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Pitchfork Music Festival Presents Green Initiatives

With three-day passes to the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival (PMF) sold out, single-day tickets are going fast. Don’t miss out on three outstanding days in Chicago’s Union Park (July 15th-17th) with the most dynamic and forward-looking lineup of any festival in the country. This year's lineup includes TV on the Radio, Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, Guided By Voices, Neko Case, Das Racist, EMA, DJ Shadow, G-Side, No Age, Superchunk, How To Dress Well, OFWGKTA, and many more! Full lineup is below and tickets can be purchased here.

In addition to providing a rewarding experience to music fans, PMF takes its responsibility to the environment seriously, and we encourage our audience, musicians, and vendors to do the same.  Last year, PMF recycled 42% of waste by weight (10 tons), and this year, the goal is to break 50%. The following are some steps we’re taking to ensure that our environmental “footprint” is as small as possible.

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Recycling

Managing waste is a very important part of any large gathering, and PMF has put together a comprehensive recycling program to limit what we waste. This year, the Pitchfork Music Festival is excited to introduce a brand new organics recycling initiative, a program that will enable food vendors to send any food waste generated at the festival to composting facilities, rather than to landfill. Our recycling crew works with all of our vendors to help them recycle as much as possible, but we need YOUR help as well!!

If you come to PMF, please recycle your plastic cups and bottles, along with any cans and paper you come across.  We will have more recycling receptacles than ever this year, and your participation is greatly appreciated!



Biking, Walking, and Public Transportation

We're happy to announce an enhanced bike parking area under the Chicago Reader's Biker Villager. Free, secure bicycle parking will be available at the south end of the festival site, which will aid in reducing traffic congestion. We encourage you to bike, walk, or take the bus or train to and from the festival.  For folks coming from the Chicago area, please visit the following to plan your trip:

www.transitchicago.com, www.pacebus.com, www.metrarail.com

If you are traveling from outside Chicago, please consider using a bus or train for your journey:

www.amtrak.com, www.greyhound.com, www.megabus.com

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Sustainable Power

All power for the festival comes from biodiesel fuel, which is cleaner than normal diesel fuel and reduces demand for oil.  For more information on this energy resource, please visit www.biodiesel.org. The festival will also be providing hybrid vehicles for festival and artist transport.

Carbon Offsets

The nature of an international music festival creates the need for a LOT of travel.  All the plane, train, van, and car miles that bring bands and fans from around the globe contribute significantly to the pressing problem of climate change. One way to fight this is to purchase “carbon offsets” that help fund actual projects that reduce emissions causing climate change. Individuals, companies, and other groups can buy these carbon offsets.

PMF Artist Offsets

This year, we are buying carbon offsets to cover the travel of all our musicians.  Please consider purchasing your own!

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The 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival Lineup:

FRIDAY

Animal Collective

Neko Case

Guided By Voices

Thurston Moore

Battles

James Blake

Das Racist

Curren$y

tUnE-yArDs

Gatekeeper

EMA

SATURDAY

Fleet Foxes

DJ Shadow

The Dismemberment Plan

Destroyer

No Age

Gang Gang Dance

Zola Jesus

Twin Shadow

Toro Y Moi

Cold Cave

Wild Nothing

OFF!

G-Side

Woods

Sun Airway

Julianna Barwick

Chrissy Murderbot feat. MC ZULU

SUNDAY

TV on the Radio

Cut Copy

Deerhunter

Superchunk

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

OFWGKTA

HEALTH

Kurt Vile and the Violators

Yuck

The Fresh & Onlys

Radio Dept.

Baths

Kylesa

Shabazz Palaces

Twin Sister

How to Dress Well

Darkstar

Hit by a Train -- the Old 97’s in Boulder

I left the Boulder Theater with both ears ringing thoroughly and my head in a satiated state of buzz, and in fact I was bone sober (as far as intoxicants are concerned).

Marty Stuart Preps For UK Tour!

RAMMY nominee Marty Stuart will kick off his UK Tour in Glasgow, Scotland on Jan. 28.  The tour comes on the heels of praise from UK press for his album GHOST TRAIN (THE STUDIO B SESSIONS), with the BBC noting that Stuart has “a complete understanding of what makes good country music sound right, and just enough rebelliousness to keep it fresh,” while the UK Independent calls GHOST TRAIN “the best country album of this year.”

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UK TOUR DATES:

1/28    Glasgow, Scotland
1/29    Gateshead, England
1/30    Nottingham, England
1/31    Milton Keynes, England
2/1      London, England
2/2      Dublin, Ireland

The album, including two GRAMMY nominated tracks for “Best Country Collaboration With Vocals” for “I Run To You,” and “Best Country Instrumental” for “Hummingbyrd,” also landed on several year-end lists including NPR’s “Ken Tucker’s Top 10 of 2010,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Philadelphia Inquirer, CMT.com, No Depression, Toronto Star and The 9513.

From Glasgow, Scotland to Glasgow, Kentucky, Stuart has added a slew of dates across the US following his UK stint.  For tour dates and ticket information, visit www.martystuart.net.

Pitchfork Music Festival 2010 Sunday Sold Out! Festival Announces Green Initiatives

Sunday single-day tickets to the Pitchfork Music Festival (PMF), held at Chicago’s Union Park on July 16-July 18, have sold out, joining three-day passes on the roll-call of extinct opportunities. Saturday looks to be next on the list, as tickets vanish with palpable urgency. Be sure to get single-day passes for the Friday and Saturday festivities before it’s too late! Tickets can be purchased here.

In addition to providing a rewarding experience to music fans, PMF takes its responsibility to the environment seriously, and we encourage our audience, musicians, and vendors to do the same.  Last year, PMF recycled 46% of waste by weight (12 tons), and this year, the goal is to break 50%. Following are some steps we’re taking to ensure that our environmental “footprint” is as small as possible.

Recycling

Managing waste is a very important part of any large gathering, and PMF has put together a comprehensive recycling program to limit what we send to the landfill.  Our recycling crew works with all of our vendors to help them recycle as much as possible, but we need YOUR help as well!!

If you come to PMF, please recycle your plastic cups and bottles, along with any cans and paper you come across.  We will have more recycling receptacles than ever this year, and your participation is greatly appreciated!

Biking, Walking, and Public Transportation

We're happy to announce an enhanced bike parking area under the Chicago Reader's biker village brought to you by Clif Bar. Free, secure bicycle parking will be available at the south end of the festival site, which will help aid less traffic congestion. We encourage you to bike, walk, or take the bus or train to and from the festival.  For folks coming from the Chicago area, please visit the following to plan your trip: www.transitchicago.com, www.pacebus.com, www.metrarail.com

If you are traveling from outside Chicago, please consider using a bus or train for your journey:  www.amtrak.com, www.greyhound.com, www.megabus.com | Thank you for being responsible in planning your trip!

Sustainable Power

All power for the festival comes from biodiesel fuel, which is cleaner than normal diesel fuel and reduces demand for foreign (or Gulf of Mexico) oil.  For more information on this energy resource, please visit www.biodiesel.org.

Carbon Offsets

The nature of an international music festival creates the need for a LOT of travel.  All the plane, train, van, and car miles that bring bands and fans from around the globe contribute significantly to the pressing problem of climate change. One way to fight this is to purchase “carbon offsets” that help fund actual projects which reduce emissions causing climate change. Individuals, companies, and other groups can buy these carbon offsets.

We’ve researched different companies that do good work in the carbon offset market. TerraPass is one of the best companies out there; you can visit their website to calculate your travel emissions, and then buy reasonably priced offsets to cover your trip.  You can also see TerraPass’s past and present projects on their website.

PMF Artist Offsets

PMF is putting our money where our mouth is: This year, we are buying carbon offsets to cover the travel of all our musicians.  Please consider purchasing your own!

The 2010 Pitchfork Music Festival Lineup:

Friday

Modest Mouse

Broken Social Scene

Robyn

Liars

El-P

The Tallest Man on Earth

Sharon Van Etten

Saturday

LCD Soundsystem

Panda Bear

Wolf Parade

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Raekwon

Titus Andronicus

WHY?

Delorean

Real Estate

Bear In Heaven

Free Energy

The Smith Westerns

Dâm-Funk

Kurt Vile

Freddie Gibbs

Sonny & The Sunsets

Netherfriends

Sunday

Pavement

Big Boi

Major Lazer

St. Vincent

Lightning Bolt

Beach House

Girls

Sleigh Bells

Neon Indian

Cass McCombs

Here We Go Magic

Surfer Blood

Local Natives

Washed Out

Best Coast

Cave

Allá

Set times will be published mid-June.

About the Pitchfork Music Festival:

The Pitchfork Music Festival celebrates its fifth anniversary this year at Union Park in Chicago. The three-day event will once again showcase a variety of cutting-edge, global performers on three stages in one of the most comfortable and positive festival environments in the country, all brought to fans at a fraction of the price of any other nationally renowned music festival. In previous years, the Pitchfork Music Festival has provided a diverse audience the opportunity to see performances by some of the world’s most innovative and flourishing young acts, often acting as a barometer for what will be popular in the coming years, while also presenting a wide range of internationally renowned and beloved acts.

An independently run, consistently sold-out event, the Pitchfork Music Festival attracts 50,000 fans of all ages from 45 states and 11 countries. In addition to presenting an outstanding musical line-up at a reasonable price, the festival also offers a vast array of other activities for attendees to enjoy. With 50 individual vendors, as well as specialty fairs, the fest not only supports local businesses and the local economy, but also promotes the Chicago arts community as a whole.

KEANE ANNOUNCE HEADLINING U.S. TOUR

Celebrated UK trio KEANE will embark on a headlining US tour this summer in support of their new album Night Train, out tomorrow on Cherrytree/Interscope Records. The tour kicks off July 20th in Oakland, CA and sees the band traveling across the country, wrapping up August 11th in Minneapolis. Tickets go on sale May 14th. Tour dates below.
Supporting the tour will be Travis frontman Fran Healy and Ingrid Michaelson. KEANE’s most recent release features eight refreshingly innovative tracks written and recorded while the band was on a 28-country arena tour in support of their album Perfect Symmetry. Night Train includes several songs that challenge the boundaries of genre via unique collaborations with Somali/Canadian rapper K’NAAN and Japanese funk singer Tigarah. The album has already been lauded for its signature brooding rock combined with synth-pop flourishes, leading Rolling Stone to say that with its “brass-bolstered soul” and “electro-flavored dance pop…Keane have proved themselves masters of…pop perkiness.”  Alternative Press drew comparisons to David Bowie and Radiohead and People gave it three out of four stars.
Since their inception in 2003, KEANE has sold 10 million copies of their three award-winning albums and seen remarkable success with their singles “Somewhere Only We Know,” “Everybody’s Changing” and “Bedshaped,” among many others.  The band’s particular brand of evocative piano rock propelled by literate, heartfelt songcraft has propelled them to worldwide adoration  and success.

TOUR DATES
July 20 - Fox Theatre - Oakland, CA
July 21 - Greek Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
July 23 - House of Blues - Las Vegas, NV
July 25 - Warehouse Live - Houston, TX
July 26 - House of Blues - Dallas, TX
July 28 - Chicago Theatre - Chicago, IL
August 3 - Bank of American Pavilion - Boston, MA
August 5 - Merriweather Post Pavilion - Baltimore, MD
August 6 - Waterfront - Brooklyn, NY
August 7 - Mann Center - Philadelphia, PA
August 10 - Riverside Theatre - Milwaukee, WI
August 11 - 1st Ave. - Minneapolis, MN

Marty Stuart Pays Tribute to Traditional Country Music with New Album

RAMMY-winner and American music icon Marty Stuart is set to release a traditional country album GHOST TRAIN (THE STUDIO B SESSIONS) on August 24, 2010. With his 14th studio album, Stuart steadily continues to lead the charge in preserving the roots, culture and history of traditional country music.

“What inspires me now, is traditional country music,” says Stuart.  “It’s the music I most cherish, the culture in which I was raised.  It’s the bedrock upon which the empire of country music is built, the empowering force that provides this genre with lasting credibility.  It’s beyond trends and it’s timeless.  With all that being said, I found traditional country music to be on the verge of extinction.  It’s too precious to let slip away. I wanted to attempt to write a new chapter.”
That new chapter is GHOST TRAIN (THE STUDIO B SESSIONS) which includes such unmitigated country staples as the male-female duet (the gorgeous, heartfelt "I Run to You," written and sung with Connie Smith), the chugging, bluesy—and spooky— fellow Mississippian Jimmie Rodgers-like train song "Ghost Train Four-Oh-Ten," steel guitar driven, hardcore heartbreak ballads such as "A World Without You," and "Drifting Apart,” and a no-flinching directness is front and center in the premiere of “Hangman,” a pointed, harrowing tale of an executioner's job and life that Stuart co-wrote with Johnny Cash just four days before the Man in Black passed away.
As the album title denotes, GHOST TRAIN  (THE STUDIO B SESSIONS) was recorded in the legendary RCA Studio B in Nashville, where Stuart participated in his first-ever recording session at the age of 13 playing mandolin in Lester Flatt’s band.
“Studio B has a profound pedigree; it’s where so much of American music’s legacy was forged, certainly country music’s,” says Stuart.   “And sonically, this is a room that welcomes music.  It seemed to me that in order to authentically stage a brand new traditional country music record we should bring it back to the scene of the crime.”
GHOST TRAIN (THE STUDIO B SESSIONS) TRACK LIST:
  1. Branded
    (written by Marty Stuart)
  2. Country Boy Rock & Roll
    (written by Don Reno)
  3. Drifting Apart
    (written by Marty Stuart)
  4. Bridge Washed Out
    (written by Warner Mack)
  5. A World Without You
    (written by Marty Stuart and Connie Smith)
  6. Hummingbyrd
    (written by Marty Stuart)
  7. Hangman
    (written by Marty Stuart and Johnny Cash)
  8. Ghost Train Four-Oh-Ten
    (written by Marty Stuart)
  9. Hard Working Man
    (written by Marty Stuart)
  10. I Run To You
    (written by Marty Stuart and Connie Smith)
  11. Crazy Arms
    (written by Ralph E. Mooney and Charles P. Seals)
  12. Porter Wagoner’s Grave
    (written by Marty Stuart)
  13. Little Heartbreaker
    (written by Marty Stuart and Ralph E. Mooney)
  14. Mississippi Railroad Blues
    (written by Marty Stuart)

The Giving Tree Band | Draft House | Boulder, CO

The Giving Tree Band came through Colorado on their way to the SXSW Festival down in Austin.  On the Tuesday afternoon in March that they came through Boulder they played an early set at the Draft House and then another set over at the Topo Ranch Organic Cotton Clothing Store.  In support of their new album, The Joke, The Threat & The Obvious, their tour- much like their philosophies and their music- focuses on sustainability and green living.

Their grass-roots approach reminds me of a train coming down the tracks, but this is an all environmentally friendly train that discharges energy at a steady and rockabilly pace.  The 8 piece band had fun on stage while having fun with their music.  Picture 8 fellas on stage reviving Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in an all acoustic root- n-bluegrass fashion and you’re starting to see what these guys are all about.  Now add in the goofy walk The Monkees did in the opening credits to that old show.  This picture should be filling out better for you now.

The soulful melancholy cries with an almost Beck like strum sing out, “I wanna know how I should go about my day”… As all voices unite… “I’m ready, I’m ready.”

They have no microphones but a plethora of musical sounds that are amplified with their hearts n souls.  You can really feel this band is putting it all out there for the performance.  DooWhop style like The Temptations but a fresh filled out style of Glove and the Special Sauce is achieved in the live performances.  Although the drum set is muted with handkerchiefs the mandolin sounds big and the violin is plucked while the timing keeps tap with a tambourine.

If you want to feel green, if you are looking for good quality music, and if you want to support a grass roots movement that is going somewhere: do yourself a favor. If you haven’t already, check out The Giving Tree Band.  You’ll enjoy their harmonies as you slip into harmonious bliss of bluegrass melodies.

Follow the Train Releases Mercury Today

Louisville, KY natives Follow the Train spent the last year in the studio crafting their shimmering new album Mercury, a lushly detailed collection of music that is packed with ideas and brimming with emotion at every corner.  Produced by Kevin Ratterman (VHS or Beta), the album is available today through Removador Recordings and Solutions, the label run by My Morning Jacket frontman Yim Yames and former My Morning Jacket guitarist Johnny Quaid.

Follow the Train began in 2004 as Dennis Sheridans solo musical project, paying tribute to the shoe-gaze of the late 80s and early 90s.  The project found an audience with the self-released EP, The Great Disturbance, followed by a full-length album called A Breath Of SighSheridan eventually found an ear in his longtime friend Yames, who brought Follow The Train to Removador.

The band moved through a few different ensembles before settling on a six-piece group that came together for the new album. Sheridan is joined by James Hewett (drums), Mike Sabo (guitars), Brandon Jones (percussion), Carlos Ramos (bass) and David Cronin (keyboards).

Mercury has emerged as a nine-song, space-maddening, psychedelic, operatic brain-cookie.  At the center is Dennis Sheridan’s beautifully tattered yet commanding voice, which carves out a trail in the sky and bursts with lyrics that yearn for exploration.

Railroad Earth | Old School Freight Train | 2.20.09

Why do I have to go see live music? Not like to- have to. Why are recorded concerts more frequently played in my house than their studio counterparts? How can 3 hours of human life be changed into a heavenly experience just with the addition of an impassioned performance? Rhetorical perhaps, but valid questions. If you don’t agree with me, I am not sure why you are bothering to read any further. I write about music. Music that moves me, no, transports me.

Blue Train Revisited This Weekend At The Iridium Jazz Club

Coltrane''s Blue Train- for the Grateful Web

The most enduring of the dozen or so records made by John Coltrane in 1957, Blue Train was John Coltrane's sole recording for the legendary Blue Note label.  The sextet setting allying the tenor giant with trumpeter Lee Morgan and trombonist Curtis Fuller has gone on to become one of the most popular entries in the Coltrane discography.  Curtis Fuller, the only trombonist to record in a Coltrane led band, returns to recreate the classic sound of the group with young veterans Terell Stafford and Javon Jackson filling out the frontline and an all-star rhythm section of George Cables, Lonnie Plaxico and Andrew Cyrille.

 

IRIDIUM JAZZ CLUB
1650 BROADWAY (Corner of 51st)
NEW YORK, NY 10023
RESERVATIONS: 212-582-2121
http://www.iridiumjazzclub.com/
Sets At 8:30 & 10:30PM