A band I fell in love with on their first album, The Rhumb Line released their sophmore album, The Orchard today.  Ra Ra Riot is only today offering The Orchard for sale at amazon.com for $3.99.  You can even download the single, Boy for free to see if you like the album.  But I’m sure you’re going to love it!  Sadly this offer is only good for those in the United States.  For everyone else you can purchase the album on itunes.

A friend posted this link on her Facebook and I am now in love with it. I’m always looking for free things to do that are fun and in LA this can be quite daunting. But now you can check out Totally Free LA and find out all kinds of fun free things.  Mark, the creator, lists all kinds of different events from free screenings to cloths swapping to my favorite, South Kitchen Fridays at Edison.  On Fridays from 5-7pm Edison is giving free Tomato soup and cheese sandwiches with drinks specials for only 35 cents.  Count me in!!

Check out the site for even more fun free things to do in LA!

This week’s artist to take notice of is Guy Sebastian.  Now if you are from Australia then you know Guy Sebastian but for the rest of us….you might need an introduction.

Sebastian is the first winner of Australian Idol which is the Australian version of American Idol.  Since winning he’s toured the world, won awards and released three albums but he’s still new to us in North America.  Well not for much longer.  This past June Sebastian released his U.S debut album, Like it Like That.  The album features a duet with Jordan Sparks and John Mayer playing guitar on three songs, All To Myself,” “Fail To Mention” and “Never Be You”.

Sebastian’s sound is a blend of R&B, Soul with a bit of funk thrown in there.  The album has great R&B style songs, Art of Love to fun make you want to clap and dance songs, Like It Like That to Never Let You Down which is a throw back to the 70’s.  I know this sounds like the album must be going all over the place and has to be disjointed.  But Sebastian keeps his unique sound and flow to each song so that despite the song falling into a different musical style you still know that it is a Guy Sebastian song.  This is a definite cohesiveness to the album.   The title track is my single of choice and I think it’s a song for the summer.  The upbeat tempo and funky beats make you want to stand up and dance!

For more information please go to Guy’s official website.  You can purchase his album Like It Like That at Barnes and Noble and on itunes and Amazon.

I can’t embed the videos but here’s the link for Like It LIke that

Here’s a live performance of Guy with Jordan Sparks singing Art of Love.

Track Listing

1) Like It Like That
2) All To Myself (w/ John Mayer)
3) Art of Love (Ft. Jordin Sparks)
4) Attention
5) Magic (Ft. Tarryn Stokes)
6) Bring Yourself
7) Never Hold You Down
8 ) Fail To Mention (w/ John Mayer)
9) Never Be You (w/ John Mayer)
10) Coming Home
11) Undo
12) Perfection

On August 24th, Ra Ra Riot will release their much anticipated sophomore album, The Orchard in Canada.  No date has been set yet for the United States.  For now you can download, for free, the first single, Boy, from the album.  Simply go to their website and enter your email address.  Within minutes you’ll get an email with the download link.

The band has also announced a larger North American tour.  For more information on that please go here.

Here’s the released preview video for The Orchard.

Ra Ra Riot “Too Dramatic” (Preview) from Barsuk Records on Vimeo.

BREAKING NEWS!

The Senate Judiciary committee approved the nomination of Elana Kagan 13-6. Kagan will be the 4th female supreme court justice in the nations history. Now that this has been approved, the vote will go before

“There is no question about Elena Kagan’s qualifications,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California.”In my view, there is no good reason to deny her appointment.” She is clearly among nation’s “top legal minds.”

copyright Steven Dewall

UPDATE:  Today the lovely Canadian duo premiered their video for the single, On Directing from Sainthood.  They also announced that their next video for North Shore will drop on August 10th.  Additionally Tegan and Sara are selling their complete album collection on vinyl as a box set.  It will also feature an additional record with unreleased demos on it.  Plus if you pre-order you can get a signed poster from them.  Pre-order begins July 28th from maplemusic.com.

And if you see T&S on tour now if you purchase a shirt from them you will receive a certificate for a free download of their album Sainthood.

I thought it was time for a small Tegan and Sara update.  In case you  have not heard they have just announced several headlining shows for this summer and fall (info below) and they are about to start their huge tour opening for Paramore.  Tickets are on sale for all the above mentioned shows at ticketmaster.com  To celebrat that the tour has released a CD from all the participating bands with unreased songs. You can purchase the disc at Hot Topic stores or at itunes.

As always keep in formed on all Tegan and Sara news by visiting their website.

Track Listing:

1 Paramore: Ignorance (Live)
2 Paramore: My Heart (Live)
3 Tegan and Sara: Back in Your Head (Live)
4 Tegan and Sara: Sheets
5 New Found Glory: I’m the Fool
6 Kadawatha: Gonna Stay

Solo Shows

July 25 – The Norva - Norfolk, VA - with guest Hesta Prynn
July 29 – Higher Ground - Burlington, VT - with guest Hesta Prynn
August 17 – Hoyt Sherman Place - Des Moines, IA
*August 30 – The Orange Peel - Asheville, NC
*August 31 – WorkPlay Soundstage - Birmingham, AL
*September 11 – Cain’s Ballroom - Tulsa, OK

The Comic Legal Defense Fund is looking for volunteers to help with their booth at this year’s Comic Con in San Diego, CA. Just go to their site and email for an application. You’ll get to see that year’s festivities and go to their party for free! If you haven’t ever been to Comic Con then you are missing out. This year will feature appearances from Angelina Jolie, the cast of Glee and many many many more comic, film and TV stars. Go sign up!

For more information on Comic Con and tickets please go here.

Wow, this is so cool! While excavators were digging at Ground Zero they unearthed a 32 foot boat from the 18th century! Now this of course will hault the other excavations of Ground Zero because it’s so delicate and archaeologists are now taking over at the area where the boat was found.

Check out a story about it http://www.cbs.com/daytime/the_early_show/video/?pid=CbYUZpHYEvppnCMh2J2dH5EZl5tRBML1

For this week’s edition of NMMoT I decided to take a step away from my usual choices in music.  This band is not like any other I’ve posted about…they are a female fronted metal band.   I am not a huge metal band fan but I couldn’t resist posting about Oblivious Signals and I knew that I had to have a few readers out there who would enjoy them.  Last week on July 5th they released their debut album, Into the Night.  You can purchase it on itunes or amazon.

So for all my metal heads out there…I listened to their entire new album and the songs I enjoyed the most were Breathe and The Nameless.  I should also mention that not all their songs are hard core metal sounds.  The Nameless begins with a much softer sound for Oblivious Signals before it builds into an energetic chorus and finish.  What Drowns Out the Screams also has a bit of a Evanescence (the original group) feel to it but it still uniquely their own sound.  Overall I say take a moment and have a listen to them.  If you’re sick of the Justin Bieber and Jonas Brothers out there than this is just the exact opposite sound you’ve been craving.

For more information please visit the band’s website.

Hello ATG Readers-

As many of you are aware I’m currently back in school studying web design.  I’m almost finished with school and with that comes many group projects.  For one of my classes we are designing a  touch screen kiosk you would find in an art gallery or museum.  But before we begin our group needs to find out what features users would like to see on our kiosk.  Below is a very short two part survey.  I would be highly appreciative if you could please take a moment to take the survey.  It’s completely anonymous and will only take you maybe 10 minutes.

Thank you so much!

Koop

Click here to take Part One of the Survey
Click here to take Part Two of the survey