new album

New album from The Casket Lottery on the way

The Casket Lottery, invigorated lineup in tow, is heading in to the studio to record a new album, making them a legitimately active band for the first time in more than five years, though their last release was 2004’s Smoke and Mirrors. The band has previously raised eyebrows by playing a few shows across the region opening for Small Brown Bike (members of whom were in Nathan Ellis’ Able Baker Fox project), but not before playing a full house at the Riot Room during Middle of the Map Fest back in April.

Second Nature Recordings has been mostly quiet these days, so the probability of the band going in another direction entirely is very possible.

Now, who do I have to talk to about a new Jackie Carol album?

The Dead Girls detail new 7 inch release, create kickstarter

Lawrence power-pop sweet hearts The Dead Girls have created a Kickstarter project through label Rocket Heart Records for the release of their new 2-song 7 inch, “She Laughed a Little” b/w “It’s All Happening.” The record will be available on two different colors (400 black, 100 swirl), the b-side of which was recorded about 18 months ago when Justin Pierre from Motion City Soundtrack was in town to lend himself to the recording, along with Blackpool Lights, Creature Comforts and (the often overlooked fourth member of) Ultimate Fakebook, J.D. Warnock.

The band, or more so label, took a very realist approach to the project, and have some extremely reasonable pledge rewards available to those who are able to participate. These range from mp3s of the EP for only $2, mp3s plus the record on black vinyl for $7, and all of the previously mentioned, plus two bonus mp3s and an autographed poster for only $15. The list tops out at the $50 level, which gets the purchaser the aforementioned, the record on the more limited color, a 12 inch of the band’s debut full length Out of Earshot + accompanying mp3s, and a test pressing of the new EP, limited to 7 copies. This tier sold out quickly.

The project has a $2,000 goal and will run until October 1st. Get further information here.

Return of The Only Children; White Flight kickstarter

September 15th will mark the unexpected return of Lawrence’s The Only Children to Kansas City’s Riot Room. The group quietly went on hiatus shortly after the release of their sophomore release, 2007’s Keeper of Youth, and even frontman and Anniversary co-creator Josh Berwanger has kept mostly low-key in that time, unassumingly working in his career as a high school basketball coach. The band has plans to head in to the studio soon to record their third full-length, likely with another revolving cast of musicians.

Opening for the band will be Casey Prestwood & the Burning Angels, the eponymous leader of which once played drums for Hot Rod Circuit and contributes to The Only Children. Also playing is Major Games, a trio best described as a grown-up mix of Lawrence’s Zoom and Panel Donor, and while it would be a stretch to lump the band in with the resurgence of twinkly riffed or reverb heavy shoegaze present in a variety of sounds these days, the members play a spaced out and prog-heavy sound of rock just begging for a conceptual full-length.

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http://vimeo.com/18422993

On the inverse, and decidedly not staying low-key is Anniversary co-creator Justin Roelofs, a man who has seemingly gone from being a mere mortal human to some kind of sentient, dimension-traversing being traveling the known realms of time and space. At least that is what the man would have you believe. Roelofs’ White Flight project is mid-way through a Kickstarter project for his new album, Pyramid of Light. I know not if he truly has the audacity to believe his project can get the over $12,000 in pledges required to succeed, or he created the entire project as a scheme to get people talking about his upcoming album. If he chose the latter, then he is without a doubt succeeding.

The project still has nearly a month left, but one who pledges can expect to get things such as “a 40 min. long sonic collage MIXTAPE made by White Flight in 2011, via mp3 download” for the lowest tier, or an “Amazing Crystal Quartz Necklace made by my partner Daughter of the Sun” for $111. Hell, for a meager $1,111, you can be so lucky as to receive “a CUSTOM larger scale sacred geometry painting, we can determine the image, color, etc. together via a phone conversation or skype session. Also I will share teaching on the I-Ching oracle in this conversation and teach you how to use it to make positive decisions in your life, if you aren’t already familiar with this system.” Sounds like quite a steal, that. Read the rest of the details from the project here.