from the Saddle Creek Records newsletter:

The Thermals - The Sunset
from the album Desperate Ground

For their latest video, "The Sunset", Thermals bassist Kathy Foster took lessons from professional boxer Molly McConnell to prepare for her role as "The Boxer". You can also the band live at a handful of shows later this summer, a full rundown is below.

The Thermals tour dates
Sat-Aug-17, Omaha, NE, MAHA Music Festival
Fri-Aug-23, Eugene, OR, Kaleidoscope Music Festival
Sat-Aug-31, Grand Rapids, MI, The Pyramid Scheme
Sat-Sep-07, Portland, OR, Mississippi Studios
Thu-Sep-26, Cincinnati, OH, The Taft Theatre

Shugo Tokumaru - video for Katachi

Polyvinyl Records press release:



Watch the amazing video for "Katachi": http://youtu.be/Q-WM-x__BOk

"...a giddy celebration of pop music's potential for mayhem...it all comes together in a beautifully sharp series of technicolor audio bursts." -Pitchfork

"This is a whimsical Flaming Lips-meets-Sufjan Stevens trip through the mind of one of the finest producers of psych pop working today." - Under the Radar


For the first half of 2012, Shugo Tokumaru locked himself inside his home studio while working on In Focus?, often forgetting to eat and sleep for long stretches of time while crafting the record's 15 songs -- each of which contains an average of 20 instruments and hundreds of recorded parts that are meticulously mixed together to create a single, cohesive track.

As a result of this extreme care and attention to detail, In Focus? -- despite its title -- represents the clearest manifestation of Tokumaru's multifaceted musical vision to date.

From slow building album opener "Circle"'s perfect transition into standout track "Katachi," to lead single "Decorate" and the beautifully delicate acoustic ballad "Tightrope," it's clear that Tokumaru has again succeeded in writing universal melodies while singing in his native Japanese.

After Tokumaru completed recording and mixing, In Focus? was mastered at Abbey Road Studios -- a fitting location for an artist who grew up listening to the Beatles and Japanese pop music and whose music builds on the best elements of both to produce a unique sound irresistible to listeners regardless of their generation or the language they speak.

Watch The Love Language's new video for "Calm Down" now!

Merge Records press release:


The Love Language's Ruby Red is in stores now on CD, LP and digital! Celebrate by watching their super-fun new video featuring a cameo by Superchunk's Laura Ballance! And the ever-increasing list of the Love Language full band tour dates is below!

Watch & share The Love Language's new video for "Calm Down" now at Pitchfork.TV & Merge's YouTube channel


Ruby Red produces new standards for the Carolina pop songbook, finding The Love Language as an extroverted community art project made by responsible citizens of a loosely packed scene who know that Stuart McLamb will match whatever they contribute. As the Independent Weekly proclaimed, “This isn’t The Love Language we’ve come to expect. It’s something bolder.”

Keep up with The Love Language at their newly relaunched website and on Twitter and Facebook.

The Love Language on tour:
Jul 26 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle # Album Release show!
Jul 27 Washington, DC – Rock & Roll Hotel #
Jul 28 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s #
Jul 30 Allston, MA – Great Scott #
Jul 31 New York, NY – Mercury Lounge #
Aug 01 Brooklyn, NY – Glasslands Gallery #
Aug 02 Richmond, VA – Strange Matter #
Aug 03 Charlottesville, VA – Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar #
Aug 27 Nashville, TN – Stone Fox
Aug 28 St. Louis, MO – Firebird
Aug 29 Chicago, IL – Schuba’s
Aug 30 St. Paul, MN – Turf Club
Aug 31 Kansas City, MO — Czar Bar w/ Schwervon
Sep 01 Omaha, NE — O'Leaver's
Sep 02 Denver, CO – Hi Dive
Sep 03 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
Sep 04 Boise, ID Neurolux ^
Sep 05 Portland, OR – MusicFest NW
Sep 06 Eugene, OR – Cozmic Pizza %
Sep 08 Seattle, WA – Neumos %
Sep 10 San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw w/ Bleeding Rainbow
Sep 11 Los Angeles, CA – Bootleg Bar
Sep 12 San Diego, CA — Soda Bar ^
Sep 13 Scottsdale, AZ – Pub Rock w/ Soft Metals
Sep 14 Tucson, AZ — Club Congress
Sep 16 Austin, TX – Mohawk – Inside ^
Sep 17 Dallas, TX – Club Dada
Sep 18 Houston, TX – Mango’s
Sep 19 New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa
Sep 20 Atlanta, GA — Masquerade w/ Man Man
# w/ Eternal Summers
* w/ The Critters
% w/ The Dodos
^ w/ On An On

Lights & Motion video for Home from Deep Elm Records

From Deep Elm Records

One word: Epic. That's the most succinct way to describe the stunning instrumental debut by cinematic post-rock powerhouse LIGHTS & MOTION.



See the video for Home from Lights & Motion here.


The band's braintrust, 24 year old self-taught multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, engineer, mixer and all around musical savant Christoffer Franzen, created and composed every song in real-time during late night insomnia sessions through pure accident, improvisation and inspiration. And the result? More than you could have ever hoped for. Reanimation is pure, sweeping, musically-animated emotion: modern yet classic, bold yet restrained, grandiose yet humble, storming yet tranquil, swerving yet linear...and you are completely surrounded in the sincerity, the ecstasy, the illumination of it all. Every song is so deeply intimate yet so massively majestic, culminating in a timeless album that is seemingly created from the same stuff dreams are made of. "Reanimation will be acknowledged as one of the most important post-rock albums ever to be made...and if this was the last album we ever released on Deep Elm Records, I would consider our 18 year mission an overwhelming success" says label founder John Szuch.

"Melodies and harmonies, movies and images, loneliness and melancholy are my influences" says Franzen. "There is just this urge, this need to create and it takes on different shapes. Sometimes it's rough and loud and sometimes it's very quiet. I consider myself to be more and more of a painter of sound. It always starts out with something easy and timid, like a simple brush stroke. Depending on the mood, I change the color and intensity of my next stroke and suddenly the whole impression of what that piece was drastically changes. I compose with layers and depth, and it's often the slightest thing that makes the whole song turn into a new direction, often one I didn't see coming myself. That is part of the journey, at least for the way I write music. I never know what I wiIl end up with, and it's often very different from what I started out with. Sometimes I tell people that this album consists of my dreams...only I wasn't sleeping with they came to me, I just did my best to get them down on tape."

Franzen continues, "At the beginning, I really had nothing except for a vision of something vast, heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. I didn't think in terms of music, but in terms of other things that inspired me, things that painted a picture in my head that I could see so clearly. This was in the Fall of 2011. Without any education in sound engineering or music production, I spent countless nights learning how to get the sounds that I could hear in my head to come out through the speakers. I did this by trial and error, reading endless forums about music production, watching tutorials and experimenting. By doing this I learned the capabilities and limitations of the studio and the gear that I could use, as well as my own as a producer. In order to achieve the sound that I had in mind, I had to pick up all these different instruments and learn how to play them. If somebody had told me one year ago that I would record an entire album by myself, I wouldn't have believed them. I am very proud of it and I can't believe it's done. This album was about gathering the courage to launch an endeavor that was purely my own. It was a reawakening, a rebirth, a resurrection of sorts, and a passageway into a dreamlike world that I created myself...a world to get lost in...a world that gives us hope."

"An album for which my immediate feeling is astonishment. I am in awe. Thank you Christoffer." - Troublezine

"Amazingly beautiful, intimate, relaxed melodies and soundscapes. Very impressive...a success." - 520 Music

"Cinematic soundtrack-mash-ups that bring a fresh breeze into a otherwise linear and narrow genre." - Melodic

Dear Blanca Performs New Song, "Noma", Live from Dead Tree Festival

Post-Echo press release:



With new band members, Dayne Lee and Conner Mills, in tow, Dear Blanca recently performed at this year's Dead Tree Festival unveiling a collection of new tunes- including "Noma", a song blending the raw angst of Talker with a gentler, melodic direction.

Given life in 2011 and named after the late grandmother of Dylan Dickerson, Dear Blanca consists of Dickerson himself and long-time bandmate Marc Coty on drums. Offering an eclectic range of sounds inspired by diverse acts such as 80′s punk group Minutemen as well as Townes Van Zandt, Dear Blanca promises energetic rock music coupled with folk-songwriting aesthetics both mild-mannered and rambunctious.

Dear Blanca’s debut LP, Talker, was released on February 12, 2013 via Post-Echo.

Check out "Noma" here.

Watch Dear Blanca performing "Havana Tonight" at this year's SXSW.

Stream Dear Blanca's debut LP Talker- available as a CD and digital download.

Listen to "Bright Light" from Mount Moriah's new album, Miracle Temple

Merge Records press release:

Mount Moriah shared "Bright Light" from their forthcoming new album Miracle Temple via SPIN today. In their premiere, SPIN described the track as a "luminous Southern-rock shuffler."

Listen & share "Bright Light" now at the Merge SoundCloud page

Where 2011's Mount Moriah tended towards the simpler, Miracle Temple boasts fuller arrangements, replete with forceful vocals and lyrics that read like prize-winning poetry. The instrumentation's more soulful, the choruses more rambunctious, and the band's vision of the South is even more intricate -- and conflicted -- than it was before. No stone goes unturned: whether it's meditations on gender or reminisces of ex-lovers, Miracle Temple supplies both eloquence & rock 'n' roll in abundance.

Shout Out Louds release video for "Illusions" & US tour dates

Merge Records press release:


Shout Out Louds premiered the new video for "Illusions" via RollingStone.com. The band will kick off their US tour in support of their new album Optica on May 7 at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC.

Directed by Hugo Stenson, the video follows a woman on a speed dating adventure ending in a dance party. Frontman Adam Olenius told RollingStone.com, "In Sweden, to get 25 people to dance and act or even show up for a video shoot or anything in that area you have to buy them copious amounts of booze and lure them with money. In L.A., the city of dreams, they show up for nothing and shimmer!"

Watch & share "Illusions" now


Shout Out Louds took their time with these songs, recording for about one-and-a-half years in a small Stockholm studio and producing themselves for the first time with help from Johannes Berglund. A theme emerged and Optica was born, an album celebrating color and light from a band confident in its sound, filled with real strings, trombones, trumpets and flutes.

NPR’s Stephen Thompson writes, “Listening to ["Illusions] in 2013, it’s as if a young band is tapping into our shared nostalgia by rehashing a hit that’s somehow been lodged in our memory banks all along. ‘Illusions’ may be brand-new, but it already feels eternal.”

Shout Out Louds on tour:
May 7 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
May 8 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
May 10 New York, NY Webster Hall
May 11 Boston, MA Paradise
May 13 Montreal, QC La Sala Rosa
May 14 Toronto, ONT The Opera House
May 15 Detroit, MI The Magic Bag
May 16 Chicago, IL Metro
May 17 Minneapolis, MN Varsity Theater
May 20 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
May 21 Portland, OR Aladdin Theater
May 22 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
May 23 Los Angeles, CA El Rey
May 24 Los Angeles, CA El Rey
May 25 George, WA Sasquatch Festival