Today's Hotness: Fields, Johnny Foreigner, Rival Schools

>> Remember Fields? Sure you do. We reviewed their 7 Songs From The Fields EP here in October, and named it one of our favorite eight releases of 2006 right here. Well the at-least-partially-Birmingham, England-based indie pop quintet has finished its debut full-length and it is titled Everything Last Winter. The band is working on getting the artwork together and then they will embark on a headlining tour of the UK in April. Although if you check in at Fields' MySpace shed you will see that they have a substantial amount of live commitments booked between now and then as well. We clearly live on the wrong side of that big watery thing.

>> We're in receipt of some new, unfinished recordings from our latest music crushes Johnny Foreigner (also from Birmingham -- funny that). Just excellent stuff. We forgot to mention the other day that the band is all over the YouTube with live performances and practice space jams. On the downside the audio of some clips is pretty bad. But on the upside, when was the last time your favorite band basically just ran a camera every time they did something and offered up the clips for you to watch? It's almost like Johnny Foreigner are the most Web 2.0 savvy band out there, except having corresponded with them we can report that they are just excited about what they are doing.

>> Speaking of things you can't actually listen to yet (we're three for three tonight, no?), we read a rumor last night that Walter Schreifels' Rival Schools project is recording a third record. Yes, they apparently recorded a second record but never released it [see footnote #5 here]. And by apparently we mean we are listening to it right now. In addition to Schreifels, who has also logged time in legendary heavy acts Gorilla Biscuits and Quicksand, Rival Schools included -- at least at the time of its 2001 debut United By Fate -- veteran hardcore drummer Sammy Siegler (Gorilla Biscuits, Youth Of Today, Judge, Shelter) and guitarist Ian Love (BURN). According to fan site UnitedByWalter.com, Schreifels currently lives in Berlin and is recording a solo record. He paid a visit to Spinner.com's Interface in October -- check it out here.