Watch Superchunk "Learned to Surf" video

From Merge Records press release:

Superchunk video made of concert footage from their last two tours of Brazil: this past spring and 1998′s visit.

Watch "Learned to Surf" on Vimeo.

For more Superchunk info visit the Superchunk Merge page.

Download 2 New Songs From Damien Jurado

Download Damien Jurado's "Christmas Time Is Here" at HitFix
Announcing European Tour in Support of Maraqopa this February


Damien Jurado loves Christmas. He's been waking up since October with a specific number in his head that corresponds to the days left until December 25th. It's with that spirit and devotion that Damien recorded his own version of Vince Guaraldi Trio's "Christmas Time Is Here," the beloved holiday classic from A Charlie Brown Christmas.

"Christmas Time Is Here" was recorded in Seattle by Steven Aguilar at Red House and Bearhead Studio, produced by Kyle Zantos and performed by Damien Jurado, the Aki Kurose Middle School Academy Glee Club, Joe Ruppert, Cole Mauro, Kyle Zantos and Dave Hall.

Click here to download "Christmas Time Is Here" at Hitfix.com (mp3 link at bottom)

Maraqopa is Damien's newest collaboration with producer Richard Swift. At Swift's National Freedom studios, the live-to-tape ethos allowed these new songs to expand and retract like a great beast's breath. Every in-the-moment bell and whistle here is hung with a natural, casual care. And from this, each song offers up its own unique gift: the enchanting children's choir that echoes each line of Jurado's lament for innocence lost on "Life Away from the Garden"; the breezy bossa nova that begins "This Time Next Year" and rises as effortless as a smoke cloud into high-noon showdown pop; "Reel to Reel"'s wobbly, Spector-symphony and its meta themes; the wonderful falsetto vocal work Jurado pulls from himself on "Museum of Flight."

The Seattle Times recently called Jurado "Seattle's folk-boom godfather," a praising recognition to be sure. But also a title Jurado might not yet be ready to accept. That's a title for someone who has settled. With each visit to National Freedom, Jurado is exploring, taking risks. He's not only freeing his songs. The gate is opened wide to allow us all into his once-isolated musical universe. One gets the sense he's just now hitting his stride.

Tickets are now on sale for the Maraqopa release show, February 17th at The Neptune in Seattle with Gold Leaves (Hardly Hart) and Bryan John Appleby.



Praise for
"Nothing is the News"
from Maraqopa (out 2/21/12)

"It's a testament to Jurado's easy, mournful singing voice and his solidity as a songwriter that he can make such stylistic jumps sound immediately like his own."
Seattle Weekly

"Slowburn blues that quickly explodes into six-string theatrics. With its aggressive psychedelia, there's something refreshing about this track compared to most of the sterilized rock covering the indie landscape right now."
RCRD LBL

"A good next chapter for Jurado — a sturdy construction filled with hazey blues."
Consequence of Sound

HAWKS AND DOVES stream entire debut album via ROCKSOUND!

No Idea Records Press Release:


HAWKS AND DOVES is the solo project/concept from the dark hole that is former Planes Mistaken For Stars front man, Gared O’Donnell’s soul! Gared had a very crhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifappy year. Essentially, his band broke up, he got divorced, and pretty much life took a dump on him. Apparently, all that misery combined with anxiety attacks and excessive drinking make you want to escape your nightmarish existence, so Gared came to Gainesville to "record his solo album".
While he was here, he was befriended/rescued by guitar/bass maestro Chad "Malibu" Darby (Chris Wollard & The Ship Thieves). Along the way, George Rebelo (Hot Water Music) inadvertently got roped into the late night writing process. Other supporting players include the illustrious Jon Gaunt (Chuck Ragan’s Fiddle man), Matt Radick, and Chris Wollard (Hot Water Music). The resulting album, entitled Year One, is as bleak as it is depressing. It also features the most blatant Motown/Afghan Whigs bites of Gared's fabulous musical career. To say that there are pop nuggets lurking within this seething document of a life collapsing on itself is an understatement. This is Mr. O'Donnell at his most honest and transparent. Despite it all, Year One is a cathartic and genuinely uplifting experience.

Year One finally got to see the light of day and into the people’s hands on 10/28/11 on LP at the annual NO IDEA parking lot sale during FEST 10. The CD version is still waiting in the wings.
Thanks to the long-standing support of all things Gared from ROCKSOUND we are pleased to share with the masses a stream of the entire HAWKS AND DOVES album.

Click here to enjoy the music and read a track-by-track explanation from Mr. O’Donnell.


On a side note, while Gared was in Gainesville expelling his demons to tape he also fell in love with a beautiful woman. She packed her belongings and followed him to Chicago. The two live there quite happily and will be getting married soon. Misery can turn into beauty when you least expect it.

HAWKS AND DOVES are currently building a live band around O’Donnell and Darby with plans to tour everywhere this spring. We will keep you updated as things shape up.

Gared O’Donnell was the front man for Planes Mistaken For Stars. Planes released five albums on various labels (No Idea Records, Deep Elm, Abacus) from 1997 -2008 before breaking up. They did a reunion show in 2010 at THE FEST 9 in Gainesville, Fl.

HAWKS AND DOVES:
Anxiety, Guitars, Vocals, and Words by Gared O’Donnell
Bass and Guitars by Chad Darby
Drums and Rebelo Magic Machine by George Rebelo
Back Up Vocals by Chris Wollard and Conner Philburn
Violin by John Gaunt
Cello by Matt Radick
Engineered and Mixed by Ryan Williams. Produced by H&D’s and Ryan Williams. Additional Engineering by Derron Nuhfer, Chad Darby, and Kevin Rendleman. Mastered at Sarlacc by Derron Nuhfer. Drums and Acoustics recorded by Derron Nuhfer at Crescendo Sound Studios. Everything else recorded everywhere else, most likely including your bedroom.
HAWKS AND DOVES – Year One – TRACK LISTING:
1. Another Hellfire Sermon
2. Hush Money
3. Say When
4. I Do Declarehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
5. Get Free
6. 1217’shttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.ghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifif
7. Hexing
8. Wish You Were Her(e)
9. North Of Tenth
CRUCIAL LINKS:
http://www.myspace.com/theehawksanddoves
http://www.myspace.com/pmfs
http://www.rocksound.tv/features/article/track-by-track-hawks-doves
http://www.noidearecords.com

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. Releases Second Installment of Their My Love Is Easy Remixes EP Series- see Video and get a Free MP3

Press Release:

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. Releases Second Installment of Their My Love Is Easy Remixes EP Series

Returns to North America For Select Dates and Performances with Moby

"There's a sense of weightlessness and openness to [Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.'s] music...This is rock as release: light enough for takeoff, airy enough for escape." - NPR

" What emerges most is restraint and nuance from the Detroit duo, as well as the general pop earnestness that drives the tunes." - Austin Chronicle "ACL Fest Picks"

Stream "Simple Girl (Tiger & Woods Remix)" at the KCRW Premiere or SoundCloud

Exchange your email address for a free mp3 download

Watch Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.'s Video for "Simple Girl" at YouTube

Detroit duo Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. have announced their forthcoming remix EP, My Love Is Easy: Remixes Pt. 2, the follow up to My Love Is Easy: Remixes Pt. 1. Featuring remixes by Memory Tapes, Tiger & Woods, Pictureplane and more, My Love Is Easy: Remixes Pt. 2 includes original tracks from their acclaimed debut LP, It's A Corporate World noted by Pitchfork as "so well-engineered and aerodynamic" and is set for a November 15 release.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. spent most of the year of the road, completing a phenomenal second headlining tour including a sold-out NYC show, a summer festival circuit through Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and Philadelphia's Popped! Festival, and a set of recent European performances. Their breezy single "Simple Girl" has received noteworthy attention on Triple A radio stations from NYC's WFUV and Philadelphia's WXPN to Boston's WXRV. The band just played a lively DJ set at this year's CMJ Music Marathon followed by a set of performances in Montreal and Toronto with Moby in continued support of It's A Corporate World, which made one of Filter's "Top 20 Records of 2011 (So Far..)" and the NPR Listeners Poll as "Best Of The Year."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. Live
11/18 - Chicago, IL - Cubby Bear - XRT/Bud Light Free Sample show



My Love is Easy: Remixes Pt. 2 Tracklisting:
1. Morning Thought (Phantasmagoria Remix)
2. Simple Girl (Tiger & Woods Remix)
3. Vocal Chords (Shout Out Out Out Out Remix)
4. Nothing But Our Love (Memory Tapes remix)
5. Simple Girl (Chuck Daniels Remix)
6. Nothing But Our Love (Pictureplane Remix)

New CROOKED FINGERS album and videos

Merge Records Press Release:

We’re so happy to welcome Crooked Fingers back to the Merge family with the release of Breaks in the Armor, available on CD, LP, and digital download.

To celebrate the release, The AV Club has posted live video of Eric Bachmann and Liz Durrett playing "Bad Blood" and "Your Apocalypse" on the top of the Chicago Tribune building.

SPIN writes:

Crooked Fingers has been Eric Bachmann's primary band for the past decade, but before that, he fronted Archers of Loaf, the seminal college rock act that sprung from Chapel Hill, North Carolina's vaunted '90s indie rock scene. And while Bachmann made news this year by reuniting Archers in January, then taking them out on the road at festivals like Sasquatch, he was holding an ace the whole time: Breaks in the Armor, a new, superb Crooked Fingers album.
Bachmann, who writes, records, and performs songs mainly under the name Crooked Fingers, lives in Athens, Georgia, these days, where he recorded at The Bakery with Matt Yelton (live sound engineer for the Pixies) throughout the winter of 2010/2011, enlisting the help of Liz Durrett on backing vocals. It’s a cohesive and diverse set of songs with less adorned and more direct and affecting arrangements.

Beautifully understated, artfully phrased, and ultimately a paean to perseverance, the album seems to suggest that the breaks in the armor are more important than the armor itself.


Crooked Fingers on tour:
Nov 11 Chicago IL – Schubas
Nov 12 Milwaukee WI – Cactus Club
Nov 13 Minneapolis MN – Triple Rock Social Club
Nov 14 Omaha NE – Waiting Room
Nov 15 Denver CO – Larimer Lounge
Nov 19 Portland OR – Mississippi Studios
Nov 20 Seattle WA – The Crocodile
Nov 22 Santa Cruz CA – The Crepe Place
Nov 23 San Francisco CA – Bottom of the Hill
Nov 25 Los Angeles CA – The Echo
Nov 26 San Diego CA – Casbah
Nov 28 Tempe AZ – Club Red
Dec 01 Austin TX – Mohawk
Dec 02 Houston TX – Fitzgerald’s Downstairs
Dec 03 New Orleans LA – One Eyed Jacks
Dec 04 Atlanta GA – The Earl

Watch new Telekinesis video

Press Release from Merge Records:

Telekinesis released a new video for "Country Lane" from their latest album 12 Desperate Straight Lines! Featuring footage of hi-jinks on their March tour, as well as live performance clips of the exciting new Telekinesis band in full effect!

Click to watch Telekinesis' "Country Lane" video now.

Telekinesis are wrapping up their year of touring including dates with the Love Language, Portugal. The Man, Deathcab for Cutie, and The New Pornographers as well as a visit to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in support of 12 Desperate Straight Lines.

"It’s difficult to refer to this Seattle-based trio without putting the prefix “power” before any other adjective. They feel like a power trio that play power pop." ~ Metro Boston (live review)

Telekinesis on tour:
Dec 6 Vancouver, BC The Commodore Ballroom
Dec 8 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom

Superchunk offer Halloween surprise: A new Misfits' cover!

Merge Records Press Release:

The band says, "Happy Halloween everyone! An omelet of disease awaits your noontime meal! In the tradition of doing something we did last year, we’ve got another Misfits cover for you. We recorded it with John Plymale at Overdub Lane. Everyone sings! So it’s festive. Here you go, 'Where Eagles Dare.'"

Visit Superchunk.com to stream and download their cover of "Where Eagles Dare" by The Misfits!