New Indie Rock Releases include The Killers, Fredrik, The Piano Creeps, Boo and Boo Too and Kinetic Stereo Kids
The Killers reveal their album cover art from their upcoming new release
After an awesome performance on Saturday Night Live recently, The Killers' have fans on edge for their fourth album Day & Age, slated for US release on November 24.
Stream the single "Human" on The Killers official website. By the way, the countdown is on for The Killers' new UK website - just 12 days away.
New Indie MP3s
IRC receives many MP3 submissions each month, and the idea is to weed out the mediocre, and just plain awful, music for your listening enjoyment to deliver just the best. That is what IRC readers expect, so hopefully the mid-October 2008 selection below won't disappoint.
To submit music for review to IRC, follow the guidelines on the About IRC page.
Featured bands this month include two bands from the independent label, The Kora Records; one from Sweden - Fredrik, and a new band called The Piano Creeps, consisting of two former members of the 90's acclaimed alt-pop band Madder Rose. "The Black Fur" by Fredrik from the new album Na Na Ni
"Hey Love" by The Piano Creeps from the new album Future Blues
Against Me!'s Tom Gabel Goes Solo with EP and Tour
Against Me! singer Tom Gabel will hit the road for a solo tour at the end of October accompanied by Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Ben Nichols (Lucero), and Tim Barry (Avail) on the Revival Tour.
The frontmen will trade off playing solo sets of their own songs as well as collaborating on each others material, according to a press release from Earshot Media. Gabel is launching the tour in support of his upcoming seven-song solo EP, entitled Heart Burns (see track listing below), which will be released on CD, digitally and on vinyl by Sire Records on October 28th.
The centerpiece of the EP is "Anna Is A Stool Pigeon," which Gabel wrote after reading about environmental activist Eric McDavid who was convicted in 2007 of conspiring to use explosives to damage corporate and government property after being implicated by an undercover FBI informant who posed as an activist. McDavid's defense has argued that he was the victim of entrapment. He currently faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
"What struck me most about the story was a sense of familiarity," Gabel says. "I know the scene he was a part of, I used to be a part of it myself. I've thought the same thoughts, talked the same talk. I've hung out with the same people, gone to similar protests. If Eric could have become the target of an FBI sting operation, then so could I. This could have been me."
The EP was recorded late August in Los Angeles on a short two week break in between Against Me! tours. Gabel co-produced the EP along with Billy Bush, while Butch Vig executive produced. The EP contains several guest appearances including Chuck Ragan and Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio).
Gabel's solo tour will begin once Against Me! complete their upcoming U.S. tour with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, which begins on October 1st. Against Me! have been touring non-stop in support of their current album, the Butch Vig-produced New Wave, which was released by Sire Records in July 2007.
Called "the most invigorating, zeitgeist-capturing rock album in years" by Spin Magazine, New Wave was named the magazine's "Album of the Year," and also appeared in the Top 10 on Rolling Stone, Blender, and MTV.com's year-end "Best Album" lists. New Wave has spawned two singles, "White People for Peace" and "Thrash Unreal," which became the band's first single to chart in the U.S. when it climbed to No. 11 on the Modern Rock chart.
Gabel has announced plans to post every Wednesday on his MySpace page, a video for each song on Heart Burns. These videos will not feature the album audio, but rather exclusive live audio of Gabel singing on camera.
The usual flurry of indie and alternative rock album and single releases for return to school and pre-Christmas season is in full swing.
This week IRC has assembled another eclectic collection of new MP3 releases from already released and forthcoming releases of some of the best indie rock albums and songs of 2008.
Featured artists and bands include Ed Laurie, Jeremy, The Harvey Girls, The Trophy Fire, The Doleful Lions, Awesome Color, The New Up and others.
Major Music Festival in San Francisco Was Far Out, Man
The following is a report that was written after San Francisco's Outside Lands Festival, but was not published until now due to time constraints.
SAN FRANCISCO - The first major rock music festival to grace San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in nearly four decades was a huge success last month (August 22-24), drawing a crowd that organizers estimated at over 150,000 people.
Outside Lands celebrated its first year as the Bay Area's newest major rock festival with three days of music from artists and bands like Radiohead, Jack Johnson, Tom Petty, Beck, Andrew Bird, Widespread Panic, Wilco, Broken Social Scene, Rouge Wave, Manu Chao, Ben Harper, Primus and Rodrigo y Gabriela, among dozens of others.
Unlike most other summer rock festivals, there were no sun burns or cases of heat exhaustion at Outside Lands. San Francisco's famously reliable fog, that the city is known world-wide for, drenched Golden Gate Park's Polo Fields for most of the three-day music festival - probably not what the over-advertised Heineken vendors wanted, but what did they expect in August on the west side of San Francisco?
Believe it or not, Anchorage, Alaska has higher summertime temperatures, on average, than San Francisco, California (and it's not because of the hot air blowing from Sarah Palin's mouth).
But on the last day of the festival, Sunday August 24, the sun came out and blue skies replaced low-lying clouds and mist. Having been to plenty of outdoor concerts and festivals in the hot sun, it's easy to welcome and appreciate the cooling waves of continuous fog.
When Radiohead took the stage late Friday evening, the lights surrounding the entire venue beamed up through the fog like lasers - a common site in northern California. Just ask anyone who has shone a flashlight or drove with their headlights on through the thick summer fog - you can literally cast a beam of light for as far as the eye can see.
Perhaps this is how Stars Wars director George Lucas, a native of northern California, came up with the idea for the famous laser weapons featured in the classic trilogy.
Anyways, the sets for good indie bands and artists - like Andrew Bird, Broken Social Scene, M. Ward, Rogue Wave - were too short, and the time delay between various acts were too short for such a huge place - literally four football fields from end to end. Next time they should also do something about the dust - that really surprised me since most of the park is lush and green (thanks to the fog and irrigation); dust is just not something you see in San Francisco.
(photo by thegatos08 on Flickr)
For many festival goers, it was the first night's headliner, Radiohead, that proved to be the highlight of the entire festival (not that big on Petty and Jack Johnson as headliners). Not only did they put on an amazing light show, but they sounded spectacular - better than on vinyl - which is hard for me to believe in a way, but it's true.
There were two brief sound outages, but the band apologized for that. As if. No apology needed Thom, you guys were so awesome, everyone already had forgotten about it. It's the only reason the performance gets an A instead of an A-plus.
Next year, assuming the fest will be held again (all indications are that the greedy promoters and investors made plenty of money) they should step it up have more real headlining bands (it is San Francisco, man), not try to cram so much on so many stages in three days and definitely invest more in facilities, and lower the three-day pass price.
Outside the parameters of the fenced off event were hundreds, if not thousands of people, who were presumably not ticket holders but had no problem hanging out in or under trees and on strips of grass soaking in the many artists - for free, and they didn't have to wait in the lines for the disgusting portable toilets.
Also, it'd be nice if they could come up with some innovative ways to protect the park more from environmental damage. I can't help but to feel a little guilty for the digging up of the grass (grass - not talking about that kind people - is a rare thing in SF) and how the loud music affected wildlife in and around the park.
Nevertheless, the festival was considered a success to most who attended. Those who were most dissatisfied were area residents who lived within an earshot of the music blaring above the trees and throughout adjacent neighborhoods. The fog actually helps carry sound, so at times residents blocks and blocks away felt almost like they were part of the festival.
The following is an indie mixed tape of new songs and releases that came out this summer. Since they have already been released this summer, it seems right to call this tape the Tarty Party mix.
Just click the button on the cassette image below to start the stream featuring songs from Amazing Baby, Ratatat, Beaujolais, Hacienda, Sam Champion, Kings of Leon, I Heart Hiroshima, Awesome Color, Rainbow Arabia and The French Semester.
Here are some free MP3s from the mixed tape above. Others are available from the MP3 tab above.
MP3: "Headdress" by Amazing Baby from Infinite Fking Cross EP released on August 29, 2008
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The Killers reveal their album cover art from their upcoming new release
