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

Tracklisting :

1. Lake of Sin
2. O My Tidy Sum
3. Rabbits
4. Wheels
5. Dead Man’s Curve
6. Corrina
7. Six Legged Man
8. Wild Son
9. When I Go Down On You
10. Nonstoperotik
11.  Cinema Star

www.cookingvinyl.com
www.blackfrancis.net
twitter.com/MrBlackFrancis

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.

A year and a half after releasing the acclaimed Alopecia LP, WHY? returns with their fourth album, Eskimo Snow (released Sept. 22, 2009). The two records are each other’s perfect foil: While last year’s release found Yoni Wolf and the gang delivering a tight set of intricate rhymes, live loops, slurred hooks and acerbic wit, Eskimo Snow offers a sung, sobering take on mortality that unfurls in lush waves of Americana and pop-infused psych-folk. Pre-mixed in Nashville by Lambchop’s Mark Nevers (Silver Jews, Bonnie Prince Billy, Calexico) and worked over by Alopecia engineer Eli Crews, this album is WHY?’s most live-sounding yet – a shadowy and sprawling piece as intimate in subject matter as it is handsome in timbre.

WHY? actually recorded Eskimo Snow at the same time as Alopecia, at Minneapolis’ Third Ear studio, with Fog’s Andrew Broder and Mark Erickson rounding out a live quintet. The vision for two separate albums emerged on a snowed-in night after a hot toddy or two. If Alopecia, however inexplicably, maintains a summery tone, then Eskimo Snow captures the bite and resignation associated with the Midwestern winters that these Cincinnati boys grew up with.

“These Hands” opens the album up rich and with deliberate pacing, Doug matching Yoni word-for-word (you’ll find no vocal overdubs here) and the rhythm section operating under heavy reverb. Vibraphone likewise duets with piano, windy wordless vocals fly around the atmosphere, and wet footsteps soon carry us to “January Twenty Something.” Here, you’re in the room with WHY?, listening to the bass rattle the drums and the drums rattle the vibes. Amid this folksy grandness, the whole crew sings for the chorus, bending their harmony into a gorgeously warped drawl. Next, “Against Me” brings the album’s brightest moment yet: a crescendo of bells that eventually dips into an aural whirlpool while Yoni spins picturesque observations like a countrified Dylan.

Across Eskimo Snow, Yoni weighs his ability to create a legacy against life’s transience. On the luxe, pedal-steel-drenched “Even The Good Wood Gone,” he transposes himself with a mummy in a museum, begging, “No flash photography,” drawing a line from the dubious promise of fame to the brittleness of antiquity. For “Into The Shadows Of My Embrace,” he explores sex and decay while the track vacillates between a live wall-of-sound and spare church organ passages. “One Rose” is gentler, sporting a Western stride and dark piano hits whose echoing blackness mimics Yoni’s wistful poems. Toward the song’s end, the chorus of Alopecia’s “A Sky For Shoeing Horses Under” makes a stormy reprise.

Most impressively, this record presents a band uninhibited, but evermore accomplished at imbuing sound with mood. “On Rose Walk, Insomniac” rolls forth on a tempestuous din, Josiah drumming hard through the chorus, where Yoni’s voice sounds like its running through a Leslie speaker. “Berkeley By Hearseback” comes in so soft, the guitar tones feel like waves of grain next to the splashy cymbals and that Jim James-worthy cowboy croon ricocheting through the background. “This Blackest Purse” weaves a melancholy that shirks dourness for a curious smile. And when the titular song brings the album to a hushed close, Eskimo Snow’s place in the narrative becomes clear. Rather than spit at death or threaten it with suicide, Yoni stops bucking against the inevitable. In the process, the band discovers a rich place that the rest of us can happily live within.

WHY?

05/27 Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret *#
05/28 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom *#
05/30 Eugene, OR WOW Hall *#
06/02 Oakland, CA New Parish of Oakland *#
06/03 Pomona, CA Glass House *#

* = w/ Josiah Wolf
# = w/ The Donkeys

WHY?
Eskimo Snow
(Anticon)
Sept. 22, 2009

1. These Hands
2. January Twenty Something
3. Against Me
4. Even The Good Wood Gone
5. Into The Shadows of My Embrace
6. One Rose
7. On Rose Walk, Insomniac
8. Berkeley By Hearseback
9. This Blackest Purse
10. Eskimo Snow

WHY? LINKS:

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/whyanticon

Press materials: http://www.anticon.com/pr/why.htm

This is an album with weight. It’s wrapped in a gauze of fuzz, but a fuzz that’s neither yesteryear nor painfully now. Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph is neither overly modern nor awkwardly vintage, and it contains a depth and bombast that’s not only absent in Frog Eyes’ previous work, it’s absent from most contemporary music.

Frog Eyes’ Carey Mercer is equally informed by Scott Walker and Roxy Music, Nuggets collections and the Everly Brothers. But in truth, Frog Eyes’ recordings sound like nothing else but Frog Eyes. In the past the band has lived in a no-man’s-land reserved for musical anomalies, making music championed by discerning critics and discerning artists (fans of Mercer’s songwriting have included at one time or another, John Darnielle, Spencer Krug, Dan Bejar, Jonathan Meiburg and Carl Newman, to name a few). With due respect to the above, the scope and vision of Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph is triumphant because it busts so thoroughly out of the ghetto of the clever.

It gets there, in part, because all of the basic tracks, including many of the vocals, were recorded live off the floor, and this approach has captured a rawness, a punk rock spirit too often smother by Pro Tools. Singer/songwriter Mercer’s instantly recognizable howl is ever-present, soaring above the frenetic beats of drummer Melanie Campbell. Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph is in the canon of “two-guitar” records: the majestic shredding between Mercer and Ryan Beattie recalls everything from Neil Young/Danny Whitten’s work on early Young recordings to Tom Verlaine and even, occasionally, Hendrix. The synths weave in and out of this buzzing wall of sound, and new Frog Eyes member Megan Boddy’s sweet backing vocals are a kind of foil for Mercer’s wail. Mercer’s lyrics are a continuing refinement of warnings and prophecies, threats and terrors, and what he calls “contrapuntal sharp blasts of hope.” As Carl Wilson of Pitchfork put it in his [glowing] review of their 2007 album Tears of the Valedictorian, “[Frontman Carey] Mercer stands in the lineage of rock frontman as half-carnival-barker, half-gnostic-preacher that Greil Marcus describes as the ‘crank prophet,’ from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins through Arthur Lee of Love, Captain Beefhart, David Thomas of Pere Ubu, Tom Waits, and the Pixies’ Frank Black.” Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph is Mercer – and Frog Eyes – at their most powerful and self-assured.

We are pleased to share the mammoth opener from Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph. “A Flower in a Glove” encapsulates everything we love about Frog Eyes in just over nine minutes – an epic beginning to a monstrous album.

Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph will be released on April 27th (April 26th in the UK) via Dead Oceans.

Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph Tracklisting:

A Flower in a Glove
The Sensitive Girls
Odetta’s War
Rebel Horns
Lear, in the Park
Styled by Dr. Roberts
Lear in Love
Violent Psalms
Paul’s Tomb

Pierced Arrows, the Portland-based trio comprised of legendary members Fred and Toody Cole of the seminal punk band Dead Moon and drummer Kelly Halliburton are releasing their sophomore album Descending Shadows today on VICE Records.

To kick off the release, VICE Records is hosting an exclusive stream of the full album today. Along with this news, longtime fan and supporter Eddie Vedder provided a personal note, exclusively at Spinner.com, touching on the Cole’s major influence and honest impressions they’ve made on rock and roll throughout a career spanning multiple decades.

Listen to the full album stream of Descending Shadows at VICERecords.com:
http://www.viceland.com/vicerecords/descendingshadows.php

Purchase Pierced Arrows’ Descending Shadows here:

iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/descending-shadows/id347522487

Vice Records:
http://www.viceland.com/vicerecords/store_descendingshadows.php

For more info:
http://www.piercedarrows.com
http://www.myspace.com/piercedarrowspdx
http://www.vicerecords.com

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

Imelda May is set to release her luscious new album  “Love Tatoo” and it’s 12 Tracks of sweet delight  on Verve Forecast  Feb 1, 2010. That pretty much means it’s already out, but I thought it might be interesting to read if I posted like it wasn’t out yet.

Here are some dates you can get your live kicks fixed:

Tour dates:

03/04             Town Hall-New York, New York
03/05             Keswick Theatre-Philadelphia, PA
03/06             House Of Blues-Boston, MA
03/07             9:30 Club-Washington, DC
03/09             Massey Hall-Toronto, ON
03/12             Cobb Energy PAC-Atlanta, GA
03/13             Polk Th eater @ TPAC-Nashville, TN
03/14             Roberts Orpheum Theater-St. Louis, MO
03/16             Park West-Chicago, IL
03/20             Commodore Ballroom-Vancouver, BC
03/21             The Moore Theatre-Seattle, WA
03/22             Crystal Ballroom-Portland, OR
03/23             Fillmore-San Francisco, CA
03/25             Avalon-Los Angeles, CA

Sherwood, purveyors of feel good California rock, will be hitting the road launching a U.S. headlining tour in support of its most recent effort QU. The tour kicks off February 17 in Los Angeles at the famed Roxy Theater.

A Beach Boys-inspired power pop band hailing from San Luis Obispo, California, Sherwood came together in 2002 while the band members were still students at the local university. Now signed to Myspace Records, they’ve released their debut Summer EP followed by two full length releases (Sing, But Keep Going in 2005 and 2007’s A Different Light). Read the full story

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

After 20 years of turning out music with punk outfit No Use For A Name, Tony Sly is set to release his first solo full length. It is titled 12 Song Program and is due out February 16th. Folks can expect guest appearances from Karina Denike of Dance Hall Crashers, Darius from Swingin’ Utters and Joey Cape of Bad Astronaut/Lagwagon fame. Additionally, Tony Sly has announced tour plans for 2010 which include a west coast run with Chris Shiflett from the Foo Fighters and a European tour with Joey Cape. Read the full story

Tour Dates:
09-March – Seattle, WA – Chop Suey

King Khan might rightfully be accused of attempting to earn the title of hardest working performer in show business. Following a year that saw the release of three albums and several tours of the US, Europe, and beyond with multiple musical outlets, Khan is bringing the celebrated psychedelic soul big band explosion King Khan and The Shrines back to North America. The three week run of dates, which starts in Atlanta and culminates at Coachella on April 18th,, marks their first jaunt in the States since last year’s tour in support of the domestic release of the band’s classic What Is?! album on Vice Records.

Those who have seen the band know what to expect- and are most likely planning to attend. To the uninitiated: a sweat soaked stage being rocked into a psychedelic oblivion as a sonic pastiche of horns, drums, bass, guitar, and organ weave a gritty soul canvas for Khan to splatter with his infectious persona. Other acts at Coachella be cautioned: the rock messiah will be performing in your midst and he intends to take no prisoners.

Tour dates:
Sat 3/27                                    The Earl                                                Atlanta GA
Mon 3/29                                    Cats Cradle                                     Carrboro, NC
Tue  3/30                                    Orange Peel                                     Asheville, NC
Wed 3/31                                    JJ’s Bohemia                                      Chattanooga, TN
Thu 4/1                                    Exit/In                                                 Nashville, TN
Fri 4/2                                     Hi-Tone Cafe                                       Memphis TN
Sat 4/3                                    Bottletree                                       Birmingham AL
Mon 4/5                                    Emos                                                   Austin, TX
Tue 4/6                                    Sons of Hermann                           Dallas, TX
Thu 4/8                                    Bluebird Theater                         Denver, CO
Fri 4/9                                    Urban Lounge                           Salt Lake City, UT
Sat 4/10                                     Neurolux                                        Boise ID
Sun 4/11                                    Wonder Ballroom                          Portland, OR
Mon 4/12                                    Venue                                                   Vancouver, BC
Tue 4/13                                    Neumos                                                Seattle, WA
Thu 4/15                                    Bimbos 365 Club                         San Francisco, CA
Sun 4/18                                    Coachella                                                Indio, CA

http://www.myspace.com/kingkhantheshrines
http://www.vicerecords.com