All News

EASY STAR NOMINATED FOR LABEL OF THE YEAR
Easy Star Records has been nominated for Label of the Year by the Roots Music Association. The RMA is a membership organization dedicated to bringing "roots" artists, the professional entertainment community, and their audiences together on a global level. (We should point out that this is not "roots" as in only reggae; this organization covers blues, bluegrass, folk, country, jazz, zydeco, roots rock and more.) The winners of the Roots Music Awards will be announced during the RMA's annual conference/festival, which will be held in San Marcos, Texas, November 14-16. You can vote for Easy Star (and plenty of other nominees in other categories) here. More info »

LIVE VIDEO OF JBB
John Brown's Body's show at South Paw in Brooklyn this past August 14 was filmed and captured by Baeble.com. The folks at Baeble have completed their edits and posted the show at their site. You can download it or even order a DVD from them. Plus, they have a contest going that could win you some prize packs. Check the details for that here. You can see a song from the show on our video page. Just look one down on the page to see "Push Some Air." More info »

ESAS JOINS MATISYAHU ON XMAS
Grammy-nominated artist Matisyahu announces his Third Annual Festival of Light shows in New York City this December. The eight-show series includes dates in Manhattan and Brooklyn for a total of four shows in each borough, featuring special guests each night, including Brett Dennen, Easy Star All-Stars, Assembly of Dust, Asher Roth, The Leevees, Little Jackie, U Melt and a special surprise DJ soon to be announced. The festival begins December 21, the first night of Chanukah, and concludes December 30. Festival of Light marks the final leg of Matisyahu’s extensive fall tour, which coincides with the release of his upcoming EP, Shattered (Epic Records, October 21). The four-song EP features tracks from his new full-length album, Light (due out in early 2009).

Previous Festival of Light shows have included special guests Tim Reynolds, Blues Traveler and The Wailers. This year Matisyahu will kick off the Third Annual Festival of Lights show at Webster Hall in Manhattan on December 21 with a very special guest DJ set. Acclaimed singer-songwriter Brett Dennen will open the final festival show on December 30 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, playing a solo set. The Levees (featuring Adam Gardner of Guster), U-Melt, Assembly of Dust and Easy Star All-Stars performing songs from “Radiodread” and “Dub Side of the Moon” will also join Matisyahu on stage during the holiday festival.

Tickets for Festival of Light shows will be available for pre-sale on October 15 and will go on sale to the general public on October 17. Tickets may be purchased either through no fee box offices at the Mercury Lounge in Manhattan and Williamsburg Music Hall in Brooklyn or at Ticketmaster.com.

SCHEDULE
December 21 Webster Hall w/ DJ set by TBA
December 22 Webster Hall w/ The Leevees
December 23 Webster Hall w/ U Melt
December 25 Webster Hall w/ Easy Star All-Stars
December 27 Music Hall of Williamsburg w/ Asher Roth
December 28 Music Hall of Williamsburg w/ Assembly of Dust
December 29 Music Hall of Williamsburg w/ Little Jackie
December 30 Music Hall of Williamsburg w/ Brett Dennen
More info »

AMPLIFY IS #1
AMPLIFY, the new release by progressive reggae band John Brown’s Body, debuts at #1 on this week’s Top Reggae Albums chart in Billboard Magazine. The new album, which also climbs to #10 on the CMJ World Music chart, was just released by Easy Star Records. It presents the band with the highest chart position in its history and outsells its 2005 release PRESSURE POINTS by nearly 20% in its first week of release.

“We’re very happy with the number one chart position,” says Easy Star’s Eric Smith. “But we’re equally excited to see that we’ve not only kept pace with the last release, we’ve outsold it. In these challenging times, where declining sales are the norm, this is a real achievement for everyone involved. It’s also a credit to the tenacity of this band, which has been through a lot over the last several years. JBB’s playing the game their way, and it’s great to see them rewarded for it."

"AMPLIFY is a big stew of a lot of different influences and sounds and grooves,” says JBB drummer and co-founder Tommy Benedetti. “I think reggae applies to us in the way that we definitely draw from drum and bass. That's always the foundation of what we start with. We also tried to step outside of the normal reggae grooves‚ sounds‚ lyrics and topics on this one, and what goes on top wound up being very progressive and current.”

AMPLIFY “...fuses Kweli-like beats with Massive Attack funk” and “...invokes the tripped-up rhythms of Radiohead” - Boston’s Weekly Dig

“...the band’s energy is soaked up and spread out in all the right places, never allowing Amplify to slow down and catch its breath. A heck of an achievement...” - Glide More info »

AMPLIFY LYRICS
We have posted lyrics for many of the songs on AMPLIFY here. More info »

---

Subscribe via RSS RSS feeds make it easy to stay updated on current news. If you don't know what RSS is, here's a quick explanation. You can also subscribe to our email list: