wow, cannot believe 2011 is coming to a close! that might be the same opening we use at the end of every one of these year-end posts, but it’s true! it was a great year, and we cannot thank you all enough for your support!

some 2011 highlights for us

• getting together and doing our first ever east coast shows. not to mention, the only time we all got to hang out together this year. it was just like old times, a bunch of nonsense, with a group of really good friends. thank you all who were able to make it to one of the shows, help set one up, and/or told friends to come! we met a lot of new friends and saw some really great bands.

• writing and recording a new song (bi-coastally) called “van gogh sky”, which we released as a limited edition split 7” with our friends all india radio. there are still a few copies remaining which you can order here! the all india radio song on the split, “rippled” has an amazing video which you should definitely see:

• 2011 also saw the release of a cover of the song the radiator (by ida) as part of the “more hope for japan” compilation. we were incredibly honored to participate in this project, with the proceeds all going to support relief efforts for japan. 37 bands, 37 tracks, available via digital download or physical release in the form of a strictly limited edition (100 copies) 4 disc cd set! stream our tune along with the other 36 jams here: http://morehopeforjapan.com/stream_the_entire_album/

2011 was also a year of some really fantastic music, hence the unavoidable: a top albums and tracks lists from us.  but before we get into that, a couple of quick notes regarding what’s next to come.

early plans for next year

mid-feb, the west coast branch will join the folks in the east coast office to finish fine tuning the songs for the new album. at this point, we are looking to begin recording in april and hopefully launching a late summer release! more to come on that.

we thought while all together, we might as well play another show!

friday feb 17 @ don pedro’s in brooklyn, with north end, calls, and alcian – rsvp by going to the facebook event

lastly, our sincere gratitude for your continued support. warm wishes, season’s greetings, happy holidays etc.

with love,

signal hill

our top albums and tracks all in no particular order.

brian

top albums

1. owen – ghost town
2. blue scholars – cinemetropolis
3. beware of safety – leaves/scars
4. tycho – dive
5. m83 – hurry up, we are dreaming
6. helios – unleft
7. silian rail – (acoustic music)
8. the drift – blue hour
9. the sea and cake – moonlight butterfly
10. sleepmakeswaves – …and so we destroyed everything

top tracks

1. m83 – steve mcqueen
2. tycho – a walk
3. brothertiger – feel
4. the water – elf storage
5. gorillaz – on melancholy hill
6. all india radio – ripple
7. owen – an animal
8. owen – i believe
9. arms & sleepers – kepesh
10. blue scholars – cinemetropolis

tim

top albums

1. ben howard – every kingdom
2. tycho – dive
3. white denim – d
4. the antlers – burst apart
5. iron & wine – kiss each other clean
6. motorcycle diaries – soundtrack, gustavo santaolalla
7. the north end – atlantica
8. beware of safety – leaves/scars
9. the besnard lakes – are the roaring night

top tracks

1. ben howard – lonely pine
2. ben howard – black flies
3. white denim – burnished
4. white denim – anvil everything
5. m83 – intro (ft. zola jesus)
6. iron & wine – walking far from home
7. iron & wine – godless brother in love
8. iron & wine –  me and lazarus
9. the besnard lakes- like the ocean, like the innocent; pt. 2 the innocent
10. gustavo santaolalla – leyendo en el hospital, the motorcycle diaries soundtrack

rishi

top albums

1. real estate – days
2. washed out – within and without
3. bibio – mind bokeh
4. owen – ghost town
5. the weeknd – house of balloons
6. craft spells – idle labor
7. the antlers – burst apart
8. tycho – dive
9. destroyer – kaputt
10. beach fossils – what a pleasure (ep)

top songs

1. real estate – green aisles
2. keep shelly in athens – “okionos negri street
3. washed out – “eyes be closed”
4. casiokids – elefantenes hemmelige gravplass
5. shabazz palaces – swerve… the reaping of all that is worthwhile (noir not withstanding)
6. arms and sleepers – i sing the body electric
7. john maus – cop killer
8. atlas sound – te amo
9. the drums – i need a doctor
10. toro y moi – how i know

dave

top albums

1. teebs – collections 01
2. people get ready – ep
3. owen – ghost town
4. the sea and cake – the moonlight butterfly
5. radiohead – the king of limbs
6. washed out- within and without
7. tycho – dive
8. beach fossils – what a pleasure
9. the drift -  blue hour
10. m83 – hurry up, we’re dreaming

top songs

1. shabazz palaces – are you…can you… were you? (felt)
2. mogwai – letters to the metro
3. kisses – kisses
4. kuedo – ascension phase
5. m83 –  echoes of mine
6. teebs – verbena tea (featuring rebeckah raff)
7. low – especially me
8. the drift – luminous friend
9. the sea and cake – inn keeping
10. beware of safety – moorpark ends
11. north end – synergy
12. wait what – before one love (Nas/Washed Out Mash Up)
13. people get ready – cathedral
14. tycho – hours
15. radiohead – lotus flower

For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Healy posed his theory of telescopic evolution in Richard Linklater’s film, Waking Life. His monologue in the film inspired much of the most recent Signal Hill album, More After We’re Gone. A vocal sample from Dr. Healy’s scene is featured in track 4 of the album, entitled “Men Before Them“.

When we added the sample to the tune, Tim emailed Dr. Healy for his blessing and sent him a copy of the tune. He enjoyed the song and was very generous in letting us use the sample for the album.

Since Tim visits Austin frequently, he made it a mission to one time drop by St. Edward’s University (where Dr.Healy works)  and share with him a copy of the record.  Tim called his office on Tuesday morning asking if he could swing by and Dr. Healy cheerfully said yes!

Tim really enjoyed sharing time with Dr. Healy, who he characterized as super friendly, charismatic, and genuine. Dr. Healy, thanks again for your inspiration and generosity in letting us the sample.  Here’s the clip from the movie which includes the sample that we used: Dr. Eamonn Healy – Waking Life

Men Before Them by SignalHill

thanks again for playing everyone, we have lots of new stuff coming soon (including hitting the studio again in december to finish up an ep etc.) stay tuned!

your friends,
siggy hill

ever think about buying our album? how bout getting it for free – directly from us? using the widget below, simply enter your email address and you will get a link to download the new album for free. this will only be for Nov 3rd -5th! the only thing we ask in return is to share with any and all of your friends that might be interested ! add it to your twitter accounts, facebook, myspace, twacespace, or whatever!

for all of you that have already purchased this album from us, we have something coming a little later for you! stay tuned for that

hi everyone,

its been awhile since we updated the site and we thought we would let you all know that things are alive and well in the signal hill camp. we began recording our first tunes for the follow up to More After We’re Gone.  we spent a glorious friday and saturday night at the compound studio in signal hill with our friend jeff lewis and patrick murphy.  we have fully tracked 4 songs so far and hope to go back and record more tunes in december. very excited with what we have so far! we arent sure exactly how itll be released yet (an ep, a couple of splits etc.) so while we await for those details to finalize, we are working on writing more jams! we will surely post sneak peaks of some of the new songs. stay tuned for more details on that front (there is a video at the bottom of this post which plays a little snippit!)

in a few non signal hill news items, our good bros are heading to the east coast for their first east coast tour next month! go view their tour dates and see them if they are in your town. such a great band, and the best dudes! they are playing some great shows with caspian (whos on an epic european tour right now), the american dollar, gifts from enola and a handful of other awesome bands.

in other buddies touring news, our friend rajiv patel (who actually played our ep release party a couple years ago) is heading on a month long tour opening for dear and the headlights and kinch. we cant say enough about how amazing this dude is live. his tour dates are posted on his myspace .

our friend rob price (who did the artwork for both the ep and our full length) and his wife kathy launched a new website called quotecookie.com. this site is a quote generate loaded with quotes that inspire creativity. grab a cookie each day or submit your own quote for others to enjoy!

thats about it for now, oh and our australia recap is coming at some point in the near future!!!

hit us up with some new music suggestions (tristeza and mercury program both drop new albums in december and november respectively WOOOO HOOO!).

best,

sh

so today marks the first day our new album is up for pre-order and immediate digital download. we are excited to finally share this with you all. take a look at the “more after we’re gone” tab for all of the ordering details! the physical cd’s will ship on or before june 9,2009!

All “More After We’re Gone” orders from SignalHillMusic.com include an immediate digital
download of the 12 track album in Premium 320kbps MP3 or FLAC (highest audio quality
available) formats. (FLAC files are for advanced users and are not compatible w/ iTunes)

The first 250 deluxe package orders will receive an exclusive limited edition
Signal Hill button pack in addition to the “More After We’re Gone” CD and the “Self-Titled EP”.

prefer to stream it to check it out first? ok! go ahead! stream the entire record below!

hi everyone,

our friends over at radio free silverlake have posted a new (and FREE!) 2009 mix on their site which includes our new tune,  llangollen.  its a great mix which includes lots of la bands from various genres and we are flattered that they asked us to contribute. its a great way to get the new year started with lots of righteous jams, so go grab the mix here!

if your in the la area, be sure to get the radio free silverlake site bookmarked as it loaded full of all things LA music.

also, with 2008 all but behind us, our friends & instrumental music aficionados  the silent ballet, have posted their top 50 albums of 2008. our friends  you.may.die.in.the.desert, the drift, and beware of safety all made the list this year! their electronic(a) list and honorable mentions will be added next week so check back for that!

hope everyone’s holiday season is going great!

sh

get your keysters out and jam some tunes!!

howdy everyone!

hope you all had a delicious and relaxing thanksgiving weekend! as the end of 2008 is rapidly approaching, we wanted to start by giving a huge thank you to you all for what has been a great year for signal hill!  we appreciate your constant support and hope to share some “presents” during this holiday season! so thank you!!!

we do have one last show this year that we are really excited about:

12/12/2008 – Che Cafe- La Jolla, CA W/ El Ten Eleven, Beware of Safety and Japanese Sunday

$7 bones, 8 pm all ages!

lastly, for a quick album update, we are continuing to make progress and are plugging away with editing/mixing now!at this point we are shooting for a march release (more as we get closer and previews to come way earlier!!!)

hope to see yall next week!

your pals,

sh

hi everyone,

7/17/08 @ pehrspace w/ unrecognizable now , and timonium.  this happens to be dave’s birthday and he couldnt ask for a better present than coming to fill up the pehrspace for a night of amazing jams!!! add it to your last.fm calendar by going here: http://www.last.fm/event/654590 

get your keysters out for the jams!

7/17

THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!!!! Instrumental Extravaganza – Featuring 10 bands (including yours truly)…. come hang both nights for $5 bones a night (wha wha what!!!!)

 special thanks to the silent ballet and beware of safety for setting this up and including us to play!

The Silent Ballet Presents West Without a Word  

Night One (3/14) at Pehrspace:
08.30pm – The Littlest Viking
09.30pm – Signal Hill
10.30pm – El Ten Eleven
11.30pm – The Drift

Night Two (3/15) at The Cocaine:
08.30pm – Arc of the Aurora
09.30pm – Form and Fate
10.30pm – Beware of Safety
11.30pm – North
12.30pm – Hellas Mounds/Empires (split set)