According to the official website of Matador Records, Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, has announced the cancellation of part of her 2008 spring tour.

The famous "Nora Jones of indie", Marshall, has canceled her next five shows, reportedly. The announcement, sure to let down hundreds, if not thousands, of ticket holders, comes after the cancellation of Cat Power's concert Thursday night in Tempe, Arizona. Marshall will not be performing tonight in Dallas as scheduled.

Matador Records has said that Cat Power's next five shows will also be canceled, per doctor's orders that a strain on her vocal chords must be meet with rest and no singing.

From what we can gather, the following upcoming shows, including a performance at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis on May 3, 2008, will not go on.

Saturday, April 19 - Dallas, TX at the Palladium Ballroom (canceled)
Sunday, April 20 - Austin, TX at Stubb's - Outside (canceled)
Tuesday, April 22 - Houston, TX at the Warehouse (canceled)
Saturday, May 3 - Memphis, TN Beale Street Music Festival (canceled)

The following dates have not been confirmed as being canceled yet:

Monday, May 26 - Lisbon, Portugal at Lisbon Coliseum
Wednesday, May 28 - Porto, Portugal at Porto Coliseum

See more concert dates for Cat Power's 2008 tour schedule.

MP3: Cat Power - The Greatest

The following is a YouTube video of Cat Power playing "Lived in Bars":

Labels: Cat Power, Chan Marshall

Have Cat Power fans been let down by the band’s newest release, Jukebox? Some have been, but the honest music critic has to appreciate the bold step, especially since, in my opinion, the final result is that it's another step-up in the career of the mysterious Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power).

For starters, Jukebox, officially released on Jan. 28, 2008, is a bland title for such an inspiration work, but it makes sense in the end because the tracks represent a cross-section and blend of music genres from blues to jazz and soul to country.

The feel of the album is much more like a tour de musique of Americana than the hauntingly anguished sound that made Chan (pronounced "Shawn") so beloved in the alternative and indie music community. Moreso, Jukebox demonstrates Chan's maturation musically, lyrically and spiritually.

With a set of songs ready to go, Chan marshaled together some of the finest musicians in soul, blues, jazz and country music, coralling folks like Jim White, drummer for The Dirty Dozen, Matt Sweeney of Chavez, Judah Bauer of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, members of the Dirty Delta Blues Band, and others.

The biggest question of all may have been answered when Gregg Foreman, who played piano and organ on Jukebox with Chan, and is currently on tour with Cat Power, was asked by the Philadelphia City Paper to shed some light on the “grittiness” of the sound on Jukebox compared to their previous works.

Foreman acknowledged a shift in sound from the brilliant release MoonPix - an album filled with hearting-wrenching, melancholic songs of failed love - and put it this way:

Yeah, well, we've had a few complaints from fans that want to hear [more of the sound found on Moon Pix]…It'll take time.”

As for Chan’s feelings about the “new” sound, Foreman said:

“She's happy. There hasn't been one show where she's left the stage. She's smiling. The "old sad Chan" is nowhere to be found. And this album's the biggest-selling CD in Matador history. She's blessed.”

Download, listen and upload to any MP3 player the following free and legal MP3s off of Jukebox, curiousity of the great Matador Records:


MP3: Cat Power – "Song to Bobby"
MP3: Cat Power – "Metal Heart"

- Cat Power's official website (I think this is the official site)
- Matador Record's Cat Power profile
- All Music Guide's profile of Cat Power

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Labels: 2008 Indie Releases, Cat Power, Chan Marshall

The melancholy voice and hauntingly beautiful lyrics of Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) have proved strong enough to earn her the title of this year's Shortlist Music Prize for her popular 2006 album The Greatest, a culmination featuring highlights from her impressive body of sombre songs laden with heartache and expressed sincerely and tragically through aching vocals and emotive piano playing.

No matter who is chosen for the prize, there will always be fans of the other nominees that think their favorite artist's album should take the honor.

According to the press release today by the Los Angeles-based Shortlist Organization, “Cat Power's album quickly got under my skin. She has one of the most beguiling voices around. 'The Greatest' is an immediate classic that will never age."

Despite her unquestionable talent and important contributions to indie music, it may have some music fans scratching their heads, considering the line-up of intial nominees picked by the Shortlist Organization panel of judges.

In addition, the winning album is not a release of new, original music - it's a compilation of Marshall's 'greatest'. Is that fair to the other artists and their fans?

The announcement of the Shortlist Music Prize was late this year by a couple of weeks at the least. The organization said in March that it would announced the winner in May after shaving down the list of nominees to the top ten. Speculation that a deal with iTunes to feature the winning album on the store's homepage is what caused the delay.

This year's nine listmakers including last year's winner Sufjan Stevens, Franz Ferdinand, KT Tunstall, Panic at the Disco, The Killers, Snow Patrol and Flaming Lips.

Drummer Ronnie Vannucci of the Killers said "the finalists are the backbone of what makes music special in the first place. They are each doing their own thing and it’s beautiful."

Greg Spotts, the Shortlist co-founder, said: "this is the year of the storyteller. More than half of our ten finalists are wordsmiths who create unique characters and narratives, interpreting our complex world in new ways."

Many of these artists employ unusual instruments and sounds, from the harp of Joanna Newsom to the accordion of Beirut to the secondhand percussion of Tom Waits.

Nine of the ten nominated albums were released by independent labels, marking the indie sector’s largest share of the finalists in the award’s six-year history.

Check the entire list. Entries in bold are the top ten Shortlist nominees. Those in italics are my own choices for the top ten.

Background Information on the Shortlist Organization

Anyone who wants a fast track introduction to indie and alternative rock should definitely take a browse of the nominated albums by the little-known Shortlist Organization.

Each year since 2001, the organization, comprised of rock musicians, producers and others from the independent rock music scene, has gone about selecting their favorite albums for the past year.

The only restrictions are that album nominated must have been for sale in the U.S. and could not have sold more than 500,000 units.

Once all the “listmakers” have turned in their nominees, they are all collected and collated into a “long list” of the past year’s best album and artists, which usually comprises about 55 to 70 nominees on average.

For example, this year there were a total of 60 albums nominated for the year of 2006.

The list itself reads like a rooster of the best indie artists and albums of the past year - enough to make any rock fan want to check and double-check their music collection again just to make sure they have everything.

After the long list is released, the committee goes to work to pair the list down, ultimately giving birth to the name “Shortlist”.

Anyone who has been an indie fan since, let’s say roughly 1999, knows that it is a daunting task to create a “short” list of the best albums in any one year because there are so many great releases. Look at 2006 alone.

The long list is itself a microcosm of a much longer list of fantastic music released by indie and alternative rock, pop, hip hop, trance and others in the past year, but just as the iPod Nano teaches, you need to begin to limit your music collection somewhere – there’s simply not enough time.

This is yet another purpose of the Shortlist Music Prize – that is, to basically do all the work finding the best music out there for you, packaging it up really nice, offering a streaming jukebox of songs from the list nominees (located on the site’s homepage) and essentially writing up your list of CDs to go buy or request for your birthday or other occasion.

Labels: Cat Power, Chan Marshall, Indie Music Awards