Last night, Spoon played a super-packed super-secret show at New York City’s Mercury Lounge. The set focused heavily on material from their last three albums, Gimme Fiction, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, and the newly released Transference, as well as classic tracks like “Chicago At Night” and “The Fitted Shirt.” Spoon returns to New York City for a headlining show at Radio City Music Hall on March 26th. The bands latest album Transference was released on Tuesday and impacts College and Non-Commerical radio this week. Lead single “Written In Reverse” already sits atop the CMJ Radio Select Tracks chart.

Check out more photos below

The band’s latest album Vivarium is available digitally now and will be released via Red Bull Records in the early part of 2010.

Check out this widget that was put together by our online creative team. It features an entirely fan shot video for the band’s song “Old Grey Face.” The band invited everyone out to their show at Studio 24 overseas and asked them to shoot the performance. All of these fan clips where then put together to make a video.

The release of Vivarium is something The Syndicate’ entire team will be a part of in some capacity, street marketing, online street marketing, online publicity, radio, and online creative design. Go Team!

Click here to view the embedded video.

PURCHASE: Decade in the Sun: Best of Stereophonics

PATENT PENDING has announced they will be playing the CMJ Marathon. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Long Island group so we’re psyched to know that we’ll soon be able to put on our party pants and catch the P-Unit.

Thursday frontman, Geoff Rickly had the following to say.

“One of our biggest concerns was that we find a situation where we could be free to just be Thursday. Epitaph have continually voiced their desire to help us become the band that WE have always wanted to be. It’s a great feeling to have a label encourage you to be more socially conscious and politically active. It’s a great feeling to have a label owner push you to explore the most experimental and challenging aspects of your band’s music instead of dissuading you. It’s a truly great feeling to be working with a label that all of our friends have had so many great experiences with.”

Thursday will still release their forthcoming split EP with Japanese band Envy on Temporary Residence this fall but the band is already planning on putting out their 5th studio album in the spring of 2009.

Read the full press release after the jump.

THURSDAY SIGNS WITH EPITAPH
New Jersey’s Post-hardcore pioneers, Thursday, have signed to Epitaph with plans to release their fifth full-length album this spring.

For the last decade, Thursday has released groundbreaking, essential albums like 2001’s fan-favorite Full Collapse and 2003’s breakthrough release War All the Time, and played riveting shows, garnering hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide. As the band approaches their tenth anniversary, Thursday has dug deep to recapture the original fervor and fire to make their most honest and sincere record to date.

Having had their share of ups and downs with record companies in the past, the band was determined to find a label that was as passionate about their artists as the band is about their music. The group signed with Epitaph Records in September based on their parallel values and the label’s reputation for its dedication to their bands.

“One of our biggest concerns was that we find a situation where we could be free to just be Thursday,” explains Thursday frontman, Geoff Rickly. “Epitaph have continually voiced their desire to help us become the band that WE have always wanted to be. It’s a great feeling to have a label encourage you to be more socially conscious and politically active. It’s a great feeling to have a label owner push you to explore the most experimental and challenging aspects of your band’s music instead of dissuading you. It’s a truly great feeling to be working with a label that all of our friends have had so many great experiences with.”

As Thursday enters the next phase with an enthusiastic group of kindred souls behind them, they are approaching their next effort with the same humility and passion that has elevated the band throughout their career. A reaffirmed socially conscious ideology and years of both experience and hindsight have found the band with their most authentic voice yet. Never ones to back down from their beliefs, Thursday is devoted to bring their fans their most thoughtful, inspiring album ever.

“We’ve always believed that music has the power to change lives and that all of us who have been lucky enough to make music for a living have a responsibility to try and make the world a more compassionate and livable place in any small way that they can” Geoff adds. “We hope that with Epitaph’s help and guidance we can do our part.”

Stay tuned for more details regarding Thursday’s forthcoming album.

MP3: Stereophonics :: “My Friends” from Pull The Pin
Go get Adobe Flash Player!

It’s going to be a pretty hectic fall for STEREOPHONICS. Over the next few months we will see The UK trio unleash a slew of new music upon us here in the states as well as their first US tour in nearly 3 years. So say there might be some saturation from Kelly Jones, Richard Jones, and Javier Weyler is an understatement.

First up will be their album, Pull The Pin which comes out on September 9th. Though the album has already be out overseas for the last year, it never got a proper release stateside (mostly in part because the band’s previous label, V2 closed its doors) and will be the band’s first album released here since 2005.

November 18th will mark the release of Decade In The Sun: The Best Of Stereophonics. The band’s greatest hits that will contain tracks from the band’s entire studio album catalog as well as 2 new tracks.

The band is also taking advantage of V2 closing to re-release their entire catalog on their own record label, Vox Populi. So before the end of the year you can get the entire 11-year history of Stereophonics. Not a bad way to go back to school.

Stereophonics Fall US Tour Dates:

9.5.08: Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
9.7.08: Toronto, ON – Virgin Festival
9.8.08: Philadelphia, PA – Wold Café Live
9.9.08: New York, NY – Webster Hall
9.11.08: Washington D.C. – 9:30 Club
9.12.08: Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Small Theatre
9.13.08: Chicago, IL – The Metro
9.16.08: Los Angeles, CA – Henry Fonda Theatre
9.17.08: San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
9.19.08: Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
9.20.08: Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
9.21.08: Seattle, WA – Showbox (Market)

The only actual member in the band we know of is Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly. Rickly has become the unofficial spokesperson/leader of the band since the rest of them are under contract with different labels and therefore haven’t revealed their true identities, let alone given interviews.

But after a quick browse of some message boards, the same few recurring bands/names come up – Daryl Palumbo (Head Automatica, Glassjaw), members from Converge, as well as members from The #12 Looks Like You and Made Out Of Babies all get mentions. Though we may never know the true identity of this band, we have one thing going for us…some new music! Their new album is streaming on the band’s Myspace page and on September 9th, we can all have it in our hands thanks to Eyeball Records.

STREAM: United Nations via Myspace.

You can check out a tracklisting of the record after the jump.

01. The Spinning Heart of The Yo-Yo Lobby
02. No Sympathy For A Sinking Ship
03. Resolution 9
04. Model UN
05. The Shape of Punk That Never Came
06. My Cold War
07. Filmed In Front of A Live Studio Audience
08. Revolutions In Graphic Design
09. I Keep Living The Same Day
10. Subliminal Testing
11. Say Goodbye To General Figment of The USS Imagintation

The band is putting out a 7-inch with tourmate and longtime friend. William Elliot Whitmore. This isn’t the first collaboration between The Death and Whitmore. Back in 2003 Whitmore provided some sing-about-buckshot-through-a-telephone backing vocals for the band’s sophomore album, Who Will Survive, And What Will Be Left Of Them?

They are doing this release in the classic split 7-inch style, with the band’s covering each other’s songs. Murder By Death hopes to make this the first of many future splits done in this style.

The pressing will be limited and available through a pre-order on their website starting September 15th. The band also plans to sell copies on their national tour with Whitmore. The artwork for the split will be done by Drew James, the same artist who did the art for Who Will Survive…

The Death’s have also convinced former keyboardist, Vincent Edwards to sit in with them for one of their Chicago dates (11.20 at the Metro). The remaining Vincent-less tour dates can be seen after the jump.

Tour Dates For Murder By Death:

08/28 – Indianapolis, IN – Birdy’s ^
08/20 – Madison, WI – The Annex ^
08/30 – Cedar Rapids, IA – Mission Creek Music And Arts Festival
08/31 – Chicago, IL – Bash On Wabash (free show)
09/18 – Champaign, IL – Pygmalion Festival
10/22 – Knoxville, TN – The Pilot Light ^
10/23 – Atlanta, GA – The Drunken Unicorn #
10/24 – Orlando FL – The Backbooth #
10/25 – Gainesville, FL – Common Grounds #
10/27 – Birmingham, AL – BottleTree #
10/28 – New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jacks #
10/29 – Hattiesburg, MS – Thirsty Hippo #
10/30 – Denton, TX – Rubber Gloves #
10/31 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s BBQ #
11/01 – Tulsa, OK – The Marquee #
11/02 – Joplin, MO – The Foundry Music Theatre #
11/04 – Louisville, KY – Uncle Pleasants #
11/05 – Raleigh, NC – The Brewery #
11/06 – Virginia Beach, VA – Steppin Out #
11/07 – Richmond, VA – Canal Club Lounge #
11/08 – Baltimore, MD – The Ottobar #
11/09 – Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church #
11/11 – Hoboken, NJ – Maxwell’s #
11/12 – Brooklyn, NY – Southpaw #
11/13 – Northampton, MA – Pearl Street #
11/14 – So. Burlington, VT – Higher Ground #
11/15 – Boston, MA – Cafe 939 at Berklee #
11/17 – Buffalo, NY – Mohawk Place #
11/18 – Pittsburgh, PA – Club Cafe #
11/19 – Columbus, OH – The Basement #
11/20 – Chicago, IL – Metro #
11/21 – Lansing, MI – Mac’s Bar #
11/22 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop #

^ – Headlining w/ local openers
# – w/ openers William Elliott Whitmore, J Roddy Walston, The Business

The album will be released on November 4th through Temporary Residence records. It was recorded in the spring of 2008; while in the studio Thursday asked Anthony Molina from Mercury Rev to come in and perform a remix of a track, helping the album flow seamlessly between the two band’s musical styles.

The split will be available as a vinyl-only release, well sorta. When you purchase the 180-gram vinyl you will get a copy of the abum in cd form incorporated into the packaging. So in one package you will get both the vinyl and cd.

For the collectors, there will be 3 different screenprinted album colors available – metallic silver, metallic gold, and metallic orange. The orange one will only be available through Thursday’s merch store. The others will be availble through Temporary Residence’s store beginning with a pre-order on September 15th. Artist Dan Grzeca was commisioned to create the album art, a tornado of crows tearing through a landscape. Grzeca is not only a celebrated poster designer but has also done album covers for the likes of Iron & Wine and Explosions In The Sky.

You can read a press release, get a sneak peak at the album art and catch a tracklisting after the jump.

More than two years after Thursday first put the idea in their heads, Temporary Residence Ltd. is proud to finally bring together two influential bands from two very different places. Sprung from a conversation with die-hard Envy fan and all-around good dude Geoff Rickly from Thursday, this split was just waiting for the right time to happen.

Recorded in Spring 2008, both bands turn in some of their most inspired work yet. In addition, Thursday invited Anthony Molina of Mercury Rev to remix the dark instrumental “In Silence” into the pitch-black closing track, “Appeared And Was Gone,” providing the perfect transition into the massive dynamics of Envy. Beginning with the subtle electronics of the symphonic opener, “An Umbrella Fallen Into Fiction,” Envy thrashes and burns through a trio of thoughtful face-melters.

Pressed on audiophile-quality 180 gram vinyl and featuring original artwork by acclaimed poster artist, Dan Grzeca, this deluxe set includes a free copy of the CD format beautifully incorporated into the exquisite package design.

Tracklisting:

1. THURSDAY: As He Climbed The Dark Mountain
2. THURSDAY: In Silence
3. THURSDAY: An Absurd And Unrealistic Dream Of Peace
4. THURSDAY: Appeared And Was Gone (Remix by Anthony Molina of Mercury Rev)
5. ENVY: An Umbrella Fallen Into Fiction
6. ENVY: Isolation Of A Light Source
7. ENVY: Pure Birth And Loneliness