Friday 20 May 2011

Crystal Stilts UK TOUR - June 2011


UK Dates
Mon 20 Jun 2011 London XOYO
Tue 21 Jun 2011 Southampton Joiners Arms
Wed 22 Jun 2011 Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms (w/Warpaint)
Thu 23 Jun 2011 Cardiff Millennium Music Hall (w/Warpaint)
Fri 24 Jun 2011 Manchester Sound Control

Following the release of their latest album In Love With Oblivion, Crystal Stilts are releasing “Shake the Shackles” as a digital download single to coincide with their second UK jaunt of 2011 this coming June with headline shows including XOYO in London on 20th (with The 1990's and Still Corners) plus a couple of shows with Warpaint.

Crystal Stilts burst out of Brooklyn's storied post-punk indie scene in 2008 with a string of releases including their fantastic debut album Alight Of Night and this year’s critically acclaimed In Love with Oblivion. Deftly combining the spooked 60s Texas psych of 13th Floor Elevators and Red Crayola, the gothic blues/punk howl of Gun Club, the dark, experimental DIYism of early Flying Nun/Xpressway groups and a dash of classic 60s pop, Crystal Stilts won universal accolades and established the band as first-class purveyors of haunting, atmospheric post-punk pop.

"Shake The Shackles" is one of the stand-out tracks from In Love With Oblivion, as described by the NME; "the fuzzy layers of infectious riffs, organs and tambourine shakes gloom clear with a hopeful, dappled-sunlight brilliance." Driven by echoed guitar strum and droning keys, it's a dexterous update of 60s garage pop that places it alongside late 80s Paisley Underground heroes like Green On Red and later Dream Syndicate, but the song itself is totally timeless, and impossible to place anywhere but firmly in Crystal Stilts' own unique style.
"Where 2008 debut 'Alight of Night' swooned in on a wave of surf-tinged guitars and simple rhythmic swagger, 'In Love With Oblivion' capitalises on the band's melodic talents and embraces them tenfold. It's not so much a departure as just, well, better. For every one of Brad Hargett's nonchalantly droning vocals, there's a melody that shimmers and sparkles with all the pop nous of any 60s great." NME 8/10 "Tough, primitive and direct... when scholarship and tribute are transformed into something urgent and vital" The Wire "Thrillingly transcendent... even the song titles sound like great bands from the future" Q (4/5) "Swirling through a reverb fug comes this satisfying record of lean garage rock... a nice updating of Count Five-style psych menace" Uncut "Brooding garage with a classic retro sound... there's something strangely familiar, thrilling and addictive about this LP" Loud & Quiet (8/10) "It opens with an ominous crescendo of atonal, swirling organ and eerie guitars. Suddenly it bursts into a drone-tastic groove that recalls Clinic's fusion of The Velvet Underground and Neu!-style kosmische... Terrific Stuff." The Fly

http://www.fortunapop.com

The Ladybug Transistor - Clutching Stems album out June

The Ladybug Transistor
Clutching Stems
Fortuna POP!
25 June 2011



LINKS!
Press kits: https://www.mergerecords.com/presskits/MRG377/
Artist Page: http://www.mergerecords.com/artists/ladybug


Since the 1990s, the Ladybug Transistor has created formalist pop-rock albums with a dreamy, articulate sound that spans decades and genres. Anchored by Gary Olson’s organizing vision and restrained baritone, their music boasts intricate arrangements and soaring melodies that are at once modern and timeless.

This band’s narrative holds a rich history of heartfelt collaboration, tireless devotion, quiet and outspoken romance, new arrivals, unexpected departures, achy break-ups, and unspeakable loss. They have become agile at adjustment.

In 2007, the untimely passing of their beloved drummer San Fadyl left members Olson, Kyle Forester (also in Crystal Stilts), and Julia Rydholm at an unimaginable loss, struggling with a prevailing sense of “What now?” At a time where moving forward felt possibly impossible, the band quietly gathered new recruits – Mark Dzula, Eric Farber, Michael O’Neill (also in MEN with JD Samson) – and embarked on writing a new album with the memory of San squarely in mind.

The resulting effort is their forthcoming release Clutching Stems—a lush collection of potent refrains and brought-to-one’s-knees ballads. Set to an invigorated soundtrack of wave-pop arrangements, the songs detail stories of humbling heartbreak, profound longing, undoing distress, nagging regret, and coming-of-age awakenings. Olson’s lyrics express an overarching search to find one’s voice in the face of moments that knock the wind and words right out of a person.

This new line-up has found a distinct voice that honors diverse influences and the band’s own precedent sound. Clutching Stems assuredly underlines that while love can tear things apart, it can also capably mend them back together once again.

The Ladybug Transistor are:
Gary Olson – vocals
Kyle Forester – keyboards
Julia Rydholm – bass
Michael O’Neill – guitar
Eric Farber – drums
Mark Dzula – guitar

Herman Dune - Strange Moosic





The easiest thing to say about Herman Düne is that they are atypical. Created by brothers David-Ivar Herman Düne and Andre Herman Düne more than ten years ago, the two Swedish-rooted fans of American music were already playing all around Europe and the States before they'd even begun making records. Having written over four hundred songs, they have become a reference in the modern folk-rock songwriting scene. In recent years, founder member Andre has left the band but despite this David and drummer Neman (also of Zombie Zombie) have continued relentlessly and the band’s newest album, Strange Moosic is to be released on 6 June on Fortuna POP!.

They have a new, rather charming video starring Jon Hamm from Mad Men and featuring a baby-blue Yeti which you can see here: http://vimeo.com/23262014

Live dates:

4 June - Bristol - Thekla

5 June - Brighton - Coalition

6 June - London - XOYO (w/ Comet Gain)

http://strangemoosic.tumblr.com/
www.hermandune.com
http://www.myspace.com/therealhermandune

Amor de Días - Street of the Love of Days - debut album out June



Amor de Días (Spanish for 'love of days') is the name of the—until now—secret new group of Alasdair MacLean of the Clientele and Lupe Núñez-Fernández of Pipas. Street of the Love of Days, their debut album, will be released in the UK on 17 May as a digital download and 13 June on CD.


Finding common ground as painters as well as musicians, and having regularly appeared onstage together (often with Lupe reading the text of The Clientele's 'Losing Haringey') they decided to collaborate on a project of their own.

Wandering in Madrid, Alasdair noticed a street sign for Calle del Amor de Dios, which he mistakenly translated as "Street of the Love of Days". The name struck him as a great title, even after Lupe corrected him (he was actually on the Street of the Love of God).

At times spare and empty, at times rich with instrumental texture, at times jazz-tinged and hypnotic, Street of the Love of Days is of a quality to rival anything either Alasdair or Lupe has recorded before.


The band will be heading out for an extensive US tour with Damon and Naomi in the spring and will play some UK dates when they return in June including these:


Sat 8 June, Union Chapel, opening for Howe Gelb with A Band of Gypsies

http://www.unionchapel.org.uk/events.php?gig=8e298ae4-79f2-483d-af88-6cf5d19ef553

Sun 12 June @ The Lexington, London (afternoon album launch, free)

Fri 17 June @ Scandinavian Church, Liverpool

Sat 30 July, Indietracks, (near Derby)

http://www.indietracks.co.uk


Links:

http://www.amordedias.com/

Press photos/bios/media etc:

http://www.amordedias.com/press


COMET GAIN - new album out in May




Fearlessly passionate and fiercely intelligent, Comet Gain are back with their brand new album Howl of the Lonely Crowd
to be released via Fortuna POP! on 16 May 2011, with production by Edwyn Collins and Ryan Jarman of The Cribs.

Led by songwriter David Feck, Comet Gain have released a string of critically acclaimed records on Kill Rock Stars, Track & Field and What’s Your Rupture? - albums such as Tigertown Pictures, Réalistes, City Fallen Leaves and 2008’s singles collection Broken Record Prayers establishing the band as one of the most fearlessly passionate and fiercely intelligent British bands around. The current line up comprises David Charlie Feck (vocals, guitar), ex-Huggy Bear bassist Jon Slade (guitar), Rachel Evans (vocals), Kay Ishikawa (bass), ex-Morrissey/The Meteors drummer Woodie Taylor (percussion), Anne Laure Guillain (keyboards), and Ben Phillipson of The Eighteenth Day Of May (guitar).


Unapologetically literate and emotional, Comet Gain seek out inspiration and ballast as much in the music of the girl-group era pop, heartfelt Americana, british post-punk, and 60s psych rock, as in the words of the known and forgotten beat poets, kitchen sink dramas, and new-wave French arthouse cinema. From The Modern Lovers, Felt, The Go-Betweens, Big Star, and the Byrds, to Kerouac, Shelagh Delaney, and Godard, the band are influenced by an incessant drive to “distill the spirit, and those moments of musical defiance” by “recalling old stories of friends, of being lonely, and what kept you sane; finding a common ground, taking a deep breath and then picking up our guitars and singing these songs.“

http://www.fortunapop.com

HELP STAMP OUT LONELINESS


Where It's At Is Where You Are and Papillons Noir are proud to present the heart-poundingly beautiful, eponymous debut LP from Manchester's sublime sextet Help Stamp Out Loneliness which came out this month.

With the glorious opening bars of 'Cottonopolis + Promises' (a bittersweet 'Dear John' letter to their surrogate city of Manchester) it becomes increasingly noticeable that HSOL aren't your standard indie-fare.

Fronted by the striking, Nico-esque singer D. Lucille against a glittering backdrop of transistor organs and jangle-pop guitars, their alluringly seductive songs shield lyrics that flicker between stories of rock-star stalkers (‘Record Shop’) and cringe-inducing alfresco sex (‘Biergarten’); to heartfelt paeans to the days of audio cassettes on ‘Cellophane’ and meditations on the domestic lives of Nico and John Cooper Clarke on the aforementioned ‘Cottonopolis + Promises’.

The first single to be taken from the album is the marvellously catchy ‘Record Shop’, a sinister chanson inspired by Sandra Bernhard’s character from Scorsese’s ‘King of Comedy’.

With a second session on Marc Riley's show on 6 music the day after release, the album received plaudits from The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, Artrocker and many others, including album of the week on Soundblab, a fantastic feature on God is in the TV and loads of other online coverage. Stay tuned for more dates and info!

http://www.wiaiwya.com