FREE Blonde Redhead show THIS THURSDAY in NYC! 12 Aug 2008

Blonde Redhead is playing on Thursday at Pier 54 at 14th Street. Go here for all the details!

The Mountain Goats solo set just added to Folks Festival Lineup! 11 Aug 2008

Colorado has more than the convention coming up.  That's right, this just in: the 18th Annual Folks Festival (in Lyons, CO) has just added a solo performance by The Mountain Goats (John Darnielle) to its lineup!  He is scheduled to play from 2:15pm - 3:30pm on Sunday, the 17th.

The festival runs from August 15th - August 17th, and will also feature performances by KT Tunstall, Amos Lee and a slew of others.

The full lineup and more info about the 18th Annual Folks Festival
can be found here: http://www.bluegrass.com/folks/lineup.html

4AD welcomes DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES! 07 Jul 2008

DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES joins the 4AD roster!

Hear the title track: "In Ear Park"

4AD is pleased to announce the signing of DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES. The band is excited to release In Ear Park via 4AD on October 7th, 2008.

Department of Eagles features Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear and his friend Fred Nicolaus, plus additional help from two other members of Grizzly Bear, Chris Taylor and Chris Bear.

Daniel and Fred met in 2000 at NYU when forced to be roommates, and began making music together to pass the time during an uneventful spring semester. They collected samples and turned them into songs using computers and a microphone borrowed from their neighbor Chris Taylor (who, years later would become Daniel’s Grizzly Bear bandmate and DoE’s producer/engineer). The material they wrote during this time became their 2003 debut The Cold Nose, which brought them a small but enthusiastic audience and critical praise.
 
In 2004 Daniel joined Grizzly Bear, playing guitar, singing, and writing a good portion of their sophomore album, Yellow House not to mention extensive touring. Fred descended deeper into the square existence, holding down a number of jobs and opening a savings account. 

Throughout all of this, the two continued writing together whenever possible, resulting in a new batch of songs that comprise In Ear Park, an album that took roughly four years to complete.

About how songs made it to this record, as opposed to a Grizzly Bear one, Daniel says "In Ear Park has been in the making in one form or another for several years now, on and off tour and after work. A lot of these songs felt way too personal to bring to Grizzly Bear-- there's a lot of childhood nostalgia and an emphasis on more concise songwriting. Fred and I had license to try some things that I could never get away with otherwise, but we still went for the lushness and and attention to sonic detail that Chris and I always want out of a recording. I'm excited. "

In Ear Park was recorded in Brooklyn, NY by Chris Taylor. It features 11 tracks, and the title track “In Ear Park” is available for mp3 download above.

Scott Walker NOT performing.......but close! 26 Jun 2008

SCOTT WALKER is PRODUCING a special event in the UK, although he is NOT performing. I repeat NOT performing.

These shows are world premiere live performances of songs from Scott Walker's seminal works including Tilt and The Drift.
These special concerts, produced by Walker himself, will be set and designed for the Barbican Theatre stage, and include orchestra, Scott's band, and feature special guest vocalists performing his songs.

Drifting and Tilting - The Songs of Scott Walker
13 - 15 November 2008 / 19:45
Barbican Theatre, London

Directed by Ann-Christin Rommen
Concepts by Scott Walker
Sound Production by Scott Walker and Peter Walsh
Produced by the Barbican in association with Cultural Industry

As seen on Pitchfork 02 Jun 2008

Aaron Dessner Discusses Red Hot Comp, the National

Charity compilation additions include Feist collaborating with Ben Gibbard and with Grizzly Bear, Bright Eyes, Spoon, New Pornographers, Antony, Yo La Tengo, Stuart Murdoch.

If you thought the initial lineup for the latest compilation benefiting AIDS charity Red Hot looked pretty unreal, well, it just might be time to re-define your reality. In a recent conversation with Pitchfork, Aaron Dessner-- who is co-curating the comp along with his twin brother and National bandmate Bryce-- shed some more light on what's fast shaping up to be the definitive snapshot of indie rock in the 00s.

I mean, just look at the lineup. In addition to previously mentioned contributions from Sufjan Stevens, Feist, Grizzly Bear, the Decemberists, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, the National themselves, and the combined powers of David Byrne and Dirty Projectors, Dessner tells us the Red Hot set will also feature Bright Eyes, Spoon, the New Pornographers, Antony (with Bryce Dessner), Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch, the Books with José González (covering Nick Drake's "Cello Song"), Blonde Redhead, Bon Iver, Andrew Bird, My Brightest Diamond (covering "Feeling Good", famously interpreted by Nina Simone), Sigur Rós offshoot Riceboy Sleeps, and TV on the Radio's David Sitek.

As if that weren't nutty enough, Feist actually appears twice-- once with Grizzly Bear, and once with Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard-- while the National are joined by ace composer/arranger Nico Muhly on their track. Grizzly Bear have a second tune, sans Feist, as well. And those are just the confirmed participants; Dessner expects quite a few more. "It'll probably end up being between 24 and 30 tracks," he reports. "We're probably about 80% done with it...we're hoping for a fall release, but it may be an early 2009 release, depending on a few people that we're still waiting on."

The comp will not necessarily be called Red Hot + Indie, as some have suggested. According to Dessner, they've yet to settle on a title for it. The Beggars Group will release the album, while proceeds will go to Population Services International's YouthAIDS organization.

Aaron, who has worked for Red Hot and sister company Funny Garbage, is impressed with the response the comp has received so far. "We're kind of shocked at how enthusiastic people have been," he says. "It hasn't been hard to convince people to do this, because everybody knows about Red Hot, and because a lot of us had [1993 Red Hot charity comp] No Alternative. That had the hidden Nirvana track on there, which was like a big thing back then."

He's also thrilled with the results to date. "We've been amazed...people are giving us great tracks. I think maybe part of that is people know Red Hot and part of it is like, whenever you get all of your peers together, nobody wants to have the dog, you know?"

Aaron's comp work is on hold for the moment, however, as the National kicked off their tour with Modest Mouse and R.E.M. over the weekend. The jaunt has Dessner feeling "really humbled and grateful. We've been used to playing our own shows for quite a while now, and I guess the last time we opened was more than a year ago, when we did the Arcade Fire tour, which was a similar situation of just being really humbled to play with a band that we really respect."

Despite all the recent goings-on, Dessner and the National have also "been working on a lot of music," coming up with "musical ideas and giving them to" vocalist Matt Berninger. "He's been trying to quit smoking so he has a lot of energy," Dessner notes with a laugh, "so he needs something to do with it, and he's been writing a lot. We actually just wrote a song that we played in Dublin. That's something we don't normally do-- playing something that we haven't really figured out-- but it felt really good. It's funny, nobody seemed to notice it, they all just wanted to hear, like, the songs that they came to hear, but it was really good for us to do."

As for the new jam's title? "I can't remember what he's calling it. You know, he may have been calling it 'The Blue Sky', although that's the name of an Allman Brothers song [actually "Blue Sky" --ed.], so we might have to change that. A really good Allman Brothers song, by the way, with dueling guitar parts!"

The brothers Dessner also continue to run the Brassland label with Alec Hanley Bemis. They'll release Nico Muhly's Mothertongue on July 22, while a new album from Bryce Dessner and co.'s Clogs-- featuring contributions from Aaron, Sufjan Stevens, and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden-- should surface this fall. The label is also planning a U.S. release of Little Blue Nothing, an album from Czech husband-and-wife cello duo Irena Havlová and Vojtěch Havel.

The National:

05-28 San Diego, CA - House of Blues
05-29 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl *
05-31 Berkeley, CA - The Greek Theatre *
06-01 Berkeley, CA - The Greek Theatre *
06-03 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre *
06-05 Saint Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center *
06-06 Chicago, IL - United Center *
06-07 Pontiac, MI - The Crofoot Ballroom
06-08 Toronto, Ontario - Molson Amphitheatre *
06-10 Raleigh, NC - Walnut Creek Amphitheatre *
06-11 Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion *
06-13 Mansfield, MA - Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts *
06-14 Wantagh, NY - Jones Beach Theater *
06-18 Philadelphia, PA - Mann Center for the Performing Arts *
06-19 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden *
06-21 Atlanta, GA - Lakewood Amphitheatre *
06-22 Richmond, VA - The National
06-28 Cergy-Pontoise, France - Furia Sound Festival
06-29 Glastonbury, England - Glastonbury Festival
06-30 Birmingham, England - Academy
07-01 Leeds, England - Met University
07-03 Werchter, Belgium - Rock Werchter
07-04 London, England - O2 Wireless Festival
07-06 Turku, Finland - Ruisrock
07-08 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Mandela Hall
07-10 Lisbon, Portugal - Optimus Alive! Festival
07-12 Naas, Ireland - Oxegen Festival
07-13 Balado, Scotland - T in the Park
07-15 Athens, Greece - Fly Beeyond Festival
07-16 Montreux, Switzerland - Montreux Jazz Festival
07-17 Munich, Germany - Dachau Music Summer
07-18 Guimaraes, Portugal - Centro Cultural Vila Flor
07-20 Benicàssim, Spain - Benicàssim Festival
08-01-03 Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
08-04 New York, NY - Central Park Summerstage #
08-07 Oslo, Norway - Øya Festival
08-08 Gothenburg, Sweden - Way Out West Festival
08-09 Rees-Haldern, Germany - Haldern Pop Festival
08-11 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
08-13 Aarhus, Denmark - Train
08-15 Biddinghuizen, Netherlands - Lowlands Festival
08-17 Crickhowell, Wales - Green Man Festival

* with R.E.M., Modest Mouse
# with Yeasayer, Plants and Animals

John Darnielle, do-gooder, renaissance man.... 02 May 2008

We all know how talented John Darnielle is musically, with the hundreds of songs he's written for his band The Mountain Goats and, anyone that likes metal knows he is a hell of a writer about that genre. He's written for several metal mags and has a regular column in decibel , oh - and his own blog, Last Plane To Jakarta is a favorite bookmark for many.

Now, John has finally written a book ! It's part of the 33 1/3 series of books on classic albums. His is on Master of Reality by Black Sabbath .

If you live in NYC, you are lucky, for 2 reasons.

1) because John will be reading from his book at Housing Works Bookstore as part of their 10th anniversary celebration. His reading is on May 17th, and more info is here !

2) John is also playing a benefit for Aids Walk NYC the day prior, May 16th at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. More info/tickets here!

SO....get out, support bookstores, give to charities and support independent music!

Stereolab New Album!!! 24 Apr 2008

We're delighted to confirm what the eagle eyed among you have already spotted, Stereolab's forthcoming new album, Chemical Chords, is indeed being released by Duophonic UHF Disks / 4AD on August 19th (August 18th for those outside the US).

New Mountain Goats video directed by Ace Norton 04 Feb 2008

Check out the new Mountain Goats video directed by the Doogie Howser of music videos Ace Norton (Bloc Party, Simian Mobile Disco, Aesop Rock, etc.) Sax Rohmer #1 is the first video from the forthcoming album 'Heretic Pride' and the video is a creative (and delightfully nauseating) journey through the legendary lyricism of Mountain Goats mastermind John Darnielle.

GO HERE TO SEE IT

Seen & Heard: Beggars Group Film & TV Update For November 29 Nov 2007

Hey guys, sorry for the delay, but we're back with a pretty exciting update for ya...So pls tune in!

BADLY DRAWN BOY
"I Love N.Y.E." (From the About a Boy OST)Is featured  for 2 months in the USA and Canada in the Starbucks holiday campaign spots both on tv & online.
Start date:  November 21st  Watch it here:  http://www.starbucks.com/flash/externalShell/sbux_holidaySpots.html
 

HOLY FUCK
"Frenchy's" was featured in CBS series CSI NY (episode # 408).  Scene description:  stylized montage CSI detective Lindsay Monroe is processing of a purse for evidence in an ongoing investigation.   Air Date:  November 14th

MOJAVE 3
"Big Star Baby" is featured in the new Gregg Araki film Smiley Face.  Scene Description:  4 min. BV Song plays as Jane & Mikey are stuck in traffic.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780608/
The film will have a very limited theatrical release and will play in Los Angeles at the NuArt Theater in West L.A. starting November 16, 2007. Though, if you can’t make it to the theater Smiley Face will release on DVD on January 8, 2008.

THE NATIONAL
"Start A War" is featured the ABC series Brothers & Sisters (episode #209).  Series description:  A family in LA deals with life's trials & tribulations after the death of the not so perfect patriarch. Scene Description:  BV approv 2:30 Kevin & Scotty talk after Kitty & McCallister's wedding.  Air Date 12/2/07

EMMA POLLOCK
"THE OPTIMIST" was featured on the new CBS series starring Jimmy Smits Cane (episode #008 ) Scene description: Frank & Ellis are on his yacht & he tells her he wants to go public with their relationship.   Air Date:  11/13/07

VOXTROT
"Ghost" is featured on the Yurman website in a online ad for a new watch design called Waverly Watch. Link: www.davidyurman.com Air Date: November 2007 - November 2008.

BEST,
JL&BG
 

Emma Pollock's US Tour Is Almost Over :( 13 Nov 2007

We need to bid Emma Pollock Bon Voyage as she is heading back to Scotland tomorrow. But before she leaves these shores she has one remaining show! You Los Angeles-ites! Don't forget that Emma Pollock is playing there tonight at The Echo ! This is the last date of her US jaunt which included many shows with The New Pornographers . Emma and her band are amazing live and you West Coasters have been lucky in that you get to see their full headlining set. Here is one review If you can't make the show (for instance, if you don't live in LA) feel free to go out and purchase her debut album Watch The Fireworks.

Seen & Heard: Beggars Grp Film & TV Update For the week starting Nov 5th 09 Nov 2007

DEVENDRA BANHART
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/

BLONDE REDHEAD
"Spring And By Summer Fall" was featured in the CBS series Numb3rs (ep # 405). Series Description: FBI agent recruits his mathematical genius brother to help solve complicated LA cases. Scene Decription: BV 6:21 Bank lobby/tunnel alarm sounds annoyed security guard talks to dispatch Moe & Curly listen in. Air Date: Oct 26th

Have a great weekend everybody!
Best,
Jenn

This week's new BEGGARS GROUP releases 07 Nov 2007

We would like to welcome these fabulous records to our world this week.

Johann Johannsson Englaborn (Reissue)
This is Johann’s debut solo album and we’re re-releasing it! Jóhann Jóhannsson is one of the most active participants in the new Icelandic music scene. He has one of the founders of Kitchen Motors, an art organization/think tank/record label, he has produced and written music with artists as diverse as Marc Almond ("Stranger Things" album), Barry Adamson and Pan Sonic, The Hafler Trio, Magga Stina and many others. He has also written music for the theatre, documentaries and soundtrack music for 3 feature films. Englaborn is Jóhann's first solo album. It is derived from music he wrote for an Icelandic play of the same name. The music is written for string quartet, piano, organ, glockenspiel and percussion. These elements were processed and manipulated, adding delicate electronic backgrounds to the otherwise entirely acoustic recordings. “This first solo album from Jóhann Jóhannsson is absolutely beautiful, and it has only become more so over the past few months, sustaining me for long periods of time when other music just wouldn't do the trick.” – Pitchfork Media

Sigur Ros Hvarf / Heim
Hvarf and Heim are twin Sigur Ros records, released in support of the band’s first ever film, Heima. They will be released together on CD on Nov 5, 2007. It’s more complicated than this, but effectively Hvarf is the electric side and Heim is the acoustic side. The five tracks that make up ‘Hvarf’ are new recordings of songs taken from various points in Sigur Ros’s history. Three of them have never been released on record before, either because they were not recorded in the first place, or because they were recorded and then not included on a finished album. The other two, ‘Von’ and ‘Hafsol’, are radical reworkings of songs from the band’s first (pre-Kjartan, pre-Orri) album, with latter being available in limited form as the b-side to ‘Hoppipolla’ single. The six songs that make up ‘Heim’ are acoustic versions of material taken from all four Sigur Ros’s albums. They were recorded in Iceland either during the band’s summer 2006 tour or early this spring. All songs are live recordings.

Lisa Gerrard Best Of
As this one-disc retrospective collection makes clear, Lisa Gerrard is one of the most singular and fascinating singers and composers in the world. Her career takes in almost two decades with Dead Can Dance, award-winning motion picture soundtracks and a series of acclaimed solo and collaborative albums. This 15 track survey offers a concise and convincing insight into the various strands of her musical output.

The Beggars Group is invading Austin and FUN FUN FUN fest! 02 Nov 2007

We've got a bunch of bands coming through for this year's Fun Fun Fun Fest ,
taking place this weekend (Nov 3rd and 4th) at Waterloo Park in Austin, TX.

Check them out!

Cat Power & The Dirty Delta Blues Band (Matador)The Cave Singers (Matador)
Celebration (4AD)
Emma Pollock (4AD)
The New Pornographers (Matador)

Here are their set times, YAY!!!
Saturday, November 3rd

Stage 1


Emma Pollock - (2:35-3:05)

New Pornographers - (7:35-8:35)


Sunday, November 4th

Stage 1

Cave Singers - (2:10-2:40)

Celebration - (2:45-3:15)

Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues - (8:40-9:40)

Seen & Heard: Beggars Group Film & TV Update 29 Oct 2007

The Mountain Goats "This Year"gets 'playlisted' by one of the characters (Karl) from the  new series Big Shots on ABC, chk it out:
http://abc.go.com/primetime/bigshots/index?pn=Playlists#t=0&d=26601


THE NATIONAL
"FAKE EMPIRE" is featured in the TV TRAILERS for the United Artists/MGM film Lions For Lambs, directed by Robert Redford & starring Meryl Streep & Tom Cruise.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0891527/  Start date:  THIS WEEK!!

 RJD2
"Get It" was featured in the opening scene of CBS series CSI:  NY (episode #404).   Episode title "Times Up" & you can view it here:   http://alpha.cbs.com/primetime/csi_ny/
Scene description:  BI :40 sec.  Naked, bloody man runs down the street into the police station & whispers into detective Taylors ear then dies.  Air Date:  Oct 17th

The New York Times Arts blog on CMJ 19 Oct 2007

We have a ton of bands playing at CMJ this week, and the New York Times has written kindly about a couple of them so far on their arts blog .

Nice things on VAMPIRE WEEKEND + CELEBRATION so far...

Neatness matters to Vampire Weekend, who played a concise afternoon
set of snappy little pop songs at the Cake Shop. Neatness always
matters or snappy little pop bands, but Vampire Weekend is the only
one with a chorus that goes “Is your bed made?” Of course, there’s
more to that question than housekeeping.

Vampire Weekend’s songs are terse clockwork constructions that equate
cooperation with mutual avoidance. If the guitar is playing chords,
the keyboard isn’t, or vice versa; if the rhythm section is playing
downbeats, the guitar is on off-beats, and if vocals or keyboards have
a sustained melody, everyone else is staccato. One band member
introduced various songs as “jams,” although they are emphatically
not jams, since every note is locked in its clever place. The lyrics
take up romance (on and off-campus), lies and, often, real estate,
from mansard roofs to brownstones in San Juan. It’s not just that the
band comes from real-estate-obsessed New York CIty; it’s that in
Vampire Weekend’s songs, every millimeter of space counts.

To speed his set up, David Bergander, the drummer for the Baltimore group Celebration, assembled his drum kit on the sidewalk outside Piano’s this afternoon; the Manhattan club was crowded for a free showcase organized by the blog BrooklynVegan. Celebration had performed with the Brooklyn act Dragons of Zynth at Union Pool in Williamsburg on Tuesday night. Then the two bands hung out together until 4:30 a.m. at the friend’s Williamsburg apartment where Celebration was staying, Mr. Bergander said. How did the members prepare for their Piano’s show, their last at this year’s Marathon? “We slept in,” Mr. Bergander said. “The last time we played CMJ, two years ago, we did a Fader showcase at like 2 p.m., completely hungover.” This time, after an afternoon breakfast of Korean food, they were ready to play.

Listen as Katrina Ford, the singer of the Baltimore band Celebration, talks about how she’ll prepare for their upcoming tour: here(by Melena Ryzik and Jeremy Beiler)

Seen & Heard: Beggars Group Film & TV Update For The week of 10/15/07 19 Oct 2007

Mojave 3
No Matter What You Do (Their Love cover) will be featured in the Miramax/Disney film Gone Baby Gone, directed by Ben Affleck & stars Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman, & Ed Harrris.  Scene Description:  1:52 BV Song plays in a  rundown slum where drug addicts meet.  Two of the lead characters enter the house investigating a child's abduction.   Release date:  Oct. 19th in the U.S.

Seen & Heard: Beggars Group Film & TV update for the week of 9/3/07 07 Sep 2007

MARK LANEGAN
ONE HUNDRED DAYS is featured in the FX series Rescue Me (episode #412). Scene Description: BV BV: 2 Uses: Up to 3:45 (approximate timing) – Tommy sneaks into a burning building wearing Jimmy Keefe’s bunker jacket, he saves, and makes-out with a rather drunk woman. Despite a huge blinding explosion, they make it out safely. Tommy leaves her in an alley where EMT’s find her, and walks off unnoticed. 2nd Use: End credits. Air Date: September 5th.

THE NATIONAL
"Fake Empire" appears in the Canadian feature film Battle In Seattle Film Description: BV & End Credits - This film, which stars Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, Ray Liotta and directed by Stuart Townsend, is about the 5 days that rocked the world in 1999 as tens of thousands of demonstrators took the streets in protest of the World Trade Organization. Release date: September 8, 2007 at Toronto International Film Festival

PIXIES
"Gouge Away" off of Doolittle will appear in the snowboarding film Catch The Vapors. Film Description: BV The fast paced snowboarding visuals will be edited to the beat of the music, keeping the integrity of the song while offering excellent representation of the artist. In essence, it has a similar format as a music video. Release date: September 4th, 2007

GARY NUMAN
"Are Friends Electric" will be featured in a snowboarding and lifestyle film titled "Thanks In Advance." Release Date: Sept 4th, 2007.

The National on Letterman 03 May 2007

Brooklyn's favorite sons have been added to the late night TV rotation and confirmed an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman on Tuesday July 24th. We are now starting to worry that band might be getting over exposed but it makes us positively giddy to think Paul Schaffer might just be tickling the ivories with our guys.

Johann Johannsson on "The World" 20 Feb 2007

PRI's "The World" ran a wonderful 8 minute piece on 4AD's Johann johannsson and his amazing album. You can use internet explorer or safari to listen.

http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/8152

AN INTRO TO THE PIECE:

Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker is about a dream a girl has after her cherished Nutcracker is broken.

So -- if that archaic and simple piece of technology deserves a symphony and a ballet, does that mean an early computer merits the same kind of respect?

This composition is dedicated to an early computer.

It's called "IBM 1401 -- A User's Manual." The 1401 was first built in 1959. And for many around the world, it was their first encounter with a modern computer. Some of the sound you hear is actually generated by a 1401. The rest was performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic.

The man who composed that music is from Iceland. His name is Johann Johannsson. And he has a close personal history with the IBM 1401.

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