>AIR TRAFFIC– DEBUT ALBUM & FIRST EVER US TOUR DATES!
Fractured Life
Release Date: Feb. 5th, 2008
Air Traffic's Fractured Life is a debut album of brilliant, occasionally brutal, mood music. They are also an unlikely product of Bournemouth, a Wessex border town on the British Costa Geriatrica with no rock heritage whatsoever. As the group's singer and main songwriter Chris Wall puts it; "There are no music venues, and absolutely no pressure to sound like anyone else. So you have the potential to develop your own style."
Wall's style was fed initially by his Celtic roots. Both his parents are Irish born and bred, and his uncle, Jimmy McCarthy, who still lives in Cork, is a well known folk singer. Wall met his bandmates (drummer David Jordan, bassist Jim Maddock, guitarist Tom Pritchard) and while still in school. It all happened during the academic year when they were up in London, ostensibly studying, in reality, investing their student loans in rehearsal and recording time. Within months an Air Traffic demo provoked a major label bidding war.
After the band were signed to Astralwerks/EMI, Air Traffic set up in Rockfield Studios to begin working on their their new album. Soon after, news arrived of a fatal car crash in Canada which killed a close of friend of Wall's girlfriend. “I never really knew her, but I could feel my girlfriend's grief, and the sense of helplessness was overwhelming”. This swiftly inspired the album's most poignant and beautiful moment, the aching piano ballad, “Empty Space.” The 2 month Rockfield experience was, overall, cathartic. "It made us focus on what we do, and also appreciate how different we are from other bands." That emergent self-realization is unforgettably expressed in “No More Running Away,” a heaven-bound anthemic chant earthed throughout by tribal drum. That sense of empowering otherness found voice in the album's title track, the last song to be written and, like “Empty Space,” a haunting testimony to Wall's growing confidence as a chronicler of complicated emotions.
The challenge now is to communicate them to a world which knows of Air Traffic only as the authors of the riotous indie anthem, “Charlotte,” and the rollicking “Just Abuse Me.” "People who come to watch us play really participate now. They're all shouting and singing along. It's up to us to take our audience somewhere else." Just watch them go. In a world in which it is increasingly easy to confuse things that sound urgent with things that are actually important, Air Traffic are, triumphantly, both.
Air Traffic First-Ever US Dates
10/17 NYC Living Room (Paste Party/CMJ)
10/17 NYC Canal Room (ASCAP Party/CMJ)
10/19 NYC Pianos (Planetary Party/Free)
10/23 LA Cinespace (Dim Mak Party)
10/24 LA Spaceland (NME Night)
10/25 LA The Echo (Hell Ya Night)
>ATHLETE ANNOUNCES 3 EXCLUSIVE US SHOWCASES IN NOVEMEBER
New Album Beyond The Neighborhood Out Now
"A deft balance between the band's early pop sound and their more recent expansion to epic-ness, Athlete's current act is an impressive tightrope walk. On one side are the witty arrangement of their indie roots; on the other is a depth and meticulousness that expands their songs into something much bigger. It's so well done that they don't need a net, as there's really nowhere to fall." - REMIX
"On the band's third album, Beyond The Neighbourhood, Athlete pull out all the stops and penned tunes that deal with the joys and confusions of everyday living. It's more personal and reflective. Not an easy task, but its one that the group does with ease and certainty."- The TRIPWIRE
"Self produced third album sees a band re-energised" - MOJO (UK)
Athlete announces 3 exclusive US showcase dates to support the release of their new album, Beyond The Neighourhood. This is their third album, and is the follow-up to their UK #1 double platinum album Tourist. The band will play the following dates:
11/08 New York, NY Highline Ballroom
11/10 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle
11/14 Los Angeles, CA Troubador
The quartet (Joel Pott, Carey Willetts, Tim Wanstall, and Stephen Roberts) started recording Beyond The Neighourhood in the summer of 2006 in their brand new studio in South London after a whirlwind year and half that included months of worldwide touring for their own sold-out US headlining tours, support slots for U2 in the UK and Europe and Snow Patrol in the US, a stellar performance of their modern rock buzz single “Half Light” on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and was capped off by winning the UK’s prestigious Ivor Novello songwriting award for “Best Contemporary Song” for their track “Wires”.
Producing themselves for the first time gave the band the freedom to record without constraints, and gives Neighbourhood an intimate yet grand feel. As with Tourist and their Mercury Prize nominated/UK platinum debut Vehicles and Animals, Neighbourhood is replete with the guitar-pop hooks that initially brought them masses of dedicated fans, but brims with more complex arrangements, sweeping melodies, and lush orchestration. Lyrically, the band remains true to themselves- singing about their real experiences with a sincerity lacking with many of their contemporaries. The album further establishes Pott as a lyricist of rare imagination and insight.
Beyond The Neighbourhood has a noticeable sonic skip in its stride, as evidenced by the stomping first single “Hurricane”, inspired by an article Pott read in National Geographic about the increase of hurricanes in the Gulf and East Coasts. Following “Hurricane”, the stomping “Tokyo” offers a tail of hypocrisy and the human condition; the claustrophobic “Airport Disco” imagines a future where airports are used as nightclubs because flying is banned; and the breakbeat-driven “It's Not Your Fault” finds hope in tragedy. That brings us to the gorgeous but biting “The Outsiders” which, as Pott wryly puts it, "is about being English"; the skittering electro lullaby “Flying Over Bus Stops”, which is surely the most romantic song ever to be set on a London night bus; and the anthemic “Second Hand Stores”, a song inspired by a story Pott read about nature falling out of synch with itself.
The album draws to a close with “In The Library”, which is about “growing up and taking responsibility for yourself” and the tragic “Best Not To Think About It”, which Pott wrote after watching Falling Man, the documentary about those who jumped from the World Trade Center on 9/11. The final song is the heart-tearing “This Is What I Sound Like”, a track inspired by one of the Israeli agents in Spielberg's Munich film. “It's about being confused,” says Pott. “Not knowing whether you're a good or bad person, or what you're doing is right or wrong. It's really a summing up of the whole album. ”
Athlete will be available for interviews. For more info please contact: Alison@astralwerks.com
>SMALL SINS TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED
"Brandishing an impressively flamboyant quiver, Thomas D'Arcy makes doomed romantic obsession sound like an appealing proposition on this throbbing neo-new-wave romp"- Spin
"Thomas D'Arcy and his accompanying assemblage are so quirky, yet so crafty, that you'll find yourself double-checking each song and its many layers…The complexity solidifies the album's staying power, while D'Arcy's warmly tense vocals keep it real."- Remix
Mood Swings, the new album from Small Sins, starts with a bang—literally. “If you give me the gun, well, I'll shoot myself in the foot” are the first words on the album sung by Small Sins frontman/mastermind Thomas D’Arcy. He doesn’t stop there. Nearly every song on Mood Swings ricochets with gun imagery—a stunning contrast to the album’s hypnotic tapestry of shimmering electronics, organic instrumentation, and D’Arcy’s ongoing quest for the most shameless pop hooks possible. “It wasn’t on purpose,” D’Arcy explains, claiming that, other than a short stint in his university gun club, he’s no firearms enthusiast. “It’s a good metaphor for what I was trying to say this time. A loaded weapon is something anxious: there’s always the underlying potential to explode.”
Don’t be surprised, then, if Mood Swings, D’Arcy’s second album under the Small Sins moniker, blows up: he’s aiming at newer, higher targets following the success of Small Sins’ self-titled 2006 Astralwerks debut. Small Sins proved a masterpiece of wistful chamber-pop, its hushed, electro-tinged narratives of love lost and found finding wide acclaim. Blender called it a “lovely piece of campfire synth-pop”, while Spin opined memorably, “Imagine if Jack White had a crush on Kraftwerk.” But after touring the US relentlessly with the likes of Scissor Sisters, The Kooks, The Little Ones, Sloan, and Radio 4, D’Arcy’s modus operandi for Small Sins began to change. For one, it started to resemble an actual rock band. Well, sort of, anyway…
Originally, D’Arcy consciously conceived Small Sins as a self-contained solo unit- not only singing and playing every instrument on his debut album, but also writing, producing, and recording it entirely on his own. As D'Arcy began to perform live with four exceptional musicians: Steve Krecklo (guitar, banjo, keyboards) Todor Kobakov (keyboards), Brent Follett (drums), and Kevin Hilliard (percussion, handclaps), they found themselves occasionally writing together and talking about future recording plans. It was inevitable that D'Arcy would involve them in the making of Mood Swings.
As such, the album proves even richer and more assured than what D’Arcy himself felt he was ever capable of. Like an electro-pop remix of a Coen Brothers movie, the album belies D’Arcy’s darkly humorous ruminations on longing and revenge with seductively cheery upbeats. Each song provides a major stepping stone in D’Arcy’s mission to create the ideal pop artifact with Mood Swings: a cycle that works track-by-track for the iPod generation, but ultimately stands on its own.
Hear "I Need A Friend" on NPR's "Song of the Day": http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14717895
10/23 Portland, ME Space
10/24 Cambridge, MA TT the Bears w/ Film School, Land of Talk
10/25 New York, NY Mercury Lounge w/Film School, Land of Talk
10/26 Brooklyn, NY Luna Lounge
10/27 Philadelphia, PA The Khyber w/Public Record, Lodger, Brown Recluse
10/28 Washington DC Black Cat Backstage w/XYZ Affair
11/03 Austin, TX Waterloo Park Fun Fun Fun Festival
11/05 Tucson, AZ Plush
11/07 Los Angeles, CA Spaceland
11/08 San Francisco, CA Popscene
11/09 Portland, OR Holocene w/Emma Pollack
11/10 Seattle, WA Sunset Tavern
11/20 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry
>BABYSHAMBLES
Shotter's Nation
Release Date: October 23, 2007
No band of recent times has split opinion as much as Babyshambles. But this, at last, is the moment both fans and doubters have been waiting for – because Babyshambles' second album Shotter’s Nation showcases the band at their very best.
Peter Doherty: "I don't want to say anything that knocks any other records I've made, but this time around we've made a record that's simply a great record. I'm so proud of it… it's almost sad really that I’ve had trouble putting on records that I've made and this time it's really natural: we've made a record – let's listen to it and enjoy it."
Peter's being modest, though. Teaming up with legendary producer Stephen Street (Blur, The Smiths), this is the record that Peter Doherty and Babyshambles always had the potential to make. Recorded in just a few weeks in Olympic Studios, London, the songs display a breadth the band have always hinted at but never really captured on record.
Stuffed with lyrical insights, Peter Doherty and Babyshambles have poured their heart and a huge array of influences into Shotter’s Nation, producing an album that's as spontaneous as anything they’ve done before but swells with a series of tunes set to win over doubters.
Shotter’s Nation is a record for fans and newcomers alike with each listen revealing new complexities in the arrangements. Forget the obsessions of celebrity media: this is about the music. This is the album that Peter Doherty and Babyshambles have always promised to make.
Babyshambles are:
Peter Doherty – Voice & Guitars
Mick Whitnell – Guitars
Drew McConnell – Bass
Adam Ficek – Drums
>THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS
"The Salmon Dance"
(Digital Single)
The Chemical Brothers, fresh from the success of their US tour and UK Number 1 album (their 5th straight one) We Are The Night, have released their second single "The Salmon Dance" featuring vocals by Fatlip.
"The Salmon Dance" is the perfect messed-up nursery rhyme, with Fatlip of Pharcyde fame talking through the lifecycle of a salmon, all over an inebriated beat that is one of the most unique and quirky tracks Tom and Ed have ever produced. The single comes backed with an amazing remixes, with the Glimmer Twins, Herve and Crookers all giving it their magic touch.
Video directors and long-term collaborators Dom And Nic have directed the trippy new animated video for "The Salmon Dance". You can check it out here: http://www.astralwerks.com/chemical/default.html
Also be sure to check out Sammy The Salmon's very own myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/sammysalmondance
www.thechemicalbrothers.com
www.myspace.com/thechemicalbrothers
>CASSIUS
15 AGAIN
Release Date: October 23, 2007
When Cassius exploded onto the US dance scene in 1999 with their album of the same name, their pedigree as producers and dance music pioneers was already well established, having founded Motorbass and produced French hip-hop artist MC Solaar.
Part of a tight-knit Parisian scene that has given rise to Daft Punk, Air, Phoenix, and more recently, Justice and the Ed Banger label roster, Cassius (Phillipe Zdar and Hubert Boombass) are highly respected composers/producers who are also known for their infamous decks’n’sampler DJ sets. Through various friends, they came to the attention of Pharrell Williams who recast an instrumental track from their previous album Au Reve and wrote new lyrics and transformed it into the eco-anthem “Eye Water”, one of the musical cornerstones of the new album 15 Again.
For the rest of the recording process, the band retreated to Ibiza, setting themselves strict deadlines and bringing in live musicians and singers rather than relying solely on sampled sources for vocal hooks and beats. For the first time, Zdar handles vocals duties with the help of soul siren Gladys Gambie and the results are an edgy hybrid of dance, pop and soul with liberal splashes of rock guitar.
Currently hitting the European live circuit as a fully-fledged live act, Cassius continue to be a force to be reckoned with, whether cranking out dancefloor stormers such as “Toop Toop” or writing emotionally engaging downtempo mood pieces such as the exclusive U.S. bonus track “Shame Shame Cherie”.
VHS OR BETA CO-HEADLINE U.S. TOUR WITH MOVING UNITS!
CAN'T BELIEVE A SINGLE WORD" ALREADY ADDED AT RADIO STATIONS NATIONWIDE: Q101 /CHICAGO, INDIE 103/L.A., WWCD/COLUMBUS, WFNX/BOSTON, KWOD/SACRAMENTO, KFOG SAN FRANCISCO, KBZT SAN DIEGO, WHTG/MONMOUTH (ATLANTIC CITY)
"Bring On The Comets" Apocalyptic Dance Rock Anthem of the Year - Blender.com
Superior pop craftsmen - URB
When Louisville, Kentucky natives VHS OR BETA released their Astralwerks debut Night On Fire in 2004 they were quickly heralded as one of rock’s “Best New Bands” by Blender, and “Artist To Watch” by Rolling Stone, achieved break out sales internationally and topped the CMJ College charts.
VHS OR BETA’s creative core Craig Pfunder (guitar/vocals), Mark Palgy (bass) and Mark Guidry (drums) makes its boldest move yet with the recent release of their third full-length album, Bring On The Comets. Recorded with up-and-coming producer Brandon Mason (Secret Machines, David Bowie) in Asheville, NC and Nashville, TN their third full-length studio album provides heartfelt anthems with a newfound discovery of musical freedom, a shedding of previous expectation and boundary, and an undeniable attention to the craft of songwriting. To celebrate the release of this album, VHS OR BETA is proud to announce an extensive Aug/Sept tour. These dates will not only include a brand new guitar player, Mike Mcgill but will feature Mark Guidry on a full live drum kit in addition to his electronic rhythm equipment.
To celebrate the release of this album, VHS OR BETA is proud to announce an exclusive co-headlining North American tour with Moving Units. These fantastic VHS OR BETA live dates will not only include a brand new guitar player, Mike Mcgill but will feature Mark Guidry on a full live drum kit in addition to his electronic rhythm equipment.
VHS OR BETA Tour Dates
10/5 Covington, KY Mad Hatter Club
10/6 Athens, OH U. Of Ohio
10/7 Pittsburgh, PA Carnegie Mellon U.
10/18 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
10/19 Detroit, MI Magic Stick
10/20 Bloomington, IN Buskirk Chumley Theatre
10/26 Mexico City, MEX Foro Scotiabank
With Moving Units
11/12 Washington, DC Black Cat
11/13 Baltimore, MD Ottobar
11/14 Grantham, GA Messiah College
11/15 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church
11/16 New York, NY Blender Theater
11/17 Atlantic City, NJ HOB Harlem Club
11/19 Boston, MA Paradise
11/20 Montreal, PQ Club Soda
11/21 Toronto, ON Lee's
11/23 Chicago, IL Abbey
11/24 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry
11/27 Seattle, WA Chop Suey
11/28 Vancouver, BC Richard's
11/30 Sacramento,CA Harlow's
With Foreign Born
12/1 San Francisco, CA Slim's
12/2 Los Angeles, CA El Rey
12/3 San Diego, CA Casbah
12/4 Tucson, AZ Plush
Solo
12/6 Denver, CO Bluebird
12/7 Kansas City, MO Record Bar
12/8 St. Louis, MO Gargoyle, Wash Univ.
>THE ALIENS FALL TOUR UNDERWAY!
Ex-Beta Band members land in the U.S. to support Astronomy For Dogs
“Seldom do aural hallucinations feel this triumphant- or this real.” - Spin
Ladies and gentlemen, The Aliens have landed. The Scottish trio, Gordon Anderson, John Maclean and Robin Jones, have between them, been responsible for some of the most enthralling British music of the last decade. School friends Anderson and Maclean met Jones at Edinburgh College of Art, and musical collaborations soon followed. All three were founding members of The Beta Band, under which moniker Maclean and Jones spent 8 years touring, recording, DJing, making films and wearing jumpsuits with fluorescent piping. Anderson co-wrote “Dry The Rain,” the defining single which secured a record deal for the band.
For Anderson however, things weren't quite so simple. While his band mates were in London signing their record contract, Anderson was entering a Scottish psychiatric institution, looking for help with the mental illness that was making his life impossible. It has taken him the best part of a decade to leave such places behind, but he is now out of the hospital and off medication. He’s released the odd record under the name Lone Pigeon, and worked with his brothers Kenny (aka King Creosote) and Ian (aka Pip Dylan).
The Beta Band split in 2004. By 2006, with Anderson out of the hospital, The Aliens released Alienoid Starmonica, a four song EP that was as intense as it was fleet-footed. And finally, 2007 leads us to the release of their self-produced debut album, Astronomy for Dogs.
THE ALIENS REMAINING FAL TOUR DATES:
10/2 Seattle, WA Crocodile Café
10/3 Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge
10/5 San Francisco, CA Slim's
10/6 Los Angeles, CA LA Weekly Detour Festival
>DIGITALISM US TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED
Debut Album Idealism Out Now
If Franz Ferdinand make rock music that girls could dance to, Digitalism make electronic that everyone can rock out to. The Hamburg-based duo's (Ismail "Isi" Tuefekci and Jens Moelle) debut album Idealism was released on June 19, and is already one of the most highly acclaimed releases of the year.
""I am the biggest party ever," boasts the sole line of "Home Zone," and that might not be such an outrageous claim. 3.5 stars"- Spin
"Two must be the magic number when it comes to pumping out roof-raising house anthems" - Pitchfork
""Digitalism make dance music that rocks, often literally."- Interview
"Idealism plays like an exhilarating journey through space with eerie 2001 vibes punctuating the grinding robot rockisms."- URB
"…Digitalism might very well be the poster boys for dance music in 2007"- Remix
"Digitalism melds rock distortion and dirty dance beats to create something out-of-this-world."- XLR8R
"Idealism is full of fleshed-out freestyle rhythms juxtaposed with stompy synth crunches and wooly cracks of the snare…"- CMJ Music Monthly
"Idealism is a dance-floor classic in its own right."- Genre
You can catch Digitalism on the following dates:
10/10 Boston, MA Middle East
10/11 New York, NY Studio B
10/12 Philadelphia, PA Making Time @ Pure
10/18 Cleveland, OH Grog SHop
10/19 Chicago, IL Smart Bar
10/22 Seattle, WA Chop Suey
10/23 Portland, OR Doug Fir
10/26 San Francisco, CA Mezzanine
10/27 Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles Coliseum (DJ Set)
>PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL
“You Are The Space Invader” (Digital Single)
Release Date: October 23, 2007
“You Are The Space Invader” is the third single from Prinzhorn Dance School's critically acclaimed debut release for DFA and the undeniable pop-song centerpiece that the relentlessly cohesive album hinges upon.
In keeping with the last two singles this release is extraordinarily sparse - a pent up blast of rock minimalism, with distended drums, strident hook-laden bass, spiky guitars and those distinctive vocals. This record shouts out at you from somewhere new and jarringly original. And you will not get it out of your head.
The single package will also include exclusive brand new B-sides, “1,2,3,4, 5” and “Wheat For the Locust” plus the impressive Optimo Espacio Remix, which gives an anthemic and acidic take on the track.
Optimo (Glasgow’s DJ Twitch and remix partner Dave Clark) create a remix that is undeniably dance floor friendly, this is sure to be top of every indie DJs play list. And if it’s not, it should be.
“We asked our friends at Optimo to remix our track because when we played at their night in Glasgow they DJ-ed afterwards and we couldn't get off the dance floor”. – Suzi Horn
On this record “there is no room for anything that doesn’t work: every word, hi-hat, bass thump and wiry single-string guitar line becomes an event. And, damn it, Prinz and Horn own that shit.” - OC Weekly
“Coming off as both magically attuned and profoundly alone, Tobin Prinz and Suzi Horn bait each other like two sides of the same brain. With stripped-down vocal harmonies that allude to hooks without straining for them.” - Pitchfork
“The UK boy-girl duo specializes in the primitive post-punk, stumble-funk that made legends out of Rough Trade pioneers like The Slits and the Pop Group...inspired by the rant-and-repeat of the Fall, except they're hectic enough to make Mark E. Smith sound like Al B. Sure. ” – Rolling Stone
“Deceptively simple music, thought-provoking and strangely compelling.” -
All Music Guide
“This is an incredibly well-constructed and assured debut…it might not be dance music, but damn if it isn’t just as enthralling.” - CMJ
“Modern primitive rhythms….” - Soma
“Irresistible” - Village Voice
>ED HARCOURT
Until Tomorrow Then – The Best Of
Release Date: November 20th, 2007
Its been seven years, five albums and countless great songs since Ed Harcourt's eye-opening debut. Thus, this is a fitting time to take stock of one of the most startlingly original, diverse and consistently inventive bodies of work in the annals of British singer-songwriting.
Until Tomorrow Then compiles tracks from all five of his studio albums, from the scratchy, piano-and-empty-bottle etude of “Apple Of My Eye” taken from 2000's debut mini-album Maplewood to the insanely catchy baroque-pop of “Visit From The Dead Dog” from his most release, 2006's The Beautiful Lie. Along the way the collection takes in the witty playfulness of “Shanghai” (from 2001's Mercury Prize shortlisted Here Be Monsters), the aching lyricism of “Fireflies Take Flight” (from 2003's From Every Sphere) and the euphoric surge of “Born In The '70s” (from 2004's Strangers), plus nine other Harcourt classics. In addition, there are two previously unreleased tracks, including the newly-minted “You Put A Spell On Me”, a sumptuous minor-key masterpiece already destined to go down as one of his finest compositions.
Yet once you've heard him, he's one of those artists whose songs you instantly feel you've known all your life. It's an enviable gift reserved only for the very best - and as this collection proves, Ed Harcourt stands tall and true among them.
Tracklisting:
1. Born In The 70s
2. She fell Into My Arms
3. Black Dress
4. All Of Your Days Will Be Blessed
5. This Ones For You
6. Apple Of My Eye
7. Visit For The Dead Dog
8. Something In My Eye
9. Watching The Sun Come Up
10. Lonlieness
11. Fireflies Take Flight
12. Shanghai
13. Shadowboxing
14. Whistle Of A Distant Train
15. Until Tomorrow Then
16. You Put A Spell On Me
>THE LITTLE ONES ON TOUR WITH VOXTROT
After successful tours with Gomez , Small Sins, The Boy Least Likely To, and The Kaiser Chiefs, Los Angeles' Little Ones head out on the road once again. In between the tours the band have been busy in the studio working on their full-length debut album due out on Astralwerks in ealry 2008. Stay tuned for more details.
10/03 Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock Social Club
10/04 Chicago, IL Metro
10.05 Athens, OH Baker Theater
10/06 Washington, DC Black Cat
10/07 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church
10/12 Northampton, MA Pearl Street
10/13 Cambridge, MA Middle East Downstairs
10/14 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
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