Everything Everything is one of many bands out of the burgeoning and quite exciting Manchester music scene. We previously featured this song of theirs, “My Kz, Ur Bf”, and remixes done by their peers on PopWreckoning. They have recently released a new promo video for the song – watch it in all its surrealism below. The single will be released on August 23 in the UK, followed by the album Man Alive to drop on August 30. Expect big things from these Northerners.

All 10 tracks from the debut album of Manchester, England-based electropop dance band Delphic are now available for streaming on their Myspace. The album Acolyte was released in January in the UK on Kitsune Maison but just saw stateside release last week on June 29 on Dangerbird Records, the California label of Silversun Pickups and Bad Veins.

The band – lead singer/bassist James Cook, guitarist Matt Cocksedge, and multi-instrumentalist Rick Boardman – recently played shows in New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in June prior to the American album release date. But there are rumors the English trio will return to America for shows in October. I just saw these guys last week at Roskilde Festival and they’re definitely ones to watch. Check out the promo video for “Halcyon” below.

Delphic: website | myspace

New York good-time rock ‘n’ roll band the Postelles have just released the video for “White Night,” the lead single off their debut album coming out in a couple weeks. Last month the quartet played the famed London club Koko and toured the UK as support for the Futureheads, then returned to our side of the pond for dates with Alberta Cross and an appearance at Bonnaroo.

The Postelles’ self-titled debut album will be released in America on Oct 12 on Capitol/Astralwerks.

Tour Dates
Jul 28 – Bowery Ballroom / New York City (CD release party)
Jul 30 – Great Scott / Allston, MA
Sept 18 – DC9 / Washington, DC

The Postelles: website | myspace | interview with | @ Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel

Photo: Mary Chang

Big beat electronic dance pioneers the Chemical Brothers (Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons) are set to release their seventh studio album, Further, in America next week, on June 22. Ever cognizant of the importance of engaging their audience, the Chems have developed, with long-time visuals collaborators Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall, videos to complement each of the eight tracks of the album. The duo premiered their new album and its accompanying visuals at a 4-night residency at London’s Roundhouse, where the new material received kudos.

You can stream Further now on NPR’s website. The duo have two dates in Oakland and Los Angeles at the end of August and two festival appearances in September scheduled.

Tour Dates
Aug 28 – Fox Theatre / Oakland
Aug 29 – Hollywood Bowl / Los Angeles
Sept 03 – North Coast Music Festival / Chicago
Sept 04 – Electric Zoo Festival / New York City

The Chemical Brothers: website | myspace

Newcastle, England indie band Maximo Park have announced details of a forthcoming remix album on their official website. Nine tracks from their 2009 album Quicken the Heart have been, in their own words, “warped, shaped and moulded into entirely different pieces of music.” What makes this remix album unique? For all these remixes, the band have enlisted the help of new, underground artists from their region of Northeast England, all of whom answered the Geordies’ call last year when they worked with Generator (a local organization that supports new music and artists) to find just the right artists to remix tracks from their then-new album.

Physical CDs of the remix album will only be available with copies of the July issue of NARC, a free, monthly Northeast England music publication. You may think that us here on the other side of the pond are out of luck. Thankfully, Maximo Park have given great thought to those of us who don’t live in the Northeast of England, stating that all the tracks will be available for streaming and download on their official website at the end of June.

Maximo Park: website | myspace

Villagers, the collective name of Irish folk singer/songwriter Conor O’Brien and his band, will be stopping by at several venues this month to promote their debut album, Becoming a Jackal (to be released on June 08 in America). The album was co-produced by O’Brien and Villagers guitarist Tommy McLaughlin. Last year the band supported Neil Young, one of their heroes, and this March they made their first appearances in America in New York and South by Southwest.

You can stream Becoming a Jackal in its entirely on NPR.

Tour Dates
Jun 16 – Knitting Factory / Brooklyn
Jun 17 – Union Hall / Brooklyn
Jun 19 – Armory Cafe Room / Boston
Jun 21 – DC9 / Washington, DC
Jun 22 – Side Chapel @ First Unitarian Church / Philadelphia
Jun 23 – Joe’s Pub / New York City

Villagers: website | myspace

Montreal trio Land of Talk, spearheaded by vocalist and songwriter Elizabeth Powell, have announced the release of their sophomore full-length album, Cloak and Cipher, out August 24th, 2010 on Saddle Creek. Joining Powell on the album are Eoin O Laoghaire (bass) and Andrew Barr (drums) and special guests drawn from the Montreal music scene and beyond including Patrick Watson as well as members of Stars, Silver Mount Zion Band, Wintersleep, Besnard Lakes, Arcade Fire and Esmerine.

Stand out live sets brought attention to Powell’s voice and presence when the band toured with Broken Social Scene. Powell harnesses the power from the live shows to make the complex composition that is Cloak and Cipher.

This record is the document of Powell’s past and future, cleaved together. In those teenage years, an analog child, her recordings were strictly to 4-track tape. Cloak and Cipher’s songs were roughed out in the digital Garageband software, a first for Powell. It afforded her the space to return to her old process – isolated, quiet, layered construction. Realized in the studio, these songs became vast yet intricate: expansive arrangements anchored by taut instrumentation. The lyrics are borrowed newspaper headlines, veiled confessions, and passages from books, annihilated and morphed into song. Tracks like “Hamburg, Noon” swing tensely between acrobatic vocals and rumbling guitars while “Swift Coin” roars to the fore like an eviscerating siren; exploding into a rollicking and joyous guitar anthem. The halfway point, “The Hate I Won’t Commit,” featuring a piano solo from Patrick Watson, weaves between abrasive and gentle, expanding through choral backing vocals and distressed, emotive pleas from Powell. “Quarry Hymns” is the sweetest and saddest Land of Talk you will hear, insistently driven by Arcade Fire’s Jeremy Gara on drums. The record concludes with the dreamy and ethereal “Better and Closer” gently rocking you asunder.

Land of Talk hit the road later this month with Besnard Lakes.

Cloak and Cipher track listing in full:
1. Cloak and Cipher
2. Goaltime Exposure
3. Quarry Hymns
4. Swift Coin
5. Color Me Badd
6. The Hate I Won’t Commit
7. Hamburg, Noon
8. Blangee Blee
9. Playita
10. Better and Closer

Land of Talk tour dates:
5/26/10 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom*
5/27/10 Washington, DC @ Black Cat*
5/28/10 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom*
5/29/10 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s*
5/30/10 Cambridge, MA @ TT the Bears*
5/31/10 Portland, ME @ Space Gallery
*w/ Besnard Lakes

Them Crooked Vultures – the superheroes of rock trio of Dave Grohl (ex-Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal), and John Paul Jones (ex-Led Zeppelin) – have released details of their forthcoming self-titled debut album, due out in mid-November, on their official website. The band plans to tour in support of the new album, with December dates in the UK and Europe and a trip out to Australia and New Zealand in January 2010 trip planned.

You can pre-order the album at their official website.

The tracklisting will be as follows:
01. No One Loves Me & Neither Do I
02. Mind Eraser, No Chaser
03. New Fang
04. Dead End Friends
05. Elephants
06. Scumbag Blues
07. Bandoliers
08. Reptiles
09. Interlude With Ludes
10. Warsaw or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up
11. Caligulove
12. Gunman
13. Spinning In Daffodils

Them Crooked Vultures drops in the U.S. on November 17.

Them Crooked Vultures: website | myspace | Them Crooked Vultures @ Austin City Limits 2009 | Austin City Limits – Day 1 in Review

English stadium rockers Keane have announced on their website that they will be releasing an expanded version of their debut album, Hopes and Fears, in early November. This special release features the band’s early BBC Radio1 sessions with Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley, demos, and some of their earliest released songs, including tracks from a live EP released in 2005. Championing the band early on, Lamacq contributes the text for the album’s liner notes as well.

The full tracklisting of the expanded edition is as follows:

CD ONE
01. Somewhere Only We Know
02. Bend And Break
03. We Might As Well Be Strangers
04. Everybody’s Changing
05. Your Eyes Open
06. She Has No Time
07. Can’t Stop Now
08. Sunshine
09. This Is The Last Time
10. On A Day Like Today
11 Untitled 1
12. Bedshaped
13. Somewhere Only We Know (Lamacq Live)
14. Bedshaped (Lamacq Live)
15. Bend And Break (Lamacq Live)
16. We Might As Well Be Strangers (Lamacq Live)
17. This Is The Last Time (Jo Whiley Live Lounge)
18. With Or Without You (Jo Whiley Live Lounge)
19. A Heart To Hold You (Jo Whiley Live Lounge)

CD TWO
01. Snowed Under (B-Side)
02. We Might As Well Be Strangers (DJ Shadow Remix)
03. Into The Light Demo (Unreleased)
04. Call Me What You Like Demo (Zoomorphic single 1)
05. Closer Now (Zoomorphic single 1)
06. Rubbernecking (Zoomorphic single 1)
07. Wolf At The Door (Zoomorphic single 2)
08. She Has No Time Demo (Zoomorphic single 2)
09. Call Me What You Like (Zoomorphic single 2)
10. Everybody’s Changing (Fierce Panda single 1)
11. The Way You Want It (Fierce Panda single 1)
12. This Is The Last Time Demo (Fierce Panda single 2)
13. Bedshaped Demo (Fierce Panda single 2)
14. Allemande (Fierce Panda single 2)
15. Somewhere Only We Know (Live E.P. released 3/5/05)
16. We Might As Well Be Strangers (Live E.P. released 3/5/05)
17. This Is The Last Time (Live E.P. released 3/5/05)
18. Everybody’s Changing (Live E.P. released 3/5/05)

This expanded edition of Hopes and Fears marks the final of Island Records’ Island 50 series commemorating the record label’s 50th anniversary. The album will drop on November 6 in the UK and can be pre-ordered from the band’s official online store. Also available at the store are t-shirts and a very limited number of special edition art prints signed by the band.

Keane: website | myspace | @ DAR Constitution Hall with the Helio Sequence and Mat Kearney

Brixton, London house duo Basement Jaxx - the guys that got people flocking to the dance floor with “Where’s Your Head At?” in 2001 – is back this fall with a new album, Scars. The album features collaborations with such varied artists as Yoko Ono, Santigold, Lightspeed Champion, and Kelis.

“Raindrops”, the first single from the album, was released on June 22 in the UK and reached #21 on the UK singles chart. The next single, scheduled to be released on September 7 in the UK, is “Feelings Gone” featuring Sam Sparro. Watch the video for “Raindrops” below. [disclaimer: Just be warned mom and dad, you may not want the little ones to peep it just yet, unless you're comfortable with the kiddies seeing barely covered (just pasties) breasts.]

Scars will be released on XL Recordings on September 21 in the UK and October 6 in the U.S.

Tracklisting:
01. Scars (feat. Kelis, Maleka & Chipmunk)
02. Raindrops
03. She’s No Good (feat. Eli “Paperboy” Reed)
04. Saga (feat. Santigold)
05. Feelings Gone (feat. Sam Sparro)
06. My Turn (feat. Lightspeed Champion)
07. A Possibility (feat. Amp Fiddler)
08. Twerk (feat. Yo Majesty)
09. Day of The Sunflowers (We March On) (feat. Yoko Ono)
10. What’s A Girl Gotta Do? (feat. Paloma Faith)
11. Stay Close (feat. Lisa Kekaula)
12. D.I.S.tractionz (ft. Jose Hendrix)
13. Gimme Somethin’ True (feat. Jose James)

Basement Jaxx: website | myspace