The Alternative Tone

Quirky, angular, exceedingly British indie rock, Shade Of Red combine elements of indie rock, ska, pop and an heavier edge all with smart, conversational lyrics. Watch a teaser for their recent EP, Anne Of Ivory below. RIYL: Two Door Cinema Club crossed with Tubelord.   Check out their site  here .  Like them on Facebook  here . 

In the first of very few Christmas posts, Lower Than Atlantis have released "Merry Christmas (Wherever You Are)". Watch the video below.  

Those of you who have played your purple vinyl of  'Best of Friends'  /  'Last of the Summer Wine'  flat out and are crying out for more Palma Violets tunes will be excited to hear that the south London four-piece will be releasing their debut album on 25th February 2013. The album is available to pre-order now from the  Rough Trade Store  where the first 400 copies of the CD and 100 copies of the vinyl will be autographed.  Palma Violets performed three songs alongside The Weeknd and Lana del Ray. Re-watch their raucous performance of 'Best of Friends' below and tune into BBC2 this Friday 30th November for the full show, which includes two more tracks from the Lambeth lads. View it  here .  Palma Violets will be joining Django Django, Miles Kane and Peace on the UK  NME Awards Tour  2013 next February. The band are selling tickets for the tour from their  website , where if you like you can also pre-order the album. .

Folk from New England. Download Here RIYL: Kevin Devine, folk music

London quartet  Veronica Falls  have already dropped the first single, "Teenager" from their forthcoming sophomore LP “ Waiting For Something to Happen ”, released  Monday 4th  February  o n Bella Union.  You can now see the video below! In addition, the band will be touring throughout the Spring, taking in the UK, the US and Europe including a special album launch show at Shoreditch Church on Friday 8th February. All dates are below... UK and Ireland Friday 8th February - Shoreditch Church, LONDON Thursday 14th February - Norwich Arts Centre, NORWICH Friday 15th February - Brudenell Social Club, LEEDS Monday 25th February - Harley, SHEFFIELD Tuesday 26th February - CAA, GLASGOW Wednesday 27th February - Cluny, NEWCASTLE Wednesday 17th April – Kazimer, LIVERPOOL Thursday 18th April – Whealans, DUBLIN Friday 19th April – Voodoo, DUBLIN  Saturday 20th April – Deaf Institute, MANCHESTER USA March 6 -  Bla

Two burgeoning indie labels, Atlanta’s Autumn + Colour Records (Sick/Sea, Sleepy Turtles) and Greensboro, NC’s Round Kid Records (Terra Terra Terra, Averman) will team up to co-release the next album from Greensboro, NC band,  Future Ghosts . The LP, titled ‘ Colorado ’, was produced at Cannon Found Soundation Recording Studios (Man Overboard, Basement, Transit) with producer Jesse Cannon (The Cure, Saves The Day, The Menzingers) and will be released on February 12, 2013.  The band will be announcing dates for a winter tour soon.

CT indie rockers  The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die  have announced dates for their winter tour. The tour launches on New Years Eve in Philadelphia and runs through January 12 in Boston , MA . Playing select shows are Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), Saintseneca, Adventures, You Blew It! and Dikembe . Dec 22 - Wallingford CT @ The Hungarian Hall w/ Paint It Black, Aye Nako, Swear Jar   Dec 31 - Philadelphia PA @ The Fire #  w/ Dikembe & You Blew It! Jan 1 - Bethlehem PA @ Secret Art Space #  w/ Tawny Peaks , Suns Jan 2 - Cleveland , OH @ Now thats Class #% Jan 3 - Grand Rapids @ DACC #% Jan 4 - Chicago IL @ Alderaan #% w/ Joie De Vive, Kittyhawk Jan 5 - Columbus , OH @ Kobo #% Jan 6 - Pittsburgh , PA @ 222 Ormbsy %& Jan 7 - Rochester NY @ The Bug Jar Jan 8 - Williamsport , PA @ Origin Art Space Jan 9 - Richmond VA @ Strange Matter & Jan 10 - Alexandria VA @ The Lab &      w/ Sun

You can see the video to Joseph Albert's "Onwards And Upwards, He Says" below. The track is the opening track from Via Oxygen. 

Pop-punk from Homewood. Download Here RIYL: The Wonder Years, State Champs Highly Recommended

Pop punk from Buffalo. Download Here RIYL: The Glory Days, State Champs

Foals have announced a second matinee show at London's Royal Albert Hall on March 28, 2013. Get presale tickets  here  on Wednesday at 9.30am.

Indie-pop from Boston. Download Here RIYL: Phoenix, indie-pop, Paper Trails

Las Vegas , NV  punk rock band  Last Call  have released their long-awaited new LP Dog Years today via their own imprint Broken Arrow Collective. The album is streaming in its entirety on Purevolume along with an exclusive track-by-track commentary from the band. Check it out here:  http://www.purevolume.com/news/last-call-dog-years-stream-track-by-track . The band has also announced plans for a hometown record release show on Jan. 5 th  at the Knight Hall in Vegas. Offering support will be Caravels, Heart to Heart, Stickup Kid,  The Letter You, Alaska and Dreamcatchers.

I recently spoke to emo gang, Tiny Moving Parts about their upcoming release, the scene and socks.    Hi there, Tiny Moving Parts! For the record, and the unacquainted, who is Tiny Moving Parts? And how did you get together? Hello! Tiny Moving Parts is a band from the farmlands of Minnesota.  Billy and Matt are brothers, and Dylan is their cousin.  We got our instruments when we were in junior high and have been writing songs ever since.  Back then, we were called The D-Cups.  It was all about punk rock in the early years and slowly evolved what we are now. How would you describe your sound in three words? Spastic, sad, happy. What are you up to at the moment? We have a split coming out with Northwestern coming out real soon and just finished a full length.  The full length will be out sometime in January before we embark on our 6 week national tour, our longest one yet. What can we expect from your upcoming full length? It will actually be legit for once.  Rea

Indie-folk from Brooklyn. Download Here RIYL: Bright Eyes, Crying Highly Recommended!

Post-rock/ experimental from Italy Download Here RIYL: Randomness...

Hi Haverford!    Heyyyyy Kelly For the record, and the unacquainted, who is Haverford? Anthony, Billy, Connor (Ramz), Mark, Kevin How did you get together? We all met each other through school and going to shows.  How would you describe your music? Mellow and laid back jamz How has your 2012 been?  Sad and weird. Mostly weird. How was the process of making Wisdom Lost for you? Did you achieve what you wanted with the release? It was pretty stressful because we wanted to release something before we all left for school, but we got it done. We're all pretty proud of how Wisdom Lost came out.  Any plans to release again before the end of the year?  We're going to be featured in a couple of compilations coming up, and we're currently starting to work on a full length, but we're not sure when it'll be finished. What are your current touring plans? We're all pretty busy between jobs and going to school, but we're going to t

  Las Vegas , NV  punk rock band  Last Call  are streaming their long-awaited new LP  Dog Years  on Punktastic.com. To listen to the album, which will be released on November 27 via their own imprint Broken Arrow Collective, head over  here . Dog Years  was produced, engineered, mixed & mastered by Paul Miner (New Found Glory, Fireworks, Thrice, Death By Stereo) at Buzzbomb Sound Labs in Orange , CA between March and November 2012.

Who? Second Story, a four piece pop punk verging on emo from Texas. Why should I listen to them? It's catchy, simple pop punk with quite distinct vocals and lacking the over-production that's been suffocating a lot of recent pop-punk bands. Basically, young guys doing pop punk as they should. What should I listen to?  What else is there? You can download the above track from their Facebook  here  and on December 11, they've got a new song out called 'Fall, For A Moment'.  RIYL: Transit, The Dangerous Summer 

Transit  begin tracking their 2nd Rise Records full length with producer Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem, Lucero, The Bouncing Souls) on Saturday at Maximum Sound Studios in Danvers , MA . Gary Cioffi (Transit, Four Year Strong, Misser)  will also be working with the band on the record. 

Bear Arms have released a video for their new single, 'Vultures'. You can also download the track as 'name your price' here . RIYL: Lower Than Atlantis, Young Guns

Gainesville , FL ’s Dikembe  and Orlando , FL ’s  You Blew It!   have announced a winter tour which launches on December 27 in Jacksonville . The trek wraps up in Gainesville on January 6.                                                       Tour Dates: Dec 27 - Jacksonville , FL @ Burro Bar Dec 28 - Savannah GA @ Taco abajo Dec 29 - Virginia Beach VA @ Thats how I beat Shaq Dec 30 - Alexandria VA @ Little Man's Garage Dec 31 - Philadelphia @ The Fire w/ The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid To Die Jan 1 - New Jersey @ Meatlocker Jan 2 - Allston MA - @ TBA Jan 3 - New York -  @ The Palace Jan 4 - Richmond , VA @House Address w/ Pity Sex & Waxahatchee Jan 5 - Atlanta GA @ Wonder Root Jan 6 - Gainesville FL @ Mars w/ The Caution Children

2CD/DVD with 8 panel digipak and 48 page book or 2LP/2CD/DVD with 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI, custom tip-on gatefold jacket, and 12 page book.  The newly remastered deluxe set includes 6 bonus tracks from the era, an extensive booklet with new liner notes, and a DVD with live and documentary footage from the era, the "Agenda Suicide" music video, and projection screen videos from the live shows. It turned out to be a very fun collection of music and video in a beautiful limited edition package. Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound handled the mastering duties for the project. Check out the newly remastered "Agenda Suicide"  here . The re-issue is limited to 5,000 copies on CD, and 3.000 on LP. Order the limited edition Danse Macabre in the  Online Store  while you can. The album and bonus tracks are also available digitally in the Store and at  iTunes . And be sure to check out one of the remaining dates on The Faint's  fall tour , where the band is perfo

Bella Union has announced that Jonathan Wilson's  Pity Trials & Tomorrow's Child   EP will be released digitally next week,  Monday 26th November. Previously released as a limited edition 12" single for Record Store Day  Pity Trials & Tomorrow's Child   opens with a cover of George Harrison's 'Isn't It A Pity,' featuring guest vocals by  Graham Nash . It's followed by a rousing take on Happy Traum's 'Trails Of Jonathan,' and a richly layered, blissed out 'Tomorrow's Child' from legendary Japanese psych-rockers Apryl Fool. Pre-Order link is  HERE

Very rarely will I say this, but I am saying this now, if you do not instantly download the following sampler, listen to it and love it, you may never visit this site again. It's honestly THE perfect sampler, featuring the following; Pianos Become The Teeth, Into It. Over It, Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, Dear Leap, Sirs, Grown Up, Everyone Everywhere, We Were Skeletons, Prawn, You Me & Everyone We Know, You Blew It!, CSTVT, Defeater, Brave Bird, Snowing, Football Etc, Joyce Manor, Hightide Hotel, Dikembe, Moving Mountains, Tigerscout, Balance And Composure, La Dispute, Former Theives, Warren Franklin, Tall Ships, Basement, Touché Amoré... Phew. Oh yeah, and there's loads of others. 68, to be precise. Download Here  (Unleash the Tweet!) Highestly recommended! 

  In Defense of the Genre , the 3 rd  LP from influential alt-rockers  Say Anything , will be released as a double vinyl gatefold LP via SRC Vinyl on January 15. Pre-orders have now launched at:  http://www.shopradiocast.com/products/Say-Anything-%252d-In-Defense-of-The-Genre-2XLP.html . Originally released in 2007,  In Defense of the Genre  was produced by Brad Wood (Smashing Pumpkins, mewithoutyou) and recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City and Seagrass Studios in California . In describing the concept behind the album, front man, Max Bemis said, “It's the story of being alone and losing my mind and then overcoming that event by learning to trust and let go of that anger and fall in love for the first time. It's also about losing that love and the confusion that entails after, and the nature of first love; discovering what you really want, whether it be to give yourself totally to someone, or explore the endless abyss and risk losing your mind agai

Man Overboard and their label, Lost Tape Collective are excited to announce several new cassette releases. -Never Shout Never - Summer EP -New Found Glory - Radiosurgery -Fireworks - Gospel -Misser - Everyday I Tell Myself I'm Going To Be A Better Person Never Shout Never,  Summer EP  will be available from the band on their tour with Never Shout Never, November 20th-December 1st. All remaining copies will then be on the  Lost Tape Collective webstore  following the tour. New Found Glory  Radiosurgery,  Fireworks  Gospel  and Misser  Every Day I Tell Myself...  will be available in early 2013 via the Lost Tape Collective webstore and limited international distros. More detailed information will be available on www.losttapecollective.com   as it becomes available.  Man Overboard / Never Shout Never Tour Dates Nov. 20th – Des Moines , IA @ Wooly’s Nov. 21st – Chicago , IL @ House Of Blues Nov. 23rd – St. Paul , MN @ Station 4 Nov. 24t

You can now get tickets for Balance and Composure 's upcoming tour alongside Daylight and The Jealous Sound   here .

The Wonder Years will be joining the Very GK Holiday Festival 2012 in Boston, MA. They will be playing alongside A Loss For Words and Transit and a whole host of others.   

Indie compilation from Sucking Lemons, featuring Real Estate, Binary, Dear Cavalry, Hands, Duologue, Simian Ghost, TV Girl, Hooray For Earth, Vents, Born Blonde Download Here RIYL: Indie music, The Fly

Indie compilation from Sucking Lemons, includes the likes of Reptar, Alt J, Conner Youngblood, Is Tropical, Dakotafish, Guerre, Seapony, Sacred Animals, Zoo Kid and California Wives. Download Here RIYL: Indie music

Indie Comp from Sucking Lemons, includes the likes of Wavves and Yuck. Download Here RIYL: Indie music

First compilation from Sucking Lemons, featuring: Dry The River, Tall Ships, Yellow Ostrich, Ideals, Dog Is Dead, Fenech Soler, The Cads, These Ghosts, Dutch Uncles and Clock Opera Download Here RIYL: Indie rock; the music that The Fly covers

Watch Divine Fits play 'Baby Get Worse' on last night's Letterman  here .

Baltimore, MD alt-rockers   Have Mercy  have announced a winter tour with NJ’s Dads. The trek kicks off December 5 th  in Alexandria , VA and runs through Pittsburgh on December 21. Most recently seen on the road with The Jealous Sound,  Have Mercy  just completed  recording their debut full-length with  producer  J. Robbins , which is scheduled for   release in   early   2013 via Topshelf Records. Tour Dates : Dec 5th   Alexandria VA @ Little Man's Garage Dec 6th   Richmond , VA @ Strange Matter Dec 7th  VA Beach @ THIBS Dec 8th   Boone , NC @ The Woods Circle House Dec 9th   Columbia , SC @ Unit One Art Space Dec 10th   Savannah , GA @ Taco Abajo Dec 11th   Tallahassee , FL @ The Hidden Hand Dec 12th   Birmingham AL , @ TBA Dec 13th   Nashville , TN  @ The Owl Farm Dec 14th   St. Louis MO @ TBA Dec 15th  Little Rock IL @ TBA Dec 16th  Chesterton,IN @ Sound Cellar. Dec 17th   Chicago , IL @ Township Dec 18th   Grand Rapids @ The Turtle