March 23, 2008

Today's Hotness: Ringo Deathstarr, New Radiant Storm King

Ringo Deathstarr
>> Texas-based shoegaze quartet Ringo Deathstarr plans to spend at least part of its late spring and summer recording new music, according to a MySpace bulletin from the band. This is very good news, as the band's sadly small body of recorded work is excellent, but, well, sadly small. The Deathstarr also plans another East Coast tour at the end of the summer, which makes us happy, as we were sick when the band played Boston earlier this year. We'll try to take vitamins between now and the band's return to ensure our attendance. In the meantime Ringo Deathstarr heads west in the first week of April to convert the unwitting. No word yet on who will release the planned Ringo Deathstarr recordings.

>> Legendary Western Massachusetts rockers New Radiant Storm King have been working on a ninth record, which will be released by Darla in the fall. The band will showcase new songs during two performances in early April, including a show at PA's Lounge Sunday April 6. New Radiant Storm King plays The Brass Cat in Easthampton the previous evening. Both dates also feature sets from Dr. Powerful, a band that counts among its number former members of even more legendary angular North Carolina rockers Polvo. No title has been announced yet for the next New Radiant Storm King record, its first since the release of The Steady Hand two years ago. We reviewed that latter set for Junkmedia right here.

>> We're pretty sure we read a MySpace bulletin from exemplary Philadelphia-based rockers The Swimmers last week reporting that they would have a Daytrotter session posted at the venerable music site Friday. We just checked Daytrotter.com and found nothing. Maybe The Swimmers were simply recording the session that day -- this seems likely, as the band is on tour in that general area of the country. The band's recently issued Fighting Trees has been getting a lot of play around :: clicky clicky :: HQ and we reviewed it here.

>> Fans of London-based indie rock act Fields who missed last week's MySpace blog post about the goings-on of fronter Nick Peill, drummer Henry Spenner and plastic dinosaur Godzuki certainly missed alot. Amusing photos and travelogue here. Notable items include the fact that, among other equipment, the studio Fields is using for final tracking and mixing of its planned sophomore full-length contains a piano owned by Phillip Glass and drum gear of The Walkmen. Wild and wildly amusing.

>> We're still hoping that someone out there has ripped their copy of Retriever's "Q-tip" single, which was released in 1995 or so and which we first requested here. In the meantime, however, we finally thought to search for Retriever stuff on EMusic and lo and behold the site is selling one track by the band. The song "Evil K" is the lead track on Zum #10 A CD Compilation. It scorches. You should download it from EMusic here. It is also notable on that comp includes tracks from Boyracer, June Of 44, The Raymond Brake and Vehicle Flips, although only the Vehicle Flips and Retriever tracks rise to the level of remarkable. Not that you asked, but the best June Of 44 release is the 1997 Anatomy Of Sharks EP, and one of the band's best numbers is the harrowing lead track from said EP, "Sharks And Sailors." Here it is.

June Of 44 -- "Sharks And Sailors" -- The Anatomy Of Sharks
[right click and save as]
[buy June Of 44 records from Newbury Comics right here]
[we just noticed the copy of The Anatomy Of Sharks we bought used is autographed by two members of the band; how cool are we?]

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