Brooklyn group Clare and the Reasons is pleased to announce a west coast tour with the legendary composer/arranger/producer/songwriter Van Dyke Parks in February 2010. Parks collaborated with the group on their celebrated debut release, The Movie, and Clare and the gang are eager to join up with him once again behind the release of their new album, Arrow, out now on Frog Stand Records.

As the band prepares for tour, they are releasing a cover of Genesis' song "That's All" (now with more tuba!). Click on the link for the free mp3 download.

The Bay Area psych-rocker quartet The Mother Hips have just released their seventh full length effort, Pacific Dust. The Hips are excited to share their "California-soul" with fans all over North America.

To celebrate, the band is giving away this breezy, freewheeling track -- "Third Floor Story". Their U.S. tour began this week!

Hailing from the burgeoning electro-pop scene in Gothenburg, Sweden, Little Dragon’s carefully crafted second effort walks the line between experimental electro and giddy synth pop with enough infectious hooks to push the band from quiet underground sensations into the mainstream. Machine Dreams straddles different genres touching on R&B, Soul, Jazz, and Dancehall.

To celebrate, the band are giving away this fab and infectious track -- "Blinking Pigs" -- from their new sophomore effort. Their U.S. tour begins today!

Read more »

UK-based singer/songwriter Sharon Lewis was brought to my attention by our Manchester-based scribe Rob Cochrane. She's just collaborated on a new track with The Climbers who have just signed to Willkommen Records for the release of their debut in March entitled The Good Ship.

To celebrate, the band are giving away this fab track, "Uncommom", from the record which features Dan Michaelson of Absentee and The Coastguards.

A single will also be released this winter; details announced shortly.

Fashion is always vying to spring forward. Grab some motif; give it a spin, a wrinkle, an extra stitch, or a weather-beaten vibe. The models are razor-knife thin, morbidly disinterested in their garb, barely an example of the "average" citizen who can actually afford designer clothes. But that doesn't stop the steady stream of fashionistas from entering the wild world of fashion and offering the thirsty denizens of hip some creative zeal to brighten up their otherwise cookie-cutter mentality of megastore branding machines. Target has co-opted hipsters for years by hiring hipster designers to offer middle-class Americans the opportunity to dress sharp and feel hip(per). Read more »

A Fan's Notes
by Frederick Exley (Vintage)

Ken Krimstein recommended this book for my holiday reading and I don't know whether to buy him a beer or punch him in the face. I can't remember the last time I read a book that caused such emotional discomfort, yet it both moved me and disgusted me. This fictional memoir from the pen of Frederick Exley (March 29, 1929 - June 17, 1992) was heralded an American classic by the likes of Kurt Vonnegut and James Dickey. Read more »

Rhys Chatham: A Crimson Grail for 200 Electric Guitars (Outdoor Version) (World Premiere)
8th August 2009 at Damrosch Bandshell, Lincoln Center, NYC

As music impresario Jim Fouratt presciently posted on his Facebook page yesterday, "You will be sorry if you miss this." And he was right. My god, did every music freak and fan show up last night at Lincoln Center’s outdoor theater? Well, if you invite 200 guitarists and 16 bassists to play in your band and each one of them invited 6-10 friends -- plus all of the other cultural curious -- you will certainly get a formidable crowd. And as former Joe’s Pub booker Bill Bragin has so effectively done since manning the post as director of public programming at Lincoln Center, he aims to please and inspire the culturally ravenous in New York City. Read more »

As I recuperate from my broken left foot, I've got an itch that I can't scratch, a thirst that I can't quench. But I've had a chance to listen to and watch some tremendous music that has helped me with my recovery. As I get ready for my summer holiday in the Cape, I couldn't help but share some of my current faves. And what are you, our CC readers, grooving on? Let us know in the comments section below.

Moby: Wait for Me (Mute) Moby showcased his new effort at the Hayden Planetarium in N.Y.C., and I must say that it was quite the audio/visual spectacle. Read more »

In these days of overexposed celebutards, this is a wonderfully uplifting story. Greg Breinberg, a 36-year old music teacher at P.S. 22 in Staten Island, has taught his 5th grade chorus contemporary songs, many they don't even know. This vid made its way to Stevie Nicks, who cried when she first watched it and invited the group to perform it before Fleetwood Mac's sound check at MSG. Enjoy, DW

Read more »

Americans have become sick. Sick from the food that they eat; bad food, too much food, toxic food. We are being poisoned and bloated like the majority of the livestock and chickens that are overfed the same stuff -- corn -- and then sold to us to consume. It has become a vicious and despicable practice. And yet that's only one of the heinous crimes that Mr. Robert Kenner has exposed in his call-to-arms documentary FOOD, INC. There are many more being perpetrated on farmers and unsuspecting consumers everywhere. More to the point, our food has been hijacked by big business and we Americans need to take it back! Read more »

Just when you think you've seen it all, comes this extraordinary cover of the pop-rock band Toto's 1982 hit "Africa" by the Slovenian vocal (48 voices) band Perpetuum Jazzile. Before you start snickering, please take a few minutes to witness the majesty of human voices and hands. peace, Dusty

Ring of Fire: Selected Poems 1972 - 2008
by Alessandra Gelmi (PublishAmerica)

It was a very late night at The Roxy in Chelsea in the early '80s. Madonna was set to perform one of her first live gigs to tracks. Alessandra and I stumbled into each other. My first New York muse; gorgeous and intellectually intimidating. Had the pedigree. Poetry in motion. Disconnected for years, she recently sent me her first published collection of selected poems. I opened and read. My memories were reawakened. Rekindled many of those early carefree New York mornings. Through the looking glass time machine. Read more »

Peter Doherty: Grace/Wastelands (Astralwerks)

Who knew that UK rocker Pete, er Peter Doherty would reach thirty and actually still be capable of vital and dynamic music? Few in the music press thought that he'd live so long. Or that the best album of his career would be his first solo CD -- part shaggy romantic on a displaced busker's holiday. I never bought into the over-hype of his first punked-out band The Libertines, but I saw the potential in Pete's songwriting. Read more »

Back before I started writing, I managed this righteous hip-hop group from Newark. We should have been contenders, but things got wonky. A few weeks ago one of the Carroll brothers sent me this Youtube link to the first song I produced for them on my label Krossover Records. Check out the inspired vocals by Fred Schneider of The B-52s. Hilarious. Enjoy, Dusty

For those of you who don't know me personally, I'll let you in a little secret. I'm an alumnus of the same high school as the baddest basketball player on the planet. The Chosen One! That's right. Me and 'Bron graduated from Akron St. Vincent - St. Mary High School. Albeit I did a few more decades before him. Remember the "Lil" Penny Hardaway commercials from a few years back? Well, Nike has done it again. We Are All Witness! GO CAVS!!!