Jukebox – Music News Cuts – 2/9

Jukebox – Music News Cuts – 2/9.

Steve Hackett

Steve Hackett, legendary rock guitar player for Genesis, is coming out with a new album on February 16^th through the label InsideOut Music. The album is called The Circus and the Nightwhale, and is being preceded by a single, “Circo Inferno.”

This album tells a story about Travla, a young character, and a rite-of-passage; that’s the concept of the album. It has 13 tracks and an autobiographical angle. It is Hackett’s 30^th solo release. About it, he said, “I love this album. It says the things I’ve been wanting to say for a very long time.”

About the single; “Circo Inferno” is at the most kinetic, wild part of the album, and has Dante-esque feelings, invoking Phrygian runs, sax, and mean guitar.

Amy Winehouse

There is an upcoming biopic about Amy Winehouse called “Back to Black,” and it was recently released that the score is being done by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. The biopic stars Industry’s Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse.

Winehouse, one of the most talented singers of our time, died suddenly in 2011 at the age of 27, joining “The 27 Club,” whose members include Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain.

Director Sam Taylor Johnson had this to say, “Nick and Warren were the only musicians in my mind to score ‘Back to Black’,” says director Sam Taylor-Johnson in a statement. “Over the years I’ve listened to everything they’ve composed and longed to realize the dream of working together.  Their sensibility as well as understanding of this story has led to a profoundly deep and moving film score.”

Back to Black will be in theaters May 17^th.

Beth Gibbons

Beth Gibbons of Portishead is releasing a long overdue debut solo album called Lives Outgrown. It is being released by Domino on May 17^th. It will be accompanied by a European and UK tour with dates in late spring, and a London show at the Barbican Center. First single is “Floating on a Moment,” merging baroque folk with cinematic.

Gibbons signed with Domino in 2013, so the album has been in the works for about a decade. Gibbons had this to say about the journey that ended with the release.

“I realized what life was like with no hope,” she said. “And that was a sadness I’d never felt. Before, I had the ability to change my future, but when you’re up against your body, you can’t make it do something it doesn’t want to do.”

She continued, “People started dying. When you’re young, you never know the endings, you don’t know how it’s going to pan out. You think: we’re going to get beyond this. It’s going to get better. Some endings are hard to digest.” Beth added, “Now I’ve come out of the other end, I just think, you’ve got to be brave.”

Lives Outgrown:
1. Tell Me Who You Are Today
2. Floating On A Moment
3. Burden Of Life
4. Lost Changes
5. Rewind
6. Reaching Out
7. Oceans
8. For Sale
9. Beyond The Sun
10. Whispering Love

Beth Gibbons – 2024 Tour Dates
5/27: La Salle Pleyel – Paris
5/28: Theater 11 – Zürich
5/30: Primavera Sound Festival – Barcelona
5/31: La Bourse Du Travail – Lyon
6/02: Verti Music Hall – Berlin
6/03: Falkonersalen – Copenhagen
6/05: Tivoli Vredenburg (Main Hall) – Utrecht
6/06: Cirque Royal – Brussels
6/09: The Barbican Centre – London
6/10: Albert Hall – Manchester
6/11: Usher Hall – Edinburgh

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend has unpacked the hype machine for an anticipated fifth album. With a teaser video on Instagram complete with a title that’s just the filename “OGWAUteaser1.mp4,” No one knows if those initials are the title of the song, or of the album. People on Reddit think it refers to a headline in the New York Times in 1988 about a Hawaiian Airlines mishap where to roof of the fuselage blew off in mid-flight.

Drummer Chris Tomson has this to say about the album: “Ezra [Koenig] took a raga singing lesson with Terry Riley in rural Japan and wrote what he considers to be 7 of his all-time top 10 best songs.”

No tour has been announced, but they are set to play Salt Lake City’s Kilby Block Party and the New Orleans Jazz Festival.