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Big Head Todd & The Monsters have announced their summer tour dates. Amongst the travels, the band will offer two free shows, beginning wtih a performance at the Ribfest in St. Louis, MO. The band will be playing a June 4th show in their home state of Colorado at Red Rocks with supporting act Love45.

Tour Dates

05.29.2005 – St. Louis, MO – Ribfest @ Soldiers Memorial FREE SHOW!!
06.04.2005 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks
06.17.2005 – Oklahoma City, OK – Zoo Amphitheatre
06.19.2005 – Lawrence, KS – Wakarusa
06.24.2005 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Park Zoo
06.25.2005 – Sioux Falls, SD – Summer Jam
06.26.2005 – Superior, WI – University of Wisconsin
07.02.2005 – Sun Valley, ID – Freedom Fest
07.03.2005 – Council Bluffs, IA – Harrah’s
07.04.2005 – Itasca, IL – Hamilton Lakes
07.08.2005 – Minneapolis, MN – Basilica Block Party
07.09.2005 – Des Moines, IA – Simon Estes Amph.
07.21 – 7.22 – Cabo San Lucas, MX – Cabo Wabo/Finesterra
07.28.2005 – Salt Lake City, UT – Galavan Center
07.29.2005 – Sparks (Reno), NV – The Nugget
07.30.2005 – Sparks (Reno), NV – The Nugget
08.03.2005 – Paso Robles, CA – Midstate Fair
08.05.2005 – Saratoga, CA – Saratoga Winery
08.06.2005 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
08.07.2005 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
08.12.2005 – Three Forks, MT – Rockin’ the Rivers
08.24.2005 – Isle of Palms, SC – Windjammer
08.25.2005 – Isle of Palms, SC – Windjammer
08.26.2005 – Isle of Palms, SC – Windjammer
08.27.2005 – Nashville, TN – WRLT Festival
09.03.2005 – Naperville, IL – Last Fling Festival
09.04.2005 – Indianapolis, IN – FREE SHOW!!
09.16.2005 – Deadwood, SD – Deadwood Jam

Idaho-based rock act Built To Spill is eyeing a spring 2006 release date for its fourth Warner Bros. studio album. The as-yet-untitled project was originally expected in the fall but has been pushed back to allow for mixing and potential additional recording at a new studio in Portland, Ore.

“We recorded maybe 15 or 16 songs and I thought I knew which 10 were going to be on the record,” BTS vocalist/guitarist Doug Martsch tells Billboard.com. “But now, we have time to revisit a few of those other songs to see if there might be something worth working with. It is kind of open-ended right now.”

To read more, please visit billboard.com.

Production is underway for a new feature-length documentary about the Who, tentatively titled “My Generation: Who’s Still Who.” Scheduled to hit theaters in early 2006 via Spitfire Pictures, the film is being overseen by Oscar-winning director Murray Lerner and is being produced with the assistance of surviving Who members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey.

The film will follow the band’s influential career through archival footage, clips from performances at Woodstock and the Isle of Wight, interviews and “never-before-seen private materials” from the Who’s archives.

Lerner is calling on fans to provide amateur footage of the band, or anecdotes that could be relevant to the project, via the film’s official Web site.

The DVD of “Who’s Still Who” will contain two supplementary films, one comprising segments devoted to each band member and the other boasting previously unreleased footage from a 1969 show at the London Coliseum.

Source billboard.com.

Two members of the Cure have exited the veteran U.K. rock act, which has long featured a revolving door of musicians backing up leader Robert Smith. Keyboardist Roger O’Donnell announced his departure today (May 27) on his official Web site, while a fan site dedicated to guitarist Perry Bamonte conveyed the same news about his fate.

“As of Tuesday this week I am no longer a member of the Cure,” O’Donnell wrote. “It was sad to find out after nearly 20 years the way I did but then I should have expected no less or more.” He added that he was looking forward to touring in support of an upcoming solo album “in a more relaxed and happy atmosphere than has surrounded the Cure these last couple of years.”

It is unclear how these moves will affect the band’s recently confirmed first shows of 2005, including stops Aug. 5 at Spain’s Benicassim Festival and Sept. 3 at the Rock N’ Coke Festival in Istanbul.

Rumors have circulated that Siouxie and the Banshees principal Steve Severin will fill in at these shows in some capacity. Severin and Smith are longtime friends who recorded a 1983 side-project album, “Blue Sunshine,” under the moniker the Glove.

Source billboard.com.

As noted in the message posted below on the zoomatour.com website, this year’s travelling festival featuring Trey Anastasio and Ben Harper has been cancelled.

“The producers of the ZOOMA Tour regret to announce that this summer’s Tour has been canceled. Ticket refunds for all dates will be given through the outlets where the tickets were purchased.

The Zooma Tour was conceived to provide fans with an exceptional musical and entertainment experience. Due to unforeseen circumstances, it has become clear that it would not be possible to provide that experience at the level initially envisioned. Rather than go forward with a tour that falls short of what was conceived, everyone involved has mutually agreed that it is best to cancel the tour altogether.

We want to thank all of the fans for their support and the tour’s staff for their dedication and hard work on this project. We look forward to exploring new and exciting opportunities in the future.

If you purchased your tickets through Trey Anastasio or Ben Harper ticketing pre-sales, the card you placed your order with will automatically be refunded for ticket face value plus all other service and shipping charges. Refunds will begin Friday May 27 and continue until June 2nd. Once the refund is processed you will automatically receive an email confirmation. Please note: it can take up to 2 business days for the refund to show up on your account. If you have any questions, please e-mail tix@musictoday.com”

Bonnie Raitt eschews the 12-bar blues of her past on the new album “Souls Alike,” due Sept. 13 via Capitol. For the first time, the artist also takes the production reigns in tandem with Tchad Blake (Pearl Jam, Crowded House).

Tracks include first single “I Will Not Be Broken,” “The Bed I Made,” “I Don’t Want Anything To Change,” “Deep Water” and “Crooked Crown,” penned by what the label describes as unnamed, “lesser-known writers.”

“Some of the songs are clearly terrain that people have come to know and appreciate from me, but the rest are about finding some new direction and something new to say,” Raitt says.

In related news, Eagle Rock Entertainment will on Tuesday (May 31) release the DVD “Live at Montreux 1977,” featuring Raitt’s early hit cover of Del Shannon’s “Runaway.” Four songs from her 1991 return to the famed Swiss festival are included as bonus tracks.

Source billboard.com.

Nebraska-based indie rock outfit Cursive has rounded up 12 rare and unreleased tracks for “The Difference Between Houses and Homes (Lost Songs and Loose Ends 1995-2001.” Due Aug. 23 via Saddle Creek, the set features all but one track with original guitarist Steve Pedersen, who was later replaced by Ted Stevens.

“Lost Songs” opens with the previously unreleased 1995 track “Dispenser” and includes tracks from such 7-inch singles as 1996’s “The Disruption,” 1997’s “Zero Hour” and the following year’s “The Icebreaker.”

The set also includes “I Thought There’d Be More Than This,” an unreleased cut from 1996 put to tape in Otho, Iowa, constituting the lone song here not recorded in Lincoln, Neb., with producers Mike and AJ Mogis.

The only song recorded by Cursive’s present lineup (Stevens, guitarist/vocalist Tim Kasher, cellist Gretta Cohn, bassist Matt Maginn and drummer Clint Schnase) is 2001’s “Nostalgia,” released on a split single with Small Brown Bike.

Here is the track list for “Lost Songs and Loose Ends”:

“Dispenser”
“Pivotal”
“Sucker & Dry”
“Icebreakers”
“And the Bit Just Chokes Them”
“There’s a Coldest Day in Every Year”
“Disruption in the Normal Swing of Things”
“Nostalgia”
“Knowledgeable Hasbeens”
“Polar”
“Disruption in our Lines of Influence”
“I Thought There’d Be More Than This”

Source billboard.com.

As it prepares to launch a European tour Saturday (May 28) in Barcelona, Sonic Youth is also prepping a series of upcoming releases. According to its official Web site, the group is “putting the finishing touches” on a double-disc reissue of its 1990 major-label debut, “Goo.” No release date is yet confirmed for the album, which will be bolstered with eight-track demos, B-sides and previously unreleased tracks.

“I always kind of discounted ‘Goo’ and thought [1992’s] ‘Dirty’ represented more what we were going for at that point,” Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore told Billboard.com in 2004. “In retrospect, listening to ‘Dirty,’ especially in reissue form, it leaves me a bit spent. But I have a completely renewed interest in ‘Goo’ now and I’m really excited.”

Also on tap in the coming months is a CD chronicling an April, 12, 2003, performance at New York’s Anthology Film Archives, plus a double-vinyl album that captures four instrumental tracks recorded in Melbourne by Moore, drummer Steve Shelley, guitarist Lee Ranaldo and bassist Jim O’Rourke.

Source billboard.com.

Joe Strummer often spoke of reissuing the lone album from his mid-Seventies pre-Clash band, the 101ers. But the punk legend’s untimely death of a heart attack in 2002 gave the project a new urgency that will finally land it in shops again on June 14th, almost twenty-five years after its original release.

Richard Dudanski, Strummer’s longtime friend and former 101ers drummer, is overseeing the release of Elgin Avenue Breakdown (Revisited) (Astralwerks), which features newly unearthed live tracks that showcase Strummer’s raw, R&B beginnings.

To read more, visit rollingstone.com.