The team over here at Engine Room Recordings is tremendously excited to announce the first signing of 2008: The Bloodsugars. LEad by songwriter extraordinaire Jason Rabinowitz the 'sugars are a great indie rock band that will get you moving on the dance floor. Infectious, synthy indie pop writing, excellent musicianship, great people. We will be releasing their BQEP digitally April 1st through Amie Street and April 8th digitally everywhere else including iTunes. The physical release will be towards the end of May with a spectacular to-be-announced release show. Oh and they're playing a little venue called Madison Square Garden April 12th too headlining the half-time show for a Titans LaCrosse game. Special tickets on sale for that soon. Go check out the EP as it's streaming in full on the The Bloodsugars MySpace page and be sure to let us know what you think!

Ooh, and news on the second volume of Guilt By Association coming soon! The Bloodsugars are in the middle of recording their version of a powerful little 80's dance theme!

-- Wes

Engine Room Recordings is off to SXSW for a week of hard work in the band scouting department and to spread the word on our upcoming releases.

Porter Block just came off their tour with Deep Blue Something and they've finished their new album Off Our Shoulders, recorded at their very own newly constructed Brooklyn studio. The tracklisting and cover are below and we will be celebrating the release April 10th at the Crash Mansion (NYC) with a big album release show with a limited open bar and free entry! Keep the date!

1. Second Wind
2. The Times Between The Good Times
3. List Of Things to Do
4. Lonely Levon
5. Sun Goes Down
6. All Of Who I Am
7. Happy Everything
8. What The Future Holds
9. Well's Gone Dry
10. Cream Delicious


We will also shortly be announcing a new signing we are very excited about and report on some additional exciting news! Also remember we have our monthly Guilt By Association shows every first Thursday of each month at 9pm at the Parkside Lounge. Next: April 3rd Josh Beckerman, Jeff Schram and Rosy Nolan.

It is with sadness that we must say goodbye to a team member here at Engine Room Recordings who passed away earlier this week. Jared McGuinness had only been here a few weeks but he had come to us with great experience and such enthusiasm that we were looking forward to seeing what he would accomplish in his time here, and in the future. It is shame that his life ended at such a young age. Our condolences go out to the entire McGuinness family and all of Jared's friends for this heavy loss.

-ERR Staff

We kicked off our first Guilt By Association show last night at Parkside Lounge in Manhattan's lower east side. It was freezing out but the room still filled up and we were treated to sets by Lara Ewen, Bryan Dunn and ERR's own Goat. It was great fun and how can you not enjoy yourself when Def Leopard gets busted out. Congrats to Dan Berns from Chicago for getting the most answers right in our guilty pop culture trivia contest....I guess it pays to know all about the Spice Girls after all.

So that's the First Thursday of every month at Parkside Lounge. The next show is February 6th where we'll have comedian Nick Cobb, singer/songwriter Derek James and ERR's Porter Block. Hope to see you there!

-Chris

On November 6th Porter Block's new E.P.,"Solitary Hotel," will be available for purchase. This will be a digital only release distributed by leading digital distributor The Orchard.

For those of you near the New York area, the release party for the E.P. will be held at the Highline Ballroom in New York City on Saturday, November 10th. Porter Block will be opening for The Samples, who they have been on tour with for a few weeks now and reports from the road have been stellar.

Doors are at 6:00 PM. Limited edition CD's of "Solitary Hotel" will be available at the show, and also come with a free T-shirt!

-Chris

Ithentic has just announced they will be featuring our Guilt By Association video for Devendra Banhart' cover of 'Don't Look Back In Anger'. The video was directed by Andy Cahill and can be found here!

Porter Block will be supporting THE SAMPLES as they hit the road again this fall playing dates up-and-down the East Coast and South. The Samples, with 18 releases and thousands of touring miles across the globe, after twenty years are still going strong - a must see live show!

Oct 15 Lexington, KY - The Dame
Oct 16 Nashville, TN - 3rd and Lindsley
Oct 17 Knoxville, TN - Barley’s
Oct 18 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle
Oct 19 Columbia, SC - Headliners
Oct 20 Savannah, GA - Loco’s
Nov 08 Washington DC - Iota Cafe
Nov 09 Baltimore, MD - 8x10 Club
Nov 10 New York City - Highline Ballroom
Nov 13 Northampton, MA - Iron Horse Music Hall
Nov 16 Boston, MA - Middle East