Engine Room Recordings » Middle Distance Runner

Middle Distance Runner on Flash Forward!

Engine Room Recordings — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:21:02 +0000

ABC’s Flash Forward will be playing MDR’s song “Brother John” on tonight’s episode! Tune in to watch at 8pm EST. Also their song “Man Of The People” has been heard during a bunch of games for March Madness this month.

Right now the guys have a few more shows left on this tour, which included 7 shows at SXSW this year. And yet to come is a Daytrotter session that they’ll be recording on Saturday!

Enjoy this live footage taken at SXSW by Eric from The WILD Honey Pie. Thanks for filming them Eric, turned out great.

-Chris

MDR on CNN!

Engine Room Recordings — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:58:54 +0000

CNN recently interviewed Middle Distance Runner’s frontman, Stephen Kilroy, which appeared on the front page of the Entertainment section last week! Read the full article here.

MDR on Tour and SXSW dates announced!

Engine Room Recordings — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:01:32 +0000

Heading down to Austin this week? Stop by one of many shows that Middle Distance Runner will be playing at this year. And if the great tunes isn’t enough well there will be free pancakes at the Moose Lodge and free Lonestar Beer and food at Between The Music on Lamar street.

For the unlucky folks out there who can’t be enjoying the warm Texas sun with us then check out the tour dates below and perhaps MDR is coming to a town near you.

SXSW Schedule
3/17 – 9pm – Manic Fest Destiny @ The Belmont, Austin, TX
3/18 – Noon – A Band And A Blog 2 @ Club Primos, Austin, TX
3/18 – 4pm – Between The Music @ 706 N. Lamar, Austin, TX
3/19 – 12:45pm – 6 Degrees Of Chain Reaction @ District 301, Austin, TX
3/19 – 7pm – Hyde Park Bar and Grill, Austin, TX
3/20 – 12:30pm – Austin Moose Lodge, Austin, TX
3/20 – 4:30pm – DC Does Texas @ Lovejoy’s, Austin, TX

Tour Dates
3/11 IOTA Club & Cafe, Arlington, VA
3/12 Evening Muse, Charlotte, NC
3/14 Drunken Unicorn, Atlanta, GA
3/15 Hayride Diner & Venue, Shreveport, LA
3/23 The 51st Speakeasy, Oaklahoma, OK
3/24 Cicero’s, St. Louis, MO
3/26 Huckleberry’s Pizza, Rock Island, IL
3/27 Founder’s Brewing Co., Grand Rapids, MI
3/28 PJ’s Lager House, Detroit, MI
3/29 The Summit, Columbus, OH
3/31 M Room, Philadelphia, PA

Erik from MDR made the tour poster below, ha, I think it’s great.
-Chris

Middle Distance Runner look for love

Engine Room Recordings — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:28:16 +0000

Well not really, but this promo video for their show at Iota tomorrow night in DC where they play a bunch of different singles looking for action is pretty hilarious. Check it out below!

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

MDR record a holiday song!

Engine Room Recordings — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:31:52 +0000

Middle Distance Runner found time between touring to hit the studio and record a song for the holidays called “Holiday (Be Good To Me).” The guys explain, “It’s a happy little ditty about all of the things we hope don’t go wrong this time of year.” Download the track for FREE here.

And here’s the guys recording the song in the studio…

Photos by Gracy Obuchowicz

So enjoy the free jam and we hope you have a merry holiday!

Middle Distance Runner #4 on Amie Street!

Engine Room Recordings — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:01:45 +0000

The Sun & Earth is charting high on digital retailer Amie Street this week, right behind Phoenix, Atlas Sound and Great Lake Swimmers. Congrats guys!

Middle Distance Runner Featured On Amie Street

Engine Room Recordings — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:13:50 +0000

The crew over at awesome digital retailer Amie Street just featured Middle Distance Runner’s new record “The Sun & Earth”! See below. Go pick it up there if you haven’t already. — W

New Release: “The Sun & Earth”

Engine Room Recordings — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:55:48 +0000

On this fine Tuesday morning Middle Distance Runner’s new album “The Sun & Earth” is available for purchase on iTunes and digitally everywhere music is sold courtesy of The Orchard. And look for it in your local record stores too, thanks to our friends at Flea Marketing and Edge Distribution.

Go buy it now!:)

Engine Room Recordings @ CMJ!

Engine Room Recordings — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:11:13 +0000

We’re excited to announce all the showcases our bands are playing this week. Come check out some great music and have a drink with us! — W

Tuesday, Oct. 20 upstairs @ Piano’s (158 Ludlow St. on the Lower East Side)
The Bloodsugars – 9:30 p.m.
Middle Distance Runner – 10:15 p.m.

Wednesday, Oct. 21 @ Fontana’s (105 Eldridge St. on the Lower East Side)
ENGINE ROOM RECORDINGS OFFICIAL SHOWCASE
U.S. Royalty – 11 p.m.
Middle Distance Runner – 12 a.m.

Thursday, Oct. 22 @ Rockwood Music Hall (184 Allen St. on the Lower East Side)
Middle Distance Runner – 1 a.m.
And @ The Suffolk (107 Suffolk St. on the Lower East Side)
Lowry – 8 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 23 @ Spike Hill (158 Bedford Ave. in Brooklyn)
GREEN ROOM OFFICIAL SHOWCASE
The Bloodsugars – 12 a.m.

Saturday, Oct. 24 @ Vice Party at Etnies showroom (337 Broome, 3rd Floor)
U.S. Royalty – 7 p.m.
RSVP: www.viceland.com/coltrsvpny/

And @ The PureVolume House
169 Bowery Ave
U.S. Royalty – 1am (Pete & The Pirates at 2am!)
RSVP: www.purevolume.com/thehouse