Nada Surf proudly announce that following their spring tour - where if i had a hi-fi will initially only be available for purchase at shows - they will release their forthcoming covers album on CD/LP and digitally June 8th via the bands own label, Mardev Records, with distribution through ADA. To give fans a preview of the new album Nada Surf are making their take on Bill Fox's "Electrocution" available for free download. Nada Surf's spring tour kicked off on March 25th with three sold-out New York shows, and concludes in late May with a performance at the 2010 Sasquatch Music Festival.

"Electrocution" is available for download at the link here.

if i had a hi-fi is full of inspired, unexpected choices: from avant-pop Kate Bush to underground power-pop classicist Dwight Twilley. There are some intriguingly obscure numbers, like Spanish band Mercromina's "Evolution" and under-documented Bill Fox's "Electrocution." The as yet little known Fox, of Cleveland cult band The Mice, inspired local groups like Guided by Voices and Death of Samantha. Doug Gillard, who was in both of them, lends his highly evolved guitar skills to "Electrocution" as well as the Twilley and Go-Betweens songs.

That was another benefit of these sessions. Says lead singer and guitarist Matthew Caws, "It was a great excuse to have friends of ours sit in on something without having to wait another two years." Guest players include Martin Wenk (Calexico), Phil Peterson (Kay Kay and the Weathered Underground), Joe McGinty (Losers Lounge, Psychedelic Furs) and Holly Miranda.

if i had a hi-fi tracklist
Electrocution (Bill Fox)
Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode)
Love Goes On (The Go-Betweens)
Janine (Arthur Russell)
You Were So Warm (Dwight Twilley)
Love and Anger (Kate Bush)
The Agony of Laffitte (Spoon)
Bye Bye Beauté (Coralie Clement)
Question (Moody Blues)
Bright Side (Soft Pack)
Evolution (Mercromina)
I Remembered What I Was Going to Say (The Silly Pillows)

Seminal cello-driven trio Rasputina will release their seventh album, Sister Kinderhook, on June 15, 2010. Rasputina directress, Melora Creager recorded it whilst pregnant in the Hudson Valley just last summer. She and Brian Kehew (Moog Cookbook, Fiona Apple, Air) mixed it in Los Angeles with a newborn in the studio.

This album finds Melora expressing a thematic fantasy of Colonial Federalism. Subject-wise, she also touches on feral children ("Snow-Hen of Austerlitz"), the Anti-rent Wars of 1844 ("Calico Indians"), and Early American portraiture ("The 2 Miss Leavens"), not to mention the theory that giants were indeed real, but killed each other off in a self-genocidal holocaust ("A Holocaust of Giants").

Sister Kinderhook is a return to Rasputina's early, more organic sound. Melora produced and engineered the thing at her homestead in the country. Hudson, NY is home to many fabulous female artists that gained notoriety in the 1990's, including Melora, Melissa Auf Der Maur and M'Shell N'Degeocello.

For the first time, Rasputina employs a male cellist. Daniel DeJesus came of age listening obsessively to Rasputina records, and can play and sing the entire catalog. Catie D'Amica was a local punk-rock teenager. Melora thought, "If I put her behind an eccentric kit that included a concert bass drum, a djembe and ankle bells, and if she played her simple but cool punk-rock beats, we might really have something." When the internet compared Catie to a "Native American drum machine," Melora knew that experiment was successful. In addition to voice and cello, Melora played banjo and harpsichord.

Melora has maintained the Rasputina group for almost 20(0) years. Genres come and go and Rasputina often gets mistakenly lumped into passing fancies, but Rasputina manages to survive and defy categorization by maintaining a child-like delight in music-making alongside a clear & true integrity.

Since Rasputina's last full-length recording (2007's Oh Perilous World), Melora has released a number of limited edition short-works: The Willow Tree Tryptich (3 ancient folk songs titled The Willow Tree), Ancient Cross-Dressing Songs (self-explanatory), and The Pregnant Concert (a full live show from September 2009).

Melora grew up in Kansas in a musical family which did play together as an ensemble, though certainly not publicly. At 18 she moved to NYC where she studied photography at Parsons School of Design. While there, she began playing the cello with drag performers and eventually the 4AD band, Ultra Vivid Scene. That exposure to the glamorous world of professional rock music led her to found Rasputina. She thought it would be easy. Touring with Nirvana taught her lessons in avoidance of immense fame, which she has successfully practised since.

Rasputina made 2 albums for Columbia/Sony (Thanks for the Ether, How We Quit the Forest), 2 albums for Instinct Records (Cabin Fever!, Frustration Plantation) and one previous (Oh Perilous World) on her own Filthy Bonnet Recording Co. label.

Family music pioneers Dan Zanes and Friends delve into a vital part of America’s musical heritage with their forthcoming album of timeless songs owned by Sir Paul McCartney’s MPL Music Publishing catalog. 76 Trombones, to be released November 17th 2009, features an array of new friends from Broadway, including Tony Award winners Carol Channing (Hello, Dolly!), Brian Stokes Mitchell (Kiss Me, Kate) and Matthew Broderick (The Producers), along with de’Adre Aziza (Passing Strange) and Derick K. Grant (Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk). The album will introduce a new generation of kids to classic Broadway songs that everyone knows and loves.

Zanes says, “With the exception of the Hair soundtrack, musicals were never my thing as a kid. I was too caught up in the music of Leadbelly back then. But as a parent, one afternoon at my daughter’s request, I figured out how to play “Bushel And A Peck” (from Guys and Dolls). I had a sudden realization that once you took away the hopped-up big band and the high intensity vocals it was an amazing folk song. It occurred to me that maybe a lot of these Broadway songs could be broken down to their ragged essence, reworked as 21st Century all-ages music, and presented in a manner that might make you think, ‘Hey, I can do that.’ When the people at MPL called me two years ago about a possible Broadway album I took it as a sign that the time was finally right to put on my dusty, moth-eaten tux and get loose with the songs of American musicals. For me, the songs and performances on this CD are packed with emotion and celebration. I’m grateful and still a little surprised that the people at MPL trusted us with them!”

Zanes, known for his popular 80’s college band the Del Fuegos, began his second career in family music by distributing a homemade cassette at a neighborhood park in New York City’s West Village and has since released several Parents Choice Award-winning for his best selling albums including Catch That Train!, which won the 2007 Grammy for “Best Musical Album for Children”. Music videos for Zanes’ songs have aired on The Noggin Network, Sesame Street and The Disney Channel’s “Playhouse Disney.”
About MPL

Founded by Sir Paul McCartney in 1971, MPL’s music publishing business has been marked by considered acquisitions and sensitive, honest handling of copyrights.  Among the writers for whom MPL administers are Frank Loesser, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, Jerry Herman, Harold Arlen, Jelly Roll Morton. The company also administers the songs from many Broadway shows including Hello, Dolly!, Annie, Grease, Peter Pan, Guys and Dolls, Hans Christian Andersen, Mame, A Chorus Line, The Music Man, La Cage Aux Folles and others.

We are excited to be able to digitally distribute a brand new label from Chris Taylor, multi-instrumentalist/producer of widely acclaimed Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear. ‘Ghost’ is the first single recorded under Taylor’s moniker, CANT, and will be available wordwide from Virtual on October 13th. Forthcoming is the debut EP from Brooklyn up and comers Acrylics (produced by Taylor), to be released October 27th.

Virtual Label are excited to welcome Destroy All Concepts to the family! Headed by the versatile, Dub Gabriel, D.A.C prides itself on a genre blending and bending aesthetic, which promotes unlikely collaborations. Thus far, the likes of Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Yo Majesty, Dr. Israel and members of Bahaus and New York Dolls have all contributed to releases.

Watch this label to take Dub, World, Free Jazz and Electronic music too far reaches and new heights, one exploration at a time.

Sonny Landreth's 'Levee Town' album will be reissued with a bonus disc April 21st on Landfall Records.

Originally released in 2000 on Sugar Hill Records, the remastered album features guests John Hiatt, Bonnie Raitt and Michael Doucet of BeauSoliel. Levee Town contains a bonus disc with five previously unreleased tracks from the original sessions (“Pedal To Metal,” “Road A Plenty,” “Old Flame,” “Fare You Well” and a co-write with Will Jennings, “For Who We Are (The Nightbird Sings),” with guest Jennifer Warnes. The album was a tale of life in Lousiana, mixing music, myth and mojo to conjure up music that rocks hard and runs deep.

Nearly 25 years since their initial release The Dukes Of Stratosphear finally get remastered. Formed in 1985 to create an album that sounded like it was made in 1967, The Dukes Of Stratosphear were destined for either huge success or catostrophic failure. The alter ego for XTC, they used antique gear including a Mellotron and went  into Chapel Lane Studios to record what Virgin record execs insisted be a real band. 25 O'Clock Includes the Original 6 EP Tracks, 9 Demos and Extra Recordings, plus the video for Mole From The Ministry

After the runaway success of 25 O’Clock, Psonic Psunspot was the Dukes first album proper, tipping their hats to the White Album and Yellow Submarine, Smiley Smile, and the Hollies. It Includes 16 Tracks with 11 Remastered from the Original LP, Plus 5 Unreleased Demo Tracks and the Video for You’re A Good Man Albert Brown

These LIMITED EDITION reissues come in HARDBACK digibooks and feature brand new artwork. Booklets include new sleeve notes by XTC's Andy, Colin and Dave Gregory.

UK based Vinyl 180 continues to work with the hugely influential 4AD and Beggars Banquet labels. Following reissues of early albums by Cocteau Twins, Bauhaus, Gary Numan, Dead Can Dance, the latest are Standard and Limited Edition versions of The Cult’s Love album. In May will be the debut release from 1982 by the Cocteau Twins, "Garlands". Beyond that will be more from Bauhaus, The Fall, and The Birthday Party. 

All Vinyl 180 releases have been remastered from the original analogue tapes. All pressings are on 180g heavyweight vinyl and inserted into heavy duty inner bags. The sleeves are printed on high quality heavyweight board.

A strong Pressure Sounds title which has garnered recent features in the Wax Poetics digital store, the Other Music newsletter, and on iTunes.

‘Once Upon A Time At King Tubby’s’ captures from start to finish the full story of the most well known, and certainly the wittiest, of all the wars of words that the highly competitive Kingston recording scene ever produced. I Roy and Prince Jazzbo were the principal players aided and abetted along the way by an assorted bunch of onlookers and minor characters who all helped the drama to unfold. Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee was the catalyst that started this particular schism and the producer of all but one of the tracks.

“It generated some life inna the music business!” - Bunny Lee