Newly Released = The Walkmen- You & Me

This new Walkmen album is damn good. Not that 100 Miles Off isn't a decent record in it's own right. It just seems like there's something special happening here. You & Me is a more focused and confident collection of songs with all the drama and sense of adventure intact. I hate to go over the top on you, but this album might just prove to be The Walkmen's finest hour. Sure It could be the newness talking but I don't think that's it, I really don't. I'll keep spinning You & Me and try not issue anymore claims of greatness, while the rest of you head to the record store or digital shop and pick this one up.
The Walkmen will play downstairs at The Middle East on September 18th.

The Walkmen- In The New Year

Mission of Burma will be doing a special in-store performance on Friday September 12th @ 7PM at the Newbury Comics location on Newbury Street in Boston. I just had to get that little a piece of information to you as soon as I opened my e-mail this morning.

Micro-News
I figured this segment of Micro-News was a little over due, plus I have found myself with the time to type and didn't want to pass up the opportunity. This post contains news from Times New Viking, Death Cab For Cutie, and Okkervil River.

You can add Death Cab For Cutie to the onslaught of great shows that will be hitting the Boston area this fall. DCFC have announced a show at Agganis Arena on October 3rd. There will be a special fan club pre-sale on 8/20 with the general on sale set for 8/23. You can read up on all the details at deathcabforcutie.com.

Death Cab For Cutie Fall Tour Dates
08.15.08 - Seoul, South Korea - ETP Fest
08.17.08 - Melbourne, Australia - The Palace
08.18.08 - Newtown, Australia - The Enmore
08.20.08 - Fremantle, Australia - Metropolis
08.22.08 - Fortitude Valley, Australia - The Tivoli
09.01.08 - Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot
10.03.08 - Boston, MA - Agganis Arena
10.04.08 - Wallingford, CT - Chevrolet Theater
10.05.08 - Atlantic City, NJ - Showboat Casino Hotel
10.06.08 - New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall
10.08.08 - Columbus, OH - LC Outdoor Amphitheater
10.12.08 - Champaign, IL - Assembly - University of Illinois
10.13.08 - St. Louis, MO - Fox Theatre
10.26.08 - New Orleans, LA - Voodoo Music Experience

On September 9th Okkervil River will be releasing The Stans Ins via Jagjaguwar. If you're a regular reader of this blog you know that I'm a big fan and I'm anxiously awaiting the sequel to The Stage Names. Thanks to Jagjaguwar we can hear the first track Lost Coastlines. Okkervil River will play Pearl Street in Northhampton, MA on October 8th. I'm still holding out a little hope for something a little closer to Boston. Keep those fingers crossed.




AGP favorites Times New Viking will release some new music this fall. Stay Awake a 5 song EP will drop in stores on October 21st via matador.



TMV will spend there late fall evenings on stage with Deerhunter, Pylon, and Sonic Youth. They play the Paradise with the aforementioned Deerhunter on November 10th.

Stay Awake EP (Release Date 10/21/08)
01 Call & Respond
02 Pagan Eyes
03 Hate Hate Hate
04 No Sympathy
05 Sick & Tyred

The 36th Running of The Falmouth Road Race


I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who supported me in last weekend's Falmouth Road Race. With your help I was able to raise money for Gosnold On Cape Cod. With 10,000 runners on hand as well all there friends and family this was a memorable day. Thanks again for your support and donations.

Pre-Show Hyping



Here at The AGP , we're down right giddy at the thought of next weeks Radiohead and Wilco shows respectively. So we have a busy week ahead as not one but two of music most important artists bring there Live shows to our commonwealth.

Jeff Tweedy and co. have been busy this summer playing festivals and singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame at Wriggly Field. However next Tuesday Wilco return to the Boston area for a show at Tanglewood. To be fair The Berkshires aren't exactly close to Boston, but us Wilco fans will take what we get and everyone loves a summer road trip.

Here's Wilco from last weekends Lollapolooza (08)
Pot Kettle Black


From the moment Radiohead unveiled In Rainbows and there pay what you want pricing US fans have been clamoring for the chance to catch this band Live on US soil. Next Wednesday evening we will finally get our chance to witness Radiohead Live at The Comcast Center in Mansfield. This band never disappoints, I mean never, ever, no way. So if your lucky enough to be holding the much coveted ticket of the summer, enjoy.

Radiohead-Scotch Mist (in it's entirety, all 52 beautiful minutes)

The Boston Spaceships Video Contest
Boston Spaceships A.K.A. John Moen, Chris Slusarenko, and Robert Pollard have announced a video contest for Winston's Atomic Bird the lead track off of the forthcoming Brown Submarine album. All you film maker types need to jump on this and quick. The winner will receive an autographed copy of Brown Submarine signed by the entire band.

Here's the details on the contest as posted on the bands site earlier today. We're looking for talented (and crazed) souls to create some fantastic visions to this tune. Anything is possible... straight out freak fests, sad British-styled dramas, whatever you think will do the song justice. And did you check out the grand prize above? Not too shabby. So get crackin' on these fine pieces of work and make us all proud. Post your finished videos on YouTube and then contact us at our MySpace page(www.myspace.com/bostonspaceships) to notify us that your video is ready for viewing. Please don't send us any video files -- just links to your posted YouTube videos. We will then post a link to it from our lovely site for maximum viewing. Only folks who contact us about their work being online will be eligible for the grand prize. After the end date, the band will pick the top 3 and then we will have you, the jury, pick the final winner! Videos will be accepted until noon PST on Friday Sept 5th. We will post the final 3 videos on Monday Sept. 8th and then you will have until noon PST on Monday Sept. 15th to vote for your favorite video.

Download Winston's Atomic Bird right here.
Brown Submarine will be released on September 9th via Guided By Voices, Inc and Boston Spaceships are booked to play The Paradise on September 30th.

The Primals Are Back
From the Screamadelica to XTRMNTR to Riot City Blues Primal Scream have always kept us guessing. Record number nine should be no different. Primal Scream have just dropped Beautiful Future in there homeland and the album will see it's stateside release this Tuesday 7/29 via b-Unique Records. Beautiful Future features Lovefoxx (CSS) and the guitar work of Josh Homme (Queens of The Stone Age) on the album's closer Necro Hex Blues. The album's first single Can't Go Back has been streaming on the bands website for a few weeks now and I can't get this track out of my head. I always find it a little tricky to describe someone else's art. In just a few words, kinetic sleaze rock might be a good start. Based on this track alone I will be running to my favorite record shop(yeah I still call it that) on Tuesday.

primalscream.net

Primal Scream- Can't Go Back

The Mats Re-issues
This week had me under the grip of my corporate headquarters complete with a visit from my the bosses bosses boss. So I thought I'd take some time and pay attention to The Replacemtents related news and activities that came to light this week. During the last few days I stumbled upon details on the upcoming Replacements re-issues as well as Paul Westeerberg's plan to release new music tomorrow!

Let's start with news on re-issues from our beloved Replacements. On September 23rd Rhino will be releasing remastered and expanded editions of The Replacements major label releases. As they did back in April with the Twintone albums, each of there four Sire full lengths come complete with a bunch of bonus tracks.

Here's the breakdown on the extras:

Tim
Can't Hardly Wait (acoustic, Alex Chilton sessions outtake)
Nowhere Is My Home (Alex Chilton sessions outtake) [bonus track]
Can't Hardly Wait (electric, Alex Chilton sessions outtake)
Kiss Me on the Bus (Tom Erdelyi demo) [previously unreleased]
Waitress in the Sky (outtake, alternate version) [previously unreleased]
Here Comes a Regular (outtake, alternate version) [previously unreleased]

Please To Meet Me
Birthday Gal (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Valentine (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Bundle Up (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Photo (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Election Day [bonus track]
Alex Chilton (alternate version) [previously unreleased]
Kick It In (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Route 66 [bonus track]
Tossin' 'N' Turnin' [bonus track]
Can't Hardly Wait (alternate version) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Cool Water [bonus track]

Don't Tell A Soul
Portland [bonus track]
Wake Up [bonus track]
Cruella DeVille [bonus track]
Talent Show (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
We'll Inherit the Earth (mix 1) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Date to Church [ft. Tom Waits] [bonus track]
We Know the Night (outtake) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Gudbuy T' Jane (Slade cover) (outtake) [previously unreleased bonus track]

All Shook Down
When It Began (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Nobody (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
One Wink at a Time (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Torture (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Attitude (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Happy Town (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Tiny Paper Plane (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Sadly Beautiful (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
Kissin' in Action [bonus track]
Ought to Get Love [bonus track]
Satellite [bonus track]

Paul Westerberg will be making some new music available to you on the cheap. 49 minutes of music for $0.49. You can download this new music tomorrow 7/19 at Paul's official site Man Without Ties. In a recent interview with Filter he explained how he came to deliver a bunch a songs to his manager " I did give at least 60 songs to my manager, Darren. I was at the point where I had to give them to someone or I was going to start erasing them. If I drop dead, he's got, like, five albums in the can."

Back to the Post
After a nice break over the Holiday weekend I spent most of the week getting caught up on work related projects. I've managed to clear the decks for a few minutes for a quick post to pass some information on next weeks No Age show as well as a concert announcement from of Montreal
No Age will be hitting the Middle East on Monday 7/14. Mondays show takes place just hours after the band wraps up there set at this weekends Sub Pop 2oth Anniversary Festival. The bands debut on the just mentioned indie rock institution Nouns has fast become an AGP favorite. It's no exaggeration to say that I haven't gone without listening to this record at least once day over the past few weeks. I am not the first nor will I be the last to heap praise on No Age and there excellent Nouns record but I'm more than pleased to be added to the long list of music geeks that have been shouting there name from the rooftops.

It may seem like I've posting a lot of video lately, but I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to post some No Age music just in case you the AGP reader has yet to experience this LA 2 piece.

No Age- Eraser



of Montreal will deliver the follow up to there excellent Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? this fall. The Athens, GA bands eleventh album, Skeletal Lamping will be released on via polyvinyl on October 7th. A full tour in support of the new album will kick off this fall. Tickets for there October 30th show at The Orpheum go on sale this morning at 10AM.

As we celebrate America's independence today, I thought I'd take the opportunity to pay tribute to the brave men and women who have given so much for our freedom.
Thank you.

There's nothing like a classic GBV track to bring it all together.
Guided By Voices- The Official Iron Men Rally Song

Friday Micro-News
I realize summer just started, but the fact that some of our favorite artists here at the AGP will be dropping new records at summers end has me looking past the dog days. By the way these releases will be supported by stops in our beloved city or close by anyway. So we have that to look forward to.

The New Year will be releasing there self titled third release on September 9th via touch&go. Matt and Bubba Kadane will be touring pre-release as The Kadane Brothers with The Bottomless Pit(Silkworm) and Chris Brokaw. They've scheduled a show at the Middle East on July 12th. A proper New Year tour is expected after the albums release.

The New Year new album teaser


Cold War Kids have been busy recording the follow up to Robbers and Cowards in a Southern California studio. The album is at this time without a title or official release date, OK they've narrowed it down to sometime in September. In the meantime you can check out the band in the studio through the magic of a video posted on coldwarkids.com
Look for the band to launch a tour in support of the new album this fall. Cold War Kids will play The Paradise on October 14th.

Calexico have finished recording the follow up to Garden Ruin and on September 9th they will unveil Carried to Dust on touch&go. Calexico has signed on to play this years newportfolkfestival on August 3rd.

Shall Noise Upon
Boston's psych-poppers Apollo Sunshine are set to return with album #3. Shall Noise Upon will be released on vinyl and digital formats on August 5th, with the official CD release set for September 2nd on Headless Heroes/Worlds Fair. The band is offering up a free download of 666:The Coming of The New World Government on there official site. They head off to the UK for a show on July 4th at the 02 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park before heading home for two shows at The Beachcomber in Wellfleet on August 8th and 9th.

Shall Noise Upon
{track listing}
1. Breeze
2. Singing To The Earth
3. 666: The Coming Of The New World Government
4. Shall Noise Upon
5. Brotherhood Of Death
6. Happiness
7. We Are Born When We Die
8. The Funky Chamberlain (Who Begot Who)
9. Wolf Frog White
10. Money
11. The Mermaid Angeline
12. Green Green Lawns Of Outer Space
13. Honestly
14. Coyote Hearing
15. Fog And Shadow
16. Light Of The World

The Hold Steady & Aberdeen City For Free


Let me be the 10th person to tell you about this FREE Hold Steady show. Just in case you somehow missed this announcement by some of my Boston Blogging Brethren (possible band name). This Thursday The Hold Steady will be playing The Paradise as part of the Going.com and Miller Lite Great Taste Music Series. To sweeten the deal Boston's own and always excellent Aberdeen City will open the show.

To gain access to this free show just RSVP here

The Hold Steady will release there fourth album Stay Positive on July 15th via Vagrant Records.

You can check out a track from the soon to be released Stay Positive on the bands My Space page. Sequestered in Memphis

Boston Spaceships On- Sale Update

Tickets for the Robert Pollard/Boston Spaceships show at The Paradise go on sale tomorrow morning through Ticketmaster.
Ah morning coffee and another on-line ticket hunt. go get em.

Thursday Night Micro-News


Thanks to a week in which we saw long awaited releases from the Silver Jews, Wolf Parade, and The Notwist hit the shelves I have plenty new music to get caught up on. Before I get to that I thought I'd focus on some upcoming shows that require our attendance and ticket purchases.

A pre-sale for the U.S. leg of the upcoming Sigur Ros tour will go on sale tomorrow. The pre-sale begins at 10 AM at sigurros.com. The tour will kick off on September 17th in New York and they hit the Bank of America Pavillion on September 19th. Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly) will hit stores and digital shops next Tuesday 6/24. The band has been streaming the album on there site but I refuse to listen to it in that forum. I want hold the album in my hands and play it at maximum volume through my headphones. I admit I get a little carried away when it comes to this band and a few others too. To me it's a major event when a band of Sigur Ros' caliber release a new record, so I like to treat it as such.

Former Clem Snide front man Eef Barzelay recently released his second solo album Lose Big on 429Records. After scoring the film Rocket Science Eef was in a prolific space, writing a large chunk of the albums material in just 4 days. Wow I feel lazy. Eef Barzealy plays TT The Bears on June 28th. Get your tickets here

The very same night (6/29) Columbus,OH's Times New Viking return to town with a show at Great Scott in Allston. I had the chance to catch TNV when they opened for Super Furry Animals back in February. It was a jaw dropping set and I anxiously await there return to say the least. Hallelujah The Hills open the show to a solidify a terrific line up. Speaking of Hallelujah The Hills you can check out front man Ryan Walsh's interview with Cassie Beraman of the Silver Jews at Largeheartedboy.

Boston Spaceships

Hot on the heels of the release of Robert Pollard Is Off To Business, Bob is already planning his next release and 1st tour in two years. On September 9th GBV Inc. will release Brown Submarine the debut release from Boston Spaceships. The band constists of Robert Pollard, John Moen (Decemberists & the Jicks), and Chris Slusarenko (GBV & Sprinkler). In a press release of sorts Brown Submarine is given the following description, "This is this you know..." Though you'll notice some subtle prog flourishes and acoustic strums, Brown Submarine is a pop punk album, made by and for kids who've worn out the grooves on their Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, Wire and dBs records. While Pollard has stretched out post-GBV, experimenting on each of his diverse and unique solo records, Boston Spaceships rock hard, have fun and drink Miller Lite.

A tour in support of Brown Submarine has been announced and includes one Boston area date. On September 30th Boston Spaceships will play The Paradise, and if you think things couldn't get any better for Boston area Pollard fans you would be wrong. I just learned that Big Dipper will be supporting at the Paradise show. As soon as I finish jumping up and down I'll get the ticket on-sale information posted.

Boston Spaceships Tour
09-26 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop
09-27 Washington, DC - Black Cat
09-29 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
09-30 Boston, MA - Paradise (with Big Dipper)
10-01 New York, NY - Highline Ballroom
10-03 Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig
10-04 Dayton, OH - Dayton Music Festival
10-06 Chicago, IL - Double Door
10-07 St. Paul, MN - Turf Club
10-09 Champaign, IL - Higher Ground
10-10 St. Louis, MO - Bluebird
10-11 Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone
10-14 Austin, TX - The Parish
10-15 Dallas, TX - The Loft
10-17 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
10-18 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge
The High Strung will support all dates except for the above mentioned Boston show.


Boston Spaceships
Robert Pollard

Look for a Robert Pollard tour announcement right here at The Ash Gray Proclamation sometime tomorrow.
Now back to the Celtics quest for banner #17.

Up and Over The Bridge
As Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago continues to receive heaps of praise from fans and critics alike, Bon Iver has announced some shows with Wilco and a show on Cape Cod . In August Justin Vernon and co. will play a handful of dates supporting Wilco on there never ending Sky Blue Sky tour. However the news I'm most excited about is that they've announced two local shows, they'll play The Museum of Fine Arts on July 26th as well as a show on Cape Cod at Cape Cinema in Dennis, MA on July 27th. Quality shows on the other side of the Sagamore Bridge are rare so I jumped when I saw this news. A great show without the hour plus drive into the city, count me in.

Ticket information on the Cape Cod show will soon be posted here

You can get tickets for The MFA show here

For more info on Bon Iver check out there official site boniver.org

Here's Bon Iver performing Skinny Love Live on Later with Jools Holland for your listening and viewing pleasure. In a word, stunning.

Micro-News/Pop Hooks

There's nothing quite like a great pop song. Three of our favorite artists that occupy the powerpop/guitar pop genre have either released or are preparing to release new albums in the coming months. This edition of Micro-News contains news from Robert Pollard, Matthew Sweet, and Sloan.

Robert Pollard's latest release Off To Business had the official street date of June 3rd, however the mail tends to be a little slow to get out of Dayton. Seriously It usually takes a good week or so after the initial release before it shows up in the record shops here on the east coast. This time is no different, Off To Business is nowhere to be found. I've done some checking around and multiple sources have confirmed that Off To Business will be on the release list for next week. All this could be avoided if I remembered to pre-order from Rockathon, but things have been a little busy around here. Another way to get to your new Pollard fix is by going to Fina Music and buy a digital copy right now.

Popsmith Matthew Sweet will release his 10th studio album, Sunshine Lies on August 26th via Shout-Factory. Sweet described Sunshine Lies as"power-pop-folk-rock-psychedelic-melodic-singer-songwriter-type stuff" in a recent press release. Sunshine Lies was recorded at Lolina Green Studios in Los Angeles, CA, and produced and mixed by Matthew Sweet. Susanna Hoffs appears on the album, providing backup vocals on the title track. While familiars Ric Menck (drums), Ivan Julian (guitar), Greg Leisz (guitar/pedal steel guitar) and Richard Lloyd (guitar) are all in tow. A full tour in support of Sunshine Lies is expected to be announced by the time the album is released this summer.

Nova Scotia Pop veterans, Sloan will release Parallel Play on June 10th via Yep Roc. Parellel Play is the follow up to the superb Never Hear The End Of It, the bands high water mark in my opinion. The album has been described as more concise but sonically varied album, as the 4 songwriters continue to contribute equally throughout Parellel Play . Thanks to the nice folks at Yep Roc for streamingParallel Playfor our listening enjoyment.

Sloan play TT The Bears on June 18th.

Run Son Run

Prepare yourselves this post contains almost no music related news, review, or concert announcements. On August 10th I'll be running in the Falmouth Road Race to raise money for some worthy Cape Cod area charities. When I started running last fall I was just hoping to get into shape, but since then I've gotten hooked on it and rarely let more than a day or two go by without getting out for a run. As with most things In my life I have to add music to the mix and running is no exception. My ipod has been key while out on the road.

(Current) Top 5 songs to run to:
Game of Pricks (tigerbomb version)- GBV
You Are a Runner and I am My Fathers Son - Wolf Parade
The Birth and Death of The Day- Explosions in The Sky
Each to Each- The Gutter Twins
Retro-fit- The Hot Snakes
You loved the last mix tape I made you....right?

If you would like to learn more about the charities I'm raising money for or perhaps you would like help out a worthy cause. Shoot an e-mail to ashgrayproclamation@yahoo.com