BEASTIE BOYS & FRIENDS ANNOUNCE SWING STATE VOTER AWARENESS TOUR
Selected Dates in Battleground States

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ANDREW BIRD: NOBLE BEAST OUT JANUARY 27 ON FAT POSSUM
ADDITIONAL TICKETS RELEASED FOR SOLD OUT NEW YORK SHOWS
SELECT UNDERPLAYS CONTINUING THROUGH OCTOBER 19 & 20 IN LOS ANGELES
FIRST SINGLE “OH NO” NOW STREAMING ON www.PITCHFORKMEDIA.com

Andrew Bird has confirmed that his new studio album Noble Beast will be released January 27, 2009 on Fat Possum Records. Noble Beast, currently in its final stages of mixing and mastering, is the follow up to Andrew’s critically acclaimed 2007 set Armchair Apocrypha which has sold over 100,000 copies to date.

Track listing for Noble Beast:
1. Oh No
2. Masterswarm
3. Fitz and the Dizzyspells
4. Effigy
5. Tenuousness
6. Nomenclature
7. Not a Robot, But a Ghost
8. Anonanimal
9. Natural Disaster
10. Confess
11. Souverian
12. On Ho!

The first single, “Oh No” is currently streaming in Pitchfork’s FORKCAST section, as well as dozens of other blogs who happened to pick it up over the weekend.

As a special treat, Andrew will be performing songs from the new record at a handful of intimate underplay shows this month in New York, Los Angeles and a few other select markets.

A small quantity of additional tickets has been released for TONIGHT AND TOMORROW’s shows (Oct. 6 and 7) at the HIRO BALLROOM. The limited additional tickets are available at the Mercury Lounge and Music Hall of Williamsburg box offices, ticketmaster.com, and Hiro Ballroom when doors open.

Following the conclusion of the second Hiro show, Bird will hightail it to the Music Hall of Williamsburg to appear at the October 7 BARACK ROCK fundraiser with Fiery Furnaces, Eugene Mirman and others.

The pre-release underplays wrap up Oct. 19 and 20 at the new Cafe Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles.

The complete itinerary is as follows:
10/06/08 - New York, NY - Hiro Ballroom
10/07/08 - New York, NY - Hiro Ballroom
10/07/08 - Brooklyn, NY - BARACK ROCK Music Hall of Williamsberg
10/08/08 - Portsmouth, NH - The Music Hall
10/09/08 - Albany, NY - Swyer Theatre
10/10/08 - Northampton, MA - Calvin Theatre
10/19/08 - Los Angeles, CA - Largo at The Coronet
10/20/08 - Los Angeles, CA - Largo at The Coronet

For more information, contact Steve Martin or Laura Eldeiry at nasty little man t 212-343-0740 e laura@nastylittleman.com

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MATES OF STATE EXTEND THE RE-ARRANGER TOUR
NOVEMBER 7-23 HEADLINE RUN ADDED W/ BROTHER READE

Having kicked off their fall tour schedule with an appearance at AUSTIN CITY LIMITS that elicited raves from the AUSTIN CHRONICLE (”an act that’s matured both personally and professionally”) and THE ONION (”the duo continues to save itself by producing albums that are better than the previous ones”), and currently on tour with Santogold, the indefatigable MATES OF STATE have added a November series of headline dates to their Re-Arranger tour.

The new dates begin November 7 in Asbury Park NJ and run through November 23 in Baltimore MD. All dates will feature LA hip-hop duo Brother Reade as main support - see below for a full itinerary.

The Re-Arranger tour is of course named for the MATES’ fifth album, Re-Arrange Us (Barsuk), which was released May 20, the same day marking the band’s network television debut on LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O’BRIEN.

Re-Arrange Us has received the best critical (and public) response of MATES OF STATE’s career: NEW YORK magazine called the record “a bona fide breakthrough,” MAGNET praised it as “the best album of their career for a second straight time,” while DETAILS and ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY focused on individual tracks, the former raving “‘Now’ has summer anthem written all over it” and the latter featuring “My Only Offer” as a “Choice Cut.”

Gardner and Hammel will be joined on the upcoming dates by additional musicians Linnea Weiss (cello) and Chris Cosgrove (guitar, bass, electronics).

For further information, contact Steve Martin or Amy Grote at nasty little man 212 343 0740 amy@nastylittleman.com

MATES OF STATE
THE RE-ARRANGER TOUR
NEW HEADLINE DATES IN BOLD

10/04/08 SEATTLE, WA Showbox Sodo with Santogold, Low vs Diamond
10/05/08 PORTLAND, OR Crystal Ballroom with Santogold, Low vs Diamond
10/07/08 SAN FRANCISCO, CA Fillmore with Santogold, Low vs Diamond
10/10/08 SAN DIEGO, CA House of Blues with Santogold, Low vs Diamond
10/11/08 LAS VEGAS, NV House of Blues @ Mandalay Bay with Santogold, Low vs Diamond
10/13/08 ANAHEIM, CA House of Blues with Santogold, Low vs Diamond
10/14/08 LOS ANGELES, CA Wiltern with Santogold, The Ting Tings, Low vs Diamond
10/16/08 MARQUETTE, MI Northern Michigan University
10/17/08 GRAND RAPIDS, MI Calvin College
10/18/08 KALAMAZOO, MI Kalamazoo State Theater
10/19/08 DETROIT, MI Magic Stick

11/7 Asbury Park NJ @ Wonder Bar
11/8 Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
11/9 Morgantown, WV @ Mountainstage (NPR show)
11/10 Lexington, KY @ The Dame
11/11 Washington DC @ Black Cat
11/12 Charlottesville VA @ Gravity Lounge
11/13 Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre
11/14 Lexington KY @ The Dame
11/15 Louisville, KY @ Headliners
11/16 Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle
11/17 Nashville, TN @ Exit / In
11/19 Jacksonville Beach FL @ Freebird Live
11/20 Atlanta, GA @ The Loft
11/21 Greenville SC @ The Handlebar
11/22 Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
11/23 Baltimore MD @ Ottobar

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FOO FIGHTERS DENOUNCE UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THEIR MUSIC BY MCCAIN CAMPAIGN

Having received confirmed press reports that John McCain has been using Foo Fighters’ “My Hero” as the latest in a number of unauthorized theme songs at his campaign rallies without seeking permission from the band, its management, record label or publisher, Foo Fighters have issued the following statement:

This isn’t the first time the McCain campaign has used a song without making any attempt to get approval or permission from the artist. It’s frustrating and infuriating that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property. The saddest thing about this is that ‘My Hero’ was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song. We hope that the McCain campaign will do the right thing and stop using our song–and start asking artists’ permission in general!

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The Fireman Finds His Voice With Brand New Album
Electric Arguments
U.S. Release Date: November 18, 2008

The Fireman has returned after a ten-year break with something to sing about. Electric Arguments, the brand new third studio album from the mysterious duo–out in the U.S. November 18 on MPL/ATO–is their first release to feature vocals.

“Ambient dreams in rainbow arches describe the circles of The Fireman” is how the duo described their music in a rare interview around the release of their last album ‘Rushes’ in 1998. Their first album ‘Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest’, released in 1993, was a solid ambient dance album heavy on electronics. Around this time the identity of The Fireman was unknown until the press exposed the duo as none other than Paul McCartney and Youth. The now defunct music bible Melody Maker heaped praise on the project, “Paul McCartney has discovered dance music - the results are staggeringly brilliant. They (The Fireman) take a melody and, with dexterous genre-hopping through ambient, trance and house, evolve a number of breathtaking variations.”

Last year The Fireman returned to work again to start work on what would become Electric Arguments, ultimately finding thirteen days and recording a song on each of those days over the course of a little more than a year. The results this time are entirely different from any previous Fireman release.

Earlier this year The Fireman donated a new track, Lifelong Passion (which appears on Electric Arguments) to the charity Adopt-A-Minefield. This new track marked a directional change for The Fireman, showcasing a more traditional song based sound with vocals, completely unlike anything on the previous two albums. Speculation increased as a ’studio source’ was quoted in The Times of London as describing their new sound ‘like Arcade Fire meets Led Zeppelin’. So what had The Fireman been up to and what does the album sound like?

Electric Arguments is an eclectic and varied album consisting of thirteen tracks, each written and recorded in the space of one day. McCartney and Youth went into the studio with no master plan or clear direction. Instead they let the project take a life of its own, with the results surprising them as much as anyone.

The record opens with a stylistically diverse trifecta: Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight is a classic rock attention grabber followed by a hairpin turn in the form of the acoustic driven Two Magpies and yet another direction with Sing The Changes, a euphoric upbeat song with an undeniable and instantly memorable melody. Electric Arguments continues in this fashion, each track with an entirely different personality yet all meshing perfectly. Other standouts include ‘Light From Your Lighthouse’, ‘Sun Is Shining’ and ‘Dance ‘Til We’re High’, all in keeping with the genre-hopping spirit of the first two Fireman albums and demonstrating Paul McCartney’s unending interest in pure musical possibilities. This is an album set to both surprise and delight the listener. Made with no record company restraints or a set release date to work to, Electric Arguments is a work of omplete artistic and creative freedom.

The Fireman
Electric Arguments

Track listing:

1) Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight
2) Two Magpies
3) Sing The Changes
4) Traveling Light
5) Highway
6) Light From Your Lighthouse
7) Sun Is Shining
8) Dance ‘Til We’re High
9) Lifelong Passion
10) Is This Love?
11) Lovers In A Dream
12) Universal Here, Everlasting Now
13 Don’t Stop Running

Produced By Paul McCartney & Youth / All tracks written by Paul McCartney

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WAR CHILD AND ASTRALWERKS ANNOUNCE THE ALBUM “HEROES” WILL NOW BE RELEASED IN FEBRUARY 2009.