Our very close, personal friends in the, let’s be honest, breathtaking band Low have collaborated with the choreographer Morgan Thorson on a dance/music performance called Heaven, which will be presented at On the Boards here in Seattle April 1-4. You can find out more and buy tickets here and the full details are covered below in the press release from the folks at On the Boards. This thing sounds incredibly cool and we’d all be silly to miss it.

Plus! Both Low and the dancers from Heaven will be live on KEXP on Tuesday, March 30th at 3:00 pm, doing a combination of Low’s music and original compositions from the performance.

Relatedly, and shortly after all of this happens, Alan from Low’s other band Retribution Gospel Choir will be playing here in Seattle, at the Crocodile as part of their first west coast tour since the January release of their Sub Pop debut album 2. That show happens on Wednesday, April 7th. The reliably incredible Kinski will be opening that show!

And! On that same April 7th, at noon, Retribution Gospel Choir will be performing live on KEXP!

To recap (in convenient chronological order):

March 30th: Low and dancers from Heaven live on KEXP at 3pm!
April 1-4: Heaven at On the Boards!
April 7th: Retribution Gospel Choir live on KEXP at noon!
April 7th: Retribution Gospel Choir plays at the Crocodile with Kinski!

Here’s the full press release from On the Boards about Heaven:

Rising star choreographer Morgan Thorson teams with cult-favorite indie band Low in west coast premiere of Heaven
Morgan Thorson | Low
Heaven
Thu – Sun | Apr 1 – 4 | 8pm | $24

(Seattle) – On the Boards (OtB) is pleased to present the west coast premiere of Heaven from choreographer Morgan Thorson and indie band Low (Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker). In this new work Thorson and her collaborators create a synthesis of music and dance in which the musicians participate in the movement and the dancers contribute to the soundscape of lush choral arrangements and minimalist instrumentation.

Exploring the emotional and physical manifestations of ecstasy, Heaven borrows from multiple faiths to find inspiration for the movement and soundtrack. Thorson’s style, which draws from Skinner Releasing Technique, is also highly influenced here by poses and movements drawn from religious rituals. Equal prominence is given to the soundtrack by Sparhawk and Parker by incorporating the musicians into both the stage and the movement. Additionally, the dancers become part of the soundtrack as they sing solos and group works inspired by shape note singing alongside the members of Low.

After seeing Heaven, artistic director Lane Czaplinski commented on the unique combination of music and dance:
“Live music in a dance performance is rare. Music fully integrated into the creative process as well as the live performance is even rarer. In this case Morgan and Alan [choreographer and composer] both have a curiosity about faith and were able to pursue this question together. Watching it felt like a kind of updated Grotowski-like song cycle.”

The west coast premiere of the production comes after a national tour that included stops at the Walker Arts Center (Minneapolis), PS122 (NYC), DiverseWorks Art Space (Houston) and Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts.

Morgan Thorson, originally from Connecticut and NYC, has created dance and performance in Minneapolis since 1994. Her work ranges from outdoor performance and site specific choreography to ensemble/solo improvisation and fully choreographed productions. In 2007 she toured Faker, a performance inspired by the movement and cult phenomena of Elvis, to venues such as PS 122, Institute for Contemporary Art (Boston) and the Walker Art Center’s Momentum…

If you pre-order I Will Be by March 30th, you’ll receive a reissued CDR of her out-of-print Zoo Music EP, featuring 5 early Dum Dum Girls tracks. You’ll also get Dum Dum Girls stickers and probably some other stickers too. OH! I almost forgot—if you pre-order the record right this moment, you can also listen to it—RIGHT THIS MOMENT—via a link to a full album stream. So those three reasons, plus the 11 amazing reasons on the record (the songs, duh) equals 14 reasons to go make a yes decision to the as-yet-unspoken question which is really the whole point of this email: “Do you want to pre-order I Will Be right now?” We’d really like to think you do.

Turn this opportunity yes.

Pre-order I Will Be right here.

Download the “Jail La La” MP3 for free here.

Buy the “Jail La La” 7” single here.

Sohrab from Obits has been chatting, on the wall of the Obits’ Facebook page, with this 16 year-old kid about Sub Pop being 49% owned by Warner, what “indie” means, etc. And, though that summary sounds incredibly tired, it’s a pretty good conversation. Here it goes:

BJM:
Obits, what do you think about the fact that Sub Pop is 49% owned by Warner?

Obits:
Wow. Is this part of a Seger-Saget-Sub Pop conspiracy?
It’s a complicated question. Short answer is we signed on the dotted line. Longer answer involves breaking down the myths of independent labels and how bands actually get treated in many of those relationships.
It’s a slippery slope in both directions but, in our specific case, we are very happy to work with Sub Pop. They are honest people who truly care about music and are wonderfully realistic about their expectations in an industry that is rarely so….
I suppose I might feel differently if it were Monsanto or Pfizer, but the Warner affiliation is what it is and doesn’t seem to effect us.
How do you feel about it? Does it color your opinion of the label or our band? Do you think it makes a difference? I’m asking sincerely, by the way.

BJM:
I mean, it slightly taints the idea of Sub Pop being a true “Indie” label like they used to be, but in the long run, as long as they are still coming out with such amazing music, like you guys / No Age / Fleet Foxes, I’m not about to condemn them. So I guess it would say that it doesn’t really matter too much. Also, it would be my dream to be on Sub Pop. What do you guys think of the term “Indie” in general/how it’s used these days?

Obits:
B, this is Sohrab, just so you know I’m only speaking for myself in terms of whatever it is I’m about to write.
Having grown up in the Dischord / Touch and Go / SST era, the word “indie” wasn’t part of my vocabulary. There were records that I bought from Smash! or Yesterday & Today or one of the many other mom-and-pop shops in the DC area at that time, there were other things I mail-ordered and eagerly awaited from Systematic in San Francisco, there were cassettes I got by writing to bands I read about in MRR, and then there was whatever else was outside of that world, which I had no interest in and, therefore, might as well not have existed.
“Indie” wasn’t something I came across until the ‘90s, when some bands used the term to try to distinguish themselves from other bands that weren’t that, I guess. It seems a little silly to me now. It’s such a broad and vague way to define anything. It probably would’ve been more effective to just say, “We don’t sound like Blind Melon.”
The language for describing sensory experience is relative and bound by context. To a fan of Merzbow, Obits probably sounds like Three Dog Night. To a fan of Three Dog Night, Obits probably sounds like the guy in Merzbow tampered with his “Mama Told Me Not to Come” single.
That said, I guess people hang onto the word “indie” because it’s become shorthand for saying that something is not part of mainstream culture or that it’s quirky or some other absurd notion folks have about the need to compartmentalize music into little digestible demographic terms. So, to me, the word is now just part of the lexicon of lifestyle marketing.
If you want to get into the economics of what “indie” means or what people think…

The debut full-length by Happy Birthday comes out tomorrow, March 16th! As with many of the records we release under the Sub Pop imprimatur of medium quality, we are very enthusiastic about this album and this band. So enthusiastic, in fact, that we would like to encourage you to buy this album from us. And, in order to convince you of the necessity of having Happy Birthday in your life, we are going to the following great lengths…

1. We are GIVING AWAY a second mp3 from the Happy Birthday album! This number is called “Subliminal Message,” and it is hereby yours to keep! Get Subliminal Message here!
2. You know how people do that thing where they put music up on YouTube with just a picture of the record cover, or maybe an LP spinning on a turntable, or some other thing that is clearly not all that much of a video at all, but just some kind of placeholder image or thing, that is just really an excuse to stream a song on what is, at least in name, more of a site for videos? We’re doing that with “Subliminal Message,” too! Subliminal Message on YouTube! It’s not a music video! Or, maybe it’s just a really plain one!
3. We are also offering a free stream of the entire Happy Birthday record right now on SoundCloud! You can go here and listen to the entire album and then also stick it up your blog for your “friends” to hear!

And there you go: three (3!) new opportunities to celebrate Happy Birthday!

Also worth noting, for those of you attending the annual South by Southwest music festival in Austin this year: Happy Birthday is playing the Sub Pop/Hardly Art show on Thursday, March 18th at the Galaxy Room. Full details on all that here.

For those of you with less generous expense accounts, there are other non-festival Happy Birthday shows listed here!

Maybe you remember us telling you back in January about the new travel video series called “Indie Asia: On Tour with Handsome Furs” which partners CNN with our very own Handsome Furs.

In case you are a bit hazy on the details, this is the series follows Handsome Furs throughout their first tour across Asia, through China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand and highlights the pretty unique footage that the band captured using their own Flip cameras. Installments have been popping up over at CNN since January and today the 4th part of the series is premiering right at this very moment over on the front page of the very big deal that is CNN.com. Go check it out!

Oh and you can also check out all 4 episodes in one pace by going here too!

In addition to our awesome SXSW showcase on March 18th at The Galaxy Room (508 E 6th St,) we thought we would compile a handy dandy list of all the additional shows our bands are playing throughout the festival.

See ya in Austin!

Wednesday – March 17th

Happy Birthday

End of an Ear Instore/Record Release Party!(2209 South First Street)
Time: 4:00 pm

GvB/ True Panther Party @ Charlie’s (1301 Lavaca Street)
Time: TBD

Male Bonding

Lose Control Party @ Vice (302 E 6th St.)
Time: 2:00 pm

Rockfeedback Show @ Latitude 30 (512 San Jacinto)
Time: 12:00 am

Thursday – March 18th

Jaill

Trailer Space Records (Ste A, 1401 Rosewood Avenue)
Time: 3:30 pm

The Ruby Suns

New Zealand at SXSW party @ Brush Square Park (5th and Neches)
Time: 6:00 pm

Avi Buffalo

Aloft SXSW Party (ACOUSTIC SET) @ Max’s Wine Dive (4720 Washington Avenue)
Time: 2:00 pm

Billions/Ticketfly Party @ The Mohawk (912 Red River Street)
Time: 4:40pm

Male Bonding

Chain Drive Day Party @ 504 Willow St.
Time: 4:00 pm

Dum Dum Girls

Other Music Day Party @ French Legation Museum (802 San Marcos St)
Time: 5:00PM

Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore

Twangfest / KDHX Party @ Jovita’s (1615 South 1st Street)
Time: 12:30

Waterloo Instore (600A N. Lamar St)
Time: 3:00 pm

Future Sounds / American Songwriter Party @ Stompin’ Grounds (3801 South Congress Avenue)
Time: 5:00 pm

No Age

Death & Taxes Party @ Red Fez (5th& Colorado)
Time: 6:00 pm

Happy Birthday

Burger Records Party @ Trailer Space (1401-A Rosewood)
Time: 7:00PM

Friday – March 19th

Avi Buffalo

KXLU/The Smell-Olfactory Records Party @ Domy Books (913 E Cesar Chavez)
Time: 12:40 PM

AAM SXSW Extravaganza @ Galaxy Room Backyard (508 East 6th Street)
Time: 3:30 PM

Jaill

The Broken Neck (4701 Red Bluff Rd)
Time: 6:30 PM

Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore

Hotel San Jose (1316 South Congress Avenue)
Time: 3:00 PM

Happy Birthday

GCT PARTY @ Urban Outfitters (2406 Guadalupe St)
Time: 2:00 PM

Woodsist Party @ Ms Beas / Cheer up Charlie’s (1104 East 6th St)
Time: 6:00 PM – 12:00 AM Happy Birthday set time TBA

Dum Dum Girls

GCT PARTY @ Urban Outfitters (2406 Guadalupe St)
Time: 3:00 PM

GvsB / Mex Summer PARTY @ KlubKrucial (614 E. 6th St)
Time: 4:45 PM

Male Bonding

Consequence of Sound Party @ Republic Live (301 W 5th St)
Time: 1:00 PM

The Ruby Suns

I Guess I’m Floating SXSW Party @ Lovejoy’s (604 Neches)
Time: 4:30 PM

No Age

Escatic Peace Show @ Red 7 Patio (611 East 7th Street)
Time: 12:00 AM

Saturday – March 20th

The Ruby Suns

Hype Machine/ Lose Control Party @ Vice (302 E 6th St.)
Time: 12:00 PM

Avi Buffalo

Under the Radar Party @ Emo’s Annex East (603 Red River)
Time: 1:35 PM

FYF Fest Presents Mess With Texas
Where: TBA
Time: 6:00 PM

Happy Birthday

Waterloo Instore (600A South Lamar St)
Time: 4:00 PM

ihaterocknroll party @ Trailer Space Records (1401 Rosewood Ave)
Time: 6:30 PM

VICE Party @ 220 South Congress
Time: Set time TBA party from 12AM – 3 AM

Dum Dum Girls

MOG.COM PARTY @ Mohawk (912 Red River)
Time: 1:00 PM

FADER FORT (E. 5th St. and Waller St.)
Time: 4:30 PM

NEW YORK NIGHT TRAIN PARTY @ Spider House Café (500 West 29th St)
Time: 7:00 PM

No Age

PPM Showcase @ Barbarella (615 Red River)
Time: 1:00 AM

IN HONOR OF THIS SPECIAL DAY, SUB POP RECORDS WILL RELEASE A MARVELOUS RANGE OF MUSIC PRODUCTS, AVAILABLE ONLY IN PARTICIPATING RECORD STORES

Record Store Day In-Store Performances by Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, No Age, Male Bonding & Dum Dum Girls

Originally conceived in 2007 as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally, the first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Now celebrated the third Saturday every April, it’s the one day each year that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists and labels to celebrate the art of music. We at Sub Pop Records have put together a whole raft of releases (seven in all!) to help entice people into record stores to enjoy the many pleasures offered there. Each destined for future collector’s item status, the Sub Pop Record Store Day 2010 series of releases is sure to appeal to the minor OCD tendencies of every true music enthusiast. To find a participating store, go here.

FOR: RECORD STORE DAY 2010
FROM: SUB POP, WITH LOVE

Beach House “Zebra” 12” (sp877)
The “Zebra” 12” features 2 new tracks (“The Arrangement” and “Baby”) and 2 alternate takes on songs from the popular 2010 Teen Dream album (a UK radio edit of “Zebra” and the Cough Syrup remix of “10 Mile Stereo”). Available now: Beach House’s Teen Dream SP845, CD+DVD/2xLP+DVD.
Side One:
1. Zebra (UK Radio Edit)
2. The Arrangement
Side Two:
1. Baby
2. 10 Mile Stereo (Cough Syrup Remix)

The Album Leaf “There Is a Wind” 12” (sp878)
The “There Is a Wind” 12” features 2 new tracks (“Landing in Snow” and “Resonations”) and 2 alternate takes on songs from the popular 2010 A Chorus of Storytellers album (an acoustic version of “There Is a Wind” and the Jamuel Saxon sunburnt remix of “Falling from the Sun”). Also available now: The Album Leaf’s A Chorus of Storytellers SP805, CD/2xLP.
Side One:
1. There Is a Wind (acoustic)
2. Landing in Snow
Side Two:
1. Resonations
2. Falling from the Sun (Jamuel Saxon sunburnt remix)

Dum Dum Girls / Male Bonding 7” (sp876)
Two brand-new and exclusive tracks for Record Store Day 2010, one each from LA’s Dum Dum Girls and London’s Male Bonding. Both bands have debut albums out this spring on Sub Pop. Also available now: Dum Dum Girls’ I Will Be SP840, CD/LP. Available May 11th: Male Bonding’s Nothing Hurts SP854, CD/LP
Side A: Dum Dum Girls “Pay for Me”
Side AA: Male Bonding “Before It’s Gone”

Happy Birthday 7” (sp874)
Two brand-new and exclusive tracks for Record Store Day 2010 from Kyle “King Tuff” Thomas’ Happy Birthday. Both of these tracks, like those of Happy Birthday’s self-titled March 2010 debut album, were recorded and mixed at Kyle’s home studio. Available March 16th: Happy Birthday’s Happy Birthday SP850 CD/LP.
Side A: “Shampoo”
Side B: “Alien”

Soundgarden “Hunted Down” 7” Reissue (sp12a)
This reissue of a Sub Pop classic was arranged specially for Record Store Day. “Hunted Down” was released in June 1987 as the band’s first single and was later available on Screaming Life. This single is pressed on translucent orange vinyl. The original, now a Soundgarden collector’s item, was pressed on blue vinyl.
Side A: “Hunted Down”
Side B: “Nothing to Say”

CocoRosie “Lemonade" 7” (sp884)
The A-side to this limited-edition single is an edit of one of the stand-out tracks from the new CocoRosie album Grey Oceans and the B-side is the band’s cover of the Beach Boys’ classic “Surfer Girl.” Grey Oceans, CocoRosie’s Sub Pop debut (and fourth full-length album overall) will be released on May 11, 2010. Watch a ““Smokey Taboo” trailer from Grey Oceans.
Side A: “Lemonade”
Side B: “Surfer…

Binki Shapiro, vocalist and multi instrumentalist in Los Angeles band Little Joy, has put together an online auction for Haiti relief. Here’s a note from Binki herself.
“My name is Binki Shapiro, and I play in the band Little Joy. In an effort to raise money for the relief efforts in earthquake-devastated Haiti, I’ve rallied a bunch of artists to contribute custom-made artwork — t-shirts, tote bags and other personalized items — for the Crafts For A Cause auction. All proceeds will go to Artists for Peace and Justice, an amazing charitable organization founded by my dear friend Paul Haggis.”
We’re very proud to have Sub Pop artists No Age and Fleet Foxes as contributing artists. Both have created T Shirts that will be featured in the online auction starting at 8 am on March 15th.
You can learn more about Artists For Peace and Justice as well as Crafts For a Cause here and here.

March 16th is going to be a sweet day for people who love sweet tunes. What I’m talking about is, a band called Happy Birthday and their debut CD/LP (with accompanying digital download code) on Sub Pop Records. Not only will you receive a CD or LP with 11 astounding gems with your pre-order, you’ll also get the record for the special pre-order price of $10 for the CD and $14 for the LP. And you know what? That’s not it! We’re also going to throw in a pretty sweet Happy Birthday sticker sheet and poster. And the last thing I want to mention regarding this (and all Sub Pop pre-orders, for that matter), is that when you pre-order Happy Birthday, you’ll get instant access to a stream so you don’t have to wait to hear the record.

Pre-order Happy Birthday and get a free MP3 download from the record right here.

“Flight of the Conchords has had a great relationship with the U.K. in the past. In some ways you could say we got our start there, and we were always over at the U.K’s house. But then one night, some heated words were said and Flight of the Conchords left in a huff. We haven’t been back since. That was five years ago. Now, we’re coming back to say we’re sorry. We’ll also be visiting our old friend Ireland, an acquaintance that we had an uneasy first date with called ‘The Netherlands’ and some countries we have never met called Norway and Sweden.” –Jemaine

Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday, March 5th at 9AM local time.

Dates with Kristen Schaal
3 May 2010 Amsterdam, NL at Melkweg Max
4 May 2010 Amsterdam, NL at Melkweg Max
5 May 2010 Dublin, Ireland at Olympia
6 May 2010 Dublin, Ireland at Olympia
10 May 2010 Birmingham, UK at NIA
11 May 2010 Manchester, UK at Apollo
12 May 2010 Manchester, UK at Apollo
14 May 2010 Glasgow, UK at SECC
15 May 2010 Glasgow, UK at SECC

Dates with Arj Barker
16 May 2010 London, UK at Hammersmith Apollo
17 May 2010 London, UK at Hammersmith Apollo
20 May 2010 Bergen, Norway at Grieghallen
22 May 2010 Oslo, Norway at Folkteatern
23 May 2010 Copenhagen, DK at Vega
24 May 2010 Stockholm, Sweden at Cirkus

Happy March, y’all! I am so glad to be done with February. It seems like such a bogus month what with its handful of days. I like a month with all 31 days. A month that knows it could stop at 30, but spits in the face of slowing down. Also, when there are lots of days in a month we can release more records more of the time. For instance, March 2 we release Fight Softly by The Ruby Suns on CD/CP, and the little buddies next door, aka Hardly Art, release Double Jointer by those crazy Brooklynites Golden Triangle. Both are neat. If you pre-order Fight Softly by March 2nd, you’ll get $2 off the CD or LP! Get them here and here.

Mid-March sees the release of the self-titled album by Happy Birthday which is the new band from Kyle of King Tuff and Witch, etc. Pre-order this bad boy and you get $2 off the CD or LP + probably a sticker + for sure a newsprint poster! This record is one of my faves and I’m very excited to see them play at SXSW this year, which brings me to my next point: we’re doing a SXSW showcase with Hardly Art on March 18th at the Galaxy Room and you should certainly stop by if you happen to be in town. Check out more here. Also, we’re putting out a 7” by King Khan and Pat Meteor on the 16th. Get that guy here.

March 30th is two things—one, it is the day before my soul-crushing 35th birthday, and two, it’s the release of the long player (CD/LP) from Dum Dum Girls called I Will Be. Pre-order this record by March 30th and get a five-song CDR of the first Dum Dum Girls release on Zoo Music Records, owned by Dee Dee and her old man. (Husband old man, not dad old man.) While you’re at it you should grab the new Unnatural Helpers 7” for their killer summer jam track called “Sunshine/Pretty Girls” out on Hardly Art—it’s good for beer drinking and dancing.

The winner for last month’s prize of new releases is Erick Roff of Seattle and it was chosen by our pal Nick Heliotis over at Hardly Art, purveyors of music also. Please stop by Hardly Art’s webspace and look around. *To win this month’s new releases please tell me, in the comments section, what song you would use in place of the ol’ happy birthday standard when/if I were to outlaw it.

The good folks over at Baeble.com recorded some fantastic footage of Beach House’s record release show at The Bell House back in January (1/26/10, to be exact) and it is premiering today on baeble.com along with an interview + a couple Beach House contests thrown in there for good measure, all for you to check out! Tickets for this show sold out pretty fast, so unless you were among the lucky few hundred in attendance that night, this is your best chance to see what a sold-out Beach House record release show is all about. Enjoy!

Beach House’s Bell House show and Baeble’s Beach House interview

Though it might strain the limits of imagination to even consider the possibility of Sub Pop’s early 2010 release schedule getting any busier or better, we are exceedingly pleased and proud to announce that we’ll be releasing the new CocoRosie album Grey Oceans on May 11th!

For those of you not already well-acquainted with the band, CocoRosie are two American-born sisters, Sierra and Bianca, who started making music together in Paris in 2003. Their first album, La Maison de Mon Rêve, was released in 2004 and their second album, Noah’s Ark, followed in 2005. Their third and most recent album, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn, came out in 2007. All three of these albums were released worldwide on Touch and Go Records and earned positive critical acclaim both overseas and at home.

The nomadic duo (currently and temporarily residing in New Mexico) spent much of 2008 writing and recording in Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Berlin, New York, and Paris, finding amazing and diverse musicians to collaborate along the way. The result is their 11-song Sub Pop debut, Grey Oceans, due out May 11th, 2010.

Grey Oceans:
Trinity’s Crying
Smokey Taboo
Hopscotch
Undertaker
Grey Oceans
R.I.P. Burn Face
The Moon Asked the Crow
Lemonade
Gallows
Fairy Paradise
Here I Come

Beach House stopped by AOL last month to record a Spinner Interface session! This is a first for Sub Pop! Not only does the band look extra snazzy but, and perhaps more importantly, they sound fantastic. The session is posted today on the AOL homepage and you can find the entire session at the AOL Spinner Interface page.

Are you like me? Would you like to shield yourself from the cold and at the same time display your affection for this very record label? Well, we here at this very record label have come up with a solution to this problem. We have found that by creating hooded-style sweatshirts made from the luxurious, American Apparel, poly/cotton blend that proudly fly the Sub Pop logo on the chest, we could be both warm, and representin’ at the same time. And at $38, they are $4 less than what the plain sweatshirt retails for(meaning that the Sub Pop logo only does $4 worth of damage when printed on the shirt).

They are available right here.

AMP, All-ages Movement Project, is an organization that helps to support existing music communities as well to help build music communities when help is needed. They connect young people with music however they’re able. We love what these guys do and we’re psyched to share some exciting news with you. AMP has been chosen as a contender for a $50,000 prize in the Refresh Everything campaign. Every day in February, you have the chance to cast your vote.

All you have to do is go here and vote for them every day in February.

Thanks for voting!

Beach House stopped by the WXPN studios to tape a session for World Cafe with David Dye and it’s airing today! You can access the stream at XPN.org or find World Cafe on your local NPR station.

In addition to readers of Exclaim.ca and Exclaim! Magazine from across Canada recently voting their debut album I Blame You the 9th best punk album of 2009 (details here), our friends in Obits are soon headed to Europe on tour! This will mark their first-ever shows in such cities as… Freiburg! Limoges! Bilbao! And others!

The full slate of Obits’ European tour dates can be found here and then also here…

Feb 23 Theaterkeller, Göttingen, Germany
Feb 24 The Great Räng Teng Teng, Freiburg, Germany
Feb 25 Art Cafe L’Emile Vache, Metz, France
Feb 26 Milk Club, Genova, Italy
Feb 27 L’Usine, Genève, Switzerland
Feb 28 Le Clacson, Oullins, France
Mar 01 L’Appart Cafe, Reims, France
Mar 02 Point Ephémère, Paris, France
Mar 03 La Fourmi, Limoges, France
Mar 04 Saint-Ex, Bordeaux, France
Mar 05 Fever/Santana 27, Bilbao, Spain
Mar 06 Sala BeCool, Barcelona, Spain

And then, in April, Obits will play 4 east coast shows with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (the latter three of which they’ll also be playing with Screaming Females). Like this:

Apr 07 First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA
Apr 08 930 Club, Washington, DC
Apr 09 Irving Plaza, New York City, NY
Apr 10 Paradise, Boston, MA

At least that’s what the Google translate tool told me that the title of this post should be. Looks like growing up on the border of Mexico and 8 years of Spanish class didn’t work out so good! Anyway, Male Bonding are not only coming over for a bunch of dates with Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, the Soft Pack and SXSW but they’re also going to play the Todd P festival in Monterrey! The line up for the MtyMX Fest is pretty killer! More info here.
Don’t forget your sunblock.

Sub Pop and Hardly Art SXSW Showcase 2010!

Avi Buffalo, Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore, Dum Dum Girls, Happy Birthday, Jaill, Male Bonding, and The Ruby Suns will all be heading down to Austin this March for the 2010 South by Southwest music festival/conference/opportunity to eat BBQ.

As you can tell by our snazzy flyer, we will once again be partnering with our good friends Hardly Art on a showcase to, one can only hope, end all showcases.

You should really go.

Sub Pop and Hardly Art SXSW Showcase 2010
Thursday, March 18th
at the Galaxy Room
508 E. 6th Street
Austin, TX

The Sub Pop stage:
8PM Jaill
9PM Happy Birthday
10PM Male Bonding
11PM Avi Buffalo
12AM Dum Dum Girls
1AM The Ruby Suns

The Hardly Art stage:
830PM Special guest Woven Bones
930PM The Moondoggies
1030PM Le Loup
1130PM The Dutchess and the Duke
1230AM Golden Triangle

PLUS!
Also on Thursday, March 18th Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore will be playing at the Central Presbyterian Church at 730PM!