Tag Archives: hot off the press

2012, music

[hot off the press] Diamond Doves//Eat Your Heart Out

Leave a comment

Diamond Doves was formed in 2010 by longtime friends and musical collaborators Nick Kinsey, Brigham Brough and Wyndham Garnett. The sound of Diamond Doves is the meeting of their three distinct vocal, instrumental and compositional personalities. With a seemingly endless instrumental palette and a penchant for genre-hopping, Diamond Doves draw from a wide range of influences both foreign and domestic, new and old. Their sound at times recalls the mass and drive of Funkadelic, the studio experimentation of Os Mutantes and the democratic ethos of The Band, yet it clearly owes a lot to the pop-craft of contemporaries like Animal Collective, The Walkmen and Kanye West…[more]

While you wait for Diamond Doves’ debut LP (due out this Spring), i’m pleased to share with the brand new track “Eat Your Heart Out”.

♪  Diamond Doves – Eat Your Heart Out

More Diamond Doves:
website
facebook
twitter
myspace
iTunes

2012, music, new music

[hot off the press] Said The Whale//Little Mountain

Leave a comment

This may be Said The Whale’s third LP but the Canadian indie-popsters are still educating the U.S. masses, and their forthcoming album, Little Mountain, is a superb introduction. Their latest effort is their most adventurous to date and will be released in North America on March 6, 2012 via Hidden Pony Records/EMI, and in the U.K and Europe on March 12. The pre-order from iTunes will go live on February 20.

Said The Whale have been making their pretty music for some time, and in this past year were rewarded with the highest accolade available in their home land – a JUNO Award. The band snagged the crown for “New Group Of The Year” in 2011 and made their mark even bigger.

Little Mountain finds the group defying rock conventions without sacrificing any of their pop smarts. Said The Whale enlisted the juggernaut production prowess of  Tom Dobrzanski, and multiple Grammy Award winner Jack Joseph Puig, who mixed the 15-track collection. Their combined efforts steered the song suites to explode out of the speakers, as they shepherded the band’s signature sound to a new level.

More diverse than previous albums, Little Mountain is a multi-stylistic tour-de-force that ventures into everything from soaring, horn-laden cabaret (“The Reason”) to jaggedly syncopated rock (“We Are 1980”) and effervescent guitar pop (“Loveless”). First single, “Heavy Ceiling,” is a dancefloor-ready ditty that reflects the confident and razor-sharp sound that dominates this LP.

Starting in early February and leading up to the release date, Said The Whale will regularly offer videos as exclusives, each coinciding with the 15 album tracks. The band partnered with Vancouver-based production company Amazing Factory for their ambitious endeavor, who helped re-imagine the band’s vivid lyrical imagery. Tune into Exclaim.ca for the premier of “1980” on February 7.

On February 25, the band will host a very special video screening and album launch at the Rio Theatre in their hometown of Vancouver. It will mark the beginning of the customary Said The Whale whirlwind tour schedule that will take the band across Canada, through the US, UK and Europe this year. [source: planetary group]

♪ Said The Whale – Heavy Ceiling (from Little Mountain)

More Said The Whale:
website
facebook
twitter
tour
bandcamp
iTunes

2012, concerts, live music, music

[hot off the press] SXSW 2012

Leave a comment

SXSW is right around the corner (March 9 – 18) and the music schedule is is now live.

Other than CMJ, this is by far the best music festival in the US.  I don’t have the time and/or patience to list the hundreds of bands announced to play, but some of my favorites include: Alabama Shakes, Built to Spill, The Magnetic Fields, Talib Kweli, The Drums, Bear In Heaven, Deerhoof, The War on Drugs, Miniature Tigers, SBTRKT, Best Coast, M. Ward, Youth Lagoon, Tennis, Dan Deacon, Lana Del Rey, The Ting Tings, YACHT, Band of Skulls, White Rabbits, Freelance Whales, and Sharon Van Etten.

You can view the music schedule here and more general festival info here.

2012, music

[hot off the press] Sleigh Bells//Comeback Kid

Leave a comment

Over the weekend, Sleigh Bells dropped the first official single from their soon-to-be-released LP, Reign of Terror.  Though I still enjoy “Born to Lose” a bit more, the new single, “Comeback Kid”, is yet another impressive track and keeps me hopeful that Sleigh Bells sophomore outing will live up to my high expectations.

Reign of Terror is out Feb. 21st and you can catch Sleigh Bells on tour, starting Feb. 3rd.

More Sleigh Bells:
website
facebook
twitter
iTunes

2012, live music, music

[hot off the press] The Jealous Sound

Leave a comment

The Jealous Sound announces the release of long-awaited sophomore album — A Gentle Reminder.

Nine years since their debut LP, The Jealous Sound has emerged with their sophomore full-length A Gentle Reminder, to be released January 31 via Music is Subjective and Fontana Distribution. Their previous and debut album Kill Them With Kindness was embraced by critics worldwide, named one of Spin‘s best albums of ’03 and described by Spin writer Andy Greenwald as “heartfelt guitar rock capable of punching you in the gut and patting you on the back.”

After taking time away from the band, frontman Blair Shehan reconnected with founding guitarist Pedro Benito, whose friendship with Nate Mendel (Foo Fighters) helped The Jealous Sound land an opening spot on the 2009 tour for the bassist’s previous band, emo pioneers Sunny Day Real Estate. The old juices started flowing.

Made in the Foo Fighters’ Studio 606 with John Lousteau producing, A Gentle Reminder features founding members Shehan and guitarist Benito working alongside Mendel (filling in on bass for the departed John McGinnis) and new drummer Bob Penn. Josh Staples (the Velvet Teen) contributes backing vocals and bass on two tracks.

How the quartet coalesced to recapture the magic is a labyrinthine tale that covers three states and includes a lot of emotional baggage. The life lessons are revealed in the grandeur of the new album, a poignant and emotional triumph that not only proves a worthy successor to Kill Them With Kindness, but reveals the foursome at the top of its craft. Open-hearted, yes, but not really gentle at all, A Gentle Reminder represents a 44-minute epiphany set to cascading guitars, thundering rhythms and Shehan’s evocative vocals.

A preview to the album, “Your Eyes Were Shining” is available to stream online from the band’s Soundcloud & Facebook. More tracks will be available soon as well as a preorder for CDs and LPs. [source: planetary group]

More Jealous Sound:
website
facebook
twitter
iTunes

Tour Dates:
2.3 San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
2.4 Tempe, AZ @ The Sail Inn
2.6 Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
2.8 Little Rock, AR @ Stickyz Rock’n’Roll Chicken
2.9 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
2.11 Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter
2.12 Washington DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
2.14 Allston, MA @ Great Scott
2.15 Brooklyn, NY @ Knitting Factory
2.16 Philadelphia, PA @ Milkboy
2.17 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
2.18 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
2.19 Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre
2.21 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre
2.22 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
2.24 Portland @ Hawthorne Theatre
2.25 Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
2.27 San Francisco @ Bottom of the Hill
2.28 Los Angeles @ The Satellite