In anticipation of their 10th studio album ELF POWER, the band’s newest eponymous release, the band has announced dates for a national tour, beginning on along the Eastern US seaboard this September, and conclude with a show at Terminal 5 in NYC to support of Broken Bells (Danger Mouse and James Mercer of The Shins).

The new record explores darker places melodically and texturally in what might be their most fully conceived and rewarding album ever.

In Memory of Vic Chesnutt

ELF POWER the album, is dedicated to the memory of dear friend, mentor, and close collaborator Vic Chesnutt, much beloved in the close-knit Athens community, who committed suicide in late 2009. The Elves recorded a collaborative album, DARK DEVELOPMENTS, with Chesnutt in 2008 and toured extensively with him through the years. The songs and recordings on the album found shape in the vacuum caused by Vic’s loss, and finds the band exploring the void created by his departure.

Tracked initially by Andy LeMaster (REM, Bright Eyes, Drive By Truckers) at his studio Chase Park Transduction, then brought to bassist/engineer Derek Almstead’s home studio out in the Athenian sticks for overdubbing, rumination, and general tweaking, this double-faceted strategy proved beneficial for the development of the album as a whole.

ELF POWER

A return, however, to the familiar realms of home-recording encouraged the Elves to harken back to their initial experimental and communal forays. Freedom from the tyranny of the ticking studio clock allowed for key contributions from old Elephant 6 pals Will Cullen Hart and Bill Doss of the Olivia Tremor Control and some characteristically esoteric instrumentation: Circulatory System’s John Fernandes’ and Heather McIntosh (recently of Gnarls Barkley and Lil Wayne’s touring bands), contributing string arrangements; the beautiful Mellotron they borrowed from REM; and Laura Carter’s contagious Moog and drummer Eric Harris’ experiments with fidelity and texture. This duality in production makes for a layered and varied listen.

Elf Power’s Upcoming Fall 2010 Tour Dates:

09/14 – Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor
09/15 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Nightlight
09/16 – Washington, DC @ DC9
09/17 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Rock Shop
09/18 – Northampton, Mass. @ Flywheel
09/19 – Rosendale, NY @ Market Market
09/22 – Richmond, Va. @ Strange Matter
09/23 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ Magic Garden
09/24 – Pittsburgh, Pa. @ Brillobox
09/25 – Cincinnati, Ohio @ Midpoint Music Festival, Blue Wisp
09/26 – Bloomington, Ind. @ The Bishop
09/27 – Madison, Wisc. @ High Noon Saloon
09/28 – Chicago, Ill. @ Schubas
09/29 St Louis, Mo. @ Off Broadway
09/30 Lexington, Ky. @ Al’s Bar
10/01 Nashville, Tenn. @ The End
10/02 Athens, Ga. @ 40 Watt
10/11 New York, NY @ Terminal 5 (w/ Broken Bells)

The new ELF POWER sees release on September 14, 2010 on Orange Twin Records.

Download the first single “Stranger in the Window,” from Elf Power’s new record. [direct link]

London based band The Cellophane Flowers comprises the collaboration between Francesca Corradini (vocals – guitar), Ian Sumner (guitar), Luca Napolitano (bass), Nick Guy (drums). Some have attempted to catalog the band’s unusual sound as “whimsy pop,” “psycho-pop,” and “avant-garde pop personified” – if you put a gun to our heads and forced us to draw comparisons, we might refer to early Sugarcubes, Cardigans, The Cure, Love and Rockets and Ida Maria, but the reason we chose to profile this act is because their sound was not easy to pin down and yet not so outre that we were not immediately infected by its appealing song structures and refreshing instrumentation.

Francesca Corradini’s voice is both charismatic and winsome (and perhaps therein lies the comparisons to that Icelandic breakout band). The guitar play has the serpentine atonality and yet anthemic throughline reminiscent of Pixies’ Joey Santiago, and the rhythm section thumps down iron anchor grooves that help this rock harder than typical Thursday night club fare.

Check out the video for the lead off single “If I Was Girl” below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Francesca shared some highlights from the recording of the new album: “A highlight was playing with the toys in the studio – for [the song] Freeze  - me feeding a vintage Moog through analogue delay and phaser, writing the parts live as we recorded them, and then realising that as much as we loved the sound, we’d have to include the rest of the track on the recording.  Or charging back and forth at a theramin for Yes I Am, pretending to talk intelligently about when to time the “wooh wooh wah” sound and whether that should come before or after the sustained “weeehehehehe”.  Fra dancing with a robot mask on didn’t really help…”

When asked what motivates them, Francesca replied: “Because we all love music – indeed we look forward to dedicating our lives 100% to what we love the most (which translates in telling our bosses to f… off. Music is the only thing that keeps us alive.”

The band has just released its EP “If I Was A Girl” that can be found at Itunes, Amazon, Spotify and all the other major digital distribution channels.

Vital Links:
Cellophane Flowers at MySpace
The Cellophane Flowers Flickrstream

Listen now to “Yes I Am” by The Cellophane Flowers at MusicZeitgeist.com’s free Indie Music Jukebox

To see your act in MZ’s Artist Profile, submit to our gig listing at Sonicbids today!

(not all acts are selected)

‘Barking’ is the duo’s sixth studio album and the first time Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have collaborated with other producers. The record enlists the help of techno producers Mark Knight and D. Ramirez (Always Loved A Film, Between Stars) plus a whole cast of brilliant and like-minded producers from across the spectrum of modern dance music to add personal touches to the band’s original material. Enter Welsh drum and bass artist High Contrast Scribble, Moon In Water), four-time Grammy winner Dubfire (Bird 1, Grace), Bristol based dub step producers Appleblim and Al Tourettes (Hamburg Hotel) and long term Underworld team member Darren Price (Between Stars).

Underworld’s Live Schedule:

• 17th July The Roundhouse, iTunes London
• 24th July Italia Wave Love Festival, Stadio Picche Livorino, Italy
• 06th Aug Sonne Mond & Sterne Leipzig, Germany
• 07th Aug Ibiza Rocks, Cream @ Privilege w/Radio 1 Ibiza, Spain
• 27th Aug Rock en Seine Paris, France
• 28th Aug Open Air Fest Zurich, Switzerland
• 11th Sept Berlin Dance fest w/ Paul van Dyk Berlin, Germany

Artist: Underworld
Title: Barking
Label: underworldlive.com / Cooking Vinyl/OM Records
Release date: September 14th 2010
Format: CD album / CD/DVD / 2 x 12″ vinyl / Special Edition Box Set / Digital – itunes (with bonus track) / itunes LP format (same as CD/DVD plus bonus track)

The accompanying DVD will feature a new video for each track on the album.

More information about Underworld Live at:
www.underworldlive.com

MusicZeitgeist.com coaxed the following insights about the crafting of these recordings from the artist:

MusicZeitgeist: Who is Greg Utech?
I have been a musician for over 30 years in the Detroit area. Mostly on drums, but I can “mingle” with most any instrument. I have released three disc’s to date with my 4th CD due out in July. I appeared on Rick Matle’s CD “Ears Wide Shut.” Of course like most Musicians I have a “Day” job which just happens to be the best job in the world, a stay at home Dad to our first child Noah.

MZ: Where are you based? Has it influenced your output?

The “D”. Born and raised in Detroit. This part of our world seems to have a Vortex of creativity, From Motown to Madonna, and all the Jazz greats it has been a treat to call Michigan Home. The long winters foster a need to keep busy and I think this has a small part to do with the plethora of talent to come from this area.

MZ: Talk about influences on your sound

Jazz, Fusion. Artist I would call mentors include Stevie Wonder, Donald Fagen, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson, The Band, Pink Floyd, McCoy Tyner, Pharaoh Sanders, Jeff Beck, Bill Bruford, Tony Williams, Jack Dejonet, Elvin Jones, Fela Kuti, Peter Gabrial, Tereje Ripdal, Frank Zappa, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Pass, to name a few.

I worked in professional theater for 18 years at Meadow Brook Theater at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. From set design to writing the score for the 1993 production of Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde. This along with being around the right crowd inspired my artistic style, From being involved in over 120 professional Theatrical productions, and being a part of all of them, from Shakespeare to Ain’t misbehaving, I was exposed to some real creativity and different thought patterns that translate into my genre of music. Also a self taught abstract painter with over 30 major shows to date help play a major role in my tonal creations.

MZ: Tell us about your recording process.

Mostly from my modest studio at home I am able to create most of the rhythm and “beds” for each song, then it’s off to a more technicaly sound studio for all the final mixing and last minute solos. I produce all the tracks with some help from my friend Rick Matle who also plays most of the guitar on my CD’s. And of course when you are a one man show, it’s then time for laying out art work, song titles and order, copyrighting, duplication, and finally all the marketing involved, especially if you want to make at least $12.78 per year. But it is the love of the craft luckily and not the fame and fortune.

MZ: So what motivates you to keep making and releasing music in these changing times?

“Everything has been done before.”

It has to be fun to be somewhat unique in this world of soundalikes. The most memorable musical experience I have had was when Ralph Valdez, a DJ from WDET in Detroit, called and said he loved my 1st disc and would play it on his next show. We had a party that night and it felt as though a dream had come true.This event is realy what pushed me to continue on with endeavors. My music has also been aired on the Jon Moshier program, and “The Listening Room” with host Chris Felcyn. As well as KAOS FM in Olympia WA, Tomorrow Jazz, aTTeNTIoN sPaN raDIO, IPM.com, And reached the feature page on New Orleans Radio.com. With some generous reviews from, Joe Henry, Serge Kozlovsky, and a two-page spread in Acid Jazz Magazine by Sylvia Turin. Everyone has some “Big Break” if you believe in what your doing, and are not doing it for the money.

MZ: When will you know your work is done?

I guess my lofty goal of 10 disc’s is still attainable, but with Cd’s approaching 90 minutes these days it is like producing a double album from the old vinal days, so each disc so far has taken at least 2 years to complete, with the exception of my upcoming disc “Mars is Missing” which will be at about the three-year mark due to the birth of our 1st child Noah Gregory Utech.

VITAL LINKS:

Greg Utech in the press
Get Greg Utech’s music at CDBaby
Download Greg Utech at iTunes

Listen now to “City to City” by Greg Utech at MusicZeitgeist.com’s free Indie Music Jukebox

To see your act in MZ’s Artist Profile, submit to our gig listing at Sonicbids today!

(not all acts are selected)

When one looks at Kamilah Marshall’s CV, it belies a very hard working, almost ubiquitous performer and must wonder how she is not yet a certified household name.  She has collaborated with some of the top producers in the industry, including Salaam Remi (Amy Winehouse, Jasmine Sullivan) and Nile Rodgers (Madonna, David Bowie) and enjoyed appearances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with David Letterman, The View, and Oprah.

Since 2003, Kamilah has been one of the Staggering Harlettes, singing backup for Bette Midler, recently closing in The Showgirl Must Go On at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas performed on Broadway in RENT, Hairspray and Disney’s The Lion King, and then moonlit around her native Los Angeles at venues like Molly Malones and the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip.

The recent release of the soundtrack for Sex and the City 2, finds Kamilah singing an old standard “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” and she is featured on The Original Cast Recording of the Broadway musical, Hairspray and the soundtrack for the film, Hairspray, The Musical.

But beyond all of these accolades, we chose Kamilah Marshall in our blind taste test for the coveted MusicZeitgeist.com Indie Artist of the Month profile for July 2010 because we loved the funky, soulful and altogether unique sound of her recordings.  That is ultimately the most important testament to her talent – the ability to deliver the goods to back up the press kit.

Here is a point and shoot Q&A with this refreshing indie artist:

WHO: Kamilah( ka.mee.la) Marshall

WHAT: Debut CD, GYPSY MOONSHINE . A fusion of Country/Blues/Funk. I call it FUNKABILY , a phrased coined by Nashville singer/songwriter Joanna Cotten.

HOW: I fell in love with Country music at an early age. When I started to make this record I found that I had a lot more than just country music in me. It became a beautiful fusion of everything I love about music in general.

WHY: Because what’s more fun than a black girl singin’ FUNKABILLY.

WHEN: Come July 9th you can get my CD everywhere possible. iTunes, CDBaby, amazon etc

WHERE: I’m in LA but hopefully in the fall I will be coming to a city near YOU!

VITAL LINKS

www.kamilahmarshallmusic.com
www.twitter.com/kamilahmarshall
www.facebook.com/kamilahmarshall
www.myspace.com/marshallkamilah

Listen now to “Sis Shaw” by Kamilah Marshall and other artists we have featured at the MusicZeitgeist.com’s free Indie Music Jukebox

To see your act in MZ’s Artist Profile, submit to our gig listing at Sonicbids today!

(not all acts are selected)

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