Any readers Stateside are in for a treat and a half in the new year. Loney Dear are to support their hero Andrew Bird on a full US tour in January and February. This will be the first ‘proper’ chance to hear new material from both acts’ new records - which are both out in the new year. Exciting times indeed. They’ve played shows together before and are big fans of each others work. Bird even supplying violin on Loney’s new record Dear John.
In other news, Loney Dear are also set to return to the UK in January for a full band show at a VERY special London venue. I’ve been sworn to secrecy for now, but lets just say that I nearly wet myself when I found out. It’s going to be a religious experience for sure.
And REMEMBER - 8th December is our TLOBF christmas party at Old Blue Last, London EC2. It’s free entry and promises to be a mega night. Joining a solo Loney Dear will be Martin Carr of Boo Radleys fame, the awesome garage-folk-rock hybrid of Adam Donen & The Drought plus Bella Union DJs.. There will be more suprise guest(s) announced soon. Keep an eye out on the Facebook event page for all the latest additions.
Loney Dear solo dates:
December 08 - Old Blue Last, London (TLOBF CHRISTMAS PARTY w/ VERY special guests - FREE ENTRY)
10 - Mercury Lounge, NYC, NY (W/ MELPO MENE)
12 - Bellhouse, Brooklyn, NY (W/ MELPO MENE)
Loney Dear and Andrew Bird dates:
January 30 - Boston, MA The Orpheum
February 03 - Washington, DC The 930 Club
04 - Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
06 - Orlando, FL The Plaza
07 - New Orleans, LA House of Blues
12 - Austin, TX The Paramount Theater
13 - Albuquerque, NM The El Rey
14 - Tucson, AZ The Rialto
18 - Los Angeles, CA The Orpheum
19 - San Francisco, CA T
Beach House are back with a brand new single ‘Used To Be’ which comes out via Bella Union on 27th November. Putting it bluntly, you really should buy it - it is without doubt the best thing they’ve recorded thus far and could well be one of my favourite singles of 2008. Like, seriously.
To coincide with the single release, Victoria and Alex are flying over to Blighty for a one off London show at Cargo on 2nd December. It promises to be a corker of a show and a sneaky chance to hear some brand new material from the duo’s as yet untitled third album which they are due to finish recording early next year. Exciting times indeed.
We have not one, but TWO pairs of tickets to give away for the show. The two winners will also receive both Beach House albums (self-titled and Devotion), a copy of ‘Used To Be’ on 7″ AND a Beach House T-Shirt. Sweeeeeet! To be in with a chance of winning simply answer the following question..
Which US State do Beach House come from?
Closing date is Wednesday 26th November. Email your answers to competition@thelineofbestfit.com including your name, address and a contact telephone number.
The annual Big Scary Monsters Christmas Tour is back! Bigger, better and more exciting than ever before.
An indie institution, the last 5 years have seen more festive joy than Miracle On 34th Street and more carnage than a Home Alone film. The first two only, of course. This years tour sees a revolving cast of treats from the BSM roster, ensuring that every single night will be different to the last. So alongside label stalwarts such as Secondsmile and This Town Needs Guns, some new faces from 2008, such as Blakfish, Pulled Apart By Horses and the mighty Tubelord, will be making their debut appearances, as well as a handful of very exciting 2009 favourites-to-be, including the wonderful Copy Haho - who frankly kick MAJOR ASS.
Expect to find mince pies, free things and some form of drunken St Nick at the following shows…
December 4 - Glasgow, Sneaky Pete’s (Copy Haho) 6 - Leeds, Brudenell Social Club (Bone Fest - Tubelord + Secondsmile + Blakfish + Copy Haho + Shapes + Dananananaykroyd and more) 7 - Nottingham, Chameleons Art Cafe (Tubelord + Secondsmile + Shoes And Socks Off) 9 - Brighton, The Hope (This Town Needs Guns + Secondsmile and more) 10 - London, The Windmill (This Town Needs Guns + Blakfish + Shapes + Shoes And Socks Off) 11 - Oxford, The Cellar (This Town Needs Guns + Secondsmile + House of Brothers) 12 - Sheffield, House Party (Pulled Apart By Horses + Blakfish + Shoes And Socks Off) 13 - Birmingham, The Flapper (Blakfish + Shapes + more)
For the first and probably last time of my life, I wish I lived in Leeds. LOOK AT THAT LINEUP?!?! Cor.
Toronto’s Ten Kens are about to embark on their inaugural UK tour, and to celebrate they have created a brand new animated video for ‘Spanish Fly’, one of the standout tracks on their eponymous debut. Instead of releasing a single, the band is giving away a free download of the song that inspired the video. The video was developed and created independently by close friends of the band, The Blackbelt Kids. It was directed by fellow Toronto native Kareem Thompson and animated by Peter Auld and Louis Norris.
You can download an mp3 version of ‘Spanish Fly’ by clicking here. All they ask is that you sign up to their mailing list.. Not too much to ask, is it now??
We caught up with the guys a few weeks ago. If you happened to miss the interview, you can check it out here.
November
28 - London, The Lexington
29 - Birmingham, Barfly*
30 - Glasgow, Nice N’Sleazys*
December
1 - Edinburgh, Cabaret Voltaire
2 - York, The Duchess
4 - Manchester, The Roadhouse*
5 - Leeds, The Cockpit*
6 - Cardiff , Clwb Ifor Beach*
8 - London, ICA*
9 - London, Blow Up Metro
10 - London, 229**
* supporting A Place To Bury Strangers
**with Stricken City
Relatively unknown here in Blighty, Candadian five-piece Wintersleep have been causing modest sized waves over in their homeland and the States. This year alone they have won a Juno Award for Best New Group and a Much Music Award for Best Independent Video (check it out here), they have spent most of the year away from their adopted hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia, building their growing army of fans touring with fellow Canadians Black Mountain and Wolf Parade, amongst others. Now it’s time for us Brits to get in on the action.. See, this band is something really fucking special. Their album Welcome To The Night Sky has been on regular rotation here at TLOBF Towers ever since they were nominated for Canada’s answer to the Mercury Prize - The Polaris Award, a few months ago.
The album (produced by tony Doogan - Mogwai, Super Furry Animals, Explosions In The Sky) will finally get a UK release in February of next year, and preceeding that the band will play three London dates to whet our appetite.
Stopping off at:
Dec 4th London, Club Fandango @ 229
Dec 5th London, Club NME @ Koko
Dec 16th London, Borderline
You can download the bands brand new single ‘Archaeologists’ for FREE(!) right here. Let us know what you think of it in the comments box below…
Probably one of the most anticipated albums of 2009 already is Animal Collective’sMerriweather Post Pavilion, to be released on Monday the 12th of January.
Well, they’ve now announced a short tour of the UK around that release, plus a couple of other dates across the globe. Dates are as follows:
Mon 12-Jan-09 UK London Koko
Tue 13-Jan-09 UK Glasgow Glasgow School of Arts
Wed 14-Jan-09 UK Manchester Club Academy
Thu 15-Jan-09 UK Brighton Concorde 2
Fri 16-Jan-09 France Paris Bataclan
Sat 17-Jan-09 Belgium Leuven Stuk
Sun 18-Jan-09 Germany Berlin Postbanhof
Mon 20- Jan-09 Grand Ballroom NYC, NY
Wed 22- Jan 09 Metro Chicago, IL
Thurs 23- Jan 09 Fonda Theater LA, CA
Glasvegas’ self-titled debute is being re-released as a deluxe 2CD version on December 1st through Columbia Records. The limited edition album will include the six-track Christmas bonus disc, A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss), which will also be available for digital download on the same day. The tracklisting of the bonus disc, in non-sequential order, is:
Please Come Back Home
Cruel Moon
Careful What You Wish For
Fuck You, It’s Over
A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss)
Silent Night / Noapte de vis
A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss) was recorded in Transylvania earlier this month and includes The Concentus Choir singing ‘Silent Night’ (in English & Romanian) at St Nicholas Church in Brasov.
On a more tour-related note, dates on their November / December tour are practically sold out, with only the remaining having tickets going:
Sat 29th Nov - Swansea Sin City (01792 654 226)
Sat 6th Dec - Sheffield Plug (0114 241 3040 www.the-plug.com)
Wed 10th Dec - Preston 53 Degrees (01772 893000 www.53degrees.net)
Thu 11th Dec - Hull University (01482 466264 www.seetickets.com)
Wed 31st Dec - Edinburgh Hogmany Street Party (Waverley Stage)
It just keeps getting gets better and better for our Mercury Prize-winning friends from the north, Elbow, who today announce a UK tour for March 2009.
The tour will be rounded off with their largest ever UK date, the previously announced show at London’s Wembley Arena on Friday March 14th.
Tickets for all dates excepting Wembley (which is already on sale) are available from 9am tomorrow, Tuesday 4th November, via www.gigsandtours.com or a 24 hour credit card hotline on 0871 2200 260. Tickets are also available via the individual box offices.
Dates are as follows:
February
26 Brighton Dome
March
01 Southend Cliffs Pavilion
02 Bournemouth Solent Hall
03 Sheffield Academy
05 Newcastle Academy
06 Edinburgh Corn Exchange
07 Blackpool Empress Ballroom
09 Llandudno Arena
10 Bristol Colston Hall
11 Plymouth Pavilions
12 Newport Centre
14 London Wembley Arena
New Zealand’s afro-pyschedelicists The Ruby Suns return to the UK this autumn following the release of their second album Sea Lion.
The dates are as follows and are all headlining save Oxford:
31 Oct - Zodiac, Oxford (with The Week That Was)
01 Nov - Crawdaddy, Dublin
02 Nov - Rosin Dubh Galway
03 Nov - Cyprus Avenue Cork
05 Nov - White Heat w/ AJ Holmes London
06 Nov - Fuzz Club @ The Uni Sheffield
07 Nov - Louisiana Bristol
08 Nov - UWIC (Tommy’s Bar) Cardiff, Wales
09 Nov - The Albert Brighton
10 Nov - Ruby’s Lounge Manchester
Meet Headlights, a US female-fronted five piece who make Yo La Tengo-esque indie pop with echoes of My Bloody Valentine and Phil Spector. Ahead of the release of the ‘Remixes’ on 8th December, Headlights are over in Europe on tour from Champaign, Illinois, and are also giving away the remix of ‘Cherry Tulips’.
Catch them at the following venues over the next week: October
24 Newport @ Le Pub
25 Exeter The Cavern Club
26 Belfast Auntie Annies
27 Dublin Whelans
28 Leeds The Faversham
29 London Brixton Windmill
30 Paris, France @ Le Nouveau Casino
31 Freiburg Germany @ Waldsee
It is with great regret that we have to announce the cancellation of My Morning Jacket’s up-coming tour to Europe due to injuries suffered by Jim James in Iowa City. For the fans who have purchased tickets, we would like to extend our gratitude for your support and understanding. Our hope was to
merely postpone the tour, but as our scheduling does not allow that to happen in the immediate future, we feel it is best to cancel this tour in hopes of re-scheduling at some point. We would also like to say ‘thank you’ to all the fans who have reached out to Jim with their well-wishes as we all hope for his speedy and full recovery.
L.A.’s finest, The Bronx, return in November with their third self-titled album.
The Bronx will be released digitally through Wichita Recordings on November 10th, and then will be made available physically in January 2009.
The track-listing for the album is as follows:
1. Knifeman
2. Inveigh
3. Past Lives
4. Enemy Mind
5. Pleasure Seekers
6. Six Days A Week
7. Young Bloods
8. Ship High In Transit
9. Minutes in Night
10. Spanish Handshake
11. Digital Leash
You can download an exclusive track, ‘Young Bloods’, here for a taster of what’s to come…
The band are also set to come over to the U.K. in late October for a trio of dates.
OCTOBER
27 - Kings College, London
28 - Club Academy, Manchester
29 - ABC2, Glasgow
The tickets are available via www.seetickets.com and are priced at £11 (£12 in London).
Parenthetical Girls have decided to bring their warped pop music to the UK this November.
Founder, Zac Pennington is joined by multi-instrumentalists Matt Carlson, Eddy Crichton, and Rachael Jensen for the live shows.
UK Tour Dates November
17th London, Tufnell Park Dome (w/Mt. Eerie)
18th Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach
19th Manchester, Krobar
20th Leeds, venue tba
21st Dublin, Whelans
22nd Galway, Roisin Dubh
24th Brighton, Latest Music Bar
After the release of what could be their finest album so far, Velocifero, Ladytron are to embark on a full UK tour, coming to an area near you in November.
November
14 Leeds, Cockpit
15 Coventry- Kasbah
18 Oxford- Academy
19 Bristol- Academy
20 Bournemouth- The Old Fire Station
21 London- Shepherds Bush Empire
23 Brighton- Concorde 2
24 Manchester- Academy 2
25 Sheffield- Academy
26 Glasgow- ABC
28 Aberdeen- Moshulu
So, we’re sorry we’re reporting this late - as you may have realised, we’ve had some major technical difficulties with our server the last couple of days…
But, just in case you’ve missed this, AC/DC have announced a UK leg of their upcoming World Tour, to hit our shores in 2009.
AC/DC BLACK ICE UK TOUR DATES:
Tuesday 14th April - London O2 - 0844 856 0202
Tuesday 21st April - Manchester MEN Arena - 0844 847 8000
Thursday 23rd April - Birmingham LG Arena - 0844 3388 000
I’ve got a feeling they’ve already sold out… but expect more dates around then soon…
Fields have announced a UK tour starting on the 14th of November.
The tour dates are:
NOVEMBER
14 - Korova, Liverpool
15 - Moles, Bath
16 - Fat Fox, Portsmouth
18 - Audio, Brighton
19 - Brudenell, Leeds
20 - Fuzz Club, Sheffield
21 - Stonelove, Newcastle
22 - The Deaf Institute, Manchester
24 - Louisiana, Bristol
25 - Water Rats, London
26 - Soul Tree, Cambridge
27 - Bodega, Nottingham
28 - 444 Club @ The Rainbow, Birmingham
The London 4-piece have spent their summer writing and recording the follow-up to 2007’s, rather disappointing, Everything Last Winter which is slated for release in early 2009, much of which will be previewed in the live show. You can here some demos of the new material on their Myspace page.
Well here’s a little treat for fans of Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan. When Isobel wrote the songs that formed the track-listing for Sunday at Devil Dirt she kept back a handful of beauties to release later in the year, songs which are now unveiled on a new EP entitled Keep Me In Mind Sweetheart.
The five new tracks on the EP were recorded during the same sessions in Glasgow and the Catskills that went on to yield Sunday at Devil Dirt. The songs on the EP are ones Isobel felt worked best as a separate piece of work.
Following their sold-out tour in June, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan will be closing 2008 with a 5-date UK tour in December:
December
07 Rock City, Nottingham
08 Union Chapel, London
09 Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
10 De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill
14 Picture House, Edinburgh
More good news for fans, but not necessarily their bank balance, is that Sunday at Devil Dirt will be reissued in time for Christmas with a bonus disk of seven live tracks recorded at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in January 2007. A Christmas miracle or a shrewd marketing plan… I’ll let you decide…
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Gang Gang Dance have moved their one off UK show, on the 11th of October from London venue ULU, to the Hoxton Bar and Kitchen.
Note! The show will kick off at the earlier time of 7pm - 10pm.
Gang Gang Dance are pleased to announce support from Charles Hayward, founder member of experimental rock group This Heat
The show celebrates the release of their highly anticipated new album St. Dymphna (which has been going down well here at TLOBF Towers) on Warp on the 20th of October.
Warp Records will also be giving out 12 track Warp sampler CDs at the show.
As a taster of what to expect, have a look at the band performing ‘House Jam’ in Japan:
The Hold Steady, as we’ve already reported, have cancelled their recent tour around the UK due to illness of guitarist Tad Kubler.
They’ve now announced the rescheduled dates, which will happen in December:
7 Sheffield Leadmill
8 Oxford Academy
9 Nottingham Rock City
10 Manchester Academy
12 Bristol Anson Rooms
14 Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
15 Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall
17 London Roundhouse
18 Glasgow Glasgow SECC
20 Dublin The O2
21 Belfast Odyssey Arena
Secretly Canadian singer-songwriter and all round awesome dude Damien Jurado is heading over to the UK next month with Jenna Conrad and Eric Fisher for a 4-date tour. The shows come in support of Jurado’s new album Caught In The Trees which is released by the influential US indie on October 27th. What’s more, Jurado and his band will be joined on the tour by Sub Pop’s Tiny Vipers. Result!
Those dates:
November
3 - Bristol, The Cooler w/Tiny Vipers 7.30pm, £11 adv [tickets]
4 - Manchester, Night & Day Cafe w/Tiny Vipers 7.30pm, £11 adv [tickets]
5 - Glasgow, Stereo w/Tiny Vipers 8pm, £10 adv [tickets]
6 - London, Union Chapel w/Tiny Vipers 7pm, £12 adv [tickets]
Also, check out a session Jurado did at the recent Green Man Festival for our friends over at Black Cab below..
