If you just can’t wait until the album is released Mr. Don has also released a video for album track ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’.

Hi Gabriel. Let’s start with the basics. How did Gabriel and The Hounds come in to life?

Hello. Like many things, project started while I was busy doing something else — I shared some song demos with friends, who shared them with other friends, who wanted to play on the songs and so we recorded that. All of a sudden, without planning it, we had a full album on our hands.

Is the name a play on Gabriel’s Hounds, the spectral hell hounds that are supposed to roam the English countryside?

Actually it is an homage to Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love. To some, they are Hell Hounds I am sure.

The record juxtaposes gentle guitars with majestic horn and string arrangements. Was that the kind of sound you were always setting out to create?

We wanted it to be made up of warm, organic and real sounds, and we wanted to play with the small and large arrangements to create a sonic sense of perspective.

You’ve got a great array of musicians playing on the album, people who have played with the likes of The National, Beirut, Sufjan Stevens and Bjork. How did you approach them and what did they bring to the album?

Nearly everyone who played on the record are musicians I have known, had beers with, played shows with, seen shows with, etc. They are all amazing players and people and were more than generous with their time and talents.

How different have you found writing and recording this album to your work with Takka Takka?

It’s been like night and day with these two projects. For this hounds record, I didn’t have to negotiate on anything, I merely did what felt and sounded right to me at the time. There were no meetings scheduled and no discussions or email chains to be had. That was nice. Also scary to be on my own a bit. I love writing and recording. It’s time I spend mostly on my own anyways.

As a Brooklyn man what do you make of the current music scene over there? It seems Brooklyn is churning out new bands every day!

Brooklyn has become the de facto destination for every up and comer who wants to make it in indie rock. I love it here. On the one hand it’s uber competitive, and on the other it’s very supportive.

Lyrically the album is very much about relationships and their inevitable endings. Was this album a way of laying those feelings to rest? A cathartic exercise if you will?

Yes! I can now put all that emotional junk behind me and make music about mundane things!

You’re heading over to our shores in the next couple of weeks. What’s your perception of the UK and its music?

I am so very much looking forward to these UK set of shows. I am such a huge fan of music from your parts that I want to see the spaces and environments that birthed it all.

What can people expect from your live shows?

Formal attire and comedic timing. I’m kidding. We’re coming over as a two piece band (although we’ve played as a 8pc here in NY). These will be stripped down versions of the album songs, arranged to cut to the bone of each one to lay myself bare for all to see. No hiding behind a horn section and two percussionist. This is going to be the raw and real fucking deal.

With a new Takka Takka album just around the corner as well, is Gabriel and the Hounds something that we’ll be seeing more of in the future?

YES! The Takka record is not done. Maybe it will never get finished.

Anyone who has read my album reviews for either of The Drums’ two albums will know that they are a band who frustrate me. They’re capable of sculpting real gems of songs but also put out some mindless, repetitive drivel. ‘Days’, which is set for release next Monday (27th February) is a melancholy number that fortunately falls more in the first category than the last. The song features their trademark spunky bass lines and thorny guitars and is about learning to embrace the differences that come between people and yourself as you get older. It’s actually one of the highlights of their sophomore record Portamento and you can catch it live when the band take to the stage in the next week or so, including a gig at the Roundhouse as part of the NME Awards Show.

Full 2012 UK tour dates:

February 26: Liverpool, Academy 2
February 27: London, Roundhouse (NME Awards Show)
February 28: Oxford, Academy 2

The single, the first to be taken from the new album, will be released on March 11th. It’s a short and snappy number, clocking in at 2:39 and features bolshy guitars and almost ‘shoo woppy’ backing vocals. It’s about reaching that certain age where people start to treat you differently and adjust their expectations of you. Here’s what the man himself says about the track:

“There was an inference that I was going through a mid-life crises, which I found really amusing: the clichéd notion of it. And that was the impetus for (the song) even though it isn’t really about that. It’s a bit tongue in cheek, too. I guess it’s also about how society views people of a certain age. For me, does it really matter what age you are? It’s what up there in your soul that matters”.

Weller will be celebrating the release of Sonik Kicks by playing a massive five dates at The Roundhouse in Camden between the 18th and the 22nd March.

It’s a beautiful acousticy number that it is a bit different to their usual frenetic fare and the video is also well worth a watch. Just as well that is’s available below.

You can catch the band on the following dates:

Spring Offensive Tour Dates:

16.03 The End, Birmingham
29.03 Electricity Showrooms, London
30.03 The Green Door Store, Brighton
31.03 Secret Location, Oxford
01.04 The Castle Hotel, Manchester
02.04 SOYO, Sheffield
03.04 The Head of Steam, Newcastle
04.04 The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool
05.04 Gwdihw, Cardiff

We Are Augustines have put together a beautiful version of the song and the video sees them performing it live in session. It really is quite something and you can watch it below.

We Are Augustines’ much anticipated debut album Rise Ye Sunken Ships will be released March 5th 2012 with single ‘Chapel Song’ preceding it on the 27th February.

It’s one of those songs that you can turn to when people claim that guitar music is dead and say ‘clearly it fucking isn’t’. The track is a love letter to their home town and is a joyous, upbeat number filled with jangly guitars, pounding drums and harmonies. If all of the album tracks are up to this standard then Fun Times will certainly be an album to look out for.

Due for release on May 7th, it sees the band going back to basics, replicating the sounds of their first two albums. This has been facilitated by the departure of Johnny Marr who must finally have realised that he is above playing such tosh. Anywho, the band have made new track ‘Chi-Town’ available to stream and download through the widget below.

You can also catch the band on their May tour:

The Cribs – UK tour Dates, May 2012:

7th May – Nottingham, Rock City
8th May – London, The Troxy
9th May – Bristol, O2 Academy
11th May – Glasgow, Barrowlands
12th May – Manchester, Academy
13th May – Eastbourne, Winter Gardens

You can still catch them on tour at the following venues:

Tour Dates:
18 February King Tuts – Glasgow
19 February Electric Circus – Edinburgh
23 February The Boiler Room – Guilford
24 February Arlington Arts – Newbury
01 March Hare & Hounds – Birmingham
03 March Latest Music Bar – Brighton
05 March Clwb Ifor Bach – Cardiff
08 March Whelan’s Upstairs – Dublin
09 March Mello Mello – Liverpool
15 March Ride Café – Plymouth

Clocking in at an epic 7mins 30secs it’s half instrumental jam, half brooding indie pop song. Just when you think the drum laden intro has gone on that bit too far, in come the guitars and then it continues to build and build until it softens for the introduction of the vocals and mellows in to a more traditional indie song. It’s certainly an interesting tracks and does enough to make A Monument a much anticipated album.

There could be a worry amongst the fans that this album will polarise opinion but frontman Barry Hyde has rejected any such talk.

“A Futureheads fan who doesn’t get ‘Rant’ is not a Futureheads fan. This version of The Futureheads has always been there. We’re bringing to the fore what we’re really about: a unification, a gang mentality, which is in the balance between our voices and our personalities. And on Rant we’re pushing that right into your face. We’ve stumbled across tricks as we’ve made ‘Rant’ which are so powerful and which no one has ever done before. Just because this is an a cappella album doesn’t mean to say that the songs are slow or passive. They’re still in-your-face, slightly mad, aggressive. They’re still The Futureheads.”

The tracklist for ‘Rant’ is as follows:
1. Meantime
2. Meet Me Halfway (The Black Eyed Peas cover)
3. Robot
4. Beeswing (Richard Thompson cover)
5. Thursday
6. Sumer Is Icumen In (Traditional)
7. The Keeper (Traditional)
8. The No. 1 Song in Heaven (Sparks cover)
9. The Old Dun Cow (Traditional)
10. Acapella (Kelis cover)
11. Man Ray
Bonus: Heartbeat Song (Digital only)

The band will also be heading out on tour to showcase the new workings of the tracks and you can catch them at the following venues:

APRIL
3rd: BRISTOL, Colston Hall
4th: LONDON, Union Chapel
5th: LEEDS, Wardrobe
6th: STOCKTON, Georgian Theatre
8th: GATESHEAD, Sage
9th: GLASGOW, Oran Mor
10th: BIRMINGHAM, Glee Club
12th: NOTTINGHAM, Glee Club
13th: MANCHESTER, Royal Northern College of Music

It’s a laid back track with sparkling guitar lines and a relentless beat. You can watch the video below.