Recommended if you like:
Maps, Amusement Parks on Fire, Engineers, Televise, The December Sound, Fleeting Joys, Curve, The Radio Dept., The Mary Onettes

From Gothenburg, Sweden comes alternative electro-rock act Hearts of Black Science with their melancholic and sometimes dark pop with haunting melodies. In the winter of November 2005, the two childhood friends Daniel Änghede and Tomas Almgren met up after Tomas had spent the last seven years in London and Berlin, working on a career as a horror movie director and Daniel’s band had just split up so they decided to join forces.

In April of 2006 the band released a self financed EP that sold out in just 2 months on Myspace and a second EP was released the following month. The band was signed shortly after the A&R scout from Club AC30 saw them performing their second gig ever at the Water Rats Theatre in London. The debut album The Ghost You Left Behind was released by the London based record company in the spring of 2007. The full-length was later followed by two singles, Empty City Lights & Driverlights.
A digital download single of Walking With the Sun, a CD collection of remixes & unused tracks and a new album will be out in 2009.

Hearts of Black Science have been touring in the U.K several times and BBC radio invited the duo twice to perform live on air on the Gideon Coe and Tom Robinson shows. The album has been praised by both international press and their fans, Swedens – Zero Music Magazine gave the album 9 / 10 and U.S based – Virus Magazine gave it 8 / 10. The album has also been released in Japan as a special edition by Quince Records and Broken Silence released the album in Germany on the 20th of July.

The band has also been featured on a charity compilation CD sharing the spotlight with such acts as Client and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

As a live act Hearts of Black Science incorporates additional musicians to bring an even more intense dynamic to their show. The band will keep promoting their music and continue to do shows around the world.

http://sonicliving.com/event/1666107

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010:
The Mary Onettes, Magic Bullets, Here Come the Saviours

$10 adv/$12 door

Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell St., San Francisco, CA

The Mary Onettes

The Mary Onettes’ critically acclaimed debut was described as the perfect mix between A-ha and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Now they are back with a grandiose new album. Imagine a Swedish equivalent of The National on a diet of speed, Planet Earth DVDs, and 80’s guitar pop singles and you’ll have a vague idea of how amazing this is. “At their best, the band positively nailed the bruised romanticism and exquisite melancholy that marked a certain strain of that decade’s [80s] best pop.” — Pitchfork
http://www.myspace.com/themaryonettes

Magic Bullets

“Formed in 2004, six-piece San Francisco band Magic Bullets draw from a shared love of post-punk/1980s alt-rock bands such as Orange Juice, the Sound, the Feelies, and Talking Heads.” — AllMusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/magicbullets

Here Come the Saviours

Guitar noise-pop from ex-members of the Otherside, Stratford 4, and the Tail.

http://www.myspace.com/herecomethesaviours

Strange Boys – ‘Be Brave’

Best Coast – ‘When I’m With You’

Vadoinmessico – ‘In Spain’

Peter Wolf Crier – ‘Crutch and Cane’

Ivan & Alyosha – ‘Easy To Love’

Chapterhouse vocalist Stephen Patman tells Under the Radar, “This really is a one off deal for us so there are no plans for any further shows after these North American dates. It is the original line up except for Greg Moore who is filling in for Russell Barrett on bass.”

The band formed in 1987 and released two albums, 1991’s Whirlpool and 1993’s Blood Music. Chapterhouse were one of the leaders of the now highly influential shoegazing scene that included such artists as Ride, Lush, and Slowdive (and, to a lesser extent, My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins). -undertheradar

Recommended if you like: Blonde Redhead, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YtB4kxfQPs

Dates:

May 1st – Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto
May 3rd – The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY
May 5th – Lincoln Hall, Chicago
May 6th – Tractor Tavern, Seattle
May 7th – Troubadour, LA
May 8th – Mezzanine, San Francisco

http://www.chapterhouse.info
http://www.myspace.com/chapterhouseofficial

Grand Atlantic
This song reminds me of so many bands that I can’t grasp one outright. Brit Rock meets mid-90’s grunge.
Recommended if you like: Swervedriver, Stone Temple Pilots

The Mummers

The Howling Bells
Recommended if you like: The Duke Spirit, The Long Blondes, The Joy Formidable, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Doves

National Skyline
Recommended if you like: Hum, Jeremy Enigk

National Skyline was a band formed in Champaign-Urbana, IL, by Jeff Dimpsey of Hum to perform a 45-minute long song he had written. In 1999, Dimpsey and vocalist/guitarist Jeff Garber (Castor) released their self-titled mini-LP on Parasol Records. A live tour that consisted only of Garber, Blacklist/Compound Red guitarist James Minor, re-worked electronic tracks and a blinding, strobe-heavy light show followed. The band promptly signed to Philadelphia’s File 13, but not before contributing an early demo called “Eurorak” to the Parasol Records’ Sweet Sixteen, Volume 2 compilation. Upon tour’s end, Dimpsey and Garber quickly recorded and released their Exit Now EP. Minor was made an official member, and the three convened later that year to write and record their full-length debut, This = Everything. Garber jumped ship shortly after the record’s release, moving to Los Angeles to join the short lived Year Of The Rabbit.

In 2006, Garber leaked information about a new project on the group’s MySpace account, without involvement from Dimpsey or Minor, including the new track “Pack Up,” and launched the group’s homepage – a Byzantine series of clipart images in a Flash animation ending with the eagle logo and the words “FAUX EVIL.”

In early 2007, Garber posted two new songs and a blog entry on the group’s myspace page indicating that a new National Skyline record would be forthcoming.

Highly recommended if you like: Interpol, The Stone Roses, The Chameleons, Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Echo & The Bunnymen and any other early 90s guitar based British Rock/Pop

http://www.mediafire.com/?90ln3eyi30m
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5541SAMT

“Adorable arrived when the shoegazer scene in England was starting to fade away. Formed in Coventry, England, in late 1990, Adorable was comprised of Piotr Fijalkowski (vocals, guitar), Robert Dillam (guitar), Wil (bass), and Kevin Gritton (drums). The band’s wall of shimmering riffs drew comparisons to shoegazer icons such as My Bloody Valentine and Ride; however, their most noticeable influence was Echo & the Bunnymen as Fijalkowski has a harrowed, melancholic voice similar to Ian McCulloch’s. The group didn’t deny its Bunnymen worship in the U.K. press, either, as Fijalkowski stated in one interview that the Bunnymen were even superior to the Doors. Adorable recorded their first single, “Sunshine Smile,” in 1991. However, the 800 copies made of it were never released. In January 1992, the band met Alan McGee, the owner of the British independent label Creation Records, at a pub in Coventry. The group signed with Creation and “Sunshine Smile” finally appeared in April of that year. The record was voted Single of the Week by the U.K. magazine NME and hit number one on the indie charts. But the band’s cockiness — which separated the group from faceless shoegazer acts — began to annoy critics. Adorable’s first album, Against Perfection, was released in 1993. The band then toured America for a month; however, Creation and the group’s U.S. label, SBK, were bickering, throwing Adorable into the crossfire. Although it made the Top 75, Against Perfection didn’t sell as heavily as it should’ve and reviewers — perhaps still turned off by the band’s arrogance — were not impressed. After Sony took over Creation, Adorable felt pressured in recording a follow-up LP that would keep them with the company. Unfortunately, 1994’s Fake didn’t have the snotty self-confidence of Against Perfection, and it flopped. Consequently, the group was dropped from Creation; a year later, they split up. Fijalkowski formed Polak in the late ’90s.” – by Michael Sutton

Recommended if you like: The Cure, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The XX

http://www.myspace.com/weareexlovers

SCHOONER
Duck Kee Sessions
(Cytunes)
Release Date: February 9, 2010

Schooner – “Feel Better”

Hailing from Carrboro, NC, Schooner is a four-member band currently comprised of Reid Johnson (whose sister, Kathryn, played and recorded on all of the band’s material until recently), Billy Alphin (The Ashley Stove, The Rosebuds), Maria Albani (Organos, Pleasant), and Chris Badger (Hotel Lights). Together they create an understated, disheveled pop sound that ranges from narcotic sad-eyed tunes to erratic rock numbers highlighted by boy-girl harmonies and impressionist lyrics.
Schooner has released two full-length albums, You Forget About Your Heart (Pox World Empire Records) and Hold on Too Tight (54, 40 or Fight Records), along with a few limited edition EP’s. Their latest EP release Duck Kee Sessions recorded at the legendary Jerry Kee’s Duck Kee Studios (Superchunk, Kingsbury Manx, Polvo) will be released exclusively on Cytunes.org, a music downloading site that donates all proceeds to brain cancer research.
Soon after Cy Rawls, a music scene staple in NC and friend of the band, began his struggle with brain cancer, Cytunes was conceived of by Chris Rossi (Spacelab Studio) to help with mounting hospital bills. After Rawls passed away in October 2008, the concept of Cytunes changed; it became a site where musicians can upload music (Superchunk, The Rosebuds, Polvo, and many more artists have exclusive material on the site), and fans can purchase music with 100% of the proceeds going to brain cancer research.
Johnson has released music on the site via The Flute Flies, a studio band which consists of he, Ivan Howard (The Rosebuds), and Zeno Gill (Pox World Empire), and realized that Cytunes was the most meaningful place for Schooner’s newest recordings. The band began talking with Chris Rossi about selling download codes at their shows for Duck Kee Sessions and incorporating friends’ artwork to buy via codes as well.
Contributing artists’ artwork will be featured at the Duck Kee Sessions EP release party. The artwork will be available February 19, 2010 at The Pinhook in Durham with Erie Choir, Veelee, and The Popular Kids, a comedy troupe that counts Cy Rawls and Johnson as former members. Some of the artists include: Ron Liberti (Pipe), Chris Williams (Plastic Flame Press), Will Hackney (Trekky Records, Lost in the Trees), and Catherine Edgerton (Midtown Dickens).
Schooner will be recording another full-length album in the Spring of 2010.

http://www.schoonermusic.com/info.htm

http://www.myspace.com/schooner

http://cytunes.org