Max Hammer – Page 83 – INDIE ROCK CAFE

Shearwater Releases New EP, "Snow Leopard"

Posted on 10/27/200812/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Lawrence, Kansas indie sensations Shearwater released their new EP last week titled Snow Leopard on Matador Records.

MP3: “Snow Leopard” – Shearwater

Here is Shearwater’s current 2008 scheduled shows:

10/19/08 – Boston, MA @ Cafe 939 at Berklee
10/20/08 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
10/24/08 – Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle, JM solo
10/25/08 – Durham, NC @ Duke Coffee House, JM solo
10/26/08 – Atlanta, GA @ Criminal Records (Instore) 5PM, JM solo
11/07/08 – Brussels, B @ Botanique
11/08/08 – Antwerp, B @ De Nachten Festival
11/09/08 – Utrecht, NL @ Tivoli
11/10/08 – Rouen, F @ Club 106
11/11/08 – Paris, F @ Le Bataclan
11/12/08 – Feyzin (Lyon), F @ L’Epicerie Moderne
11/13/08 – St-Gallen, CH (Switzerland) @ Palace
11/14/08 – Lausanne, CH (Switzerland) @ Le Romandie
11/15/08 – Luzern, CH (Switzerland) @ Treibhaus
11/16/08 – Schorndorf, D (Germany) @ Manufaktur
11/17/08 – Berlin, D @ Postbahnhof
11/18/08 – Dresden, D (Germany) @ Beatpol
11/19/08 – Hamburg, D (Germany) @ Nachtasyl
11/20/08 – Ghent, B @ Vooruit
11/21/08 – Den Haag (The Hague), NL @ Crossing Border Festival
11/22/08 – London, UK @ St Giles in the Fields
11/23/08 – Coventry, UK @ Taylor John’s House
11/24/08 – Brighton, UK @ Komedia

Purchase Snow Leopard from Matador Records.

Halloween Indie Rock Songs, Vol. I – Steve Malkmus, Mogwai, High Court, Spoon, The Postmarks & More

Posted on 10/24/200812/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Boo! It’s Halloween and time to visit the old haunts and sweep out a ghoulish collection of indie rock Halloween songs. You can download or listen to the songs listed below, witch ever you choose. Witches, monsters and ghosts, mah-hah-ha.

[zbplayer]

“Witch Mountain Bridge” – Steve Malkmus

“1% of Monster” – Mogwai

“She Walks Like A Ghost” – High Court

“The Ghost of You Lingers” – Spoon

“Every Day Is Halloween” – The Postmarks

“To Kill A Dead Man” – Portishead

“Let The Devil In” – TV on the Radio

Also check out the dozens and dozens of great indie rock songs about The Moon.

Stayed tuned for more indie Halloween MP3s by signing up for the RSS feed. No tricks, only treats.

The Laureates Debut Album Out Nov. 11th

Posted on 10/23/200812/18/2019 by Max Hammer

With praise from the music mainstream press and bloggers worldwide, Chicago-based indie rock band The Laureates are set to release their debut full-length album There Are No More Gentlemen on November 11th.

A writer for the popular music site 3Hive said of the new album: “Laureates fans beat me to some apt descriptions like ‘equal parts paisley and punk’ and ‘Interpol produced by Phil Spector.’ Absolutely right up my alley.” The Chicagoist called it “60s inspired pop with a new millennial sensibility.”

MP3: “A Novel Approach” from the forthcoming debut album by The Laureates.

The Laureates have become one of Chicago’s most popular indie rock bands over the past couple of years and were successful in creating the all-important “blogger buzz” by opening for indie artists like Frightened Rabbit and The Spinto Band.

The band formed, and reformed, during a two-year process between 2005 and 2007, drawing on musicians from states like Iowa, Illinois and Kentucky. The Laureates is the brain-child of Chad Preston. Preston had written a collection of songs, his PR firm says, “that was exciting enough to inspire him to go out and find the right team to perform the songs.”

Preston assembled bassist Crawfie Ward, drummer Peter Gray and guitarist Adam Penly, and together with Mike Lust from Phantom Manor Recording in Chicago, recorded all 13 songs, during a time that spanned from December 2007 through March 2008.

The resulting songs contained on There Are No More Gentlemen feature a blend of influences from bands like The Kinks, Spoon, The Creation, The Replacements and Guided by Voices, drawing off “the spirits of ’60s freakbeat, pop, garage, indie rock, psychedelia, and post-punk.”

Fans and interested music listeners can download The Laureate’s 7″ EP for free.

The band’s official record release show will be held at Chicago’s Empty Bottle club on November 19, 2008.

New feature: Halloween indie playlists to get you in the mood for Halloween week.

The Eels Offer Free MP3 EP to Fans

Posted on 10/23/200812/18/2019 by Max Hammer

To celebrate the release of The Eels’ acclaimed Blinking Light and Other Revelations four LP deluxe vinyl limited edition, the band is offering a four-song EP download for free until October 28th.

The deluxe Blinking Lights package includes three LPs from the critically acclaimed album on vinyl with a fourth disc featuring an exclusive 17 track live album, Manchester 2005.

Pressed on 180-gram vinyl, the four LPs each have their own covers, rice paper dust sleeves, and a hardback book of lyrics and photos. The edition is limited to 2,500 copies and will be sold in order of lowest cover numbers first, 0001 – 2500.

The free EP contains four songs from the exclusive Manchester 2005 and is available on The Eels’ official website. Simply enter a valid email address and you’ll receive an email link to download the free EP. All four MP3s will play on any iPod, MP3 player or computer.

EP TRACKLIST:
01 fresh feeling
02 packing blankets
03 jeannie’s diary
04 climbing to the moon

To order the deluxe edition box set, go to http://www.merchlackey.com/eels.

Nine Inch Nails Tour Photos and Halloween Playlists

Posted on 10/22/200812/18/2019 by Max Hammer

A collection of photographs by Rob Sheridan taken from the Lights In The Sky: Over North America 2008 summer tour have been made available for purchase exclusively at frcphotos.com.

Download Nine Inch Nails free MP3s.

Hey everyone, we’re getting the Halloween indie rock playlists ready to publish over the next week, so check back or sign up for the Feed Me Indie RSS or iTunes podcast feed.

New Remix of Radiohead’s "Reckoner" from DJ Diplo

Posted on 10/20/200812/18/2019 by Max Hammer

Some Radiohead fans will definitely take issue with the following remix of one of the biggest songs from In Rainbows – Reckoner. According to the deejay Diplo himself, he was asked by “the band” to do a remix, and apparently was given their blessing to go ahead and release it on his blog.

Listen or download the remix here:

MP3: Reckoner v2.0 (Diplo Train Wreck Remix) – Radiohead

Radiohead purists will find this remix a vast departure from the original on the history-making In Rainbows album, but the fact is that a whole new generation of Radiohead fans – especially all you ravers out there – will more likely find value in this remix.

What is your opinion, does this remix, hailed on some blogs, slammed on others, do Radiohead any justice? Give your opinion by going to this post link and then clicking on the ‘Post Comment’ link.

New Indie Rock Songs from The Killers, Fredrik, The Piano Creeps, Boo and Boo Too and Kinetic Stereo Kids

Posted on 10/15/200812/18/2019 by Max Hammer

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.

“Human” – The Killers

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” – Fredrik from the new album Na Na Ni

“Hey Love” – The Piano Creeps from the new album Future Blues

“I’ll Be Your Whore” – Boo and Boo Too from No Tempo

“Coal Grey Sky” – The Buttless Chaps from Cartography

“Mr. Electric” – Chandeliers from The Thrush

“Have a Nice Day” – Kinetic Stereo Kids from Have A Nice Day

Stay tuned for more new indie music or sign up for the Feed Me Indie RSS feed.

Against Me!’s Tom Gabel Goes Solo with EP and Tour

Posted on 09/30/200812/18/2019 by Max Hammer

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.

MP3: “Thrash Unreal” by Against Me!

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 first (for the song “100 Years of War”) is already up. View it at http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=43422974.

He is also keeping a blog at http://www.ifeelsicktomystomach.blogspot.com where fans can check in to get the latest info about the upcoming tour and EP.

Track-listing for Heart Burns:

“Random Hearts”
“Conceptual Paths”
“Cowards Sing at Night”
“Amputations”
“Anna Is A Stool Pigeon”
“Harsh Realms”
“100 Years of War”

Tom Gabel’s upcoming solo dates on the Revival Tour:

10/31 Pomona, CA, The Glass House
11/01 Hollywood, CA, The Knitting Factory
11/02 San Diego, CA, The Casbah
11/04 Las Vegas, NV, The Beauty Bar
11/05 Tempe, AZ, The Clubhouse
11/07 Lubbock, TX, Tequila Jungle
11/08 Dallas, TX, The Door – Prophet Bar
11/09 Austin, TX, Waterloo Park
11/10 Houston, TX, Walter’s on Washington
11/13 Little Rock, AR, Juanita’s
11/14 Memphis, TN, Hi Tone Café
11/15 Birmingham, AL, Workplay Theatre
11/16 W. Columbia, SC, New Brookland Tavern

Headlining:

11/20 NYC, NY – The Knitting Factory

Tom Gabel’s MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/tomgabelmusic

End of September 2008 Indie Rock MP3 Round-Up

Posted on 09/27/200801/01/2020 by Max Hammer

New Indie and Alternative Rock

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.

– “Albert” by Ed Laurie
– “Andalucia” (demo) by Ed Laurie

– “Silly Long Songs” by Jeremy
– “Hey Little Sprout” by The Harvey Girls
– “Fourteen” by The French Semester
– “White Lotus Day” by The Doleful Lions
– “Year of the Dog” by The Lovely Sparrows
– “Broken Machine” by The New Up
– “Already Down” by Awesome Color
– “Divide” by The Trophy Fire

– “Too Sweet” by And The Moneynotes

Major Music Festival in San Francisco Was Far Out, Man

Posted on 09/24/200812/18/2019 by Max Hammer

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.

MP3s from Outside Lands lineup artists:

“KC Accidental” – Broken Social Scene
“Herectics” – Andrew Bird
“Sightlines” – Rogue Wave (check out the band’s other music, they’re awesome.)

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.

September Indie Rock New Releases

Posted on 09/15/200806/25/2019 by Max Hammer

There is no shortage of exciting indie releases this September and the stack is already growing high for October.

Among the most talked about, and triumphant indie releases this September is Austin’s indie sensations Okkervil River’s

Rock critic Will Sheff called The Stand Ins and its 2007 counterpart The Stage Names “essentially a fat-free double album. They’re also striking in-progress documents of a band that continues to sharpen its bookish but brutally honest indie rock with every disc.”

Other artists and bands releasing new work this month include The Broken West, Kings of Leon, Woodlands, I Heart Hiroshama, Broadfield Marchers and Mason Proper, among many others. (Check back as this page will be updated as new music arrives).

“Auctioneer” by Broken West from the forthcoming album Now or Heaven, released on September 9, 2008 via Merge Records.

MP3: “I Wasn’t Made For Fighting” by Woodlands from their album Heart Attack on Paper Bag Records. This is a great song for those of you who enjoy trip-hop trance mixed with rock-like interludes and vocals.

About Music Submissions and Contributing to IRC

Posted on 09/11/200812/18/2019 by Max Hammer

IRC connects talented artists with music lovers around the world by writing profiles, reviews and publishing great new songs in regular playlists and mixes, giving thousands of people per day one-click access to the best in new, and rarely heard, music. We are honored to be one of the most popular indie blogs that feature both well-known and rarely heard indie and alternative music. IRC is visited by over 150K people, and more than a quarter of a million page views, a month from all over the world.

– Music Submission Guidelines
– Band Promotion & Marketing
– Writers, Photographers and Illustrators
– Thank You Everyone
– Help Spread the Word!

New Submission Guidelines – Please read carefully

Update (Jan. 10, 2017):

Important: All submissions must be MP3 links that end with .mp3 or include attached MP3s, and follow the guidelines below completely – no exceptions. We simply have to streamline this process to keep it manageable.

Go to the new submission page

Band Promotion & Marketing

If you or your band are interested in personalized band promotion to get word about your music to more people and increase your visibility, fan base, sales and numbers at your gigs, as well as other benefits, from a professional who knows how to do all that and more, please send an email to kate at indierockcafe.com/indierockcafe with the email subject line “Artist & Band Promotion”.

Writers, Photographers and Illustrators

If you are a writer and would like to contribute album reviews, write up features about bands and artists or contribute your own concert and other photos, we’d love to hear from you. Please send an email to kate (at) gmail (dotcom) with the Subject as RE: Contributing to IRC. This is a perfect way for your work to get exposure to tens of thousands of loyal readers and listeners.

Thanks to Everyone

We just want to say to thank you to so many of you for sending your music, regularly visiting the blog and in general making it possible to do what we do; maybe someday soon, this can become a real job rather than a hobby (this is a very ‘indie’ operation).

If that happens, the amount of coverage and cool indie things we can do will increase significantly. There’s still a lot of great music we have all never heard, or have yet to hear, and it’s our mission to bring as much of it to you as possible in an easy and concise way.

Help Spread the Word!

We appreciate your help in promoting the site on the web, sharing it with friends and whatever else you can think of. We don’t make any money doing this, so your volunteerism, if you will – like adding any post from IRC to Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Stumbleupon, MySpace and linking to IRC from your own site, etc, is appreciated greatly. You’re participation helps give us the juice needed to keep up our faith that this is all worthwhile.

You can also help by adding links from IRC to your favorite social networking sites (like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, etc.) and signing up for the “Feed Me Indie” RSS feed and sharing the site with friends.

Starting as a hobby in 2006 to share music with friends, IRC has grown to a worldwide audience of thousands of people every day. In fact, daily traffic to this site has tripled from the winter of 2008/9 to the summer/fall of 2009, with over 100,000 unique visitors a month. Thanks especially to the thousands of regular, loyal readers who appreciate what we are trying to do, and hope to do in the future.

If you’d like to add a link to us, or just bookmark the site with your favorite bookmarker, please do. Each time someone does this, it spreads the love and makes us want to post more. :)

If you’re linking to a specific page, please use anchor text like “Animal Collective” or “Best New Indie”, depending on what the content is. That helps everyone out a lot!

To leave a comment for a posting or a general comment, click on a post on the IRC website and then click on the Comments link. No login is required to leave a comment, but is encouraged.

Thanks for your support!

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