Memphis garage rocker Jay Reatard passed away in his sleep early Wednesday morning. Reatard, known to friends and family as Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., was the man behind such garage-pop classics as Blood Visions and this past year's Watch Me Fall. Currently, there is no report on the cause of death. He was 29 years old.
Music blog You Ain't No Picasso recently posted an archive of more than 50 covers the band My Morning Jacket has performed live. They run the gamut from people you'd think My Morning Jacket would cover (The Band, The Rolling Stones) to hair metal (Motley Crue, Poison) to funk (Parliament, James Brown) and beyond. You can check out the full list of covers, and download them all free of charge here
WKNC 88.1 FM will hold its annual Double Barrel Benefit Friday, Feb. 5 and Saturday, Feb. 6 at The Pour House Music Hall. The station’s seventh installment of the two-night concert will be feature Max Indian and Roman Candle.
Both headliners performed on the North Carolina State University campus in the fall. Max Indian played with Double Barrel Benefit alumni Schooner at the station’s October Fridays on the Lawn concert series and Roman Candle played the Pack Howl concert and pep rally during November.
Tickets are on sale now through wknc.org and the-pour-house.com. Prices are $7 in advance and $9 at the door for each night and all proceeds benefit WKNC. Two-night passes are also available at Schoolkids in Raleigh. The event is 18+, with an additional surcharge for patrons under 21. Doors for each show open at 8 p.m. with music at 9 p.m.
Our amazing poster was designed by Kirsten Southwell of Bad Apple Design.
Mark you calendars. WKNC's seventh annual Double Barrel Benefit will be going down at The Pour House in downtown Raleigh on Friday February 5 and Saturday February 6. Stay tuned to 88.1 FM and this here blog for details on the line-up -- which will be announced January 13 -- and where and when you can purchase tickets
When asked about the blog post, singer/guitarist John Booker said, "It was almost sort of a new year's resolution." The blog post would give them the encouragement to actively film the creation of their next album. After previously attempting to film themselves on the road, forgetfulness got the best of them, and when Booker noticed a friend of the bands filming them during a live show he reminded himself of the idea of filming the band during the creation of a record. Booker explained that aside from the blog post to remind the band of constantly filming, he currently has a sign on his wall above his computer with the words "Film It," and he plans to hang another sign like this in places where they will be working on their album.
The idea of filming the creation of their next album came out of a wide variety influences. "I felt if we kept writing songs like that [the band did in the past] it would sound the same." Also, he said the project is an effort to bring more recognition to the band through utilizing many of the social networks that have developed in the past couple of years. The plans incorporate posting one video at the end of the month on Youtube to give fans an idea of how the process is going. And one of the goals of the project is to film themselves for the entire year. Another goal for Booker was for the filming of the development of the next album to play out into a longer film.
When asked about how the constant filming could interrupt the creative process for the band, Booker responded, "I get worried about that in theory." He followed up saying, "I think we'll get use to it really fast." When asked about who was going to be doing the work behind filming Booker responded, "We're going to do a lot of the filming ourselves." The band has also gotten support from friends of theirs to help them out in this project, including everything from filming to editing the footage. They have also gotten the thumbs up from their record label, Greyday.
Although the band plans on filming a lot of the creative process for their next album, they don't plan on giving away all that is going to be on the next album. On their upcoming tour dates when they have new songs complete, Booker explained, that unlike previous live shows where people got to know the new songs before they were released on Horror Vacui, "We're going to try playing one new song and relying on songs in the past. I want the next cd to be fresh and new."
Although the next album is still in its early stages of development, the band has plans to be recording towards the end of the year, with the release of the album expected sometime within the first half of 2011.
After looking back to the top 10 local albums of 2009 we have a whole new year and decade ahead of us. Here is a quick blog of some local bands who are rumored to be coming out with an album in 2010:
Bellafea plans to begin the recording process in June after just signing to Tizona.
Billy Sugarfix will release his Sessions @ KNC album January 9.
On December 16, 2009 John Frusciante announced his departure from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
John Frusciante has been with the Red Hot Chili Peppers since 1990. After a widely reported addiction to heroin, Frusciante left in 1992 and was briefly replaced by Dave Navarro. Frusciante returned to the Peppers in 1998 and recorded "Californication," "By The Way" and "Stadium Arcadium" with the band.
Aside from the RHCP, Frusciante has released a number of solo albums (my favorite being To Record Only Waterfor Ten Days, 2001) and put out his most recent album, The Empyrean, in January 2009.
The following is a reprint of Frusciante's words taken from his MySpace blog:
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
"When I quit the band, over a year ago, we were on an indefinite hiatus. There was no drama or anger involved, and the other guys were very understanding. They are supportive of my doing whatever makes me happy and that goes both ways.
To put it simply, my musical interests have led me in a different direction. Upon rejoining, and throughout my time in the band, I was very excited about exploring the musical possibilities inherent in a rock band, and doing so with those people in particular. A couple of years ago, I began to feel that same excitement again, but this time it was about making a different kind of music, alone, and being my own engineer.
I really love the band and what we did. I understand and value that my work with them means a lot to many people, but I have to follow my interests. For me, art has never been something done out of a sense of duty. It is something I do because it is really fun, exciting, and interesting. Over the last 12 years, I have changed, as a person and artist, to such a degree that to do further work along the lines I did with the band would be to go against my own nature. There was no choice involved in this decision. I simply have to be what I am, and have to do what I must do.
