News

After two U.S. headlining club tours, Toronto rock duo Death from Above 1979 have been handpicked to open for Queens of the Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails when they kick off their North American arena tour October 16th in San Antonio, Texas.

DFA 1979 is a heavy-ass, noisy, dance-punk rhythm section, comprised of singer/drummer Sebastien Grainger and bassist/keyboardist Jesse Keeler. Formed in 2001, the pair released an indie EP, Heads Up, finally releasing their full-length U.S. debut, You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine, last fall to plenty of buzz.

Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme did a remix for the DFA 1979 track “Black History Month” for a U.K. vinyl pressing — also set to appear on DFA 1979’s remix/B-sides/live album due in the fall — and now the bands will be hitting the road together, even though they have yet to meet in person. Says Grainger, “We’d been passing notes like kids in school, through other bands.”

The duo doesn’t seem concerned about being dwarfed on such large stages and has no plans to alter its live presentation on the seventeen-date tour. “We’re going to get the White Stripes in and ask them how they do it,” jokes Keeler. “I think the answer is to not change anything, because what makes you famous will also keep you famous. We will continue to do what we do.”

After playing summer festivals overseas, as well as some Canadian shows, DFA 1979 are writing for their next album, which they hope to have completed by the end of December. The band has a handful of songs finished now, which Keeler believes are a leg up on the punk/industrial “You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine.” “We’re a lot better at what we do, and what’s going to be different on the next record is, now that I’ve got your attention, I can do what I want to do. The last record we made was like [Radiohead’s] Pablo Honey, and this one will be more like Kid A.”

Source rollingstone.com.

The String Cheese Incident released their fifth studio album, One Step Closer, on June 28, 2005 on their own record label, SCI Fidelity Records. With the new release SCI divulge, perhaps for the first time, their genuine songwriting voice, and it’s every bit as ambitious as you’d expect.

One Step Closer was recorded at a friend’s home in the hills of Colorado’s Front Range, and was produced by Malcolm Burn (Bob Dylan, Chris Whitley, Emmylou Harris, Daniel Lanois). The recording experience proved to be cathartic for the five members of SCI, and the high and low points of the process are revealed in an accompanying DVD that features 30 minutes of exclusive B-roll footage. The end result: a gritty, free-wheeling and powerfully honed collection of 13 original songs, and a band reborn and re-inspired to continue their legacy as one of today’s most visionary and talented rock bands.

Thu Oct 06 Portland ME STATE THEATRE
Fri Oct 07 Portland ME STATE THEATRE
Sat Oct 08 Hampton Beach NH HAMPTON BEACH BALLROOM
Sun Oct 09 Hampton Beach NH HAMPTON BEACH BALLROOM
Mon Oct 10 Ithaca NY HISTORIC ITHACA’S STATE THEATRE
Tue Oct 11 Ithaca NY HISTORIC ITHACA’S STATE THEATRE
Thu Oct 13 Scranton PA CULTURAL ARTS CENTER
Fri Oct 14 Pittsburgh PA CARNEGIE MUSIC HALL
Sat Oct 15 Lincroft NJ COLLINS ARENA @ BROOKDALE COLLEGE
Mon Oct 17 Myrtle Beach SC HOUSE OF BLUES
Wed Oct 19 Charlotte NC OVENS AUDITORIUM
Thu Oct 20 Birmingham AL ALABAMA THEATRE
Fri Oct 21 Atlanta GA FOX THEATRE
Sat Oct 22 Atlanta GA FOX THEATRE
Sun Oct 23 Knoxville TN TENNESSEE THEATRE
Sat Oct 29 Las Vegas NV VEGOOSE

Philadelphia’s Brothers Past recently released their new album, This Feeling’s Called Goodbye, to a sold out crowd at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom. The album will debut on store shelves on October 18. Culminated from almost a year of studio sessions, the band recorded more material than necessary, and then meticulously honed the album down to a concise, well-produced and uniquely mature CD for a young band. The album was produced and mixed by Jon Altschiller at Chiller Sound in New York City, who worked on the Grammy nominated soundtrack for the movie Shrek and with such prominent artists including Jon Mayer, Dave Matthews, Phish, Lenny Kravitz, Ben Folds and Simon and Garfunkel.

This summer Brothers Past will bring their jaw-dropping live show to premier festivals and clubs throughout the country. Current confirmed tour dates include:

Thursday, August 25 Chameleon Club, Lancaster PA
Friday, August 26 Camp Bisco Van Etten NY
Friday, September 2 The Stone Pony, Asbury Park NJ
Wednesday, September 7 Stone Church, Newmarket NH
Thursday, September 8 The Higher Ground, S. Burlington VT
Friday, September 9 Pearl Street Night Club, Northampton MA
Saturday, September 10 Mill Street Brews, Southbridge MA
Wednesday, September 14 The Crow Bar, State College PA
Thursday, September 15 The Blind Pig, Ann Arbor MI
Friday, September 16 The Annex, Madison WI
Saturday, September 17 Subterranean, Chicago IL
Friday, September 23 Nectar, Seattle WA
Saturday, September 24 Goodfoot, Portland OR
Tuesday, September 27 Six Rivers Brewery, McKinleyville CA
Wednesday, September 28 12 Galaxies, San Francisco CA
Friday, September 30 Knitting Factory, Los Angeles CA
Friday, September 30 Knitting Factory, Los Angeles CA
Saturday, October 1 Winston’s, San Diego CA
Wednesday, October 5 The Fox, Boulder CO
Thursday, October 6 Aggie, Fort Collins CO
Friday, October 7 Cervantes, Denver CO
Saturday, October 8 Cervantes, Denver CO
Thursday, October 27 Revolution Hall, Troy NY
Friday, October 28 Castaways, Ithaca NY
Saturday, October 29 Clark University / The Grind, Worcester MA
Friday, November 4 The Grog Shop, Cleveland OH
Saturday, November 5 El Mocambo, Toronto ON
Friday, November 11 Paradise Rock Club, Boston MA
Wednesday, November 16 The Poor House, Raleigh NC
Thursday, November 17 The Boone Saloon, Boone NC
Friday, November 18 Stella Blue, Ashville NC
Saturday, November 19 Marrz Theatre, Wilmington NC
Wednesday, November 23 River Street Jazz Caf

The NEMO Music Festival and Conference has announced confirmed artists for the showcases at this year

Atmosphere will begin a huge tour in support of the new album out in october “you can’t imagine how much fun we’re having”. This tour kicks off a month before the hugely anticipated and heralded album drops.

Atmosphere started out 2005 by performing eight sold out shows in a row at the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis (beating the original five sold out shows record held by the Replacements in 1986). In January, Atmosphere joined the lineup on the Big Day Out Tour of Australia and New Zealand along with artists: Beastie Boys, System of a Down, Slipknot, The Streets and more. In March Atmosphere hit the road in the U.S for their two-month tour that sold out 49 of the 52 shows.

The Pour Me Another Tour takes on 56 shows in 66 days. The tour features two music festival dates, September 16 at CMJ Music Marathon (them headlining one of the best veunues there- Irving Plaza) and October 29 at the Las Vegoose festival in Las Vegas, NV.

ATMOSPHERE FALL 05 TOUR

09/09 Duluth, MN Luce
09/10 Duluth, MN Luce
09/13 Cleveland,OH House of Blues
09/14 Buffalo. NY Buffalo Icon
09/15 New Haven, CT Toad’s Place
09/16 New York, NY CMJ Music Marathon
09/18 Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Smalls
09/19 Bloomington, IN Rhino’s
09/20 Iowa City, IA Scope Ballroom
09/22 Omaha, NE Sokol Ballroom
09/23 Menomonie, WI Un of WI Stout
09/24 Fargo, ND Playmaker’s Pavilion
09/26 Bozeman, MT Zebra Lounge
09/27 Missoula, MT U of Montana
09/28 Calgary, AB Mac Ewan Hall
09/29 Edmonton. AB Red’s
09/30 Saskatoon, SK Louis’ Pub (U of S)
10/01 Winnipeg, M Ramada Marlborough
10/04 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theatre
10/05 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre
10/06 Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall
10/07 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
10/08 Toronto, ON Opera House
10/10 Montreal, QC TBA
10/11 Burlington, VT Higher Ground
10/12 Providence, RI Lupos
10/13 Boston, MA The Roxy Theatre
10/14 New York, NY TBA
10/15 Philadelphia, PA Trocadero
10/17 Baltimore, MD Recher Theatre
10/18 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
10/19 Chapel Hill, NC Cat’s Cradle
10/20 Atlanta, GA TBA
10/21 Gainesville, FL Common Grounds
10/22 Orlando,FL Pavilion
10/24 New Orleans, LA House Of Blues
10/25 Austin, TX Emo’s
10/26 Dallas, TX Gypsy Ballroom
10/27 Albuquerque, NM TBA
10/28 Phoenix, AZ Marquee Theatre
10/29 Las Vegas, NV Las Vegoose Fest
10/30 Long Beach, CA The Vault
11/01 Los Angeles, CA Wiltern Theatre
11/02 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
11/03 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
11/04 Eugene, OR McDonald Theatre
11/05 Portland, OR Roseland Theatre
11/06 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
11/07 Seattle, WA Showbox Theatre
11/09 Salt Lake City, UT Clubland Theater
11/10 Denver, CO Fillmore Auditorium
11/11 Lawrence, KS Granada
11/12 Columbia, MO Bluenote Theater
11/13 Madison, WI The Orpheum
11/14 Minneapolis, MN First Ave
11/15 Minneapolis, MN First Ave

Vassar Clements remembered as one of the world’s finest, and probably the world’s most versatile fiddle players died today from lung cancer.

Combining jazz with country, Vassar Clements became one of the most distinctive, inventive, and popular fiddlers in bluegrass music. Clements first came to prominence as a member of Bill Monroe’s band in the early ’50s, but he never limited
himself to traditional bluegrass. Over the next four decades, he distinguished himself by incorporating a number of different genres into his style. In the process, he became not only one of the most respected fiddlers in bluegrass, he also became a sought-after session musician, playing with artists as diverse as the Monkees, Hank Williams, Paul McCartney, Michelle Shocked, Vince Gill, and Bonnie Raitt.

Conor Oberst will return to the road with Bright Eyes this fall, beginning Oct. 22 at the Santa Barbara Bowl in Santa Barbara, Calif. Whereas Bright Eyes’ spring/summer tour found Oberst backed by the Faint and largely performing material from the electronica-shaded album “Digital Ash in a Digital Urn,” the upcoming month-long outing will return to a more traditional lineup and set list.

“Digital Ash” was simultaneously released in January with the rootsier “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.” The Saddle Creek sets have sold a combined 484,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

“It’s kind of a practical thing to do it this way,” Oberst previously told Billboard.com of the different tours. “It wouldn’t make sense, in terms of equipment and people, to play the songs from both albums at the same time. It’d be a logistical nightmare. So we decided we’d basically go on tour twice and play the same places.”

As part of the tour, Bright Eyes will also play Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit, set for Oct. 29-30 in Mountain View, Calif.

Oberst and Bright Eyes play a major role in the history of Saddle Creek, the first 10 years of which will be chronicled on the upcoming DVD “Spend an Evening With Saddle Creek.” The film is due Aug. 23 via Plexifilm.

In related news, Oberst’s Team Love label has signed former Shudder To Think frontman Craig Wedren, and will release his solo debut,

Neil Young has signed a new, multi-album deal with Reprise, which will kick in with the Sept. 27 release of his latest studio set, “Prairie Wind.” Young recorded for Reprise from 1969 to 1983 and returned to the label in 1988 after a wildly experimental five-album stint on Geffen.

As previously reported, a major facet of the new deal will be a long-awaited series of archival releases from Young. According to Reprise, the series, which will get underway next year, will feature previously unreleased studio recordings and rarities as well as live material.

“I look forward to continuing my partnership with Reprise,” Young said in a statement. “We’ve been through a lot together over the years. When you’re with a company that long, it’s like a family.

On Thursday and Friday (Aug. 18-19), Young will perform at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium as part of a concert film directed by Jonathan Demme. The as-yet-untitled project will hit theaters next year via Paramount.

Source billboard.com.

This fall Umphrey’s McGee will bring their hard-hitting live show to theatres from coast to coast, including a stop in Las Vegas at the inaugural Vegoose Festival. The complete list of Umphrey’s McGee tour dates is below.

In addition, the band’s second DVD release, Wrapped Around Chicago; New Year’s at the Riv, was recorded in their hometown on December 30 and 31, 2004 at the Riviera Theatre. The two disc set, which hits streets on October 18, 2005, offers almost four hours of performance and b-roll footage that captures just what the buzz is all about. Expect jaw-dropping performances and a front row view of the band’s unique musical rapport during live shows, plus plenty of irreverent humor, wackiness, and serious nonsense.

Tour Dates

Saturday, August 20 River Roots live Festival, Davenport IA
Sunday, Aug 21 Music in the Zoo, Apple Valley MN
Tuesday, August 23 Mr. Small

Singer-songwriters Steve Earle and Allison Moorer were married Thursday (Aug. 11) in Nashville during a ceremony at the Hermitage Hotel, The Tennessean newspaper reports. It’s the seventh marriage for Earle, 50, who was married twice to one of his previous wives. Moorer, 33, was previously married to songwriter-producer Doyle “Butch” Primm. Earle and Moorer began touring together in 2004. They appear in concert Tuesday (Aug. 16) in Albuquerque, N.M., and Wednesday (Aug. 17) in Grand Junction, Colo.

Source: cmt.com