Over the next few days we’ll be slowly bringing things back online as we test and ensure stability here at our new home.

Keep your eyes peeled, the Blogs will be coming soon, but, as you might expect, it’s complicated… *sigh*

Thank you all for sticking with us through this trying time.

While you are here, don’t forget that Adrian Belew is currently touring the east coast of the US.  Make sure you check out http://www.adrianbelew.net for full details!  I saw the show a few days ago here in Atlanta and was blown away.  They have really matured over the last year and one senses that things will continue this trend.

This part of the interview goes over Adrian’s roots and performance history and does reflect a willingness to continue some of his other group efforts, such as the Bears and that other small band we love, King Crimson.

Thanks to Michael for giving us the skinny on the interview!

http://crawdaddy.wolfgangsvault.com/Article/Part-I-King-Crimsons-Adrian-Belew.html

And he knows he has nothing to prove, at least performance wise, which is one of the reasons reflected for his retirement from public performance, in an article over at AllAboutJazz where John Kelman interviewed Bruford.  The indication is that he will do public speaking engagements, and thankfully he will continue writing and recording music, as well as Summerfold and Winterfold records.

In the near future Bill will be doing some public speaking, (as previously mentioned), where he will be promoting his new book, Bill Bruford: The Autobiography, which is coming out in March.

Krimson News congratulates Bill Bruford on his retirement and we wish him all the best!

For the full deal, check out the article over at All About Jazz!

The review was very generous and sports some great photos of Adrian and Co, including Adrian crowdsurfing!

If you are in Australia and haven’t gotten a chance to check em out, you still have a chance through the 11th, as they wrap up the last few dates in New South Wales!  Tourdates can be found at Adrian’s Official Site.

I also found an archived Bass Player interview with Tony Levin made around the time ‘Thrak’ was released. This extensive Q&A covers quite a bit of ground on Tony’s career and can be read here.

The July issue of Guitar Player also features Adrian in their ‘Oeuvre Easy’ column which looks at his career and classifies some of his music as inspired/required/and tired. This issue is on newstands now, but unfortunately Guitar Player doesn’t post web links to its articles until about a month after subscribers get their issue. Look for a link here in 30 days or so.

Over at DGMLive.com we find several photos from the recent rehearsals that took place in Nashville in preparation for touring this August.

Check out DGM’s website for all of the photos!

(Thanks to commenter Ela, who gives us the news regarding an audio sample from the rehearsals!)

http://www.dgmlive.com/archive.htm?artist=16&show=1314

As has become almost a sort of tradition, Nashville will be the public warmup location of choice for this August’s Crim tour.  You’ll find a pair of dates, August 2nd, and 3rd at the Belcourt where the mighty Crim will once again awaken from its slumber.

Belcourt is not a terribly huge venue, (about 334 seats or so), so expect these to go fast!

Click HERE to get your tickets!

What gives this a Crim spin is that this album features some guest appearances from Pat Mastelotto and Gavin Harrison amongst many others, in fact, here’s a snippet of the writeup:

A distinctive combination of beautifully detailed songwriting, haunting melodies and inventively cinematic production, ‘Schoolyard Ghosts’ sees Tim and Steven expanding the band’s sonic palette yet again by collaborating with (amongst others) Californian pedal steel guitar ace Bruce Kaphan (American Music Club, Red House Painters), drummers Pat Mastelotto(King Crimson, Mastica) and Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson), saxophonist/flautist Theo Travis, and the London Session Orchestra arranged by Dave Stewart(Hatfield & The North, Egg, Stewart & Gaskin etc).

 A new no-man album by itself it’s pretty exciting, but add in these other elements, and you’ve certainly piqued my interest!  Further details are available at no-man’s site linked above or check out the album’s minisite HERE and be sure to check out the haunting video!

Anyways, Jeremy Frindel directed this music video of the song, “Speedbump”, from the Stickman CD which came out late last year.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fuQBmi6Ca4[/youtube]
Speedbump by Tony Levin

 

The second show at New York City is due to the first show already being sold out.

Bringing together what is essentially a mash up of Dream Theater meets King Crimson’s bassist, their pair of releases over the last several years have met with very good reception and reviews, and you’ll kick yourself missing one of these shows if you have the opportunity to make it to one.

Be sure to check out Tony Levin’s official site for all the details and Metal Underground’s news bit for the details regarding the second show in New York.

Currently there is no word that we’ve seen regarding possible studio work.

In the interview Pat indicates that the current intention for KC at this time is US based residency gigs focusing on existing repertoire and no new material.

Presumably this is to get the band back on the same page after their 3 year hiatus as well as acclimate the new and returning members to life as King Crimson.

If things go well, Pat indicates that a natural progression could follow, who knows?

Be sure to check out the Alterati Ripple show for all the details:

http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=1827

From the site:

The end result is a wildly varied body of music that we’re able to present to the world in ways the confines of a major record label would never have allowed – from a 100% DRM-free, high-quality download, to the most luxurious physical package we’ve ever created.

Information may be found at: http://ghosts.nin.com

Reported over at the DGMLive.com website Crim’s first date will be opening a three day stint at Park West, Chicago, August 6th, 2008 before storming out to Keswick Theater in Philadelphia for August 11th and 12th, and then wrapping up the current list of dates we have sees them at the Nokia Theater in New York, NY from August 14th-16th.

Keen eye’d people will note that this tour will inaugurate the latest formation of King Crimson which includes a slight shift in personnel as follows:

• Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto and Gavin Harrison.

We’ll keep an eye out for further dates as they arrive, but as always, check with the venue in order to confirm dates and times before making travel plans!

The screenshots at Pat Mastelotto’s site does well to indicate some of the complexity involved in their new foray into this Tuner album. No word on a timeframe, but we’ll certainly be keeping you up to date with all of the latest.

Touring goes across the US making several stops in many places along the way, ending, at this time, in Vienna, VA., at Jammin’ Java on March 15th, 2008.

No current word on if this list is in fact finalized, or if there may be further changes or new dates added, but just glancing, there doesn’t appear to be many open dates on the schedule.  Of course, for the latest accurate tour details, be sure to check out Adrian’s recently redesigned official website here: http://www.adrianbelew.net/

The CD is a collection of music from Trey’s film and scoring projects.

There is contact info as well as a couple of sample audio clips from the forthcoming CD available all at Trey Gunn’s official site here: http://www.treygunn.com

Guitar Player hasn’t posted a link to the article and list yet, but it should be on the home page and news stands in about two weeks. Visit their site here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XXOyjK0VGU[/youtube]

I can hear you now, “UKZ?”  In the midst of our outage, (all of the great news occurs during a server issue, but I digress), I received a note mentioning that Trey had joined UKZ, and so I flagged a mental note to check into it further.

Well, seeing as Trey’s site also reflects this, I’m more than a bit intrigued.

During our podcast interview with Trey, we briefly discussed his departure from King Crimson and he indicated he didn’t really want to be in a conventional band any more, so either that consideration has changed, or UKZ is more than a conventional band to him.

And I think that thought is reflected with his new bandmates as well as how this band was put together.

Eddie Jobson is returning to active duty from a 27 year absence from band and touring activity.  Eddie was a co-founder of UK.  John Wetton brought Jobson into the initial lineup of UK knowing his work from Roxy Music in the mid-70’s.

An interesting note is that YouTube was a primary method of selection for this band.  Trey will be joined by several others.

The lineup for UKZ currently stands as the following:

Eddie Jobson: Keyboards/Electric Violin
Aaron Lippert: Lead Singer
Trey Gunn: Warr Guitar
Alex Machacek: Guitars
Marco Minnemann: Percussion

Currently, UKZ is working on their inaugural album for release in 2008 and looks to begin a few dates in public sometime early next year as well.

As always, make sure to check with the venue before making travel plans!

TU was also recently featured on Polish evening news!

This version of Tuner’s 11-11 has drumming by Ryan Smith, and I think it might be one of the very best of the bunch!

You can find the submission at the 11-11 page HERE

One note: I did notice a weird little bug in Firefox, which makes the player stop if you play the track embedded in the page, then switch to a different tab, but this issue does not appear if you click “Play in Popup”.  Please let me know what your experience is in the comments below, there is no doubt that other issues exist with our new system.

Now, on to the news!  From PlanetCrimson.net’s forums comes word that Eric Slick now has his very own official website!

Not TOO long ago, our podcast was involved with an interview including Eric and his sister, Julie, who make up 2/3rds of The Adrian Belew Power Trio.   Click these links for that:  Episode 9, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

His site has quite a bit of content already, for just having been brought online, but the meat is contained in the blog, the gallery, and tourdate info pages.  Make sure to check it out for yourself!

The Media section is so far my favorite.  It features a variety of photos, music and video from Trey’s projects in Quodia, TU, and the Trey Gunn Band among others!

Please make sure to get your order in soon so they can get it out to you before Christmas, as an issue at the CD printer’s shop has caused a delay in the actual shipment of a few days.  Rest assured, they indicate that by mid December, the CD’s should be in the hands of those who order.

At this time, I was unable to locate a track listing, but we’ll see about getting those details as we find them!

No word on possible venues, but my guess is the traditional pocket gigs in Nashville will be set in due time.

*** Update : Chicago’s Park West is listed as the currently planned location for the return of King Crimson in August 2008.  They will be playing a 4 day residency! ***

More info is quite likely forthcoming…

“…received a call from Trent Reznor asking me to work with him on new music…”

Trent and Adrian share a healthy mutual respect professionally, and quite honestly, it’s great to see them back together again after being absent from NIN’s last two studio albums.  Adrian’s work was featured on Nine Inch Nail’s “Downward Spiral” in 1994, and “The Fragile” in 1999.

Apparently this new collaboration begins in December, and from related reading it does appear that it will be work related to a brand new NIN album!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNzSwVONLEA[/youtube]

I’m no expert on the Polish language, but most everyone in the video seemed quite happy! However, if any of you has a translation you’d like to approximate, feel free to comment away, I’d love to see an english transcript of what they were saying.

Blip.tv is a bit like YouTube in that they feature embedded videos.  You can find Trey’s Blip site over at treygunnlive.blip.tv

The inaugural posting there gives some insight into Trey’s current work in TU, where, along with Pat Mastelotto, they apparently recently unleashed the iconic KC song, 21st Century Schizoid Man at a concert in Poland.  During the video, you get to see and hear Trey describe the temporary abode, (hotel room), and sit in awe as he practices some of the tricky bits in 21stCSM.  I never get tired of hearing and seeing his seemingly effortless technique.

Be sure to check it out HERE!