Meat Beat Manifesto, pioneers of electronica, are currently embarking on a tour to support their new album, Autoimmune. BC Radio was scheduled to talk to founding band member Jack Dangers, but since live radio is nothing if not a real-time response to real-life situations, we ended up speaking to MBM's tour manager Drew instead as technical issues that arose during sound check prevented Dangers from joining us. Because the show must go on, Drew talked with us about the life of a tour manager, which is a logistical task of mammoth proportions. This is his first tour with Meat Beat Manifesto and he's not yet seen the live show, but he's previously managed tours for a lot of other bands and talked about some of the hip-hop artists he's had the pleasure of working with. BC Radio hopes to speak to Jack Dangers himself when everyone's schedules permit, and we'll keep you apprised of the details.

The Autoimmune tour kicked off in Seattle last night, and Drew described it as a multimedia event. You can learn more about the band, the new album, and find tour dates at Meat Beat Manifesto's official website.

 
Lantana is singer/songwriter Caroline Herring's third album. The Mississippi-born artist currently resides in Austin, Texas with her family (she took some time off from her career to have two children) and she talked with BC Radio about the ways in which motherhood and family life have informed her recent work. Her rich alto voice and thoughtful compositions work together to make Lantana a tapestry woven from a distinctly female fabric. She shared with BC Radio the insight that pregnancy hormones had a beneficial effect on her voice as she worked on the album. Currently touring in support of Lantana, Herring is headed to the Netherlands and Belgium in June and then will return to the United States. Her organic approach to songwriting is best exemplified when she talks about the process by which she tried to understand the mind of Susan Smith (the mother who was convicted of killing her two children) in order to write the song "Paper Gown". She talked with us about the difficulties of combining motherhood with a musical career that involves touring, and let us in on which tunes on the album are her personal favorites.

Visit Caroline Herring's official website for more information about the new album and for a schedule of tour dates.