PJ BOND TO SUPPORT FRANK TURNER ON UK INSTORES AND ALBUM LAUNCH GIGS AUGUST 2015

Following a lengthy tour across Europe and the UK throughout all of June and July, PJ Bond can announce he will support Frank Turner on his short run of instores this August. PJ will also support Frank on his intimate Positive Songs For Negative People album launch gigs in London and Glasgow. Details below.

Frank spotted PJ at the Xtra Mile Recordings Summer In The City party back in July and immediately invited him on these shows. Full dates are:

06 Banquet instore, Kingston

11 Rise instore, Worcester

11 Rise instore, Bristol

12 Rough Trade, Nottingham

In May, PJ released his incredible album Where Were You?, a beautiful album covering topics that lace the modern musical lexicon — love, loss, friendship, family, and music. He has been compared to Elliott Smith, Micah P Hinson, and Wilco, while his new album reveals all the bombast and ambition of someone who has listened to a fair amount of Dylan or Springsteen, and dreamed. He's spent years travelling and playing to everyone he could, essentially homeless, while writing and recording songs and telling stories.

You can buy on CD from any of the shops above. It is also available on vinyl in four different colours — maroon, yellow, navy and mint green. The yellow and mint green versions are exclusive for the Xtra Mile Recordings shop, the latter featuring hand-painted artwork by PJ digitally printed for the sleeve. To purchase these exclusive vinyl or the album on CD and digital visit the Xtra Mile Recordings shop. All other vinyl colours are available at various participating retailers.

www.facebook.com/PJBond / Twitter @pjbondmusic / pjbondmusic.tumblr.com

NORTHCOTE TO RELEASE THIRD ALBUM 'HOPE IS MADE OF STEEL' IN SEPTEMBER 2015 // STREAM ALBUM TITLE TRACK // EXTENSIVE EUROPE, UK AND CANADIAN TOURS

Northcote, led by Canadian singer-songwriter Matt Goud, will release new album Hope Is Made Of Steel September 2015 via Xtra Mile Recordings in UK, EU and Australia. You can stream the album’s title track below.

"Hope Is Made Of Steel" featuring Hannah Georgas From the forthcoming album, "Hope Is Made Of Steel" Available September 25th via Black Box (Canada) & Xtra Mile Recordings (Europe & Australia) For more information visit http://northcotemusic.com http://weareblackbox.com http://xtramilerecordings.com

Following a year bulging with gigs — with over 160 performances in 2014/2015 — as well as a tour history that includes playing alongside The Gaslight Anthem on their North American tour, the ever-present Chuck Ragan in Europe, Dave Hause and Twin Forks, the album is enriched with live experience. Coursing with electric guitars, there is a definite rock beast pumping inside the 10 track record.  As Matt says “with this record it is a priority for me to bring a more dynamic show on the road”.

Recorded while moving between cities, 3000 miles apart, the album is surging with the energy of movement and the storytelling attached to travel. 'Small Town Dreams' is the best example, as it combines the stirring mood of an enveloping wall of sound with all the hopes and dreams of the two characters in the song who wish someday to make it to the big city.

'Leaving Wyoming' deals with moving on too, taking more of a traditional Northcote approach — the warm, nostalgic feel, the gentile electric chimes, the soaring reverbed vocals — while 'Bitter End' captures that Springsteen-like swagger the young Canadian has picked up from tours, and united it with his own way around an adrenal rush of a chorus.

Hope Is Made Of Steel tracklisting:

1.      This Is Our Time
2.      Bitter End
3.      Small Town Dreams
4.      Hope Is Made Of Steel
5.      Leaving Wyoming
6.      You Could Never Let Me Down
7.      Bracelet
8.      Stronger Than You Know
9.      Just Kids
10.    Your Rock and Roll

The band will also tour extensively through the summer and autumn, with some European dates supporting Chuck Ragan. Tour dates are below, or you can find them and ticket links on our gig calendar.

European summer tour 2015 (* full band with Chuck Ragan)

AUGUST

18 - Stuttgart, Germany
19 - Bern, Switzerland
20 - Zürich, Switzerland
21 - München, Germany
22 - Frequency Festival, Austria
23 - Karlsruhe, Germany*
24 - Wiesbaden, Germany*
25 - Bremen, Germany*
26 - Dortmund, Germany*
27 - Köln, Germany
28 - Saarbrücken, Germany
29 - Münster, Germany
30 - Hamburg, Germany
31 - Berlin, Germany

UK tour 2015

SEPTEMBER

02 - London @ Old Blue Last
03 - Leeds @ Brudenell Social Club
04 - Manchester @ Soup Kitchen
05 - Nottingham @ Bodega

Canadian tour 2015

SEPTEMBER

18 – Toronto @ Urban Roots Festival

OCTOBER

14 - Winnipeg, MB @ The Pyramid
15 - Regina, SK @ The Exchange
16 - Edmonton, AB @ The Starlite
17 - Calgary, AB @ The Gateway
20 - Cranbrook, BC @ Key City Theatre
21 - Kelowna, BC @ Flashback’s
22 - Kamloops, BC @ Cactus Jack’s
23 - Vancouver, BC @ The Venue
24 - Victoria, BC @ Distrikt
30 - Red Deer, AB @ Bo’s
31 - Saskatoon, SK @ The Capitol Music Club

NOVEMBER

03 - Thunder Bay, ON @ Crock’s
05 - Sudbury, ON @ Coulson Night Club
07 - Hamilton, ON @ Absinthe
08 - St. Catharines, ON @ L3
11 - Waterloo, ON @ Maxwell’s
13 - London, ON @ London Music Hall
20 - Moncton, NB @ Tide & Boar
21 - Halifax, NS @ The Marquee Club
22 - Truro, NS @ Champion’s
26 - Fredericton, NB @ The Capital Complex
27 - Montreal, QC @ Petit Campus
28 - Ottawa, ON @ Maverick’s

DECEMBER

27 - Kingston, ON @ The Ale House

Born and raised in small-town Saskatchewan, Northcote’s early exposure to music was a mix of traditional country on AM radio and the hymns he learned at his childhood church. However, it wasn't until he discovered punk and hardcore music that he realized music’s healing and therapeutic power. Over the past 8 years, few young musicians in Canada have put on as many miles as Goud who toured for years as a member of a post-hardcore band and has more recently transitioned into life on the road as a singer/songwriter with accompaniment by an ever-rotating slew of guests and friend musicians.

facebook.com/northcotemusic / Twitter @northcotemusic / northcotemusic.com

XTRA MILE HIGH CLUB VOL 6: SUMMER IN THE CITY OUT 8 JULY 2015 - PREORDER NOW // NEW, LIVE AND STUDIO TRACKS FROM XTRA MILE ARTISTS // PARTY IN CAMDEN - SKINNY LISTER HEADLINE // WIN TICKETS NOW!

The next in Xtra Mile Recordings’ annual compilation series is Xtra Mile High Club Vol 6: Summer In The City, out on 8 July 2015. As before, it’s digital download only, for a bargain price, and contains tracks from Xtra Mile and unsigned artists. You can preorder it from us in our digital shop.

The compilation features recent and classic tracks including: a brand new hot-off-the-studio- desk track from Will Varley called ‘The Concept Of Freedom’; ‘Glorious You (acoustic)’ by Frank Turner from the Positive Songs For Negative People Deluxe Edition CD, and previously unreleased songs from Northcote, Billy the Kid, and a ferocious version of ‘Osama Bin Laden as the Crucified Christ’ by Against Me! from their forthcoming new 23 Live Sex Acts live album.

Elsewhere we have a new Mull Historical Society song ‘The Ballad of Ivor Punch’ recorded live from his headline London show in May, plus a crop of some of this year’s best album tracks including ‘Hot Traveler’ from the latest Failure album The Heart Is A Monster; the darkly humorous ‘Everglades’ by PJ Bond from Where Were You?; the touching Woman To Woman highlight ‘Wildflower’ by Esmé Patterson; the infectious ‘Friends’ by To Kill A King; and articulate self-analysis on ‘Lost’ from Dan Andriano’s second solo album Party Adjacent. We’ve also crammed on recent non-album single ‘Positive I’m An Optimist’ from Rob Lynch and the outdoor romanticist worldview of Beans On Toast on ‘Stinging Nettles’.

This gorgeous feast of aural exhilaration is polished off with some real classics including a track from Mineral’s small but sublime back catalogue, and a track each from our second-album vinyl reissues by Million Dead and Reuben.

That’s not all. Oh no.

After all your love of our choice to include a whole ‘side’ of unsigned bands on XMHC Vol 5: Smokin’, we’ve gathered a bunch of our current unsigned fancies and crammed them alongside our artists too. Among these are ‘Down That Road Again’ from Brighton band The RPMs, who will play our summer party on launch day; ‘Kiss the Misfits’ by the wild and free Felix Hagan and the Family; an unreleased track from PJ Bond’s occasional bandmates — and ace band in their own right — The Lion and the Wolf, and similar gems from Donald Spence, Hyena, and Tim Vantol.

XMHC Vol 6: Summer In The City full tracklisting:

1) Failure – ‘Hot Traveler’
2) Million Dead – ‘To Whom It May Concern’
3) Skinny Lister – ‘This City’
4) To Kill A King – ‘Friends’
5) Will Varley – ‘The Concept Of Freedom’
6) Esme Patterson – ‘Wildflower’
7) Frank Turner – ‘Glorious You’ (acoustic version)
8) Dan Andriano in The Emergency Room – ‘Lost’
9) Mineral – ‘Parking Lot’ (alternative version)
10) Against Me! – ‘Osama Bin Laden As The Crucified Christ’ (Live)
11) Reuben – ‘Alpha Signal Three’
12) Hyena – ‘Come Down To Hilo’
13) Tim Vantol – ‘If We Go Down, We Will Go Together!’
14) The RPMs – ‘Down That Road Again’
15) Trapper Schoepp – ‘Tornado Alley’
16) Beans On Toast – ‘Stinging Nettles’
17) The Lion and The Wolf – ‘Barstools’
18) Billy the Kid – ‘American Cities’
19) PJ Bond – ‘Everglades’
20) Rob Lynch – ‘I’m Positive I’m An Optimist
21) Northcote – ‘Invisible Diamonds’
22) Mull Historical Society – ‘The Ballad Of Ivor Punch’ (Live)
23) Donald Spence – ‘Don’t It Show’
24) Felix Hagan & The Family – ‘Kiss The Misfits’

RELEASE PARTY AT THE MONARCH, CAMDEN 8 JULY 2015 — SKINNY LISTER / WILL VARLEY / PJ BOND / THE RPMS

To celebrate the release of XMHC Vol. 6, come and join us at The Monarch in Camden on 8 July for a night of unrivaled fun, with bands, beach balls and balmy summer cocktails (and/or beer). We have The RPMs, PJ Bond, Will Varley and headliners Skinny Lister playing JUST FOR YOU.

Tickets are a steak at £7 each, available here.

We also have a competition for two free tickets. We'll say that again: two free tickets. Yes.

To win two (2) tickets to the gig AND the 24-track compilation, all for free, enter our competition now. Using the hashtag #XMRsummer send us pictures of how you’re making your summer an XMR one – whether it's seeing our bands at festivals, or at gigs, or you’re just dressed in head-to-toe XMR merch while on a bike ride. However you’re managing to incorporate XMR into your summer fun, we wanna see. The best pictures will win the prize! Tag @xtra_mile for Twitter and @xtramilerecordings for Instagram. Thank you and all the best for your entries!

FAILURE'S FIRST ALBUM IN 19 YEARS 'THE HEART IS A MONSTER' OUT DIGITALLY 29 JUNE 2015, UK AND EU CD ON 17 JULY 2015 // PREORDER NOW // WATCH VIDEO FOR 'HOT TRAVELER'

Xtra Mile Recordings are proud and pleased to announce the release of Failure's brand new studio album The Heart Is A Monster out 29 June 2015 digitally and on CD in the UK and EU on 17 July 2015.

Preorders for The Heart Is A Monster are available via iTunes for download and the XMR shop for CD (vinyl coming soon), as well as Amazon.  This includes a pair of instant downloads: 'Hot Traveler' and 'Mulholland Dr.' You can watch the video for 'Hot Traveler' below:

Music Video by the band Failure for the song "Hot Traveler" from the album "The Heart is a Monster" https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-heart-is-a-monster/id989008661 http://www.vevo.com/watch/USQY51570734

Some bands shine very bright very briefly, but stick in the memories of many true music fans. So it is with Failure. The LA based three-piece released three albums in the early 1990s before splitting up. Their massive influence on the sound and songwriting of so many bands since is remarkable.

After splitting the individual members went on to various projects: Greg Andrews forming Autolux and Ken Andrews working on the producer/mixer side with the likes of Chris Cornell, Beck and Nine Inch Nails. But the rumblings of many a fan finally got through and Failure returned after a 17-year hiatus in early 2014 with a single Los Angeles date. The show sold out in seconds, which led to a North American tour — including a run of dates with Tool — and eventually back to the studio. The resultant album The Heart Is A Monster was initially launched via D2C platform Pledge. The pickup was extraordinary. The album shows why Ken Andrews, Greg Edwards and Kellii Scott remain such a powerful musical force. The band played their first UK/European show in 20 years at a sold out London’s Garage in May 2015 to a rapturous reception.

Photo by Ryan Daly

The Heart Is A Monster is already receiving praise, with Rolling Stone describing the release as “a sprawling, 18 track voyage that… brilliantly picks up from where Fantastic Planet left off” and Metal Hammer adding, “this most original of bands are experiencing the kind of commercial and critical acceptance that alluded them for so long. Do yourself, and them, a favour; don’t miss out second time round.”

Failure formed in Los Angeles in the early ‘90s, releasing Comfort, their debut album, in 1992 via Slash Records. Magnified followed in the spring of 1994 with the band’s final offering, Fantastic Planet, released in 1996. Fantastic Planet earned a perfect 5-star score from Alternative Press with the magazine saying the album was able “to breathe life into the corpse of contemporary, guitar-driven rock,” adding that the band was “willing to stretch the definition of both their instruments and their songs.” The 17 track album is considered one of the era’s most influential and enduring rock records. Over the years, Failure has become known as a “band’s band” whose songs have been covered by such diverse artists as A Perfect Circle ('The Nurse Who Loved Me') and Paramore ('Stuck On You').

Tracklisting

Segue 4
Hot Traveler
A.M Amnesia
Snow Angel
Atom City Queen
Segue 5
Counterfeit Sky
Petting The Carpet
Mulholland Dr.
Fair Light Era
Segue 6
Come Crashing
Segue 7
The Focus
Otherwhere
Segue 8
I Can See Houses
Segue 9

facebook.com/failure / Twitter @failure / www.failureband.com

AGAINST ME! NEW LIVE ALBUM '23 LIVE SEX ACTS' OUT 4 SEPTEMBER 2015 // NSFW ARTWORK REVEALED // STREAM 'TRUE TRANS SOUL REBEL (LIVE)'

Xtra Mile Recordings are proud to announce the brand new live album from Against Me!, titled 23 Live Sex Acts, out 4 September 2015. Preorder the album on triple, coloured vinyl (blue, white, yellow) as well as digital and double CD via the Xtra Mile Recordings shop. You can also preorder from  iTunes, where an instant grat of 'True Trans Soul Rebel' is now available for download with purchase. Listen to the stream of that track below:

AGAINST ME! ANNOUNCE BRAND NEW LIVE ALBUM, 23 LIVE SEX ACTS Pre-Order: iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/23-live-sex-acts/id1003896178 Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/23-Live-Sex-Acts-Explicit/dp/B00ZBLVQOW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434391648&sr=8-1&keywords=against+me%21+23+live+sex+acts

Recorded over the band’s year-long, 2014 world tour and helmed by Marc Jacob Hudson (Taking Back Sunday, Saves The Day, Worriers), 23 Live Sex Acts is an immersive collection of songs that span the band’s entire catalog and provides the most comprehensive look into the powerful Against Me! live experience.

Against Me! kicked off their summer North American headlining tour on 15 June 2015. Touring with supports Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance) and Annie Girl and the Flight, the tour will extend through the middle of July. Against Me! return to this side of the pond in August for a run of European shows and to perform on the main stage at Reading and Leeds Festival. A full list of dates and more information on tickets can be found via Against Me!’s official website.

2014 was a pivotal year for the four members of Against Me!, a year that included world touring and the release of its widely-acclaimed sixth full length album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues, that landed on countless year-end lists.

It was also an especially successful year for frontwoman Laura Jane Grace who starred in her own AOL Originals series titled True Trans With Laura Jane Grace, a 10-episode docu-series that was nominated for 'Outstanding Documentary' at the 2015 GLAAD Media Awards. While continuing to work on her highly-anticipated memoir and performing solo shows around the country that included storytelling and spoken word, the cultural icon also served as Music Director for MTV’s Rebel Music, a series of documentary films about youth, music and global social change, focused on youth protest movements in the most challenging and turbulent parts of the world. Grace is also currently a contributing writer to Noisey where she writes a bi-weekly advice column titled Mandatory Happiness. Finally, alongside the legendary Joan Jett, she loaned her support for Miley Cyrus’ 'Happy Hippie Foundation' a non-profit whose mission is to rally young people to fight injustice facing homeless youth, LGBT youth and other vulnerable populations.

With the upcoming release of 23 Live Sex Acts, Against Me! will remain one of the hardest working bands in music as they continue to tour and deliver empowering commentary through its passionate punk that’s been revered for over 15 years.

Tracklisting:

1. FUCKMYLIFE666
2. Pints of Guinness Make You Strong
3. Cliché Guevara
4. True Trans Soul Rebel
5. I Was A Teenage Anarchist
6. New Wave
7. Walking Is Still Honest
8. Turn Those Clapping Hands Into Angry Balled Fists
9. Transgender Dysphoria Blues
10. Pretty Girls (The Mover)
11. I Still Love You Julie
12. High Pressure Low
13. Don’t Lose Touch
14. Miami
15. White Crosses
16. Osama Bin Laden As The Crucified Christ
17. How Low
18. Black Me Out
19. Thrash Unreal
20. Unconditional Love
21. The Ocean
22. Sink, Florida, Sink
23. We Laugh At Danger and Break All The Rules

facebook.com/AgainstMe / Twitter @againstme & @laurajanegrace / againstme.net

FRANK TURNER - 'POSITIVE SONGS FOR NEGATIVE PEOPLE' OUT 7 AUGUST 2015 // NEW SINGLE 'THE NEXT STORM' IMPACTS 3 AUGUST - WATCH VIDEO HERE // UK HEADLINE TOUR IN NOVEMBER

Frank Turner will release his next studio album on 7 August 2015 through Xtra Mile Recordings and Polydor Records. Positive Songs For Negative People is the singer-songwriter’s sixth album and the follow-up to 2013’s critically-acclaimed Tape Deck Heart. It was made with his trusted backing band The Sleeping Souls and produced by Butch Walker in Nashville. “I feel like this record is my definitive statement, a summation of the first five records,” says Frank. 

The first taste of the album is the single ‘The Next Storm’ which is available as an instant download for fans who preorder the album on iTunes. The video for ‘The Next Storm’ features Turner in the boxing ring with CM Punk, the longest-reigning WWE Champion of the modern era. Watch it here:

It has been an eventful decade for the troubadour from Winchester who now resides in Holloway, North London. Turner released his debut album, Sleep Is For The Week, in 2007 and has been on a glorious upward curve ever since. He is now one of the country’s most cherished songwriters, a man who plays the biggest venues in the land and whose records reach the higher echelons of the charts but who has never lost sight of his original MO: write, record, tour, repeat.

As he turned his attention towards his sixth album at the tail-end of 2014, Turner thought back to his debut. “When a band makes a debut record, there’s a freshness and excitement to it that bands often lose as time goes by,” he says. “I wanted to try and make a record with that young, exciting feel.” The idea was that Frank and his band would capture the exhilarating thrill of their live show. After a period of writing and perfecting the songs at a rehearsal studio in Oxfordshire, they headed to the US to work with Walker for an intense nine day recording session in which the album was completed. “Pretty much all of it is live. The end result is everything I wanted it to be,” he says.

Like much of Turner’s work, it is a record that takes Life’s Big Issues — triumphing over the darkest adversities — and places them inside a mix of beguiling, intricate vignettes and sweeping anthems. 'Josephine' is a punky singalong and 'Mittens' is a fist-clenched song of defiance while tracks such as 'Glorious You' and 'Demons' pack a bittersweet emotional punch. That it begins with 'The Angel Islington', a tribute to North London, and ends with 'Song For Josh', a touching eulogy recorded live at the 9.30 Club in Washington, is an apt reflection of the journey Frank Turner has made over the past 10 years. He has made homes from home, and formed strong bonds along the way. Positive Songs For Negative People is Turner at both his most reflective and celebratory. 

Frank Turner has also announced details of a UK headline tour in November which will take in 11 cities, including at Alexandra Palace in London. Tickets will go on general sale 9am on Friday 19 June, or fans who preorder Positive Songs For Negative People via the official Frank Turner store will gain access to presale tickets — on sale from 9am Wednesday 17 June.

NOVEMBER 2015:

05 Llandudno  @ Cymru Arena
06 Southampton @ Guildhall                     
09 Falmouth @ Princess Pavillion                                                                    
13 Glasgow @ Barrowland
14 Newcastle @ University       
15 Nottingham @ Rock City                                              
18 Birmingham @ Academy          
19 Sheffield @ Academy                      
21 Bristol @ Colston Hall    
23 Manchester @ Academy                                  
26 London @ Alexandra Palace 

 facebook.com/frankturnermusic / Twitter @frankturner / frank-turner.com