The Declining Winter Ready Their World Cup Theme


On June 14th UK based Home Assembly Music will issue Official World Cup Theme 2010, from The Declining Winter. The band fronted by Richard Adams (Hood) recorded the track with producer Choque Hosein. The release will also feature a new version of The Declining Winter tune Red Kite, a song that first appeared on the Music and Migration Comp. earlier this year. The limited edition CD will include an instrumental version of the theme as well as other exclusive tracks and will be packaged with a numbered postcard. As for the track itself, it's a melancholy pop gem. Check out the video below for the proof.

Pre-order The Declining Winter's Official World Cup Theme 2010 at Home Assembly Music

Boat Live on WNYU [Free Download]

One of our live highlights of the last year was when we witnessed Seattle,WA's Boat bring the rock at a criminally under attended show at PA's Lounge. The band were out for a short tour in support of the bands then just released third album Setting The Paces, which landed at #6 on our #25 favorite records of 2009. So I was understandably excited to hear that the band were headed back to the east coast, unfortunately the shows were limited to 3 dates all of which took place in New York. Well D. Crane and Co. have given us non-New Yorkers the next best thing to attending last weekends shows with a free download of the bands set at WNYU.

[MP3] Boat - WNYU Radio Session 05/21/2010

Set List
Period, Backslash, Colon
(do the) Magic Centipede
Topps (Big Apple Version)
Lately...
(do the) Magic Centipede
Tractor Rape Chain (GBV cover)
You're Muscular! (tiny version)
Le Grande Opening (new song)

Boat offical
Boat Myspace
Buy Setting The Paces at Magic Marker

MP3's From Summer's Forthcoming Releases

At weeks end we thought we would highlight and share MP3's from some highly anticipated releases. Based on the past several days this late spring and summer should prove to be more than a little aurally pleasing.

Any week you get to hear a new song from Versus is well, in a word awesome. On August 3rd Versus will break their 10 year silence when the band releases On The Ones and Threes on Merge. The album will also mark the return of founding member Edward Baluyut. The Band have signed on to play shows in Brooklyn and Washington D.C. as part of Teen Beat's 26th Anniversary Tour on July 9th alongside the tour headliners, Unrest. The tour stops at TT The Bears on July 8th. Grab tickets while they last at Ticketweb.

[MP3] Versus - Invincible Hero

Dany Seim,Justin Harris,and Brent Knopf, collectively know as Menomena will release thier third LP on July 27th. Mines was recorded over the past 3 1/2 years between touring for the bands last record, Fried or Foe and various side projects. Danny Siem recently gave a description of the album in a press release with a less than serious quote: "Mines will blow off your limbs like an Italian VS-50!". The band has offered the album track Five Little Rooms for download at the price of your e-mail address.

Jose Gonzalez new trio Junip will kick off their U.S. tour right here in Boston with a show on June 8th at Great Scott. The bands new Rope and Summit EP will be released on May 25th, but if you register for the bands mailing list you will receive a free digital copy. The bands full length, Fields is slated for a September 14th release via Mute/City Slang.

[MP3/Stream] Junip - Rope and Summit EP

New York City's post-punkers, The Drums are set to drop their full length self titled debut for Universal/Island on June 7th. The band is offering It Will All End In Tears off their soon to be released new album in exchange for your e-mail address. Check the widget embed below to grab the song. It would seem that we've gone a little widget crazy, we're just happy for the free MP3's in advance of the release of these albums, enjoy.

[MP3/Stream] The Drums - Best Friend

The Henry Clay People Are Coming!

The Henry Clay People are set to release Somewhere on The Golden Coast via their new label TBD Records, on June 8th. Somewhere On The Golden Coast is comprised of 11 cracking and varied tracks over a not nearly long enough 34 minutes. Recorded by Earlimart head honcho Aaron Espinoza at Ship Studios in Eagle Rock ,CA, Espinoza urged the band to lose the headphones, drink more beer, and record the albums tracks live to tape. It might be the newness of the record, or it really is as good as I think it is. Let me listen to it ten more times before I commit my review to these pages.

The band has offered up the album track Slow Burn at their official site for the price of your e-mail address, or you can listen below.

[MP3/Stream] The Henry Clay People - Slow Burn

The Henry Clay People play The House of Blues on June 27th as part of WFNX's Clambake along with Matt & Kim, Metric, and Nada Surf. Grab tickets here.

Live Dates: (all shows with Silversun Pickups and Against Me!)
June 8th - Spaceland - Los Angeles, CA (CD RELEASE SHOW)
June 15th - Hard Rock Cafe - Orlando, Fl -
June 16th - Sunset Cove Amplitheater - Boca Raton, FL -
June 18th - Ritz - Tampa, FL -
June 19th - The Tabernacle - Atlanta, GA -
June 20th - Sunset Theatre At Disco Rodeo - Raleigh, NC -
June 21st - The National - Richmond, VA -
June 23rd - DAR Constitution Hal - Washington DC -
June 24th - Wellmont Theatre - Montclair, NJ -
June 25th - Williamsburg Waterfront - Brooklyn, NY -
June 27th - Landsdowne Street - Boston, MA -
June 28th - Great Plaza at Penns Landing - Philly, PA -
June 29th - The Sound Academy Toronto, ON -
July 2nd - The Fillmore Detroit Detroit, MI -
July 3rd - Aragon Ballroom - Chicago, IL -
July 4th - Summerfest - Milwaukee, WI -
July 16th - The Joint at The Hard Rock Hotel - Las Vegas, NV -
July 17th - Marquee Theatre - Tempe, AZ
July 19th - Stubb's - Austin, TX -
July 20th - Warehouse Live - Houston, TX -
July 21st - Palladium Ballroom - Dallas, TX -
July 26th - The Fillmore Auditorium - Denver, CO -
July 27th - The Rail - Salt Lake City, UT -
July 29th - Crystal Ballroom - Portland, OR -
July 31st - The Paramount Theatre - Seattle, WA -
Aug 7th - Soma - San Diego, CA -
Oct 9th - Austin City Limits - Austin, TX -

Win Tickets To See The Buzzcocks

This Monday night seminal British punk band The Buzzcocks will play The Paradise as part of the bands Another...Bites Tour. The DIY pioneers will be playing their first two albums in their entirety, 1978's Another Music In A Different Kitchen and Love Bites, and 1979's A Different Kind of Tension respectively. As luck should have it, we have a pair of tickets to give away.

To enter just send an e-mail to ashgrayproclamation@yahoo.com with Another...Bites Tour in the subject line. We will accept entries until 4PM on Sunday. Ready, set, go.

To assure you don't miss out on this special evening with The Buzzcocks grab tickets at The Paradise Box Office or here.

Update: Congratulations to William from Sommerville for winning a pair of tickets to see The Buzzcocks tonight at The Paradise. Thank you to everyone who entered and stay tuned for more ticket giveaways happening here in the not too distant future.

Steve Mason Readies Boys Outside

After a handful albums credited to a few different aliases, most notably King Biscuit Time, one time Beta Band kingpin Steve Mason is set to return with his first release credited to his own name, Boys Outside on June 22nd via Double Six/Domino. On Boys Outside the Scottish born Mason addresses his personal demons, including a life long bought with depression, suicide, and the implosion of one Britain's most critically acclaimed bands.

According to Mason, it was the treatment and antidepressants that brought out the songs found on Boys Outside, the results are Steve Mason's finest song cycle since The Beta Band released The 3 EP's. The weight of this material combined with a hypnotizing blend of pure pop, electronic soul, and experimentalism is sure to make for one of the most memorable listens of the year.

Visit stevemasontheartist for a full album stream of Boys Outside as well as a free MP3 of All Come Down.


[MP3] Steve Mason- All Come Down

This Weeks Short Bursts

On June 15th the Pernice Brothers will release Goodbye, Killer the first album Joe Pernice has released under the Pernice Brothers name since 1996's Live A Little. Team Pernice kicked promotions for the forthcoming opus off last week by offering the rockin' Jacquelin Susann for free download. As if that wasn't enough, just yesterday they added three more of the albums tracks, available for your streaming pleasure to the Pernice Brothers site.

If you pre-order the album by June 1st you'll receive an autographed copy of Pernice to Me the new book by Joe Pernice and Joyce Linehan which chronicles the twitterings between the two over the past two years.

[Stream] Goodbye, Killer Preview
Bechamel
Something For You
Newport News

[MP3] Pernice Brothers - Jacqueline Susann

Pre-order Goodbye, Killer

This week was a pretty damn good one release wise, among several other high profile releases we the saw the release of album number 28 from Mark E. Smith and his latest incarnation of The Fall. Your Future Our Clutter, the bands first record for new label Domino finds Smith as cantankerous as ever , albeit a bit more rejuvenated thanks in part to a top notch band he's assembled for the 2nd straight record. Check the bands new video below wich features extreme close ups of Mark E. Smith, so you may not want to watch this alone.

The Fall - Bury Pts. 2+4


Buy Your Future Our Clutter at Domino Mart.

We've been totally sucked in and bowled over by Cracked Love & Other Drugs, the second full length from Seattle's Unnatural Helpers. Font man and lone consistent member Dean Whitmore leads UH through 15 songs in just over 25 minutes with not a second of the album wasted. Looking for a no frills noisy pop record filled with one great moment after another? Mr. you just found it.

The album was recorded over the span of a week with The Fastbacks' Kurt Bloch handling production duties for the band and was released earlier this week by Hardly Art.

[MP3] Unnatural Helpers - Girl In The Window
[MP3] Unnatural Helpers - Sunshine/Pretty Girls

Buy Cracked Love & Other Drugs via the bands label, Hardly Art

(New) Tobin Sprout - Pretty [MP3/Video]

Later this month Tobin Sprout will return after a nearly 7 year absence with his first release from his new Moonflower imprint. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I was jumping up in down in my cubicle when I read this news and ignored my day job for a good for at least an hour as I played the sublime pop that is found on the album first shared song. The 10 tracks on The Bluebirds of Happiness Tried To Land On My Shoulder were recorded by By Tobin in his home studio in Leland, MI with assistance from the brother Vermillion, Gary and Steve respectively. The album was slated for a may 2nd release but due to a manufacturing issue the release has been pushed back to the middle of month.

The first track being made available is a demo of the album track Pretty, exclusively at Magnet.

[MP3] Tobin Sprout - Pretty (Demo)
[Video] Tobin Sprout - Pretty

Order the album at tobinsprout.net

Los Campesinos! On A Red Couch [Video]

As we're still trying to collect our selves after last weekends stunning performance at The Paradise. We thought we would share a session Los Campesinos! recorded just last week for The Tripwire.

The band performed stripped down versions of Straight In at 101 and The Sea is A Good Place To Think of The Future off their latest album Romance is Boring.

I've contributed a review of the LC! Paradise show for the fine folks at Melophobe, if you're so inclined you can access that here.