July 26, 2011

Today's Hotness: Benjamin Shaw, Tubelord, We Were Promised Jetpacks

Benjamin Shaw
>> Still-not-dead-yet label Audio Antihero will release this fall a second full-length from ethereal and brilliant folk misfit Benjamin Shaw (third if you count the amazing, more experimental and FREE Rumfucker release, which we're never sure if we're supposed to count or not). The new collection is titled There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet and it will be available from Nov. 21. To remind you that Mr. Shaw is out there, biding his time in a forest north of London, Audio Antihero is issuing ahead of There's Always Hope... a double A-sided single culled from Shaw's sweet and creepy (sweepy?) 2009 debut I Got The Pox, The Pox Is What I Got. "When I Fell Over In The City" b/w "The Carpeteer" will be released -- we presume digitally, but it wouldn't be the first time label proprietor Jamie Antihero had a trick up his sleeve, either -- Aug. 22. We love the video for the latter number, which you can gaze upon right here. Shaw has two London appearances and an Edinburgh show booked among the final days of August. Bearded Magazine, of which we've only just become aware despite having rocked a beard since 1997, is already offering a .wav download of "When I Fell Over In The City" right here, so we suggest you avail yourself of that forthwith.

>> While you weren't looking, a new label collective congealed in the UK and went ahead and signed notable spiky guitar pop band Tubelord. The Kingston upon Thames-based quartet is the first signing to Pink Mist, a joint effort of labels including Clicky Clicky faves Big Scary Monsters along with Holy Roar and Blood And Biscuits. Pink Mist will release Tubelord's sophomore set Romance on Oct. 10. The foursome's first full-length Our First American Friends was issued in 2009 by Hassle Records; Tubelord has also issued a pile of brilliant singles including the debut "Feed Me A Box Of Words" and "I Am Azerrad," both released by Big Scary Monsters in 2008. Two promo tracks for Romance are already making the rounds, and we're particularly smitten with the first, "4T3," which you can stream via the embed below. The title, according to this live clip, is a reference to the number of, ahem, proverbial notches in the bedpost of one of the band's drivers. "4T3" is delicate and mesmerizing, and contrasts sharply with the jittery guitars and pushy vocals of Tubelord's early singles. Romance, comprised of 11 songs, is already available for pre-order in a variety of configurations of vinyl, CD, t-shirt and digital right here. Tubelord plays a Pink Mist showcase Aug. 16 and then will tour the UK to support Romance for two non-contiguous weeks in September and October.

4T3 by Tubelord

>> The fall record release schedule is becoming very crowded, to an exciting degree. Our heroes Johnny Foreigner will issue their third set, likely titled Johnny Foreigner vs. Everyone, in November, according to an interview fronter Alexei Berrow sat for at one of the UK festivals recently recently. Glaswegian emo standard-bearers We Were Promised Jetpacks will release a sophomore set In The Pit Of The Stomach Oct. 4 on Fat Cat; the lead promo song "Act On Impulse" can be downloaded via the ominous-looking-but-in-our-experience-quite-benign widget below, which requires you to fork over your electronic mail address. As we've twerped on the Tweeterz, we're also expecting new records from Calories, Polvo, and dozens of others we're forgetting right now. Great time to be alive, people.

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