Piney Gir "Every Day's a Holiday" music video

From 'Festivus' (Highline Records):

ENCHANTING SUSAN MCKEOWN PERFORMANCE & INTERVIEW SEGMENT TO AIR ON WFUV DEC. 30, PREVIEWING JAN. 5 92Y TRIBECA CONCERT

"A REALLY FINE ALBUM" – JOHN PLATT

Susan McKeown and her band recorded a session and interview with WFUV's John Platt to air December 30 on Sunday Breakfast, which airs from 8am to 11am. She played enchanting renditions of "On the Bridge To Williamsburg," "The Cure For Me," "Everything We Had Was Good" (as a duet featuring NYC singer-songwriter Warren Malone), and "No Jericho" from her new album 'Belong' (Hibernian Music). The segment will preview her January 5 show at 92Y Tribeca. Platt called 'Belong' "a really fine album."

PRI Bob Edwards Show interview w/ Susan McKeown

 This interview aired on SIRIUS XM November 19 and on PRI the weekend of December 1-2.

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN PLANS 30TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT JAN. 19 AT NYC'S STAGE 48 IN DOUBLE BILL WITH CRACKER

FIRST STUDIO ALBUM IN NINE YEARS, 'LA COSTA PERDIDA' OUT JAN 22 ON 429 RECORDS

THREE NPR TAPINGS FOR CVB IN JANUARY

Camper Van Beethoven -- one of the bands that founded the indie rock genre – will celebrate its 30^th anniversary and new album 'La Costa Perdida' (January 22 / 429 Records) its first in nine years, with a concert January 19 at Stage 48. The anniversary and new release has captured the attention of Brooklyn Vegan, among others.

On the tour, the band will also tape sessions with NPR's World Café and NPR's Mountain Stage and an interview with NPR Here & Now in January.

WHO: Camper Van Beethoven

WHAT: 30^th anniversary concert and celebration of 'La Costa Perdida'

WHEN: 8pm, Saturday, January 19

WHERE: 605 W. 48th St., NYC

TICKETS: $20 in advance or $25 day of show via Stage 48 box office

The band's peers are also toasting Camper Van Beethoven's 30^th anniversary. Built To Spill's Doug Martsch said, "Each member of Camper is a thoughtful songwriter, and a master of his instrument, with a totally unique vision, and together they have a balanced, egoless, and dynamic chemistry that's created many of my favorite songs."

Bob Nastanovich of Pavement said, "Camper Van Beethoven, very much an essential '80s band traveling on their own arc, punctuated the beginning of my college career. They served it up with panache. 'Sometimes,' 'I Don't See You,' 'Ambiguity Song,' 'Circles,' 'Dustpan,' 'The History of Utah,' 'Still Wishing to Course'--all songs that ended up on assorted song cassette tapes in vain attempts to increase overall coolness. They made California cool to a Virginian. It was some good, reliable shit. As they wandered east, they backed it up with great live action. They were good musicians. That was weird. They were sarcastic. That was appealing."

JOHN MURRY'S 'THE GRACELESS AGE' ONE OF 2012'S BEST-REVIEWED ALBUMS IN THE UK, OUT APRIL 2 IN THE U.S. ON EVANGLINE RECORDING CO.

ONE OF EIGHT FINALISTS FOR UNCUT MUSIC AWARD ALONGSIDE FATHER JOHN MISTY, BOB DYLAN, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

British press has unequivocally raved about John Murry's 'The Graceless Age,' which made UNCUT's final eight list for 2012 UNCUT Music Award album of the year alongside names like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Father John Misty. In fact, UNCUT's Allan Jones ranked it second only to Dylan in his personal list of the top twenty albums of the year. A full interview with Uncut can be read here: http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/uncut-editors-diary/interview-john-murry

Murry's debut album, coproduced by Tim Mooney of Sun Kil Moon, will see US release April 2 on Evangeline Recording Co. Here's what's being said across the pond:

"A dark, festering masterpiece....guitars crackle throughout like static, dissonant transmissions from the rim of things, sonic squall and ruptures.  The effect is often always symphonic..."
9/10 'Album Of Month' UNCUT

"Like Father John Misty, Mark Lanegan and Josh T Pearson rolled into one really broken dream..."
4**** Q Magazine

"Occasionally an album comes out of nowhere that completely blows your mind. Like this one...
5***** THE SUN

"This dark, brooding second album delivers some gently mesmerising meditations...."
THE MIRROR

"As brown as the Mississippi and as fraught with undercurrents..."
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

"A genuine American masterpiece...."
R2 MAGAZINE

"This is an album that fearlessly exposes his dark past through songs that are powerful and healing. A remarkable album..."
ELECTRIC GHOST

""A dark cousin to Brian Wilsons' California dreaming perhaps, with the dense and elaborate Southern Sky a contender for song of the year as it pounds and insinuates its way into the listener's brain."
BLABBER & SMOKE

""Astonishingly complex sounds woven together here that will take a long time to reveal all the secrets of their making."
FLYING SHOES

"A true classic in every way and one that is destined to be heard through the ages. Album of the year, without a doubt."
ECHOES & DUST

John Murry photos

Click for high res versions, please.

Credit for above: Amoreena Berg

Tim Mooney pictured in mirror.
Credit: Jude Mooney

 above by Dara Munnis

 above by Dara Munnis

above by Dara Munnis

AFTER FIRESTORM OF U.K. RAVES AND UNCUT MUSIC AWARD NOMINATION, U.S. RELEASE CONFIRMED MARCH 5 FOR JOHN MURRY'S 'THE GRACELESS AGE' ON EVANGELINE RECORDING CO.

LAST ALBUM PRODUCED BY TIM MOONEY (SUN KIL MOON, AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB)

"LIKE FATHER JOHN MISTY, MARK LANEGAN, AND JOSH T PEARSON ROLLED INTO ONE REALLY BROKEN DREAM." – Q MAGAZINE

After a firestorm of U.K. raves, John Murry's 'The Graceless Age' has been confirmed for April 2 on Evangeline Recording Co. It's the last album co-produced by Tim Mooney of American Music Club and Sun Kil Moon before his death June 13, in collaboration with Murry.

Check out the embeddable "California" music video, dedicated to Mooney.

'The Graceless age' is one of eight albums nominated for an UNCUT Music Award and praise has been effusive on the other side of the pond, where Murry is launching a winter tour shortly. MOJO is planning a feature. The Sun gave it 5 stars out of 5, saying, "Occasionally, an album comes out of nowhere that completely blows your mind. Like this one… A genuine tour de force." In another 5 star (out of 5) review, R2 called it "a genuine American masterpiece." In a 9 star (out of 10) review, UNCUT  described the "deeply textured… ruined grandeur," continuing, "This is what 'The Graceless Age' as a whole does so unforgettably, beating honest witness to a burning world."

The album brings together organic and synthetic elements to create its own despairing, lush soundscape from female vocals cradling the ashes of John's cigarette-stained drawl to loops of electric guitar feedback over his howl; from an answering machine message to insistent, creeping synthesizer; from CB radio samples to a violin; and from an alarm's swells to a warm acoustic guitar. Moments on 'The Graceless Age' can be compared to eels, Sparklehorse, and Beck's 'Sea Change' but these stories burn true in Murry's own writing and singing.

Now based in Oakland, CA, John Murry has lived many lives. He grew up in Elvis' hometown of Tupelo, MS and there's a photo of Elvis in concert that shows his mother reaching out to touch his hand. He was a junkie after he left Memphis to go to that den of iniquity, California. He wrote for the Village Voice for a time. He is William Faulkner's second cousin and friends have described him as lost in the worlds of southern literature. He has seen death in an alley and managed to stumble back from it. These identities come together in 'The Graceless Age.'

AMERICANA'S "STAR ON THE RISE" (BOSTON HERALD) AMY BLACK TO RECORD LIVE ALBUM WITH FULL BAND AT JOHNNY D'S JANUARY 4

SINGER-SONGWRITER TO APPEAR ON WUMB EARLIER THAT DAY

FAN PHOTO FROM THE SHOW WILL BE INCLUDED IN ALBUM ARTWORK

WITH SPECIAL GUEST ON VOCALS, WARD HAYDEN FROM BOSTON MUSIC AWARD-WINNING BAND GIRLS GUNS & GLORY

Fresh from a national tour and performing at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville, TN, singer-songwriter Amy Black will be recording a live album at Johnny D's, around the corner from her Davis Square apartment, on January 4 with her band. The Boston Globe has called her music "deeply felt," continuing, "From steely murder ballads to tender love songs that evoke bedrock country tropes, the record is Americana in its broadest definition. It's rooted in folk and country but with tinges of Southern soul and blues."

Ward Hayden from the Boston Music Award-winning band Girls Guns & Glory will sit in on the set. The band is made up of top shelf Boston-area musicians: Jim Scoppa (Duke Robillard), electric guitar, Russell Chudnofsky (Lori McKenna, Sara Borges), rhythm guitar; Lorne Entress (producer of Black's stellar album 'One Time' and drummer for Ronnie Earl), drums; John Styklunas, bass. Tom Dube of Front Of House Sound, who has worked with Rosanne Cash, Jackson Browne, Richard Thompson, and Kathleen Edwards, will engineer the live album.

The audience will have the opportunity to advance purchase the album (both CD and a download before it's even released) for $5. A group photo of all who come out will be included in the artwork for the album. Black plans to release it in the spring and mount a tour behind it.

Black will also appear live on WUMB 91.9FM at noon on January 4.

Correatown - "Christmastime is Here" music video

From 'Festivus' on Highline Records:

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN IN SURREPTITIOUS ROLE IN NEW JUDD APATOW FILM "THIS IS 40": ON PAUL RUDD'S CHEST

STAR WEARS HIS OWN VINTAGE CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN T-SHIRT

Amid news that Camper Van Beethoven is on the verge of the release of 'La Costa Perdida,' (January 22 / 429 Records) its first new album in nine years, comes attention from an A-list movie star. Paul Rudd recently told Rolling Stone that he wears a vintage Camper Van Beethoven shirt from his own collection in the new Judd Apatow film "This Is 40."

Here's a photo of Rudd wearing the shirt.

Rudd also wears vintage Bob Mould and Pavement shirts in the film.

CVB will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary in 2013.

NPR PROFILES PINEY GIR "FROM THE MUPPETS TO 'GERONIMO!'" AS SHE EARNS RAVES, COMPARISONS TO THE VIVIAN GIRLS, THE SHANGRI-LAS, THE TROGGS, AND BEST COAST

NEW EMBEDDABLE MUSIC VIDEO FOR "OUTTA SIGHT" POSTED

NPR Weekend Edition recently profiled indie pop starlet Piney Gir. She talks about keeping the songs short and sweet in "perfectly formed bursts of pop music" (her words), recording live as a band in one room,  growing up in a fundamentalist Pentecostal household with "happy clappy Jesus music" (also her words), how the muppets introduced her to pop music, recording with Tom Benelick who played on 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,' her part Native American ancestry, and recording in Los Angeles with producer Rob Campanella of the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Scott Simon says, "Her sound has been compared to Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline, but on her latest album, Geronimo, Gir sometimes seems to be conjuring up '60s pop from girl groups to The Troggs."

Here's a brand-new video of the song "Outta Sight," featuring sock puppets playing a dating gameshow.

More recent praise for 'Geronimo!,' out now on Highline Records:

"Sun-faded retro pop [and] all out go go boots… if Piney Gir's buzzing electric guitars and relentlessly charming vocals were enough to brighten up the UK, we gotta think they'll be enough to make us Americans cheery." – Baeble Music

"Unabashedly catchy." - Hitfix

"Pop gems." – Philadelphia Inquirer

"Piney Gir performs a brand of upbeat indie-pop sure to delight fans of the Vivian Girls and Best Coast." – Pop Matters

"A bit Shangri-Las, a bit Vivian Girls, and a bit Jenny Lewis." – Blurt Magazine

John Murry 'The Graceless Age' bio

The way to beat fundamentalism is to find yourself interred at a fundamentalist drug rehabilitation facility for eighteen months as a teenager. “I was only on pills for half as long,” says John Murry about the pharmaceutical speed he was given as a “slow” student at his Mississippi high school. “They gave me the pills and then they locked me up when I took them. I trafficked in righteous indignation when they let me out, but god damn it, it turned out they were right.” Years later, dead from heroin, San Francisco’s first responders showed him how Lazarus felt. A few times. Not born again, but not dead either.

The way to Catholicism if you’re John Murry is through Graham Greene and Walker Percy. Literature goes a long way for some people – the people who read it without prejudice and don’t parade their reading list around in place of personal substance. It’s in John Murry’s blood. He’s William Faulkner’s grandson. Or nephew. “I got all the way to being his son, once.” It depends whom you ask or who’s doing the talking. But John Murry can tell you which of his cousins or uncles came to find himself transmogrified into fictional characters in Faulkner’s novels. There’s no separation of fiction and reality in John Murry’s lineage. It’s all reality, just like Graham Greene’s Monsignor Quixote. When asked what he liked to read, Faulkner always answered, “I read Don Quixote and The Bible every year.” The quote is different if you read it in the biographies. But that’s how it’s told in the Murry family and that’s how John Murry remembers it and John Murry doesn’t ever forget anything.

Tupelo, Mississippi is John Murry’s hometown. He immigrated to Oakland, California seven years ago for the Mexican Coca-Cola. “If you eat the rust off the bottleneck, it keeps you healthy. I learned that in England.” England because that’s where he goes to perform the death ballads he writes and records with Bob Frank. Rolling Stone’s Senior Editor David Fricke wrote of their World Without End “all bullets, blades and guilt without end…. With his low, hanging-judge drawl, Murry sounds as severe and modern as Leonard Cohen.... production here [Tim Mooney and John Murry] is as antique as a sepia print — but also as immediate as the anguish made elsewhere by the two.” Allan Jones of UNCUT Magazine called it a “dazzling collection of blasted country folk and grimly haunting murder ballads, shot through with harrowing images of death, damnation and eternal suffering...” People like to talk about what Jim Dickinson said. About John Murry’s records with Bob Frank, Jim Dickinson said, “The lost cry out in song. Cold as an assassin's blade. Burning with the heat of a pistol's breath. Dark and deep as the grave. This recording is timeless as death. It will haunt your dreams and follow you down the shadow-filled street just out of sight."

John Murry began recording The Graceless Age (produced by Murry, Tim Mooney, and Kevin Cubbins) four years ago in San Francisco. From there, he brought the tapes to Memphis and back again, adding layers of sound as thick as, what? San Francisco fog? Mississippi mud? No. That’s fucking ridiculous. As John Murry says, “No matter how many fuzz pedals I use, no matter how many synths, they’re always going to say ‘Mississippi’ and ‘southern rock.’” Of course territory figures into the songs of The Graceless Age, but good luck pigeonholing.

It’s a big sound at times – backup singers, panoramic guitar noise, sweet piano melodies, an orchestra of strings, bells, horns… – but no matter how ethereal or expansive, at the heart of each song is something simple maybe written on an acoustic guitar or upright piano about loss and solitude and bad fucking-up, not always with a guilty conscience. Listen to “California” with its mechanical loops over a constant, hypnotic guitar line. It’s pretty. It’s also easy to imagine riding alone over the Bay Bridge from San Francisco to Oakland, generally disgusted with the scenery, as though it’s the scenery’s fault. Listen to “Little Colored Balloons” – sparse with piano, cello, mournful backup singing, and John Murry’s hoarse voice protesting too much. Drugs, bad choices, melody and countermelody.

John Murry knows what it sounds like to be Elvis, alone in Memphis, bloated with pills and mistakes, about to hit the floor. There’s a gospel choir and backwards guitar.

--Creston Lea, Author of "Wild Punch"
Burlington, Vermont, October 2010

John Murry - "California" music video

MEMBERS OF R.E.M, PAVEMENT, BUILT TO SPILL, THE DECEMBERISTS, DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, AND OTHERS LAVISH PRAISE FOR CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY

CVB COVERED BY DIVINE FITS

As Camper Van Beethoven plans to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2013, many of the band's peers and members of R.E.M., Pavement, Built To Spill, Drive-By Truckers, Meat Puppets, Widespread Panic, Minus 5, The Nerves, and Elf Power spoke about CVB's influence, its pioneering role in creating the genre of indie rock, and their love for the band.

In addition, Britt Daniel's Divine Fits have recently covered CVB's "I Was Born In a Laundromat" both in concert and as a b-side to a recent single.

"The first time we heard CVB, we knew they were destined for greatness."
- R.E.M.

"Each member of Camper is a thoughtful songwriter, and a master of his instrument, with a totally unique vision, and together they have a balanced, egoless, and dynamic chemistry that's created many of my favorite songs."
- Doug Martsch (Built To Spill)

"Camper Van Beethoven, very much an essential '80s band traveling on their own arc, punctuated the beginning of my college career. They served it up with panache. 'Sometimes,' 'I Don't See You,' 'Ambiguity Song,' 'Circles,' 'Dustpan,' 'The History of Utah,' 'Still Wishing to Course'--all songs that ended up on assorted song cassette tapes in vain attempts to increase overall coolness. They made California cool to a Virginian. It was some good, reliable shit. As they wandered east, they backed it up with great live action. They were good musicians. That was weird. They were sarcastic. That was appealing."
- Bob Nastanovich (Pavement)

"I've kind of come back to a lot of the more American music that got me going in the first place – R.E.M. and Camper Van Beethoven and all these bands that borrowed from more American traditions like Neil Young and the Byrds."
- Colin Meloy (The Decemberists)

"I've been a Camper Van Beethoven fan since the mid 80's. 'Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart' is actually one of my very favorite albums of that era and one that I still pull out now. I'm thrilled to hear that they are finally making a new album (la costa perdida) and I can't wait to crank it up. I know this one will be a keeper"
- Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers)

"Camper Van Beethoven caught my ear. It was psychedelic on one hand, innovative folk-spirited on the other. 'I Saw Jerry's Daughter' is the sort of song that makes you smile a knowing smile. Their clever and innovative mix of instrumentation and style made them a breath of fresh air in the down and dirty punk scene that we were growing up in."
- Curt Kirkwood, Meat Puppets

"Part of the soundtrack of my life. A uniquely American band with wonderful songs. I'm always happy when they put out a new album."
- Dave Schools, Widespread Panic

"I was already a fan of CVB when they came to Seattle and played the Fabulous Rainbow Tavern. The show was amazing. I remember besides all the great songs from their first album, that they played the 'Theme From S.W.A.T.' too, with Jonathan playing the melody on a tiny Casio. Their songwriting and production skills started at great, and got even better with 'Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart' and 'Key Lime Pie.' When I saw them in Portland a few years ago the spark was still there -- a fantastic show."
- Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, Minus 5, R.E.M., Baseball Project, etc.)

"The only band i know that can mix elements as diverse as folk, punk, gypsy music, ska, and psychedelic rock together into a wonderful stew, and make it sound completely natural."
- Andrew Rieger (Elf Power)

"Camper Van Beethoven are giants. I've been in love with the band since I first heard them. Like Tom Waits only different, they put an original spin on every kind of rebel music there is. All their records are great. Dig it."
- Peter David Case (The Plimsouls, The Nerves)

Skiffle and The Piffles - "Just Because It's Christmas" music video

From 'Festivus' on Highline Records:

'FESTIVUS': AN INDIE POP CHRISTMAS FEATURING EDDIE ARGOS (OF ART BRUT), PINEY GIR, CORREATOWN, AND MORE, OUT NOW ON HIGHLINE RECORDS

Highline Records is presenting its first Christmas album 'Festivus,' a newly recorded, 15-track indie pop collection featuring Glam Chops (with Eddie Argos, also of Art Brut), Piney Gir (who was recently featured on NPR's Weekend Edition), Correatown (one of SPIN's "next big things"), the "beautiful" (Time Out) Real Tuesday Weld, and others.

The compilation skips between new wave (The Birthday Kiss, Piney Gir), Phil Spector-inspired pop (Hunks and Friends), synth-pop (Baubles), glam rock (Glam Chops), garage (The Werewandas), and 80s-inspired pop (St. Veit). Handclaps, harmonies, bells, and synths abound to warm up listeners during the holiday season.

'Festivus' Track List

1.      Christmas Time is Here - Correatown
2.      Just Because It's Christmas - Skiffle and the Piffles
3.      Every Day's a Holiday - Piney Gir
4.      Countdown to Christmas - Glam Chops
5.      The New Going Out - The Baubles
6.      Dearest Santa - Alphabet Backwards
7.      Song of December - The Real Tuesday Weld
8.      Everywhere at Once - Monnone Alone
9.      St. Veit - Still Flyin'
10.     Sentimental Christmastime - The Birthday Kiss
11.     Santa Claus is Not a Number - The Little Kicks
12.     Christmas Day (Time to Let You Go) - Russell (El Disastre)
13.     I Love You Santa Claus - The Werewandas
14.     The Magic of Christmas - Hunks & Friends
15.     Present and Correct - Alexander's Festival Hall

THE REASON WHY GRAMMY-WINNER SUSAN MCKEOWN IS A SINGER TODAY: HER PROFESSIONAL MUSICIAN MOM

Chief among the reasons why GRAMMY-winner Susan McKeown is a singer is her mother Jeannie McKeown Ryan, a profession musician in Dublin, Ireland.

"She would come home, get dinner ready, serve it on a circular table – there were seven of us! – then would stand up and unzip her house coat. She'd be wearing something wonderful underneath, and after putting on makeup and perfume would go to this magical other world, to perform. It was all very glamorous."

Jeannie was a Hammond organ demonstrator for a big music store, conductor of church choir, and an organist accompanying theatrical and variety shows in one of the city's main theatres. She received the Benemerenti medal from the Pope (the highest honor a woman can receive from the church) for long service, with over thirty years as organist and choir mistress. Susan's grandparents met in the Dublin church choir for which her mother became choir mistress at the age of 14. Susan's father ran a candy factory. "He played the Willy Wonka role," she jokes.

Susan was the youngest of five and showed the most interest in music.  "I remember singing before I ever learned to talk," she says. "Later, mam and I would sing in harmony with the songs on the radio." When Susan was old enough to join the choir, Jeannie gave her several solos, key moments in her musical development. She also recalls her mother's influence on her business sense, saying, "She was confident in herself as a woman and of her value as an artist."

Jeannie would use her maiden name of McKeown when performing and Susan took that last name when she emigrated to the United States, eventually having it changed legally. "I found a book at the Strand Bookstore a week after I arrived entitled Naming Ourselves, Naming Our Children and in reading it gave myself permission to take my mother's last name, and in so doing pass on the tradition through the women's line."

"I am so proud of her, privileged to have had her as my mother," says Susan, who made a 1999 album with Cathie Ryan and Robin Spielberg called 'Mothers: Celebrating Mothers & Motherhood,' featuring several songs that remember Jeannie.

Susan is passing on the tradition as well, giving her daughter her mother's last name, taking her on tour and fostering her growth as a performer. "She has traveled with me all over Europe and much of the U.S. She's forging her own way. She's already written her first album of songs at ten years old and they've very catchy."

CORB LUND CONFIRMS DECEMBER TOUR DATES, SOME WITH HAYES CARLL

WNYC SOUNDCHECK TAPES SEGMENT AS CMT.COM POSTS Q&A WITH CARLL AND LUND

'CABIN FEVER' ROCKETS TO #4 ON AMERICANA RADIO CHARTS

Fresh from taping WNYC Soundcheck on New York City's NPR affiliate, which will air in late November or early December, Corb Lund has announced tours runs of the west and the south in December. The latter dates are a co-headlining bill with Hayes Carll, with whom he duets on "Bible on the Dash." The two are also the subject of a Q&A on CMT Edge.

Meanwhile, 'Cabin Fever' has climbed the Americana radio charts, hitting a new peak of #4 this month.

Hayes Carll said, "Corb's actually lived the shit we all want to sing about, and writes the stories we all wish we'd lived."

CORB LUND DECEMBER TOUR DATES

Dec 14 – Sam Bonds Garage – Eugene, OR
Dec 15 – The Treehouse – Bainbridge, WA
Dec 16 – Hawthorne Theatre – Portland, OR
Dec 18 – Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA
Dec 27 – Revolution Music Room – Little Rock, AR (w/ Hayes Carll)
Dec 28 – House of Blues – Houston, TX (w/ Hayes Carll)
Dec 29 – Antone’s – Austin, TX (w/ Hayes Carll)
Dec 30 – Antone’s – Austin, TX (w/ Hayes Carll)
Dec 31 – House of Blues – Dallas, TX (w/ Hayes Carll)

'Festivus' cover art

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN MARKS THE BAND'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY WITH 10TH ALBUM 'LA COSTA PERDIDA' (429 RECORDS / JAN. 22)

BILLBOARD.COM TALKS BEACH BOYS & BIG SUR WITH THE BAND

CVB ENLISTS FUTUREBIRDS FOR HARMONIES ON NEW TRACK "NORTHERN CALIFORNIA GIRLS": (POSTABLE LYRICVIDEO)

Next year, Camper Van Beethoven will be celebrating both 30^th anniversary of their 1983 first concert and the release of their tenth album 'La Costa Perdida' (429 Records / January 22). The influential band and founders of the indie rock genre enlisted "spectacular" (HearYa) band Futurebirds to add harmony vocals on the first single "Northern California Girls." Here is a postable lyric video.

Meanwhile, Billboard.com ran a feature on CVB, for which David Lowery told the story of how the band began to write 'La Costa Perdida' together after it had to postpone a Big Sur show by a week due to weather. He also talks about the influence of the Beach Boys on 'La Costa Perdida.'

CVB's David Lowery says, "I love Futurebirds. They are from Athens, where we were mixing the record. Some of them were in studio next door working on an album."

Thomas Johnson of Futurebirds said, "We were honored to have a part on an album by a band as historic and influential as Camper. We'll never forget it. David is one of those special musicians who is just as good at engineering and producing as he is at songwriting, and it was really cool to get to conspire with someone that talented and accomplished."

HIGHLINE RECORDS proudly presents FESTIVUS Released November 16th

Christmas time may well be imminent, and the goose might verily be getting on the girthy side, but something has been missing from our hallowed winter festival the past few years: the worth-its-weight-in-solid-gold-vinyl Christmas Record.

London's fastest-rising indie label Highline Records is here to fill this festive chasm, with a whole compilation jam-packed with bona fide original Christmas classics-in-waiting, featuring a host of luminaries including Piney Gir, Art Brut's Eddie Argos, and The Real Tuesday Weld.

Says label head Heather Willensky, "I've been obsessed by Phil Spector's Christmas album since I was a youngster and thought it would be great to bring everyone in our Highline circle together to create something festive."

Kicking off with LA-based chanteuse Correatown's gentle, woozily joyous 'Christmas Time Is Here,' the album segues into an accordion-laced romp courtesy of the fantastically-monikered Skipple and the Pipples before settling on the ever-brilliant Piney Gir's 'Every Day's A Holiday', containing surely the finest Christmas riff since Slade gave Crimbo a firm glam boot up the derriere way back when.

Speaking of glam, Art Brut's rakish lynchpin Eddie Argos also makes an appearance on Festivus, as part of the stomping Glam Chops, whose mischievous offering conjures up images of a half-naked Santa dancing on his Lapland HQ desk, clutching a bottle of Harvey's Bristol Cream and singing raucously to The Sweet.

Jangling sleigh bells herald The Real Tuesday Weld's languid, jazzy 'Song Of December', while Hunks & Friends' 'The Magic Of Christmas' opens with the immortal whispered lines:

"Daddy, what's this?"

"It's a Christmas song!"

"But it sounds just like every other Christmas song…"

"That's the magic of Christmas!"

The Christmas magic of this compilation, of course, is that each song has very much its own character –and a most endearing one at that. FESTIVUS is not only here to bring back the lost art of the Christmas record, but also to take it to new levels of artistic merit and listener enjoyment.

FESTIVUS has been brought to you by Highline Records and Father Christmas, because you've been very good this year.

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN BIO - LA COSTA PERDIDA

True to the freewheeling, joyfully schizophrenic swirl of rock, punk, ska, folk, world music and (insert next genre-bending style here) that has defined the Camper Van Beethoven aesthetic since the enduring lineup took shape circa mid-80s, La Costa Perdida, their debut on 429 Records and first recording since New Roman Times in 2004, brings a listener into the strange world of the northern California coast above San Francisco.

“I’ve played with a lot of other bands in between Camper Van Beethoven tours and recordings,” says Victor Krummenacher, “but there’s never the power, energy or camaraderie with anyone else that I have felt with these guys. There’s just something about playing with the guys you came up with that is unique, unpredictable and exciting at the same time. It’s always very intuitive with us, almost like we can read each other’s minds and know David’s harmonic facility so well that we instinctively know where the song is going to go.”

To which David Lowery adds, “All bands have strengths and weaknesses, and for us, often times, they are the same things. We always have so many musical ideas all going at once, and there’s always another melody playing as I’m singing. That’s a challenge, just knowing how to simplify, but I think we do that on La Costa Perdida better than any previous recording. I love the fact that it’s so concise stylistically and thematically consistent throughout.”

They can agree that, whether by design or not, the set of nine vocals and a single instrumental (the trippy, psychedelic jam “Aged In Wood”), shapes up as their California rock project. It’s every bit a celebration of Northern California (where the founding members, including Lowery and bassist Victor Krummenacher, first became musically active as students at UC Santa Cruz), anchored by their distinctive, eclectic sound and the visionary lyrics of frontman/founder David Lowery.

Sometimes those references are direct, as in the dreamy opening harmonies on “Northern California Girls” or the trippy, electric guitar driven declaration that they’re “Too High For the Love In.” The folksy  title track “La Costa Perdida” – is a Norteno -flavored ode to Lost Coast of California, a mostly undeveloped section of the California North Coast in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties. Jonathan Segel, who sweetens this album and all previous Camper projects with violin, guitar, mandolin and organ, says, “It’s as much a mythological idea of the Lost Coast as a real geographical place, the idea that the society of this region is separate from regular society.” All of this adds to the frolicsome mystique that’s been a band trademark since their debut album Telephone Free Landslide Victory, which featured their first successful single “Take The Skinheads Bowling.”

Lowery says that it was a serendipitous concert rainout in Big Sur that led them to gather in the living room at the Oakland home of Segel and start writing together. “Camper got an odd offer to play a few shows in an outdoor setting of the Henry Miller Library, in June 2011,” says the Richmond, Virginia based singer, who has also led the more mainstream rock band Cracker (which often tours with CVB) since 1991. “It never rains in that area, and when we had to postpone the shows a week, instead of scattering, going home and returning, we thought this would be a great time to start writing our next album. Jonathan has a ton of great instruments, we all have laptops and we basically wrote the record in a week. Between that and a later session a few weeks later, we emerged with almost two albums worth of material, some real upbeat, hard rocking and traditional punk rock songs.”

“Actually,” lead guitarist Greg Lisher adds, “the previous October, I had flown to Richmond to work with David, and over the course of eight days we exchanged a lot of great ideas and wrote some songs for future potential development. One of the songs that evolved to make the cut on La Costa Perdida was ‘Summer Days,’ which started with my chord progressions before he and I worked on the melody. We wrote a lot more songs at Jonathan’s place, and the coolest part of the experience was that it was the most organic Camper record ever. Back 20 years ago, David would essentially bring in material and we would write all our parts to what he had done. This time, most of the songs began with someone playing a chord progression and the others riffing off that until the melodies and harmonies took shape.”

Segel can’t pinpoint the exact time sequence of the postponement and writing sessions, but recalls that he and Krummenacher were already vibing on some new music outside the CVB experience ( in the two decades after CVB’s first break up in 1990, the two ran their own label Magnetic). “It was great that no one had to be anywhere else in the country that week, and we not only wrote many songs, but also recorded in my living room, doing many takes of the songs using acoustic guitar, violin, bass and electric guitar. While the Northern Cal idea was David’s, the vibe of many of the songs reminded me of the classic (1973) Beach Boys album Holland. As always, we came to these sessions from our own separate musical worlds, bringing different elements naturally, without any conscious thought.”

At last, it’s Krummenacher’s turn to chime in: “The coolest part of La Costa Perdida was the fact that everything flowed from the fact that these distinctive musicians and personalities sat in the living room. You wait for that first spark, and that moment when something starts and starts coming to life is the most honest, enjoyable element. With us, we just settle right back into that place where we’re getting along and communicating and the music flows. We literally worked on six ideas each per day. This was a very fertile time. Musically, I believe La Costa Perdida is our most mature, grown up recording to date. Traditionally, Camper has always maintained a nervous edge partially because we grew up in punk rock, like we were a punk band at heart that kept reinventing itself. Now we’ve got this organic feeling and our music sounds like four people are writing it. The songs have great energy, but we’re more relaxed and stately, and a lot more confident. The songwriting here has elements of vintage Camper along with grown up Camper.”

Though much of the tracking was done via Segel’s home studio setup (known as The Magnetic Satellite), further sessions were done at Electric Studio in Berkeley and Sharkbite Studios in Oakland. The bulk of the mixing was done by Drew Vandenberg and the band at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, Georgia, Lowery’s second home base. Though Frank Funaro is CVB’s live drummer for the handful of U.S. touring spurts that the band does between outside projects every year, the skins on La Costa Perdida were played by Michael Urbano, an associate of Segel’s who lives in Oakland.

Camper Van Beethoven paints its musical map of Northern California portrait with a lot of different hues and textures, starting with the Americana flavored opening singalong “Come Down The Coast.” After the anthemic, trip of “Too High For The Love In,” they submerge into a dark brooding realm before emerging into a hypnotic optimistic light on the garage rocker “You Got To Roll.” “Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out” offers a sweet hodgepodge of almost everything CVB is about: ethereal vocals, booming drums, scorching distorted guitars, a soaring exotic violin, trippy ambience and psychedelic spontaneity.

“Peaches in the Summertime” has a Middle Eastern/Turkish melody (Lowery’s take, anyway) and borrows its late refrain from the 18^th Century folk song “Shady Grove.” “Northern California Girls” showcases the colorful vocal-guitar dialogue between Lowery and Lisher. “Summer Days” is perhaps the most poetic tune on La Costa Perdida--the lyrics empowered by an instrumental jam featuring guitar, violin, booming drums and symphonic magic. It touches on the idea of giving up one's humanity to live and work in a bustling city. The dusty, galloping, Spanish folk-inflected title track is followed by the wild, distorted and spacey sonic experiment “Aged In Wood” (an instrumental that doesn’t say anything in particular, yet still makes a statement). The set wraps with the sweeping, symphonic “Love For All Time,” a tune that each member of CVB calls a favorite for obvious reasons. Opening with lush sea sounds, the piece is one Lowery calls “the most complex on the record, a love song infused with the mythology of the stars and Greek and Roman gods with a Tom Waits-type vocal that fits perfectly.” Segel and his wife Sanna do the backing vocals on this majestic closer.

Camper Van Beethoven’s history begins in the mid-80s in Santa Cruz, California (up the coast a ways from Big Sur), when David Lowery and Victor Krummenacher formed the band, and—after Jonathan Segel joined the group--their jangly and stoned “Take The Skinheads Bowling” became an instant college radio staple. Their 80s discography includes Telephone Free Landslide Victory (1985), II & III (1986, the first featuring Greg Lisher), Camper Van Beethoven (1986), Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (1988) and Key Lime Pie (1989). The band was one of the founders of the indie rock genre and one of the most eclectic bands of all time, known for a variety of folk, rock, punk, and world influences put into a playful blender. Krummenacher and Lisher formed Monks of Doom in 1986 and Krummenacher later began a solo career, recording several albums with guests like Dave Alvin. Segel played with Dieselhead, Sparklehorse and fronted his own bands Hieronymus Firebrain and Jack & Jill, later playing under his own name. Lowery released the solo album The Palace Guards on 429 Records in 2011.

NEW YORKER SUSAN MCKEOWN TO MAKE 92Y TRIBECA DEBUT WITH HEADLINING SHOW JAN. 5

GRAMMY WINNER'S FIRST AMERICANA ALBUM & FIRST ALL-ORIGINAL ALBUM 'BELONG' OUT TODAY

MCKEOWN TAPES INTERVIEW WITH PRI BOB EDWARDS

New Yorker Susan McKeown will make her 92Y Tribeca debut January 5. Meanwhile her new album 'Belong,' her first Americana album and the first on which she has written all of the music and lyrics. Her breathtaking vocals and the way that she finds new ways to write about matters of the heart make this a spellbinding album, which marks half of her life in the States for the Ireland-born vocalist. 'Belong' is out today on Hibernian Music.

McKeown recently completed an interview with Public Radio International's Bob Edwards, in a broad-ranging conversation in which she discussed poetry; mental health; the influence of her mother, an organist; and her love of her hometown of NYC.

WHO: GRAMMY-winning New York vocalist/songwriter Susan McKeown
WHAT: 92Y Tribeca debut and performance from first Americana album 'Belong'
WHERE: 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson Street, NYC, (212) 601-1000
WHEN: January 5, 2013
TICKETS: TBA

Camper Van Beethoven - "Northern California Girls" - postable radio edit lyric video

"ADVENTUROUS" (ROLLING STONE) & "DELIGHTFUL" (PITCHFORK) CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN READY FIRST NEW ALBUM IN NINE YEARS 'LA COSTA PERDIDA' FOR JANUARY 22 RELEASE ON 429 RECORDS

CREATORS OF INDIE ROCK GENRE CUT ALBUM TOGETHER IN ONE ROOM, DEPICTING CHARACTERS AND STORIES FROM NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Camper Van Beethoven – the beloved, genre-mashing musical unit and one of the bands that created the indie rock genre – has confirmed its first album in nine years with 'La Costa Perdida' (January 22 / 429 Records). The release will mark CVB's first album recorded as a unit with the band cutting songs organically with all in attendance and produced entirely by the band's members. 'La Costa Perdida' vividly depicts untamed characters and bizarre experiences on northern California's coastline, where the band began its musical adventures.

Camper Van Beethoven is: Victor Krummenacher (bass, baritone guitar), Greg Lisher (guitars), David Lowery (guitars and vocals), Chris Pedersen (drums), Jonathan Segel (violin, guitar, mandolin, organ, backing vocals) and new addition Michael Urbano (drums and percussion).

Camper Van Beethoven have long held a place as influential pioneers of indie rock. Pitchfork Media called Camper Van Beethoven "great… assiduous creativity… inventive… delightful." SPIN has praised the band's "depth and worldly flavors," continuing, of its recent run in the 21^st century, "The band still rocks with the vigor of any young sprite." NPR says, "Their cryptic wit and dense, layered music offered rewards in repeated listening… blending genres of world and rock, translating current events into a swirl of witty banter and interpretation." Rolling Stone has raved about the band's "adventurous music."

On the making of 'La Costa Perdida,' Victor Krummenacher says, "The coolest part was that everything flowed from the fact that these distinctive musicians and personalities sat in the living room. Four people are writing it. The songs have great energy, but we're more relaxed and stately and a lot more confident."

Tour dates will be announced shortly.

La Costa Perdida Track List

1. Come Down The Coast

2. Too High For The Love-in

3. You Got To Roll

4. Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out

5. Peaches In The Summertime

6. Northern California Girls

7. Summer Days

8. La Costa Perdida

9. Aged In Wood

10. A Love For All Time

Camper Van Beethoven publicity photos

Credit: Jason Thrasher.

Click for high res.

front row, L-R: Jonathan Segel

David Lowery 

Victor Krummenacher

Back row, L-R:

Greg Lisher

Frank Funaro

Corb Lund - "Dig Gravedigger Dig" music video

INDIE POP EXPAT PINEY GIR RETURNS TO STATES TO RAVES FOR 'GERONIMO!,' TAPES NPR & DAYTROTTER, PLAYS CMJ

Piney Gir came back to her native US from her home in the UK and has been busy, playing CMJ, taping a Daytrotter session, and taping an interview with NPR Weekend Edition, which will air in November. She's also wrapping up a national tour with three west coast dates:

November 1st - The Bootleg, LA

November 2nd - The Make Out Room, San Francisco, with Red Pony Clock

November 3^rd - LA's Original Farmer's Market, LA

Baeble Music recently praised 'Geronimo's' "sun-faded retro pop [and] all out go go boots affair," continuing, "After all, if Piney Gir's buzzing electric guitars and relentlessly charming vocals were enough to brighten up the UK, we gotta think they'll be enough to make us Americans cheery."

Here's a bit of what we've read in response to her album 'Geronimo!,' out last week in the States on Highline Records.

"Pop gems." – Philadelphia Inquirer

"Her album sounds a bit Shangri-Las, a bit Vivian Girls, and a bit Jenny Lewis." – Blurt Magazine

"Sounds like Rilo Kiley." – Spinner

"I like this." - DA Wallach (Spotify), DA's Wild Ride Tumblr

UK reviews:

"Sweet 60's pop from Kansas Chameleon" – UNCUT, ****

"Undeniably charming" - The Sun

"A delight" - The Guardian

GRAMMY-WINNING NEW YORKER SUSAN MCKEOWN TO SING AT LIVING ROOM IN CONCERT TO BE BROADCAST BY SIRIUS XM

BREATHTAKING AMERICANA-TINGED ALBUM 'BELONG' OUT NOVEMBER 13 WITH GREAT NEW YORK SONGS

GRAMMY Award-winning, Irish-born artist Susan McKeown, whose new album 'Belong' marks half of her life in the States, will perform a concert at the Living Room November 7, which will be taped and broadcasted by the Loft on SIRIUS XM. A stone's throw from her East Village residence, McKeown has long been a part of the songwriting community in NYC and she flies her flag as a New Yorker on great new songs like "On The Bridge to Williamsburg" and "Lullaby of Manhattan." The focus on 'Belong' remains solely on her breathtaking vocals.

WHO: GRAMMY-winner and NYC artist Susan McKeown
WHAT: Concert and broadcast on SIRIUS XM's The Loft
WHEN: 8pm, November 7, 2012
WHERE: The Living Room, 154 Ludlow St., 212-533-7235
TICKETS: $10 available at Living Room box office

"No Jericho" music video.

In a distinguished career, McKeown has performed with Pete Seeger, Natalie Merchant, Linda Thompson, Billy Bragg, Arlo Guthrie and The Klezmatics. McKeown has recorded mariachi music, klezmer music, African music, Celtic music, and contemporary songwriting. She won a GRAMMY for 'Wonder Wheel,' in collaboration with the Klezmatics on lyrics by Woody Guthrie. In 2010, she made 'Singing in the Dark,' a fascinating exploration of creativity and madness.

She has performed throughout Europe and North America including Glastonbury, The Edinburgh Festival, Carnegie Hall and Disney Hall. In a concert review, Rolling Stone said, "McKeown grabbed both song and audience by the throat, dragged them through heaven and hell and back again, and left the stage to the loudest applause heard all evening."

DESCENDED FROM FOUR GENERATIONS OF ALBERTAN RANCHERS AND HAILED BY NPR, CORB LUND TO PERFORM AT HILL COUNTRY LIVE IN NYC NOV 14

LUND RISES TO #7 ON AMERICANA RADIO CHART

Corb Lund – the songwriter descended from four generations of Albertan ranchers who used to play metal and punk music – will play NYC's Hilly Country Live November 14. For his new album 'Cabin Fever,' Lund traveled to NYC, along with Austin, Las Vegas, and Alberta, to pen the sharp and often wry songs.

Amid raves from NPR, NY Times, UNCUT and others, Corb scored a personal best with a #13 debut on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and a #60 debut on the Billboard Indie Chart for his "breakthrough" (Washington Post) album 'Cabin Fever.' The album also debuted at #1 on Billboard's Canadian Top 200 albums chart. NPR said, "Impressive... great songs... Lund finds glory in tough work, spotting characters most people would overlook, and celebrating them with colorful sketches... Corb Lund's ironic humor and keen sense of American culture is similar to Hayes Carll."

Meanwhile, Lund has risen to #7 on the Americana radio charts.

Goth girls to survivalists, bovines to bibles, antique pistols to vintage motorcycles: Lund’s songcraft covers it all. Most recently, CMT.com just posted his new music video to the heartbreaking "September."

WHO: New West artist Corb Lund

WHAT: NYC full band performance

WHEN: 9:30pm, November 14, 2012

WHERE: Hill Country Live, 30 West 26th Street, (212) 255-4544

TICKETS: $15 in advance or at the door via Hill Country Live box office

ERIN MCKEOWN JOINS SUSAN MCKEOWN (NO RELATION) ON THE LATTER'S NEW ALBUM 'BELONG' (NOV 13 / HIBERNIAN MUSIC) FOR AMERICANA SONG "FALLEN ANGEL"

ERIN ON SUSAN: "ONE OF THOSE VOICES THAT JUST BORES A HOLE RIGHT THROUGH YOU"

Acclaimed artist Erin McKeown plays guitar on "Fallen Angel" from GRAMMY-winner Susan McKeown's new album 'Belong,' out November 13 on Hibernian Music. Erin raves about Susan's singing, "Susan has one of those voices that just bores a hole right through you. If you've ever seen her live, the look in her eye as she sings lets you know she is possessed by a force beyond explaining. It's deep and powerful and I don't know another sound like it."

New Yorkers will have a chance to see her perform at the Living Room November 7, which will be broadcast by SIRIUS XM The Loft.

Erin says, "'Fallen Angel' is such a clever song and I wanted to match Susan's writing and vocal with a guitar solo that rides the same line between playful and accusatory." Susan describes the Americana song as "a whimsical look at how one’s inner demons can haunt a relationship."

Erin jokes, "We've known each other for years, and after all we are 'cousins,' we think, way back in Ireland."

ROBERT ELLIS, AMANDA SHIRES & COLIN GILMORE TO PERFORM 'LOWE COUNTRY: THE SONGS OF NICK LOWE' LIVE ON KUT TODAY AT 11AM CST

NO DEPRESSION INTERVIEWS CO-PRODUCER ROB SEIDENBERG AS UK RAVES FOR 'LOWE COUNTRY' COME IN

KUT will host Robert Ellis, Amanda Shires, and Colin Gilmore performing songs from 'Lowe Country: The Songs of Nick Lowe' this morning at 11AM Central in Austin at 90.5 FM and online at kut.org.

Ellis' rendition of "All Men Are Liars" was premiered at Paste Magazine and Esquire named it one of "10 Songs a Man Should Be Listening to."

Shires' gorgeous, haunting version of "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" is stunning, while Gilmore's "You Make Me" brings the Lowe-penned waltz to Texas.

Meanwhile, album co-producer and Fiesta Red Records founder Rob Seidenberg is interviewed about 'Lowe Country' at No Depression.

And from Lowe's country, The Telegraph has posted a rave.

ROBERT ELLIS, AMANDA SHIRES & COLIN GILMORE TO PERFORM 'LOWE COUNTRY: THE SONGS OF NICK LOWE' LIVE ON KUT TODAY AT 11AM CST

NO DEPRESSION INTERVIEWS CO-PRODUCER ROB SEIDENBERG AS UK RAVES FOR 'LOWE COUNTRY' COME IN

KUT will host Robert Ellis, Amanda Shires, and Colin Gilmore performing songs from 'Lowe Country: The Songs of Nick Lowe' this morning at 11AM Central in Austin at 90.5 FM and online at kut.org.

Ellis' rendition of "All Men Are Liars" was premiered at Paste Magazine and Esquire named it one of "10 Songs a Man Should Be Listening to": http://www.esquire.com/the-side/music/best-new-songs/songs-of-the-week-the-killers#ixzz297iu5yXv

Shires' gorgeous, haunting version of "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" is stunning, while Gilmore's "You Make Me" brings the Lowe-penned waltz to Texas.

Meanwhile, album co-producer and Fiesta Red Records founder Rob Seidenberg is interviewed about 'Lowe Country' at No Depression.

And from Lowe's country, The Telegraph has posted a rave.

SWEET LIGHTS (FORMER WAR ON DRUGS) & PINEY GIR (UK INDIE POP STARLET) HEAD HIGHLINE RECORDS / INDIE DARK ROOM CMJ DAY PARTY AT PETE'S CANDY STORE OCT 20

LINEUP ROUNDED OUT BY CORREATOWN (INDIE DREAM POP), BACKLIGHTS (BROOKLYN SHOEGAZE), RALFE BAND (INFECTIOUS FOLK), AND LELAND SUNDRIES (BROOKLYN INDIE-FOLK)

Highline Records and Brooklyn's internet radio station Indie Dark Room are teaming up to present a CMJ day party at Pete's Candy Store Oct 20, featuring Sweet Lights (former War on Drugs), Piney Gir (UK indie pop starlet), Correatown (indie dream pop), Backlights (shoegaze), Ralfe Band (infectious folk), and Leland Sundries (indie-folk) between 3pm and 7:30pm.

6:45pm - Leland Sundries has been described by Baeble Music as "reminiscent of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Elvis Perkins" and called "excellent" by the iTunes Store. The New York Times said, "Leland Sundries, a band from New York led by Nick Loss-Eaton, is dedicated to storytelling in a way that recalls Woody Guthrie and his Folkways brethren. [Their] scrappy Americana will get you longing for empty two-lane highways and kudzu-encased back porches."

6pm - Piney Gir is an indie pop starlet from Kansas City. Born into an Evangelical Christian family in Kansas where she wasn't allowed to listen to secular music, Piney moved to London, kicked off her Sunday school shoes and started playing the rock and roll music. The rest, as they say, is history. Magnet just posted a new garage pop video featuring Piney Gir fighting vampires, who will also be the subject of an NPR profile Oct 27.

5:15pm -  RalfeBands dazzle listeners with their infectious folk influenced songs, vivid surreal lyrics and classical and gypsy inspired instrumentals. The band’s debut album Swords from 2007 and follow up Attic Thieves in 2009 received glowing reviews. The band have appeared in the Mighty Boosh and their recent soundtrack to Paul King’s film Bunny and the Bull was widely acclaimed. Freshly out of the studio, the band are gearing up to release their third studio album in 2013.

4:30pm - Backlights are pop dreamers: they believe a song can be propelled by meaning and still charm at first blush. They take the stage only rarely, but they will come out and play if asked nicely, or whenever the time is right. Joe, Cecilia, Kevin and Tyler perform the music.

3:45 - Correatown is indie-dream pop with a homespun aesthetic and irrepressibly catchy songwriting from LA's Angela Correa. Her music has been featured on Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, How I Met Your Mother and the film The Lucky One. She is one half of the LA duo Les Shelley and has recently scored the independent film Sassy Pants.

3PM - Sweet Lights is kaleidoscopic, retro-laced indie rock from Philly-based one-man band Shai Halperin, formerly of the Capitol Years and the original lineup of the War on Drugs with Kurt Vile.

Highline Records is pleased to announce the debut self titled album by Sweet Lights, which is a masterful mixture of dynamic, genre-bending song craft, innovative arrangements and surreal, poignant lyricism. Musical polymath Shai Halperin’s work has always been that of a shape-shifting pop auteur and Sweet Lights retains this singular, yet multi-faceted personality, held together with supreme pop hooks.

Highline Records is a young independent record label and music publishing company based in Central London. Highline endeavors to project a small-label ethos onto large-scale releases.

Streaming music from independent artists 24/7 on our webstream from Bushwick, Brooklyn, IndieDarkroom.com allows listeners to discover music from hundreds of talented indie artists.

FOLLOWING EXPLORATIONS OF KLEZMER, AFRICAN MUSIC, CELTIC MUSIC, NEW YORKER & GRAMMY-WINNER SUSAN MCKEOWN DRAWS INSPIRATION, IMAGERY FROM NYC HOMETOWN

East Village resident and GRAMMY Award-winning songwriter and vocalist Susan McKeown tips her cap to her longtime hometown of NYC with several songs from the stunning new album 'Belong' (November 13), which marks half of her life in the States.

"On The Bridge to Williamsburg" depicts two lovers crossing the bridge as obstacles thrown in their path threaten to stop them from reaching their destination together. McKeown says, "Some things are obvious – it’s the not knowing that’s challenging." She poignantly sings to both town and lover, "I've been here for long enough."

McKeown is joined on the song by "captivating" (All Music Guide) Irish singer-songwriter Declan O’Rourke, who scored a double platinum album in Ireland and has been covered by Eddie Vedder and Josh Groban. Evoking Whitman in McKeown's writing, O'Rourke sings,

"Underneath the Brooklyn sky

Hand in hand just you and I

The ferry racing on the tide

The broken sugar factory sign"

Of the haunting "Lullaby of Manhattan," McKeown says, "Broken delph, broken dreams: a domestic tale from the city that never sleeps. Old Irish lullabies were rarely sugar, spice and all things nice, and this urban one is no different."

"City of the Roses," featuring McKeown's East Village neighbor Ray Santiago on piano, references Staten Island and New York Harbor, discusses how we hold onto things for a long time: people, places, events, keeping ourselves stuck.

Fellow New Yorkers: McKeown will play the Living Room November 7 for a broadcast on SIRIUS XM The Loft.

Live performances from 'Lowe Country: The Songs of Nick Lowe' on SIRIUS XM Outlaw Country

Caitlin Rose "Lately I've Let Things Slide":



Robert Ellis with Caitlin Rose "All Men Are Liars":



Colin Gilmore with Amanda Shires "You Make Me":



Amanda Shires "I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass":

SEAN HAYES' 'BEFORE WE TURN TO DUST' HITS #3 ON ITUNES SINGER-SONGWRITER CHART AS 150+ RADIO STATIONS ADD THE FOLK/SOUL ALBUM

WFUV SESSION TO BE TAPED OCT. 30 BEFORE LE POISSON ROUGE SHOW IN NYC

Rising folk/soul voice Sean Hayes' new album 'Before We Turn To Dust' has touched #3 on the iTunes Store's Singer-Songwriter chart. Meanwhile, over 150 radio stations have added the album. Most notably, NYC's WFUV has been playing 'Before We Turn To Dust' and Hayes will tape a session October 30 when he visits NYC for a show at Le Poisson Rouge.

The iTunes Store has given the album top placement 3 weeks in a row, featured as New & Notable on its Singer-Songwriter page.  The iTunes review of the album says , "It's the kind of salt-of-the-earth soul that would sit well on a mix alongside early Donny Hathaway recordings."

Hayes is on a national tour.

Hayes marries folk sounds with soul grooves on 'Before We Turn To Dust,' all capped off with his stunning vibrato-laden vocals. 'Before We Turn To Dust' was written and recorded in the same year Hayes became a father. The album has a way of capturing the notions of life; birth, mortality, love, and struggle echo throughout the work.

GRAMMY AWARD-WINNER SUSAN MCKEOWN MARKS HALF HER LIFE IN THE STATES WITH 'BELONG,' OUT NOV. 13 MINING AMERICAN ROOTS MUSIC IN TELLING HER STORY

ERIN MCKEOWN, WOOD'S JAMES MADDOCK, MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST DIRK POWELL, AND SINGER-SONGWRITER DECLAN O'ROURKE JOIN MCKEOWN ON NEW ALBUM

Susan McKeown – the creatively restless GRAMMY Award-winning and BBC Award-nominated vocalist – is readying 'Belong' for November 13 release. The Irish-born singer has finally come home, marking half of her life in the States with an exploration of American roots-derived music that delves deeply into matters of the heart.

Opening with 'On the Bridge to Williamsburg,' a duet with Irish singer-songwriter Declan O'Rourke, 'Belong' is Susan at her most personal, charting intimate details of relationships, plotting their trajectories, examining the shards and remnants as though on an archaeological excavation. James Maddock (from Wood) and banjo and accordion player Dirk Powell (Irma Thomas, The Raconteurs, Joan Baez) join Susan for 'Everything We Had Was Good,' a break-up song about ending well. 'The Cure for Me' was in part inspired by lines from 'Night Ferry,' Seamus Heaney's elegy for poet Robert Lowell. Erin McKeown guests on 'Fallen Angel.'

In a distinguished career, McKeown has performed with Pete Seeger, Natalie Merchant, Linda Thompson, Billy Bragg, Arlo Guthrie and The Klezmatics. McKeown has recorded mariachi music, klezmer music, African music, Celtic music, and contemporary songwriting. She won a GRAMMY for 'Wonder Wheel,' in collaboration with the Klezmatics on lyrics by Woody Guthrie. In 2010, she made 'Singing in the Dark,' a fascinating exploration of creativity and madness.

She has performed throughout Europe and North America including Glastonbury, The Edinburgh Festival, Carnegie Hall and Disney Hall. In a concert review, Rolling Stone said, "McKeown grabbed both song and audience by the throat, dragged them through heaven and hell and back again, and left the stage to the loudest applause heard all evening."

DC Venue The Hamilton to host Blues legends at re-vamped Capitol Blues Night

DC Venue The Hamilton to host Blues legends at re-vamped Capitol Blues Night

Washington, D.C. music venue and restaurant The Hamilton will present the Music Maker Blues Revue on Wednesday, October 24th at 7:30 p.m. The Blues Revue, comprised of artists from the Music Maker Relief Foundation, will feature performances by Ironing Board Sam, Captain Luke, Cool John Ferguson, Big Ron Hunter, Ardie Dean, and Sol Roots. The Hamilton has hosted the Blues Revue previously on New Years Eve 2011.

“This classic drink-house lineup will be seen in one of DC’s finest venues. Ironing Board Sam filled the Blues Tent to capacity at Jazzfest all by himself. Add Cool John Ferguson and Captain Luke and others, and this show will be just that much more explosive,” said Tim Duffy, Music Maker Founder.

The October 24th show marks the second time Ironing Board Sam will perform at The Hamilton with the Music Maker Blues Revue. This year has been a big one for Sam – he’s released two albums (Going Up and Ninth Wonder of the World of Music), filled the Blues Tent to capacity at the 2012 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and was named Comeback Artist of the Year by Living Blues Magazine. In addition, Sam is playing the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival in mid-October, with two upcoming features in Offbeat Magazine and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The show at the Hamilton will give DC area music fans a chance to see the artist at the center of all this buzz – and they will not be disappointed.

The Music Maker Blues Revue highlights electric blues, boogie-woogie, R&B and soul music with the performances by Music Maker Relief Foundation partner artists. Music Maker works with these artists to elevate their careers and present them to the world, while preserving Southern musical traditions for future generations.

The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and lasts until 10 p.m. with doors opening for the event at 6:30 p.m. Tickets will be $25 per person. A cash bar and entrées from The Hamilton’s menu will be available for purchase. Tickets can be purchased from The Hamilton’s website, http://www.thehamiltondc.com/live.

•    Cool John Ferguson, of Beaufort, S.C., began playing the guitar at 3 years old and has been called by blues legend Taj Mahal “…among the five greatest guitarists in the world.”
•    Luther Mayer, known as “Captain Luke,” has a deep resounding baritone voice that has entertained thousands throughout his long career; the African-American working class of the N.C. Piedmont heavily influences his music.
•    Ironing Board Sam, a singer, songwriter and piano player, was a house musician on the first televised African-American music revue called “Night Train” and then became one of the best-loved entertainers on the Crescent City’s music scene, before relocating to N.C. and working with Music Maker.
•    Big Ron Hunter plays both electric and acoustic guitars in dramatically different styles, varying between R&B, Rock and B.B. King Blues on electric, and his own sound on acoustic.
•    Sol Roots ,while earning a degree in the Recording Industry, performed throughout the South, fronting his own blues and rock bands. He has also performed with Blues Legends from Guitar Gabriel to Taj Mahal.
•    Ardie Dean has drummed for Ernie K-Doe, Bo Diddley, Jerry McCain, Greg Allman, Taj Mahal, and Henry Grey since he began playing the blues in 1969.

Listen:

Ironing Board Sam – Bye Bye Blackbird

Cool John Ferguson – Here Comes Floyd

Captain Luke – Put On Your Red Dress

Watch:

Cool John Ferguson & Captain Luke – Rainy Night in Georgia

Ironing Board Sam – “Rock Me Baby,” Live at Grace Hall – May 25, 2012

Susan McKeown publicity photos

Credit: Chris Carlone

'Belong' cover art

NYC-BORN, SAN FRANCISCO-BASED VETERAN SONGWRITER SEAN HAYES TO PLAY LE POISSON ROUGE OCT 30

HAYES TAPING WFUV SESSION WHILE IN TOWN

THE ITUNES STORE DESIGNATES 'BEFORE WE TURN TO DUST,'  OUT THIS MONTH, AS "NEW & NOTABLE"

Sean Hayes – whose new album 'Before We Turn To Dust' has topped the singer songwriter charts on iTunes over the past two weeks since its release – will perform at Le Poisson Rouge in New York, NY October 30, 2012. He will also tape a session for WFUV while he's in NYC.

Known for a stunning vibrato in his voice, and his soulful lyrics, Hayes puts on a show that has fans tapping their feet and shaking their hips.

Meanwhile, he recently completed an interview with Associated Press Broadcasting and Relix Magazine has debuted the second mp3 from 'Before We Turn To Dust,' "Bam Bam."

The NYC show comes as part of an extensive fall tour of the U.S.

WHO: San Francisco folk/soul singer Sean Hayes
WHAT: An evening with Sean Hayes
WHEN: 10pm, Tuesday, October 30, 2012
WHERE: 158 Bleecker Street, NYC, 212.505.FISH
TICKETS: $20, via Le Poisson Rouge box office

Sweet Soubrette "What's My Desire?" video

'LOWE COUNTRY: THE SONGS OF NICK LOWE' HAILED AMONG "ROOTS-AND-BOOTS" (WALL STREET JOURNAL) SET

LOWE HAILS CAITLIN ROSE & BEGINS NATIONAL TOUR

Upon the September 18 release of 'Lowe Country: The Songs of Nick Lowe' (Fiesta Red Records) press and radio are hailing the album for its "beautiful reinterpretations of Lowe songs" (Oxford American). The album features Lowe tunes recorded by 13 up-and-coming country-ish artists, including Hayes Carll, Amanda Shires, Robert Ellis and Caitlin Rose, whom Lowe himself referred to as a "great" artist in this week's Nashville Scene.

The release, a portion of whose proceeds benefits victims of the Nashville floods and Central Texas wildfires, comes just as Lowe, the master songwriter/singer, embarks on a North American tour: http://nicklowe.com/tourdates.php

Under the headline "What's So Funny 'Bout Country," Marc Myers wrote a feature for the Wall Street Journal. Caitlin Rose tells Myers, "Nick's songs are serious and self-effacing but they don't take themselves too seriously—which makes them endearing."

Esquire.com included Robert Ellis' "All Men Are Liars" in its "10 Songs a Man Should Be Listening to This Week."

'Lowe Country' has also been added by Acoustic Café.

Others are praising the collection as well:

"A handsome, enjoyable listen."
- All Music Guide

"There is plenty to enjoy."
- Hal Horowitz, American Songwriter

"An honorable effort that will serve as an introduction to a great figure."
- Edd Hurt, Nashville Scene

"From witty lyrics to catchy melodies and superior songwriting, maybe Lowe’s music was made to get the country treatment."
- WERS-FM (Boston, MA)

In addition, Robert Ellis, Colin Gilmore, Amanda Shires, and Caitlin Rose performed live on SIRIUS XM from Nashville, TN last week. Check out photos from the session and backstage.

The Unsinkable Boxer - "When I Write The Book" video - from 'Lowe Country: The Songs of Nick Lowe' (Fiesta Red Records)

LONDON-DWELLING INDIE POP EXPAT PINEY GIR PLOTS RETURN TO US FOR NATIONAL TOUR BEHIND "DIVINE… EXUBERANT" (Q) ALBUM 'GERONIMO!'

CMJ SHOWCASE OCT 20 & NPR WEEKEND EDITION PROFILE AIRING OCT. 27

Piney Gir – the US-born indie pop artist who has found success in London – will return to the States in October for a national tour when her new album 'Geronimo!' is released in the US on Highline Records.

NPR's Weekend Edition is planning a profile on Piney Gir, currently set to air October 27. Growing up in Kansas in a strict Pentacostal household, she was not allowed access to pop culture until adolescence, though she was singing harmonies in the church from a young age.

She will also join the Highline Records / Indie Dark Room CMJ party at Pete's Candy Store October 20, on the bill with Sweet Lights (Kurt Vile), Correatown, Backlights and Leland Sundries.

Music video for "Oh Lies"

Baeble Music recently praised 'Geronimo's' "sun-faded retro pop [and] all out go go boots affair," continuing, "After all, if Piney Gir's buzzing electric guitars and relentlessly charming vocals were enough to brighten up the UK, we gotta think they'll be enough to make us Americans cheery."

PINEY GIR TOUR DATES

October 17 - PA's – Boston, MA (with Minor 3 and One Happy Island)

October 20 - Pete's Candy Store - Brooklyn, NY (Highline Records / Indie Dark Room CMJ party with Sweet Lights)

October 21 - Velvet Lounge, - Washington DC

October 25 - The Burlington – Chicago, IL

October 26 - 400 Club – Minneapolis, MN

November 2 - The Make Out Room - San Francisco, CA (with Red Pony Clock)

UNCUT gave the album four stars while The Sun called 'Geronimo!' "undeniably charming." Q Magazine called it "exuberant, bursts with joy, divine." Piney has opened for the likes of Brian Jonestown Massacre, Wanda Jackson, Erasure, and Martha Wainwright.