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The Mars Volta has announced North American tour dates in support of the band’s latest release Frances the Mute. Tickets for most shows go on sale either March 11th or 12th. Check out themarsvolta.com for on-sale dates.

4/22 San Diego, CA RIMAC
4/25 Austin, TX Austin Music Hall
4/26 Houston, TX Version Wireless Arena
4/28 New Orleans, LA Orpheum Theater
4/29 Atlanta, GA The Tabernacle
5/01 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory
5/05-5/06 New York, NY Roseland Ballroom
5/07 Providence, RI Lupos
5/09 Worcester, MA Palladium
5/10 Boston, MA Avalon
5/12 Montreal, Canada Metropolis
5/13 Toronto, Canada Kool Haus
5/15 Detroit, MI State House
5/16-5/17 Chicago, IL Riviera
5/19 Minneapolis, MN Wilkins

Weezer is eyeing a May release for its fifth studio album, “Make Believe.” As previously reported, the Geffen set will be preceded in the coming weeks by the single “Beverly Hills,” a video for which was shot two weekends ago at the Playboy mansion in Los Angeles.

According to the band’s official Web site, the Marcos Siega-directed clip should “start shaping up” by “the end of the weekend.”

“The song speculates about living the life of movers and shakers, but concludes that there’s no way to cross over from the ‘real world’ to the ‘fantasy world’ (even if one who is ‘normal’ has indeed become ‘famous’),” the site says. “But for a few minutes the idea is tossed about, taken to the level of longing for a life of extreme celebrity.”

At deadline, Weezer’s only confirmed U.S. show is April 30 at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Seven European dates are on tap in June.

Here are Weezer’s tour dates:

April 30: Indio, Calif. (Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival)
June 3: Nurburgring, Germany (Rock am Ring Festival)
June 4: Nuremberg, Germany (Rock im Park Festival)
June 5: Hamburg (Grosse Freheit)
June 10: Nickelsdorf, Austria (Nova Rock Festival)
June 13: Birmingham, England (Academy)
June 14: London (Brixton Academy)
June 17: Glasgow (Carling Academy)

Source billboard.com.

Brian Wilson is taking his SMiLE to Europe for the spring and summer festival season, including a slot at England’s legendary Glastonbury, then returning to North American shores for an August and September leg.

In recent years, the founding Beach Boy toured mainly theatres and performing arts centers, venues with the kind of acoustics that accentuate the complex vocal and instrumental pieces Wilson wrote for Pet Sounds and last year’s SMiLE.

This time around, he’s throwing a few more sheds into the mix.

After hitting such European festivals as Glasto and Roskilde, Wilson returns to the States August 8th with a stop at Bank of America Pavilion in Boston.

He’ll swing through some other major East Coast sheds as well, including Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va.; the P.N.C. Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J.; and Tommy Hilfiger at Jones Beach Theatre in New York.

He’ll play some indoor dates as well, including the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee; Paramount Theatre in Seattle and Arlene Schnitzer Hall in Portland, Ore.

Wilson will wrap things up with a swing down the West Coat with stops September 3rd at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, Calif., and a tour finale at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles the next day.

As with last year’s outing, the centerpiece of the show will be a performance of SMiLE in its entirety. The album, released in September after almost 40 years in the making, brought Wilson his first career Grammy Award last month for “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow.”

Source pollstar.

Laconic genre-blender Jack Johnson starts a summer tour August 1 in Houston, Texas at the Verizon Wireless Theater. The dates cover more than 30 markets throughout the U.S. and Canada and end on September 17 in Toronto at the Molson Ampitheatre.Special guests on the dates will be ALO and Matt Costa.

Pre-sale tickets will be available through www.jackjohnsonmusic.com starting March 12. General public on-sales for most dates is March 19.

Jack Johnson’s new album, In Between Dreams, hits stores March 1 and will be the first music CD to be released with the 1% for the Planet logo. 1% for the Planet (1% FTP) is an alliance of businesses committed to leveraging their resources to create a healthier planet.

Source pollstar.com.

Bob Dylan may need more than one cup of coffee for the road in 2005: The sixty-three-year-old legend’s schedule includes a spring tour with country veteran Merle Haggard, a possible repeat of last summer’s outing with Willie Nelson, the paperback release of his best-selling memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, and a Martin Scorsese-helmed documentary.

First up is the two-month-long tour with Haggard, beginning Monday in Seattle. The country singer-songwriter’s 1969 hit “Okie From Muskogee” (“We don’t burn no draft cards down on Main Street”) assailed the counterculture that claimed Dylan as a leader. But the sixty-seven-year-old Haggard says he’s “as big a Bob Dylan fan as anybody. I haven’t been a show opener for years, and I wouldn’t open for just anybody. But I’m honored to do it for Bob. There’s a lot of similarities between us: We both play guitar, we both live in America and we’re both probably better songwriters than we are singers.”

Haggard says he hasn’t yet bought a copy of Chronicles, but more than 500,000 others have. “It’s an enormous success — one of the best-selling memoirs of the year,” says David Rosenthal, executive vice president of the book’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, “Everything about this book has exceeded our expectations.” Chronicles was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, with a winner to be announced on March 18th. (Another date to watch: Pulitzer Prize nominees are unveiled on April 4th.) A paperback version is due in October. Simon & Schuster also plans to publish Chronicles: Volume Two, but don’t expect Dylan to deliver a manuscript anytime soon. “It’d be wonderful to have it in the next few years,” says Rosenthal. “But we’ll get it when we get it.”

The excavation of Dylan’s past will continue in Scorsese’s two-part documentary, No Direction Home, due to air on PBS in September, followed by a DVD release. The three-and-a-half-hour film will draw from ten hours of taped Dylan interviews, conducted by his manager, Jeff Rosen. Using previously unseen footage from Dylan’s archives, the movie will reportedly focus on the start of his career, from 1961 to 1966. “It’s nonfiction — maybe,” Scorsese said in January. “With Bob Dylan, you never know.”

A two-CD collection of outtakes and live recordings used in the film is tentatively set for an August 16th release, as the seventh volume in Dylan’s Bootleg Series. The documentary will also spawn the Bob Dylan Scrapbook, which will include Dylan artifacts such as lyric sheets and contracts.

Meanwhile, Dylan is in the early stages of planning a second tour with Nelson. As for a new studio album, Dylan told Rolling Stone in October that he has “a bunch” of new songs written and that he hoped to record them “sometime in the beginning of the year.”

Bob Dylan tour dates:

3/7: Seattle, Paramount Theater
3/8: Seattle, Paramount Theater
3/9: Seattle, Paramount Theater
3/11: Portland, Chiles Center
3/12: Portland, Chiles Center
3/14: Oakland, Paramount Theater
3/15: Oakland, Paramount Theater
3/16: Oakland, Paramount Theater
3/18: Reno, NV, Reno Hilton
3/19: Las Vegas, Aladdin Theater
3/21: Los Angeles, Pantages Theater
3/22: Los Angeles, Pantages Theater
3/23: Los Angeles, Pantages Theater
3/25: Los Angeles, Pantages Theater
3/26: Los Angeles, Pantages Theater
3/28: Denver, Fillmore Auditorium
3/29: Denver, Fillmore Auditorium
4/1: Chicago, Auditorium Theater
4/2: Chicago, Auditorium Theater
4/3: Chicago, Auditorium Theater
4/5: Chicago, Auditorium Theater
4/6: Chicago, Auditorium Theater
4/8: Milwaukee, WI, Eagles Ballroom
4/9: Milwaukee, WI, Eagles Ballroom
4/11: Mt. Pleasant, MI, Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort
4/12: Detroit, Masonic Temple Theater
4/13: Buffalo, NY, Shea’s Performing Arts Center
4/15: Boston, Orpheum Theater
4/16: Boston, Orpheum Theater
4/17: Boston, Orpheum Theater
4/19: Newark, NJ, New Jersey Performing Arts Center
4/20: Verona, NY, Turning Stone Casino and Resort
4/22: Mashantucket, CT, Foxwoods Resort Casino
4/24: Atlantic City, NJ, Borgata Resort Spa and Casino
4/25: New York, Beacon Theater
4/26: New York, Beacon Theater
4/28: New York, Beacon Theater
4/29: New York, Beacon Theater
4/30: New York, Beacon Theater

Source rollingstone.com.

Over the course of the past weekend, Wilco front-man Jeff Tweedy played two solo sold out shows at Chicago

As expected, the Black Crowes reunion has grown into a full-blown tour, and the band has finally unveiled details of the musicians who will back founding sibling duo Chris and Rich Robinson at the band’s first gigs since October 2001.

Guitarist Marc Ford is back in the fold for the first time since 1997, while Bill Dobrow, who played with Rich Robinson in the short-lived band Hookah Brown, will take over for Steve Gorman on drums.

Bassist Sven Pipien returns for the first time since his less-than-amicable departure in 2000, while longtime keyboardist Eddie Hawyrsch will round out the group.

Beyond the Crowes’ previously announced seven-show run at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom later this month, plus appearances at Bonnaroo and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, more than 20 new dates have been confirmed through mid-June.

Additional shows are expected to be added, as is another touring leg later this summer.

Here are the Black Crowes’ tour dates:

March 22-23, 25-27, 29-30: New York (Hammerstein Ballroom)
April 21: Houston (Verizon Wireless Theatre)
April 22: New Orleans (Jazz Fest)
April 23: Gulfport, Miss. (Grand Casino)
April 25: Myrtle Beach, S.C. (House of Blues)
April 26: Charleston, S.C. (the Plex)
April 27: Raleigh, N.C. (Disco Rodeo)
April 29: Knoxville, Tenn. (Civic Auditorium)
April 30: Asheville, N.C. (Thomas Wolfe Auditorium)
May 1: Memphis (Beale Street Music Festival)
May 5-7: Atlanta (Tabernacle)
May 10-11: Boston (Orpheum Theatre)
May 13-14: Hampton Beach, N.H. (Hampton Beach Casino)
May 16: Montreal (Metropolis)
May 17: Toronto (Kool Haus)
May 22: Pensacola, Fla. (Springfest)
May 24: Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (Revolution)
May 25: Orlando, Fla. (House of Blues)
May 28: Little Rock, Ark. (Riverfest)
May 29: Montgomery, Ala. (Jubilee)
June 11: Manchester, Tenn. (Bonnaroo Festival)

Sources billboard.com.

Handsome Boy Modeling School will later this month embark on its first full-scale tour in support of its sophomore album, “White People.” Producers Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and Prince Paul will assume their respective alter-egos of Nathaniel Merriweather and Chest Rockwell for the trek, which begins March 28 in Los Angeles.

Various special guests will join the group throughout the tour, but a spokesperson declined to provide specifics. On “White People,” the duo is augmented by everybody from members of Linkin Park and Franz Ferdinand to rapper Del the Funky Homosapien and hip-hop legends such as Grand Wizard Theodore and Jazzy Jay.

Here are Handsome Boy Modeling School’s tour dates:

March 28: Los Angeles (House of Blues)
March 29: Solana Beach, Calif. (Belly Up Tavern)
March 31: Anaheim, Calif. (House of Blues)
April 1: Santa Cruz, Calif. (Catalyst)
April 2: San Francisco (Fillmore)
April 3: Portland, Ore. (Berbati’s Pan)
April 4: Seattle (Showbox)
April 6: Boulder, Colo. (Fox Theatre)
April 7: Omaha, Neb. (Sokol Auditorium)
April 8: Minneapolis (Quest)
April 9: Chicago (House of Blues)
April 10: Bloomington, Ind. (Bluebird)
April 11: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Blind Pig)
April 12: Cleveland (House of Blues)
April 15: Burlington, Vt. (Higher Ground)
April 16: Philadelphia (TLA)
April 17: Washington, D.C. (9:30 Club)
April 18: New Haven, Conn. (Toad’s Place)
April 19: Boston (Paradise)
April 20: New York (Irving Plaza)

Source billboard.com.

The Benevento/Russo Duo featuring Mike Gordon have added two new dates in Georgia before their late night Jazzfest appearance at the end of April. The group will be performing at the Georgia Theatre in Athens on Wednesday, April 27th and at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta on Thursday, April 28th.

Tickets are being offered through Mike Gordon’s secure online ticketing system NOW before they go on sale to the public. The Mike Gordon ticket site can be found at mikegordontickets.net.

Source phish.com

After five months in the studio at work on his forth-coming solo album, Trey will hit the road for three weeks this spring with a new group of supporting musicians.

A portion of the proceeds from every show will be donated by Trey to a local homeless shelter in each city along the tour. More information about the organizations receiving funding will be posted on Trey’s site.

A limited quantity of tickets for all shows will be available beginning March 8 at 10 AM EST via our secure online ticketing system located at treytickets.rlc.net. Tickets are available in real-time (this is not a lottery). The presale ticketing period ends March 17 at 10 AM EST. Tickets for all shows will also be available via traditional ticket outlets.

In addition to the previously announced show at the New Orleans Jazz Fest, the dates are as follows:

4/26 Landmark Theater, Richmond, VA
4/27 Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN
4/29 Beale Street Festival, Memphis, TN
5/1 Jazzfest, New Orleans, LA
5/3 Township Auditorium, Columbia, SC
5/4 Ovens Auditorium, Charlottte, NC
5/6 Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA
5/7 Taft Theatre, Cincinnati, OH
5/8 Eagles Ballroom, Milwaukee, WI
5/10 Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL
5/11 Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Columbus, OH
5/13 Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY
5/14 Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY

See phish.com for more info