Fantastic new track from Chicago’s Inspector Owl. Can’t wait to hear the band’s new record, which was recorded with Josh Miller of the dearly-departed Troubled Hubble.**

The band is scheduled to play at The Burlington, 3425 W. Fullerton, on Friday, February 10th with Geronimo! and Deserters. You should join me there.

** Sidenote: Inspector Owl’s Corey Wills is also in the excellent Kid, You’ll Move Mountains, which features two other former members of Troubled Hubble. So if you’re a Troubled Hubble fan and you aren’t listening to either of these bands, well, fix that shit.

Charleston, South Carolina’s The Explorers Club are set to release their second LP, Grand Hotel, on February 14th.

You may remember the band from their excellent 2008 debut, Freedom Wind, but let me be amongst the first to say that that record really won’t prepare you for how good the band’s new album is.  It’s fantastic, and includes at least two songs – “Go For You” and “I’ve Been Waiting” – which will almost certainly end up on my Best Songs of 2012 list if I actually do one.

I can’t post either of those songs for you yet, but I can post the still-excellent lead single from the album, “Run Run Run”.  Check it out below.

The band will be touring on the East Coast in February, and I’m told we can expect midwestern dates – hopefully including Chicago – in March.  Can’t wait.

Oh, and if you click the album cover, it’ll take you to a site where you can pre-order the album.  I highly recommend it.

The Explorers Club – Run Run Run (album and single mixes) by expclubmgmt

Ireland’s The Frames (remember them?) recently recorded a set for Irish TV’s excellent Other Voices series. The show will air sometime in 2012, but they’ve released video of the band performing the always wonderful “God Bless Mom”. Check it out:

Apparently we can also expect a Glen Hansard solo album sometime this year, though I haven’t heard much in the way of details on it yet. Sure hope there’s new Frames record coming before too long too.

From one of my top 10 albums of 2011:

Too lazy to do much in the way of discussion of this list. Besides, you’ve likely already read about 300 top-whatever lists. So I’ll just say a couple of things. First, this list is, of course, entirely subjective, and simply a list of my favorite albums of 2011. Second, if you haven’t heard Quiet Company yet, you’re missing a band that has put out two of my favorite albums of the last few years. I have no idea how they’re not better known at this point (well, lack of touring has something to do with it), but if they can manage one or two more albums at this level, we’re looking (IMO) at one of the great modern American bands. No pressure, guys.

OK, that’s it. Here’s the list.

#1: Quiet Company, We Are All Where We Belong

You, Me & the Boatman by Quiet Company

#2: Apex Manor, The Year of Magical Drinking

Apex Manor: Southern Decline by TheMusicFile

#3: Crooked Fingers, Breaks In The Armor

#4: Title Tracks, In Blank

Clench Your Fist (A Little Closer To Me) by Title Tracks

#5: Centro-matic, Candidate Waltz

Only In My Double Mind by Centro-matic

#6: Leatherbag, Yellow Television

02 Yellow TV by Leatherbag

#7: High Tension Wires, Welcome New Machine

High Tension Wires – Backbone by stereomacko

#8: Fucked Up, David Comes To Life

#9: Wild Flag, Self-Titled

#10: Wussy, Strawberry

##10-20 (un-ordered):
David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights, Left by Soft
Jason Isbell and the 500 Unit, Here We Rest
Maritime, Human Hearts
Mind Spiders, Self-Titled
Office of Future Plans, Self-Titled
The Wrong Words, The Wrong Words
The Heavenly States, Oui Camera Oui EP
More Humans, Demon Station EP
Tereu Tereu, NW EP
Wye Oak, Civilian

Honorable Mention
The Caribbean, Discontinued Perfume
The Cheniers, Drift EP
The Dears, Degeneration Street
Deleted Scenes, Young People’s Church of the Air
Fucked Up, David’s Town
J Mascis, Several Shades of Why
Low, C’Mon
Pangea, Living Dummy
The Poison Control Center, Stranger’s Ballet
The Rural Alberta Advantage, Departing

Brand new video by a band you really need to know more about ASAP. If I ever finish my Best Of 2011 list, you may (err, will) see the name More Humans again.

Mason-Dixon by More Humans from NIGHTTIDE on Vimeo.

Can’t tell you how happy I am to finally announce the launch of a brand new Washington, D.C.-based record label called Bad Friend Records. The label was started by my good friend Ryan of Tereu Tereu and Tommy from Jukebox the Ghost, and is geared toward giving voice to a lot of great young bands that haven’t had a chance to be heard… yet.

Anyway, the first two projects for the label are pretty incredible. First up is a 7″ release from none other than Travis Morrison of The Dismemberment Plan and The Hellfighters. And soon to follow is the debut LP from Raw Feels, a band made up of former members of one of my favorite young bands of the last few years, Carlos, I’m Pregnant. They’re just as talented now, but the music has grown in leaps and bounds (and CIP were damn good in their own right).

Here’s what Tommy and Ryan have to say about the label, and click here to help the label’s Kickstarter campaign for the Travis Morrison 7″.

Strongly, strongly recommend you help out with this if you can. Positive Force is one of the coolest organizations around and a HUGE part of Washington, DC’s music scene and overall community. Your donation will help fund what looks to be a fantastic documentary about Positive Force’s work over the past 26 years, and a portion will also go to the We Are Family senior outreach network.

PS: As of this writing you’ve got just 57 hours left to contribute!

The Twilight Sad have announced that their brand new, third LP entitled No One Can Ever Know will be released on February 7, 2012. That’s the artwork on the right.

The band leaked the first track from the album, “Kill It In The Morning” (actually the last song on the album), a couple of weeks ago, and you can listen to it below. You can also stream the track “Sick” over at Pitchfork.

There definitely seems to be a shift in the band’s sound this time around… less in-your-face and a little more textured and quiet. I like it so far.

The Twilight Sad – Kill It In The Morning by Fat Cat Records

You’ve probably already seen some video of this, but here’s about a minute of video that I managed to get. Fun stuff.

Holy shit it’s a blog post.

Okkervil River

Ted Leo

The Zero Boys

Le Butcherettes

The Thermals

We Were Promised Jetpacks

Hot Snakes

Slayer

Cool new video from one of my favorite DC bands, Deleted Scenes. If you don’t have it yet, I highly recommend picking up their fantastic new album, Young People’s Church of the Air, here. (Just $6.80 for 11 songs!) You can also listen to the album on Spotify.

(via Impose Magazine)

Deleted Scenes “Baltika 9″ from alice cohen on Vimeo.

If you’ve read this blog at all over the past couple of years — which, let’s be honest, isn’t that likely considering the frequency (or lack thereof) of my posting — you probably know that I am a huge fan of Austin, Texas’ Quiet Company.

Well, I’m happy to tell you that while the band’s brand new, third LP, entitled We Are All Where We Belong, comes out on October 4th, you can listen to it RIGHT NOW over at Paste Magazine.

And I highly recommend that you do so, as it’s pretty spectacular. So go do it. Now.

Awesome new band from Fredericksburg, Virginia featuring former members of Stew favorites Carlos, I’m Pregnant. Hope to have more from them soon.