New Unreleased Beach House - Norway

Here's a video of the ever-lovely duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally aka Beach House, playing a new, unreleased song entitled Norway, in what appears to be a parking garage in (you guessed it) Norway. Scally's guitar is severely out of tune throughout the entire song, but the vocal harmonies make up for every shortcoming when Legrand and Scally sing together. No word yet about the song being released at all, but we've still got the amazing record they put out earlier this year, Devotion, to tide us over until the next release. Enjoy the video!

Xiu Xiu Head Back to Texas in Late Summer

(polaroid of Jamie Stewart by Kayleigh Ingalls)

When we receive news like this, it makes our day (/summer) and hopefully it can make yours as well. One of our favorite bands, Xiu Xiu, is heading back to Texas (and a good portion of the rest of the country) on their newly announced end-of-summer tour. This time, however, the band is skipping the DFW area and opting for the road (a little) less travelled. Their Texas dates will take them through Lubbock, Austin, and then Houston, where they will be making up for their rained out show at the Orange Show. Along for the ride will be Evangelista and Rob Fisk's Common Eider, King Eider. As always, you can count on us for in depth coverage. 

Texas dates: 

8-19 Lubbock - Tequila Jungle

8-20 Austin - Mohawk

8-21 Houston - Orange Show Center for Visionary Art

New Wolf Parade

It seems like forever since Wolf Parade took the world by storm with their album Apologies to the Queen Mary, but the band is finally back with another album that will certainly see a lot of play and end up on "best of..." lists for the year. As you may know by now, their next album is entitled At Mount Zoomer, and is scheduled for release on Tuesday, June 16th. Why are we posting about this now? Well, the band has just released a new mp3 for the song Language City. You can find it at the bottom of the post, along with another track from the album!

Also, the band is finally touring again and since they don't do this too often, you might not want to miss them! They have been tied up between Sunset Rubdown, Handsome Furs, and various other things, but now they are hitting the road together as Wolf Parade this summer. Their Texas dates that we might end up covering are July 24 in Dallas at the Palladium Ballroom and July 25 in Austin at La Zona Rosa. 

mp3s: Language City

             Call it a Ritual

Matt & Kim and The Death Set Get Explicit on Tour + No Age in Texas

(Polaroid of Matt & Kim at SXSW by Kayleigh Ingalls)

Since we will soon be blogging full time from the wonderful city of Austin, Texas for the next however many years (you didn't know that!), we thought it would only be appropriate to update you on some stuff going on down there as well, since not all of it has been confirmed for Dallas (yet) and we will probably be covering it down there too! 

First up, Matt & Kim and The Death Set will be doing a little something called the Fuck Yeah Tour this summer that will hit The Mohawk on Friday, June 27. The only thing I've seen about this tour is this one date, but so far it has shown up on the Transmission Entertainment Myspace and Austin, TX Showlist, so it looks like its happening. This one is apparently taking place right before their leg of the "Tales of Colt 45" tour that kicks off in LA on June 30. Be ready to get happy!

No Age has recently confirmed a handful of dates, and Texas is on the list! Emo's has confirmed that the band will be playing their inside stage with Abe Vigoda and others, and they will also be playing The Loft the day before their Austin show, with a special little treat on the same day for Dallas that we will announce as soon as its confirmed!

Stream No Age's Nouns Now

Much like the rest of the world, we're pretty psyched on No Age right now, and you should be too. Their first full length entitled Nouns will be released tomorrow on Sub Pop, but if you can't seem to wait until then, feel free to head on over to Randy and Dean's Myspace page to listen to the whole thing before it comes out. 

Review & Photos : The Death Set @ Good Records and The Loft

Baltimore/Brooklyn/Gold Coast, Australia natives The Death Set played two fun yet underwhelming (thanks to the lack of support) performances on Thursday, May 1st. The first performance was the band's first stateside in-store show, and probably the loudest one that Good Records has seen. Both sets included favorite songs like Intermission, Zombie, Negative Thinking, Impossible, and Around the World, all of which can be found on the band's first full length entitled Worldwide, which was just released by Ninja Tune on April 22.

The Death Set's material transfers like a carbon copy into the live setting, along with samplings from artists like Salt-n-Pepa and The Jackson Five. In their native Baltimore or Brooklyn, the band's shows are wild and intense (much like the one we caught at SXSW), but they haven't garnered quite the same amount of attention here in Dallas, but folks will catch on eventually. At The Loft, they chose to dodge the stage and joined the crowd on the floor, where they played to a handful of people who seemed to enjoy what they were seeing and hearing. Lead singer/guitar player Johnny Siera hung from the metal structure that held The Loft's new (I've never seen them before?) set of disco balls. The dual drumming heightened the intensity several fold and guitarist and all-around-great-guy Peter O'Connell told some hilarious jokes that I will be using from now on. He also seems to take quite the liking to Ed Hardy and probably wished he had been downstairs in the Palladium... After their set-ending Nirvana cover, the band trashed all their gear, in what seemed like a fitting tribute.

You need to keep an eye on these guys!

Dallas's own Parade of Flesh was at both shows taping so we should have some video posted soon!

(p.s. big thanks to Jonathan at Ninja Tune and the band for being so hospitable, and Good Records for letting us host the show!)

The Death Set @ Good Records











The Death Set @ The Loft