Having just released a pretty awesome limited edition vinyl of their Ginuwine cover in the UK, Far have presented their public with a unique animated fan-made video that accompanies the track. Check out the unique visual accompaniment below.
The Smoking Hearts will release their debut album Pride of Nowhere on the 8th March.
The band, who has opened shows for the likes of Gallows and The Misfits, recorded the record in Bedfordshire with Nick Mailing (Quireboys / Trashlight Vision) and Russ Russell (Napalm Death / The Wildhearts).
The Smoking Hearts have offered up the first taste of the album for free in exchange for your place on their mailing list. Check out album track George Street Wrestling here.
Intense new London band March of The Raptors have been quietly building a name for themselves. Their music is far from quiet, being an energetic blend of thrash and hardcore which they unleash on audiences at their frenetic live shows.
Featuring former members of Fireapple Red, Adequate Seven, *shels, Mahumodo, Devil Sold His Soul and Smoking Hearts, these guys are definitely ones to watch in 2010. Rock Sound said so after all. Already sharing stages with the likes of Devil Sold His Soul, Shaped By Fate, Hexes, Me Vs Hero and Manatees, they will be touring in 2010 to support the release of their eponymously titled mini-album which is out on 22nd March.
A mouth-watering clip of ‘Grace of God’ can be heard at here.
Forthcoming shows:
Tuesday 16th March – Old Blue Last, London (with Blakfish)
Friday 9th April – Camden Underworld, London (with This Is A Standoff)
Independent hip hop label Def Jux have announced the company will be on hiatus in regards to new releases. The New York label co created by El-P will step back from releasing new music, as the company “re-invents” itself in the changing music climate.
The labels website will continue to function in terms of news and sales of its back catalogue, but the late Camu Tao’s King of Hearts, and a ten year anniversary retrospective are the final scheduled releases.
Meanwhile El-P continues to work on his forthcoming album, tentatively titled Cancer for the Cure.
Male Bonding’s much anticipated debut record will be released on 11th May this year. The album is set to be released through Sub Pop and will be titled Nothing Hurts.
Recorded in Autumn last year Nothing Hurts was mixed and mastered by Pete Lyman, and features Vivian Girls on its final song. Check out the full tracklist below;
1. Year’s Not Long
2. All Things This Way
3. Your Contact
4. Weird Feelings
5. Franklin
6. Crooked Scene
7. TUFF
8. Nothing Remains
9. Nothing Used to Hurt
10. Pirate Key
11. Paradise Vendors
12. Pumpkin
13. Worst to Come (feat. Vivian Girls)
Geoff Rowley & David Gonzales = gnar. Both of them vs 22 Stairs = gnarlier. Watch the Flip Skateboards team riders attempt to outdo this total beast.
Having already been confirmed to play at this year’s ATP curated by Matt Groening, Cold Cave have announced their plan to play a selection of UK dates around the festival.
The band will also be releasing a new 12” version of Life Magazine around that time, backed with guest remixes that are marked top secret for now.
Cold Cave will play;
May
7th – All Tomorrows Parties (curated by Matt Groening), Minehead Butlins
8th – Nation Of Shopkeepers, Leeds
9th – Captains Rest, Glasgow
10th – Deaf Institute, Manchester
12th – Cargo, London
13th – Great Escape Festival, Brighton
Canadian indie band Hot Hot Heat will be back in the UK for a one-off show this March. The band have been working on the follow up on 2007’s Happiness Ltd., and will most likely road test new material when they play London’s Scala on 2nd March.
Support for the show will come from Official Secrets Act.
Legendary emo originators Far are back in the game with their first album in over a decade, At Night We Live, slated to be released in the next few months.
The band initially reformed in 2008 under the pseudonym Hot Little Pony and recorded a whimsical cover of Ginuwine’s 90s hit Pony which was posted on here. Little did they know that they would go on to craft a whole new album of material over the next year and a half.
These guys are the real deal. Genuine straight-up rock. The likes of Fall Out Boy may have found inspiration in Far’s musical output but emo as a genre in the 90s was far-removed from what it has now become. We grabbed a chat with vocalist Jonah Matranga ahead of a special UK picturedisc release of the band’s Ginuwine cover which is released 1st February on Bright Antenna Records.
What are the differences between being in Far the first time around and being in the band as it is since the reunion?
The band doesn’t have to be our gang, our therapist and our job all at once. It’s just 4 guys that have been through a lot together, having fun making music, without all the pressure and confusion that can come with RockWorld.
What made you decide to kick off this opus of Far with the Ginuwine cover? Why Ginuwine?
I don’t even consider Pony a Far song. I love it, super-proud of it, but it’s a Hot Little Pony song. We made it for our joke band’s MySpace page, and it became the most popular thing we ever did. Too funny, how life works. Anyway, as with anything, just happy that people care about it and dig it. It’ll probably be on the record, but the rest of the record is REALLY the new Far.
What was the response like to the MySpace you set up for ‘Hot Little Pony’ and how were the shows you played under that name?
That was so much fun. Things got more confusing and stressful for a while when Pony blew up, but we’ve settled down. Those first shows and all the fake articles and stuff were a blast.
How did it feel getting together as a band again to write the new record?
Shaun and I wrote the record together, basically via e-mail. It was fun to work with Shaun that way, we’d never done anything like it, just sending stuff back and forth. Then Johnny & Chris came in and did their thing. Minimal rehearsal room time, maximum creativity. Good stuff.
Did everything click as you were writing / recording?
Jonah: Yea, it all flowed really well. We just took our time and let it come.
What can we expect from Far in 2010? Any trips to the UK in the works?
Jonah: No idea what the touring plans are, but UK has always been and will always be at the top of the list of where to go for a great show.
What similarities and differences are there between At Night We Live and your earlier body of work?
It just can’t help but be Far. The sound us four make is just its own thing. There aren’t any two Far albums that sound the same (or songs, even, really), so this is definitely Far, but we had no desire to try to sound like anything that came before. We just rocked it as we do.
Did you feel the pressure in creating the new album seeing as albums like Water And Solutions have come to be recognized as seminal in the emotional rock world?
Nope. Zero pressure. We’ve always been a band driven by making something that we’re proud of, no matter whether others like it or not. As it should be.
What do you think about all the other bands that seem to be reuniting at the moment? What are the right reasons to get back together? 2009 saw a bunch of reunions including Rage Against The Machine, Blur, Blink 182, Faith No More, Sunny Day Real Estate…
It’s interesting. I always thought our generation had too many bands that stopped too soon, which I thought was kinda cool, really. I never expected Far would be playing again, maybe it’s the same for them. All I can say is that I know we’re not in it for nostalgia or the cash or whatever. Just fun.
Which new bands stand out to you as being particularly good?
Band Of Horses, Dirty Projectors, Lil Wayne, Kanye, The Campbell Apartment…That’s enough for now!
How important is it for you to continue championing the 7” and vinyl in general as a recorded music format?
Vinyl’s so great. I’ve been ripping a lot of my old vinyl into mp3s, it’s so fun to hear hiss and pop on my iPod.
Conversely, how do you feel about embracing new technologies in the music industry?
The technology has never mattered, it’s what we give to it. TV can be the best and the worst, so can the internet. I’m always curious about what’s next, and lots of times a little sad about how badly we fuck it up, but hey, that’s being human. Onward.
You can catch up with all things Far on their MySpace, their official site and their tweetings!
Having spent much of the last decade in hardcore bands, you might expect Wesley Eisold’s next project to be typically loud and uncompromising. Add to that band members Caralee McElroy (formerly of Xiu Xiu) and Prurient’s Dominick Fernow, and you have a recipe for something brash, noisy and experimental.
It might come as a surprise, then, that Cold Cave have written a pure synth pop record. Although early recordings had combined their pop potential with noisier influences, full length LP Love Comes Close is as instant as they come and all the better for it.
Life Magazine confirms the bands dancefloor potential, consisting of one of the records many great melodies that feel equally classic and refreshing. Cold Cave has evidently been influenced by the likes of New Order, yet their textured approach feels anything but dated. While the screeching synth line that dominates the track nods to the bands past, it is joined by disco vocals and a pounding drumbeat which feels completely natural.
Cold Cave’s transition from noise to pop has been surprisingly seamless, perhaps suggesting that Eisold has always had a record like this in him. But don’t take my word for it, check out the new video for Life Magazine below.
Sleekly Lion.