Forgiveness Rock Record.

 You can hear two new song's, "Forced to Love" and "All to All" from Broken Social Scene's upcoming record "Forgiveness Rock Record" after they made quite an impression with the first release, "World Sick".

Here is the track listing for the record out May 4.
01 World Sick
02 Chase Scene
03 Texico Bitches
04 Forced to Love
05 All to All
06 Art House Director
07 Highway Slipper Jam
08 Ungrateful Little Father
09 Meet Me in the Basement
10 Sentimental X's
11 Sweetest Kill
12 Romance to the Grave
13 Water in Hell
14 Me and My Hand
-CE
Photo courtesy of Pitchfork.

Heartless Bastards and Friday Night Lights.

Friday Night Lights is amazing. It's simple. The best show ever. It combines everything, and makes it amazing. It even has great music.

You can preview "Friday Night Lights: Volume 2" HERE. It includes a track from Heartless Bastards, who I incidently just saw in concert in Paris with Brendan Benson. It was AMAZING. They are the kind that are even better live. So amazing. Since we were pretty much the only people in the hall who spoke english, I talked for a bit with the lead singer, Erika for a bit after the show. Really spacy, but very sweet- she grew up in Ohio, around Dayton, and now the band is in Austin, Texas. Also, she drank red wine on stage, instead of beer like most guys in bands do. I think that's real classy.
-CE

Holding Steady.

The Hold Steady have announced the release of a new CD, entitled "Heaven is Whenever" due out May 4. The band reunited with producer Dean Baltulonis for the album, who also worked with them on "Separation Sunday" and their debut, "Almost Killed Me". It is also their first album that does not include keyboardist Franz Nicolay, who left the group in September.

In a press release, guitarist Tad Kublar said, "I think this is a guitar heavy record. But I would NOT say this is a heavy guitar record. The main objective being not to make the same record as the one previous. I love "Boys and Girls" and "Stay Positive". But they have a very similar feel and sound."

Here is the current tour schedule for the Hold Steady:
04-02 Ardsley, NY - LIFE
04-03 New Haven, CT - Toad's Place
04-05 Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
04-06 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street
04-07 Albany, NY - Linda Norris Auditorium
04-08 Woodstock, NY - Bearsville Theater
04-09 Jermyn, PA - Eleanor Rigby's
04-10 Syracuse, NY - The Westcott Theater
04-12 Rochester, NY - The Club at Water Street Music Hall
04-13 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
04-14 Pittsburgh, PA - Diesel Club Lounge
04-15 Morgantown, WV - 123 Pleasant St.
04-16 Harrisburg, PA - Appalachian Brewing Company
05-05  Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre
05-06  San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
05-29  George, WA - Sasquatch Festival
06-12  Newport, England - Isle of Wright Festival
06-14  Paris, France - Fleche D'Or
06-21  Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkeg
06-22  London, England - HMV Forum
06-26  Manchester, England - Academy 2

My lucky sister gets to go, while as I am leaving Europe, they are coming. How ironic. Oh well, c'est la vie. I really want to go to the one in Harrisburg, PA. Appalachian Brewing Company sounds fun. Or the first one, in Ardsley- LIFE. It's so simple, so genius. I want to go to there.
-CE
Photo courtesy of Pitchfork.

Spoon's Transference.

 

Greatest musical news of the week (probably the month, maybe the year): Spoon's upcoming seventh LP has a name, track listing and a release date! "Transference" drops January 26th, and here is the track list:

01 Before Destruction
02 Is Love Forever?
03 The Mystery Zone
04 Who Makes Your Money
05 Written in Reverse
06 I Saw the Light
07 Trouble Comes Running
08 Goodnight Laura
09 Out Go the Lights
10 Got Nuffin
11 Nobody Gets Me But You

They've been performing some of these at their concerts, so here are some videos, more after the jump.
-CE

Photo courtesy of Floating. 

Noah and the Whale.

Paste Magazine's "Band of the Week" is Noah and the Whale, of whom I am a fan. So basically I'm making them my band of the week too. They've been traveling around with one of my other fave's, Johnny Flynn. Le sigh. His sister Lillie Flynn has been a female vocalist during some tours, as well as Laura Marling.

Their name is from one the band's favorite films, "The Squid and the Whale" and the name of the director of the movie, Noah Baumbach.


Band members: Charlie Fink (vocals, guitar), Doug Fink (drums), Urby Whale (bass) Tom Hobden (fiddle)
Album: The First Days of Spring
If you like: Belle and Sebastian, Bon Iver, Johnny Flynn

Le sigh. Don't you want to be friends with someone named Charlie Fink? Don't even get me started about Urby Whale. I want to be epic friends with somone named Urby Whale.

My sister should like this one: The title of their album references T.S. Eliot's poem, The Wasteland. "April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead ground, mixing memory and desire."
-CE

The First Days Of Spring - Noa...

Heart Like a Kick Drum.

I'll be posting more about this later- I'm writing a review for the Observer- so I'll be brief for now.

New Avett album, "I and Love and You", is AMAZING. Love it. Check out my favorite for right now, 'Kick Drum Heart'.
-CE

Kick Drum Heart - The Avett Br...

Delta Spirit.

They've been one of my favorite bands since I saw them open for (le sigh) Matt Costa at Jackrabbits in 2006, and despite earning much critical acclaim for their 2008 official debut LP Ode to Sunshine they haven't really touched the main stream. I mentioned them briefly in our first listening is sexy segment, but it is far past time to make Delta Spirit an official inductee.

Delta Spirit is a heavenly slice of Americana music pie at your favorite joint- not only do they taste damn good, but the atmosphere is outta site. These boys put on a helluva show, they are literally "banging on a trashcan", something the Doug fan in me cannot resist, plus it creates a forceful percussion sound that really defines this band. Lead singer Matt Vasquez projects with so much courageous love and simultaneous jittery agony that the entire audience is put into a rapture that can only be described as a spirit- a delta spirit. By the time he leads you into the soaring guttering call, "If you're feelin' what I'm feelin' come on, all you soul-searchin' people come on..." you're ready to follow this band to the end of the world.

They are the kind of band that makes you understand the hero worship that inspired Almost Famous. That is, the "we're all about the music" part, not the groupie part that is. Although it must be said that Matt Vasquez has a certain Johnny Cash meets Indiana Jones thing going on. No lie.

Although they hail from the sun and waves of the land of the Beach Boys, their sound borrows a lot more from the Southern end of the Mason- Dixon line than their San Diego roots. Sample Trashcan downbelow. Yes, they do use the trashcan in the song.
Members: Jon Jameson (bass), Matthew Vasquez (vocals, guitar), Sean Walker (guitar), Kelly Winrich (multi-instrumentalist), Brandon Young (percussion)
If you like: Spoon, Cold War Kids, Muddy Waters; you will like Delta Spirit.
-CE

Trashcan - Delta Spirit

Bands to Follow- Parachute

So I saw this band perform at Legends in South Bend, IN, and I must say one of the best surprises I've ever had. None of us expect the opening band to be that great, seriously. For me at least, they were better than Jon McLaughlin, whom they opened up for. He was good and all, but...I'm not sitting here writing about him, now am I? The only other time I've liked an opening band as much is when Delta Spirit opened up for Matt Costa at Jackrabbits last June. Going back to Doug days, those guys were literally bangin' on a trashcan. For some reason it the term "Indiana Jones Rock" came to mind. No idea why. Not an actual genre. I just made it up.

But I digress. Parachute is a band on the verge. Of what, who can really say. They are either going to burn brightly for a bit and flame out, or shoot up the top 40. I don't make predictions beyond that. Also, LOVE this picture of them. Reminds me of the Doors, 1966 Morrison Hotel album cover. Anyways, These guys are the most fan friendly band I've ever run across, I never got that 'I'm too sexy for these... fans' vibe, they were funny when I talked to them after the show at Notre Dame- huge Taylor Swift fans. The drummer, Johnny Stubblefield and the lead singer, Will Anderson both have facebooks, and communicate with their fans that way- twitpics and the like. Also they put up a lot of tour videos- funny stuff. Check out youtube for those. However, they also prove my one theory of bands: drummers are always in your face outgoing- because they constantly get stuck in the back- and bass players are always awkward. I've never seen it fail. Trust.

I saw them again in Jacksonville at Jackrabbits and...apparently their star has not come to the town of Lynyrd Skynyrd and (ugh, dare we own up to it?) Yellowcard. NO ONE was there. Walked up about 15 minutes after the show was supposed to start, get to the front door and the guy, "Are you Courtney?" Yeah. My name and my one friend's? Only names on the list. We walk in and the only people are the "with the band" people. Awkward. It filled out a bit, and they saved it by still pulling out a decent show. Next time they should play at Freebird- it's not such a black hole, plus that crowd would be way better for them.

They're going to be on the next episode of "Live From Daryl's House" (Daryl Hall, of Hall & Oates fame), airing today- I'll post that video later on.

Their "breakout" song is called "She Is Love" for a Nivea commercial, but I personally like this one, called "Ghost". Here's a good video of it: