Summerlin’s highly anticipated new album, You Can’t Burn Out If You’re Not On Fire, is released today!

Head over to your favourite store to pick up your copy.

Anti-Folk hero Kimya Dawson has announced a UK and Europe summer tour!

Tour Dates (click for more info & tickets):

July 9- London, England- Bush Hall
July 10- Brighton, England- The Haunt
July 11- Paris, France- La Maroquinerie
July 12- Koln, Germany- Luxor
July 13- Hamburg, Germany- Uebel & Gefarlich
July 14- Copenhagen, Denmark- Vega
July 15- Berlin, Germany- Heimathafen
July 16- Frankfurt, Germany- Brotfabrik
July 17- Gent, Belgium- Boomtown Festival
July 18- Amsterdam, Netherlands- Paradiso

For updates see http://www.kimyadawson.com/tour-dates/

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After departing Victory Records in July of 2010, Chicago-based pop-punk band THE AUDITION is set to write their own history with the self-release of their brand new EP, titled ‘Chapter II’ on 11^th June in the UK to coincide with appearances at the 2012 Slam Dunk Festival in Leeds, Herts and Wales. Backed by the support of their fans around the world, ‘Chapter II’ sees the band heading in a fresh direction and honing their signature sound into one that demonstrates a maturity and breadth evident in their earlier releases but not fully realized until now. The first single from the EP, the catchy ‘You Make Me Sick’ can be heard here:

The Audition has been touring with Every Avenue and We Are The In Crowd in the US, marking their first tour of their home country since 2010 and thus ending a hiatus that left their fans longing for a return to the road. The members of The Audition have been excitedly road-testing the material from their new EP after two long years off from touring and are eager to bring the show to the UK in May as the band have a long-standing history of effervescent shows in the country. They played on the Kerrang! Tour in 2007 alongside Biffy Clyro and The Bronx. The Audition also took You Me At Six out as support on one of their first nationwide headline tours, as well as playing at various other UK festivals and events including Slam Dunk, Give It A Name and Download festivals.

Formed in 2003 by drummer Ryan O’Connor and bassist Joe Lussa, The Audition signed with Victory Records and released their debut album, ‘Controversy Loves Company’ in September 2005. By that point, the band’s line-up had come to include guitarists Seth Johnson and Timmy Klepek, as well as vocalist Danny Stevens. Their 2008 sophomore effort, ‘Champion,’ cracked the Billboard Top 200 at #157, and their 2009 release, ‘Self Titled Album’ hit #7 on Billboard Heatseekers. After the release of their fourth album, ‘Great Danger,’ and the fulfillment of their contractual obligation with Victory, the band began to write for what would become Chapter II. The Audition see this new EP as a second chapter to the career and legacy they want to leave behind.

The Band:
Danny Stevens – Vocals
Ryan O’Connor – Drums
Tim Klepek – Guitar
Joe Lussa – Bass
Jimmy Lopez – Guitar

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Summerlin have released a music video to accompany the title track of their forthcoming debut album ‘You Can’t Burn Out If You’re Not On Fire’ ahead of their UK headline dates which kick off this week. The video was produced by Tom Barnes and filmed in Mansfield at a building which was used by American troops in the second world war as a ration supply rail station to load trains with rations for the troops abroad.

Summerlin’s upcoming debut full-length, ‘You Can’t Burn Out If You’re Not On Fire’, will be released on 14^th May, 2012 thru Rude Records. The album is a rallying cry for anyone who dreams of escaping their dreaded daily grind, and boldly shouting their true intentions to the world. It was mixed and mastered by the legendary Pelle Henricsson (Refused, Entombed, In Flames). Sequestered in Henricsson’s Tonteknik studio in Umeå, Sweden, the band had the rare opportunity to pick the brain of an industry icon, who’s produced some of the most important recordings in punk-rock, metal and hardcore.

Borrowing a famous quote from Doors frontman Jim Morrison, the title ‘You Can’t Burn Out If You’re Not On Fire’ succinctly summarizes the heart of the record—you’ll never risk a glorious downfall if you haven’t ever soared. Kicking in hard and fast with opening cut ‘Let It Go,’ the album projects a consistent message of hope, tempered with the ugliness of the daily reality our protagonists must overcome.

Summerlin formed in late 2008 and from the outset they were writing material with a sound that combined pop-punk with the harder elements they also loved. The early growing pains and lineup changes ensued, but by summer 2009 the band unveiled an EP, So Make Your Move. Early tours began in the U.K. and Europe, climaxing with an appearance at the 2011 Slam Dunk Festival, alongside the likes of Less Than Jake, The Starting Line, Goldfinger, Anti-Flag and Set Your Goals.

LIVE DATES

April 2012

21st – Rock City

22nd – Camden Barfly

24th – Doncaster Leopard

28th – Manchester Satans hollow

29th – Glasgow Stairway Club

Yuck are bringing the 90s back, and we all know that. Their self-titled debut album was released last year and it was a pleasant surprise for me, for reminding me of 90′s alternative bands I really dig — such as Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Teenage Fanclub and Pixies.

Today, they have released a new song, titled ‘Chew’, and you can hear it below, via SoundCloud.

On Chew, the almost inaudible vocals and distorted guitar drone create a shoegaze-sound that makes it easy to identify their musical inspirations and influences.

“Her Harbour is an ever growing collection of contemporary folk songs by Gabrielle Giguere.” (I stole that line from many sites.) She has 2 songs posted on Soundcloud and one of those songs, Petunia, is also on Bandcamp. At this time, neither song is available for download. However, you can stream them on either site or here until your heart’s content.

Petunia: If Haley Bonar, Regina Spektor, and Beth Orton had a love-child-song that would be Petunia. Petunia is a beautiful simple song that weaves in and out of harmony like a early spring breeze over the desolate winter frost-bitten Earth. I’ve listened to this song many many times and I keep debating what the song is about. If you go to her Bandcamp you can read the lyrics and come up with your own theory. I won’t tell you my speculations so I don’t spoil your own interpretation.

Phinn’s: I really like the minimalist approach of this song and how it highlights Giguere’s voice. When she sings “Black coffee and the morning spins” I actually get goosebumps, but when her voice carves out the “the gale I call my heart” I think my stomach leaps into my chest.

I need to start a writing campaign to introduce her to Julie Peel and hopefully get her on Peel’s Bedroom Sessions, which is on hiatus at the moment. It’ll be back and when it comes back I hope Her Harbour is one of the many talented folks showcased.

Listen:
 Phinn’s by Gabrielle Giguere

Petunia by Gabrielle Giguere

Connect with Her Harbour: Web | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud | Bandcamp | MySpace

About Her Harbour/Gabrielle Giguere (freshly swiped from her website):

I am a Montreal born, Ottawa raised singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. I have studied both Contemporary and Jazz vocals. I play a variety of traditional instruments including the Autoharp, Piano, Guitar and Baritone Ukulele. More recently, I have found great interest in blending those instruments with textural sounds that I draw from vocal layering, keyboards, bowed crystal glasses, singing bowls, bells and various household objects.

I perform live under the moniker “Her Harbour” with Tyler Bell (Electric Guitar) and André M. Bluteau (Percussions, Keyboard, Vocals).

I am also a member of Boys of Bytown an all girls Folk ensemble. This fall we were awarded a recording grant by the Ontario Council of Arts and began recording our first album this January.

You can download 2 EPs from Clones of the Queen’s on bandcamp below. They’re both free and the live album offers 2 great songs that you won’t get on Gate so download them both or you’ll be sorry (really really sorry). I’ve also included an awesome video below. All I have to say about the video is: straight-up vodka, blood, and sex. What the hell more could you ever want? (well, maybe change the guys to girls and that would be sweet!)

Clones of the Queen (“COTQ”) are an ambitious band who claim to be influenced by The Knife, Animal Collective, School of Seven Bells, and Broadcast. All fucking fantastic bands, right? Hell yeah. So what does COTQ sound like? COTQ‘s dreampop electronic sounds weaves through me as though I’m drowning in clear water and lead singer Ara Laylo is the siren effortlessly moving between the currents convincing me to keep sinking. Both of the free albums offered have a date stamp of 2010 and their site promises hot-shit to come out in 2012. I have no clue what their next album will sound like but based on the first EP and the live EP I have no doubt that it won’t be awesome. The great thing about a band like COTQ is that they will likely continue to hone their skills and improve their sound. It can only get better!

Songs I dig:

From Live at Loft - I’m quite fond of Forest (see the video below) and Heartbeats (The Knife cover). Forest is hauntingly delicious and did I mention the fucking awesome video below? Watch it. Their cover of Heartbeats is actually really good and kudos to them for having the balls to cover The Knife.

From Gate - I like the menacing sound and feel of Chase and the anxious vibe behind Talisman. For some reason Gate as a whole makes feel as though I’m draped in a red velvet lounger frozen in a neon-diseased Japanese chic bar watching drunk business men pick-up girls that look like Natsuki Kuga. (It’s probably because I’m reading 1Q84.)

Connect with Clones of the Queen: Web | Bandcamp | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Soundcloud | LastFm

Listen to ‘Live at Loft’:

Listen to ‘Gate’:

NOTE: Bandcamp only allows artists limited free downloads. If the download is no longer offered for free please consider providing your support to the musician by paying for the music.

About Clones of the Queen (freshly swiped from their website):

Clones of the Queen, abbreviated ‘COTQ’ or just ‘Clones’, is a three-piece band based in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. The band started jamming together in the summer of 2009 in an old bank vault above a coffee shop. With Ara Laylo on lead vocals, Paul Bajcar on guitar, and Matthew McVickar on electronics, the trio delivers songs that are at once ambient and spirited, combining strong vocals, stormy percussion, and heavily-effected guitar lines and synth loops. Clones of the Queen derive their band name from the ant species Mycocepurus smithii, in which every individual is a genetic duplicate of the queen. The band is currently playing shows in Honolulu, self-released their debut EP in December 2010, and are working on a follow-up LP for January 2012.

The trio has been the main support for many visiting bands, opening for Menomena, Diplo, Toro Y Moi,Little Dragon, and Warpaint, for whom they opened at Aloha Tower on the opening night of Hallowbaloo 2011, Honolulu’s yearly three-day Halloween music and street festival.

They have played every one of downtown Honolulu’s nighttime hotspots, the Hard Rock Cafe Waikiki, and been asked to play at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and theContemporary Museum of Honolulu multiple times for special events.

The band has had dozens of write-ups in local newspapers (both the Star Advertiser and the Honolulu Weekly), and was named as the Best Band in Honolulu by the Boston Phoenix for their yearly Best New Bands in America feature in 2011.

Matthew McVickar, producer and live electronics player in the band, produced the score for the Hawaii International Film Festival 2011 trailer, remixing taiko drummer of international renown Kenny Endo. As a solo artist, he has opened for Classixx and Baths and released an EP of his own in August 2011. In January 2012 Matthew won one of six qualifying rounds forBeatroot, a Honolulu beat battle, and will compete in the finals in April.

Kick-Ass Video:

Clones of the Queen: Forest from Banzai Media, LLC on Vimeo.

She Makes War‘s album Little Battles will be available on April 9. You can hear three songs on Bandcamp below.

5 second review: I expect I’ll be reviewing the entire album when it’s released. Based on the three songs available on bandcamp, the album is going to be kick-ass. I’m a little dumbfounded by Kidd’s awesomeness at the moment and finding myself at a lack for words, so instead of reading my colorful words I recommend you listen below. I promise that if you check her out you will be joining me in her fan club. Of the three songs, Delete reaches beyond the realm of fucking rocks! Then I hear In This Boat and think that song kicks even more ass! And if you’re really into music and like behind the scenes stuff, then check out her YouTube. Great shit. Stay tuned for the album review in April.

Connect with She Makes War: Web | Twitter for She Makes War | Twitter for Laura Kidd | Facebook | YouTube | LastFm

Listen:

About She Makes War (freshly swiped from facebook):

She Makes War is the gloom-pop solo project of Laura Kidd: multi-instrumentalist, visual artist and digital polymath. Debut album “Disarm” was released in September 2010 to high praise, gaining SMW an ardent international following and leading to support slots with Midge Ure, Chris T-T, Viv Albertine and Tom Williams and the Boat.

In 2011, around touring South America as Tricky’s bassist and singing in Carina Round’s band, SMW won Soundcloud’s Backstage Pass Award and ran a wildly successful Pledge Music campaign raising 100% of the funds needed to record “Little Battles”, the new album set for release on 9th April 2012.

‘Little Battles’ was co-produced by She Makes War and Myles Clarke (Sparkadia, Kid Harpoon, Belakiss) in the summer of 2011. Recorded just around the corner from the Hackney riots, London’s crackling tension is echoed within the 15 songs but if love is a battlefield this album is a peaceful protest – honest and vulnerable yet steely and sure of itself, all melancholy romance and wide-eyed hope for the future.

Driven by Kidd’s bewitching, pastoral vocals and layered guitars and supported by a plethora of additional instruments from ukulele to autoharp, melodica, piano, violin, harp, saxophone and three part recorder ensemble, the songs are punctuated by a patchwork of field recordings from her global travels as hired gun. The album opens to the sound of a Japanese mountaintop tannoy and closes on a summer rain shower in South London, bells chime in Mexico and Buenos Aires, breakdancers throw themselves around a New York subway carriage and news helicopters circle Mare Street – and within the world of She Makes War this all makes perfect sense. It’s about collisions – analogue with digital, war with peace and technology with nature.

Take lead single ‘In This Boat’, released digitally and as a homemade Valentine’s card on February 14th with early radio support from BBC 6 Music. Brooding, lovesick and philosophical, the body prepares for voyage with special guests Chris T-T, Milly McGregor (Dott Reed) and Bass (Djevara) providing tempestuous piano, violin and vocal accompaniment respectively, the rain beating down on Kidd’s swirling high sea of guitar lines and swooning vocals.

Elsewhere the Carpenters-esque ‘Butterflies’ warns of the dangers of pretty boys in bands, a rich blend of harp, ukulele and violin sweetening the blow, ‘Exit Strategy’ explores emotional paranoia and a capella extravaganza ‘Delete’ describes the anguish of indecision. ‘May Our Daughters Return Home’ features guest vocalists Tasmin Archer, Annie Gardiner (Hysterical Injury), Dana Jade and Anna Madeleine as a solemn choir, singing the haunting tale of Mexico’s lost daughters, and ‘Magpie Heart’ and ‘Never Was’ hint at narrowly averted disaster.

Blending urgent, grungey guitars with processed beats, heady pop melodies and a liberal dusting of glitter, She Makes War has drawn comparisons to artists from Blur to Blood Red Shoes, Melissa Auf der Maur, Eels and Bat For Lashes.

You can download Knox Hamilton‘s first single Saturday Show from their new EP for free on Bandcamp below. (And you can download their first EP The Sirocco for ‘name your own price’ whilst you’re there.)

5 second review: You know what I really like about this song? It’s not just that it’s energetically fun and begs to be sung along to. What makes this song great is that it gets better and better as it goes along. At about 3:19 the song grips you by the balls and demands respect. Ok – I don’t have balls, but you get the idea. And don’t forget, whilst you’re checking out this song, get their first EP. It’s damn good! I reckon it won’t be long before these guys are signed so snag it up now before it’s too late.

Connect with Knox Hamilton: Tumblr | Bandcamp | Facebook | ReverbNation | Twitter | LastFM

Listen:

NOTE: Bandcamp only allows artists limited free downloads. If the download is no longer offered for free please consider providing your support to the musician by paying for the music.

About Knox Hamilton (freshly swiped from Facebook):

Band Members: Boots Copeland, Brad Pierce, Coby Copeland, Cory Copeland, and Drew Buffington

Fueled by the similar staples within their collective musical taste, the members of Knox Hamilton blend laid back guitar riffs and catchy bass lines with rhythmic drum beats and soaring vocals to produce a sound that’s as likely to make you want to visit the beach as it is to move your feet.

You can download the Bevelers’ Demo at Bandcamp below. They are graciously offering the song Knavery as a free download.

5 second review: Holy shit they have beautiful voices! Their melodies and harmonies are simply breathtaking. And their vocal range . . . I mean . . . WOW! The Bevelers are elegant reincarnations of Simon and Garfunkel. I cannot wait for the album.

Connect to the Bevelers: Web | Bandcamp | Twitter | Facebook | Bevelers Tumblr | Adrias Tumblr | Lees Tumblr

Listen:

About the Bevelers (freshly swiped from their website):

Bevelers, Adria Ivanitsky and Lee Aulson are an indie folk musical duo from Peabody, MA [Lee] and Salem, OR [Adria]. Started in November 2011, Bevelers had their first show at Mission Theatre in Portland, Oregon and released a demo in two weeks time of their very first few weeks of starting. Lee is a recent art school grad from Mass College of Art + Design and a past Mile Post 5 creatives community resident. Adria and Lee got started as co-workers at Vivace Coffee Shop where they made crepes and served coffee.

Bevelers currently reside in Portland and are collaborating with numerous artist and developing their harmonious sound. Currently Bevelers are working with musician/sound engineer Johnny Keener for backups on his new album at Sidecar Studios. Bevelers are also in the process of developing an album for late spring/early summer.