“A triumphant, heavily riffed, primarily instrumental epic, whiplashing through six minutes of smiling prog jams, and as many tempos as passages, before settling into one last minute of uplifting chants.” — Stereogum

“Life-affirming prog guitar anthems.” – Seattle Stranger

Fang Island describes its sound as “everyone high-fiving everyone.” And, the Brooklyn quintet’s anthemic and soaring songs make it quite possibly one of few bands befitting such description. Check out MP3s for two new tracks, “Daisy” and “Life Coach.”

Its finger-tapping guitar lines, chanted vocals, triumphant harmonies and overall perky songs hearken to the sort of “Total Music” of the Fucking Champs, Jay Reatard, Ponytail, Kraftwerk, Marnie Stern, Thin Lizzy, et al. But, perhaps more so, its songs are like the music in your head at that moment when everything feels just right: that first kiss, that high score on the video game, buying your first small nation in cash… you know, good stuff.

Nothing embodies the band’s sense of optimism and enthusiasm better than this clip of Fang Island performing live for a classroom of kindergartners.

Fang Island began, oddly enough, as an art school project while the band members were attending the prodigious Rhode Island School of Design (also the foundation for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Les Savvy Fav, Lightning Bolt, Six Finger Satellite and some band called the Talking Heads.) According to guitarist Jason Bartell, the goal was to “make music for people who like music.” That is, music without irony that harnesses its uplifting qualities. Just like a classic rock song or classical symphony can stir us emotionally, Fang Island exists to unlock that spirit.

Fang Island is guitarist Jason Bartell, bassist Philip Curcuru, guitarist Chris Georges, guitarist Nicholas Andrew Sadler, and drummer Marc St. Sauveur. They all share collective group vocal harmonies and the occasional hand claps. While Sadler is also known for his role in the debauched rock band Daughters, it is only his fretboard skill that translates between the two groups.

Fang Island begins appropriately with the sound of erupting fireworks on “Dreams of Dreams” leading into a cascading chorus of ringing guitar notes before the group vocal harmonies chime in with the mantra, “they all are within my reach, they are free.” The second song, “Careful Crossers” launches in beneath the vocals with a chorus of gleaming guitar harmonies smeared over the marching, syncopated rhythm section. Elsewhere, tracks like “Sideswiper” hearken to the metal-laced positivity of Andrew WK. “Daisy” sounds like a unique collaboration between the Fucking Champs and Jay Reatard. Throughout the album, it’s like listening to the cool version of classic rock — the type of anthemic pop — without the cheesiness — that you wished Journey and Boston could’ve made.

Fang Island’s debut album, Fang Island will be released February 23rd, 2010 via Sargent House.

Artist: Fang Island

Album: Fang Island

Label: Sargent House

Release Date: February 23, 2010

01. Dreams of Dreams

02. Careful Crossers

03. Daisy

04. Life Coach

05. Sideswiper

06. The Illinois

07. Treeton

08. Davey Crockett

09. Welcome Wagon

10. Dorian

Former M.O.D./S.O.D. frontman Billy Milano joined MUNICIPAL WASTE on stage at Red 7 in Austin, Texas on November 12, 2009 to perform a version of the S.O.D. classic “United Forces”.

“S.O.D. is such an important band for the crossover movement, pioneers in fact. We’ve played united forces on and off for over two years while on tour and made the decision a few months ago to retire it. When we heard we had a chance to play it with Billy singing, we knew we had to do one more time and retire it the right way.”

Guitarist Ryan Waste was just as stoked to perform with Billy Milano:

“I was shooting the shit with my buddy Felix Griffin when this big dude comes up to us and sticks out his hand. He looked familiar but I couldn’t place it. Ryan, he said, it’s Milano. I heard Billy lived in Austin and managed a bar down the street but I was still surprised to see him. The Waste had covered United Forces by S.O.D. in the past and it seemed too perfect to play it that night with Billy Milano on vox. After tracking him down back at his bar, Felix and I convinced him to come sing the song. It went over great with the New Yorker’s brand of stand up comedy banter being the icing on the cake.”

Make sure to catch MUNICIPAL WASTE on the “WASTE THE WORLD TOUR” when they hit a town near you.

SUPPORT FROM 11/18 TO 12/02

THE OFF WITH THEIR HEADS, PHOBIA, CAULDRON

11/20 Anaheim, CA @ Chian Reaction
11/21 San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
11/23 Portland, OR @ Satyricon
11/24 Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
11/25 Bellingham, WA @ Wild Buffalo House of Music
11/27 Edmonton, AB @ The Starlite Room
11/28 Calgary, AB @ The Warehouse
11/29 Winnipeg, MB @ Pyramid Cabaret
12/1 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock
12/2 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean

SUPPORT FROM 12/04 TO 12/11

BRUTAL TRUTH, PHOBIA, CAULDRON

12/4 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
12/5 Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop
12/6 Toronto, ON @ Opera House
12/7 Montreal, QC @ Foufounes
12/8 Worcester, MA @ Palladium (Upstairs)
12/9 New York, NY @ Gramercy Theater

12/10 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church

12/11 Richmond, VA @ Alley Katz

The European tour dates are as follows:

1/19 Berlin, Germany – Magnet Club*
1/20 Stuttgart, Germany – Juha West*
1/21 Munich, Germany – Feierwerk*
1/22 Bologna, Italy – Sottotetto Club*
1/23 Treviso, Italy – New Age Club*
1/25 Hamburg, Germany – Hafenklang*
1/27 Stockholm, Sweden – Debaser
1/28 Oslo, Norway – Betong
1/29 Bergen, Norway – Garage
1/30 Birmingham, UK – Academy
2/01 Glasgow, UK – King Tuts
2/2. Leeds, UK – The Cockpit
2/4. London, UK – The Scala
2/5. Bolwerk, Netherlands – Sneek*
2/6. Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg*

*Denotes shows with REPROACH

A hot minivan barreling down the highway, filled to the brim with siblings, sleeping bags, and travel checkers sets—this is the setting for a decades-old American tradition upheld by millions: arguing over the radio dial until consensus is happily found at that hallowed institution, the oldies station. Thus begins the story of Ortolan, four young women from Southern New Jersey with music-loving, art-teacher parents, devoted to each other in laughter, bickering, love, and play. Sisters Stephanie (16), Brianna (18), Lara (20), and sister-in-law Jill (23) also happen to create music that is singularly winsome, disarming, and sincere, possessing the same kind of universal appeal of 1950s and ’60s rock and roll, with its earnest abandon and joy in simple and uncluttered gestures. Ortolan’s sound is at once familiar and new, a sort of musical déjà vu—where listeners remember that which they are hearing for the first time.

The group came together in a remarkably unassuming manner, almost unintentionally, with Stephanie Cottingham (at the time just thirteen years old) signing up with a friend to play at a church coffeehouse. Having only picked up guitar a few months prior, she was surprised by the audience’s enthusiasm for her fledgling attempts at songwriting. Encouraged to give greater heed to the writing impulse, Stephanie spun more melodies and drafted more lyrics, and one year later, she signed up to play the coffeehouse again, this time joined by sisters Lara and Brianna on drums and bass respectively. Ken Fabianovicz of Sounds Familyre was in the audience that night and was so struck by the maturity of song-craft present in this humble outfit that he recommended that the band go into the studio. A few months and several penny-jars later, the group found themselves recording a four-song demo at the New Jersey Recreation Room, home to one of indie music’s most creative producers, Daniel Smith. Smith immediately recognized something special in Stephanie’s beguiling voice and songwriting, and in the remarkable support these sisters showed for each other, cheering one another on as only siblings can. Throughout the next several months, Stephanie and the others continued to write, Jill was added on keys and vocals, the band crafted and refined arrangements—and within a year Ortolan was signed to Sounds Familyre Records and back at the Recreation Room recording their first full-length album, Time On A String (to be released in March 9, 2010). The original four-song demo was mixed and mastered as well, and has become the perfect introduction to the group, simply titled Ortolan EP (released July 14, 2009).

Much like the beautiful, thumb-sized songbird from which the band derives its name, the music of Ortolan possesses the kind of startling beauty that reintroduces wonder to the weary. With playful lyrical themes ranging from sandcastles to buckets of light to fanciful creatures following you home, it’s music with sass and spunk, born from fierce imaginations and young hearts just as enamored with the classic sounds of The Ronnettes, The Shirelles, The Beatles and Motown, as with modern songwriters Regina Spektor, Feist, and Joanna Newsom.

Perhaps what is most striking about Ortolan’s music is its satisfying inevitability: the melodies, the chord progressions, the instrumentation, the production all boil down to the right note followed by the right note followed by the right note. All this inevitability and sense of rightness—and yet quirkiness, spontaneity, and joy scamper rambunctiously through every measure. The sound makes you feel that perhaps there are things in the world that exist as they are meant to, and that is no small feat.

Produced by Daniel C. Smith

Focus tracks: “Sticky Situation” “Just Like Me”

Ortolan will be performing at SXSW and will be touring the US with Danielson in March 2010.

“For a band that’s three-quarters below legal drinking age (ages 16, 18, 20 and 23), the group of sisters and one sister-in-law known as Ortolan make some entrancing and wonderful pop music mature well beyond their youthful years.” – Treblezine

“And they are glorious, beautiful. Sounding a bit like She & Him might were they produced by Sufjan Stevens – to create a sort of She & She & She & She, they are four alt-pop Brontës who beam right into your stereo like a comforting aural torch you never need to buy batteries for.” – Drowned In Sound

Ortolan Time On A Wire Track Listing

01. Anything

02. Be So Bold

03. Changes

04. Gaze

05. Insist For More

06. Just Like Me

07. Ludwig

08. Mirror Image

09. Opposites

10. Sleep, Sleep, Sleep

11. Sticky Situation

N.A.S.A. – Spacious Thoughts video featuring Tom Waits & Kool Keith

The official music video for “Spacious Thoughts” by N.A.S.A. featuring Tom Waits and Kool Keith, off N.A.S.A.’s debut album The Spirit of Apollo in stores now!

Directed by Fluorescent Hill.
Animation by Mark Lomond, Johanne Ste-Marie, & Jacques Khouri.

Gym Class Heroes – Live A Little video

ALICE IN CHAINS have announced dates for a North American tour set to kick off at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver on February 2nd. Tickets go on sale December 4th and 5th – fans can get more info at
www.aliceinchains.com. The band is touring in support of its critically acclaimed new album BLACK GIVES WAY TO BLUE (Virgin/EMI), which entered Billboard’s Top 200 Albums Chart at No. 5, with first-week sales exceeding 126,000 copies.

The band’s electrifying set list will spotlight classic hits and new favorites, including new single “Your Decision,” which impacts radio on December 7th. The band recently shot a video for the song with director Stephen Schuster, who they previously worked with on the video for “A Looking In View.”

Los Angeles-based AIC fans can catch the band performing at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas show at the Gibson Amphitheatre on December 12. Tickets will go on sale Saturday, November 21 and proceeds will benefit two local charities, Para Los Ninos and the Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center. On November 24th, the band will also perform three songs acoustically for a special Yahoo! Maximum Performance, which can be seen on Yahoo! Music. In other news, Alice In Chains recently released a Black Gives Way To Blue iPhone app, which features full songs from the album, music videos, news, photos, social networking and much more. The app separates itself from the pack with an impressive level of interactivity; its custom-built functionality allows fans to interact with each of the album’s 11 tracks via a touch, drag and hold feature that reveals hidden visual gems. A demo of the app (which was designed and developed by Mobile Roadie, Streetwise Concepts & Culture

The band (guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell, guitarist/vocalist William DuVall, drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Inez) is currently touring Europe and recently performed on the UK television show “Later … With Jools Holland.” The international dates followed a sold-out U.S. buzz tour and performances on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” and back-to-back nights on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” All three shows saw AIC perform chart-topping lead single “Check My Brain,” which hit No. 1 on the Modern, Active and Rock formats and was hailed by Spin magazine as “one of the catchiest songs of Alice In Chains’ history.”

Don’t miss your chance to catch Alice In Chains live. Tour dates are as follows:

Date City Venue

Nov. 20 Antwerp, Belgium Trix Zaal

Nov. 21 Weisbaden, Germany Schlachthof

Nov. 23 Dortmund, Germany FZW

Nov. 24 Prague, Czech Rep. Lucerna

Nov. 25 Warsaw, Poland Stodola

Nov. 27 Budapest, Hungary Petofi Csarnok

Nov. 29 Vienna, Austria Gasometer

Nov. 30 Munich, Germany Thearterfabrick

Dec. 2 Milan, Italy Alcatraz

Dec. 3 Fribourg, Switzerland Fri-Son

Dec. 4 Paris, France Bataclan

Dec. 6 Nottingham, UK Rock City

Dec. 7 London, UK Brixton Academy

Dec. 11 Las Vegas, NV The Joint (KXTE radio show)

Dec. 12 Los Angeles, CA Gibson Amphitheatre (KROQ Acoustic Xmas)

Feb. 2 Vancouver, BC Orpheum Theatre

Feb. 4 Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre

Feb. 6 Salem, OR Salem Armory

Feb. 11 Oakland, CA Fox Theatre

Feb. 17 Phoenix, AZ Dodge Theatre

Feb. 19 Denver, CO Fillmore

Feb. 21 Kansas City, MO Midland

Feb. 22 St. Louis, MO Pageant

Feb. 23 Louisville, KY Louisville Palace

Feb. 25 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle

Feb. 27 Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues

Mar 1 Nashville, TN Municipal Auditorium

Mar 2 Charlotte, NC Fillmore

Mar 3 Washington, DC DAR Constitution Hall

Mar 5 Richmond, VA The National

Mar 6 Mashantucket, CT Foxwoods

Mar 8 New York, NY Terminal 5

Mar 12 Atlantic, City, NJ Borgata

Mar 13 Philadelphia, PA Tower Theatre

Mar 14 Boston, MA Orpheum

Mar 16 Montreal, QC Metropolis

Mar 17 Toronto, ONT Sound Academy

Mar 19 Detroit, MI Fillmore State Theatre

Mar 20 Chicago, IL Aragon Ballroom

Mar 21 St. Paul, MN Roy Wilkens Auditorium

“Like a computer geek with a romantic streak, Ohio’s Aloha straddle the line between trad songcraft and proggy virtuosity.” – Entertainment Weekly

“It’s prog without pretense, pop with a brain; every perfectly recorded note is necessary in order to propel itself into the next, leaving it impossible to focus on any particular instrument or voice without being immediately and happily drawn to another.” – Under The Radar

“The band sounds more confident than ever, and every arrangement is stripped to the bones.” – Pitchfork

“Aloha achieve neo-pop perfection, with aching vocals, shimmering arrangements, and improbably beautiful love songs.” – Alternative Press

Aloha follows the acclaimed LP Some Echoes (2006) and acoustic EP Light Works (2007) with a powerful record that shows the band unbound by past influences and boldly stepping out of the shadows. Written initially through a private band blog, Home Acres is a project three years in the making.

Home Acres pushes the tempos and dials up the guitars, with the band’s slow-burn intensity sometimes overflowing into huge moments. But even as the energy surges, Aloha casts an otherworldy glow, serving up ambience and attack with equal measure.

Album opener “Building a Fire” pairs gritty, persistent bass and drums with celestial, elusive melodies. An explosion of drums and a Peter Hook-high bass riff leads “Moonless March” into a minor-key catharsis. As the album hits its head-nodding, toe-tapping stride, you begin to realize that there’s darkness lurking under Tony Cavallario’s luminous melodies. In “White Wind,” ethereal harmonies stoke the flames as an era burns to the ground. Everywhere things seem to be slipping away, fading from view, going in and out of focus. Fuzzed-out marimbas, reverb-soaked organs and floating strings decorate wistful, chiming guitar chords while Cale Parks pounds away, powering the proceedings from behind the kit.

Lyrically, Home Acres (named for a quaint old suburb of Rochester, NY) tries to sort through the wreckage of the Great Lakes region and a way of life. Left abandoned “waiting for a getaway car that never came” in the record’s arena-rock-by-way-of-Silver Apples closer “Ruins,” we’re left to think that maybe we ought to have dreamt bigger and fought the urge to disengage. A suggestion that Aloha has taken to heart for its biggest, brightest record to date.

T.J. Lipple – Production, marimba, vibraphone, keyboards, backing vocals (Washington D.C.)

Tony Cavallario – vocals, guitar, keyboards (Boston)

Cale Parks – drums, percussion (Brooklyn)

Matthew Gengler – Bass (Cleveland)

Recorded by T.J. Lipple and Nick Anderson. Additional recording by Tony and T.J. in Rochester, NY, Arlington, VA, Jamaica Plain, MA and Wellfleet, MA. Mixed by T.J.

Home Acres Track Listing:

01. Building a Fire

02. Moonless March

03. Microviolence

04. Searchlight

05. Everything Goes My Way

06. White Wind

07. Cold Storage

08. Blackout

09. Waterwheel

10. I’m in Trouble

11. Ruins

UK artist/composer Charlie Alex March is pleased to announce the release of his debut album, Home/Hidden, with Lo Recordings. Home/Hidden, set for release in the US on February 16, is a wonderfully melodic and satisfying affair, gloriously English in a non-sniffy manner, like tea and crumpets or a stroll on an autumn day.

Remarkably focused and mature, it’s eclectic mixture of real strings, treated piano and all manner of electronic keyboards create a surprisingly coherent and comfortable musical vision. Home/Hidden continues Charlie’s association with Sean O’Hagan and Dominic Murcott of the High Llamas (string arrangements and vibraphone respectively) and also features the talents of Andy Ramsay of Stereolab on drums, Jo Apps on vocals and Gabriel from Metronomy playing bass guitar.

After two acclaimed EPs, one of which led David Bowie to comment, “it’s a beautiful glockenspiel and string-led instrumental that gently comes and goes in under three minutes. Delightful,” Charlie is now ready to unfurl his musical banner and let the world know that it’s okay to love melody, it’s okay to relax, to fall in love, to feel good about yourself.

Like a soft collision between Aphex Twin at his most melodic, Nick Drake at his string-soaked finest, or some hybrid of Steve Reich and Syd Barrett scoring a Tim Burton movie, the music of Charlie March has a lingering, delicate beauty that will be around for a long time.

It can be a grim world full of terror and horror but although sometimes hidden, there is always a place deep within that you can call home and where the golden light of love shines on.

Right on.

“Like Aphex Twin having lunch with Vaughn Williams or Delia Deryshire out for a trot with Michael Nyman.” – Vice

Charlie Alex March Home/Hidden Track Listing:

01/ Plan 9
02/ Francisca’s Theme
03/ Mao
04/ Cortot No 7
05/ Melodie
06/ Snow Feet
07/ Clouds Over You Again
08/ Telephone Song
09/ Cortot No 6
10/ Kyoko’s Broken Piano
11/ The Lost Levels
12/ Son of a Joe

IAMSOUND set to release “Clay Stones” single on January 26, 2010

“[We Are The World] work the dance beat, taking pop to strange outer space.”– Paper Magazine

“Art-damaged electronica.” – LA Weekly

“We Are the World celebrates the visual as much as the sonic—incorporating into their performance as much dance and design as music with fantastically spooky effects. We Are the World raised the bar.” – LA Record

“I feel that referring to them as a band is a slight and calling them artists fails to credit their powerful pop. If they combined the Whitney Biennial and Lollapalooza this would be the house band.” – Dennis Hopper

Los Angeles-based favorite We Are The World is set to release their debut album Clay Stones (Manimal Vinyl) on February 23, 2010.

Praised by Paper Magazine and LA Weekly among others, We Are The World have become one of the most unique and dynamic groups to come out of Los Angeles in recent years.

Formed in the summer of 2008 by film composer Robbie Williamson and choreographer Ryan Heffington, the duo’s aim was to create devastating electronic pop music. Joining forces with designer Megan Gold and former CIA agent turned burlesque dancer Nina McNeely, they combined Gold’s provocative lyrics and Williamson’s heavy minimal tracks with Heffington and McNeely’s visceral dancing, and their first live shows were at the infamous roving Echo Park party Fingered.

We Are The World’s pounding bass and thrilling live show soon won them a passionate hometown following who reveled in the group’s choreographed concert performances. We Are The World have played with The Gossip, Fuck Buttons, Linda Perhacs, and Tricky. High Places highlighted We Are The World in their Pitchfork year-end Guest List for their “amazing visual and performative live show.” A recent European tour found We Are The World playing to packed crowds in London, Copenhagen, and Berlin. YouTube comments like, “What an awesome dance force – fucked me up for days thinking about them live” are frequent. Watch We Are The World perform “Fight Song” off Clay Stones here:

We Are The World’s debut single “Clay Stones” will be released on IAMSOUND on January 26, 2010, backed by remixes by Drums of Death, Turbotito, and Van Rivers & the Subliminal Kid (Fever Ray). The video for “Clay Stones” was co-directed by We Are The World and Alma Har’el (Beirut, Jack Peñate) and shot in a fire-ravaged section of forest near Lake Arrowhead.

Tour dates, including SXSW, will be announced soon.

myspace.com/wearetheworldthecult

Clay Stones Track List:

1. Foot Follows Foot

2. Clay Stones

3. Fight Song

4. Lie Like The Forest

5. Afire

6. Not In Death

7. Clover & Dirt

8. Goya Monster

9. Sweet Things Are So Hard

10. Lord Have Ass

Nelly Furtado – Más video

The official music video for “Más (More)” by Nelly Furtado, from her first full-length Spanish album Mi Plan (My Plan), in stores now!