Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, Lilys, Dirty On Purpose

>> If you're strolling around Manhattan next month and you think you see Birmingham, UK-based indie rock geniuses Johnny Foreigner mucking about, you're not crazy. The trio plans to record a full-length record with heavy rock producer The Machine there next month. Said producer's credits include work with King Crimson and Clutch. An interesting choice for a producer, to be sure. If given our choice we would have selected J. Robbins, but we are excited to hear what the striking pairing will bring about for the band. Anyway, if you also happen to see us walking around Manhattan in a month, it's because we just bought tickets to see Johnny Foreigner's U.S. debut -- opening for the hotly tipped Cardiff septet Los Campesinos! and the Delaware-spawned Spinto Band at Bowery Ballroom Friday, Nov. 30 -- scheduled for the tail-end of their stint in NYC. We are excited to break our extended drought vis a vis Manhattan, but even more so we are excited to see Johnny Foreigner live. As we have reported several times before, the band will release the EP Arcs Across The City on Best Before Records in the UK Nov. 21. An interesting sidenote: earlier we bemoaned the fact that kids are going to have to pay import prices for the set (although it is worth it). But we've since noticed that EMusic carries one Best Before title, so perhaps Johnny Foreigner will make a sidelong entrance into the U.S. market via the digital music storefront. Time will tell. Here's some of their pre-existing rock music, taken again from the 15-song demo freely available via their MySpazzzzz.

Johnny Foreigner -- "Yes! You Talk Too Fast" -- I Like You Sometimes Mostly Late At Never [Demos]
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>> If you aren't "friends" with the Lilys on MySpace than you probably don't know that the band is weighing tour dates for 2008, as alluded to in this bulletin. Could that mean a new record is in the offing? Will the band finally make it to Boston again? Inquiring minds want to know. Another pressing Lilys-related question is this: it appears Spin-Art Records has quietly gone the way of the Betamax. So who owns the rights to the master recordings? And what's it going to take to get deluxe reissues of Spin-Art's Lilys catalog, comprised of the unparalleled recordings In The Presence Of Nothing, A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns and Eccsame The Photon Band. Someone make it happen.

>> Word from the Dirty On Purpose camp is the Like Bees EP will now street in January. You can listen to a few of the tracks at the band's MySpace hacienda and on Facebook, if you're into that sort of thing. We reviewed the band's recent show at Cambridge's Middle East Rock Club here.

>> If you don't think this is the top item on our Christmas list, then you are silly.