This past week “New Orleans Dreams” rose 5 more spots to land at #23 on the Adult Contemporary Top 40 Chart, setting a new record for Ed Hale and his band Transcendence. Ed Hale’s poetic and subtly disguised political message song is now the highest charting hit single on commercial radio of his career, just sliding past the Transcendence song “Superhero Girl” which peaked at #24 on the Alternative Rock Specialty Show Chart in 2003.
Concurrent to the rise of “New Orleans Dreams” — a song with rather uncharacteristically potent lyrics compared to the normally light-weight subject matter of AC commercial radio, Hale spent the weekend at Occupy Seattle marching with thousands of others through the downtown Westlake Park area.
For those looking to go deeper or for more alignment with the politically charged atmosphere of the times, iTunes offers both the 3’35″ “radio edit” version of the song that most listeners are familiar with, and the extended 6’50″ full-length version from the album. Download one or both versions of the song today.
And for fans of the more indie-rock/pop sounds of Transcendence, the band Hale and company have been in for the last nine years, don’t forget to pre-order their long awaited new studio album All Your Heroes Become Villains, which hits stores nationwide on November 15th!!!
To connect with Ed Hale or the super-group Ed Hale and the Transcendence, head to Twitter and Facebook today.
ED HALE IMPORT ALBUM “BEAUTIFUL LOSERS” REVIEW IN BELGIUM MUSIC MAG ROOTSTIME
Belgium music magazine Roots Time CD review of the Ed Hale newly-released European Import album Beautiful Losers.
Anyone speak Belgian?
Anyone speak Belgian?
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Ed Hale werd geboren in Parijs toen zijn vader er in militaire dienst was, maar zijn echte roots liggen bij zijn Engelse vader en zijn Italiaanse moeder. Zijn eerste stappen in de muziekwereld zette hij op 17-jarige leeftijd onder de artiestennaam ‘Eddie Darling’ die op zijn debuutplaat “Eddie” werd gebruikt. Zijn fans noemen hem wat smalend ‘The Ambassador’ omdat hij graag veel reist, heel wat vreemde talen leerde en altijd met andere culturen in aanraking wil komen. Hij nam die eretitel met veel plezier over voor zijn MySpace-website. Ed Hale woont momenteel zowel in Seattle, Washington als in New York City waar hij de leadzanger is van de populaire Britpop- en rockformatie ’Transcendence’, maar hij is ook zeer actief als vredesactivist en als singer-songwriter. In die hoedanigheid bracht hij in de recente jaren enkele soloalbums uit, zoals ook nu weer met de vierde solo-cd “Beautiful Losers”, een album dat midden vorig jaar reeds in Amerika uitkwam onder de titel “Ballad On Third Avenue” en omwille van het grote lokale succes nu ook in Europa wordt gelanceerd. Er werden al twee singles uit deze cd getrokken: het op iets van David Bowie lijkende “I Walk Alone” en het prachtige “New Orleans Dreams”. Beide songs worden op deze Europese release trouwens een tweede keer in een ‘extended version’ aangeboden. Ook de nummers “Scene In San Francisco”, “Incompatible” en de catchy titeltrack “Ballad On Third Avenue (Beautiful Losers)” zullen als single worden gelanceerd en zijn sinds enige tijd al te downloaden op het internet. |
ED HALE AND THE TRANSCENDENCE RELEASE “BLIND EYE” MP3
Endless war, exploitation, lies. Turn the anger and outrage into a guitar riff, and you have the pulsing heart of “Blind Eye,” the latest release from All Your Heroes Become Villains by Ed Hale and The Transcendence. The riff, accomplished by some tricky open-D tuning, and then mirrored by syncopated bass (Roger Houdaille) and drums (Ricardo Mazzi), sets the emotional tone, giving the listener more than a hint where the song is going.
“It’s cynical as hell but I think it’s how a lot of us feel right now in the US; and around the world,” says Ed Hale. “You [politicians, elected officials] can do whatever the fuck you want to. I’m sick of your lies. I’m sick of your endless wars. So here’s the deal: do whatever you want to. I’m sick of fighting you. So I’m going to turn a blind eye to you and your wicked bs. But just don’t mess with me or my family. Don’t come near my home. And don’t ask me to help you in your quest to destroy the world around us.” Hale’s haunting lyrics, “Everything I hear/And everything I see/I won’t be afraid/You won’t bother me/All your evil ways/With everything you do/I will turn away/You won’t bother me, ” are delivered with such steady resolve that you can almost picture him turning his back silently afterward. The refrain, “Murder Greed Destruction Exploitation Rape Sex and Violence/Take your money Take your money Take your money” whispered quickly and venemously, came from a list Hale wrote at Fred Freeman’s, the producer of the album, suggestion. About halfway through, “Blind Eye” begins to spin, vocals, guitar, drums, bass and effects coming together in a representation of the chaos and evil present in the world today. Download “Blind Eye” now.
NEW ED HALE AND TRANSCENDENCE ALBUM ALL YOUR HEROES BECOME VILLAINS PRE-ORDER ON ITUNES START TODAY!
Preview and Pre-Order the New Ed Hale and Transcendence album All Your Heroes Become Villains on iTunes or Amazon.com Starting Today!
Watch the trailer for the new All Your Heroes Become Villains album exclusively on YouTube!
Photo Courtesy of Gina Rowland: pictured from left to right are Ricardo Mazzi (drums), Zach Ziskin (guitar), Ed Hale (vocals, guitar), Fernando Perdomo (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Allan Gabay (piano, keyboards), Karen Feldner (background vocals), Roger Houdaille (bass, vocals), Kamran Green (DJ, Remixer), Leor Manelis (drums)
The new album, All Your Heroes Become Villains, is now available for pre-order on iTunes.
Click here for US iTunes, or UK iTunes.
Alternatively, if you wish to pre-order a physical copy, please visit http://edhaleandthetranscendence.bandcamp.com/
ED HALE INTERVIEW IN FRIDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
Radio Industry Journal Friday Morning Quarterback interviewed Ed Hale last week in their Get to Know feature. Read the interview below or click here to go to the source.
Get To Know… Ed Hale
Town and state you grew up in: Well, that’s a tough one. We moved and lived in sixteen different cities before I was 11 years old. A single mother in her early twenties raising two boys isn’t the easiest thing to do, but we eventually settled down in a small town in southern Florida called Naples. Everyone knows Naples Florida. But talk about surreal, growing up in a retirement beach resort type town… Small-town America. The ocean to the west, swamp and forest to the East and South, and one tiny resort town after another to the North for hundreds of miles. “Landlocked” is what it felt like if you were a young wild and rebellious teenager who thought he was the second coming of David Bowie. (laughs) So I was outta there by the time I hit sixteen. Though looking back now… it wasn’t such a bad way to grow up. We were safe and secure, with a real sense of community, and shielded from a lot of the more harsher realities that other kids are confronted with who grow up in large cities. Frankly, I’ve got a treasure chest full of fond memories now of growing up in Naples, FL. But of course like many kids who grow up in small towns, all I wanted to do was get out of there and make something of my life bigger than that.
Town and state you live in now: Umm hum… Another tricky one. But I’ll give it a go. The simple answer is we live in Seattle and New York. We’ve got a beautiful old house in a small woodsy town just outside of Seattle where you can see the stars at night and hear everything from hummingbirds fly to crickets chirping to the relaxing sound of water flowing through a babbling brook that runs through our backyard. It’s a very peaceful escape from the madness of New York City, which is where I actually spend most of my time. Upper West Side to be exact. New York has been home to me for a very long time and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. There’s just nothing like flying in and seeing that first glimpse of city lights down there once through the clouds. If we were Gladiators, New York would be our Rome. It’s where it’s at for sure.
First instrument: Before I could walk I used to sit and try to strum my mom’s old nylon string classical guitar. So that turned me on to the possibilities of guitar at a very early age. But honestly piano was the first real instrument
SOUNDSPHERE’S CD REVIEW OF “ALL YOUR HEROES BECOME VILLAINS”
The fourth studio album by itinerant project Ed Hale And The Transcendence brings together new contributors and a collection of songs intertwining the talents and influences gathered together. The album opener offers uplifting soul vocals accompanied by a blissful piano and trumpet melody which ebbs and flows during the eleven tracks. Intermittent phrases of dialogue, another recurring motif carried throughout, consolidate a cinematic feel of the LP as the prelude segues into the next.
‘Here It Comes’ is the track infused most with the spirit of Britpop; the anthemic instrumentation, the rousing chorus and the soaring strings all present and correct. Hallmark elements of the Britpop sound also surface in ‘Solaris’, where Hale’s vocals, carried along by jaunty acoustic guitar chords, echo Bono and Alex Kapranos in parts; ‘After Tomorrow’, seven minutes in length, apes the likes of the mellow vibes and extended outro of ‘Champagne Supernova’ and the close backing harmonies of ‘Hey Jude’.
ED HALE JUMPS TO #33 ON THE ADULT CONTEMPORARY TOP40 CHART THIS WEEK
“New Orleans Dreams” — the latest single from Transcendence singer Ed Hale — added an additional 100 spins on Adult Contemporary radio stations across the US last week and picked up 3 more stations, pushing the song up to the #33 spot on the FMQB Top40 Chart! The song is in its sixth week since being released and there seems to be no stopping the politically themed acoustic ballad.
The event is certainly one to celebrate for fans, as this is the first entry into the slightly tamer Adult Contemporary radio format for Hale or his bandmates in the group Transcendence. “We are absolutely ecstatic around here about this,” exclaimed Hale. “Everyone at the radio stations has been so cool to us and the new fans that we’re connecting with on Facebook and Twitter are awesome. It’s been an incredible couple of weeks and we just feel very very grateful…”
The song “New Orleans Dreams” is available for download in both a shorter “radio edit” version and as the full length album version on iTunes (US), iTunes (UK) and Amazon.com as well as numerous other online music etailers. Fans new to the singer can connect, learn more about the artist and hear more songs via Facebook or Twitter. And for those interested in the long running indie-rock collective featuring Hale, Dreaming In Stereo‘s Fernando Perdomo, and Ex Norwegian frontman Roger Houdaille, Ed Hale and The Transcendence, listeners can head to the bands website transcendence.com or Facebook Page.
ED HALE ENTERS RADIO FORMAT #3 WITH A “TASTE OF TRIPLE A” FEATURE
Ed Hale’s first solo album in years, Ballad On Third Avenue, has charted a lot of territory for the transcendent singer/guitarist in the last year. Upon its release the album went first to college radio and spent several months on the CMJ Top 200, a radio format very familiar with both Hale and the indie-rock collective he sings and plays guitar in, Transcendence. Being a softer acoustic endeavor, the album’s second single “New Orleans Dreams” then went to the Adult Contemporary format, where it’s enjoying spins on 200+ stations and still rising up the Top40 chart (currently #33). In October the album will begin spinning on Triple A radio stations across the country. “New Orleans Dreams” is the third track on the October 2011 edition of A Taste of Triple A compilation CD, a long running tastemaker series of “all things Triple A radio” founded by revered radio veteran Jim Nelson. The CD also features tracks by the B-552s, Indigo Girls, and Oasis’s Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
The plot thickens as the release date for the new Ed Hale and The Transcendence album, All Your Heroes Become Villains, approaches (Nov. 15th). The “Villains” album is set to hit College Radio on October 25th, and Alt-Rock Specialty Show stations on December 1st, both formats the band has charted in numerous times over the years. In the second week of January 2012 the band will release two singles simultaneously to two additional radio formats, the dark and heavy rocker “Blind Eye” to Modern Rock, and the lushly arranged pop ballad “Solaris” will begin spinning on Adult Contemporary radio stations. Of course there is a chance that Triple A stations may get in on the action and pick up on “Solaris” as well. One thing is for certain: there will be no shortage of Hale or his fellow bandmates in Transcendence on the radio over the next six months.
“REBUILD AMERICA” BY ED HALE AND TRANSCENDENCE – THE 9/11 TRIBUTE SONG – TEN YEARS LATER
Every year since 2001 the rock band Ed Hale and Transcendence re-release the song and accompanying music video for the September 11th tribute song “Rebuild America” during this week. All proceeds from iTunes downloads of song go to New York’s Robin Hood Foundation which has a special fund for September 11th victims’ families. This year is no different. Though it’s hard to believe it’s been ten years.
ED HALE – LOOKING BACK AT TEN YEARS SINCE SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001
Ten years after the events of September 11th, 2001, Transcendence lead singer/guitarist looks back and shares his story, where he was, and the makings of one of the band’s most endearing songs and music videos, “Rebuild America.” Read it here in The Transcendence Diaries.
Listen to the song “Rebuild America” — the 9/11 tribute song Ed Hale and the Transcendence recorded in 2001. Download from the iTunes Music Store right from this player. Proceeds from all downloads go to New York’s Robin Hood Foundation to help 9/11 Victims’ Families.