Unless you have been under a rock this past year, you probably already know that The Blood Brothers split up confidently breaking vocalists Jordan Billie and Johnny Whitney into two separate bands. Jordan formed Past Lives with Mark Gajadhar and Morgan Henderson while Johnny went off with Cody Votolato and created Jaguar Love with ex Pretty Girls Make Graves/Killsadie (and personally a favorite musician of mine) Jay Clark.

While Past Lives have yet to officially announce a record label for their already recorded EP, Jaguar Love have set their sights on legendary Matador Records with both a EP and full length record in the pipeline. The 3 track EP drops tomorrow June 3rd while their first full length, Take Me To The Sea, streets August 19th. If you can't wait until tomorrow or simply are not cool enough to have a record store around that carries good music, make your way over to Matador's Jaguar Love page now and hear yourself a sampling of the track 'Highways of Gold' now!

For more tuneage of both Past Lives and Jaguar Love, including to official cuts from Take Me to the Sea, don't forget to also hit up their myspace pages.

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I have been a fan of These Arms Are Snakes since their creation. My love for these boys go way back. Vocalist Steve Snere used to sing in Killsadie, a short lived band from the late 90s which in my opinion was one of the most gnarly bands ever to exist. An early formation of the band included Erin Tate the incredible drummer of both Killsadie and more recently Minus the Bear fame.

Previously of Jade Tree, the band is now set to release their follow up to Easter on Seattle's Suicide Squeeze, coincidentally the same home of Minus the Bear and Russian Circles (who even borrowed These Arms Are Snakes' Brian Cook for their latest record Station). Isn't that cute how everything comes together.

Anyways, the new record was all ready to street October 7th but according to a recent post on their myspace page, the damn test subjects for the new album have not been to favorable to what they have heard. I suppose all we can do is cross our fingers and hope they come to their senses and release the puppy on schedule.

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So this one nearly got past me last month so I figure I would let everyone else no just unless it may have slipped passed you too.

The man of the century John Reis of Rocket From The Crypt/Hot Snakes/Drive Like Jehu (and numerous others) fame has formed yet another modern masterpiece with his latest band The Night Marchers. After both the break up of both Rocket From The Crypt and Hot Snakes in the last two years many had believed that maybe John Reis has given up on rockin' and rollin'. Not the case.

Vagrant Records dropped the first record of The Night Marchers on April 22nd and the monster begins where RFTC left all. Mostly composed of members of his two previous bands anyways, the band has set out to take over the nation and conquer it with the use of good ol' fashion rock'n'roll.

Take a listen for yourself now at their myspace page which samples a little taste of what See You in Magic has to offer. If you don't enjoy what you hear, try cleaning out your ears.

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Okay so the new album is a while off but according to Billboard, the one and only Built to Spill is beginning to prep for a Spring of 2009 release of their next record on Warner Bros. I for one thought that their last offering You in Reverse was by far one of the best records of 2006. A handful of songs have been record and have even been tested out live from time to time to get a feel for how well they will work.

The band has also set up a future tour but not two test out more songs. Instead the new tour will be a chance for Built to Spill to play their 1997 album Perfect From Now On in its entirely. They have even decided to bring along the record's cellist cellist John McMahon to recreate the experience.

While this move seems a bit odd I think it will be a great chance for admirers of the band and the album to bring a classic record to life. While the tour will unfortunately not bring Built to Spill near my neck of the woods, it will at least reach both coasts within a one months time. The dates and venues are has follows:

09.08.08 - San Francisco, CA - Slim's
09.09.08 - San Francisco, CA - Slim's
09.10.08 - Hollywood, CA - Troubadour West
09.11.08 - Hollywood, CA - Troubadour West
09.12.08 - Pioneertown, CA - Pappy and Harriet's
09.17.08 - New Haven, CT - Toad's Place
09.18.08 - Northampton, MA - Calvin Theater
09.19.08 - Monticello, NY - All Tomorrow's Parties Festival
09.20.08 - Philadelphia, PA - The Trocadero
09.21.08 - Philadelphia, PA - The Trocadero
09.22.08 - Richmond, VA - The National
09.23.08 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
09.24.08 - Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head Live
09.25.08 - New York, NY - Terminal 5
09.26.08 - New York, NY - Terminal 5
09.27.08 - Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre

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So if you have yet to hear Envy then you suck at life. Envy is an amazing band from Japan that has been only grown more insanely fantastic over the years.

Their latest release the EP entitled Abyssal was release late last year in Japan on their own Sonzai Records and in the US earlier this year on the great Temporary Residence. With only 4 songs, the record is more complex and layered than some albums 4 times its length. Please do yourself a favor and buy it right this instant.

Now on with the news. The band has announced that they will not only release one but two split records. The first which is set to hit Japanese shelves on July 11th is a split cd with Jesu on the label Daymare Recordings. For those of us in the US fear not, Temporary Residence has also planned a split cd/vinyl with the fan favorite Thursday.

This baby should be pretty bad ass with the LP and the cd included in the package with a website exclusive version (screenprinted by hand, and will be limited colored vinyl editions) available straight from the label. While there is yet to be a solid date for this release the split it tentatively schedule schedule to drop sometime in October.

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