The XX announce Night + Day series of gigs

British band The XX, which released new album this year entitled Coexist, announced first three gigs of their Night + Day series of gigs. It is a series of tour dates that will take place at really unusual places. Also, these shows won't be usual concerts, but mini festivals.

The band said about their plans following:

"Night + Day is a series of events, curated by us, to start in the summer of 2013. We searched high and low for unique and beautiful locations to stage these shows and picked the artists that we most respect and admire to join us. The events will run from early afternoon, with some of our favourite music (and food) to take you from day into night."

So far, three dates has been announced, but it is expected that more dates will be added. First, the band will perform at waterfront park in Portugal that has 4.7 hectares of gardens, right on the edge of Lisbon's waterfront Jardim da Torres de Belëm.

Then, the band will perform at an abandoned Berlin theme park with rusty roller coasters, broken rides, crumbling dinosaurs and a 45m ferris wheel.

Finally, The XX will come back to their home city London. They'll perform at Osterley Park & House, which is one of the last surviving country estates in London. It is set to be their biggest headline show to date with capacity of 10,000.

I really like this idea and I am sure that these gigs will be unforgettable for both, the band as well as fans.

Night + Day tour dates:

May 5 - b]Jardim da Torres de Belëm, Lisbon
May 18 - Spreepark, Berlin
June 23 - Osterley Park & House, London

Song of the day: Jack White - "I'm Shakin'"

Last night, Jack White made an appearance on Conan TV show. However, it wasn't an ordinary performance of this guitar magician because he performed track "I'm Shakin'" taken from his debut solo album Blunderbuss (one of my best albums of 2012 + review here) for the first time ever.

Jack White this time performed with his all-female band Peacocks (he has one all-male band and one all-female band, which is really cool). As usual, the performance is awesome and the track maybe sounds even better than the studio version. Check it out below.

Best Albums of 2012: The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten

These rockers from New Jersey have been on the scene since 2006 and during that time they've released 4 studio LPs. They've built quite a big audience and become respected band on the rock scene during their career. Their musical style could be best described as punk mixed with stadium rock (similar to Bruce Springsteen's style).

Their last effort Handwritten came out on July 20, 2012 and I gotta say, it is their best album so far. I've said it many times on this blog and I'll say it again - I think they've found a perfect combination of their punk roots and that huge stadium sound on this record.

Actually, I had no doubts this album will be good after they revealed first track of the album - "45". It is such an awesome song. It's got this really big sound. Other tracks on the album continue with spirit of the opener. However, I wouldn't say tracks on this album are too similar. No, I don't think that's the case because every track has slightly different style.

Vocals are typically incredible like we are used to when listening to this band. But what I like maybe even little more is the guitar work on this album. I don't mean really hard and fast guitar solos that last longer than 5 minutes. No, you won't find these on this LP. I mean emotional guitars that can be heard throughout the entire album. In the background, there is always one guitar playing some riffs in addition to the rhythm guitar. Just listen to it and you'll find out for yourself.

Tracklisting of Handwritten:

1. ''45''
2. "Handwritten"
3. "Here Comes My Man"
4. "Mulholland Drive"
5. "Keepsake"
6. "Too Much Blood"
7. "Howl"
8. "Biloxi Parish"
9. "Desire"
10. "Mae"
11. "National Anthem"

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:

12. "Blue Dahlia"
13. "Sliver" (Nirvana cover)
14. "You Got Lucky" (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cover)

Dave Grohl won't tour with QOTSA

As I informed you last month, Dave Grohl is recording drums with Josh Homme's The Queens Of The Stone Age. And it is really cool that he will appear on another record of QOTSA (he has previously recorded drums on 2002' Songs for the Deaf - in my opinion the best album from QOTSA).

Even though, this fact is really awesome, many people (including me) were wondering if he will actually appear live with Homme and cos. However, in an interview with CBS Local, he ruled out this option.

Everything is not so bad though. He pointed out that his side band Them Crooked Vultures (which he formed with QOTSA's Josh Homme and Led Zeppelins' John Paul Jones) will reunite at some point in the future.

He explained:

"We’ve talked about it, I know that someday we’ll get back together and do stuff, because we love playing with each other."

Dave Grohl is currently preparing for premiere of his directorial debut Sound City, which is set to premiere Sundance Film Festival, which takes place from January 17 – 27 in Park City, Utah. Worldwide premiere is set to be on February 1 of the next year.

Best Albums of 2012: Alabama Shakes - Boys and Girls

Alabama Shakes is a band from Athens, Alabama. They were formed in 2009 and this album entitled Boys and Girls is only their debut album. And I gotta say, this band is the best new act of 2012 for me. The passion this band puts into the music and also incredible skills of every member of this group creates the best combination for awesomeness.

The album was released on April 9, 2012 and I almost immediately got my greedy little hands on these 11 tracks (plus one bonus). I knew this band a little since the beginning of 2012 and based on those couple of songs I had heard ahead of its release, I thought they are pretty good band.

However, after Boys and Girls came out, it blew my mind. Seriously, there is no track that sounds bad or at least not as good as the other tracks on this record. What I like about all those tracks is the incredible voice of singer and also main song writter Brittany Howard. Her voice is perfect addition to already incredible music and together they create something really unusual. The best way to describe their music is probably 'blues rock with badass female singer'.

Of course, Alabama Shakes aren't typical modern today's band because they just aren't, but they make real music with passion and that's what I like. I can listen to this album over and over again and it still sounds awesome, coherent and fresh. The opener "Hold On" may be even the best track of the entire year.

Their live performances are incredible as well - to prove for yourself just check their entire performance from KEXP at the bottom.

Tracklisting of Boys and Girls:

1. "Hold On"
2. "I Found You"
3. "Hang Loose"
4. "Rise To The Sun"
5. "You Ain’t Alone"
6. "Goin’ To The Party"
7. "Heartbreaker"
8. "Boys & Girls"
9. "Be Mine"
10. "I Ain’t The Same"
11. "On Your Way"

12. "Heavy Chevy" (Bonus)

Check out new song from Blink-182!

As I informed you in November, Blink-182 will release new music in form of a new Christmas EP. It is entitled Dogs Eating Dogs and it will be out next week (December 18) as digital download. In fact, there are three different packages, which you can order along with the digital download. To see all the possible packages and to order them, visit their website.

Couple of days ago, somehow it got leaked that the band will reveal first song of the album on December 10 (today). All the Blink-182 fans can tonight get a good sleep because the rumours were true and new track was really revealed.

It was presented to the world via BBC 1. New track is called "Boxing Day" and I gotta sadly admit that it is not so good. It is highly influenced by Tom's band Angels and Airwaves. I really miss there typical Blink-182 sound. The only thing I can do now is to hope that the entire EP won't sound like this.

Anyway, check out the track below.

The cover should look like it is shown at the very top of this post. The band was revealing it as puzzles. However, first when the album was announced, the cover was supposed to look like this:

Me personally, I like the older cover much better than the new one. I think the new one is too dark.

Best Albums of 2012: Jack White - Blunderbuss

You probably saw this coming, right? I mean, really, this was Jack White's year and his album just had to make the list.

Form White Stripes's frontman's debut album entitled Blunderbuss came out on April 23 and many people had been anticipating it ahead of its release. And I gotta say, Jack White didn't let us down. Not at all.

People who expected that this album will be raw and fast (like The White Stripes) were wrong. Probably, they are the only people who don't like it...

In fact, Jack White's debut record is all over the place. He really mixed his favorite music genres together and put them all on the record. But he did it very well. There are jazz tracks, rock'n'roll tracks, country tracks and of course songs that sound like The White Stripes. And I like the variety of different sounding tracks because I think there would be no point in making a new record that would sound completely like his former band.

If you wanna read the full review of the record, head here. You'll read there everything I had to say about it.

To conclude, the record is an awesome sounding mixture of songs driven by Jack White's awesome guitar skills. Jack White once again proved why he is so respected in the music world - for music like this.

Best Albums of 2012: Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood Of Colour

So I'm back and I hope I will have the time to finish my list of best albums of 2012 until the end of year. I tend to post mini review of one album every day from now on.

Anyway, first album I'm going to write about is Enter Shikari's A Flash Flood Of Colour. It was released in January of this year and it's been basically soundtrack of my whole year. It was playing in my car, on my laptop and also in my headphones pretty much all the time. Basically, I've been coming back to this album constantly.

This album is really great because these guys have learned how to move their music to the next level. Their previous efforts (2007's debut Take To The Skies and 2009's Common Dreads) weren't bad at all. Music and style they brought with these albums was quite unique and in fact, still is.

However, this one.. it is completely new level for me. It may not be as unique as Common Dreads, but the lyrics, the music and also music videos made for tracks from this album really create the uniqueness of this album.

If you want to read full review of it, click here. You can find out there about this album's flaws as well as great points. I just love it and it really have grown on my over time (I love it even more now than I did during writing the review). I definitely recommend you to check it out and fully emerge into Enter Shikari. I think they fight for good stuff and definitely come to one of their shows! They're great live.

Song of the day: Disco Ensemble - "Second Soul"

My favorite Scandinavian band called Disco Ensemble are back with new album and also with new music video. The news is not so fresh though - new album with a name Warriors came out on September 21 and about the same time, music video for the first single of the record entitled "Second Soul" was revealed. I just didn't quite catch that and completely forgot about their new album.

However, new record is not their best (I think that their previous effort The Island of Disco Ensemble is much better). They kind of moved the other direction and slowed down a lot. I miss their hardcore roots in their music, which were present on their previous albums. I mean, there are also on this album, but not so much.

I'm not saying the album is bad or something, I just don't like it as much as their older stuff. There are still typical guitar riffs and also typical synthesizers for their music, but they are not used in the way I wished they were.

Anyway, listen to the song and check out the music video for it below.

Live Review: Mark Lanegan@Klub za zrkadlom, Bratislava, Slovakia

Mark Lanegan is an artist that I admire quite a lot. His music contribution is really huge. He stood on the start of the whole grunge scene in Seattle in early 1990s whit his band Screaming Trees that released seven studio albums.

After the band broke up in 2000, he joined legendary Josh Homme's band The Queens of The Stone Age and recorded three albums with them (2000's Rated R, 2002's Songs for the Deaf and 2005's Lullabies to Paralyze). He also toured with them and therefore we can say he was regular member of the band.

During his career, he also collaborated with names such as Kurt Cobain, Belle and Sebastian, Isobel Campbell or Melissa Out of her Mind. The album made in collaboration with Isobel Campbell entitled Ballad of the Broken Seas was even nominated for Mercury Prize.

Despite all of his collaborations with different kind of artists, his solo career is the main reason why he is so respected. Since 1990, he has released seven solo studio LPs. The last one called Blues Funeral came out this year in February.

The album received positive reception throughout the music world. Of course, the most important element of his music is his powerful voice, which is by many compared to Tom Waits. When we add brilliant music to his incredible vocals, nothing bad can come out.

He is currently on tour in support of his latest effort. As part of this tour, he also stopped by in Slovakia for the first time ever. Concert took place at small venue in our Capital this past week (Tuesday, September 20).

First band of the evening called Tornado Lue started right on time according to schedule - at 7 pm. This young slovak indie band showed their uniqueness during their short set. Although, not many people were there yet during their performance, they showed why a lot of people like them.

Second artist that performed slightly before 8 pm was british guitarist and songwritter Duke Garwood. During his set, most of the people were really surprised by his incredible guitar skills. He didn't play for a long time either, but his gig was great. Although, vocals could be set up little higher.

Third and last support band of the evening was band called Creature with the Atom Brain from Belgium. They put fans on the right wave with musically perfect grunge music. Interesting thing about this band was the fact that three of four members were actually roadies of Mark Lanegan band. One of them was even keyboards and guitar player in Lanegan's band. However, during their set the vocals were really low as well, but it didn't matter so much since their gig was more about music than vocals.

Main act of the evening started on 9:40 pm. Mark kicked it off with first track of his last record "The Gravedigger's Song", which predicted the direction of the whole concert. He played mostly songs from his last record and therefore people in the audience weren't cheering as much as they could. They probably didn't know as many songs, but the atmosphere of the small venue mixed with extremely emotional music of Mark Lanegan provided this invisible power and communication between the audience and the band.

The fans reacted the most during the encore when Mark played two extra tracks. First one was Queens Of The Stone Age's "Hangin' Tree" during which people went crazy. He finished the set with slow "Methamphetamine Blues", which gave the concert a beautiful finish.

To conclude, Mark Lanegan played a dark emotional concert, which was definitely one of the highlights of 2012 concert season in Slovakia. The only thing that could be better is sound because during some tracks Mark's vocals were disappearing.

Setlist:

"The Gravedigger's Song
"Sleep With Me
"Hit the City
"Wedding Dress
"One Way Street
"Resurrection Song
"Gray Goes Black
"Devil in my Mind (Smoke Fairies cover)
"Harborview Hospital
"Quiver Syndrome
"One Hundred Days
"Creeping Coastline of Lights (Leaving Trains cover)
"Black Rose Way (Screaming Trees song)
"Riot in My House
"Ode to Sad Disco
"St. Louis Elegy
"Tiny Grain of Truth

Encore:
"Hangin' Tree" (Queens of the Stone Age song)
"Methamphetamine Blues"