Video: G. Love ~ Subway Sessions...

Audio: Fleet Foxes ~ Helplessness Blues...

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues by subpop

Video: Spoon ~ Takeaway Show...

Spoon | Black Like Me | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Spoon | The ghost of you lingers / Got Nuffin | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

William Fitzsimmons to Play Ann Arbor's Ark...

William Fitzsimmons will be playing The Ark in Ann Arbor on April 27th, 2011. He will be touring to support his upcoming release, "Gold in the Shadow".

From William's Bio:
William Fitzsimmons is equal parts songwriter and psychotherapist, creating captivating music, which uniquely melds depravity, honesty, and autobiography into a counter-intuitive seamless whole. Since 2005, Fitzsimmons has created three full-length albums, each thoroughly themed and embossed with matters of family history, intimate disclosure, and bold confession, yielding rich folk music, ranging from the stark and acoustic to the voluminous and electronic. All the while reflecting William’s commitment to addressing what is always pressing, and yet all too often ignored.

Fitzsimmons' new release, Gold In The Shadow, is a musical reflection of the personal resuscitation and psychological renovation, which took place in the years following his divorce. Based on a specific set of psychopathological disorders from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV), he describes the songs as "a real and long coming confrontation with personal demons, past mistakes, and the specter of mental illness that has hovered over me for the great majority of my life." However, whereas nearly the whole of William's previous albums have dealt with the bleak and somber side of inter- and intrapersonal disaster, Gold is a work focused on healing. William continues: "I had reached the point where I was either going to yield to my sicknesses or engage them headlong. In either case, I could no longer continue the way I was."

Gold In The Shadow represents a welcomed musical departure, not from authenticity in writing, but in the field of focus. It is a return to his pre-music therapeutic passions, but with one eye now fixated on actual and optimistic change. It is ripe with personal elements, but also represents his first foray into external perspective taking; examining the lives and psychological struggles of those around him in addition to his own. It is an acknowledgment of the shadow self and the Todestrieb (Freud's "death instinct"); but, even still and more so, an acceptance of hope.

Sleigh Bells Tour Includes Detroit...

Sleigh Bells have just announced a new tour and they will be making a stop in Detroit at St. Andrews Hall on May 18th.

The Black Keys Austin City Limits (Full)...

Watch the full episode. See more Austin City Limits.

Video: Iron & Wine ~ Tiny Desk Concert...

Video: The Black Keys ~ Austin City Limits...

Watch the full episode. See more Austin City Limits.

Watch the full episode. See more Austin City Limits.

Pixies Doolittle Tour Includes Detroit...

From the Pixies:
We are excited to announce we are bringing our “Doolittle Tour” to 13 Canadian cities this Spring. The tour will kick off April 9 at the Metro Center in Halifax and work its way across to Western Canada, ending in Vancouver on May 3. This will be the Pixies’ most extensive tour of the provinces, and will see the band visiting several Canadian cities for the very first time. In addition, the tour will make stops at three U.S. cities.

Starting tomorrow, Friday, January 21 at 9:00AM EST, a limited number of tickets for the tour dates will be available through a special presale on www.pixiesmusic.com. In addition, all pre-sale purchases will include a “download taster” of live tracks from the “Doolittle” show. The public on-sale will kick off next Friday, January 28 - log onto www.pixiesmusic.com for all details.

Here is a list of the dates:

APRIL
9 Metro Centre, Halifax, NS
10 Centre – Casino Moncton, Moncton, NB
12 Salle Albert-Rousseau, Quebec City, QC
13 Metropolis, Montreal, QC
16 Civic Center, Ottawa, ON
17 The Center in the Square, Kitchener, ON
18 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON
20 Wentworth Room, Hamilton, ON
22 Fox Theatre, Detroit, MI
23 Eagles Ballroom, Milwaukee, WI
24 Roy Wilkins Auditorium, St. Paul, MN
27 Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, MB
29 TCU Place, Saskatoon, SK
30 Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Calgary, AB

MAY
1 Shaw Conference Center, Edmonton, AB
3 Orpheum Theatre, Vancouver, BC

Iron & Wine Set To Play Royal Oak (April 2011)...

Iron & Wine and The Low Anthem will perform at Royal Oak Music Theatre, in Royal Oak, Michigan on April 14th. Tickets are expected to go on sale this week . . . keep checking the Royal Oak Music Theatre website. The new album "Kiss Each Other Clean" will be available on January 25th.

Free Iron & Wine download from Daytrotter.

Video: Young The Giant ~ Strings (Open Session)...

David Gray Acoustic Tour in 2011...

David Gray and his band will be kicking off the 2011 "Lost and Found tour" in Boston, MA on February 21. The tour will center on tracks from his 2010 album Foundling, as well as reinterpretations of songs from his entire catalogue. Ticket presales and onsales begin this week. He will perform at the Detroit Opera House on February 26th.

MESSAGE FROM DAVID

David wants to share with you some of the ideas and visions behind this tour as well give you the chance to contribute your ideas to the setlist. Check it out!

The 'Lost and Found' Tour

The 'Lost and Found' tour embodies more than just an opportunity to play some of the quieter, more intimate songs not only from 'Foundling', but from across my catalogue, it also provides a long anticipated platform for a completely different approach. In terms of the way that the sound of the music is captured and presented, it will be more like a recording session than a gig in many ways. Acoustic instruments will be miced up for their real sound, rather than going for the usual pick-up sound, and as a result volume levels both for the band and the audience will have to be kept much lower than at your average 'rock' show. Hopefully the sonic results will be more than worth the sacrifice of a few decibels. Essentially the 'Lost and Found' show will be a listening experience.

Something else that will be different, will be the close proximity of all the musicians involved. I am imagining a very tight knit group on stage, which will involve cello, double bass, piano, guitar, melodica, drums and harmonium, and in which the musicians will be free to move from instrument to instrument during songs. A more reactive environment, in which subtle changes of mood, tempo and dynamics can be responded to instantly and instinctively by everyone involved.

Performing very quiet and delicate songs on a big stage, it often feels like you are battling against the distance between each other. My fantasy is for a situation onstage in which the bonds of musicianship are so tight and so close, that moving with the current of the music is like flying with a flock of birds, or swimming with a shoal of fish; where sudden and dramatic changes of direction are possible even though the signals that summon them are barely perceptible.

My idea for the set, is that it will centre around the songs from 'Foundling', but will also include reinterpretations of songs both large and small from across all my albums, with maybe a few surprises thrown in for good measure.

While on the subject of the setlist, the spirit of festive generosity is clearly still in the air. Bearing in mind that rehearsals haven't started yet, if there is any particular song of mine that you think has been languishing on the sidelines for too long and would dearly love to hear, then drop me a line at help@DavidGray.com quick sharp, and I'll see what I can do about getting a new version together.

See you all soon,

Dave

Tour Dates
2/21 Wang Center ~ Boston, MA
2/22 Strathmore North ~ Bethesda, MD
2/23 Beacon Theatre ~ New York, NY
2/25 Massey Hall ~ Toronto, ON
2/26 Detroit Opera House ~ Detroit, MI
2/27 The Chicago Theatre ~ Chicago, IL
2/28 State Theatre ~ Minneapolis, MN
3/03 McCaw Hall ~ Seattle, WA
3/04 The Centre in Vancouver for Perf. Arts ~ Vancouver, BC
3/07 Davies Symphony Hall ~ San Francisco, CA
3/08 Royce Hall at UCLA ~ Los Angeles, CA
3/09 Spreckels Theater ~ San Diego, CA

Video: Monsters Of Folk (Austin City Limits)...

Watch the full episode. See more Austin City Limits.