After parting ways with Epic Records earlier this year, Howie Day found a bunch of tracks on his hard drive that the fans had never heard before, as for some reason or another they never made it on to an album.

Howie decided to put together an EP called "Ceasefire" with a few of his favorites, while he works on new material for release later this year. 

You can get the EP at iTunes, or order it directly from Howie's website for a little cheaper. At the website you can also order a physical version of the EP. Howie will sign all the physcial CDs, and they should ship on July 15th.

My two cents: this is a very good EP, Howie should have used these tracks before. If you like his music, buy it pronto.

Stray Palace is the side project of Paul Durham, mainman of alternative rock band Black Lab.

Paul Durham and Deej Hofer, his partner in this project, have just released the 7-tracks EP "The Diamond" that is up and ready for purchase at iTunes and Amazon MP3 Store.

According to Paul, the new EP "is catchy and bright and yet dark in all the right places, modern and trendy with just the right touches of classic rock in there".

The Black Lab website is featuring one song off "The Diamond" called "Best There Is" as the "free mp3 of the month". So stop by and grab it now.

This is straight from the MUTEMATH camp:

"MUTEMATH's 3rd studio album (Teleprompt/Warner Bros), "Odd Soul", will be available everywhere starting October 4, 2011.

Although Odd Soul will not be released until October 4th, fans will not have to wait that long to hear songs from the album.

MUTEMATH will be introducing the album to fans at 2 special shows, August 16 at the Troubadour in Los Angeles and August 25 at Mercury Lounge in New York City.

Tickets to these shows will be available on a first-come, first-served basis starting July 5th.

Stay tuned to www.mutemath.com for ticket links and tour updates."

Matt Nathanson new album "Modern Love" debuted last week at #17 on the Billboard Top 200.

The brand new video for the first single off "Modern Love", "Faster" has just been released. it was directed by Darren Doane, who shot Matt's videos for "Come On Get Higher" and "Falling Apart", and you can watch it here on the left.

For those who missed Matt Nathanson performance on Jimmy Kimmel live last week, you can recover "Faster" here and "Modern Love" here.

For further info on "Modern Love" and Matt's music, live dates, exclusive stuff and other cool surprises, check the official website at mattnathanson.com.

Feeder's summer festival dates are listed below:

• 03/07/11 - Chester Rocks, Chester Racecourse, UK
• 23/07/11 - Wickerman Festival, Dumfries, UK
• 24/07/11 - Splendour Festival, Nottingham, UK
• 30/07/11 - Jisan Valley Rock Festival, South Korea
• 31/07/11 - Fuji Rocks, Japan
• 06/08/11 - Y Not Festival, Pikehall Nr. Matlock, UK
• 07/08/11 - Ignition Festival, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
• 08/08/11 - The Villa Marina & Gaiety Theatre, Isle of Man, UK
• 19/08/11 - Frequency Festival, St. Polten, Austria
• 20/08/11 - Area 4 Festival, Ludinghausen, Germany
• 04/09/11 - Jersey Live, Jersey, UK

For further info about Grant Nicholas and company and getting tickets for all shows, head on to the Feeder website. 

They're stars in their homeland, and they're one of my favorite aussie band: Eskimo Joe are returning with a brand new record on August 12th, to be released on their own recently launched record label, Dirt Diamonds Productions.

The new work is called "Ghosts Of The Past" (click on the name to see the cover) and it's the fifth studio album of a succesful career that started in East Fremantle, Western Australia in 1997.

The record's been recorded at The Grove studios on the NSW Central Coast by the same team that produced the 4x platinum, #1 album "Black Fingernails, Red Wine".

The first single off "Ghosts Of The Past" is titled "Love Is A Drug" and is already available online. Listen to it on their facebook page now!

American rock artist, songwriter and record producer Butch Walker has been hard at work with his mates in Black Widows getting everything together for their new record to be released on Dangerbird Records.

It's titled "The Spade" and it will be coming out on August 30th.

This is the second record by Butch and The Black Widows (the first was "I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart", released last year) and the sixth Walker's album since Marvelous 3 disbanded in 2001.

The first song we can hear from "The Spade" is called "Summer of '89".

Anything to do with Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69"? Listen and judge by yourself here.

This news comes directly from our texan friends Alpha Rev:

"Dear fans, friends, family, and people of the world,

We're Alpha Rev and we'd like your help. We're recording a new EP and, for the first time in a long time, we're doing it all on our own. We couldn't be more excited to get back to our roots and make something a little more organic. What could be a better way to do that than with you being apart of it?

We've put together some pretty cool exclusives that you get when you pledge to our campaign, and that way we can focus on creating the best possible recording.