Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Russian Circles add more 10th anniversary shows


Russian Circles celebrate their 10th year as a band starting this December with a series of special shows on the East Coast and Denver. Today, the band announces more anniversary shows on the West Coast in January. Sargent House label mates Mutoid Man (a new trio featuring guitarist Stephen Brodsky of Cave In, drummer Ben Koller of Converge and bassist Nick Cageao) support on the East Coast shows. Mamiffer (featuring Aaron Turner ex-Isis) support on the West Coast dates. 

Russian Circles formed in Chicago in 2004 by guitarist Mike Sullivan and drummer Dave Turncrantz. The trio's 2006 debut Enter quickly established the band amongst heavy instrumentalist peers. With the addition of former Botch and These Arms Are Snakes bassist Brian Cook on their second album Station, Russian Circles solidified its lineup. To date the band has released 5 critically-praised albums and continues to headline tours worldwide.

Russian Circles' most recent album Memorial is available on LP, CD and download worldwide via Sargent House, released on October 29th, 2013. Stream/share Memorial in full HERE

RUSSIAN CIRCLES TOUR 2014-2015
12/09  Hamden, CT @ The Ballroom at the Outer Space *
12/10  Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair *
12/11  Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg *
12/12  Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts *
12/14  Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel *
12/27  Denver, CO @ Gothic Theater 
01/20  Seattle, WA @ Neumos #
01/21  Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom #
01/23  San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall #
01/24  Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy #
01/25  San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar #

* w/ Mutoid Man
# w/ Mamiffer



Artist: Russian Circles
Album: Memorial (STREAM)
Label: Sargent House
Release date: October 29th, 2013

Track list:
01. Memoriam
02. Deficit 
03. 1777 
04. Cheyenne
05. Burial
06. Ethel
07. Lebaron
08. Memorial 











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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Bella Novela share another track from forthcoming album, play SoCal album release shows

"Bella Novela say they love both Iron Maiden and Abba 'with equal levels of intensity,' and it sounds like they probably love Heart and maybe Thin Lizzy too. They also sound a bit like a 'less indie' version of that new Ex-Hex album." -- Brooklyn Vegan


L.A. prog-pop-rock trio Bella Novela share another track from their forthcoming sophomore album Telemetry today via PopMatters. The wildly dynamic tune "Four Walls" is available to hear and share HERE. (Direct Soundcloud link HERE.)

Bella Novela celebrate the release of the album starting this weekend with a series of Southern California shows. Please see complete dates below. 

The band previously shared the album's title track via Brooklyn Vegan. That song is available to hear and share HERE. (Direct Soundcloud link HERE.)

Bella Novela was voted among the 10 best live bands by LA Weekly in 2014, and OC Weekly named them among five most underrated bands in Orange County. 

The band’s forthcoming third album Telemetry is once again a concept album, like their previous rock opera The Archeress which chronicled the last woman on earth and her battle for survival in a post-apocalyptic world. The concept of Telemetry is based on a popular 1980’s Mexican telenovela entitled “Cuna de Lobos.” They’ve been described in print as “Pat Benatar meets Iron Maiden,” “Metallica meets Queen,” and “a ballsier Gwen Stefani backed by a guitarist who could be fronting Muse with Meg White on steroids pounding the drums.”

The band released a demo of songs, Battlelines, in 2010 and toured across the United States selling CDs and handmade T-shirts for gas money out of their converted prison transport van, guarded with steel mesh-covered windows. Upon the release of The Archeress in 2013, the title track was featured on L.A.'s longstanding freeform radio station KLOS 95.5’s ‘Heidi and Frank Show’ in their weekly segment “Stay or Go,” receiving the highest percentage of listener approval for the entire year. They were later invited to headline the 95.5 KLOS end- of-the-year listener party, SOGFest.

Telemetry will be available November 25th on LP, CD and download via Bella Novela Records. 


BELLA NOVELA LIVE:
11/21 Long Beach, CA @ The Prospector (Album release show)
11/22 San Diego, CA @ Bar Pink
11/29 Los Angeles, CA @ Redwood Bar + Grill


Artist: Bella Novela
Album:  Telemetry
Label: Bella Novela
Release Date: November 25th, 2014

01. TKO
02. Telemetry (STREAM)
03. Masquerade
04. Corazon
05. Lenora
06. Four Walls (STREAM)
07. Eye For An Eye
08. Leave It All Behind
09. Catalina

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Wednesday, November 19, 2014

NYC soulful rockers Blue and Gold share first single from upcoming album


"Blue and Gold channel the best and most soulful parts of the classic rock canon...Would be just as much at home on a Black Keys record as it would on a Stax record." -- Blah Blah Blah Science

"Nothing overly fancy, just loud guitars, earth shaking drums, and in your face, ass kicking and leave a footprint vocals." -- Pancakes and Whiskey

New York quartet Blue and Gold share the first single from their forthcoming full length debut today via Purevolume. The album title track "In My Head" is available to hear and share HERE. (Direct Soundcloud link HERE.)

The 2-girl, 2-guy outfit play a NYC album release show on January 10th, 2015 at the Mercury Lounge. The full album is available for pre-order -- physical HERE and digital HERE.

Picture a crowded party. It's sweaty, rowdy, and most of all, it's raucously loud. That's the experience of a Blue and Gold show, and it's the atmosphere they've captured on their debut album, In My Head.

The band formed in 2013, but the members of Blue and Gold go way back. Both singers and guitarists, Alex Kapelman and Chloe Raynes, started developing their musical chemistry in their college cover band, serenading drunken coeds with everything from Led Zeppelin and Green Day to Pat Benatar and No Doubt - so long as it rocked hard. Blue and Gold's other half goes back even further. Both students of the pop punk movement, GG Gonzalez and Derek Cabrera have been band-mates since high school. Alex and Chloe recruited GG first, blown away by her heavy-hitting, take-no-prisoners drumming style. Derek rounded out the quartet a few months later, supplying the group with his brand of punk, supplemented by a heavy dose of jazz, which he studied as an undergrad. 

These four musicians developed their chemistry on stage first, playing high-octane shows around New York City. Now with In My Head, Blue and Gold have created a debut bursting with as much swagger as their live show. It's also a meticulously crafted statement from a cohesive team. "I love the way the four of us make music together," Alex says. "It's raw and dirty and every piece fits together perfectly."

You can hear that perfect fit in the album's lead single, "In My Head," a tumult of wailing guitars and interweaving vocals. Shot through with adrenaline and dripping with a treacherous kind of romance, "In My Head" sets the tone for the whole album. The group also blends its influences on its second single, "Tommy Gun." The track starts out with jangly guitars and sunny surf rock melodies. But the band quickly blasts away that mellow mood with crashing cymbals, massive riffs, and pulsing bass. It's a fitting juxtaposition for a song about love in the trenches. Expect earworm hooks and harmonies and fierce blasts of sound - but most of all, expect a party.

In My Head is available on CD and download on January 13th, 2015 via ByrdHouse Records


BLUE AND GOLD LIVE:
01/10  New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge (Album release party)


Artist: Blue and Gold
Album: Blue and Gold
Label: ByrdHouse Records
Release Date: January 13, 2015

01) In My Head (STREAM)
02) I Will Not Wait
03) Heartbreaker
04) Bowery Ball and Chain
05) Tommy Gun
06) I Can't Breathe
07) Make You My Baby
08) Wastin' Time
09) Soho
10) Don't Let Me Be

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Friday, November 14, 2014

Austin jazz-punks Bee vs. Moth share new video, announce winter shows

Click image to watch video

“I fall in love with maybe two, maybe three jazz records a year. But every once in a while something comes along and perks me up. I hear the sounds of Ornette Coleman and the band Television. And sometimes in the same song.” - Bob Boilen, NPR


Austin jazz-punk group Bee vs. Moth share another video from their new album today via Brooklyn Vegan. The clip for "Machine Room Reverie" is available to watch/share HERE. (Direct YouTube link HERE.) Bee vs. Moth have lined up a variety of Austin shows for the winter. Please see current dates below. 

The band recently premiered the first video from the album via Austin Chronicle. The clip for "It Looked Good In The Showroom" is available to watch and share HERE. The band's entire new album is streaming in full (all tracks cleared for posting) HERE

Bassist Philip Moody and drummer Sarah Norris started Bee vs. Moth together, and began performing in 2004. The band has since grown into a diverse, rotating cast with ambitious arrangements featured in film and television scores, original videos, and live shows in Austin and throughout the country. 

Shelter in Place delivers the power and wit Bee vs. Moth fans expect from a band that likes its jazz served with a New Wave punch. But for this record, their third studio release, the band adds a kaleidoscope of new sounds with strings, saxes, brass, organ, and found percussion front and center. Working in a garage studio for several months with friends from varied corners of Austin's music scene, the band expanded its creative process to produce a focused and intensely creative result.

Shelter in Place will be released September 9th, 2014 on CD and download. The record follows the band’s 2007 debut, Soundhorn, and 2010's acclaimed Acronyms.

Bee vs. Moth also continues to produce unique film and recording projects. The 2012 SXSW Film Festival commissioned the band to debut a new silent film score for Ernst Lubitsch's The Oyster Princess (1919). This followed Bee vs. Moth’s acclaimed score to Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman. The band’s songs made their second appearance in a season of PBS’ Roadtrip Nation. Currently, Bee vs. Moth is collaborating with Austin band The Invincible Czars to re-imagine the symphonic masterpiece Pictures at an Exhibition for an 11-piece double rock band, complete with horns, strings, guitars, drums, and percussion.

BEE VS MOTH LIVE:
12/09 Austin, TX @ Holy Mountain 
12/20 Austin, TX @ Vortex Theater - Yule Bazaar
01/23 Austin, TX @ Carousel Lounge



Artist: Bee vs. Moth
Album: Shelter In Place
Label: Aggraveire Music
Release Date: Sept. 9th, 2014

01) It Looked Good In The Showroom
02) Pitch Helmet
03) Machine Room Reverie (VIDEO)
04) The Snitch
05) Loop 78
06) Capt. Frank B. Earnest
07) The Buffet of Knowledge
08) Your Dime Ain’t Worth a Nickel (in the Jukebox of My Heart)
09) Problems with Crowds (STREAM)
10) Prints & Photographs
11) Dilute Fantastic





On The Web:

HI-RES PHOTOS & PRESS KIT:

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Pink Avalanche share new track via AV Club, launch tour with Survival Knife (ex-Unwound) tomorrow


Chicago quartet Pink Avalanche share the second single from their forthcoming album today via The Onion AV Club. Listen to and share the track "Petals" HERE. (Direct Soundcloud link HERE.)

Pink Avalanche take to the road starting tomorrow with not one but TWO bands featuring former members of 90s indie-rock darlings Unwound: Survival Knife and Hungry Ghost. Please see complete dates below. 

The band recently premiered the video for "In Empty Spaces" via Noisey. Watch/share video HERE. (Direct YouTube link HERE.)

The title of Pink Avalanche’s sophomore album The Luminous Heart of Nowhere might evoke a sense of an ethereal void, but its music is firmly rooted in midwestern underground rock. The band’s driving, bold melodic sound hearkens to that of myriad midwestern noisemakers like Rodan, Arcwelder and Naked Raygun. That’s not to suggest Pink Avalanche has any sort of retro vibe, but rather that their music clearly captures the essence of their surroundings. 

Oddly enough, guitarist/vocalist Che Arthur (ex-Atombombpocketknife) is rarely home. Working as a highly sought-after live sound engineer for Bob Mould, Russian Circles, This Will Destroy You, Silversun Pickups and more, he spends much of his time on the road. But, as Pink Avalanche reunites Arthur with drummer Adam Reach (The Poison Arrows) - the two of whom had previously played together in the Chicago/Alabama trio Universal Life and Accident, as well as on Arthur’s solo albums - it’s clearly somewhat of a musical homecoming. 

The band began as an in-studio writing project between the pair, tracking basic versions of song as they wrote them. An album quickly began to take shape, and Arthur and Reach began to realize it was time to become a full band. Enter guitarist Kortland Chase (ex-Chatty Cathy) and bassist Pete Croke (Tight Phantomz, Brokeback), their friends and equally seasoned musicians in the Chicago scene. 

From that point, Pink Avalanche took its name from a rare variety of lily flowers and released their debut album Wraiths in late May 2013. Many local and regional stints later, the band entered the studio with Arthur engineering in early 2014 to record The Luminous Heart of Nowhere, an album sure to establish Pink Avalanche as heirs to a revitalized era of heartland post-punk. 

The Luminous Heart of Nowhere will be available everywhere on LP and download on November 18th, 2014 via Past/Futures Records.


PINK AVALANCHE LIVE:
11/14  Chicago, IL @ Subterranean *
11/15  Grand Rapids, MI @ Founder's Brewery *
11/16  Columbus, OH @ Double Happiness *
11/17  Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop *
11/18  Philadelphia, PA @ The Boot and Saddle *
11/19  Washington, DC @ DC9 *
11/20  Allston, MA @ Great Scott *
11/21  Pawtucket, RI @ The Met *
11/22  Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Night Bazaar * w/ Obits

* w/ Survival Knife, Hungry Ghost


Artist: Pink Avalanche
Album: The Luminous Heart of Nowhere
Label: Past/Futures Records
Release Date: November 18th, 2014

01) Chalk and Crimson
02) Petals (STREAM)
03) You Lost Me
04) Oath
05) Silver Tongue
06) Trapped In Amber
07) _
08) In Empty Spaces (STREAM) (VIDEO)
09) _
10) Orbiter Amaranth
11) Breathe Deep
12) Carbon Blank




On The Web:

Friday, November 7, 2014

Three.One.G label shares track from new roster addition WET LUNGS, EP out in December


San Diego label Three.One.G announces the addition of Austin, TX noisemakers Wet Lungs to the roster today, sharing the first track from the band's forthcoming 7-song Vile Hobbies EP. The band features recent Austin transplant, drummer Gabe Serbian (The Locust, Holy Molar) alongside members of The Roller. The download only EP is available December 2nd (pre-order HERE). Listen to and share track "Space Garbage" HERE

More about Wet Lungs HERE. Please get in touch about anything Three.One.G related. 



Artist: Wet Lungs
Album: Vile Hobbies
Record label: Three.One.G
Release date: December 2, 2014

01. Space Garbage (STREAM)
02. Stay Bent
03. Drug Skeleton
04. Overachiever
05. Beach Impediment (Surfin’Tsunami)
06. Near Meth Experience
07. Vile Hobbies

 
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Follow 31G on Twitter: @ThreeOneG

Monday, November 3, 2014

70s punk legends The Pagans streaming new album (their first in 25 years) via The AV Club


Cleveland 70s punk legends Mike Hudson & The Pagans are streaming the band's first new album in nearly 25 years tin its entirety today via The Onion AV Club. Listen/share HERE. (Direct Soundcloud link HERE.) Hollywood High is out November 4th via Ruin Discos

Mike Hudson and The Pagans play a special semi-acoustic set of songs, along with a reading from Hudson's Fame Whore novel on December 6th in Los Angeles at Blue Bag Records, 2149 Sunset Blvd.  

Hollywood High is a very personal account of Hudson's former muse that's as direct and unapologetic as one would expect from the man who penned the punk classic "What's This Shit Called Love?"

"The front cover is a photo of Evita Corby taken by the legendary Irish crooner and bass player Phil Lynott in the dining room of legendary LA club owner Elmer Valentine's house, which burned down shortly afterward," Hudson explains. "The songs on this record are about Mrs. Corby, who I fell madly in love with when the famous LA / Detroit band The Dogs did a cover version of 'Her Name Was Jane,' a song I wrote almost 40 years ago. They flew me out here, she was the chick in the video, our first date was a week in Vegas. Evita is probably best known as the cover girl on Iggy and the Stooges Kill City LP and as the wife of Michael Corby, who fronted the well known 80's band The Babys. I wrote the novel Fame Whore about her and wrote this record about her as well. She was my everything."

Mike Hudson is a survivor. Hudson didn’t earn the designation on a reality show, or by crying on Oprah’s couch. He was born to it - born to chart the folly of man in words and song, like a bard, hell, like The Bard. That is, if ol’ Billy Shakespeare had been raised in Cleveland, Ohio, destined to chronicle the bad decisions and scrapped-metal dreams of a post-Boom generation.

If this all sounds highfalutin to you, perhaps you are unacquainted with Mr. Hudson’s oeuvre. Hudson’s forty year journey through the peaks and valleys of a life fully lived begins in the mid-1970s with The Pagans. A band as crucial to the development -- and perfection -- of American punk as Black Flag, The Misfits or The Germs, The Pagans were a tumultuous group, always on the edge of breaking up or the verge of breaking down. Fueled by lust, chemicals, and the lust for chemicals, The Pagans burned through the late ‘70s and early ‘80s with an intoxicating sense of desperation. Their patchwork discography is a protracted howl of discontent, of frustration, of strangled romance set against Cleveland’s jagged skyline, a single flame burning bright in the night.

But we are not here to provide you with a history lesson. For that, we refer you to Hudson’s soul-scorching memoir Diary of a Punk. After all, we are here to praise Hudson, not bury him. Hudson’s obituary remains unwritten, and his poison pen has retained its deadly prick. After years of sporadic live shows, and genre-redefining collections, The Pagans return with new music that lives and breathes in the present. Except this time, the air filling Hudson’s lungs is the salt-tinged, sun-kissed breeze coming off the Pacific, a stark contrast to the smoke-choked Mistake by the Lake.

After a long stint as a crime reporter in Niagara Falls, New York (see his book Niagara Falls Confidential), Hudson headed West, to the balmier climes of Southern California. Inspired by his new surroundings, Hudson assembled a new incarnation of his legendary band and presents us with a full-length album. The inaugural release of Los Angeles’ Ruin Discos, Hollywood High is a return to form for Hudson. It finds Hudson in fine voice and backed by a stellar cast of musicians, including Phil Lynott's songwriting partner Jimmy Bain (who also played in Dio and Rainbow) on bass, Keith Christopher (Georgia Satellites) on slide guitar, Crazy Marvin Braxton (B.B. King, Ray Charles) on harmonica, Tony Matteucci (The Dogs, Etta James) on drums, and Loren Molinare -- who produced & co-wrote most of the songs with Hudson -- on lead guitar. The man’s throat drips with passion and venom in equal measure. Based upon this new album, Hudson has added romance to his repertoire. Whereas before, any romance to be had in a Hudson song was doomed from the get-go.

On Hollywood High’s opening track “I Need a Date,” Mike sounds as close to giddy as we’ve heard him. The title track follows, hinting at that well-earned doom, but a palpable sense of hope radiates. “Death Letter” is the blues, a juke-joint murder ballad, but one where the killer is full of remorse, and longs to jump in the grave he has just finished digging. “Fame Wh*re” is the album’s centerpiece, a poetic rumination on life, love and madness that recalls the underrated A Monster and The Devil, a masterful 1987 collaboration with The Styrenes. The vibe here is less jazz and more rock n’ roll. It’s sad and it’s beautiful, and Hudson excels in both of these modes. “Just Got Up” brings the old-school snot, showcasing Hudson’s voice in all of its ragged glory. The man’s still got it. Do you? Hollywood High closes with a spirited run-through of latter-day Pagans classic “(Us and) All of Our Friends are So Messed Up.” We are fortunate to have people like Mike Hudson -- hardscrabble folk who have made it through the darkness, and come back to tell us what they have learned. It’s time to listen.

Hollywood High will be available on LP and download via Ruin Discos on November 4th, 2014. 


MIKE HUDSON and THE PAGANS LIVE:
12/06  Los Angeles, CA @ Blue Bag Records 

Artist: Mike Hudson and The Pagans
Album: Hollywood High (STREAM)
Label: Ruin Discos
Release Date: November 4th, 2014

01) I Want a Date
02) Hollywood High (STREAM)
03) Death Letter
04) Detention Home
05) Fame Whore (STREAM)
06) I Just Got Up
07) Dark Angel
08) (Us and) All Our Friends Are So Messed Up






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