About a year ago when the ole SiS blog was started, and we brought in that Band of the Week feature, one of the first bands to grace the sidebar was Kansas City's The Republic Tigers. In the last year, I think it's safe to say that things have worked in the band's favor: they've recently signed on to be the flagship artist of Chop Shop Records, have released their four-song EP, and now have readied their debut full length, Keep Color, due May 6th.
The quintet, fronted by ex-Golden Republic (oh how I miss them, sniffle) guitarist/keyboard player Kenn Jankowski, the band fuse together elements of folk, psychedelia, and symphonic electronic pop that adds up to equal only one thing: catchy catchy good music. Of the dozens songs that make up Color, several of them were featured over the last year on their MySpace page and they've had me eagerly anticipating their debut, especially "Made Concrete."
The band will finally leave the confines of the state of Missouri to premiere their new material at SXSW, and will hit the road later this year to support Color. Make sure to check out their MySpace page where you can stream their EP and learn more about one of the bands you soon will be reading about everywhere.
Because you need to hear "Made Concrete":
Keep Color: 01 Buildings & Mountains 02 Golden Sand 03 Feelin' The Future 04 Weatherbeaten 05 Air Guitar 06 The Nerve 07 Contortionists 08 Fight Song 09 Made Concrete 10 Give Arm To Its Socket 11 Stranger To The Eyes Of A Child-Man 12 Cast On, Cast Off
SXSW Appearances: Mar 13 Cedar Street Courtyard, Filter Party (12:45pm) Mar 13 The PureVolume Ranch, PureVolume Party (7:00pm) Mar 15 Chop Shop Records / Atlantic Records Party (4:45pm)
It was about a year ago that I had discovered the self-titled debut from Beach House, a Baltimore duo whose songs are eerily romantic. Through the use of drum machines, keys and a little guitar, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally don't change too much on their sophomore effort, Devotion. The band follows the same aesthetic as the last time around, keeping things lo-fi while making them that much clearer. "Master Of None" was one of the most played songs on my iTunes library last year, and I won't be surprised if "Holy Dances" or their take on the Daniel Johnston track "Some Things Last A Long Time" doesn't take the cake this year.
Here's the video for "You Came To Me"
The band will be hitting the road this week with The Papercuts, kicking off in their hometown of Baltimore on the 28th.
On the road again: 02/28 Baltimore, MD Gspot 02/29 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506 03/01 Atlanta, GA The Earl 03/02 Birmingham, AL BottleTree Cafe 03/03 Memphis, TN The Hi Tone Cafe 03/04 Hattiesburg, MS The Thirsty Hippo 03/05 Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon 03/06 Houston, TX Walter's on Washington 03/07 Austin, TX Emo's 03/08 Denton, TX Hailey's 03/10 Tucson, AZ Solar Culture 03/11 Phoenix, AZ Modified 03/12 San Diego, CA The Casbah 03/13 Los Angeles, CA The Echo 03/14 San Luis Obispo, CA Steynberg Gallery 03/15 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill 03/17 Portland, OR Holocene 03/18 Seattle, WA Chop Suey 03/19 Vancouver, BC Media Club 03/21 Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court 03/22 Denver, CO Hi-Dive 03/24 Omaha, NE The Slowdown 03/25 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry 03/26 Chicago, IL Schubas 03/27 Cleveland, OH The Grog Shop 03/28 Toronto, ON El Mocambo 03/29 Montreal, PQ Casa del Popolo 03/31 Cambridge, MA The Middle East 04/01 Middleton, CT. Wesleyan University 04/02 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom 04/03 Philadelphia, PA The Barbery 04/04 Washington, DC Rock and Roll Hotel
Oh my, this line up is too good to be true. Yet it is!
Longwave Starsailor Look See Proof Gran Ronde South Cloud Cult Elf Power American Princes Edison Glass Plushgun The Dykeenies The Shackeltons The Red Romance Portugal. The Man Mostly Bears Throw Me The Statue Leopold & His Fiction
Another Monday, another batch of new albums, old tour dates, very old music moguls and very new titty jokes from our own Jose Fritz in the Monday Morning Newsletter
MVD Visual released "Busted Circuits and Ringing Ears," the sordid story of the Grunge rock innovating band Tad last week. For those of us that have seen it, there was a moment of Zen in realizing the band no matter how great, really was too ugly for MTV.
Sundazed Records has released a compilation of Connecticut garage bands of the 1960s. It’s titled Don’t Press your Luck. Even Jamie Jasta was surprised to discover that half a century ago bands used to admit they were from Connecticut. If serviced, Jose Fritz promises to mock their haircuts on an individual basis.
Three Nine Inch Nails song will be available as downloads for Xbox360 and Playstation. Just to ensure you do not become completely sick of the overbearing marketing campaign for Year Zero all tracks have been selected from the 1990s. Mindless Self Indulgence announced a six track Remix EP for the single "Never Wanted To Dance," due to come out March 18th. The disc will have a DVD extra of Jimmy spitting a cup of his own urine onto a crowd. This differs from their live show as the urine normally belongs to the guitarist.
Lindsey Lohan posed nude for New York Magazine this week under the auspices of a Marilyn Monroe-like set of images. The 22 year old actress and singer was described by editor Adam Moss as “Classy, curvey, gorgeous and completely free of her addiction to smocking crack.”
Portishead has promised to appear at Coachella following their first appearance in a decade with a new studio album. Their tour manager has promised to return them to cryogenic stasis after a few U.S. tour dates. They will rest there in the refurbished airplane hangar with all the other bands I haven’t cared about since 1999.
Phantom Planet rose to eminence as The-band-Jason-Schwartzman-played-drums-for. During the recording process for their follow up record Schwartzman left the band seeking attention elsewhere for his abundant bodyhair. Despite that and the loss of their lead guitarist they press on imagining that they are still a band. The ironicly titled album Raise The Dead drops April 15th.
MySpace is making their second naively hopeful foray into the muisc download business. Rupert Murdoch, owner of MySpace suffering a moment of passing naivete, genuinely believes that he can save the record industry from itself.
Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris was found Tuesday wandering aimlessly in Rockefeller Plaza. His doctors assured the press that he is healthy, and back at home with his family where the big bad internets can’t download scarey shiny things to hurt him.
Monday Dolly Parton posted on her website that she will to postpone her U.S. tour for six to eight weeks because of back problems created by her enormous fake breasts. Jose Fritz was so stymied by the absurdity of the situation he was unable to respond at press time.
April is shaping up to be a bangarang month. The week after that ol' Odd Couple record drops, Santogold's album is to be released the following week on April 22nd. Still no name for the album, but what's in a name?
And, if for some unknown reason, you have yet to take the words that I kick to you on a semi-consistent basis as bond, here is some viddy footage of Santogold at the Fader Party and a stream of the single "Creator," to corroborate my suggestion.
Chris Keene (vocals, guitar) and Aurore Ounjian (guitar, vocals, harmonica) formed Mean Creek after years of playing as an acoustic duo. What began as playing with friends in the Boston area has evolved into a powerful foursome that SPIN.com describes as "a sharp blend of country-core." Rounding out the band in the rhythm section is Matt Sisto (bass) and Ken Marcou (drums).
The band has made some major accomplishments since the band's inception (a year and a half ago) including releasing their debut full length Around The Bend and touring the country [editors note: the UK] supporting Straylight Run.
You can catch the band live at their upcoming shows which include a sold out date with State Radio on Friday, February 22 at Pearl Street in Northampton, MA and a Boston performance at O'Briens on Wednesday, February 27 with The Dead Trees and Daro.
Read below to see the lovely Aurore Ounjian answer the 5 questions SIS always asks:
Hailing from Boston, makes us better than all those non-Boston bands because I don’t think Boston bands are any better/worse than non-Boston bands. Your location does, however, affect you as an individual and therefore affects the music you make. We probably sound like a Boston band the same way a lot of bands from California, NYC, or England sound like they're from their designated cities.
Name at least three bands that are still around and touring that you’d love to be on a bill with, and think it fits well There are endless bands we’d love to tour with. Here are a few: R.E.M., Nada Surf, Death Cab For Cutie, Page France, and many more. Your favorite Boston venue to perform in is Great Scott, Axis (R.I.P), The Middle East , the list goes on...
Are there any genres that influence your music conceptually, rather than sonically? (In that you can’t hear from simply listening to the music, but from getting into the structure or mathematics of the song-writing, etc.) Although we are inspired by a lot of different genres, we usually adhere to catchy pop songs with great lyrics. Even though we may not really sound like a pop band, we really appreciate the energy and simplicity of a really good pop song.
Your favorite local bar to hit up when not doing the whole band deal is The salty popcorn at The Silhouette always seems to lure us in.
He's been strung out in heaven. He's thanked God for mental illness. He's .. kicked a guy in the head (we've all seen Dig!, some, like yours truly, way too many times.) And now, Anton Newcombe and company have returned with the 13th (!?) Brian Jonestown Massacre album, My Bloody Underground, the first record to be released on Newcombe's A Records imprint on April 15th.
The new record fittingly contains 13 new songs recorded last August in Liverpool and Iceland. There's even song titles that you could say were influenced by the location of recording, albeit controversial ("Bring Me The Head Of Paul McCartney on Heather Mills' Wooden Peg (Dropping Bombs On The White House).") Mark Gardner of Ride also drops in to contribute to a song, and we're also invited to experience a song written by Newcombe when he was nine, entitled "We Are The Niggers Of The World."
To coincide with the release, Newcombe has crafted a video for every song on the record and has already uploaded them to YouTube, as he also plans to release them on DVD in the near future. Here's the clip for one of my personal favorites, "Automatic Faggot For The People," as we find our beloved singer getting a tattoo on his inner lip.
Download: "Infinite Wisdom Tooth/My Last Night In Bed With You" [mp3]
Well, well, well, what better way to spend your President's Day than to read more of the slanderous accusations of drug use and the odd tour date in Jose Fritz's Monday Morning Newsletter.
We Are Scientists have scheduled the release of their next album for March 5th. It might be named Brain Thrust Mastery but maybe not. We’re not sure. It might be on Virgin records again but probably not. They’re feeling very unconfident after their drummer left. It’s hard to commit to big decisions like this.
Mindless Self Indulgence's new album If will see a release through The End on April 29th. It will be the best album of 2008. End of discussion.
Ours has set up a short set of tour dates after canceling their New Year Eve Show. The release of their new album Mercey is pushed back from March 15th into mid April amid paranoid rumors that Jimmy has run out of Heroin.
Norma Jean has announced that for their new album will be titled "The AntiMother". They are on schedule to be dome by mid-summer. Helmet's Page Hamilton is collaborating on one track.
Many wondered last week why at the last minute My Bloody Valentine was cut from the Coachella concert bill. Kevin Shields came out this week conceding that while his arthritis was a factor, his Alzheimers is the real issue. Coachella founder Paul Tollett said “I envy the elderly and senile, they have Medicare and they get all the best drugs free.”
Sleepercar the side-project of Sparta’s Jim Ward will be out April 22nd. It’s titled West Texas.
On April 4th, Fearless Records will release their Punk Goes Crunkcompilation. It boasts songs by classic rappers and not one but two dead MCs. These classics are covered by the likes of New Found Glory and The Secret handshake proving the age-old lesson: white people should not rap.
Tapes N’ Tapes is putting out a new record, Walk It Off, on April 8th through XL Recordings. The first single is “Hang Them All.” The band in all their open source hippie-dom has posted a version in .flac on their website.
If you hadn’t heard Shihad has ditched their Warner Bros pseudonym of Pacifier in 2004 and are Shihad again. They are so Shihad in fact they are touring Australia to let everyone know that they are sorry about the whole pacifier thing. Their latest album Beautiful Machine comes out this April.
More rumors surface about Scarlett Johansson and her mystery album reportedly due out this Summer. Tom Waits confirms he gave his blessing to the covers album. Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio confirms that he has been acting as producer and that David Bowie guests. On a related note, Jose Fritz confirms that he will write an ode to her breasts in the record review.
The Minnesota quartet Tapes 'n Tapesare back with their second album, Walk It Off, which XL will bring in to this world on April 8. The band unleashed the first mile of said walk with "Hang Them All," an upbeat, mid-tempo number that has the signature moves of Walk producer Dave Fridmann all over and starts off with a guitar lick that's reminiscent of RHCP (?). I like it more now than when I heard it last year at The Paradise here in town and at Lollapalooza. Can't wait to hear the rest of the record, especially that "George Michael" song.
Walk It Off: 01 Le Ruse 02 Time of Songs 03 Hang Them All 04 Headshock 05 Conquest 06 Say Back Something 07 Demon Apple 08 Blunt 09 George Michael 10 Anvil 11 Lines 12 The Dirty Dirty
It seems like it has been a decade, and it more or less has since we last heard anything out of Portishead. Recently, I myself started getting in to the band thanks to multiple spins on that Live PNYC record that co-worker Greg claims is the greatest live record, ever, because it doesn't even sound like it is live. And he's right - if it wasn't for the buried in the mix applause from the crowd, you wouldn't really be able to tell a difference.
So, following up their self-titled second album, the English trio will release Third, their, um, third album, on April 29th in the states. Of the 11 new songs, I know "Machine Gun" is one that has been played live at the ATP Festival they curated, and I'm certain they'll debut a sizable number of them when they played at Coachella the weekend before. Outside of Coachella, no U.S. dates have been announce, but one could hope for more in the distant future.
Third: 01 Silence 02 Hunter 03 Nylon Smile 04 The Rip 05 Plastic 06 We Carry On 07 Deep Water 08 Machine Gun 09 Small 10 Magic Doors 11 Threads
Our band of the week, Look See Proof, doesn't just make great songs, but they also make great videos to accommodate these songs. Look no further than the trusty Stranded In Stereo blog to see the proof. Cheesiest sentence I ever wrote. "Discussions""Casualty""Local Hero"
One of the most important bands that are a part of My Formative Years would be that of The Dandy Warhols. Every two (usually three) years since 1997, I get excited by the prospect of a new Dandys record on the horizon. And now with the band starting to taunt their fans with tidbits about their sixth long player, Earth To The Dandy Warhols, the 13 year old inside of me gets excited again.
The band posted the news yesterday about Earth, due 5/5/08 on their own Beat The World imprint, in the form of a sparkling teaser trailer of the band fiddling around the mixing board to the tune of two songs: though I have no idea what the first song is, the second one is "Talk Radio," one of the five new tunes they've been playing live recently, alongside "Wasp In A Lotus," (Now) You Love Me," and what is either called "Trucker" or "Last Of The Outlaw Truckers." I guess we shall see soon enough.
The Duke Spirit are back with their new album, Neptune, which drops on April 8th via Shangri-La Music. The band have just shot the video for Neptune's first single, "The Step And The Walk," and how about it, we have it for you to view right now:
The UK quintet, fronted by the sultry look and PJ Harvey-esque vocals of Liela Moss, are in New York City this week for three shows at three different venues starting tonight with a show in Brooklyn featuring The Kooks. You should go if you want to, I mean, great Valentine's Day plan if you ask me:
02/12 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 02/13 New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge 02/14 Brooklyn, NY @ Union Hall
Update from Dany Sloan: I was at the show last night out in Brooklyn and it was great. The new songs from Neptune sounded great along with the hits off their last record. Look at these pictures that I took, e-i-e-i-o:
While you're all talking about last night's Grammys or how the Writer's Strike is finally coming to an end, Jose Fritz brings you the real news highlights in our Monday Morning Newsletter.
The Muggabears are immigrating to Denton, Texas this spring with stops in Nashville, Chicago and Philly. Texas governor Rick Perry has stated that they will immediately be deported to their country of origin unless they are willing to help pick lettuce.
Pilot to Gunner reports that they will be recording a new album this march at the Magpie Cage in Baltimore. Expect a release out on Arena Rock in the fall.
Neptune has welded their instruments back into working order and head out on tour this week. They will strike fear in to the hearts of evil men, good men, innocent women small children and everyone except a few old dogs and that deaf janitor in Topeka.
Haunting Oboe Music is on schedule to release on EP per month in 2008. If you recall they were diagnosed with ADD back in September of 2007 and after selling their Ritalin to University of Texas grad students they lacked the focus to complete another full length release.
The dirty old men of Beatcircus, have scheduled album release parties in New York and Boston at The Knitting Factory and The Middle East Café. The new album Dreamland comes out on Cuniform records. O’Death and Humanwivne open, leaving the possibility Beatcircus will be upstaged by Holly Brewer’s revolting tattoos.
Andy from the band Empty Rooms has finished duct-taping his digits back in place following a terrible motorcycle accident in January. Their new EP Lacuna is out and they are playing a few dates in California this March.
Dillinger Escape Plan played the Conan O’Brien show last week creating a completely annoying viral video that completely documents their degenerative transformation into a Faith No more cover band. Check out the performance here.
Hemmingway has recorded and is releasing a series of EPs on Broken Press. Unhappy with their difficult to follow brand of noise rock, they’ve recruited Japanese author/poet Kenji Siratori to ensure the lyrics are incomprehensible as well. To end any question of anyone ever listening to them ever again the last of these EPs will be released only as an Edison cylinders and piano roll box set import-only from Luxembourg.
SXSW has released a massive list of artists playing the March 12-16th festival. The line up includes Peter & the Wolf, the Black Angels, Alina Simone, Dalek, Le Sac vs Pip, Devotchka, Eastern Conference Champions, Tommy Guerrero, The Octopus Project, and hundreds more.
The last three times I was at the movies, they kept showing the trailer for In Bruges, the new movie starring Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes, and that other guy. It starts out leading the viewer to believe it's some action piece, another flick for Farrell, in the role of a hitman, to show off his bad ass abilities. So, he confesses to the Father he's killed someone, Father asks who, he says you, and bang bang he's dead. Then it gets all quasi-zany, and becomes a dark hitman comedy about two guys stuck in Bruges, doing karate on a dwarf and being involved in a montage featuring an all-time favorite Pixies jam, "Something Against You."
What excites me about checking out the movie at one of its "exclusive engagements" in Boston? The fact that Colin Farrell doesn't fake an American accent this time around. It should be a riot.
Stranded In Stereo is having their first ever club night next week in NYC, maybe you should go and check it out. Here's a briefing on the bands that are playing:
SIS Club Night – Wednesday, February 13th at Club Midway (25 Avenue B) NYC F or V to 2nd; F, J, M, or Z to Delancey/Essex
Featuring:
The Red Romance Featuring former members of Ambulance LTD, this New York based five piece are getting ready to take over the world as they’ve gone on tour supporting The Killers, and been mentioned on Entertainment Weekly’s Pop Watch blog. The band will be at SXSW this March, previewing material from their debut full-length which will drop in June.
Apache Beat Apache Beat are a five-piece from NYC that play partly-cloudy pop, synth-wave style. This punk-ish band comes armed with a kind of melancholy edge, and it's powered by the ominous alto of singer Ilirjana Alushaj as she sets the tone for the Beat’s dark melodies, forlorn bass-thumps and murky keys.
Chairlift The trio had their beginnings at college in Boulder, CO, but they've since settled in Brooklyn where they've become part of an exciting circuit of new bands like Yeasayer and MGMT. At first I simply described the band as "weird shit," but realizing that wasn't very effective, I settled on something that made much more sense -- 25th century folktronica. These are the tunes that will get Buck Rogers on the dance floor.
Peasant Peasant, the musical alter ego of Damien DeRose, was created when the small town of Doylestown, PA provided him with the seemingly perfect series of experiences to create an entirely new breed of songwriting and musicianship. Having drawn comparisons to acts as diverse as Elliott Smith and Simon and Garfunkel, Peasant creates his own beautiful and unique style by finding comfort and satisfaction in the mostly dismal environment surrounding him.
The time is near! Dynamic duo Gnarls Barkey is back in effect with the first single "Run" from their sophmore album "The Odd Couple". No word yet on who is to play Walter Matthau, but something tells me Cee-lo is all over that role.
Here is a stream of the single for you to bump at work, and some cover art for the single and album to oggle over in the meantime. The album drops April 15th, so let the excitement ensue! Run- Gnarls Barkey
The Chicago based band The Buddyrevelles has a knack for being compared to bands like Superchunk and Polvo, both artists of the Merge Records stable who are based in North Carolina. So is it safe to say that their sound is something along the lines of Chicago post-rock via Chapel Hill? Something like that.
At any rate, the real point behind today's post is the video for "I Dream of Rodney," the second clip to be made for a song from their latest effort, Don't Quit. The video is based on a true story involving the father of the video's director, who once won a shopping spree at an Ace Hardware. The band goes so far to be as accurate as possible to recreate said shopping spree at the actual Ace Hardware the spree once took place. Do check it out:
A bearded brotherhood is developing betwixt The Roots and TV On The Radio. More specifically, Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio, but the image should still stand. Okayplayer broke the news saying that the collaboration was fuled to record a rendition of Soundtrack For A Revolution. Said revolution will also soundtrack a documentary by Corey Smyth (Blacksmith Corp founder) and be produced/directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman.
Zowwie, you say? Add to this an album packed with contemporary interpretations of freedom songs all to be released as a film and soundtrack CD/DVD package. You can also look forward to a track from The Blind Boys of Alabama and Soulive working with Anthony Hamilton. For whatever reason, there is only blog info on this, but you can read up on some of this at the Okayplayer site!
Our band of the week, Blood Red Shoes, is set to release their debut album this April. Box of Secrets is filled with gems that recall some of math rock's favorites, like Hot Snakes and Kerosene 454. While you're waiting for the record, check out their formidable collection of videos.
It's not just Super Tuesday across the nation in the Presidential race (go and vote, wouldja?), but also in the world of music as a number of releases drop from some of my favorite artists.
My favorite thing about the new Hot Chiprecord is that Joe Goddard is finally getting his due. His highly recognizable baritone vocal has never been more present than on Made In The Dark, whether he's singing the refrain of "Ready For The Floor," or trading jabs and throws with Alexis Taylor on "Wrestlers." It is almost as if their ability to trade verses and choruses is like a good Linkin Park - not that Linkin Park should ever be side by side with the words good, great, or any other positive connotation. The album is definitely not 2006's breakthrough The Warning, as the production on the R&B/soul induced effort harkins back to their debut album, Coming On Strong. The band seems to be trying to find a balance between what made their first two albums great, and I'm sure they will find that in time. Until then, we can enjoy the amazing sequence of songs that lay in the middle of the record, from the laid back title track, to the guitars vs. beats of "One Pure Thought," to the rave-up that is "Hold On," to "Wrestlers."
On their fifth album, Lucky, famed Brooklyn trio Nada Surf continue their mature sounds they have been honing on since 2002's lauded Let Go. The album features typical Nada fare (first single "Whose Authority,") while branching out with tons of string arrangements, most notably on the politically motivated "The Fox." For more of my musings on the record, check out my review of the album over on the Stranded main page.
Welcome to the new way to jump start your week correctly in the form of Jose Fritz's Monday Morning Newsletter. Every Monday, we'll get our week started right with the news that Fritz feels matters most. And away we go.
Mike Patton's score for the short film "A Perfect Place" will see a release through Ipecac on March 11th.
Fight Amputation, the only band known to admit they are from Wilkes-Barre (since Jolly John Robel the Polka king) is back on tour. A total of 28 dates have been announced stretching from their homeland in the Shenandoah to California and back.
Mahjongg has posted their Winter tour dates. If all goes well Jose Fritz will finish writing a record review before they get back to Kansas.
Die! Die! Die! Has cranked out another album of searing painful guitar noises just to validate Steve Albini’s world view. Albini was quoted as saying “This makes me feel funny in the pants.” They will be attending SXSW If you miss their set prepare to be mocked publicly.
Torche's second full-length, "Meanderthal," is set for an April 8th release through Hydra Head Records (vinyl to be released by Robotic Empire). http://www.torchemusic.com/
The president of Trustkill Records admits in an interview that the band Hopesfall is $20,000 in debt not because of their bad deal with his label but because they spent all their money on pussy, beer and drugs. Trabue of Hopesfall responded “Did you say that or did I just think it?”
Expect big concert ticket prices to increase. Ticketmaster has just purchased Ticketsnow for $265 million dollars. That and the recently completed acquisition of Get Me In Ltd. complete the terms of the deal that CEO Terry Barnes signed with Satan back in 1983.
The Weakerthans are on tour starting February 2nd in Toronto. Homeland Security should be processing their paperwork in an expedited manner allowing them to enter the U.S. in March of 2009.
These Are Powers are on tour terrifying the gentle-hearted Americans of both coasts with their deranged version of outré-weird rock and an array of power tools.
Fresh on the heels of last week's release of the Essential Eels best of and Useless Trinkets rarities set, Eelshave announced U.S. dates for their upcoming An Evening With Eels tour. Starting a mere three days after the European dates wrap in Paris, E and the rest of the recent live incarnation (or is he going solo? No one knows) will start in Philadelphia and go up the coast, west through Canada, and then back down and west through the rest of the states, heading home to California to wrap things up. The band will also, as always, kick things off with a warm up show at the Galaxy Theater before the European tour on Valentine's Day. This coming from a band who has a song called "I'm Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn't Break Your Heart." How fitting.
In other E news, I'm certain I also mentioned last week that his book, Things The Grandchildren Should Know, was published in the UK where it has already heralded the bestseller title before it. My copy came in the mail yesterday, and I really haven't wanted to put it down. Early on, it shows E's days of junior high and high school, his first interaction with women, and rather interesting incidents that has adolescent E having two court cases in one day. And another very interesting tale about this time he was caught in the bushes, I won't give that away, though. If you don't feel like buying it via Amazon UK, it will be published in the U.S. this fall.
A Not-So-Useless Tour: 02/14 Santa Ana, CA @ Galaxy Theater 03/28 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church 03/29 Washington, DC @ Sixth & I Historic Synagogue 03/31 Boston, MA @ Somerville Theatre 04/01 New York, NY @ Highline Ballroom 04/02 New York, NY @ Highline Ballroom 04/04 Toronto, ONT @ The Mod 04/05 Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre 04/06 Chicago, IL @ Park West 04/07 Minneapolis, MN @ Pantages Theatre 04/09 Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre 04/11 Seattle, WA @ Showbox Theatre 04/13 Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom 04/14 San Francisco, CA @ Palace Of Fine Arts 04/16 Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theater
Download Audio/Video Tracklisting
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About a year ago when the ole SiS blog was started, and we brought in that Band of the Week feature, one of the first bands to grace the sidebar was Kansas City's The Republic Tigers. In the last year, I think it's safe to say that things have worked in the band's favor: they've recently signed on to be the flagship artist of Chop Shop Records, have released their four-song EP, and now have readied their debut full length, Keep Color, due May 6th.
