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The
Bats
"The Guilty Office"
Hidden Agenda Records
Release Date: June 23, 2009
For their seventh studio album The Bats continue to refine
and develop their own idiosyncratic path, whilst also adding
fresh sparkle and new ideas. The strings and additional instruments
come to the fore, such as on the first single “Castle
Lights”, and Robert Scott’s songwriting has become
particularly strong on tracks such as “Countersign”
and “Crimson Enemy”. The band have come up with
an album that shines among their best. |
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Download
"Countersign"
mp3
Download "Castle Lights" [single version] mp3
View
the "Like Water" video
More
info, more sound samples, video...
Myspace
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Horse's
Ha
"Of the Cathmawr Yards"
Hidden Agenda Records
Release Date: June 9, 2009
Publicity
Contact: Jessica Linker @ Pitch Perfect PR
Pitch
Perfect PR's Horse's Ha page.
In June Hidden Agenda Records will release On the Cathmawr
Yards, the debut album from Chicago slowburn-folk troupe
The Horse’s Ha, led by Janet Bean (Eleventh
Dream Day, Freakwater) and Jim Elkington (The Zincs) backed
by stalwart Chicago indie-rock vets. Think Fairport Convention,
Pentangle and a little Astral Weeks, if you catch their
drift. |
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on images for hi-res.
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Photos
Credit: James Elkington
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Download
"The Piss Choir" MP3
More
info, streaming sound samples
Myspace
Tour Dates HERE.
Download POSTER.
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Cameron
McGill & What Army
"Warm Songs for Cold Shoulders"
Parasol Records
Release Date: April 28, 2009
This is exactly the kind of record we hoped Cameron McGill
would make for his Parasol debut; songs stripped down and stories
laid bare. The songs show a similar vulnerability evident in
many of McGill's recordings, though here he returns to the thoughtful
folk musings he has made his signature. There is always enough
pop to make the songs memorable, but this album deals a weightier
hand than his last, the self-released Hold On Beauty.
Cameron is aided & abetted by members of Those Transatlantics,
Elanors, Wandering Sons, Judah Johnson and Andreas Kapsalis
Trio. |
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on images for hi-res.
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New
photos: 1
2
More:
1
2
3
Photos Credit: TBC
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Download
"Low Ways" mp3
"Lose
Americans" VIDEO
"Minor
Suite" VIDEO
More info, more sound
samples...
Myspace
Website
Tour Dates HERE.
Touring Midwest, Plains and Rockies
in April. Download POSTER.
Record release show April 29th at Schubas in Chicago.
Download
NEW POSTER
&
LYRIC
SHEET |
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New
Ruins
"We Make Our Own Bad Luck"
A Hidden Agenda Record
Release Date: April 28, 2009
Second album from local heroes New Ruins, the follow-up
to The Sound They
Make. Droning acoustic/electric rock haunted by rural
spectres, songs rendered in sepia-tone, but clarified with a
dash of DIY studio alchemy. Since their debut the original duo
of songwriters J. Caleb Means and Elzie Sexton has expanded
into a quintet, featuring bassist/multi-instrumentalist Paul
Chastain (Velvet Crush, Matthew Sweet), drummer Roy Ewing (Braid,
Very Secretary), and Andrew Davidson (Blackouts, Tractor Kings,
Chemicals) on bass and auxiliary percussion.
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on images for hi-res.
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Photo Credit: Cody Bralts
More hi-res: Box
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Download
"Lake" mp3
Download
"Symptoms" mp3
More
info, more sound samples, etc.
Myspace
Tour Dates HERE.
Download POSTER.
Record release show at Schubas in Chicago on
April 29. Regional touring commences in May.
The Latest: Album will be available on CD and
limited LP vinyl. Promos CDs sent to press in early February. |
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The
Green Pajamas
"Poison In The Russian Room"
A Hidden Agenda Record
Release Date: April 28, 2009
Veteran Seattle combo The Green Pajamas’ new album
is a conceptual piece split into two distinct parts. While The
Green Pajamas’ trademark psychedelia has gone through
many moon phases on the last 25 years, here in 2009 the band
might rock harder than ever (they’re from Seattle after
all, grunge finds a way), but also invert all expectations with
a Pentangle/Zeppelin-styled acid-folkiness that will charm and
enchant. This is their seventh release for Hidden Agenda Records,
seven among several dozen official releases since the mid 80s. |
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More
hi-res:
1
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Photos: Camden Hackworth
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Download
"Any Way the Wind Blows" mp3
Any
Way the Wind Blows VIDEO
More info, more sound samples, soon
Myspace
Website
Tour Dates:
The Latest: CD sent to press first week of
March. |
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Mazes
"Mazes"
Parasol Records
Release Date: March 17, 2009
While The 1900s make noises
about recording the follow-up to their full-length 2007 album,
Cold & Kind, front man Edward Anderson has readied
a "solo" album for Parasol Records, under the moniker
Mazes. In cahoots with fellow 1900s vocalist (and significant
other) Caroline Donovan and their comrade Charles D’Autremont,
Mazes is not so much departure from Edward's hitherto verdant
psych-pop meadow as a vehicle for Edward and friends to explore
further musical flora and fauna. |
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on images for hi-res.
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More
hi-res:
1
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3
Band Photos: Mazen Kheirbek
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Download
"Cat State Comity" mp3
Download
"I Have Laid In the Darkness of Doubt" mp3
More info, more sound samples
Mazes
on Myspace
Tour Dates HERE.
Download POSTER.
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The
1900s
"Medium High"
Parasol Records
Release Date: January 20, 2009
Medium High, the 28-minute mini-album from Chicago psych-pop
troupe The 1900s, is a collection of outtakes, b-sides and radical
re-imaginings. The majority of these songs were written long
before their debut EP, Plume Delivery, was released.
The songs deal with characters who find themselves in uncertain,
in-between moments in their lives. "When I Say Cohen"
(a Leonard-inspired live recording of "When I Say Go"),
"Will" and "Face I Know" (a psyched-out
version of Cold & Kind's dreamy "Supernatural"),
all tell of epic physical journeys, while "Collections",
"Age Of Metals" and "Making Love" explore
emotional conflicts. |
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on images for hi-res.
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 Photo
Credit:
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Download
"Age of Metals" mp3
More
info, more sound samples
The 1900s on
Myspace
Artist's PLG Discography
Tour Dates:
3/12 Chicago IL @ Schubas w/Mazes
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Mr.
Stephens
"With Ms. Harmon's Kindergarten Class"
Choo Choo Train Records
Debut release for Parasol's new children's music label,
Choo Choo Train Records. We lead off with former Lonely
Trailer frontman Tim Stephens. Mr. Stephens strums his acoustic
guitar and leads Ms. Harmon's kindergarten class (at Urbana,
IL's Thomas Paine Elementary School) through a rollicking set
of feel-good sing-a-longs and goodnatured kid-centric tomfoolery.
Includes guest apperances by former Trailer mate Brian Reedy
on drums and vibraphone, along with Emily Reedy on accordian. |
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Photo Credit:
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Unbunny
"Sensory Underload: Uncertain Trks 1996-2008"
Hidden Agenda
Released: 10/28/2008
While Jarid del Deo gets the next Unbunny record imaginated
we're thrilled to have this truly cohesive and near-comprehensive
new collection of Unbunny EPs, singles, rarities and previously
unreleased recordings spanning the last dozen years, including
the out-of-print Typist EP, originally released on Important
Records. Many tracks here appear on handy compact disc for the
very first time. Popmatters says: "In
Unbunnys nimble hands, indie rock becomes a bit more majestic." |
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on images for hi-res.
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 Photo
Credit:
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Download
"Water and the Spanish Tongue" mp3
More
info, more sound samples
Unbunny on
Myspace
Unbunny Tour Dates: No dates scheduled.
The Latest: Portsmouth, NH --> Seattle,
WA --> Urbana, IL --> Portsmouth, NH (honorable mention
to Oakland, CA) --> Seattle, WA |
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Tractor
Kings
"Homesick"
Spur Records
Released: 10/14/2008
Homesick is the long-awaited third album from local (Champaign-Urbana,
IL) space cowboys Tractor Kings, led by Illinois alt.country
icon Jacob Fleischli and his assembled hombres. Eleven songs
that inhabit a flickering psychedelic underworld of reverbs,
delays, strings and an evangelical pedal steel. We don't call
it 'rural cathedral' for nothing.
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Photo
Credit: David J. Cubberly |
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Download
"Drop the Fight" mp3
More
info, more sound samples
On
Myspace
Artist's PLG Discography
Tractor Kings Tour Dates: No dates scheduled.
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Beaujolais
"Love At Thirty"
Parasol Records
Released: 9/30/2008
Beaujolais is Joe Ziemba, former frontman for Wolfie, Busytoby
and The Like Young. Love At Thirty is the debut album
from Beaujolais. Love At Thirty is a garage rock opera.
Conceptual. Personal. Monumental.
All Music Guide: "Love at Thirty is a harrowing and
unflinching look at what happened, and its honesty and sheer
emotional power put it on a level with Richard & Linda Thompson's
Shoot Out the Lights, Marvin Gaye's Here, My Dear, and Bob Dylan's
Blood on the Tracks as an impressively honest and emotional
album about divorce." |
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on images for hi-res.
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More
hi-res:
1
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3
4
Photo Credit:
J. Ziemba |
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Download
"Friday the Thirteenth" mp3
More
info, more sound samples
On
Myspace
Tour Dates: No dates scheduled.
The Latest: Album #2 is more than half finished.
Look for it in September 2009. |
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Gazelle
"Sunblown"
A Hidden Agenda Record
Released: 6/10/2008
Debut album from new local scene super-duo parlaying overcast
electro-rock dreamscapes. Gazelle is mild-mannered studio-warlock
Jeff Dimpsey (Hum, National Skyline, Honcho Overload, Poster
Children, etc) and vocalist Adam Fein (Absinthe Blind). Features
a guest appearance from Adam's sister Erin Fein, vocalist for
Headlights (Polyvinyl).
Donnybrook Writing Academy: "A drugged-out take on
the shoegaze sound, the snare-happy drum fills having been replaced
with meditative drum machines and free-form atmospherics. It’s
Ulrich Schnauss and Spacemen 3 joining hands in freefall, the
world whizzing by in slow motion." |
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on images for hi-res.
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Photo
Credit: |
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Download
"The First Rays" mp3
More
info, more sound samples
On Myspace
Tour Dates: No dates scheduled.
The Latest: Jeff's former band Hum reunites
for a New Year's Eve and New Year's Day reunion shows in Chicago.
It will be loud. There will be drunks. |
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Doleful
Lions
"7"
Parasol Records
Released: 6/10/2008
After
clearing the vaults with their previous album, Song Cyclops
Volume Two, Doleful Lions return with a new lineup, direction,
and wisdom. 7 represents the next step in the evolution
of Doleful Lions, brothers Jonathan and Robert Lee Scott, marrying
their keen pop sensibilities with a new adventurous sound...
The usual folk guitar strummings of their previous releases
have been replaced with an eclectic mix of electronically-informed,
epic song structures and Jonathan's focused lyrical intensity.
They have used 7 to explore other sonic horizons. 7
is a truly adventurous album in all regards; an album that has
ventured further beyond any music created by the Doleful Lions
in the past. |
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on images for hi-res.
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Photo
Credit: |
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Download
"White Lotus Day" mp3
More
info, more sound samples
On Myspace
Artist's PLG Discography
Tour Dates: No dates scheduled.
The Latest: Jonathan is a one-man-band, yet
again. |
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Ric
Menck
"Hey War Pigs"
Action Musik
Released: 2/22/2008
On
his new 45 rpm vinyl single Velvet Crush drummer and very occasional
solo singer-songsmith Ric Menck covers former Soft Boys/Katrina
& The Waves guitarist-songwriter Kimberly Rew’s pissed-off
protest anthem “Hey War Pigs” (so very fitting)
backed by his dry-hump version of “Teenage Head”
by The Flaming Groovies. Black wax in a plain paper sleeve.
In addition to founding Velvet Crush Menck is and has been a
member of The Drats, The Reverbs, The Springfields, The Paint
Set, The Big Maybe, The Stupid Cupids, Pop The Balloon, Choo
Choo Train, Duffy, The Tyde, Frausdots, Aimee Mann and Matthew
Sweet. |
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on images for hi-res.
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Download
"Hey War Pigs" mp3
On Myspace
Tour Dates: No solo dates scheduled.
The Latest: Menck's been on the road with Matthew
Sweet, lots. |
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