Check out the records we got in the office today…

The Great Affairs – self-titled
Anna Madorsky – Incantation
Diego’s Umbrella – Double Panther
Patrick Kavaney and the Last Drags - Darning Socks for the Apocalypse
Camp Out – Closer
Bryan Minus – Forage
Faello Nor – Solus Affairs
Tomeka Williams - The Black Hood
Thomas’ Apartment – Tuesday Night Lights
The Alpha Centauri – Lavarocks
Lovewhip – Love Electric
Doug & Telisha Williams – Ghost of the Knoxville Girl
Hey Mama – self-titled
Julianna Barwick – Florine
JahQues – self-titled
Toro y Moi – Causers of This
Field Music - self-titled
Bums Life – Stumblin’ & Mumblin’
Annie Crane – Through the Farmland & the Cities
Jacob Jones – Bound For Glory
Derek Hoke – Goodbye Rock N Roll
Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore – Dear Companion
The Album Leaf – A Chorus of Storytellers
Brown Bird – The Devil Dancing
South China – Washingtons
Honey Clouds – Fall on the Honey Clouds

News: Kill Hannah's van stolen

Emo-goth band Kill Hannah recently had their van and trailer with all of their equipment (totaling $120,000), merch and personal belongings stolen in Philadelphia. Their van was parked at the Holiday Inn, 900 Packer Ave., when the robbery happened.

The band had to cancel the rest of their tour dates. Police recovered the van with an empty trailer a day later. Tragically, the band's equipment was destroyed in a bus fire in Europe last year.

This happened only a week after another band, Mae, had their van stolen from the same location. Sean Agnew of R5 Productions says that at least 10 bands have had their equipment stolen from this location.

Keep your eye out for some of the stolen gear:

Epiphone Elitist Riviera Custom Shop SN#T301722
1992 Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray Bass
Pair of matching vintage 1968 Fender Bassman Heads Custom Shop
Gibson ES-135 White
2003 Gibson Firebird
Marshall Triple Lead Stack

Fans have already starting helping the band out by setting up a donation website: www.killhannah.net/donate.

If you have any information about the missing equipment, e-mail bethany@davisartistmanagement.com.

News: NY Songwriter's Circle announces songwriting contest finalists

The New York Songwriters Circle recently announced 12 finalists for its fourth annual songwriting contest and three finalists for its Young Songwriters Award.

The finalists for the songwriting contest are Barnaby Bright, Kate Branagh, Caleb Hawley, Clara Oman, Janet Onyenucheya, Adrien Reju, Martin Rivas, Bobby Smith, Chloe Temtchine, Justin Tracy, the Sweet Remains and Reed Waddle.

The Young Songwriter Award finalists were chosen by a poll on the social networking and gaming website Fashion Fantasy Game. They are 15-year-old Ali Brustofski of New York, 17-year-old Aubrey Caswell of Thousand Oaks, Calif., and 17-year-old Maddie Georgi from Pittsburgh.

Past winners of NYSC’s contest include Grammy-wining songwriter Gordon Chambers (who wrote “I Apologize” for Anita Vaker) and Siedah Garret (who co-wrote “Man in the Mirror” for Michael Jackson).

The winners will be determined by a panel of judges at live performances on Nov. 18 and 19 at Bitter End in Greenwich Village.

The winner will receive over $25,000 in cash and prizes as well as a performance spot with John Oates, a Gibson acoustic guitar, an opportunity to record with producer Glenn Barrett and a guest spot on Jonathan Clarke’s Q104.3 radio show.

Live Review: Hawks and Predator

Hawks

The 529 // Atlanta, GA // Oct. 26, 2009

Once again, the 529 Bar in the East Atlanta Village hosted a magnificent Monday night concert that showcased some of the city’s finest local talent. The small club has quickly gained a paramount reputation for cheap drinks, great bands and one of the best sound systems in the entire city. Usually Monday night shows are free, but a touring band from the U.K. called Future of the Left caused the door price to rise to $7. Still, by the time Predator took to the stage at a little after 10 p.m., the venue was at capacity.

In the vein of classic punk rock bands from a time forgotten, Predator is easily one of the city’s most entertaining punk acts. The three-piece blistered through their borderline early '80s hardcore songs that also entwine bits and pieces of more modern elements. The guitars were raunchy and distorted, the drums were fast and often in double-time, and the when the vocals synced up it was damn near perfect. Their vintage-punk sound is slightly nostalgic, but also at the same time incredibly progressive. Tearing through some of their songs like “Creep” and “You,” it was plain to see that these men are students of their genre and are well on their way to becoming masters.

Hawks

For anyone in Atlanta that hasn’t seen the spectacle that’s a Hawks show, my god was this a great night to start. Hawks is the sort of band that will unapologetically scare the shit out of your parents, grandparents and other assorted family members. Their songs are noisy, dissonant, aggressive and sexually charged. Their set opened up with their traditional mix of samples and crowd banter, but quickly exploded into their noise-core set. Andrew Wiggins’ guitar riffs scream and yell with the utmost ferocity and gruff. The rhythm pockets created by the drummer and bass player drive the songs while chaos is created around their anchor.

When singer/screamer/yeller Mike Keenan starts doing his thing, well…that’s when the real show begins. One of the best front-men in the city, Keenan charges the crowd, grabs random bystanders and screams into the microphone and their ears, climbs structures and lets girls stick their fingers down his throat. Needless to say, if you have any qualms about being in a situation that could potentially erupt into an awkward situation, or if you can’t hold your own in the pit, then stand back. Otherwise, the show culminates in Keenan stripping down to a banana hammock while the rest of the band builds to a dissonant and dischorded crescendo. Hawks is always an awesome experience and on this night they were in rare form.

-Albert Opraseuth