Big Harp, White Hat

Here's a charming little tune from LA newcomers Big Harp, which is Chris Senseney from Art In Manila, and Stefanie Drootin-Senseney who has played w/ numerous Omaha favorites including The Good Life and Bright Eyes and has recently founded the Omaha Girls Rock! camp which is opening its doors this summer. Big Harp's album 'White Hat' (September 13, Saddle Creek) recorded by Rilo Kiley bassist Pierre de Reeder, is a fun, summery, amalgamation of American musical influences. It has the charm and feel of a She and Him record, without the overt cuteness factor to deal with. Certainly a lovely late-summer pick up.

New Rural Alberta Advantage "Stamp"

[mp3] Rural Alberta Advantage: "Stamp"

While admittedly a little late to the game in posting news of this album, we're no less excited for Departing, the new album from Rural Alberta Advantage coming out March 1st on Saddle Creek. Their excellent last album Hometowns put this Canadian trio on the map, and despite their rigorous tour schedule the RAA have managed to bang out a fresh batch of songs and put them to tape for us. While we haven't heard the full album yet, the new single above "Stamp" promises more pulsing, driving, and tastefully Jeff Mangum-inflected melodic rock with tinges of harmony to round out the sound. Looking forward to it.

Numbers Don't Lie

[mp3] Mynabirds: "Numbers Don't Lie"

Here's a fantastic little gem of a video for a Friday -- "Numbers Don't Lie" is one of the standout tracks from The Mynabirds excellent record What We Lose in The Fire, We Gain in The Flood out now on Saddle Creek.

Laura Burhenn is The Mynabirds

[mp3] The Myrnabirds: "Numbers Don't Lie"

When Saddle Creek signs we listen. Next up, The Mynabirds. While we've only heard the above song from former Georgie James' singer Laura Burhenn's new solo record What We Lose In The Fire We Gain In The Flood (April 27th), the press release has sufficiently whet our appetite with references to Nina Simone and Cat Power. Burhenn's album promises soulful horn arrangements, husky vocals, honest lyrics and quality songwriting (she enlisted the help of ace writer/producer Richard Swift). With back-up from stellar folks like Orenda Fink (Azure Ray) and engineer/producer AJ Mogis (Monsters of Folk, Cursive, Tilly and The Wall), The Myrnabirds debut is highly anticipated listening around these parts.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson Signs to Saddle Creek

Photo by Karp from Southpaw

[mp3] Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson: "Woodfriend"

Love 'em, hate 'em or kinda like him, our old friend and oft posted about 2008-breakout-act Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson has signed to Saddle Creek Records and will release his sophomore album, Summer of Fear on October 20th, with a four week tour planned, but not yet announced. His debut record showed promise and his live show was good, except for the fact that you couldn't understand a goddamn word that came out of his mouth. He became a bit over exposed last year after opening up for, well, everyone. It'll be interesting to see what '09 and '10 hold for him.

Tonight! The Rural Alberta Advantage and The Dig -- FREE @ MHOW

[MP3] The Rural Alberta Advantage -- "Don't Haunt this Place"
Download: The Dig's 3 Song Demo

The advantage of digging: We love FREE.

Tonight, we will be heading to Music Hall of Willamsburg to catch the Rural Alberta Advantage and The Dig as they play for FREE! We are such suckers for anything that's free, be it ice cream (the orange creamsicle, we can all agree, was subpar) flashy red and extremely fast Kangaroo shoes, and or the occasional concert.  RAA's recent release, Hometowns, spurred and indie-brush fire, spreading through the blogosphere after its release in early July. These Canadian, now Saddle Creek labelites, have earned their fair share of praise from eMusic, the AP and of course P4K --needless to say, get there early, unless you want to wait in a Brooklyn Bowl-size line while drinking 32 oz. to-go beers. Actually, we may show up late.

The Dig -- on the back of their FREE three song demo, which is available for download above, these buzz-worthy New Yorkers use their live performances as a vehical to morph-minds; their lo-fi, hardstrumming tendencies make believers out of skeptics. We were certainly impressed after their Mercury Lounge show. Needless to say, see you tonight. FREE drinks on Stark...No fucking way.

See RAA and Dig tour dates after the jump.

08/04 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg (FREE)
08/05 Boston, MA The Middle East Cafe (Upstairs)
08/06 Ottawa, ONT Mavericks
08/08 Wolfe Island, ONT Wolfe Island Musicfest
08/20 Grand Rapids, MI The Intersection (Front Lounge)
08/21 Milwaukee, WI WMSE Radio Summer Camp / Cactus Club
08/22 Madison, WI University of Wisconsin
08/24 Chicago, IL Downtown Sound / Pritzker Pavillion / Millenium Park
08/25 Bloomington, IN Bear's Place
08/26 Cleveland, OH Beachland Tavern
08/27 Mount Pleasant, MI Rubble's Bar
08/29 Oro-Medonte, ON Virgin Festival Ontario / Burl's Creek #
09/06 Ithaca, NY The Positive Jam / Stewart Park $

$ = w/ the Hold Steady, Deer Tick, The Felice Brothers, etc
# = w/ The Pixies, Franz Ferdinand, Grizzly Bear, Mates of State, etc

The Dig:
Sep 18 2009 9:00P
Middle East- w/ The Walkmen and Here We Go Magic Cambridge, Massachusetts
Sep 19 2009 9:00P
Middle East- w/ The Walkmen and Here We Go Magic Cambridge
Sep 20 2009 9:00P
Pearl St w/ The Walkmen and Here We Go Magic Northampton, Massachusetts

Hardworking Canadians Make Good - Sign to Saddle Creek

[MP3]
Rural Alberta Advantage: Don't Haunt This Place

The name Rural Alberta Advantage has been bandied about for some time now, but admittedly, we never really took the time to do some sufficient digging on the group. Our bad. Well, today came the announcement that they, along with the group UUVVWWZ (we hated even typing that name) have signed to Saddle Creek Records. Like the dutiful bloggers we are, we did our homework and discovered, wow, RAA are pretty damn good. So all in all it's a good day for everyone. After being named an eMusic select band and earning the praise of Pitchfork and the Associated Press at this year's SXSW, the powers that be could not deny this trio from the north country. Here's to wishing this band success, as it's always good to see a group rise on the quality of their music rather than a sweet haircut and manufactured buzz. Their debut album Hometowns will be re-released this July with the force a Saddle Creek marketing budget.

Royale with Cheese or New Cursive Album?

Courtesy of Saddle Creek, Cursive's newest release, Mama, I'm Swollen, is now available digitally for only dollars. Grab it here before the album appreciates by one dollar each subsequent day after today, until its climax at $9 March 10. Today, we are sorry to say, the album is actually up to $3...sorry for the late notice.

In other news:
Razor & Tie's newest Manchester acquisition, The Whip, finally released X-Marks Destination in the States today. Good buy. We recently reviewed it here.

US tour dates for both bands follow after the jump.

Cursive On Tour:
March 09th Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg (sold-out)
March 10th Manhattan, NY Bowery Ballroom (sold-out)
March 12th Los Angeles, CA Spaceland (sold-out)
March 13th Los Angeles, CA The Troubador (sold-out)
March 14th San Diego, CA The Casbah (sold-out)
March 15th Phoenix, AZ Rhythm Room
March 16th Albuquerque, NM The Launchpad
March 18th San Antonio, TX White Rabbit

The Whip Tour Dates:
3/20 - Austin @ 508 House (DJ Set)
3/21 - Austin @ La Zona Rosa (official showcase) w/ Pendulum, The Crystal Method +
3/24 - New Orleans @ House of Blues with Pendulum, The Crystal Method
3/27 - Miami Ultra Music Festival @ Bicentennial Park with Bloc Party, Santogold, Ting Tings +
3/30 - Atlanta @ The Earl with Deadmau5, Late of the Pier
4/01 - New York @ Bowery Ballroom with Late of the Pier
4/02 - New Haven @ Yale Afro-American Cultural Center with Late of the Pier
4/03 - Brooklyn @ Studio B with Deadmau5, Late of the Pier
4/04 - Philadelphia @ TLA with Deadmau5, Late of the Pier
4/07 - Washington DC @ 930 Club with Deadmau5, Late of the Pier
4/08 - Boston @ Paradise with Deadmau5, Late of the Pier
4/09 - Montreal @ Les Saintes with Late of the Pier
4/10 - Toronto @ Kool Haus with Deadmau5, Late of the Pier
4/11 - Chicago @ Congress with Deadmau5, Late of the Pier, Crookers
4/14 - Seattle @ Chop Suey with Late of the Pier
4/15 - Portland @ Dantes with Late of the Pier
4/16 - San Francisco @ Pop Scene with Late of the Pier

New Darren Keen - "Good People Like You," "Hot Air Balloon"

[mp3]

Darren Keen: "Good People Like You"

Darren Keen: Hot Air Balloon"

The obviously great looking man above is Darren Keen, and no, he isn't homeless. But he is a working musician, so actually, homelessness wasn't too bad of an assumption to have made. He's releasing a fantastic new record on Slumberparty Records tomorrow called, appropriately enough, Slumberparty Record. It's 24 minutes in length, and at 13 tracks, that means the average song length is 1.75 minutes. See? I can do math. (Actually, I stole that from his Myspace. Shame.) If you dig bedroom projects with casio keyboards and unabashed out-of-tune vocals a la Ben Gibbard's All-Time Quarterback, you'll love this. Really. It's brisk, candid and lots of fun. Here's what Keen had to say about the project:

The point. Everyone wants everyone to get to the point. I guess that's what I'm trying to do with my music. I've wanted to make a "nice" album for a long time, but, my other bands are all strkingly un-"nice" sounding. The point was at first to please the ear, but that only led to the realization that my voice will never "please" any "ears". The point for me was to write pop gems that didn't drag on. One verse, one chorus, maybe two if that's what it took to get the point across, that's the point. Postmodern huh? My name is Darren and I made "Slumberparty Record" in my bedroom all by myself. I'm terrible at the drums so I used a $5 toy keyboard rhythm section. This was really fun to make, and I hope you enjoy listening to it. You'll never get to heaven if you're scared of getting high.

Please take the two mp3s above, and if you dig, buy the album from Slumberparty, a tiny, friendly label from Omaha distributed by (who else?) Saddle Creek. Sadly, mustache rides are not included.