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Archives for June 2, 2010

Bad Religion Enters the Studio to Begin Work on Studio Album Number Fifteen

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Bad Religion is a band that has been impressing us with its music for more than three decades now, and to celebrate the fantastic milestone of staying together for more than 30 years; the band has now announced that it has entered the studio to record its fifteenth studio album.

Joe Barresi (Queens Of The Stone Age, Tool) will once again be in charge of production duties, and the band is now ready to put 16 songs to record for release on the as yet untitled fifteenth Bad Religion studio album.

It’s been three years since the release of ‘New Maps of Hell’ so it’s therefore very welcome news that the band will be releasing a new studio album soon, and there will no doubt be many hoping that Bad Religion will be able to get the album out there through Epitaph before the turn of the year.

Charlotte Gainsbourg – Time of the Assassins Video

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Charlotte Gainsbourg has her first ever UK performance coming up on June 22nd as she’s set to play the Shepherds Bush Empire, and you can get a taste of what to expect by watching this promotional video for her ‘Time of the Assassins‘ single. Gainsbourg is also set to make an appearance at the Lattitude Festival on the 18th of July, and ‘Time of the Assassins‘ can be found on her ‘IRM‘ studio album.

We Are The Ocean September/October Tour Dates

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Hassle Records’ We Are The Ocean will be hitting the road at the end of September for the Cutting Our Teeth Tour 2010, starting with a date at Southampton’s Joiners venue. From there the band will then progress on to play at the Tunbridge Wells Forum as they go on to play a total of 20 dates throughout the month of October.

Having seen the band live in action at the Slam Dunk Festival recently, we can most definitely say that We Are The Ocean is a band that comes highly recommended by Alt-UK, and we would most definitely suggest that you head along to see the band at least once on this tour.

The following is a full list of the tour dates that We Are The Ocean has planned for the Cutting Our Teeth Tour throughout September/October:

September
30th – Joiners, Southampton

October
1st – Forum, Tunbridge Wells
2nd – Aru, Cambridge
4th – Academy 2, Oxford
5th – Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
6th – White Rabbit, Plymouth
7th – Cavern, Exeter
8th – Orange Box, Yeovil
9th – Academy 2, Liverpool
11th – Fibbers, York
12th – Corporation, Sheffield
13th – Cockpit, Leeds
14th – Academy 2, Newcastle
15th – Warehouse, Aberdeen
17th – Cathouse, Glasgow
18th – Academy 3, Manchester
19th – Academy 2, Birmingham
21st – Waterfront, Norwich
22nd – Kings College, London
23rd – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
24th – Arts Centre, Colchester

We Are The Ocean Interview

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As a part of our Hassle Records Week we sent a few questions over to We Are The Ocean and the band was kind enough to get back to us within a few hours with their responses. We’d just like to say a massive thanks to We Are The Ocean, and without further ado here the interview is for you:

Alt-UK: You recently played the Slam Dunk Festival in Hatfield/Leeds, complete with Dan climbing a tree and hitting the pit (at the Hatfield show at least); what did you make of Slam Dunk this year and how did you feel that the shows went playing the festival for a third year running?

WATO: Slam Dunk was and always is awesome for us! We have such a great time because so many of our friends play so we always have great weekend hanging out and partying, and the shows themselves are always incredible because the kids that go are so into it and enthusiastic, they’re a really nice crowd to play to!

This year was definitely no different, we had a blast. Hopefully we can make it 4 years running and play next year!

Alt-UK: In 2010 you’ve already toured with the likes of Underoath, Thrice, and Madina Lake; you’ve already played alongside some pretty big names but if you could tour with any band/s in the world, which would you most like to hit the road with?

WATO: I’d love to tour with Rise Against or Thursday. They’re big influences for us and i think we’d be recieved really well amongst their crowd. And obviously they both play very big rooms which is also a massive bonus!

Thrice and Underoath both would have been in the answer to this question if you’d asked us 6 months ago. We feel so lucky to have tourwed with those 2 bands.

Alt-UK: Continuing on the subject of touring, what has been your favourite gig to date?

WATO: I can’t really pin point one stand out gig but definitely ones of note are Download Festival last year, Bamboozle in the States last year, all 3 years at Slam Dunk, and probably every show on our headline tour last year.

Alt-UK: Which bands would you say have most influenced the We Are The Ocean sound?

WATO: Rise Against, Thrice, Underoath, Foo Fighters, Refused, Hot Water Music

Alt-UK: You released your debut album ‘Cutting Out Teeth’ back in February; how pleased were you with the way that the album turned out and is there anything that you feel you’ll be doing differently for album number two?

WATO: We feel extremely positive with the turn out of Cutting Our Teeth, its been recieved really well and the feedback has been amazing. We’re all super proud of it. The second album is going to be very different though! We’ve already demoed some tracks for it and it sounds a different band!

Alt-UK: Hassle Records is the label that released your ‘Look Alive’ EP last year and also your debut album this year; what was it that made you feel Hassle was the right label for you?

WATO: All the guys are so down to earth and you can tell that they really love the bands that they work with, its not just a business and quick ways to make money, they really believe in the bands that they sign and want a long term relationship with those bands and we really admired that.

Alt-UK: You’ve already released two singles from the album (‘Look Alive’ and ‘These Days, I Have Nothing’), and last week you posted a preview of the new ‘All Of This Has To End’ video on your YouTube page; when can we expect that one to be released and are you looking forward to getting the video out there?

WATO: Yeah ‘All Of This Has To End’ is the 3rd single, its out in July. The video will be out very very soon, it was done by Sitcom Soldiers, who we worked with on the videos for ‘These Days, I Have Nothing’ and ‘God Damn Good’

Alt-UK: If you could record a video for any of the remaining seven tracks from the album, which one would you most like to put to film?

WATO: I think ‘This Is Called My Home’ wold be pretty cool, we wrote that about being in a band and playing on stage so the film would just be a really good feel good story about how much we love what we’re doing.

Alt-UK: You’ve got a UK tour coming up in October, what’s next for you as a band though and can we expect another album in 2011?

WATO: Yes definitely, as i said, we’ve already begun writing and demoing for the next release, we’re looking at recording it at the end of 2010 so it will definitely be out some time in 2011.

Alt-UK: Heading into the future we at Alt-UK would like to wish you all the very best of success as a band; is there anything else that you’d like to mention to our readers that we haven’t already covered?

WATO: Thanks to everyone who bought our album and is supporting our band, and thanks to sites like yours who give bands a great platform and a way of reaching out to new fans, thanks!

We Are The Ocean – God Damn Good Video

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This is the official video for We Are The Ocean’s ‘God Damn Good‘, a track taken from the band’s 2008 ‘We Are The Ocean‘ EP. The EP was limited to a run of 1000 copies and sold out within one day.

Introducing We Are The Ocean

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We’ve now reached Wednesday and we’re therefore at the very heart of our Hassle Records week; what better way to celebrate then than with the hugely passionate We Are The Ocean.

Forming in 2007 from the ashes of Dead But Still Dreaming (of which Dan Brown was an original member with the others all joining later), the band decided that a change of name was in order after going through so many line-up changes, and We Are The Ocean was ultimately born. Fast forward to 2008 and the band was able to self-release its first EP, selling out of all 1000 copies of the limited run EP within one day. Two of the seven tracks from this EP (‘Nothing Good Has Happened Yet‘ and ‘God Damn Good‘) received promotional videos, and the release also received a positive 3/5 review from Kerrang.

Having self-released the ‘We Are The Ocean’ EP in August 2008, the band set to work on the writing process for its debut album in December 2008, an album which would not see its release for another 14 months. With work having begun on the album, the band had a busy year in 2009 as it got to play such festivals as Download and The Bamboozle, and in the November the band also released its second EP as ‘Look Alive’ was granted its release through Hassle Records.

In 2010 We Are The Ocean has continued to play some extremely high profile shows, and already this year the band has been able to support the likes of Thrice, Underoath, and Madina Lake, as well as playing the Slam Dunk Festival for a fantastic third year running. Debut album ‘Cutting Our Teeth’ was released in February 2010, and with two singles already having been released from the album, We Are The Ocean now has plans to release a third as ‘All Of This Has To End‘ is granted its release in July.

We Are The Ocean will no doubt be playing plenty more high profile shows in the future, and with a 21 date UK tour coming up later this year; if you’ve not already seen this band live then you’ll have no excuse not to have done come the end of October.

The following is the official video for ‘These Days, I Have Nothing’, the second released single from the band’s ‘Cutting Our Teeth’ debut: