Death Cab For Cutie have announced four UK tour dates for November around the UK, including their biggest headlining show to date.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (15th August) at 9am.

Friday 14th November - Edinburgh Corn Exchange
Saturday 15th November - Nottingham Rock City
Sunday 16th November - Bristol Colston Hall
Monday 17th November - Sheffield Academy
Wednesday 19th November - London Alexandra Palace

Funeral for a Friend have announced a month long UK and Ireland tour in October and November.

Tickets go on sale on Friday, 4th July at 9am. Excitement.

Tuesday 14th October - Dublin Academy
Wednesday 15th October - Belfast Spring And Airbrake
Thursday 16th October - Inverness Ironworks
Saturday 18th October - Glasgow ABC
Sunday 19th October - Leeds Metropolitan University
Monday 20th October - Hull University
Wednesday 22nd October - Preston 53 Degrees
Thursday 23rd October - Whitehaven Civic Hall
Friday 24th October - Manchester Academy 2
Sunday 26th October - Birmingham Academy
Monday 27th October - Coventry Kasbah
Tuesday 28th October - Nottingham Rock City
Thursday 30th October - Exeter Lemon Grove
Friday 31st October - Portsmouth Pyramid
Saturday 1st November - Oxford Academy
Monday 3rd November - Norwich Waterfront
Tuesday 4th November - London Forum
Sunday 9th November - Tenby De Vlance Pavilion
Monday 10th November - Swansea Sin City
Wednesday 12th November - Cardiff University
Thursday 13th November - Wrexham Central Station
Friday 14th November - Aberyswyth Arts Centre

Bullet For My Valentine have announced a string of UK shows throughout November, for some of their biggest shows this side of the pond.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday 13th) at 9am. Catch them at:

Sunday 9th November - Edinburgh Corn Exchange
Tuesday 11th November - Plymouth Pavilions
Wednesday 12th November - Birmingham Academy
Saturday 15th November - London Alexandra Palace
Sunday 16th November - Manchester Apollo

It’s always tricky when a band starts to grow up. Some bands away and come back weaker, weedier, lacking versions of their former selves (Weezer, Placebo, Travis etc) and others come back stronger than ever (Green Day’s American Idiot? The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi?). However, Death Cab for Cutie has balanced the thin line between the two with their latest offering, Narrow Stairs. Neither weedier, nor stronger than their predecessors, it’s simply, well, bland. Not lacking anything in particular, it’s good, but fails to have any of the grab-you-by-the-ears stuff that Transatlanticism or Plans had.

With many of the band now into their 30’s, “Narrow Stairs” treads a narrow pathway to well-constructed popularity: nothing on the collection will offend old listeners, and it will probably appeal to new listeners too, but nothing that will have the effect of “Soul Meets Body” or “The Sound of Settling”, and the mass OC-style appeal they have earn. Their sixth album, we get a feeling that Chris Walla and Ben Gibbard and their friends have carefully constructed the collection to “tick” the A&R boxes: 8 minute experimental “rock out”? Check –‘I will possess your heart’. Happy, summery upbeat song? Check – ‘No Sunlight’. Rousing, motivation building song? Check – ‘You Can Do Better than Me’. Sensitive end-of the-relationship song? Check – The Ice Is Getting Thinner.

Relying throughout on their well-refined “safe” sound, Death Cab rely on Chris’ jangly guitars and Nick’s driving bass lines to get them through the album, with none of the tracks sounding particularly “out there” like they did on some of the suburban angsty anthems of earlier albums “We Have The Anthems And We’re Voting Yes” and “You Can Play These Songs With Chords”. Both of these featured an innovative mixture of moany angst and, well, just plain strange tracks (remember “Flustered / Hey Tomcat!”’s cut up hip-hop beats?). We understand that bands have to grow up and move on, but Narrow Stairs just looks too much like a “safe” bet that wouldn’t alienate, will sell well, and keep the A&R people happy at Atlantic’s money counting department.

Many of the tracks sound like they could provide the soundtrack to many a moderately successful indie flick – you can imagine many of the tracks sound tracking this year’s new Juno or Garden State. It’s the inoffensive stuff you could put on a car stereo with a group of friends with wildly differing senses of humour – nobody will complain, but likewise nobody will go “wow, who is THIS band?”.

One saving grace for the collection is Ben Gibbard’s lyrics. Whilst his story-telling skills will never reach the level of the Morrisseys of this world, he sure knows how to tell a tale, be it regrouping at the start of the album, dealing with rejection in the middle and the final blow to the relationship at the end of the album. Lyrics such as “The Ice Is Getting Thinner’s” “We bury our love in the windsory grave / Along came the snow, was all that remained” hawks back to the Gibbard of old, obvious yet familiar and friendly.

Don’t get me wrong though – Death Cab can sure make an album that would put many of their pretenders to the thrown quiver in their boots (yes, The Fray, I’m looking at you). Just we’ve grown accustomed to more aurally pleasing albums from them, more challenging works. It just would have been nice if they’d had the balls to take a few risks that got them to where they are now, and took the plunge that would alienate some, but draw more new fans in.

Apologies for the lack of updates here on There Goes The Fear. Things are kind of hectic as I deal with the end of term and a new job.

However, for now you might be interested to know that Scouting for Girls have just announced a shiny new tour for November.

Tickets go on general sale on Friday (30th May), but are on presale from here now.

Catch them at:

Saturday 1st November - Bournemouth BIC
Sunday 2nd November - Plymouth Pavilions
Monday 3rd November - Brighton Centre
Tuesday 4th November - Southend Cliffs Pavilion
Thursday 6th November - Newcastle Academy
Friday 7th November - Grimsby Auditorium
Saturday 8th November - Wolverhampton Civic
Monday 10th November - Manchester Apollo
Wednesday 12th November - Swindon Oasis
Friday 14th November - Cardiff Arena
Saturday 15th November - Liverpool University
Sunday 16th November - Nottingham Arena
Tuesday 18th November - Leeds Academy
Thursday 20th November - Glasgow Academy
Saturday 22nd November - Doncaster Dome
Sunday 23rd November - Portsmouth Guildhall
Thursday 27th November - Brixton Academy

Death Cab For Cutie have announced a trio of dates around the UK for the summer, almost exactly two years since their last trip over the Atlantic.

Tickets are on sale now for all dates, but expect them to go quickly as they sold out Brixton Academy last trip over here. Prices are £16 for Birmingham and Manchester, £17.50 for London.

Tuesday 15th July - Birmingham Academy
Wednesday 16th July - Manchester Apollo
Thursday 17th July - London Brixton Academy

They sing songs about Michaela Strachan, aeroplanes and Elvis… yup, it’s Scouting For Girls, who have announced a string of UK dates next March and April, playing the length and breadth of the country.

All tickets are £12.50 with the exception of London (as ever) who have £14 tickets. Tickets are available now from here.

Monday 24th March - Southampton Guildhall
Tuesday 25th March - Brighton Dome
Thursday 27th March - Newcastle Academy
Friday 28th March - Glasgow Barrowlands
Saturday 29th March - Manchester Academy
Sunday 30th March - Birmingham Academy
Tuesday 1st April - Reading Hexagon
Wednesday 2nd April - London Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Sunday 6th April - Bristol Academy
Monday 7th April - Norwich UEA
Tuesday 8th April - Sheffield Octagon
Wednesday 9th April - Preston 53 Degrees
Friday 11th April - Hull University
Saturday 12th April - Leeds University
Sunday 13th April - Nottingham Rock City

Updates: I’ve just added the 20th November gig and the 26th November gigs, thanks to a comment from Kathryn below. This was originally posted on 4th October.

The brilliant Mencap have announced this year’s “Little Noise Sessions”, a series of intimate, acoustic gigs, which will take place from Tuesday 20th November to Wednesday 28 November 2007, at Islington’s Union Chapel in London. They’ll be hosted by Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley.

To get tickets you’ll have to register here to get tickets when they go on sale. Ticket registration opens on Tuesday 2 October and closes at 12.00 Friday 19 October. Those who have registered can then buy tickets online on a first-come-first-served basis from 9am on Monday 22 October. Tickets are £35 each.

The gigs will raise money for Mencap’s Arts Awards scheme which enables children and young people with a learning disability to take part in local arts projects.

Tuesday 20th November - Secret Headliner, Jack Penate, Laura Marling, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong
Wednesday 21st November - Athlete and The Hoosiers
Thursday 22nd November - Will Young, Newton Faulkner and Adele
Friday 23rd November - Biffy Clyro, We Are Scientists and Young Knives
Saturday 24th November - The Pigeon Detectives and The Metros
Sunday 25th November - Snow Patrol and Cajun Dance Party
Monday 26th November - Kate Nash, Robyn, The Ting Tings
Tuesday 27th November - The Enemy + Special Guests
Wednesday 28th November - Keane, Rilo Kiley + Scouting For Girls

Heavy rockers from Bridgend, Bullet for My Valentine have announced a quick UK tour in early February 2008. They’ll play five dates around the UK in a week.

Tickets go on sale on Friday morning at 9am, or now for those of you with a Live Nation account (scum), where they’re on presale.

Thursday 31st January 2008 - Newport Centre
Friday 1st February - Wolverhampton Civic Hall
Sunday 3rd February - Glasgow Academy
Monday 4th February - Manchester Academy
Thursday 7th February - London Brixton Academy

Photo is taken from Adam Mulligan’s flickr stream under the creative commons license.

Somehow I missed this when it was announced a couple of weeks ago, but it looks like infantile humour is abound when the Bloodhound Gang (famed for “The Bad touch” with rhymes about “doing it like they do on the discovery channel”) go on tour in October, joined by Bowling for Soup, Californians Zebrahead and Army of Freshman.

Tickets are on sale now, priced between £13.50 and £18.50 a ticket. They’ll call at:

Monday 15th October - Norwich, Waterfront
Tuesday 16th October - Newcastle, Carling Academy
Wednesday 17th October - Glasgow Carling Academy
Thursday 18th October - Nottingham Rock City
Friday 19th October - Swindon Oasis Leisure Centre
Saturday 20th October - Brighton Brighton Centre
Sunday 21st October - Bournemouth Solent Hall
Monday 22nd October - London Brixton Academy
Tuesday 23rd October - Wolverhampton Civic Hall
Wednesday 24th October - Manchester Apollo
Thursday 25th October - Newport Newport Centre
Friday 26th October - Plymouth Pavilion