Engine Room Recordings » israel darling

New Release: Robbers On High Street’s “Electric Eye”

Engine Room Recordings — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:11:33 +0000

*Cover art by Jeremy Phillips

We’re very excited to be able to announce the new single “Electric Eye” by Robbers On High Street! It is available starting today on limited edition 7″ vinyl, and then on June 22nd the single will be available on iTunes and everywhere digital music is sold. The A side is “Electric Eye” with equally catchy “Face In The Fog” found on the B side. To Listen and purchase the 7″ please go here. The vinyl also comes with a download card to get the mp3’s.

In support of the release the guys are embarking on a mini-tour of the Northeast stopping in Philly, DC, Boston and includes a hometown show at The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn this Saturday. All dates are with Engine Room’s The Bloodsugars plus Israel Darling joining the bill for the Brooklyn and Boston shows.

06/10 – The M Room – Philadelphia, PA

06/11 – Velvet Lounge – Washington, DC

06/12 – The Knitting Factory – Brooklyn, NY

06/13 – TT The Bears – Boston, MA

Hope to see you at a show!

On the Cover: Israel Darling

Engine Room Recordings — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:29:28 +0000

Israel Darling was interviewed by Greensboro’s Go Triad for a piece on the local music scene, or the lack there of, as due to too few live music venues in town the local bands are having a tough time of it. Read the full article here and check it, Israel Darling made the front page!

Engine Room all over year end “Best Of” lists!

Engine Room Recordings — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:50:10 +0000

2009 was by far our best year yet and it’s very humbling that many blogs and magazines also agreed. Wow, where to begin! Hmm how about alphabetically, that’s very diplomatic, which means The Bloodsugars will kick things off. In the Fall of ‘09 the guys released their debut album I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On, and quickly gained lots of attention with the premier of their single Light At The End Of The Tunnel on Stereogum. One new fan was Russ at Soldout who named the band as his best new band of the year, and this upcoming February 10th The Bloodsugars have been asked to perform at the Soldout launch party at NYC’s Santos Party House…buy tickets here. Next Nora at I Rock I Roll has been a great supporter of the band for a while now and listed the album in the #20 spot of her year end wrap-up. Then Blurt asked several artists who their top ten albums were this year in a piece they called The Artists Have Spoken and the kind folks in Girls In Trouble placed I Can’t Go On as their #8 of the year. And it keeps going with Spinning Platters‘ Gordon Elgart giving them 14th best album of the year and Berkeley Place, who after sorting their iTunes playcount (cool idea), came up with The Bloodsugars cover of Self Control from Guilt By Association Vol 2 among the top played songs for 2009 and they also placed the entire GBA album as the 15th best of the year. Finally, Atlas And Anchor, who interviewed lead singer Jason Rabinowitz back in November, listed Pedestrian Boogie as their #7 song of the year AND I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On took the #3 spot for best album of the year! This then leads us nicely to Israel Darling who were also found on Atlas And Anchors’ year end lists with their debut album Dinosaur Bones & Mechanical Hands making it to #6 AND their single Samson The Mason in the #8 spot for best songs of 2009. The album also made Chris at The Battering Room’s favorite of the year list!

Next up – Middle Distance Runner. We released this DC outfits sophomore album in October titled The Sun & Earth, which is currently in heavy rotation at WOXY and many other radio stations across the country. It was picked as one of the albums to shop for this holiday season by QRO Mag, and QRO writer Michael Gutierrez listed The Sun & Earth in his top ten albums of 2009. Plus This Mornin’ I Am Born Again said MDR’s “The Unbeliever” was one of the best music videos of the year AND listed The Sun & Earth as the #7 album of the year AND included three songs in their best songs of 2009 list! This then brings us to Deli Magazine who every year host a Best Of NYC poll. Out of hundreds of bands who submit for this honor we’re very proud to announce that this year Porter Block was selected as a Runner Up in the Alternative Rock category. And their ‘09 release The Gowanus Yacht Club was named the 21st best album of the year by Mothpod!

Last we have fellow DC band U.S. Royalty and their EP Midsommar. This was our very first vinyl release and let me speak frank for a moment, what a pain in the ass it was. I’m pretty sure every single step in the manufacturing process there were problems, but it turned out great so well worth the hassle! And the critics agree, Midsommar was listed as the 26th best album of the year by The Couch Sessions and Duke Chronicle named Keep It Real as the 6th best song of 2009, followed by 32 Feet Per Second who put the single Every Summer as the #23 spot in their Top 50 songs of 2009. Then a big supporter of Engine Room in 2009 was BreakThru Radio, they played lots of our music and invited a bunch of our bands into their studios to perform live. I guess they really loved the guys in U.S. Royalty cause they named them one of the best In Studio performances this year! Maybe it had something to do with how well they dress, J/K.

Oh and the awesome people at Stylecaster asked Engine Room Label Manager Chris Hacker to recap his favorite songs of 2009. While he wasn’t allowed to pick any ERR songs it’s still a good list and can read it here.

Happy New Year everyone and here’s to a great 2010!

-Engine Room

Israel Darling ‘Band Of The Week’ on Poptarts

Engine Room Recordings — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:18:38 +0000

We’re very excited that Israel Darling has been named ‘Band Of The Week’ on Poptarts. An excerpt from the article is posted below and you can read the full article here. — Ugonna.

[Lead singer and principal songwriter, Jacob Darden] is a revelation throughout this album. His songwriting is poignant and honest…Darden’s voice is striking and emotive, but it’s also very soothing at the same time. Israel Darling is not just trying to ape its way to the top, this band truly explores the sound and fills every inch of space with sound that matches their leaders emotive delivery. — Poptarts

New Release: “Dinosaur Bones and Mechanical Hands”

Engine Room Recordings — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:00:49 +0000

Available now on iTunes and digitally everywhere music is sold! Am.Fm.Pm. wrote a great review of “Dinosaur Bones and Mechanical Hands” which you can read here.

Israel Darling will be on tour in support of the album this month, starting with some New York dates! Be sure to check them out at Piano’s on August 11th at 9:30PM and at Spike HIll on August 12th at 11:00PM.

On Tour: Israel Darling

Engine Room Recordings — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:39:27 +0000

The folks over at Stark Magazine did a great post on Engine Room Recordings‘ Israel Darling. Read it here. Be sure to check them out on tour, dates below.

Israel Darling Tour Dates
Jul 23 House Show — Asheville, North Carolina
Jul 31 Greene Street — Greensboro, North Carolina
Aug 6 The Camel — Richmond, Virginia
Aug 8 Twisted Branch — Charlottesville, Virginia
Aug 9 Recording for GBA 3 — Brooklyn, New York
Aug 10 Recording for GBA 3 — Brooklyn, New York
Aug 11 Pianos — New York City, New York
Aug 12 Spike Hill — Brooklyn, New York
Aug 13 All Asia — Cambridge/Boston, Massachusetts
Aug 14 Bar 46 — Independence, New Jersey
Aug 15 The Fire — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Aug 16 Cyclops — Baltimore, Maryland
Aug 22 My Favorite Things — Greensboro, North Carolina

Sneak Preview: Israel Darling Cover Art + Updates!

Engine Room Recordings — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:50:37 +0000

Here’s a sneak peak of the cover for the upcoming Israel Darling record, titled “Dinosaur Bones and Mechanical Hands”, turned out great! It comes out August 4th and the band will be heading out on tour in support for a couple weeks immediately after. Check out our calendar for tour dates, more added soon!
– Chris

ERR News Update

Engine Room Recordings — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:48:00 +0000

Engine Room Recordings has had a few pretty exciting couple of weeks and we though we would share all the good news with you!

The Bloodsugars: Currently in the studio with producer Bill Moriarty (Man Man, Dr. Dog) working on their follow up album to the ‘BQEP’. These new songs are such a spectacular step up from their previous material. Can’t wait to share!

Lowry: Currently on tour in the southern part of the USA and preparing to start recording their new album executive produced by ERR co-owner Mark Christensen and engineered/produced by Drew Fisher.

Porter Block: I’ve written about their upcoming record The Gowanus Yacht Club many times already. Be on the look out for a who’s who of the LES Scene to make appearances and a run of 10 shows starting in June.

Other News:

1. It’s official! Chris Hacker, previously the Director of Tours and Promotions has been made General Manager of Engine Room Recordings. Wesley Verhoeve is now the Head of Strategy and A&R.

2. We just signed Israel Darling and we’ll be releasing their debut album in late July.

3. We signed Luke Wesley and will be starting to record his dbut album in June for a september release.

4. A spectacular new website is coming courtesy of Mr. Jeff Schram.

That’s all the news for now! More soon to come…