Broken Social Scene will be releasing their new, as-yet-untitled album on May 4th, 2010 on Arts & Crafts. Co-produced by the band and Tortoise's John McEntire at Soma Studios in Chicago, with additional recording at Giant Studio and The Schvitz Studio in Toronto, the new album is the follow up to their acclaimed self-titled record, released in 2005. Founded ten years ago by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, Broken Social Scene very quickly established themselves as one of the most vital voices in independent music. Assembled by Drew, and made up of an assortment of musical friends, lovers, and strangers, the band emerged fully-formed from their hometown of Toronto in 2002. They were an instantly engaging energetic entity: a tightly-knit community bursting at the seams with talent, personalities, songs and many, many guitars.

Their albums – which were recently regaled on many "Best of the Decade" lists for the 00's – were cinematic, critically-acclaimed splashes of concept and melody, marrying a dizzying onslaught of sounds with finely-crafted choruses. The band's ability to weave a plethora of voices, specific genre elements, and varied instrumentation into a postmodern aural pastiche launched them instantly onto the international stage. Between 2002 and 2009, Broken Social Scene was seemingly everywhere, touring from Mexico City to Moscow, winning Juno Awards, scoring acclaimed films like Half Nelson, making multiple appearances on late-night television shows, and more. Live, their shows were notoriously epic, cathartic affairs, sometimes lasting over three hours – the result of just wanting to keep playing.

They made their own videos, created their own art work, and simply looked like they were probably having more fun together than any other band out there. As a group, or on their own, Broken Social Scene's members released some of the 00's most notable independent albums, predominantly from under the umbrella of their own label, Arts & Crafts, cementing their status as one of Canada's most important musical exports.

 

 

The Akron, Ohio-based duo The Black Keys is well known for its concentrated, hermetic approach to recording, hunkering down with rudimentary equipment in an unfinished basement or commandeering the floor of a vacant local rubber factory to create terse but soulful rock that seems to have time-traveled into the pair's amps from some long-ago radio show. But guitarist-vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney now admit they were ready for a change of scene-as well as some company. So when they got the opportunity to work with Grammy Award-nominated producer-musician-provocateur Danger Mouse, a/k/a Brian Burton (Gnarls Barkley, Gorillaz, The Grey Album), they agreed, for the first time, to leave their familiar environs.

Black Ribbons is the latest release of Shooter's newest project 'Hierophant', a dystopian concept album featuring Stephen King as Will O' The Wisp, a anarchist DJ in his last hour of broadcast before the airwaves become overtaken by government censorship. A departure from the "country" sound of Shooter's previous records, this album stands alone as more of an 'audio movie' than a collection of songs to be taken individually. Along with the album, Shooter personally programmed The World of Black Ribbons, a scavenger-hunt type game that leads players through the environment of the album and rewards those who finish it with some very special treats.

Jamie Lidell is known for layering tracks made with his voice into a microphone and performing the percussion and melody as a sequenced, beatboxing one-man band. Then over his augmented voices, he sings soul-inspired songs. This exercise makes for energetic live performances. Lidell has become renowned for his diverse range of genre-exploration. Following the release of his latest album, JIM, Lidell commented, "I want it to be about music, I think every musician does". But I think inevitably it ends up becoming about personality, which is what gives rise to the music, so people want to make sure that they get a bit of both. The more things do well, the more people want to know why it does well. Jamie Lidell has been shocking audiences for the past three years with his extraordinary live shows; which careen from glitzy Funkadelic extravaganza to hard electronic avant-garde showpieces. He was top draw at Sonar (Barcelona) and Ether Festivals (London) of recent years, performing at Ether juxtaposed with the London Sinfonietta, a bill that has toured to sold out coliseums and major performance houses across Europe.

Once a trailblazing name in the mid-'90s emocore scene, Jimmy Eat World steadily rose to national prominence by embracing a blend of alternative rock and power pop that targeted the heart as well as the head. While the band's influence widened considerably with 1999's Clarity -- an album that has since emerged as a landmark of the emo genre -- it was the band's self-produced follow-up (specifically the infectious single "The Middle") that crowned them as major figures in commercial rock. The emo label proved difficult to shake throughout the 2000s, even when subsequent albums Futures and Chase This Light did little to evoke the hard-edged sensitivity of Clarity, but Jimmy Eat World nevertheless remained a league above the generation of emocore torch-bearers they'd helped influence.

Ghostland Observatory is not a band, but an agreement between two friends to create something that not only heals their beat-driven hearts, but pleases their rock ‘n roll souls. Taking the working man’s approach, Ghostland Observatory spend countless hours in their south Austin studio. They have released two albums in less than a year, and have moved audiencesfrom coast to coast with their live performances and unique style. Ghostland Observatory is the duo of front man Aaron Behrens and producer/drummer Thomas Turner. Behrens’ vocal style and stage performancesare unique and uncompromising, and he has drawn early comparisons to Freddie Mercury and Prince. Turner is heavily infl uenced by electronic artists such as Daft Punk, Laurent Garnier and Green Velvet, as well as rockers such as The Animals, David Bowie, and The Clash. With their spectral blend of electronics, drums, guitar and vocals, they have emerged with a sound that is the culmination of past infl uence and present inspiration, and can only be described as BALLSY. 

plus Blake Hazard (of The Submarines)

Friday, September 24th
@ The Orange Peel
Asheville, NC
8:00 PM (7:00 PM doors)
$23.00 advance / $25.00 door
Ages 16+

Buy Tickets

From her work in the 80’s with MTV favorite Til Tuesday through her acclaimed solo discs “Whatever” and “I’m With Stupid” in the 90s, Aimee Mann has always been at the forefront of contemporary songwriters. The close of the millennium brought her greatest success, with the simultaneous releases of Bachelor No. 2 and the soundtrack to the film Magnolia, which garnered nominations for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and three Grammys. After a decade in which her music often took a backseat to corporate mergers and contractual obligations, the message was clear: Aimee Mann is here to stay. From “Voices Carry” to the Oscar-nominated “Save Me,” Mann has always been known for her clever, literate, and dryly witty takes on emotional sabotage and self-destruction. Though happily married to Michael Penn (with whom she has toured extensively in a double-billed “Acoustic Vaudeville”), her fascination continues with “the freaks who could never love anyone.” With a songcraft often compared with the Beatles and Badfinger, Mann frequently pairs the bleakest of poetry with soaring, infectious melodies.

plus Wintersleep

Tuesday, September 28th
@ The Orange Peel
Asheville, NC
9:00 PM (8:00 PM doors)
$20.00
Ages 16+

Buy Tickets

The Hold Steady recently put the finishing touches on 'Heaven Is Whenever,' their new album set for release May 4th on Vagrant Records and May 3rd on Rough Trade in the UK and EU. The album was produced by Dean Baltulonis, who engineered the band's 'Almost Killed Me' and produced 'Separation Sunday,' and was recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios in Upstate NY and Wild Arctic Studios in Queens, NY, with mixing also happening at Wild Arctic. Singer Craig Finn says 'Heaven Is Whenever' is about "embracing suffering and finding reward in our everyday lives." Piano and keys take a backseat to guitar on the new record, which also gets production help from guitarist Tad Kubler. Recorded in several smaller sessions spread out over a long period of time, the songs on 'Heaven Is Whenever' received the benefit of being tested on the band's recent tours. As Finn says this allowed them to "see what was working and what wasn't. I believe this record benefits from us working at a more deliberate pace."

Friday, October 1st
@ The Orange Peel
Asheville, NC
9:00 PM (8:00 PM doors)
$16.00 advance / $18.00 door
Ages 16+

Buy Tickets

The Yard Dogs Road Show is a hobo cabaret, a living patchwork of vaudeville and rock and roll. In the enchanting land of stage show entertainment theirs is both pleasant and formidable terrain.  They require a sensitivity to the subtle and the absurd. They lead the modern hobohemian on a visual and sonic journey through part of history that may or may not have existed – followed by an ambitious return to the emotional challenges of our punch-drunk contemporary world. It’s a true story on stage: sword swallowers, dancing dolls, fire eaters and sunset hobo poetry - all animated by the live sounds of the Yard Dogs cartoon heavy band. Yard Dogs Road Show is pure visual and sonic voodoo.

Emerson once wrote, "When it is darkest, men see the stars” and he might as well have been penning a poem for Rogue Wave. Last year was a rollercoaster ride for the foursome – drummer Pat Spurgeon had a kidney transplant, keyboardist Gram LeBron lost his father, singer Zach Rogue had a daughter and the band recruited a new bass player (Patrick Abernethy, formerly of Beulah). But instead of falling apart, they converted all their heartbreak, love, hurt, pain, elation and insight into a most affecting and beguiling record, Asleep At Heaven’s Gate. Rogue Wave’s Brushfire Records debut, Asleep At Heaven’s Gate, is a proudly defiant album shot through with heartfelt self-examination and a wider commentary on the flawed world around us. “The entire record is about the internal joy that we’ve been feeling at being able to overcome so much in the last year and then looking around at the country we love, which is disintegrating before our eyes,” declares Zach Rogue. “I heard this guy on NPR talking about duality in relation to being with his mother when she died. Most people describe death as the most awful thing they could ever experience. But as he was watching the life leave her body, that instant was both the most horrifying moment in his life and the most beautiful, spiritual, and enlightening moment he ever had. Life is all about those dualities”

On Feb 2, 2010 Bella Union will release the eagerly anticipated new Midlake album 'The Courage of Others,' the follow-up to the group's 2006 breakout 'The Trials of Van Occupanther.' The eleven original songs on 'Courage' were written by Tim Smith and produced by Midlake at their new custom-built studio in Denton, TX. The band's lineup remains: singer Tim Smith, Paul Alexander on bass, drummer McKenzie Smith, and guitarists Eric Pulido and Eric Nichelson.

Often compared to the early lo-fi eclecticism of Beck, Blitzen Trapper's music went through various genres with each record, from Neil Young-inspired alt.country to experimental pop, indie folk, and art rock. The band formed in 2000 in Portland, OR, with songwriter Eric Earley leading a lineup that also included Erik Menteer (guitar, keyboard), Brian Adrian Koch (drums, vocals), Michael Van Pelt (bass), Drew Laughery (keyboard), and Marty Marquis (keyboard, vocals). Before signing a record contract in 2007, the band released three albums on its own dime: an eponymous effort in 2003, Field Rexx in 2005, and the highly acclaimed Wild Mountain Nation in 2007. The latter album landed the group a record deal with Sub Pop. With Sub Pop's help, the group hit a creative peak with 2008's Furr, a collection of 13 songs that found Blitzen Trapper boiling down its many influences into a cohesive, unique Americana sound. The Black River Killer EP followed in 2009, and the group spent part of that year working on a new full-length release, which arrived one year later in the form of Destroyer of the Void.

Ra Ra Riot formed in January 2006 in Syracuse, New York while attending university. The band quickly caught the ear of the industry and the tastemakers with many stellar performances including the 2006 CMJ Music Marathon and SXSW 2007. The NME honored them as one of the Top 5 and Top 10 bands that played those festivals respectively. Ra Ra Riot had an incredibly successful 2007 releasing their self-titled, debut ep in July throughout North America and Europe, garnering acclaim in Rolling Stone, Nylon, Spin.com, NPR’s “All Songs Considered”, amongst many others. Ra Ra Riot spent November and December in the studio with producer Ryan Hadlock (The Gossip, Blonde Redhead, Stephen Malkmus) recording their debut full-length, which will see release later this year. In January the band made their Montreal and Toronto debut, to packed houses. They sold-out their first headlining appearance at New York’s famed Bowery Ballroom before heading to SXSW, making six appearances in four days. The rest of Spring ’08 will be spent opening for The Cribs, followed by a co-headlining tour with The Little Ones, which will find them hitting nearly every market imaginable.