The NME is throwing a big party to celebrate their 10 year exsistence. Cheers to that. For those of you who don't know the NME is pretty much the Rolling Stone of the UK. In any case, they're having a contest to have an unsigned band play at said show. But wait, Aloud, you're an unsigned band aren't you? Why, yes.. indeed. The contest is based on your votes. So here's what I need you to do. First you've got to go to NME.com and register. Then you need to go the Aloud NME page and cast your vote.

We're already making poor attempts at accents. Sign up and send us on a plane, won't you? Worth a shot...

Cheers,

Jen

Currently listening to:
Rotten Love
By Levy

One of the funnier things about us is getting compared to bands I either don't listen to, or have never heard of (more at the end of this particular blog).

While I don't get the comparisons to Heart and Aerosmith (I'll accept Fleetwood Mac), I will say that a nerd like me shouldn't ruin this fantastic review in the Phoenix by Sue Bell, and you should read it. (Thanks Sue!!). And there's a nice picture in there courtesy of our pal Becky.

My parents love Heart, which makes the reference even funnier. They had this whole story about this Heart concert they went to in the 70s and were absolutely flabbergasted when they saw someone nonchalantly shooting up some heroin at the concert.

Don't forget, tonight catch our lovely music on XM's Channel 42 (XMU) at 9pm on the show The Radar Report. If you don't have XM, you can sign up for a free 3-day trail. I can understand the hesitation signing up for trial offers for crap, but let me assure you.. I, your little guinea pig, did this yesterday and it was painless. All they need is your name and email address.. no credit card or anything.

Aaaaaaaaand like I mentioned before, there are tons of stores in the US (about 2,208) and worldwide (close to 200) where you can purchase Leave Your Light On. Remember, if they don't have a physical copy in the store, you can have them special order it. I'm getting all the names of the stores up on the website, but that's going to take a few days.. it's a lot of stores to list people!

Either way, you can always buy that sucker on CD Baby (www.cdbaby.com/aloud2). Do it!

So now, I want everyone to chime in on this, because I'm probably biased here or something. Here are some bands we've been compared to that I've never actually heard:

Fugazi
Squeeze
Marshall Crenshaw

and bands I don't really listen to:

Aerosmith
Fleetwood Mac (okay, I'll concede to this one eventually...)
Heart

I mean, am I the crazy one here? Do we really sound like Heart? Is there something I'm missing? I knew when Roy said "Wings is cheesier than Journey", he was playing with powers he couldn't possibly comprehend or understand (we'll deal with Wings vs. Journey some other day).

Lord knows what Schlock-Rock Forces the boy has unleashed.

That's right, I went there.

Oooh, barracuda.

Cheers,
Henry

Currently listening to:
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
By U2

As you may or may not know, I'm a fan of Howard Stern and everything that he's doing at Sirius. Some could even say I'm a "nerd" or "dork" about such things.

But this week, I'm willing to put aside any nerdtastic feelings I have about XM rival, because tomorrow night (that's Thursday for the calendar-deprived) we're being featured on The Radar Report on XM.

The Radar Report airs every Thursday at 9pm on XMU Channel 43, and also on DirecTV channel 831 and AOL.

Don't have XM and want to listen? Go here to sign up for a free 3 day trial. Sketchy, I know, but they don't need a credit card or anything and it looks legit.

Could there possibly be more news? But of course! We've gotten a lot of radio station adds all over the country. Visit our site's radio section here to see if we're playing in your neck of the woods. It's being updated every day or two lately, so keep checking back.

Speaking of your neck of the woods, we've got a distribution deal from Super D distribution via CD Baby in thousands of stores all over the U.S. and about 100-200 others worldwide. So if you walk into a store and can't find LYLO, ask and chances are the store will be able to special-order it for you from Super D.

BTW, you can still save the trip and buy Leave Your Light On here at CD Baby.

Is that all? Yea, I think that's it. For today anyway. I hope.

Cheers,
Henry

Currently listening to:
McCartney
By Paul McCartney

It's nice to be home early today. I'm sitting here getting some copies of our new album, Leave Your Light On, in envelopes to reviewers. I admit I'm a little tired today. Henry and I were up watching the season finale of 24 last night. Spectacular. We also added a bunch of radio stations that added the album last week. Take a look here.

A big thank you to everyone who came out to the shows this month. NYC, Stonehill College, Fitchburg State, Salem, and Boston we love you. Thanks to everyone who bought the album and all the great bands who played with us. May was a great month to put out a disc. And it's still not over... This Friday we'll be at Ralph's Diner in Worcester, MA with very good friends Radio America, Violet Nine, and September Twilight. I can almost taste that Ralph's burger now.

Speaking of Radio America, Roy is in NYC right now with them having a hell of a time. Hope you boys are all right. Actually, no I don't coz I'm not there to have the fun with you. HA!

More NYC news... We've had to cancel our appearance at Death Disco scheduled for June 7. Death Disco is moving the Delancey to the Annex and will only be featuring only two bands. We'll be back there later in the year.

Leave Your Light On debuted at Number 5 on the June Top 30 Noise Chart (Boston for those of you not from around). Hip hip hooray. Thanks to all those lovely DJs. Also, on the chart are good friends, the Silver Lining, who are releasing their disc on June 6. We'll be joining them on June 13 as part of their residency at the Abbey Lounge.

I think that's about it. Check out www.allthingsaloud.com for all the press we got last week. Should be a bit more this week and I'll be posting that as well.

Cheers,

Jen

Currently listening to:
Goats Head Soup
By The Rolling Stones

We got a very, very nice article profile thing in the Boston Metro this morning. Jen and I did the interview on Monday with Selene Angier, and the whole thing was very fun and relaxed. I wish we could've had more space to fit all those quotes in, though. There were some real nuggets, like....

like....

Yea.

For the record, Jen and I barely attended less than a semester at Berklee, and learned nothing.

Don't get me wrong here, I have friends who graduated at Berklee and they're very wonderful, capable, and talented folks. But come on, I have to keep some kinda punk-rock modicum here!!!

Now that I've completely derailed this blog, we've got our hometown CD release show tonight at T.T.'s. We're playing with some excellent bands we really enjoy. In fact Hugh, our producer, is playing geetar in the Luxury tonight as well. What's that you say? Rain? Fuck the rain! We'll build an ark! Get me some pine and about two million terraria!

Set times are:
Aloud (that's us): Midnight
Emergency Music: 11pm
The Luxury: 10pm
The Daily Pravda: 9pm

And check out their websites:

www.emergencymusic.com
www.theluxuryband.com
www.thedailypravda.com

Then, buy our album here:
www.cdbaby.com/aloud2

And then... and then.. (NO MORE "AND THEN!")

Oh yea, and props to our guys in Agency. We had such a fun time at Dodge last night, down to the spontaneous rap combustion at the end there. Seriously, what the hell was that? (Awesome, that's what). Hopefull that Roy ass-pic won't surface anywhere.

Okay, kiddies. See you all tonight.

Remember, if you don't come out tonight... They win.

Cheers,
Henry

Currently listening to:
Revolver
By The Beatles

Yes, indeed we are just a day away from the Boston CD Release show on May 19, 2006 @ T.T. The Bear's. Excitement ensues. Fabulous bands will share the stage with us: Emergency Music, the Luxury, and the Daily Pravda.

We had a nice write up in the Sidekick section of the Boston Globe today. Pick up a copy as I will be later on. I haven't seen it yet, but Ross has and gave us the best line, "Their song Beaches is worth the price of admission alone". Most excellent. And we're having better weather this week in Beantown. Hopefully it'll hold up for tomorrow.

Aside from releasing Leave Your Light On, in stores this week is also the FNX Wicked Good Local Bands cd featuring that infamous track, Beaches. Other bands include Dear Leader, Taxpayer, Unbusted and it's only $3.99. Get 'em at Newbury Comics.

Check out the Metro tomorrow too for a piece on us and the show by the very talented Selene Angier. And then don't forget to make it to the T.T.'s show that night!!!! If that isn't enough Aloud tune in Sunday to WBCN for Boston Emissions (104.1FM) at 10pm. We'll be playing some tunes and talking about the album.

Well I think that's all. Wish us luck. We'll be warming up tonight at Dodge St. in Salem. Much love to you and yours.

Cheers,

Jen

Currently listening to:
Rubber Soul
By The Beatles

Dear Buffalo and Troy,

I'm sorry dear cities, but we're going to have to postpone our trip. An unexpected family emergency came up and one of us has got to go get that sorted out. We're doing our best to make up the dates for some time this summer. That doesn't mean you can't get a copy of the album though. Just go here to grab it up.

Sorry again folks.

Cheers,
Jen

Currently listening to:
Wake Up
By Arcade Fire

A super guy and fantastic writer, Jonathan Perry, wrote up a piece about us in Boston's Stuff @ Night.. You can pick it up for free or read it here.

Thanks Fitchburg for a fun time. It was great to play outdoors! Next stop Buffalo and Troy.

Don't forget we're on FNX's New England Product (101.7FM) this Sunday, May 14.

Cheers,

Jen

Currently listening to:
The Joshua Tree
By U2

then you can buy it online at Tower here.

-Jen

Currently listening to:
Magical Mystery Tour
By The Beatles

This is a fantastic review on the band you should read. I loved every line.

Check it out here. Thanks to Liz for reviewing us on her wonderful blog!

Cheers,

Jen

Currently listening to:
The Beatles [The White Album]
By The Beatles

Hello brothers and sisters....

It is my great pleasure to inform you that our debut album, Leave Your Light On, is out and in stores on this May 2. Also getting a little bit older today is myself (yes that means it's my birthday). But I digress....

Buy the album online here or if you live in our part of the world run down to Harvard Square to Tower Records for a copy. The album will be up on iTunes and other online distributors very soon as well as additional stores.

Roy, my sister, and I spent the entire day Sunday packing 350 CDs to send off to college radio stations across the country. You'll wanna keep checking the website to see which ones are playing us, so you can request us. Speaking of the website, we've launched a BRAND NEW site to coincide with the release of the CD. You can listen to the ENTIRE album there and download some tracks as well including all the tracks from our EP, The Sooner it Comes.

We're resting us these next two days to kick things off on Thursday in New York City. Then on to Easton, Fitchburg, Buffalo, Troy, Salem, Boston, and Worcester. Tour dates are on our page.

This is going to be a very fun month. We're tickled pink.

Much love,

Jen