Fear Of A Rabbit Planet: FR Returns To North America

The ascent of Frightened Rabbit, Selkirk, Scotland's finest indie rock foursome, continues unabated. The band's folksy ballad "Poke" soundtracked several minutes of the American teen-targeted soap opera "One Tree Hill" earlier this week -- one can inspect the evidence at YouTube right here. While you're in the video-watching mood, treat yourself to this endearingly earnest fan vid for "The Modern Leper." And for a good laugh, this clip of band fronter Scott Hutchison debating his brother Grant about whether porn can be art is not to be missed. Just when you thought things couldn't get any better for FR, the band announced Wednesday it will support indie veterans Death Cab For Cutie on forthcoming November tour dates in the U.K. Could an invitation to Christmas dinner at Chris Walla's and a record deal with Atlantic be too far behind?

But wait -- we've mistakenly skipped passed more pressing information. Assuming we've counted correctly, in October Frightened Rabbit makes its fifth trip to North America in fewer than 12 months. As we reported here in July, Frightened Rabbit will be touting -- at least in the U.K. -- a newly minted third single from its stellar sophomore set The Midnight Organ Fight, which was released in April. The aforementioned third single will contain the cuts "I Feel Better" b/w "The Twist" [YouTube video preview]. The latter track may be our favorite from the set, so you singles junkies in the U.K. had better start saving your pocket change. The North American tour dates commence Oct. 17 in Philadelphia and wrap in Los Angeles two weeks later. Night three of the tour brings Frightened Rabbit back to The Middle East Rock Club in Cambridge, Mass. To whet your whistle, here's a nice acoustic version of "Head Rolls Off" from an Italian radio session earlier this year.

Frightened Rabbit -- "Head Rolls Off (Live)" -- Live at Maps RCDC
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Frightened Rabbit: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

10/17 -- First Unitarian Church -- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
10/18 -- Music Hall Of Williamsburg -- New York, New York
10/19 -- Middle East -- Cambridge, Massachusetts
10/20 -- Petit Campus -- Montreal, Quebec
10/22 -- Skully’s Music Diner -- Columbus, Ohio
10/23 -- Metro -- Chicago, Illinois
10/24 -- High Noon Saloon -- Madison, Wisconsin
10/25 -- 7th Street Entry -- Minneapolis, Minnesota
10/28 -- Chop Suey -- Seattle, Washington
10/29 -- Media Club -- Vancouver, British Columbia
11/01 -- Bottom Of The Hill -- San Francisco, California
11/02 -- Bottom Of The Hill -- San Francisco, California
11/03 -- Echoplex -- Los Angeles, California

Selected Prior Frightened Rabbit coverage:

FR Live at TT The Bear's, July 2008
FR Live at the Middle East, March 2008
Review: Frightened Rabbit | The Midnight Organ Fight
FR Live at Great Scott, November 2007

Today's Hotness: Destroyer, Islands, Chris Walla

>> Fear not, Boston-based Destroyer fans. We were dismayed that the tour dates Merge distributed this afternoon lacked completely a Boston engagement for Mr. Bejar's flagship ensemble, so we dashed off an email to Merge HQ. Merge HQ responded that booking agents were still trying to get a local date that works for everybody, and that it was not an oversight. So there. Destroyer's forthcoming set Trouble In Dreams will be released by Merge in March.

>> We expect the closing of the major rock clubs on Boston's Lansdowne Street can't be helping matters, and there was new news relating to what heretofore was supposed to be a project combining all the Lansdowne clubs and real estate into some sort of crappy "lifestyle center" or something. Bostonist reported here yesterday that The Boston Globe reported that House Of Blues is "taking over" Avalon and Axis. Somewhere House Of Blues investor Dan Akroyd is twirling a villain's mustache he's grown and waxed lovingly just for occasions such as these, all the while murmuring "eggsellent." Anyway, House Of Blues won't own the clubs, but instead will hold a long-term lease with the property owner, real estate developer Patrick Lyons, who co-founded House Of Blues... wait, what? Speaking of blues, here is the long-gone, Boston-based indie rock juggernaut Come covering The Rolling Stones downer "I Got The Blues." The track closed the quartet's superlative 1992 release 11:11.

Come -- "I've Got The Blues" -- 11:11
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[buy Come records from Newbury Comics here]

>> Speaking of Boston, hit this link and bow down before the awesomeness that is Mission Of Burma, captured to video by the good people at The Phoenix while performing live at Great Scott earlier this month. The clip for "2wice" is particularly ferocious.

>> The opening of the new Islands track "The Arm" is very promising, and then the disco strings swarm. Man, we hate the disco strings. Otherwise, the song isn't a large departure from the quirky, scruffy indie rock on Islands' 2006 debut, Return To The Sea, which we reviewed here. But we're getting that sneaking feeling that this band is about to pass us by, and we're going to let it. We mean, come on, disco strings? If your name is not Jeff Lynne or if your band is not ELO, you shouldn't be getting mixed up with any of that. Nonetheless, Islands' sophomore set Arm's Way will be released by Rough Trade April 21.

>> At the opposite end of the spectrum, we love the new Chris Walla jam "Sing Again," and think the video posted at Stereogum here is quite entertaining. And some of the noisier production stuff going on in the midst of the catchy track gives us much encouragement that Mr. Walla's comments earlier this month about the forthcoming Death Cab For Cutie set being "polarizing," "dissonant" and "abrasive" weren't just lip service. Incidentally, The Cab Of Death disclosed this week that the title to its forthcoming set is titled Narrow Stairs. You can watch a little video clip hyping the record, which will be released in May, at the band's web site linked supra. It all sounds very promising. You can watch the video for Walla's "Sing Again" via the e-card for his record Field Manual posted here. The set was released this week.

>> More tomorrow about Paul McGuinness' speech at Midem and Say Hi's nice new track "Zero To Love," assuming we can squeeze it in before LOST is broadcast on the television.