Year: 2008

Since their 2003 conception, Canadian punk death glitch duo Crystal Castles has released three seven-inches (one of which sold out in three days) and a number of remixes, all consistent in their onslaught of spastic Atari synth and chug-a-chug dance punk beats. Many of these rarities have now made the cut onto their self-titled debut full-length.

The first impression of these effusively loud Scottish rockers make is they sound like Mogwai covering speeded-up Sigur Rós songs with a few kidnapped members of Broken Social Scene directing the whole effort. However, The Twilight Sad goes way beyond that. Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards, It Did.—an EP—features four re-worked numbers from the band’s first full-length, last year’s Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, as well as two other songs.

On the second-to-last day of their latest European tour, the Canadian hardcore punk quartet Cursed was robbed of equipment, passports, and tour earnings. Though no official announcement has been made, many sites have already announced the band’s breakup as a result of this unfortunate event.

Geoff Farina has made a career out of talking softly and carrying a big stick, that stick being his G&L Legacy guitar. For 14 years the Berkley College of Music graduate toured the world fronting the post-punk cum smooth jazz outfit Karate, eschewing the bombast and grit of his contemporaries for more precise playing and lyrical simplicity. Having nothing left to prove in the guitar department, Farina has let his instrument take a backseat to prose on his new project, Glorytellers.

With The Apples in Stereo‘s latest release, Electronic Projects for Musicians, now a few months old, the Apples are ready to hit the road in support of the b-sides and rarities disc. But in addition to revealing a slue of summer dates (see below), the Apples have also announced that they have been asked to make a special musical performance on Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report.”

Having just wrapped up South By Southwest a few months ago, The Aggrolites are showing no signs of slowing down. For the remainder of the summer, you can catch the L.A. five-piece’s dirty and soul-infused reggae on the Vans Warped Tour. The 46-date tour will span across most of the U.S., as well as some dates in Canada too. For the next three months, they will be playing along such acts as Rise Against, Pennywise, Angels & Airwaves, The Vandals, and Paramore, among many others.

Hayden is the lovably lo-fi Canadian singer-songwriter who first came to prominence with the title song for Steve Buscemi’s 1996 indie film Trees Lounge. Listening to his sixth full-length release, In Field & Town, is akin to a kid on Prozac experiencing “uplift anxiety.” The songs here are much more upbeat than what this indie-rock antihero offered listeners in the past. Longtime fans may find themselves missing his drawn-out, mumbly lyrical deliveries. Plus, it’s just not as sad.

Calexico has announced that they will release their latest disc, Carried to Dust, September 9th. For their first release since 2006’s Garden Ruin, co-founders Joey Burns and John Convertino have employed an arsenal of rotating musicians and friends that boasts a familiar line-up, which is reminiscent of their critically acclaimed disc Feast of Wire.

In 2005, Earth released Hex (Or Printing in the Infernal Method), his first release after seven years. It was inspired by Neil Yong’s score for the quasi-apocalyptic western, Dead Man, the record was an unexpected departure from anything the group, known for their de-tuned, drawling minimalism, had done before.