Fleetwood Mac Announces Tour

Fleetwood Mac will definitely hit the road again as its four members, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, have just announced that they'll embark on a U.S. tour in 2013. One of rock's most enduring and successful bands, Fleetwood Mac will play 34 cities beginning in Columbus, Ohio April 4th. "Having started Fleetwood Mac with John McVie in 1967, it has always been so gratifying that despite the various incarnations, the band has survived. Throughout the years, though, the one thing that has remained constant is our fans. I am looking forward to getting back behind the kit, reconnecting with the fans and sharing the stage with my fellow band members," said Fleetwood. The band's tour was confirmed by Nicks in July after she shot down comments from the drummer though; when he said he believed the band wouldn't "ever tour again" after their plans for a 2011 trek were scrapped. Fleetwood made the remarks to Playboy magazine after Nicks and Buckingham both extended their solo tours.

"The tour will be next year... That's the plan. Because that's what we do. I do my thing. And Lindsey is out doing his thing now... everybody's on board," she explained. The tour also marks the 35th anniversary of the band's most famous  Rumours (and classic) album, which has sold over 40 million copies to date. Rhino records will also reissue the album in a deluxe edition early next year. The group also revealed a few new songs will debut next year also, but it's still unknown whether or not they'll be releasing an additional album or just debuting them on the road. As for the new tour, the band is very excited to be getting back together.

"After spending four days at Lindsey's house working on music and one really fun day doing a crazy photo session, I am quite excited about next year. Everything seems to be falling into place. 2013 looks like the year of Fleetwood Mac," Nicks said. "I'm really looking forward to hitting the road with Stevie, Mick and John in 2013," said Buckingham. "It's been over three years since we've toured together and happily the break allowed me to explore a lot of uncharted territory as well as experience tremendous growth creatively. I'm excited to bring that back to the band. When everyone in FM wants the same thing at the same time, it's cause for celebration. Long Live Fleetwood Mac!"

"I'm really looking forward to going back on the road," added McVie. Tickets for the shows begin going on sale December 14th at Ticketmaster.com and Live Nation.

The Heavy— Classic Soul— Modern Twists

In Noid, a tiny hamlet situated to the south west of Bath, some of the most dangerous and ill sounding beats and riffs are being created by four wolf like personalities. The Heavy started out ripping and chopping beats from the likes of Bo Diddley, Little Walter and The Parliaments and fusing them with their now patented brand of high grade dirt. Guitar riffs that intoxicate, bass lines that reverberate around your head like a King Jammy dream and vocals that will challenge any of the genres they decide to take on. The Heavy continually cross genres as they as a unit are proud to be completely musically schizophrenic. From country to rhythm and blues, garage punk to rock and roll, Studio one to the slums of shaolin, you'll inevitably discover that The Heavy are indeed like a pack of artistic chemists with the way that genres get cooked up, blended, stirred and then mixed, to create their own unique style of rock and roll.

The album Great Vengeance and Furious Fire released on Counter Records in late 2007 generated a great deal of interest with songs like That kind of man, Girl, Set me free, Coleen and Dignity, firmly laying foundations for the house of type of raw, gritty dirt that they are building at present. There is no other band that sound as raw as The Sonics while holding soul in a headlock and frequently wrestling rock to the ground with the weight of Mr 808 as tag team partner. Listen, then try and tell Louis different.

You will not experience another band like this... So dirty. So much weight. So much energy and laced with a soul that you just don't hear anymore...The Heavy have indeed created a monster. The music is enthralling as it takes you on a journey on which you will never be certain... about the destination. The basis of The Heavy sound is a combination of the pronounced backbeat of hip-hop with late-60s soul.Tracks like "How You Like Me Now" and "Love Like That" sound a lot like a few instrumentals on Amy Winehouse's Back to Black. You will enbrace The Heavy's inherent understanding of what it takes to endure this world... and all of the "supernatural" worlds as well.

The band was asked to record a cover of the song "And When I Die" for the fourth season finale of True Blood. The soundtrack for the third season of HBO vampire drama True Blood was eventually nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media at the 54th Annual GRAMMY Award. In our opinion, this was the BEST track on the CD. Unlike Blood Sweat and Tears' version of the song, The Heavy takes it to the core of what it means to die.The track also appeared on the third True Blood soundtrack. "Who Needs The Sunshine?" and was featured in the penultimate episode of the fourth series of Being Human, "Making History". We are predicting great things for this band.

Vaura— An Expedition Into Foreboding

It's been said before that Stanley Kubrick seemed like a classical composer who created films instead— that the images played out more like arias and overtures than a matinee movie. The inverse of that is probably the only way to approach Selenelion, the debut LP from Vaura. Less a collection of songs and more like an expedition into an elegantly foreboding universe, the eleven tracks that comprise the latest release from Wierd Records sound as if they were each crafted to evoke unearthly scenery and monolithic events. From harsh wild distortion and aggressive screams to cold and shimmering clean guitars and vocals, the spectrum of sound on Selenelion is both varied and also atmospherically cohesive. Thunderous drums, droning synthesizers, percussive metals, acoustic guitars, and perfect vocal arrangements that sometimes approach ritualistic plainchant recall artists like Ulver and Swans. Vaura's particular blend of brutality and romantic melodicism can be attributed in part to the stylistic mesh of musicians: Kevin Hufnagel, Toby Driver, Josh Strawn, and Charlie Schmid also play in Gorguts, Dysrhythmia, Kayo Dot, Secret Chiefs 3, and Religious to Damn. 

Selenelion was recorded and mixed by Colin Marston of progressive black metallists Krallice, and signals a nod for Wierd Records to the roots of founder Pieter Schoolwerth who is also member of the seminal noise outfit bloody minded and a totally continuing, cerebrally... almost  perpetual supporter of acts like Locrian. 

The album title refers to a horizontal lunar eclipse: the moment at which the sun and the eclipsed moon can be seen at the same time. With song titles referencing everything from an Etruscan demoness to a Luciferian take on the conversion of St. Paul, and with artwork by the German photographer Alexander Binder, the unifying thread is an unmistakable sense of a shadow-drenched enigma. "Drachma" refers to the coins that bought passage for the dead into the underworld, suggesting that everything following that track is part of an Orpheus-like journey. 

But repeated nods to the occult literature of Jorge Luis Borges, in particular to "The Aleph" and "The Zahir," two stories that deal with infinity and vision, suggest that beyond the the dark hallucinations there is also a serious meditaition taking place on the limits and paradoxes of seeing. Approaching such subject matter by way of something as invisible and intangible as music, Vaura invites the avid and sumptuous listener to share in a completely visceral, yet intimate ceremony of almost insanely tempting  sensuality, depravity and a totally necessary destruction.