A Little Sparrow update as we reach the end of 2012

Hello all. As you may may have noticed, there’s been next to no Little Sparrow content over the last few months. If you were concerned, however, let me assure you; this is because we are working very hard on our next step. It’s a big ‘un, and it’s going to be very different to this.

The new site will be at www.littlesparrowmusic.com, where you can already go to sign up for an announcement of our launch. It’s going to be exciting, we promise (for us and a few very special musicians and their fans, at least), so please bear with us while we wrestle to find time alongside our day jobs to make this happen.

Loads of love, and a happy Christmas when we get there,

Merlin x

Stream the new single from The British IBM

Formed by retro enthusiast and singer-songwriter Adrian Killens, The British IBM combine nerdy delights – indie rock and vintage computing. Their new track-of-the-same-name is lovely little slice of Cambridge indie – well worth a listen!

The music video can be viewed below.

 

Stream the new single from Jukebox The Ghost here

Somebody is the fantastic new single from Brooklyn trio Jukebox The Ghost. An insanely catchy slice of classic power pop, Somebody is taken from the new album Safe Travels released August 13^th via Yep Roc.

Following the release of their second album Everything Under the Sun in 2010, Jukebox The Ghost’s profile exploded and a relentless tour schedule saw them playing 150 shows a year, headlining the largest venues of their career. During their rapid rise the band’s music was featured in an iPad ad, they played on Letterman and Lollapalooza, and much more.

Safe Travels was recorded in Brooklyn with Dan Romer (Ingrid Michaelson, Jenny Owens Young) producing and engineering. Their most ambitious album to date, Safe Travels strikes a balance between the peppy piano pop of songs like Oh, Emily and the radio-ready drama of Don’t Let Me Fall Behind to more poignant, contemplative songs in the album’s second half that represent the band’s desire to travel into new sonic territory. This creative shift is best exemplified by Dead, Adulthood, Ghosts in Empty Houses, and The Spiritual – songs that deal with death and mortality head on, with an immediacy that was masked on previous albums.

Jukebox The Ghost are pianist Ben Thornewill, guitarist Tommy Siegel and drummer Jesse Kristin.

http://jukeboxtheghost.com

http://www.facebook.com/jukeboxtheghost

For publicity enquiries please contact chris@partisanpr.com

Blood Red Shoes release new single ‘Lost Kids’

Let’s face it; In Time to Voices is arguably the best album Blood Red Shoes have produced so far. Is it because it’s fearlessly innovative? Because it pushes the boundaries of what alternative rock can do? Frankly, no. It’s because, compositionally, it’s extraordinary. Countless bands, including Blood Red Shoes, have had a crack at the kind of no-nonsense style of writing the album is made up of and produced good material, and with their first two albums it was easy to hear what the Brighton-based duo were working towards. The fact of the matter is that this has been realised in the painfully brilliant melodies present in their newest release.

The second single to be released from the record, ‘Lost Kids’, is an absolutely stellar example of the honed rock writing they’ve perfected. Written in the midst of the 2011 London riots, the track holds a warm, sweetly harmonised verse accompanied by steady and gritty instrumentation which precedes a chorus to make even the greatest alt rock bands quail. The glorious abandon of lyrics like “We’re not fighting to be heard/We just want to watch you burn” is mirrored in the driving force of the pair’s voices, complimenting the gargantuan sound this superb outfit create.

‘Lost Kids’ was released May 14th 2012

VERONICA FALLS // Listen to new track ‘My Heart Beats’ // UK headline shows in March

After releasing one of the most critically acclaimed British albums of 2011, Veronica Falls return with a brand new track ‘My Heart Beats’; an effervescent bubble of anthemic pop brilliance. Recorded with Rory Brattwell on a freezing boat on the Thames last week, it represents a tantalising taste of things to come for the band.

The four-piece are also playing their biggest UK tour to date in March, including a headline show at the Scala. There will also be festival dates to be announced for the summer, so keep your eyes peeled…

UPCOMING LIVE DATES

March

8 – Leaf, Liverpool

9 – Deaf Institute, Manchester

10 – Stereo, Glasgow

11 – Stereo, York

13 – Haunt, Brighton

14 – Scala, London

Veronica Falls is available now on Bella Union.

Kevin Devine announces UK tour

Following the release of new album Between the Concrete & Clouds, Kevin Devine and The Goddamn Band have announced their first full UK tour in four years for February.  These will also be the first UK shows with a full band since 2008.

For nine wildly productive years, since the 2002 release of Circle Gets the Square, Kevin Devine has been tireless and fearless in exploring the possibilities for his music. It seemed his moment had come when Capitol Records released Put Your Ghost to Rest in 2006—but the following year, he was dropped during the label’s merger with Virgin Records. Seizing this as an opportunity, Devine committed to building his growing fan base through constant touring, and the results were the most successful and widely acclaimed music of his career with Brother’s Blood and Bad Books, a side project with Andy Hull and other members of Manchester Orchestra.

As Kevin Devine started work on his sixth solo album Between the Concrete & Clouds, he decided to make some fundamental changes. Rather than starting his process with a tight focus on the words, he allowed himself to follow “the things you unconsciously stumble upon—almost like the lyrics are a color more than a narrative.” Not, of course, that it meant any less of a commitment to that element of his writing.  This focus on musicality and succinctness indicated yet another new direction for his recent touring partners Nada Surf helped him reconnect with the power-pop side of his personality, which came straight to the surface in the new batch of songs.

His work on stage and in collaboration with other musicians emerged instantly when he began the actual recording of Between the Concrete & Clouds. Devine gives much of the credit for the musicality of Between the Concrete & Clouds to the team he assembled for the project—all of whom he had worked with at one point or another, but brought together as a unit for the first time.

Produced by longtime collaborator Chris Bracco and mixed by Rob Schnapf, the album features the latest iteration of the Goddamn Band: Brian Bonz (keyboard), Chris Bracco (bass, keyboard), Mike Fadem (drums, percussion), Russell Smith (electric guitar), and Mike Strandberg (guitar, mandolin).

Kevin Devine and The Goddamn Band will be coming to the following cities next month:

21.02 – Kingston The Cricketers
23.02 – Manchester Night & Day
24.02 – Southampton Joiners
25.02 – Bristol Thekla
26.02 – Oxford Jericho Tavern
27.02 – London Borderline
28.02 – Leeds Brudenell Social Club
29.02 – Glasgow King Tuts 

Feist to headline Green Man Festival 2012

This morning Green Man Festival announced its first wave of bands confirmed to be playing the event in August.

Headlining will be Feist, a long-standing member of acclaimed music collective Broken Social Scene. Feist has has also collaborated with the likes of Wilco, Beck and Grizzly Bear, and this month received a 2012 Brit Award nomination for Best International Female Solo Artist.

Artists also announced to be joining her in Green Man’s gorgeous backdrop of the Black Mountains this summer are:

The Walkmen
The Felice Brothers
Yann Tiersen
Jonathan Richman
Junior Boys
Damien Jurado
The Time & Space Machine (Live)
Cass McCombs
Scritti Polliti
Slow Club
Ghost Poet
Pete Paphides – Vinyl Revival
Peaking Lights
Dark Dark Dark,
Cashier No. 9
The Wave Pictures
Islet
Rocketnumbernine
Alt-J
Teeth of the Sea
The Perch Creek Family Jug Band
Richard Warren
Goodnight Lenin
Sweet Baboo
Alaska

Tickets for Green Man Festival 2012 went on sale this morning at 9 AM, and are available here – get them while you can, as this year’s festival promises to be an incredibly special one.