Italian hardcore quartet HOLY release debut EP on Jan 23rd

Four friends gave birth to HOLY in the hot summer of 2011 in Milano, Italy. Whilst most people were hanging out in shorts and sunglasses, planning their holiday and heading to the seaside, HOLY were locked inside a hot, sweaty rehearsal room, writing songs.

It only took a few days to give birth to a fistful of songs, 8 to be exact. Soon after, a demo was recorded in the same hot, sweaty rehearsal room, which instead of being a demo became HOLY's debut release.

Clocking up 8 furious songs in an insane 11 minutes, their self-titled debut EP is released on 12” vinyl on January 23rd through Italian DIY label Hell, Yes!

Watch the video for the EP’s opening track, ‘The Wrong Side’ here:

Esben and The Witch man kicks off record label with Abi Wade release

A new Brighton record label formed by Esben & the Witch’s Daniel Copeman and local gig promoter Andy Rossiter have announced their first release. Called Love Thy Neighbour Records, the EP only label will launch on November 28th with cellist & singer Abi Wade’s debut release, ‘And Blood and Air EP’.

An amalgamation of strings and vocal chords, Abi’s music is seemingly and seamlessly sewn together, each beat, melody and bass line put exactly in its place to create songs that pull the heart strings and a performance that will beguile and intrigue.

See a video of Abi performing the first track from the EP, ‘Stability’ here:


Or listen / download it here:
Abi Wade - Stability by WorkItMedia

Dan Mangan - New album news & free download

Following numerous European jaunts, tours with The Walkmen, The Decemberists and Okkervil River, playing for Wills & Kate on their recent trip to Canada, award nominations and appearances at Glastonbury and End of the Road, Dan Mangan has joined City Slang. The Vancouver-based song smith will be releasing his captivating new album ‘Oh Fortune’ in the UK on December 5th.

As a taster of what to expect, you can download and hear lead track ‘Post War Blues’ here: http://soundcloud.com/cityslang/dan-mangan-post-war-blues

Or just take a listen here:

Videos from The Sound Of Arrows

Swedish duo, and alleged Madonna botherers, The Sound Of Arrows have not one but two videos for your delectation and amusement.

The first is for their new single, which was out on Monday (25th), called 'Magic'.
Set in a world where all the adults have disappeared, the colourful 4 minute epic video brings to mind the enchanting mystery of Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” and the playful imagination of Pixar’s creations. It’s “Where The Wild Things Are” meets “The Neverending Story”, and every bit as fantastical, beguiling, and eye-poppingly stunning as that sounds.



As if that isn't enough, they've given us this lovely mini-doc on how the video was made:




The Sound of Arrows play the following festival dates this summer:

July 01 Blissfields Festival Winchester
July 15 Melt Festival Germany
July 16 Lovebox Festival London
Aug 18 Pukkelpop Festival Belgium

Bachelorette reveals psychedelic new video for 'Blanket'

Following her UK and European tour last month, Bachelorette (aka Annabel Alpers) hasn’t rested, as we can now bring you her kaleidoscopic new video for ‘Blanket’, taken from her self-titled, third album....

Bachelorette - Blanket from Souterrain Transmissions on Vimeo.

Free track from Blitzen Trapper

Ahead of their new album, 'American Goldwing', on September 12th Blitzen Trapper are offering y'all the chance to download a track using this fancy widgetty thing below. Enjoy.

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.

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:

The Coathangers. new album out today & more exciting news

Atlanta’s riot grrrls The Coathangers release their full-throttle new album ‘Larceny & Old Lace’ TODAY on Suicide Squeeze. Along with it they have confirmed a one off limited edition hand-numbered flexidisc single on X-Ray Recordings, due to be released on August 6th.

The flexidisc includes 2 tracks ‘Hurricaine’ and ‘Johnny’. See the video for ‘Hurricaine’ here:


This recordis the follow up to the quartet's critically acclaimed 2009 album, 'Scramble', also released on Suicide Squeeze. It also follows a hectic touring schedule that’s now notched up over 200 shows, playing with the likes of The Thermals, Japandroids, These Arms Are Snakes, The Strange Boys, Fucked Up, Monotonix and Jay Reatard - whose memory album track Jaybird is dedicated to.

'Larceny & Old Lace' tracklist:

1) Hurricane
2) Trailer Park Boneyard
3) Go Away
4) Sicker
5) Call To Nothing
6) Jaybird
7) Johnny
8) My Baby
9) Chicken: 30
10) Well Alright
11) Tabbacco Rd.

EMA's new video & free download

After a packed out and incredibly well received debut UK show at London’s Macbeth last night (May 11) EMA, the new project from ex-GOWNS singer/guitarist Erika M. Anderson, has uploaded the surreal video for her digital free release single ‘Milkman’.

Taken from her album, ‘Past Life Martyred Saints’, released this week on Souterrain Transmissions, the video for 'Milkman' was directed by William Rahilly and perfectly reflects the creative, unusual and inspiring approach to song-writing that has seen this debut album critically lauded on both sides of the Atlantic.



The track can also be downloaded for free here.

Norman Palm album out March 14th, London show & free mp3

Ahead of his album ‘Shore to Shore’s release on March 14, Norman Palm has announced another London show at the Old Blue Last on March 30.

‘Shore to Shore’ is Norman Palm’s first conventional album release, since his last was a self-released 200-page artbook and accompanying loose collection of songs that saw him gain attention from the art press through to Perez Hilton.‘

Hear album track ‘Easy’ here:
Norman Palm - Easy by cityslang

Free download from Dananananaykroyd

Having taken a well-earned break and headed to Los Angeles to record their second album with Ross Robinson (At The Drive-in, Blood Brothers, Slipknot) Dananananaykroyd return on absolutely unstoppable form with a free download of brand new track ‘E Numbers’.

Grab it here:

Dananananaykroyd - E Numbers by WorkItMedia

Alexi Murdoch single release and video

Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Alexi Murdoch is set to release ‘Some Day Soon’ from his beautiful new album 'Towards the Sun' on March 14 on City Slang.

'Some Day Soon’ is a delicate and understated track, but what it lacks in mammoth orchestration it more than makes up for in charm. Warm and heartfelt, ‘Some Day Soon’ shows off Murdoch’s talent for creating music that is both refreshing and comfortably familiar.

Check out Alexi performing the song live here:

The Charlatans acoustic tour & EP announced

The Charlatans' vocalist Tim Burgess and guitarist Mark Collins are set to embark on a series of intimate live shows across the UK starting on March 08. To coincide with the tour, stripped-down EP 'Warmer Sounds' will be released on the same day to download and on a limited edition 10" vinyl.

The dates are:

MARCH
8th Wrexham, Central Station (£11)
9th Blackburn, Live Lounge (£16)
10th Newcastle, Riverside (£16)
11th Leeds, Brudenell Social Club (£16)
12th Stockton, Georgian Theatre (£16)
13th Manchester, Deaf Institute (£16)
14th Stoke On Trent, The Underground (£15)
16th London, Union Chapel (£17.50)
17th Brighton, Komedia (TBC)
21st Glasgow, Oran Mor (£12.50)

Meet Love Inks, new band from Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas three-piece Love Inks are set to surprise and seduce music fans and critics across the board this Spring, with the release of their debut album along with their highly infectious, dreamy pop gem and debut single 'Blackeye'. The single will be released on limited edition 7” vinyl on March 28 through Italian record label Hell, Yes! (Dum Dum Girls, Crocodiles, SISU), with the album to follow soon after. In the meantime, you can have a preview listen to the single:

LOVE INKS "Blackeye" by HellYes

Norman Palm releases 'Sleeper' single today

Norman Palm’s beautiful single ‘Sleeper’ is out today on City Slang (Arcade Fire, Caribou, Broken Social Scene). Slipping comfortably into the recently-revived folk scene, the vibrant, summery feel of ‘Sleeper’ is an endearing antidote to the current winter gloom and is released ahead of his album ‘Shore to Shore’ on March 14.

Norman Palm - Sleeper by WorkItMedia

Moon Duo announce new album

Moon Duo, comprising of Wooden Shijps guitarist Ripley Johnson and his partner, Sanae Yamada, have announced plans to follow up their two highly acclaimed EPs ('Killing Time' & 'Escape') with their début 'Mazes' which is out on April 18 through Souterrain Transmissions (Zola Jesus, Marnie Stern, Tweak Bird).

As a taster of what to expect, they have made the album's title track available on Soundcloud:

Moon Duo - Mazes by souterraintransmissions

Video Villain Video

Video Villain are Marie France and Lucy Catherwood and this is their debut single ‘Fearless’, to be released for download on February 21.

Self-made, self-released… they even made the video. Summarised by the band themselves, the track is “about coming through a difficult time in your life and realizing you are better for it, basically embracing change.”

Charged with electricity and taking influences far and wide, from Nine Inch Nails and Aphex Twin to Beethoven and Wendy Carlos, ‘Fearless’ is 5 minutes and 31 seconds of intense, bass driven, electronic rock hedonism. The almost occult-like video has already been rumbling in the depths of the web for a few weeks and can be seen here:

Japanese Voyeurs hit the road with headline tour

After touring with Young Guns and playing various shows with the likes of Rolo Tomassi and The Ghost Of a Thousand over Christmas, our favourite grunge revivalists Japanese Voyeurs kick off 2011 with a headline tour, leading into the Rock Sound Exposure tour with Dinosaur Pile-Up and The Xcerts:

FEBRUARY
3rd Middlesborough, The Crown
4th Hull, Adelphi
5th Dundee, Hustlers
6th Aberdeen, Tunnels
7th Inverness, Mad Hatters
9th Liverpool, Shipping Forecast
10th Stoke, Sugarmill
11th Wakefield, Escobar
12th Exeter, Freakscene @ Pheonix
14th Bath, Moles
17th Bedford, Esquires +
18th Bournemouth, Champions +
19th Brighton, Audio +
20th Tunbridge, Forum +
22nd Cambridge, Haymakers +
23rd Birmingham, O2 Academy 3 +
24th London, Relentless Garage +
25th Bristol, O2 +
27th Glasgow, King Tuts +
28th Newcastle, O2 Academy 2 +

MARCH
2nd Leeds, Cockpit 2 +
3rd Manchester, Roadhouse +
4th York, Duchess +
5th Southampton, Joiners +

*on tour with Young Guns. Tickets available from here
+Rock Sound Exposure tour w/Dinosaur Pile Up and The Xcerts. Tickets available from here.