Driven Far Off

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Motion City Soundtrack Announce Headlining Tour

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Motion City Soundtrack have announced the “Left Handed Forms of Human Endeavor” tour featuring special guests Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s and Dear and the Headlights. Kicking off on Thursday, September 4th at MSU Auditorium in East Lansing, MI, the band will embark on this 12 city tour which will be the first part of their last string of tour dates in 2008.

Joining them on the road are eight-piece indie rock orchestra, Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s, who are releasing Animal! (vinyl & digital) and Not Animal (CD and digital) on October 7th on Epic Records, and Equal Vision recording artist Dear and the Headlights, who are releasing the follow up to their 2007 release Small Steps, Heavy Hooves this September.

Tickets for all the shows go on sale the weekend of July 18th, check your local listings for further information.

Motion City Soundtrack Tour Dates

Sept   4th       MSU Auditorium*                                       East Lansing, MI
6th       Crocodile Rock Café                                Allentown, PA
7th       House Of Blues                                            Atlantic City, NJ
8th       Recher Theater                                          Towson, MD
10th     The Orange Peel                                        Asheville, NC
11th     The Music Farm                                          Charleston, SC
12th     40 Watt Club                                              Athens, GA
13th     Alachua County Fairgrounds#             Gainesville, FL
15th     House of Blues                                             New Orleans, LA
17th     Canopy Club                                              Urbana, IL
18th     The Blue Note                                             Columbia, MO
19th     Liberty Hall                                                   Lawrence, KS

* Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s, The Hard Lessons, and The Silent Years
# The Real Big Deal Festival

Dear and the Headlights To Open For Jimmy Eat World

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Dear and the Headlights have been hand-picked as the sole opening band for the Jimmy Eat World & Paramore co-headlining tour.

Dear and the Headlights were at home in Arizona writing the follow-up to 2007’s Small Steps, Heavy Hooves when they were offered the opening slot. They couldn’t refuse the chance to tour with one of the most influential bands of the last decade, and a talented young band who in just a few years have broken into super stardom.

Tour Dates

4/1 – San Antonio, TX
4/2 – Lubbock, TX
4/3 – El Paso, TX
4/5 – Irvine, CA
4/6 – Bakersfield, CA
4/8 – San Jose, CA
4/9 – Sacramento, CA
4/10 – Salem, OR
4/12 – Pocatello, ID
4/14 – Orem, UT
4/16 – Council Bluffs, IA
4/17 – Springfield, MO
4/19 – DeKalb, IL
4/22 – Dayton, OH
4/25 – Rochester, NY
4/26 – Washington, DC
4/28 – Albany, NY
4/30 – Lowell, MA
5/2 – Atlantic City, NJ

Dear and the Headlights – Small Steps, Heavy Hooves

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dear.jpg

Artist: Dear and the Headlights
Album: Small Steps, Heavy Hooves
Label: Equal Vision Records
Purchase: Smart Punk
Release Date: February 6, 2007

Overall: 7.5
Music: 8.0
Lyrics: 7.0
Production: 7.0

I was interested in Dear and the Headlights after hearing a song or two on their Myspace, but when I got their album I felt like would be unable to review it because it was quite difficult for me to pinpoint their sound. Their sound shifts from song to song, sometimes soft-spoken and soothing “but with synth instead of piano “like Copeland (e.g. “Oh No”), sometimes more like the peppy indie rock of Rooney (e.g. “Sweet Talk”), sometimes reminiscent of alternative bands like Coldplay or British pop-rockers Travis (“Happy in Love”), and sometimes ringing in my head like Straylight Run (“I’m Bored, You’re Amorous”) or even at times like Dashboard Confessional (“Run in the Front”) “mostly due to vocal inflections common in the sub-genre.

Musically this album can be filed neither under emo, despite aforementioned vocal stylings calling various emo bands to mind, nor indie rock. While pop-punk influences are clear, for the most part, guitar riffs are strong and varied making the entire album an interesting listen. Before putting the band’s variation to words, I was disappointed by the unreliability in style. However after a few listens and an attempt to describe the sound on Small Steps, Heavy Hooves, I’ve found that Dear and the Headlights essentially deliver a well-rounded, mainstream album.

Tracklisting:

  1. “Oh No!” (4:14)
  2. “Sweet Talk” (2:56)
  3. “Hallelujah” (4:09)
  4. “Happy In Love” (3:45)
  5. “I’m Bored, You’re Amorous” (4:00)
  6. “Grace” (4:05)
  7. “It’s Gettin’ Easy” (3:32)
  8. “Paper Bag” (3:53)
  9. “Skinned Knees and Gapped Teeth” (3:35)
  10. “Run in the Front” (4:22)
  11. “Mother Make Me Golden” (4:12)
  12. “I Just Do” (3:43)
  13. “Midwestern Dirt” (6:46)

Albums In Stores Tomorrow

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Here are some albums being released tomorrow.

Fall Out Boy – Infinity on High
Kiss Kiss – Reality Vs. The Optimist
Bayside – The Walking Wounded
The Used – Berth CD/DVD
Sparks The Rescue – The Secrets We Can’t Keep (Digital Only)
Lifetime – Lifetime
Bloc Party – A Weekend in the City
Secondhand Serenade – Awake
Dear And The Headlights – Small Steps, Heavy Hooves
V/A – Take Action Vol. 6 CD/DVD