor.” He eventually accepts what’s happened, and hints that he’s to blame: “I’m always gonna stay/ here with my philander.”

For the video, Hansard collaborated with director Conor Masterson, who’s photographed Hansard and the Swell Season previously. Masterson described the shoot, saying: “One room, one light and no fancy camera moves. Because Glen is such a natural performer we tried to make the set as real as possible so we propped with a mixture of found objects man-made and natural and built it in the corner of a yard of an old house in London that has a rich music hall history.”

The beloved Grammy award winning band Tinariwen are debuting a brand new video today via Rolling Stone Magazine. The clip captures a recent captivating live performance with the popular North African “Touareg” group joined on stage by Flea and Josh Klinghoffer of the world famous Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The group has announced a series of North American live dates as well as some select international dates opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In addition, the band will be lending their support to this year’s Record Store Day. The April 21st celebration is designed to call attention to the vital culture surrounding independently owned record stores with special releases, in-store appearances and other forms of celebrations. Tinariwen will be contributing to the cause with the vinyl debut of their Grammy winning album Tassili in a special Record Store Day edition which includes four remixes, available for the first time anywhere.

Tassili Remixes include:

1) Tenere Taqhim Tossam – Four Tet Remix
2) Imidiwan Ma Tenam – Portugal. The Man Remix
3) Imidiwan Ma Tenam – Galactic
4) Tameyawt – Deakin of Animal Collective Remix

“I was excited to have a chance to work on a Tinariwen song because while their instrumentation is not all that different their rhythms and their melodies are entirely different from what I am used to, remixing “Imidiwan Ma Tenam” allowed me to think a differently and, frankly, it was just good fun.” – John Gourley, Portugal. The Man

On their latest album Tassili the band return to the essence of their hypnotic desert blues sound. Recorded in the South-Eastern Algerian desert, the band is joined by Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone of TV On The Radio. Later on, virtuoso guitarist Nels Cline (Wilco) and the horns of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band contributed. The result is a simultaneously exotic and accessible sound.

North American Dates

June 03 Fayetteville, AR Wakarusa Festival
June 05 Denver, CO L2 Arts Center
June 08 Petaluma / Big Sur
June09 Santa Rosa, CA Health And Harmony
June 10 San Francisco, CA SF Jazz
June 11 Portland, OR Aladdin Theater
June 12 Seattle, WA Showbox
June 14 Washington, DC Howard Theater
June 15 Brooklyn, NY Warsaw / Northside Festival
June 16 Croton-on-Hudson, NY

With Red Hot Chili Peppers

June 28 Goffertpark, Nijmegen, Netherlands
June 30 Stade de France Paris, France
July 03 Bern, Switzerland

Tonight at 9:00 PM PT, KEXP in Seattle will be airing an in studio performance by the phenomenal singer Kelly Hogan in support of the June 5th Anti release of her album I Like To Keep Myself In Pain.

As the station reports, “The Kelly Hogan taping yesterday was insane. She sang four songs from her forthcoming ANTI- album (I Like to Keep Myself in Pain), brand new tunes by Andrew Bird, Vic Chestnut, and Robyn Hitchcock (plus a Hogan original inspired by her band-mate Neko Case), fired off some great one-liners, and talked about working with Booker T. and the Dap-Kings while making the album. Her record’s not out till June so tonight’s KEXP session will be the first chance most listeners will get to hear these amazing bespoke songs. Don’t miss it!!!”

Nationally touted singer Kelly Hogan has announced the live dates in support of her new album I Like To Keep Myself In Pain out June 5th via Anti- Records.

Hogan is a beloved figure throughout the contemporary music landscape, and a multi-faceted artist whose warm southern persona and powerful voice have left their mark on countless recordings and live performances. She was recently touted “a national treasure” by colleague, friend, and former Chicago neighbor, Andrew Bird, while acclaimed singer-songwriter M. Ward simply states, “Kelly Hogan rules.”

On her new album, Hogan curates an ambitious and moving labor of love, mining the perfect intersection between classic pop, country and soul. She utilizes her incredible voice to interpret compositions penned for her by musical luminaries including Vic Chesnutt, The Magnetic Fields, The Mekons’ Jon Langford, The Handsome Family, Freakwater’s Catherine Irwin, John Wesley Harding, Robbie Fulks, Gabriel Roth, Robyn Hitchcock, and the aforementioned M. Ward and Andrew Bird.

On the record she is backed by an all-star group of musicians: R&B legends Booker T Jones and James Gadson (Bill Withers, Beck), as well as talented young lions Gabriel Roth (of Daptone Records, The Dap-Kings) and Hogan’s long-time collaborator Scott Ligon (of the newly resurrected NRBQ).

Hogan will open Chicago’s Millennium Park Pritzker Paviliion Downtown Sound: New Music Mondays season as headliner with a free show on May 28 in Chicago, IL and perform two other headlining Chicago-area shows (Space and Fitzgeralds) during the release week of I Like To Keep Myself In Pain. She will also appear on the St. Louis festival Twangfest and support Neko Case on dates in July. Stay tuned for more touring announcements.

Kelly Hogan Live Dates:

5/28/2012 Chicago, IL @ Millennium Park (Free)
6/7/2012 St. Louis, MO @ Twangfest! @ Duck Room at Blueberry Hill
6/8/2012 Evanston, IL @ Space
6/9/2012 Berwyn, IL @ Fitzgerald’s
7/13/2012, Richmond, VA @ National *
7/14/2012 Raleigh, NC @ The National North Carolina Museum of Art *
7/16/2012 Millvale, PA @ Mr. Small’s Theatre (Pittsburgh) *
* supporting Neko Case

“Glen Hansard is a gifted, emotive frontman who sings as if he must, with a heart on his sleeve that is constantly throbbing.” —The New York Times

Over 20 years in the making, singer songwriter Glen Hansard will release his first ever solo album, Rhythm and Repose, on Anti- Records June 19. Best known for his work with The Frames, The Swell Season and in the feature film Once, for which he won an Academy Award, Rhythm and Repose is Hansard’s debut solo album and first album of new material since his 2009 release Strict Joy with The Swell Season. The album will be available for presale at here.

In recent months Hansard has been seen in the documentary The Swell Season which has toured the film festival circuit this year, contributed two songs to the blockbuster soundtrack, The Hunger Games, and been active in the promotion of Once, The Musical which successfully opened on Broadway on March 18 to rave reviews, including the New York Times who explains, “what was always wonderful about ‘Once,’ its songs and its staging, has been magnified.” Hansard will support the new record on a U.S. tour.

Rhythm and Repose is a result of Hansard’s last year and a half of living in New York City. The album was recorded by Patrick Dillett (David Byrne, Arto Lindsay, Laurie Anderson) and produced by Thomas Bartlett (Doveman, The National, Antony and the Johnsons). The record features the musical talents of Brad Albetta (Martha Wainwright) on bass, Ray Rizzo on drums, Nico Muhly and Rob Moose on strings (Bon Iver, Y Music), David Mansfield on slide guitar (Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Tour), Javier Mas (Leonard Cohen touring band) and half of Bruce Springsteen’s current horn section. Assisting on vocals are Cristin Milioti (Once, The Musical), Sam Amidon, Marketa Irglova and Aida Shahghasemi (Marketa Irglova touring band).

Hansard is celebrated as the principal songwriter and vocalist/guitarist for the Irish group The Frames, who have established themselves as one of the most influential bands in Ireland. Hansard garnered a reputation as not only an unparalleled front man, but also for his dedicated following and his grounded, real-life songs. Whether he’s busking the streets of Dublin, where he got his start, or at the Hollywood Bowl, Hansard is always earnest and in-the-moment.
continued

Hansard is also one half of the acclaimed duo The Swell Season. In 2007, he and Czech songstress Markéta Irglová took home the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Falling Slowly” off the Once soundtrack. Hansard and Irglová continued the success of Once with the 2009 release Strict Joy under the namesake of The Swell Season.

Tracklist (after the break)

1. You Will Become
2. Maybe Not Tonight
3. Talking with The Wolves
4. High Hope
5. Bird of Sorrow
6. The Storm, It’s Coming
7. Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting
8. What Are We Gonna Do
9. Races
10. Philander
11. Song of Good Hope

Tour Dates
June 29 New York, NY The Beacon

The incendiary political hip hop duo The Coup (featuring Boots Riley) have just announced a last minute show in Amsterdam on April 8th (8pm) at the Studio K club. For info just go here.

That same day they will be playing the Paaspop Festival in Schijndel (NL) at 2pm (Boogie Down Stage) followed by the Amsterdam show in the evening.

Boots will also be giving a public talk at 6pm on Sunday on the Oakland general strike at the International Institute for Research and Education, Lombokstraat 40 (same building as Studio/K)

Care of Filter Magazine comes this rollicking impromptu performance by the Philadelphia rock band Dr. Dog. The group recently stopped by the Guitar Center in Hollywood to play the song “Heart it Races,” originally performed by the group Architecture in Helsinki.

You can watch a podcast of the band’s At Guitar Center with Nick Harcourt by going here.

American Songwriter Magazine has profiled rising musical collective Lost In The Trees and their incredible new album A Church That Fits Our Needs. The record is in stores now.

“In the summer of 2009, Lost in the Trees’ writer, composer and singer, Ari Picker, lost his mother to suicide. Over the years since, Picker has dealt with his grief by composing A Church That Fits Our Needs. It could have been an anguished collection of woes and heartache, but instead Picker created the band’s sophomore album as a musical tribute to his mother: complex and orchestrated, with an extensive range of tone and emotion.”

To read the entire article, just go here.

Yann Tiersen will be releasing an ambitious new album entitled Skyline this April 17 via Anti- Records. In anticipation, the celebrated multi instrumentalist and composer has unveiled a video for his new song “I’m Gonna Live Anyhow.”

The video will debut at the Yellow Bird Project along with a T shirt Tiersen designed for the charity Doctor’s Without Borders. The Montreal-based Yellow Bird works with selected musicians such as Bon Iver, Andrew Bird, The National, Tiersen and others to create shirts that benefit charities chosen by the musician.

The clip features Tiersen performing a stripped down version of his song “I’m Gonna Live Anyhow” at the London offices of Doctors Without Borders. As Tiersen explains, “The song is inspired by the title of the 1959 Alan Lomax’s album I’m Gonna Live Until I Die. It focuses on the tiny pleasures of life with lyrics like ‘I love the woods after the rain’ and ‘I love the shore after the storm.’ The song grew out of the thought that you have no choice to live before you die it has to happen in that order and the cycle is inescapable.”

Tiersen’s T shirt conveys the musician’s interest in the marks and scars that humans leave behind on the landscape. Buildings and monuments that we build and revere quickly turned in to detritus and dust. Nothing is permanent, and everything is fragile – though we assign so much meaning to them in the beginning. The image represents the human monuments but it’s unclear whether they are beautiful new structures or crumbling wrecks.

Doctors Without Borders delivers aid directly to people affected by armed conflict and other man-made or natural disasters.

Tiersen’s new album Skyline was recorded between Paris, San Francisco & and Ouessant a tiny island off the coast of West Britanny and mixed by Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, M83, David Bowie, Psychic TV). As always the music stems from Tiersen, whose long periods of recording alone are broken with spells with input from a cast of musicians. An array of vintage synths add billowing, analogue textures, electric guitars and bass bring layers of fuzz and distortion. Songs slip from their moorings, take off on new and unexpected currents. “My plan was also to play with contrast between electric and quite dense parts and more sober and minimal quiet parts including piano and strings,” he adds. So, voices join together in chorus, arcing violins and crashing drums build towards mighty fanfares – but then, clouds part, squall recedes to silence, and mournful piano and strings guide you home.

Yann Tiersen Tour Dates:

Friday, 4/27/2012, 8:00 pm, Irving Plaza, New York, NY, US
Saturday, 4/28/2012, 8:00 pm
Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, US
Sunday, 4/29/2012, 8:00 pm, Royal Boston, Boston, MA, US
Tuesday, 5/01/2012, 8:00 pm, Metropolis, Montreal, QC, CA
Wednesday, 5/02/2012, 8:00 pm, The Phoenix Theatre, Toronto, ON, CA
Thursday, 5/03/2012, 8:00 pm, Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH, US
Friday, 5/04/2012, 8:00 pm, Metro, Chicago, IL, US
Saturday, 5/05/2012, 8:00 pm, First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN, US
Tuesday, 5/08/2012, 8:00 pm, Showbox at the Market, Seattle, WA, US
Wednesday, 5/09/2012, 8:00 pm, Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC, CA
Thursday, 5/10/2012, 8:00 pm, Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR, US
Friday, 5/11/2012, 8:00 pm, Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, CA, US
Saturday, 5/12/2012, 8:00 pm, The Music Box, Los Angeles, CA, US
Monday, 5/14/2012, 8:00 pm, Belly Up, San Diego, CA, US
Tuesday, 5/15/2012, 8:00 pm, The Rialto Theatre, Tucson, AZ, US
Thursday, 5/17/2012, 8:00 pm, TREES, Dallas, TX, US
Friday, 5/18/2012, 8:00 pm, Emo’s East, Austin, TX, US
Saturday, 5/19/2012, 8:00 pm, Fitzgeralds, Houston, TX, US
Sunday, 5/20/2012, 8:00 pm, House of Blues, New Orleans, LA, US
Tuesday, 5/22/2012, 8:00 pm, Beacham Theatre, Orlando, FL, US
Wednesday, 5/23/2012, 8:00 pm, Grand Central, Miami, FL, US
Thursday, 5/24/2012, 8:00 pm, Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA, US
Friday, 5/25/2012, 8:00 pm, Cat’s Cradle, Chapel Hill, NC, US
Saturday, 5/26/2012, 8:00 pm, 9:30 Club, Washington, DC, US

Lost In The Trees front-man Ari Picker stopped by NPR to discuss his mother’s death and the stunning new record entitled A Church That Fits Our Needs he has created in tribute to her. The record already generating a serious buzz for its unorthodox and emotionally evocative sound.

Listen to Picker talk about processing his mother’s death with art and the powerful songs on the group’s new album. To stream and/or download this revealing interview, just go here.

Influential revolutionary hip hop collective The Coup (aka Boots Riley and DJ Pam the Funkstress) have announced a series of highly anticipated European live dates, bringing their incendiary mix of politics and music. See dates below.

March 31st- Agen at Le Florida
April 1st- Bern at Dachstock
April 3rd- Zurich at Exil
April 5th- Bristol, UK at UWE
April 6th- Saint Germain-En-Laye(Paris suburb) at La Clef
April 7th- Lille at L’Aéronef
April 9th- Berlin at Bohannon
April 10th- Nuremberg at Desi
April 11th- Venezia at Rivolta
April 12th- Milano at Biko
April 13th- Roma at Strike
April 14th- Helsinki at Funky Elephant Festival

Singer-songwriter Glen Hansard (one half of The Swell Season) will be opening for Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder on his Europe/UK Solo Tour in July. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 23rd.

Glen Hansard with Eddie Vedder Tour Dates

July 25 Amsterdam, Holland Carre Theater
July 26 Amsterdam, Holland Carre Theater
July 28 Manchester, United Kingdom 02 Apollo Manchester
July 30 London, United Kingdom HMV Apollo Hammersmith

For more info go here.

Dr. Dog will be appearing on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon this Friday, March 23 in support of the their new album Be The Void. The group will also be performing at a number of music festivals including The Beal Street Music Festival on May 4th, The Hangout Festival May 18th, the Friendly Gathering on June 14th and the Forecastle Festival on July 14th.

Their latest record Be The Void combines the group’s meticulously crafted pop with a far leaner and meaner primal sound which perfectly captures the rough and tumble energy of their renowned live show. The Philadelphia band entered the studio with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and confidence. “It was reminiscent of when we were starting out and were these fearless weirdoes in a basement, so confident and reckless and bold,” guitarist-vocalist Scott McMicken explains. Esquire Magazine called the record “a glorious rally cry.”

“The band returns to the sunburnt sprawl of its first few records. You’ve got your big, bulbous melodies, your rattly unplugged strums, your mile-long solos; in vocalists Scott McMicken and Toby Leaman, you’ve got yourself a veritable two-man harmony factory stocked with enough whisky and cigarettes to get you through the spring.” – Pitchfork

DR. DOG Live Dates:

Mar 22 Boston, MA House of Blues
Mar 23 New York, NY Terminal 5
Mar 24 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory
Mar 25 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory
May 04 Beale Street Music Festival, Memphis, TN
May 18 Hangout Festival, Gulf Shores, AL
Jun 14 Friendly Gathering, Windham, VT
Jul 14 Forecastle Festival, Louisville, KY

Care of KUT in Austin Texas comes this recent early morning performance by the supremely soulful singer-songwriter Glen Hansard. Hansard is one half of The Swell Season and also fronts legendary Irish band The Frames.

To hear the entire set, just go here.

The powerful new album by the North Carolina musical collective Lost In The Trees is called A Church That Fits Our Needs. The record arrives in stores today already accompanied by a well deserved and mounting buzz of critical acclaim.

After a must see performance at All Tomorrow’s Parties UK at the invitation of Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum, the group appeared last week at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin where their moving and transcendent performances earned them a spot on Time Magazine’s SXSW 2012 “Best In Class” list as well as a feature story in today’s Wall Street Journal which you can read here.

A Church That Fits Our Needs is the anticipated follow up to the band’s breakthrough Anti Records debut All Alone In An Empty House which NPR Music called their “surprise album of the year.” The new record is an immensely ambitious work inspired by loss and transformation. In the summer of 2009, the group’s writer, composer and singer, Ari Picker, lost his artist mother when she took her own life. Picker has transformed the event into an evocative and moving musical tribute. Far from being a somber affair, the classically trained composer has utilized rhythm as its own emotional language, never losing the propulsive vitality of great rock and roll.

Early Acclaim For A Church That Fits Our Needs:

“A breakthrough album for Ari Picker’s North Carolina-based folkie orchestra, A Church That Fits Our Needs focuses the ambition of its predecessor through more conventional songwriting techniques, stronger production values and greater track-to track cohesiveness. It’s as much a solo walk in the woods as it is a communal gathering at home. Stunningly beautiful” – Billboard

“Mr. Picker composes stunningly intimate songs that deserve unmitigated attention” – The Wall Street Journal

“The songs on A Church That Fits Our Needs tell stories the way The Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home” does. It’s the sound of a band taking tragedy and coming to terms with it, finding beauty in a life too short and weaving bittersweet melody out of melancholy.” – NPR’s All Songs Considered

“Stunningly gorgeous – Folk-based, classically informed and cinematic in scope, Lost in the Trees songs are aural escapes, filled with nature references and fit for a philharmonic” – Los Angeles Times

“It’s as if a soul is being lifted to the heavens.” – Under The Radar

“South by Southwest 2012, Best in Class” – Time Magazine

“Mr. Picker sings in a soft, quivering tenor that can slide imperceptibly into falsetto — he’s the essential embodiment of vulnerability — and most of his songs come scaled for dramatic effect, with swooning strings, harp and brass… “Neither Here Nor There,” and the lead single, “Red,” achieve a stirring blend of modest rusticity and urbane ambition.” – New York Times

Lost In The Trees Tour Dates (after page break)

03-20 The Loft San Diego CA
03-22 The Echo Los Angeles CA
03-23 Bottom of the Hill Oakland CA
03-24 Arcata Playhouse Arcata CA
03-25 Doug Fir Lounge Portland OR
03-27 Tractor Tavern Seattle WA
03-28 Neurolux Boise ID
03-29 The State Room Salt Lake City UT
03-30 Hi Dive Denver CO
03-31 Slowdown Omaha NE
04-02 Cedar Cultural Center Minneapolis MN
04-03 Schubas Tavern Chicago IL
04-04 Space Evanston IL
04-05 Wexner Center Columbus OH
04-06 The Drake Toronto ON
04-07 Il Motore Montreal QC
04-09 Burlington City Arts Center Burlington VT
04-10 Space Gallery Portland ME
04-11 Le Poisson Rouge New York NY
04-13 Museum of Fine Arts Boston MA
04-14 Black Cat Washington DC

Time Magazine has a list of bands who created a buzz at this year’s South By Southwest Festival. Among their selections is the phenomenal collective Lost In The Trees, of which they say.

“The suicide of a musician’s mother has heavily influenced and defined his band’s sophomore effort. His name is Ari Picker, and he is one of the driving forces behind the North Carolina group Lost in the Trees. The group’s second record debuts later this month.”

To see the entire list at Time go here.

There’s a beautiful and well deserved profile of Lost In The Trees in the latest Billboard Magazine. The article profiles the band and its singer-composer Ari Picker as they played the South By Southwest Festival in Austin Texas and prepared for the releases of their anticipated new album A Church The Fits Our Needs.

On the group’s evolving sound, Picker offers, “This record is different because when we were touring we were listening to more bands like Grizzly Bear, Blonde Redhead and Radiohead plus more modern classical like Shostakovich and Stravinsky. It led me to make (on our record) the beautiful parts more beautiful and the ugly parts uglier.”

To read the entire article go here.