Posted in Press Releases

Legendary American soul singer-songwriter Bettye LaVette celebrates 50 years in music by releasing her new studio album Thankful N’ Thoughtful in the UK on Monday 1st October. To mark the UK release, Bettye will perform a rare one-off concert at London’s JazzCafe on Tuesday 11th December. Table reservations: 0207 688 8899, Box Office: 0207 485 6834.

Released by ANTI-Records, the new album is produced by Craig Street (Norah Jones, k.d. lang, Meshell Ndegeocello, John Legend) and features contemporary tracks written and previously recorded by Bob Dylan, The Black Keys, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Patty Griffin, and Gnarls Barkley, and others.

Thankful N’ Thoughtful opens with the funk injected Bob Dylan cut Everything Is Broken and, as Bettye moans and howls the title refrain, you have no dou...

Posted in Press Releases

Edsel Records is proud to announce its reissue programme of the legendary first five albums by the Steve Miller Band, originally released between 1968 and 1970, issued in Special Digipak Editions. The albums will be released on Monday 8th October 2012.

The albums include Children of the Future (1968), Sailor (1968), Brave New World (1969), Your Saving Grace (1969) and Number 5 (1970).

The CD booklets included in the Special Digipak Edition releases feature original artwork, song lyrics, exclusive liner notes written by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Joel Selvin based on new 2012 interviews with Steve Miller, plus rare photos from Miller’s personal archive. All five digitally re-mastered CDs are housed in six panel digipaks.

Steve Miller returns to Europe in October, the tour includes...

Posted in Press Releases

Taking a detour from his main job as lead guitarist for Journey, the multi-talented Neal Schon has put the finishing touches on his latest solo album, The Calling – released by Frontiers Records in the UK on Monday 22nd October. Produced by and featuring Schon on all guitars and bass, The Calling reunites Schon with former Journey bandmate, Steve Smith, who lends his virtuoso drum talents to all 12 tracks on the new album.

Schon set up shop at Berkeley’s famed Fantasy Studios during a break from Journey’s busy touring schedule and recorded the album, completely from scratch, in just four days. After overdubbing multiple guitar and bass parts, Schon recruited two keyboard masters to flesh out the music...

Posted in Press Releases

Sony Legacy Recordings in association with Capo Records, is proud to announce the next series of Rory Gallagher’s classic studio albums re-mastered (1975-1982). All five albums will be released in the UK on Monday 1st October for a limited period in deluxe digi-packaging.

Each album has been digitally re-mastered to stunning effect from the original ¼ inch tapes and features digitally restored original vinyl release album artwork, new booklet content and extensive sleeve notes, original album reviews, rare photographs and bonus tracks. Each of the five albums will be released in three formats including CD, download and vinyl.

Picking up where Rory left off with the phenomenal Irish Tour ‘74 live album, the release of 1975’s Against The Grain, found Rory at the top of his game and i...

Posted in Interviews

I spoke to Skarlett riot shortly after they performed on the Jaegermeister acoustic stage at this years Bloodstock to talk to them about the band and their plans.

Festivalphoto: OK for anyone who isnt familiar with Skarlett riot, can you tell us a bit about the band?

Tom: We’re an agressive hard rock band normally – obviously today was acoustic.
Skarlett: Four piece female fronted.

Festivalphoto: How did you find it today, doing an acoustic set?

Tom: It was brilliant. It was a change from what we normally do.

Festivalphoto: Was it difficult to prepare for it and make sure things worked acoustically?

Tom: We have been rehearsing like crazy – it’s something we don’t normally do...

Posted in Press Releases

ENSIFERUM – FINNISH HEROIC METALLERS POST A 24HR STREAM OF NEW ALBUM ‘UNSUNG HEORES’…

TO CELEBRATE the release of brand new album ‘Unsung Heroes’, Ensiferum, the highly visual troupe who’ve long been a market leader when it comes to stirring, armour-plated anthems, will post a stream of the album in its entirety, available to listen to for 24 hrs.

http://soundcloud.com/spinefarmrecords/sets/unsung-heroes/

The Finnish quintet return to UK soil in September as part of the extensive European ‘Bearers Of The Sword’ tour, accompanied by special guests and fellow Spinefarm artists, Profane Omen.

September 2012:

18 – O2 Academy, Islington, London
19 – Moho, Manchester
20 – Button Factory, Dublin, Ireland
21 – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

Posted in Cd Reviews

SPV/Playground

The title here refers to Lita´s early days of girl band splendor, as well as the bad days of her life. In retrospect I can´t help wondering if it was a call to find out if the other ex-members of THE RUNAWAYS were into the idea of a reunion, which seems to be happening. The aim here is apparently to make music that helps people through hard times, and that requires cozy refrains and a lot of Lita´s 80´s music. Her previous outing, “Wicked Wonderland” was a sleeping pill compared to her glories of old, so I hope this one is destined to see many people out of the darkness and into the light.

Opener “Branded” has some nice energy and a stubborn refrain, but also some gloom. Wee, it sure beats the album before this...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Prime Entertainment/Music Buy Mail/Sound Pollution

WILD FRONTIER releases their fifth album since 1994, one with several meanings to the title. The title actually implies both the birthday of their vocalist Jens Walkenhorst, but also impending doom as 2012 has been prophesized to happen this year. Firering on all six, the five-piece; Jens, vocals/guitars, Mario Erdmann, bass/vocals, Thomas Ellenberger, keyboards/vocals, Sascha Fahrenbach, drums/guitar and Nico Fahrenbach, drums aim to convince with this slice of melodic hard rock.

But alas, this is not what I expected. There is a lot of melody here, loads of flat drums and an overall sound that seems wafer thin. The vocals are mostly good though, and the basic ideas deserve a better faith...

Posted in Interviews

Korpiklaani have just released their new album, Manala. We spoke to Juho Kauppinen, the accordionist of Korpiklaani to talk about the new album…

Festivalphoto: Your new album, Manala has just been released. Firstly where did the name come from?

Juho: Manala means the Underworld. It is a place where you go after you die. Three of the songs on the album are strongly connected with Manala. In addition, the overall feeling of the album is rather gloomy, which is an obvious reason for naming the album after the Underworld.

Festivalphoto: The album sounds great. How would you say it compares to your previous albums?

Juho: To put it simply, Manala is gloomier, heavier and more multi-dimensional than the previous albums...

Posted in Press Releases

EP release: Tiny Teardrops by Lizzie Nightingale
Release date: 6 August 2012
Listen: Click here for Lizzie’s Bandcamp page
Video: Footsteps

”I think it’s a really strong EP, Alone for me being the stand out, grandiose, triumphant and almost cinematic. She has got one damn strong voice.” – Ally McRae, BBC Radio 1

After a successful stint working alongside Libertine Gary Powell, Scottish singer-songwriter Lizzie Nightingale has decided to spread her wings and go solo for the release of her forthcoming E.P Tiny Teardrops, which is available on Lizzie’s Bandcamp page.

Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, Lizzie spent her early years doused in the edgy sounds of Eurythmics, Kate Bush and Bowie as well as a few Motown classics courtesy of her mother (who was a singer and performer)...