Braids Announce North American Tour With Toro Y Moi

Braids, whose album Native Speaker is out now on Kanine Records, are the latest sensation from Canada and they have just embarked on a tour across the continent with Toro Y Moi. Along their trek, they’ll be stopping by their hometown Montreal, New York City and will wrap up with concerts alongside Of Montreal. Check below for a date near you!

And if you want to explore their a bit first, the band just premiered a remix of their song “Lemonade” by  Landon Spears. Listen to “Lemonade (Lemonparty Bliss Out – Landon Spears Remix)” below:

Here are their upcoming tour dates:

04-05 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle (with Toro Y Moi)
04-06 – Bloomington, IN – The Bishop (with Toro Y Moi)
04-07 – Toronto, ON – Wrongbar (with Toro Y Moi)
04-08 – Montreal, QB – La Sala Rossa (with Toro Y Moi)
04-09 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall (with Toro Y Moi)
04-10 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall Of Williamsburg (with Toro Y Moi)
04-11 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom (with Toro Y Moi)
04-12 – Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church (with Toro Y Moi)
04-13 – Baltimore, MD – Talking Head (with Toro Y Moi)
04-14 – Washington, DC – Rock And Roll Hotel (with Toro Y Moi)
04-15 – Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506 (with Toro Y Moi)
05-02 – Montreal, QB – Metropolis (with Of Montreal)
05-03 – Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre (with Of Montreal)

Hermes Release Two New Singles in April

Hermes, a group of young English chaps from the small town of Cirencester are fresh on the scene with a double A side, “Anyone Who Cares / More Love In Death” available on April 25.

“Anyone Who Cares” shares upbeat instrumentation with self conscious lyrics like “I wouldn’t know the truth if it hit me/ Wouldn’t know love until it bit me.” The synth line sparkles, the buildup to the chorus is adrenalin charging and everything culminates once the chorus sets in. The echoing backup vocals compliment the lead’s in this well rounded track.

“More Love in Death” features steady, perfectly subtle drums that is the driving beat throughout the song. The liberating message of this song, emphasized by the repeating lyric “You can let go,” is blanketed under a softer, more forlorn feeling evoked from the music and vocal style. “Anyone Who Cares” and “More Love in Death” are two distinct and significantly different tracks, when juxtaposed balance each other and show the range of capabilities from this young band.

Judging from these new singles, Hermes sounds like they’d out on an awesome live show, so let’s hope they tour the US in the near future.

The Strokes’ Angles Debuted At #4 On Billboard Charts

The Strokes’ fourth album Angles took a while to come but the bright side for them now is that people rushed to buy it out of excitement! The album has debuted at #4 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart with 88,000 copies sold in its first week. Success also came in other countries; it debuted #3 in the UK, #4 in Canada, and #1 in Australia.

Along with that came praise from – among others – Rolling Stone magazine, who called Angles “the best album that [The Strokes] have made since 2001’s Is This It“, and a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden on Friday April 1st… The Strokes are back!

tUnE-yArDs unveil “Bizness” video, start Japan benefit facepaint contest

tUnE-yArDs are hot on the heels of recording w h o k i l l , coming out April 19th on 4AD, and the band has released a video for single “Bizness.”  In the video, school children playfully run amok, a collage of face-painted adults rotate, reconfigure, and recombine as organic, geometric shapes, and Merrill Garbus fleshes out an envisioning of her primal wail.

In related news, the band have started a contest encouraging fans to “submit photos of themselves – or any other objects they see fit – adorned in coloured face paint. To enter, fans should upload photos via a dedicated Flickr account here. For every photo submitted, Merrill will dedicate $1 to the Japan relief effort. The photo judged to be the most creative will win a boombox decorated by tUnE-yArDs in the colours of the w h o k i l l album artwork.”  Get an idea of what they’re looking for here.

The Morning Benders Release EP In Support Of Japan Relief Efforts

If you didn’t know, Chris Chu brothers of The Morning Benders was born in Japan. And the band was going to play a concert in Japan this month. In light of the recent disaster over there, and in order to offer all the help they can give, The Morning Benders are releasing Japan Echo, an EP only available on the band’s website, whose proceeds, 100% of them, will be donated to the Japan Society’s Emergency Relief Fund. Get it HERE.

Full EP Tracklisting:
1. Cold War (Star Slinger Remix)
2. Better In Blue
3. Hand Me Downs (Wild Nothing Remix)
4. Excuses (RAC Remix)
5. Mason Jar (Twin Sister Remix)
6. Wet Cement (Aislyn Remix)
7. Little Riot
8. Promises (Star Slinger Remix)

Datarock Releases EP In Advance of Full Album

Datarock has suddenly released an EP, California, in anticipation of their opus, Datarock – The Musical.  All tracks on the California EP will be on the full-length album, due out later this year.  You can hear the entire EP streaming right here:  http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/spinner#/1.  Enjoy!