Emperor's Ihsahn Sets New Release

Again working at his own Symphonique Studio, with additional work at Toproom Studio (co-engineered by Borge Finstad), After was meticulously laid out over an eight month period. The intensity of the project has more than paid off with early listenings already proclaiming it to be the most poignant creations of his solo efforts. "I have felt more confident and more at ease with the material," relays Ihsahn. "In letting the songs themselves lead the way I just followed the natural impulses." - more on this story

From Rilo Kiley To Mystic Valley: Jason Boesel Announces Solo Debut

For the last 15 years, LA-based drummer Jason Boesel has been planted firmly behind the kit, keeping time for the likes of Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes, The Elected, and more recently, Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band. Boesel was inspired to pick up the guitar and write his own record after his friends raved about the first song he ever wrote: 'Hustler's Son.' Now, a few studio sessions later, Jason Boesel announces his solo debut for Team Love Records: 'Hustler's Son,' out January 12, 2010.

Boesel headed into the studio in March of 2009 with a core group of collaborators: Mystic Valley Band member Nik Freitas, Blake Mills (Band of Horses, Julian Casablancas), and producer Jonathan Wilson (Elvis Costello 'Momofuku' and Jenny Lewis 'Acid Tongue'). He eventually sought out the additional talents of Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Orenda Fink (O + S, Azure Ray), David Rawlings (Gillian Welch, Old Crow Medicine Show), Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), and fellow Rilo Kiley member Blake Sennett.

The result is an 11-song Americana album filled with powerful imagery and a sound that brings new colors to the sonic palette of country-folk greats like Townes Van Zandt, mid-'70s California rock, and the alt-country scene of today. - more on this story

Orphaned Land Explain New Album Concept

On February, 9th 2010 the wait is finally over! Israel's Orphaned Land will finally release their highly anticipated fourth studio opus The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR. Mixed by Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree, Opeth), who is also responsible for several keyboard parts on the new album, turns out to be a sophisticated concept album taking Orphaned Land's unique brand of exotic, heavy music to soaring new heights in terms of complexity and catchiness. It is an audible manifest that the time has come for Middle Eastern metal to take over!

Vocalist Kobi Farhi comments on the album's concept and the striking new promo photo as follows: "As people that were born into the tragedy of our region, we have always been devoted to creating harmony between conflicts, a musical heaven on Earth, a tango between God and Satan. Even in the album's artwork we combined Hebrew and Arabic, regardless of the fight between Jews and Muslims. I found a Jordanian guy, specialized in calligraphic artwork. He took letters from Hebrew and Arabic and moulded them in his art to create a symbol of peace. Same goes for our band photo, where we portrayed a synergy between the three monotheistic religions, that believe in the same God and yet, ridiculously have been killing each other for centuries "in the name of God" and turned the holy land into an orphaned land. Naturally we continued this idea of union on a musical level as well and the result is as always crazy, it's a miracle – in our concerts: our Jewish fans sing in Arabic and our Muslim fans sing in Hebrew, brave friendships have spawned and our Middle Eastern metal music destroys all this political witchcraft we have been trapped in for so long. This is a musical journey of hope in lands of war, creating heaven on Earth, building a new Jerusalem."

Israel's Orphaned Land are probably the only band from this country that has managed to succeed at building up a huge following among Muslims and Arabian people. These fans communicate freely via the band's social networking pages, some of them even proudly bearing Orphaned Land tattoos, regardless of the possible consequences facing them in their home countries! The African musician Fela Kuti once said: "music is the weapon of the future" - Orphaned Land are living proof of that! - Orphaned Land online

Tony Lucca, Jay Nash And Matt Duke Are Totally F*Ckin' Doin It

Just months after the TFDI tour ended, the "bromance" lives on! Tony Lucca, Jay Nash and Matt Duke are ready to re-live the experience with their fans by releasing the TFDI EP. During their recent tour, the trio stopped off at the League of Creative Musicians at SPACE in Evanston, IL to record four fan favorites with engineer Jim Reeves.

Lucca, Nash and Duke set off on a 25-city U.S. tour on August 21, 2009 that culminated in the two-day singer-songwriter event of the year, Hotel Carolina. Lucca shares, "It was such a blast sharing the ride (and the stage) with Jay and Matt. It's one thing getting to know your tour mates' tunes, it's another thing to actually look forward to hearing them every night and getting the opportunity to record alongside each other in such a stellar environment. I was all too happy and proud to be a part of it."

Through a series of video blogs, fans had the chance to watch the "bromance" blossom and get a sneak peak into their nightly shows and road trip across the United States. An inspired Nash was filmed on the blog singing "Totally F*ckin' Doin' It", a high-energy jingle turned motto, and the rest was history. From then on, the venues were filled every night with fans singing and chanting the jingle along with Lucca, Nash and Duke. Nash says, "I miss Tony and Matt desperately. Singing TFDI alone, in my car in LA traffic just isn't the same." - more on this story

Ok Go Teams With Moritz Waldemeyer And Fendi

OK Go, the mind-bending band that gave us what is largely considered the decade's most-viewed music video, the treadmill-manned "Here It Goes Again," will join with Design Miami/, FENDI and technologically-pioneering designer Moritz Waldemeyer to stage a groundbreaking Design Performance at Design Miami/, the pre-eminent international fair for limited edition design. The fair will take place December 1st through December 5th in Miami Design District.

Waldemeyer, renowned for his extraordinary designs influenced by his background as a research scientist in mechatronics and LED lighting, will customize a selection of Gibson guitars with laser lights and FENDI materials, which OK Go will play live throughout the event. When played, the guitar's lasers interact with a video wall and leave traces that illustrate the music in real time. The lasers emulate the strings of the guitar, and vibrations transmit beautiful visual interpretations of the sound.

"It's such a pleasure to be working with Moritz again. He's one of those rare and wonderful artists who's equally inventive in the domain of minute technological details and broad, open-ended creative ideas," says OK Go vocalist/guitarist Damian Kulash, who was featured in Uniqlo's recent international advertising campaign. "He designed the LED jackets that we wore in our stage show a couple years ago, and it was a perfect match. Our brand of performance - super-saturated, super visual, super fun - is precisely the right arena for his design. We knew right away that we needed to make instruments with him, and ever since we've been looking for the opportunity to realize our dream of playing guitars that are their own light show. We're incredibly excited, and thankful that FENDI and Design Miami/ have made this possible." - more on this story

Eyehategod Vocalist Releases Spoken Word 7 Inch

Mike Williams, vocalist for Eyehategod, Outlaw Order, Arson Anthem and author of Cancer As A Social Activity: Affirmations Of World's End delivers anti-social misanthropic spoken word and power electronics on this newly released, limited edition 7".

Side Zero features "That's What The Obituary Said," a spoken prose piece with ambient backing by Ryan (The Guilt Of...) McKern. The other Side Zero features "Ten Suicides," originally a Bloodyminded track with vocals by Mike IX Williams and now newly re-mixed by Mark Solotroff (Intrinsic Action/Bloodyminded).

Original artwork by Mike IX presented in an 11" x 17" poster and lyric booklet. Black with yellow splatter colored vinyl. Limited to 500 copies. For ordering info - Go here

Marionette Hitting The Road

Marionette recently announced support dates with Shadows Fall and Five Finger Death Punch in Scandinavia and Bless The Fall on a string of tour dates across Europe and the UK this winter. The treks will include two "off date" shows featuring Marionete as headline act. Bassist and founding member Mikael Medin comments:

"We have a slew of upcoming dates where you can hear and see us perform new songs from Enemies as well as some favorites from Spite. We've been hungry to get back out on the road. We start later this week in Scandinavia with Shadows Fall and Five Finger Death Punch, and in December we will tour Europe and the UK with Bless The Fall. To give you a taste of what you'll see we've posted some video footage of a recent show we did recently at Sticky Fingers.

"We look forward to meeting everyone who comes out, both new fans and those who have seen us before. We have two special headline shows set up, one at Rios in Leeds on 6 December and on 14 December at Blogos in Bologna, Italy (moved from Montebelluna). We plan to have special sets for these nights, so we hope those who like what they see on the tours will come see us for those nights as well and hang with us after the shows at the merch stand. We've got more plans in the works for 2010 and we look forward to unveiling them soon. In the meantime, keep up with our videos, and we'll see you in the moshpit." - dates

Ponderosa Stomp Announces a Change of Seasons

After 8 years of incredible, critically acclaimed shows during April/May, the Ponderosa Stomp Foundation announces a change of seasons! As a non-profit organization celebrating American roots music, the Stomp has had unprecedented growth in recent years; in addition to the concerts in New Orleans, Austin and New York, their small staff has launched a packed music conference, a developing archive of oral histories, monthly 'After Hours' shows at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and 'Unsung Heroes', an exhibition celebrating Louisiana's role in the development of rock n' roll, on display at the Louisiana State Museum's Cabildo in the French Quarter.

We are also thrilled to announce the recent release of the Ponderosa Stomp short film. The Ponderosa Stomp was founded to showcase and honor the world's most authentic performers of rockabilly, R&B, jazz, blues, garage, soul, funk, and swamp pop. The film focuses on Classie Ballou, Lil' Buck Sinegal and Roy Head, integral Stomp performers. These three exemplary artists enjoyed early success, but found themselves toiling in obscurity later in life. When music fan Brian Gourley attended the Stomp, he was transfixed by the music and amazed that such a small group was able to bring so much music and cultural information to the fore on a shoestring. After offering to executive produce a film, he began fund-raising and working with acclaimed director Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories won the Grand Jury Prize at the Austin Film Festival) and the Butler Bros production team. Gourley explains, "The film presented itself at the right time; it let me pour my love of music into a project that I thought would help give props to its roots. Without roots, there are no trees."

After seeing this moving film, it is easy to see the importance of the Stomp's mission and the impact of its work. Continuing to recognize influential artists like Ballou, Sinegal and Head and hundreds of others and documenting their stories is a fundamental part of the Foundation's mission. Plans to expand an oral history archive are moving forward and the "Secret History of Rock n' Roll" is currently on exhibit at the Louisiana State Museum. - more on this story

DM Stith Concludes Trilogy Of EP's With Braid Of Voices

Asthmatic Kitty artist DM Stith completes his trilogy of EP's with Braid of Voices (December 8). This EP is the final third part of the trilogy—BMB was released in July, Thanksgiving Moon was released November 3—following Stith's debut album Heavy Ghost, which received international critical acclaim upon its release in March. NPR called the LP "complex… [containing] inventive songs," while Entertainment Weekly proclaimed it "one of the strongest debut albums I've heard."

The first EP in Stith's trilogy, BMB, features covers of The Ronettes and Randy Newman and remixes by Roberto Lange of Helado Negro and Savath & Savalas and Son Lux. With Thanksgiving Moon and Braid of Voices, Stith furthers this approach of combining near-to-heart covers with re-worked originals and remixes by friends.

The Thanksgiving Moon EP starts with the original demo that was first recorded for Stith's Heavy Ghost LP (it was also this song that ended up flapping around the Asthmatic Kitty offices, resulting in the label commissioning Stith to finish an album). Written as a reflection of the landscape of Western New York, "Thanksgiving Moon" marked a new direction in Stith's songwriting. The EP also features Stith's cover of David Byrne's "A Soft Seduction," are-worked version of his own "Pigs" featuring a marching band and "Thanksgiving Moon" remixes by Michna (Ghostly International) and label-mate Rafter. - more on this story

. Hot In The City: Age of Evil, Triple Double Band, blessthefall and The Word Alive

Its not often that a band whose members are still in high school draws raves from a respected rocker like ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman. But Age of Evil has done just that. Kevin gives you more on this and other hot new releases from AZ bands! - Read the full Age of Evil, Triple Double Band, blessthefall and The Word Alive review

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