Hyde & Beast Need You!! (if you play trumpet)

Hyde & Beast – The Futureheads’ Dave Hyde and ex-Golden Virgins’ drummer Neil Bassett - are offering fans the opportunity of a life time. They are looking for trumpet-playing fans to join them onstage during their UK tour which kicks off on Sunday in Newcastle! The band are after a different player for each night, and would like them to accompany them during performances of their recent single, ‘Never Come Back’.

Neil ‘Beast’ Bassett explained,"If you or someone you know can blow a mean horn then get in touch. We will get you and a mate into the show for free; we can have a little practice in soundcheck and then play the show. Should be a blast!"

To apply, simply send your name, contact details and the date you would like to play to hydeandbeast@hotmail.co.uk along with a confirmation that you have a trumpet you're able to use. The band will get back to those selected to play with more information. You can see the video for ‘Never Come Back’ here:


Hyde & Beast will be playing the following shows, and need a different trumpeter for each date except Manchester:

NOVEMBER
Sun 6 NEWCASTLE Cluny
Mon 7 SHEFFIELD The Harley
Tue 8 GLASGOW Captain’s Rest
Wed 9 EDINBURGH The Electric Circus
Thu 10 NOTTINGHAM Bodega
Fri 11 LIVERPOOL Contemporary Urban Centre
Sun 13 YORK Fibbers
Mon 14 BRISTOL Louisiana
Wed 16 LONDON Water Rats
Thu 17 MANCHESTER Deaf Institute
Fri 18 STOCKTON The Georgian Theatre

To coincide with the tour, Hyde & Beast are also releasing their new single, ‘You Will Be Lonely’, which is out on November 14th through their very own label, Tail Feather Records.

Matt Stevens releases glorious new album

Loop guitar magician Matt Stevens releases his new album today (26/09) after 11 months of slaving away over a hot pedal board.

It is available now from his Bandcamp site on Digipack CD or Download.

He's also supporting the amazing guitar fella that is Jon Gomm on Wednesday in Islington, London - at time of writing there are 14 tickets left at WeGotTickets

Hawk Eyes & Turbowolf released to wreak havoc together

The mighty Hawk Eyes are being let out of their cage to terrorise the country once again and this time they're bringing reinforcements in the shape of the awesome Turbowolf & The James Cleaver Quartet.

They will be riffing it up at these locations:

Tue 08 Nov 2011 Bristol Croft
Wed 09 Nov 2011 Cardiff Ifor Bach
Thu 10 Nov 2011 Colchester Arts Centre
Fri 11 Nov 2011 UK Southend Chinneys
Sat 12 Nov 2011 Nottingham Basement
Mon 14 Nov 2011 Birmingham Vudu
Tue 15 Nov 2011 Leeds Cockpit
Wed 16 Nov 2011 Glasgow King Tuts Wah Wah Hut
Thu 17 Nov 2011 Manchester Alter Ego
Fri 18 Nov 2011 UK Sheffield Corporation
Sat 19 Nov 2011 Aldershot Westend Centre
Sun 20 Nov 2011 Bournemouth Ibar
Tue 22 Nov 2011 London Upstairs at the Garage

Bring the fucking noise.

Neon Indian: Brand new album announced, London show next week and free download

Neon Indian is back with his second full-length offering ‘Era Extraña’, to be released on October 10th through Transgressive Records.

A special one-off London date has also been announced for Tuesday August 9th at Islington’s Electrowerkz venue. NPR exclusively revealed new track ‘Polish Girl'’ which you can hear by going to the Neon Indian Facebook page and clicking ‘Like’.

If that’s not enough, Neon Indian is also riding high in the blogging charts with the first taste of Era Extraña’, 'Fallout' which is online for free download now....

Esmerine release new video & October tour dates‏

In support of their recent album on Constellation, 'La Lechuza', Esmerine will embark on a UK tour this October. They have released a video to help promote the UK shows which can be viewed here:

Esmerine: UK Tour Promo 2011 from Constellation Records on Vimeo.

Here are the dates and touring line up info:

19 Sept Stereo, Glasgow
20 Sept Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
21 Sept Union Chapel, London

The touring line up is as follows:

Rebecca Foon - cello (Silver Mt. Zion)
Bruce Cawdron - marimba, percussion (Godspeed You! Black Emperor)
Sarah Pagé - harp (Lhasa de Sela, Barr Brothers)
Jamie Thompson - percussion (Islands, Unicorns)

With live lightbox projections by Clea Minaker
http://cleaminaker.wordpress.com/
(Responsible for live visuals for Feist tours 2008-2009)

Esmerine enters its second decade with an expanded line-up and a new album – the band's first in six years. As a duo co-founded ten years ago by percussionist Bruce Cawdron (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) and cellist Beckie Foon (Thee Silver Mt. Zion), Esmerine released two critically-acclaimed albums of modern chamber music in 2003 and 2005 that had one foot in the new music/experimental terrain of contemporaries like Rachel's or Town And Country and the other in a more visceral and lyrical landscape populated by the likes of Dirty Three (and GY!BE themselves).

Bruce and Beckie have continued stoking the embers of Esmerine, with occasional special events in their Montreal home town over the past few years, often including invitations to guest musicians. While Esmerine had made deft use of guest players on previous records, their performances over the past two years opened the band up to two new musicians in particular who were invited to join as full members: harp-player Sarah Page ( The Barr Brothers) and percussionist Andrew Barr (The Slip, Land of Talk, The Barr Brothers).

Bearsuit - Video for new single "Princess You're a Test"‏

Dark, relentless and thickly laden with dirty, heavy bass, 'Princess You’re A Test' sees Norwich 5-piece Bearsuit take a turn to the dark side. As the fourth single from their recent album 'The Phantom Forest' (released on Fortuna POP! earlier this year) 'Princess You’re A Test' is an altogether darker proposition. Guaranteed to set the indie-disco dancefloors ablaze, the song delves into the mysteries lying await in the phantom forest. Watch the brand new (slightly spooky) video for the song here:



Bearsuit are about to embark on their first tour across mainland Europe, stopping at the Contempopranea and Razzmatazz festivals in Spain as well as Sweden’s Cosy Den festival among others.

DATES:

July 29 Contempopranea Festival – Alburquerque, SPAIN
July 30 Razzmatazz Festival - Barcelona, SPAIN
July 31 Hossegor Festival – Hossegor, FRANCE
August 2 Saint Ex – Bordeaux, FRANCE
August 3 L’International – Paris, FRANCE
August 5 Studenterhauset – Copenhagen, DENMARK
August 6 Cosy Den Festival – Stockholm, SWEDEN
August 14 Old Blue Last – London, UK

Timber Timbre release new video & UK/European tour dates‏

Following the recent announcement that their second album ‘Creep On Creepin’ On’ has been nominated for the Polaris Prize, Canadian trio Timber Timbre have revealed a new video for album track 'Bad Ritual', featuring dark, Lynchian imagery akin to the track's brooding melody.



Timber Timbre have also revealed a few more live dates across the UK/Europe. Most notably these include London's Union Chapel, an appearance at End of The Road festival and a tour for Les Inrocks.

Full dates are as follows:

AUGUST
10 Basel, Switzerland – Festival Im Fluss
11 Gothenburg, Sweden – Way Out West
13 Haldern, Germany – Haldern Festival
14 Hamburg, Germany – Dockville
16 Nijmegen, Holland – Doornroosje
17 Tivoli, Holland – Tivoli de Helling
20 Biddinghuizen, Holland – Lowlands
21 Hannover, Germany – Bootboohook Festival
23 Brussels, Belgium – Feeerieen Festival
25 Dudingen, Switzerland – Bad Bonn
26 Zurich, Switzerland – Exil
27 Luzern, Switzerland – Sudpol
29 Frankfurt, Germany - Brotfabrik

SEPTEMBER
1 Brighton, UK - Jam
3 Dorset, UK – End Of The Road Festival @ Larmer Tree Gardens

NOVEMBER
1 London, UK – Union Chapel www.livenation.co.uk
3 Paris, France – Festival les Inrocks @ Cigale
4 Strasbourg, France – Festival les Inrocks @ La Laiterie
5 Lyons, France – Festival les Inrocks @ le Transbordeur
6 Marseille, France – Festival les Inrocks @ Cabaret aleatoire

Jumping Ships Announce 2nd EP

In a welcome return following their highly praised 'Orientation' EP, Brighton's own Jumping Ships are set to strike again with what promises to be their best, but different, work yet. Their 2nd EP is titled 'Standard Bearer' and will be released on September 19, 2011. Expect to see a new side to the band that won fan's hearts in 2010.

The upcoming EP will be the bands second release on Alcopop! Records, following-up on the recent single 'Heart & Heart' showing the bands growing maturity. The release will be a part of Redbull Studios EP Club where half the EP was recorded.

August Tour Dates (All With Lightguides except *)

(15) London, Old Blue Last
(16) Bristol, The Croft
(17) Hereford, The Jailhouse
(18) Northampton, The Labour Club
(19*) London, Borderline w/ Brontide + Run Walk
(21) Hastings, Tubman
(22) Leeds, Milo
(25) Thurso, The New Market Bar
(26) Dundee, Dexters
(27) Glenrothes, The Greenside

The Skull Defekts - EU Tour Dates October 2011‏

Great news! Skull Defekts, producers of what is undoubtedly going to be one of E&D's albums of the year, are hauling ass over to these shores in October.

They will be playing these dates:
Thu Oct 20 London, UK Borderline
Fri Oct 21 Cardiff, UK SWN Festival
Sat Oct 22 Birmingham, UK Supersonic Festival
Sun Oct 23 Boulogne-Billancourt, France Le Carré Bellefeuille
Fri Oct 28 Nantes, France D.F.A.

And you'd be crazy to miss them.

Dananananaykroyd announce October/November UK Tour

The mighty Dananananaykroyd are bringing their live antics to a town near you this autumn. If you haven't seen these guys live you owe it to yourselves to remedy that with this tour, we promise you won't regret it!

The full list of headline dates are as follows:

OCTOBER
Sat 29th: Glasgow, ABC
Mon 31st: Manchester, Deaf Institute

NOVEMBER
Tue 1st: Leicester, Firebug
Thu 3rd: Brighton, The Haunt
Fri 4th: London, KCLSU
Sat 5th: Bristol, Cooler
Sun 6th: Stoke, Sugarmill
Mon 7th: Portsmouth, Wedgewood
Tue 8th: Exeter, Cavern
Thu 10th: Oxford, Bullingdon
Fri 11th: York, Fibbers
Sat 12th: Newcastle, Cluny

New single announcement coming soon, but until then here's the video for 'Muscle Memory'.

Kurran & the Wolfnotes tour details

Following on from their appearance at Jamie Oliver's Big Feastival and a fantastic headline slot at Tamesis Dock in London last week, more dates for Kurran & the Wolfnotes have been announced!

You can still hear their track ‘Your Four Limbs’ below:



Kurran & the Wolfnotes will be playing the following dates:

JULY
16th: The Little Bird Festival, Kingston Upon Thames
Buy tickets here.

20th: Bamboozled @ The Bull & Gate, London (w/Sissy & the Blisters & Doyle and the Fourfathers)
Buy tickets here.

23rd: Good Weekend Festival, Hampshire (w/Art Brut & Hot Club de Paris)
Buy tickets here.

AUGUST
26th: Festinho, Bedfordshire (w/My Tiger, My Timing & Treetop Flyers)
Buy tickets here.

WOODEN SHJIPS free MP3, album + tour reminder!‏

Wooden Shjips are releasing their new album West on Thrill Jockey Records on 15 August, to be followed by and extensive EU tour in September. We're delighted to offer you a free MP3 from the album to download and share around for the track "Lazy Bones". Please let me know if you need any further information, downloads for the album, photos etc and if you're able to review or cover in some way.

FREE MP3!! Wooden Shjips "Lazy Bones"

EU TOUR
Sat Sep 3 Larmer Tree Gardens, UK End Of The Road Festival
Sun Sep 4 London, UK Scala
Mon Sep 5 Leeds, UK The Brudenell
Tue Sep 6 Liverpool, UK The Kazimier
Thu Sep 8 Tallin, Estonia Rock Cafe
Fri Sep 9 Helsinki, Finland Korjaamo
Sat Sep 10 Copenhagen, Denmark Loppen
Sun Sep 11 Gronigen, Netherlands Vera Club
Wed Sep 14 Krefeld, Germany Sudbanhof
Thu Sep 15 Paris, France Cafe de la danse
Fri Sep 16 Rouen, France Le 106
Sat Sep 17 Tilburg, Netherlands Incubate
Tue Sep 20 Vienna, Austria B72

SCISSOR SISTERS: UK racecourse shows & book signing this month!‏

To coincide with their headline slot at Lovebox Festival next Sunday, Scissor Sisters have confirmed a series of UK racecourse headline shows for the coming weeks, as well as a book signing session.

Widely cited as one of the world’s most exciting live acts and fresh from Lady Gaga’s worldwide Monster Ball Tour, Scissor Sisters will perform the following UK shows:

July 16th Haydock Park Racecourse, Liverpool – BUY TICKETS
July 17th Lovebox Festival, London - BUY TICKETS
July 20th Sandown Park Racecourse, Surrey - BUY TICKETS
July 22nd Newmarket Racecourse, Suffolk - BUY TICKETS
July 24th Splendour Festival, Nottingham - BUY TICKETS

On top of the live shows, Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears will be doing a London instore book signing on July 18th to mark the launch of ‘One Day in the Life of Jake Shears’, a book of photographs taken by American photographer Tim Hailand.

Scissor Sisters’ most recent, very surreal and definitely NSFW video for ‘Invisible Light’, taken from last year’s album ‘Night Work’ can be seen below:

Cats And Cats And Cats new album 'Motherwhale' & tour news

Formed in 2005, Cats and Cats and Cats have been slowly carving out their own musical niche with a satisfying blend of uplifting anthemic, folk inspired pop.

The London four piece, featuring Ben (vocals, guitar), Tom (bass, backing vocals), Doug (drums) and Jamie (guitar) – have shared stages with musical heroes 65 Days of Static, Foals and Blood Red Shoes, as well as performing twice at Glastonbury Festival.

This year sees the band follow on their success with 2nd album 'Motherwhale', described as "Math pop story-telling in a museum of crumbling instruments,” and a slew of UK tour dates:


UK “Motherwhale” Tour Dates:
JUN 04 The Windmill, Brixton, London (Cats all dayer)
JUN 05 Mother’s Ruin, Bristol
JUN 08 Nice and Sleazy’s, Glasgow
JUN 09 Cafe Drummonds, Aberdeen
JUN 10 Kage, Dundee
JUN 11 House Party, Manchester (w/ Nairobi)
JUN 12 Tiger Lounge, Manchester (w/ Nairobi)
JUN 13 Mojo, Liverpool (w/ Nairobi)
JUN 15 Undertone, Cardiff
JUN 16 TBC, Southampton (w/ A Genuine Freakshow)
JUN 17 Casey’s Ale House, Canterbury (w/ Delta Sleep)
JUN 18 TBC, Folkestone (w/ Delta Sleep)
JUN 19 The Vic, Swindon (w/ Delta Sleep)

EMA - UK live shows & new video

Having introduced herself as a solo artist with the epically rocking seven minute single ‘Grey Ship’ backed with a slowly rambunctious and flailing sixteen minute cover of the Robert Johnson blues staple, ‘Kind Heart’, EMA invites you deeper into her world with her debut album, 'Past Life Martyred Saints' due on May 09 through Souterrain Transmissions.

She has now unveiled her new DIY video for album track ‘California’ as well as a string of UK live shows.



And see EMA live at these dates:

11 May London The Macbeth
12 May London Cargo (supporting Scout Niblett)
13 May Manchester FutureEverything @ Islington Mill (supporting Scout Niblett)
14 May Brighton The Great Escape @ NME Radar Stage (Horatios)

Starfucker announce UK tour, release new album & free mixtape

US electronic pop band Starfucker have confirmed details of a UK tour, coinciding with the release of their sophomore album ‘Reptilians’ today (March 28) through Polyvinyl in the UK. Full details of the May dates are below, including a performance at The Great Escape.

UK + European Live dates:

Tue 10 May UK London Madame JoJo's
Wed 11 May UK Leeds Milo
Thu 12 May UK Bristol Start the Bus
Sat 14 May UK Brighton The Great Escape Festival
Wed 18 May France Paris Fleche D'Or
Thu 19 May Belgium Brussells Les Nuits
Sat 21 May Switzerland Winterthur Albani
Sun 22 May Switzerland Bern Bee-Flat

In addition, Starfucker have made an album mixtape for ‘Reptilians’, fusing their own tracks with the likes of 50 Cent. Hear it here.

New Bad For Lazarus video & UK tour‏ news

The awesome, heavy rocking Bad For Lazarus are back with a bang. Consisting of ex-members of 80’s Matchbox B-Line Disaster, UNKLE and NIN, the Brighton five piece have crafted a charming lo-fi EP as a precursor to their debut full length.

The video is for EP track ‘Jon Vs. The Apocalypse’, an uncharacteristic mixture of strings, horns and striking melody:


If you like what you can see, you can catch their superb live show at these dates:
March
24th – Leicester, Lock 42
25th – Brighton, The Hope

April
5th – London, The Macbeth
7th – Birmingham, The Rainbow
8th – Crewe, The Box
11th – Norwich, The Project
12th – York, The Stereo
16th – Glasgow, Bloc
17th – Edinburgh – The Banshee Labyrinth
18th – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club

May
4th – London, Notting Hill Arts Club

Zomes - May tour + free mp3‏

Distorted keyboard melodies tumble one over the other held together by simple tape-looped drum beats. 'Earth Grid', Zomes' second solo album, is the culmination of Lungfish alumni Asa Osborne's years of exploring meditative modal models. Written, played, and recorded entirely at home on cassette tape, 'Earth Grid', is an intimate and intentionally primitive recording.

If you want to know what that all sounds like, download the taster 'Openings' here.

Or catch him live here:
Wednesday May-11 Espace B Paris France
Thursday May-12 Le Novo Locale Bordeaux France
Sunday May-15 Moog Barcelona Spain
Wednesday May-18 Rhiz Vienna Austria
Thursday May-19 A Studio Rubin Prague Czech Republic
Friday May-20 Kafic Leipzig Germany
Sunday May-22 Victoria London UK

Meat Puppets free download & tour news

The rock legends that are Meat Puppets are giving away the first track off their new album
'Lollipop', out April 12 through Megaforce Records, for your delectation.

The band are also set to play the following dates.

May 14th – ATP Festival Minehead (performing classic album Up In The Sun)

May 30th The Garage – London

May 31st The Butterfly Factory – Dublin

Arbouretum - free mp3 'The Highwayman'

With the Arbouretum European tour just around the corner, we're pleased to offer you a download of their utterly stunning version of Jimmy Webb's 'The Highwayman', one of the standout moments from their critically acclaimed album The Gathering.

You can download it from here.

And catch the guys live at:
18/03/11 : Jam - Brighton (UK)
19/03/11 : Miss Peapod's - Penryn/Cornwall (UK)
20/03/11 : The Deaf Institute - Manchester (UK)
21/03/11 : Captains Rest - Glasgow (UK)
22/03/11 : The Cluny - Newcastle (UK)
23/03/11 : Hare & Hounds - Birmingham (UK)
24/03/11 : The Borderline - Club Uncut - London (UK)

We'll be down the front at the Borderline gig, see you there. :)