John's New Music Blog

The June installment of the Radio 104.5 Summer Block Party brought two really excellent bands to town, She Wants Revenge and Company of Thieves for the low, low price of free. I've been a fan of She Wants Revenge since I heard their self-titled debut album and swore they were from Manchester and not really from Los Angeles and The New York Post called the album "...an inadvertent Joy Division tribute album." They have toured with Depeche Mode and Placebo and are currently touring in support of their third album Valleyheart. Here are some pictures of Justin Warfield and Adam Bravin on stage at The Piazza at Schmidts in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia.
















The next band was Chicago's Company of Thieves, touring in support of their new album, Running From a Gamble. The band shot to critical and commercial success with their first album, Ordinary Riches and the singles, "Oscar Wilde" and "Pressure." I apologize for so many pictures of frontwoman Genevieve Schatz, she was the only member of the band consistently in my line of sight and she was very, very easy to photograph.

 



































She Wants Revenge's new album, Valleyheart, is available from the band, iTunes and Amazon. Company of Thieves' Running From a Gamble is available from the band, iTunes and Amazon.

A big thank you to Radio 104.5 for putting on the Summer Block Parties and bringing in great bands, The Naked and Famous and The Airborne Toxic Event  are in town on August 6.

Manchester has spawned many of the greatest bands of the last 35 years, (Joy Division, The Smiths, New Order, Stella Marconi, The Stone Roses, The Buzzcocks) and now the collective Help Stamp Out Loneliness (HSOL), joins that list. HSOL was started in 2007 by Bentley Cooke and Colm McCrory as a way to recover from their years in the twee indie pop band Language of Flowers but soon found themselves wanting to return to their debauched life in indie pop. Cooke and McCrory recruited four more members, Ben Ambridge and Louise Winfield from Star and Garters, Kath McMahon and their vocalist, D. Lucille Campbell.


HSOL recently released their first album, the self-titled, Help Stamp Out Loneliness, a 12 track masterpiece produced by Smiths producer Craig Gannon. Take a listen to the whole album below:



Help Stamp Out Loneliness is available for download from their Bandcamp site, their label, Where It's At Is Where You Are (scroll down), Amazon and iTunes. You can also download their free Record Store Day release, "Record Store," here. HSOL's previous singles, "Pacific Trash Vortex" (iTunes and Amazon) and "Torvill and Dean" (iTunes and Amazon) are also available for download. HSOL is playing dates in the UK in July, no word on plans to come to the US.

31 years ago today we lost a true genius.

The New Division released their new single, "Walk in the Dark" as a free download on their Bandcamp page. It's a great song that continues with the New Order/Depeche Mode influences that were heard on The Rookie. As readers know, John's New Music Blog is a big supporter and fan of The New Division and I encourage you to download their new single and share it with your friends. For those unfamiliar with The New Division, here's my review for their recent EP, The Rookie and an introduction to the band.






The New Division will be playing The House of Blues in Anaheim on April 14th, the Silverlake Lounge in Los Angeles on April 28th, and The Viper Room (yes, that Viper Room) in Hollywood on May 20th. If you're in Southern California, I encourage you to check our their show and tell them that you heard about them from John's New Music Blog (no, I don't get a commission for plugging their shows).

Today's Fresh New Music band is Northern Ireland's Girls Names, a newish fuzzy indie pop trio that's seeing quite a bit of success in England and is now showing up in the US. The band has released a couple of singles and in November released a split 7" single with San Francisco's Brilliant Colors on Slumberland Records.




The band will also be releasing a full album, Dead to Me, on April 26th, also on Slumberland. The first single is Seánce on a Wet Afternoon and it's one of the best things I've heard so far this year. There are some hints of Joy Division in the guitars and the fuzz gives it the lo-fi surf sound that's all the rage in indie rock right now. Girls Names show that you don't have to be from Brooklyn or Southern California to make a good surf pop record. I encourage you to download the single and listen for yourself.



"I Lose/You Win" is out now from Slumberland Records and for download from iTunes. Dead to Me will be out on April 26th on Slumberland, also. The band's 2010 EP is available at iTunes and Amazon, as well as You Should Know By Now is available at iTunes and Amazon.

You know Portland, Oregon, the breeding ground for such bands as The Dandy Warhols and Mackintosh Braun. Well Portland has produced another excellent band that calls itself Anne, and they're the Fresh New Music featured band of the day. The band exemplifies the fuzzy sound of lo-fi shoegaze and is best listened to as loud as you (or your neighbors/roommates/passengers) can stand.


The five tracks from the Demo EP are all excellent and I highly recommend "Punk Bike" for its retro-modern  Joy Division influenced guitar and bass hooks. Take a listen, listen takers:




Both the Demo and Mixtape are available for download from the band's website. Click here to download the Demo and here for the Mixtape. If you like them, tell your friends and if you're up in the Pacific Northwest, be sure to catch them in a club near you. They will be releasing a split 7" with American Gods on Austin, Texas' Withdrawal Records. No release date yet, but check back for updates.

Today is another first for John's New Music Blog, an album review. Not just any album, but the new EP from Riverside, California's Joy Division/New Order influenced The New Division. The Manchester sound is alive and well and residing in Riverside as The New Division have made a record that wouldn't sound out of place on Ian Curtis' record player. Some have called it retro-New Wave, but I would describe it as a worthy successor to Closer and Movement. If you only buy one new record this year, make it The Rookie by The New Division.


The Rookie is out now at iTunes, Amazon and from the Band.

Think about where a band that cites Joy Division, New Order and Depeche Mode as influences would hail from. Nope, you're wrong. Try the hotbed of indie music called Riverside, California and the band is The New Division (get it, it's a pun). The band, a four piece from the aforementioned Riverside, California, have been self releasing EP's since 2009 starting with their self titled The New Division. The band has also released one single, "Art Kraft" from their upcoming EP The Rookie and the good people over at Pitchfork previewed their next single, "Starfield," to rave reviews.

The first time I heard "Starfield," I was hooked. It sounded like what Joy Division would have sounded like had Ian Curtis not passed away before the band could take advantage of the coming advances in modern electronic music. For a band that is doing everything themselves and without the benefit of a label to support them, this track is excellent; it's well produced and keeps with the Joy Division ethic of doing a whole lot with very little (I didn't hear the Martin Hannett trademark sound effects made from unusual sounds like an aerosol spray can, but that's probably coming soon). I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the tracks on the EP when it's released sometime next year.


Starfield by The New Division

Art Kraft by The New Division

The New Division is out now at iTunes. The Rookie's release date is TBD. Check back for more information or visit the band's site. I'm looking forward to hearing more from them next year and seeing them out on tour.

If you like what you're hearing, leave a comment and let me know. If you know of a band that I should know about, either leave a comment or click "Send Me an Email." Also "Like" the site over on Facebook to get the latest posts and hear about the latest bands before your friends and be sure to recommend us to your friends.

Today's feature band isn't necessarily a new band, but chances are they're new to you. The band is White Lies, a West London based band that will be releasing its second album on January 17th in the UK and January 18th in the US. They are the worthy successor to the greatest band to ever exist, Joy Division, right down to the dark lyrics about love and relationships and the front man who bears more than a striking resemblance to Ian Curtis. The first song from their first album of the same name, "To Lose My Life", is a song about loving someone so much that you want to be with them forever.

The second track, "Unfinished Business," is my personal favorite. It's a breakup song about not being able to get over someone. The collective wisdom of the Internet says that it's about the ghost of a murdered boyfriend who comes back to haunt the girlfriend who killed him, but I think that the lyric "there's blood on your hands/and I know it's mine" is more figurative than literal. I think that everyone who's been through a breakup thinks that the other person has blood on their hands, and this song works as a haunting reminder of how it feels to not have closure, you feel like a ghost.

Today's featured band is British Columbia's You Say Party, a dance punk band from the labels Paper Bag Records and C.T.M. (Club.The.Mammoth). The band was originally known as You Say Party! We Say Die! but changed their name to just You Say Party earlier this year after the death of their original drummer, Devon Clifford. The band has been recording since 2005 and 2010 marked their breakout year in North America and Europe with the release of the album XXXX to critical and commercial success. The first song from the album is "There is XXXX (Within My Heart)," a rocking indie dance number that will get any room up and out on the tiles.

The second track from XXXX is "Dark Days," an excellent track that has a very strong Joy Division influence.

I highly recommend You Say Party for it's excellent example of indie dance punk and it's great sound that goes well with Marina and the Diamonds, Ida Maria and fellow Canadians Metric. You Say Party's new wave sound will be a hit at any party and hopefully soon on the radio in the US.

XXXX is out now at iTunes, Amazon, and from directly from Paper Bag Records. I hope to see them on their next North American tour when they come to Philadelphia.