Song Premiere - Beached Boy "Hold Me Down"

Put some SPF 100 on these songs because they are sizzlin'.

It’s a new music kind of day. Amiright? Emerging from the depths of Allston with a press release soaked in puns, arrives the premiere of "Hold Me Down" off the 4-song debut EP 'Open Island' by self-proclaimed marina rock band, Beached Boy.

Comprised of singer/songwriter Brendan Grafe, Kevin DeStefano (Bad Actors), Harley Cox (Choke Up) and Will Buiel (Kitner), Beached Boy has taken Grafe’s acoustic emo material, backed it with a driving ensemble of pop punk origins and created an accelerated, scorched and scorned summer sound. Learn these lyrics because you’ll be shouting them alongside your friends at the next Beached Boy show.

Let’s party. Check out 'em out during their record release show July 1st at O’Brien’s Pub in Allston featuring Luau, Clever Girls (VT), Saccharine and Jeff Rowe (event details). 'Open Island' will be available via cassette and digital download June 30th via Prospect Records. Follow Beached Boy on Facebook for additional release information.

Record Premiere: Getting Our Zen on With Iron Elbows and 'Sanity Breath'

Record premiere! 'Sanity Breath' by Iron Elbows

Try this Zen Exercise on Your Way to Work.
Put in your earbuds in.
Click play on track “Epicurus”.
And just let the music walk with you.
Do you feel just the slightest bit more enlightened?

Iron Elbows is a Boston-based experimental guitar/synth brainchild of Derek Hixon (AKA Mint Pillow) and Zac Trainor (AKA Gold Must Die) formed in 2007. The pair combines guitar riffs and rhythms with atmospheric synths and mashed out sounds and minimalist sessions like standout track “Epicurus” on their sophomore album, and Bishop & Rook premiere, ‘Sanity Breath’.

“The name of the track was inspired by the Philosopher Epicurus,” Hixon tells Bishop & Rook. “Particularly with his teachings of ataraxia—peace and freedom from fear.”

Once both situated within the Boston area, Trainor relocated to North Carolina, resulting in a new, almost pen-pal approach to recording their second record.

“A lot of our songs, which are usually between 3-4 minutes, start off as a 20+ minute jams we did together. Recording in the same room is the desire, but it's just not our reality anymore,” Hixon explains of his partner’s relocation to NC. “We can only do the minimal now, so trading tracks is what we started doing which yields different results [than recording together]. You never know which way a track is going to turn when you hand it over and it's fun to hear how the other interpreted what you did. It's similar to the fold-in technique of creating poetry.”

In addition to Iron Elbows, the duo maintain passion projects including Hixon’s Visions of the Unexceed Boston music blog and podcast and Mint Pillow DJ nights, and Trainor’s music and visual art.

You can catch an all vinyl Mint Pillow DJ set this Thursday July 28th 9PM at State Park in Kendall Square, Cambridge (flyer below). Follow Iron Elbows on Facebook and visit the official websites of Visions of the Unexcued, and Zac Trainor for additional information. ‘Sanity Breath’ is available on Bandcamp for free (at a name your price donation).

Song Premiere: Choke Up “Hart” – Appearing on Disposable America’s 'SPECIAL INTEREST' Mixtape

Disposable America's 'SPECIAL INTEREST' out July 15th, pre-order now.

Celebratory fist pump. Bishop & Rook is pleased to premiere the new Choke Up track “Hart", recorded at Converse Rubber Tracks and off Disposable America's upcoming benefit mixtape. As expected, Choke Up continues to maintain rank as an exceptionally talented Boston band.

Song Premiere: “A Girl From Quincy” by Art Thieves

'For Free!' will be available for free download on December 31st.

It is with our unwavering pleasure that we present to you “A Girl From Quincy” by Art Thieves.

Working on their material under the radar, Bishop & Rook caught Art Thieves earlier this year in their natural South Shore habitat (RIP Beachcomber) and gave our stamp of approval. It was the band’s on stage chemistry and thoroughly entertaining live set that later earn them a spot in the Boston Scene Party Showcase.

“A Girl From Quincy” is off the band’s debut 10-track record entitled ‘For Free!’, available as a free digital download on December 31st. Listen to a few per-released songs on Soundcloud now. See Art Thieves on February 13th at O'Brien’s Pub in Allston with Warn the Duke (NYC), The Warning Shots, and You Scoundrel. And follow the band on Facebook for additional release and show information.

Video Premiere: Bundles - “Dead Reckoning”

Getting sounds in the Rubber Tracks studio. (image credit)

We’re excited to premier Bundles’ music video for “Dead Reckoning” off their soon-to-be-released record. The 2:26 video (created by John Schoeck and Mike Silva) highlights the band’s Converse Rubber Tracks experience back in August.

“We got to the studio around 11am and I think had finished basic tracking by 1pm and were out of there with a finished, mixed track by 5pm. The staff was super friendly and very easy to work with,” Bundles bassist Brain Jones recalls. The song was later re-mixed and mastered with the band’s producer, Dave Age (Favorite Atomic Hero) at his studio Union Digital.

“Dead Reckoning” is one of two tracks premiered by the band earlier this fall. Although talks have been initiated on how the record will be released, Bundles’ sophomore EP has yet to have an official release date. But, per Jones, the band would “love to chat” with anyone interested in working with the band.

See Bundles at ONCE in Somerville on November 20th and at the Quincy Sons of Italy for a benefit show on November 25th. Details below. Listen to a more in-depth recap of what went down in the Rubber Tracks studios via the band’s guest DJ episode on Mutiny on the Microphone podcast. Follow Bundles on Facebook and Twitter for additional show and release information.

Upcoming Shows:

November 20th at ONCE :: with Alarms, Garbage Cans of Fire

November 25th at Quincy Sons of Italy :: with Jesse Ahern, The Coalition, Alarms, Cactus Attack and Mike McColgan and Friends

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World Premier: Bundles' Streams 2 New Tracks – Exclusively on Mutiny on the Microphone

World Premiere: Listen to "Preach" Off Of The Digs' Debut LP 'Manic'

First, we want you to put your hands on either side of your head. Good? Doing it? Okay. Because your face might get rocked off and we don’t want any messy accidents.

Bishop & Rook is pleased to share, for the first time ever, "Preach" off The Digs' debut LP, 'Manic' (Ocelot Records). The Midway Cafe will play host to their record release show on November 21st, featuring Trophy Lungs, The American Myth (PA) and OC45 (homecoming show). Event details here. 'Manic' will be available on digital, CD, vinyl and limited edition cassette tape.

Swing by Bandcamp to hear a selection of pre-released tracks and follow the band on Facebook for additional show information.

The 11-track album written by the band’s members, Jeff Demas (guitar/vocals/lead song writer), Andrew Dedousis (bass/vocals) and Steve Knowles (drums/vocals), takes the music outside of the traditional “rock ‘n’ roll” or “punk rock” genres, and instead melds the two into the groups auditory-vision that is 'Manic', in the fullest sense. The album takes hints from bands such as Face to Face, Green Day, and The Kinks, all whose instrumental styles can be heard in the mix and brought out even clearer through the fantastic Mastering of Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East Mastering (Cambridge MA).

Video Premiere – Horse Mode “Jazz and IPAs”

Download 'All You Ever Talk About Is Jazz', the debut full-length from Horse Mode.

Lowell’s instrumental melodic rock band, Horse Mode, premieres their debut music video for “Jazz and IPAs” (directed by Shawn Thomas) off of their first full-length, ‘All You Ever Talk About is Jazz’ released earlier this summer via Ocelot Records.

The 9-track album is available for download on Bandcamp at a name your price donation. Catch Horse Mode on September 18th at UnchARTed in Lowell with Audrey Can’t Die and Nashoba. And follow the band on Facebook for additional show dates.

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Bloghead Podcast Signs Off - Ocelot Records Takes Over

[EXCLUSIVE LISTEN] Darklands Premiere “Barton” Off Upcoming EP ‘St. Thaddeus’

New music out of Rhode Island. Darklands premier "Barton" on Bishop & Rook.

Providence, RI’s Darklands channels Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr. and Silversun Pickups with their upcoming grungy, distorted, poppy 5-song EP, ‘St. Thaddeus’ (New England Standard Records).

“You could put us somewhere between emo, shoegaze and grunge pop (new gaze?),” explains bassist David Marcotte.

Like a teenage romance, ‘St. Thaddeus’ is primarily thoughtful, climaxes early with “So Negative” and leans heavily on drawn out emotions, finishing with an emorific 7:45 minute track, “Hope”, complete with the lyrics “You're not enough...I wouldn't die for you. I wouldn't die for me, too.”

‘St. Thaddeus’ is due out late June, and will be available on cassette and as a digital download, with a potential vinyl option to follow. Check out the exclusive premier of “Barton”, streaming on Bishop & Rook below. Follow Darklands on Facebook for show and release information. And listen to the album's previously released tracks "So Negative" and "Green" on Bandcamp.

Upcoming Shows:
June 13th: No Problemo, New Bedford w/ Holy Hands, Glass Floor
June 19th: DV8, Providence w/ You Blew It, Twin Foxes
June 26th: Dusk, Providence w/ Feedback Psychosis, Tape Eater, Bangladeafy, Mis(s)invader
July 20th: Psychic Readings, Providence w/ Burglary Years, Hemingway, Holy Hands

Music Video Premiere: Soft Pyramids "Trouble"

As a follow up to their previous DIY music video, "Around This Town" off of the 2014 LP Fossils of the Free World, Soft Pyramids returns to the Napoleon Complex to bring us Lindsey Buckingham's 1981 song, "Trouble”. Putting a shoegaze spin on the retro track, Soft Pyramids takes it slow with a dreamier, sincere rendition.

For anyone who tends to observe various aspects of a live performance, this unique split screen concept provides an intimate, in-the-moment experience for the viewers at home; achieved when filmmaker Tim Stabers matched two separate takes, side by side, and utilizing one video’s audio.

Soft Pyramids will be playing Empire in Portland, ME on March 7th with Foam Castles and Leveret (event details) and O’Brien’s Pub in Allston on March 11th with Dead Trains, The Sun Lions and Peach Pit (event details).

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Music Video: Soft Pyramids - “Around This Town"