Despite the March departure of drummer Lorin Coleman (pictured on the left), the Portland trio turned duo, the Thermals, have just posted two brand new demos on their MySpace page. The two songs, “I Let It Go” and “You Dissolve,” are both scheduled to appear on the Thermals’ upcoming fourth album Now We Can See. The remaining two-thirds, better known as Kathy Foster and Hutch Harris, claim that the demos were recorded solely on an eight-track recorder, in the duos practice space and houses. (more…)

With all of us here at ALARM anxiously awaiting the ALARM sponsored Isis & Dub Trio show this Saturday at Subterranean, we thought it would be appropriate to update you on some of the latest Isis news. Isis is currently finishing up their highly anticipated fifth album, and has assured us and fans alike that they are “sweating away in a small windowless room.” In addition to working on the new album, Isis members have also been keeping themselves busy with multiple side projects. (more…)

Boston punk veterans, Street Dogs, have recently announced the first leg of their upcoming fall tour. The tour, which kicks off Sept. 11 in Houston, comes shortly after the group headlined this summer’s Warped Tour and released their latest disc, State of Grace, on July 1st. With an energetic live show that invokes much audience participation, look for Mike McColan (founding Dropkick Murphys’ singer) and company in a city near you. (more…)

Saturday’s lineup started with Balkan jazz/pop band, Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar, led by the world famous Serbian Trumpet player Boban Markovic, and his son, Marko. The group had already performed at Pitchfork’s preview night in Millenium Park where they were met with a great reception. An untimely rain shower saturated the ground at Union Park making for a grimy, sludgy mess. All of a sudden the numerous hipster girls in knee high rain boots looked like they had the right idea, instead of questionable taste in footwear. Many concertgoers still sore over not having been born in time Woodstock four decades ago smeared the mud on their bodies and faces (No wonder the port-a-potties got so disgusting so quickly!).
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The post-hardcore Canadians Cancer Bats have just begun a massive tour that will keep them on the road until mid-December. This monumental tour will take the Bats across the US and through the UK to play numerous dates throughout. For the US dates, the Bats will be supported by metalcore icons Bullet For My Valentine and Bleeding Through. When they cross the pond the Bats will part with BFMV and Bleeding Through to meet up with Welsh post-hardcore peers, Funeral For a Friend. (more…)

On Sept. 16th fans of Tom Verlaine will be delighted to know that two of his critically acclaimed Warner Bros. releases, Dreamline (1981) and Words From the Front (1982) are to be reissued on Collectors Choice. From the ashes of Televison, Verlaine’s critically acclaimed band, Verlaine emerged to forge these two great works. Of his nine post-Television albums, Dreamline and Front are often disputed as his best. With an all-star cast of musicians including former Television bass player, Fred Smith, and Bruce Brody of Patti Smith and The Pretenders, Verlaine’s sophomore album Dreamline contains such hits as “There’s a Reason”, “Penetration” and “Always.” (more…)

I’m standing on the sidewalk with Tim Fite outside Chicago’s Landmark Theatre shortly after Fite has delivered an inspired and truly beguiling set. Bathed in streetlight, Fite shows me his pink, argyle socks before explaining that his new record, Fair Ain’t Fair (Anti-), is an album of violent regrets and was recorded during one of the lowest emotional points in his life.

Then he laughs and begins talking about his keen socks again. To say the least, Fite is somewhat of an enigma. Having lambasted capitalism and delved headfirst into hip hop on his free 2007 online release Over the Counter Culture, Fite returns to his folk leanings on the new record Fair Ain’t Fair, and outdoes Beck in his “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to genre cross-stitching and lyrical playfulness. (more…)

In an announcement recently posted by the band, Annihilation Time has confirmed that they will be forced to cancel all of their Bay Area shows. Though the band has been rather vague about the exact reasons, they did disclose that two of their San Francisco shows will be canceled due to family issues within the band; the July 21 show was canceled because the venue “fell through.” (more…)

Rage Against the Machine frontman, Zach De La Rocha, and former Mars Volta drummer, Jon Theodore, have teamed up to form a prospective side-project called One Day as a Lion. With Theodore manning the sticks and Rocha taking over vocal duties and playing keyboards, the super group seems to be doing pretty well for itself despite little publicity and having formed Lion only a few months ago. On July 1st the duo was signed almost instantaneously to Anti-Records without fans even hearing a note. (more…)

With the Night Marchers‘ latest, See You In Magic, now a few months old, the band is ready to begin their next tour in support of the album. The tour, which commenced on July 17th in front of the Marchers’ hometown crowd in San Diego, will also include several festival appearances, including this weekend’s Download Festival in Los Angeles. The Marchers will also make festival appearances at the Øya Festival in Oslo, Norway and the Monolith Festival in Morrison, Colorado. (more…)