Attention, all Gomez acolytes. The UK folk-rock outfit has quietly amassed a faithful cult audience that appreciates the subtle interplay between the group’s three diverse vocalists.
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Talk about juggernauts. Swedish dance-punk diva Robyn is simply unstoppable. Not only is she preparing yet another assault on these shores in January, backing her futuristic trilogy of “Body Talk” releases, she also just launched an innovative new feature on her website, www.robyn.com.
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A release date has finally been set for R.E.M.’s long-awaited new followup to “Accelerate,” “Collapse Into Now” on Warner Bros. — March 8. But the band is making two tracks available early. Fans who sign up for their e-mail list at www.remhq.com will receive a free download of “Discoverer,” and if you preorder the album on iTunes, you’ll get an instant download of “It Happened Today.”
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Like most artists these days, scrappy Scottish chanteuse KT Tunstall is finding remarkably inventive new methods for promoting her music. Like her recent “Kollaborate With KT” campaign for her new “Tiger Suit.”
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She might be married to one of folkdom’s most brilliant songwriters, Paul Simon. But that doesn’t mean Edie Brickell has put her own career on hold. In fact, the missus wisely spent most of the time on her 2003 tour (backing her “Volcano” solo set) — she was cranking out material for two new records. The first, “Edie Brickell,” was produced by Texas guitar god Charlie Sexton, and arrives Jan. 11. To premiere it, she’ll be performing a one-off concert in her native New York on Jan. 29, at Radio City Music Hall with Iron & Wine opening.
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Still swear you like that old time rock and roll? Even though you live in the Jetsons digital age? Here’s some good news, then: Bob Seger himself is right there with you. And now on your mobile device with 15 of his catalog classics offered as rollicking ringtones. “Feel Like A Number”? Great — now you can hear the song every time your boss calls. Want to escape to “Katmandu”? No prob — Seger is already offering that ringtone for free, until Jan. 10, at www.myxer.com.
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Speaking of Swedish garage-punkers The Hives, their annual Christmas just arrived in the mailbox. In an era of E-cards and other various digital greetings, it’s truly an anachronistic anomaly — just a photo of the five members, hanging out on a snowbank, sporting (of course) special huge Hives-logo-embroidered Russian hats, with the message “Transmission from The Hives. Happy Holidays and a Hives New Year. Over and out.”
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It’s a good lesson in life: You can’t take things for granted. Like regular Bay Area concerts from local folk-rock darling Brittany Shane, whom you could always catch somewhere around these parts every other month or so. No longer. She’s split the scene for good. As her marriage was ending this August, she made a clean break of it, packed up all her belongings, and headed down to Austin, a town practically fueled by her type of music.
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In her new hometown of Berlin, Peaches — whose real name is Merrill Nisker — wishes she had had time for a fun hobby. “But I am so occupied, so occupied with everything I’m doing, because I don’t just make music,” says the former Toronto resident. This year alone, she performed five different types of concerts, one solely on laser harp, another from a wheelchair after she twisted her ankle.
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A quick reminder of a not-to-be-missed show this weekend: New Wave legend and “Celebrity Apprentice” star Cyndi Lauper in an intimate nightclub setting, at San Francisco’s Independent. She’ll be backing her new down ’n’ dirty R&B collection, “Memphis Blues,” which she tracked in Memphis with such stellar guest stars as Ann “I Can’t Stand The Rain” Peebles.
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It’s one of those things you simply can’t resist — swaying along with a recent series of Hyundai car commercials that feature a delightful boy-girl duo trilling cotton-candyish Christmas carols. You’ll hear-see them covering “Deck The Halls” for the company’s Genesis model; “Up On The Roof” for the Sonata; and “Jingle Bells” for the Accent, Elantra and Santa Fe. But who, exactly, is this group? Merely a couple of supersmart Stanford grads — Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn — who’ve become a YouTube hit as Pomplamoose, a name taken from the French for grapefruit.
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Anyone who’s caught one of the lady’s frequent concert visits to San Francisco can testify: Wanda Jackson, now in her seventh decade of rocking out, has still got that kinetic rock and roll spark. The same energy she exhibited way back in ’58, when she snarled through her breakthrough single “Let’s Have A Party.”
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Weren’t we just discussing Peter Bjorn and John? They happen to be in the news themselves this week — the Swedish trio has just announced the release of its new sixth album, as yet untitled, March 29, on StarTime International. And it’s a wonder they found time to record it.
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Graveside is an unusual place to make peace. But in the case of Britain’s influential proto-punk outfit Killing Joke, it made perfect symmetrical sense. When member Paul Raven died from heart failure three years ago, the band’s original lineup — vocalist Jaz Coleman, guitarist Geordie Walker, bassist Martin “Youth” Glover and drummer Paul Ferguson — reconvened at their friend’s funeral, and decided to once again tap into the primal energy of industrial-strength efforts like 1980’s “Killing Joke” and 1981’s “What’s This For!” the stars aligned in their favor.
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Last time we spoke to Peter Bjorn and John studio mastermind Bjorn Yttling, he was raving about an all-girl Japanese quartet he was producing called The Suzan. Well, the album — bearing the quirky title “Golden Week For The Poco Poco Beat” — is finally here, and it lives up to expectations.
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