W♥M

Franz Ferdinand

Read More Franz Ferdinand One of my favorite band, Franz Ferdinand will be making their return with Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, coming out August 27th, 2013, via Domino Records. The only thing I have is the track listing: …

As I have suspected, Franz Ferdinand will be on a bigger tour in support of their new album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, which comes out next week (August 27th) on Domino Records. I've already listened to bits of it over at NPR.org, and it's what you would expect from Franz Ferdinand (great lyrics and catchy melodies!)

Franz Ferdinand Fall tour dates:

10/04 - Houston, TX - House of Blues
10/05 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues
10/04 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits
10/05 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits
10/06 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits
10/08 - Lawrence, KS - The Granada
10/09 - Minneapolis, MN - Skyway Theater
10/10 - Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
10/11 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits
10/12 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits
10/13 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits
10/15 - Nashville, TN - Cannery Ballroom
10/16 - Columbus, OH - The LC Pavilion
10/17 - North Bethesda, MD - Music Center
10/19 - Upper Darby, PA - Tower Theatre
10/20 - Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre
10/22 - New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom
10/23 - Montreal, QC - Metropolis
10/24 - Toronto, ON - Kool Haus

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ franzferdinand.co.uk

If it's not Scottish, it's crap!

SCOTTISH ALBUM OF THE YEAR
sayaward.com

Did you vote for your Scottish Album of the Year (SAY)? You still have a chance. In just two days, a "shortlist" will be announced, so we'll see who cut it or not from the longlist of twenty albums:

Admiral Fallow's Tree Bursts in Snow	Auntie Flo's Future Rhythm Machine
Calvin Harris' 18 Months	Dam Mantle Brothers' Fowl
Django Django's self-titled	Duncan Chisholm's Affric
Emeli Sande Our Version of Events	Errors' Have Some Faith in Magic
Human Don't Be Angry's self-titled	Karine Polwart's Traces
Wiszniewski/Stevenson's New Focus	Lau Race's The Loser
Meursault's Something for the Weakened	Miaoux Miaoux's Light of the North
PAWS' Cokefloat	Paul Buchanan's Mid Air
Rm Hubbert's Thirteen Lost Found	Stanley Odd's Reject
Twilight Sad's No One Can Ever Know	The Unwinding's Hours Afterlives

Winner of the 2013 SAY Award will receive £20,000, the other nine runners-up will receive £1,000 each, plus other benefits. Either way, being on the shortlist has its perks.

Read More Franz Ferdinand For my second episode on favorite songs and breakdown, we take a look at Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand. Named after Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the band first break-out single is "Take Me Out", debuting #3 on the UK Charts. …

FRANZ FERDINAND
franzferdinand.co.uk

One of my favorite band, Franz Ferdinand will be making their return with Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, coming out August 27th, 2013, via Domino Records. The only thing I have is the track listing:

1. Right Action
2. Evil Eye
3. Love Illumination
4. Stand On The Horizon
5. Fresh Strawberries
6. Bullet
7. Treason! Animals.
8. The Universe Expanded
9. Brief Encounters
10. Goodbye Lovers & Friends

That was a bit of a surprise because we haven't heard much from the band since their stint with Edwyn Collins. Apparently after a string of hit shows at their California gigs last month, the four-piece decided to record the new record. Their previous effort, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, which was not, in fact, a live album, came out in 2009.

Hopefully, the band will tour the U.S. in support of the new album (but please do not come to Minneapolis in the Winter). In the meantime, the band is playing some music festivals in Europe:

08/09/13 Coke Live Music Festival - Krakow, Poland
08/17/13 Pukkelpop Festival - Hasselt, Belgium
08/23/13 Rock En Seine Festival - Paris, France
08/30/13 Zurich Open Air - Zurich, Switzerland

THE PASTELS
thepastels.org

Also back, are the Pastels! Surprisingly, the 30+ band is still around. Their album Slow Summits can be heard on Pitchfork Advance (out today May 28th on Domino Records).

The Pastels are also doing a rare U.S. appearance at Chickfactor 21 Festival at the Bell House in Brooklyn, New York on June 13th…. Wish I was in New York!

Tour dates:

06/01/13 Glasgow - CCA
06/13/13 Chickfactor 21 - Brooklyn, New York
07/27/13 Indietracks
08/16/13 The Green Man Festival
08/24/13 Doune the Rabbit Hole - Scotland

ALASDAIR ROBERTS
alasdairroberts.com

Scottish troubadour Alasdair Roberts (previously released music under the name 'Appendix Out') kicks off a North American tour in July, with Minneapolis on his list of stops. Given the highly collaborative nature of the vibrant Minneapolis music scene, locals should make a point of queuing up to see the man quoted as saying: "Collaboration is extremely important to me. I reiterate – extremely." With a tenor voice as smooth and clear and sweet as newly-harvested honey, flavored with a Scottish burr, Roberts will be sure to enchant his audience with the dark, blood-soaked ballads and traditional folk story-songs one might expect from one raised in the hamlet of Kilmahog, in central Scotland, where he first began strumming a guitar and making his voice do things that anyone—after hearing only a few bars—can tell it was meant to do. Don’t snooze and miss tickets for this one!

Alasdair Roberts' latest release, Wonder Working Stone, came out January 2013 via Drag City.

07/13: Louisville, KY @ Forecastle Festival
07/15: Chicago, IL @ Downtown Sound: New Music Monday Series
07/16: Toronto, ON @ The Drake Hotel
07/17: Montreal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo
07/18: New Salem, MA @ 1794 Meetinghouse
07/19: Brooklyn, NY @ Celebrate Brooklyn! Performing Arts Festival
07/21: Lakewood, OH @ Mahall’s 20 Lanes
07/22: Kalamazoo, MI @ The 411 Club
07/23: Cedar Rapids, IA @ CSPS
07/24: Minneapolis, MN @ Icehouse
07/26: Calgary, AB @ Calgary Folk Music Festival
07/27: Calgary, AB @ Calgary Folk Music Festival
07/28: Calgary, AB @ Calgary Folk Music Festival
07/29: Winnipeg, MB @ West End Cultural Centre
07/31: Washington, DC @ Millennium Stage - Kennedy Center
08/01: New York, NY @ Joe’s Pub

doug + vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ podcast.weheartmusic.com

W♥M129: The Dark of the Matinee

W♥M129 (24 mins)

W♥M Radio is available on iTunes, please subscription!

Normally the show is about music, but I had this batch of movie-related items that I thought was timely and good enough to appear as its own show.

Once again, Lara is this week's guest.

THE RAID: REDEMPTION - an Indonesian film, the second Silat martial art style from director Gareth Evans and lead star Iko Uwais.

THE HUNGER GAMES - Book vs movie. Jennifer Lawrence is a perfect Katniss Everdeen.

THE ARTIST - The silent, black & white picture. The film won Lara's heart.

Song of the show is Ludovic Bource's "Waltz for Peppy", from The Artist soundtrack.

BONUS: The Philadelphia Story (1940) and sneaking in food and drinks in theaters.

Subscription Options
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Archive of this show at archive.org. More information on podomatic.com

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ podcast.weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic ♥ +W♥M

Free gifts from Domino, Dovecote, When You Awake, and Hanspree*

Franz Ferdinand - Can't Stop Feeling (Emperor Machine Remix)

Franz Ferdinand

In the spirit of giving, below are some free music. It's their gifts to you.

DOMINO? YOU MEAN DOMI-YES
dominorecordco.com

You know, I honestly don't know how Ryan does it, keeping up with the various 'tweets'. I personally think twitter become absolutely useless if you have more than 50 friends. There's also so much spam on twitter!

So, I mostly just have it filtered to reading our own twitter to discover new freebies. So below was sent out a few days ago:

weheartmusic

We♥Music

Check out the @

DominoRecordCo

Xmas Sampler -

http://bit.ly/53Thv0

- Final Fantasy, Wild Beasts, The Kills, Franz Ferdinand & King Creosote.

11:49 AM Dec 14th from web So I did download the eight-track sampler at dominorecordco.com, and was pleasantly surprise to hear a really nice long remix of "Can't Stop Feeling" by Emperor Machine. I normally don't even like remixes, but this one had my head bopping and really appreciating the song... it's like hearing an old song and suddenly it's new again.

I also really dig Joker's Daughter (for non-comic book nerds, yes the Joker had a daughter - I think she mostly fought the 70s Teen Titans). I love "classic" pop girl-group sound, and this band has the vocals and melodies. Although the subject of Gremlins and "Bouncing Liquorish Bears" may be on the weirder side.

OF DOVES AND FISH
harveysidfisher.com

Dovecote Records gathered three of their recording artists to do a mini-tribute to Harvey Sid Fisher. While I don't know much about Fisher, based on hearing the three covers by Mason Proper, Tim Williams, and Trevor Giuliani, I have concluded that Fisher was a bit of a strange songwriter and has a bit of an interesting "older" man's vocals... each of the modern artists do try and emulate the singing style.

My personal favorite is Tim Williams' rendition. Nice backup vocals and the repetitive "hit another wall" refrain.

If you want to hear these songs for yourself - head over to dovecoterecords.com and click on the "Download Now" link. There's no catch either, none of that "give us your email" thing. Just a nice little free EP.

UPDATE 12/18/09: I misread the press info, the songs are all sung by Harvey Sid Fisher (doing covers of Dovecote artists).  This would explain why all the songs sounds like an "older" man.

OLD WAVE MIXTAPE
nouvellesvagues.com

Cover lover band of approval, Nouvelle Vague, made a 10-track free mixtape at whenyouawake.com.

Most of the tracks are by American artists, some classic from Roy Orbison ("You Got It"), Louis Armstrong ("We Have All The Time In The World"), Johnny Cash ("Ring Of Fire"), etc. There are a few weird ones (weird as in didn't fit in) like Sufjan Stevens and Rolling Stones... however, I will admit tapping my feet when I heard the intro to "Let's Spend The Night Together". There is the token French artist Serge Gainsbourg on the mixtape for good measure.

While I'm not entirely sure about the legality of this free download, I think it's good promotions for the bands mentioned on the tape. Plus, it's a nice boost of ego, you know?

daffodilpublicity.com confirms these are their forth-coming North American tour dates:

Friday, Jan. 22, Philadelphia, PA, World Café Saturday, Jan. 23, New York, NY, Webster Hall Sunday, Jan. 24, Boston, MA, Somerset Tuesday, Jan. 25, Montreal, PQ, Metropolis Wednesday, Jan. 27, Toronto, ONT, Opera House Thursday, Jan. 28, Detroit, MI, Crofoot Ballroom Friday, Jan. 29, Chicago, IL, Logan Square Monday, Feb. 1, Denver, CO, Bluebird Tuesday, Feb. 2, Salt Lake City, UT, Urban Lounge Thursday, Feb. 4, Seattle, WA, King Cat

Friday, Feb. 5, Vancouver, BC, Venue Sunday, Feb. 7, San Francisco, CA, Regency Monday, Feb. 8, Sant Cruz, CA, Rio Theater Tuesday, Feb. 9, Los Angeles, CA, Henry Fonda Friday, Feb. 12, Dallas, TX, Granada Saturday, Feb. 13, Austin, TX, Mohawk Sunday, Feb. 14, New Orleans, LA, Republic Tuesday, Feb. 16, Miami, FL, Revolution Wednesday, Feb. 17, Orlando, FL, Firestone Thursday, Feb. 18, Atlanta, GA, Loft Saturday, Feb. 20, Washington DC, 9:30 Club

Too bad they're not going anywhere near Minneapolis, I would love to meet the band.

YOU HAVE TO SPEND MONEY TO SAVE MONEY

Playing Hellboy II via HDMI at 1080p, the beautiful Marie-Josée Croze in an episode of "The Hunger"

www.hannspree.com

I don't work for Best Buy, but I wanted to pass along this deal, since it is almost a crime to not buy it. It is $140 for HANNspree 23" HD LCD 16:9 Widescreen Monitor. That's cheap, considering the same monitor would've cost at least $700 a few years ago.

I did buy it and setup was very plug-and-play easy. It came with a disc for a Windows Vista driver, but if you just have XP, it would just recognize the monitor. Hooking it up on the PS3 using the HDMI cable (not included) was also easy - however I did not like the long pauses as PS3 auto adjust when it plays bluray discs (I suspect this has to do with determining that it's a compliant display since HDMI is notorious for anti-piracy junk).

Compare to the old CRT monster monitors, this 23" is superlight - even Mr Burns can easily move the monitor around. The product page lists 9.9lbs, but it feels like it's only one or two pounds.

The monitor does have built-in speakers, but it sounds tinny. Not exactly awesome audio, but for $140, that's just a bonus. I recommend buying monitor headphones and plugging it in the monitor for clearer audio. And speaking of audio, since this is marketed as purely a monitor - there is also no remote control access. If you need to turn down the audio, you have to adjust it on the monitor itself.

Despite my complaint, this is one of best image display I've own. It's native 1920x1080 is pretty sweet when I'm playing Dragon Age (since now I can have more items in the "quick" slots at the bottom).

* practically free

 12/16/2009 11:25:14 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

W♥M042: Franz Ferdinand's "L.Wells"

W♥M042: Franz Ferdinand's "L.Wells" [download (11 mins)] Franz Ferdinand - L.Wells

Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS).

For my second episode on favorite songs and breakdown, we take a look at Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand. Named after Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the band first break-out single is "Take Me Out", debuting #3 on the UK Charts.

With other hit singles like "This Fire", the band's debut album became a fan-favorite - unfortunately, I didn't particularly cared for their sophomore album You Could Have It So Much Better... which the title saids it all. Perhaps it's due to their annoying song "Do You Want To"?

Their latest album is called Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, which sounds like a live album, but it's not. Between You Could Have It So Much Better and Tonight, they quietly released The Fallen EP, which was basically a "Double A" single of Fallen and L.Wells.

Franz Ferdinand - L Wells

"L. Wells" is quite excellent. The song is about singer Alex Kapranos' friend and acquaintance Lynsey Wells, describing her as beautiful and innocent.

Unfortunately the video is played by Saskia Pomeroy for the part of Lynsey Wells (apparently she was too busy helping orphanages in Africa) and was mostly inspired by Rita Tushingham in A Taste of Honey and Julie Christie in Billy Liar.

My least favorite part of the song is the bridge which slows down the song to let everyone know that Kapranos has very bad memory.

Great Western Wind catches in your Celtic hair
Flicks it round your face like flames around the sun
In the bright cold air you seem as innocent and fair
As Rita Tushingham in 1961

Well, Lynsey Wells
How I wish that I could feel so good
I wish that I could be as good as you
Well, Lynsey Wells
How I wish that I could feel the good
Beyond the poison in us like you do

Trivia, the reference to "You'll Never Walk Alone" is from the motto and anthem of Liverpool FC (Football), whom apparently Wells is a huge supporter.

02/22/2009 02:31:46 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥podcast.weheartmusic.com♥news.weheartmusic.com