The Dark Romantics have a fine bit of dark and sexy out by way of their new album, Heartbreaker. Also available from the band is the Lonely/Roads 7″ (from New Granada Records) featuring the original ‘Lonely..Alone’ as the A-side, and a cover of Portishead’s ‘Roads’ as the flip. This release is limited to 1000 copies.
Shugo, pronounced “shoe-go”, will stop in Davenport, IA at Daytrotter before heading to New York City to play Mercury Lounge with Jon Natchez (Beirut), Perrin Cloutier (Beirut), Lawson White (So Percussion), and Bryan Devendorf (The National). Shugo will also be visiting California with Beach House, and the Great White North with a couple members of Holy F*ck, before hitting the road with The Magnetic Fields.
tour: 09/13 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle (The Wire’s Adventures in Modern Music)# 09/23 New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge! 09/30 Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland^
10/03 Montréal, QC @ Pop Montréal% 10/23 Jersey City, NJ @ Loews Jersey Theatre* 10/24 Columbus, OH @ The Southern Theatre* 10/25 Philadelphia, PA @ The Merriam Theater*
10/26 Washington, DC @ Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University* # with Flying Lotus (Best New Music on Pitchfork), Lau Nau, Blues Control
! Jon Natchez (Beirut), Bryan Devendorf (The National), Perrin Cloutier (Beirut), Lawson White (So Percussion) w/Twi the Humble Feather
^ Supporting Beach House & Lazarus
% Contrived, Julie Fader, Brian Borcherdt (Holy F*ck), Off the International Radar, DJ Graham (Holy F*ck)
* Supporting Magnetic Fields with Jon Natchez (Beirut)
Guys like the Brewis brothers serve as a shining light when an overly cynical mind such as my own becomes dismayed by the lack of true inertia in pop music. That in itself is a long conversation we will avoid for the most part, although likely beginning pre-void with Bowie and Eno in Berlin with the vastly important album Low; following to avant-guard heroes such as P. Gabriel, Kate Bush, even Gary Numan for a while, and a few others, not to mention Talk Talk.
Sunderland’s Peter Brewis brings The Week That Was, an album that has captured me like few I’ve heard, not just this year, but this decade. Smart visionary pop influenced in spirit and elegance by a different sort of eighties and elsewhere(the aforementioned), having nothing to do with angular dance funk, JD, GOF, Wire, or whatever else we’ve been inundated with far too much of this millennium. Such a fine work thematically, made up of concise movements caught up in well written inventive melody as much as cleverly occupying their own aural space. Proving the point from the beginning on “Learn To Learn,” The Week That Was takes huge drums, pronouncing them with a wonderfully detached reverb (certainly we’ve heard this one before, though not often, and not for a while) giving off the impression that this new tribalism is split between two sonic atmospheres, not to mention philosophical conundrums. There are certainly beautiful pop moments that could be extracted and enjoyed on their own, such as “The Airport Line,” carrying quite the future-present vibe highlighted by a sprinkling of so many things in perfect economy, and capped off even more favorably by a fabulous string melody creating reason for another refrain. “It’s All Gone” appears with fluctuating synth and the isolated gallantry of Kate Bush wrapped with P. Gabriel, steadily escaping the egg, stirred on by indulgent trance inducing marimba. The world of The Week That Was is brave and vibrant, coming across as necessary, important, and most of all….wise, immaculate entertainment.
video: Scratch The Surface
U.S. west coast dates: 11/28/08 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir ^
11/29/08 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey ^
12/2/08 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American ^
12/3/08 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour ^
12/4/08 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour ^
12/5/08 – Pomona, CA @ Glass House ^
12/6/08 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah ^
^ w/ The Sea & Cake
As they come off of their tour with Aimee Mann, The Submarines have been asked to join the Brazilian Girls on a handful of west coast dates before appearing at the LA Weekly Detour Festival on October 4th.
dates: Tue, Sep 23 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
Wed, Sept 24 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
Thur, Sept 25 – Anaheim, CA @ The Grove
Sat, Sept 27 – San Francisco, CA @ Mezzanine
* Sat, Oct 4 – Los Angeles, CA @ LA Weekly Detour Festival
video: You, Me, and the Bourgeoisie
Bon Iver and his band went to the myspace studios and recorded a nice four-song session and then gave an interview with myspace. Check it all out below, including further interviews found on the myspace transmissions page.
video:
tour: Sep 12 TRINITY HALL Bristol
Sep 13 END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL London
Sep 15 ACADEMY 2 Manchester
Sep 16 THE SAGE Gateshead
Sep 17 QUEENS HALL Edinburgh
Sep 19 PARADISO Amsterdam
Sep 20 VOX HALL Arhus
Sep 21 JOHN DEE Oslo
Sep 23 BERNS Stockholm
Sep 24 PUSTERVIKSBAREN Gothenburg
Sep 25 VEGA – SMALL HALL Copenhagen
Sep 26 THEATER @ REEPERBAHN FESTIVAL Hamburg
Sep 28 POSTBAHNHOF Berlin
Sep 29 AMPERE Munich
Sep 30 GEBAUDE 9 Koln
Oct 2 MAROQUINERIE Paris
Oct 3 BOTANIQUE Brussels
Oct 4 TAKE ROOT FESTIVAL OSTERPOORT Groningen
Oct 5 GRAND MIX Tourcoing
Oct 7 TRIPOD Dublin
Dec 10 TOWN HALL w/ The Tallest Man On Earth New York, New York
Dec 11 TOWN HALL w/The Tallest Man On Earth New York, New York
British metalcore outfit Bring Me the Horizon will release their sophomore album, Suicide Season, on November 18th via Epitaph Records. Hailing from Sheffield, England, Oliver Sykes (vocals), Matt Nicholls (drums), Curtis Ward (guitar), Matt Kean (bass) and Lee Malia (guitar) formed BMTH in 2004. In April 2008 the group entered the studio with legendary producer Fredrik Norstrom (Arch Enemy, In Flames, At the Gates) in an isolated area of Sweden, where they recorded their sophomore album, Suicide Season.
video: The Comedown
BMTH Tour Dates: 11/7 – The Living Room – Providence, RI
11/8 – The Harmony Grange – Wilmington, DE
11/9 – Tremont Music Hall – Charlotte, NC
11/10 – Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
11/11 – State Theater – Tampa, FL
11/12 – The Social – Orlando, FL
11/14 – The Door – Ft. Worth, TX
11/15 – The Java Jazz – Houston, TX
11/16 – White Rabbit – San Antonio, TX
11/18 – Sunshine – Albuquerque, NM
11/19 – Rialto – Tuscon, AZ
11/20 – Juillians – Las Vegas, NV
11/22 – The Troubadour – Los Angeles, CA
11/23 – Slims – San Francisco, CA
11/25 – El Corazon – Seattle, WA
11/26 – Satyricon – Portland, OR
11/28 – The Venue – Boise, ID
11/29 – Avalon – Salt Lake City, UT
11/30 – Marquis – Denver, CO
12/2 – Station 4 – Minneapolis, MN
12/3 – The Rave II – Milwaukee, WI
12/4 – The Metro – Chicago, IL
12/5 – Magic Stick – Detroit, MI
12/6 – Peabodys – Cleveland, OH
12/7 – Mr Smalls – Pittsburgh, PA
12/8 – Opera House – Toronto, ON
12/9 – Club Soda – Montreal, QC
12/10 – Palladium Balcony – Worcester, MA
12/11 – Gramercy – New York, NY
12/12 – Northern Lights – Albany, NY
12/13 – TLA – Philadelphia, PA
12/14 – Ottobar – Baltimore, MD
Darker My Love hit the road with The Dandy Warhols this week. The band are documenting their adventures on their official online Darker My Love TourZine.
US Tour Dates w/ The Dandy Warhols
9/12 Chicago, IL – Vic Theater
9/13 Toronto, ON – Kool Haus
9/14 Montreal, QC – Club Soda
9/16 Boston, MA – Wilbur Theatre
9/17 New York, NY – Terminal 5
9/20 Philadelphia, PA – TLA
9/22 Washington, DC – 930 Club
9/23 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse!
9/26 Lawrence, KS – Liberty Hall
9/27 Denver, CO – Gothic Theater
9/28 Aspen, CO – Belly Up
Toronto sextet Ohbijou will return to the road for a cross Canada run of dates, and their first extensive foray into the United States this fall with good friends, The Acorn, in support of a new 12” split-single. The 12” includes both bands covering a track of the other, and a new original song by each (track listing below). The Co-Headline tour will kick off October 4th in Kingston, ON, and will continue on to October 15th in Victoria, BC, then down the west coast of the U.S., and back up through the Midwest, before wrapping things up on November 29th in Ottawa, ON. Ohbijou released their full-length debut Swift Feet For Troubling Times last summer.
Ohbijou + The Acorn 12”side A
01 – “Tender Bones” – Ohbijou
02 – “Steep” – The Acorn (Ohbijou cover)
side B
03 – “Burrows” – The Acorn
04 – “Darcy” – Ohbijou (Acorn cover)
Tour Dates: Sat. Oct. 4 – Kingston ON – Grad Club #
Mon. Oct. 6 – Sault Ste Marie ON – Loplop Gallery
Tue. Oct. 7 – Thunder Bay ON – Apollo #
Wed. Oct. 8 – Winnipeg MB – Lo Pub #
Thu. Oct. 9 – Saskatoon SK – Amigo’s Cafe #
Fri. Oct. 10 – Calgary AB – Broken City #
Sat. Oct. 11 – Edmonton AB – The Pawn Shop #
Mon. Oct. 13 – Kelowna BC – The Habitat #
Tue. Oct. 14 – Vancouver BC – Media Club #
Wed. Oct.15 – Victoria BC – Lucky Bar #
Thu. Oct.16 – Portland OR – Doug Fir Lounge ++
Fri. Oct. 17 – Seattle WA – Tractor Tavern ++
Sun. Oct.19 – Bend OR – Saint Francis #
Tue. Oct. 21 – San Francisco CA – Hemlock Tavern ++
Wed. Oct. 22 – Santa Cruz CA – Crepe Place ++
Fri. Oct. 24 – Los Angeles CA – Spaceland ++
Sat. Oct. 25 – Phoenix AZ – Modified ++
Tue. Oct. 28 – Denver CO – Hi-Dive ++
Wed. Oct. 29 – Omaha NB – Slowdown ++
Thu. Oct. 30 – Minneapolis MN – 7th Street Entry ++
Fri. Oct. 31 – Madison WI – Cafe Montmartre ++
Sat. Nov.1 – Chicago IL – Schuba’s ++
Thu. Nov. 20 – Hamilton ON – The Casbah #
Fri. Nov. 21 – Guelph ON – Dublin Street United Church #
Sat. Nov. 22 – Peterborough ON – Montreal House #
Thu. Nov. 27 – Toronto ON – Lee’s Palace #
Fri. Nov. 28 – Montréal QC – La Sala Rossa #
Sat. Nov. 29 – Ottawa ON – Barrymore’s Music Hall #
# w/ The Acorn
++ w/ The Acorn & Shaky Hands http://www.ohbijou.com/ http://www.myspace.com/ohbijou
Chop Chop release Screens November 11, 2008 on Archenemy Records. Check out “Northern Armies,” and “C Train David,” from Screens below.
