They have been compared to Neutral Milk Hotel, Bonnie Prince Billy and Belle & Sebastian, and the band cite both punk rock and folk as influences.
Their name is a marriage of the title of one of the band’s favourite films, The Squid and the Whale, and the director of said film’s name (Noah Baumbach). They are also avid fans of the film director Wes Anderson, who helped produce The Squid and the Whale alongside Baumbach; the group’s e-mails, and many of their MySpace blog posts, are signed “Sic Transit Gloria”, a phrase frequently used in Anderson’s film Rushmore.

The band performed on Jeremy Warmsley’s internet television show, Welcome to our TV show, and have made several appearances at festivals including Leeds, Cambridge Folk Festival, Latitude, SXSW, V Festival and Glastonbury. In May 2008, the group’s side-project, The A Sides, performed a one-off show at The Push Club.

The band’s debut album, Peaceful, the World Lays me Down got to Number 5 on the Official UK Album Chart and has received a mainly positive critical response.

From January 2009 onwards, the band started work on their second full length LP, entitled The First Days of Spring. Along with the album release, Charlie Fink has made a film that runs the entire length of the album, also entitled The First Days of Spring. The band decided not to feature female backup vocals on their second LP. The album was released on August 31st 2009, a little over a year after their debut.

“The First Days of Spring” is the first single release from the album of the same name and is available for download from the band’s website. Another second single entitled “Blue Skies” was released in the summer of 2009, after the song got its first airplay on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show on 22nd June 2009.

The band played the 2009 Reading and Leeds Festivals on the main stage, as well as a variety of other venues on their current tour.

On August 28th 2009 Doug Fink, brother of lead singer Charlie Fink, announced he would be leaving the band to pursue a career in medicine. The announcement was made days before the imminent release of their second album ‘The First Days of Spring’. At this same time a new member Fred Abbott was brought in on 2nd guitar/piano and Doug was replaced by former Pull Tiger Tail drummer Jack Hamson.

Their song, “Give a Little Love” was used in an episode of Cougar Town titled “Here Comes My Girl” which first aired on November 25, 2009. Another of their songs, “Blue Skies,” was used in an episode of One Tree Hill titled “Some Roads Lead Nowhere” which first aired on December 7, 2009.

In January 2010, it was announced that Noah and the Whale was to be heading to the recording studio soon to prepare their third album, for which the band is considering the title Old Joy.

Black Kids, consisting of Reggie Youngblood (vocals and guitar), Owen Holmes (bass guitar), Kevin Snow (drums), Dawn Watley (keyboards and vocals), and Reggie’s sister Ali Youngblood (keyboards and vocals), formed in early 2006. Although they initially performed only in Jacksonville, they received national attention after a breakout performance at the Athens Popfest in Athens, Georgia on August 11, 2007, which led to a sudden flurry of coverage in the music press, including NME, Vice, The Guardian, and The Village Voice. The same month, Black Kids’ demo EP, Wizard of Ahhhs, was released via free download on their MySpace page. Soon after, Black Kids began working with Quest Management, the company that manages Björk and Arcade Fire. In October, the EP received a favorable review of 8.4 out of 10 from Pitchfork Media, including a “Best New Music” commendation.

Black Kids participated in the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City in October, earning the band exposure in The New York Times and USA Today. In December the band travelled to London for a brief tour. Rolling Stone called them one of ten “Artists to Watch” for 2008 and the band was also included in the BBC Sound of 2008 poll.

Black Kids toured the United Kingdom in early 2008, including the Vice Live Tour with Friendly Fires and Ipso Facto, a Sons and Daughters tour, and a Kate Nash tour. In April and May, Black Kids toured the United States as an opening act for Cut Copy. The band played the summer festival circuit in the U.S. and the UK, including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April, Radio 1’s Big Weekend in May, Glastonbury Festival in June, and T in the Park and Camp Bestival in July. Black Kids then headlined an international tour in the U.S. and Europe from June to November.

While in the UK in early 2008 the band recorded their debut album, Partie Traumatic, with producer Bernard Butler, former guitarist of Suede. Their first single, “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You”, was released in the UK on April 7 and debuted at #11 on the UK Singles Chart. “Hurricane Jane”, the followup single, was released in the UK on June 23, where it charted at #36. The album Partie Traumatic was released on July 7 in the UK on Almost Gold Recordings, debuting at #5, and was released two weeks later in the US on Columbia Records, debuting at #127.

In 2009 Black Kids performed at the Big Day Out festivals in New Zealand and Australia. They have also toured with Kaiser Chiefs in the U.K. and Mates of State in the U.S.

After gaining some renown in local circles in Jacksonville and competing at Scribble Jam, Astronautalis self-released his debut album, You and Yer Good Ideas, in 2003. After signing with Fighting Records, it was re-released on July 12, 2005, followed by his second album, The Mighty Ocean and Nine Dark Theaters, in 2006. As of May 2008, a new album is in the works. New album released 9/23/2008, titled Pomegranate.

Astronautalis has toured across the country, and is known to party with fans. He has a brother living in China (his “China!” EP was released to raise money for a plane ticket to visit him).

He has been described as “if Beck were a decade or so younger and had grown up more heavily immersed in hip-hop,” with his rapping style noted for “blending styles of indie rock, electro, and talkin’ blues” with hip-hop, although his second album showed a turn towards a style close to shoegazer rock.

Albums

You and Yer Good Ideas (2003, self-released)
The Mighty Ocean & Nine Dark Theaters (2006, Fighting Records)
Pomegranate (2008, Eyeball Records)

EPs

China!, (2006)
Dang!, (2006)
Split EP with Babel Fishh, (2006)
The Very Unfortunate Affairs of Mary and Earl, (2006)
The Young Capitalist’s Starter Kit, (2008)

While the original line-up consisted of McKenzie, Whitehurst and drummer Brett Friesen; Brett was replaced shorty after the release of their first EP at the end of 2006. Taking over drumming duties would be Jake Krohn, formerly of The Rum Diary; also added to The Action Design crew would be Jaycen McKissick, formerly of Pipedown, on guitar. With the addition of Krohn and McKissick, tAD would complete their lineup. In order to begin touring and playing shows as soon as possible, they enlisted Bobby from the band Kiev to fill in on keyboards for their first tour as a band on the 2007 Warped Tour. The band later began playing their set as a foursome without Bobby who returned to his work with his band. Each band member began pulling double duty; picking up the keyboard parts on their respective instruments. tAD released a limited edition EP with only 1000 pressings in the fall of 2006 and quickly sold out without having played a single show. This version of the EP was recorded when the band was still a three piece and did not feature much guitar work (if any on most of the recordings). It also contained the song “Move On” which was later omitted from the PopSmear released version of the E.P. “Into A Sound”. This original pressing was completely self-published, with all of the artwork hand-printed and numbered by the band.

After the September 11, 2007 release of “Into A Sound”, the band embarked on their first full coast to coast US tour; booked completely on their own without an agent. After the tour came to an end in December 2007, the band returned to San Francisco where they began making plans for 2008; which include a new release, extensive touring and a new video for the song “Connect/Disconnect”, directed by music video director Djay Brawner.

A new album, Never Say, was released on September 23, 2008.

Garneau, a native of Boston, lived with his family in Paris during grade school, and later New Jersey before moving to New York City. Garneau discovered a love of music at a young age while learning to play piano. After high school, Garneau briefly attended Berklee Music School in Boston, but left after completing one term and moved to Brooklyn, NY. There he began writing music and playing live shows at small venues in the East Village and Lower East Side of Manhattan, including CBGB’s Gallery and “The Living Room”

Garneau eventually signed with Absolutely Kosher Records, an Emeryville, California-based record label. He was brought to the label by Jamie Stewart and Caralee McElroy of Xiu Xiu. Garneau released his debut album Music for Tourists in October 2006 and on iTunes in January 2007. His second project, an EP titled “C-Sides”, was released in December 2007. Garneau recently completed his second full-length album, titled “El Radio,” which was released in July 2009 .

The band first rose to notoriety when their single “A Jagged Gorgeous Winter” from their 2007 album YOURS AS FAST AS MINE was featured on the disc for the hugely popular video game Rock Band 2, exposing THE MAIN DRAG to a rabid group of international music-gaming fans. The band has continued to grow in popularity inside this community, performing for fans on nationwide tours and re-releasing “A Jagged Gorgeous Winter” for the best-selling iPhone version of Rock Band as a free download.

THE MAIN DRAG is breaking new ground by being the first band to self-release an entire album as gameplay within Rock Band. Not content to pioneer with just one full record, THE MAIN DRAG are using the revolutionary Rock Band Network, which allows acts of any size to create playable game versions of their tracks, to release 17 songs for Rock Band, the entirety of their breakout YOURS AS FAST AS MINE (2007) and their most recent release, YOU ARE UNDERWATER (2010). This means fans around the world can play along with the band’s unique pop snippets and get closer to the music than ever before.

YOU ARE UNDERWATER marks a more mature sound for the band, but still features the fun pop hooks that filled their previous two albums, including synth-driven songs like “Don’t Let Me Down (Slowly)” and “Megatron” and guitar-oriented tracks including as “Homosuperior” and “Take Them Down.” The release was entirely self-produced and recorded across a variety of spaces, including bedrooms, living rooms, pro studios and kitchens, though the majority of sounds were tracked at High-n-Dry Studios in Somerville, MA, where bassist Dan Cardinal is a head engineer. The album is currently available through the band’s label store, RPL.Bigcartel.com, via iTunes and Amazon, and at shows.

The band also continues to make new and exciting music videos with leading indie directors, including a new wintry homage to Calvin and Hobbes from VMA nominated Issac Ravishankara (director of THE MAIN DRAG’s “A Jagged Gorgeous Winter”), a psychedelic web-integrated animated experience from French duo Ben & Julia (Directors of “Dove Nets“), and time-lapsed meditation from Minnesota media marvel Nick Ahrens (director of “Cease and Desist“).

THE MAIN DRAG first found solid footing with fans with the release of YOURS AS FAST AS MINE, the first release on their RPL Audio label, which was started with the reward money for winning Salon.com’s “Best Unsigned Artist Contest.” The end product of a two-year period of writing, recording and touring, the album also received a significant push on both game consoles and airwaves, taking the band to #78 on the CMJ Top 200 and garnering airplay and praise in key markets across the U.S. and in Europe.

THE MAIN DRAG originated from a super-collision of two Boston musical forces. In 2005 THE MAIN DRAG put out their first release, 2005‘s Simmer In Your Hotseat, after multi-instrumentalist Adam Arrigo and violinist/composer Matt Levitt met as students at Tufts University in 2003. Enter Harvard-based post-punk ensemble BLANKS. Arrigo produced the first Blanks. record alongside local engineer/producer Dan Cardinal. The duo began collaborating with with BLANKS. singer/guitarist Matt Boch, guitarist Jon Carter and drummer John Drake and a true collaborative collective was born. The band began experimenting with recording as a means of songwriting: tracking solid studio takes into ProTools and chopping up the results into new textures and song structures. Over the course of two records and multiple tours, the band saw fluctuations in lineup, but the sound and passion has remained an unwavering constant still seen in the current incarnation of THE MAIN DRAG.

THE MAIN DRAG has also been known to put on a solid live show and have traveled across the US and Canada, sharing the stage with acts including The Arcade Fire, The Unicorns, Hot Chip and The Young Knives. The band has received rave reviews for their cover of LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends”–released exclusively to the Coke Machine Glow “Fantasy Covers” series–and had its track “Love During Wartime” featured in the February 2009 issue of Paste Magazine and during the Season 2 finale of the hit web series The Guild.

THE MAIN DRAG reside in Somerville, Massachusetts, where bass player Dan Cardinal works as an audio engineer while vocalist Matt Boch, guitarist Jon Carter and drummer John Drake work as employees at world renowned Harmonix Music Systems, making games within the Rock Band franchise.

Gregori Chad Petree and Jeremy Dawson grew up in Oklahoma and were involved in previous music projects together, including the soundtrack for the videogame Grand Theft Auto III in 2000 and Cloud2Ground. After relocating to Los Angeles, California, in 2004, the two recruited vocalist Carah Faye Charnow and drummer Mikey Martin.

Their debut album, We Are Pilots was originally released in January 2005, though versions of the album featuring different cover art and tracklisting would be released later the following year. This album featured their UK debut single “You Are the One.” The band’s second studio album, Season of Poison, was released on 4th November 2008, with Treasure as vocalist.

Their most popular tracks from the first album are “Don’t Cry Out,” “You Are the One,” and “Le Disko.” The group has gained popularity since then and even appeared on David Letterman in late 2006. They have released two singles from their second album: “Ghost Town” and “Ricochet!”

Garneau, a native of Boston, lived with his family in Paris during grade school, and later New Jersey before moving to New York City. Garneau discovered a love of music at a young age while learning to play piano. After high school, Garneau briefly attended Berklee Music School in Boston, but left after completing one term and moved to Brooklyn, NY. There he began writing music and playing live shows at small venues in the East Village and Lower East Side of Manhattan, including CBGB’s Gallery and “The Living Room”

Garneau eventually signed with Absolutely Kosher Records, an Emeryville, California-based record label. He was brought to the label by Jamie Stewart and Caralee McElroy of Xiu Xiu. Garneau released his debut album Music for Tourists in October 2006 and on iTunes in January 2007. His second project, an EP titled “C-Sides”, was released in December 2007. Garneau recently completed his second full-length album, titled “El Radio,” which was released in July 2009 .

History

The beginnings of the band stemmed from singer Daryl Palumbo’s interests in the hip hop and Britpop genres. Palumbo felt that the material that was inspired by these genres did not fit into Glassjaw’s spectrum and so Head Automatica was created to showcase this.

The band’s debut album, Decadence, was released August 17, 2004. Charting on the Billboard Magazine top 200 albums and Top Heatseekers charts, the album was the brainchild of Palumbo, who was known better for his work in Alternative metal music, and Dan ‘The Automator’ Nakamura, famous for his production work with groups including Gorillaz and Handsome Boy Modeling School. The two allegedly met at a party and worked on what later became the album. Palumbo then recruited the other current members as a touring group, and toured the United States, playing with bands like Interpol, The Rapture, Mogwai and The Used.

The band released their second album, entitled Popaganda, on June 6, 2006. Whilst the debut album was produced by Nakamura, this album was instead produced by Howard Benson, who is best known for his involvements with alternative rock acts such as P.O.D. and Cold. With the departure of Nakamura, the band took a more organic, classic power-pop approach citing Squeeze and Elvis Costello as influences.

The Pop Rocks EP was released April 6, 2006 and featured four tracks from the upcoming album: Graduation Day, God, Nowhere Fast, and Laughing At You.

In 2006, the band toured with Avenged Sevenfold and Coheed and Cambria, and joined Taking Back Sunday, Angels & Airwaves, and The Subways for a month of touring on June 22. The band also scheduled a headlining fall tour with Rock Kills Kid, but chose to cancel it after playing only a few dates. Instead, they supported 30 Seconds to Mars on the MTV2 $2 Bill Tour along with The Receiving End of Sirens, Cobra Starship, and Rock Kills Kid. In early 2007 Head Automatica played direct support on The West Coast Winter Tour with Jack’s Mannequin, We Are The Fury, and theAudition.

The band appeared in a skit on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on December 18, 2008.

On the 27th May, Daryl Palumbo on twitter confirmed that Head Automatica had completed work on their third studio album, titled Swan Damage and they were in the mixing stages.

Members

Daryl Palumbo – Vocals
Craig Bonich – Guitar
Jarvis Holden – Bass
Sammy Siegler – Drums
Jessie Nelson – Keyboards

Expanding the strengths of her first solo album, 2006’s Urban Angel, With You is a cool, elegant collection of ethereal songs with a warm beating heart, music that retains the stylish, spacey vibe of her debut while revealing an accentuated pop flavor. This is music that’s insinuating and alluring, seductive yet sweet, an album that is poised to make Natalie Walker a breakout star, the kind of electronica singer/songwriter whose music is inescapable. Of course, Walker already has been hard to ignore, as Urban Angel penetrated the mass consciousness, earning strong reviews from Billboard, Urb, Trace and All Music Guide, as such singles as “No One Else” and “Quicksand” received heavy rotation. Another sign of how Urban Angel struck a universal chord is how its songs kept popping up in films and movies, starting with Sofia Coppola’s use of a Thievery Corporation remix of “Quicksand” in Marie Antoinette, then spreading to the television hits Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy.

All this acclaim and exposure raised the stakes for With You, and Natalie Walker responded by deepening her music, expanding her horizons while digging deep into her soul. Once again, she teamed with the Brooklyn-based Stuhr – the same duo that produced her debut – which gives With You a sonic throughline with Urban Angel, but Natalie and Stuhr were not complacent, they opened up new sonic vistas on this second record.

Alternately introspective and sleekly stylish, With You is a subtly adventurous album, one that is immediately appealing yet reveals more with each listen. Such complex, intertwined textures are surely a progression from Urban Angel but moving forward was not necessarily easy. “A sophomore record is really tough,” Walker admits. “I had no idea how difficult it would be. I know I wanted give myself some room to experiment with a lighter and more upbeat sound, but it was really challenging for me to keep things simple. I wanted to force myself to get out of my comfort zone – and I did.”

Indeed, some of the best moments on With You find Natalie stepping out of her comfort zone, weaving gently insistent pop hooks into her graceful electronica, as on “Ordinary,” which has a nearly New Wave sparkle, or on “Over and Under,” a melodic, rhythmic chill-out track that’s rightly the album’s first single.

With You is graced with poppy singles – songs that can pull in a broader audience without alienating her devoted fans — but it hardly stays in one spot. Natalie agrees “the first half of the album is pretty upbeat but as you listen, it brings you back to the soft and serious side of my first album.” With their graceful, meditative lilt – equal parts folky dream-pop and electronic elegance — “Monarch” and “By and By” are reminiscent of her debut but like everything here, the music and the emotions are heightened, which may be why “With You” is the title track, as it has a real emotional pull: “’With You’ is about real love – a love that gets stronger with patience and working through life together.”

That genuine emotional connection is what drives Natalie Walker to make music. “I want to write songs that stick with people. It’s incredible to receive emails from people telling me that a certain song moved them or really connected to their life at the time they heard it. It’s why artists write. We want to feel like what we’re doing means something.” It’s hard not to listen to With You and not feel that Natalie Walker is indeed making music that means something.