Concept-rock dudes CLAWJOB are putting out a limited-run homemade two-song CD single — “Yancy Stanford and the Curse of the Ghost Buffalo,” which concerns “manifest destiny and how it directly caused all of us to work mundane office jobs” — but will also release the songs for free on the Internet. Says singer/guitarist Mike Gintz (formerly of Clickers, who likewise made their music available at no charge): “Everything we make will make it on-line for free eventually. That’s something that’s very important to me. The way music distribution is going, it’s foolish to think that you have this precious commodity that people have to fork over money for. The free publicity you’re going to get by distributing music for free is going to vastly outweigh the few bucks you’re going to get from selling it.”
Perverted-pop songsmiths HATS AND GLASSES appear to be going old-school on us by issuing their Hats and Glasses EP on 10-inch vinyl (a dual release from Bodies of Water Arts and Crafts and Teenage Disco Bloodbath; October 30). But the songs will also be available on the Internet as DRM-free MP3s for $3. H&G plan to do the same vinyl/digital thing with a two-song single they’re recording with Steve Albini in Chicago this month.
The SNOWLEOPARDS will release a new single on the Internet later this month or in early October, and they plan on making CDs to give away at shows. “By releasing it on the Internet first, you can reach far more people than you can by simply bringing hard copies to shows,” says singer/guitarist Heidi Saperstein via e-mail. “The Internet gives people immediate access to the song, which hopefully gets people talking about you/the song in blogs. Also, you can tell all your MySpace friends about the song, and some people will put it on their personal MySpace pages, which gets you more exposure too.” Guitarist Mike Oor describes the new material as “darker” and less classic-rock-influenced than their Debut, which came out earlier this year.
Among releases in longer, “old-media” formats: airy indie-rock group TULSA are following up their excellent debut EP, Hunting with Cats, with another EP, I Was Submerged, which they recorded with Jack Younger at his Basement 247 studio in Allston. It’s out on Philly-based Park the Van Records (home to Dr. Dog, the Teeth, et al.) October 9. They celebrate its release upstairs at the Middle East September 25. Electro-grunge foursome HOORAY FOR EARTH recently finished work on an as-of-yet-unnamed EP, the follow-up to their homonymous debut full-length, one of the best local albums of last year. They hope to have the discs in time for their October 13 show at Great Scott.
On the full-length front: boyfriend-girlfriend retro-rockers DRUG RUG celebrate the release of their homonymous debut (out on Apollo Sunshine drummer Jeremy Black’s Black and Greene Records) September 21 at P.A.’s Lounge. And speaking of rocking couples: venerated Cambridge husband-and-wife team DAMON & NAOMI, formerly of Galaxie 500, will release their seventh full-length, Within These Walls, September 25 on 20/20/20. With contributions from Ghost guitarist Michio Kurihara, the string players from Espers, and the avant-garde horn duo Nmperign, D&N are describing the album as “the most elaborately orchestrated record — and also the darkest — we’ve ever made.” A US tour with Tokyo’s Boris brings them to the Middle East downstairs October 29.
