This Sunday, Tunng’s “Hustle (Bloc Party Remix)” will be airing on HBO’s “How To Make It In America,” just days before their album …And Then We Saw Land will be released in the U.S. on Thrill Jockey Records!

“How To Make It In America” is HBO’s latest comedy series from the producers of “Entourage” and follows two friends as they try to succeed in New York City’s fashion scene.  HBO’s newest hip show has already featured songs by cool acts: Pheonix, Broken Bells, Shout Out Louds, Hot Chip, Pete Yorn, Jeremih, Talib Kweli, A Tribe Called Quest, Cam’Ron, Cobra Starship, and Hercules & Love Affair.

The episode on April 4^th “Never Say Die” will feature Tunng’s “Hustle (Block Party Remix)” which premiered on Stereogum and was featured on RCRD LBL as the MP3 of the Day.

And don’t forget, the new album – …And Then We Saw Land –is out April 6^th in the US on Thrill Jockey Records!   The band will be touring the UK and Europe this month with a US tour coming later this year.

Michigan’s Small Brown Bike have released the details for Composite Vol. 2, the second installment in their 7” series of new material for No Idea Records.   Scheduled for release on March 9^th, Composite Vol. 2 will feature two new songs tracked this past January in the band’s home recording studio and mixed/mastered by Dave Feeny at Tempermill.   The 7” will be limited to 1,100 physical copies, which will include a digital download. Side A will host “Some Optimistic,” with the flip side being home for “Never Walk This Alone.”   The band commented that the two new songs “feel a little slower and colder than Composite Vol. 1’s material. That’s what a winter in Michigan will do to a band.”   SBB recently released Composite Vol. 1, a  7” on No Idea Records.

The 7” featured two new songs recorded in 2009; “When We Run” and  “Hourglass.” The 7” was limited to 1,100 copies. No Idea has 30 left for sale on their mail-order website. The band has about 50 copies they will be selling at their upcoming shows in March.  Once they’re gone, you’ll still be able to purchase the songs via iTUNES. You can currently stream Composite Vol. 1 here.

The band will be playing shows in Gainesville and Orlando while in Florida performing at the second annual Harvest of Hope Fest (HOH FEST) March 12^th-14^th in St. Augustine, FL.  In May, the band will set out for a string of shows in the Northeast, which they haven’t visited since 2003. All dates and support acts are listed below. Note: the only all ages shows are Harvest of Hope Fest and Philadelphia, PA.

3/10 – Orlando, FL @ the Social w/ O Pioneers and Young Brother
Tickets: http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/4629
3/11 – Gainesville, FL @ Common Grounds w/ O Pioneers, Cheap Girls, The Measure (sa), and Grabass Charlestons.
Tickets:http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=1139905
3/12-14 – St. Augustine, FL @ Harvest of Hope Fest 2010 w/ 150 other bands.
Tickets: http://www.harvestofhopefest.com/
5/13 – Allston, MA @ Great Scott w/ Bridge & Tunnel. Your Skull My Closet, and Wallcreeper.
Tickets: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=1136815
5/14 – New York, NY @ Cake Shop w/ Bridge & Tunnel, Your Skull My Closet Tickets: https://tix.artistarena.com/1000knives/
5/15 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Barbary w/ Bridge & Tunnel, Your Skull My Closet, and Des Ark.
Tickets: http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/4473
5/16 – Washington, DC @ DC9 w/ Bridge & Tunnel, Your Skull My Closet. Tickets: http://www.ticketalternative.com/Events/10340.aspx

Medical examiners have released autopsy results in the death of Memphis, TN’s Jay Reatard. Shelby County Medical Examiner Dr. Karen E. Chancellor has cited cocaine toxicity as the cause of death, with alcohol as a contributing factor. Reatard, who’s real name was Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., was found dead in bed at his home on January 13th. He was 29.

Over the years, Reatard released material through Goner, In The Red Records and multiple other labels. His final album, 2009′s Watch Me Fall, was released by Matador Records.

The Album Leaf’s new record, “A Chorus of Storytellers” is out today, 2/2/2010! For your listening pleasure, our good friends at Spinner.com will be streaming the entire record for the next week on their site. You can jam out to it here.

In the meantime the band is heading out on a quick West Coast jaunt (dates listed below). So for those of you who are based on the west side, let me know if you would like to check out a show and I will try my best to hook you up with a spot on the Guest List.

Click here for all things Album Leaf (photos, bios, mp3s…).

The Album Leaf on the road:

Feb 03 Harlow’s, Sacramento, CA
Feb 05 Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
Feb 06 Neumos, Seattle, WA
Feb 08 Nightlight Lounge, Bellingham, WA
Feb 09 Wow Hall, Eugene, OR
Feb 11 Crepe Place, Santa Cruz, CA
Feb 12 Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
Feb 13 El Rey Theater (LA), Los Angeles, CA

Here are some nice things that people have been saying about the new record:

“If this new song [‘Falling From the Sun’] is any indication, Chorus is an ideal soundtrack for the frosty month, radiating the melodic, metallic melancholy of Her Space Holiday and Band Of Horses.” – Magnet

“As a fifth album, A Chorus of Storytellers is exactly where The Album Leaf should be – familiar, yet fresh.  From strings to piano, synthesizer to straight vocals, LaValle put forth his best effort yet matching both the organic fairytale quality of In A Safe Place and internal complexity of Into the Blue Again.  Without the presence of too much vocals, you just get to listen to the music, which is what ambient music should be about.” – Pop Wreckoning

“A Chorus of Storytellers is the perfect showcase for LaValle’s skill as a recording artist.  The album’s 11 tracks are crisp, clean, flowing and beautifully complex.” – Altsounds.com

‘“Falling From the Sun”…is a coherent and deftly mixed beauty, with chills-inducing harmonies.” – Knox Road

So these way more in-the-know non-music sites sound like they are pretty into Terror Pigeon. We suggest you check them out live because the best bands are not studio bands but can rock the stage.

NY Times:
“It used to be that Moby was the artist people thought of when the words innovative and hip were applied to a musician who had sprung from the corridors of SUNY Purchase. But Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt! — a revolving band of musical party-throwers signed to David Byrne’s Luaka Bop record label — are racking up a string of much-hyped shows around Manhattan and Brooklyn.”

New York Mag:
“It’s nearly impossible to stand on the sidelines of a Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt! Show. Well it’s possible, but you’d be missing the very reason people come: to be part of the sweaty disco pileup.”

Georgia’s Southern pop darlings Ninja Gun are gearing up to hit on the road again. This time, they’ll be heading out to support their critically acclaimed album Restless Rubes alongside Against Me! and label mate, Tim Barry. After that, the band will head across the Atlantic on their first European tour. Read below for a list of all confirmed tour dates.   Restless Rubes was released via Suburban Home Records in July of 2008. Since then, the band has also released a split 7” with Whiskey & Co. for Vinyl Collective’s Under the Influence series and a split 7” with Fake Problems on Sabot Records.   If you somehow missed all the hype, you can still stream Ninja Gun’s classic album Restless Rubes over at the band’s Punknews.org profile

Here’s what the press has said about Restless Rubes…

“Unapologetically classic power-pop…  a loving re-imagination of some of the finest rock radio of the 70’s and 80’s [...] 4 out of 5 stars.” – Alternative Press “Fantastic, warm, rural rock.”- Wonka Vision “Beautifully executed, roots-based rock with hooks that would make Brian Wilson jealous.” – AMP Magazine “In both practice and execution Ninja Gun have created the closest thing to a perfect record I’ve heard this year […] 4.5 out of 5 stars.”- Punknews.org “A burst of pure, joyful power-pop.”- Popmatters.com “One of the best underground CDs I have heard all year.” – Blogcritics.com / Brokenheadphones.com “The best album this year you haven’t heard of, and – believe me – Ninja Gun has a potential to become huge.” – Backpackrock.net NINJA GUN TOUR DATES with Against Me! and Tim Barry 2/17 – Jacksonville, FL @ Freebird Live 2/18 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room 2/19 – Orlando, FL @ The Social 2/20 – St. Petersburg, FL @ State Theatre 2/21 – Gainesville, FL @ Common Grounds ——————– with Tim Barry 3/2 – Virginia Beach, VA @ The Jewish Mother 3/3 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506 3/4 – Columbia, SC @ New Brooklyn Tavern 3/5 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade 3/6 – New Orleans, LA @ Dragon’s Den 3/7 – Houston, TX @ Walter’s on Washington 3/8 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s 3/9 – Dallas, TX @ The Prophet Bar ——————– EUROPE 3/18 – Mannheim, Germany @ JUZ 3/19 – Freiburg, Germany @ The White Rabbit 3/20 – Basel, Czech Republic @ Sommercasino 3/23 – Dresden, Germany @ AZ Conni 3/24 – Regensburg, Germany @ Danz 3/26 – Berlin, Germany @ Schokoladen 3/27 – Bremen, Germany @ Tower 3/28 – Nijmegen, Netherlands @ Onderbroek 3/29 – London, UK @ Underworld 4/1 – Peterborough, UK @ Club Revolution 4/2 – Grimsby, UK @ The Matrix 4/4 – Brighton, UK @ Prince Albert 4/6 – Heemskerk, Netherlands @ Cafe Lokaal 4/7 – Kiel, Germany @ Subrosa (acoustic show!) 4/8 – Hamburg, Germany @ Astra Stube

Crucial Links:

http://www.myspace.com/ninjagun

http://www.punknews.org/bands/ninjagun

http://www.suburbanhomerecords.com

http://www.myspace.com/timbarryrva

http://www.againstme.net/am.php

Bloomington, Indiana’s MURDER BY DEATH will release their fifth full-length studio album, Good Morning, Magpie, on April 6, 2010 on Vagrant Records. The quartet self-produced the album which was recorded at Bloomington-based Farm Fresh Studios and the resulting ten tracks were mixed by Trina Shoemaker.

“Good Morning, Magpie is some of the darkest and brightest material we have ever written,” commented Adam Turla, MBD’s singer, songwriter and guitarist. “While it’s not a concept album, it embodies the struggle between light and dark that has defined our previous work.”

Turla wrote most of the new material during two weeks he spent alone deep in the woods of Appalachia with just “a tent, a fishing pole, a guitar, and a lot of paper.”

Good Morning, Magpie follows 2008′s Red of Tooth and Claw which was universally acclaimed for it’s cinematic storytelling and as Paste Magazine noted of their performance on record – “every one of them a swirling, unapologetic tours-de-force.” Performing Songwriter declared the album “a more personal, impactful and engaging record than the stellar offerings they’ve released thus far… MBD kick up a storm of dirty, killer American rock” and The Tripwire summed it up by saying, “label it whatever you want, isn’t “great” just great?”

A US tour is being planned and dates will be announced in the coming weeks.

Murder By Death is: Adam Turla- vocals, guitars, keys, Sarah Balliet- cello and keys, Matt Armstrong- bass and noises, and Dagan Thogerson- drums and percussion.

Jello Biafra
And The Guantanamo School of Medicine
Announce December 29th Seattle Show at Neumos * Give Away New Album, “The Audacity of Hype,” at Amazon and eMusic!

Download for free @ Amazon.com for one week! * Download for free @ eMusic – Today Only!

Like many Americans, the outspoken punk legend has plenty to be angry about these days and he’s venting those frustrations on his latest album, ‘The Audacity of Hype’ by Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine… As expected from Biafra, the album is full of driving punk with hard-hitting political messages. – Spinner.com

Biafra is a talent/personality that demands center stage and all of your attention. Which, as it turns out, is just fine, because he still has plenty to say. – Consequence of Sound

Though many of Jello Biafra’s “collaborations” (Lard, No WTO Combo, Tumor Circus, & records with Melvins, DOA, Nomeansno, & Mojo Nixon) would have been called solo albums by other artists, this is his first full-time working band since Dead Kennedys, and it shows. Also on board are Ralph Spight (Victims Family, Freak Accident, Hellworms) Jon Weiss (Sharkbait, Horsey), Billy Gould (Faith No More), & Kimo Ball (Freak Accident, Carneyball Johnson, Mol Triffid, Griddle).

In the twenty or so years since his brainchild Dead Kennedys officially disbanded, Jello Biafra has made a career of spoken word gigs interspersed with musical collaborations with some of the most compelling figures in underground music. Recording projects and touring with the likes of Melvins, No Means No, DOA, Mojo Nixon and Lard (with Ministry’s Al Jorgensen) among others have kept his “hardcore as political weapon” message sharp, but the lack of his own band made these collaborations usually short-lived and left Biafra with a ton of songs that had never seen the light of day.

Inspired by The Stooges gig on Iggy Pop’s 60th birthday gig in San Francisco, Biafra laid plans for his own 50th birthday party and finally decided it was time to start a band of his own. After cramming rehearsal for a month the four piece band called themselves Jello Biafra and the Axis Of Merry Evildoers! The band, which featured Jello, Billy Gould, Ralph Spight, & Jon Weiss, took the stage in a sold-out 2-night stand at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. Flush from that exhilarating triumph, the band did 9 months of rehearsal & writing, and added ace guitarist Kimo Ball. This led to the recording of “The Audacity of Hype.”

Now christened Jello Biafra and The Guantanamo School of Medicine, the band’s record was produced by Biafra and engineered by Hip Hop producer and long time Jello co-conspirator Matt Kelley (Hieroglyphics, The Coup, Digital Underground, Victims Family, Tumor Circus) at Prairie Sun Recording in Cotati, CA and San Francisco’s Hyde Street Studios.

The band’s twin guitar attack retains some of the space-punk overtones and spy-music-on-meth chaos of Dead Kennedys while adding a healthy dose of Detroit style proto-punk, flavored with Weiss’ industrial excursions into metal percussion.

Topically, the album explores how our forced Iraqnophobia and Homeland Insecurity continues to feed lawlessness at the top (“The Terror Of Tiny Town”) vs. a runaway police state and class war towards the bottom (“Three Strikes,” “Electronic Plantation” (originally done by the No WTO Combo, Jello’s one-off collaboration with Krist Novelselic (Nirvana) & Kim Thayil (Soundgarden). “Clean As A Thistle” becomes more timely every day as “Family Values” blowhards from Sanford to Berlusconi get caught in sinful trysts, while album closer “I Won’t Give Up” offers an age of Obama anthem on how change comes from agitation from below, not from glamour and sound bites from the top.

Thirty years on, Jello Biafra has made an album that solidifies and expands his uncompromising vision and updates it for the new century, with a powerhouse band that promises to be a terrifying live machine, currently with Ron Nichols (Grinch, Hammers of Misfortune, Fracas) filling the bass position upon Billy Gould’s return to Faith No More.

* All of the art is by Shepard Fairey, with assistance from AT collaborator & graphic artist John Yates. The in-your-face art is a parody of the famous Obama “HOPE” poster by Shepard Fairey himself. Watch a clip of Jello talking about the band’s debut album here, and check out a slew of rough versions of the songs below on the Guantanamo Myspace page!

The Audacity of Hype Tracklist
1. The Terror of Tinytown
2. Clean As A Thistle
3. New Feudalism
4. Panic Land
5. Electronic Plantation
6. Three Strikes
7. Strength Through Shopping
8. Pets Eat Their Master
9. I Won’t Give Up

“Drain the Blood” is the first official single from the Hometowns LP and will be released on 7″ vinyl (w/ download code) and digital formats on Jan. 12. The single includes the newly recorded B-side cover of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”.

The Rural Alberta Advantage was born out of singer / songwriter Nils Edenloff’s exodus from the province that inspired the band’s name and many of the songs from their enthralling debut album, Hometowns. To cope with the homesickness and isolation of his move from Edmonton to Toronto, the shy songwriter penned a series of odes to his former home, celebrating the country’s wild rose, the purple skies and “The Dethbridge in Lethbridge”.

The band just launched a run of Dec. tour dates where they will hit the Midwest and the West Coast, and has added dates in Jan. and Feb. in the Northeast, Midwest and all over Canada.

Video Credits:

Director: Ante Kovac
Production Company: The Field Inc.
Executive Producer: Cherie Sinclair
Producer: Collin Wiancko
In-house Music Video Coordinator: Adam Shanfield
Director of Photography: Michael LeBlanc
Editor: Graham Chisholm @ Relish/567

THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE

12/09 St. Louis, MO Off Broadway +
12/10 Oklahoma City, OK The Conservatory +
12/11 Austin, TX The Parish
12/12 Dallas, TX The Cavern +
12/14 Phoenix, AZ Rhythm Room +
12/15 Los Angeles, CA Bootleg Theater +
12/16 San Francisco, CA Bottom of The Hill +
12/18 Portland, OR Backspace
12/19 Seattle, WA Vera Project
01/06 Philadelphia, PA Kungfu Necktie
01/07 Hoboken, NJ Maxwell’s
01/08 New York, NY Terminal 5 &
01/09 New York, NY Mercury Lounge (two shows, early and late)
01/14 Milwaukee, WI Mad Planet
01/15 Minneapolis, MN The Cedar Cultural Center
01/16 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall
02/09 Winnipeg, MB West End Cultural Center
02/10 Saskatoon, SK Amigo’s
02/12 Calgary, AB Broken City
02/13 Edmonton, AB Pawn Shop
02/15 Vancouver, BC Queen Elizabeth Theatre
02/16 Victoria, BC The Lucky Bar

+ = w/ Shaky Hands
& = w/ Passion Pit

The Rural Alberta Advantage
Hometowns
(Saddle Creek)
Street date: July 07, 2009

1. The Ballad of The RAA
2. Rush Apart
3. The Dethbridge in Lethbridge
4. Don’t Haunt this Place
5. The Deadroads
6. Drain the Blood
7. Luciana
8. Frank, AB
9. The Air
10. Sleep All Day
11. Four Night Rider
12. Edmonton
13. In the Summertime

The Rural Alberta Advantage
Drain The Blood Single
(Saddle Creek)
Street date: Jan. 12, 2010
Formats: 7″ vinyl, digital
Pre-order link here

01 Drain the Blood
02 Eye of the Tiger

THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE LINKS:

MySpace – http://www.myspace.com/theraa

Band Page – http://www.theraa.com/

Saddle Creek: http://saddle-creek.com