Following their excursion to SXSW, The Fervor will be the latest Louisville band to take it on the road, promoting their new CD, Arise, Great Warrior. As a teaser and preview, they’re offering a free track, “Let’s Get Loaded” at http://download.themusebox.net/the_fervor/lets_get_loaded.mp3. The new album was produced with help from the busy Jim James, so it should get some listens out in the great, wide music market. Cheers for the Fervor crew and let’s hope they bring back lots of moola to Louisville, plus make themselves a bit of a name for the next excursion. Here are the tour dates:
Tour Dates:
4.7: Off Broadway; St. Louis, MO with Union Electric
4.8: News Room; Kansas City, MO with Union Electric
4.9: Blue Agave; Belleville, IL with Union Electric
4.10: Darkroom; Chicago
4.12: Treehouse; Columbus with THE (OR)DEAL, KYLE SOWASH
4.13: Howler’s Coyote Cafe; Pittsburgh
4.14: Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar; Charlottesville, Va. with HUNTER SMITH & THE DEAD MEN
4.15: The Cave, Chapel Hill, NC with Gentle Robot, The Drowning Lovers
4.16: Village Tavern; Mt. Pleasant
4.21: The Five Spot; Nashville, TN with Colorfeels
4.29: Zanzabar; Louisville, KY with Wussy
5.13: Secret Stages; Birmingham, AL
The issue of credibility in the music-performing field is a hot and often-debated subject, with charges of “sell-out” being the usual fare. Will Oldham addressed it in a recent interview with the foggedclarity.com blog. Bob Lefsetz frequently addresses the matter and a recent post is a very clear wrap-up of the problems and possible ways to address them. It’s worth a look, if you’re a player.
Not all the app-building is happening on the West Coast – right in Derby City, a team has launched a music app for Android-equipped phones, called Music WithMe. Go to their site and at music.withme.com check it out. Let me hear back what you think.
Self-described Crash Avenue lackey Michael Powell has a wrap-up of his excursion to Austin for SXSW. He took a crew, to wit, Sean from Buzzgrinder.com and Backseat Sandbar photographer Joey plus a female publicist from Nashville, poor thing. They have beaucoups pix.
Not only will the sales from the Songs for Japan compilation go to benefit the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, but no royalties will be paid to the artist whose songs appear on the CD: 38 top-selling artists from Dylan to U2 to Gaga, along with their record labels and publishers are waiving 100% of royalties. The compilation is available on iTunes for $9.99.
Thanks to the folks at ear X-tacy for passing along this little bit of info – there is a vinyl record pressing plant right here in Kentucky, specifically Palomino Record Pressing in Shepherdsville. They’ve even posted an exciting video of tne record pressing process at work. They have a Facebook page, of course, plus a website: www.dosado.com/pressinghome.htm. Who’da thunk it?
With the relatively abrupt departure of CEO Allan Cowen from the Fund For the Arts, Board members are scrambling to figure out a way forward, with the usual committee to find a replacement on the top of the list. With the turmoil currently afflicting various arts groups in town, including the serious financial problems of the Louisville Orchestra and the Louisville Ballet, the need for new leadership and direction seems to be clear to the Board, if the comments that Elizabeth Kramer reports are any indication. The C-J also has an editorial about the matter, plus there’s a letter from Craig Kaviar, who organized a recent protest at the Fund’s offices. Stay tuned for more fun episodes!
Allan Cowen, CEO of the Fund For the Arts for the past 35, has been ‘retired’ from his position and a new CEO is being sought by the Fund’s Board. The public uproar over his threatening answering machine message proved to be his undoing. Gannett’s Louisville Profit Center has a story.
The price of an answering machine is quite cheap, but the cost it can wreak on someone who leaves the wrong message can be very high. So it might be with Allan Cowen, longtime CEO of The Fund For The Arts. Following the public airing of a message in which he is heard telling the director of the Louisville Visual Arts Association that he should be fired, many other accounts of similar behavior in the past have surfaced. Now, according to WHAS-TV, the Board of the Fund For The Arts is considering having Cowen ‘retire’ and be replaced with a new CEO. The ramifications of such a move are not at all clear, but it ultimately could mean that the money the Fund raises every year might be spread around to other, smaller and not necessarily performing groups, including the Visual Arts. It would certainly mean that the reported $344,000 annual salary for the CEO would be considerably reduced.