Europe, You Suck

Another reason to be jealous of Europeans.

As if stunning architecture, real cinema, authentic mom and pop restaurants serving insanely delicious gastronomical delights, a superb railway system and serious disdain for big box stores like WalMart wasn't enough, now Europeans can add an acoustic tour from Gutter Twins Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan to their repetoire.

According to Summerskiss.com, Dulli and Lanegan are taking fellow Gutter guitarist Dave Rosser with them on an acoustic European trek. Here's the release:

“An Evening With Greg Dulli & Mark Lanegan”

Goes On Sale This Friday November 14th

Sub Pop veterans Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan will return to Europe beginning January 15th 2009 for sixteen special intimate performances. Dulli and Lanegan along with guitarist Dave Rosser will perform a ‘Stripped Down In The Gutter’ set. By sheer virtue of the intimacy of the show, it will be unique, as neither Dulli nor Lanegan have toured in this capacity before.

“Since our instrumentation for this tour is going to be radically different, the shows will include many songs neither of us have performed in quite sometime or ever,” Dulli commented.

“An Evening With Greg Dulli & Mark Lanegan” will kick off on January 15th in Glasgow at the Oran Mor and will run through February 2nd in Athens, Greece at Gagarin 205. Tickets will go on sale this Friday (November 14th) for all sixteen shows.

The Gutter Twins have had a massively successful year with the release of their debut album Saturnalia, and their follow up EP Adorata for Sub Pop Records. It’s been a welcome homecoming to Sub Pop for both artists.

Mark Lanegan rose to fame as singer for the much-loved Seattle band Screaming Trees and Greg Dulli as the magnetic leader of the Afghan Whigs. Following the break up of both groups, Lanegan and Dulli went on to achieve significant notice on their own. Lanegan continued to release successful solo albums, as well as create vivid partnerships with the likes of Belle & Sebastian singer Isobel Campbell and Queens of the Stone Age. Dulli, meanwhile, innovatively fused indie, soul and electronic sounds in his post-Whigs ensemble the Twilight Singers, who released their first album, Twilight As Played By The Twilight Singers, in 2000; the most recent Twilight effort, 2006’s Powder Burns. Saturnalia is sure to make many ‘Best Of 2008′ lists.

Following the conclusion of this tour, Dulli will begin work on a new Twilight Singers album; while Mark Lanegan has an upcoming project with Soulsavers and will begin work on his first solo album in five years.

‘AN EVENING WITH GREG DULLI & MARK LANEGAN’
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009 TOUR DATES
1/15 UK Glasgow Oran Mor
1/16 IRELAND Dublin Academy
1/17 IRELAND Galway Roisin Dubh
1/19 UK London Union Chapel
1/20 BELGIUM Hasselt Muziekodroom
1/21 BELGIUM Brussels Ancienne Belgique
1/22 HOLLAND Haarlem Patronaat
1/24 GERMANY Berlin Babylon
1/25 AUSTRIA Vienna WuK
1/26 ITALY Milan La Salumeria Della Musica
1/27 ITALY Rome Auditorium Parco Della Musica
1/28 ITALY Florence Auditorium Flog
1/30 SPAIN Barcelona Apolo
1/31 SPAIN Bilbao Kafe Antzokia
2/2 SPAIN Madrid Joy Eslava
2/4 GREECE Athens Gagarin 205

Album Review: Adorata

The Gutter Twins
Adorta
Sub Pop/iTunes

Similar to The Twilight Singers A Stitch in Time ep, The Gutter Twins have released an ep of original songs recorded during the sessions for their debut Saturnalia album, plus a handful of covers the band has played live over the course of the year.

Gutter Twin Greg Dulli's pedigree in choosing covers remains impeccable. A cover of Vetiver's "Belles" gently opens Adorata, maintaining the original versions hushed beauty and drifty tone. This gentle introduction is quickly discarded for the urgent percussion and piano of Jose Gonzales' "Down the Line", which sounds more Twilight Singers-esque than the anything else Dulli has done with Gutter partner Mark Lanegan up to this point. Give the band credit for capturing the songs building tension in the studio recording. Definitely an album highlight.

Perhaps all the time touring Europe in the last year influenced the band's decision to cover Primal Scream's classic "Deep Hit of the Morning Sun". Gone are the heavy electronics of the original and replaced with droning instrumentation and Lanegan and Dulli trading off vocal duties to preserve the songs narcotic psychedelia.

Lanegan and Dulli trade vocal duties for the bluesy cover of the traditional "St. James Infirmary" to nice effect. The band's take on Eleven's "Flow Like a River" is a touching tribute to the recently departed Natasha Schneider (a portion of the proceeds from this ep will go to the Natasha Schneider memorial fund to help pay her medicals expenses) and a recent staple of the band's live show.

Two Gutter Twins originals close the album. Both "Spanish Doors" and "We Have Met Before" wouldn't be out of place as part of a cinematic film score with their intimate vocals from Mark Lanegan and orchestral instrumentation. It makes one wonder what else is left on the cutting room floor from this band.

Sadly, Adorata is currently only available through iTunes. Lets hope the band inclues a physical release of this excellent ep soon.

Giving Great Interview: Greg Dulli

Reading interviews with a musican is a 50/50 gamble: either you get a quality interview that provides some insight into the persona of the artist or you get the jaded rock star who has canned responses to questions he/she has probably answered a thousand times before. Greg Dulli of The Gutter Twins, The Twilight Singers and back in the 90's, The Afghan Whigs, gives a great interview.

Recently, Spinner.com sat down with Dulli to discuss a variety of subjects. Fans will be happy to hear that Dulli has a live acoustic album coming out via the internet, will be working on the next Twilight Singers album as soon as his home studio is finished being constructed, and looks forward to making another Gutter Twins album with fellow musician Mark Lanegan at some point down the road.

Read the full interview here.

Interview highlights:

You played Lollapalooza recently. Do you hang out or take off?

Dude, I'm playing f---ing 10 festivals this summer. I don't hang out. Maybe if there are a couple of bands playing in the vicinity of when I'm playing, that's who I'll check out.

I was talking with Lindsey Buckingham and Don Henley, who come from an era right before yours, about success in the Internet age. I'd be curious to get your thoughts on what artists today face.

I'll tell you this first of all: If Don Henley and Lindsey Buckingham would've come up in the f---ing Internet age, they'd both be in jail right now. That is a fact and they both know what I'm talking about. As far as what's going on now, the persistence of paparazzi and media people, if I was a big celebrity I would walk around with a can of mace and a can of spray paint in either hand, and if you didn't get one you'd get the other or you'd get both. Mother f---ers up in my s---, taking my picture, following me around, taking pictures of my family -- that's insane.

I wasn't a big Eagles fan, but Henley is actually a cool guy at this point.

I'm sure John Mayer's a nice guy, and I'm not a fan of his.

Music News

Gutter Twins release digital EP Adorata














In the midst of a summer tour through Europe, The Gutter Twins have announced they are releasing a digital EP titled Adorata. The digital only release contains covers and songs originally recorded during the sessions for their debut album Saturnalia. Whether or not Adorata will have a physical release remains to be seen.

A portion of the sales from Adorata will be donated to the Natasha Schneider Memorial Fund to help her family pay her medical expenses (www.natashaschneider.org).The tracklist is as follows:

Belles (Vetiver cover)
Down The Line (Jose Gonzales cover)
Deep Hit of Morning Sun (Primal Scream cover)
Flow Like a River (Eleven cover)
St. James Infirmary (Traditional)
Spanish Doors
We Have Met Before

Marc Ford Preps Neptune Blues Club for Release
















Songwriter and guitarist extraordinaire Marc Fuckin' Ford (ex Black Crowes) is preparing to release his third solo album Neptune Blues Club on the Blues Bureau label on September 23rd. This is Ford's second solo release since leaving the Black Crowes in 2006. You can preorder the album here. Tracklist for Neptune Blues Club:

Main Drain
Locked Down Tight
Go Too Soon
Don't Get Me Killed
Last Time Around
Spaceman
Pay For My Mistakes
Shame on Me
Mother's Day
Smilin'
Keep Holdin On

Spectrum/Sonic Boom plans rare US tour, album release



















Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember of original noise/drone rockers Spaceman 3 fame will be making a rare visit to the states this September for a series of shows. The shows will be billed under his Spectrum moniker and will see Kember and his band performing songs from his entire back catalog, including Spaceman 3 and Spectrum albums.

According to an article on Blurt, a new Spectrum album is slated for release in early 2009.

If you ever wanted to be aurally assaulted, this is the show to hit:

Saturday 20^th Sept - Zipper Factory, New York w/ Dean & Britta
Sunday 21^st September - All Tomorrow's Parties, Monticello, NY State
Monday 22^nd September - The Dark Room, Chicago
Thursday 25th September - Midpoint Festival, Cincinatti
Friday 26^th September - East End , Portland
Saturday 27^th September - 12 Galaxies, ,San Francisco
Sunday 28^th September - The Echo ( Part Time Punks) Los Angeles

Beck at Outside Lands Festival

















Lastly, if you missed the innagural run of the Outside Lands Festival like we did, fear not music fiends, the magic of YouTube has already started to populate the interweb with high quality clips from the festival.

Watch Beck's performance here

Rock

Music News:

Alright peeps, it's time for another music roundup. Lets do it:

The Gutter Twins are gearing up for another round of touring beginning with Lollapalooza in Chicago and then across the pond for a month of dates across Europe. The band's myspace page details an iTunes only ep that is going to be released before "the new moon" and contains covers and outtakes from the recording sessions for their debut album, Saturnalia. Check out their myspace page for a cover version of Vetiver's "Belles".






Former Replacement and current solo artist Paul Westerberg is selling his new album 49.00 via Amazon and his website Men Without Ties for a whopping 49 cents. Despite not containing any true song titles, Westerberg has provided a downloadable PDF of liner notes through his website. The songs are contained in a single mp3 file and come with the following disclaimer:

WARNING: DO NOT LISTEN WHILE OPERATING A MOTOR VEHICLE

THIS PRODUCT IS NOT FAULTY - ALL SOUNDS ARE INTENTIONAL AND VALID AS A WORK OF ART



Finally, indie rockers The Cold War Kids have a new album slated for release on September 23rd via Downtown Records. Loyalty to Loyalty will be supported by many months spent on the international road, beginning in August in Byron, Australia and ending in October at the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans. Full tour dates are available at the band's website.

Rock.

Cool Song: Spanish Doors by The Gutter Twins

As the Gutter Twins prepare to hit the road for another round promoting their debut album Saturnalia, the band has uploaded a b-side to their MySpace page called "Spanish Doors".

Here's a post from the band talking about the song:

We have added Spanish Doors to the player.

It was recorded in Joshua Tree, CA and Bogalusa, LA and
features the talents of:

Mark Lanegan
Greg Dulli
David Catching
Dave Rosser
and
Norman Block