We are excited to announce that Aloud is returning to the SXSW festival in Austin. The band will be performing at Boston to Austin on Saturday, March 17 at The 512 Bar. “BOS2AUS” is put together by the good folks at DigBoston and sponsored by Converse. Last year’s party was a spectacular success and was mentioned in Time magazine’s 10 Acts That Rocked SXSW.

This year, there will be two stages and features other emerging talent from the Boston area such as OldJack, The Wandas, You Can Be A Wesley, Pretty & Nice, Camden, Bad Rabbits, Moe Pope & the Quills, Aunt Martha, and Lake Street Dive.

Aloud will be touring to and from Austin while debuting new material written by songwriting partners/singers/guitarists Jen de la Osa and Henry Beguiristain. Already confirmed are March 9 at Barley’s in Knoxville and March 21 at the Grape Room in Philadelphia.

For more information, visit www.allthingsAloud.com.

Friday, March 9; Knoxville, TN
Barley’s Taproom
200 East Jackson Ave.
w/ Plainclothes Tracy

Saturday, March 17; Austin, TX
Boston to Austin (SXSW Party)
Presented by DigBoston / Sponsored by Converse
The 512 Bar
408 E. 6th St.
Noon – 5PM
w/ OldJack, The Wandas, You Can Be A Wesley, Pretty & Nice, Camden, Bad Rabbits, Moe Pope & the Quills, Aunt Martha, Lake Street Dive

Wednesday, March 21; Philadelphia, PA
The Grape Room
105 Grape St.
w/ TBA

Happy new year, friends. We hope your 2012 is off to a fresh start. Up here in Boston we’re suffering through the usual intense chill that happens around this time of year. (8°F this morning without the wind chill, kiddos.) However, at least we haven’t had to shovel an ounce of snow; it’s the little things that count, eh?

But enough of my meteorological banality. There’s business to take care of and news to be dispensed.

We’re very pleased to announce Get on the Bus, a sampler featuring tunes from The Wandas, Aloud, When Particles Collide, and The Bynars. All four bands perform next month at upstart Somerville, Mass. venue Radio on Saturday, February 18. Cover for the 21+ show is only $5.

Get on the Bus may be downloaded here for free, so share it with your friends and invite them to come down to the show!

Saturday, February 18 — 9pm
Radio
379 Somerville Ave, Somerville, MA (map)
featuring The Wandas, Aloud, When Particles Collide, and The Bynars
21+ | $5 | Facebook event page
Download LMR Sampler: Get on the Bus

About the bands

The Wandas
www.thewandas.com

Not only does their razor-sharp pop consciousness and reverence for rock and roll classics distance them from the “hard to play/harder to listen to” prog and/or funk trappings… it also makes them one of the cooler bands in town…. For [their self-titled album] The Wandas, the band say they summoned inspiration from their ’60s and ’70s faves, name-checking Neil Young, Tom Petty, Michael Nesmith, and Elvis.
—The Boston Phoenix

Aloud
www.allthingsAloud.com

[Aloud's] performance had a spirited, carnival-like atmosphere, with Beguiristain at one point jumping on a pool table across the room to shout lyrics back at the stage through a megaphone. Aloud’s harmonious-yet-boisterous psychedelic pop-rock sound was often augmented by the ambient strings of the Exile Orchestra. And an unplugged, off-stage, Beatles-medley jamboree-like sing-along with the band surrounded by the crowd closed out their set as the lights came up. It was a festive union for Aloud and the friends, family, and fans….
—The Boston Phoenix 

When Particles Collide
www.whenparticlescollide.com

[The] songs are tough, heartfelt rockers, with deeply personal lyrics and alternately crunchy and jangly punk rock riffs. The duo setting shines a light on her words and guitar playing, which draw from such inspirations as early PJ Harvey, the Pretenders, Sleater-Kinney and the Pixies. Angry, fist-pumping anthems like “Dear Rachel” and “Not High School” fit perfectly next to the more melodic, introspective songs like “10 Years” and “Somebody Find Me.”
—The Bangor Daily News

The Bynars
www.thebynars.com

“The Bynars’’ is a sparkly, spiky, adrenalized dash through a Rentals-meets-Passion Pit electro-pop dream that buzzes with Weezer-y guitars, old school new wave synth squiggles, and perky songs about weighty topics like asking your mom for money. The album, which follows on the heels of the band’s three previously released EPs, is easily the Bynars’ most focused, fully realized work. It also caps a two-year writing effort during which [vocalist/guitarist Matt] Jatkola claims he wrote a song a day. “We had hundreds of songs to choose from,’’ he recalls.
—The Boston Globe 

Photo: Michael Basu/DigBoston

Last week, a panoply of Boston area performers turned up for DigBoston’s “Last Call”.

Aloud was joined by groups like Kingsley Flood, Mellow Bravo, Mean Creek, You Can Be a Wesley, The Boston Pops, Viva Viva, and many others to talk about the last year and the one coming up.

Champagne was sprayed, beer was on tap, and a good time was had by all over at the DigBoston compound.

Head over here to read DigBoston’s whole piece and see some festive photos.

We’ll see you all in 2012. Have a happy new year, eh?

The folks at Vend.Love.Win have put together a compilation of acts who participated in the Gratitude Tour this past September.

Two songs from Aloud’s latest release, Exile, top off the 17 track compilation (“Counterfeit Star” and “Darkest Days”).

Other artists on the compilation include Zak Smith, Under the Elephant, Emily Brooke, Rollie, Marmalakes, GABE, and What Moves.

Head over to the Vend.Love.Win music store on Facebook to download ‘em all for free!

“The Cash and the Pearls” will be bundled with the b-side “So Long”. The single—produced with bassist/maker of mouth sounds Charles Murphy, mastered by Jeff Lipton, and featuring original Aloud member Ross Lohr on drums—drops on November 1st, 2011 via digital download.

To celebrate the release of “The Cash and the Pearls”, Aloud is hosting a month-long residency here at home in Boston, duly dubbed Aloud’s Midweek Residency. The residency takes place at O’Brien’s in Allston every Wednesday this November (except, November 23rd, as we’re all doing some intense prepping for the massive carbo load that is Thanksgiving Day).

The residency, sponsored by the venerable Boston Band Crush, showcases some of the best bands the Boston area has to offer. Each of the four bills also feature acts from the road, such as Miami’s Ex Norwegian, Chicago’s Jon Drake & the Shakes, New York’s Deadbeat Darling, and Portland’s Good Kids Sprouting Horns.

In the spirit of keeping things interesting, Aloud will be drawing from their entire catalog throughout the month-long stint, performing different sets every evening. All shows are 18+ and cover is $10. However, discounts are available for those who attend more than one night: your 2nd night is $7, your 3rd and 4th night are each $5.

The full residency lineup info is below the break.

Wednesday, November 2nd

Slowdim
Aloud
Deadbeat Darling (NYC)
Naked on Roller Skates

Wednesday, November 9th

Aloud
The New Collisions
Ex Norwegian (Miami)
OldJack

Wednesday, November 16th

Mount Peru
Aloud
Jon Drake & the Shakes (Chicago)
Rick Berlin (full band)

Wednesday, November 30th

Aloud
Bearstronaut
Good Kids Sprouting Horns (Portland, ME)
The Acre

New single out this November

Without a doubt, it’s been a long and restless summer. After months touring the U.S., Aloud took a bit of a breather to regroup, write some new tunes, and enjoy being home for a spell.

Now that’s all behind us, we’re pleased as Punch to announce Aloud’s new single “The Cash and the Pearls” will be out this November on Lemon Merchant Records. The digital-only single will be coupled with the exclusive b-side track “So Long” and features artwork by Erin Genett. Original Aloud member and current stick man for The Painted Lights, Ross Lohr, makes a guest appearance behind the kit.

Aloud will premiere “The Cash and the Pearls” next Tuesday, September 13, for Annie’s Rock n’ Roll Birthday at Great Scott with Sarah RabDAU & Self-Employed Assassins, and Guillermo Sexo. (By the by: those fancy new Exile t-shirts will be on sale at this show.)

“The Cash and the Pearls” and “So Long” were both recorded/engineered/mixed by our very own Charles Murphy, who also produced with the band. The tracks were once again mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering.

September/October tour dates

In support of “The Cash and the Pearls”, Aloud is embarking on another string of dates at the end of September. The yet-to-be-named tour (feel free to join the open discussion on that on Facebook) will serve as the oft alluded to third leg of the Exile tour.

A brief listing of dates is posted below. Full details are posted in Performances.

Dates in Baltimore and Buffalo are being worked out. Keep checking back here or follow Aloud on Twitter (@aloudonline), as we expect to have details in the next couple of weeks!

Following the tour, the gang are planning something very special in Boston to celebrate the release of “The Cash and the Pearls”.

List subscription.

We’re working on some neat stuff at the moment (really, when aren’t we?) that we hope will be out by year’s end. We’d love for you to be the first to know about it. There may also be some exclusive free stuff in it for you if you join our little cult club.

(Sorry, did I say cult?)

Anyway, click here and you’ll know what to do: http://eepurl.com/fuCos

We’ll keep your info secret and safe.

Cold Blood Club.

While you’re here intently perusing the wild, wild internets, lend your ears to Cold Blood Club. The group, featuring members of Radio America and EarlyMay, is working on some music and performing out in NYC at the moment. The Brooklyn act has two songs, “Down” and “Ladies & Gentlemen”, posted up on Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/cold-blood-club.

Our video area: now with 100% more music videos, the 2008 documentary Hard Up In The 2000s, and Vitamin D.

Hello all! Two sections of our site are now open for business, both figuratively and literally.

Video.

Vids have been posted on the video page. We’ve thrown the latest music videos at the top of the heap. However, most notably we’ve posted our 2008 film Hard Up In The 2000s in its entirety and in higher quality (it had only been previously available in 10 parts). The feature length documentary catches Aloud in the midst of their first real touring adventure through the South, Midwest, and back home in the Northeast. The film also features live performances from the first leg of the Fan The Fury tour (March – April 2008) and interviews with the band during and after the successful tour.

A behind the scenes short on the making of “You Got Me Wrong” is also up.

Storefront.

Our music is now available for ordering and for downloading to your heart’s content via Bandcamp’s interface. One of the brilliant things about Bandcamp is the option to download music in pretty much any digital format you choose. So take heart, audiophiles. If MP3s aren’t cutting it for you, you can download our catalog as FLAC, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, or any other oddly named format that doesn’t spring to mind.

More exciting news should be making its way down the pipeline in a few months, so keep your eyes and ears peeled. Like I said before, this whole thing is a work in progress and we really appreciate your curiosity as we tend our online rock n’ roll garden. In the meantime, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook at @Lemon_Merchant and www.facebook.com/lemonmerchant.

Hank

P.S. for the mildly curious: In my spare time I’ve been writing posts here n’ there for the cats at Boston Band Crush. If you’d like to check that out and open your minds to some Boston area music, head on over to www.bostonbandcrush.org and look me up.

The video features performances from the March show at Friends and interviews with Aloud, Art Decade, Stereo Telescope, The Boston Boys, Julia Easterlin, Emily Elbert, Audio Runner, Laura Jansen, and Black Kettle.

You can watch the video below, or click here to view it on the Berklee site.

Aloud is currently working with the Berklee City Music program on BANDED.

Photo: Jess Hodge

This month’s issue of Peformer Magazine is out! The print edition of the June issue features the long-awaited Tour Diary feature on Aloud and the Exile U.S. tour, as well as a blurb from Henry summarizing the whole experience.

Eighty-three shows and seven months later, the result has been one of the most amazing experiences of both our careers and our lives. … Mark Twain once wrote,  ‘Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness,’ and after four months of traveling the nation’s highways, I can certify that the old man was damn right.

The magazine culled photos from various photographers on the Exile tour. The diary features photos from Stephanie Hastings of A to Zed Photography and Jess Hodge.

Print editions of Performer Magazine are available for free all over the country, and may also be downloaded as a pdf: http://www.performermag.com/pdf/Performer_Magazine_June_2011.pdf#page=48

For more photos from Aloud’s months-long trek across the nation by some other wonderful and talented photographers, visit Aloud’s blog:  http://www.allthingsaloud.com/2011/06/performer-magazine-tour-diary/