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October 12th, 2009
I guess we should make an official statement on our site regarding the recent rigamarole surrounding these iTunes LPs as reported by Gizmodo. Here’s our story: We approached our distributor a couple weeks ago to see how we go about submitting an iTunes LP to the iTunes music store. The response was that Apple was charging a fee of $10,000 to produce them, but aside from the cost, they were not being opened up to indie labels (like ourselves). That chapped my hide a bit because what we lack in huge budgets at Chocolate Lab, we attempt to make up for with quality and services. Take for instance the iTunes booklet. We’re now designing booklets to be included with every CLR iTunes album download. they’re not expensive to make, but we want to do everything we can to give the end consumer the best experience possible. I have no information other than what was given to me, so in regards to the recent statements by someone at Apple, it’s nice to hear that the $10,000 fee doesn’t exist and the LP format will be opened up to indie artists soon. I’m not ashamed of speaking out, given the information that I had because that’s my responsibility and my right as an American. Erin Brockovich I may not be, but at least I tried to stand up for something that didn’t seem right to me. If you’d like to fault me for that, so be it. It’s our official statement that, “We love iTunes, hate exclusion.” Sincerely, September 24th, 2009
This is from RollingStone.com regarding Thom Yorke’s video for his version of “All for the Best” which features Andy Yorke singing backup. The song is on Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy, which is a tribute/benefit album that you can read about below. Andy’s former band, Unbelievable Truth also have a song on the album. Rolling Stone is proud to premiere the video for Thom Yorke’s cover of “All For the Best” from the upcoming tribute disc Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy. Directed by Melinda Tupling, the video is a David Lynch-like odyssey that fits perfectly with Yorke’s stirring, Erasered rendition of the Miracle Legion song. The song is also noteworthy because it features the first time the Radiohead frontman and his brother Andy Yorke, lead singer for the Unbelievable Truth, have appeared together on a song, with Andy’s background vocals complimenting his big bro’s trademark croon.  Click to open the video from Rolling Stone Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy will help benefit Miracle Legion and Polaris frontman — and all-around New England rock favorite — Mark Mulcahy, whose “Hey Sandy” is remembered as the theme music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Sadly, in September 2008, Mulcahy’s wife Melissa passed away suddenly, leaving Mulcahy to raise his three-year-old twin daughters. The compilation will benefit Mulcahy so that he can continue making music and performing while raising his children. The 21-song album, due out September 29th (here’s the Amazon link), also features contributions from Dinosaur Jr., Michael Stipe, the National, Josh Rouse, Ben Kweller, Frank Black and many more. Andy Yorke and the Unbelievable Truth cover the compilation’s title track. An additional 20 songs written by Mulcahy and performed by A.C. Newman, Buffalo Tom and other artists will feature on the digital edition of the tribute album. The video will make its big screen debut this Sunday, September 20th, at a benefit concert for Mark Mulcahy at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg. Among the artists that will appear at the concert include Frank Black, David Berkeley, Butterflies of Love, the Autumn Defense and other “special guests” performing the songs of Mulcahy as well as music from their own catalogs. Tickets for the benefit concert are available now at Ticketmaster. In addition to the limited-edition 7” single for “All for the Best,” Yorke will also release his solo “FeelingPulledApartByHorses”/”The Hollow Earth” single on September 21st, and the Radiohead singer’s contribution to the New Moon soundtrack is expected to be announced tomorrow according to the New York Times. September 4th, 2009
We’re excited to announce that we’ve teamed up with Charlotte, NC’s The Houston Brothers, whose Mitch Easter-mixed, The Archer will be released in January.
Real-life siblings, Justin and Matt Faircloth formed one of North Carolina’s most memorable acts in the early aughts, a two-piece that played like a much bigger band and didn’t rely on loops or backing tracks to do it. Instead, The Houston Brothers used their multi-instrumental skills to make lushly textured, minor-key indie pop: Justin playing keyboard melodies and synth accents with his right hand, riding a snare and high hat with his left, beating time on a kick-drum, and singing lead; Matt playing rhythm and solo guitar,pushing bass pedals with his feet, and singing harmonies. They underwent a number of lineup changes over the past couple years, working with as many as six band members and operating under the moniker, The Houstons. This lineup featured some of the Faircloths’ most rocking music yet and more introspective narratives. Yet even with the expanded lineup of talented musicians, it didn’t capture the same fire the brothers did as a duo, in studio or on stage.
When a local venue owner asked them how much it would it cost to get the Houston Brothers back on his stage in duo-form – well, it just confirmed what many others had already been thinking: Sometimes it is all in the family. Now, preparing to unleash a new EP on the world and with a renewed commitment to expanding their sound to the bigger rooms they seem destined to play, the ties that bind the Houston Brothers are the strongest they’ve ever been. August 21st, 2009
On Sept 29, Shout! Factory will release the Mark Mulcahy (Miracle Legion, Polaris) tribute album, Ciao My Shining Star. The album features Thom Yorke, Michael Stipe, The National, Dinosaur Jr and many others performing the songs of Mark Mulcahy. Proceeds from the album will help Mark to continue making music while taking care of his twin daughters after his wife, Melissa’s, untimely death last year. Andy Yorke’s former band, Unbelievable Truth, provides the title track and the song, “All For The Best” marks the first time Andy’s collaborated with his brother, Thom. The song can be previewed at Stereogum. “All For The Best” was also available as an extremely limited run 7″ which sold out immediately.
Here’s what Andy has to say about the project: “I first heard Mark’s voice back in 1987, when I was 15 years old. I was listening to the Andy Kershaw show on Radio 1, and he played the Miracle Legion song ‘All For The Best’. Luckily I was taping the show – can I get into trouble for admitting that two decades later?! That was the kind of thing 15-year-olds did in those days. I played the song to Thom and we both became big fans. I wrote to Mark about ten years later. I can’t remember exactly, but I think I’d heard he was recording new material and was cheeky enough to send him a demo of Almost Here, the album Unbelievable Truth was recording at the time. He sent me a long letter in reply and a demo of his new solo stuff. Somehow this led to Mark agreeing to support us when we toured Almost Here in 98. Altogether UT played with Mark on two tours of the UK, and also at a club called Shine in New York. His music and his friendship helped make those times very special.” -Andy Yorke, August 2009 August 10th, 2009
New album coming soon from Houston’s Motion Turns It On!
July 14th, 2009
 Clock Hands Strangle: The Passion of Dispassionfrom volume 04 issue 02 // admin Clock Hands Strangle: The Passion of Dispassion Clock Hands Strangle explore detachment in their new album, Distaccati. Thanks to a frontman who loves modernist literature, Fellini films, and Bob Dylan, only a few moments go by listening to the album before you quickly realize that this is not a generic band making generic music. Lead singer and songwriter Todd Portnowitz thinks of Clock Hands Strangle as a literary project. Like one of his major influences, Bob Dylan, he tries to center each track on the lyrics. For the band, the music is secondary, and used to draw out feelings that can’t be expressed in words. “We’ll use any style we can to get across what we’re trying to do lyrically,” he says. True to the literary influences, Portnowitz counts the esteemed Italian director Federico Fellini as one of the band’s influences. Fellini influenced the album’s title through La Dolce Vita, a film in which the character Steiner makes a modernistic comment about living outside of passion. “It’s the idea of killing your personality,” Portnowitz says about the album’s title. “It’s about asking how much of your self should be in the album, and how much should be objective.” Portnowitz himself speaks Italian, having minored in the language at Gainesville’s University of Florida. At UF, Portnowitz majored in Literature, the influence of which shows in some of the lyrics. For example, on the title track, he sings, “Walt Whitman laid his blanket next to me/and said, ‘The more you know the smaller you grow/You may remain fat and sane/or follow me.’” It’s clear Portnowitz has read a few books. The lyrics draws from dense sources – his recent readings include Anton Chekhov, Aristotle, and the The Life of Reason by George Santayana, the latter of which features passages such as, “It may be said, however, that principles and external objects are interesting only because they symbolise further sensations, that thought is an expedient of finite minds, and that representation is a ghostly process which we crave to materialise into bodily possession.” Hmm, hmm. Yes, exactly. Wait – what? Some of the songs, however, are about simpler ideas, such as trying to reach equilibrium in times of stress. This is the case on “Ode to Green,” a song that mixes science and philosophy. For the song, “green” is the equilibrium point, the middle. Red and blue are the polarized ends of the light spectrum: anger and sadness. It’s a paean to calm, to leveling out. “The lyrics on there are talking about no more blue, no more red – getting away from very drastic emotions. Moving away from extremes,” Portnowitz says. Hailing from the 321 area code and beaches of Melbourne, Florida, the band has grown to love venues like The Social and New World Brewery. The band played throughout the state on 2007’s tour with Do Make Say Think. Even though all the members of the band are from the South, sometimes the states of the Confederacy still surprise them. “When we did a short Halloween Tour, we were driving through Alabama in the middle of summer and there was cotton everywhere – no green anywhere, just white,” says Portnowitz. The lyrics of the twangy “Cotton” describe the event: “It’s cotton fields on/both sides of the road/Hey, driver, slow down/Roll down the windows/White, white taste buds/on the green tongue of the earth/Lick the sunlight/Be jealous of the worms.” Portnowitz says it’s impossible to pigeonhole the band in a certain genre, due to the unique way the band approaches songwriting – because each song has different lyrics and influences, it follows that each song will have a different vibe and feel. However, if he had to, he would describe the band as the opposite of a jam band, since they try to edit out so much. He describes Clocks Hands Strangle as heavily influenced by elements of pop, ‘60s classic rock, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and even jazz. In fact, he says Joni Mitchell influenced him more than anyone else did. “That’s the reason I started writing songs, because her songwriting is so well done,” Portnowitz says. As for a band philosophy? “We like to take things seriously and take responsibility. We’re very concerned with doing something worthwhile, not just playing something because we want to go have fun. We do have fun, but we definitely take things seriously.” Distaccati is out now on Chocolate Lab Records. Clock Hands Strangle are currently writing and recording new material. June 29th, 2009
Andy Yorke’s former band, Unbelievable Truth are providing the title track to the upcoming Mark Mulcahy (Polaris, Miracle Legion) tribute album, Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy out 9/29 (Shout! Factory). The song is a live recording from a quite a few years ago and will join a number of other prominent artists’ cover songs including Thom Yorke, Michael Stipe, The National, Dinosaur Jr and many others. Proceeds from the album will help Mulcahy to continue making music in the wake of his wife’s untimely death last year. Mulcahy also takes care of his three-year-old twin daughters.
Tracklist: 01 Thom Yorke – “All For The Best” An additional 20+ tracks will be released digitally. June 25th, 2009
Here are just a few of things being said about Clock Hands Strangle and their new album, Distaccati. “Portnowitz is a clearly gifted writer, and the lyrics on this album are a joy to decipher and dig into.” – Delusions of Adequacy “A lot of my friends ask me why I listen to a hundred or two dreadful albums a month. An album like this is all the answer I need.” – Aiding and Abetting “Enough musical chops and lyrical skill to form their own dynasty.” – Berkeley Place “It’s nice to hear a band pushing the boundaries a little bit now and then.” – Die Shellsuit Die “Excellent guitar work serves as the backbone of these songs.” – Dryvetyme Onlyne “A real beacon in the darkness.” – Midwest Record “Wonderfully engaging.” – Caught in the Carousel “Their detailed, odic, emotional lyrics are coupled with instrumental restraint.” – Groupee.com June 15th, 2009
Music video for Clock Hands Strangle’s “The Moon Looks Back” off Distaccati.
June 10th, 2009
After a long wait, Clock Hands Strangle’s new album, Distaccati will be released digitally on Friday with CDs popping up in stores across America on Tuesday (6/16).
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