by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: The Dead Science - Throne Of Blood (The Jump Off) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Dead Science - Make Mine Marvel (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Dead Science - Days Of Future Past [mixtape track] (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Dead Science - Garden Wall [mixtape track] (MP3)

The Dead Science

Seattle's The Dead Science (not to be confused with The Dead Weather) are planning a North American tour this June. That includes two NYC shows: Monday, June 15th the band plays the Studio at Webster Hall with Bobby Conn & Monica Bou Bou and Zs (Tickets). The next night, Tuesday, June 16th, the band performs at Death By Audio with Skeletons, From Bacteria to Boys and Charlie Looker.

The Dead Science's last record, Villainaire, came out on Constellation Records in 2008. The supporting tour for that release brought the Dead Science to NYC's Knitting Factory on a bill with Brooklyn band Extra Life. This time around, the band will play with Extra Life's songwriter/frontman, Charlie Looker, on its second NYC show, and Zs, a band that included Looker for six years, on its first.

Extra Life are currently on a month-long tour of Europe. The DBA show is scheduled to be Looker/Extra Life's first show back in the US.

Also opening at DBA is From Bacteria to Boys, jazz project of drummer Mike Pride. On April 8th, the group played a live set, now streaming, at WFMU's studios.

Pride plays in a number of local groups (that counts collaborating with Charlie Looker on a project called Period). Recently, Pride gigged as part of Whoopie Pie at Pie member Jamie Saft's Wednesday residency at Zebulon. On Wednesday, May 6th, Whoopie Pie's special guest was Marc Ribot (who's in the midst of a weeklong b-day retrospective). Tonight, Wednesday, May 13th, at Zebulon, the group will be joined by Dead Science frontman Sam Mickens as "special guest vocalist."

Mickens returns to Zebulon just two days later, on Friday, May 15th, to record and film a live album with the "Sam Mickens Ecstatic Showband and Revue." That band includes Mike Pride on drums and in the past has featured Charlie Looker and other members of Extra Life.

The final band on that June 16th DBA bill, Skeletons, has other upcoming NYC dates too. Those include May 19th at the Cake Shop with Nick Krgovich, To Bad Catholics and Katie Eastburn and June 24th with Zs at the Studio at Webster Hall.

All Dead Science and Skeletons tour dates below...

Continue reading "Sam Mickens playing Zebulon (twice), the Dead Science touring (Studio & DBA) - 2009 dates & MP3's"

a shot from Sled Island 2008 (more by Rae Holtsabum)

The Sled Island Music and Arts Festival -- taking place at various venues in Calgary, Alberta from June 24 to June 27 -- is pleased to announce the initial line-up and the inclusion of Olympic Plaza as the main venue on Friday, June 26. This year will include over 200 bands performing at 23 venues plus art shows, film screenings, and a comedy component at the Sled Island Music and Arts Festival.

Sled Island 2009 will feature performances by the influential indie rock darlings The Breeders (featuring Kim Deal of the Pixies) making their first Calgary performance, NYC post-punk revivalists Liars bringing the noise, the legendary Canadian metal band Anvil the recent subjects of the critically acclaimed documentary Anvil: The Story of Anvil and the garage rock assault of Tel Aviv's Monotonix known for their incredible live show. New Orleans-based musician and mad genius inventor of the 'drum buddy' Quintron & Ms. Pussycat will bring the party along with blood-soaked party rocker Andrew W.K. and Toronto-based electro tour-de-force Holy Fuck on the more 'offensive' front. Phil Elverum's (of The Microphones) latest moniker Mount Eerie will deliver a symbiotic balance of fuzz and folk matched by Owen Pallett's Final Fantasy surrealist violin stage performance. Calgary-based experimental icons Azeda Booth aim to mystify crowds along with their all-male psychedelic pop counterparts Women making their second festival appearance...The complete festival line-up and schedule will be revealed on June 1. [pr]

Festival passes are on sale now.

As previously reported, Colin Newman, vocalist and guitarist for Wire, will be guest curating this year's festival. Full lineup below...

Continue reading "Sled Island - 2009 fest lineup (Breeders, Liars, Anvil & more) "

DOWNLOAD: The Dead Science - Throne of Blood (The Jump Off) (MP3)

The Dead Science have left Seattle to tour in support of their new album Villainaire, out now on Constellation. Tonight (10/1) you can catch them at Knitting Factory in NYC. Extra Life, Aa & Vakashi Sensei are also on the bill.

Incorporating contemporary R&B drum sounds and structures within their aesthetic has beefed up The Dead Science, to the point where they sound like a pimped-out post-hardcore band on Villainaire. As a singer, Mickens' airy, soaring delivery borders on falsetto, much like his friend and vocal collaborator, Craig Wedren (Shudder to Think). [Eye Weekly]

Maybe Craig Wedren will make an appearance tonight at the Knit. And speaking of Shudder to Think, their first official NYC reunion show is this Saturday at Webster Hall. It's still not sold out. The Dead Science open for Shudder to Think when they play Seattle on October 30th.

And speaking of good friends of the Dead Science, The Parenthetical Girls are in town just one day later (Thursday) to play a show at Cake Shop. By then the Dead Science will have reached Philly though. They should have toured together! All Dead Science (not to be confused with Dear Science) tour dates below...

Continue reading "The Dead Science - 2008 Tour Dates, Shudder to Think"

DOWNLOAD: Deerhoof w/ Zac Pennington of PG - Gut Symmetries (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: No Kids - The Regrettable End (Parenthetical Girls) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Dead Science - Young Eucharists (Parenthetical Girls) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Parenthetical Girls - A Song For Ellie Greenwich (MP3)

"To celebrate the release of Entanglements, their first album for Tomlab, Parenthetical Girls asked some of their friends to cover and remix some of the songs from the album - the first two offerings came from labelmates No Kids and fellow NW avant heroes The Dead Science, who covered "This Regrettable End" and "Young Eucharists" respectively. Now Deerhoof have covered the song "Gut Symmetries" and we use the term "covered" loosely because they kept Zac Pennington's original vocals intact.

Parenthetical Girls tour dates below...

Continue reading "Parenthetical Girls covered by Deerhoof, No Kids & The Dead Science (3 MP3s) ++ 2008 Tour Dates"

DOWNLOAD: The Dead Science - Displacer (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Dead Science - One Final Round (MP3)

The Dead Science

After suffering a minor setback, aka a fire, Zebulon is reopening tonight (May 20, 2008). Little Women, People and The Dead Science (from Seattle) are on the bill.

The Dead Science will soon release a record:

We are extremely excited and proud to announce that our new record, Villainaire, will be released amongst the dog days of this summer by Montreal-based Constellation Records. Precisely, it will drop August 26th in Europe(Happy Birthday Branford Marsalis!) and September 2nd in the USA.(Happy Birthday Salma Hayek!)

It features appearances by a bevy of our rad and sweet friends, including Craig Wedren,(Shudder to Think) Katrina Ford(Celebration) and Morgan Henderson.(of The Blues Brothers, Past Lives)

The Dead Science are also playing Knitting Factory Wednesday with Kyp Malone. All tour dates below....

Continue reading "The Dead Science -touring, new album, MP3 + ZEBULON open! "