We have been experiencing a major influx of German bands touring over here in North America in recent months. So far in 2008, we have seen The Jeans Team, De/Vision, and And One all successfully complete their tours, but the fun has just begun! 4 more German bands have recently confirmed that they will also be touring America. They are: Seabound, Doro, Accessory, and Destroid. In addition to these confirmed bands, Unheilig fans also know that there have been rumors of an American tour later in the year for that band. And as an extra boost to all of this excitement, the Finnish cello rock band Apocalyptica (which has a lot of connections with German bands) will also be going on an extensive 30-concert tour across the continent. 2008 has just gotten a lot better!

I will certainly post the full tourdates for all of the bands listed above in the coming weeks, but the next band to arrive is Seabound so I need to tell you about them first…

Seabound is the next German band to tour America
Seabound is a synthpop duo which has produced 4 studio albums to date. With a rapidly expanding fanbase worldwide thanks to the support of Metropolis Records, they are now preparing to embark on their first tour overseas. The “Alliance Tour 2008″ will take Seabound across the United States for 14 concerts. Shortly after the tour concludes, the band will release their first live album Come Forward - Live In Berlin on April 8th. The electro group Iris will be opening for Seabound throughout the entire tour, except the Connecticut show because that’s a larger festival with lots of bands.

You can listen to some of Seabound’s music on their MySpace page. Seabound.de also has lots of info about the band, from photos and lyrics to album reviews and additional MP3 samples. Take some time to check this band out, and head to one of their concerts if you like their music. I’ve heard they put on really great shows.

Seabound “Alliance Tour 2008″ dates:
Click the link on the venue for ticket info

Mar 12 - Shampoo - Philadelphia, PA
Mar 13 - Rock and Roll Hotel - Washington D.C.
Mar 14 - Blacksun Festival - New Haven, CT
Mar 15 - The Madison - New York City, NY
Mar 16 - Water Street - Rochester, NY
Mar 18 - Pegasus - Pittsburgh, PA
Mar 19 - Luna - Detroit, MI
Mar 20 - Darkroom - Chicago, IL
Mar 22 - Elysium - Austin, TX
Mar 24 - Club Dada - Dallas, TX
Mar 26 - El Corazon - Seattle, WA
Mar 27 - Mt. Tabor - Portland, OR
Mar 29 - DNA Lounge - San Francisco, CA
Mar 30 - Safari Sam’s - Los Angeles, CA

German music fans have been awaiting the release of Unheilig’s new album for a long time now, but finally Puppenspiel is almost here! Tomorrow, February 22nd, the album will be released in Europe via Four Rock Entertainment. A week later on February 29th, Unheilig will have their first North American album release ever when Nilaihah Records distributes Puppenspiel for the band’s overseas fans.

As is typical with most new album releases, there will be 2 versions of Puppenspiel. The standard version will have 14 new songs including an instrumental at the end. There is also a limited edition digipack with 2 bonus tracks, but the evidence I have seen suggests that this version will only be released in Europe. If you really want it outside of Europe, you can head to your favorite foreign music importer like Isotank.com.

Listen to Puppenspiel
Puppenspiel keeps Unheilig’s fantastic combination of electronic and rock music intact. The band has uploaded samples to 3 of the new songs a few weeks ago on their MySpace page. Full versions of those 3 songs are also available to buy as MP3s here. More recently, Nilaihah’s website has also added more samples of every song on the album so you can get a better idea of how it sounds.

Unheilig on tour
Unheilig will be busy running all over Europe for a while with the tour they already have planned. Most of the dates run from March through May and span all the way from Spain to Russia. You can see all the tourdates by visiting Unheilig.com and clicking on “Concerts” in the menu. Rumor has it that the band will be touring the United States sometime in the Fall, too! Stay tuned for that, you won’t want to miss it.

Unheilig - Puppenspiel tracklist
01. Vorhang auf
02. Puppenspieler
03. Spiegelbild
04. Dein Clown
05. Sei mein Licht
06. Fang mich auf
07. Feuerengel
08. Kleine Puppe
09. An deiner Seite
10. Die Bestie
11. Lampenfieber
12. Wie viele Jahre
13. Der Vorhang fällt
14. Memoria (instrumental)
15. Glaub an mich (bonus track on limited edition only)
16. Spielzeugmann (bonus track on limited edition only)

Where to get Puppenspiel
In the USA/Canada direct from Nilaihah Records
In the UK at MusicNonStop.co.uk
In Germany/Europe at AlphaMusic.de

The German gothic rock band Unheilig is currently planning the release of a new album. The band’s newsletter just announced that it will be called Puppenspiel, and it will be released on February 22nd, 2008. That’s just slightly over 2 years after the release of their current full-length album, Moderne Zeiten, which hit stores in January of 2006. However, they did have 2 smaller EPs that were released since then, so the band certainly hasn’t been sitting around doing nothing all this time. You can hear a few songs from those on Unheilig’s MySpace page.

I’m looking forward to hearing more news about Puppenspiel as February gets closer, and I’ll be sure to post it here for you. Stay tuned!

Thanks to Paul for pointing this out.