When The Irish Tenors first launched onto the music and television scene over ten years ago we gladly rekindled a fire that has quietly burned in the soul of Irish Americans since the earliest populating of the modern United States. The very essence of any ethnic group is nurtured primarily within its music, its art, its writings, its poetry. Something of that essence is unleashed within our bloodstream when we are conceived and birthed, and it remains with us, and our progeny, forever. Little wonder, then, that the millions of hearts in the United States of Irish descent, in whatever generation, respond so readily to the music of their homeland, and that love, in turn, has happily attracted and introduced millions of people of every age, creed, and colour in every state in this great land to the enjoyment of these recordings made by The Irish Tenors.

With each new album, The Irish Tenors have the privilege of tending the flame and passion for the music of Ireland. A privilege which has taken us to the hallowed soil of Ellis Island, to the glitter of the Hollywood Bowl, to the grandeur of the Fourth of July Concert on Capitol Hill, and to the rapture of Madison Square Garden.

When searching for a title for our latest album, we decided to just call it simply 'Ireland', for this nation's musical tradition, like any respectable whiskey, has been maturing gracefully for thousands of years and when you settle down to listen to this fine album, hopefully it will pour you a glass of beauty and you will savour every drop and let your mind rest for a while on the island of Ireland. The Muses have been extra kind to the Irish and there is no shortage of songs (or whiskey!) and every album is a chance to bring you a different vintage, a collection that you will know and love. We wish you the very best of everything! Sláinte!

A "Chelsea Grin" in soccer hooligan terminology is the act of cutting a rivals mouth with either a credit card or blade and then kicking them in the crotch so their mouth muscles split into a bloody grimace. Chelsea Grin, the band from Utah armed with THREE guitarists, use a foundation of hardcore grit combined with death metal technicality and grind speed to produce as much aural harm as the back alley jaw split. The band is the premiere artist on Artery Recordings, a new imprint of Razor & Tie Entertainment, and are releasing their debut full-length Desolation Of Eden this February. The album will hit in the midst of the band’s two month run with The Red Chord and MyChildren MyBride (dates below).

Artery Recordings is the recording arm of The Artery Foundation who are the management team responsible for jumpstarting the careers of Whitechapel, The Devil Wears Prada, A Day To Remember, Attack Attack! and Impending Doom. Speaking on why Chelsea Grin get the Artery seal of approval, Eric Rushing, President of the company says "The first time I saw this band I was completely blown away and the crowd interaction was just as intense, it reminded me of the first time I saw Whitechapel. This band is very young and the kids are already loving them coast to coast. Very excited about their debut!"

Desolation Of Eden was tracked at Lambesis Studios, owned by Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying and bares the hallmarks of Chelsea Grin's devastating live show. Songs like the title track and 'Sonnet Of The Wretched' utilize the double bass drumming, three guitar attack, ultra low bass frequencies and wraith-like vocals into a wall of sound to devastating effect. Brutality aside, what separates the band from many of their contemporaries according to Jaek (guitar) is "obviously our age, we are a very young band being mostly 18 and 19. I know a lot of people have an impression on metal bands is that they are big, burly dudes with beards and not very approachable. We pretty much are the opposite of that, we are always hanging out with the fans at shows because we are them! Teenagers that like heavy music and hanging out."

Age aside, Chelsea Grin is made up of Alex (vocals), Michael (guitar), Andrew (drums), Dan (guitar), David (bass) and Jaek, and have completed feats that bands existing twice as long have not. Forming from the ashes of Ahaziah, Chelsea Grin got active in March 2008. "Right after we formed we recorded our first EP made up of five songs and started playing local shows. Then we signed to a small indie called Statik Factory, released a single called 'Recreant' and did a small west coast tour in June of that year. The following month Statik Factory released our EP, and almost immediately our MySpace page was getting hits from around the country and we found ourselves not only being established in Utah but kids all over were writing us and listening to us."

Speaking on the obvious development between the earlier songs and the audio crushing output of Desolation Of Eden, Jake comments "Lyrically we have matured quite a bit, when we wrote the EP a lot of our early lyrics dealt with betrayal by females that we didn’t think very fondly of. A lot of younger males could relate those lyrics to ex-girlfriends, friends whatever. However after our experiences of freedom within this band, I find a lot of our songs are about breaking away from voices of authority and ultimately living life the way you want to live it. We also re-recorded our older songs 'Recreant' and 'Cheyne Stokes' so the brutal songs will still be there (laughs)."

Chelsea Grin has completed tours with Arsonists Get All The Girls, A Plea For Purging, American Me, Dr.Acula, Attila and Within The Ruins and shared stages with Suicide Silence, Parkway Drive, My Children My Bride. (Tour dates below)

NEW YORK, NY/SACREMENTO, CA (December 17, 2009) Razor & Tie, one of the fastest growing independent record labels in the U.S., and The Artery Foundation have entered into a new joint venture, Artery Recordings. Through the partnership, The Artery Foundation will have their own label imprint with Razor & Tie. The Artery Foundation, which is home to such artists as The Devil Wears Prada and Drop Dead, Gorgeous, will continue serve as the A&R arm to find and develop artists while Razor & Tie will provide marketing and distribution for the artists under the venture. Publishing will be administered by Razor & Tie Music Publishing. Salt Lake City-based metal band, Chelsea Grin's debut full-length album, "Desolation of Eden" will be the venture's first project to be released on February 16, 2010. This will be followed by the release of "Portraits" on March 16, 2010 from UK-based metalcore band, Bury Tomorrow.

On the direction that Artery Recordings will take, Eric Rushing, founder of the company and the label says, "We believe in developing a band from the ground up like we have all of the bands we manage. What more of a perfect situation if we can put out records as well and have a platform for new bands that we discover. We will concentrate on a small amount of releases per year and keep one of our goals to be a very artist friendly label."
Cliff Chenfeld, Co-Founder of Razor & Tie added, "We are very excited to get into business with Eric and The Artery Foundation. Eric has an amazing track record of finding and developing quality artists and we expect to help him create additional exposure and opportunities for them."

Artery label manager Mike Milford says, "I think the great part of our partnership with Razor & Tie is that we have the full strength of a successful label with a proven track history and major distribution while retaining the close personal relationships with our artists. Unlike some labels where artists get lost in the shuffle we will have the opportunity to take every creative idea and concern of our artist and address them with utmost attention and support."

The Artery Foundation formed in 2004 at which point Rushing had been a successful concert promoter in Sacramento for over fifteen years. He also started a record label called 720 Records which helped to nurture the local music scene for over thirty releases before he stopped to focus on management full time. Rushing recalls "From day one we started Artery it was a full-time operation. Our original roster was The Devil Wears Prada, Drop Dead, Gorgeous, A Day To Remember and Alesana." Dance Gavin Dance, Attack Attack!, Breathe Carolina and Whitechapel are also currently on the label.

New York-based Razor & Tie is one of the fastest growing independent record labels in the United States. The label has enjoyed success in a variety of genres and garnered both Platinum sales and Grammyawards in the process. The rapidly expanding roster includes such artists as All That Remains, Angelique Kidjo, Dead Confederate, Dave Barnes and The Summer Set, as well as upcoming releases from Norma Jean and Just Surrender.

Nashville based hard rockers Day Of Fire's forthcoming release, LOSING ALL, features 13 ambitious, high energy rock songs.

Set for release on January 26, 2010, LOSING ALL is a powerful hard-rock record that showcases the growth of band professionally and personally. Day Of Fire is vocalist Josh Brown, guitarist Joe Pangallo, his brother Chris Pangallo on bass, and drummer Zach Simms.

Day of Fire's single, "Lately", is available now as an exclusive iTunes bundle. Included in the bundle is the album version of "Lately", a live audio version of the song, and a live video.

'Lately' is climbing the charts on Active Rock and Christian rock radio. It was #1 most added at Christian Rock on impact week and #2 Most Added at Active Rock.

Helping to build on this radio success, the band has radio shows lined up for the month of December and a slated tour in the works for January/February 2010.

NEW ALBUM OUT SUMMER 2010

Calling all Norma Jean fans--get your video phones & flip cams charged and ready to record the live performance of their new song, "Kill More Presidents," for their current EXPLOSIONS 2009 Tour. The band is asking fans to use their portable digital cameras to film the band playing the new song live and then upload to a microsite after the show. Norma Jean will then create a live music video with all material coming from fan submissions.

For those who submit video clips, Norma Jean offer a hefty set of prizes from such sponsors as Monster Energy, Activision/Tony Hawk RIDE, Alternative Press Magazine, Denny's, Keep A Breast, Rockett Clothing and Hot Topic. Those without a digital video camera can still submit their email address for the Norma Jean mailing list and enter to win the second tier prize pack. Winners will be chosen at random.

Norma Jean will be playing "Kill More Presidents" live on the 2009 EXPLOSIONS tour with support from Horse The Band, The Chariot, and Arsonists Get All The Girls. A new Norma Jean album is slated for summer 2010.

Click here for the contest microsite: http://www.normajeannoise.com/video/

HEADLINING EXPLOSIONS 2009 TOUR THIS WINTER

Acclaimed post-hardcore heavy rockers Norma Jean signs with Razor & Tie and plans a 2010 album release. The band will headline the "Explosions 2009" US tour in late November through December. Norma Jean will play their breakthrough album Bless The Martyr and Kiss the Child in its entirety on select dates. This is the band's first headlining trek since the Fall of last year and boasts an impressive lineup - Horse The Band, The Chariot and Arsonists Get All The Girls - with a few surprises from the powerful live band. In January Norma Jean will head into the studio to record a new album for a 2010 summer release.

Cory Brandan of Norma jean comments, "If we didn't sign to Razor & Tie, I think we would have gone on a killing spree, with no regard for life or limb. I think for the first time in our career, upon presenting our ideas, we get to hear the word "yes" more often. It's like discovering an unknown tribe on a distant island. Except we're the tribe and we don't know your language. Plus we have spears and swords and we're cannibals. Either way, we're insanely animated about R&T showing up and want to try on their Nike Air Jordans."

NORMA JEAN
Atlanta-based post-hardcore rockers Norma Jean have released four albums to date selling over 360,000 combined. The band's last album, The Anti Mother, debuted at #29 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and received rave reviews with Alternative Press calling it "ambitious and addictive." The album is the most furious, and yet melodic, music of their career and featured Page Hamilton of Helmet as well as a collaboration with Deftones' frontman Chino Moreno. The Grammy nominated band has an enormous online following with over 15 million MySpace plays and 267,000 MySpace friends as well as over 15,000 Facebook friends. Norma Jean has spent the last few years on the road - headlining the mainstage on the 2008 Warped Tour, secondstage on the 2006 Ozzfest, and has toured with countless bands worldwide. Norma Jean is Cory Brandan (lead vocals/guitars), Scottie Henry (guitars), Jake Schultz (bass), Chris Day (guitars) and Chris Raines (drums). The band is managed by Tim Smith and Chris Byrnes of Blood Company and booked by Nick Storch at The Agency Group.

"one of noisy hardcore's more convincing and dexterous." Alternative Press

"swinging, furious urgency..." Revolver

"sounds like a thousand rabid children hacking away at a pinata packed with explosives." Decibel

"Norma Jean's hidden strength lies in their dedication to melody." All Music Guide

"Norma Jean sounds like extra time in a brutal pit. Awesome." Kerrang!

"this band kind of totally rules." Altpress.com

"Norma Jean have transcended the metalcore scene entirely .....raw, melodic and extremely angry" Artist Direct

NORMA JEAN MUSIC/VIDEOS AND LINKS

http://www.myspace.com/normajean
http://twitter.com/NormaJeanband
http://www.facebook.com/normajean/

NORMA JEAN TOUR DATES
Nov-19 New Orleans, LA The Hangar
Nov-20 Houston, TX Meridian
Nov-21 San Antonio, TX White Rabbit
Nov-22 Ft. Worth, TX The Door
Nov-24 Tempe, AZ The Clubhouse
Nov-25 Pomona, CA Glasshouse
Nov-27 San Francisco, CA Slims
Nov-28 Portland, OR Hawthorne Theater
Nov-29 Seattle, WA El Corazon
Nov-30 Boise, ID The Venue
Dec-01 Salt Lake City, UT Club Sound
Dec-02 Denver, CO Marquis Theater
Dec-04 St. Paul, MN Station Four
Dec-05 Chicago, IL Reggie's
Dec-06 Cleveland, OH Peabody's
Dec-07 Pittsburgh, PA Altar Bar
Dec-08 Toronto, ON Opera House
Dec-09 Montreal, QC Tulipe
Dec-11 New York, NY Gramercy
Dec-12 Lancaster, PA Chameleon Club
Dec-13 Towson, MD Recher Theatre
Dec-14 Richmond, VA Canal Club
Dec-15 Columbia, SC New Brookland Tavern
Dec-17 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
Dec-18 St. Petersburg, FL State Theater
Dec-19 Atlanta, GA Masquerade

**featuring Horse The Band, The Chariot and Arsonists Get All The Girls

Angelique Kidjo has been deemed "Africa's premier diva" by Time Magazine, and the moniker speaks accurately to the singular career and life she has forged: Like Miriam Makeba was before her, Kidjo is the continent's most internationally celebrated female musical exponent. And yet, the GRAMMY-winning artist has lived outside Africa for more than two decades. She currently resides in New York City, where she is an exceptionally active member of the music scene, and she reaches people around the world with her recordings, tours and philanthropic work. On her new album, Kidjo revisits the music that was instrumental in her artistic formation in Benin, the country whose communist dictatorship she fled in the early '80s. Razor & Tie will release the disc, entitled OYO, on February 9, 2010.

Although OYO is primarily comprised of covers, the music is instantly recognizable as Kidjo's: The first thing one hears at the outset of the album is her breathtaking voice, long-sustaining the first word of "Zelie," a song written by Bella Bellow from Togo. There are various other African songs, including "Lakutshn Llanga," a lullaby made famous by Kidjo's hero, Miriam Makeba, and the Beninese traditional song "Atcha Houn." Many tracks reveal the prevalence of American soul and funk in the port city of Cotonou, where Kidjo grew up: She duets with John Legend and is joined by the horns of Antibalas on Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up," offers Yoruban interpretations of Otis Redding's "I've Got Dreams to Remember" and Santana's "Samba Pa Ti," collaborates with Diane Reeves on the Aretha Franklin hit, "Baby I Love You," and also takes on James Brown's "Cold Sweat." Other highlights include the Sidney Bechet tune "Petite Fleur," a favorite of Kidjo's father, who passed away last year, and "Dil Main Chuppa Ke Pyar Ka," the theme song of a Bollywood film they saw together some ten times.

Recorded and mixed by Russell Elevado (D'Angelo, The Roots, Erykah Badu) and produced by Kidjo and longtime collaborator Jean Hebrail, OYO features a band of highly accomplished musicians, including another Benin-born, New York-based artist, the guitarist Lionel Loueke, as well as Christian McBride on upright bass, Kendrick Scott on drums and Thiokho Diagne on percussion. The trumpeter Roy Hargove makes a memorable appearance on "Samba Pa Ti."

OYO comes on the heels of Kidjo's Djin Djin, which featured performances by a roster of eminent artists who admire her: Alicia Keys, Peter Gabriel, Joss Stone, Branford Marsalis, Carlos Santana, Ziggy Marley and Amadou & Mariam, to name just a few.

In advance of the new album's release, Kidjo will perform December 4 in Cape Town, South Africa at the Final Draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. She will headline concerts around the world this spring.

Constantly recording and touring, Kidjo is equally engaged in advocacy and activism, from UNICEF (for whom she is a Goodwill Ambassador) to her own Batonga Foundation , which provides educational aid to young African girls. In September 2009, she joined forces with UNICEF in a campaign to eliminate tetanus. A portion of proceeds for downloads of the song, "You Can Count On Me," will provide tetanus vaccines to pregnant women and mothers. Another haunting song, "Agbalagba," was originally penned for and offered as a free download with the New York Times best-selling book Say You're One Of Them by African writer Uwem Akpan. The book, recently featured in Oprah Winfrey's book club, consists of five stories, each written from the point of view of a child in Africa.

OYO Track Listing
1. Zelie
2. Samba Pa Ti (feat. Roy Hargrove)
3. Move On Up (feat. John Legend)
4. Lakutshona Llanga
5. I've Got Dreams To Remember
6. Kelele
7. Baby, I Love You (feat. Dianne Reeves)
8. Dil Main Chuppa Ke Pyar Ka
9. Petite Fleur
10. Afia
11. Cold Sweat
12. Out Of Africa
13. Mbube
14. Atcha Houn
15. You Can Count On Me (Bonus Track)
16. Agbalagba (Bonus Track)

www.kidjo.com
www.myspace.com/angeliquekidjo
www.BatongaFoundation.org
Press Photos and Assets: Angelique Kidjo Media Page