Chicago-based Pelican have been very busy. First and foremost, the hard rock outfit announced they will be issuing a limited edition 10″ split with peers These Arms Are Snakes, who they had previously collaborated with on last year’s Pink Mammoth. These Arms Are Snakes have rerecorded their song “Diggers Of Ditches” with Pelican providing their own musical input to the track as well. Hydra Head will be issuing only 3000 of the records, as well as an even rarer CD version. (more…)

Seattle rock band These Arms Are Snakes have leaked a new song from their stellar upcoming album Tail, Swallower & Dove (Suicide Squeeze). The song, entitled “Red Line Season,” is the first taste off of the band’s debut full-length, which is due out October 7th. (more…)

The now-defunct New England jazz-rock outfit headed by Geoff Farina and known as Karate had led an expansive career that has left many fans in their wake. Though known for its live shows, 595 is their first official live record. As Farina states, “We’ve heard countless live recordings of the 694 shows we played between 1993-2005, but this recording of #595 is surely our favorite.” (more…)

There’s a video on YouTube of four guys backstage in a small dressing room. The acoustic guitarist plays a riff and the drummer, with only a sleigh bells and a tambourine, joins in, followed by two more guitars and a sequencer. The main vocalist stumbles on his words during a verse and the band snickers. Any band could’ve made this video. But with over 200,000 views in its first two weeks online, this one not only made Alamo Race Track an internet phenomenon but it also created international hype for their latest release, Black Cat John Brown. (more…)

Coliseum front man Ryan Patterson laughs when I ask him about the “thousands” of bands he has been in over the years. “More like a million,” he says. “I got to the point that every band I had been in was around for a year, and then it fell apart. Someone would quit and it would be over.” Although he had been playing guitar with Louisville hardcore act Black Cross, in forming Coliseum he saw both a chance to play heavier and faster material than what Black Cross had been doing as well as the opportunity to decide for himself whether or not to continue if the going got tough. (more…)

DJ A-Trak will be performing this Saturday at Subterranean in Chicago. Collaborating with the likes of Lupe Fiasco and releasing the 45-minute Running Man: Nike + Original this past June, A-Trak has made quite the name for himself. (more…)

Chicago-based post-metal experimentalists Suicide Note have announced their new album, Empty Rooms, was released earlier this month on drummer John Gagovski’s own Hawthorne Street Records. The record is their first effort in four years, since 2004’s Too Sick To Dance. Drawing influences from Drive Like Jehu, The VSS, Sonic Youth and Fugazi, Suicide Note look to expand their adrenaline-fueled, pulverizing sound on the new album. (more…)

Boise Indie-rock outfit Built to Spill has confirmed that they will lend their distortion-dripping garage rock to Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker’s fourth annual Campout Festival , which takes place September 11-13 in Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, in Pioneertown, California. Located just a few miles from Joshua Tree National Park, Pioneertown is an Old West motion picture set where a number of movies and television shows were filmed, including The Cisco Kid. (more…)

Over a decade ago, Philadelphia-based The Asteroid # 4 came onto the music scene, playing the kind of drug-hazed psychedelia that was a dime-a-dozen back in the 1960s. After gaining some recognition after appearing on a Spaceman 3 tribute album, they quickly released their debut, Introducing… . However, the six-piece went more or less under the radar for many years, releasing five albums without managing to pinpoint a distinct sound. Instead they floated aimlessly between music scenes, never really finding a niche.

(more…)

Just a reminder that EXO will be playing an acoustic show this Sunday (August 10) at Schubas Tavern. The show will be a benefit for their longtime friend and former drummer, Doug Meis, who died tragically in a car accident in 2005. Friends of the band, Absentstar and Coach K (a Brookyln DJ, not the guy from Duke) are also included on the bill. (more…)