Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Zechs Marquise premiere Terroreyes video session, announce winter tour with Thursday and headlining dates




Click image above to watch video



"Forget the Van Halens, if you want to know about a true musical dynasty, look no further than the Rodriguez-Lopez’s! In between Omar, Marcel, and Marfred, these talented hermanos are changing the face of free-form jamming." -- MTV Tres
"Thrusting listeners into chase scenes through psychedelic dreamscapes is nothing new for El Paso prog rock instrumentalists Zechs Marquise. However, the major difference on Getting Paid isn’t the fear of being chased, but of what’s running up behind you." -- Los Angeles Times
"Zechs Marquise knows when to give into its sweaty, twisted vision-quest dalliances and when to let a groove ride." -- Alarm Press
The Mars Volta sibling band Zechs Marquise premiere a live in-studio video session for Terroreyes.tv today. The El Paso quintet performs the title track to their recently released album, Getting Paid. Watch it on Vimeo or YouTube

Zechs Marquise return to the road in November for headlining dates leading into a run of shows supporting Thursday, Maylene & The Sons of Disaster and also of the Sargent House family, Native. Please see complete dates below.

RCRD LBL recently premiered an MP3 for album track "Mega Slap". Check out the MP3 HERE. Stream full album HERE

Zechs Marquise, the El Paso, TX quintet are back with their sophomore album Getting Paid, bringing an intensified swagger to the band's multifaceted psych-prog haze for their most aggressive and versatile effort to date. "We liked that hip-hop attitude," explains drummer Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez of the album title. "Getting your piece, taking yours." And, Getting Paid certainly finds the band fully taking charge of their musical destiny. 

In the years since their auspicious 2009 debut Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare, Zechs Marquise toured extensively throughout the U.S., proving to be a formidable live act supporting Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group and RX Bandits as well as leading their own headlining tours. Zechs Marquise have also grown considerably in other ways. Recent addition Rikardo Rodriguez-Lopez on keyboards and trumpet joins his brothers, drummer Marcel and bassist Marfred alongside guitarists Matthew Wilkson and Marcos Smith contributing to the band's expanded sound. Not only have they reached new plateaus of entrancing riffs and rhythms, but Getting Paid also integrates vocals on select songs, including guest performances by vocalist/guitarist Matthew Embree and El Paso singer Sonny Baker.

Getting Paid was released everywhere on LP/CD/Download on September 27th on Rodriguez Lopez Productions via Sargent House.  

ZECHS MARQUISE LIVE:
11/15  Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald's - Upstairs
11/16  New Orleans, LA @ Howlin' Wolf Den
11/18  Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
11/19  Greenville, NC @ Tipsy Teapot
11/20  Washington, DC @ DC9
11/21  Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
11/22  Allston, MA @ O'Brien's Pub
11/23  New York, NY @ Irving Plaza $
11/25  Toronto, ON @ The Opera House $
11/26  Pittsburgh, PA @ Altar Bar $
11/27  Milwaukee, WI @ The Pabst Theater $
11/28  Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop $
11/30  Atlanta, GA @ The Loft $
12/01  Cincinnati, OH @ 20th Century Theater $
12/02  Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge $
12/03  Pontiac, MI @ iLounge (at Clutch Cargos) $
12/04  Rochester, NY @ Montage Music Hall $
12/06  St Louis, MO @ The Firebird
12/07  Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Music Hall
12/08  Dallas, TX @ Bryan Street Tavern
12/09  Austin, TX @ Antone's Night Club
12/10  San Antonio, TX @ Studio 13

$ with Thursday, Maylene & The Sons of Disaster, and Native






Artist: Zechs Marquise
Title: Getting Paid
Label: Rodriguez Lopez Productions
Release Date: September 27th, 2011


01. Getting Paid (VIDEO - Vimeo) (VIDEO - YouTube)
02. Lock Jaw Night Vision
03. Static Lovers (MP3)
04. The Heat, The Drought, The Thirst, and The Insanity
05. Time Masters
06. Guajira
07. Everlasting Beacon of Light (MP3)
08. Crushin' It!
09. Mega Slap (MP3)






Hi-res cover art, photos and bio:
On The Web:

Members of Zechs Marquise are available for interviews. For more information, please contact Dave Clifford at dave@usthemgroup.com


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Russian Circles new album out today, North American headlining tour in November



"Empros is one of the most viscerally exciting and completely entertaining albums I've heard in a long time. There is perfection in the air and the battle for album of the year just heated up again." 10/10 rating -- Iann Robinson, Crave Online

"It's not a stretch to say it's the band's best album yet." -- Rock-A-Rolla



Chicago trio Russian Circles release their highly anticipated and critically praised new album Empros today. SPIN Magazine recently featured a full album stream preview and all this week AOL Spinner hosts an album listening opportunity as well. 
Russian Circles hit the road yet again this Fall with headlining dates across North America beginning in November. Please see complete dates below. 

The band also recently premiered an MP3 from the new album via RollingStone.com. The song, "Mladek" is available to listen/download HERE.

Russian Circles return with not only their fourth and heaviest album to date -- but also with Empros they're poised to take the crown as innovators reinvigorating the staid trappings of genre. Empros picks up where the anthemic riffs and melodies of 2009's Geneva left off and injects evermore slithering rhythms amid skull-crushing heft with all the visceral intensity of Godflesh, Swans and Neurosis. Put simply, Empros is Russian Circles' Master of Reality: a radical revision of both heavy and melody that is monolithic in its clarity and perfection. Or, like a lone surviving wooly beast emerging from a brutal winter's frost, Empros is the sound of a band shaking the ages from its shoulders with all the brutal force of a behemoth awakened. 

Taking to Chicago's Phantom Manor studio once again with producer Brandon Curtis of The Secret Machines & Interpol -- who also helmed the band's previous album Geneva -- Russian Circles set out to experiment with their sound in new ways that would still reflect their live sound. In so doing, the band reached a new creative apex in which each of the musicians, guitarist Mike Sullivan, drummer Dave Turncrantz and bassist Brian Cook impart a streamlined and intensified attack to their songs that pummels even as it shifts throughout a range of moods and tempos.

The album opens with an imposing mechanical drone leading into funereal guitar notes that are abruptly interrupted by a propulsive drum beat as the proceedings of "309" erupt into something akin to a neo-industrial revision of Celtic Frost. The song lunges through nearly 9 minutes of masterful rhythmic shifts and brutal guitar warfare with such assertive grace it sounds as though the band is throwing down a gauntlet defying all challengers. "Mladek" kicks off with the soaring notes of Sullivan's signature hammer-on guitar arpeggios as Cook's volume-swelling bass notes surge like bubbling molten lava. Turncrantz's innovative rephrasing of the drum pattern elevates the song as it slinks from part to part, guided by the syncopated chatter traded between chiming guitar notes and churning bass. Elsewhere, there are beautiful moments of melodic respite, helping to underscore the album's majestic strength. And, there may even be a few surprises awaiting within the album's six tracks. There are riffs, yes -- many of them. But, with Empros the entire band seems to be the embodiment of the riff itself.

Empros is Russian Circles' first full-length to be released worldwide exclusively via Sargent House, the band's longtime management company and record label that had previously released only the vinyl editions of its three prior albums. It is available everywhere on LP, CD and Download on October 25th, 2011. 



RUSSIAN CIRCLES LIVE: 
11/02  Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald's # 
11/03  Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves # 
11/04  Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest - Auditorium Shores 
11/05  Austin, TX @ Red 7 - Fun Fun Fun Nights (with Boris, Tera Melos & #) 
11/07  New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jack's #
11/08  Atlanta, GA @ The Earl #
11/09  Newport, KY @ Southgate House #$
11/10  Columbus, OH @ Ravari Room #$
11/11  Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick #$
11/12  Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace # *
11/13  Buffalo, NY @ Soundlab # *
11/14  New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom # %
11/15  Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell's # %
11/16  Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church #
1118   Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop #
11/19  Grand Rapid, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme #
11/25  Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge # +
11/26  Seattle, WA @ Neumos # ^
11/28  West Hollywood, CA @ The Troubadour # 
11/29  San Diego, CA @ The Casbah #
12/02  Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club $ >
12/03  Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall $ >

# Deafheaven
$ Young Widows
+ Helms Alee
* Indian Handcrafts
% The Men
^ Crypts
> Anatomy of a Habit



Artist: Russian Circles
Album: Empros
Label: Sargent House
Release date: October 25th, 2011

Track list:
01. 309
02. Mladek (MP3)
03. Schipol
04. Atackla
05. Batu
06. Praise Be Man












On the Web:

Album stream:  Geneva
Album stream: Station 

Hi-res photos, album art, bio and more:


Wednesday, October 19, 2011

65Daysofstatic's Paul Wolinski premieres new video at Consequence of Sound from solo debut as Polinski

Click image above to watch video



"Polinski = Com Truise + Pretty Lights + E.T.... Galactic music of epic proportions is the only way to properly describe this album. A must-buy for sci-fi nerds like myself, and a worth-it if you love losing yourself in music." -- SLUG Magazine

"Coming across like a soundtrack to an 80s sci-fi film never made, this is a rich, pulsating collection of loud, noisy but never anarchic tunes based around deep rhythms and prominent synths." -- Subba Cultcha


Paul Wolinski of British electronic-infused post-rock heroes 65Daysofstatic today premieres the first video from his forthcoming solo debut under the nom-de-tune Polinski. The song "Stitches" is hosted by Consequence of Sound and available to watch HERE

A 2-song digital single for "Stitches" with a non-album B-side will be available on October 25th on iTunes, Amazon or Monotreme Records' web store. The Polinski album, titled Labyrinths mixes sci-fi soundtrack moods with Daft Punk styled beat-laced anthems. It will be released in North America on November 7th, 2011 via Monotreme Records. A video teaser featuring a mash-up of parts from all of the album's songs is available HERE

Check out an MP3 for "Tangents" from the album: stream/download HERE.

After ten years (give or take) on the road and on the record with 65daysofstatic, Paul Wolinski finally steps out from behind that particular outfit's notorious smokescreen and emerges as Polinski, a man with a laptop, some synths and a plan, in the meta-physical sense of the word. 

In our childhood bedrooms and minds, the possibilities were always endless, there were worlds within worlds, and galaxies upon galaxies. If the suburbs outside seemed limited by how far we could get on our bikes, then in the real and unreal realities of space travel and science fiction we were satiated, if only momentarily.  What if your bike could take off? 

And it is to there that Polinski has returned, to soundtrack the impossible possibilities of the sci-fi mentality. Says Wolinski, "this is basically an album I daydreamed of writing back when I was 15 and just learning how to program MIDI...lots of beats and distortion and piano and big melodies, with a dance-y toughness."

Feeding himself a steady diet of 70s and 80s sci-fi movies and endless second hand paperbacks from the golden era of sci-fi publishing, and free of the myopic shortcomings of writing music in a room with 3 other people, this is music that is unconstrained in its search for warp speed, the 1.21 gigawatts that launches the listener back to the future. 

Throughout, John Carpenter-esque synths collide with robot voices, Philip Glass style piano motifs pair up with punching rhythms, gliding melodies soar with the retro-futuristic furor of Bowie-Eno collaborations... Even in the thickest analogue bubblebath, the digital heart beats on. 

Labyrinths will be available on CD, 180-gram black or white vinyl and download on November 7th, 2011 via Monotreme Records.



Artist: Polinski
Album: Labyrinths
Label: Monotreme Records
Release Date: November 7th, 2011

01. 1985-Quest
02. Stitches (VIDEO)
03. Tangents (MP3)
04. Still Looking
05. Like Fireflies
06. Kressyda
07. Awaltzoflight





On the Web:

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Russian Circles stream new album via Spin.com, North American headlining tour starts in November



"Empros is one of the most viscerally exciting and completely entertaining albums I've heard in a long time. There is perfection in the air and the battle for album of the year just heated up again." 10/10 rating -- Iann Robinson, Crave Online

"It's not a stretch to say it's the band's best album yet." -- Rock-A-Rolla


Chicago trio Russian Circles post via Spin.com a full album stream of their forthcoming release Empros today. Listen to the album in its entirety HERE

Russian Circles hit the road yet again this Fall with headlining dates across North America beginning in November. Please see complete dates below. 

The band also recently premiered an MP3 from their new album via RollingStone.com. The song, "Mladek" is culled from their fourth full length, Empros which will be available worldwide via Sargent House on October 25th. Listen/download "Mladek" HERE

Russian Circles return with not only their fourth and heaviest album to date -- but also with Empros they're poised to take the crown as innovators reinvigorating the staid trappings of genre. Empros picks up where the anthemic riffs and melodies of 2009's Geneva left off and injects evermore slithering rhythms amid skull-crushing heft with all the visceral intensity of Godflesh, Swans and Neurosis. Put simply, Empros is Russian Circles' Master of Reality: a radical revision of both heavy and melody that is monolithic in its clarity and perfection. Or, like a lone surviving wooly beast emerging from a brutal winter's frost, Empros is the sound of a band shaking the ages from its shoulders with all the brutal force of a behemoth awakened. 

Taking to Chicago's Phantom Manor studio once again with producer Brandon Curtis of The Secret Machines & Interpol -- who also helmed the band's previous album Geneva -- Russian Circles set out to experiment with their sound in new ways that would still reflect their live sound. In so doing, the band reached a new creative apex in which each of the musicians, guitarist Mike Sullivan, drummer Dave Turncrantz and bassist Brian Cook impart a streamlined and intensified attack to their songs that pummels even as it shifts throughout a range of moods and tempos.

The album opens with an imposing mechanical drone leading into funereal guitar notes that are abruptly interrupted by a propulsive drum beat as the proceedings of "309" erupt into something akin to a neo-industrial revision of Celtic Frost. The song lunges through nearly 9 minutes of masterful rhythmic shifts and brutal guitar warfare with such assertive grace it sounds as though the band is throwing down a gauntlet defying all challengers. "Mladek" kicks off with the soaring notes of Sullivan's signature hammer-on guitar arpeggios as Cook's volume-swelling bass notes surge like bubbling molten lava. Turncrantz's innovative rephrasing of the drum pattern elevates the song as it slinks from part to part, guided by the syncopated chatter traded between chiming guitar notes and churning bass. Elsewhere, there are beautiful moments of melodic respite, helping to underscore the album's majestic strength. And, there may even be a few surprises awaiting within the album's six tracks. There are riffs, yes -- many of them. But, with Empros the entire band seems to be the embodiment of the riff itself.

Empros is Russian Circles' first full-length to be released worldwide exclusively via Sargent House, the band's longtime management company and record label that had previously released only the vinyl editions of its three prior albums. It will be available everywhere on LP, CD and Download on October 25th, 2011. 


RUSSIAN CIRCLES LIVE: 

11/02  Houston, TX @ Fitzgeralds #
11/03  Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves #
11/04  Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest - Auditorium Shores 
11/05  Austin, TX @ Red 7 - Fun Fun Fun Nights (with Boris
11/07  New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jack's #

11/08  Atlanta, GA @ The Earl #
11/09  Newport, KY @ Southgate House #$
11/10  Columbus, OH @ Ravari Room #$
11/11  Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick #$
11/12  Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace # *
11/13  Buffalo, NY @ Soundlab # *
11/14  New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom #
11/15  Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell's #
11/16  Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church #
1118   Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop #
11/19  Grand Rapid, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme #
11/25  Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge # +
11/26  Seattle, WA @ Neumos #
11/28  West Hollywood, CA @ The Troubadour # 
11/29  San Diego, CA @ The Casbah #
12/02  Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club $
12/03  Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall $ 

# Deafheaven
$ Young Widows
+ Helms Alee
* Indian Handcrafts


Artist: Russian Circles
Album: Empros
Label: Sargent House
Release date: October 25th, 2011

Track list:
01. 309
02. Mladek (MP3)
03. Schipol
04. Atackla
05. Batu
06. Praise Be Man












On the Web:

Album stream:  Geneva
Album stream: Station 

Hi-res photos, album art, bio and more:


Thursday, October 13, 2011

65Daysofstatic post track w/ guest vocals by Robert Smith of The Cure via Pitchfork, deluxe album out Oct. 25th

Click image above to watch album teaser video

"Deliriously exhilarating." -- BBC Music

"Ever unafraid to shoot for the stars, 65's fourth album retains the skyscraping elegance of their past work but infuses the familiar guitar-based noise with a heftier dose of electronica. 'Come To Me' features former tourbuddy Robert 'The Cure' Smith on vocals but chopped up as if it was just another sample - there aren't many bands brave enough to do that and ever fewer who pull it off with so much style." -- Rock Sound



British electronic-infused post-rock faves 65Daysofstatic premiere a new track today via Pitchfork that features guest vocals by Robert Smith of The Cure. The song "Come To Me" is available to stream/download HERE.

The song is culled from the forthcoming North American release of 65Daysofstatic's latest album We Were Exploding Anyway in a special deluxe edition that also features the recent Heavy Sky EP. The expanded set will only be released in North America and hits stores on 2xCD, LP and Download on October 25th, 2011 via Monotreme Records

Check out additional MP3s for tracks from the deluxe edition: "Crash Tactics" from We Were Exploding Anyway download/stream HERE and "PX3" from Heavy Sky download/stream HERE.  

65daysofstatic - the name still shrouded in inspirational ambiguity, the band still one of the most arresting live acts on the circuit - arrive at album four reborn. Following years of incessant touring, and three albums in as many years, a break in momentum has given them the breathing space necessary to revaluate their artistry, to focus on fresh ambitions and reach for them. From the underground, over; out of the basements and into the light: this is the Sheffield quartet as you've never heard them before. 

The quintet -- Joe Shrewsbury, Paul Wolinski, Rob Jones and Simon Wright -- scored an unlikely hit in 2004 with their debut album, The Fall Of Math. A critical success, it launched the band into a new league of recognition; here, they would hone their sound, transforming from studio operatives crafting rave music for rockers into a rock band impossible not to rave to. Live, they excelled. Audiences swelled. Album two, 2005's One Time For All Time, furthered their already enviable reputation. Audiences got larger still. In 2007 they released The Destruction Of Small Ideas -- album three was supported not only by domestic treks up motorways, but also by worldwide touring alongside The Cure. The ante had been upped.

But then, silence. A pause. Stasis for the 'static. Rediscovery of music that passed them by before -- Daft Punk, house music, hedonism over IDM headaches -- and a prolonged period of writing where new ideas could exert substantial pressure on the old. Audacious, disregarding of former glories, We Were Exploding Anyway is 65days anew. This is not a rock band with a bit of glitch on the side, all guitars with the slightest semblance of high-BPM beat-craft as underlay; it's a not-so-distant dance party, the purest euphoria as earworms that dig deep and nestle tight. It's an arms-aloft salute to the thrill of letting yourself go in the tide, and riding that rush 'til it leaves you breathless but so prepared to go around again.

We Were Exploding Anyway is a game-changer from a band that has only ever followed its own rules, and now they're broken. Don't pick up the pieces. Leave them. Dance over them. This time, and for all time.

The deluxe 2-CD edition includes bonus 7-track Heavy Sky CD EP. Vinyl edition is heavyweight 180 gm vinyl (dark blue and white versions) and includes a free copy of the album CD, poster and digital download coupon for the Heavy Sky EP. 

Artist: 65Daysofstatic
Album: We Were Exploding Anyway (Deluxe Edition)
Label: Monotreme Records
Release Date: October 25th, 2011

DISC 1
01. Mountainhead
02. Crash Tactics (MP3)
03. Dance Dance Dance
04. Piano Fights
05. Weak
06. Come to Me (MP3)
07. Go Complex
08. Debutante
09. Tiger Girl 
DISC 2
01. Tiger Girl (Wishful Thinking Edit)
02. Sawtooth Rising
03. The Wrong Shape
04. PX3 (MP3)
05. Pacify
06. Beats Like a Helix
07. Guitar Cascades


Hi-res photos, cover art and bio:

On the Web:

Members of 65Daysofstatic are available for interviews. For more information, please contact Dave Clifford at dave@usthemgroup.com

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Italian electronic duo M+A premiere second MP3 from new album out in November

Click image above to watch video



Italian duo M+A premiere the second track from their forthcoming album, Things.Yes today courtesy of Consequence of Sound. The song "Yes.pop" is another sampling of the band's delicate and beautiful electro-acoustic pop infused with dubstep elements evoking comparisons to the Postal Service, Panda Bear, Phoenix, Tunng, et al. Stream/download HERE.

One month ago, M+A premiered the song "Liko Lene Lisa" on RCRD LBL, which has already soared over 32,000 downloads in that short amount of time. That MP3 is available to stream/download HERE

A short video sampling of another album track, "Bergen.jpg" is available HERE

M+A is Michele Ducci,19, (vocals, instruments) and Alessandro Degli Angioli, 22, (instruments) of Forli, Italy. Their new 10-song album of inventive, spirited electronic pop will be released worldwide on November 8th via Monotreme Records on CD/LP/Download. 

In their own words:

"We listen to music to understand what we do, and we do music to understand what we listen to. We record everything at home, in a mansard to be more precise. The 'home-made' policy corresponds to a definite aesthetics, particularly with regard to a pop range. It's like a scene from a thriller movie where, at the very crucial moment, there's a shot of the director and his assistants while setting up the play set. So yes, we do make pop, but with the unpretentious intention to thrill. Our band is made up by two components, not merged in a unique identity, but rather coexisting. Sticking to the common sense of the word, we never really felt like a group. With its naivety and brutality, M+A plainly represents our initials just to make the whole thing more tangible and real. It's two people moving forward parallel one another, though with countless meeting points."

Artist: M+A
Album: Things.Yes
Label: Monotreme Records
Release Date: November 8th, 2011 
01. Yeloww
02. Yes.pop  (MP3)
03. Liko Lene Lisa  (MP3)
04. Sommer 
05. Bam  
06. BlÃ¥ 
07. (we)  
08. Bergen.jpg  
09.  Adidas  
10. Ly



On the Web:

M+A are available for interviews. For more information, please contact Dave Clifford at dave@usthemgroup.com

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

This Town Needs Guns release new 7" single while working on next album


"Animals sees the Oxford-based indie kids take care of the wizardry, combining math-rock time signatures, intricate guitar / bass tapestries and a rip-roaring vocal that swoops above the virtuoso sonics like a musical trapeze artists. The tracks themselves retain a fine balance between the intellectual and emotional, the cerebral and the visceral." -- Rock Sound

"This Town Needs Guns sound stylish, sussed and like reformed mathcore men Minus The Bear covering seminal Mancunian miserablists The Smiths. Good, in other words." -- Kerrang


Oxford, England quartet This Town Needs Guns release a new 2-song 7" today via Sargent House. It is the band's last recording with singer Stuart Smith, who leaves the band on amicable terms having successfully auditioned for fatherhood. The rest of the group is currently at work with new vocalist/guitarist Henry Tremain on the followup to their 2009 album, Animals. The new disc, produced by Ed Rose (Appleseed Cast, Get Up Kids) will be released by Sargent House in 2012. 

Stream the new two song release, "Adventure, Stamina & Anger" and "Mnspector Iorse" HERE. The EP cover art is the result of a photo submission contest the band held, in which fans contributed a wide variety of their own images from which the band would choose two favorites. The two seen above on the 7" sleeve are the winning entries.

This Town Needs Guns plays the Harvest Festival in Australia in November, alongside The National, Flaming Lips, Mogwai and more. UK headlining tour dates follow in December. Please see complete dates below. 

Oxford is home to the oldest University in the English-speaking world, but more recently has been acknowledged as a musical hotbed with a habit of producing some of the most vital bands around today (Radiohead and Foals, to name a few). Their latest export is This Town Needs Guns, a band being hailed as the darling buds of the thriving UK indie scene. 

"Adventure, Stamina & Anger" is available now on 7" single and download via Sargent House.

THIS TOWN NEEDS GUNS LIVE:
11/12  Melbourne, Australia @ Werribee Park - Harvest Festival
11/13  Sydney, Australia @ Parramatta Park - Harvest Festival
11/19  Brisbane, Australia @ Botanical Gardens - Harvest Festival
12/01  Southampton, England @ Southampton Joiners
12/02  Brighton, England @ Sticky Mike's
12/03  Oxford, England @ Jericho
12/05  Glasgow, Scotland @ King Tut's
12/06  York, England @ Stereo
12/07  Leeds, England @ Cockpit 3
12/14  Nottingham, England @ Bodega
12/15  Bristol, England @ Thekla
12/16  Kingston, England @ Fighting Cocks


Artist: This Town Needs Guns 
Album: Adventure, Stamina & Anger 
Label: Sargent House  
Release date: October 11th, 2011

Track list:
01. "Adventure, Stamina & Anger" (STREAM)
02. "Mnspector Lorse" (STREAM) 

On the Web:

Friday, October 7, 2011

Russian Circles announce North American headlining tour supporting forthcoming new album Empros 

Photo credit: Chris Strong


Chicago trio Russian Circles hit the road yet again this Fall with headlining dates across North America beginning in November. Please see complete dates below. 

The band recently premiered the first MP3 from their forthcoming new album via RollingStone.com. The song, "Mladek" is culled from the band's fourth full length, Empros which will be available worldwide via Sargent House on October 25th. Listen/download "Mladek" HERE

Russian Circles return with not only their fourth and heaviest album to date -- but also with Empros they're poised to take the crown as innovators reinvigorating the staid trappings of genre. Empros picks up where the anthemic riffs and melodies of 2009's Geneva left off and injects evermore slithering rhythms amid skull-crushing heft with all the visceral intensity of Godflesh, Swans and Neurosis. Put simply, Empros is Russian Circles' Master of Reality: a radical revision of both heavy and melody that is monolithic in its clarity and perfection. Or, like a lone surviving wooly beast emerging from a brutal winter's frost, Empros is the sound of a band shaking the ages from its shoulders with all the brutal force of a behemoth awakened. 

Taking to Chicago's Phantom Manor studio once again with producer Brandon Curtis of The Secret Machines & Interpol -- who also helmed the band's previous album Geneva -- Russian Circles set out to experiment with their sound in new ways that would still reflect their live sound. In so doing, the band reached a new creative apex in which each of the musicians, guitarist Mike Sullivan, drummer Dave Turncrantz and bassist Brian Cook impart a streamlined and intensified attack to their songs that pummels even as it shifts throughout a range of moods and tempos.

The album opens with an imposing mechanical drone leading into funereal guitar notes that are abruptly interrupted by a propulsive drum beat as the proceedings of "309" erupt into something akin to a neo-industrial revision of Celtic Frost. The song lunges through nearly 9 minutes of masterful rhythmic shifts and brutal guitar warfare with such assertive grace it sounds as though the band is throwing down a gauntlet defying all challengers. "Mladek" kicks off with the soaring notes of Sullivan's signature hammer-on guitar arpeggios as Cook's volume-swelling bass notes surge like bubbling molten lava. Turncrantz's innovative rephrasing of the drum pattern elevates the song as it slinks from part to part, guided by the syncopated chatter traded between chiming guitar notes and churning bass. Elsewhere, there are beautiful moments of melodic respite, helping to underscore the album's majestic strength. And, there may even be a few surprises awaiting within the album's six tracks. There are riffs, yes -- many of them. But, with Empros the entire band seems to be the embodiment of the riff itself.

Empros is Russian Circles' first full-length to be released worldwide exclusively via Sargent House, the band's longtime management company and record label that had previously released only the vinyl editions of its three prior albums. It will be available everywhere on LP, CD and Download on October 25th, 2011. 

RUSSIAN CIRCLES LIVE: 
11/02  Houston, TX @ Fitzgeralds #
11/03  Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves #
11/04  Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest - Auditorium Shores 
11/05  Austin, TX @ Red 7 - Fun Fun Fun Nights (with Boris) 
11/08  Atlanta, GA @ The Earl #
11/09  Newport, KY @ Southgate House #$
11/10  Columbus, OH @ Ravari Room #$
11/11  Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick #$
11/12  Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace #
11/13  Buffalo, NY @ Soundlab #
11/14  New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom #
11/15  Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell's #
11/16  Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church #
1118   Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop #
11/19  Grand Rapid, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme #
11/25  Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge # +
11/26  Seattle, WA @ Neumos #
11/28  West Hollywood, CA @ The Troubadour # 
11/29  San Diego, CA @ The Casbah #
12/02  Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club $
12/03  Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall $ 

# Deafheaven
$ Young Widows
+ Helms Alee


Artist: Russian Circles
Album: Empros
Label: Sargent House
Release date: October 25th, 2011

Track list:
01. 309
02. Mladek (MP3)
03. Schipol
04. Atackla
05. Batu
06. Praise Be Man












On the Web:

Album stream:  Geneva
Album stream: Station 

Hi-res photos, album art, bio and more: