WORLD PREMIERE VIDEO - THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS

I'm loving this band and their new video for their single "Pigeons." It's off their upcoming debut release The Hundred In The Hands.  If you don't know this band, get to know them!  They are going to be opening on some of The Temper Trap dates this fall.

AIR TO PLAY ONE EXCLUSIVE U.S. DATE

Following their sold-out North American tour last March to celebrate the release of their fifth studio album Love 2, AIR are proud to announce an exclusive one-off live date this Fall. The French electronic pop duo (Nicolas Godin and JB Dunckel) will play Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium on Saturday, October 23, 2010. 

The March 2010 shows were the band’s first North American live dates in over three years.  For the first time on these dates, the band performed their live show as an intimate three-piece with Godin and Dunckel taking on full instrumental and vocal duties. Tour highlights included a national TV appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, an unforgettable show at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the recording of AIR’s sixth studio session for KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclecticprogram.

Also in March, AIR teamed up with London-based music technology company RjDj to create an innovative App, “Love by AIR” for the iPhone, which allows fans to experience Air’s music in a unique, immersive way. Fans choose from five different “soundscapes” and then use the App’s  features to transform the musical experience in real-time by sampling and  processing ambient sounds, the fan’s own voice and more into Air’s own music. Fans can also record their own messages or performances with the application, allowing them to share their own unique productions of Air’s music with their friends, and with the world. Upon release the App spent several weeks in the iTunes Top 20 Music Apps chart.

Download link for "Love by AIR": http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/love-by-air/id354648363?mt=8

AIR’s 1998 debut album Moon Safari struck a unanimously harmonious chord with music lovers around the globe and has since become an electronic pop classic. Since then, AIR have enjoyed many career-defining moments including the now legendary sold-out show with full orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl in 2004. The bands has also garnered many accolades, both at home and abroad, and have written, produced and collaborated on a breathtaking array of music projects.

With 5.5 million worldwide album sales to their credit, the band has become de facto ambassadors of modern French pop, whose fans are drawn back to each new musical adventure by their inventive arrangements, and a playful yet unpredictable palette of sounds and songcraft.

"Ending the show with the languid opening track from “Moon Safari,” “La Femme d’Argent,” Air quickened the song's pulse, switching the emphasis from Dunckel’s jazz-dusted keyboard to Godin’s rumbling bass guitar. As the song swelled to a twisting, psychedelic conclusion complete with kaleidoscopic visuals, it was clear that Air wasn’t going to be held in place by its past, no matter how big the spotlight" - Los Angeles Times

"It's the cool of Yves Klein's "International Blue" and Jean Luc Godard's Breathless and Alain Robbe-Grillet's Djinn all rolled into an aural cone, and it elevates everyone within earshot" - SPIN.com

AIR’S SOUTH + NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES:

October 09: Argentina – Buenos Aires @ Aire Festival
October 14: Brazil - Rio de Janeiro @ Circo Voador
October 15: Brazil - Belo Horizonte @ Chevrolet Hall
October 16: Brazil - Sao Paulo @ Natura Festival
October 19: Colombia - Bogota @ Teatro Gaitan
October 21: Mexico - Mexico City @ The National Auditorium
October 23: USA - Los Angeles @ Shrine Auditorium*

*Tickets for Los Angeles go on sale Friday July 30th at 10 a.m. (PST) at ticketmaster.com

Opening acts are Quadron and Juliette Commagere

KCRW WELCOMES HOT HOT HEAT

Hot Hot Heat performed on Morning Becomes Eclectic this morning. You can listen now and also pick up their latest album, FUTURE BREEDS.

P.S. Happy Birthday JASON BENTLEY!!

WORLD PREMIERE VIDEO - CRASH TEST DUMMIES

Wow, it's been a minute since we have heard anything from this band. Well, maybe they released some stuff in the past few years, but I haven't heard anything out of them.

Anyway, here is a brand new video from the Crash Test Dummies. It's called, "And It's Beautiful off their upcoming new record, OOOH LA LA.

**NOTE** It's been 6 years since last release!

The Crash Test Dummies continue to garner critical praise upon the release of Oooh la la!, their first record in six years, out now on Deep Fried Records. Lauded by the Huffington Post as “intelligent and humorous,” the Washington Post notes that the “quirky instrumentation certainly makes for a group that's enjoying itself.” The album features frontman and driving creative force Brad Roberts—best known for 1993’s platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated God Shuffled His Feet and the ubiquitous hit “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”—teaming up with co-writer and producer Stewart Lerman (Antony & the Johnsons, The Roches) to write and record 11 tracks conceptualized using `70s-era analog musical toys.


The seeds for Oooh la la! were first planted when Roberts and Lerman became infatuated with vintage analog musical toys, particularly one manufactured by the Mattel company called the Optigan (an acronym for “optical organ”). Using celluloid discs, the Optigan projects the sounds of other instruments with different sets of keys triggering chords and individual notes. The discs, with names like “Nashville,” “Swing It!” and “Guitar Boogie,” rotate to produce different arrays of sounds. The process is eerily similar to the digital sampling that is so common today, but the antiquated analog system produces quite a different effect. “Because we wrote using these discs, we were inspired to do things that we wouldn’t have done,” Roberts points out. “I don’t write big band style, but all of a sudden I had this big band [on disc], so I’m writing in a genre that I normally wouldn’t be writing in. I can’t say enough about how great it is to write on these toys.”

The Crash Test Dummies first rose to prominence while based in their hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1991 with their Juno Award-winning debut album, The Ghosts that Haunt Me, featuring their first hit single “Superman’s Song.” Their 1993 breakout record God Shuffled His Feet has sold over five and a half million copies worldwide and the single “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” peaked at #4 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart. Oooh la la! is the band’s ninth record, following 2004’s Songs of the Unforgiven.

WORLD PREMIERE VIDEO - TWIN SHADOW

Twin Shadow 'Slow' (NSFW) from Twin Shadow on Vimeo.

Modeled after Calvin Klein’s super-creepy 1995 porno audition ads, dreamy-eyed new waver Twin Shadow’s positioning himself as an unlikely sex symbol, singing longing, desperate love tracks while still letting his denim vest be totally objectified like it’s a pair of gams. Directed by Alex Markman, live drumming hasn’t been this sensual since “The Spirit of Radio.”

SCIENCE EXPERIMENT

We Are Scientists ' much-anticipated US tour kicked off a few week ago in Boston, at Middle East, following a first leg of UK and European dates, including major festivals. The live show has garnered raves and the band has played in front of thousands of cheering fans. Reaction to songs from the band's critically acclaimed June release, Barbara continues to receive high praise from their adopted homeland of England as well as in the US media. The US leg is part of the band's World Tour which officially launched in June and has included the Glastonbury Festival, among other major venues. The band will play Leeds and Reading festivals in August. We Are Scientists' are scheduled to perform to a sold-out crowd at Bowery Ballroom in New York City, tomorrow, July 14th. The club sold out shortly after tickets went on sale.

Barbara is the band's fourth and now considered their best studio album to date. As a result, W.A.S. garnered a flood of UK press and media activity, including multiple features in The Guardian, a major feature in The Fly accompanied by a 4 star review, as well as features in FHM, Time Out, Artrocker, among others. Rave reviews in Mojo, Blogcritics.com, Absolute Punk, etc. drove the pre-release UK buzz for Barbara which has followed through in the US as well . UK promotional activity included the Zane Lowe Radio 1 Sessions, NME Radio 'Takeover,' XFM Session, roundhouse Digital Music Awards and an appearance at the Topshop fashion lecture.

"They've unleashed a fistful of songs that'd do any of the mid-noughties breakthrough brigade prouder than many of them can still conceive....all the ingredients are absolutely there for a thoroughly explosive reaction," claims Iain Moffat, The Fly in the magazine's 4 star review. And, Andy Fyfe at Mojo declares, "The New York-based Californians continue to round the spiky indie-rock edges off their 2006 party-hard debut...hungry verses about relationships that glide into giant choruses. A solid step forward for a band unfathomably more popular in the UK than their homeland."

Alternative Press recently claimed, "...for fans of the band who are already in the know, Barbara is a return to the bouncy, fun form of their breakthrough album, 2005's With Love & Squalor," adding "...Barbara finds them back in their comfort zone--fun, danceable pop-rock." Popmatters.com notes "Barbara accomplishes something pretty rare. It successfully combines the best elements of two very different predecessors into one complete sound... a strong overall impression."

The album follows the We Are Scientists rock music brand by including beat-driven, melody-wrapped, and harmony-draped, lyrically-savvy tracks. W.A.S. is Keith Murray and Chris Cain. On Barbara, the duo recruited a brand new set of hands and feet behind the drum kit in the shape of Master Andy Burrows (ex-Razorlight drummer).


The band's much-anticipated US tour dates are as follows:

Tue-Jul-13: Boston, MA: Middle East
Wed-Jul-14: New York, NY: Bowery Ballroom (Sold Out)
Thu-Jul-15: Philadelphia, PA: Johnny Brenda's
Fri-Jul-16: Washington, DC: Black Cat
Sat-Jul-17: Brooklyn, NY: Music Hall of Williamsburg/Siren After Party
Mon-Jul-19: Toronto, ON: Horseshoe Tavern
Tue-Jul-20: Ann Arbor, MI: Blind Pig
Wed-Jul-21: Chicago, IL: Bottom Lounge
Fri-Jul-23: Denver, CO: Larimer Lounge
Mon-Jul-26: Portland, OR: Doug Fir Lounge
Wed-Jul-28: Seattle, WA: Neumo's
Aug-6: Los Angeles, CA: Troubadour
Aug-7: San Francisco, CA: Slim’s
Aug-8: Visalia, CA: Cellar Door
Aug-10: Salt Lake City, UT: Kilby Court
Aug-12: Kansas City, MO: Record Bar
Aug-13: Old Rock House: St. Louis, MO
Aug-14: Columbus, OH: The Basement
Aug-15: Pittsburgh, PA: Brillobox