Alkaline Trio Addiction Coming Next Month

Citizen Cope Announces Album and Tour

Citizen Cope, aka Clarence Greenwood, is very excited to announce the release of his new record, The Rainwater LP, on March 2, 2010. The record will be released digitally on February 9th. As on his past two records, The Rainwater LP was produced by Greenwood himself. It is his first record in nearly four years and the first on his own label, RainWater Recordings, Inc. A huge national tour that begins February 2nd in Carrboro, NC, and ends April 17 in Kansas City, MO, has been confirmed. Full tour dates are listed below.

The Rainwater LP, a laidback gumbo of acoustic blues, singer/songwriter rock 'n' roll and deep soul grooves, was recorded over the course of 2009 at both Brooklyn Recording in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, and The Document Room in Malibu, CA, with extensive periods of touring in between sessions. Among the musicians accompanying him this time were such studio stars as bassist Preston Crump (OutKast, Organized Noize, Raphael Saadiq), keyboardist James Poyser (D'Angelo, The Roots, Jill Scott, John Legend), percussionist Bashiri Johnson (Whitney Houston, Donald Fagen, Madonna), legendary go-go bassist Michael "Funky Ned" Neal and top DC-scene go-go drummer Paul "Buggy" Edwards.

Like the music therein, the album takes its name from a number of deeply personal sources. "It's pure," Greenwood says. "It's also the name of someone that was close to me when I was growing up, so it just made sense." - more on this story

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Camper Van Beethoven and Sippy Cups Collaboration) Offer Free MP3 From Forthcoming Album

McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a collaboration between Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom) and Alison Faith Levy (The Sippy Cups, The Loud Family). Having worked together on and off for many years, Alison and Victor have finally realized their dream of writing and performing as a duo. Although it seems an unlikely pairing, their voices blend together in the tradition of classic duets, and their songwriting styles mesh into a fine mix of blues, folk, and country. Digging at the roots of their rootlessness, these songs sweep out the dark corners of longing, regret and desire with the intimate wit and wisdom of old friends. Their debut album Time for Leaving is due March 9, 2010 (through Magnetic Motorworks) and was produced by Bruce Kaphan (American Music Club).

Time For Leaving is a broad, ambitious work that finds the San Francisco-based duo traveling across the rural backroads and steel rails of Americana music. Snaky blues numbers ("Fare Thee Well" and "Couldn't Sit Still") intertwine with bittersweet folk ballads ("Come Back Home To Me" and "Forgiveness"), two-step country ("Your Magic Fingers"), rootsy pop-rock ('Red Wine & Chocolate"), gentle acoustic instrumentals ("Union City Blues") and bawdy, backroom jazz ("Playground").

Between the touring schedules of both of their high-profile bands, they have found the time to perform with the likes of Cracker, Built to Spill and The Knitters. Their live show has evolved into a formidable, dramatic force. The band also includes Jonathan Segel (Camper Van Beethoven) on violin and mandolin, Doug Hilsinger on guitar, John Hanes on drums and Paul Olguin on bass. - Fare Thee Well MP3

Pelican Explain Use of Vocals on New Record

Sammy O'Hagar of MetalSucks recently spoke with Pelican drummer Larry Herwig. They talked about the band's new record What We All Come to Need, the band's decision to move labels from Hydra Head to Southern Lord, having members of Sunn O))) and Isis do guest spots on the record, and his approach to drumming (including the criticisms he's received in the press). An excerpt follows:

...what led you guys to have vocals on Final Breath? What led to that decision? We've always, as a band, said that we were never opposed to it. Even when we started the band, we never set out to be a strictly instrumental band. It just kind of happened that way out of our general laziness of finding someone to be the singer. I remember when we started the band and during that first year of songwriting and rehearsals, after practice we would sit down, eat and talk about who we were going to get to sing, who was going to find somebody and who do we know in Chicago and blah blah blah. We were brainstorming who's going to be this possible vocalist. Time went on and we just kept writing songs. Over a year's time I think we had 6 songs written, and we were still kind of at the same point and were like "we don't have anybody. No one's found anyone. No one actually looked for anyone either." We were like "let's just play a show and see how it goes." We played a show and it worked, so we just kind of went from there. We were like "well, here's 5 songs that we spent a year writing," and playing for people just to see how they would take it. They liked it, so we were like "okay, it's working so let's just do this." That's how it stayed. The whole time we were doing it, we were planning the instrumental movement and were like it was so powerful. We were like we're just a band dude. We just wrote a bunch of songs. We honestly thought we would have a lead singer. We talked about it and no one did anything about it. Here we are, 9 years later, and we're like "man, if we're going to do a song with vocals, this is the song to do it." It was a song that Bryan wrote, and it was very simple as far as the structure and patterns. We were like "this is the one, so if we're going to do it, let's make it this record." We always wanted to make the records a little bit different from each other. I thought that was a great way of making this record different from the last one by having someone actually singing on a song. We didn't think people were going to expect it. Al, who is a good friend of ours, did the vocals. He's in The Life and Times who we toured with back with Mono in 2006. We've been friends ever since. We love his band, and we think he has a great voice. We approached him with the idea, and he has a healthy ego and he's like "f**k it, I'll do it. Send me the shit." He cranked that out in no time. We sent him the rough tracks from the actual studio as soon as they were done, and a few days later he had sent us back his studio tracks. He did them in Chicago in a separate studio, and he sent them back via WAV. file. We kept mixing from there. I didn't know what to expect. He had high hopes, and in our minds, he totally blew us away and exceeded our expectations. I think it made the song really cool. Real people dig it.

Yeah. It's interesting at the very least. Do you think that's going to be something that when you guys are writing and arranging from now on that you guys might keep as an option of including a vocalist? Yeah I think we'll keep it open. So far there has been some mixed reviews. I just read one last night, I think it was Iann Robinson or something, and he has a website where he reviewed Slayer and didn't have very many nice things to say about it. He got to our record and got all gushy up until that song and was like, "You guys don't need to do that." It like totally bummed him out. There is definitely mixed feelings. When I play the record for other people, that was the song that really stood out to them. I remember playing the album to Aaron Harris from Isis. We're just sitting there going track by track and that song came on, and his eyes lit up and said "that's f**king amazing, dude. It sounds so good." There are people who think it's awesome and people who don't. It's still pretty early to say, but I'm definitely not opposed to it and I like how it came out. We have to keep in mind too if we're going to play it live it becomes complicated. If we start doing more songs like that and getting more singers involved or even getting Al involved again, it's like how are we going to do that as a band and never perform those songs live. Right now it's like how we're every going to play Final Breath unless we coordinate with Al to take him on tour with us or something. It's kind of complicated. I could see us probably doing it again. All the guys in the band are really psyched on that song. I would say on the next record that we release will probably have another song like that. I don't think it would be a whole record of songs with vocals, but why not throw in another one and try it again.
- read the full interview

Mondo Drag New Album and Tour Plans

Alive Naturalsound Records is pleased to announce the release of Mondo Drag "New Rituals" on January 26th, 2010.

From deep in the cosmos of Iowa, this psychedelic outfit has created a strange brew of garage, psych, space, sludge and stoner rock. New Rituals, their debut for Alive, is an incursion into extended psychedelic blues guitar jams and haunting vocals over heavy, steady bass lines and thumping percussion.

Formed by Johnnie Cluney (drums/vocals), Nolan Girard (rhythm guitar/vocals), John Gomino (keyboards/saxophone), Dennis Hockaday (bass), and Jake Sheley (lead guitar) the band is flying head-first into the future, while channeling artists from the past; Pink Floyd, Pentagram, Blue Cheer, even Hendrix are part of their musical lexicon, while Sonic Youth hint to their current references. - more on this story

Rise Records To Reissue Piebald's Out Of Print Catalog

Rise Records is pleased to announce plans to re-issue Piebald's out-of-print catalog. Piebald: First Ten Years will be a three volume set, each volume containing two discs; the set will compile the band's first three full-lengths (When Life Hands You Lemons, If It Weren't For Venetian Blinds, It Would Be Curtains For Us All and We Are The Only Friends We Have), all of their EPs, b-sides and live tracks.

Volume I is expected in late April, while Volumes II and III will be released in May and June respectively.

Piebald also announced that they'll be playing their 2002 full-length We Are The Only Friends We Have from start to finish at their upcoming show at Bamboozle on May 2. - Myspace link

Prog/Death Supergroup Barren Earth Album Details

Finland's up-and-coming prog/death supergroup, Barren Earth, has revealed the tracklist for their debut full-length record, Curse of the Red River, due out in the US on April 6th, courtesy of Peaceville Records. Curse of the Red River is the follow up to Barren Earth's debut EP, 'Our Twilight', which hit stores last November.

With a wealth of experience from internationally renowned acts, featuring former members of Finnish metallers, Amorphis, to current members of Swallow the Sun, Moonsorrow, and Kreator, Barren Earth presents progressive and folk textured death/doom metal of the highest order. Curse of the Red River combines the best elements of metal, prog, and more obscure psychedelic rock – from Opeth to Pink Floyd, and Paradise Lost to Jethro Tull.

The Curse of the Red River recording session took place at Seawolf Studios, Helsinki (Ghost Brigade), in Summer 2009 with mixing carried out by the prolific Dan Swanö at Unisound in Sweden (Katatonia, Opeth, etc). - more on this story

Clem Snide Set New Album Release

Inspired by the warm reception bestowed upon their reformation, Clem Snide happily announce the completion of their seventh full-length recording, "The Meat of Life."

The new album is the follow-up to the highly acclaimed "Hungry Bird" which, as fans of the band are well aware, was a project fraught with uncertainty and plagued by delays not to mention disarray both within the band and from outside forces.

It was a scenario that led founder Eef Barzelay to embark on a series of solo recordings and film scores (an endeavor he continues to pursue) that left the fate of the band in doubt. Luckily, the band regrouped, completed the recording and toured extensively together throughout 2009. Now consisting of the core trio of Barzelay, Brendan Fitzpatrick (bass, organ) and Ben Martin (drums, percussion), Clem Snide is a truly cohesive musical entity and the new album reflects it. 429 Records will release "The Meat of Life" on February 23rd. - more on this story

Cloud Cult Announce 18 Previously Unreleased Tracks on Limited Edition Album

Cloud Cult is proud to announce the release of a new special collection of previously unreleased songs from the past 15 years: "Lost Songs from the Lost Years".

These limited edition CDs are hand numbered and are available only on the Cloud Cult website. Although Cloud Cult released a limited edition version of "Lost Songs from the Lost Years" in 2006, that album quickly sold out and has been unavailable since then. The new edition of "Lost Songs from the Lost Years" includes a variety of songs that were not included in the previous edition.

Included with the album are linear notes about each of the songs from Could Cult's lead singer/songwriter, Craig Minowa. The selection of songs is taken from a variety of periods in his life and the notes give a deep insight into Craig's creative process. Most of the songs are in their original "draft" version meaning Craig wrote and recorded all of the instrumentation on this album. Some songs were even created using a multiple cassette recording method. - more on this story

. The Bigger Damner Book of Sheer Manliness

Do you have a friend or family member whos lacking a little bit in the testosterone department? Would you say this person is a wet noodle, a weakling, or perhaps a milquetoast? - Read the full The Bigger Damner Book of Sheer Manliness review

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