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Will Varley to release new album on 8 July - "Powerful, political and pertinent" (The Independent)

2013-05-17T10:40:14Z

Album release: As The Crow Flies by Will Varley
Release date: 8 July
Label: Smugglers Records
Listen: on official Will Varley website

July 2013 will see the release of As The Crow Flies, the second album by fiercely independent folk singer, novelist, and filmmaker Will Varley. The album was recorded in the old smuggling tunnels that riddle the basements of the cottages beneath the seaside town of Deal, Kent. It is released on DIY label Smugglers Records that Varley runs alongside a co-operative of fellow southeast based musicians. Over the last five years Smugglers has helped a plethora of artists further their musical endeavours, as well as organising their own sell-out festival deep in the Kent countryside.

The 26 year old plays an explosive brand of contemporary British folk music which scales the full spectrum of storytelling, from farcical ‘shaggy dog stories’ about the self checkout machines at the supermarket, to beautifully-crafted allegorical songs such as the real life tale of Khulekani Khumalo, a South African folk singer who supposedly rose from the dead in 2012. His live shows dance effortlessly between sharp humour, scathing social commentary and raw heart-breaking emotion.

Varley moved to the seaside from London in 2010, seeking like-minded musicians, cheap rent, and a new way of doing things. After releasing his politically charged debut album Advert Soundtracks in 2011, he set out on the road and walked a hundred and forty miles with a guitar and tent on his back. Starting his walking tour at London Bridge he headed southeast, strolling through the rolling hills and towns, singing songs to whoever would listen. This began to build a fan base that has since grown to sell out the first album and seen festival tents bursting with followers. The record received a number of excellent reviews, and his self-directed music video for ‘King For A King’ has enjoyed almost 20,000 views on YouTube.

After self-publishing his first novel in the winter and almost two years of relentless gigging, including shows at the Occupy London protests & The Bank of Ideas, the young troubadour has recorded his second album with the help of David Hatton Jnr. (Cocos Lovers). Though still littered with his trademark humour, As The Crow Flies is a darker, more mature album which sees Varley’s poetry take centre stage, from the brutal honesty of the album’s title track, to the swaying cynicism of Weddings and Wars in which he attempts a history of the world in under four minutes.

Reaction to date

“Certain to turn ears his way… Varley feels very much a voice for what could soon become the 21st Century’s lost generation” Folk Radio UK

“Powerful, Political & Pertinent” The Independent

“A simple line like “the big bang doesn’t care if I pray” is laden with the kind of meaning other artists would take whole albums to say.” Rock Kent

“It's the antithesis of all that Simon Cowell creates, and it's fantastic” Contact Music

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For more information about Will Varley and ‘As The Crow Flies’ please email chris@prescriptionpr.co.uk

Winter Mountain to release debut EP 'Find, Follow' on Charcoal Records

2013-05-10T13:08:27Z

EP Release: Find, Follow by Winter Mountain
Release date: 20 May 2013
Label: Charcoal Road
Listen: on Youtube

They have an extraordinary backstory straight out of a movie screenplay for which their songs would make the perfect soundtrack. How Joseph Francis and Martin Smyth met and were discovered is remarkable and goes a little like this...

An Englishman and an Irishman step onto the same train at Chicago's Union station and meet for the first time. Both singers, both songwriters...both broke, but intent on making their way by rail to Memphis, TN, the birthplace of Rock n Roll.

That night, the two strangers began a conversation that lasted until the early hours. A conversation centered on their mutual love of the sounds of the 60s and 70s, of great albums and great artists, and great harmony singing: The Band, Simon & Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were all discussed. By morning they had named themselves Winter Mountain and committed to travel together, swapping stories, exchanging lyrics and singing together in the bars and clubs of the deep south. From their first performance it was impossible to ignore the rare magic of their natural vocal blend as heads turned whenever they sang.

On their return the guys spent a fortnight songwriting in Ireland which led to a chance entry in a Battle of the Bands competition. Winter Mountain competed against the best unsigned talent in Northern Ireland, and won! It was enough to capture the heart of a local theatre owner who booked them to open for Irish singing luminary Cara Dillon. After hearing Joseph and Martin’s performance Cara and husband/producer Sam Lakeman immediately signed Winter Mountain to their independent label, Charcoal Records and set about assembling a team of experienced musicians who could help realise the vision that Joseph and Martin had for their music.

With contributions from Robbie McIntosh (guitarist with McCartney, The Pretenders, John Mayer), Audrey Riley (string arranger for Coldplay, Nick Cave) and Leo Abrahams (guitarist for Brian Eno, Florence And The Machine), the songs were recorded in a host of vintage studios which echo the authenticity of their sound and the resulting EP, Find, Follow, blends exquisite melodies, heartfelt lyrics and above all else, compelling harmonies.

The final, perhaps most striking touch to the EP was made when the highly acclaimed Mike Crossey (Ben Howard, Jake Bugg, The Arctic Monkeys), stepped up in the midst of his hectic schedule and mixed all three tracks.

There have been the obvious comparisons to Simon & Garfunkel, The Fleet Foxes and The Everly Brothers and when you hear and see them perform you’ll understand why. Yet Winter Mountain bring something new to their vocal delivery, echoing those legendary harmony acts, but adding a vital, contemporary edge that is uniquely their own. Their vocals blend as if they’ve been harmonising for a lifetime. And although Martin’s from Donegal, Ireland and Joseph hails from West Cornwall, you get the impression they were born to sing together.

Winter Mountain’s debut EP Find, Follow is now due for release on iTunes and other online outlets on 20th May 2013 on Charcoal Records.

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Her Royal Harness - 'a romanticist and cathartic take on synthesized pop'

2013-05-03T11:04:03Z

Album release: The Hunting Room by Her Royal Harness
Release date: 15 July 2013
Listen: on official website

Her Royal Harness, described as a romanticist and cathartic take on synthesized pop, is the conception of Norwegian songwriter Helene Jaeger.

The project came into being soon after Jaeger encountered London producer/instrumentalist Dylan Long in an internet music forum, a meeting which at the time quickly turned into an argument. However, the two gradually sensed that their contrasting approaches would make something distinctive and emotionally potent.

Pushing a variety of influences through their own filter - southern gothic writing, Metroplex techno, Holland-Dozier-Holland, early rock'n'roll, Solid Gold-era Gang of Four, Echo and the Bunnymen, Baroque classical music, an obsession with the late 1980s Eventide H3000 effects unit... the two approach making pop music with no boundaries.

According to Jaeger, The Hunting Room is a record about “someone not quite at home”, chronicling a series of attempts at breaking through restrictions, searching for meaning, trying to get a reaction from an unresponsive environment.

Musically, the album sees a range of expression: pitched down ¾ time techno laments, plucked film score strings played through 90s boom boxes, Mellotron choirs and hip hop bass lines, pummeling rock beats and post punk rhythms all firmly anchored in clear melodic structure and Jaeger’s Quixotic, impassioned delivery.

Part of the rationale behind Her Royal Harness is to channel the deep-reaching expressive potential of pop, says Jaeger. “We see it as perhaps the greatest thing about pop music, its ability to move people, and that’s something we aim for – to make something that emotionally, even physically makes you react.”

The Hunting Room was produced and recorded by Her Royal Harness in their basement project studio in Bergen, Norway and mixed by Justin Gerrish (Vampire Weekend, The Strokes, Weezer, Muse) at DNA Studios NYC.

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Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker: Fire and Fortune

2013-05-03T10:47:25Z

Album release: Fire and Fortune by Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker
Release date: 22 July 2013
Label: Navigator
Listen: on Josienne Clarke website

In a town full of songs and singers, Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker give you the real thing. Both classically trained, their musical proficiency is beyond doubt. But this isn't about technical accomplishment. This is about a song, first and foremost. Whether interpreting words centuries old, or singing her own authentic lyrics, Josienne's jewel-like voice finds the nuance and melancholy in the simplest phrase and effortlessly sends it straight to your heart.

Ben's musical tact and mastery of the guitar provide the perfect setting and allow the song centre-stage. Josienne was born in Sussex and Ben, in Evesham. It was after studying in London, and utterly by chance, that they met in July 2009. They have been working together ever since. Critical acclaim soon followed, along with the Isambard Folk Award and the FATEA award for Female vocalist of the year. Their work together combines an exquisite command of their instruments with lyrics steeped in the tradition of English songwriting, and in ageless stories of love and loss.

Two joint releases later, they've played as a duo alongside many of the living legends including Martin Simpson and Steve Tilston, and have just completed tour dates in Germany, the Netherlands and UK with more planned for 2013.

Navigator Records, home of Bellowhead, Bella Hardy, Heidi Talbot and many other gifted musicians, will be releasing their new album Fire and Fortune on 22 July 2013.

Though influenced by greats such as Sandy Denny, Richard and Linda Thompson, Nick Drake, Bert Jansch and June Tabor, Fire and Fortune marks two musicians who have resolutely found their own path through traditional English music.

Their new album contains twelve tracks, some carefully selected traditional songs re-imagined; others equally carefully picked original compositions. This is timeless stuff, and its purity will stay with you long after the last note fades.

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Owen to release new album, 'L'Ami du Peuple'

2013-05-03T09:46:01Z

Album release: L'Ami du Peuple by Owen
Label: Polyvinyl
Release date: July 2, 2013
Listen: on Polyvinyl site

The songs Mike Kinsella writes as Owen have always had rock solid lyrical foundations. And on new album, L'Ami du Peuple, the same can be said for the music. Emphasis on the rock.

Anyone vaguely familiar with Kinsella's musical lineage (Cap'n Jazz, American Football, Owls) knows he's far from a one-note musician. And now, he expands his repertoire as a solo songwriter to include a touch of female vocals, pounding drums, and even dueling electric guitar lines that are the closest thing he’s done in tribute to his 80s hair metal obsession.

The variety of sounds featured on L'Ami du Peuple can largely be attributed to a new approach Kinsella took to the writing and recording process. Rather than locking himself in a room with mostly finished song ideas for a couple of weeks before emerging with a finished album, this time Kinsella involved producer Neil Strauch (Iron & Wine, Bonnie 'Prince’ Billy, Andrew Bird) from the very beginning and spaced out recording over a few month period.

This enabled him to naturally bring a different mood or vibe to the material he was working on every time he entered the studio - re-evaluating what had been recorded during the previous session and collaborating with Strauch on the direction new songs should take.

As a result, L'Ami du Peuple sounds markedly different than any album Kinsella has released under the Owen moniker.

From the electronic blips and hand claps that punctuate I Got High to the ragtime piano melody running through Where Do I Begin? each track possesses a unique and surprising identity.

"In the past I've stifled a bunch of my influences and leaned on a couple consistently, but this time I just let each song happen as I heard them and had a lot of fun trying some new things," Kinsella reveals.

The benefits of this "anything goes" mindset are plainly apparent on album centerpiece Bad Blood -- a track propelled by a quasi-country stomp that explodes halfway through with an electric guitar solo before dovetailing into a closing crescendo.

Bad Blood also affirms that lyrically Kinsella remains as raw and personal as ever. As the title suggests, the song finds Kinsella lamenting his pedigree: "Bad blood / Hereditary law you can't run away from / (Trust me, I've tried)."

This focus on familial relationships occurs often, but with the addition of a new angle on top of those Kinsella has adopted previously Now the parent of two children, Kinsella finds his perspective on life inevitably shifting from being a "son" to being a "father."

This role reversal adds a new dimension to Kinsella's self-examination of his thoughts and fears. As he explains, "Instead of being a son whose father passed away, I've moved on to being the father afraid of passing."

His anxiety at life passing by too quickly is evident on closing track Vivid Dreams: "How long have I been sleeping? / I'm a dad and my dad's dead."

The question he poses doesn't come with an easy answer, but for an artist like Kinsella who is constantly evolving and reinventing himself, death is just an opportunity for rebirth.

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Diana Jones: Museum of Appalachia Recordings - out July 8th on Proper Records

2013-05-03T09:02:32Z

Album release: Museum of Appalachia Recordings by Diana Jones
Release date: 8 July 2013
Label: Proper
Listen: on official website

Singer-songwriter Diana Jones brings the inspiring sounds of old-time Appalachia music to her new CD, recorded at The Museum of Appalachia in Clinton, Tennessee.

Featuring 11 original songs recorded live with two musicians and a crackling fireplace in the background, Museum of Appalachia Recordings harkens back to a day when music was played and recorded live, and not adorned with the latest tricks in recording technology.

Accompanied by fellow musicians Matt Combs and Shad Cobb, Diana Jones offers an astonishing set of original material. Widely known for her songwriting expertise (Pony, Henry Russell’s Last Words), Diana Jones’s storytelling reaches new heights as she explores timeless subjects that are as relevant today as they were in the last century. And her singing is that rarest of gifts: a pure and original voice that is unmistakably her own.

Artist’s Notes

"Songs tell us how they need to be arranged and recorded if we listen closely. Some need a studio with isolation booths for a variety of musicians to overdub parts and some need a cabin with a few good pickers and a fireplace big enough to sit in. The songs I recorded at the Peters Homestead Cabin at the Museum of Appalachia were scratched out of my head and mined from my heart over the years since my grandfather passed on his love and tradition of old time mountain music to me. They were insistent and came to me during a busy few years on tour buses, in airplanes, hotel rooms and back stage dressing rooms. These songs had been waiting patiently for a quiet room with old time musicians gathered to let their simplicity shine in real time. Bringing them to The Museum of Appalachia in east Tennesse, an institution sanctioned by the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, guardian of the recordings that had changed my musical life, was a full circle for me.

The fire at the Peter’s cabin was lit the morning of December 3rd, 2012 as sound engineer Joe DeJarenette set up his equipment and the mikes were set in place. Matt Combs, Shad Cobb and I took our seats in a circle facing each other and began to play the first song in my black and white marble composition book. Fiddles, mandolins, guitars, banjos and a mandola were strewn around the room. We traveled from song to song and trusted that the feeling was there, along with the crackling sound of the wood burning in the fireplace. After two days of playing these special songs it was hard to imagine all that had happened as the last of the fire died down. We had made a record of the time we spent in the Peters Cabin on Dec 3rd and 4th at the Museum of Appalachia. I hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording it." – Diana Jones

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Huey Lewis and The News - 'Sports' 30th anniversary edition out 13 May

2013-05-03T08:38:19Z

Album reissue: Sports by Huey Lewis and The News (Deluxe Edition)
Release date: 13 May 2013
Label: Universal
Listen: on official website

Huey Lewis and The News' 1983 Sports album spawned four Top 10 hit singles (and another that cracked the Top 20), iconic music videos, and sold almost 10 million copies. To celebrate the blockbuster album's 30th anniversary, Lewis has personally overseen an expanded commemorative edition, to be released May 13th by UMG. Digitally remastered for CD and standard and high definition digital audio, Sports (30th Anniversary Edition) pairs each of the original album's nine songs with choice live versions on a second disc, many of which have never before been released.

The special edition includes an expanded booklet with photos and memorabilia from the band's archive and new liner notes by music journalist and author Gary Graff.

Says Huey, “We’ve always been very proud of the record and it’s going to be a blast to play it all live!”

Sports is on the cusp of RIAA Diamond Award sales certification with U.S. sales approaching 10 million copies. Self-produced by the band, it reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and ranked No. 2 on Billboard's year-end sales chart for 1984, second only to Michael Jackson's Thriller. Lewis created indelible music videos for each of the four Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits on Sports - If This Is It, the Gold-certified I Want A New Drug, Heart And Soul and The Heart Of Rock & Roll, which won the year's GRAMMY Award for Best Long-Form Music Video - as well as the Top 20 single, Walking On A Thin Line.

Sports was also an international success, with Top 40 chart peaks in several countries, including the UK, Canada, Germany, Sweden, New Zealand, and Norway.

Huey Lewis and The News performed a hit from Sports on ABC's Dancing with the Stars on Tuesday, April 2 and will also perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, May 15. Additional TV appearances will be announced soon.

In May, the band will launch the "Sports 30th Anniversary Tour" across North America, performing the album in its entirety. For more information on this, please visit www.hueylewisandthenews.com.

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The Teardrop Explodes: 'Wilder' reissued as expanded two-disc edition

2013-04-26T09:49:25Z

Albm re-issue: Wilder by The Teardrop Explodes
Release date: June 24th 2013
Label: Mercury / Universal Music Catalogue

Wilder was the second and final album by The Teardrop Explodes, originally released in November 1981 and a radical, post-punk classic that’s ripe for reappraisal. Ambitious, colourful and catchy and with more ideas at play than most groups could conjure up in a lifetime, like so many great albums, it simply confused people in its audacity.

At the start of the year, Reward had given the Teardrops their only Top Ten hit but amidst all the publicity that always surrounded the group, Wilder reached only a disappointing 29 in the charts. The first extracted single Passionate Friend, despite two appearances on Top of the Pops, barely scraped into the Top 30. Within a year of Wilder’s release, the group had split up.

This new edition features the original album in all its glory, plus a second disc compiled and sequenced by Julian Cope containing all the related singles, B-sides and BBC radio sessions. Cope also provides a track by track guide while Dave Balfe, the Teardrops’ original keyboard player, foil and sometime nemesis to Cope, along with guitarist Troy Tate provide further notes; Balfe’s essay is a particularly honest and revealing account of the recording process.

Disc two is effectively an alternative version of the album, the BBC sessions presenting many key songs in a noticeably different form, closer to how the group used to play them live. One the eve of recording Wilder, bassist Alfie Agius and keyboard player Jeff Hammer (both of whom play on the radio sessions) were jettisoned, leaving only Cope, ever-faithful drummer Gary Dwyer and guitarist Tate. Dave Balfe then returned, whereupon he and Cope proceeded to rearrange virtually every song with a much greater emphasis on synths and experimentation, and with a far more downbeat complexion than the well-crafted psychedelic pop that was their trademark.

The radio sessions also include songs which didn’t make it on to the album; Cope’s take on John Cale’s I’m Not The Loving Kind and the powerful Screaming Secrets, a live tour de force which the group never nailed in the studio. Cope would eventually record it for St Julian.

Disc two also rounds up the B-sides to the three singles taken from Wilder: the infectious Passionate Friend, the punchy, brass-led Colours Fly Away, and the exquisitely plaintive Tiny Children, plus the non-album single You Disappear From View, a last-ditch reversion to the Reward formula, released in 1983 after the group had split up. It’s a rich and varied selection including the more challenging Christ Vs Warhol and Window Shopping For A New Crown Of Thorns, the charming, atypical Rachel Built A Steamboat, Suffocate (a re-recorded version of the song which only appeared on the US version of Kilimanjaro) and a full-on, live Sleeping Gas, recorded at Club Zoo.

Amidst the disbelief and surprise at Wilder’s poor showing, Club Zoo was an outrageously excess all areas six week stint at the tiny Pyramid Club in Liverpool featuring the Wilder line up of Cope, Balfe, Dwyer and Tate plus new bassist Ronnie Francois. Designed to break in the new band, it was more a dress rehearsal for the American tour that followed - a fraught, drug-fuelled disaster which saw the group unravel to a point from which they never really recovered.

Few groups promised as much as The Teardrop Explodes in those heady post-punk days; even fewer groups scaled the same dizzy creative heights. Wilder was their mountain top.

Track Listing

CD1 – Original Album

Bent Out Of Shape
Colours Fly Away
Seven Views Of Jerusalem
Pure Joy
Falling Down Around Me
The Culture Bunker
Passionate Friend
Tiny Children
Like Leila Khaled Said
…And The Fighting Takes Over
The Great Dominions

CD2 – B-Sides and BBC Sessions

Christ Versus Warhol (B-side ‘Passionate Friend’)
Rachael Built A Steamboat (B-side ‘Tiny Children’)
Suffocate (B-side ‘You Disappear From View’)
Window Shopping For A New Crown Of Thorns (B-side ‘Colours Fly Away’)
Ouch Monkeys (B-side ‘You Disappear From View’)
East Of The Equator (B-side ‘Colours Fly Away’)
Sleeping Gas (Live from Club ZOO, December 1981) (B-side ‘Tiny Children’)
The In-Psychlopedia (B-side ‘You Disappear From View’)
You Disappear From View
Soft Enough For You (B-side ‘You Disappear From View’)
Pure Joy Wins Out Again (BBC Session, Peel Plus, 1981)
Like Leila Khaled Said (BBC Session, Peel Plus, 1981)
I’m Not The Loving Kind (BBC Session, Richard Skinner, August 1981)
The Culture Bunker (BBC Session, Peel Plus, 1981)
…And The Fighting Takes Over (BBC Session, Richard Skinner, August 1981)
Better Scream / Make That Move (BBC Session, Richard Skinner, August 1981
Bent Out Of Shape (BBC Session, Richard Skinner, August 1981)
Screaming Secrets (BBC Session, Richard Skinner, August 1981)

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The Hush Now unveil their highly-anticipated 3rd album

2013-04-19T10:01:53Z

Album release: Memos by The Hush Now
Release date: 17 June 2013
Listen: on Bandcamp

Boston, Massachusetts indie-pop rock quintet The Hush Now unveil their highly anticipated 3rd album on June 17. Described as "audio candy for the art school crowd”, compared to and influenced by bands from a wide array of genres, such as My Bloody Valentine, Guided By Voices, The Cure and Hall & Oates, they continue to release consistently great albums that have matured and progressed, with the latest release introducing even catchier hooks and more subtle guitars.

SXSW and CMJ appearances plus plays on BBC 6Music and internet exposure of the self-titled debut album helped to fuel interest while the band got to work on the second album, Constellations, which the UK music review described as “a little Stone Roses, a dash of Guided By Voices, a smidgen of Flaming Lips and a dose of Yo La Tengo; one of those classic pop tunes that pop up from time to time and catch you pleasantly off guard.” After having made an impression on music critics and fans alike, they began to create Memos.

Written entirely by the band and produced, mixed and recorded by well known Mad Oak Studio’s head engineer and producer Benny Grotto, who has worked with the likes of Aerosmith and The Dresden Dolls, “Memos” may be their strongest, quality album to date. Upbeat melodies and catchy hooks reminiscent of bands like The Smiths open the album, before taking you through a jazzy, nocturnal ballad and a song with an air of a late 90s club sound.

The Hush Now are: Adam Quane (guitar/vocals), Noel Kelly (guitar/vocals), Barry Marino (drums/vocals), Pat Macdonald (bass/vocals) and Jon Rosen (keys).

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The Capsules: 'Northern Lights & Southern Skies' out June 24

2013-04-19T09:33:02Z

Album release: Northern Lights & Southern Skies by The Capsules
Release date: June 24, 2013
Listen: on Youtube

The Capsules have a tendency to have sleepless nights and write pensive, late-night reveries. When they emerge from these states, they bring with them a soundtrack to the half forgotten memories that pass through the space between reality and whimsy.

The songs on Northern Lights & Southern Skies unfold in the place where the heart is open to the mysteries of the universe and help us gain a bit of insight into the experiences of love, loss, and longing that makes us human. Julie Shields has a comforting voice that sounds like your best friend whispering in your ear, while the melodic bass of Jason Shields and Kevin Trevino’s understated drumming keep things deceptively simple.

The Capsules decided to expand their pallet on Northern Lights & Southern Skies and used less guitar and more keyboards, loops and electronics than they have on previous efforts. They still have their otherworldly aura, but there’s also a dark edge that keeps everything rooted to the earth.

Jason and Julie started writing music together in high school. In the process, they fell in love, got married, and started their first band, which was called Shallow. At an age when most people are trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives, they were already signed, professional musicians touring the world.

After Shallow ended, Julie and Jason continued writing, looking for a drummer to compliment their lush, bright pop lullabies. Kevin Trevino had been a fan of Shallow and, after a few rehearsals under the newly formed name The Capsules, the trio clicked. They started touring, making records and winning fans, including Steven Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, who asked them to write a song for the show. Their songs have also been used in several video games, including the megahit Borderlands 2. They have shared the stage with lot of great acts including The Flaming Lips, Garbage, Low, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Pinback, Juliana Hatfield, and The Mountain Goats.

Look out for videos for Across the Sky and Our Apocalypse, then they’ll be playing select dates while they continue to explore new sonic territory that will allow them to take their heart wrenching visions into even more exciting musical and emotional dimensions.

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