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On October 27, Matthew Ryan and Blurt present an exclusive stream of Dear Lover, available digitally on October 27th and in-stores on February 16, 2010 through CIMS/Junket Boy.

On Dear Lover, his twelfth recording, Matthew Ryan offers his most personal collection yet, navigating the intimate space between lovers where passion, doubt, fear and desire co-exist. This is the first release for The Dear Future Collective.



"Every now and then an artist you thought you knew and liked will suddenly, without any warning, release a disc that takes their art to a whole new level. Rarely has electronic and folk music been married so successfully. Dear Lover is Matthew Ryan's most daring, most remarkable, most compelling, and most emotionally wrenching album yet." - Joe Hill, author "Heart Shaped Box" and "Twentieth Century Ghosts"

"Dear Lover: listen to this. Then you'll know." - Kevin Roberts Saatchi & Saatchi World Wide CEO

Blurt is a quarterly magazine and multimedia website covering music, comedy, politics, culture and assorted debauchery. Blurt is brought to you by the creative team behind the lauded HARP Magazine (called "America's best music magazine" by NPR's Bob Boilen and "the best music magazine in the country and the one that musicians always read" by Foo Fighter Dave Grohl).

Labels: matthew ryan

Art vs Science isn't here to get a haircut. They're here to melt your mind!

They're also here to remind us that creating dance music is not just about bass-blowing electro-rock anthems (of which they have many); rather it's about taking those songs and in a live forum setting everyone's fire-retardant dancing kicks ablaze. If you walk away from an Art vs Science live show without an altered gait and/ or state-of-mind, you were clearly not paying attention.

Art vs Science's self-titled EP will core-drill itself into you mind and possess it with its hooky take on rock-infused, French electronica. In their native country of Australia, the EP has already garnered them a 2009 ARIA Award (think Grammy) nomination in the Breakthrough Artist category. The first of the EP's singles to be offered up as a FREE MP3 download is the criminally infectious, Parlez-Vous Francais?

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Something about needing more energy has me turning to the rock infused electric dance music. It gets my feet tapping and the adrenaline pumping. It's necessary when the little heart is running and trying to hum me into sleep at my desk.

Their music inspires intriguingly equal measures of curiosity and giddiness. Somebody give me a sparkler, I fancy myself a firefly at the moment! Thank you Art vs Science!

Listen:

Art Vs Science - "Parlez-Vous Francais?" (mp3)

Enjoy!

Labels: art vs science

Finn Riggin's stellar new album, Vs. Wilderness, released yesterday. To celebrate, please watch this amazing video for "Wake" which was made by Jason Sievers. His lovely stop motion animation videos and have been featured on Pitchfork.com and MTV and he's worked for bands like Built to Spill, The Universal and The Wrens to name a few.

The album was recorded, engineered and co-produced in May of 2009 by the band at AudioLab studio, an arm of Garden City, Idaho's Visual Arts Collective (or VAC, a non-profit gallery, venue, theatre and creative space with which Finn Riggins has become heavily involved in since relocating to Boise, ID in January of 2009) during one of their rare stints at home. True to form, the album was brought to fruition in this independently run, community-minded environment with the help of co-producer and Tender Loving Empire founder Jared Mees (who, by the way, has also toured on his own albums alongside the band.)

Listen:

Finn Riggins - "Dali" (mp3)

Enjoy!

Labels: finn riggins

I Like Trains begin the UK tour today in Liverpool in support of the new single 'Sea of Regrets' which was released on Monday.

Exciting news is that Sea of Regrets was used on CSI Miami on release day (12th October). The song was used in episode 804. The new season of CSI Miami will be coming to UK soon. In other sync news, 'The Voice of Reason' taken from the debut album (Elegies to Lessons Learnt) is currently being featured on the trailer to Hollywood film, 'Amelia' starring Richard Gere and Hilary Swank (as Amelia Earhart).

"Sea of Regrets" is such an incredible song. It's like a personal story set to music, well, I suppose most songs are that way. But the vocals are just delicious and the calm, pristine rhythm couple with the slow and precise guitar is just perfection. I wish I could share it, but it's not released for free download that I know of. You can hear the single on their MySpace page.

"Some things are better left forgotten, or the weight of the world will crush your bones"

The limited edition self produced/released single ‘Sea of Regrets’ is a new beginning for I Like Trains. Whilst still informed by a bleak world view, musical rays of light are starting to puncture the gloom. Inspired by the writing of preeminent environmental scientists James Lovelock and George Monbiot; ‘Sea of Regrets’ raises the question of our importance in nature’s great scheme. Guitars, vocals, violins and cellos combine for a soaring finale, an anthem to a hopeless future for humanity.

Dates are:

14th October - Liverpool Barfly GB
15th October - Manchester Deaf Institute GB
16th October - Leeds Cockpit GB
17th October - Glasgow King Tuts GB
19th October - Nottingham Rescue Rooms GB
20th October - Bristol Cooler GB
21st October - Oxford Bullingdon Arms GB
22nd October - London Garage GB
23rd October - Birmingham Hare and Hounds GB
24th October - Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms GB

Enjoy!

Labels: i like trains

On November 17th, Blue Note Records will release singer/songwriter Norah Jones' fourth studio album, The Fall. Taking her multiple Grammy Award winning talent into new territory, The Fall was produced by Jacquire King (Tom Waits, Modest Mouse, Kings of Leon) and features Norah's new band members and songwriting collaborations with Ryan Adams, Okkervil River's Will Sheff, and Jesse Harris. In addition to the added emphasis on rhythm, The Fall brings Norah’s own guitar playing front and center in the sound.

"I knew I wanted to try some different things on this album," Jones says. "I'd been playing with the same musicians for a long time. We're all still friendly and I hope we play together again, but it felt like a good time to work with new people and experiment with different sounds. As far as a producer, I wanted someone who could take me out of my comfort zone and find the right musicians to capture what I wanted to do with this collection of songs. I got in touch with Jacquire initially because he engineered one of my favorite records of all time, Tom Waits' Mule Variations. He was really eager to do it and we got along really well, which was important."

Pre-order The Fall

The track listing for The Fall is as follows:

1. Chasing Pirates (Norah Jones)
2. Even Though (Norah Jones/Jesse Harris)
3. Light As a Feather (Norah Jones/Ryan Adams)
4. Young Blood (Norah Jones/Mike Martin)
5. I Wouldn't Need You (Norah Jones)
6. Waiting (Norah Jones)
7. It's Gonna Be (Norah Jones)
8. You've Ruined Me (Norah Jones)
9. Back To Manhattan (Norah Jones)
10. Stuck (Norah Jones/Will Sheff)
11. December (Norah Jones)
12. Tell Yer Mama (Norah Jones/Jesse Harris/Richard Julian)
13. Man Of The Hour (Norah Jones)

Labels: norah jones

Au Revoir Simone release their stunning new single 'Another Likely Story' - complete with remixes from hotter than hot French duo Aeroplane, Neon Indian and Social Disco on December 7th. This is the second single to be taken from their latest album 'Still Night, Still Light', and is due for release through Moshi Moshi Records (Florence & The Machine, Casiokids, Lykke Li).

Listen:

Au Revoir Simone - "Another Likely Story" (mp3 Neon Indian remix)

Labels: Au Revoir Simone

Having spent the last four months traveling the world, winning over legions of fans with her unmistakable song-craft, Regina Spektor is very excited to make her Saturday Night Live debut this Saturday, October 10th and premiere her second single, Eet, from her critically acclaimed album, far. An artist known for her uninhibited imagination and acute sense of detail both in music and words, Spektor has joined playwright / director Tina Landau (Floyd Collins & Superior Donuts) and lyricist Michael Korie (Grey Gardens) to create a new Broadway bound musical called Beauty. In addition, Spektor has recorded a duet with Grammy award-winning violinist Joshua Bell for his latest Sony Classical album, At Home With Friends, which you can hear below. Fans will get a chance to see Spektor perform songs from far as she's currently on a headlining tour of the states. This two-month tour has already included sold out shows in Boston, Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia, and has upcoming dates at New York's Radio City Music Hall on October 14th and Los Angeles' Greek Theatre on October 28th.

An expansion of Landau's 2002 acclaimed one-act play, Beauty uses the 1812 Grimm fairy tale Sleeping Beauty as a jumping off point for a contemporary and hauntingly provocative story of beauty lost and beauty found. Aimed for the 2011-12 Broadway season, Landau will write the book and direct; Spektor the music, Korie the lyrics and it will be produced by Elephant Eye Theatrical (Stuart Oken, Michael Leavitt, Five Cent Productions). This will mark the first time Spektor has co-written a song with another. Korie was nominated for the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards as lyricist for Grey Gardens.

far, which debuted at #3 on the Billboard Top 200, is the follow up to Spektor's breakthrough album Begin To Hope which spent 5 weeks in a row at #1 on the Billboard new artists chart before moving to #20 on the Billboard Top 100 and selling 1 million copies worldwide (Gold or Platinum in 7 countries).

Regina Spektor & Joshua Bell duet, The Left Hand Song, can be heard here >>

Labels: regina spektor