Squeeze Pictures

SXSW music festival to rock Austin

Music & nightlifeThe South by Southwest music festival will attract nearly 2,000 bands playing nearly 100 venues across the city of Austin, Texas, Wednesday through Sunday, and that includes such Seattle rising acts as Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head and Past Lives, with Seattle favorite son Quincy Jones delivering the keynote address. Local labels Sub Pop, Barsuk, Suicide Squeeze and Light in the Attic have SXSW business, too.

Published: 2009-03-15 Provider: Seattle Times

TV'S NEW ROOTS

After 17 years on the road, hip-hop stalwarts the Roots may finally park the tour bus for good. Debuting Monday as the house band for "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," the Grammy winners' new job comes with a price: They must squeeze into suits and...

Published: 2009-03-01 Provider: New York Post Keywords: music news, new music, music charts, new music releases, record labels, latest music, music reviews

Live Review: Squeeze in Toronto

TORONTO - Squeeze duo Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford penned some of the best Brit-pop classics of the New Wave period. The question now is whether the live magic remains in the current incarnation of the band.

Published: 2008-08-30 Provider: Canoe

Paranoid Cocoon by Cotton Jones

Formally known as The Cotton Jones Basket Ride, the band releases its second full-length album on the Suicide Squeeze Records label. [Rock, Alternative, Singer-Songwriter]

Published: 2009-02-12 Provider: Metacritic

The Killers Kick Off “Day & Age” Tour That’s One Part Spectacle, One Part Heart

Photo: Miller/Getty From the Springsteen-like bluster of 2006’s Sam’s Town to the fist-pumping restlessness of leader Brandon Flowers, the Killers exude arena-rock excess like no other post-punk revivalists. So it was thrilling to see them squeeze their outsized show into San Francisco’s 2,250-capacity Warfield Theater for the first official stop on their world tour last Friday. The modest stage — as well as the venue itself — was packed: Strings of white Christmas lights hung on amplifiers festooned with flowers. Potted palms and cacti sat on and around the equipment, and a luminous five-foot “k” concealed the singer’s keyboard. Less ambitious bands would be dwarfed by such garishness, but this Las Vegas foursome (joined by touring member Ray Suen on keyboards, guitar and violin) packed anxious anthems like “When You Were Young” with similarly spectacular splendor. Much of the Killers’ bravado rests on Flowers’ shoulders, which for the opening song “Human” were covered in feathers. The singer soon removed his birdlike jacket, emphasizing a slight frame that contrasted sharply with his sweeping gestures. Aside from guitarist Dave Keuning, who stepped onto a platform for his solos and waved his curly locks like a mid-’70s Peter Frampton, the others remained stationary, and no one interacted: This was Flowers’ show, and although gentle keyboard versions of “Smile Like You Mean It” and “Sam’s Town” provided a welcome break from bustling arrangements that elsewhere adhered to the band’s dense studio sonics, the focus rightly remained on the frontman. His eagerness to please was contagious: Flowers smiled often, and the crowd sang his words back at him without prompting. Such generosity fit the spirit of the season. Set List: “Human” “Neon Tiger” “For Reasons Unknown” “Somebody Told Me” “Losing Touch” “Spaceman” “Bones” “Joy Ride” “Smile Like You Mean It” “Sam’s Town” “Read My Mind” “Mr. Brightside” “All These Things That I’ve Done” Encore: “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine”

Published: 2008-12-15 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Live Shows

Jim James, Cat Power Get Spiritual at the Newport Folk Festival

Jim James was everywhere at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island over the weekend. My Morning Jacket’s bearded leader caught Brian Wilson’s headlining set Friday (James said later he was disappointed Wilson didn’t play “Merry Christmas Satan”); strolled along the Newport harbor Saturday morning virtually unnoticed with a white lei around his neck; and sat in during She & Him’s set Saturday afternoon for a duet with Zooey Deschanel before performing a set of his own that conjured up the spirits of Folk Festivals past — Bob Dylan’s groundbreaking 1965 electric set not entirely out of mind. James switched between acoustic guitar and a duct-taped synth, which he used to create a demented drum machine loop for his last song, then packed up and abruptly left the stage as if he had to catch a train. (Unlike Dylan, the crowd did not boo him for it.) Earlier, the skies opened up over the main stage during Trey Anastasio’s solo set — part of the Phish leader’s post-drug bust 12-step program to rock rehabilitation (Step 2: Play gushing acoustic lullabies to a blindly adoring audience; drink Aquafina) — leading throngs of soaking-wet folk fans over to the covered side stage tent, where for four hours James, She & Him and Cat Power played the part of indie rock royalty perfectly. The rain was coming in sideways during She & Him’s set, prompting Deschanel to adorn a polka-dotted poncho (”for solidarity” with those who couldn’t squeeze into the tent, she said) and guitarist M. Ward to lean in a little closer to the mike. Ward then sat in for a couple songs with James, adding an element of twang to James’ reverb-soaked Southern sermons. James and Ward hung out near the back of the stage during Cat Power’s soulful spirituals, where the notoriously loopy singer Chan Marshall, looking healthier than ever, had it together. Marshall, backed by a band that looked like they took the day off from Guitar Center but played like the Stones, offered a mix of bluesy originals (the venue-a

Published: 2008-08-04 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Live Shows

Eddie Vedder on The Who: “These Guys Changed My Whole World”

Eddie Vedder can still recall the exact date of his first Who concert: June 18, 1980, at the San Diego Sports Arena. By then, Kenney Jones was drumming in the band, and he “was on fire,” Vedder remembers. “These guys changed my whole world. It’s a big part of why I get to do what I do.” Vedder and Pearl Jam got a chance to repay that favor on Saturday at the VH1 Honors tribute concert to the Who at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, reaching across the generations to perform two songs from the Who’s 1973 concept album Quadrophenia. Following sets by the Foo Fighters (who covered “Young Man Blues” and “Bargain”), Flaming Lips (who performed a Tommy medley that included “Pinball Wizard” and “Sparks” and Wayne Coyne’s signature bubble) as well as from Incubus (”I Can See for Miles” and “I Can’t Explain”) and Tenacious D (”Squeeze Box”), Sean Penn introduced Pearl Jam, who erupted with “The Real Me” and a soaring, emotional reading of “Love, Reign O’er Me,” as a string section swelled with Vedder’s Daltrey-like wail. Pearl Jam has frequently included Who songs (including “Baba O’Riley”) in their live shows. “I came out all the better for it,” says Vedder, standing outside the venue after a dress rehearsal, several Who buttons pinned to his olive-green army shirt. “That time was almost like a peak for rock & roll bands. The arrangements and the musical structures and the maturity really reached a high level. That’s why this is good — there is a potential for reinvigorating people’s interest in the Who, because we’re getting to the point now where [younger listeners] might have missed them. I don’t hear that use of instrumentation and even the natural approach to musicianship in some of the newer bands.” For those perfo

Published: 2008-07-14 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Wayne Coyne: “The Who’s Music Is Really Optimistic”

Wayne Coyne’s life was changed back in Oklahoma City in the 1970s, when he attended his first Who concert as a teenager. The Flaming Lips leader can still talk excitedly about that night with his brothers, hearing the music erupt onstage, watching the band explode, worrying if the green lasers just might cut off his fingers. By 1986, Coyne and the Flaming Lips were performing a raw medley of songs from Tommy. And as part of Saturday’s VH1 Honors tribute concert to the Who at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, the Lips will perform a typically mind-altering take on songs from the Who’s most famous rock opera. Coyne plans to emerge in his epic “space bubble” and begin the Lips’ set with the immortal words: “See me, feel me, touch me, heal me…” The show, to be broadcast on VH1 on Thursday, July 17, will also include performances by the Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, Incubus and Tenacious D (who will play “Squeeze Box”). But this won’t be the first encounter between the Who and the Flaming Lips. In recent years, Coyne and the Lips have occasionally stepped onstage with Pete Townshend at his series of intimate “In the Attic” club shows, performing Who songs and originals with the classic rock icon. “Their music is really optimistic,” says Coyne. “There is a sense that they believe what they’re saying. When the music is going with it, we all believe it together. And that’s a cool thing.” Did you get to choose what Who songs you would be doing? Luckily, they wanted us to do a Tommy medley. We’re like, “Fuck, yeah!” We had done this Tommy medley in 1986. When we think of the Who doing those songs in the Live At Leeds era — doing the most intense freak-out shit — that was the period we like the most. We probably would have done anything they asked us, just because it’s cool to do and to meet Pete Townshend is great.

Published: 2008-07-11 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, The Who

Tom Petty Talks Super Bowl, “Long-Overdue Heartbreakers Record,” Corporate Rock: Exclusive

Hey, Petty fans, don’t expect to hear “You Don’t Know How It Feels” during this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. Apparently the NFL wasn’t too keen on the whole “let’s roll another joint” refrain. In an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone, Petty chatted about his forthcoming February 3rd halftime gig, informing fans not to expect a medley or dancers — he will, however, stick closely to his greatest hits. Keep reading to check out the full Q&A, where Petty talks about his first Super Bowl (”This is the only way I could get tickets”), a potential spring tour, staying away from corporations and “the long-overdue Heartbreakers record.” Rolling Stone: How long ago did the NFL approach you about this? Tom Petty: I’m not exactly sure. I think it was six or eight weeks ago. RS: Tell me your first reaction to their offer. TP: I said, really? That was it. I was shocked, then I started thinking about it and thought it might be cool. It’s not the kind of thing you ever think about, playing the Super Bowl. It never really crossed my mind. RS: Was your instant reaction to say yes? TP: I thought about it and I heard that some pretty good people had been doing it. I looked at the shows that McCartney and the Stones and Prince had done and I said “Okay, this looks like it could be pretty cool.” RS: What’s the show going to be like? TP: I’m just … You don’t have a great deal of time. I’m trying to, right now, figure out how much material I can squeeze into that short space of time. I think that whatever you do you probably have to edit yourself a bit. I doubt we’d do a medley. We’ve never done a medley and I can’t picture us doing one. It’s not the kind of band that can remember a medley. RS: Have you given thought to what songs you’ll play? TP: I don’t want to give that away. We are thinking about that. We’ve got a few in mind. I think in a show that big in a place that bit you need to play songs

Published: 2007-12-05 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Metric Confirm Fall Tour, Plans to Sculpt “Triumphant Studio Masterpiece”

Savvy new-wave-noise quartet Metric will take a break from prepping to record a “triumphant studio masterpiece” — their fourth album — just long enough to squeeze in a tour in September and October, their first U.S. jaunt since spring of 2006. The band will hit a studio co-owned by the band’s guitarist Jimmy Shaw and former Death From Above 1979 rocker Sebastien Grainger in November to churn out their first new set of tracks since 2005’s Live it Out (the band’s first LP, Grow Up and Blow Away was just re-released, and frontwoman Emily Haines has released a solo album in the interim, as will Bang Lime, a group comprised of rhythm-section players Joules Scott-Key and Josh Winstead, in August). Read on to grab the tour dates, and check out Live it Out’s dreamy “Ending Start” right here. 9/19 - Philadelphia, PA, The Trocadero 9/20 - Washington, DC, The 930 Club 9/21 - New York, NY, Webster Hall 9/22 - Buffalo, NY, Town Ballroom 9/24 - Detroit, MI, St Andrews Hall 9/25 - Chicago, IL, The Metro 9/26 - Minneapolis, MN: First Avenue 9/28 - Denver, CO, Bluebird Theatre 10/1 - Phoenix, AZ, Martini Ranch 10/2 - Pomona, CA, Glass House 10/3 - San Diego, CA, House of Blues 10/5 - Los Angeles, CA, Henry Fonda Theater 10/6 - San Francisco, CA, Download Festival 10/8 - Portland, OR, Cafe Wonder 10/9 - Seattle, WA, The ShowboxPhoto: Edwin Tse

Published: 2007-07-31 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

And You Will Know Trail of Dead by Its Love of Comics, Independence

When he's not creating intricate artwork for his apocalyptic rock band And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, guitarist Conrad Keeley works on a sci-fi novel that he might squeeze into a comic book format.

Published: 2009-02-25 Provider: Wired

Which 'Princeling' Recently Enjoyed a Secret Mediterranean Cruise with His Main Man Squeeze?

Today we have a young actress with interesting job interview techniques, a derelict ad exec, a secretly gay "princeling", a band of lady-slayin' brothers, a disrespectful husband, and another actress who interviews for jobs in a... physical way. 1) "Which troubled starlet got her first big break on TV by sending the producer a tape of herself having sex with another girl? The producer thought the ploy was so original, he cast her instead of dozens of other ingénues." [P6] 2) "Which network adver

Published: 2009-07-20 Provider: Defamer Keywords: blind items