CHVRCHES - Leave a Trace video

In preparation for their new album, Every Open Eye (out Sept. 25th), CHVRCHES shared their video for "Leave a Trace" yesterday. I'm definitely digging this very poppy dance tune and I love the simplicity of the video, just using nice lighting, some water and Lauren Mayberry's natural beauty to make a damn aesthetically pleasing video.



They're also touring pretty extensively through Europe and the US for most of the rest of 2015. Here are the dates:

August 21-- Pukkelpop, Hasselt, Belgium

August 22 -- V Festival, Chelmsford, UK

August 23 -- V Festival, Stafford, UK

September 5 -- Electric Picnic, Co. Laois, Ireland

September 12 -- Lollapalooza Berlin, Germany

Sept. 25 - Sept. 27 -- Boston, MA @ Boston Calling Festival

September 27 -- Washington, DC @ Landmark Festival

September 29 -- New York, NY @ Central Park Summerstage

October 1 -- Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory

October 4 -- Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall

October 5 -- Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hal

October 7 -- Columbus, OH @ LC Pavilion

October 8 -- Detroit, MI @ Masonic

October 10 -- Minneapolis, MN @ Myth

October 13 -- Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom

October 14 -- Seattle, WA @ Paramount

October 17 -- Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Auditorium

Oct.17 - Oct.18 -- San Francisco, CA @ Treasure Island Music Festival

October 21 -- Salt Lake City, UT @ Complex

October 22 -- Denver, CO @ Fillmore

October 23 -- Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater

October 24 -- Chicago, IL @ Metro (WKQX Radio Show)

October 26 -- Tulsa, OK @ Cains Ballroom

October 27 -- Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works

October 28 -- Charlotte, NC @ Fillmore

October 30 -- Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues Orlando

October 31 -- St. Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Landing

November 5 -- Dallas, TX @ Bomb Factory

Nov. 6 - Nov. 8 -- Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Festival

November 10 -- Paris, France @ Trianon

November 12 -- Hamburg, Germany @ Docks

November 13 -- Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg

November 14 -- Brussels, Belgium @ AB

November 16 -- Brighton, UK @ Brighton Dome

November 17 -- Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy

November 19 -- Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall

November 20 -- Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall

November 21 -- Newcastle, UK @ O2 Academy

November 23 -- Aberdeen, UK @ Music Hall

November 24 -- Dundee, UK @ Fat Sams

November 25 -- Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy

November 27 -- London, UK @ Alexandra Palace

New video from Metric, "The Shade"

A perfect start to my weekend is a new video from Metric, of their song "The Shade," which will be their upcoming album, Pagans in Vegas, out September 18th.

New video from Editors

Today, British band Editors shared their new single and released a video for the song, "Life is a Fear." It's an artsy, film noir-style video in which they did a lot of cool things with light and glass. And the song is classic Editors - dark but totally danceable. Check it out!


The album, In Dream, is due out October 2nd.

In Dream Tracklisting

1.     No Harm

2.     Ocean of Night

3.     Forgiveness

4.     Salvation

5.     Life is A Fear

6.     The Law

7.     Our Love

8.     All The Kings

9.     At All Cost

10. Marching Orders

Pre-order Links

iTunes

Standard CD

Deluxe CD

Vinyl

Stream

Olga Bell - Incitation

I'm pretty excited about Olga Bell. This blog was still on haitus last year when she released her debut album so I missed out on that, but she recently put out her new track, Incitation, on SoundCloud. The beginning is a bit slow for my taste but starting around 44 seconds in (when her lovely vocals come in), the track begins to build in a really beautiful and smart way. I think we can expect great things from Bell as she continues to grow as an artist.


Bell's "Incitation EP" is due out on Little Indian October 16th!

Lucas James - Long Way Back Down

Lucas James is an Australian singer/songwriter with a bluesy rock edge. Apparently he considers himself a songwriter first and didn't really mean to perform his own tracks. "That just kind of happened," he says. Lucky him. A lot of artists would kill for that to "just kind of happen." That being said, his songs are catchy and have a fairly universal appeal, so I suspect he'll be relatively successful.

Tracklist:
1. The Young
2. Long Way Back Down [mp3]
4. Pearblossom Hwy
5. Yesterday's Not Far Ahead
6. Bittersweet Wine
7. Lie Pistol Love
8. The Only Real Thing
9. That Sound

Roisin Murphy - Hairless Toys

I have loved Roisin Murphy for a while now so I'm super psyched that she has a new album, "Hairless Toys," coming out May 12th. I will say that it's a little more low key and sparse than my previous favorites by her. But there is still that hint of funk, her sultry voice, and even some gorgeous ballad-like songs. I think my favorite track is Uninvited Guest. I also can't wait to hear some of the inevitable remixes that are made from this album.

Check out the music video for the first single, Exploitation:


Tracklist:
1. Gone Fishing
2. Evil Eyes
3. Exploitation
4. Uninvited Guest
5. Exile
6. House of Glass
7. Hairless Toys (Gotta Hurt)
8. Unputdownable

New video from Fanfalro!

These Brits were one of my favorite break out groups from 2009 and I've been waiting with bated breath for them to come out with new stuff. They finally have! Here is a new video for their single "Deconstruction." It's a little bit different of a sound from their last album, but the poppy goodness is still there in spades. Their new album will be coming out in early 2012.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. new album

June 7 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr's latest album hits stores. If you wish to ride the bike before you buy it (and oh, you definitely should!), then you can! The promotional video can be viewed here. They do a nice job of playing off their band name as the video begins with someone taking off a race car driving suit with the Cheerios label branded on the front. Underneath the race car outfit is a man in a suit and it ends with the two of them shaking hands. A play off the corporate name, I take it. Well I now for one am anxious to see what the rest of the songs sound like and are about.

The group finished a tour up this spring and appeared at South by Southwest. They were also recently featured on ABC and the interview can be seen here.

Many good things are in store for the group this summer including appearances at Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. Below is a complete list of their summer tour:

May, 25 - Proud Larry's - Oxford, MI

May, 26 - Fitzgerald's - Houston, TX

May, 27 - Club DaDa - Dallas, TX

May, 28 - Emo's Alternative Lounge - Austin, TX

May, 31 - Santa Fe Brewing Company - Santa Fe, NM

June, 01 - Rhythm Room - Phoenix, AZ

June, 02 - The Casbah - San Diego, CA

June, 03 - The Echo - Echo Park, CA

June, 04 - Rickshaw Stop - San Francisco, CA

June , 06 - Mississippi Studios - Portland, OR

June, 07 - The Tractor Tavern - Seattle, WA

June, 09 - The Neurolux - Boise, ID

June, 10 - Kilby Court Gallery - Salt Lake City, UT

June, 11 - Hi-Dive - Denver, CO

June, 13 - The Waiting room - Omaha, NE

June, 14 - The Mill - Iowa City, IA

June, 15 - 7th Street Entry - Minneapolis, MN

June, 17 - White Rabbit Cabaret - Indianapolis, IN

June, 18 - The Mad Hatter - Covington, Kentucky

June, 25 - St. Andrews Hall - Detroit, MI

Aug, 05-07 - Lollapalooza - Chicago, IL

Sept, 16-18 - Austin City Limits - Austin, TX

For more info please visit:

http://www.daleearnhardtjrjr.com

http://www.myspace.com/daleearnhardtjrjr

http://www.quitescientific.com/horsepowerep

Web

Twitter

MySpace

Facebook

The Antlers - New album and tour dates!

It was only 2009 that the Antlers exploded onto the scene with Hospice and now they are releasing their second album - Burst Apart - on May 10th. I can't wait! Also: tour dates. And they're actually coming through DC, unlike most of the bands I love. Yay!

05-12 London, England - Heaven
05-13 Manchester, England - Manchester Club Academy
05-14 Brighton, England - Great Escape Festival
05-17 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
05-18 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church Sanctuary *
05-19 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg * - 3/31 at 10 am
05-20 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom * - 3/31 at 10 am
05-28 George, WA - Sasquatch Festival
05-31 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
06-03 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey * - 4/1 at 10 am
06-04 Pomona, CA - Glass House *
06-07 Austin, TX - Emo's * - 4/1 at 10 am
06-08 Dallas, TX - The Loft *
06-09 Tulsa, OK - The Marquee *
06-10 St. Louis, MO - Firebird *
06-11 Chicago, IL - Metro *
06-12 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick * - 3/31 at 10 am
06-14 Toronto, Ontario - Mod Club * - 3/31 at 10 am
06-15 Montreal, Quebec - La Tulipe ^
06-16 Boston, MA - Paradise * - 4/1 at 10 am
06-17 Hamden, CT - The Space *

* with Little Scream
^ with the Dodos

Jeff Martin and Steven Padin

This the second project to form after the breakup of This Day & Age. According to Jeff Martin and Steven Padin, they are releasing their upcoming album with one goal in mind: to present honest and thoughtful music with hopes of reaching those who are willing to actually listen.

The First Joke & Other Matters will be released independently on January 19th of this year. I've been fortunate to have heard it and I must say I'm very excited to buy it in a few weeks.

myspace.com/thefirstjoke

twitter.com/thefirstjoke

Fredrik to release new album

One of my favorite international discoveries from last year was Sweden's Fredrik, whose album Na Na Ni really blew me away and made it to our top albums of 2008 lists. Lucky for me (and for you lovely readers), they're coming out with another album this year, Trilogi, on November 17th. Originally three separate EPs, they've been combined to form this album, which is apparently much darker than Na Na Ni but in listening to the one track that they've released to the world so far, I'm very much looking forward to the album.

Tracklist:

01 vinterbarn
02 milo
03 holm
04 den sista fabriken
05 vanmyren
06 ava
07 flax
08 under vattenverket
09 ner
10 tretusen violer
11 viskra
12 locked in the basement [mp3]
13 omberg

My First Earthquake

Here's a great single from San Francisco band My First Earthquake. This song actually doesn't really sound like most of the rest of their album (which is more electronic-y, poppy than this single's slightly hardcore The Faint meets Yeah Yeah Yeahs sound). Incidentally, The Faint have a new album coming out August 5th.

Lead singer Rebecca Bortman has a great rock 'n' roll voice. Their lyrics are a little silly, but fun. And this song is a good summer song to rock out to while driving with your windows down (or walking the streets of NYC in my case).

Cool in the Cool Way [mp3] - (iTunes)

Zero 7 - new album in September

Zero 7 is coming out with a new album, Yeah Ghost, due out September 8th. Here's a preview:

Everything Up (Zizou) [mp3]

New music video from Tori Amos

In the past few months, I've started listening to my iPod on shuffle (normally I just listen to one or two playlists) and I've been rediscovering all these great artists that I used to love but hadn't listened to in a long time. Tori Amos is one of those artists who I was totally obsessed with in high school (I am so jealous of her piano skills) and I started listening to her again recently just in time to find out she is coming out with a new album on May 19th called Abnormally Attracted to Sin (it's a line from Guys and Dolls). You can pre-order it on iTunes now, and in the meantime, check out the video for "Welcome to England" here.