Frightened Rabbit

When bands have an amazing, near perfect album, following it up can be difficult. I think its even harder when the near perfect album has been written by someone who's dealing with heartbreak, who's life has been torn apart. I'm pretty confident that Justin Vernon won't be able to follow up 'For Emma, Forever Ago' with anything near as beautiful and heartfelt, and I was sure that Scott Hutchison from Frightened Rabbit would fall flat trying to create anything following on from what was my favourite album of 2008 'The Midnight Organ Fight'.
Luckily, he didn't fall on his face, he landed firmly on his feet and 2010's 'The Winter of Mixed Drinks' was a great album, and a different one, he didn't try to recreate, he just moved on. He moved on so much so that he and his band decided to cover the classic Elton John and Kiki Dee song, 'Don't go breaking my heart' as a double A side for their latest single. I heard it when I was rummaging through rails and rails of sale clothes a few days ago and decided that if i was going to spend a lot of money on clothes I don't need, and kind of don't really want, the least I could do was spend 79pence on iTunes and buy the single. So, as a preview, here it is in all its audio visual glory, live!

Maps & Atlases Record Release + Tour

The Chicago-based Maps & Atlases is gearing up for their tour starting this week, which ends with the debut of their new EP Perch Patchwork on June 29. This is their first album with Basuk Records (home to Death Cab for Cutie, Mates of State, RaRa Riot, Rilo Kiley, and more) and it is promised to have a more virtuosic and organic sound than their previous albums. We got their mp3 "Solid Ground" and it definitely has a textured vibe with wistful lyrics and a fluid mix of progressive and melodic rhythms.

Singer/guitarist David Davison says that “We went into the record with the understanding that the creation of the album would be separate from its existence as a live piece of music, which was really liberating.” I'm not sure what to say to this explanation except that the tour seems promising with an eclectic group of bands. I had the pleasure of seeing Drink Up Buttercup at SXSW last month and they can rock a show like nobody's business.

Solid Ground [mp3]

4/10 - Huckleberry's Pizza Parlor (Rock Island, IL)^
4/11 - The Basement (Columbus, OH)*
4/12 - The Rex (Pittsburgh, PA)&
4/13 - The Space (Hamden, CT) *
4/14 - Great Scott (Boston, MA)*
4/15 - Maxwells (Hoboken, NJ)*
4/17 - SUNY Purchase (Purchase, NY)
4/18 - Clementines (Harrisonburg, VA)*
4/19 - Musica (Akron, OH)*
4/24 - Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA)
4/25 - Cats Cradle (Carrborro, NC)#
4/27 - Black Cat (Washington, DC)#
4/28 - Webster Hall (New York, NY)#
4/29 - Paradise (Boston, MA)#
4/30 - First Unitarian Church (Philadelphia, PA)#
5/1 - Pearl Street (Northampton, MA)#
5/3 - Petit Campus (Montreal, QC)#
5/4 - Opera House (Toronto, ONT)#
5/5 - Grog Shop (Cleveland, OH)#
5/6 - Southgate House (Newport, KY)#
5/7 - The Old Rock House (St Louis, MI) #
5/8 - Metro (Chicago, IL)#
5/9 - Pabst Theatre (Milwaukee, WI)#
5/10 - Varsity Theatre (Minneapolis, MN)#
5/12 - Bluebird Theatre (Denver, CO)#
5/13 - Urban Lounge (Salt Lake City, UT)#
5/15 - Bitmore Cabaret (Vancouver, BC)#
5/16 - Neumos (Seattle, WA)#
5/17 - Berbati's Pan (Portland, OR)#
5/19 - The Fillmore (San Francisco, CA)#
5/22 - Casbah (San Diego, CA)#


^ w/Dark Dark Dark & w/Vieux Farka Toure
* w/Drink Up Buttercup
# w/Frightened Rabbit