Forthcoming :: Mogwai - Earth Division EP

On the heels of the masterful Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will released earlier this year, Scotland's post-rock titans, Mogwai are set to return to our shores for some (rescheduled) live dates and they'll be armed with a new EP. The 4 track Earth Division will be issued on Sub Pop on September 13th as well as on the bands Rock Action imprint in the U.K. a day earlier. Yesterday the band offered up the EP's opening track , the immaculate classical piano piece, Get To France. Not exactly what we were expecting after the sonic return of Hardcore..but then again when have Mogwai ever conformed to expectations?

Earth Division EP Track listing:
1. Get To France
2. Hound of Winter
3. Drunk and Crazy
4. Does This Always Happen?



Mogwai will play House of Blues Boston on October 1st with The Soft Moon.

This Week's Short Bursts : The Blue Dress, Eldridge Rodriguez, + Sneeze

A locals only edition
Some things sneak up on us with little warning, like a smack on the back of the head from our old man. The latest example of this is the Demo EP from from Cape Cod's psych trash duo, The Blue Dress. Over four tracks Patrick Tottenham formally of The Fleece and Timothy Sylvia, display a penchant for stark and compelling song craft with a minimalist overture of drums, guitar, vocals that reminds us a bit of TX strummers, The Baptist Generals. They are currently offering the EP at Bandcamp as a pay what you want deal. We recommend that you head over and drop a few bucks and their til. Earlier today The Blue Dress announced that they will be teaming up with Chicago/MI based Already Dead Tapes and Records for a limited run cassette due in mid September. The Blue Dress have few August shows coming up that we all should attend, see dates below.

Live Dates:
08.02.11 @ Muther Ship, JP w/Zoo
08.05.11 @ South Chatham Village Hall FRIENDS FOREVER FEST 4!
08.14.11 @ Odd Fellows Lodge- Orleans, MA w/Randy & The Oak Trees
08.20.11 @ Cape Farmhouse Cafe- Dennisport, MA w/Bicycle Ride, Soft White 3-Way


Eldridge Rodriguez, he of Boston's noise pop goliath's The Beatings has already turned in one of our favorite recordings of the year with the superlative, You Are Released, and he's just issued the second installment of his Cheap Summer Single Series. For the remainder of the summer E.R. will be posting Live, remixes, and experimental tracks. These will only be made available for a week or so and are cheaper than your next double mocha latte thingy. This weeks installment is the You Are Released duet, Miss Me When I'm Gone [Celebrity Handjob Inter Remix], featuring Sara Borges and Louder My Dear's David Grabowski. Go get it.


Allston's grunge trio Sneeze are about to embark on a national tour with fellow locals The Clippers and in order to send them off in proper fashion, tomorrow night both bands with assistance from Arvid Noe and Earhquake Party! will play a tour kick off show at Wacky Castle, 101 Hooker Street Allston. Sneeze recently released Grandma In The Trenches 7" on Bear Records which consists of 8 tracks of infectious sludge pop, none of which exceeds 2:15. Yeah, they rule.

You can find the EP at Bear Records, Bandcamp, or purchase it from the band at one of their shows.

New Sounds Now :: Letting Up Despite Great Faults

Los Angeles' dream pop quintet, Letting Up Despite Great Faults will issue the Paper Crush EP on August 2nd through Old Flame Records, in a limited CD pressing of 500 copies. Ever since stumbling onto the bands Movement EP in 2006 and hunting down the subsequent self titled debut in 2009, we've been more than a little smitten. Often compared to The Radio Dept. and New Order, we also hear a bit of Chapterhouse in fronter, Micheal Lee's new compositions, which for us, is never a bad thing. But the most intriguing aspect of LUDGF is their ability to transcend influences and deliver something that is both unique and arresting. The Paper Crush EP is streaming in it's entirety over at Paste and for your convenience we've gone ahead and provided an embed of the hook heavy track, Teenage Tide below. Please listen to your AGP blog friends and find this, buy this, and enjoy this [repeat].

Order the Paper Crush EP via Old Flame Records/Big Cartel

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Teenage Tide by lettingu

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Hallelujah The Hills + Poison Control Center|Church Boston |July 18th

The Ash Gray Proclamation Radio Hour(s)

Live Broadcast 91.5 FM WMLN Milton, MA July 13, 2011 12-3 PM

We played 43 songs and talked about them too:

Fucked Up - The Other Shoe - David Comes to Life (Matador)
Small 23 - Red Comes Up - True Zero Hook (Alias)
Times New Viking - Ever Falling in Love - Dancer Equired (Merge)
Young Adults - Life Under Review - (Amdiscs)
Boston Spaceships - Christmas Girl - Let It Beard out 8/2 (GBV, Inc)
Grandaddy - A.M. 180 - Under The Western Freeway(V2)
Eldridge Rodriguez - Disposable Stars - You Are Released (Midriff Records)
Fugazi - Latin Roots - Steady Diet of Nothing (Dischord)
Antiques - ETC - JWNS (Self Released/Bandcamp)
Bedhead - Disorder - 4 Song EP (Trance Syndicate)

Hallelujah The Hills - Allied Lions - Colonial Drones (Misra)

Big Troubles - Misery - Romantic Comedy out 10/27 (Slumberland)

The Figgs - Opening Night - Sucking in Stereo(Hearbox)

The Long Winters - The Sound of Coming Down - When I Pretend to Fall (Barsuk)

Johnny Foreigner - Tru Punx - Stagecoach vs. Johnny Foreigner Split 7" (Alcopop!)

Mogwai - Rano Pano - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (Sub-Pop)

Ringo Deathstarr - Chloe - Colour Trip (Sonic Unyon)

Thinking Fellers Local Union 282 - Hummingbird in a Cube of Ice - Mother of all Saints (Matador)

Get Help - Little Symbols - The Good Green Earth (Midriff Records)

New Radiant Storm King - Winters Kill - Winters Kill (Rainbow Quartz)

Gold-Bears - Tally - Are You Falling in Love? (Slumberland)

The Ivory Coast - Lake Placid 1986 - Clouds (Polyvinyl)

Mission of Burma - Mica - Vs. (Rycodisc)

NYC UFO's - There Goes My Ego -Newer Stations (Self-Released/Bandcamp)

Eyesinweasel -Dusting Coatails - Wrinkled Thoughts (Recordhead)

Slowdim - Tallest Trees - Spirals (Self Released/Bandcamp)

Pavement - Give it a Day -Pacific Trim EP (Matador)

Calories - Mortal Boys - Basic Nature (Tough Love)

Wire - Bad Worn Thing - Red Barked Tree (Pink Flag)

The Thermals - Ballad of Big Nothing - To Elliot: From: Portland (Expunged)

Heatmiser - Get Lucky - Mic City Sons (Caroline)

Trumans Water - We Fish - O Zeta Zunis (Asthmatic Kitty)

Small Factory - For When You Can Not Land - For If You Can Not Fly (Vernon Yard)

The Hush Now - The Atheist - Constellations Remix 2.0 (Self Released)

Cymbals Eat Guitars - Riffle Eyesight (Proper Name) - Lenses Alien out 8/30 (Barsuk)

Superchunk - Becoming A Speck - Cup of Sand (Merge)

Lets Wrestle - In Dreams II - Nursing Home (Merge)

Okkervil River - White Shadow Waltz - I Am Very Far (Jagjaguwar)

Bottomless Pit - 38 Souls - Blood Under The Bridge (Comedy Minus One)

Yuck - Holing Out - S/T (Fat Possum)

Cloud Nothings - Didn't You - 7" (Old Flame)

This Weeks Short Bursts :: Boston Spaceships + Cymbals Eat Guitars

Two Robert Pollard related posts back to back on consecutive days, unheard of? No, not really and if you research the origin and the naming of this here blog it kind of makes sense, at least to us. Like many of our fellow Pollard obsessives we've been anxiously awaiting the release of Let it Beard from Boston Spaceships, due out on August 2nd. Expect a review on theses pages shortly. Well, today we creeped just a little closer to release date, thanks to Spinner as well as Boston Spaceships we get our first taste of the 26 track double LP, via the track Christmas Girl. As for the song itself, we listened 10 or 11 times (we lost count) over the last hour, so yeah we dig it, especially the blaring horns and Pollard's spoken word coda. There is also a video contest for Christmas Girl that you can read about here, if you are so inclined and we hope you are.

[MP3]Boston Spaceships - Christmas Girl

Pre-order Let it Beard

New York's indie throw backs Cymbals Eat Guitars will issue their second full length Lenses Alien through Barsuk in the U.S. on August 30th and September 12th through Memphis Industries in the U.K.. At the price of your e-mail address you can grab the album's lead track, Rifle Eyesight (Proper Name) below.

Cymbals Eat Guitars return to Boston to kick off a tour in support of Lenses Alien on September 20th with Hooray For Earth in tow. Be advised we've seen CEG twice over the past couple of years and both times they had our jaws on the floor.

Tour Dates:
09-20 Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
09-21 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
09-22 Hamden, CT - The Space
09-24 Washington, DC - Black Cat
09-26 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
09-27 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
09-29 New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks
09-30 Houston, TX - Fitzgerald's
10-01 Austin, TX - Emo's
10-02 Denton, TX - Dan's Silverleaf
10-04 Tucson, AZ - Hotel Congress
10-05 San Diego, CA - Casbah
10-06 Long Beach, CA - Alex's Bar
10-07 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
10-08 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
10-10 Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
10-11 Seattle, WA - Crocodile
10-13 Boise, ID - Neurolux
10-14 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
10-15 Denver, CO - Hi Dive
10-17 Omaha, NE - Slowdown Jr.
10-19 Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
10-20 Madison, WI - High Noon
10-21 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
10-23 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern
10-25 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
10-27 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom

Pre-order Lenses Alien

Transmissions :: Circus Devils - I Razor Kickstarter Campaign

A Kickstarter campaigned has been launched to assist in financing a Circus Devils full length film, I Razor. A $20 dollar donation will get you a copy of the film on DVD. It will not be available commercially and is limited to a run of 1,500. This is sure to be a spectacle of both sight and sound.

I RAZOR stars Steve Five (The Library is On Fire) as the Sgt. and Cory Race as the Professor. Music and direction by Todd Tobias. Songs by Circus Devils (Robert Pollard, Todd Tobias and Tim Tobias).

+ The project has just met it's goal of $1,500, but you can still contribute to the project until August 8th and we recommend you do so.

For more information on the forthcoming film/DVD visit the Circus Devils I Razor Kickstarter page.

Be afraid.

This Weeks Short Bursts :: Big Troubles + We Are Losers

New Jersey's pop phenoms, Big Troubles will issue their Mitch Easter produced sophomore set, Romantic Comedy on September 27th. The band will also release the Sad Girls 7" on August 30th, both releases will come courtesy of Big Troubles new label Slumberland Records. Just yesterday the band shared up the album track Misery over at Pantsfork, but luckily for us today they've made it available over at their Bandcamp page. It's two minutes of just the right amount of polish, grit, and sizable pop hooks. Their are hints of the bands sterling debut, Worry (which we reviewed here) but the band has jettisoned many of the lo-fi characteristics of their debut for the advantages of recording in a big studio. Based on Misery, Big Troubles have taken another impressive step forward. As of today we don't see any Boston show's on the calendar, but we have it from a source "close" to the band that a fall show in our city is in the works.

The Romantic Comedy pre-order info has yet to be posted at Slumberland, however you can get your hands on the Sad Girls 7" over at Insound.

Upcoming Shows:
Sep 22 Glasslands, Brooklyn, NY (record release)

Fall 2011 Tour w/ The Pains of Being Pure At Heart:
Sep 24 Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH
Sep 25 Pygmalion Festival @ The Hi Dive, Urbana, IL
Sep 26 High Noon Saloon, Madison, WI
Sep 28 Royal Albert, Winnipeg, MB
Sep 30 Dickens, Calgary, AB
Oct 01 The Starlite Room, Edmonton, AB
Oct 03 The Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, BC
Oct 04 The Crocodile, Seattle, WA
Oct 05 The Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR


Dublin's fuzz poppers , We Are Losers have inked a deal with Leeds based , Dance to The Radio. The band will release a limited edition double A sided 7" on July 18th. Ever since hearing the bands self titled and still free debut EP in 2010 we've been singing their praises. Initially started as a solo affair by fronter Gavin Elsted We Are Losers quickly morphed into a full band when Elsted's former band mates Steve Conlon, Gary Clark, and friend Brownwyn Murphy White signed on. The forthcoming Sunset Song b/w Cheerleader 7"picks up right were the bands EP left us, with two prodigious helpings of the bands signature skuzzy lo-fi pop.

Order the Sunset Song/Cheerleader 7" at Dance To The Radio

Guillermo Sexo Record Release with Young Adults, Night Fruit & Soccer Mom|Precinct Somerville| 7.16.11