LA’s White Arrows have announced a slew of new tour dates, including a North American tour with Beat Connection that will take up most of June and July.  Tickets for almost every show on this tour go on sale this Saturday, April 7. Before the June / July tour the band has a couple of West Coast dates with Givers later this month and a European tour in May with White Denim. They have new EP called Fireworks of the Sea that comes out tomorrow. You can listen to our interview with them last fall here.

Update: The band also has another new album coming out June 19th, called Dry Land Is Not A Myth. It will be their first full length. You can see the album cover art here, and the track listings are listed below. Check out this new song “Roll Forever”, the first single.

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On July 24^th, Columbia Records will release Gossamer, the highly anticipated follow-up to Passion Pit’s critically acclaimed 2009 debut album Manners.  The album will be comprised of 12 new tracks that showcase Michael Angelakos’ ever-expanding lyrical talents and bring to life his trademark irresistible beats.  “On Gossamer there is more of a dichotomy between the lyrics and the music. You hear my lyrics more precisely which is something I was ready for. The lyrics on this album have a lot to say about what the last two years of my life have been troubled with,” explains Angelakos.  Gossamer was made throughout 2011 in Los Angeles and New York City, and again finds Angelakos working with Manners producer Chris Zane.

Acclaimed for their unabashedly danceable live performances, Passion Pit is Read more

Bonnaroo and YouTube are excited to announce Bonnaroo365, (youtube.com/bonnaroo 365).  Set to launch on May 7, 2012, Bonnaroo 365 will take the approach of the festival that Rolling Stone named as “one of the 50 moments that changed the history of rock and roll” and evolve it from an annual terrestrial event into a digital entertainment destination. Themed around the pursuit of “Good Stuff,” the literal meaning of Bonnaroo, the channel will feature talent-driven episodic originals, daily comedy and music programming as well as an archive of legendary festival performances.  All of it curated and produced by the Bonnaroo producers.

“Bonnaroo has always been about much more than four days on the farm in Manchester, TN,” said festival co-founder Jonathan Mayers.  ”Our fans are virtually together all year long. We not only want to give our core community a great entertainment destination, but we want to reach the audience out there that thinks like us, but perhaps can’t always make the trip each June.” 

Like the festival itself, besides music, a large part Read more

Image credit: Rolling Stone

This week will go down in history without doubt. Today the President of the United States set precedent by expressing his view endorsing same sex marriage.  Then it was announced that Against Me! lead singer and frontman Tom Gabel is going to become a woman. According to Rolling Stone, who broke the story initially, the Against Me! vocalist will soon start taking hormones and undergoing electrolysis treatments, and he plans to eventually take the name Laura Jane Grace.  He plans on  remaining married to his wife Heather. “For me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she would accept the news,” Gabel says in the interview. “But she’s been super-amazing and understanding.”  He has dealt privately with gender dysphoria for years, per the article.

You can read music recommendations from Against Me! here, and also watch our interview with Andrew Seward, bass player, from last year here.

Review by special guest correspondent Nathan Atnikov

 Photo Credit: Joey Senft

From sea shanties to pop songs, from blues rock to straight up guitar wanking—Joel Plaskett really can do it all. His albums have run the gamut and his live show does the same with ease. In Calgary’s Mac Hall, he even threw in a lip sync version of his own ‘Fashionable People’, albeit the version he did for the CBC children’s show Mamma Yamma. It was a particularly special show for Plaskett, who celebrated his 37th birthday with the Calgary faithful, all of whom disregarded the nearby Coldplay show for their chance to spend an evening with the birthday boy.

Photo Credit: http://acidica.blogspot.com/

Plaskett played a well-rounded show, with tunes from most of his albums sprinkled throughout the evening, including fan favourites ‘Love This Town’, ‘Through and Through and Through’ and ‘Come On, Teacher’. Surprisingly, though, the show’s best moments all came from his new album Scrappy Happiness. ‘You’re Mine’, ‘Lightning Bolt’ and especially ‘North Star’ proved not only what a great rock guitarist Plaskett is, but how powerful his three-piece Emergency band can be. Add to that dancing monkeys, a birthday cake, and Plaskett repeatedly referring to his band as the “Joel Plastic Energy Band”, and the night couldn’t have gone much better. As fans streamed out of the venue, nobody was wondering how the Coldplay show was.

The energetic and dynamic instrumental trio Battles are back, not that they really went anywhere. They had a new remix album Dross Glop released in April. They are hitting the road again in North America soon. You can listen to our interview with guitarist/keyboardist Ian Williams from last fall here.

Battles 2012 Summer Tour Dates

6/2 – Chicago, IL @ The Bottom Lounge
6/3 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
6/4 – Millvale, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
6/5 – Columbus, OH @ Outland Live
6/6 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts
6/7 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall
6/9 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo
6/10 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
6/11 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
6/12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
6/23 – Denver, CO @ Westword Music Showcase

PusherJones is the musical and visual brainchild of Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner and The Simpsons Creative Director Dave Warren, combining music with an animated adventure about an imaginary rock band from Hollywood. The four animated members are: DB (vocals), Jesse (guitar), Dominic (bass) and Boner (drums).

Backed by real life musicians from Velvet Revolver, Queens of the Stone Age and Weezer. The line up features Franky Perez (vocals), Dave Kushner (lead guitar), Dave Warren (rhythm guitar), Scott Shriner (bass) and Joey Castillo (drums).

According to Rolling Stone,  Read more

The 9th annual Rock The Bells hip-hop fest has released its 2012 lineup announcement. Originally beginning in 2004 in San Bernardino, this year it will consist of two-day events at NOS Events Center in San Bernardino, California (8/18-8/19), Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California (8/25-8/26) and PNC Bank Arts Center in Homdel, New Jersey (9/1-9/2). Scheduled to appear are:

Kid Cudi
Wiz Khalifa
Mac Miller
Missy Elliott and Timbaland
Method Man and Redman
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Yelawolf
Lupe Fiasco
Kendrick Lamar
Atmosphere
ASAP Rocky
Dipset
Ice Cube
Slick Rick
Dom Kennedy
Naughty By Nature
Big Daddy Kane
Immortal Technique
2 Chainz
Murs
Schoolboy Q
Prodigy

If you’re in the Los Angeles area this Memorial Weekend and need something to do, check out UCLA’s 26th annual two-day Jazz Reggae Festival, being held on its campus in Westwood on the Intramural Field!

Day One:

Sunday, May 27th will feature Late Night with Jimmy Fallon house band and underground hip-hop legends, The Roots. Along with Suicidal Tendencies bassist and electro-jazz artist, Thundercat, blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr., newcomer India Carney, Belgian soul and reggae singer Selah Sue, Booker T. Jones, the famous frontman for Booker T and the McG’s and jazz fusion duo, Sonnymoon.

Day Two:

Monday, May 28th will feature “Mr. Lover Lover” Shaggy, R&B singer Tarrus Riley, reggae artists Don Carlos and Collie Buddz, soca artists Alison Hinds and Kes the Band and pop up and coming artist, Cris Cab. The festival will begin at 11 a.m. and run until around 7 p.m. each day. Each day’s lineup looks action-packed and should be dope!

Click on the link to get your single-day or 2-day passes and more festival info:

Anywhere began as a LA/SF collaborative project started by musicians Christian Eric Beaulieu and Cedric Bixler Zavala. Fresh off years of writing and touring as co-founder of Bay Area acid punk extremists Triclops!, Christian decided to immerse himself in the resonant universe of acoustic guitar and began performing solo under the moniker Liquid Indian. In early 2010 while in Los Angeles to perform at an art opening of mutual friend artist Sonny Kay, he befriended Cedric (singer of The Mars Volta) who was a DJ for the event. The two exchanged numbers and planned to record something acoustic rooted in the open tuning, eastern raga style Christian was delving into. Months later the pair met in Los Angeles, enlisted the mobile engineering talent of Toshi Kasai (Big Business) and tracked the new material in 2 days at The Melvins practice space in downtown Los Angeles. During that same visit Christian played live on “The Watt from Pedro Show” as the musical guest of Mike Watt (of The Stooges, fIREHOSE, Minutemen).

After the show before leaving San Pedro, Christian realized Read more

The time has arrived for the official announcement. This year’s lineup, taking place October 12th-14th includes:

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Black Keys

Jack White

Florence and the Machine

Avett Brothers

Weezer

Bassnectar

Iggy & the Stooges

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A veteran of New York’s anti-folk scene, songwriter Regina Spektor makes quirky, highly eclectic, but always personal music. Born and raised in Moscow until age nine, Spektor listened to her father’s bootleg tapes of Western pop and rock as a young child and also learned to play piano. She and her family moved from Russia to the Bronx, where she was immersed in American culture (at the time, hers was the first Russian family in the borough in 20 years). Eventually, Spektor and her family became part of a community that balanced her Russian Jewish roots with her new home’s culture. Meanwhile, she continued to practice piano anywhere she could, including at her synagogue, until her family got a piano of its own.

Tours with the Strokes, Kings of Leon, Mates of State, and the Moldy Peaches’ Kimya Dawson further raised Spektor’s profile. She also toured the U.K., where the success of “Us” as a European single led to the release of the CD/DVD retrospective Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers and Other Short Stories early in 2006. That summer, Begin to Hope, her first album of original material for Sire, arrived. Begin to Hope enjoyed popularity on both sides of the Atlantic and went gold in America, where it also cracked the Top 20.  Spektor’s first-ever live release, Live in London, was recorded and filmed at London’s legendary Hammersmith Apollo, and released in 2010. In summer 2011, Spektor reunited with Elizondo in Los Angeles to begin recording her next album, What We Saw from the Cheap Seats. The dark, driving single “All the Rowboats” arrived in February, and the new album itself will be released next week.

But thanks to NPR, you don’t have to wait that long to listen to it. Bit torrents in general have been struggling recently, so you can listen to the entire record now before it’s released for free by streaming it here.

And check out this new video:

This time last year, Austin City Limits released their lineup for the 2011 festival. And even though it hasn’t been officially announced yet, a few leaks are starting to emerge. Tickets go on sale this week, so we are expecting the official lineup to be released tonight or tomorrow (Tuesday the 22nd).  The fest had a promotion going this weekend, and like last year anyone in Austin could buy ACL lottery tickets, and scratch them off to reveal some of the artists who will be appearing. Since this has been going on over the weekend, you can bet that some of that information is already making its way online.

My first personal prediction is M83. They are scheduled to be in Dallas Thursday October 11th, and ACL kicks off on October 12th this year.  Now about those artists revealed by the scratch off tickets: Delta Spirit, Childish Gambino, Quiet Company, Steve Earle, Punch Brothers, LP, and…The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Most of these can be confirmed by other websites, while the Childish Gambino and Red Hot Chili Peppers is being reported by the great Brooklyn Vegan, where this pic is from. Hopefully more details to come soon this week.

Photo Credit: Brooklyn Vegan

Update: Consequence of Sound is now reporting that the Chilli Peppers rumor was fake. They have also added the following artists to the expected lineup: (Photo Credit Below: Consequence Of Sound)

Bon Iver

Alabama Shakes

Kimbra

Black Lips

Jack White

Black Keys

Andrew Bird

A-Trak

Bombay Bicycle Club

Zola Jesus

Gary Cark Jr.

Two Door Cinema Club

COS is also claiming the following artists may appear:

M83

Florence+The Machine

The Weeknd

Gotye

Umphrey’s McGee

Vacationer

We should know officially by this time tomorrow.

Update: See the official line up announcement here.

Back in the day, when this place was crawling with forums and chats about random acts of music, we used to poll ourselves to see which release by an artist not only set them atop of the industry but stapled them in as musical gods.

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Review, Photos, & Video by Mark Ambrose

My evening started right after I left my day job. A quick motorcycle ride to downtown Dallas, to meet up with Kill Devil Hill during the venue’s sound check for an in-person interview.  Being my first interview, I was a little nervous but mostly excited; I felt it went pretty well.  If you haven’t already done so, check it out by visiting the link at the end of this review; the audio file is at the bottom of the interview page.  After interviewing Vinnie, Rex, Mark, & Dewey on the tour bus, I made my way outside to find a line of quite a few fans already waiting to get into the club or grab a few autographs from the bands; it was hard to tell since the venue still had 1 hour to go before opening the doors.  Let me also go on record and say that this was only one of two times I had ever been on a tour bus full of musicians (this one actually with them present); it was kind of surreal at first, but I was able to keep my professional composure.

I arrived Read more

It’s already been nearly a year since the young white female emcee Kreayshawn busted onto the indie music scene. The Northern California rapper seemed to explode onto the interwebz overnight, with her viral music video “Gucci Gucci”. It’s been awhile since she has been in the news, word is she has been hard at work behind the scenes on getting her new album ready. Somethin’ Bout Kreay, via Columbia Records, is due out August 14th.  The first single ”Breakfast (Syrup),” featuring 2 Chainz, leaked online, and the music video, directed by Baby Krea herself, is due out tomorrow, according to hip-hop site Rap-Up. It will be available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon on Tuesday, you can download the mp3 for free now below. They are also claiming the new upcoming album will feature guest spots from Kid Cudi, V-Nasty, and Diplo among others. You can also watch an exclusive live video of her performing it for the first time at Club Rome in Fresno on Mardi Gras.

Fuse caught up with her at Bamboozle fest this weekend for a quick chat. She told them about bum-rushing Skrillex’s set, drinking milk at the club, and the new music video for her collabo with 2 Chainz, which she directed. ”The song’s about drugs and money,” she says. “But the video is all about breakfast.” Watch the video and get the whole story.

Update: As promised yesterday, here is the brand new music video just released today!

Last summer, we had the privilege of attending the inaugural Gorilla Vs. Bear Festival in Dallas. The highly influential indie music blog has quickly become a favorite among both fans and critics alike. They have a proven track record of being ahead of the curve when it comes to predicting up and coming indie bands, sometimes even before they are on the radars of Spin and Pitchfork. Last year’s one day mini fest included White Denim, Preteen Zenith, Shabazz Palaces, Grimes, and others. This year’s upcoming (and now annual) event takes place again at Dallas’ Granada Theater, the area’s best live venue, on July 28.  The first acts to be announced so far for the 2nd Annual 2012 Gorilla Vs. Bear Festival are Glass Candy, Chromatics, Twin Sister, Taken By Trees, Laurel Halo, A.Dd+, and DJ Sober. More details to come soon.

Review by Special Guest Correspondant Carla Howard (Carlita)

Photo Credit: Timothy Norris

NYC Early 90′s. Baggy jeans that required constant pulling up. Sweatshirts with army jackets. Timberland boots. If you were there, you remember. We were impressionable teenagers, living in the city producing music that continues to live on forever, in the midst of one of the greatest golden eras of hip-hop.  The idea of a rap supergroup was in its heyday. Will give props to anyone who can STILL name all Wu-Tang members (FYI Wu includes Inspecktah Deck, Raekwon, Ghostface, Method Man, Rza, Gza, U-God, Masta Killa, and ODB). Could hold out hope, that will be the question to a Jeopardy answer one day (not likely). Nostalgically listening to Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers), that era seems like yesterday.  Am still amazed with that many members in a group how they were able to get all of them on tracks.

Learning that the Clan was coming through Los Angeles again, I wanted Read more