Harkening back to the externalized lyrical schematics of Happy Hollow, Cursive has just released a brand new digital single benefiting the American Indian College Fund. The orphaned, post-Mama I’m Swollen song blasts the way the United States has treated the American Indian Community with caustic, no holds barred lyrics. It’s slightly over the top, but [...]

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Despite Paul Banks’ active promotion of his impressive solo debut, Julian Plenti is…Skyscraper, the fourth Interpol album is still on track for release in early 2010. Drummer Sam Fogarino has even alluded to its close relationship to Interpol’s darkly expansive 2002 debut, Turn on the Bright Lights, telling Paste Magazine, “In trying to move forward, there [...]

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Land of Talk is one of those bands that sneaks up on me and kicks my ass every time. They slip under the radar, and I forget about them completely. Then, a few months later I am reminded how much I like them, and the cycles starts all over again. Luckily for me, the band [...]

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Arctic Monkeys performed its brooding builder “Crying Lightning” last night on Jimmy Fallon, complete with stoner rock hairdos. Solid. The single is available on vinyl through Oxfam. Can’t wait for the new full-length on the 25th. Very annoyed, though, that there’s no love for the South on the current tour:
08/05 – Boston, MA @ Paradise
08/07 [...]

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Love and Rockets were another one of my gateway bands in high school that opened up a whole new world of music to me. The band’s fluke Top 40 hit, “So Alive”, represents very little in terms of the breadth of its myriad musical styles. Despite being 3/4’s of the legendary art-punk pioneers, Bauhaus, Love [...]

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Second single and video from Cursive’s excellent, still-in-heavy-rotation Mama, I’m Swollen stars an all-grown-up, ahem, Tania Raymonde, who plays Benjamen Linus’ (dead?) daughter Alex on Lost. Lead singer Tim Kasher explained the video thusly to Spinner: “The idea for the video is a gross exaggeration of the ‘trophy wife’ concept — grooms hunting down brides, [...]

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Despite having knicked their name from a trippy Beatles song, these four French girls have little else in common with the fab four. Plastiscines formed after meeting at a Libertines concert in 2004 and definitely lean towards that rough and tumble side of garage pop, though their sound isn’t so easily pigeonholed. I’m not completely [...]

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Cursive is quickly following up it’s fine new album, Mama I’m Swollen, with a split 10″ picture disc. Fellow Saddle Creek labelmates Ladyfinger (ne) will take the flip side with one track off its latest, Dusk, and an unreleased song. The joint venture is in honor of the second annual Record Store Day on April [...]

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Portland’s Viva Voce have a new LP, Rose City out on May 26th on Barsuk and as one might expect, they’re on tour and heading to SXSW.
Devotion from the forthcoming LP.
March:
12 San Francisco, CA Rickshaw Stop
13 Visalia , CA Cellar Door
15 Tucson, AZ Plush
16 Phoenix, AZ Rhythm Room
18 Austin, TX SXSW
19 Austin, TX SXSW
20 Austin, [...]

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The Tripwire sat down with the core of …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead to talk about the new record, The Century of Self, band names, and various and sundry barroom topics. Speaking of the new record, where’s the vinyl version?
Spring US tour dates:
03.09 — Denver, CO — Bluebird
03.10 [...]

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Devo is planning to play its 1978 debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo? at London’s Kentish Town Forum on May 6 as a precursor to its appearance at All Tomorrow’s Parties: The Fans Strike Back event at Minehead on May 8. I saw Devo for the first time a few years [...]

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This clip is a teaser for the forthcoming record by The Life and Times entitled Tragic Boogie due out April 14, 2009 on Arena Rock Recordings. The KCMO trio is gearing up for a month-long trek in April to support the new tunes. What I’ve heard so far of the record picks up right where [...]

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Despite some individual members’ supreme awfulness over the years as well as the automatic lameness of the whole cash-cow reunion charade, I’m kind of intrigued to see the original line-up of Jane’s Addiction play again. Lone hold-out Eric Avery had long said he had no interest in pursuing the past, but I guess he caved [...]

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With former members of Elevator Action and Columbia, South Carolina’s sadly defunct Orgone Accumulator, Brooklyn’s Telltale showcases an intriguing mix of experimental no-wave, minimalist post-punk, and dark shoegaze. The result is akin to pre-Bad Moon Rising Sonic Youth, as Eric Gilstrap’s voice recalls Thurston Moore’s youthful, angst-ridden inflection when he punches up the tension. [...]

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Having already been sold on Marnie Stern, I needed little to no convincing to want to go see her live, but a friend of mine has it on good authority that her live show is incredible, which just adds fuel to my fire. She’s touring the US in March to show off her fretboard [...]

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Strangely, Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive stream of Cursive’s “I Couldn’t Love You”, off the band’s forthcoming Mama, I’m Swollen out on Saddle Creek March 10. At first, it sounds more like a song by The Good Life, Tim Kasher’s other band, but the tension brims into uncomfortable emotional weirdness, which is much more [...]

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Ladytron will support The Faint on a North American tour for a month starting April Fool’s Day in support of 2008’s Velocifero. The Tomorrow EP will precede the shows by a month, as it will be available digitally on March 3rd. Then the band heads over to Europe to play a few dates with Depeche Mode. [...]

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Kismet! New video from A Place to Bury Strangers and they will be on tour in April, coming to a city near me.
3-31 Dublin, Ireleand – Whelans
4-1 Glasgow, UK – Stereo
4-2 Manchester, UK – Ruby Lounge
4-3 Leeds, UK – Cockpit
4-5 Birmingham, UK – Barfly
4-6 London, UK – Kings College
4-10 Rotterdam, Netherlands – Motel Mozaique Festival
4-11 [...]

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The new Cursive record, Mama, I’m Swollen, will be out March 10, 2009 via Saddle Creek. It’s the band’s sixth studio album and follows the sorely underrated Happy Hollow from 2006. With Cursive’s penchant for heavy-handed, thematically driven song cycles, chances are good that Mama, I’m Swollen will follow suit, though that title, as awesome [...]

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I have the first two episodes of Season 2 of Flight of the Conchords DVR’d and ready to go, about which I am very excited. I think tonight is the night. Even more exciting is the fact that Bret and Jemaine are taking the show on the road this spring. I had a chance to [...]

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