New Annuals - "Confessor"

We have the first track from Annuals forthcoming sophomore album, Such Fun, for you to check out. The track is called "Confessor" and you can download it at the bottom of the post.

"Confessor" does not stray far from the sound Annuals fans have come to love. Really, the production is just cleaner and the arrangement feels grander and more sonically aligned.

Also, check out the album cover for Such Fun to the right. The art is a painting by the late Bob Ross. Yeah, Bob Ross, the guy with the fro on PBS that paints trees and stuff.

Don't forget, Annuals will be playing in downtown Raleigh tonight, Friday September 5, as part of Raleigh Wide Open on the Cherry Bounce stage. Also, Annuals will be on tour this fall with Minus the Bear. Check out those tour dates here.

Such Fun will be released on October 7. Check out more info on the album including the track list in this earlier post.

Annuals - "Confessor" (mp3)

Manchester Orchestra to release new EP, tour

Manchester Orchestra are currently in the studio working on a new full-length album due out early next year, but fans won't have to wait long to hear new music. The band will release a new EP/DVD on October 14 titled Let My Pride Be What's Left Behind.

The EP will feature two new tracks as well as three live tracks. The DVD will feature a documentary about the band filmed and edited by Erickson who worked on Dave Matthews Band's Live at Radio City DVD.

Let My Pride Be What's Left Behind tracklist
01 - I Can Feel a Hot One
02 - I Was a Lid
03 - Wolves At Night (Live from WBRU-FM)
04 - Badges And Badges (Live from Daytrotter.com)
05 - Sleeper 1972 (Live from The Loft/Atlanta)

Manchester Orchestra will kick off a US tour on November 28 in Carrboro at the Cat's Cradle. The tour will run just shy of Christmas and will also include Kevin Devine, Dead Confederate and All Get Out on the entire run. The complete list of dates are below.

11/28 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
11/29 - Nashville, TN - Rocketown
11/30 - Newport, KY - Southgate
12/02 - Des Moines, IA - House of Bricks
12/03 - Chicago, IL - Subterranean
12/04 - Lansing, MI - Mac's Bar
12/05 - Akron, OH - Musica
12/06 - Pittsburgh, PA - Diesel
12/07 - Philadelphia, PA - Northstar
12/09 - Allston, MA - Harper's Ferry
12/10 - Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell's
12/11 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
12/12 - Richmond, VA - Canal Club
12/13 - Wilmington, NC - Soapbox Laundrolounge
12/14 - Columbia, SC - Headliners
12/16 - Athens, GA - 40 Watt
12/17 - Orlando, FL - The Social
12/18 - St. Petersburg, FL - Orpheum
12/19 - Jacksonville, FL - Jack Rabbits
12/20 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse

Manchester Orchestra - "Slow To Learn" (mp3) from You Brainstorm... EP

Ben Folds Five reunion tickets sure to go fast

UPDATE: Tickets sold out in less than 3 minutes.

Update #2: Read this notice about student tickets.

With people just not across the country but around the world hoping to congregate in Chapel Hill on Sept. 18 for the Ben Folds Five reunion show, it's becoming painfully obvious that even those of us in the area may not be so lucky as to snag some oh-so-coveted tickets to this show.

Here's what we're dealing with, just to lay out the facts:

* Memorial Hall at UNC-Chapel Hill has a capacity of 1,434. A total of 630 tickets will be held for students. For reference, Ben Folds on his own packed Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh a couple years ago, which has a capacity of 2,277.

* Tickets will go on sale Monday, Sept. 8 at 10am (NOT noon, like reported elsewhere) via THREE outlets: the Memorial Hall box office for students (where they don't allow camping, so don't even try, but apparently don't enforce that rule ), etix.com and myspace.com/fronttoback (though it's unclear if that will just loop you back to eTix.) Tickets are $22 for students (limit 2, one OneCard per ticket) and $40 for the rest of us.

* Scalping is not cool. Just saying. They money forked over to a scalper won't benefit Operation Smile, which is the show's official beneficiary.

* The good news: If something goes wrong and eTix locks us all out, they're located in Morrisville so we won't have to travel far to picket their offices.

* If all else fails, the show will be recorded and rebroadcast on Myspace.com in October.

And with that — good luck!

Ben Folds Five to reunite in Chapel Hill

After last week's tease, it's been reported that Ben Folds Five — Ben Folds, Robert Sledge and Darren Jesse — will reunite on Thursday, Sept. 18 for a show at UNC's Memorial Hall for the group's first public appearance in a decade.

As if that weren't enough, benfolds.com is reporting that the trio will play The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner in its entirety.

Darren Jesse's band Hotel Lights will open the show. Hotel Lights new album Firecracker People was just released a few weeks ago.

Tickets for the general public are $40 and will go on sale Monday, Sept. 8 at 10 a.m. via etix. The show will be presented by MySpace Music. UNC student tickets will go on sale at the same time for $22 at the Memorial Hall box office. Tickets will have a policy of one ticket per One Card, two One Cards per student.

As someone who never had the opportunity to see the trio during their heyday, I'd just like to say: HELL YES.

iTunes single of the week: Jazmine Sullivan "Need U Bad"

This week's free single comes from 21-year-old Philly singer Jazmine Sullivan.

The song is "Need U Bad" and while I hate the use of instant messenger/text messaging lingo in song titles, the song is actually pretty good. It mixes a little reggae vibe with modern R&B production to create a compelling sound.

Jazmine's voice stands front and center and is more soulful sounding than her 21 years. The melody on the verses is more reggae while the chorus pivots to catchy hook that sounds more like modern R&B.

It's a good track that I recommend if you like R&B/soul.