On the back of the release of their much anticipated new album Klaxons have announced a set of tour dates across the UK and Ireland through November.

The dates are as follows,

Manchester Academy (November 11th)
Norwich UEA (12th)
Bournemouth O2 Academy (13th)
Nottingham Rock City (14th)
London HMV Forum (16th)
Birmingham HMV Institute (20th)
Glasgow Barrowlands (21st)
Leeds O2 Academy (22nd)
Dublin Tripod (23rd)

Tickets are set to go on sale September 3rd with pre-sale tickets available to anyone on the band’s mailing list.

Klaxons new album Surfing The Void is out now.

The multi-instrumented Islet have a new video to accompany ‘We Shall Visit’, taken from their latest mini-album Celebrate This Place.

Islet, who are known as much for their amazing live shows (where they often involve the audience and switch between instruments continuously) as they are for their media-shy personalities, use the directing skills of Ewan Jones Morris to portray their eclectic sound.

The band have also just announced details of an October/September UK tour, the dates being,

Winchester, Railway (September 24th)
Southampton, Lennons (25th)
Gloucester, Underground Festival (26th)
Sheffield, Forum (27th)
Manchester, The Corner (28th)
Leeds, Nation of Shopkeepers (29th)
Liverpool, Shipping Forecast (30th)

Stockton, Georgian Theatre (October 1st)
Birmingam, Flapper (2nd)
Bristol, Louisiana (3rd)
Nottingham, Bodega Social (5th)
Cambridge, Portland Arms (7th)
Norwich, Arts Centre (8th)
Brighton, The Hope (9th)

Celebrate This Place is out now, check out Zac’s review of the album here.

New Yorkers The Drums have just announced details of a UK tour set to take place through November and December across the country.

The band, who have just scored a highly respectable #16 in the UK album charts with their self titled debut album, will begin in London and end in Manchester as they travel the length and breadth of the country to share their indie-pop sound.

The full tour dates are,

London, HMV Forum (November 24th)
Bristol, Anson Rooms – (26th)
Birmingham, HMV Institute (27th)
Glasgow, ABC (29th)
Belfast, Mandela Hall (30th)
Dublin, Academy (December 1st)
Newcastle, Northumbria Uni (3rd)
Leeds, Metropolitan University (4th)
Nottingham, Rock City (5th)
Manchester, Academy 2 (6th)

The Drums’ self titled debut album is available now. The band are also set to release fan favourite track ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ as a single, it’ll be available from August 16th.

Crystal Castles have just announced a UK tour set to hit shores in the Autumn.

The duo, who have just had to rush release their self titled second album due to it being leaked, will head to the Mandela Hall in Belfast on October 8th to begin the tour and finish up in Norwich on the 24th.

The full dates are,

Belfast, Mandela Hall (October 8th)
Dublin, Academy (9th)
Wolverhampton, Wulfrum Hall (11th)
Bournemouth, 02 Academy (12th)
London, Roundhouse (15th)
Bristol, Academy (16th)
Liverpool, Academy (18th)
Glasgow, ABC (19th)
Nottingham, Rock City (20th)
Manchester, Academy (22nd)
Leeds, Metropolitan University (23rd)
Norwich, UEA (24th)

‘Crystal Castles (II)’ is available to download now and will be physically released May 24th in the UK and June 8th in the US. You can stream the album in full over on Crystal Castles’ MySpace page now.

Los Campesinos! are about to start their trek of the US with Cymbals Eat Guitars as promotion for the amazingly good ‘Romance Is Boring’.

Tonight (April 16th) the band are playing the Culture Shock Festival in New York, tomorrow night they kick off their tour in New Jersey.

The full list of tour dates for this year so far, including dates back in the UK and Europe in May and beyond are;

Maxwell’s Hoboken, New Jersey (April 17th)
Maison Des Arts De Lava, Laval, Quebec (18th)
Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, Burlington, Vermont (19th)
Phoenix Theatre, Toronto (20th)
Irving Plaza, New York (22nd)
Terrace Club Princeton University, New Jersey (23rd)
Paradise Rock Club, Boston (24th)
State College, Pennsylvania (26th)
9:30 Club, Washington DC (27th)
Mad Hatter Club, Covington, Kentucky (28th)
Majestic Theatre, Madison, Wisconsin (29th)
Cabaret Metro, Chicago (30th)
First Avenue Minneapolis, Minnesota (May 1st)
Showbox Theatre Seattle, Washington (4th)
Hawthorne Theatre Portland, Oregon (5th)
Grand Ballroom San Francisco, California (7th)
El Rey Theatre Los Angeles, California (8th)
The Glass House Pomona, California (10th)
San Diego Women’s Club San Diego, California (11th)

Shepherds Bush Empire, London (May 20th)
Solus, Cardiff (21st)
Liverpool Sound City, Liverpool (22nd)
Sala Apolo, Barcelona (26th)
Dot To Dot Festival, Bristol (29th)
Dot To Dot Festival, Nottingham (30th)
Dot To Dot Festival, Manchester (31st)
Wakestock Festival, Abersoch (July 4th)
Truck Festival, Oxford (July 25th)
Underage Festival, London (August 1st)
Summer Sundae, Leicester (August 15th)

Zane Lowe is on it with these exclusives lately. After his exclusive first play of Gorillaz ‘Superfast Jellyfish’ on Thursday he’s back with another much anticipated return, the mighty Foals.

The track’s called ‘Spanish Sahara’ and is quite a departure from previous Foals material. Gone are the calculated riffs and jaunty vocals. In their place is a much more serene sound, complete with heartfelt vocals and a real sense of passion.

It’s beautiful and I’m already hooked, on the back of this I’ve got great expectations for the new album.

Listen to ‘Spanish Sahara’ below or watch the accompanying video over at Foals’ official website. What do you think?

A remix of the track by Mount Kimbie is also available when you sign up to the bands mailing list. Adding an eerie beat and some subtle beats to the track make for an atmospheric listen.

Alongside the new track, remix and video Foals have unveiled a UK tour set to take place through April and May. Tickets go on pre-sale Wednesday March 10th. Busy much?!

The Kazimier, Liverpool – April 29th
University, Newcastle – 30th
ABC, Glasgow – May 2nd
Met Uni, Leeds – 3rd
Ritz, Manchester – 4th
Junction, Cambridge – 6th
Trent University, Nottingham – 7th
Anson Rooms, Bristol – 8th
Electric Ballroom, London – 10th
O2 Academy, Oxford – 12th

‘Total Life Forever’, the bands upcoming album, is set for release May 10th.

You know what’s annoying? When you’ve got something you have to do but there are a million and one things you’d rather be doing!

That’s how my week has turned out so far. University work has finally caught up with me and I’ve spent the past week stuck working whilst, typically, loads of great new tracks, videos and news stories have been popping up all around me. It was frustrating, and tough not to carry on posting as usual.

Anyway, enough about me. I thought that, rather than letting it all pass I’d publish a quick round-up featuring everything I haven’t had chance to share with you over the past few days.

It’s gonna be short, sharp and straight to the point. Here goes…

Toro Y Moi may be pretty new to me but I’m already loving ‘Blessa’ and it’s accompanying video, very dreamy, laid back and relaxing (just what I need after this week!) (via)

Delphic, who’s album I reviewed not long ago, have announced details of a UK tour taking place in March, they’ll be heading to,

Edinburgh Studio 24 (March 11th)
Newcastle Digital (12th)
Birmingham O2 Academy (14th)
London Heaven (15th)
Cambridge Junction (16th)
Mnchester Sankeys Soap (17th)
Sheffield Leadmill (19th)
Southampton University (20th)

Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning.

Los Campesinos! have premiered the brutal ‘Romance Is Boring’ video as a preview to their upcoming album of the same name. (via)

Gorillaz previewed their much anticipated new album ‘Plastic Beach’ to us in the form of ‘Stylo’ a feverish track featuring Bobby Womack & Mos Def.

Ellie Goulding‘s ‘Starry Eyed’ now has a video, expect stars and eyes a-plenty. ‘Starry Eyed’ is out February 22nd with Ellie’s debut album ‘Lights’ hitting shelves March 1st.

The xx have released a suitably sparse video for their suitably sparse track ‘VCR’. Pitchfork have certainly been busy this week! (via)

The New Pornographers have released details of their new LP which will be titled ‘Together’. (via)

Laura Marling unveiled a new video for ‘Devil Spoke’, a brand new track from upcoming album ‘I Speak Because I Can’ which is released March 22nd in the UK.

Two brilliant upcoming acts, Egyptian Hip Hop and Is Tropical, have just announced details of a joint tour set to take place in January and February of next year.

The tour will see both acts headlining some nights and other nights where only one band are performing, see the listings below for more details.

There will also be a tour exclusive give-away, The first 20 punters through the doors at each show will receive a strictly limited tour CD containing rare tracks from both bands and fold-out poster of the tour. Definitely worth getting yourself there early!

The full dates are:

Egyptian Hip Hop (*) & Is Tropical (~)

Thurs 28th Jan – Start The Bus, Bristol * ~ (FREE ENTRY)
Fri 29th Jan – Bungalow & Bears, Sheffield ~ (FREE ENTRY)
Fri 29th Jan – Soundcontrol, Manchester *
Sat 30th Jan – Stealth Vs Rescued, Nottingham * ~
Thurs 4th Feb – Stag’s Head, London *
Fri 5th Feb – Kraak Gallery, Manchester * ~
Sat 6th Feb – A Nation Of Shopkeepers, Leeds * ~ (FREE ENTRY)
Sun 7th Feb – Captains Rest, Glasgow * ~
Mon 8th Feb – Mojo, Liverpool ~
Fri 19th Feb – Bungalow & Bears, Sheffield * (FREE ENTRY)
Sat 20th Feb – Evol @ Korova, Liverpool *

For more details on both acts and how to obtain tickets see the links below.

If you’re new to these guys then check out a couple of demo’s from both acts.