Ever-dapper singer Leonard Cohen has announced that he’ll be embarking on a second leg of his U.S. tour this fall, and if you live near any of the 15 cities on its itinerary, I strongly suggest you make time this fall and head to the concert nearest you. The bulk of the dates are on the eastern side of the country, with only dates in Las Vegas and San Jose, Calif., announced as West Coast cities so far. Full slate of dates after the jump. More »
The Polaris Music Prize, which gives $20,000 a Canadian-bred album released between Junes that’s realized by a panel of homegrown music experts as the year’s “best,” has released its long list today, and among those artists up for the honor are Leonard Cohen, Metric, Fucked Up, and k-Os. The long list is made up of 40 albums, so there are many other honored artists who haven’t crossed my personal transom quite yet; to help as far as context goes, Globe And Mail critic Carl Wilson and Jim Di Gioia at Quick Before It Melts both blogged about their nominees shortly after they sent in their ballots. All of their picks didn’t make it through, but their writeups did pique my curiosity (particularly Wilson on the Martha Wainwright album). Full list after the jump. More »
If you were Leonard Cohen, and you kept hearing how no one considers your version of “Hallelujah” to be the best one—and, trust me, most people do not—you might be tempted, on your new tour, to change the song’s arrangement a bit. Make it a little more like that dead pretty boy, with chiming guitar, or more like the viola guy from that Warhol band, a little peppier and piano-driven. But did he?
Last night I saw Leonard Cohen play the Beacon Theatre, and it was fan-freaking-tastic; his voice was in top form, his songs were still shiver-worthy, and the grace with which he handled both the seemingly perpetual standing ovations and the gratitude he was feeling toward every single person who helped put on the show—from the woman who takes care of his hats on up—was a joy to watch. I come not to brag, but to get you excited, for Cohen has announced a North American tour that includes his first U.S. dates in quite some time. Itinerary after the jump.
In news that only the hardest-hearted among us (ahem, Superineficaz) will be grumpy about, Canadian songwriter and former Buddhist monk Leonard Cohen will play his first United States show in 15 years at New York’s Beacon Theater on Feb. 19. That place has a capacity of 2,800, and I’m making the ballsiest prediction of my life here: it’s gonna be a sellout. Tickets go on sale this Friday. But there’s a dark side to all of this.