ED SCHRADER's MUSIC BEAT on tour with FUTURE ISLANDS

Halloween again! and we have news of the touring variety for you. Next year we're releasing an album by Ed Schrader's Music Beat entitled 'Jazzmind' Right now they are touring with our old friends (no pun intended) Future Islands. So, if you are stateside or like travelling here's the full tour dates for you...

US Tour with ED SCHRADER'S MUSIC BEAT

November 1 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry
November 2 - Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
November 3 - Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Saloon
November 4 - Norman, OK @ The Opolis
November 5 - Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest
November 7 - Marfa, TX @ Padre's
November 8 - Santa Fe, NM @ VFW
November 9 - Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
November 10 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
November 11 - Boise, ID @ Neurolux
November 12 - Seattle, WA @ The Vera Project
November 13 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
November 15 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
November 16 - Santa Barbara, CA @ Muddy Waters
November 17 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echoplex
November 18 - Long Beach, CA @ Alex's Bar
November 19 - San Diego, CA @ Casbah
November 20 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
November 23 - New Orleans, LA @ Circle Bar
November 25 - Birmingham, AL @ The Bottletree
November 26 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl (w/Lonnie Walker)
November 27 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle (w/Lonnie Walker)
November 28 - Wilmington, NC @ Soapbox (w/Lonnie Walker)
November 29 - Charlottesville, VA @ Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
November 30 - Lancaster, PA @ The Lizard Lounge
December 1 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom (w/Zomes)
December 2 - Philadelphia, PA @ Kungfu Necktie
December 3 - Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar



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GENTLE FRIENDLY - 'Rrrrrrr' EP out NOW!

Kiwi Chang Cane MP3

Yes, we're very happy to shout from the rooftops that Gentle Friendly's new EP entitled 'Rrrrrrr' is OUT NOW through Upset The Rhythm on heavyweight white vinyl. You can buy it in all good stores around the world or from our webshop for £7 (inc. p+p within the UK) HERE!!!

Here's more on the record...

GENTLE FRIENDLY are a duo from London, comprised of David Morris and Richard Manber, who have a penchant for circular melodies, tidal fuzz and rapid junked rhythms. With an austere setup of casio keyboard, vocals and drums (sometimes electronic) the band push against the pop boundary, trapping their songs on record like a continuous sun-warped field recording. 2009 saw Gentle Friendly release their debut album ‘Ride Slow’ to critical acclaim, Uncut considered “No Age, Ponytail and Health as spiritual kin” whilst Pitchfork even cited Clipse and Lil Wayne as influences on the band. Since then Gentle Friendly have remodeled and rebuilt their sound into a stronger beast at their home studio called Deep House. Bringing us up to date, new EP ‘Rrrrrrr’ is the first fruit to fall from the tree, with its seven tracks washing the band’s more insistent prism punk alongside more tender, filmic textures.

‘Rrrrrrr’ as its name suggests uses repetition and a certain minimalist touch to create a wonderfully poignant wide-eyed record. But why Rrrrrrr? Rrrrrrr can be the sound of an engine idling, a death rattle, the buzz and howl under the influence of heat. The EP is standing in for a reality, away from words and closer to feeling, following instincts and worshipping the detail. Bittersweet in its tendency to mix more ecstatic moments alongside some contemplative pools, ‘Rrrrrrr’ shows how the band’s emotional range has grown since their debut. Opener ‘Kiwi Chang Cane’ leaps out of a nature sleep, the song swimming with resonance whilst its drums beat and tumble a path through the sidestepping static rush. The song races onwards, with gleeful ascending keyboards reaching out in a questlike fashion akin to the song’s Shaolin monk namesake’s attempt to find his lost brother. Meanwhile ‘Speakers’ finds Gentle Friendly in ballad form with gattling gun snare hits and David’s most heartfelt vocal yet. “Put your arm around the speaker … it’s like dancing without moving” he sings into the relative space of the track, moving focus squarely on a sense of resigned simplicity.

‘Rrrrrrr’ is a development for the band in terms of sound and production as much as lyrical scope and understanding. While their self-acknowledged influences (Arthur Russell, Bruce Springsteen, Top 40 hip-hop) are detectable, this record showcases Gentle Friendly as a band who have found their own language, drawing on nostalgia and ritual in equal measure, whilst continuing the tradition of English eccentricity and popular song. ‘Rome Rome’ sees Gentle Friendly at their most immediate, vacillating on overheard music David sings “On the radio she said you should put on a ring, if you like it, if you like it, turn it off”. His metronomic vocal delivery is unstoppable, the percussive treatment dicing itself into each spare beat, creating a feeling of transcendence and of galloping rush. In comparison, ‘Love Scenes’ is a positively nocturnal shift with its clubby house kick and spectral synth soup and panning drum shuffles. Seamlessly blending into ‘Rrride Slow’ with its pitched down vocal gurgle and channelled depths of caveman techno, the record enjoys throwing organic nature against distanced electronics in an almost meditative way.

Overlapping rhythms, looped mixtapes and revisited lyrical themes make rebirth an important touchstone for this release. This is perhaps best distilled with the track entitled ‘Rrrrr’. Stammering repetition finds a home in swirls of chorus-inflected atmosphere, chiming bells and shaken metal. There’s a feeling of inevitability in the slow melodic cycling and tribal drumming, the whole effect is one of focusing inwards and devotional crescendo. Gentle Friendly are masters of aching sentiment, overheard static and enraptured awakening and with this record they turn the quiet repeated actions of our everyday into a blissful all-consuming wave of saturation.

* See GENTLE FRIENDLY play LIVE with ISLET at The Lexington on November 16th!! More here: http://www.atpfestival.com/newsview/1110280956.php

GROUP INERANE poster!!

Thanks to Rachel Aggs for this wonderful poster!!
I wish I had a shirt like that.
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WEEK END!!

Our friends in Cologne are throwing an awesome festival at the start of December in a former movie theatre! There's loads of UTR favourites playing like High Places, John Maus, R. Stevie Moore and Gary War alongside many more! Check out their video trailer below and the website at the end of this!

WEEK-END FEST 2011 Trailer from WEEK-END on Vimeo.

WEEK-END FEST WEBSITE

PITILESS CENSORS BACK IN STOCK on GREEN VINYL

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JOHN MAUS - Coming to London!!

Thanks to Gina Baber for this great poster!
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WAY THROUGH - Arrow Shower LP out TODAY

WAY THROUGH are a pastoral punk duo originally from Shropshire, now residing in London. Informed by the field as much as the flyover, Way Through write songs which phase in and out with guitar, tapes, damaged drums and vocals. Using wrong-footed repetition, rapid interplay and free-looping happenstance the band create a ragged yet intuitive tapestry of sound. Their songs walk the streets of market towns, wait forever at bus stops and lose themselves in edgelands. 'Arrow Shower' is the title of Way Through's debut album, recorded in their practice space Deep House during a particularly heavy snowstorm in early winter 2011. The name of the album is taken from a set text of Philip Larkin's 'Whitsun Weddings' heavily annotated by a 14 year old schoolboy found in a junk shop in Much Wenlock, often described as England's most perfect village. Way Through find great resonance with the spirit of place and try and channel its feeling into their music, joining the dots between lost places and deteriorating histories. 'Arrow Shower' is out in stores from TODAY and you can buy it from UTR now here!

JOHN MAUS - Heading To The Old Country

That's right, John is coming over to Europe for the first time since 'Pitiless Censors' has been released. It's going to be an amazing trip and joining him at many of the shows will be his long time friend GARY WAR. A few more dates will be confirmed around this so watch this space!
We CANNOT wait!

JOHN MAUS
+ WINTER 2011 EUROPEAN TOUR +

11.11.2011 DK – Copenhagen – Kunsthal Charlottenborg*
13.11.2011 SE – Stockholm – Debaser*
14.11.2011 FI – Turku - Dynamo
17.11.2011 UK - London - Tuffnel Park Dome* + Maria Minerva
18.11.2011 IRL - Dublin - Whelans
19.11.2011 TR - Istanbul - Arkaoda
21.11.2011 GR - Athens - TBA
23.11.2011 PT – Lisbon – ZDB*
25.11.2011 ESP – Madrid – Primavera Club*
26.11.2011 ESP – Barcelona – Primavera Club*
27.11.2011 NL – Utrecht – Le Guess Who Festival
29.11.2011 FR – Paris - Maroquineri*
03.12.2011 DE – Berlin – Berghain*

* = with GARY WAR

KIT - OUT OF RUINS video!!!

KIT "Out of Ruins" music video from Steven Andrew Garcia on Vimeo.

Yeh, here's a new video for KIT's song 'Out Of Ruins', taken from their recent album 'Invocation' on Upset The Rhythm.

The 16mm film captures a Predator-masked kid with a guitar-smashing complex trailing around Los Angeles fulfilling his primal urge to destroy. We think it looks insane and wonderful so wanted to share it with you, look out for Jim Smith on the telephone too, "hello!"

Steven Andrew Garcia is a director/photographer in Los Angeles, California. He has directed music videos for bands including Mika Miko and Blackblack and has shot videos for bands including UTR pals Male Bonding and Former Ghosts.

More videos & photos by Steven Andrew Garcia can be seen at Stalagmite.TV

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NO BABIES - MADE IN AMERICA TOUR 2011

Hey No Babies are about to set off on tour in the US of A, go see them!!! All dates on this epic super tour are with Whitman from Los Angeles too. Oh yeh!
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08/29 - Los Angeles, CA - Pehrspace - 325 Glendale Blvd.
08/30 - Phoenix, AZ - Yellow Canary Dance Hall - 2450 E. Chambers St
08/31 - Las Cruces, NM - La Casa Rosa - 308 W. Bowman
09/01 - Amarillo, TX - The Church - 223 West 7th St
09/02 - Fort Worth, TX - 1919 Hemphill - 1919 Hemphill St.
09/03 - Austin, TX - House On The Corner - 100 E. 30th
09/04 - New Orleans, LA - TBA
09/05 - Pensacola , FL - 309 House - 309 N Sixth Ave.
09/06 - Orlando, FL - Substance Gallery - 934 N Mills Ave.
09/07 - Gainesville, FL - The Laboratory - 818 W. University Ave.
09/08 - Mobile, AL - TBA
09/09 - Montgomery/Auburn/Birmingham, AL - TBA
09/10 - Nashville, TN - Betty's Bar and Grill - 407 49th Ave. N.
09/11 - Atlanta, GA - Wonderroot - 982 Memorial Drive
09/12 - Athens, GA - Plush Palace - 260 N Chase St
09/13 - Chapel Hill, NC - Nightlight - 405 1/2 W. Rosemary St.
09/14 - Richmond, VA - Strange Matter - 929 W. Grace St.
09/15 - Washington, DC - TBA
09/16 - Baltimore, MD - Emerald City - 419 E Oliver St
09/17 - Brooklyn, NY - Death By Audio - 49 S 2nd St.
09/18 - Philadelphia, PA -Marvelous Records - 208 S 40th St
09/19 - Pittsburgh, PA - TBA
09/20 - Detroit, MI - PJ's Lager House - 1254 Michigan Avenue
09/21 - Cleveland, OH - Now That's Class - 11213 Detroit Avenue
09/22 - Chicago, IL - TBA
09/23 - Iowa City, IA - Blue Moose Tap House - 211 Iowa Ave.
09/24 - Omaha, NE - House Show - 46th and Dodge
09/25 - Manhattan, KS - The Ghost Parlor - 1005 Poyntz
09/26 - Denver, CO - Rhinoceropolis - 3553 Brighton Blvd
09/27 - Salt Lake City, UT - Chthonic Records House - 155 S Hawkes Court
09/28 - Boise, ID - 208 House - 208 18th Street
09/29 - Seattle, WA - The Funny Button - 4743 8th Ave. NE
09/30 - Vancouver, BC - Zoo Zhop - 223 Main St. V6A2S7
10/01 - Olympia, WA - Grandma's House - 720 SW Thomas St
10/02 - Portland, OR - Watts House - 2622 N Watts
10/03 - Reno, NV - The Holland Project - 30 Cheney St
10/04 - Oakland, CA - TBA
10/05 - Sacramento, CA - TBA
10/06 - Los Angeles, CA - The Smell - 247 S. Main St.