Tugboat - Rushes EP

Tugboat is an excellent four-piece dreampop band from Melbourne, Australia. They formed in 1999 and have made two albums and are currently making a five tracks EP:
“At some stage during the next month (September) or so, we will be releasing an EP that will go by the name of Rushes. It will have five songs on it - Round Again, Remain In Light, Flightpath, New Colour and a remix of Round Again by Clare Moore and Dave Graney. It will be very limited (we're only going to make 100 of them) and may or may not be on 3" cd. One or more of the songs will be posted here and on the Tugboat Online Website. More news when we have copies in our hot little hands....”

A track from the new EP Rushes, a remix of Round Again (remixed by Clare Moore and Dave Graney) has been uploaded here on myspace.com/tugboatmusic

Below, some songs from the second album, Two Schools of Thought, released in October 2005 on Pharmacy Records.

• Tugboat - Apples .mp3
• Tugboat - Between Scores .mp3
• Tugboat - Reynard St .mp3

Modern Dylan

Modern Times, Bob Dylan's first new album in five years, will be available on 8/29. Yes, already five long years after the “quite” disappointing Love and Theft who was released on September 11, 2001... What a day!

Bob Dylan Fall ’06 Tour will start in October in North America with support bands like Kings of Leon, Foo Fighters (acoustic) and Jack White and his Raconteurs.

• Bob Dylan - Nettie Moore .mp3 via Razorblade Runner.blogspot
• Website: bobdylan.com/
• Radio: xmradio.com/bobdylan/#modern
  

One Ring Zero

One Ring Zero is Michael Hearst and Joshua Camp. The Brooklyn-based duo has released five CDs, the latest Wake Them Up will be out on September. Accordions, theremins, glockenspiels, and claviolas combine to create One Ring Zero’s latest “Fellini-esque-lit-rock” album Wake Them Up, featuring songs about marching mannequins, decrepit trailer parks, and Siamese twins.

In 2004, One Ring Zero released a complete album of mysterious pop songs with lyrics written for them by seventeen of North America’s bestselling and prize-winning authors (As Smart As We Are released by Barbes Records).

ORZ is scheduled to play at Joe's Pub, NYC, on September 7th, for the Wake Them Up CD Release with special guests Claudia Gonson and Rick Moody.

• One Ring Zero - Here Come The Mannequins .mp3
• One Ring Zero - Natty Man Blues .mp3 (Lyrics by Paul Auster)

• The Website: oneringzero.com
  
• More songs and tour dates on: myspace.com/oneringzero

Yo La Tengo Goodkind

Yo La Tengo upcoming release: I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass (dbl LP/CD). Street Date: Sept 12, 2006 (Sept 4, 2006 in Europe)

Here are more than ten minutes of Rock’n’Roll ala Crazy Horse from Yo La Tengo (Matador’s “America’s Best Band”). Guitar solos and everything, great!

Please, enjoy!

• Yo La Tengo - Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind.mp3 from yolatengo.com
  or
• Yo La Tengo - Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind.mp3 from matadorrecords.com
  

The BellRays @ Cologne

Traveling in Europe since last week-end, I stopped for few days in Cologne and had the chance to read on the local newspaper that The BellRays were in town. Couldn’t miss the opportunity to hear at last that famous “maximum rock and soul” sound as the band like to describe their music. So, I reach in the evening the Sonic Ballroom a small Punk-Rock’n’Roll bar located in the industrial part of the city. A perfect place for loud garage soul/RnR.
The BellRays are from Riverside, in the southern California. It’s a four piece band that has been here and there since more than ten years. Lisa Kekaula on vocals brings the soul sound. Bob Vennum on bass, Tony Fate, on guitar and Craig Waters on drums, the other band members, produce the rocking side. They delivered for almost an hour to a very warm and packed audience a sweat and blood show full of high-energy.
The band is in fact touring Europe now to support the recent release of their latest album Have A Little Faith (May 2nd, 2006) on Cheap Lullaby, a final work that combines - according to the group - two seemingly disparate forms of American music: the raw power of garage rock and the emotional drama of soul.

If you’re interested to hear some songs from that new album, please visit: gloriousnoise.com and listened to songs like:

• The BellRays - Maniac Blues .mp3

or some old ones:

• The BellRays - Blues For Godzilla .mp3
• The BellRays - Hole In The World .mp3
• The BellRays - Dark Horse Pidgeon .mp3

The Website: thebellrays.com

The Transmissionary Six - Radar

The Transmissionary Six, Seattle, Washington, have a new record called Radar. Songs from the CD are available for streaming right down here. Radar will be out August 18 in Europe and in the UK via Glitterhouse. Look for it a bit later in the USA via Portland’s Roslyn Recordings label.

"We did the bulk of it (nine songs) with our friend Tucker Martine, at his Flora studio. Added to that are three done with Scott Colburn at Gravelvoice and one with Matt Brown (who you may know as part of the rad band Trespassers William). What a blast to work with such creative people."

Can’t wait for the 18th and be sure I'll be back on Leaky Sparrow in September to give my personal feedback.

• You can listen to Wires to Rust from Radar on: myspace.com/transmissionarysix
• Website: transmissionarysix.com/ or rodeosatellite.com/

• The Transmissionary Six - Sermon of the Hatchback .mp3
  A song from the album Spooked, July 2003. This beautiful live recording is available with few others on: hinah.com (hinahgift005).
  

Lorna with Love in Mind

Just like that, today, I discovered: Lorna.

Who’s Lorna? "Lorna's music mixes vast influences, from the wall-of-sound ideology of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, the tenderness of Low, Erik Satie and David Lynch soundtracks, the instrumentation of modern heroes such as Papa M and Jim O Rourke, to the sweet country ballads of Gram Parsons, Gene Clarke and Chris Bell, and the nostalgic lyrical beauty and hard working prolific ethic of Neil Young. Think of the good days, the soundtrack of your life."

• Latest information on Lorna's website or Lorna's Myspace

Love in Mind… Looks like Lorna got a copy to that wonderful bootleg called Neil Young At Los Angeles Music Center (Los Angeles, February 1st, 1971). Love in Mind is also one of the great songs from Neil Young’s Time Fades Away (September 73).

Hey Hey, Thrasher, what about that Time Fades Away Petition? Will this exceptional live album be released on cd any time soon?

Like me, don’t forget to Sign the Petition

• Lorna - Love In Mind (Neil Young Cover) .mp3

Forever Arthur Lee

Very, very sad news. According to Pitchforkmedia, Love frontman Arthur Lee died peacefully at Methodist Hospital in Memphis, a little after four in the afternoon Aug 3, 2006 with his wife Diane by his side. Arthur Lee was suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. He was 61 years old.

Rest in Peace, Arthur and thanks for the music.

• Website: Love with Arthur Lee

Samples from Forever Changes, album recorded in September 1967 and reissue in 2001:

• Love - Alone Again Or .mp3
• Love - Andmoreagain .mp3
• Love - Live and Let Live.mp3
• Love - You Set The Scene .mp3
  

The Dream of Nick Garrie

Do you have annoying friends who regularly peppers their conversions with enigmatic references to people named Claudine Longet or Roky Erickson? Of course, you know some and sometime you too are one of them… and sometime I am one of them too.
Not so long ago, one of “these” very good friends of mine mentioned to me Nick Garrie. I had no idea who Nick Garrie was. With a little smile, he told me that Nick Garrie's 1970 debut The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas was recorded for the French label DiscAZ by Eddie Vartan, with a 56 piece orchestra, who had been a producer and arranger for RCA France in the early 60s and was the older brother of yé-yé girl Sylvie Vartan. And then, concluded that Nick's fantastic but little-known psychedelic pop album was recently reissued by Rev-Ola.uk. So, following his advice, I went to Nick Garrie’s website and listened to his orchestral-pop favorites called The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas. It was a very good advice and I enjoyed very much the song. Also, I was surprised to read that Nick Garrie is still alive and is living in London.

So it’s never too late to meet this unknown legend and be a friend of him on his myspace.com/nickgarrie

Hey, by the way, you never heard about Nick Garrie before? No, you're kidding, I can't believe you.....

• Nick Garrie-Hamilton - The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas .ram

Sean Lennon - After the Sun, the Fire

Eight years without any album, eight years since Sean Lennon released his beautiful debut cd called Into the Sun in 1998 for the Beastie Boys’ label, Grand Royal. But Sean didn’t really stay away from the music scene; he could be heard with Deltron 3030, Cibo Matto, Handsome Boy Modeling School (on Sunshine, So… How’s Your Girl?), and contributed instrumentation and backing vocals on Yoko's latest album, Blueprint for a Sunrise.
He will be back in September (26th) with a brand new album of new songs of his own. Sean Lennon, now 30, was helped by people like Ryan Adams, Money Mark, Thurston Moore or Vincent Gallo. Friendly Fire is the name of this new opus and it will be on Capitol.

For now, go to his MySpace page to stream two new songs and visit his Capitol site to watch the trailer for the film.