DR. DOG TO TOUR IN FALL, RELEASE NEW ALBUM NEXT YEAR

Dr. Dog

Dr. Dog -- which happens to be one of our favorite bands -- is currently in the studio working on a new full-length album to be released in early 2012 and will launch a fall tour at the end of the month.

The album will be Dr. Dog's second for Anti- Records and a follow-up to 2010's "Shame, Shame." The tour (all dates after the jump) opens with three dates with Bright Eyes in Providence, R.I., Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn and Poughkeepsie, N.Y., followed by a Sept. 3 slot at the WHYY Connections Festival at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia, then theater dates in the South and Midwest that will run through mid-November.

Check out a newly released Dr. Dog road video:

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NEW RYAN ADAMS ALBUM SET FOF OCTOBER

Ryan Adams -- photo by Autumn de Wilde

It turns out that the retirement from the music business that the prolific Ryan Adams announced in 2009 has ended up being just a hiatus, with a sold-out tour of Europe and a surprise opening set for Emmylou Harris in April being part of his recent activities. And this week he announced that on Oct. 11 he'll release "Ashes & Fire," his first official studio album of new material since 2009's "Cardinology." (Last December he released the studio album "III/IV," but it was made up of material recorded in 2006.) "Ashes & Fire" will also be Adams' first new album since the dissolution of his backing band The Cardinals.

Adams recorded the new record at Sunset Sound Factory in Hollywood with producer Glyn Johns, who has worked with The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Clash, The Who and The Rolling Stones. Johns' son Ethan produced Adams' previous albums "Heartbreaker," "Gold" and "29." Guests on "Ashes & Fire" include Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers organist Benmont Tench and Norah Jones, who added piano and vocals to the songs "Come Home," "Save Me" and "Kindness."

Adams will soon announce dates and venues for a fall solo acoustic tour of California the Pacific Northwest. For a complete track listing of "Ashes & Fire," read after the jump. 

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CONCERT REVIEW: BOB DYLAN IN SCRANTON

Bob Dylan

By Michael Lello

Thanks to his status as a musical and cultural icon -- even the word “legendary” seems to somehow fall short -- you could not be blamed for thinking of Bob Dylan as someone belonging to the past. If you hadn’t been to one of his recent concerts, you could be forgiven for expecting it to be nothing more than a pleasant trip down memory lane featuring a beloved yet way-past-his-prime star coasting on reputation and cashing in on a timeworn catalog.

Granted, Wednesday night’s Dylan outing at Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain, from its opening shot of “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35” through the triumphant encores “Like A Rolling Stone” and “All Along The Watchtower,” was heavy on history. But Dylan is no nostalgia act. He’s a vibrant, ever-evolving artist whose performance at the Scranton venue was infused with a sense of crackling emotion and urgency, whether he and his band were playing songs that are nearly 50 years old or selections from his brilliant recent albums.

Dylan, clad in a dark suit with white trim and a wide-brimmed white hat, led the band into “Rainy Day Women” from his spot behind a single keyboard instrument at stage left, alternately lifting his legs in a little jig while the audience sang the familiar refrain of “Everybody must get stoned.” He followed up with another oldie, “It Ain’t Me Babe,” stripping away some of the tenderness of the original version and instead delivering the song in a more admonishing tone. Dylan’s often raspy voice was a benefit here, as he sounded like he had gargled with razor blades before spitting out “no, no, no” with palpable disdain.

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ALBUM REVIEW: COLDPLAY -- "EVERY TEARDROP IS A WATERFALL"

Coldplay -- "Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall"

By Ryan Leas

Not too long after the release of their last full-length, 2008's excellent “Viva la Vida or Death and All of his Friends,” Coldplayseemed to be in a prolific mood. About six months later, they released the supplementary EP “Prospekt's March,”which was of a slightly lesser quality but offered up a handful of new songs and a few alternate takes on some “Viva la Vida” tracks. After that, frontman Chris Martinannounced he was aiming to have another Coldplay album about before the end of 2009, to close out the decade with some new music. Add Martin's album-release plans to the ever-growing list of Coldplay's similarities to U2; just like Bono is notoriously unreliable when discussing prospective release dates, it seems Martin was a bit off the mark considering it is now mid-2011 and we still do not have that next full-length. What we do have is this -- the "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall"EP, a three-song teaser of what's to come later this year (supposedly in September). As it stands, it's not necessarily the most promising of previews, and makes it feel like the three-and-a-half-year wait may not have been worth it.

The EP’s title track is Coldplay by numbers. Though the song builds to a decent ending, its ridiculously saccharine title destabilizes the song's impact from the start.  The improbable influence on “Every Teardrop” is also a mark against it. Like their use of Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love” to augment the 2005 “X&Y” track “Talk,” the band builds “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall”  upon a piano lick from Peter Allen’s 1976 hit “I Go to Rio.”Unlike the tasteful transposition of a “Computer Love” synth line into catchy guitar riff to supplement “Talk,” here the preponderance of Allen’s piano filtered through a rave-y filter just elicits  head-scratching befuddlement, a sort of wonderment at whether the band could possibly be serious in hinging their lead single on such a cheesy lost song from the '70s. But this is Coldplay, and they are seldom tongue-in-cheek on record. “Every Teardrop” is full of the same overly ffusive but somehow empty sentiments that populate their worst pop moments, characteristics that are only compounded by the song’s dubious source material.

For the opening salvo of Coldplay 2011, it ultimately seems like the band seriously missed the mark, a feeling not even the song’s cathartic conclusion can dispel.

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ALBUM REVIEW: CULTS -- "CULTS"

Cults -- "Cults"

By Ryan Leas

After an immense degree of hype in the wake of a few Internet hits and a massive amount of attention from media outlets like Pitchfork, New York duo Cults finally arrives with their first full-length album. Their eponymous debut is as accessible and catchy as anyone could have hoped after the promising intro of 2010’s immaculate single “Go Outside” and subsequent E.P. Though the album is thoroughly enjoyable, it doesn’t quite hold up to the weight of the anticipation that had been heaped upon the band, as it succeeds on the surface but fails to yield many revelations upon further listens.

Cults’ sunny girl-group melodies recall ’60s pop, their entire debut sounding as if it would have fit in on a California beach circa 1965. In particular, “Never Saw the Point” and the quirky “Most Wanted” are so melodically rooted in ’60s pop tropes that they feel almost reminiscent of some ephemeral hit, no matter how strong they are as songs in of themselves. Cults isn’t just a simple rehash, though, offering a spacey twist on the style they so accurately quote. This characteristic is primarily rooted in the production. Cults’ debut is cloaked in warm, heavy reverb; not the sort of echo-chamber reverb of My Morning Jacket circa “It Still Moves,” but rather a layered, thick sound that evokes the sense of a particularly viscous summer haze. The quality lends the entire album a certain otherworldly vibe that is somehow simultaneously playful and contributes to just how infectious and inviting the album feels.

For all of Cults’ ostensibly cheery dispositions, there are some seriously unnerving songs here, too. Buried under the gloss and catchiness, Cults sneak in odd and haunting melodies. “Walk at Night” is a perfect example; it plugs along on one of the vintage ’60s rhythms the band employs throughout but features a vocal part that sounds more like a creepy night gone wrong on the boardwalk than the chilled-out beach tunes that precede it.  Other times, brooding sentiments clandestinely channel themselves through the brighter melodies, like how lead singer Madeline Follin plaintively proclaims “I could never heal myself/ I could never heal myself/ Enough for you” on one of the album’s poppy tunes, “Never Heal Myself.” That track is followed by the slightly more angular “Oh My God,” which, despite its underwater groove, conveys real fervor and angst in its chorus.

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