Music News Net

THOMAS DOLBY and His "Time Capsule" to Tour the USA and Canada

MUSIC NEWS - With his critically acclaimed album A Map of the Floating City released, and the groundbreaking FloatingCity.com transmedia game he co-designed up and running, Thomas Dolby will embark on a 26-date North American tour this March, with a rather unusual vehicle in tow (picture below right).

The Time Capsule is a chrome and brass plated road trailer that seats three. With handcrafted leather and wood fittings, and complex electrical wiring that could have been designed by Nikola Tesla, it resembles a Jules Verne/HG Wells-inspired time-travel machine. Inside, it's actually a high-tech video recording suite that allows a you or guest artist to upload a personal video message to the Future. The Time Capsule will be parked in the street outside each venue on Dolby’s month-long North American tour, and in front of select local radio and TV stations around the USA / Canada. It will capture hundreds of 30-second clips over the course of the tour, assembling them into an online video montage.

(photo Paul Sizer)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. Announces January Tour With Fitz and the Tantrums

MUSIC NEWS - Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. will kick off 2012 on the West Coast, touring with Fitz and the Tantrums and making their national TV debut on Conan January 30th. They'll also be headlining Echoplex in L.A. on January 31st. 

 

IFC just premiered a video that the group a few months ago while in a remote village in Iceland. Set to a sparse piano version of their track "Nothing But Our Love," the video (below) artfully documents the band's visit to a self-sustainable community just outside of Reykjavík.

THOMAS DOLBY Announces Brief USA "Floating City" Lecture Tour

MUSIC NEWS - Grammy-nominated British electro pop musician and tech entrepreneur, THOMAS DOLBY has announced an October seven-city US mini solo tour. The performances will be in the form of a sixty minute lecture about his new social networking transmedia game, The Floating City, interspersed with live songs from his upcoming album A Map of the Floating City releasing October 25 on Lost Toy People Records (through Redeye Distribution), and of course some of his timeless classics.

The brief trip will takes DOLBY from coast to coast, with live appearances in Washington DC, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Most are club venues, though some live radio and TV shows are listed (full itinerary is below).

GARY NUMAN Makes Plans for Move to California

MUSIC NEWS- Gary Numan, the electonic/new wave performer will be emigrating to the USA as a result of the devastating riots that occured recently in his native Britain. The singer, famous for the synth-pop hit Cars, was disgusted by the violence and admits seeing the news coverage of the events was the final push he needed to make the move to America.  Last week, he filed the official papers and said he's looking forward to a new life in California with his wife Gemma and their three daughters once their application is approved.

Numan recently told the UK's Daily Record, "We are trying to emigrate to America. We will know within the next month if we are successful. "  "The other day my wife was walking down the High Street and a bunch of kids between 12 and 14 were telling her what they would like to do to her. She had my children with her. You've got to be kidding."

Thomas Dolby Returns With "A Map Of The Floating City"

MUSIC NEWS-  80s ground-breaking electronic pop star, Thomas Dolby, whose smash hits ‘She Blinded Me With Science’ and ‘Hyperactive!’ helped define the MTV generation/revolution, will soon end his 20-year silence with a new release in October titled ‘A Map Of The Floating City’. The album, features appearances by special guest artists Mark Knopfler, Regina Spektor, Natalie MacMaster, Bruce Woolley and Imogen Heap, will be available on October 25, 2011 as a regular and hi-res download, as a physical CD, and in a special Deluxe Edition featuring a second disc of instrumentals and bonus tracks.

Frankmusik Joins ERASURE Tour

MUSIC NEWS- English synth-pop legends Erasure (Andy Bell and Vince Clarke) will be launching the first leg of their Tomorrow’s World tour in the USA on August 31  with Frankmusik, the British remix master whose own full-length album Do It in the AM will be released out in September via  Cherrytree/Interscope Records. Frankmusik (a.k.a. 25-year-old Vincent Frank) also produced Erasure’s October disc Tomorrow’s World, the band’s first album in four years, and Erasure’s 14 studio release, and first release since their remastered version of 1988’s classic The Innocents was released back in 2009.

Human League Announce North American Tour Dates

MUSIC NEWS- Electronic pop dance champions, The Human League have announced a North American Tour plans for 2011 to promote their upcoming EMI release, CREDO, that delivers this fall.  It'll be their first tour in over fifteen years starts up in September.

On board to support will be special guests; new wave legends Men without Hats.

THOMAS DOLBY Launches His "Floating City" Game

MUSIC NEWS- Thomas Dolby, known to most as the singer/synthesist behind the Top 5 smash hit “She Blinded Me With Science” and to many as the co-inventor of the Beatnik polyphonic ringtone engine, Thomas Dolby today announced his latest creation: The Floating City.  FC a rich transmedia game with a living world that changes and reacts to player contributions. It uses web browsers, social networks, and even smart phones and iPads as a way for fans to access his latest musical endeavors.

The Floating City is open for registration from today at FloatingCity.com with gameplay commencing on June 22nd at 5 pm GMT (1 pm ET in the USA). Players from around the world will form tribes and collaborate to earn free music downloads, merchandise and concert tickets. The leading tribe will even win the right to stage a private concert at which Thomas Dolby and his band will perform his forthcoming album in its entirety.

THE CARS "Move Like This" Streaming Now

MUSIC NEWS -  With just a little under a week away from the release of THE CARS new Move Like This, their first record in 24 years, and the start of their tour (full itinerary below), the new album is available for your listening pleasure before its' May 10 release! 

We'll let their music speak for itself and not bore you with critics comments praising the new album....Move Like This can be streamed in its entirety, here.  Let us know what you think...

Canada's North By Northeast Fest Announces 2nd Wave of Performers

MUSIC NEWS - NORTH BY NORTHEAST (NXNE) has announced the second wave of bands for their 17th edition of the festival (Toronto June 13 thru 19, 2011).

NXNE has just confirmed -

Devo, Descendents, Stars, The Pharcyde, Men Without Hats, Digable Planets, Twin Shadow, OFF!, Art Brut, Shad, Land of Talk, Chad VanGaalen, and Cults will join a festival line-up that also includes performances by The Dodos, Deerhoof, Hot Water Music, The Bouncing Souls, and Anti-Flag (previously announced), plus Dum Dum Girls, Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield, Braids, Ty Segall, Suuns, PS I Love You, Crocodiles, Wild Nothing, The Pack A.D., Metz, Dirty Beaches, Forest City Lovers, The Luyas, Lower Dens, Gentlemen Husbands, Rusty, Royal Bangs, Julianna Barwick, No Joy, Prince Rama, Doldrums, Secret Cities, Evening Hymns, Snowblink, Parlovr, Talk Normal, PUJOL, Woodsman, Gauntlet Hair, Joey Cape, Tape Deck Mountain, AIDS Wolf, Houses, CJ Ramone, and Kevin Seconds.

DEVO Unveils New "What We Do" Video

MUSIC NEWS- DEVO, one of the world's most influential and innovative bands, will premier their brand new interactive video for the track, "What We Do" from their first studio album in nearly two decades, SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY.  Beginning today, "What We Do" makes its world premier on Mashable.com for 24 hours (view it below).  This groundbreaking video was directed by DEVO's own Gerald Casale along with Kii Arens and Jason Trucco, and features the members of DEVO along with a cast of characters.

OMD Issues Statement To Correct Reports on SXSW Accident

MUSIC NEWS- The British synth-pop band OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark) has issued word that they had expected their recent concert at the South by Southwest in Texas to be shortened after a the recent equipment mishap. OMD had played three shows in Austin, TX during SXSW and as the band was preparing to take the stage at Stubbs on Friday night, a camera boom fell into the crowd and injured four people, who were then taken to a hospital.

OMD said in a statement on their site to correct some erroneous media reports posting, "various media have misconstrued comments made from the band on the incident."

THOMAS DOLBY To Preview New Album at NYC Radio Performance

MUSIC NEWS - Next Friday, February 25, THOMAS DOLBY will be on the air live in NYC and give an exclusive performance of his first album of new material in 20 years,  A MAP OF THE FLOATING CITY, at 2pm EST, during a presentation of WNYC’s program SOUNDCHECK live from The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space.

DOLBY will be calling in to SOUNDCHECK (93.9 FM in New York and wnyc.org), at 2pm EST today to chat with host JOHN SCHAEFER and SOUNDCHECK fans about his appearance next week. 

THOMAS DOLBY To Return With Oceanea EP

MUSIC NEWS - The reclusive THOMAS DOLBY is ready to break his 20-year music silence with a brand new studio album called A Map of the Floating City.  The new collection will be out this summer,  but first, on March 28, Thomas is releasing Oceanea, a three-track EP. Featuring guest vocals by Eddi Reader, we're told Oceanea sees a return to Dolby’s melodic and atmospheric roots.

“The new songs are organic and very personal,” explains Dolby. “The songs on Oceanea are a reflection of my natural home on the windswept English coastline.” These days he writes and records aboard a solar and wind-powered 1930s lifeboat in the garden of his beach house in East Anglia. Now living back in his native UK after 25 years in the USA, Dolby is busy completing A Map of the Floating City, which features appearances by special guest artists Mark Knopfler, Regina Spektor, Eddi Reader, Natalie MacMaster, Bruce Woolley and Imogen Heap. Says Thomas, “This album does not sound electronic at all. I have zero desire to add to the myriad of machine-based, synth-driven grooves out there. What I do best is write songs, tell stories.” 

ULTRAVOX To Release New Album

MUSIC NEWS  - Following Ultravox’s return to the live arena in 2009/10 with their successful Return to Eden tours, they have recently signed a deal with Universal Records and are set to release a brand new album.  A natural progression from the reformation that was a celebration of their 30th anniversary, the band have been working on new material since Autumn 2010, which is now nearing completion.  The news was released via Press Release on Midge Ure's official website on January 20th. 

“We’ve had such a great time performing our old songs over the last two years that we just didn’t want it to end! There’s an immense satisfaction in looking across the stage and seeing those familiar faces playing the songs that we wrote as a unit. When we sat down to attempt to write some new songs we found that the ideas just kept coming and so a new album became not just inevitable, but something we really wanted to do together. Once again the whole has proved to be greater than the sum of the parts.”