Introducing: Tea and Tempests

Tea and Tempests are Hilary Ragin, Bryan Crabtree and Benjamin Berry.

They have a few new songs up that you should go listen to RIGHT NOW!

Jews and Catholics on the road

Hi Folks,

Jews and Catholics are out their touring so please support them.

Also we wanted to give you a sneak peak at the cover of their upcoming record
We Are? We Think We Are? coming out in May 2010. Recorded by Mitch Easter and mastered by Alex Kostelnik.

We know your going to love it.

2010 News Blast

2010 is going to be such an amazing year!  Here is what is going down in the next few months:

Future Islands: Wave Like Home 12".  This limited pressing (500 pieces) is available in our store now!

Humble Tripe:  Counting Stars is available as a presale now!  It's out nationally 3/23/2010.

Birds and Arrows: Their EPs Cages and Quivers and Woodgrained Heart are going digital!  Cages and Quivers is available on itunes, emusic, spotify and most digital places now! Woodgrained Heart will be available by Feb 15th!

Katastrophe: Not only is his hot new mag Original Plumbing going bonkers and selling out, but he's hitting the road and doing a ton of touring.

Jews and Catholics:  Presale of their new album We Are We Think We Are will launch on 4/13/2010!  Their national street date and digital download date is 5/18/2010.  J&C worked with Mitch Easter and Cheetie (Birds of Avalon) to create a stellar record.  Our friend Alex Kostelnik of Seattle, WA mastered the record.  We are so excited about this release we might pee ourselves a little.  Stay tuned for more info and keep an eye out for Alanna and Eddie in your town!

8in Betsy:  Their presale launches 5/25/2010 with a national street date and digital download date of 6/15/2010.  Their song Doomed off their last album This Time, Last Time, Every Time is one of our favorites and you'll get a chance to rock out with it on Rock Band (details to follow)!  They are kicking off a tour with Athens Boys Choir in March, so check their schedule!

There is a bunch more stuff we're not quite ready to post yet, so be ready for some sweet sweet (vinyl??) surprises!

Thanks for all the continued support

Mel and Alicia

WXDU Top 80 of 2009

Congrats to Midtown Dickens & Birds and Arrows!

What a great year for local music.

Thanks everyone at WXDU for all the support.

Future Islands-Wave Like Home on vinyl and saying goodbye!

Hi From Philly,

The Future Islands are one of my favorite bands so it is pretty special that we are working with them and Altin Village to bring you 'Wave Like Home' on black vinyl.

Our records are here and we will start shipping out soon! How wonderful!!!!
I leave Philly Friday, then hit DC then back to Durham. Give me a few days lead to get to the post office!

Our friends at Altin Village have this great description of the Future Islands Wave Like Home record. Check it out below.

Wave Like Home-Future Islands
______________________________________________________________
The record is a breathless testament to romance and grasping chances, forever enthralled to the optimism of trying again. It's a sincere and sometimes painfully honest record about chasing broken dreams and finding courage in a forsaken heart. An album infatuated with timescales like always and forever. From the broken elegy of woozy opener "Pangea" through the euphoric fun trips of "Old Friend" and the upbeat "Seize A Shark", the album never drifts far from reflection amongst it's highest highs. For every throbbing track recalling breakneck pursuits there's a soulful reminder of the quieter side of a melodramatic heart.

"Beach Foam" is glorious, swelling synth work perfectly capturing the crashing waves that incite such hungry philosophy in the song. "In these arms I can feel my home, breaking from inside" sings a desperate and forlorn Samuel on title track "Wave Like Home", "Save me from loving you always" he retorts on sober paean "Heart Grows Old". For all the hope and regret felt across the album it is rather apt that final track "Little Dreamer" catches up with Future Islands at their most starry-eyed. Not even the chatter of birdsong can drown out the unabashed sweet sentiment of this closing song, so deeply consumed it holds a torch up into the darkness of the coldest corner of humanity.

'Wave Like Home' is a worthy debut album for Future Islands - perfectly capturing their bittersweet nature. To quote the band on this matter it's an album of "bright morning-times holding hands with dreary afternoons", like finding "shark-infested waters surrounding honeymoon beaches". We are never that far from fun or despair, valiantly Future Islands are here to remind us of that.

Thanks for all the pre-orders, it has been amazing to see the response to this record!

Thanks to everyone in Philly. I will miss you all.

More to come.

Walk Like Thunder

We played this song tonight for Alex.
Kimya wrote it.
Amazing!

You will hear it soon.
#15.

More to come.

Office Closed

Hi Folks,

Pre-sales for Future Island LP ship out next week.

If you ordered Humble Tripe's new record they were shipped today. Alicia was standing behind a gent trying to ship BBQ that was not packaged up. Even our fav postal lady French had to shake her head.

I will be hanging with Kimya and Ange don't forget Panda in LA. Shows and Pee Wee Herman that's what I am doing.

Alicia is out of the office visiting fam in Seattle....we will see you all in a few days.

Sweet chops.
Mel T.