The Handsome Family Joins Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy to Play Boulder Theater’s Sold Out 75th Anniversary Shows January 7th And 8th

Those lucky enough to score tickets to the sold out Jeff Tweedy shows at the Boulder Theater must have four leaf clover collections. The Handsome Family will be joining Wilco’s front-man for the January 7th and 8th shows which celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Boulder Theater.

The Handsome Family will begin a tour of the west coast January 19th in support of the self-released Scattered: A Further Collection of Lost Demos, Orphaned Songs and Odd Covers. The band has revisited their past for this album and gathered up treasures; a smattering of covers, alternate takes, unreleased songs and bits of their history. The CD is only available at tour dates and on their website, http://www.handsomefamily.com.The tour, which begins in Vancouver will take them down the west coast to Santa Monica.

The Handsome Family are known for Rennie’s evocative, descriptive lyrics, Brett’s deadpan baritone and their sparse, traditional bluegrass instrumentation. Their work has garnered praise from Pitchfork, Billboard, Spin, The BBC, Mojo and more. Their songs have been covered by many artists, most notably: Andrew Bird, Christy Moore, Cerys Matthews, The Sadies and Sally Timms. Honey Moon, the Sparks’ eighth studio album was released in 2009 to celebrate their 20th year of marriage.

Since starting Wilco in 1994 Jeff Tweedy has written original songs for seven Wilco albums, sold millions of records worldwide, won two Grammy Awards, and earned rave reviews from critics and fans alike. Wilco’s latest studio album, 2009’s Grammy-nominated Wilco (The Album) landed on many critics’ lists as one of the year’s best albums and Rolling Stone magazine cited Wilco’s 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as the 3rd best album of the decade. Tweedy has also toured frequently as a solo artist, playing intimate unscripted acoustic sets that draw from his 400-plus song repertoire. A departure from Wilco’s carefully orchestrated, sonically complex performances, the solo concerts showcase Tweedy’s prolific output as a songwriter, his proficiency as a guitarist and his wry sense of humor.

From opera to movies to disco to rock - the historic Boulder Theater has a diverse and colorful past that is being continued with a thriving present and is primed for an exciting future. The building as it stands today was designed by Robert Boller of Kansas City and had its Opening Night on January 9, 1936 with a screening of the Paramount Pictures film, "A Bride Comes Home". Click Here to Read More..

The Handsome Family Take the Show on the Road this January

When you’ve recorded eight studio albums over fifteen years, there’s bound to be songs that have been forgotten. The Handsome Family has revisited their past and gathered up these treasures; a smattering of covers, alternate takes, unreleased songs and bits of their history and put them together on the self-released Scattered: A Further Collection of Lost Demos, Orphaned Songs and Odd Covers which the band will support with a tour beginning in early January.

Fans of Rennie and Brett Sparks’ haunting and hauntingly beautiful stories in song will be delighted to know that they’re in for a double treat: The Handsome Family will be touring the west coast and they’ll have copies of Scattered with them. The CD is only available at tour dates and on their website, http://www.handsomefamily.com. The tour, which begins in Vancouver January 19th, will take them down the west coast to Santa Monica.

Scattered collects moments from The Handsome Family’s history and pre-history. A four-track demo of “One Way Up,” which appears on the album, was recorded in the Sparks’ tiny Chicago living room twenty years ago. Alternate takes, rehearsal tapes and orphaned songs keep company with covers the band has recorded for compilations over the years. “Little Buddy,” which Rennie describes as “one of our earliest attempts at songwriting,” was rescued from obscurity to be included. A cover of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” was which was originally recorded for the Uncut Magazine compilation, Highway 61 Revisited Revisited as well as The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” recorded for Mojo’s Revolver Reloaded, are both included on the album. Covers of Leonard Cohen, Leon Payne and Harlan Howard also appear. There’s also traditional songs, like “The Lost Soul” of which Rennie says, “Hard to imagine, but they sang this terrifying song in church.”

The Handsome Family have toured extensively throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, their live performances sometimes consist of up to a six-piece band and other times just Brett and Rennie. Despite the dark mood often created by their music, A Handsome Family show is fun, with Rennie bantering and telling more stories between songs, and Brett collapsing the illusion of tradition by sometimes using a laptop for drums.

The Handsome Family are known for Rennie’s evocative, descriptive lyrics, Brett’s deadpan baritone and their sparse, traditional bluegrass instrumentation. Their work has garnered praise from Pitchfork, Billboard, Spin, The BBC, Mojo and more. Their songs have been covered by many artists, most notably: Andrew Bird, Christy Moore, Cerys Matthews, The Sadies and Sally Timms. Honey Moon, the Sparks’ eighth studio album was released in 2009 to celebrate their 20th year of marriage.

The Handsome Family Tour Dates

1/19 Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, BC
1/20 Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA
1/21 Doug Fir, Portland, OR
1/22 Sam Bond’s Garage, Eugene, OR
1/25 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley, CA
1/26 Café DuNord, - San Francisco, CA
1/28 Bootleg Theater, Los Angeles, CA
1/29 McCabe's Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, CA Click Here to Read More..

Music Monday - The Mad Mackerel Talks Wordpress, Joe Strummer and Black Angels

John Grain's music blog The Mad Mackerel is relatively new, sprouting up in England in February of last year. Working out of the U.K., (Charlbury, Oxon, if you want to know exactly where), Grain and his staff use Wordpress to its best advantages. We forgive his British spelling (as in colour), because Grain's blog comes from one thing: his love of music and sharing it with other music fanatics. Mad Mackerel's number one goal is to introduce readers to underground music, (often the first bit of press a band has received) with smart writing and legal MP3s to download. Oh and Grain loves a good murder ballad. Don't we all?

Music Monday Q&A

1. How long has The Mad Mackerel been operating?
Mad Mackerel first came into being in February 2009, just before we went to SXSW for the first (and so far only) time. We were hosted on Google Blogspot, but suffered at their Draconian hands with their ridiculous crackdown that arbitrarily punished those of us who were posting authorized tracks as well as those who weren't. So we got wiped out after 13 months, but overcame our depression to relaunch the next day on Wordpress where we have been much happier.

2. What makes Mad Mackerel different from other websites?
We'd like to say our writing. So many music blogs just post the song with no more than a line or two, so you can't be sure on what you're getting. We try and add some depth and some colour to our posts and figure that someone who has taken the time, trouble and effort to craft a song (which is far more difficult than writing about one) deserves a bit of time, trouble and effort from us to describe it and how it makes us feel. And no one writes on a Friday like Mrs. Mackerel!

3. Do you think Mad Mackerel has a specific musical niche?
We have a wide specific niche if that's possible. We like folk, country, Americana, garage, rock 'n' roll, indie, punk, and psychedelia. We love songs that tell a story, break your heart or dwell on the fringes of society. We love the swamp, the desert, the barroom and the seedy side of town in songs. And we adore a good murder ballad! We don't go much for electronica, disco, house, soul, R&B, hip-hop or rap as good though it undoubtedly is, it just isn't our music of choice. We're not much one for remixes either so it is rare for us to post those.

4. What contemporary albums are you looking forward to coming out?
There are lots and lots. If I had to pick three I would say the planned new ones from Black Angels, Wooden Wand, and Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan have got us most excited.

5. How does the Mad Mackerel support independent music and what is important about doing so?
Obviously the music industry is changing massively and unpredictably. Business models are different and new challenges are there to be overcome. We can't offer a solution to that so our approach is simple, we love music and it is our passion. Mad Mackerel is a way for us to share, with the artist's blessing, songs and videos that we like and hope others will too. We always give links when we can, options to purchase and try to ensure we only post authorized material. We also try and listen to everything that we get sent, though that is becoming increasingly challenging as the volume increases almost daily.

6. Do you think online publications are taking precedence over print? What kind of effect do you think that has on bands?
I think that there will be a place for both. We subscribe to five music magazines in print and love getting them and reading them. We have 30 - 40 blogs we like and visit regularly. We listen to 6 Music (BBC Radio) all day long. All are relevant and important, and all have a place and a role to play. Print magazines face the hardest job I suppose, as they are there to make a profit and need advertising and subscriber revenues whereas 99% of music blogs are labours of love so we can't be influenced as easily in the sense that we don't do it for profit so we can be truly independent.

7. What blogs/publications do you read other than your own?
We read Uncut, MOJO, Q, The Word, and Spin by subscription. We buy NME and Clash Magazine sometimes and The Big Takeover when we can get it. We read lots of blogs, but especially like Song By Toad, Raven Sings The Blues, The Finest Kiss, Sonic Masala, Slowcoustic, Hear Ya, Ninebullets.net and Get Off The Coast.

8. What has been your most definitive moment since you started Mad Mackerel?
There have been a few - the first post obviously (four reads in total), getting on Hype Machine... increased traffic enormously, getting 20,000 site hits in a month. Best of all have been the friends we've made all over the world, and particularly the musicians we've really admired who almost with exception have been lovely, gracious and humble.

9. If there is any musician/band you could interview (dead or alive) who would it be?
Joe Strummer without a doubt. Our youngest is named after him and he is my number one all time, put on a pedestal, complete icon and hero.

10. If you could be in any band (of all time), who would you rock with?
I can't imagine anything better than playing in The Clash in their heyday. I am sure my love for America comes from their love for America and playing a part in their New York residency would have been beyond compare.

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MOJO--LA meets Detroit, they record in Chicago and sound like the Delta.

Speck Mountain core members Karl Briedrick (guitar) and Marie-Claire Balabanian (vocals) call their sound "ambient soul." The "soul" bit is no empty boast; their echoey shimmer has the ghostly quality of mist on the bayou...Balabanian intones fetchingly, like Patti Smith in slowmo.--Phil Sutcliffe Click Here to Read More..