Upcoming Release: Dawes – “Nothing Is Wrong” on 6/7/11 – Build Your Own!

The much-anticipated sophomore release from North Hills, CA band Dawes was announced yesterday to much joy (at least around here…). The album called Nothing Is Wrong with the artwork above will come out on ATO Records which was the home of North Hills— the band’s first release. Following the astonishing success of their first album and in particular the amazing “When My Time Comes” which ended up in a Chevrolet trucks commercial– Nothing Is Wrong is a tough act to follow. Thankfully, the band has been playing songs from the new album for over a year, so we already know that there are some contenders on this album as well. Looking at the tracklist below, we see that “Million Dollar Bill” which was also a Middle Brother track makes an appearance as well.

The original North Hills album came out on 2 LP 45 RPM 180g vinyl. I confirmed with Taylor Goldsmith that there will indeed be a vinyl version of Nothing Is Wrong as well!

To start the buzz, Dawes has made the track “If I Wanted Someone” a free download in exchange of your e-mail address.

Here is the tracklist for Nothing Is Wrong, and I’m providing links to live performances of the songs from archive.org:

1. Time Spent in Los Angeles 2-13-10 2-15-10 5-14-10

2. If I Wanted Someone 2-13-10 2-15-10 5-14-10 6-27-10 11-13-10

3. My Way Back Home 11-13-10

4. Coming Back to a Man 1-23-11

5. So Well 7-4-10

6. How Far We’ve Come 9-12-09 10-09-09 10-12-09 10-24-09 2-15-10 5-14-10 11-20-10

7. Fire Away 5-14-10 6-17-10 11-20-10

8. Moon in the Water 2-15-10 11-13-10

9. Million Dollar Bill

10. The You Laugh 1-23-11

11. A Little Bit of Everything 11-13-10

Here are the upcoming Dawes shows (from the Dawes website):

May
05 – Houston, TX – Fitzgeralds
06 – Austin, TX – La Zona Rosa 

07 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theatre
09 – Orlando, FL – Beacham Theater
10 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Culture Room
11 – Tampa, FL – State Theatre
12 – St Augustine, FL – Cafe 11
13 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
14 – Birmingham, AL – Secret Stages Music Festival (2PM)
14 – Nashville, TN – Cannery Ballroom
15 – Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
17 – Charlotte, NC – Visulite Theatre
18 – Carborro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
19 – Athens, GA – Melting Point
20 – Chattanooga, TN – Nightfall Series (Free Show)
23 – New Haven, CT – Toad’s
24 – Portland, ME – State Theatre
25 – Northampton, MA – Iron Horse
26 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
27 – Montreal, OC – Le National
28 – Toronto, ON – Opera House
29 – Detroit, MI – St. Andrew’s Hall 

June
01 – Louisville, KY – Headliners
02 – Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue

03 – Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre
05 – Hunter, NY – Mountain Jam (1:30PM Set)
06 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant 

07 – Louisville, KY – Iroquois Ampitheatrer
08 – Columbus, OH – LC Ampitheatre
09 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE – Indoors
10 – Philadelphia, PA – Mann Center for Performing Arts
11 – Vienna, VA – Filene Center at Wolf Trap
13 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
14 – Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre
15 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
16 – Bend, OR – Athletic Club of Bend
17 – Chico, CA – El Rey Theatre
18 – Los Angeles, CA – Orpheum Theatre
20– San Diego, CA – House of Blues
21 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
22 – Phoenix, AZ – Marquee Theatre
23 – Las Vegas, NV – Silverton Casino
24 – Reno, NV – Knitting Factory
25 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theatre
July
02 – Emeryville, CA – High Sierra Music Festival
07 – Winnipeg, MB – Winnipeg Folk Festival
08 – Winnipeg, MB – Winnipeg Folk Festival

Umphrey’s McGee Mantis Cover Art, Track List and another “leaked” track

The UM camp released some more information about Mantis recently including a large version of the album artwork, the track listing, another track from the radio promo and some nifty wallpapers. From The Floor blog, we get the radio edit of “Spires” as well. Notably, the “Made to Measure” that the band made available to everyone who signed up for a UMLive account is the full version of the track at 3:12. If you want to hear “Preamble” it is the first song played in the player on the Mantis mini-site.

Here is the tracklisting for Mantis:

1. Made to Measure 3:12

2. Preamble 0:36

3. Mantis 11:49

4. Cemetery Walk 7:30

5. Cemetery Walk II 2:19

6. Turn & Run 7:25

7. Spires 7:41

8. Prophecy Now 2:47

9. Red Tape 5:43

10. 1348 4:49

Total Running Time : 54:04

In case anyone was worried that Mantis was going to be some exploration in radio-friendly pop music based on “Made to Measure,” check out the track times. There are four songs over seven minutes, and one song clocks in at 11:49! So, while this may be an album representing a change in the band, they aren’t eschewing extended workouts from their catalog.

Click Here to Download the Radio Edit of “Spires”

Click Here to go to the Mantis mini-site and pre-order the album, and download some nifty wallpapers.

“Again with the Mantis and the Madness?” More Mantis Updates

Developments in the Umphrey’s McGee camp as it applies to the release of Mantis are keeping me pretty busy here. Mostly this is because I’m one of the folks who has invested in the pre-order of the album, so I’m eagerly awaiting any surprise freebies, downloads, etc. While the pre-order crowd waits for the stalled progress bar on the Mantis page to move to unlocking Level 7 and exposing the promise of Level 8 with baited breath, other events have transpired this week.

It seems that promos have been sent to radio stations who are “crunchy friendly” or would play Umphrey’s McGee in their rotation. This promo CD has radio edits of three songs apparently– the already-shared “Made to Measure” which is now freely available to anyone who clicks on the link on the page and signs up for a UMLive account, “Cemetery Walk” which is currently on the band blog complete with a posting talking about the development of the song which started back in 2007, and another track called “Spires” which was apparently aired on a couple of radio stations already.

Click Here to download “Cemetery Walk” (This is the obscured link on the blog page player– so if they take this down, this link won’t work).

In addition to all of this, Thursday this week (12/4) is when the pre-order folks will be able to download “Level 1” of the pre-order bonus material, which has some really cool stuff in it including four tracks of their 2005 Acoustic Christmas Benefit Show. More on that when I get to download that on Thursday.

Stay tuned!

Free Downloads: Some Baltimore-related Live Downloads

As I mentioned earlier, Baltimore’s Arbouretum is releasing a split album with new Thrill Jockey signees Pontiak called Kale. The two bands played one show together in Baltimore on June 4th at The Talking Head. I knew about the show, but I didn’t know that the show was taped and available for download via Aural States which is a blog/site dedicated to happenings in the music scene of Baltimore.

Arbouretum headlined and played a set of mostly tracks from Rites, but also included one of the covers from Kale “Buffalo Ballet.” A great set, in my opinion.” Pontiak’s set was also very good and included “Dome Under Sky” from Kale.

The opening act was another side project of Dave Heumann from Arbouretum called Television Hill. Television Hill is more of a throwback folk/blues outfit, but still very good. This set is available from Beatbots which also covers the Baltimore scene.

Big thanks to Jeff the Taper who made these recordings available.

Click Here to stream or download Arbouretum’s set.

Click Here to stream or download Pontiak’s set.

Click Here to stream or download Television Hill’s set.

Aural States is also hosting a live set from Wye Oak from March along with an interview. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to catch the show next weekend with Pontiak and Wye Oak in Iowa City!