Category Archives: Highly Anticipated

January 16, 2013 · 3:50 pm

Brand New: Stream Cold War Kids “Miracle Mile”

cwk

Cold War Kids are excited to announce the release of their fourth studio album, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts, on April 2, 2013 via Downtown Records (and via MapleMusic Recordings in Canada). In anticipation of the release, the band is currently streaming the album’s engaging lead single, Miracle Mile.

Stream: Cold War Kids – “Miracle Mile”

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts came to life at the band’s San Pedro, CA studio space. They enlisted new guitar player, Dann Gallucci (Murder City Devils, Modest Mouse) and Lars Stalfors to produce.   “We were shaken up, ready to let certain songs go further than before by trying new styles and arrangements, while keeping others sparse and caring more about the finished product and less about how we got there,” says lead singer Nathan Willett.

The band will release trailers, from the making of their record, each week leading up to April 2nd. Trailers 1 and 2 are available now on their website. They truly encapsulate the energy that Cold War Kids bring to their live performances and it are those performances which remain the heart of the band.

Current confirmed tour dates are listed below:

  • February 15           Pappy & Harriet’s Palace – Pioneertown, CA
  • February 16           SLO Brewing Company  – San Luis Obispo, CA
  • February 21           The Observatory  – Santa Ana, CA
  • February 22           Cellar Door  – Visalia, CA
  • February 23           SOHO Music Club  – Santa Barbara, CA
  • March 8                 The Crescent Ballroom – Phoenix, AZ
  • March 9                 Tricky Falls  – El Paso, TX
  • March 11               Fitzgerald’s – Houston, TX
  • March 13               Clive Bar  – Austin, TX
  • April 3                    Gothic Theatre  – Englewood, CO
  • April 4                    Slowdown – Omaha, NB
  • April 5                    First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN
  • April 6                    Metro – Chicago, IL
  • April 9                    Newport Music Hall – Columbus, OH
  • April 10                  Paradise Rock Club – Boston, MA
  • April 11                  9:30 Club – Washington, DC
  • April 12                  Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA
  • April 13                  Webster Hall – New York, NY
  • April 15                  Cat’s Cradle – Carrboro, NC
  • April 16                  Cannery Ballroom – Nashville, TN
  • April 17                  The Masquerade –  Atlanta, GA
  • April 24                  Batacian – Paris, France
  • April 27                  Plaza – Zurich, Switzerland
  • April 29                  Flex – Vienna, Austria
  • April 30                  C-Club – Berlin, Germany
  • May 16                   Neptune Theatre – Seattle, WA
  • May 17                   Vogue Theatre  – Vancouver, BC
  • May 18                   Crystal Ballroom  – Portland, OR
  • May 23                   Regency Ballroom  – San Francisco, CA
  • May 24                   Henry Fonda Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
  • May 25                   Belly Up Tavern – Solana Beach, CA
  • May 1                     Paradiso  – Amsterdam, Holland
  • May 2                     Gebaeude 9 – Cologne, Germany
  • May 6                     Pumphuset – Copenhagen, Germany
  • May 7                     Grunspan  – Hamburg, Germany
  • May 9                     Forum – London, UK
  • May 10                   Ritz  – Manchester, UK

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January 16, 2013 · 3:06 pm

New: Houses Album Preview

It’s a product of quiet bedroom experimentation: subtly crafted for headphones, yet full enough to envelop a room in gorgeous melodies and exuberant sheets of sound– NPR

Recorded over the past year, splitting time between their new home of Los Angeles and Sonic Ranch ( Animal Collective, Beach House, At the Drive In, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s), the bliss-duo Houses are set to release sophomore album A Quiet Darkness on April 16th via Downtown Records.

The narrative of the album tells the story of a husband and wife separated in the midst of a nuclear disaster and their attempt to reunite with one another along the Highway 10 in California before their inevitable deaths, each song taking place in different abandoned houses along the way.  Real life couple Dexter Tortoriello (also of Dawn Golden and the Rosy Cross) and Megan Messina made the trek themselves multiple times, to record sound and video at these abandoned houses that are featured on the album.

The album’s celestial ambiance and wanderlust concepts are conveyed throughout the recording with techniques employed by Dexter Tortoriello’s production and the stark contrast between the minimal electronic pulses, found sounds and meandering and melancholy harmonies.  The ethereal sound on which Houses was built is woven through A Quiet Darkness, the 2013 release shows a deep and pensive side to a band who clearly encompass a darker side of bliss; a bold new bravado that will resonate with anyone who has ever experienced love and loss.  Look for Houses to preview some of A Quiet Darkness at this years SXSW and check out some additional tour dates below.

Stream: Houses – “Beginnings”

HOUSES LIVE DATES:

  • 2/27 The Echo (LA)
  • 3/13 SXSW (AUSTIN)
  • 3/14 SXSW (AUSTIN)
  • 3/15 SXSW (AUSTIN)
  • 3/16 SXSW (AUSTIN)
  • 3/28 Popscene (SF)

 

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December 12, 2012 · 12:04 pm

Newest Love: Caught a Ghost

Caught a Ghost is a new project from LA-based songwriter and producer Jesse Nolan, features a classic Motown and Stax sensibility mixed with modern samples, synths and beats. In its live incarnation, Caught A Ghost features an 8-piece band including a 3-piece horn section and visual projections tailor-made for each song.

Jesse describes the name of his band as referring to the sensation of being filled with the spirit of the past. “It’s an old expression” he says, “musicians used to say you caught a ghost if you gave a good performance. Like you were possessed.” It is this sort reverence for the music of bygone eras combined with his musical dexterity that makes Caught A Ghost so intriguing.

On and off the stage, Caught A Ghost is quickly gaining new fans. “Connected” recently premiered on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and My Old Kentucky Blog. “Time Go” was featured on the NBC show SUITS and by Paste Magazine. And “Hold Out” was praised by Rolling Stone and it’s music video by NYLON.

Nightworks, the debut EP from Caught A Ghost, will be released via +1 Records on February 12th, 2013.

Listen: Caught a Ghost – “Time Go”

Listen: Caught a Ghost – “Connected”

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November 30, 2012 · 11:15 am

Video: Tegan and Sara – “Closer”

“Closer,” off of their upcoming seventh studio album, Heartthrob (out January 29th on WBR), initially premiered on RollingStone.com and proved to be internet gold, peaking at #1 on Hype Machine’s “Most Popular” chart that same week. Tegan and Sara also recently released the cover art and track listing for Heartthrob.

teganandsara

Official Heartthrob Tracklisting:

1. Closer

2. Goodbye, Goodbye

3. I Was a Fool

4. I’m Not Your Hero

5. Drove Me Wild

6. How Come You Don’t Want Me

7. I Couldn’t Be Your Friend

8. Love They Say

9. Now I’m All Messed Up

10. Shock To Your System

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November 16, 2012 · 12:23 pm

NEW! The Dandy Warhols – “Autumn Carnival”

The Dandy Warhols have released their latest single, “The Autumn Carnival,” and I think it’s pretty great. The video was directed by Thomas Rhazi and produced by Wanda, shot in Blackpool, England, and stars young Owen Salthouse as “The Boy.”

“The Autumn Carnival” is taken from their latest album, This Machine, and was written by Courtney Taylor-Taylor with David J from Bauhaus/Love & Rockets. Says Court: “The song came from David J and I discussing Something Wicked This Way Comes. The theme here is how, as we age, our view of youth and our feelings regarding what it means become paper thin and almost totally unrealistic.”

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November 7, 2012 · 3:25 pm

New: Fake Blood – Cells

Click image to go stream the new album now!

In true maverick style, UK’s Theo Keating, has forged his own path as Fake Blood – a hard-hitting, multi genre artist with a cult following like no other. Today, he announces his eagerly anticipated new album Cells, which will be released November 13th via [PIAS] America. In conjunction with this announcement, Keating is streaming the full album on his website.

Cells is an 11-track distillation of Keating’s surreal vision, an electronic masterpiece skewered by his love of the macabre, the uncanny and the sinister. He has trapped his signature breed of savage, Godzilla-strength basslines and laser-blazing four-to-the-floor inside his very own suspense thriller. On “London,” his jacking rhythm is haunted by taught strings and menacing analogue synthesizers, while “End of Days” is an apocalyptic and cinematic techno opus in which time is running out for whomever is trapped inside the rhythm.

“The album definitely has left-of-center moments because I wanted to show some other facets to what I do and enjoy making,” he says. “Not every track on Cells is overtly made for the dance floor. Some of the sounds will definitely be a bit unorthodox, but, then again, the way I make music is strange to most people: it’s a little bit ‘wrong’ because I never learnt the ‘right’ way to produce.” It’s not all weird-and-wonkiness, though: Cells has its uplifting moments too, especially on All in the Blink, a twist on the humble funkified electro-disco nugget featuring Keating’s fellow Black Ghost, Simon Lord, on vocals.

Since he released his crushingly infectious single “Mars” in 2008, Keating has released another chart-nudging single, “I Think I Like It” remixed by everyone from Hot Chip and Gossip to Calvin Harris and Sway. Perhaps what makes Keating an even more captivating producer, though, is that he has cracked the key to what musicians crave most of all: longevity. “You just need a hunger for new music, a curiosity that needs constant feeding and, crucially, be open to change,” he muses. “The enemy is nostalgia. If you can always find stuff that excites or interests you, and let that inspire you to try new ideas, then you can enjoy yourself. That, really, is at the heart of it all.”

 

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November 6, 2012 · 10:56 am

BRAND NEW: Foals – “Inhaler”

I am super excited to share this brand new track and video with you. It’s a new Foals song called “Inhaler” and the band will be releasing their third album Holy Fire on February 12, 2013.

Produced by Flood & Moulder (PJ Harvey, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins) at Assault & Battery studios in London, Holy Fire is the Oxford five-piece’s most direct and fully-realized album yet. Of the electric “Inhaler,” front man Yannis Philippakis says “It’s heavy, that song; it was liberating,” adding that it is the sound of the band shedding their inhibitions.

Foals released their debut album Antidotes in 2008, followed by 2010’s breakthrough Total Life Forever.  Both are certified gold. Total Life Forever was nominated for the 2010 Mercury Prize, an Ivor Novello award for Best Song and they received five nods at the 2011 NME awards, winning Best Single for “Spanish Sahara.” TLF was also voted The Fly magazine’s album of the year in 2010.

The band will hit the road on a small club tour in the UK next month, look for them stateside in the spring. For more info visit http://www.foals.co.uk/ or https://www.facebook.com/Foalsforever

 

 

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November 1, 2012 · 3:28 pm

Blondfire to Debut Full Length Early 2013

Los Angeles-based duo BLONDFIRE is releasing their digital EP Where The Kids Are on November 6, 2012. Brazilian-American siblings Bruce and Erica Driscoll have been writing, producing, playing and performing together since they were kids, creating bouncy electro-pop-n-roll that combines worldly sophistication with American accessibility. Where The Kids Are features four songs off the band’s upcoming Warner Bros Records full-length debut Young Heart, due out early 2013. The title track is currently climbing the charts at Alternative Radio.

Fronted by Erica’s soft, breathy vocals and rounded out by a catchy, danceable beat, Blondfire’s songs have received airplay on Sirius Alt-Nation, KCRW, KCSN, WROX (Norfolk), KNDD (Seattle) as well as KROQ and 98.7’s “Locals Only” shows. Rolling Stone called them “dreamy, propulsive electro-pop” and Time Out New York praised their “supremely catchy, bewitching dream-pop.” Recent performances at CMJ and KCRW’s It’s a School Night have drawn crowds; look for them in your town soon.

Where The Kids Are Tracklisting:

  1. Where The Kids Are
  2. Hide & Seek
  3. Waves
  4. Walking with Giants

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September 20, 2012 · 2:59 pm

Strange Talk – “Cast Away”

Melbourne’s four-piece Strange Talk return to the fray with a new single, “Cast Away”, the first offering from their debut album due out in early 2013.

A laid-back cavalcade of synth washes, toms, layered vocals and organic instrumentation, “Cast Away” perfectly showcases Strange Talk’s ambitions to bring together futuristic soundscapes with hook-laden direct songs.

Key songwriters and producers, Steve Docker and Gerard Sidhu’s influences (the pomp and clout of Queen, the dream haze of M83) are as diverse as their backgrounds (Steve a classical violinist, Gerard a club DJ).

Strange Talk have already commanded airwaves and online with their previous singles “Climbing Walls”, “Eskimo Boy” and “Sexual Lifestyle”. They’ve followed this up with key performances at the likes of Falls Festival, Parklife and supports slots for the likes of Kele, Marina & The Diamonds, Foster The People, The Rapture, and Art Vs. Science.

STRANGE TALK USA DATES:
THU 10/11 – SAN FRANCISCO @ RICKSHAW STOP w/ Violens (tix Rickshaw Stop)
FRI 10/12 – LOS ANGELES @ ECHO w/ wildcat! wildcat! (tix Echo)
WED 10/17 – NEW YORK @ Mercury Lounge (CMJ) (tix Mercury Lounge)
THU 10/18 NEW YORK @ TBD (CMJ)
FRI 10/19 – NEW YORK @ Terminal 5 w/ The Presets (CMJ) (tix Terminal 5)
SAT 10/20 NEW YORK @ TBD (CMJ)

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August 21, 2012 · 2:17 pm

Highly Anticipated: Paul Banks (+ free download!)

On October 23, Matador will release the 2nd solo album from Interpol vocalist/guitarist Paul Banks. With Banks, Paul ditches the Julian Plenti alter-ego, and the resulting 10-song album is a tour-de- force of exhilarating minor-key intensity.

Banks was recorded in New York and Connecticut with producer Peter Katis (Interpol, The National, Shearwater, Jónsi…). The album is personal and epic, catchy and serpentine – much like your favorite Interpol albums – with Paul’s wry humor, bare emotion, and varied influences all in full effect.

Listen/Download: Paul Banks – “The Base”

Track listing :

  1. The Base
  2. Over My Shoulder
  3. Arise, Awake
  4. Young Again
  5. Lisbon
  6. I’ll Sue You
  7. Paid For That
  8. Another Chance
  9. No Mistakes
  10. Summertime Is Coming

Preorder ‘Banks’ on LP or CD from The Matador Store

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