The Walkmen

The Walkmen sign to Fat Possum for sixth album

The Walkmen sign to Fat Possum for sixth album. New York rock stylists The Walkmen sign to Fat Possum and announce their sixth album. The critically-acclaimed indie rock sophisticates have spent the last year recording 29 songs in Philadelphia and Brooklyn, which have been whittled down to eleven tracks for their next album Lisbon.The title comes from the Portugese capital where the band wrote some of the core songs that form the album. Lisbon is the follow up to their lauded 2008 album You & Me, which repeatedly appeared on year-end Best Of lists. It will be released on their new label Fat Possum on September 17. The band will play Lollapalooza, then Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK in late-August, then back to the US and Canada in September before a late October/early November tour through the UK with The Black Keys

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The Rakes have announced a UK tour for April.

The Rakes have announced a UK tour for April. It is their first since March 2007.

The tour will coincide with the release of the bands long awaited third album, KLANG, on Monday 23rd March through V2. A single, taken from the album, entitled 1989, will be released digitally one week earlier on March 16th.

The album was recorded at Planet Roc Studios in Berlin and produced by Chris Zane (Les Savy Fav, The Walkmen, Passion Pit).

The Rakes decided they wanted to record in a fresh and exciting new environment, so they relocated to an industrial area in the old Communist part of Berlin. “The London music scene is so dull – it’s like wading through a swamp of shit. We just wanted to be somewhere more inspiring,” said Rakes singer Alan Donohoe. “Someone suggested Berlin. It didn’t take long for everyone to agree, we packed our bags and moved here just like that. We love it.’ They lived and recorded in the grounds of a Bauhaus-designed, Soviet radio station that had been converted into a studio.

On working with producer Chris Zane, Alan Donohoe adds: “The album is raw, playful, exciting, complex and schizophrenic – much like the personality of Berlin itself. It couldn’t be more of a fitting place to record it.’

KLANG is the follow-up to the highly acclaimed albums Capture/Release (2005) and Ten New Messages (2007). The Rakes will be announcing UK & European tour dates shortly.

The dates are as follows

April

Tue 21st Brighton Concorde 2 £11.00 01273 673311
Wed 22nd Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms £11.00 023 9286 3911
Thu 23rd Manchester Club Academy £11.00 0161 832 1111
Fri 24th Dublin The Button Factory 13.50eu 353 8187 19390
Sat 25th Glasgow Oran Mor £11.00 0844 999 990
Sun 26th Newcastle The Cluny £11.00 0191 230 4474
Tue 28th Nottingham Rescue Rooms £11.00 08713 100 000
Wed 29th London Koko £13.50 0871 2200 260