A couple of notable new releases hit the shelves today. Dear Leader released their fourth full length, ‘Stay Epic,’ on Lunch Records. The compact disc has 4 acoustic bonus trax, so hit up www.newburycomics.com to get the glossy cardboard and plastic version of the album, or get the bonus-less instant gratification digital version on itunes. (no, I’m not giving you a hotlink to itunes…you know where to find it.) Stay Epic was proudly recorded, produced and mixed by Paul and Adam here at Camp Street.

Also released today is the long awaited Morphine 35 song anthology from Rhino / Rykodisc entitled, ‘At Your Service.’ There are oodles of rare and unreleased goodies in this multiple disc package including demos, alternate takes, and live performances spanning Morphine’s entire groundbreaking career. Go right to the source for more info and to nab yourself a copy at www.rhino.com.

Brooklyn’s Teenage Prayers were in this weekend to bust out two new tracks–soup to nuts. We gave the Pro-tools a bit of a rest and revved up the 2″ analog machine for some serious rock action.

In other news, we’re just about through with a monster transfer project for WMBR. We’ve digitalizized about 400 some odd radio tapes chronicling at least a partial history of the ebb and flow of the ever transitional Boston music scene from the late 70’s to the very early 90’s. Is been an interesting journey having been introduced and re-introduced to some of the best bands of that era to call Boston home–however briefly in some cases. Look for these rare cuts to be filtering into the left-side-of-the-dial excellence that is WMBR 88.1 FM Cambridge or on the web, www.wmbr.org.

Lastly, here is yet another nudge in the direction of www.dear-leader.com where you can acquire for the cost of nothing a new song from their upcoming full length. This week’s song is called, “Napoleon Complex.”

It’s been 10 years since the world lost Morphine frontman, Mark Sandman, but the legend lives on. Celebrate the life, legacy and achievements of one of the Boston area’s most enduring musical pioneers this coming Sunday, September 27th at Pacific Park in Cambridge, MA (at Sidney and Pacific Streets). A 12:30 p.m. parade embarking from Mark Sandman Square (where the Middle East resides, Central Square) followed by a free concert featuring, Orchestra Morphine, Elastic Waste Band, Treat Her Right, Zili Misik, Mean Creek, Rite Hook, Faces on Film, Mariachi Internationale, Mickey Bones, and more.

Events go until 7 p.m. and include an on-site raffle and online charity auction with all proceeds going to the Sandman Music Project. For more information, you can go to: www.hindry.com or www.facebook.com/marksandmanmemorialconcert or follow something worth following for once via www.twitter.com/sandmanconcert.

What do you get when you cross uncomfortable moustache close-ups with body hugging white spandex and an inter-tummy tug of war? Set it all against a vaguely Tron-esque neon backdrop and you get the new video by psychedelic groove wizards, Portugal. The Man. The song is called, “Do You.” The album is called, “The Satanic Satanist”. Get weird with the boys and girl of PTM….music video style.

They have an even newer one for “The Sun” coming soon. Plus, more good news for PTM junkies…we’re mixing new material this week.

The Bodega Girls’ Jake Brennan made an appearance on National Public Radio’s ‘Here And Now’ program last Friday to talk about his new venture, The Hector Fund. To make a long story short, the Hector Fund is basically an expanded version of the music marketing model semi-recently made notorious by Josh Freese and other’s whereby the fans basically fund the making of an artist’s album. The artists offer different ‘packages’ of items and/or experiences for different levels of monetary support. For instance, for a measly $250 bucks, Jake’s band The Bodega Girls, “will accompany you to the street-corner, front-yard or window of your loved one and assist you in the coolest PDA ever. You can wear your John Cusack trench coat and hold the boombox over your head and we’ll accompany you by singing either an original, a cover, a bastardized version of “In Your Eyes” - whatever you want and we’ll rock the beat, vocals, acoustic guitars and ukelele. If this doesn’t get you laid then he or she just isn’t that into you.” This of course is the “John Cusak Level”. Listen to Jake dish the in’s and out’s of the Hector Fund on www.hereandnow.org. And to get all the info on Hector go to www.thehectorfund.com.

We’re a bit behind the times vis a vis Dear Leader’s self-administered leak of their new album due out next month. Songs number 3 and 4 from the upcoming DL album are called ‘Empires’ and ‘Rust Belt Ballad’ respectively, and are now available free of charge at www.dear-leader.com

Song numero deux from the soon-to-be-released Dear Leader album is up for the download at www.dear-leader.com. This latest track is called, ‘Barbarians,’ and according to an unnamed source (whose initials are A.P.), was written by frontman, Aaron Perrino whilst the author lived in Belgium. We don’t know what the name of the actual album is going to be…last week it was, ‘The Blueprint,’ but according to Dear Leader’s latest post is now going to be called, ‘Stay Epic.’ We’ll keep you updated as events occur…

It’s a given that the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Camp Street Studios is high fashion, right? Right. So, it was a no brainer for trendy young women’s fashion retailer, Charllotte Russe to choose the Camp Street mix of ‘Classy Girls’ by the Nervous Wreckords for their latest video promoting the ‘People’s Liberation’ Fall line. Nervous Wreckords is the new band of Louis XIV co-founder/guitarist/vocalist, Brian Karscig. Brian came east from his home base in sunny, San Diego to mix the Nervous Wreckords debut EP, ‘Nailbighter’ with Anthony Saffery and Adam Taylor. We wish we could embed the video like we usually do to make it super easy for you to enjoy, but since it only exists on a flash based web site (nerd grrrrrr), you’ll have to travel to www.emota.com/cr/ and click on the link that says, ‘People’s Liberation’.

The Nervous Wreckords are set to kick off a run of shows opening for the Killers starting in Denver, CO on 09/09/09 (woah…trippy digits maaaaan!) Get the complete list of tour dates and listen to more from the ‘Nailbiter’ ep at www.thenervouswreckords.com.

Fresh back to the west coast after a short but successful jaunt on the Atlantic edge of the country, Joshua English has a batch of new-ness to proliferate amongst the masses. First up is his new website, www.joshuaenglish.com –same address, updated look and content. New features include an “Mp3 of the Month” available for download via said website. The August ‘09 installment is a cover of Sinead O’Connor’s, “Black Boys On Mopeds,” which was recorded in record time here at Camp Street. Lastly, check out Josh’s music video for “Bested,” off of his Camp Street Records release, Kill For Sport. The video was shot and edited in western MA between the shows of his East Coast mini-tour at the beginning of this very month…and voila…here it is!

Gearing up for the release of their brand new full length, Dear Leader is the latest and greatest band to jump on the ‘Giving Songs Away For Fun And Profit’ Wagon. Or, in the band’s own words:

“Technology has provided us such that we, the band affectionately known as Dear Leader, can now give away free downloads of our new record The Blue Print. These aforementioned downloads will come every few weeks or so until the whole record has been given away to you innovators before it hits stores on what some call the antiquated “CD” format this fall.”

Go to www.dear-leader.com to download the first and title track of their latest full length, ‘The Blue Print,’ due out in compact disc format in October 2009.

Joshua English will be playing a string of shows in the Boston area and just slightly beyond starting tomorrow night, Wednesday August 5th at the Middle East Upstairs. Violist Lisa Molinaro (Decemberists, Talk Demonic) will be joining Josh for all shows and veteran drummer Alan Cage (Quicksand, Burn, a million other bands) will accompany for the final three appearances. You can acquire Josh’ latest full length, ‘Kill For Sport’ in either limited edition Vinyl or Digital Downloads directly from the friendly folks at the Camp Street Records Store. Check the pretty pink flyer for dates and locations…or just slide your eyes on over to the right under the ‘Events’ section.