Unsigned & Unleashed

                                                                           photo credit: Veithklub Fotografie

Unsigned & Unleashed is coming to a close and it’s been a hard fact for me to accept. A quick peek into my email will leave any procrastinator impressed by my ability to not only put something off but completely ignore it. Truth is, I wish I could keep it all up. I wish I could morph back into the teenage me who loved music more than herself, more than her life, more than anything but I can’t. I can’t go back to that girl because now I have two jobs, grad school, and my aspirations to take care of. I have all these things pulling me in different directions and I’m moving between them with less grace than I ever imagined. So, it’s time for me to put the one constant I had in my life to bed. 

I started this blog when I was around 17 and in my final years of high school. There wasn’t a single thing I loved more than music, it got me up in the morning and it took me to bed at night. I didn’t fit in and not just in the old emo mantra of being an outcast. I REALLY didn’t fit in much of anywhere. I was a young black girl growing up in brooklyn who loved rock music, the color black, and Sylvia Plath. I was struggling with severe depression and suicidal thoughts. I was perceived as this weird “alternative black girl” and there wasn’t a whole lot of room for that in my community at the time. Music was my guiding light and I knew I wanted to be a part of it and combine my love of writing and music together. So, I started Unsigned & Unleashed and it was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life to date. 

Those who come from a history of unhappiness know how important it is to cherish the moments of joy that funnel in and out of your life. Nearly all of my most cherished memories come from this blog. It forced me to meet people, be a leader, and get outside my comfort zone. It helped me meet the most amazing and genuine people I have ever known. It gave me the opportunity to showcase some amazing bands both known and unknown and I will never ever take that for granted. It’s gotten me opportunities, contacts, and friends. Unsigned & Unleashed isn’t/wasn’t the biggest blog in the scene but it’s the biggest in my heart. 

I want to thank every single band that my staff and I have ever written about, interviewed, or met. I want to thank the AMAZING publicists that I’ve had the opportunity to get to know and who gave me an opportunity to succeed. Lastly, I want to thank every person who has ever helped me out with this project (Katy, Amber, Brianna, Nayeli, Anjel, Ben, Hayley, Laura, Adriana and everyone!). I truly couldn’t have done it without your help especially this year. 

If you want to do something. Get out there and do it. Thanks for all the support.

You read that right. Andy Hull and Kevin Devine have announced that they will be heading out on tour together in May. They’ll be traveling down the West Coast playing songs from all of their projects. Pre-sale for the tour starts TODAY (March 8th) at 12PM PST. 

*A LIMITED number of PRE-SHOW PERFORMANCE PACKAGES will be available during pre-sale, which include an intimate four-song set with Andy and Kevin before the show with Q+A / stage banter opportunities, a limited-edition signed Daytrotter vinyl and poster. 

Check out the tour dates below and head here at 12PM PST to buy tickets.

photo: Kenna Hynes

Dowsing are now streaming their first single off their new LP, “Kept Me Around” via Stereogum. The new LP is set for release on April 29th via Asian Man Records in the US and Dog Knights Productions in the UK and Europe. Pre-orders are now available here (US) and here (UK & Europe). 

Check out the track list for the new album below and head here to stream “Kept Me Around.”

Do you want to see The Hotelier on tour? Of course you do. We have tour dates from their just announced US summer tour with Told Slant, Bellows, and Loone (tickets on sale March 9 at 10 AM EST). We have dates from the Spring Euro tour with Into It. Over It. and Rozwell Kid (tickets here). All dates in their glory are below. Don’t miss out!

Tiny Moving Parts have announced the release of a brand new LP on Triple Crown Records. Celebrate will be out May 20, 2016. The trio are streaming a brand new track from the album, “Happy Birthday” today via Alternatives Press. The album is now available for pre-order via Triple Crown Records and through Big Scary Monsters in Europe and the UK. Head here to listen to “Happy Birthday.”

The band will embark on a full US tour supporting The Wonder Years on March 5th and has also announced new headlining tour dates for this summer with support from Prawn, Better Off, and Free Throw. Check out the tour dates below.

(photo credit: Michael Cooper)

Haybaby have announced a new EP, Blood Harvest, out on Tiny Engines in May. You can get a notification for preorder here. The band have also announced a Spring tour. See the dates below!

Modern Baseball have announced The Holy Ghost Tour in support of their upcoming release, Holy Ghost, out May 13th via Run For Cover Records. Joyce Manor and Thin Lips will be supporting the band on tour. The tour kicks off May 25th in Nashville, Tennessee and ends July 3rd in Tampa, Florida.

Pre-sale tickets with pre-orders of Holy Ghost are available here. Pre-order Holy Ghost here.

The band also teamed up with NPR to stream two new tracks from Holy Ghost, “Everyday” and “Apple Cider I Don’t Mind.” Head here to stream both.

Check out the tour dates below.

by Amber Bettis

Album: Death Deserves a Name Artist: Can’t Swim Release Date: February 26, 2016

Death might deserve a name, but this EP deserves a standing ovation. One of many hits churned out by Pure Noise Records, Can’t Swim’s gritty debut promises that this band and its new label aren’t finished with us yet.

The album is a kick to the gut from start to finish. It comes in strong and doesn’t let up until the final notes fade out, something that just can’t be said for many records out right now. There are no low points, no reprieve. There’s simply no time to catch your breath. Even the slowest song on the album (title track and closer “Death Deserves a Name”) will kick you around a bit.

In terms of equating the sound to something similar, it’s as if GlassJaw and Have Mercy had a jam session. It’s everything we didn’t know we needed.

Take opener “Your Clothes”, for example. It’s the least catchy song on the record, but the one with the most heart, the most guts, the most oomph. There’s so much power in it, so much raw, unfiltered intensity, you almost fear for the state of the instruments (vocal cords included). The rest of the sadly only an EP lets up just slightly, throwing some more melody in (“Right Choice”) but keeping the edge showing through.

by Amber Bettis

Album: Hug Your Friends EP Artist: Save Ends Release Date: February 26, 2016

I took Mythology in junior high. It was a strange elective, but they offered it, alongside Latin, which changed to French the year after I started high school. The thing I remember most about Mythology was the sirens. How I always wished I could hear one, just to know what they sounded like.

Now, with Hug Your Friends, the third offering from Save Ends, I know what a siren sounds like. Christine Atturio might not be luring you onto the rocks and to your untimely death, but she is definitely leading you to this band’s shows.

She’s not alone, either. The rest of the band is just as talented, trading riffs and vocals like it’s second nature. Hug Your Friends is a showcase, a sparkling, chaotic showcase of this band and their undeniable chemistry with one another. The album starts with the slow building “I Fell Asleep”, with dual vocalists Atturio and Brendan Cahill dragging all your melancholy skeletons out of the closet and waltzing across the floor with them throughout the rest of the record. Next up is the upbeat “Smudge”, with its slight pop-country twang that melts into the pop-punk noise that made the band famous. “Smudge” is followed by the song with the saddest opening line ever written-- This love is like a home, I know I have to leave-- “Love Like a Home”, which sets the lyrics against a forcibly happy backdrop, something the band does extremely well. Tying things up in a powerful bundle is “Sam’s Lament”, a drum-heavy number that earns the title of the album’s stand out track.