RISE AGAINST are just a few weeks out from the release of their 5th studio album, Appeal To Reason. They recorded the album at The Blasting Room with producer/drummer/all around cool guy Bill Stevenson, who’s handled the knob-twisting role for the band in the past.

The band just posted a new track “Re-Education Through Labor” up on their Myspace page. It’s a first listen for most of the public, and hopefully a good indication of what we’re in for on October 7th. Upon first listen it’s pretty impressive to hear how much frontman Tim McIlrath’s voice has grown. Yes he’s always been able to belt out a good scream but it seems he’s grown into it and the vocals prompting them to be a bit higher in the mix on this song.

MP3: Rise Against :: “Re-Education Through Labor” via Myspace.

The band kicks off a big fall tour with one of the best lineups in a while, so great we’re dubbing it the “Tour Of Awesome” in the office. Check out the dates, album art and tracklisting after the jump. (more…)

Ladies and gentleman, we bring you space rock! Here’s some new music from THE SECRET MACHINES. The band announced earlier they would be self-releasing their new album, and follow-up to 2006’s Ten Silver Drops.

The album comes out soon, in the meantime, space out to this non-album track right now.

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MP3: Secret Machines :: “Dreaming Of Dreaming”

We’re still nearly 2 months out before KINGS OF LEON release their new album, Only By The Night but that won’t stop the advance hype from coming. Today, Spin.com released the first bit of music from the new album. “Crawl” supposdly isn’t the first single but it definitely doesn’t sound like a throw away track either. It’s surprisingly different, donning a more spacey sound (ala Secret Machines) with a thumping bass and some booming drums.

The track will be available for free download on Spin.com for one week. Just long enough for every blogger that needs it to have it we rekon.

MP3: Kings Of Leon :: “Crawl”

You can also check out a teaser trailer for the album now.

Today COLD WAR KIDS made an MP3 of the first single from their new album, Loyalty To Loyalty available to the public. The song, “Something Is Not Right With Me” marks the first time we got to hear new music since we attended a listening party a few weeks back.

The song was put out through the band’s own website as well as Downtown’s digital label RCRD LBL.

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MP3: Cold War Kids :: “Something Is Not Right With Me”
PRE-ORDER: Cold War Kids :: Loyalty To Loyalty

Loyalty To Loyalty will hit stores this September. Check out the teaser clip for the album which features another new track, “I’ve Seen Enough”.

ADAM TURLA lead singer/drinker of MURDER BY DEATH has released a new track online. The song, called “The Moon Is Up” was posted on a myspace page Turla made for the song, which is described as a B-Side.

Is seems Turla posted the track strictly to share, because reading the page gives off no notification there’s a solo album in the works. No art, no friends and a post that friend requests and comments will not be approved.

MP3: Adam Turla :: “The Moon Is Up”

When it comes to discovering a new band, there are various ways to separate yourself from the pack and make others take notice. One of the easiest way is to cover a song by a more popular band. But doing so can be kinda tricky. There’s already a high level of expectation and if you don’t pull it off, you are just deemed lame.

When it comes to covering a Mclusky song - it seems nearly an impossibly task. For those that knew and loved the Cardiff band can seen how that could be a pretty daunting challenge. Attempting to repeat the energy and lightning-in-a-bottle spark the trio spewed out on a consistent basis.

When we heard Fight Like Apes did a cover of the first track on their seminal album, Mclusky Do Dallas we had some high standards going into things. We’re happy to report they nailed it! FLA frontwoman, Maykay yelps, yowls, and gives it her all. I think we may have just discovered Andy Falco’s female incarnate.

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MP3: Fight Like Apes :: “Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues” via Ego Eccentric.

CLUTCH are gearing up to release their first ever live DVD, Full Fathom Five on August 12th. The DVD will be culled from 4 live shows recorded in late 2007. Along with the DVD, there will be an accompanying live audio CD of the shows.

The band just debuted a live version of “Texan Book Of The Dead”. Check it out and get a preview of some live Clutch.

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MP3: Clutch :: “Texan Book Of The Dead (Live)”

Full Fathom Five artwork can be seen after the jump. (more…)

The last few months have shown NAS coming under fire for the title of his forthcoming album that was tentatively titled N*gger. Pressure from those around him forced him to change the name of the album. So he’s going simply with “Untitled” as the album title.

But the controversy over the album seems to have just fueled the hype on the album. On July 15th, we’ll see if that controversy helped or hurt Mr. Nasir Jones’ reputation. Hearing one of the new tracks from the record, “America” does lead us to believe that rep will just continue to grow.

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MP3: Nas :: “America” feat. Chris Brown from CMJ.com

In the meantime, head over to www.nasindependenceday.com and listen to what he’s calling “The N*gger Tape”, a collecion of songs that address the ramifications of the word. Some of these songs made it to the new album, others did not. In addition to a bunch of guest musicians (Busta Rhymes, Mark Ronson, The Last Poets) there’s also snippets of Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s speeches for the track “Black President”.

Check out the album tracklisting and art after the jump. (more…)

It hasn’t been released yet but THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM’S new album The ‘59 Sound is already one of our top albums of the year. We will make it an official declaration on August 19th when SideOneDummy puts the album in stores.

The band posted their first single and title track, “The ‘59 Sound” up on their Myspace page. Go listen, now! It’s no surprise the song has tinges of live-ness to it, a nod to Springsteen’s Born In the USA perhaps?

STREAM: The Gaslight Anthem :: “The ‘59 Sound” from the forthcoming album The ‘59 Sound on Mypace
MP3: The Gaslight Anthem :: “Blue Jeans And White T-Shirts” from the album Senor And The Queen via Spin.com

The band is on doing a small stint on Warped Tour this summer before heading overseas. But they will be back in time for some record release shows set up. One at the Knitting Factory in NYC on August 16th and one at the Middle East in Boston the next day. If you can’t get out to see them then, swing by Vintage Vinyl on August 19th, or Looney Tunes on August 20th for in-store performances.

PRE-ORDER: The Gaslight Anthem :: The ‘59 Sound

The summer of reunions continues with some brand-spankin’ new music from THE VERVE! We caught them on their reunion tour a few months back and are definitely psyched to see Richard and co writing some new tunes again!

The band just released a new song for us to get all worked up to. Check out the stream of the song “Love Is Noise” over at their myspace page.

MP3: The Verve :: “Love Is Noise”