bananastasi
- Thu, Jul 22, 2010, 12:55 A
Weekly Band E-Mail #137.0 NEWS July 22nd, 2010
WEEKLY BAND E-MAIL #137.0 July 22nd, 2010
By BRIAN ANASTASI bananastasi@comcast.net
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The new CD by Chicopee hardcore group Acacia Strain, "Wormwood", was released on Tuesday, July 20th. noisecreep.com has this to say about the album:
Seeing that the Acacia Strain are too white for black metal, we're guessing the band didn't decide to title their new album, "Wormwood," after the Marduk record of the same name that came out last year. But on July 20, the Acacia Strain will, indeed, release "Wormwood" to the masses, frontman Vincent Bennett revealed in a June 5th YouTube post.
The band previously announced that it would reveal the title of the album once a fan guessed the correct title in a contest on Twitter. After the Acacia Strain revealed just just two letters, a fan named EricThorgeldsen guessed the correct title.
"Wormwood" is the follow-up to 2008's widely acclaimed "Continent." "We worked just as hard if not harder on this album as we did on 'Continent,'" Bennett said. "We took an entire block of time off of touring and our lives in general to focus 100 percent on the creation of 'Wormwood.'"
Wormwood is a species of plant used to create the hallucinogenic alcoholic drink absinthe. Wormwood is also the name of a star which crashes to earth and poisons the water. We'll leave it to you to guess which meaning the Acacia Strain draw from for the album, but it's probably not the same one Marduk embraced.
"Where we normally write a record with a theme already attached to it, this time around we wrote a record and the theme developed as we went," Bennett said, refusing to reveal the exact theme. "We wanted to do something that was still Acacia Strain, but broke away from the mold that has been struck by all the bands these days that we seem to get grouped in with. All the songs have their own dynamic instead of writing an album filled with like-sounding songs. This is the heaviest record we have ever written, and these are the most personal lyrics I have ever written."
"Wormwood" got a favorable review from music critic Dave Wedge in the Boston Herald on Tuesday, July 20th. Wedge called the album "infectious". In the article, Vince Bennett says “Basically the whole record is about the true nature of man - that man is inherently evil. We’re born to kill and we’re born to destroy. We’re all a little sadistic inside. (It’s about) just the obvious nastiness in all of humanity.”
'Wormwood' was recorded at Planet Z Studios in Hadley, Mass. with Zeuss (Hatebreed, Chimera, Shadows Fall) producing, mixing and mastering.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Eli "Paperboy" Reed is saying goodbye to his trumpet player Patriq Moody. Eli says that Patriq is moving on to pursue his own projects. Patriq was the first and only trumpet player that The True Loves, Eli's backing band, ever had. Before Patriq joined The True Loves, the group had only two tenor saxophones and a trombone. Patriq is leaving The True Loves to pursue his solo project The Bloks, which you can check out at
http://www.myspace.com/thebloks
As for Eli and The True Loves, their new CD, "Come and Get It," was released in the U.K. on May 10th, and will be released in the U.S. on Tuesday, August 10th. The U.K. release earned Eli and the group a mention on the front page and a five page story in the July 2010 issue of MOJO magazine. Meanwhile, you can listen to three tracks from the new CD, "Come and Get It," "Explosion," and "Time Will Tell" at Eli's website,
http://www.elipaperboyreed.com/
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
It appears that Brooks Williams, a singer-songwriter who started his career and lived all over western Massachusetts, is now a permanent citizen of the U.K. Brooks made the announcement in his monthly newsletter which went out to fans on Friday, July 16th. Brooks may be smiling now, but perhaps someone should get him to give another listen to The Beatles song "Taxman" from "Revolver":
Let me tell you how it will be;
There's one for you, nineteen for me.
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all.
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
if you drive a car, I’ll tax the street;
if you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat;
if you get too cold I’ll tax the heat;
if you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
And you're working for no one but me....
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The annual Northampton Sidewalk Sales will be this weekend on Main Street beginning Friday, July 23rd. Music will be a part of the Friday night activities, with the Salvation Alley String Band playing at 5pm, The Fawns playing at 6pm, and School for the Dead playing at 7pm. This show is obviously free and open to the public. Just look towards where the music is coming from.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The 20th annual Newburyport Blues Cruise will be this Saturday night, July 24th. The annual Yankee Homecoming Fireworks Blues Cruise will feature blues and gospel vocalist Sweet Willie D., blues harmonica player Parker Wheeler, and guitarist J. Laite. Also featured will be bass guitarist John O'Connor and percussionist Greg Roberts.
This three hour sunset cruise, aboard the Captain's Lady II, departs from Plum Island Point in Newburyport. Tickets are $36.50, which includes a $4.50 processing fee. The cruise usually sells out, so call (978) 462-3141 the day of the event for further information. Rain date is the following evening, Sunday, July 25th. For more information including directions, go to http://www.newburyportbluescruise.com/
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The big benefit for Girls Rock Camp Boston will be at T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge this Sunday, July 25th, beginning at 1pm. Performing will be many girl- and women-fronted bands as well as all girl and women bands, including the Aerochix, Boston's only all-girl tribute to Aerosmith, Robin Lane, and Lady Lamb the Beekeeper. This is an all-ages show, and tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for kids. For more info, go to:
http://www.girlsrockboston.org and click on Benefit Shows at the top of the page.
The complete schedule of acts appears in this week's LISTINGS edition of the Weekly Band E-Mail.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Beginning in the late 1960s, music fans would look forward to summer when they could see the really big acts of the time play outside at outdoor venues such as Great Woods in Mansfield or Sullivan Stadium in Foxboro. Tickets to these shows were often $10-$20, with maybe a couple of bucks more for parking. But then Live Nation began buying up a lot of these venues, with Ticketmaster handling the ticketing for these shows.
On Wednesday, July 14th, the Board of Directors of Live Nation, including Irving Azoff, executive chair, and Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer, presented a PowerPoint slide show to specially invited investors at Irving Plaza in New York City. You can download and view the slide show here:
http://bit.ly/cBO2Do
This is a huge .pdf file, so you will need high speed internet and loads of memory to access it.
Once you have downloaded the slide show, go to page 17, where you will see the "old model" on the left side, which says that it takes about five years from the time an act first writes a group of songs for an album, to the "new model" on the right side, which says that it now takes only three months for an act to accomplish the same thing!
If you dig deeper into the slide show, you will quickly see Live Nation's plan for global domination of the concert industry. But it doesn't stop there. Live Nation wants to get into other areas of entertainment as well, including sporting events and movies. Can you imagine the individual Showcase Cinema theaters here in Massachusetts being re-branded as the Empire Today Cinemas? Or how about Fenway Park being re-branded as 1-800-WIN-WIN1 Park? Don't think that's possible? Check out the 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida.
It is obvious to me that Live Nation does not need my publicity. Therefore, beginning with this week's LISTINGS issue, I will no longer be carrying listings for the Bank of America Pavillion, the Paradise Rock Club, or the House of Blues back room in Boston, the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Showcase Live in Foxboro, the South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset, and the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis. This will free up space for smaller venues each week.
I will continue to list the shows featuring local bands in the front room of the House of Blues every week because they are free and therefore do not involve Ticketmaster. I realize that you can get tickets through Ticketmaster for shows at the Middle East and T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge, and for shows at Great Scott and O'Brien's Pub in Allston. But these four clubs have always been supportive of local music, so I will continue to list them.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The latest issue of Forbes Magazine has come out with a list of the top money-making musical acts in the world. Their Top 10 is as follows:
1. U2 $130 million
2. AC/DC $114 million
3. Beyonce Knowles $87 million
4. Bruce Springsteen $70 million
5. Britney Spears $64 million
6. Jay-Z $63 million
7. Lady GaGa $62 million
8. Madonna $58 million
9. Kenny Chesney $50 million
10. Black Eyed Peas (tie) $48 million
10. Coldplay (tie) $48 million
10. Toby Keith (tie) $48 million
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Forty-five years ago this Sunday, July 25th, Bob Dylan shocked everybody by going electric at the Newport R.I. Folk Festival. For details on what happened that night, check out the excerpt from Robert Shelton's book "No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan," here:
http://biit.ly/9hn4IM
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Information for the Weekly Band E-Mail is taken directly from venue,
band, and musician web sites, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace pages,
as well as blogs, posters, flyers, and e-mails..
Brian Anastasi assumes no responsibility for errors on these sources.
By BRIAN ANASTASI bananastasi@comcast.net
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The new CD by Chicopee hardcore group Acacia Strain, "Wormwood", was released on Tuesday, July 20th. noisecreep.com has this to say about the album:
Seeing that the Acacia Strain are too white for black metal, we're guessing the band didn't decide to title their new album, "Wormwood," after the Marduk record of the same name that came out last year. But on July 20, the Acacia Strain will, indeed, release "Wormwood" to the masses, frontman Vincent Bennett revealed in a June 5th YouTube post.
The band previously announced that it would reveal the title of the album once a fan guessed the correct title in a contest on Twitter. After the Acacia Strain revealed just just two letters, a fan named EricThorgeldsen guessed the correct title.
"Wormwood" is the follow-up to 2008's widely acclaimed "Continent." "We worked just as hard if not harder on this album as we did on 'Continent,'" Bennett said. "We took an entire block of time off of touring and our lives in general to focus 100 percent on the creation of 'Wormwood.'"
Wormwood is a species of plant used to create the hallucinogenic alcoholic drink absinthe. Wormwood is also the name of a star which crashes to earth and poisons the water. We'll leave it to you to guess which meaning the Acacia Strain draw from for the album, but it's probably not the same one Marduk embraced.
"Where we normally write a record with a theme already attached to it, this time around we wrote a record and the theme developed as we went," Bennett said, refusing to reveal the exact theme. "We wanted to do something that was still Acacia Strain, but broke away from the mold that has been struck by all the bands these days that we seem to get grouped in with. All the songs have their own dynamic instead of writing an album filled with like-sounding songs. This is the heaviest record we have ever written, and these are the most personal lyrics I have ever written."
"Wormwood" got a favorable review from music critic Dave Wedge in the Boston Herald on Tuesday, July 20th. Wedge called the album "infectious". In the article, Vince Bennett says “Basically the whole record is about the true nature of man - that man is inherently evil. We’re born to kill and we’re born to destroy. We’re all a little sadistic inside. (It’s about) just the obvious nastiness in all of humanity.”
'Wormwood' was recorded at Planet Z Studios in Hadley, Mass. with Zeuss (Hatebreed, Chimera, Shadows Fall) producing, mixing and mastering.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Eli "Paperboy" Reed is saying goodbye to his trumpet player Patriq Moody. Eli says that Patriq is moving on to pursue his own projects. Patriq was the first and only trumpet player that The True Loves, Eli's backing band, ever had. Before Patriq joined The True Loves, the group had only two tenor saxophones and a trombone. Patriq is leaving The True Loves to pursue his solo project The Bloks, which you can check out at
http://www.myspace.com/thebloks
As for Eli and The True Loves, their new CD, "Come and Get It," was released in the U.K. on May 10th, and will be released in the U.S. on Tuesday, August 10th. The U.K. release earned Eli and the group a mention on the front page and a five page story in the July 2010 issue of MOJO magazine. Meanwhile, you can listen to three tracks from the new CD, "Come and Get It," "Explosion," and "Time Will Tell" at Eli's website,
http://www.elipaperboyreed.com/
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
It appears that Brooks Williams, a singer-songwriter who started his career and lived all over western Massachusetts, is now a permanent citizen of the U.K. Brooks made the announcement in his monthly newsletter which went out to fans on Friday, July 16th. Brooks may be smiling now, but perhaps someone should get him to give another listen to The Beatles song "Taxman" from "Revolver":
Let me tell you how it will be;
There's one for you, nineteen for me.
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all.
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
if you drive a car, I’ll tax the street;
if you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat;
if you get too cold I’ll tax the heat;
if you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
And you're working for no one but me....
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The annual Northampton Sidewalk Sales will be this weekend on Main Street beginning Friday, July 23rd. Music will be a part of the Friday night activities, with the Salvation Alley String Band playing at 5pm, The Fawns playing at 6pm, and School for the Dead playing at 7pm. This show is obviously free and open to the public. Just look towards where the music is coming from.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The 20th annual Newburyport Blues Cruise will be this Saturday night, July 24th. The annual Yankee Homecoming Fireworks Blues Cruise will feature blues and gospel vocalist Sweet Willie D., blues harmonica player Parker Wheeler, and guitarist J. Laite. Also featured will be bass guitarist John O'Connor and percussionist Greg Roberts.
This three hour sunset cruise, aboard the Captain's Lady II, departs from Plum Island Point in Newburyport. Tickets are $36.50, which includes a $4.50 processing fee. The cruise usually sells out, so call (978) 462-3141 the day of the event for further information. Rain date is the following evening, Sunday, July 25th. For more information including directions, go to http://www.newburyportbluescruise.com/
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The big benefit for Girls Rock Camp Boston will be at T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge this Sunday, July 25th, beginning at 1pm. Performing will be many girl- and women-fronted bands as well as all girl and women bands, including the Aerochix, Boston's only all-girl tribute to Aerosmith, Robin Lane, and Lady Lamb the Beekeeper. This is an all-ages show, and tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for kids. For more info, go to:
http://www.girlsrockboston.org and click on Benefit Shows at the top of the page.
The complete schedule of acts appears in this week's LISTINGS edition of the Weekly Band E-Mail.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Beginning in the late 1960s, music fans would look forward to summer when they could see the really big acts of the time play outside at outdoor venues such as Great Woods in Mansfield or Sullivan Stadium in Foxboro. Tickets to these shows were often $10-$20, with maybe a couple of bucks more for parking. But then Live Nation began buying up a lot of these venues, with Ticketmaster handling the ticketing for these shows.
On Wednesday, July 14th, the Board of Directors of Live Nation, including Irving Azoff, executive chair, and Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer, presented a PowerPoint slide show to specially invited investors at Irving Plaza in New York City. You can download and view the slide show here:
http://bit.ly/cBO2Do
This is a huge .pdf file, so you will need high speed internet and loads of memory to access it.
Once you have downloaded the slide show, go to page 17, where you will see the "old model" on the left side, which says that it takes about five years from the time an act first writes a group of songs for an album, to the "new model" on the right side, which says that it now takes only three months for an act to accomplish the same thing!
If you dig deeper into the slide show, you will quickly see Live Nation's plan for global domination of the concert industry. But it doesn't stop there. Live Nation wants to get into other areas of entertainment as well, including sporting events and movies. Can you imagine the individual Showcase Cinema theaters here in Massachusetts being re-branded as the Empire Today Cinemas? Or how about Fenway Park being re-branded as 1-800-WIN-WIN1 Park? Don't think that's possible? Check out the 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida.
It is obvious to me that Live Nation does not need my publicity. Therefore, beginning with this week's LISTINGS issue, I will no longer be carrying listings for the Bank of America Pavillion, the Paradise Rock Club, or the House of Blues back room in Boston, the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Showcase Live in Foxboro, the South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset, and the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis. This will free up space for smaller venues each week.
I will continue to list the shows featuring local bands in the front room of the House of Blues every week because they are free and therefore do not involve Ticketmaster. I realize that you can get tickets through Ticketmaster for shows at the Middle East and T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge, and for shows at Great Scott and O'Brien's Pub in Allston. But these four clubs have always been supportive of local music, so I will continue to list them.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The latest issue of Forbes Magazine has come out with a list of the top money-making musical acts in the world. Their Top 10 is as follows:
1. U2 $130 million
2. AC/DC $114 million
3. Beyonce Knowles $87 million
4. Bruce Springsteen $70 million
5. Britney Spears $64 million
6. Jay-Z $63 million
7. Lady GaGa $62 million
8. Madonna $58 million
9. Kenny Chesney $50 million
10. Black Eyed Peas (tie) $48 million
10. Coldplay (tie) $48 million
10. Toby Keith (tie) $48 million
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Forty-five years ago this Sunday, July 25th, Bob Dylan shocked everybody by going electric at the Newport R.I. Folk Festival. For details on what happened that night, check out the excerpt from Robert Shelton's book "No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan," here:
http://biit.ly/9hn4IM
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Information for the Weekly Band E-Mail is taken directly from venue,
band, and musician web sites, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace pages,
as well as blogs, posters, flyers, and e-mails..
Brian Anastasi assumes no responsibility for errors on these sources.