Cory Graves
St. Vincent Recorded Her Next LP Here at Home, and The Grammys Love North Texas, Too.
While everybody was busy sleeping in and otherwise taking advantage of the Icemageddon-induced day off from work last Friday, the Grammy folks were busy announcing the nominees for the upcoming 2014 Grammy Awards ceremony. While that list — along with its big surprises and snubs — has been covered to death elsewhere, we'd like to point out the handful of locally-tied musicians honored with noms.
First up is Kacey Musgraves, who was not only recognized in the “Best New Artist” category, but twice in the songwriting category of “Best Country Song” for co-penning Miranda Lambert's “Mama's Broken Heart,” and the song “Merry Go 'Round” from her own album. Kelly Clarkson, meanwhile, was nominated for “Best Country Duo/Group Performance” for her duet with Vince Gill, and Steve Martin and former Deep Ellum mainstay Edie Brickell's collaborative Love Has Come For You nabbed a nod in the “Best Americana Album” category. Then there's “Best Blues Album” nominees Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite, whose Get Up! LP features production work and drumming duties from Jordan “Son of Stan” Richardson.
And those weren't the only North Texas native country musicians making national waves this week. Burleson's Casey Donahew, for instance, gave Great American Country viewers a tour of his band's bus during an episode of that channel's Celebrity Motor Homes program, which also featured Gwen Stefani. Tours of band motor homes? Sounds like a concept we could really get behind.
Then there was Garland native LeAnn Rimes, who caused quite the stir this week for the video for her new song “Gasoline and Matches” — and not just because Rob Thomas and legendary guitarist Jeff Beck were involved. What really got folks talking is the fact the entire stop-motion video was shot using a pair of iPhone 5S' running the Vine app. Maybe there's a use for the short video sharing service yet!
Perhaps the biggest news of the week, though? Yesterday's press release from St. Vincent, which pointed us to a stream of her new single “Birth in Reverse”, and promised that a self-titled LP from the artist would be released on February 25. According to that release, the disc will feature several of the usual suspects that've cropped up on her past releases, including Midlake drummer McKenzie Smith and production work from John Congleton, who also produced Annie Clark's last two full-lengths and handled some of the drum programming from last year's collaboration with David Byrne.
In the meantime, Congleton is spending the rest of this week finalizing the mixes on the new SWANS LP at his studio in Oak Cliff. And Clark? Well, she announced today that she'll be appearing on the fourth season of her pal Carrie Brownstein's Portlandia. She'll also come home for a gig at the House of Blues on March 14. Pre-sale starts tomorrow at 10 a.m.
Also due out early next year? A new six-song EP from Fort Worth hardcore outfit Tolar, which recently re-formed following the wake of Wild//Tribe's disbanding back in the spring. Things have certainly come full circle for the group, whose original demise provided the impetus for Wild//Tribe's formation in the first place. In the meantime, the band have been playing a few live dates, and its next scheduled performance is set to go down at Arlington's quaint, smoke-filled dive, The Sunshine Bar, on the 21st of this month.
Moving onto the hip-hop front: Tony Vice announced earlier this week that he's recently joined forces with Dorrough's Prime Time Click. The move makes sense: The two Lancaster natives have been friends since childhood. Vice's first release following the announcement is the gritty “DNLD KRMP,” which can be streamed here.
Buffalo Black, meanwhile, released a video for “No Blood Frets Man,” from his soon-to-be-released Red Pill WondrLand EP, and, likewise, Raw Elementz released a new clip for his “Cardinal 7s” single.
Staying on the hip-hop front: The Dividends seem finally set to release their debut “Fools Gold” track, which will feature Raekwon, via Vibe's website sometime today. Stay tuned and we'll update this post when we see that link go live. We should note, too, that Symbolyc One has mentioned that he will begin selling a plug-in that features the drum kits he used to produce hits for Kanye West, Beyonce and Jay-Z starting December 24. Any producers interested in nabbing “The Career Kit Vol. 1” are advised to email S1 here.
UPDATE: The stream of The Dividend's new single has gone live. You can now find it streaming here
Elsewhere: Lindby followed through with its promise to release its second annual Christmas EP, Booty Fade released a Home Alone-sampling Christmas song of its own, Dallas' Blackstone Rangers contributed to a lengthy discussion on WBEZ's blog alongside members of The Coathangers and Japanther about what it means for an indie band to sell out, and a documentary on the Texxas Jam '78 received some funding via Kickstarter that should help the filmmakers distribute their flick.
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