Springsteen Cover Fever Hits Vampire Weekend, Eddie Vedder This Weekend

Man, Bruce Springsteen's announcement of his wicked cool Darkness bonanza of goodies box set last week seems to have everyone excited and paying homage... On Saturday, Vampire Weekend played in Vancouver and covered "I'm Goin Down" from 1984's Born in the USA....



...and Eddie Vedder pulled out a long-favorited chestnut from Springsteen's backlog of treasures called "Open All Night" in Little Rock, Arkansas the same night. (Eddie are you wearing tap shoes, how you making those noises with your feet??)



Though written for 1982's Nebraska, "Open All Night" was one song Springsteen did here and there, performing it only 30 times since its inception (and probably a majority of these were during his mid-90s acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad shows). It started to make a big comeback with his 2006 Seegar Sessions band tour. (See here for more fun facts.)

As you can tell from the crowd response in this 9/1984 show in Philadelphia, PA it's always been a crowd favorite. And Springsteen always tells these long stories before it, so he must dig it too. Hey ho, rock n roll, deliver me from nowhere...

Give a Listen: Open All Night-Bruce Springsteen (The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA, 09/14/84)

Jimmy Fallon Does a Beauty Imitation of Bruce at the Emmys

Jimmy Fallon, I give you mad props for this. Even the guitar looks like Bruce's! I don't even watch the show "Glee" but skip ahead to 2:30 for the start, effing brilliant way to start the Emmys!

DC's 9:30 Club Launches Record Label, 9:30 Records

Move over Dischord, there's a new label in town. Owners of the legendary 930 Club have started a new record label, 930 Records. Armed with a mantra, “If It Ain’t Broke, Break It!,” Seth Hurwitz, chairman of I.M.P. and co-owner of the 9:30 Club, said he decided to start the label after hearing local talent, Justin Jones. “You can imagine I’ve been exposed to more music than most, but once in a very blue moon, a new artist stops me dead in my tracks,” said Hurwitz. “When I first heard Justin Jones a few years ago I was blown away, and I’m determined to do all I can to bring this enormously talented artist to the rest of the world. It’s no secret the traditional record business is in total disarray. But I’ve been an independent businessman my entire career and have been used to taking things into my own hands, so we decided, hell, we’ll launch a record label so we can launch Justin Jones.”

Nashville's Thirty Tigers is distributing The Little Fox which hits stores and digital outlets on 9/14.

As you can imagine, Jones is mighty grateful. “We’ve been touring for more than a year showcasing this material and getting great responses from audiences, but signing on with major labels these days isn’t even something artists contemplate anymore. We decided to record something that sounds like us live. We went to our buddy’s basement, set up and in two days laid down the songs that would become The Little Fox EP. To have the 9:30 Club start a label just because of us, well, that’s pretty astounding. To have people like Seth Hurwitz believe in you and back you, I couldn’t feel luckier.”

No word as to other bands 9:30 Records is hoping to add just yet, but I'm sure we'll see news on this shortly.

To celebrate the launch of the record and the label, the 9:30 Club will host an exclusive invitation-only Open House Party on 9/16, which will include a special performance by Jones. Invites will be to media and such, but Hurwitz said they are also extending invites by a lottery to members of the 9:30 Club Forum (the club’s online discussion group), subscribers to Volume, the 9:30 Club’s print newsletter, the 9:30 Club’s email list subscribers, and members of 9:30 Club Social Media outlets.

Columbia Records To Release Bruce Springsteen's The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story on 11/16

Color me speechless. It was officially announced today that Columbia Records will release Bruce Springsteen's The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story on 11/16. The set will include all sorts of goodies like 3CDs/3DVDs (including Darkness on the Edge of Town digitally remastered for the first time), two hours of audio, six hours of video, studio and live footage/photographs never released, and an 80-page notebook containing facsimiles from Springsteen's original notebooks from the recording sessions, with alternate lyrics, song ideas, recording details, personal notes, with a new essay by Springsteen. Looks like the big package is running $115, but for all that, that’s mighty worth the cost. (Santa, if you're reading this, I already know what you can get me for Christmas...)

"Darkness was my 'samurai' record," Springsteen writes, "stripped to the frame and ready to rumble…But the music that got left behind was substantial." For audio, the two discs will contain a total of 21 previously-unreleased songs from the Darkness recording sessions, songs that Springsteen writes, "perhaps could have/should have been released after Born To Run and before the collection of songs that Darkness on the Edge of Town became." Look for a rock version of "Racing in the Street," "Someday (We'll Be Together)," "Ain't Good Enough for You," a soul-based vocal performance on "The Brokenhearted," a haunting "Breakaway," never-before-released original recordings of "Because the Night," "Fire," and "Rendezvous," and the fully orchestrated masterpiece and title song "The Promise."

For video, the package will include a 90-minute documentary, The Promise: The Making of 'Darkness on the Edge of Town,. Shot between 1976 and 1978, it includes footage of home rehearsals and studio sessions during the making of Darkness, new interviews with Springsteen, E Street Band members, manager Jon Landau, former manager Mike Appel, and others closely involved in the making of the record. The Making will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on 9/14, and run on HBO 10/7.

Can you take one more?? Are you sure?? The set features more than four hours of live concert film from the Thrill Hill Vault, including the bootleg house cut (the footage that appeared on-screen at the concert) from a 1978 Houston show, and a 2009 performance of Darkness on the Edge of Town in its entirety, at the Paramont Theater in Asbury Park, NJ. This performance was shot in HD, without an audience, and “successfully recreates the stark atmosphere of the original album.”

A previously unheard song "Save My Love" and an excerpt from the documentary will be streaming here sometime between now and the 9/14 documentary premiere in Tornto (they think. I rang Shorefire to ask about "when" this will begin and they didn't know exactly, this was the best guess). So keep checking in...

Update 4:42 PM: The "Save My Love" stream is now live here.

Bruce Springsteen - "The Promise: The Making of 'Darkness on the Edge of Town'" Sneak Peek from Columbia Records on Vimeo.

All the specifics of the package are below.

Video.....
DVD 1: "THE PROMISE: THE MAKING OF 'DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN'"
DVD 2:
-DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (PARAMOUNT THEATER, ASBURY PARK, NJ, 2009)
1. Badlands
2. Adam Raised A Cain
3. Something In The Night
4. Candy's Room
5. Racing In The Street
6. The Promised Land
7. Factory
8. Streets Of Fire
9. Prove It All Night
10. Darkness On The Edge Of Town

THRILL HILL VAULT (1976-1978)
1. Save My Love (Holmdel, NJ 76)
2. Candy's Boy (Holmdel, NJ 76)
3. Something In The Night (Red Bank, NJ 76)
4. Don’t Look Back (NYC 78)
5. Ain't Good Enough For You (NYC 78)
6. The Promise (NYC 78)
7. Candy's Room Demo (NYC 78)
8. Badlands (Phoenix 78)
9. The Promised Land (Phoenix 78)
10. Prove It All Night (Phoenix 78)
11. Born To Run (Phoenix 78)
12. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (Phoenix 78)

DVD 3: HOUSTON '78 BOOTLEG: HOUSE CUT
1. Badlands
2. Streets Of Fire
3. It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City
4. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
5. Spirit In The Night
6. Independence Day
7. The Promised Land
8. Prove It All Night
9. Racing In The Street
10. Thunder Road
11. Jungleland
12. The Ties That Bind
13. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
14. The Fever
15. Fire
16. Candy's Room
17. Because The Night
18. Point Blank
19. She's The One
20. Backstreets
21. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
22. Born To Run
23. Detroit Medley
24. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
25. You Can't Sit Down
26. Quarter To Three

Audio...
CD 1: REMASTERED DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN
1. Badlands
2. Adam Raised A Cain
3. Something In The Night
4. Candy’s Room
5. Racing In The Street
6. The Promised Land
7. Factory
8. Streets Of Fire
9. Prove It All Night
10. Darkness On The Edge Of Town

CD 2: THE PROMISE (DISC 1)
1. Racing In The Street ('78)
2. Gotta Get That Feeling
3. Outside Looking In
4. Someday (We'll Be Together)
5. One Way Street
6. Because The Night
7. Wrong Side Of The Street
8. The Brokenhearted
9. Rendezvous
10. Candy's Boy

CD 3: THE PROMISE (DISC 2)
1. Save My Love
2. Ain't Good Enough For You
3. Fire
4. Spanish Eyes
5. It's A Shame
6. Come On (Let's Go Tonight)
7. Talk To Me
8. The Little Things (My Baby Does)
9. Breakaway
10. The Promise
11. City Of Night

Columbia will also release The Promise,, a double CD that includes tracks from Darkness "lost sessions" around the same time as The Promise package.

They're doing preorders now here.

Deer Tick Announces Fall Tour Dates

(Deer Tick at the Americana Music Association Showcase, SXSW 2010. See the rest of the photos here)

Deer Tick is heading back out on the road in October in support of The Black Dirt Sessions. Lead singer John McCauley brings his Camel-corroded rasp and the band's twangy-by-the-fireside riffs across the eastern southeast to Cali this time, then back across through the northern regions,just in time for the cold winter air. But that makes sense somehow; a heavy-chord laden song like "Pieces" just doesn't sound like summertime you know?

Deer Tick will be at the Black Cat on 11/2.

Give a Listen: Pieces-Deer Tick/Buy The Black Dirt Sessions

Deer Tick Fall 2010 Tour

Wed-Oct-06: Chapel Hill, NC, Local 506
Thu-Oct-07: Athens, GA 40 Watt Club *#
Fri-Oct-08: Greenville, SC Fall For Greenville *
Sat-Oct-09: Auburn, AL Bourbon Street *
Sun-Oct-10: Birmingham, AL Zydeco
Mon-Oct-11: New Orleans, LA One Eyed Jacks
Tue-Oct-12: Houston, TX The Bronze Peacock Room @ House of Blues
Wed-Oct-13: Austin, TX Emo's
Thu-Oct-14: Laredo, TX Old No. 2
Sat-Oct-16: Tempe, AZ Sail Inn
Sun-Oct-17: San Diego, CA The Loft / UCSD
Tue-Oct-19: Los Angeles, CA El Rey
Wed-Oct-20: San Francisco, CA Regency Ballroom
Thu-Oct-21: Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
Fri-Oct-22: Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret %
Sat-Oct-23: Bellingham, WA Wild Buffalo
Sun-Oct-24: Seattle, WA Neumos
Tue-Oct-26: Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge
Wed-Oct-27: Denver, CO Larimer Lounge
Thu-Oct-28: Omaha, NE TBD
Fri-Oct-29: Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock Social Club
Sat-Oct-30: Chicago, IL Bottom Lounge
Tue-Nov-02: Washington, DC Black Cat
Wed-Nov-03: Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church

* = w/ JASON ISBELL
# = w/ Blitzen Trapper, Malcomb Holcolmbe
% = w/ Phosphorescent

Fitz & the Tantrums Debut Full-Length, Pickin' Up the Pieces, Out Today

It's a lovely day here in DC, made even more so by the debut release of one of our favorite bands this year, Fitz & the Tantrums. Titled Pickin' Up the Pieces, this debut includes many of the tracks from their 2009 EP, Songs for a Break Up, Vol. 1, as well as others like "L.O.V" that bring the house down live. Armed with horns, a Hammond B3 organ and lots of blue-eyed soul, you'll find yourself shimmying and swaying in a way you never have before. They put on an incredible live show as well, so be sure you get yourself to the Rock and Roll Hotel next month (9/20) for their area appearance. And even if you don't usually dance, come prepared to do so anyway-with a Fitz and the Tantrums live show, resistance to boogieing down is futile.

Give a Listen-MoneyGrabber-Fitz and the Tantrums/Buy Pickin' Up the Pieces

(Fitz and the Tantrums are out playing now, and will be in DC at the Rock and Roll Hotel on 9/20. They will also be playing the Voodoo Experience Festival in New Orleans in October)

Ting Ting's Release New Single from Upcoming Record

Earlier this year, we reported how those effervescent and electronic Britpoppers The Ting Tings were finally getting round to a follow up to 2008's We Started Nothing. Named for a massage parlour near their Berlin recording studio, Kunst was to be a summer release but has now become a fall one it seems. However, The Tings-squared did begin streaming the first single, "Hands" late last week. It doesn't make me want to listen on repeat like "That's Not My Name" did, but they do make some right-kicky stuff so fingers crossed the next single they release grabs me tighter.

"Hands" will be formally released on 10/11.

Give a Listen: Hands-The Ting Tings/Buy We Started Nothing



PS: It's sho nice to be back!