Howe Gelb and co. in session... Giant Sand 's latest release Tucson is so big that they had to add another 'giant' to their name and, let's be honest here, the extra syllables are worth the mouth-wrestle. Described incredibly accurately - if unimaginatively - by the host as "absolutely exquisite", this is last year's four-track studio session from Giant Giant Sand performed live on KEXP . For more on [...]
Here's another old college radio show I uploaded to MixCloud. From February 1989, this is the earliest surviving tape that I have. Unfortunately, I lost lost a lot of tapes when my car got broken into outside the old 9:30 Club in D.C. many years ago. This show features The Stump Wizards, Buzzcocks, Camper Van Beethoven, Half Japanese, The Chills, XTC, Elvis Costello, Iggy and the Stooges, The Divine Horsemen, Giant Sand, Chris McGregor, Tom Waits and others. WDCV 88.3, Dickinson College, February 1989, DJ Pete Bilderback [...]
We've still got Sunday's Coachella coverage coming your way. In the meantime, check out all these artists playing L.A. tonight: ► Rodriguez , the star of Oscar-winning documentary "Searching for Sugar Man" plays a show at the Orpheum Theatre before he has to head back to Coachella for weekend 2. Giant Sand plays as support. ► Foals also come through town to play a show at El Rey Theatre. The Neighbourhood , who also played the festival, opens. [That's Foals' video for "My Number" above.] ► [...]
As long as the world doesn't end super abruptly and we have at least a few minutes to sit and watch as the comet/moon/lava/tidal wave/Go-Bots/the last episode of Lost on repeat/mushroom cloud/s hurl towards us, I think this will be a really nice and appropriate song to listen to as we wait for death's sweat sweet embrace.
Nightmare City : Few would suspect you can fill a cinema shoulder-to-elbow by screening delirious dada like Nightmares in a Damaged Brain and The Witch Who Came from the Sea , but that’s exactly what happened at the Silent Movie Theater last month. In a fit of programming hubris, the Cinefamily spread screenings of thirty “ Video Nasties ” over as many October midnights. Westside cineastes, veteran horror freaks and hordes of the idly curious lined up on Fairfax Ave. every night for this high-concept splatter platter. Staff stamped contest calendars [...]
Thanks to Howe Gelb for guest editing our website all week. Be sure to check out Giant Giant Sand's latest LP, Tucson. Watch the video for “Forever And A Day” below.
The album combines a pleasing unpredictability with a steadiness that supports Gelb's operatic vision. For the new album Tucson, Howe Gelb has doubled the size of his band, so they've appropriately changed from Giant Sand to Giant Giant Sand. The switch, not in small part because the album centers on the developing expansiveness. The sound is wider than might be expected, although there's nothing here that shouldn't feel out of place to a Giant Sand fan. Conceptually, the album with its subtitle "A Country Rock Opera", stretches out not...
Here are another six tunes to try and cheer you up a little bit on another dank and dreary Friday in England... First up is Hardly Art's Unnatural Helpers and their raging first single, Hate Your Teachers , from upcoming album Land Grab . River City Tanlines keep the energy levels fizzing with their own garage-punk howl and shred of Stop My Heart taken from the forthcoming release Coast to Coast (out on 31st July). We have Ranch Ghost who play a loose, raw brand of [...]
Jun 29, 2012, 8:00am
DOA
Howe Gelb returns with an expanded Giant Sand and a self-proclaimed ‘country rock opera’ double-LP.
It's Monday, which means it's time for another edition of our regular start-of-the-week stream-a-thon, wherein we scour the Internet for worthy and/or noteworthy albums that are streaming this week at absolutely no cost. Today we attempt to blow our speakers with the new A Place to Bury Strangers record, then give the subwoofers a good going over with a heap of old classic tracks from Detroit techno founding father Kevin Saunderson. There's also Joe Jackson (and, erm, Iggy Pop) doing a tribute album to Duke Ellington, along with new/old They Might Be Giants and a tribute album to the late [...]
The repeated name indicates that this is Giant Sand doubled, the six Danish members augmented with six new Tucson-based members for a concept album about a man trying to escape his hometown. Shifting membership has always been the Giant Sand trademark throughout 25 Giant Sand albums, but Howe Gelb has always endured at their heart (and you can chalk up another 19 albums in his own name, plus 4 as the Band of Blacky Ranchette, if you’re counting). What you get here is a bit of everything he’s done over the years, reflecting the city (Tucson) that he’s [...]
'We can waltz as much as you can handle, for all your faults can't hold the candle, compared to the wonders of you' Giant Giant Sand creep through the doorframe as waves of insouciant instrumentation break on the shore; the opening track to new album Tucson 'Wind Blown Waltz'. Formed in Tucson, Arizona (1985) by principle songwriter Howe Gelb, this stalwart outfit changes like the seasons. Whether that be the low-Autumnal sun of debut album Valley Of Rain , being eclipsed by ex-members in the form of Calexico or esteemed contributors like PJ Harvey, M [...]
Following an 18-year hiatus, soul singer Bobby Womack returns to top this week's list of new releases with The Bravest Man In The Universe , which easily ranks among the legendary singer's best albums to date. Following the approach he took with the late Gil Scott-Heron’s excellent final record, producer and XL Recordings head Richard Russell, along with co-producer and Blur/Gorillaz-leader Damon Albarn, adds moody electronics and trip-hop beats to create, what our Music Director, Don Yates, calls "masterful set of electro-soul" whose "spacious, modern production makes a surprisingly effective showcase for Womack’s grainy, deeply soulful vocals [...]
“You are so much like the river …/Beautiful, twisted and blue/You appear to be here forever/But really are just passing through/The river here is ancient/But the waters are always new” Giant Giant Sand 's Tucson features music for a country rock opera written by Howe Gelb. It's the story of a young man who leaves his home and sets out on a road trip in the desert, the series of adventures that follow teaching him something about life. It starts with a waltz and ends with a Tom Waits-like blues [...]
With his 26th album leading Giant Sand, Howe Gelb isn't just spinning southwestern fables anymore. In a way, he has become one. Fire Records, 2012 5.4 / 10.0 So, let me guess. You've never heard of Howe Gelb or Giant Sand, right? Don't feel too bad. Howe isn't [...]
In anticipation of Fire Records' June release of the country rock opera, Tucson , and Howe Gelb's 31 May performance at Village Underground in London, Giant Giant Sand have released a new track, Detained . This new album from an expanded and magnified version of Giant Sand is named after the town Gelb has called home for 40 years and is self-described as a 'country rock opera'. Sounds good to us! Download Giant Giant Sand - Detained mp3 (from Tucson) Follow @madmackerel
May 9, 2012, 4:00am
»78s
Mit aufgestockter Giant Sand-Kombo setzt Howe Gelb seiner Heimat Tucson ein musikalisches Denkmal. Da muss der Viktor vom El Lokal wohl anbauen. Giant Sand , das Americana-Kollektiv um Howe Gelb, hat aufgestockt. Die gerngehörten Stammgäste auf der allerletzten Insel an der Sihl haben ihr Line-up auf zwölf Nasen erweitert und nennen sich nun folgerichtig Giant Giant Sand. Ein Dutzend Musikanten? Mit so viel Personal könnte man glatt ein Musical aufführen. Und genau das soll das auf Juni angekündigte "Tucson" [...]
Howe Gelb , que se ha pasado más de tres décadas liderando a Giant Sand, pasa los veranos en Aarhus, Dinamarca, de donde es su mujer, y en un reciente festival celebrado en Berlin se rodeó de un buen número de músicos daneses con los que ha decidido continuar grabando bajo el nombre de Giant Giant Sand . El próximo mes de Junio editará "Tucson" en el sello Fire Records, trabajo que el propio Gelb define como una opera country-rock, y al que pertenece este "Forever And a Day" [...]
Despite its somewhat Danish member-base, Giant Giant Sand wants you to know that the band is definitively south of the Border with new single "Forever And A Day." Originally a marginally smaller giant band, Giant Giant Sand was brought together by leader Howe Gelb, a Tucson, Ariz., native who takes such joy in his hometown he [...]
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