Turning the volume down low and showing a softer side has paid off for Transcendence singer and chief songwriter Ed Hale on his newest solo offering. The life or death drama and pathos and over the top emotionalism and passion that listeners are accustomed to hearing from the vocalist are still intact on the new solo set; in fact they’re even more highlighted due to the toned down and hushed atmosphere created by Hale, who co-produced the album along with fellow Transcendence guitarist (and Dreaming In Stereo frontman) Fernando Perdomo. Not only will Ballad On Third Avenue be the singer’s first album to receive airplay on commercial radio nationwide out of the gate, but the new acoustic whisper-pop collection of 11 songs debuted at #14 on college radio’s CMJ Top 200 Most Added Chart this week, the highest debut in the singer’s 20 year career. Out of 200 albums currently spinning on college radio this week it is a remarkable achievement considering Hale has not toured in several years and is a relative unknown compared to the behemoth his better known band Transcendence has become over the last ten years.
Besides a praise-worthy debut, the album also notably picked up several key taste-maker stations including WKBU of Drexel University, WONC in Chicago, IL, and Newark’s WSOU – stations that usually indicate just how well an album might fare months before the final numbers are calculated. If commercial radio follows suit and is successful for Hale’s new solo effort (his first single “I Walk Alone” will be released to Triple A stations all over the United States on August 2nd), Transcendence may find themselves attempting to transcend not only thier own past successes, but the current success of a very edgy strategy – three members of the group have all released successful solo albums this quarter (bassist Roger Houdaille fronts the indie rock sensation of the month Ex Norwegian who have taken the music blog world by storm). The success of the singer’s new solo album only adds to the excitement and anticipation for the band’s new album All Your Heroes Become Villains due to be released in September of this year.
FREE ED HALE BALLAD ON THIRD AVENUE CDS FOR YOUR STATION’S CONTEST GIVEAWAYS!
To get your hands on some FREE contest giveaway CDs of the new Ballad on Third Avenue album by Transcendence lead singer/guitarist Ed Hale for your college radio station contact The Syndicate: Karen@thesyn.com
“Dying Van Gogh Records singer-songwriter Ed Hale, best known over the last few years as the lead singer for the indie rock/Brit pop outfit Transcendence, snuck into the recording studio late last year and produced the most personal and intimate album of his career. (With fellow Transcendence guitarist and Dreaming In StereoNothing Is Cohesive CD, or the indie rock and Brit pop of their Sleep With You CD, Hale instead turned inward and turned the volume way, way down; creating a surprisingly quiet, moving and at times haunting acoustic whisper-pop album.”frontman Fernando Perdomo playing engineer and co-producer). Rather than further exploring the seventy’s glam rock of their
“Gone are the pounding drumbeats, squealing guitars, layered vocals, thumping bass, and that oh so very Transcendence experimental ‘wall of noise and sound.’ (At least for the time being that is: The band’s newest album All Your Heroes Become Villains is due to be released in September of this year.) Instead the singer’s first solo album in many years contains 11 tracks that are a sparse and luxuriant tangle of acoustic guitars, pianos, organs, xylophones, lush cello lines, and mellotron flourishes that set a subtle and gorgeous sonic backdrop perfectly fit to back up a lyrically poignant and confessional masterpiece of infinite beauty and tenderness. The majestic acoustic-pop and vulnerable intimacy of Ed Hale’s new album Ballad on Third Avenue will feel right at home to the same crowd that loves the music of Wes Anderson films, Rubber Soul era Beatles, Kings of Convenience, Bright Eyes, David Gray, Simon and Garfunkel, or even Donovan or Nick Drake. From start to finish the deceptively simple collection of songs sucks you in and leaves you moved, smiling, and dreamy-eyed.”
To request FREE CDs for your station for contest giveaways of the new Ballad On Third Avenuealbum by Ed Hale contact: Karen@thesyn.com
TRACK LISTING
- SCENE IN SAN FRANCISCO
- I WALK ALONE
- HELLO MY DOVE
- INCOMPATIBLE
- BALLAD ON THIRD AVENUE (BEAUTIFUL LOSERS)
- IT FEELS TOO GOOD
- EVERYWHERE SHE IS THERE
- NEW ORLEANS DREAMS
- ARCHITECT’S DAUGHTER
- THOUGHTS OF CALIFORNIA
- NEVER LET ME GO AGAIN
NEW ED HALE ALBUM HITS COLLEGE RADIO STATIONS ACROSS US
The new Ed Hale solo album Ballad On Third Avenue is now spinning at over 350 college radio stations across the United States and Canada and is expected to hit the CMJ Top 20 Most Added Album List next week. See the list here for the station in your town and listen in. As always call-ins from fans are very cool. For the new CD, Hale will be conducting on-air interviews with stations across the country and many stations are also holding contests for fans to win free autographed copies of the new CD or t-shirts and other memorabilia. More info can be had by tuning in to your local college, community, or university radio station for details. In today’s singles-oriented atmosphere, college radio still holds the distinct advantage over commercial radio in that they are serviced with entire albums by artists – rather than just “the newest hit single” – and never afraid to dig deep they are usually more than eager to play the more rare, less-heard, or experimental tracks from new albums. All hail college radio for staying true to this vision and offering music fans this invaluable service. The college radio campaign for Ballad On Third Avenue is being handled by The Syndicate.
The first single from the new album, “I Walk Alone,” hits commercial radio stations across the US next week. A new update with a commercial station list for every town will be posted in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.
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Transcendence singer/songwriter Ed Hale and Princeton University Professor Dr. Cornell West.
The Ambassador said “as always Dr. West was at his cerebral best, inspiring, intriguing and intoxicating the intellect so much that one dared wonder if there was anyone else alive on planet earth in that moment as interesting or thought provoking. The man was on fire.”
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Ed Hale Acoustic In New York Photo Shoot
Ed Hale on the streets of the Lower East Side in New York City during the Acoustic In New York Photo Shoot
Ed Hale – Acoustic In New York album photo shoot
ED HALE RELEASES BED PEACE 2008 VIDEO PROJECT ON NEW YEARS DAY
“The problem was how to celebrate New Years Eve respectfully with all of the recent violence, turmoil, and humanitarian crises happening around the world, especially the brutal battle going on in Gaza and Palestine. To do the usual party to party scene all night just didn’t seem appropriate at the time considering… the idea just grew from there… from that original thought… Then it just came down to if we had the energy and the commitment to really do something. That’s what it always comes down to isn’t it? The idea was how much can we do if we focus 110% on peace in the world for four solid days and nights? That was the question.”
SINGER/SONGWRITER ED HALE SHARES HIS VIEWS ON 2008 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN JAPAN’S WORLD TREND WATCH
NIKKEIBP IS THE LARGEST AND MOST TRUSTED SOURCE OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY NEWS IN JAPAN. WITH DOZENS OF PUBLICATIONS AND NEARLY 600 STAFF WRITERS. MANY HAVE EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE AND CREDENTIALS IN THEIR FIELDS. IN THIS ARTICLE, SINGER/SONGWRITER/SERIAL-ENTREPRENEUR ED HALE OF THE ROCK BAND TRANSCENDENCE, A RESIDENT OF NEW YORK, SHARES HIS VIEWS ON THE UPCOMING UNITED STATES PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE.
WORLD TREND WATCH
NEW YORK RESIDENT SINGER-SONGWRITER ED HALE OF TRANSCENDENCE
ED HALE IN STUDIO RECORDING NEW SOLO ALBUM
The TRANSCENDENCE lead singer/songwriter and guitarist is at it again. Ed Hale is in the studio once again recording 11 new songs for a yet another “new album.” TRANSCENDENCE just released a 14 song rarities collection entitled The City of Lost Children on the Dying Van Gogh record label in September, which featured their September 11th tribute song Rebuild America — the first time the song, recorded in 2001, was officially released for sale to the public. The label has announced that they will be releasing two other new albums – both of new material – All Your Heroes Become Villains and The Great Mistake this year as well. Good news that should finally satisfy frustrated fans since the albums have been completed, hyped, and talked about since late 2006, but were being held up due to various business problems in a constantly changing and challenging industry which has seen CD sales drop dramatically and the closing of Tower Records, many Virgin Music Stores, the bankruptcy of the band’s distributor, and thousands of smaller mom and pop music retailers around the country.So in predictable untraditional fashion, fans will get THREE new albums by the band in one six month period. It is a sign of the generally confused state of the music business itself at this time. To make matters more confusing the band was almost finished recording the 24 song two-disc set nicknamed “the girls album” (due to all of the songs being about and having girl’s names in the titles) – the actual title being L’intrigue de Femme and Finding Francesca – but the recording of that album was postponed midway through production in 2007 with no word on when they will resume work on it.
So what to do? Evidently, record another album! Less than a week after meeting with Iran President Ahmadinejad during the United Nations General Assembly Meeting, Hale flew down to Miami, Florida to spend five weeks in the studio with fellow TRANSCENDENCE guitarist Fernando Perdomo – who is also playing the role of producer on this one – to record a new solo album set to be released in early 2009. This will be Hale’s first solo album since 1996′s Acoustic in New York.
It is becoming increasingly more commonplace and acceptable in the music community to see solo and side projects by individual members of bands while the bands still stay and play together (Unless you’re in Metallica that is.) 2007′s favorite ingenue Feist is a member of Broken Social Scene; the Stroke’s Albert Hammond Jr. just released his second solo album; Eagles of Death Metal is a side project of Queens of the Stone Age members; Gnarls Barkley member Danger Mouse releases albums both solo and with his group, and just finished recording a critically acclaimed new album with Beck. Closer to home, TRANSCENDENCE bassist Roger Houdaille’s solo project EX NORWEGIANjust released their second single (Dance Trance Pants, a catchy little number. Check it out here) and just performed at this year’s CMJ Music Marathon in New York.Ed Hale started his singing career solo, releasing his first album EDDIE at the age of 18, then joined a band for several years, BROKEN SPECTACLES (which also launched the solo career of singer/songwriter Matthew Sabatella), then went solo again, releasing Spectacularly Broken and Acoustic In New York, and then formed a new band, TRANSCENDENCE, who have released six albums to date. So does this mean Hale is going solo again? The band and its label insist not at all, but that instead the album simply affords Hale an opportunity to record and release songs that are not “typical TRANSCENDENCE style material.”
The new album, which is still untitled, will contain 11 songs the singer has written over the last year that are a complete departure from the glam, Brit, alt, indie or modern rock sound of TRANSCENDENCE and instead are said to be “slow, soft, personal, intimate, and primarily acoustic.” The album will not have any electric guitars and very few drums, but instead will feature many makes and models of acoustic guitars (both Hale and Perdomo are avid acoustic guitar collectors) and other stringed instruments such as mandolin, viola, cello, and even balalyka, and piano. Fans of Hale’s YouTube channelwill recognize a few of the songs, including “Everywhere she is there,” and “Architect’s Daughter.”“I wouldn’t call the album folk,” Hale says. “It’s more like singer/songwriter music, or “whisper pop” if there is such a thing. Because the sound of the album is so quiet and intimate.” When pressed for more of what the album will sound like he mentions Nick Drake, Donovan, Kings of Convenience, Jack Johnson, David Grey, and even Bob Dylan. “In TRANSCENDENCE we are really lucky in that we’re all pretty open minded so we are able to get away with recording a wide variety of styles of music. More than most bands are able to get away with. But we’re still essentially a rock band and limited to that TRANSCENDENCE sound, whatever that is. So these are all just songs that would never make it onto a TRANSCENDENCE album, because they wouldn’t fit our sound. And frankly I dig that we’re all doing little side projects like this now. This is an album I’ve wanted to do for years. I’m very happy and excited to be doing this. It’s like I have to pinch myself. It’s the most personal thing I’ve ever done. That’s for sure. A lot of just me and the guitar.”
The band’s label believes the new album may expose Hale to a whole new base of music listeners. Hale says Perdomo was the natural choice to produce the album. “We’ve worked together for six years now. He’s the most brilliant musician I know. He’s crazy and a total fucking pain in the ass. But we all are I guess. But he’s also this organically genius musician on so many levels.” Old bandmate Matthew Sabatella has also been enlisted to sing harmony vocals on the tracks. “Matt and I have been singing together since we were in Junior High. I’ve waited a long time for a project that we could work on together again. I can’t wait to hear what he does on this album. Our voices work really well together. And he’s awesome at coming up with good harmonies. All and all we have the makings of a good little album here.”Hale is currently blogging about the recording of the album on his Transcendence Diaries blog, and will be posting photos and clips of the songs as they are completed to his website www.edhale.com and Facebook page. Stay tuned for more.