Teletextile released the video for a new track, The Lark, filmed in California a couple of months back. The band’s Reflector EP came out last year and we noted that but they are also playing some dates around the USA and especially at SXSW.

You can get the EP free HERE. We may have posted this before two but, what can you do?

Check out the video HERE.

Tour

MARCH
4   Boston, MA - Oxfam at Tuft University
14 Nashville, TN - The Basement 8pm w/ Reptar, High Dials and Walk the Moon
15 Houston, TX - Fitzgerald's 8pm w/ Small Black, Sun Airways, Eternal Summers
16 Austin, TX - SXSW - Thai Fresh - 9pm Acoustic Set w/Agent Ribbons
17 Austin, TX - SXSW - Lucky Lounge Berklee Show 3:30pm
19 Austin, TX  - SXSW - Shiner's Saloon Backbeat Magazine Show 6pm
20 San Antonio, TX - Jack's Bar 8pm
21 Dallas, TX - TBA
22 New Orleans, LA - Prytania Music & Spirits 8pm
24 Carrborro, NC - Jessee's 8pm
29 New York, NY - Pianos

Germ Free Adolescents from X-ray Spex was one of my fave albums years ago and that was years after its actual release. Poly Styrene (who probably wasn’t initially named that) has kept up the good fight and is releasing a new CD Generation Indigo on Future Noise Music (the record was produced by Youth from Killing Joke etc).

You can check out a mix (the CREEP remix) of the track, Virtual Boyfriend, HERE. We have written a couple of times about Brooklyn DJ/producer/musicians Creep (Lauren Flax and Lauren Dillard).

Jessica 6 , fronted by Nomi Ruiz, has a debut record coming  on May 24 on Peacefrog Records. The album is titled See The Light and you can see a video for the single White Horse below. The press releases for Jessica 6 go on about style and fashion. I have three pairs of jeans and two suits (one appropriate for funerals). I don’t give a shit about fashion but I mention it because, you, gentle reader might.

The rest of the band is rounded out by  bassist Andrew Raposo and keyboardist  Morgan Wiley. Think electronic R& B and you will not be too far off the mark. They are playing some dates too;

Shows
March 1 NYC @ Mercury Lounge (8pm)
March 10 Chicago, IL @ Double Door
March 11 Washington, DC @ U Street Music Hall

Rachel Platten, of NYC, is releasing, Be Here, April 26 via Rock Ridge Music. The New York Post apparently said it blends sweet delicateness with pluck. They also said a headless body was found near topless bar (actually that last one is just my fave old-school Post headline).

Platten is out on tour right now. She is a native of Boston and has trained classically.

Find out more at www.rachelplatten.com.

For the third year the Bring Our Music Back Festival (B.O.M.B.) is bringing together some big time acts for the Memorial Day Weekend. Tickets go on sale at bombdest.com at 6 a.m. Friday, March 4.  Man, Friday is the day for buying tickets to festivals, Pitchfork, the new Rockville Fest in Jacksonville….and now this.  The cost for two day passes is $109.

BOMB Fest takes place at Western Connecticut State University (cause, really, what says “education” like Snoop Dog?) at 43 Lake Ave, Danbury, CT.

Proceeds from this fest benefit Bring Our Music Back which provides scholarshipls. Music enrichment and education programs, music and healing initiatves and more. This year they announced an Emerging Artist Scholarship Fund at Western Connecticut State University.

The Bands this year;

Weezer     
Snoop Dogg
Wiz Khalifa
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Coheed And Cambria
Neon Trees
State Radio
George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic
The New Pornographers
Shpongle presents The Shpongletron Experience 
Against Me!
Best Coast
HEALTH
RJD2
Titus Andronicus
The Cool Kids
Wavves
EOTO
Portugal. The Man
Man Man
Dum Dum Girls
The Felice Brothers
Dam-Funk
Freelance Whales
Holy Fuck
Daedelus
Quintron and Miss Pussycat
Dan Deacon
12th Planet
Free Energy
Woods
Real Estate 
Nosaj Thing
The Hood Internet
Toubab Krewe
ESKMO    
Small Black
River City Extension
Big Freedia
David Wax Museum 
Roots of Creation
Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez
Walk the Moon
AND more than 25 local artists.
 

One of my favorite new bands of the past few years is Welsh-band, The Joy Formidable. They are heading out on tour this March through April and I am woefully late in posting this information. They will also play at Coachella on the tour. The band’s new record, The Big Roar, comes out March 15 (it is already out in the UK). The band’s first record, A Balloon Called Moaning came out in 2009.  The music video for one song. Austere, is below.

Heading out on this tour as an opener is The Lonely Forest. I had two sets of dates from both bands and they didn’t line up. I do know The Lonely Forest are hitting SXSW on March 24 and that they have two headline dates in early March (March 3 in Seattle at  The Vera Project and March 5 in  Anacortes, WA at  The Port Warehouse). Click on  the band name above for updated tour dates You can hear music from  The Lonely Forest ‘s March 22 release, Arrows, HERE.

Tour
3/22 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
3/24 Durham, NC  @ Coffeehouse @ Duke Univ.
3/25 Washington DC @ Black Cat
3/26 Albany, NY @ Valentines
3/28 Providence, RI @ The Met
3/29 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
3/30 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's
3/31 Princton, NJ @ Terrace Club @ Princeton Univ.
4/1 Harrisburg, PA @ The Abbey
4/2 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
4/4 Columbus, OH @ The Basement
4/5 Chicago , IL @ Lincoln Hall
4/6 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
4/8 Denver, CO @ Larimier Lounge
4/9 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
4/11 Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studio
4/12 Seattle, WA @ Crocodile
4/14 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
4/16 Indio, CA @ Coachella
4/19 Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
4/20 Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
4/22 St Louis, MO @ Luminary Arts Center
4/23 Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room
4/26 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
4/27 Pittsburgh, PA @ The Smiling Moose
4/29 New York, NY @ Webster Hall

Danish pedal steel player, Maggie Bjorklund, has worked with Mark Pickerel, Rachel Flotard’s Cobirds Unite. But now she is heading out on her own, releasing a solo record, Coming Home (comes out March 22 on Bloodshot). The record includes guest appearances by Flotard, members of Calexico, Mark Lanegan and Jon Auer.

Bjorklund is from Denmark. There is a story in how she came to play pedal steel, an instrument more common in Nashville and Lubbock than Denmark (or one would imagine.) The label press release calls the album “psychedelic desert pop music” and then something about a grimy cantina. Sounds good to me.

The world can always use a new rock n roll festival and thank the gods Jacksonville is gonna supply us with one. Rockville Festival (ok…not much of a name) will feature the likes of Godsmack, Seether, Stone Sour, Theory of a Deadman, Puddle of Mudd, Skillet, Halestorm, Rev Theory, My Darkest Days and a load of others.. More rock than you can shake a stick at, three stages and over 20 bands on a one day. And that day is May 8 in Metropolitan Park, 1410 Gator Bowl Blvd.

The price is right too. The festival costs $39.50 and tickets go on sale March 4 at www.welcometorockvillefestival.com. Thre will also be a “presale event” on March 1. For more info on this head to www.x1029.com and  www.facebook.com/rock1045. Get tickets in advance because they will go up the day of the show.

You can als get a $90 VIP ticket which includes VIP entry, access to a VIP loung area with a bar and food service. You get premium viewing of the main stage etc etc etc. Not very rock n roll to let people with more money to get better seats though.

Ezra Furman & The Harpoons will be playing several shows at SXSW and then heading out on the road for a headlining tour. They release the band’s third full length, Mysterious Power, April 5, 2011. The are offering a free track from the upcoming release, Hard Time in a Terrible Land, for free download via the band’s Soundcloud page.

The band first appeared in 2007 ..or at least that is when they released Banging Down Doors. They performed with Lou Reed at SXSW in years past and have toured tons as an opener and hit a slew of festivals as well, including Lollapalooza, FM4 Fest (Austria) and Primavera Sound Festival (Barcelona)

SXSW

3/16 Austin, TX @ Hole In The Wall/Texas Jump Start 4, 4 p.m.
3/16 Austin, TX @ Paste Magazine Party, 6 p.m.
3/17 Austin, TX @ Township at Teddy's Party, 5:45 p.m.
3/18 Austin, TX @ Hyatt Second Play Stage, 6 p.m.
3/19 Austin, TX @ The Rumbler Lounge/Consequence of Sound Party, 5 p.m.
3/19 Austin, TX @ Speakeasy/Official SXSW Showcase, 11 p.m.

TOUR
(w/ Tristen and Apache Relay)

4/3 Nashville, TN @ 12Th& Porter
4/6 Vienna, VA@ Jammin' Java
4/7 Allston, MA @ Great Scott
4/8 New York, NY @ The Studio at Webster
4/9 Philadelphia, PA @ North Star Bar
4/12 Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
4/13 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom & Tavern
4/14 Columbus, OH @ The Basement
4/15 St. Louis, MO @ The Firebird
4/16 Champaign, IL @ High Dive
4/21 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
4/22 Madison, WI @ The Frequency
4/23 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
4/28 Iowa City, IA @ The Mill
4/29 Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
4/30 Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive
5/6 Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite
5/7 San Diego, CA @ The Loft @ UCSD
5/12 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of The Hill
5/14 Seattle, WA @ The Tractor Tavern
5/15 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge

British duo, Summer Camp offer their first single, I Want You, off their as yet unreleased full length. There isn’t a release date yet so you are just going to have to be patient. The band will be playing at the Mercury Lounge in New York City on March 2 and at The Echo in LA on March 10.

Also look for them playing at SXSW at the Forrest Family/Transgressive Records showcase. There will be additional dates coming in the not too distant future. You can check out the single, I Want You, above.