by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: Cheap Girls - "Ruby" (MP3)

The ever-prevalent '90s revival has been occurring in many forms, and Michigan's Cheap Girls recall a time when bands like the Smoking Popes were dishing out power pop with the rough edge of indie rock. Their most recent album, 2012's Giant Orange, is filled with big hooks, fat riffs, and it's a really fun record. It's more polished than their earlier albums, 2009's My Roaring 20's and 2008's FInd Me a Drink Home, which may have turned off fans of the lower-fi, but it's got some of their best songwriting yet. You can check out the video for its single, "Ruby," below and download the track for free above.

Cheap Girls will continue to support Giant Orange with a tour this year that kicks off in Brooklyn on May 17 at Knitting Factory, also includes a Poughkeepsie show at The Chance on May 19, and towards the end of their run returns to the NYC-area for a NJ show at Stanhope House on June 15. All three of those shows, and most others on the tour, are with Make Do and Mend. Sainthood Reps are also on the Knitting Factory bill, and the Poughkeepsie/NJ shows are also with Diamond Youth. Tickets for the Brooklyn show go on sale today (4/5) at 10 AM.

All dates are listed, along with that video and the tour flyer, below...

Continue reading "Cheap Girls announce 2013 tour (dates, video, MP3)"

After teasing folks with a few names here and there -- like Run DMC most recently -- Austin's annual Fun Fun Fun Fest (Nov 2 - 4) has revealed it's full line-up, including Public Image Ltd, De La Soul, Superchunk, Santigold, Refused, X peforming Los Angeles, and lots, lots more. 3-day passes go on sale at 10AM CST.

Full FFF Fest lineup is below.

Continue reading "Fun Fun Fun Fest full lineup (De La Soul, Refused, Fucked Up, Public Image Ltd, Santigold, Sharon Van Etten, Rakim, X, Converge, Japandroids & more)"

The 2012 edition of MusicFestNW takes place in September 5 - 9 at 18 venues in Portland, OR and will feature performances from over 150 bands, including Passion Pit, Hot Snakes, Girl Talk, Danny Brown, Beirut Silversun Pickups, Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh, many more.

In addition to those previously announced artists, MFNW has just added The Hives, Flying Lotus, Wild Nothing, DIIV, Quasi, Moon Duo, My Goodness, DZ Deathrays, and Strand Of Oaks to the already impressive line-up. Wristbands, available various levels and packages, and tickets to individual shows are on sale now. Check out the complete MFNW lineup below.

Continue reading "MusicFestNW 2012 lineup expands (The Hives, Flying Lotus, Quasi, DIIV, Passion Pit, Hot Snakes, Beirut, Swans & many more)"

The Fest is back for round 11 (!) adding bands from across the spectrum of punk rock for the multi-day Gainesville, Florida extravaganza. The Fest announced its initial lineup earlier this month but has doubled that number, bringing the total tally to a whopping 217, and there are more to go! The lineup includes Lagwagon, Naked Raygun, Baroness, Red Fang, Off with Their Heads, Torche, Valient Thorr, 7 Seconds, F.Y.P., Braid, Titus Andronicus, Toys That Kill, Underground Railroad to Candyland, Frank Turner and many more (see below). Tickets are now on sale (and sold out quick last year).

Full lineup is below, expect to see some surprises at The Fest as well; Sleepytime Trio reunited there last year.

Continue reading "The Fest returns to Gainesville in 2012 --- lineup & tickets"

Bouncing Souls at Highline Ballroom in 2011 (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Bouncing Souls are set to release their ninth full length album, Comet, on June 12 via their own Chunksaah Records and Rise Records. It was produced by the Descendents' Bill Stevenson who is also working on the new Hot Water Music album. Check out album track "Static" along with the artwork and tracklist below.

They'll celebrate the release of the album with two record release shows. Those include a Philly show on 6/8 and a NYC show on June 9 at Webster Hall. Both shows are with Cheap Girls and Static Radio. Tickets for the Webster Hall show go on sale Friday (3/23) at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (3/21) at noon.

The Bouncing Souls, like Hot Water Music, are also playing Bamboozle, which goes down in Asbury Park from May 18-20. They also play The Chance in Poughkeepsie (5/16) a few days earlier.

All dates, stream, album art and tracklist below...

Continue reading "Bouncing Souls announce new LP & record release shows (dates & new song stream)"

We previously discussed Phily's Riot Fest East that will feature an appearance from the mighty Descendents and The Suicide Machines who they also play with in NYC. Riot Fest East, an offshoot of the Chicago festival, happens on September 24th.

The Chicago version of the festival, October 5-9, previously announced that Weezer, Social Distortion, Descendents, 7 Seconds, ALL (two different eras!), Helmet, and X (playing Los Angeles) were all on the lineup, but left one big announcement for today...

On Friday October 7, 2011 Danzig will headline Riot Fest and perform a career spanning show featuring sets of Danzig, Samhain and Misfits songs with none other than Doyle joining on guitar the Misfits set. We've waited years for this and we can't wait to see the inside of the Congress Theater turn into a churning sea of humanity.

Tickets are now also on sale for the Descendents show at Roseland Ballroom that Suicide Machines and H20 are opening.

X are performing Los Angeles at both Riot Fests AND on two nights at Irving Plaza in NYC. Tickets are on sale for those shows too.

Riot Fest show flyers and some videos is below.

Continue reading "Riot Fest Chicago completes lineup with "Danzig Legacy"! Descendents East Coast shows on sale too"