Dick Diver managed to avoid the dreaded “sophomore slump” with their 2013 album Calendar Days (Chapter Music) & look to perfect a “three-peat” with their third album Melbourne, Florida.

This is their first domestic release & first for Trouble In Mind. Recorded in a former sheep-shearing shed in Apollo Bay, Victoria by Mikey Young, the album hums with a strident assurance, buoyed by the benefit of the band’s four talented songwriters whose singular voices sit comfortably beside each other in the albums twelve tracks. The crack of a snare starts off the lead-track, “Waste The Alphabet” an anthemic, jangling stomper full of bluster & swagger, while other tracks like “Leftovers”, “Year In Pictures” & “Percentage Points” yearn with a bookish intensity, complimenting the band’s dichotomy of erudite pop smarts and and idiosyncratic approach to composition (see Montfort’s charming & disarming “Beat Me Up (Talk to a Counsellor)”). If Dick Diver weren’t already leading the pack of new-school Australian pop, then Melbourne, Florida is sure to put them in the pole-position.

Austin based punk band Sober Daze have released a music video for their new song “Live To Shred”, the first single from their forthcoming split 7” with Knockin’ Chucks, coming in April from Dazed Records. “Live To Shred” is a fast paced skate anthem for the ages; an ode to the insatiable urge that pulses in the veins of skaters everywhere.

Sober Daze was born in Puerto Rico in 2002 by friends Peter Figueroa, Alex “Korn” Rivera, and Chris “Fatty” Bourcy. Fresh out of high school, the band set their sights to the proclaimed “Live Music Capitol of the World”, and relocated to Austin in 2003. Sober Daze garnered early support from other bands in the Austin punk scene, opening their first Austin show for the Lower Class Brats, and building friendships with Krum Bums and The Applicators. In the years since they have made their name in the Austin by throwing punk rock house parties with half pipe ramps, and playing shows across Texas and the US with bands like The Vandals, Reagan Youth, Angry Samoans, and The Freeze. Now a 4-piece, with the addition of Alex “Rager” Loughborough on guitar in 2013, “Live To Shred” is the testament of band that refuses to stop having fun.  

You can catch Sober Daze in Austin during the SXSW music festival, playing the Punk Vs. Rockabilly and Eastside Throwdown showcases. Pre-order their new split 7 inch (with Knockin’ Chucks) now.

Sharing an infectious spirit of musical creativity, freedom and community, the cities of New Orleans and San Francisco are kindred. Whether in the Bay or the Bayou, music flows constantly and plentifully – a tragically uncommon phenomenon in this country. Resonating with the energy of both San Francisco and New Orleans, Jeremy Jones introduces Keep On Movin’, a full-length album of signature “Swampedelic Rock & Soul” sound: when the mud of the Louisiana swamps meets the grit of Southern roots and blends with the groove of San Francisco psychedelia.

With writing and rehearsals placing Hot Rize firmly back in their groove, recording When I’m Free took just five days at the solar-powered Studio at Town Hall in Boulder. The musicians eschewed booths and headphones in favor of sitting in a circle and recording live off the floor – “the first time I’ve recorded like that since 1971,” muses Wernick. This organic approach resulted in an album that crackles with the energy of a Hot Rize live show, even if the band’s Western Swing alter-ego sidekicks, Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers, aren’t present.

Following the release of When I’m Free, Hot Rize will tour nationwide this fall and into 2015, sure to please not only longtime fans of the band, but countless new fans who’ve discovered bluegrass and Americana music in more recent times.