[News] The Chieftains collaborate with Bon Iver, The Decemberists, and more

The Chieftains are to celebrate their 50th year in 2012 with a new studio album featuring collaborations with a host of, as they put it, "like-minded musical visionaries and kindred spirits." to answer your obvious question of "who are these kindred spirits?!", here you go: Titled Voice of Ages, it's set to feature the collaborative efforts of Justin Vernon and Bon Iver, The Decemberists, Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Civil Wars, Paolo Nutini, The Low Anthem, The Secret Sisters, and Lisa Hannigan and many more. To me, it sounds like a musical cauldron of promiscuity that will result in musical babies of joy, but that's just me.

Along with that the band have announced a rather large tour of the U.S. for early next year rolling into the UK later in 2012 for more dates. Check them out after the jump.

Voice of Ages is set for release on the 21st of February through Hear/Concorde.

The Chieftains 2012 Tour Dates:

02/17 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Campbell Hall
02/18 – Aliso Viejo, CA @ Soka Performing Arts Center
02/19 – Tucson, AZ @ Centennial Hall
02/21 – San Francisco, CA @ Davis Symphony Hall
02/22 – Davis, CA @ Jackson Hall/Mondavi Center
02/24 – Athens, GA @ Classic Center
02/25 – Birmingham, AL @ Alys Stevens POPAC
02/27 – Edmond, OK @ Armstrong Auditorium PAC
02/28 – Forth Worth, TX @ Bass Hall
02/29 – San Antonio, TX @ Lila Cockrell Theatre
03/02 – Chicago, IL @ Orchestra Hall
03/03 – Cedar Falls, IA @ Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center
03/04 – Minneapolis, MN @ Orchestra Hall
03/06 – Carmel, IN @ The Palladium
03/07 – Kansas City, MO @ Helzberg Hall
03/09 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kimmel Center
03/10 – Newark, NJ @ New Jersey Performing Arts Center
03/12 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Sandler PAC
03/14 – Boston, MA @ Symphony Hall
03/16  - Washington, DC @ Kennedy Center
03/17 – New York, NY @ Carnegie Hall
05/29 – Dublin, IE @ Grand Canal Theatre
06/01 – Brighton, UK @ Dome
06/02 – Bristol, UK @ Colston Hall
06/03 – Cardiff, UK @ St. David’s Hall
06/05 – Birmingham, UK @ Symphony Hall
06/06 – Sheffield, UK @ City Hall
06/08 – London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall
06/10 – Liverpool, UK @ Philharmonic Hall
06/12 – York, UK @ Barbican
06/13 – Manchester, UK @ The Bridgewater Hall
06/15 – Newcastle, UK @ City Hall
06/16 – Glasgow, UK @ Clyde Auditorium

[News] Air to release new album titled 'Le Voyage Dans La Lune'

French duo Air have announced they are to release a new album in the new year on February the 7th titled Le Voyage Dans La Lune. The album is said to be inspired by the 1902 short film of the same name from Georges Méliès'. The duo worked on the recent re-release and updated version of the film earlier in the year prior to its Cannes Film Festival debut. Taking inspiration from a silent film should make for some very interesting listening indeed come February and the record will also feature some guest vocals from Beach House's Victoria Legrand too.

Le Voyage Dans La Lune is set for release on the 7th of February via  Astralwerks and will come with a limited edition version of the aforementioned short silent film. The tracklist can be peeped after the jump.

Le Voyage Dans La Lune Tracklist:
01. Astronomic Club
02. Seven Stars
03. Retour sur terre
04. Parade
05. Moon Fever
06. Sonic Armada
07. Who Am I Know?
08. Décollage
09. Cosmic Trip
10. Homme lune
11.Lava

[News] Muse Are Back In The Studio

Rejoice, for the 3 men from Devon are getting back into the studio and jamming out some new songs. Our good friend Sami at Rock It Out Blog points towards the twitter page of the new Dad in the band and the guitar baring Matt Bellamy, on which he states: "About to start some recording tomorrow. What musical direction shall we go in?." It's worth noting it appears they have been in the studio for a month or so tracking back through the pictures they've uploaded. Peep the photographic evidence at the top for one featuring Matt, Dom and a 'stache baring Chris who is partaking in Movember. Matt, obviously isn't and instead uses a big ass paint brush to join in.

In relation to the recording process, and what kind of direction the band are set to go in after the Orchestral epic that was their 2010 LP Resistance, Matt, being his comedic self took to twitter and exclaimed "Ok, will start on christian gangsta rap jazz odyssey, some ambient rebellious dubstep and face melting metal flamenco cowboy psychedelia." Obviously we're probably not looking at the magic mushroom jams that led to Origin of Symmetry but these guys sure know how to embrace a new direction and I'm sure this picture and news will add a smile to some faces around the world. 

Anthony Addis the band's manager told Billboard.biz, "Hopefully, [the album] might come out October next year. They’ve written a lot of material already but you don’t know how it’s going to gel between them all. They write constantly. They write on the road, so before or after a gig they’ll write nearly every night. It’s a serious process, but you don’t know how it’s going to turn out [until] you start practicing it together, because everybody’s done it individually." 

Big up to Sami for the heads up on this. We'll update you with more news as an when we have it. For now, I'm going to get my Muse geek on.

[News] Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band Plan World Tour & Album For 2012

The Boss and the almighty E Street Band will be making a hell of a lot of people happy with this news. Bruce Springsteen will follow through with plans for a new album despite the passing of the late great saxophonist (and founding member) Clarence Clemons. On the band's official site it says a European tour scheduled between May and July 2012 will be announced this coming week, while other dates incl. the U.S. and the rest of the world will be announced soon too. Good news eh. Here's some even better news. A few moments ago the band announced they will be headlining the Isle of Wight Festival along with Hard Rock Calling in London as well as a Manchester and Sunderland date. See below for dates.

UK Dates so far:

21 June Sunderland, England, Stadium of Light

22 June Manchester, England, Etihad Stadium

24 June Isle of Wight, England, Isle of Wight Festival 

14 July London, England

[Listen x News] Three New Radiohead Remixes, Announce 2012 European Dates

Following the success of The King of Limbs Radiohead have announced their first European dates for 2012. The bands upcoming tour dates can be found after the jump but the dates announced include 4 dates in Italy and one in Germany. They have also posted three new remixes that didn't make it in time for the vinyl release of TKOL RMX 1234567. The three mixes are Jamie xx's new take on "Bloom", Nathan Fake's tackles "Morning Mr. Magpie", and Anstam's reworking of "Separator". Happy listening and peep the tour dates after the jump.

Radiohead 2012 Tour Dates:

02-27 Miami, FL - American Airlines Arena
02-29 Tampa, FL - St. Pete Times Forum
03-01 Atlanta, GA - Philips Arena
03-03 Houston, TX - Toyota Center
03-05 Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center
03-07 Austin, TX - Frank Erwin Center
03-09 St. Louis, MO - Scottrade Center
03-11 Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center
03-13 Broomfield, CO - 1st Bank Center
03-15 Glendale, AZ - Jobing.com Arena
06-30 Rome, Italy - Hyppodrome Capanelle 
07-01 Florence, Italy - Parco Delle Cascine
07-03 Bologna, Italy - Piazza Maggiore
07-04 Codroipo, Italy - Villa Manin
07-06 Berlin, Germany - Wuhlheide

[News] Metronomy To Hit The Road In Spring 2012

In addition to prepping for their December 6th release of their remix EP Everything Goes My Way, Metronomy has also announced North American tour dates for spring of 2012. The Mercury Prize nominated band will kick off their tour in Atlanta, GA at The Masquerade and will be hitting cities in both Canada and the US.

The remix EP will feature remixes from Ewan Pearson, Jesse Rose, Psychermagik and Enchante. You can grab a listen of the Ewan Pearson remix below:

Metronomy - Everything Goes My Way (Ewan Pearson Remix) by Big Beat Records

METRONOMY TOUR DATES:
Sun Mar 25 - Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
Tue Mar 27 - Washington, DC @ Rock N Roll Hotel
Wed Mar 28 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theater of Living Arts
Fri Mar 30 - New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
Sat Mar 31 - Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
Sun Apr 1 - Montreal, QC @ Metropolis Theatre
Mon Apr 2 - Toronto, ON @ The Hoxton
Wed Apr 4 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
Thu Apr 5 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
Sun Apr 8 - Vancouver, BC @ The Venue
Mon Apr 9 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos
Tue Apr 10 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
Thu Apr 12 - San Francisco, CA @ Slim's

[News] Smith Westerns Unveil 2012 Tour Dates, Make Plans For LP #3

Earlier today Smith Westerns announced tour dates for early 2012. I know, there aren't 400 tour dates covering every small town in the US and every big city worldwide. It's a bit of a bummer, but this is actually good news for the Chicago trio because after this short stint of dates they're locking themselves in the studio and plan to not come out until album #3 is complete.

After much success with their sophomore album Dye It Blonde it's hard to not be happy that we'll be getting more music from them next year (which is just around the corner now!).

Fri 1/27 TORONTO, ON Horseshoe *#
Sat 1/28 MONTREAL, PQ Il Motore *#
Sun 1/29 BOSTON, MA Paradise *#
Tue 1/31 NEW YORK, NY Webster Hall *#
Wed 2/1 WASHINGTON, DC Black Cat *#
Fri 2/3 CHICAGO, IL Metro *#
Sat 2/4 MILWAUKEE, WI Turner Hall *#
 
# = w/ Porcelain Raft
* = w/ Bleached 

Tell Congress To Stop The Stop Online Piracy Act TODAY!

Our government is trying to let themselves and major corporations control OUR internet. There are currently two bills being debated in Congress right now, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) that would grant copyright owners (record labels, movie companies, etc.) the unmatched power to shut down or block websites that host even a single piece of copyright-infringing material. That means that, for example, if Soundcloud had ONE piece of infringing content on it, the entire site could be shut down until the the content is removed. That doesn't even cover sites who have embedded Soundcloud players onto their sites. There's the possibility that those sites could be disabled until Soundcloud cooperates.

Imagine seeing this on SKOA because of a song that a label randomly decided to become proactive on and want taken down from either us directly or from Soundcloud:

That's wayyyyyy too much power for people who have already been suing 12 year olds and grandmothers to be granted.

Basically, SOPA and PIPA would be granting all of this power so that the entertainment industry could potentially sell more units. All a big corporation would have to do is convince a judge that a site is "dedicated to copyright infringement" and you could kiss that site goodbye. Website owners could potentially face having their US traffic blocked, being blocked in search engines, even having their ad revenue blocked. This could affect a multitude of websites, from yours truely to Vimeo, Flickr, Twitter, Reddit, Digg and everything in between. It could even censor links you send in your personal email or IM conversations!

Bills like these will not stop piracy. People who are hellbent on pirating movies, music, etc. always find a way. These bills are both worded so vaguely that who's to say they won't be abused and end up silence our Freedom of Speech. Stop for a moment and think about when it gets closer to election time. There's always some sort of song parody about a candidate or one of the laws that needs to be passed. What if those were silenced because the person who created the parody didn't receive permission first? Not to mention you could kiss every single amateur cover song goodbye (granted, for some people who upload videos, they'd be doing us a favor, but still). We already have laws in place for piracy. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) already requires that websites take down infringing content once they've been notified of it. Plenty of us have been taken to dead links that were formally alive and full of content we really should have been paying for. requiring that the entire site be taken down over one piece of content is completely absurd.

For those of you outside of the US who are taking the time to read this and think this doesn't apply to you, it totally does. Typically the US sets precedents for Internet law around the globe, which means these kinds of laws could be creeping up in your country sooner rather than later.

Can you imagine what our internet would look like if that were to happen? It makes me nauseous just thinking about it.

This is where you guys come in. We can make a difference about this, we just have to make our voices heard. We need to get loud.

How can you help? Sign this petition. Share our post with all of your friends. Contact your Senators and Congressmen. Read and pass along articles from groups like Electronic Frontier Foundation, Plagarism Today, and many more.