Welcome back to Friday, folks! And what a week it has been. Our hearts go out to everyone in Boston, and may the second bomber be apprehended soon so Bostonians can go back to being awesome, as they’ve proven to be yet again in the face of these horrible events, and safe.
So, for all those on lockdown in Boston and all those around the world who want to be connected through music, I hereby present you with your Freeloader Friday.
To start off, we’ve got two incredible Pitchfork Advance features for Young Galaxy and The Appleseed Cast. Then, Ra Ra Riot, who just announced new tour dates alongside The Shins and The Postal Service, give us a new single via The New York Times Magazine, and Mark Mulcahy comes back to the scene after eight years on hiatus with “She Makes The World Turn Backwards.” To close out the music streams section, AM & Shawn Lee give us a remix of their first single “Two Times.”
On the music video front, we’ve got three amazing premieres from Lonestar, who just announced the release of their album Life As We Know It, Veronica Falls, and He’s My Brother She’s My Sister. If you want more visuals than what’s listed below, you can also check out Black Star Riders rocking our stairwell with “Bound For Glory.”
To close out, we have a few music specials and special events you might want to know about: Todd Rundgren, the incredible songwriter/producer/recording artist/conceptualist/interactive artist who just released his new album State earlier this month, is hosting a live Google Hangout this Sunday at 5pm EDT / 2pm PDT / 10pm UK. You can send in your questions and join the Hangout using this link, and get yourself excited by watching these epic vids from back in the day. Other specials you might want to check out are Rachel Zeffira on NPR Music, performing “Front Door” and “Silver City Days,” and PAWS singing the hell out of “Jellyfish” and “Sore Tummy” on The Newtown Sessions in Brooklyn.
Have a safe weekend, everyone!
Young Galaxy: Full album stream via Pitchfork Advance
Ultramarine out April 16 on Paper Bag Records
The Appleseed Cast: Full album stream via Pitchfork Advance
Illumination Ritual out April 23 on Graveface Records
Ra Ra Riot: “All I Fear” via The New York Times Magazine
Beta Love out now on Barsuk Records
Mark Mulcahy: “She Makes The World Turn Backwards” via Rolling Stone
Dear Mark J. Mulcahy, I Love You out June 18 on Fire Records
AM & Shawn Lee: “Two Times (Colorama Remix)” via Under The Radar
La Musique Numerique out May 7 on Park The Van
Lonestar: “Maybe Someday” music video premiere via CMT
Life As We Know It out June 4 on 4 Star Records
Veronica Falls: “Waiting for Something to Happen” music video premiere via Pitchfork
Waiting For Something To Happen out now on Slumberland
He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister: “The Same Old Ground” music video premiere via VEVO
Nobody Dances in this Town out now on Park The Van
A catchy Indie Pop storm was brewing around Syracuse University in 2006 — and that storm turned out to be Ra Ra Riot. Since those academic beginnings, the Indie rockers have gone on to release three full-length albums, culminating with 2013′s Beta Love (via Barsuk Records). And now, in support of their new record, the frenetic foursome will be setting off across the States with not one, but two legendary Indie bands: The Shins and The Postal Service, who Ra Ra Riot will be joining for part of the Give Up tenth anniversary tour.
This epic Spring/Summer tour will take Ra Ra Riot across North America, and each stop is sure to be a packed event, so make sure to grab your tickets fast. But that’s not all: The Lighthouse and the Whaler, Speak, and a smattering of other raucous live acts will be performing with Ra Ra Riot during their extensive summer schedule. Consider your Indie concert calendar officially booked.
To catch you up to speed on the new record, Beta Love is the first recording for the group as a four-piece – Wes Miles on vocals, Milo Bonacci on guitar, Mathieu Santos on bass, and Rebecca Zeller on violin — and it’s a dynamic aural adventure. Equally melodic as it is infectious, epic as it is dance-inducing, Beta Love can be the soundtrack to your next dance party or just as easily, your leisurely weekend drive. The band stated that the new album’s songs were informed by cyberpunk novelist William Gibson and futurist Ray Kurzweil, and it makes sense, as Beta Love shows the band heading towards a more Synthpop, futuristic sound.
If you already have a copy of the new record and are looking for more Ra Ra Riot music, you’re in luck: the group is releasing Binary Mind as a special Record Store Day 10-inch vinyl. The special release includes both the title track as well as the unreleased song “All I Fear,” and for you die-hard B-side lovers, demo versions of “Binary Mind,” “Wilderness” and “I Shut Off,” all from the Beta Love sessions. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for the vinyl though, as the release is limited to 1,000 copies.
But wait, there’s more. The group will also be playing the Boston Calling Music Festival, sharing the stage with acts like The National, Of Monsters and Men, Matt & Kim, and more. Check out Ra Ra Riot‘s full tour schedule after the jump.
Ah SXSW, simultaneously one of the most fun and exhausting weeks of the year for those lucky enough to attend. A whirlwind series of day parties, happy hours, panels, meetings, official showcases, “meetings” at the finest BBQ and taco joints, after parties, after after parties, and near constant sleep depravation. We. Cannot. Wait.
Deciding which artists you want to see can be a daunting experience, (we work with nearly 300 bands who will be performing at least one show in Austin next week), but we’re here to help. Our free Don’t Mess with Texas: SXSW 2013 New Music Sampler contains tracks from 19 can’t-miss-artists, including Emma Louise, Local Natives, Ra Ra Riot, Charles Bradley, The Virgins and more.
Click HERE to download the compilation. It will also be available for streaming / download on services like Spotify, Rdio, and Amazon.
Check out the track list below:
01. Local Natives – “Breakers”
02. Charles Bradley & Menahan Street Band – “Strictly Reserved For You”
03. He’s My Brother She’s My Sister – “The Same Old Ground”
04. Dirty Fences – “Heaven Is Tonight”
05. PAWS – “Homecoming”
06. The Virgins – “Flashbacks, Memories and Dreams”
07. The Ocean Blue – “Sad Night, Where Is Morning”
08. Young Galaxy – “Pretty Boy”
09. Dana Falconberry – “Please Sparrow”
10. Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers – “Little Too Late”
11. Anders & Kendall – “City Of Greats”
12. Parenthetical Girls – “A Note To Self”
13. Social Studies – “Away For The Weekend”
14. Ra Ra Riot – “Binary Mind”
15. Pretty & Nice – “Hibernate”
16. The Lovely Bad Things – “Fried Eyes”
17. Agent Ribbons – “Family Haircut”
18. I Am Dive – “Mount Eerv”
19. Emma Louise – “Boy”
Friday’s back (don’t you love how it just keeps comin’ every week??) and with it, so is Freeloader Friday!
To entertain you this week, we have a couple of upcoming album previews from rock stars The Lovely Bad Things and British star-in-the-making Al Lewis.
Tomahawk and Maps & Atlases are treating us to some visuals with some new music videos from their latest albums, while Ra Ra Riot is spreading its addictive version of “Beta Love” around courtesy of RAC.
To close it out, Steve Aoki and friends Angger Dimas, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike blow your mind with the music video for “Phat Brahms.”
Happy listening, and wonderful long weekend to ya if you’re in the U.S.!
The Lovely Bad Things: “Hear or Anywhere” via Ad Hoc
The Late Great Whatever out February 26 on Volcom Entertainment
Al Lewis: “Make A Little Room” music video via YouTube
Battles out February 18 on ALM
Tomahawk: “Oddfellows” video premiere via Loudwire
Oddfellows out now on Ipecac Recordings
Ra Ra Riot: “Beta Love (RAC Remix)” via Huffington Post
Beta Love out now on Barsuk Records
Maps & Atlases: “Fever” music video premiere via NPR Music
Beware And Be Grateful out now on Barsuk Records
Steve Aoki: “Phat Brahms” via mtvU
Phat Brahms and Phat Brahms Remixes out now on Dim Mak Records
There are several services out there that offer easy tour date management and aggregation for artists and managers, and we’re big fans of them all (Songkick, BandsInTown and SuperGlued to name a few). Each service also allows fans to connect their Facebook profiles so they can receive notifications when bands they like on Facebook are touring in their area.
Lately we’ve been having some fun with SuperGlued, who separate themselves from the pack by offering customized contests tied specifically to a tour, set of dates or individual date. Right now this functionality is only available to select partners, but a self-serve platform is opening up to the public soon. Fans enter a contest by signing in to SuperGlued (either through their Facebook account or by creating a login) and have to perform a certain action or number of actions, all customizable, in order to enter. Some of these may include liking the artist on Facebook, following them on Twitter, joining their mailing list, or sharing the contest on Facebook. Here are some examples of contests we’ve run recently.
Local Natives: The band was playing six sold out album release shows (3 in their native California — no pun intended — and 3 in New York) in celebration of their sophomore Frenchkiss Records outing Hummingbird, so we gave away a pair of tickets and a signed 7″ to one winner in each market. Fans were asked to join the band’s mailing list and complete one other action (like on Facebook, follow on Twitter, tweet about the album) to be eligible.
Ra Ra Riot: Having just released their third album Beta Love on Barsuk Records, Ra Ra Riot were playing a sold out show at New York’s Webster Hall. We asked fans to complete any 3 social actions in order to enter to win a signed 7″ and a pair of tickets to the show.
Black Moth Super Rainbow: Cult favorites Black Moth Super Rainbow were playing two New York shows, so we asked fans to complete 3 social actions to enter to win a pair of tickets to the show of their choice. The ticket winner also won a pretty amazing custom mask like the one that’s featured on the cover of the band’s latest album, Cobra Juicy.
SuperGlued is a great way to give something back to your fans while getting valuable assets out of it too — be it more likes, followers, emails or engagement. We love using it and endorse it 100%!
[Pssst... If you want more info, hit up this guy: jack@superglued.com.]
