The Rakes have announced they are set to release their third album ‘KLANG’ on the 23rd of March, with the single ‘1989′ one week earlier (16 March) on 7″ and download through V2 / Co-operative.

The album was recorded at Planet Roc Studios in Berlin and produced by Chris Zane (Les Savy Fav, The Walkmen, Passion Pit).

I am pleased to announce I may share the full tracklisting with you:

You’re In It
That’s The Reason
The Loneliness Of The Outdoor Smoker
Bitchin’ in the Kitchin’
The Woes Of The Working Woman
1989
Shackelton
The Light From Your Mac
Muller’s Ratchet
The Final Hill
Never Get Married

Also, the band managed to film a bit whilst locked away recording the album. A bike / walking tour of the facilities cut to the first single ‘1989′ is the result - but please note; it’s not official video, just a preview of what’s to come.. you can find the video on youtube by clicking here.

Check it all out! ^_^
- Luu

Simian Mobile Disco was born from the remains of Simian, by James Ford and Jas Shaw whilst DJ’ing between gigs. This is around the time that their record company launched a competition for bedroom acts to remix the Simian track, ‘Never Be Alone’. A remix by, a then, unknown French production duo named Justice started to become a party anthem - and is still played now years after its release. Songs like, ‘Hustler’, ‘It’s The Beat’ and ‘I Believe’ have since been released, and the Debut album from the duo, Attack Decay Sustain Release came in at #59 in the UK Album charts despite their underground appeal. James Ford has also been involved in many album productions, including the Mercury Prize-winning Klaxons album, Myths of the Near Future.

So… 6/12/08. Little Johnny Russells. Portsmouth. Simian Mobile Disco DJ set! What were they doing there!? I don’t know but the guys from Sumo did a great job to get them. Of course, representatives of EyeMayListen were there. Me and Matt went along to see this amazing event in the years calendar, and were not disappointed. We arrived to Little Johnny Russells, a pub converted for the carnage that was about to hit the almighty Albert Road. Almost empty at first, the crowds soon started gathering and it was becoming increasingly harder to buy a drink, however service was resumed once the night really started to kick off.

Photos by Josie Curtis

At about 10.30 i think, James Shaw appeared behind the decks and what magic was to follow. Great atmosphere, great tunes and a great name on the ticket. The night was brilliant. His mixing was a very good and everyone in the building loved it. No sign of James Ford, but what the heck - great night anyway! My ears were slightly deafened I think - due to standing next to the speakers but it was worth it. Great night, so if anyone gets the chance to see them - do it!

- Stuart

8 Venues down, 10 to go. This is the “Annie Mac Presents” Tour of the UK which I am really annoyed I am not able to attend.

The madness started in Lincoln on the 28th September with Annie Mac, Simian Mobile disco and others at the Engine Shed. Recent gigs in Oxford, Birmingham and Manchester were HUGE, and have included people like Yuksek, Surkin and Kissy Sell Out.

Bournemouth is next on the list with someone who really needs no introduction, Mr Erol Alkan. Some words from the profile of him on Annie Mac’s website sums up his career so far:

“That’s the thing about Erol Alkan hearing is believing. Until’you’ve borne witness to one of his legendary live sets, poured’headily over one of his meticulously crafted productions, or been’catapulted to a sudden sonic nirvana by the dropping of one of his’remixes, you might be justified for dismissing his existence as an’extremely elaborate myth of the musical underground. After all, how’can one man, still in his early thirties, have kept so many kids’dancing for so long?”

He is at Bournemouth on the 14th November and then the tour continues throughout the UK from Brighton, to London and all the way up to Liverpool and Newcastle. The tour dates can be found on the official Annie Mac Presents website.

I would love to be able to make it to Fabric, London on the 21st November to see Annie, Yuksek, Surkin, DJ Mehdi, Brodinski, Chase and Status but I can’t! So… anyone who has a chance to catch one of these nights - GO TO IT! I highly recommend!

- Stuart

It has come to my recent attention that we have a fan page.. on Facebook. I wasn’t even aware it existed.. the whole thing has pretty much confused me.. but either way; confused or not, click here to become a fan!

How exciting! We are also setting up a Flickr account for Eyemaylisten, we already have a group but we seem to nly use it to pass pictures between one another as apposed to actually using it as a group… So will let you know when that’s got a few more pictures up!

As is, check us out and add us as friends in other places, (we are slowing taking over the world wide web)..

Youtube - Subscribe!
Myspace - We love getting loads of adds!
Last.Fm Group - Could do with a few more members, fairly new to last.fm!

Facebook Group and also Facebook Fan page - If you’re a Facebook fanatic, these are both handy, the fan page has an RSS feed directly from the blog so you get updates when we post.. straight to your Facebook!

Hope these all come in handy

-Luu

Hey all,

It’s that time of year and the BT Music Digital Awards are upon us. Eyemaylisten has been entered under the catagory ‘Best Music Blog’… if you think we are worthy of a rating in the awards, please click on the image below and show your support by dropping us a vote. It only takes a minute. Thanks

Back to the music..
I am about to go a little mainstream but it can’t be helped. The tunes are just so good!… here’s a taster of what has been vibrating my ear drums of late..

MP3: CSS - Alala (MP3 has now expired)

CSS will never fail to get me moving. I have been listening to these guys for a long time now.. this is my favorite vibration from their way. Check it out.

MP3: Joshua Lanes - Dead (MP3 has now expired)

A sound known as Joshua Lanes has met with my ears lately. At first admittedly I didn’t really know what to think, but somewhere between repetitively listening to the first two seconds of their track ‘Blow’ and trying to figure out if it was the end of an Incubus song, they stuck… Check out the MP3 above..

MP3: Foals - Cassius (MP3 has now expired)

It had to be done! Foals, I love ‘em. This song has been in my head so long, it’s killing me… I am actually on the video we shot when interviewing Temposhark back in June, singing it to myself.. or at least humming it? And it’s STILL in my noggin! It’s insane… I love this tune!

MP3: Stereo Total - I Love You, Ono (MP3 has now expired)

This is a cheeky catchy vibration from German; Stereo Total. I am sure many of you have heard it thousands of times before.. but I can’t help myself, it’s making me move.

Keep the emails coming folks
-Luu

Hey people… we are still alive! We have just been suuuuuper busy (well some of us, Matt on the other hand has just been nursing a hangover..)

I want to bring to light a New York based sound that’s been around for a while; Kids Of Survival. I was wondering the other day what they were up to… so got in contact with them and found out what just what’s been going on with them. If you haven’t heard them before check them out, they are a strong four piece powerpop-indie rock infusion with a strong debut album under their belts… I found out some info from Dylan, Kid Of Survivals drummer…

Lets start with the basics.. Why the band name Kids Of Survival?
Well we used to be called Stiffler then we ran in to some legal issues with that name and decided upon Kids of Survival because we really liked where it came from. Its from a youth group in the Bronx ( a borough of NYC)who created art as a way to stay off the streets and they called them selves the kids of survival. We liked that it was kids who came from nothing and made something out of their art (which is hanging in the modern museum of art and in museums around the country).

Are you still the original line up?
Well this is the original line up for Kids of Survival, however when we were Stiffler before we had vin and frank we had two different guitar players.

What are you guys up to right now?
Well we are are on tour right now, we have been out for the last 8 months. We recently parted ways with our record label Chamberlain Records. Once we get home from this tour we will be taking the rest of the year off to finish writing our follow up to our debut record Good Til Your Heart Pops.

Are you coming to the UK any time soon?
We would love to come to the UK as soon as possible. Although we have nothing in the works thus far.

Who are your inspirations?
A variety of bands including The get up kids, Jimmy eat world, Relient K, Lagwagon, Blink-182, ect.

Have you ever played a festival before?
Nope, have never played a festival before.

So now that you have dropped the record deal, what now? Thought about going independent?
I think we will be remaining independent unless a good deal comes by from a good indie or a decent major.

Hows the second album coming along?
We have a bunch of acoustic songs written which will be transfered into full band as soon as we get home. Its been so long since we released new music that we dont know what our current fans will think of our new record. We are confident it will be amazing however, its not going to be what kids expect I’m sure of that!

Any producers we should know about?
We can’t really discuss that until we lock one down we have a few great ones we are talking to, that we would be thrilled to work with.

How about an album title? Song titles?
As for album titles and songs no real titles just dumb ones to help us remember the song

MP3: Kids Of Survival - My Addiction (MP3 has now expired)

These guys are awesome. Check out track above or go onto their myspace and listen to ‘Disgraced By The Ages’ or ‘Come To Your Window’.. Just click on their image above… They are currently touring so check our their tour dates too! Get on over there, they are worth it kids.

-Luu

Right now you can vote for MTV’s Best New Artist by clicking here!

You only have until August 6th so get those votes in people! The short list will be announced on the 8th!

Some of the artists you can vote for include; We The Kings,  OneRepublic and Liverpoolian guys; The Wombats

This years awards should be good… so get in there and ba a part of it people!

-Luu

Yes. We finally have it.. all beautifully edited together. The exclusive Temposhark video interview. We caught up with the band at their gig in London at the nightclub Sin.

Check out the video interview here.

Also check out the videos of their performance of the songs Knock Me Out and Crime.

Hey, matt here! ^_^

Friday night left us wanting more after Hadouken! played at the Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth. We completely boycotted the queue to get in after we saw it was snaking round the block… so we headed straight for the pub, and entered after the queue had gone. We still managed to wriggle our way through the crowd to get pretty good places though!

The first support band, Innercity Pirates put on a good show warming up the crowd (who didn’t really need warming up) but wern’t really memorable. They did chuck a few copies of their CD into the crowd though, so we may listen to that later on

The second support act, Master Shortie were pretty good! They really made the crowd go wild, and we sung along (to different lyrics though). Check them out, they could be big. They are touring around the UK with Hadouken! at the moment.

By the time Hadouken! got on the stage, we were very sweaty and just a little bit annoyed at the elbows digging into us from all sides. However we forgot all about this once the band started playing. And as always, they failed to be anything less than spectacular. After much anticipation, they kicked off, and it went crazy for a while. The atmosphere was amazing, and we were really blown away, so much so that we needed a little breather. Halfway through we managed to escape from the frantic fans to get some photos.

Overall, the gig was amazing, with the band playing tracks from their album, ‘Music for an Accelerated Culture’ as well as some classic tracks. As always with the Wedgewood Rooms, the atmosphere was both hot, sticky, and frantic, but awesome all the same!

- Matt.

I would just like to add to this compact little review by Matt and mention that I also thought it really was an AWESOME gig. Despite being elbowed in the ear two songs in, with such a force that I could only hear with one side of my head for the rest of the gig… the fact I was literally dripping wet with other peoples sweat.. I have to say, it really was an utterly sound gig. I loved both of the support bands, both being so dramatically different. They almost divided the Hadouken! sound.. the first support giving an awesome electronic infused sound.. then the second support providing us with the other end of the spectrum, rapping and jumping around. They forced a sound upon the crowd that managed to turn the venue into a very packed and very sweaty dance floor. Once these guys came on there was no going back… They certianly warmed up the crowd. I completely second Matt’s words. He failed however to mention Hadouken!’s cover, of none other than Prodigy - Breathe. Hells yeah! I was on the side at this point debating whether the numbness on the side of my head was something to be worried about… But it took me seconds, mini-seconds maybe? To forget about it and start jumping up and down and screaming.. There wasn’t a kid in the room that wasn’t moving at some point..
Awesome, awesome night!

- Luu

If you are in London tonight, get on over to Wetdog’s album launch. Electricity in Our Homes (a rather lock stock and barrel sound with its fair share of male shouting) and No Bra (a sound that brings new meaning to monotone) are said to be in the line up for the nights entertainment… Wetdog have come a long way since being on tours with the likes of Long Blondes and the Gossip.. this album has definitely been anticipated. Go get your paws on it.

- Luu