Crime In Stereo have posted a new song from I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone, due out February 23, 2010.

Check it out on their MySpace page.
Source Continue reading Crime in Stereo : “Drugwolf” →

Chris McCaughan of The Lawrence Arms and Sundowner was a guest on the PBS program, Check Please. Chris is part of a segment on “Sultan’s Market,” a middle eastern restauraunt in Chicago and recommended it, saying “it has a great selection of healthy Middle Eastern food and is very satisfying.”

Check out the video by clicking here and clicking “Watch the conversation” in the right sidebar.

This month, Chris is planning a Sundowner performance on January 30th at Beat Kitchen with Reaganomics (ex-Ryan’s Hope).
Source Continue reading Chris McCaughan of The Lawrence Arms/Sundowner on PBS’ “Check Please” →

In an interview with Spinner, Murder By Death frontman Adam Turla has revealed the title and release date for their upcoming album on Vagrant Records. The record is titled Good Morning, Magpie and is due out April 6, 2010. It is the follow-up to Red of Tooth and Claw which was released in 2008.

Adam added this about the record:

This album has a couple songs that are more positive, so it’s pretty cool because they still sound like Murder by Death songs and the lyrics are still somewhat dark but kind of a little more fun. We try not to get stale about ideas. I don’t want to be known for only doing concept albums, so instead I just try to write good songs. There’s definitely a nature theme in there that came up from out there.

Source Continue reading Murder By Death announces album title, release date →

The BBC is reporting that songwriter Billy Bragg has threatened to withhold his tax payments unless the government forces banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland to start paying back the taxpayers’ money before they give their employees bonuses. Bragg has launched a Facebook group explaining his position:

If you pay tax in the UK, you are a major shareholder in several banks – Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds and Northern Rock – who were saved from financial ruin by government intervention in 2008. The Treasury spent £117bn of taxpayers’ cash bailing out Britain’s failing banks – and last month it was revealed that this figure could rise to £850bn.

I understand that the Treasury had little choice but to use taxpayers’ money to safeguard savings and stabilise and restore confidence in the financial system. What I don’t understand is why, now that we taxpayers are the majority shareholders of these banks, we seem totally powerless to curb their excessive bonus culture? The estimated £1.5bn that RBS will pay to its investment bankers next month in the form of bonuses will ultimately be drawn from the taxes that you and I are due to pay on 31st January. I have written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, to inform him that I am no longer prepared to fund the excessive bonuses of RBS investment bankers. Unless he acts to limit them to £25,000, I shall be withholding my tax payment on 31st January.

Source Continue reading Billy Bragg threatens to withhold tax in banks protest →