Mick Signals

The Mynabirds Record Daytrotter Session, Kick Off National Tour Tomorrow

Click HERE to Check Out the Session

“a hypnotic voice”
NPR

“Burhenn pushes words and music to their maximum highs and lows to create 10 emotionally charged, and impressive, tracks.”
Associated Press

“Burhenn is as heartbreaking and tuneful as her finest inspirations while investing her songs with a calm fatalism that sets her apart. 8.0”
Pitchfork

Laura Burhenn has had a busy year. She released What We Lose In The Fire We Gain in the Flood (Saddle Creek), her acclaimed debut album as The Mynabirds, and opened for everyone from Al Green to Built to Spill. Burhenn and her band also recently stopped by Daytrotter to record a session, which was just posted today. Click HERE to listen to them perform 3 songs off the album plus the new song “Lemon Tree,” which was recorded for the first time. The band is also about to hit the road on a national tour, including dates with Crooked Fingers and David Bazan.

After the break-up of her former band, Georgie James, Burhenn wrote a collection of songs that meditated on the themes of loss and recovery. She recorded the compositions with Richard Swift and the results are the ten tracks on What We Lose. A potent mix of soul, gospel, and country, Burhenn created The Mynabirds’ aesthetic based on how she thought Neil Young would sound doing Motown. Serendipitously, she later found out that Young once collaborated with Rick James for a Motown project under the name The Mynah Birds! Click HERE for more info on The Mynabirds, plus photos and mp3’s to listen to.

The Mynabirds Fall Tour Dates:

* = w/ David Bazan
& = w/ Crooked Fingers

09/02: Oklahoma City, OK @ The Conservatory
09/03: Austin, TX @ The Mohawk&
09/05: Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress&
09/06: San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar&
09/07: Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland&
09/08: San Francisco, CA @ Café Du Nord&
09/10: Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern&
09/11: Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios&
09/16: Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall*
09/17: Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick*
09/18: Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace*
09/19: Montreal, QC @ Il Motore*
09/21: Burlington, VT @ Club Metronome*
09/22: Cambridge, MA @ TT The Bear’s*
09/24: Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl*
09/25: Washington DC @ Black Cat*
09/26: Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern*
09/27: Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle*
09/28: Atlanta, GA @ The Earl*
09/29: Nashville, TN @ Exit/In*
10/01: Jacksonville, FL @ Jack Rabbits*
10/02: Orlando, FL @ The Social*
10/03: Tallahassee, FL @ The Engine Room*
10/05: Birmingham, AL @ The Bottletree*
10/06: New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks*
10/07: Shreveport, LA @ The Collective

KATY PERRY’S TEENAGE DREAM IS THE NO. 1 ALBUM IN THE U.S.

POP SENSATION BREAKS RECORDS FOR MOST SINGLES SOLD PRE-STREET DATE

TEENAGE DREAM

RELEASED IN REST OF THE WORLD THIS WEEK
September 1, 2010 — New York — Katy Perry has cemented her status as a best-selling pop superstar with her second studio album Teenage Dream, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart, scanning 192,222 units in its first week of release. Katy is now one of the top 10 artists with the best-selling debuts of the year and one of only two pop artists to appear on this list. Teenage Dream is the two-time Grammy Award nominee’s highest album chart bow yet. Katy’s debut album, One of the Boys, scanned 46,767 units in its first week.

Katy has now achieved the highest pre-album street date track sales of all time, with 4.4 million digital tracks sold prior to the album’s release — setting a Nielsen Soundscan-era record. 445,746 total tracks

were sold during Teenage Dream’s first week of release. In addition, with the Top 5 chart positions of the album’s first two singles, the six-week No. 1 “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream,” Katy has become one of only ten female artists in history to have two songs in the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time. Currently Katy has 12 songs charting on the Soundscan Current Digital Tracks chart simultaneously including Teenage Dream album tracks “Firework”, “Peacock” and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)”.
Katy is a pioneer in the new world order of pop superstardom, where success is measured not just by album sales, but also by sales of digital singles, ringtones, and music videos (clips for both “Teenage Dream” and “California Gurls” have remained in the iTunes Top 10 Music Videos chart for weeks). Measured in “TEA”’s (industry parlance for “track equivalent albums,” in which the sale of 10 digital singles is counted as the sale of one album), Teenage Dream, plus individual tracks sold, totals the equivalent of nearly 720,000 albums sold by the end of Katy’s first week. This follows on the heels of One of the Boys, which has sold five million copies worldwide.

Teenage Dream

has easily averted the sophomore slump, with MTV.com opining that it is “the best second effort in pop music history.” USA Today raves that “the ambitious brunette serves up percolating confections laced with saucy humor and disarming earnestness,” while Rolling Stone has called Teenage Dream a “pool-party pop gem.” The New York Post declares Teenage Dream “a total success” that “may have the juice to topple Michael Jackson’s Bad as the U.S. record holder for most singles released from one album.”
Katy co-wrote each of Teenage Dream’s 12 songs, collaborating with a red-hot production team that includes Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Tricky Stewart, Benny Blanco, Greg Wells, and Stargate. Released in May, “California Gurls” spent six weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, shattered BDS and Mediabase weekly airplay spin records, and become the definitive anthem of Summer 2010.

The Santa Barbara, CA-born Katy performed on The Late Show With David Letterman and The Today Show’s Summer Concert Series during Teenage Dream’s release week and recently co-hosted the 2010 Teen Choice Awards with the male cast of Glee. She has appeared on the covers of dozens of publications, including recent issues of Rolling Stone, Seventeen, Q, Billboard, the New York Times’ Arts & Leisure section, and USAToday’s Life section. Katy has been nominated for two 2010 MTV Video Music Awards for “California Gurls” (“Best Female Video” and “Best Pop Video”) and became a portrait subject for renowned contemporary artist Will Cotton, whose confectionary landscape painting of her graces the cover of Teenage Dream.

Fences to release Sara Quin-produced debut album September 28th, schedules North American Tour

Fences, the moniker for self-proclaimed fuck up Christopher Manfield, will be releasing its self-titled debut album on September 28th through Onto Entertainment/ADA. The album was produced by Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara fame and recorded in only ten days in a studio in Victoria, BC. The ten songs on Fences carry on the singer-songwriter torch passed down from the likes of Elliott Smith and Townes Van Zandt, while retaining a raw edginess inherited from an old Seattle native, Kurt Cobain.

Fences have previously toured the Northwest opening for the likes of St. Vincent and Mark Kozelek, a testament to the versatility of their music and multi-faceted appeal. Starting in just a few days, Fences will begin a new tour of the Northwest, kicking off at Bumbershoot in Seattle and hitting locations along the west coast in California, Oregon, Washington, and even a quick stop in Vancouver. Check below for upcoming tour dates.

Date City Venue
Sep 5 2010 Seattle, WA KEXP Music Lounge
Sep 5 2010 Seattle, WA BUMBERSHOOT
Sep 23 2010 Seattle, WA The Crocodile
Sep 24 2010 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
Sep 25 2010 Bellingham, WA The Green Frog
Sep 27 2010 Vancouver, BC, CANADA The Biltmore Cabaret
Sep 28 2010 Seattle, WA Sonic Boom Ballard
Oct 4 2010 Los Angeles, CA Silverlake Lounge
Oct 6 2010 San Francisco, CA The Rickshaw Stop
Oct 7 2010 Davis, CA Sophia’s Thai Kitchen
Oct 8 2010 Eugene, OR Sam Bond’s Garage

The Acorn Debuts Endless Summer Stop Motion Video for “Restoration”

“Beirut-style pastoral folk mixed with heavy dollops of rawk guitar, swathes of feedback and propulsive percussion.” – NME

“‘No Ghost’ transcends the band’s bucolic stargazing for a gypsy-funk session in a caravan.” – Village Voice

“A fantastic stew of electronics and grooves, backwards guitars and strings, and Rolf Klausener’s subtoly soaring vocals.” – Stereogum

Just in time for summer nostalgia to kick in, Ottawa’s The Acorn have debuted a brand new stop motion video for the song “Restoration” via AOL Spinner (also available at TheAcorn.ca). “Restoration” is the first single off their forthcoming record, No Ghost, available digitally now and physically from Bella Union Records on 9/7.

The video, directed by Exploding Motor Car, features the band having a picnic at The Mataseje Family Farm in Beamsville Ontario, an hour outside of Toronto. As the sun sets, things take a turn for the eerie as the band is dragged into a surreal forest filled with otherworldly creatures. Front man Rolf Klausener described the tedious stop motion shoot as spending “20 hours, mostly sitting on a picnic table that was jerry-rigged to a rail cart, moving in 2 inch increments. The crew was tireless and totally focused. The cyanide-based smoke machine they used took about 6 years off our lives. By 7am, everyone was delirious, seeing apparitions in the foliage, and speaking in tongues.”

The Acorn are preparing for a North American tour, heading out mid-September through October. As the band recorded No Ghost at a secluded cottage in Northern Québec, they will bring elements of that rustic atmosphere with them on the road with a thematic stage show, props, special guests, and more.

Check out the Megafaun remix of “Kindling To Cremation,” premiered by long-time Acorn fans My Old Kentucky Blog. There’s also a Four Tet/Born Ruffians remix 12-inch, available in select indie stores now.

The Acorn Tour Dates:
September 15 – Halifax, NS – St. Matthew’s United Church
September 16 – Fredericton, NB – Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival
September 17 – Sackville, NB – Sackville City Fair
September 21 – Cambridge, MA – TT and The Bear’s *
September 23 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge *
September 24 – Brooklyn, NY – Littlefield *
September 25 – Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie *
September 26 – Washington, DC – DC9*
September 28 – Pontiac, MI – Crofoot Ballroom*
September 29 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom *
September 30 – Chicago, IL – Schubas *
October 1 – Minneapolois, MN – Turf Club
October 2 – Madison, WI – The Frequency
October 13 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo ++
October 14 – San Francisco, CA – Cafe du Nord++
October 16 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir ++
October 17 – Seattle, WA – High Dive++
October 20 – Victoria, BC – Lucky Bar++
October 21 – Vancouver, BC – The Biltmore Cabaret ++
October 23 – Edmonton, AB – Starlite Room++
October 24 – Calgary, AB – Republik ++
October 25 – Saskatoon, SK – Amigo’s ++
October 26 – Winnipeg, MB – Park Theatre ++
October 27 – Thunder Bay, ON – The Apollo ++
October 28 – Sault Ste Marie – Loplop Lounge and Gallery ++
December 4 – Ottawa, ON – Capital Music Hall++

* w/Basia Bulat
++ w/Leif Vollebekk

THE BOOKS EXPAND NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

DATES ADDED IN DURHAM, CHARLOTTE, BALTIMORE, GRINNELL, ST. LOUIS, AND NEWPORT

THE BLACK HEART PROCESSION TO SUPPORT

Following the summer success of The Way Out (on Temporary Residence), The Books expand their upcoming fall North American tour to include stops along the Midwest and East Coast. In addition to the excellent reception of their new record, The Books have also developed a reputation for their engaging live shows, which mix audio and visual components to appropriately reveal each song’s complete environment.

Joining the Books on this tour will be the legendary, The Black Heart Procession who tour in support of their upcoming Blood Bunny/ Black Rabbit EP, as well as their long awaited sixth album Six, released just last year. Known for their highly personal and emotive live shows, The Black Heart Procession will undoubtedly provide ample footing for The Books’ all encompassing sets.

“Arguably one of the most original contemporary musical groups,” – FILTER MAGAZINE

THE BOOKS FALL TOUR

9/4 Monticello, NY ATP Festival (Kutsher’s Country Club)
9/23 Durham, NH University of New Hamsphire
9/29 Philadelphia, PA The Trocadero
9/30 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
10/1 Durham, NC Shaefer Theater (early)
10/1 Durham, NC Shaefer Theater
10/2 Charlotte, NC Visulite Theater
10/3 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
10/4 Knoxville, TN Square Room
10/5 Charlotesville, VA Jefferson Theatre
10/6 Baltimore, MD Rams Head Live
10/21 Somerville, MA Somerville Theatre
10/22 Northampton MA Pearl Street Nightclub
10/23 Montreal, PQ Cabaret Mile End
10/24 Ottawa, ON Capital Music Hall
10/25 Toronto, ON The Mod Club
10/26 Pontiac, MI The Crofoot Ballroom
10/27 Grand Rapids, MI Ladies Literary Club
10/29 Chicago, Il Vic Theatre
10/30 Minneapolis, MN Cedar Culture Center
10/31 Grinnell, IA Herrick Chapel
11/02 St Louis, MO The Old Rock House
11/03 Newport, KY Southgate House
11/13 New York, NY Zankel at Carnegie Hall
11/29 Los Angeles, CA Music Box at The Henry Fonda Theater
11/30 San Francisco, CA Palace of Fine Arts
12/3 Portland, OR Aladdin Theater
12/4 Seattle, WA Moore Theater
12/5 Vancouver, BC Vogue Theater

APRIL SMITH AND THE GREAT PICTURE SHOW TO PERFORM AT U.S. OPEN SEPT. 8

NFL to feature band’s cover of Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” in television ads

New single “Terrible Things” featured in Weeds and Colgate commercials and impacting at AAA radio

April Smith and the Great Picture Show will bring their swinging, juke joint swagger to one of the biggest stages in sports on Sept. 8, when they perform at the 2010 U.S. Open, in Flushing, NY.

The New York Postdeclares Smith “adorable, quirky, and the owner of a voice that could cure depression,” in their PopWrap blog, adding that, “April makes the world a better place. Period.” That makes the Brooklyn-based quintet the perfect act for the tennis tournament that boasts the slogan, ‘It Must Be Love’ – they play on the U.S. Open’s Baseline Stage, Wednesday, Sept. 8, at 6pm.

The National Football League are also fans of the five piece, and will be featuring their cover of Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” in a television campaign kicking off this month promoting a new line of fashionable NFL clothing for women. In the commercials, wives of NFL players throw their husband’s jerseys back at them with April Smith and the Great Picture Show playing as the soundtrack.

Audiences nationwide are hearing April Smith and the Great Picture Show on their new single “Terrible Things,” which is currently being featured in promos for the hit Showtime television series Weeds. Smith’s song “Wow and Flutter” can also be heard in a Colgate Wisps commercial.

“Terrible Things” is the lead track from the band’s new release Songs for a Sinking Ship, and is already impacting at AAA radio, where it’s gained early support from stations including KEZE (Spokane, WA), KPND (Sandpoint, ID), KCLC (St. Louis, MO), KPIG (Monterey, CA) and WCBE (Columbus, OH). A video for the track will be released this fall.

Labeled one of the New York Post’s ’10 Musicians to Watch in 2010,’ Paste magazine hails April Smith “quite the burlesque bad girl… packing a sound full of sassy hooks and swinging rhythms.” “April Smith was born to be an entertainer,” agree NPR. “She radiates sunny energy and stage-ready sauciness.”

Find out for yourself – catch April Smith and the Great Picture Show live:

Sept. 2 Washington DC DC9
Sept. 3 Teaneck, NJ Mexicali Live
Sept. 8 Flushing, NY Arthur Ashe Stadium, Baseline Stage

Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. – The Bike Song video

DVAS - Society

One of the best feelings in the music world is a pleasant surprise. Whether it’s a good opening band or a classic track you haven’t heard in a while, the joy that comes from the unexpected seems to resonate more than most. And at the pinnacle of that feeling, is the moment you discover a band that’s more than meets the eye.

Enter DVAS with Society.

My typical method for testing out an album is to give it the “chore” test. If you’ve read some of my other blogs, then you may be familiar with my affinity for listening to music in the shower. For albums, a shower isn’t quite long enough, so I’ll find some time to do the dishes or clean my room.

Why?

Well, I have two reasons.

1) I might actually do something productive this way.

2) If these songs can catch my attention during a mindless task, then it’s probably worth investing some time into. Any record can be enjoyed if you try enough, but find an album that demands attention and suddenly it’s a whole different story.

So with all that said, I downloaded the music onto my iPod, set up my speakers and set to tackle the pots and pans from last night’s chicken.

Here is where I made my first mistake. DVAS will make you dance.

With elements of disco, funk and a splash of 8 bit, you’d be forgiven if you thought you wound up back in the 80′s. Thankfully, this 3-piece based in Toronto keeps a modern feel to it, sounding somewhere in between Daft Punk and Chromeo.

So, before I could even put the soap in the water, I was dropped right into the intensity that is DVAS at its best. The title track that opens the album is instantly catchy, undeniably fun and had me shaking and moving while I scrubbed along. The second track didn’t let up either, or the third. Or the fourth.

But, even though Society had tickled my subconscious, I mentally played it down. With a stream of dance hits right out of the gate, it was just another shallow album right? It’ll be fun to spin for a while but it’ll no doubt lack any depth to remain important.

I was wrong again; the midpoint is just the beginning. After the band has got you worked up and sweaty on the first half, DVAS use the second to show you that they’re more than that. An instrumental like Telegraph takes the upbeat feel of the dance floor and captures it as a blissful, floating feeling. Meanwhile, Back 2 Basix delivers soft ballad love like Marvin Gaye with a keytar.

And what’s truly magical about this album is how hard pressed I am to find a lack-lustre tune. Each song has been carefully pieced together to form a cohesive unit.

Ambient Room is a great example of this. One moment the song is as bare as a vocal track, and the next you’ve got a layered and complex work of art. No hook seems tacked on, no bridge seems unnatural; the song just blossoms before our very ears. The whole process is wonderfully fluid and that’s a tough skill to bring to a track, let alone the whole album.

But that’s part of the beauty with a debut record. Expectations are generally low enough that you can really make an impact with some quality work. I know that it has with me, and I’ll be pulling for DVAS to take this to the next album when surprise isn’t on their side.

Catch DVAS in your town by checking their tour schedule here.