Artist: Regina Spektor

SHARON VAN ETTEN, TENNIS ( Aladdin Theater , 3017 SE Milwaukie) An impressively large number of the most personally thrilling musical moments I've experienced over the past couple years have been due to Sharon Van Etten. The New York songwriter just gets it right : Her music is wholly, rewardingly moving without being cloying. Her songs—like those on her newest album, Tramp —skillfully explore the raw, dangerous edges of those battered-heart and frayed-nerve emotional landscapes you'll find in most pop songs. But in the end, Van Etten finds hope and catharsis inside those familiar chords. She's [...]

Summertime is festival time, there’s no two ways about it. Music festivals, food festivals, wine festivals, art festivals; basically come up with any reason to gather a community of people outdoors and you’ve got yourself a festival. The secret to success lies in either A. being in a unique location (Govenor’s Island, Telluride CO), B. serving a unique community (Burning Man), C. having a stellar line-up (fill in the blank) or D. fusing various types of festivals into one big affair (Googa Mooga, anyone?). A festival that satisfies all [...]

Here again: every newly announced show for the week! On page one you'll find a quick list of shows that particularly caught our attention, followed by embedded YouTube videos; there, you can che... Continue reading "A.C. Newman, Aimee Mann, Regina Spektor and More in This Week's New Show Announcements" >

It doesn't look as if Trampled By Turtles have any plans of staying off the road for the immediate future as they support their highly recommended sixth studio album Stars and Satellites . With a summer spent hitting just about every major music festival that will have them - Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, All Good, Firefly, RockyGrass, Newport Folk and Lollapalooza, among them - the rising jamgrass act will spend the majority of the fall gigging both here and an abroad , which will include their first ever-shows in the United Kingdom. The Duluth, [...]

Only Son is the music of NYC-based songwriter Jack Dishel (former Moldy Peaches guitarist) . His latest full length record, “Searchlight“, was released in January 18th, 2011. However, Jack has been touring and opening for his with his wife, (yes married later in 2011) to singer/songwriter Regina Spekto. The two are touring the west coast on a summer tour that will be continuing after their west coast leg to the land down under where she and husband, Jack, will be performing in a number of places including one of our favorite venues The Sydney Opera House. [...]

Inside The Cap Forty years ago, in its heyday, the Capitol Theater here was known as a rock stage with great acoustics, a crumbling space where the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Santana and Pink Floyd played memorable concerts. So when Peter Shapiro, a founder of the Brooklyn Bowl, took over the theater last year and announced plans to reopen it as a concert hall next month, he had a heavy reputation to live up to. Now Mr. Shapiro has unveiled an eclectic lineup for the next four months [...]

Sigur Rós plays on Wednesday at Paramount As we recover from a beautiful (and hot!) weekend in Seattle, we have a whole crop of new and amazing shows to share with you this week. We start off slowly with some great small club shows at the Tractor with  Phosphorescent and Mimicking Birds, and at the Sunset with   Southeast Engine and Danielle Henry . Tuesday night, we recommend a great show at Neptune Theatre with Sharon Van Etten, Tennis, and Lemolo . [...]

Regina's bass drum at LPR in May ( more by Eric Townsend ) Regina Spektor released her new album, What We Saw from the Cheap Seats , earlier this year and is continuing to tour in support of it. She's already played three NYC area shows this year so far, and she'll be back for two more. Regina plays Port Chester's Capitol Theater on October 3 and Beacon Theater on October [...]

In support of her album What We Saw From The Cheap Seats (Sire/Warner Bros. Records) Regina Spektor continues her summer tour in the U.S. starting off in Portland, OR on August 8, playing The Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco on August 12 and winding up at The Greek Theater in L.A on August 14. She returns this fall for a run of fall dates across the U.S. and tour of Australia and New Zealand, where she sold out her first night at The Sydney Opera House in just minutes.

Regina Spektor has announced a fall tour in support of her recent LP What We Saw From the Cheap Seats . Check out the full docket below, along with her video for "Don’t Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas)" . Regina Spektor 2012 Tour Dates: 08/08 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 08/09 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theater 08/12 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Festival 08/14 – Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theater 10/02 [...]

MUSIC NEWS- Still one the road promoting her album What We Saw From The Cheap Seats (out on Sire/Warner Bros. Records) Regina Spektor continues her summer tour in the USA, but you only have a few more changes this summer...

The official schedule for Outside Lands Festival , located at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, has arrived. If you're going, you'll get to see a bevy of exciting performances in two weeks' time, like Foo Fighters , Beck , and Justice , to name a few. Check out the full schedule for the weekend of August 10th to 12th below. Friday: Saturday: Sunday:

Have you ever listened to niche music for so long that you've forgotten what a good song sounds like? It's happened to me. The song that dragged me blinking back into light was quirky balladeer Regina Spektor's Machine , from her 2009 album Far . Sometimes her music is rather too self-consciously precious, but this song is something else entirely. It's a cybernetic dystopia and Spektor is a Stepford-perfect cog in it, selling human frailty to order. Her piano is terrific on this, and I love the way her stark and precise playing [...]

• Regina Spektor - Machine

Und schon das nächste Poolbar-Telegramm: Am Donnerstag spielte Regina Spektor im alten Hallenbad und bekam reihenweise Heiratsanträge. Endlich habe ich es an ein Regina-Spektor-Konzert geschafft. Die Gute ist jetzt doch schon seit x Jahren auf meiner Must-See-Liste. Und wie ich jetzt weiss, absolut zurecht. Wenn es ein Wort gibt, das das Konzert zusammenfasst, dann ist es herzig . So herzig sogar, dass man Regina Spektor am liebsten mit nach Hause nehmen und in den Setzkasten stellen würde. Von dort dürfte sie einen tagein und tagaus besingen und mit kurligen Improvisationen unterhalten. [...]

The moments we all (and some) have been waiting for have arrived: Outside Lands announced the daily lineups and single-day tickets go on sale Friday!

In the current climate of singer-songwriter musicianship, Fiona Apple is constantly heralded as a mad genius whose writing process seems almost like the fermentation of ideas. Her melodies are stringent and emotionally charged, and it continually excuses regular four-year gaps between records.  Though her classic Extraordinary Machine may be her shining glory, The Idler Wheel...  (or The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Chords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do ) will be held [...]

The daily lineups  were finally announced (now all we need are some actual set times).  Saturday is definitely the day not to miss.  Which day are you most excited about? More at sfoutsidelands.com

Do you know what these five songs have in common -- besides the state of being awesome? (Answer below, after the videos...) "All the Rowboats" Regina Spektor "Vulture" She Keeps Bees "Pulse" I Break Horses "Apparitions" The Raveonettes "These Tears (Est8 Piano Mix)" Spiritchaser [...]

Thomas Edison's famous and oft-abused quote about genius being 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration is one of the great truisms of our time. But is it actually, y'know, true ? How creativity actually works — in terms of the nuts and bolts of actually getting things down on the page/tape/canvas/etc. — is perhaps the most mysterious aspect of art, a process that's both romanticized and often misunderstood. And in view of this, we thought it might be interesting to see what some of our favorite songwriters had to say about how they approach the process of writing. Click through [...]

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