Says Chris Horkan/Manchester Online of The Silent League's single "Breathe" put out by Something In Construction in the UK: "Fronted by Justin Russo, who previously added some masterful keystrokes to Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs, The Silent League are a band with pedigree. As they call upon members of the ‘Rev and Interpol, the New York-based collective pay homage to some of North America’s greatest: Brian Wilson, Neil Young, even Burt Bacharach. And with this ultra-limited debut single, The Silent League show The Thrills just how to produce that authentic, classic-sounding product. January’s album will be awaited with baited breath.

THE SILENT LEAGUE IN NYC, THE UK, & SXSW:
Feb 13 – Mercury Lounge, New York City, w/ Jens Lekman
Feb 19 – Oxford Zodiac, Oxford, UK, w/ Belarus, Under The Igloo
Feb 20 – TBA
Feb 22 – TBA
Feb 23 – Liverpool Academy 2, Liverpool, UK, w/ TBA
Feb 24 – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, UK, w/ TBA
Feb 25 – Barfly, Cardiff, UK, w/ The DTs
Feb 26 – TBA, Southampton, UK, w/ TBA
Feb 27 – The Charlotte, Leicester, UK, w/ TBA
Feb 28 – Barfly, London, UK, w/ TBA
Mar 16-18 – South By Southwest (SXSW) Festival, Austin, TX; (details TBA)

Domestic fans need not worry, The Silent League will be performing @ the 18th annual SXSW festival in Austin, TX. Solid PR will also be hosting a showcase there, stay tuned!

It looks as if someone took the snow globe of Chicago and shook it up today. It is lovely. Much like the show on Tuesday is going to be like...

MICHEAL COLUMBIA @ THE DARKROOM
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18TH, 2005.
9 PM, FREE, 21+
with Royce, DJs Michael Lacey, Cesar Ramirez
[darkroom: 2210 W. Chicago, Chicago Tel: (773) 276-1411]

Michael Columbia’s “These are Colored Bars” presents a fresh new episode of music, delivered on the Galapagos4 label’s Alabaster imprint.

Experimental-Indie-Rock veterans via Chicago, Philly and Athens, the duo of David McDonnell [Babilcon (Misra
Records), Olivia Tremor Control (Elephant 6), Need New Body (File 13 Records)], and Dylan Ryan [of Icy Demons (Cloud
Recordings) and Orso (Perishable)] came together to experiment with an innovative combination of organic instrumentation fused with loops and live beats.

Through the filtered bass tones weaving in and around; Synths, saxophone, clarinet, violin and delay, synthetic vocals sinuously drone over pressurized machine crushing drums. Sonic spoils build up, floating in and out of Michael Columbia’s heavy low end foundations and orchestral feel. (Imagine you’re in Lee Perry’s studio with a robotic clone of Don Henley who’s been raised on Kraftwerk, and that almost sums up MC’s sound.)

“These are Colored Bars” gets to the core of electronic rock through heavy seductive drumming topped off with spaced out vocal and horn textures. Michael Columbia takes you from the streets of Chicago into the far reaches of space. One minute you're in the soundtrack to Bladerunner, the next you're driving underneath tracks of racing trains, keeping pace with some classic power rock. Only a city like this could spawn such a moody but humorous, danceable and inspiring album....

Press materials can be found here: Michael Columbia resource page

Need more? Hit me up baby.

I have forgotten how much I love Small Faces' "Stay With Me." That song is brilliant.

I haven't forgotten how fresh Need New Body are. Here's VIDEO FOR "BEACH" off of UFO

NEW ALBUM COMING OUT MAY 10th!!!
(That's my birthdate, fools! What an excellent present!)


Need New Body are hitting All Tomorrow's Parties in the UK!

(ATP website)

Here's the current line-up: SLINT »MIIGHTY FLASHLIGHT »MARK KOZELEK -SOLO (RED HOUSE PAINTERS/SUN KIL MOON) »SPOON »MÙM »FAUN FABLES »NEIL HAMBURGER »ENDLESS BOOGIE »PEARLS AND BRASS »REDNAILS »SEAN GARRISON AND THE FIVE FINGER DISCOUNT »THE NAYSAYER »BORN HELLER »MATMOS »MOGWAI »BRIGHTBLACK »KING KONG »LOVE AS LAUGHTER »NEED NEW BODY »EARLY MAN »

Whew! We made it to 2005. Give yourself a big hug from me! (You’ll have to ask Derek for one.) Here’s what I got goin’ on:

ASKELETON Minneapolis’ pop-rock outfit with punker than thou roots & my true loves - Currently in the studio, and resisting the urge to curb your enthusiasm.
CHIN UP CHIN UP Chicago’s catchiest babes have birthed an album that is flying off the shelves. Did you catch them on their last tour? Are you addicted to the disc? Do you dance around your kitchen in your skivvies to tracks 3-6? Oh, wait – maybe that’s just me. You? Me? You!
CRUSH KILL DESTROY More holy hotness from Chicago, album out soon, more live dates TBA!
DET GAMLA LANDET These Swedes will perform a sneak-attack on your soul – their album release shall be soon! Watch your back (i.e. Your mailbox!)
EUPHONE Chicago’s Ryan Rapsys went on tour with Battles before Xmas, and did nothing short of wowing audiences. Did you miss it? Well, I did tell you about it. So there.
FRANKLIN DELANO Be prepared to fall in innocent-love for Bologna, Italy’s finest representative of Americana alternative-folk. They are playing a slew of dates in Europe through the next couple months, and are currently planning a US tour during the March – May months. Stay tuned to this site for updated-dates.
FRINGE BENEFITS PARTIES Still the life of the party in New York proper. If you wanna chat with the party queen of the indie rock scene and ask her how she does it all, give me a holla! You know you wanna be up on this shiz.
GROS We’ve received a great response about Gros from you people of the media, thanks! We love them too! Keep them coming! Some live performances in the works...
HE CAN JOG Milwaukee, Wisconsin solo-electronic act who plays with a full band! Beep beep bop boop blee-leep! Released on Fork Series in the early Winter days.
ICY DEMONS Tour in the Spring, new album in the works, last year’s album still hotter than Napoleon Dynamite’s dance moves.
INDEPENDENT CHICAGO (COMPILATION) On constant rotation from those with an affinity for the Windy City and its spectacular music that is produced by wet hot American summers and bitter bitter cold winters. (Are there really four seasons?)
INDEPENDENT SWEDEN (COMPILATION) On constant rotation from those with an affinity for Swedeland, myself included. You always knew that there was more fabulousness to Sweden than our beloved Ikea, here’s hard-copy proof.
MARTIN REV Well, Suicide is playing a one-off gig in London. If you’ve got the means – you should be there! Their third and fourth albums ‘A Way Of Life’ and ‘Why Be Blue?’ issued the following Monday, January 31st.
January 24, 2005 – Suicide @ Camden Electric Ballroom
MICHAEL COLUMBIA Chicago’s newest true-bluest jazz-rock-indie-schmorgasbord. Cerebral and crazy-good, they are a legendary duo in the works. Note: Also, Dylan & Dave are both cute as buttones!

MY WAY MY LOVE Hailing from Tokyo, Japan, this trio are insanitary! I last saw them at LA’s Silver lake Lounge where Yukio propelled his little body into the drum set a la Kurt Cobain. The next day he was fantastically well, shopping on Melrose with the best of us. "Their layers of noise and clanking beats are reminiscent of Black Dice with elements of a fucked-up Sonic Youth...lyrics, which are sung in English, perfectly complement the music." -DIW Magazine. The release date of “Hypnotic Suggestion:01” is February 22, 2005. Still on tour:
January
07 New York City, NY - North Six: Downstairs (w/ The Poison Arrows, +2 TBA)
08 New York City, NY - Knitting Factory: Old Office (w/ Blue Velvet, The Poison Arrows, +1 TBA)
09 Allston, MA - Great Scott (w/ Blue Velvet, The Poison Arrows, +1 TBA)
10 Boston, MA - PA's Lounge (w/ Blue Velvet, +1 TBA)
11 New York City, NY - TBA
12 Pittsburgh, PA - TBA
13 Cincinnati, OH - High Five Bar
14 Bloomington, IN - Lambert Hicks and Ross Recreation Center (w/ Mt. Gigantic, Lucky Pineapple, Impossible Shapes, Russian Tsarcasm)
15 Knoxville, TN - Pilot Light
16 Lexington, KY - The Dame
17 Toledo, OH - TBA
18 Akron, OH - Lime Spider
19 Lansing, MI - Mac's Bar (w/ The Casionauts, The Playback, +1 TBA)
20 Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon (w/ Brief Candles, His and Her Vanities)
21 Milwaukee, WI - Onopa Brewing Co. (w/ Brief Candles, His and Her Vanities)
22 St. Paul, MN - Turf Club (w/ Valet)
23 Winona, MN - TBA
24 Kansas City, MO - TBA
25 Warensburg, MO - The Setlist
26 Cedar Falls, IA - The Reverb
29 Dekalb, IL - The House (w/ The Narrator, Bobby Conn and The Glass Gypsies, +1 TBA)
...more dates TBA...

NEED NEW BODY Upcoming release (May?) on 5RC... Ha-cha-cha-cha-cha!
NOW Fantastic. It’s out now, but our shipment of CDs got swallowed by either the USPS or the Swedish version of... Still looking, so keep your eyes open for another whopping surprise in your inbox. We love you, you know we’ll hook you up.
POISON ARROWS Elusive and intriguing Justin Sinkovich always has something a-brewin’ in his cave (read: studio). EP is still smokin’
RED EYED LEGENDS Another great response from y’all. Thanks for that, we know it’s great & are glad you thought so too! Diggin’ those hot keys from new addition Kiki Yablon (ex-Dishes). More to come from them soon!
THE ROSEBUDS + THE CLOSE (SPLIT 7") - How could you not love these two bands? The mere mention of Merge’s Rosebuds excited some of you from the get-go & the discovery of The Close is one you’re happy for – thanks for the love!
THE SILENT LEAGUE UK Release of “Sadly, The Orchestra, Has Refused” is slated for Jan. 30th – totally continuing to be hot, they’re playing some even hotter shows soon (is that possible?) I can’t even announce or hint yet. Except for this one:
February 12 – The Silent League & Jens Lenkman @ Mercury Lounge NYC
(Aren’t you excited? Jens is so charmingly cute & endearing – as are all 431,887,912 members of The Silent League)

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Have you covered our bands? Hook us up with some tear sheets! We’ll be your best friends! We’ll throw a party in your honor! I’ll send pictures! Honest.
Okay, well at least hit us with some linkage! Thanks!

Thanks very much to Chris & Black Market Music who were very generous to myself & My Way My Love when we were in town, I will love you always! As I always preach, BMM is the best store for buy-sell-trade-consignment-rentals of fine vintage guitars, amps, keys, drums, et al. So visit them when you’re in LA! www.blackmarketmusic.com

Hey, but who loves you the best?
(We do!)