*** CHANGE OF VENUE IN PORTLAND ***
MOVING TO THEATER OF THE CLOUDS AT THE ROSE GARDEN DUE TO OVERWHELMING DEMAND
Tickets On Sale Saturday, February 26th at 10:00AM
SEATTLE, WA – February 24, 2011 – Due to overwhelming demand, the BRUNO MARS & JANELLE MONÁE – HOOLIGANS IN WONDALAND TOURoriginally scheduled at The Roseland Theater has now been moved to the larger, Theater of The Clouds venue at The Rose Garden.
The concert will still take place on Saturday June 4th. All other show information remains the same. All tickets previously purchased for the Roseland show will be honored.
Tickets will go on sale Saturday February 26th at 10:00 A.M. at ComcastTIX.com, participating Safeway/TicketsWest locations, by phone at 877.789.ROSE (7673), and at the Rose Quarter box office.
Tickets are priced at $35 (GA floor and bowl). Tickets are on sale Saturday, February 26 at 10a and can be purchased at the Rose Quarter Box Office (M-F 10a-5p), all participating Safeway/ TicketsWest outlets, by calling 877.789.ROSE (7673), or at ComcastTIX.com. For more information please visit RoseQuarter.com. Prices do not include service charges. To receive event notices, pre-sale opportunities, discounts and prizes join our free Rose Quarter CyberClub at RoseQuarter.com. All tickets previously purchased for the Roseland show will be honored at the Theater of the Clouds.
The major North American co-headlining tour, “HOOLIGANS IN WONDALAND,” begins May 4th at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom and concluding June 15th at the Comerica Theatre in Phoenix. Stones Throw Records artist Mayer Hawthorne & The County will also join the performance in Portland.
On March 4th, Portland, Oregon-based Hello Morning (Henry Curl, Kevin Breuner, Ben Sims, and Peter Swenson) will celebrate the release of their debut full-length, “A Fiction,” at Mississippi Studios. Also on the bill are The Dimes and Steve Tayor (of Rogue Wave). Cover is $7 advance, $7 day of show. Doors at 8:30pm, show starts at 9pm.
In scope, palette, and composition, “A Ficiton” is a more daring and successful leap for a band that already kickstarted their career with a promising, self-titled debut EP.
Musically, Hello Morning both polished and expanded their approach on “A Fiction,” as compared to their self-titled debut EP, retaining their majestic, uplifting sound on tracks such as “The Fear,” a postmodern mid-tempo anthem with a deep pocket. And, “A Good Year,” a minor key whirlwind which calls to mind Death Cab and Interpol. The striking new sound of the band becomes more evident on “Letters,” which seamlessly merges a double-time drum machine, a live dub drum beat, and haunting guitars that sound like icicles and arctic wind. All the while, Henry Curl, gifted with an effortless and emotive voice, sings a Neil Young-ian melody. The song evokes unsent letters and unrealized dreams. “All I Knew,” one of the last songs to be written, sprang to life one magical night and stands as the album’s emotional highlight, going from a widescreen velvety throb to a psychedelic freak out, in the course of seven electric minutes.
The songs that comprise “A Fiction” have a shared emotional state and narrative threads – love, trust, commitment, and communication between friends and lovers, both real and imagined. The result is a diverse collection of modern rock explorations, the recording of which was entirely funded by Hello Morning’s loyal fan base via a Kickstarter campaign.
The band launched a fan-funding campaign, spread the word, and their fans heeded the call, exceeding the goal with time to spare. In turn, the band found they could then record an entire album’s worth of songs, so they booked extra studio time, recording again at Secret Society with mixing from Jeff Stuart Saltzman (Death Cab For Cutie, Menomena, Decemberists) and Kyle Lockwood (Climber), who also makes a guest appearance playing strings.
Each of the members of Hello Morning have spent years in various rock, pop, electro-pop, and folk outfits. Now scene veterans, they’ve come together to form a band that can do things their way, with the wisdom and talent earned by experience, but with an excitement and focus on exploring what guitar-driven rock can still be, can still say, can still do, and discovering new ways to transmit that sound. Following the successful reception of Hello Morning’s debut EP, the band spent the year playing shows around the Northwest with international touring bands such as Two Door Cinema Club and Wang Chung, as well as local favorites like Climber, Crosstide, and Mnemonic.
Portland, OR-based Blind Pilot, who are currently in the studio recording their second full-length album, will support The Decemberists’ upcoming European tour. The tour begins on March 4th in Dublin, makes stops in many UK cities as well as Amsterdam and Antwerp, and concludes with a show on March 16th at Hammersmith Apollo in London. See below for a full list of tour dates.
The band’s debut, 3 Rounds and a Sound, earned Blind Pilot coverage on national radio (NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “All Songs Considered”), and national television (“Last Call with Carson Daly”). The album received praise from USA Today, the Boston Globe, the New York Post, Wired Magazine, AM New York, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, which calls the music “a rustic reverie.”
[adrotate group=”3″]
Comprised of founding members Israel Nebeker (vocals, guitar) and Ryan Dobrowski (drums), Blind Pilot is rounded out with Luke Ydstie (upright bass, backing vocals), Kati Claborn (banjo, dulcimer, ukulele, backing vocals), Ian Krist (vibraphone) and Dave Jorgensen (keyboard, trumpet).
“…the songs on its marvelous debut, 3 Rounds and a Sound, are uniformly sturdy and sweet, drenched in brightly rustic instrumentation and some of the sweetest harmonies this side of such likeminded peers as The Avett Brothers and Fleet Foxes.” – NPR Music
“Blind Pilot’s music is full of exhilarated weariness and the kinds of detailed insights into the subconscious and all of the other hidden regions of the mind and heart…” – Daytrotter
TOUR DATES:
3/4/11 – Vicar Street – Dublin, IE
3/5/11 – Barrowlands – Glasgow, UK
3/7/11 – Birmingham Institute – Birmingham, UK
3/8/11 – Bristol Academy – Bristol, UK
3/10/11 – Manchester Academy – Manchester, UK
3/11/11 – Leeds Academy – Leeds, UK
3/12/11 – De La Warr Pavilion – Bexhill, UK
3/13/11 – Trix – Antwerp, BE
3/14/11 – Paradiso – Amsterdamn, NL
3/16/11 – Hammersmith Apollo – London, UK
Welsh post-hardcore kings FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND and AOL’s Noisecreep.com are pleased to debut a brand new track entitled, ‘Spinning Over the Island’, cut from their upcoming full length release Welcome Home Armageddon, set to hit stores stateside on March 15th, 2011. Head to this link to hear the track! Fans can pre-orderthe new album at the Good Fight Music merch store. The band just released their new video for the single ‘Sixteen’, and it can be viewed at BlankTV, here.
Welcome Home Armageddon will be released on the band’s new label, GOOD FIGHT MUSIC, and will reconnect them with the original label team that released the band’s first two major pieces of music, Seven Ways to Scream Your Name EP (2003), and Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation (2003). This is their first offering of music since 2008’s Memory and Humanity, and promises to be a new musical direction for the band.
Tracklisting:
For more information on FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND, please visit these websites:
March belongs to the raging cyberpunk musical force Angelspit, who team up with international acid house/industrial sensation Lords of Acid to stomp their way across the United States in their joint March 2011 “SonicAngel” tour.
The “SonicAngel” tour will span the month of March, encircling the United States from Los Angeles to Atlanta, Chicago to Phoenix and more. Joining the onslaught along the way are one-man acts Radical G and Chant. While details are being kept closely-guarded, it is known that the “SonicAngel” tour is Angelspit’s last tour under their current line-up.
During the tour, Angelspit will release Carbon Beauty, the second installment in Angelspit’s Hideous and Perfect remix series, through Metropolis Records on March 8. The album brings 10 remixed tracks and three exclusive songs. For further information on Carbon Beauty, visit www.angelspit.net/carbonbeauty.
Angelspit are an electro-ballistic-punk act hailing from Sydney, Australia, known for vicious distortion, biting lyrics and harsh drums. Angelspit have churned out eight releases over the past seven years and have shared the stage with acts such as KMFDM, Skinny Puppy, Frontline Assembly, Sisters of Mercy and Nitzer Ebb. The band’s music and performance have been recognized and critically acclaimed through numerous media outlets. For further information, visit www.angelspit.net
SEATTLE, WA – Due to overwhelming demand, Grammy Award winning artist ADELE has moved her June 1st Seattle performance from The Showbox at The Market to the larger Paramount Theatre venue in Seattle.
All other show information remains the same.
A limited amount of additional tickets will go up for sale on Saturday February 26th at 10:00 A.M. at www.tickets.com and at the Paramount Theatre box office.
All tickets previously purchased for the Showbox show will be honored.
Supporting her new album ‘21’ (in stores this week), ADELE’S tour kicks off on May 12th in Washington DC. For more information: visit Adele.tv or AEGLive.com.
Portland, Oregon-based Asian American dance-rock band The Slants’ trademark application for their name, “The Slants” has been rejected by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on the grounds that the term is deemed to be disparaging to persons of Asian descent and not sufficiently embraced by the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community. The dispute began last year and now the band is preparing for an appeal of the decision.
The decision was reached by the Trademark Office despite evidence filed by the band’s attorney, which included numerous articles by the Asian American media supporting The Slants, the band’s involvement with dozens of API cultural festivals and non-profit organizations, and legal declarations from several well-respected leaders of the API community.
Spencer Trowbridge of McNamer and Company, the law firm representing The Slants, says that “this is a case where the government is making a decision about how members of a minority group can define themselves. The U.S. Government shouldn’t be in the business of making those kinds of decisions. The determination of whether a specific term or phrase is disparaging can only be made from the point of view of the referenced minority group.”
The band has made a name for themselves through playing hundreds of rock clubs, anime conventions, and Asian American cultural festivals across the country. In addition, the band is widely known as an advocate for Asian American rights, being involved with numerous API organizations and charities. The Slants have travelled throughout North America presenting racial justice workshops, inspiring youth to reconsider stereotypes of Asian Americans, and to take pride in their cultural heritage. They’ve been featured and supported by the largest Asian American media figures and press in the country, including Asian Week, angryasianman.com, the Asian Reporter, Koream Magazine, and many more.
The Trademark Office responded to the Asian media attention on the band by stating that though the aims of the band “may be laudable… rarely does an article introduce the band without commenting on the controversial nature of the band’s name.” Elsewhere in the rejection the office cited examples from wiki-articles as evidence that the name belittles the Asian American community.
“What they don’t understand,” writes The Slants’ manager Simon Tam,” is that the community is demonstrating their support for our efforts by promoting the band to begin with. It seems that they consider the weight of anonymous wiki-sites to be of greater importance than the voice of the Asian American community itself.”
Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons, a coordinator for the Asian Pacific Network of Oregon and longtime policy advocate for the API community, states that “the use of the name The Slants by the musical group of that name does not disparage or offend the Asian and Pacific Islander community, both because of the explicit claiming of the term in a collective sense and because of the obscure nature of the term as a racial epitaph. The reclaiming of an obscure term that has been used to discriminate has a constructive impact when used by a group that also self-identifies as Asian and/or Pacific Islander.”
“As a Japanese-American, and lifelong activist within the Asian American community, I do not consider The Slants’ use of their name disparaging,” writes community leader Mari Watanabe. She continues, “The name is being used in a self-referential manner, carrying a message that promotes Asian culture. This use does not disparage Asian identity; it celebrates it.”
The band also cited numerous cases of other Asian Americans using the term in a manner accepted by the API community at large such as The Slant Film Festival, a documentary of Hollywood racism entitled “The Slanted Screen,” Chicago Asian American TV show “The Slant,” and popular Asian magazine, “Slanted,” when filing their response to the initial rejection of the mark. In response, the Trademark Office simply replied that The Slants’ “arguments have been considered but are found unpersuasive.”
The band is currently working with their attorney on preparing an appeal and seeking help from individuals or organizations who would like to assist. Interested parties should contact Simon Tam at theslants@theslants.com
No Depression said of Portland, Oregon-based Water Tower Bucket Boys and their forthcoming national release, “Sole Kitchen,” that it has a “…harder edge than any folk album you’re likely to hear this year… they’ve adopted the intensity of rock and punk and channeled it into their songs and tunes. But they still love their roots and can’t go through a set without throwing in an old-time ballad or a bluegrass song… Their far-ranging influences enable them to see the common ground between folk, rock, punk and even jazz, and they draw from this common ground to create their unique sound.”
A fitting description for the band and their fourth full-length and first national release, “Sole Kitchen,” engineered, mixed, and produced by MxPX/Tumbledown front man Mike Herrera at Herrera’s Monkey Trench Studios in Bremerton, Washington.
The band will be releasing “Sole Kitchen” via brick and mortar distribution, their first album to be nationally distributed to retail, on April 26, 2011.
Having performed on radio shows such as BBC, NPR, and RTE, and sharing the stage with acts as diverse as Old Crown Medicine Show, Mumford and Sons, Wilco, The Red Stick Ramblers, Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three, and Woody Pines, the Water Tower Bucket Boys have honed their skills (and sound) to win over an eclectic array of audiences.
“Old Crow Medicine Show, who we are big fans of and have influenced us a lot, have been instrumental in our career,” states one of the band’s multi-instrumentalists/co-vocalist Kenny Feinstein. “Gill Landry [from Old Crow Medicine Show] gave us an exact busking route from North Carolina back to Oregon that we followed town for town, bar for bar. He is known as the king of busking in our circle and we were grateful for this ‘secret’ route. He taught us about little bars in tiny towns that would profit well for us. Every turn on Gill’s map was an exciting and fruitful venture.”
Busking is how Water Tower Bucket Boys got their start, playing traditional, old-time music and bluegrass on street corners up and down the west coast, before progressing to square dances and bluegrass festivals.
After several trips to Europe and back, and being introduced and influenced by many other bands, including Velvet Underground, cajun culture and music, Chuck Ragan/Hot Water Music (Ragan hand-picked the band to perform on a leg of last year’s Revival Tour), Mumford and Sons, Wilco, and even electronic music (even if it doesn’t reflect in their music), Water Tower Bucket Boys sought to expand their sound even further, incorporate more of their current listening tastes into the music, and the result is “Sole Kitchen.”
“Water Tower is about trying to defy definition,” says banjo/guitarist and co-vocalist Cory Goldman. “We’ve been shifting around stylistically as long as we’ve been a band and are continuing to evolve. Its about being true to our roots but also not being afraid to experiment and push forward.”
Meeting Mike Herrera through a friend, they eventually met up with him at a Tumbledown show, gave him a copy of some of their music, and a dialogue began. Soon the band found themselves in Bremerton, Washington, for a weekend, recording at Herrera’s studio what would become “Sole Kitchen.”
Tracking and mixing in a whirlwind two days, the band recorded the entire record one day (sans a few overdubs the next), setting up a few mics and doing what they do best: playing live.
“Our sound is loosely based in the traditions of old time, bluegrass, punk rock, blues, Cajun, and country,” explains Josh Rabie, the band’s third multi-instrumentalist and co-vocalist. “We pride ourselves on tight, three-part harmonies and powerful instrumentals. And, when we were recording with Mike, we really just wanted to capture all that energy on record. I think we accomplished it.”
Adds Goldman, “‘Sole Kitchen’ was really just our first step in a new direction, trying to redefine the nature of the band beyond just rocking out tunes and songs. I really feel like its our first album all over again in a way, our first one done in a professional studio and our first one where we are really putting all our skills out there. It’s about opening the door to the next new thing!”
One of the album’s high points is “Heaven,” one of the first tracks the band ever decided to have drums on, and the song that inspired them to decide to incorporate drums on future songs and recordings.
Other album highs include “Telegraph,” a song that chronicles a true night the band experienced in Berkeley, California after purchasing acid from a punk on the street while busking. “Blackbird Pickin’ At A Squirrel,” a song that showcases the band’s instrument versatility and musical style and “Goatheads,” a number about one of the members blacking out while on tour are two more album highs. As is “Numb,” a song that tackles the problem of addictive behavior.
“Our goals with ‘Sole Kitchen’ are to reach people who have never enjoyed the banjo, mandolin, or fiddle. To bring songs that are relevant in today’s social climate while maintaining their roots,” comments Feinstein.
Cory Goldman (banjo, guitar, vocals), Kenny Feinstein (guitar, mandolin, harmonica, fiddle, vocals), and Josh Rabie (fiddle, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, vocals) comprise Water Tower Bucket Boys.
Official website: http://www.watertowerbucketboys.com
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/watertowerbucketboys
