Punknews.org reported this week that Long Island emo-rockers Brand New named and dated their upcoming fourth album. And One Head Can Never Die is scheduled to drop September 22, sandwiched between new albums by Muse (9/14, hopefully the next day in the U.S.) and AFI (9/29).
UPDATE: According to Aversion.com, Brand New renamed their forthcoming album Daisy.
As much as I love and revere Muse, my hopes and expectations are even higher for Brand New. While frontman Jesse Lacey never hesitated to elaborate his deepest, inner-most feelings even dating back to their pop-punk-leaning debut Your Favorite Weapon(2001), the musical progression showcased on the band’s two successive albums dwarfs his still-impressive growth as a lyricist. Deja Entendu(2003) and The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me(2006) find two almost completely different bands, each superior to the last.
With Brand New progressing by leaps and bounds with each release, why does the end now draw near? (VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP) Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Leilani Polk on Jun. 4, 2009, at 1:22 pm
Indie rock forefathers (parents) Yo La Tengo are gearing up to release Popular Songs, on September 8 via Matador. The follow-up to 2006’s I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass was recorded in Hoboken, N.J. and Nashville earlier this year.
We have an old saying at Matador HQ, “the only thing predictable about Yo La Tengo albums is their high level of excellence and crazy amount of musical ground covered”. Trouble is, even if you believe we really have an old saying that unwieldly, it doesn’t really do justice in this instance. The new Yo La Tengo CD/2XLP/digital album ‘Popular Songs’ (OLE 856-1,2) could be the bravest musical statement to date in a career full of ‘em. Recorded in Hoboken and Nashville in early 2009 with longtime associate Roger Mountenot, ‘Popular Songs’ finds the trio of Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan and James McNew at the height of their creative powers, fashioning an epic work that’s cooly confident as it is wildly adventurous. (THE REST OF THE RELEASE AND NEW SINGLE, “Periodically Double Or Triple,” AFTER THE JUMP.) Read the rest of this entry »
Paramorevocalist Hayley Williams has told Rock Sound that naming the songs on the band’s upcoming third album might be an easy process:
”We only have a few song titles confirmed at the moment,” she admitted recently. ”I was looking through my journal the other day and wondering if we are going to keep a lot of the working titles we have been using while writing. I know a lot of people have grown used to novel length song titles that are pages long but that has never really been our thing, I think we might keep the song names as they are at the moment and not change a thing!”
Following that comment Williams stated that ‘Ignorance’, ‘The Only Exception’, ‘Brick By Boring Brick’, ‘Misguided Ghosts’ and ‘Feeling Sorry’ are the only confirmed track titles thus far.
Paramore have been playing new song ‘Ignorance’ live recently (video below).
Currently on the road opening for No Doubt, Paramore is one of the better/lasting acts to come out of the Warped Tour in the last 5 years. This third as-yet-untitled release may solidify their status or doom them to overhyped limbo. The Tennessee-based band pop-punk band found breakthrough success on their 2007 album “Riot!”.Read the rest of this entry »
The Mars Volta’s fifth studio album, Octahedron, will be released June 23 by Warner Bros. in the U.S. and on June 22 via Mercury Records to the rest of the world.
“It’s more mellow. It’s a little more of what we consider our ‘acoustic’ side,” singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala told Australian radio station Triple J of the new record. “We know how people can be so linear in their way of thinking, so when they hear [the new album], they’re going to say, ‘This is not an acoustic album! There’s electricity throughout it!’ But it’s our version,” the singer said. “That’s what our band does — celebrate mutations. It’s our version of what we consider an acoustic album.”
Hailed by The New Yorker as “perhaps the most musically adventurous act currently signed to a major label,” The Mars Volta formed in 2001. The band’s recorded output includes their 2003 debut full-length, De-Loused In The Comatorium, as well as Frances The Mute (2005), Amputechture (2006) and the Grammy-winning The Bedlam In Goliath (2008).
Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the musical guests on Saturday Night Live this weekend. They played Zero, the single from their new album It’s Blitz! (reviewed here) and, rather strangely, an older song, Maps. Old but good at least. here’s Zero:
Here’s a press release from the kings of Prog rock themselves, Dream Theater:
Progressive metal veterans DREAM THEATER have announced BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS as the title of their tenth studio album. The band commenced work on the album their second for Roadrunner Records, following up 2007’s Systematic Chaos – in October of last year.
Roadrunner will release the record on June 23. In addition to the standard version CD, the album will also be available on vinyl LP, as well as a 3-disc Special Edition CD that will include the full album, a CD of instrumental mixes of the album and a CD of six cover songs, the titles of which will be revealed at a later date.
Six weeks prior to the June 23 street date, Roadrunner will release one cover song per week through digital retailers.
Drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci are once again at the helm as producers, while Paul Northfield mixed the record.
The band will embark on a world tour in support of the album beginning in Europe throughout June which will be followed by the second edition of the band’s PROGRESSIVE NATION tour featuring Zappa Plays Zappa, Pain Of Salvation and Beardfish throughout North America in July/August.
A video for the first single, “A Rite of Passage” will be shot in late March.
The track listing for BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS is as follows:
1. A Nightmare to Remember
2. A Rite of Passage
3. Wither
4. The Shattered Fortress
5. The Best of Times
6. The Count of Tuscany
Ultimately, Case says, the songs on Middle Cyclone are more about the universal need for love, regardless of what form it may take.
“What other people might call ‘love songs,’ I think of as homages,” she says. “They can be to a person, a region, a feeling, even sad feelings.”
In addition to 12 new tracks, Case also covers two songs on Middle Cyclone: “Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth” by Sparks, and “Don’t Forget Me” by Harry Nilsson.
Middle Cyclone was produced by Case, with Darryl Neudorf, and recorded in Tucson, Brooklyn, Toronto and Vermont. It features Case, backed by her core band: guitarist Paul Rigby, bassist Tom V. Ray, backing vocalist Kelly Hogan, multi-instrumentalist Jon Rauhouse, and drummer Barry Mirochnick. She’s also joined by a number of guests, including M. Ward, Garth Hudson, Sarah Harmer and members of The New Pornographers, Los Lobos, Calexico, The Sadies, Visqueen, The Lilys and Giant Sand.
For session #4, Joran and Stephen welcome Tampa’s Hat Trick Heroes into the studio to talk about their new album Push It Forward, recorded in Nashville with producer John McBride. The band also perform three tracks: Cemetery Lane, Stuck in a Hole and Wild Turkey.
As much as I love and revere Muse, my hopes and expectations are even higher for Brand New. While frontman Jesse Lacey never hesitated to elaborate his deepest, inner-most feelings even dating back to their pop-punk-leaning debut Your Favorite Weapon (2001), the musical progression showcased on the band’s two successive albums dwarfs his still-impressive growth as a lyricist. Deja Entendu (2003) and The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me (2006) find two almost completely different bands, each superior to the last.
Paramore
The Mars Volta
