BarackRock.org Continues Push In Final Week of Campaign

Musicians and Artists Unite to Raise Money for Barack Obama.
Exclusive MP3s and Artwork on BarackRock.org.

New York, NY -- Musician Jack Dolgen (Maricopa, Sam Champion) had a song and an idea: use his track to raise money for Barack Obama after a run in with the man himself. He told Barack, "You've been running, I've been recording." The first song released from that recording project was "Daytime,” a song about bridging divides and coming together. As he and designer Andrew Ackermann tossed the concept around to their friends in the music and design worlds, one man's idea grew into an organization called I Wrote You a Song: trading art for political action.

The first campaign is BarackRock.org, launched one week after the Democratic Convention and has featured daily contributions from artists like Tapes N' Tapes (go to the site today to download their exclusive "The Dirty Dirty Amplive Fuct Remix"), Ra Ra Riot, The Honey Brothers, Mobius Band, Au Revoir Simone, Port O'Brien, Sam Champion, Sera Cahoone, and many more. The effort is building with multiple posts each day during this final stretch till November 4th.

BarackRock.org uses music and design to bring people from around the world together under one banner and channel their energy into a unified force. BarackRock.org is an ever-expanding archive of free, exclusive mp3s, each with its own individual art, meant to build funds, excitement and action for the Obama campaign

Read more about BarackRock.org at:

Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/09/29/sam-champion-bassist-launches-free-music-site-barack-rock/
Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-dolgen/barackrockorg-the-evoluti_b_130885.html
The Fader http://www.thefader.com/articles/2008/9/26/freeload-windsurf-magicwand-and-others-at-barackrock-org
The Fader <http://www.thefader.com/articles/2008/10/29/freeload-clipd-beaks-a-healing-song-from-barack-rock>
Salon.com http://www.salon.com/ent/critics_picks/2008/10/11/october11/

The political change we're working towards won't come by itself. The more downloads we get, the larger our impact can be, so spread the word! These are unreleased tracks and demos, only available here, and only available now, so plug in your headphones and make a difference.

Visit www.BarackRock.org

DON'T FORGET TO GET OUT AND VOTE!!!

Barry Sisters

THE IDELSOHN SOCIETY FOR MUSICAL PRESERVATION (Formerly Reboot Stereophonic)
Launches New Wiki & Reissue of Barry Sisters Our Way [Tahka-Tahka] On CD. Available On Itunes & Amazon November 18th!

Fan Favorite Video Of The Barry Sisters “Our Way Single” Click Here To View Video (Beware: Its Beyond Hilarious):

Click Here To Download New Single “Our Way”

We take a tune that’s sweet and low, and rock it solid and make it gold. -The Barry Sisters

Age is just a number, and mine is unlisted. -Claire Barry


Since 2005, the non-profit record label Reboot Stereophonic founded by Roger Bennett, Josh Kun, David Katznelson, and Courtney Holt, has dedicated itself to rescuing lost treasures of Jewish-American music. They did it with Irving Fields' Bagels and Bongos. They did it with Fred Katz's Folk Songs for Far Out Folk. They did it with the way-out Moog experiments of Beastie Boys hero Gershon Kingsley and they did it, most notoriously, with the outrageous vaudeville cylinders of Jewface.

And now, the IDELSOHN SOCIETY FOR MUSICAL PRESERVATION (formerly known as Reboot Stereophonic) has developed a new wiki www.idelsounds.com

Co-founder Roger Bennett proclaims :“All of this is very very beta... we need your help--please sign up, tool around the site, add what you know, and spread the word to others you know who dig this stuff. Our goal is to aggregate the info even as we track down more and more of the original artists and shoot their stories on video whilst professionalizing their discographies so that all of this can be studied, taught, discussed, and loved.”

The Barry Sisters – Our Way

Now it's time for the incomparable Barry Sisters, the original swinging queens of Jewish pop crossover.

While some of The Barry Sisters' music has been re-issued on greatest hits packages, their final full-length recording from 1973, Our Way, has remained a lost classic. Loaded with killer Yiddish versions of 70s radio hits, Our Way is begging to be re-discovered by a new generation of listeners.

It's all part of the Idelsohn Society mission. Founded by a quartet of academics and music industry veterans, the label's goal is to incite a new conversation about the present by listening anew to the past. They do it by unearthing lost classics from the archive, sounds that are languishing in thrift-store crates across the nation. The stories that accompany them have yet to be told: hybrid identities, eclectic communities, racial dialogue, and pioneering musical style. This is music that forces listeners to ask themselves who am I, what have I inherited, and what am I going to do about it?

Enter The Barry Sisters.

1973 might not have seemed like the ideal year for a revival of Yiddish pop.

Discotheques were starting to fill up with sweaty swingers, Iggy and the Stooges were harnessing grinding proto-punk rage into Raw Power, Marvin Gaye was singing about the Vietnam War and getting it on, and Pink Floyd were becoming dorm room hall-of-famers with Dark Side of the Moon. But for Claire and Merna Barry, the Bronx-raised sisters whose crystalline voices, bi-lingual pop fluency, stunning looks, and bull’s eye harmonies had become synonymous with what the old-timers liked to call “Jewish Jazz,” the timing was just right.

They would take Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Raindrops Keep My Falling On My Head,” sing it in their trademark perky Yiddish and with their signature bandstand pluck, and the youth of America would heed the wake-up call.

Yiddish would be back with a vengeance.

“We decided we would sing only the most popular songs of the day,” says Claire Barry, now in her unlisted 80s and living between Manhattan and Miami (Merna passed away in 1976). “We wanted to make sure young people would listen to our music at that time. They had to find the music familiar. So we did songs they might know but sang in Yiddish! The hope was that maybe they would pick it up.”

The result was Our Way, a project so improbable in Nixon-era America that the sisters subtitled it “Tahka, Tahka,” Yiddish for “Really, Really.” Where else could you find Second Avenue Yiddish theater alongside Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? Fiddler on the Roof next to upper West Side mink coats and Las Vegas lounges?
By 1973, it was hard to find Yiddish on new records. The once-dominant diaspora tongue that ruled the Jewish stage and the Jewish page hit a severe post-war decline. In the 1920s, there were so many Yiddish speakers in New York City that the Yiddish daily newspaper The Forward outsold The New York Times, but the combination of the Holocaust’s decimation of an entire Yiddish-speaking world, the rise of Israel as a Hebrew speaking nation, and the upwardly mobile attraction of fifties suburban safety (goodbye tenement, hello Nassau County), helped ensure that Yiddish became optional, not essential, to Jewish-American identity. To make it the lingua franca of a seventies pop album was not simply an exercise in cultural nostalgia—it was a re-branding of a vanishing tradition for a new generation of potential disciples.

Originally released on Mainstream Records (a one time home to Janis Joplin, Sarah Vaughn, and Ted Nugent), the album connected with “young people” that might not have been as young as the sisters had hoped for. They took on the 20s pop chestnut “Tea For Two,” used Yiddish to return the vanilla Perry Como smash “It’s Impossible” to its Mexican bolero roots, raided Hollywood for “Love Story” (imagine Ryan O’Neal crooning in Yiddish at the bedside of a dying Kelly McGraw), raided Broadway for “Cabaret” and “Alice Blue Gown,” and turned out what just might be-- second only to the one Cuban audio priestess La Lupe did just three years earlier-- the most liberating version ever of the Sinatra staple, “My Way.” So they didn’t sing “What’s Goin’ On” or “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (which, for what it’s worth, would have been called "Ikh vil zein dein hoont"). The effect was still the same: seventies America woke up as a Technicolor Yiddish dream.

For the translations, the sisters enlisted the help of Herman Yablokoff, the Yiddish theater legend responsible for one of Jewish music’s only hit songs about cigarettes (“Papirossen”) and for “Shvayg Mayn Harts,” better known as the song that bearded and barefoot West Coast mystic Eden Ahbez turned into “Nature Boy.” The vocal arrangements went to TV and film composer Jerry Graff, a veteran of the Nat King Cole television show who was so chummy with Claire and Merna that he was billed on the album as “Our Friend Jerry Graff.”

“I am still so proud of this album,’ says Barry. “It brings back so many beautiful memories.”

Our Way was the eleventh, and last, Barry Sisters’ full-length studio recording. Throughout their career, they consistently drew from the wells of Yiddish and English popular song, everything from “Without a Song” and “Cry Me a River” to “Hava Nagila” and “Chiribim Chiribom,” with stops at the Miami-to-Cuba soap opera of “Channa From Havana” and the hi-de-ho Arizona campfire yodels of “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” along the way. Even though the duo were also known to dabble in Italian and Spanish (their 1966 album Something Spanish teamed them up with Cuban jazz legend Chico O’Farrill), the “world of the Barry Sisters,” as one of their hits collections was titled, was really always two: the Jewish songbook and the American songbook. The former was mostly traditional folk melodies and Yiddish theater tunes and the latter was mostly jazz, pop, and Broadway standards. The hallmark of the Barry Sisters was that they never chose between the two, but hopscotched between them with a savvy and sophisticated bi-cultural glee.

“We wanted to be Jewish and American at the same time,” says Barry. “That was what our music was always meant to speak to.”

Claire and Merna grew up in a Yiddish speaking immigrant home in the Bronx, the daughters of a Russian father and a Viennese mother. When the sisters decided they wanted to sing in the Yiddish of their parents and not the English of their friends, their father put his authenticity foot down.

“We spoke English,” says Barry, “So my father told us when we started, ‘you must sing in Yiddish the way we do, with no American accents.’ And that’s what we did, we took a chance on Yiddish, with no accents, and it was marvelous. We spoke the new English but we also spoke Yiddish that people would recognize as haimish.”

Back in the thirties, Claire and Merna Barry hadn’t been born yet. They were still Clara and Minnie and when they started singing on the Feter Nahum, or Uncle Norman, Jewish children’s radio show on WLTH in New York, they were billed as The Bagelman Sisters. After recording a version of “Kol Nidre” for a young Moe Asch (the soon to be head of Folkways Records), the Bagelmans quickly moved to the front of the Jewish-American music world by associating themselves with the biggest names on the Second Avenue scene. They made their first 78rpm recordings in the late 30s for RCA Victor, harmonizing over a stellar quintet that featured the Miles Davis and John Coltrane of pre-WWII Jewish music: klezmer clarinet king Dave Tarras and composer/arranger Abe Ellstein. They followed it up with a collaboration with tenor great Seymour Rechtzeit, the ubiquitous and celebrated king of Yiddish radio (at one point, he was performing on 18 live radio shows during a single week).

“People told us that we had perfect harmony,” says Barry. “But to be honest, we didn’t know what harmony meant! We had no training, no schooling in this type of thing. There is a Yiddish word beshert, which means meant to be. I always say, it was beshert that we would sing like that.”

While the Bagelmans had become well-known in Yiddish-speaking circles and Jewish immigrant communities, their reality as first generation Americans extended far beyond the rich folk and theater worlds of Eastern European tradition. They knew all about jazz and swing music and had already watched, with the rest of the Jewish community, as a little-known Yiddish theater tune became a certified American pop hit.

In one of the greatest, and most oft told, tales of Jewish-American musical crossover, Sholom Secunda’s “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” fell into the repertoire of the African-American vaudeville duo and Catskills regulars Johnnie and George, who sang it in Yiddish at the Apollo Theater. In the audience was Tin Pan Alley and Broadway songwriter Sammy Cahn, who changed the lyrics to English and handed the song to the blonde Lutheran trio The Andrews Sisters who went to have a #1 hit with it in 1938. A month later, Benny Goodman followed suit with his own version, featuring the equally blonde Los Angeles singer Martha Tilton. Just like that, the old Yiddish tune that had all of America singing and dancing grew into an international pop staple, one of the most recorded songs of all time.


The seeming ease with which Jewish music became chart-topping American swing helped inspire pianist Sam Medoff to cook up the 15-minute radio segment Yiddish Melodies in Swing for radio station WHN. The concept was simple: take popular klezmer numbers and Yiddish tunes and play them in the swinging idiom of hot jazz. Tarras led the band and after the Pincus Sisters declined his offer, the Bagelmans joined the show, but only after a quick linguistic makeover. Inspired by the mainstream success of the Andrews Sisters, Clara and Minnie became Claire and Merna (the names of two of their classmates) and Bagelman became Barry (Berger was their first choice but nobody liked the way it sounded).

“We were not embarrassed by our name,” says Barry. “Never embarrassed. It was just better for show business. We knew so many entertainers who did it back then that we thought it was just a good business decision. It wasn’t about culture at all, just business.”

During the show’s Manischewitz-sponsored “American Jewish Hour,” Sam Medoff led the Swingtet band with The Barry Sisters, “the daughters of the downbeat,” on the microphones, and they merged Yiddish songs with what the show dubbed “merry modern rhythms.” The show’s theme song was even a klezemerized take on “When The Saints Go Marching In.” Songs that were “sweet and low” like “Reb Duvidel” and “Eli Melech” were, as Claire and Merna liked to say, “rocked solid” and “made gold” by infusions of downbeats and Harlem swing and the sisters crooned, belted, and harmonized atop it all like hip supper-club stars. The show ran until 1955 and The Barry Sisters became the official voices of the Yiddish Swing craze (the same one that turned the Romanian oldie “Der Shtiler Bulgar” into Ziggy Elman’s “Frailach in Swing,” and eventually Benny Goodman’s “And the Angels Sing.”)

“It just seemed so natural to combine Jewish music and swing,” says Barry. “If the Jewish songs had a good beat, why couldn’t we do swing in Yiddish? We heard the beat everywhere. Why not this song? Why not that one? We did it to anything we could find.”


For the next two decades, that same strategy served the Barry Sisters well across a slew of singles and full-length LPs that garnered them recognition beyond the confines of the Jewish musical community where they nurtured their skills. Their album We Belong Together teamed the sisters up with composer Jerry Fielding-- best known for his theme music to You Bet Your Life and later for his score to The Wild Bunch—and they stuck to a purely English-language songbook that included “In Other Words,” “You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You,” and “My One and Only Love.” They made it onto the Jack Paar Show and the Ed Sullivan Show and soon after joined Sullivan on his All-Star Caravan to the U.S.S.R., performing for 20,000 people in Moscow’s Gorky Park at a time when Western visits were still rare.

The liner notes to the album that followed, Side by Side, which they dedicated to Sullivan, described the experience this way: “[Sullivan] had an Iron Curtain smash in the Barrys, who literally tore down The Kremlin with a rip-roaring Western medleywhich only goes to prove that all you need are ears to hear with, and eyes to see with, and makes no difference—Yank, Britisher, Ruski, or Hottentot, the Barry Sisters have made it.”

Yet for all of their globe-trotting internationalism—which also included a celebrated performance for Israeli troops during the Yom Kippur War that became The Barry Sisters In Israel—the Barry Sisters were always at their best using their musical bilingualism to work out the complexities of identity back home, doing the Yiddish makeovers they perfected on their 30s RCA Victor sides and on the songs that bubbled up on Yiddish Melodies in Swing.

If adapting Jewish music to the rhythms and contours of the American pop landscape can be considered one of the dominant aesthetics of early twentieth century popular music, then the Barry Sisters ought to be considered crucial bi-cultural pioneers, part of the same treasured artistic genealogy that usually starts and stops with the Tin Pan Alley likes of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Harold Arlen. They didn’t turn America Jewish, they made Jewish sound more American.

Which is partly why we the re-issue Our Way is so important—it’s the only Barry Sisters album that seems to reverse this tactic. This is an album of (mostly) giddy Jewish hijacks of American culture: B.J. Thomas speaking in Yiddish tongues, the Rat Pack gambling on Kol Nidre, Tea for Two served with a side of pickled herring. Mickey Katz and other musical comedians made this move in the 50s and 60s, but their chosen forms were parody and satire, wholesome vulgarity and schmaltzy wit. On Our Way, The Barry Sisters choose the elegant tradition of popular song itself.

Promoting their music as radically ethnic or anti-assimilationist wasn’t the Barry Sisters style, but in its greatest moments—the finale of “My Way,” the earnestness of “Raindrops”—Our Way has the feel of a utopian dream, a visionary cultural proposal: what if the world actually sounded like this? What if Yiddish hadn’t become the language of refrigerator magnets and Jewish joke punch lines? What if the language of Eastern Europe was still the language of now America, all that memory, all that tradition now part of America’s polyglot urban future, as hip and swinging as a new Kanye single, as urgent as a new Mexican immigrant border ballad from Los Tigres del Norte?

“When I look back on this music,” says Barry. “All I want to say is Dear God, thank you for giving us the opportunity. What a wonderful opportunity.”

Metermaids - "Nightlife"

The Song:
The Metermaids envelop us in their unique brand of hip-hop with the title track from their debut album, Nightlife. Backed by a hard-hitting beat that enraptures listeners in a repetitive motif, emcees Sentence and Swell expose an emotional honesty that cuts through the complex issues of life that are so often over-simplified into black and white. In one of his more poignant moments, Sentence raps, "Build me a horizon out of promises and matches / We'll smash it with our bare hands and compare the damage / We'll talk like we both don't have guns drawn / And I'll fold up your words till they read like a love song / Beautiful, soothing, useless, etcetera / Could have been worse but it could have been better / I write my past on the buildings in cracks / Some stand and some collapse."

METERMAIDS - "Nightlife" {MP3)

The Background:
The Metermaids are two New York emcees, Swell and Sentence, who met through NYC's underground hip-hop scene in 2006. Embodying the convergence of indie rock and hip-hop, the Metermaids represent a new sound in crossover music that bends and melds genres, unveiling new possibilities both lyrically and musically. After hooking up with the producer Matt Stine of 27 Sound they released their debut EP in 2006. The duo then hit the road touring with the likes of Brand Nubian, Atmosphere, Sage Francis, Fabulous, Lady Bug Mecca (Digable Planets), The Lox, and Camp Lo. In 2008, with an arsenal of touring under their belt, the Metermaids launched their first full-length Nightlife, a raucous mash up of gritty break beats, heartfelt lyrics, and a touch of rock n' roll. Nightlife is currently available on 27 Sound Entertainment.

Paper Route to tour

The Nashville, TN band released the We Are All Forgotten EP on Low Altitude back in July and have been touring in support of it since. Their artistic side shines through on this EP, blending clever electronic programming with hauntingly beautiful indie rock. This November/December, the four piece will be touring alongside Barcelona and Low vs Diamond followed by a UK tour.

If you aren't familiar, download "Empty House" at the link below.

"Empty House" {Mp3}

Tour Dates:
11/9 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY
11/10 - Mohawk Place - Buffalo, NY
11/11 - Jammin' Java - Vienna, VA
11/13 - Fletcher's - Baltimore, MD
11/14 - Webster Underground - Hartford, CT
11/15 - Brighton Bar - Long Branch, NJ
11/16 - Great Scott - Allston, MA
11/18 - The Basement - Columbus, OH
11/19 - Magic Stick - Detroit, MI
11/20 - Subterranean - Chicago, IL
11/21 - The Majestic Theatre - Madison, WI
12/14 - Barfly - London, UK
12/16 - Ruby Lounge - Manchester, UK
12/17 - Barfly - Glasgow, UK
12/18 - Barfly - Cardiff, UK

VOTE Tuesday Nov 4th!

Remember, only 537 people decided the 2000 election...so as you can see, every vote will count in this election.

Go here to find YOUR place to vote... www.maps.google.com/vote

Early voting is still available in most States.
Click HERE for a list of states and their requirements for early voting.

Oh, and check out this cool Vote Promote video.

Have some BPA.

Have a little Thursday afternoon treat with The BPA's first single!

"Toe Jam" (with David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal) {MP3}


Want to know more? Click here!

Or here!
http://www.thebrightonportauthority.com/

Want to watch the video? Click here!

O'DEATH'S VIDEO FOR "LOWTIDE" PREMIERING EXCLUSIVELY ON PITCHFORK TV

Just in time for Halloween comes O'Death's new video for "Lowtide" being premiered exclusively on Pitchfork TV. The dark and downright spooky clip was directed by Benh Zeitlin, who won the Wholphin Award at SXSW for Best Short Film. Zeitlin used stop motion animation, taking the entire band on a journey to the center of the earth.

"Lowtide" video link






DON'T MISS O'DEATH ON TOUR!

October 30 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY (w/ Hoots and Hellmouth, La Strada)
October 31 - Johnny Brenda's - Philadelphia, PA
November 1 - Johnny Brenda's - Philadelphia, PA
November 2 - T.T. The Bears - Cambridge, MA
November 3 - II Motore - Montreal, QUE Canada
November 4 - El Mocambo - Toronto, ONT Canada
November 5 - Mohawk Place - Buffalo, NY
November 6 - Beachland Ballroom - Cleveland, OH
November 7 - Space 101 - Bloomington, IN
November 8 - Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL
November 9 - Hideout - Chicago, IL
November 10 - 7th Street Entry - Minneapolis, MN
November 11 - The Picador - Iowa City, IA
November 12 - The Jackpot Saloon - Lawrence, KS
November 13 - Waiting Room - Omaha, NE
November 14 - Larimer Lounge - Denver, CO
November 15 - Urban Lounge - Salt Lake City, UT
November 17 - Media Club - Vancouver, BC Canada
November 18 - High Dive - Seattle, WA
November 19 - Doug Fir Lounge - Portland, OR
November 20 - Jambalaya - Arcata, CA
November 21 - Bottom of the Hill - San Francisco, CA
November 22 - Spaceland - Los Angeles, CA
November 23 - Casbah - San Diego, CA
November 24 - Modified Arts - Phoenix, AZ
November 26 - The Mohawk - Austin, TX
November 28 - Marquee - Tulsa, OK
November 29 - Off Broadway - St. Louis, MO
November 30 - Hi-Tone Café - Memphis, TN
December 2 - The Earl - Atlanta, GA
December 3 - Local 506 - Chapel Hill, NC
December 4 - Black Cat Backstage - Washington, DC

Leona Naess iTunes exclusive "Leave Your Boyfriends" duet w/ Ryan Adams

“Thirteens deserves to be the hit that Ms. Feist’s The Reminder was in 2007”—Wall St. Journal

An exclusive version of Leona Naess’ new album Thirteens, is now available on iTunes. The iTunes exclusive is available at the special low price of $7.99, and has a bonus version of the song “Leave Your Boyfriends Behind” featuring a duet with Ryan Adams. Naess is currently on tour with fellow songwriter Ray LaMontagne.

Click Here to watch the video for Leave Your Boyfriends Behind!
Leona Naess iTunes Exclusive album (with Ryan Adams duet as the bonus track)

Pitchfork TV Launches "BEARDO", Tim Harrington's (Les Savy Fav) Very Own TV Show

First Episode Premieres Today!

His gaze is hypnotic. His looks... devastating. Women want him, and men want to be him.
He is BEARDO, and he has .tv by the underpants. Nothing will be the same.

Click Here To View “Beardo”

From the Mouth Of Pitchfork Media News :

“When we cut loose Les Savy Fav's Tim Harrington at the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival with a camera crew in tow, we didn't think the guy would take it so literally. Perhaps you even saw Tim-- a striking figure, for sure-- offering $2 haircuts and deep tissue massages, or hamming it up for the crowd in full barber regalia this summer; hell, maybe you walked away with a newly shorn hairdo thanks in no small part to the efforts of the world's funniest frontman. Even when the cameras are off, the dude is always on.

Now your pals at Pitchfork.tv are pleased to announce we'll be turning the lens on Tim regularly for a new series he's calling "Beardo". Harrington claims the name of the show springs from a popular coda in his own life. "I've been called 'Beardo' since I was ten. Life-size people, little kids sometimes call me 'Beardo.' 'Weirdo-Beardo.'" Wonder why. Three "Beardo" episodes are already in the can, with more to follow shortly. "Some of them are just me messing around with people, and other ones are great little short movies."

The show's premiere episode finds Harrington partnering with rising star of "Flight of the Conchords"/"Daily Show" featured player/funny lady Kristen Schaal. Turns out bribery played a role in getting Schaal's participation in the episode, which revolves around a supernatural blind date. "I tricked her into coming to do it. Well, I don't know if I tricked her. I offered her cookies, and she didn't know the cookies I was gonna make, I accidentally put too much salt in them and they tasted really bad."

Without giving too much away, Harrington let some of his plans for the future of "Beardo" be known. "I'm trying to get some political episodes going," he notes. "I'm working on one about legal male abortion, another one about a provocative sex education book. We're looking for someone that knows how to make puppets, for a puppet show episode, but I don't have a puppeteer yet. Maybe someone reading the article will want to be a part of 'Beardo'?" I can only imagine they might. (OK, we never thought we'd say this, but if you're a puppeteer and want to get involved, please email beardo@pitchforkmedia.com.)

Tim's also got plans to bring in a few more pals from the musical side of things, should the occasion arise. "Sometimes we'll have music stuff in it, sometimes not. It's always supposed to be funny. It always wants to be. Celebrities, musical guest stars, minor music celebrities. Major music celebrities, in my mind. Like, you hear a big round of applause, and in comes cameo spots by, like, Nick [Thorburn] from Islands. People in bands that I'd sort of be like, 'Oh my gosh! They're in this!' No bad on Nick from Islands, but society at large wouldn't necessarily recognize our celebrity cameos." Nick from Islands? You mean intern Nick?”

The legendary forgotten sessions of The Brighton Port Authority, a.k.a. The BPA, were finally uncovered.

The Brighton Port Authority were an outfit who built a huge word-of-mouth reputation on England’s south coast from the early 1970s onwards before disbanding in the mid-‘90s. From what can be pieced together, they were a loose-limbed jamming unit, originally known as the Brighton Phonographic Association. At its core were local musicians: chairman of the BPA, Norman Cook, and his studio partner, Simon Thornton, who gathered various singers and session men around them, built the ramshackle BPA studio, and would occasionally throw multi-day warehouse parties from which their semi-legendary reputation stems.

Stay tuned for the long overdue release of the tapes in early 2009.

Cut Off Your Hands To Release “You & I” On Frenchkiss Records On January 20th 2009

Pitchfork Media At CMJ 2008

CMJ.com At CMJ 2008

Sentimentalist At CMJ 2008

Metro NY At CMJ 2008

“Power-pop ooh-lahs, hip-rocking post-punk backbeats, and sleek guitar fingerings.” Spin Magazine

"Honestly, what’s not to love? " NME

After debuting on Speak n Spell Records in 2006 with the bristling Shaky Hands EP, Cut Off Your Hands quickly set stages and airwaves on fire across Australia and beyond. And with steady attention to touring and the production of melodic, musical gems their avid fan base and the cavalcade of media hyperbole has only continued to grow.

With their nationwide billing on 2007’s Laneway Festival and jaunts to Los Angeles, SXSW and New York really getting the ball rolling, it was, tellingly, the band’s first visit to London that would prove their watershed moment.Having been bewitched by the band in Texas, the lovesick indie-maven Steve Lamacq (hosting John Peel’s old show on BBC6) wasted no time in pulling them into his Maida Vale studios for a live performance when he knew they were in town. All of a sudden the boys from the antipodes were a bright pin punched on the British musical ‘map’, and as a consequence, their remaining shows were rammed full of hungry industry folk.

It was also while in London that the group, through various channels and the snowballing momentum, found themselves working with ex-Suede guitarist and Producer de jour, Bernard Butler, for the first time. Their second EP, Blue on Blue, being the fruit of their labours. While the recording’s lead tracks, ‘Still Fond’ and ‘Oh Girl’, settled quickly into the higher echelon of the radio charts at home, things continued to move for the band abroad. For the release of their debut English 7” - the double a-side Still Fond/Closed Eyes – through vinyl-ists Fandango was followed almost overnight by the inking of a deal with 679 Recordings (home to The Streets, Mystery Jets and Death From Above 1979).

Through the heady rush of record deals, single releases and the imminent debut LP however, the group’s dedication to their first love, the live arena, never waned. Incessantly in the van, Cut Off Your Hands forged solid friendships with fans and bands alike through UK tours with the whip-smart Foals, the legendary Edwyn Collins and Florida’s Black Kids - not to mention shows with The Duke Spirit and Les Savy Fav. All this while also treading the festival circuit, playing eight shows in just three days at last year’s CMJ festival in New York before winging their way to Iceland’s epic Airwaves festival and a return to Australia to play Falls Festival and the full Australasian tour of Big Day Out - alongside Bjork, Dizzee Rascal and LCD Soundsystem.

Now based in the dynamic environs of Hackney, London, the band have finished juggling life on the road with life in the studio, (for now) having put the final coat on their debut LP ‘You and I’, with Butler once again at the helm. With such an amazing album waiting in the wings, Cut Off Your Hands couldn’t be set in a better position to win over the World’s hearts.

Right. That’s about enough of the press spiel...let’s hear what Nick Johnston - Cut Off Your Hands’ Iggy-like, whirling dervish of a front-man - has to say about Bernard, recording and the record...

“For the album we all felt Bernard was the best for our band. He just seems to understand us as a group more than most. He’s very hands-on with the pre-production, with a clear vision for how each instrument has a part to play in bringing the best out of a song.

For the first time I’ve written songs with the studio in mind, as opposed to writing for our live show. Once again, this has been just treating each song in the way that best suits the song. Bernard’s really adamant in pushing to treat each song on its merits. Some songs worked straight away, whilst others came together slowly, only sounding amazing once we put all the vocals and overdubs on.

There’s a whole lot more instrumentation on the record this time as well. BB was really keen to make a record which had points of difference to separate us from the droves of British guitar bands around right now. And we've taken a few more risks than usual. Bernard has taken us (as players) out of our comfort zones, deconstructing the way we think. But it's a good, healthy thing - risk taking- because when it works out you progress. I feel that the new songs are definitely an organic progression. In that the songs from the EP Blue On Blue were completely melody based, but all fairly similar. They were bouncy and energetic. Hopefully we've made a LP which listens in a far more dynamic sense than the two previous EP's.

Our pop sensibility has come lately. (While writing the record) I was listening to a lot of doo-wop - in particular Phil Spector produced groups like the Ronnettes, and the Crystals - and I've been obsessed with how melodically centred those old songs are. It's what makes them still relevant and exciting to someone like me, a 23 year old, 50 years later. I also began seriously taking an interest in 1950's artists such as Roy Orbison, Ritchie Valens and Elvis. I found that I was no longer that interested in weird sounds, or noisy groups, all I wanted to hear and recreate were beautiful vocal melodies that are calculated but appear so effortless.

We feel we've really matured as songwriters quite a bit since the last release, and we think that maturity is demonstrated in the depth of this record. I’m happy that Bernard has been so eager to take risks with our music, and has aimed to make a record we'll still be listening to in years to come.”

The Kooks To Appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno TONIGHT!

UK band The Kooks invade living rooms across America this evening as they make an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, performing a track off their sophomore record, ‘KONK’. They are currently on the final leg of their largest US tour to date. The band played to 3500 people in Los Angeles last night, at the newly renovated Hollywood Palladium.

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno airs Wednesday, October 29th at 11:30pm on NBC.

REMAINING FALL 2008 US TOUR DATE
October 31st – Honolulu, HI – Pipeline Café - all ages

‘KONK’, the Kooks’ sophomore album, was released April 15th in the US, debuting at #41 on the Billboard charts, and in the top 10 on the iTunes charts. The video for the first single, ‘Always Where I Need To Be’ has been added to rotation at VH1, MTV2, MTVU and Fuse, and has been viewed close to 4 million times on YouTube.

Hey San Fransico! Your Town Is About To Get Darling!

If you will be in San Fran this weekend, be sure to check out Oh Darling at Cafe Du Nord on Sunday with The 88. It's all ages and will only cost you 12 bones!

Other dates this weekend are:

Sat 11/1 8pm
Stillwater - Ashland, OR
No Cover, 21+

Thursday 11/6 8pm w/The 88
Doug Fir - Portland, OR
$10, 21+


http://myspace.com/ohdarlingmusic
http://www.myspace.com/the88

Help us out!

Please CLICK HERE and fill out this very important survey, it will only take a few minutes!
Please CLICK HERE and fill out this very important survey, it will only take a few minutes!
Please CLICK HERE and fill out this very important survey, it will only take a few minutes!
Please CLICK HERE and fill out this very important survey, it will only take a few minutes!
Please CLICK HERE and fill out this very important survey, it will only take a few minutes!

For completing the survey, you might be eligible to win some awesome swag including CDs, concert tickets and more!

Illinois Releases ‘The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe’

iTunes Pre-Release Today, Chapter One out on 11/4; Record Release Parties Kick Off Next Week. Preview Chapter 1 Exclusively At Spin.com This Week!

Chapter 1 of Illinois’ ‘The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe’ kicks off on November 4th (yes, Election Day), with our hero, Arch from Illinois, still in bed. It’s the worst moment of the day for us all: when we shake the lingering rosy glow of slumber from our minds – our perception still skirting the line between dream and reality. Like, did the guy on the radio repeat what I just said? Did that robot just give the time and temperature?

‘I’m not awake yet, am I?’ Arch asks. Is it all a waking dream, or is it reality? A question that philosophers have asked for centuries… But first thing’s first. Coffee.

As promised, each chapter of the short film comes with a 3-song ep. The tracklisting for the first installment is as follows:

‘The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe’ Chapter One:
1) Hang On
2) Irish Whiskey (iTunes Exclusive)
3) Tree
Film: ‘Arch’s Quest For The Perfect Alarm Clock’

The band embarks on a monthly record release residency of the East Coast on November 3rd starting in DC, which seems appropriate, given the day it precedes. When the sun rises the following day, the nation will wake up with Kid Catastrophe – and god knows we’ve all got some serious waking up to do.

UPCOMING TOUR DATES
Novevember 3 || Rock & Roll Hotel (Chapter 1 Release Party) || Washington, DC || TIX
November 5 || Mercury Lounge (Chapter 1 Release Party) || New York, NY || TIX
November 6 || Great Scott (Chapter 1 Release Party) || Boston, MA || TIX
November 7 || The Fire (Chapter 1 Release Party) || Philadelphia, PA || TIX
December 2 || Rock & Roll Hotel (Chapter 2 Release Party) || Washington, DC
December 3 || Rehab (Chapter 2 Release Party) || New York, NY
December 4 || Great Scott (Chapter 2 Release Party) || Boston, MA
December 5 || The Fire (Chapter 2 Release Party) || Philadelphia, PA
January 13 || Rock & Roll Hotel (Chapter 3 Release Party) || Washington, DC
January 14 || Rehab (Chapter 3 Release Party) || New York, NY
January 15 || Great Scott (Chapter 3 Release Party) || Boston, MA
January 16 || The Fire (Chapter 3 Release Party) || Philadelphia, PA

Dido Album out November 18th, Home Videos Online Now and Contest!

The first four of eleven short films accompanying Dido’s new album, Safe Trip Home, are now available at www.safetriphome.com. The films, produced by different directors from around the globe, are interpretations of Dido’s songs through others’ eyes. In support of her third album which releases November 18^th!

Log on to www.jrecords.com/didofanevent and register to win a chance to meet Dido! Winners and a guest will receive roundtrip flights and two nights in a hotel at a secret location. There, they will listen to the album in its entirety and have the opportunity to meet Dido in person.

“Don't Believe In Love” {MP3}

Pre-order Safe Tip Home now! (Safe Trip Home, will be released by Cheeky / RCA on 18 November.)

iTunes

Amazon

Eleven short films are being produced to accompany the release of Dido’s third studio album, Safe Trip Home.

Based thematically around the concept of home, these shorts feature stories of hope, love, commitment and longing, from around the globe, a dump site in Rio, a Mumbai taxi-cab, the rugged coast of New Zealand's South Island, a Thai boxing ring and a picturesque Portuguese fishing village.

'I wanted every song to have its own film to represent the album as a whole. I love seeing how someone else might interpret a song that is so specific and personal to me. It's an experiment I've been really enjoying, watching the songs be turned on their heads by these beautiful emotional visual stories that are coming out of it.'

Dido asked various film directors in specific countries around the world to create pieces based on their idea of what home means to them, using a chosen song from the album for inspiration. The resulting films have so far been made in Brazil, New Zealand, Thailand, England, Scotland, India, Portugal, France and the US.

Internationally renowned photographer and filmmaker Marcos Prado based ‘us 2 little gods’ on the award-winning feature documentary Estamira he made in 2006. This film tells the story of an elderly woman who has made her home in a waste site in Rio de Janeiro.

Says Marcos: “Estamira is an extraordinary woman that lived and worked for twenty years at the Waste Disposal Site of Jardim Gramacho. I wanted to show the amazing relationship of love, care and friendship Estamira and her friends shared in that odd place they called 'home'.”

Brazilian director Cristiana Miranda used ‘the day before the day’ to portray a day in the life of a young fisherman from a seaside village in Portugal.

“Fishermen leave their homes every day before dawn to travel to their other home: the sea. The home they leave behind is where they sleep and eat and take care of their families, the home they go to is the home they respect and admire. They cannot live without both.”

The films will be available to view online at www.safetriphome.com from 27 October 2008.

http://www.didomusic.com/gb/home

The Monolators to chronicle their recorded history with a Monday residency at Pehrspace (Los Angeles) in November

"The Monolators are too endearingly weird to be rigidly summarized as a garage, punk or indie group." - LA Weekly

“They play every show with a hire-a-sitter, postpone-the-housework, bring -a -change -of -clothes fury.” – Buzzbands

October was a busy month for The Monolators. First they played this year’s Detour Festival after winning an online contest voted on by fans. Then they released their new full length Don’t Dance on October 21^st and celebrated its release with a successful night at Spaceland on October 25^th. To keep the momentum going, the four piece will take the stage at Pehrspace every Monday night in November to perform their entire recorded catalog. Joining them will be some of the musicians that made those records possible as well as new friends.

You can read the full details via The Monolators blog HERE

Every Monday in November:

November 03 @ Pehrspace w/Zombelle, Kyle H. Mabson, Pizza!

November 10 @ Pehrpsace w/60wattkid, Health Club, Manhattan Murder Mystery

November 17 @ Pehrspace w/Shirley Rolls, The Voyeurs, Fertile Crescent

November 24 @ Pehrspace w/Kevin Shields, Icy Demons (members of Man Man), Milton Melvin Croissant, Ema and The Ghosts

With their unique blend of 50’s rock and 70’s punk and their increasingly talked about live performances; where drumsets are used as jumping platforms, food fights ensue and an occasional head bleeds, The Monolators have come a long way since their beginning in 2002 as the husband and wife duo of Eli (vocals, guitar) and Mary (drums) Chartkoff. With two full lengths under their belt (2003’s Rejection Set Me Free, 2006’s Our Tears Have Wings) and last fall’s You Look Good on the Train EP, the group is now a four piece with the addition of Ashley Jex on bass and Tom Bogdon on guitar. In the last few years, The Monolators have increased their presence in Los Angeles east side music scene and are now pleased to announce the release of their third full length Don’t Dance on October 21, 2008.

Clocking in at just over 34 minutes, the 10 tracks that make up Don’t Dance find the band exploring new musical territory while maintaining their well known rambunctiousness. "I Must Be Dreaming" starts off the album with a group of frantic handclaps in time while Mary's rumbling floor tom beats beneath--soon enough after a few attention-grabbing lines are shout-singed from Eli, the track erupts into a full band effort. “Oh No, Everything has Changed” is Eli’s most endearing love song to date with backing vocals from guests Ben Haywood and Heather Bray of Summer Darling. Other standout tracks include the title track “Don’t Dance”, the infectious “Hearts Going Steady”, “CA 3A 569” and live favorite “This is Goodbye”. Eli’s lyrics explore his unique narratives of airplane wine, gum cigarettes and waiting for an elevator, while musically the band has incorporated more than the usual guitar, bass and drums that make up their live show. Acoustic guitars, piano and synths can be found throughout the album. Wendy Wang from The Sweet Hurt and Ashley Jex contributed all the synth parts and they are on best display for “Don’t Dance (Reprise)” that closes the album as Wang re-mixes the track to the point where it’s impossible to follow the title’s command.

Don’t Dance was produced, recorded and engineered by Raymond Richards (Idaho Falls, Broken West, Ferraby Lionheart) at his Red Rockets Glare studio in West LA. The album will be released in October and made available on vinyl and via digital download. Mastering for the digital tracks was done by Mark Chalecki (Earlimart, Radar Bros) and vinyl by Pete Lyman(No Age, Bodies of Water). Special guest singers include Wendy Wang (The Sweet Hurt), Angela Correa (Correatown) and Nate Cole (Castledoor). The Monolators were honored by LA Times “Buzz Bands”, to be included in their Top 25 Songs of 2007 for “You Look Good On The Train” as well as having “Red Lamb” being named one of 2006’s best songs by influential UK blog The Devil Has the Best Tuna.

www.myspace.com/monolators

www.themonolators.com

The End Of The World Add To US Tour

Record Release Party on November 8th at Studio at Webster Hall!

French Exit Out November 11th On Flameshovel/Pretty Activity Records

Click Here To Listen To “Jody”

Listed In Pitchfork's Fall 2008 Album Guide

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/node/146080

“Stefan Marolachakis delivers each line as though it were part of a speech that's going to take a while to finish; when he pauses, you can almost hear him reaching for a glass of water. ...and when Marolachakis weaves his woozy croon through the beat, You're Making It Come Alive frequently lives up to its title. On songs like the hustling 'Party's Over,' The End Of The World creates an electric racket that's similar to Pavement's early singles. It's like someone accidentally recorded an expectedly intense performance in some basement in the middle of nowhere." - Noel Murray, Onion A.V. Club

"Given the over-saturation of the Brooklyn scene, it's as easy to overlook one fledging band as it is to over-hype another. Hopefully this foursome will land somewhere in between, as their debut album warrants a spot on those 'Ones To Watch For' lists." - CMJ

"And for a good three minutes the End of the World has us, holding 'Last Cast' slightly aloft, taking it for a few well-timed dips and across a steady bridge, Marolachakis' elongated vowels gluing the whole thing together." - Matthew Solarski, Pitchforkmedia.com

Leaving without saying goodbye is called a "French Exit." Suffice it to say, there has been an interesting cast of characters weaving in and out of the lives of The End of the World's Stefan Marolachakis and Benjamin Smith -- but somehow through 14 bass players and one fistfight, the two of them have been able to stick together, whether it be as best friends or as band mates. It's a rarity in a city where true friends are hard to come by.

Singing drummer Stefan first met guitarist Benjamin in Spanish class nine years ago. The two friends have been writing and recording music together ever since, now better known as the Brooklyn-based band, The End of the World.

The duo performed, recorded and self-produced every song on their second full-length, French Exit, as a two-piece in both Montana and Brooklyn.
The 11 songs on French Exit (on Flameshovel/Pretty Activity, distributed via Touch & Go) address the growing pains of boys becoming men and transitioning into adulthood, or at least attempting to do so.

"Most of the record is very much about our lives, our friendship and our friends in general," said Benjamin. "It's definitely a growing up, life choices type of record."

Stefan's old school crooner voice underscores an earnestness in his narrative lyrics as he sings about people who have appeared and disappeared from his life. Onstage, he is a captivating storyteller, reflecting on the ins and outs of his life, his loves and his friendships. Meanwhile, Benjamin chimes in with shimmery, yearning guitar strums. The sound is minimalist and stripped down, calling attention to each song's emotion and tone.

“When everything else is removed and it’s just the two of us, there’s a really good line of communication there,” Stefan said about writing the record. “It made it easier to make a record that felt honest and clear. ‘Say what you mean’ was one of our mottoes.”

Their friendship has developed beyond the musical partnership over the years. They're constantly scheming their next New York escapade. They publish an online literary magazine called Take the Handle, inspired by participatory journalism in the spirit of George Plimpton and Hunter S. Thompson. Just like the stories in the band's music, the magazine chronicles the lives of their extended creative circle, including the likes of novelist Nathaniel Rich and bands such as Cursive, Oxford Collapse, The Subjects and Money Mark. They also run Pretty Activity Records, a label that acts as the musical arm of this same community.

French Exit features guest contributions from many of their friends, and the cover art was designed by renowned photographer and Grammy-winner Michael Schmelling. For their charming live show, they bring along friends Sam Axelrod (ex-Narrator) on bass and Mike Incze on pedal steel and guitar.

The End of the World just released a split 7" with Pretty Activity label mates The Subjects entitled Subs & Dubs 7". It includes The End of the World's "Someone Else's Dollar" from French Exit on one side and The Subjects' "Goldenshire Boogie" on the other side. At last year’s CMJ Music Festival MTV News ran a segment on the long-standing friendship and good-natured rivalry between the two bands, who have been playing shows together for years.

The End of the World first released a 4-song self-titled EP on Pretty Activity in May 2005. The EP spawned the single, "This Little Theater," which was featured in Jonathan Demme’s remake of The Manchurian Candidate. The Village Voice declared it "the best song to come out of Brooklyn" that year. The band followed up with their debut full-length, You're Making It Come Alive, on Flameshovel/Pretty Activity in October 2006. The album was produced with Bill Skibbe and Jessica Ruffins at Key Club Recording Studios.

Over the years, the End of the World has toured and performed shows with bands like Cursive, MGMT, French Kicks, Maritime, +/-, Bishop Allen, Ambulance LTD, David Vandervelde and Working For a Nuclear Free City.

US TOUR
11/2: Album Listening Party at the Ear Inn- (Free Bloody Mary's)
11/7 Bard College / SMOG Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
11/8: Release Party at the Studio @ Webster Hall
11/09: Washington, DC – DC9 w/ Shaky Hands
11/11 Skully's w/Blitzen Trapper & Horse Feathers Columbus, Ohio
11/12: WOXY Lounge Act, 4pm (Tune in http://www.woxy.com)
11/13: Louisville, KY – Cahoot’s w/ Young Widows
11/15: Chicago, IL – Hideout
11/16: Iowa City, IA – Picador w/ Heartless Bastards
11/17: Daytrotter
11/18: Omaha, NE – Slowdown
11/21 Fred's Speak Easy Asheville, North Carolina
11/25 TT the Bears x/ Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Castanets

Enter for a chance to win tickets to see Brett Dennen on tour!

http://brettdennen.net/contests/

Sign up for Brett Dennen’s mailing list and have a chance to win two free passes to a date on his upcoming mini tour!

Hope for the Hopeless out on Downtown Records now!

Check out his new video for Make You Crazy featuring Mandy Moore! Click Here!

Mini-Tour Dates:
November 3 Portland, OR Doug Fir
November 5 Seattle, WA Triple Door
November 6 San Francisco, CA The Independent
November 7 Los Angeles, CA Hotel Café
November 8 Los Angeles, CA Hotel Café
November 10 Denver, CO Walnut Room
November 11 Austin, TX The Continental Club
November 13 Chicago, IL Schubas
November 14 Annapolis, MD Ramshead Onstage
November 15 Philadelphia, PA Tin Angel
November 16 Boston, MA Passim
November 18 New York, NY Canal Room

MONKEY "JOURNEY TO THE WEST" NEW VIDEO PREMIERE ON YOUTUBE

Gorillaz Masterminds Damon Albarn & Jamie Hewlett To Premiere "Monkey Bee" Video, Curate YouTube Homepage For 24 Hours

"A rare non-terrible pop-classical crossover"-NEW YORK

"Breathtaking... effortless integration of different traditions"--TIME

NEW YORK, NY -October 28, 2008-Following on the heels of the September 23 release of "Monkey: Journey to the West" (XL Recordings), an album based on the Mandarin Opera reinterpreted by GORILLAZ creators Damon Albarn (music) and Jamie Hewlett (visuals), comes an October 28 YouTube homepage takeover during which the duo will premiere the "Monkey Bee" video and curate featured videos on the YouTube homepage for a full 24 hours.

Featured videos exclusive to the MONKEY YouTube Takeover will include:

o The world premiere of "Monkey Bee"

o The making of "Monkey Bee"

o Damon & Jamie's YouTube takeover and curatorial introduction

o Damon & Jamie's Excellent Adventure (feature-length documentary)

In addition to these MONKEY firsts, bloopers, B-Roll and assorted other material, the Takeover will also feature supplementary clips related to the themes and inspirations that helped shape the unique musical and visual aesthetic of JOURNEY TO THE WEST.

MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST was first staged June 28, 2007 in the UK at the inaugural Manchester International Festival, when world-renowned theatre, opera and film director Chen Shi-Zheng enlisted Albarn and Hewlett to provide unique, modern musical and visual interpretations of the themes and characters of this most beloved work of Chinese folklore. The result was a new stage show for the 21st century that recast an ancient Chinese legend as a dazzling spectacle involving nearly 40 Chinese circus acrobats, martial artists and singers, and an orchestra of both Western and traditional Chinese instruments. MONKEY has since played to sold-out houses across Europe, made its U.S. debut at the 2008 Spoleto Festival USA, played at London's famed Royal Opera House, and will soon begin a Nov. 8-Dec. 5 London run in a specially built tented theater adjacent to the O2 Arena.

"Austin power trio White Denim release "Exposion" on digital and vinyl, presented by Transmission Entertainment.

The digital release is now available via the band's website, whitedenimmusic.com.

Subscribers will get things like limited 7”, limited live tracks, videos, artwork by Steve and the album is available in FLAC format.

White Denim will celebrating the release at the FunFunFun Fest afterparty on 11.8 with Dead Confederate at the Mohawk in Austin

White Denim just popped in to NYC for a pair of shows at NYC’s Mercury Lounge and Union Hall after their blistering set at Icelandic Airwaves


Check out today’s post on Brooklyn Vegan

White Denim was recently nominated for an Uncut Award


White Denim will make their 3rd trek across the pond!


Also, their superb UK/European debut album Workout Holiday, will be seeing a reissue planned for November 17, 2008. The new version will contain 5 bonus tracks, including the original demo version of ‘Sitting’ and 4 brand new songs.

White Denim has gained accolades from fans and critics alike for their blues infused music riot. The band took over this years SXSW with cheers from worldwide press and much love for their cracklin' psychedelic tunes.

US audiences have patiently waited but now they finally have their White Denim!
Exposion out on Transmission Entertainment on 11.11

Click Here To Check Out Their Video For Shake Shake Shake

Rolling Stone: Fricke's Picks
"Like Ike and Tina Turner..... White Denim never do anything nice and easy. The bands chopped up punk delirium is effortless sorcery, evoking Talking Heads' dancing-bones rock, the dervish thrash of the Minutemen and the Strokes' pneumatic-guitar pop...White Denim is not simple work, but everything you get is nice and rough."

Rolling Stone: Breaking Band
"On their loud and raw EP Let's Talk About It, which was written and recorded in a 1940s Spartan trailer, the band combines the Stooges' raw power, Hendrix's psychedelic flourishes and the White Stripes' stripped-down blues rock."

Spin Magazine: Hot List
"You can play eye spy with the musical landmarks flying by in these Austin rockers tunes: There's a Stooges riff! Mitch Mitchell's tom-tom fill from "Fire"! A disco beat! What's that wind chime doing there. Luckily, their sense of structure and pop hooks act as aural Dramamine."

Passion Pit Gets MTV“Band To Watch” CMJ Exclusive /West Coast Tour Starts Today/ Become CMJ 2008 Favorites

Sleepyhead” Featured on You Tube Front Page Today / Perform On AOL Spinner Interface
Chunk Of Change EP Out Now On Frenchkiss Records.

Click Here To View Exclusive MTV CMJ Coverage

Click Here To View “Sleepyhead” Video


CMJ Wrap Up :
New York Times
Brooklyn Vegan
Pitchfork Media
New York Press
NY Metromix

Click Here To View AOL/Spinner Performance

Paste Magazine : “ A lofty jenga tower of infectious synth riffs and bounce-happy beats”

The Fader.com Features “Sleepyhead” Freeload & Feature

Brooklyn Vegan : “Bring earplugs (if you're not afraid to wear them). It was very loud (but good).”

Boston electro-pop upstarts Passion Pit have a busy few weeks ahead of them. Fresh off the release of their Frenchkiss debut Chunk of Change, and having just finished five frenzied-filled sold out shows at CMJ 2008, the band head out to the west coast for a slew of dates. Don’t miss them!

In other news, the band premiered the video for lead single “Sleepyhead” on Pitchfork. As the write-up so accurately put it, “this beautiful video, directed by The Wilderness http://www.thewildernessinc.com , matches the song's collage-like construction, taking individual elements —a singer, handclaps, keyboards — and fusing them to rotating mechanical parts. With its absence of computer tricks — those are actual printed photos of Michael Angelakos' face on that cube — the video captures the song's rough, handmade charm.” What’s more, the band recently swung through AOL Spinner’s NYC studios with a performance of Chunk of Change standouts for Spinner’s Interface. Check out the new clip for “Sleepyhead” and the AOL performances below.

Passion Pit Tour Dates :
10/27 Neumo's – Seattle WA
10/28 Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver BC
10/29 Berbati's Pan – Auburn WA
10/31 Mezzanine - San Francisco CA
11/01 - Henry Fonda Theatre - Los Angeles CA
11/02 - Beauty Bar - San Diego CA
11/03 - The Grove Of Anaheim – Anaheim CA
12/05 – Alphabeta – Greenpoint NY