Austin post-rockers, Explosions in the Sky’s sound is akin to a meteor shower during its histrionic peaks. In equal fashion their white blasts of sound perk up the ages in quixotic fashion, resembling a shimmering and tranquil river, curving underneath all of Explosions’ celestial turmoil. Both sides played a part in the band’s first night of three sold-out nights at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. The band’s always-effervescent guitarist, Munaf Rayani, prefaced the band’s career spanning set by saying he was quite disgruntled about playing three nights in a row but he assured the audience that regardless of his stormy temperament the band would try their hardest. “We’re gonna try to give you our hearts so close your eyes and we’ll take off to the stars.” And of course they did just that.

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Beneath towering mountains a battle rages on as a mighty barbarian army trade blows with the Roman legions for ultimate supremacy of the land. In the midst of the fighting stand one band, The Sword, bashing merry hell out of their instruments. That’s the image I have whilst listening to Gods Of The Earth. Perhaps I should lay off the sauce.

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As its release comes ever closer, I’m getting more excited… Death Cab For Cutie release their long awaited album, Narrow Stairs, on May 13th and those lovely geezers have shown off the cover art (that’s it up there^). I rather like it…

They’ve also announced a load more US tour dates as well (see below), and I’m hoping for some UK dates shortly… especially as they’re playing Latitude. We reported on their new single here, which is now availble on iTunes.

May
09 Providence, RI @ Providence Piers
10 Boston, MA @ Bank of America Pavilion
24 Bend, OR @ Les Schwab Amphitheater
28 Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre

June
09 Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion
13 Cleveland, OH @ Plain Dealer Pavilion
17 Grand Prairie, TX @ Nokia Theatre

Having wooed the crowds at this years Super Bowl, Tom Petty has decided to reunite his pre-Heartbreakers band, Mudcrutch, for a new album and a tour of California. From Tom Petty’s site:

The long awaited debut album from Mudcrutch, recorded in just two weeks last August, will be released on Reprise Records on April 29. Mudcrutch features Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Tom Leadon, and Randall Marsh.
In the early 70’s, they were heroes in their hometown of Gainesville, Florida. Mudcrutch seemed poised for more. But the band never cracked the national music scene or made a full album. Now, more than 30 years later and quite unexpectedly, the Mudcrutch story continues.

In addition to the release of the album on April 29, the band will undertake a short tour of intimate California venues starting on April 12 in Malibu and ending with a four-night run at the 500 capacity Troubadour in Los Angeles.

Photograph by Anna Hrnjak

At the time of writing, Sarabeth Tucek has just finished her first headline UK tour in support of her eponymous debut. The now LA based, but originally New York rooted, lady is slowly but surely building up steam since the last time we spoke to her. Before an intimate show at Birmingham’s Glee Club, TLOBF managed to catch up with Miss Tucek face-to-face, to discuss her come back down to reality, the luxuries of touring with Ray La Montagne and the danger of bears in the woods. Continue Reading

Girl Talk (otherwise known as DJ Gregg Gillis) released Night Ripper here in the US in May 2006. Despite the bevy of rave reviews it received from prominent websites, I chose to ignore it. I guess 2006 was just not a hip-hop kinda year for me. So now, some twenty-two months later, and with a brand new Girl Talk album on the horizon in 2008, Night Ripper is getting a proper UK release. I jumped at the chance to review it, keen to discover what I had missed out on those two summers ago. Hmph.

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Elvis Costello is to release a new album, not a reissue, on April 22nd through Lost Highway in the US of A. To be called Momofuku it’s to be released in a rather novel manner. At least initially.

At first it will come out on vinyl only, with a digital download code inside. But it will be supported with a tour, his support slot on The Police U.S. dates…

Since Elvis Costello is always a busy man, he will also celebrate the world premiere of Nightspot, a Twyla Tharp ballet he scored, on March 28th at the Arsht Center in Miami. On March 31st we’ll get a new “session” from the Coward Brothers, Costello’s partnership with producer T-Bone Burnett. It’s a “live studio recording of the soundtrack for a stop-frame animation feature adapted from the James Ensor painting, ‘Christ’s Last Entry Into Brussels’.”

Now then… Costello’s website goes onto explain that the above Coward Brothers album, Henry and Howard’s Last Entry Into Brussels, will also be distributed in a non-traditional manner: “U.S. edition of record will be released on a state-by-state basis, in alphabetical order. Due to problems with piracy, only one copy will be manufactured for issue in each state or international territory. Individual copies will be encoded with the new, KNARP discriminators and secreted in the racks of selected stockists. Those discovering each unique disc will be free to do with it as their conscience draws it.”

Right. Got that?

What do you get when you mix together Trunk Records co-founder (Stephen Cracknell), a member of Tunng (Sam Genders), one half of the Fence Collective duo The Bicycle Thieves (Hannah Caughlin) and the singer-songwriter Liam Bailey? The answer is the wonderfully hypnotic melodrama of The Accidental. Continue Reading

If you were wondering why Italian indie-rock hasn’t set the world on fire, here’s your answer. Whilst the clever blend of theatrical structures, electric synths and complex melodies certainly show talent, they don’t combine to make this album particularly listenable. It’s not bad, it’s just not particularly good. Continue Reading

I’m not going to make any bones about it. I completely love Casiotone For The Painfully Alone (known to his mother as simply Owen Ashworth). His minimal rickety plonks, lo-fi fuzz and personal lyrics break my heart. And even though I’d caught him live a couple of weeks prior at the sold out Bush Hall show, the thought of seeing him play his touching brand of two-minute Casio keyboard-spun pop songs in the cosy, snug space of The Luminaire (“This is much nicer than Bush Hall. It’s like a living room with all your friends” - as claimed during the gig) was a far more tantalising prospect. It didn’t disappoint. Continue Reading

The Word magazine this month features an excellent interview with the wonderful Elvis Costello where, amongst other things, they discuss his substantial music collection. A rabid purchaser of records and CD’s, he recounts a recent tale of spending some $700 in one trip to a store, adding to the ever growing library already assembled. A few years back, a house move from the UK to the US caused Costello to take stock of his possessions, and how tiresome it would be to have to ship everything to his new home. So, to address this, he performed what he called a culling – taking a sizeable chunk of mostly jazz recordings from his music museum and donating it to a student library. This was no piddling donation – some 10,000 items were handed over in a philanthropic gesture that must have cost him upwards of a hundred thousand pounds. Although I am sure it didn’t happen this way, I like to imagine him lugging boxes from the back of his car, into the arms of beaming students, all the while thinking to himself: “why on earth did I buy all these in the first place”. Continue Reading

Does It Offend You, Yeah? A rather clunky band name, but hey – it’s a quote straight out of the awkward trap of The Office’s David Brent so all can be forgiven. Formed in 2006 and with remixes of such acts as Bloc Party, The Raconteurs, The White Stripes and Muse under their belts, the Reading electro-rockers are releasing their debut album You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into. DIOYY deliver with 38 minutes of excellent music that belies the flood of comparisons to Daft Punk and Justice. Continue Reading

Born Ruffians - the latest signings to the good ship Warp. An indie-guitar band who sound like the missing link between The Shins and Vampire Weekend. These guys know how to have a good time and then write songs about it after the event. Their debut album isn’t out till May, but we took the chance to pit our 20 Questions to them before they got too famous… And the truth about lead singer Luke LaLonde’s porn collection got out… Continue Reading

Actress, poet, singer, Soho boho and all round artistic Renaissance woman, Sukie Smith a.k.a. Madam, has just released a debut album to expand on the two singles of the past year. Thus the one time (2006) minor Eastender follows in the footsteps of Nick Berry and Anita Dobson. Thankfully all similarities between the three end right there. It’s an intriguing, slightly sinister, frequently warped mix of avant-acoustic. Her alter-go is half chanteuse, half bunny boiler - “I sleepwalk through my ordinary life, but I’m awake to be your shadow wife” (’Still’). There are hints of Kate Bush, Velvet Underground, Portishead, early PJ Harvey, but she has managed to create her own persona. You can imagine a tousle-haired woman, much the worse for wear - all smeared lipstick, laddered tights and broken nails - but a faded glamour persists: “These red boots should act as a warning/I don’t remember how I got home last night/Count all the teeth in my head this morning/Try to remember what you look like” (’Calling For Love’). As Smith/Madam proclaims on her website: “Sometimes it’s easier to tell secrets when you’re in disguise”.

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Clocking in at a whopping 8 minutes, the first single from Death Cab For Cutie’s new album Narrow Stairs has just been released. ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’ is available now via Amazon.com and the bands label Atlantic. The single is also available to stream over on the bands myspace page. Certainly a bold statement, the track building slowly as a brooding instrumental, it’s not until 4:38 that Ben Gibbards vocal kicks in. Definately a grower though, and quite frankly, this band could release an album of them farting and I’d still love it.

Excitement for the album grows too, being released on May 13th. This will be the bands second album for major label Atlantic. Lets hope for something a little more consistent than the patchy Plans.

Tracklisting for Narrow Stairs is:
1. Bixby Canyon Bridge
2. I Will Possess Your Heart
3. No Sunlight
4. Cath…
5. Talking Bird
6. You Can Do Better Than Me
7. Grapevine Fires
8. Your New Twin Sized Bed
9. Long Division
10. Pity and Fear
11. The Ice Is Getting Thinner

 
Brutal and yet also coyly melodic, Sylosis are so much more than their simple self-assessment as “Shredding from Reading”. This UK quintet are a mix of crunching guitars, ball-busting vocals and battering double-kick and snare combinations. Then just when you think you’ve got them pinned they throw in a long cyclical sequence of melodic guitars and softened vocal or a even a thread of hushed, sonic backwash. It’s Lamb Of God bitch-slapping Opeth while their backs are turned.

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And just when I was being slightly rude about record labels too… Anti Records have joined the Spring of Giving (as I’m going to call it) and have offered up a bevvy of mp3’s for you, dear reader / listener, to download for your aural pleasure.

Featuring such wonderful acts as Nick Cave, Islands, Man Man and Devotchka, you can find it over on their site here.

The grim graphic novel artwork adorning the album’s cover only hints at the crushing intensity of Romeo Must Die’s Defined By Enemies. This is old school thrash colliding head on with mighty metalcore riffage. With the vocals and basswork of ex-Stampin’ Ground metalheads Adam Frakes-Sime and Ben Frost propelling this project it isn’t a surprise to find it heavier than a wrecking ball with scratched, growling vocals over a relentless, thundering attack. The dirtied guitars chug irresistibly in the background over an avalanche of drumbeats - it’s a combination you cannot ignore.

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After a triumphant run of dates supporting Nada Surf in February, Rogue Wave return in May for their first UK headlining tour. The dates precede the UK release of Asleep At Heaven’s Gate, the band’s first album for their new label Island, and scheduled for release on May 26th.

Tour dates are:

May
6 - GLASGOW ABC 2
7 - MANCHESTER NIGHT & DAY
8 - BIRMINGHAM BARFLY
9 - NOTTINGHAM BODEGA
11 - LONDON DINGWALLS

Tickets are on sale now from the usual outlets.

We caught up with Rogue Wave last month whilst on tour with Nada Surf. Check out the interview here. 

News just in.. Jens Lekman has now added a London date to his previously announced UK tour in May. Lekman will appear with his full backing band at Scala on May 20th. The support for this very special date will be TLOBF favourite Bon Iver (!!!!). Talk about an awesome lineup! Whats more, tickets cost a meesly £11. What are you waiting for? Tickets on sale now via Live Nation. Need convincing? Check out performances from last weeks SXSW festival in Austin; Jens Lekman and Bon Iver.  Continue Reading