Canadian Patrick Watson has announced a new single Step Out For A While as the next single from acclaimed album, Adventures In Your Own Backyard, to be released on 20th August via Domino Records. He has also announced further UK and European tour dates including a performance at End Of the Road Festival and two shows at London’s Village Underground on 4th and 5th November. The Village Underground shows, entitled “Patrick Watson’s Adventures Underground”, follow the recent amazing sold out performance at London’s St-Stephen’s Church.
On top of that Mr Watson is giving away a free download of ‘Step Out For A While’ here:
We’ve had quite a year from Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. First there was ‘Will Oldham on Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy‘ – a book of conversations with longtime collaborator Alan Licht, now the hardest working man in music has announced that he will re-release six classic recordings dated between 1996 and 2004.
To give you an idea of just how hard working this man is, between his first Palace Brothers record, 1993’s ‘There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You’ and last year’s Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy album ‘Wolfroy Goes To Town‘, Bonny has released no less than seventeen studio albums, twenty-five EPs and five live albums.
It is in the spirit of celebration of an artistic life so remarkable that Domino Records is this year to re-issue these six seminal records on 30th July. The albums will be ‘Arise Therefore’ (1996) and ‘Joya’ (1997), ‘I See A Darkness’ (1999), ‘Ease Down The Road’ (2001), ‘Master And Everyone’ (2003) and ‘Greatest Palace Music’ (2004).
Is that enough? Not for Billy! Most people would happily sit back and enjoy such a handsome array of releases but he’s releasing a new EP, titled ‘Now Here’s My Plan’, which is a collection of old songs newly recorded with Steve Albini. The EP is out on Domino on 24th June.
Domino recording company, London is a good place to visit if you like your sounds indie and easy on the ears, but with a few little touches of brilliance thrown in.
Obviously, you have the big pop names like Franz or the Arctics, but the hidden gems are artists like Cass McCombs, The Kills or Bonnie Prince Billy and a host of others which you no doubt will discover once you click onto their website at http://www.dominorecordco.com
It’s all very tried and tested music, and easy to listen to in the best possible sense. If you dig pre-Space Oddity Bowie or Aphrodite’s Child, Bobby Vee/Vinton/Rydell or even very early XTC, this site’s music will fire you up no end. There are some fabulous tunes to be had which will lead you to other bands and sites of a similar nature.
It’s all rock n roll and these are the best at what they do – full stop!
A 68 year old Ealing resident is still fighting for this life today. Police have expressed worry for the pain who is still on life support. He was attacked on Tuesday after confronting rioters who had set fire to a bin. He was trying to put the fire out. He was attacked and has ‘savage’ head injuries that left the police unable to tell his age, he has since been identified and the police are looking for his family.
On Wednesday morning three young Asian men were knocked down and killed while trying to defend their properties. Police in Birmingham have launched a murder inquiry. A man was arrested and had his car impounded following the incident near a mosque in the Dudley road area.
The father on one of the victims, Haroon Jahan, 21, called for peace and asked for their no be no more violence or retribution for his son’s death. He stated that this was not a ‘race’ issue.
A spokesman for the West Midlands force said: “The incident took place close to the Jet filling station on Dudley Road in Winson Green at approximately 1.15am. Three ambulances, two rapid response vehicles and an incident support officer was sent to the scene.
“When crews arrived, they found around 80 people at the scene with resuscitation ongoing on three men. Crews used their advanced life support skills while police officers provided support.”
Violence in Birmingham on Tuesday was not as bad as Monday but it spread to West Bromwich and Wolverhampton. London was relatively calm after 16,000 police officers hit the street with rubber bullets.
Independent record labels and filmmakers have been left devastated after a fire destroyed a blaze in a Sony warehouse in Enfield. The Pias Group feared a ‘ruinous’ stock loss. The three-storey, 20,000 square-metre building in Enfield, owned by Sony DADC was burned to the ground.
The fire affected Domino and film production companies with DVD stock. Pias is the UK’s largest independent sales, marketing and distribution company.
Other labels that might be affected include 4AD, Warp and Beggars Banquet.
A on Pias’s website said: “There was a fire last night at the SonyDADC warehouse which services the physical distribution for Pias in the UK and Ireland. Pias is working closely with SonyDADC who are implementing their emergency plans. Pias’s UK offices in London and all other areas of our business are unaffected. More information will be communicated shortly to all our labels and partners.”
The release of Arctic Monkeys’ new single, The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala, was affected, all stock going to retail outlets had been destroyed in the fire.
There has been a lot of debate about the riots from various sources, including Darcus Howe, a West Indian Writer and Broadcaster. His controversial interview has been seen by millions of people.
I disagree with him on three counts, 1) Not all of the rioters were black 2) Working class white people are just as disenfranchised as blacks. 3) There is never any excuse for this behaviour, no matter where you are from.
The student who was mugged while bleeding has spoke of his ordeal. Ashraf Rossli said: “They threatened to stab me, they told me they had knives,”. The student from Malaysia only arrived in England a month ago.
He went on to say:
‘Some of them were quite young, maybe still in primary school. They had their hoods on and demanded my bicycle.’
In the YouTube video he is apparently helped to his feet by a Good Samaritan but the thieves took his wallet, phone and Sony PSP games console.
The video was even mentioned by David Cameron today in his address to parliament.
‘When we see children as young as 13, looting and laughing, when we see the disgusting sight of an injured young man with people pretending to help him while they are robbing him, it is clear that there are things that are badly wrong in our society,’ said the Prime Minister.
The 20-year-old finance student had his jaw broken but said “Britain is great” and said he felt sorry for this attackers.
A petition calling on the Government to evict the looters from council houses and stop their benefits has had 83,000 signatures in 24 hours. It only needs 100,000 signatures to be debated in parliament.
