Johnny Foreigner's Waited Up To Be Released In U.S. In October

[PHOTO: Amy Bramhall] Pitchfork reported here very non-detailed and seemingly exclusive news Friday that Birmingham, England-based indie rock superheroes Johnny Foreigner have inked an agreement to release their exceptional full-length debut Waited Up Til It Was Light on Nettwerk in North America this fall. As of yet there is no acknowledgment of the deal at the Nettwerk web site, or at the Johnny Foreigner MySpace. But the agreement makes a lot of sense when viewed in the context of this news that MAMA Group, the parent of Johnny Foreigner's UK label Best Before, acquired a 20% stake in Vancouver-based Nettwerk last November for $6M. All of which makes us wonder whether Johnny Foreigner is the "up-and-coming British act" referred to in this Ad Age article last month. And, of course, whether the Nettwerk deal was sort of pre-ordained.

But enough of this biz reporting. Waited Up Til It Was Light, which was issued by Best Before June 2, will be released in the U.S. and Canada in October, although a specific date has not been reported [we reviewed the record here last month]. Looking at our Google Calendar, the set will be in North American retail racks on either the 7th, 14th, 21st or 28th of October. How's that for some crackerjack reporting? We've been told that a potential U.S. tour for late this year has already been dreamed up and scrapped, but we wonder if this news about the Nettwerk deal changes things. Right now Johnny Foreigner's touring commitments, at least those that are enumerated at its MySpace wigwam, are completed as of Oct. 8, when the trio will play a hometown show with Sunset Cinema Club and the bright new Distophia-offshoot Calories. All of which means, possibly -- just possibly -- the band could rock U.S. shores later this fall.

Today Johnny Foreigner play Canterbury, England's Lounge On The Farm festival, and you can see all their tour dates at the above-referenced MySpace. Music fans may recall Nettwerk as being relatively forward-thinking with regards to digital music and the Internet in general. Its director of marketing was quoted recently in a Wall Street Journal piece "Indie Artists Drum Up Corporate Ties," and Nettwerk last week disclosed a revenue sharing and marketing partnership with chat app Meebo; the label also sells music through P2P play LimeWire's music store in addition to the usual battery of digital music storefronts. Nettwerk is comprised of substantial recorded music, publishing and management operations that work with artists including Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan and Josh Rouse. With all due respect to those artists, they don't rock. So here's some rock music.

Johnny Foreigner -- "This End. Is A Beginning (Demo)" -- I Like You Mostly Late At Never
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Today's Hotness: Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Josh Rouse

>> [PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Gullick] We always feel like we have to defend our appreciation for Ned's Atomic Dustbin. We certainly can understand any sort of criticism of the N.A.D. t-shirt we once owned, particularly after we cut the sleeves off, but we expect such a fashion disaster can be chalked up to the confusing times. Mind you, this was an era during which we briefly owned purple overalls (they were "grungy," not "hip-hoppy"). For serious. But anyway, Ned's wrote some great indie rock songs, not the least of which is "Happy" from the band's 1991 full-length debut God Fodder. Twitter scrapers have seen the glee we experienced digging up video clips for the track Saturday. And so it was we stood up and took notice when the venerable NME reported here that the band would reform for a gig this winter. Of course, in perusing the offerings on YouTube Saturday that news is somewhat deflated by the fact that -- based on the videos we found -- the band had already reformed and played at least two gigs (Glastonbury, Stourbridge) last year. In fact, according to Wikipedia, the band plays a Christmas show *every year.* So there you go: a short story about N.A.D. reforming that is not really even a "story" at all in the journalistic sense. Oh wait, according to MySpace this year's reunion is, in fact, notable, in that it features the OL, a/k/a The Original Lineup. More details here. And here are links to the aforementioned clips that we enjoyed viewing: 1, 2.

>> We keep an eye on the efforts of indie folkster Josh Rouse, whose records Subtitulo and Country Mouse, City House are downright pleasant listens. So it was with interest that we read of Mr. Rouse's subscription service. This sort of digitally facilitated artist/fan relationship was something that interested our editors (and us) when we toiled away at a dot-com at the turn of the century. At the time the men at the vanguard of the movement were Todd Rundgren (hello, it's him; his dealy was called PatroNet), Robert Fripp (his dealy was called Disciplined Global Mobile) and Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens (we can't remember what his dealy was called). Anyway, according to Coolfer, Rouse's enterprise is called Bedroom Classics Closet Archives and it features a members-only download site including access to music and video for more than 100 songs. Certain subscribers get access to special albums and EPs. There are different membership tiers planned, although right now the only tier apparently available is $100 per annum. All very interesting, and the kind of thing we'd like to see a few of our favorite artists do. Read more details at the Coolfer post here. And here's the lead track from Mr. Rouse's 2005 set.

Josh Rouse -- "Quiet Town" -- Subtitulo
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[buy Josh Rouse records from Newbury Comics here]

>> As we tick down the days until June 2, when Johnny Foreigner's full-length debut hits stores in the U.K., we have been trying to ignore the leak of the album to the Internerds. But, in the interest of science, of course, we've heard a couple of the tracks. None of them have blown us away, but they are solid. We expect we'll be excited about the whole thing when it arrives, along with the single of "Eyes Wide Terrified," which we think streets tomorrow. Since we've ordered both the record and the single from the U.K., who knows when they will actually arrive, but it can't possibly take any longer than HMV. So we wait. One bright spot was guitarist and singer Alexei Berrow's song-by-song rundown of what to expect on the Birmingham, England-based trio's full-length, Waited Up 'Til It Was Light, which was published in Drowned In Sound here last week or the week before. It has somewhat taken the mystery out of the songs, but we expect they will stand up just fine without the added mystique.

>> Emusic's 17 Dots blog reports here that the digital music service will soon offer the catalog of highly regarded German electronic label Kompakt. We are excited about this because we are eager to acquire the five or so editions of the annual Pop Ambient compilation that we don't own. They were just so expensive as imports we gave up the chase, even gave up the scouring of the EBays and et ceteras of the electronic realm. 17 Dots says the acquisition of the catalog will be gradual, but, hey, we're patient.

Clicky Clicky's 2007 Regrets: Caribou, Maritime, People Press Play...

2007 was a very busy year for both :: clicky clicky :: and our non-blog-related doings, and truth be told 2008 is expected to be worse as far as overwhelming day-job commitments are concerned. If current schedules hold, your :: clicky clicky :: service will be largely dark in September and October, unless we line up some fill-in writers. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Today we'd like to acknowledge at least briefly records that we would have liked to have listened to more and reviewed during the year. We'll give them all a sentence or two in the next paragraphs, but if you are impatient, the list is at the bottom along with whatever promo MP3s we could dig up. You know the drill: right click and save as.

Rising Philadelphia quintet The A-Sides, after a long wait, expanded on the sophisticated harmonies and jaunty rock of the band's excellent 2005 debut and delivered the lush, atmospheric and detailed collection Silver Storms with memorable tracks including "We're The Trees" and "Sinking With The Ship." Dan Snaith's transformation from Manitoba to Caribou is nowhere near as remarkable as his music's evolution from kaleidoscopic electronic grooves to stunning and organic '60s psych-influenced nuggets including the phenomenal tune "Eli;" Caribou's Andorra was a huge sleeper record for us in 2007. We were skeptical of The Forms' mathpop because of the hype surrounding its self-titled release -- particularly a widely recycled message board endorsement from engineer Steve Albini. However, the easy tempos, big melodies and Mr. Albini's superlative drum production made for a clever and immensely listenable concoction, so hats off to The Forms. Les Savy Fav's brawling return via Let's Stay Friends provided one of the most potent spine-tinglers of the year -- the shouted, mildly uncomfortable extended amorous metaphor "The Equestrian" -- as part of a bracing collection that brought the semi-legendary live act back to the fore of indiedom; if we weren't old and crotchety we would go see these guys play New Year's Eve in Manhattan.

Former Promise Ring fronter Davey Von Bohlen extended his winning streak of excellent indie pop records on the strength of endlessly hummable songs like "Guns Of Navarone," "Hours That You Keep" and "Pearl" released on the very under-rated Maritime set Heresy And The Hotel Choir. The Morr Music release of the year was definitely Danish dreamers People Press Play's self-titled collection, whose songs precipitated our glancing at our IPod to see who was so awesome every time they came up on shuffle; we felt like we did a particularly bad job of covering Morr in 2007, and we are reminded of this whenever we hear the blissed-out "Stop" or the wholly arresting vocals of the New Order-ish cut "Always Wrong" from People Press Play. Do we really need to say anything about Radiohead's In Rainbows? We usually don't take the time to note what bands at the top of the music ecosystem are doing, but we were astonished at how gorgeous the In Rainbows discbox was when we received it, and that astonishment was only heightened by our growing belief that the collection's best music -- "Last Flowers To The Hospital" and "Down Is The New Up" specifically -- mostly resides on the bonus disc. Finally: broken-hearted ex-pat Josh Rouse, whose 2006 set Subtitulo firmly took us in despite our general disdain for folksy singer-songwriter work. Mr. Rouse's latest release Country Mouse, City House may be even better and includes yearning songs with undeniable choruses such as "Sweetie" and the upbeat "Nice To Fit In."

The A-Sides -- Silver Storms -- Vagrant [BUY / Download "We're The Trees"]
Caribou -- Andorra -- Merge [BUY / Download "Melody Day"]
The Forms -- The Forms -- Self-released [BUY]
Les Savy Fav -- Let's Stay Friends -- French Kiss [BUY / Download "The Equestrian"]
Maritime -- Heresy And The Hotel Choir -- Flameshovel [BUY / Download "Guns Of Navarone"]
People Press Play -- People Press Play -- Morr Music [BUY]
Radiohead -- In Rainbows, Disc Two -- Self-Released [BUY]
Josh Rouse -- Country Mouse, City House -- Nettwerk [BUY]