Thursday , March 28 2024
From Skid Row to Vashti Bunyan to Steve Aoki to Ted Nugent, there's big news from several generations of musical icons this week.

I Shall Be Released: New Releases and Tours from Steve Aoki, Weird Al Yankovic, Seether, Skid Row and More

Here’s our Blogcritics roundup of some of the major new music releases and tour announcements we learned about during the past week.

WEIRD AL YANKOVIC will release his 14th studio album Mandatory Fun July 15, with a plan to also release eight videos in eight days beginning July 14.

Steve Aoki
Steve Aoki

The release date of Grammy-nominated producer and electro house musician STEVE AOKI‘s Neon Future 1 (Dim Mak/Ultra Music) has been pushed back to September 30. An August show at Madison Square Garden is also being rescheduled.

Legendary British singer-songwriter VASHTI BUNYAN releases her first album of new material in nine years on October 7. “Discovered” by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham in the mid-1960s, then “rediscovered” in 2000 after three decades of obscurity, her first single was “Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind” by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. She went on to work extensively with Robert Kirby, best known for his work with Nick Drake. Kirby’s recent death delayed the completion of the material for the new album, but Heartleap is out now, with cover artwork from a painting by her daughter, Whyn Lewis. Vashti says it will be her final album.

GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA, Academy Award-winning film composer for Brokeback Mountain and Babel and the video game The Last of Us, today releases his new album, Camino, on Sony Masterworks. Santaolalla plays the ronroco, the 10-string Andean folk instrument.

skid row bandSKID ROW releases a new seven-song EP August 5 on Megaforce Records. “We seem to be at our best when we’re faced with adversity,” says guitarist Snake Sabo. “It’s us against the world again – and by us I mean the band and the fans who stick with us and carry the SKID ROW torch without fail.”

TED NUGENT’s first new studio album in seven years comes out today too. ShutUp&Jam!‘s lead single “She’s Gone” features guest vocalist Sammy Hagar and guest drummer Johnny “Bee” Badanjek of the legendary Detroit band Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels. Nugent’s national headlining tour kicked off last week.

Seattle’s KATIE KATE will release her album Nation on August 5, bringing classical training to an “interstellar blend of hip hop, electronics and pop.” Stereogum premieres her single “Sadie Hawkins.”

Multi-platinum rockers SEETHER joined forces with legendary producer Brendan O’Brien (Springsteen, Pearl Jam) for their new album Isolate and Medicate, introduced at a record release show at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City last week. The band tours the U.S. and Europe through the end of the year.

Bay Area jazz singer LAURIE ANTONIOLI sings the music of Joni Mitchell on her new Origin CD, Songs of Shadow, Songs of Light, out August 19.

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About Jon Sobel

Jon Sobel is Publisher and Executive Editor of Blogcritics as well as lead editor of the Culture & Society section. As a writer he contributes most often to Music, where he covers classical music (old and new) and other genres, and Culture, where he reviews NYC theater. Through Oren Hope Marketing and Copywriting at http://www.orenhope.com/ you can hire him to write or edit whatever marketing or journalistic materials your heart desires. Jon also writes the blog Park Odyssey at http://parkodyssey.blogspot.com/ where he is on a mission to visit every park in New York City. He has also been a part-time working musician, including as lead singer, songwriter, and bass player for Whisperado.

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