Hot Hot Heat will follow their current European tour with almost a dozen headlining dates in the U.S., beginning May 20th at New York’s Webster Hall. Elevator, the Canadian rockers’ follow-up to 2002’s breakthrough Make Up the Break Down, was released last month.
The band recently recorded acoustic versions of five songs from Elevator — “Jingle Jangle,” “You Owe Me an IOU,” “Pickin’ It Up,” “Goodnight, Goodnight” and “Middle of Nowhere” — with hopes of releasing an EP later this year. “It’s just a totally different vibe — like it sounds like old Johnny Cash,” says frontman Steve Bays. “Just two acoustic guitars, vocals and harmonies – but it’s not watered-down versions of the album. It’s really, really cool.”
Hot Hot Heat will also begin releasing some of the twenty-five songs they originally recorded for Elevator but scrapped because they were too “dark.” ! The first, “When We Were Kids,” will be available May 16th as the U.K. B side to the single “Goodnight, Goodnight.” Other shelved tracks include “Wait a Second” and “Eyes Ears Mouth,” a track that Bays says has “a Pacific Northwest sound” and is about his leaving the sleeping Victoria for Vancouver. “It’s weird and emotional to move away from your hometown,” he says, “but I don’t think I’ll ever move back.”
Hot Hot Heat tour dates:
5/20: New York, Webster Hall
5/21: North Hampton, MA, Pearl Street Nightclub
5/22: Philadelphia, Torcadero Theatre
5/23: Boston, Avalon
5/26: Cincinatti, Bogart’s
5/27: Columbus, OH, PromoWest Pavillion (with the Killers)
5/28: Cleveland, Scene Pavillion (with the Killers)
5/30: Detroit, State Theatre (89X bash with Social Distortion, the Killers, Sum 41 and Keane)
5/31: Milwaukee, The Rave at the Eagle’s Club
6/01: Minneapolis, The Quest
6/04: Auburn, WA, White River Amphitheater (107.7’s Endfest with Social Distortion, Interpol, Queens of the Stone Age)
6/09: Reno, NV, Reno Events Center
6/11: Santa Barbara, CA, Santa Barbara Bowl
6/13: Los Angeles, Avalon
7/13: Orlando, FL, Hard Rock Live (MTV taping)
Source rollingstone.com.
