Brighton’s Loop Festival is back for its third round of musical mayhem this July. The line-up has been announced, and it is promising to showcase a wide spectrum of talent that we approve of. With headliners like Fever Ray, mum, and our bowling partners Telepathe.

The Loop Festival will take place on July 11-12 around various Brighton venues, and is split into two parts: Loop Live and Loop Late, where DJs spin after the bands have wrapped up their sets. Along with the aforementioned headliners, Tripwire favorite Emiliana Torrini along with The Qemists, Datarock, Squarepusher, and a wealth of others will be playing the two day event.

Tickets for the festival are already on sale, and give event goers the option to purchase a two day Loop Live pass, a weekend ticket, or single day tickets. The Loop Festival began in 2007, and has since been a showcase for cutting edge digital art and culture; hosting not only music, but Loop films, installations and audiovisual programming around the event as well.

The Loop Festival line-up to date
Datarock
Emilíana Torrini
Esser
Fanfarlo
Fever Ray
Fujiya & Miyagi
Hatcham Social
James Yuill
Joakim and the Disco
Matthew Herbert Big Band
múm
Plugs
Riton
Samim
Squarepusher
Telepathe
The Glimmers
The Invisible
The Juan Maclean
The Qemists
The Sian Alice Group
The XX
Tunng
We Have Band
Zomby

What a weird night it turned out to be. First I went to see Emiliana Torrini perform at her Tripwire presented show, leaving after her set to catch Primal Scream play at Webster Hall. The weird part? I just saw two headlining performances and it wasn’t even 10:30 p.m.

The fact that both were “early” shows left me prematurely tired and now looking for somewhere to go and tell people that I just witnessed Primal Scream’s first New York performance in over a decade. But I guess this is as good a forum as any.

We’re big fans of Emiliana Torrini, which is why we were proud to present her first U.S. shows in support of her latest record Me & Armini. Here are the photos from her two sold-out, Tripwire Presented shows at Hiro Ballroom in New York and at The Independent in San Francisco.


[Photos of Emiliana in SF by JENZ]

[Photos of Emiliana in NYC by Derek Evers]

Emiliana Torrini is playing her first U.S. shows in support of her latest record Me & Armini, which came out last September on Rough Trade. As we’ve told you before, we’re big fans of the alluring Icelandic singer, so now we are very excited to be giving away a pair of tickets to each of her State-side shows — with one in New York City, one in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco.

We’re proud the be the presenting sponsor Emiliana’s shows in NYC and SF shows, while KCRW will be presenting her at the LA show. These are bound to be three great performances in intimate settings, and that’s why we want to give you the chance to see Emiliana in action.

One winner will be chosen at random to receive a pair of tickets the March 28 show at the Hiro Ballroom in NYC, the March 29 show at The Independent in San Francisco and the March 30 show at The Troubadour in Los Angeles. All you have to do to enter is e-mail us here with you full contact info* and the subject of “Emiliana (city you want to attend)”. To be clear, that means please include the city you would like to see Emiliana perform if you are the winner. The contest runs through Thursday, March 26 with the winner notified that same evening. The dates of the shows are listed below.

*Please provide e-mail and full mailing address. Contest will officially end at 6pm EST on Thursday, March 26th. E-mail addresses not already on our mailing list will be added.

Emiliana Torrini tour dates
03.28.09 – New York, NY (Hiro Ballroom)
03.29.09 – San Francisco, CA (The Independent)
03.30.09 – Los Angeles, CA (The Troubadour)

Even if her stage name is not a reference to the Dylan song “Lay, Lady, Lay” Iceland’s bluesiest chanteuse since Emiliana Torrini, Lovísa Elísabet Sigrúnardóttir — aka Lay Low — sounds like she’s paying homage to it in the lead single from her upcoming album Farewell Good Night’s Sleep.

After topping the Icelandic charts with her 2006 debut Please Don’t Hate Me, the unassuming starlet is back with a new record that continues her forays into traditional blues and country sounds. Recorded at Toe Rag Studios in London with producer Liam Watson (White Stripes), the new record features musicians such as Carwyn Ellis, Ed Turner, Rupert Brown, Matt Radford, Jason Wilson and BJ Cole, and will be released on Nettwerk Productions in the U.S. on May 26.

Lovísa will be here in the U.S. to shoot the music video for the lead single “By and By” — available for download below — in NYC later this month when she is here supporting the aforementioned Emiliana Torrini on her Tripwire presented run of shows.

Lay Low – “By And By”

MP3 Download – “By And By”

Lay Low with Emiliana Torrini
03.28.09 – New York (Hiro Ballroom)
03.29.09 – San Francisco, CA (The Independent)
03.30.09 – Los Angeles, CA (Troubadour)

We fell in love with Emiliana Torrini’s Me & Armini back when it came out in September. So much so that we did a video interview with the charming Icelandic songstress during a brief stop over in the States. At that time she was just doing a press run and wasn’t playing any shows. Which is why we’re excited to announce three intimate U.S. shows that we’re proud to be a part of.

Emiliana is playing NYC, LA and SF in support of her Rough Trade release, Me & Armini, and while the LA show is officially being presented by the venerable KCRW, we’re lucky enough to be presenting her New York and San Francisco stops. But aside from just supporting Emiliana, we will be doing a ticket giveaway for all three markets — including copies of Me & Armini — starting next week, so be on the lookout for your chance to catch the Lord Of The Rings songwriter in person. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to hear her story about teleconferencing with Peter Jackson. Tickets for all three shows are currently available at Ticketmaster.

Emiliana Torrini tour dates
03.28.09 – New York, NY (Hiro Ballroom)
03.29.09 – San Francisco, CA (The Independent)
03.30.09 – Los Angeles, CA (The Troubadour)

We fell in love with Emiliana Torrini’s Me And Armini back when it came out in September. And while some of us hate to admit it, this was even before we knew about the song she did for the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. So when she made a brief stop over in New York we politely asked for a few moments of her time.

We asked politely because she’s quite a charming individual, as you will see from this interview. With no live performances during her visit to the States, this interview is shot in the simplest of contexts; just Emiliana talking. Which didn’t bother us because once you hear her speak, you will find yourself hard-pressed to turn away. Besides, who doesn’t like hearing a story about video-conferencing with Peter Jackson?

Emiliana Torrini
MySpace