Cool Band Alert! The Blow

Check This: Screw you if I'm behind on these guys. The Blow is pop awesomeness in the form of two Oregonians on K Records. A little bit of an electro influence punches up their super-sweet songs of love and heartache. They're on tour right now, in most cities you can catch them with Electrelane. The Blow. Suck on that.

More Meat, Puppets

Hell Yes: Following their most triumphant appearance at SXSW, Those crazy Meat Puppets have announced a short West Coast jaunt in support of their forthcoming album "Rise to Your Knees". Surely, more dates will follow.

Here are the dates, Meat Bag:

May 14 2007 8:00P
the casbah san diego, California
May 15 2007 8:00P
Troubadour Los Angeles, California
May 16 2007 8:00P
Independent San Fransico, California
May 18 2007 8:00P
Wonder Ballroom Portland, Oregon
May 19 2007 8:00P
Crocodile Cafe Seattle, Washington

Rock the Bells adds artists

Hell Yes: So you knew RATM and Wu-Tang were playing all three Rock the Bells, right? Well so are Sage Francis, Public Enemy, Mos Def, Cypress Hills, EPMD (!) and The Roots. Since there are three events in three cities (SF, LA, NYC --- sucks for the rest of us), there are a handful of acts only appearing at one or two. MF Doom, Murs, Felt (Murs + Slug), NAS, Living Legends, Brother Ali, Blackalicious and Blueprint are among the non-commitment types.

More Hold Steady Action

HELL YES: America's favorite band (at leat MY favorite band)The Hold Steady have added a crapload of new tour dates, in addition to their appearances at Bonnaroo and Sasquatch!. YEESSSSS!!!!!

Headline: High Line

Hell Yes: David Bowie is curating (but apparently not performing at) NYC's High Line Festival April 9 - 19. Scheduled to perform at various clubs throughout the city are Air, Arcade Fire, Deerhoof, Secret Machines, Polyphonic Spree, Daniel Johnston and, making his U.S. stand-up debut, Ricky Gervais. Tickets go on sale this Friday.

Cool band alert! The Asteroid #4

Check it: The Asteroid #4 are a bunch of handsome devils from Philly. Nuggets-y, shoegaze-ish fuzzpop with lots of guitar action. Remember '90s Britpop band The Dylans? They sound quite a bit like them. Dreamy? Yes. Rockin'? Yes. Sample some tunes on their Myspace page. You're welcome.

Festival Kombat --- FIGHT!!!

What the: For whatever reason, the U.S. version of the Virgin Festival, in Pimlico, Md., has set its date at the same time as Chicago's Lollapalooza (Aug. 4-6). How rude. We're still in the early stage of this bout, but it looks like The Virgin fest has the upper hand. Both fests are keeping mum about their respective lineups, but Virgin's at least given us The Police, The Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins so far, while Lolla's only revealed one band: Pearl Jam. The real coup here is that the Pumpkins have turned their back on their hometown of Chicago and chosen Virgin Fest as their first announced U.S. tourdate. Are you gonna sit there and take that, Chi-town? It is very possible, however, that Corgan and co. will play Virgin and then head home for Lolla. We'll see...

We've seen! Greetings from the future. It's like three weeks later -- renegade mutant cyborgs roam the Earth, vegetation is scarce, no Smashing P's at Lolla and these cool bands have been added to Virgin: Bad Brains, Cheap Trick, M.I.A., CSS and many more.

Review: The Pipettes @ Troubadour

Review: Brighton's brightest lasses finally graced L.A. with their presence a few nights ago. The adorable factor was through the roof, but the music itself also connected with the sold out club. This was, after all, an opening gig for overhyped Scottish headliners the Fratellis. They play tired-sounding garage rock akin to Artic Monkeys, only with a near-hair metal edge. One of their songs even sounded like Billy Joel. But the Pipettes, oh my, the Pipettes. The femme trio (backed by the all-male Cassettes who dress in Kanye West-style private school threads)bashed through about a dozen songs in less than 45 minutes, most of which can be found on their stellar debut "We are the Pipettes" (arriving in the U.S. this summer). Safe to say, every man, woman and child (OK, there weren't any kids there)was in love with them by the end.
They should remake the last scene of "Spartacus" like so:

Slave one: "I am the Pipettes!"
Slave two: "I am the Pipettes!"
Slave Three: "I am the Pipettes!"
Kirk Douglas' eyes well with tears. Then the Pipettes kick out the jams.
FADE OUT.

Use a thesaurus, dudes

Name Game: Just for those keeping score at home.

WOLF
Wolf Eyes
Wolf Parade
We are Wolves
Werewolf With Robot Hands
Wolf & Cub
Wolfmother
AIDS Wolf

STEREO
Stereolab
Stereo MCs
Apples in Stereo
Adventures in Stereo
Stereo Total
Stereo 360
Death by Stereo
Stereophonics

Who am I missing? Also, we need to do this for the following words as well: "Sugar", "Jesus" and "'Lil".

Ozzfest lineup unveiled

Hell Yes: So, the big FREE Ozzfest finally announced some of the bands scheduled to play. They are: Hatebreed, Nick Oliveri and Mondo Genrator, Lamb of God, Lordi and Ozzy himself. No Maiden?Hey, it's FREE. here are the dates.

When Dinosaur Jr. ruled the Earth

Hell Yes: Get your Freak Scene on. The re-formed Dinosaur Jr. are heading out on a lengthy U.S. tour this spring, playing two nights in some cities and going for hat tricks in L.A. (at the Troubadour) and Chicago, at the Abbey Pub.

Get yr Hold Steady fix

Hell Yes: Hold Steady fans now having a reason to live a little longer. On April 17, they'll release an acoustic EP, Live at Fingerprints, featuring songs recorded at their in-store performance at Fingerprints records in Strong Beach, Calif. Sweeeeeeet. Also, check out the band's website for a cool new podcast and a smokin' video for their killer track "Stuck Between Stations". Submit to the Hold Steady.

Amy Winehouse cancels L.A. gig

Breaking: Before you line up and/or drop hard-earned dough on a scalped ticket, buzzy U.K. songstress Amy Winehouse has cancelled her show at Spaceland in Silverlake tonight. There's no word on the rest of her U.S. tour, but was assume it's still on.

Drums and Guns and Low

Don't Forget: The new LOW record, "Drums and Guns" comes out tomorrow. Cop that shit! Sub Pop sez: if you buy it on vinyl, you get access to the MP3s for free. If "Drums" is even half as good as "The Great Destroyer", then consider your puny human mind DESTROYED -- Duluth style.

Also new tomorrow: Joss Stone, Modest Mouse, LCD Soundsystem and Andrew Bird. Pick them up too, moneybags.

Smashing Peppers

Hell Yes: The "reunited" Smashing Pumpkins and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are set to headline the Reading and Leeds Festivals in the U.K. this summer. Razorlight's also way up there on the bill. Plus: Kings Of Leon, Arcade Fire, Fall Out Boy, Bloc Party and Nine Inch Nails. The Pumpkins also recently announced their first N.A. gig: Toronto's Virgin Fest Sept. 8 and 9th, along with Bjork, The Killers, Amy Winehouse and mooooooore.

Get your head in the Clouds, man!!! Recycle, man!!!

Check This:
Eco-friendly Duluth band Cloud Cult* have a sweet new album out ("The Meaning of 8"), and are gearing up for a lengthy U.S. tour. For the uninitiated, Cloud Cult have been compared to everyone from Radiohead to Beck to Modest Mouse, but I think they've got their own funky sound stylings and don't need comparisons AT ALL. Really happy, largely acoustic pop with violins and boy-girl harmonies. AND they're environmental as Hell. All of the CD packaging (and the CD itself) is Earth-friendly. Don't let that turn you off though, the music is accessible to non-hippies too. Check 'em out in a town near you, with these tour dates.




*Not to be confused with The Cloud Room, The St. Cloud Municipal Band or that old TV show "McCloud"

Go! West or to the U.K. or whatever

HELL YES:
Unless you're some kind of weirdo, you love the Go! Team. And unless you're some kind of cool jerk, you'll be psyched to know that they're slowly announcing some U.K. dates. And unless you're some kind of pessimist, you'll make the leap of faith that those dates will soon snowball into U.S. dates, and maybe even worlwide dates. Don't bother with their awesome but way-out-of-date site for the time being, check their Myspace page for frequent updates. But here are those two U.K. dates for the lazy:

April 20, 2007 - mansfield traquair, edinburgh, scotland
May 19, 2007 - Butlins, Minehead, Somerset, England (All Tomorrow's Parties alongside yo la tengo, wilco, les savy fav, mogwai and others)

Off the Record: Local

Off the Record looks at non-music that's music-related. Off the Record is OFF THE HOOK!!!

B&W indie comic "Local" (Oni Press) is a (roughly) bi-monthly series with each issue taking place in a different city. The story generally revolves around twenty-something Megan as she drifts from place to place and life to life. The comic features a lot of music-related stuff. The latest issue (#8) is set in Chicago, and writer Brian Wood and artist Ryan Kelly carefully reproduce the details of living in the city's Wicker Park area. Best of all, for music geeks, Kelly ends each issue with a "playlist" of tunes that served as background music as he pencilled the action. Hurry up and get on the bandwagon though, Wood recently announced that the title will conclude with issue #11. Check out the Local Blog.

Ring Ring Ring Ha Ha Hey

HELL YES: He found his way out of the closet, but now he's trapped in an answering machine. Yeah yeah, by now, everyone knows that you can dial up R. Kelly and hear him plug his forthcoming record, but how many of you have actually called it? It's weird, it's way overlong and the quality is terrible, but like Kelly himself, it has its own goofy charm, knowhatimsayin'? The album definitely sounds like a strictly hip-hop affair, but there are some slow jamz for all you ladies. Call (312) 278-3965. Do it. "Y'all gonna love it -- mentally and physically."

Shins add L.A. date

HELL YES: Attention Angelinos!!! The Shins have finally added an actual headlining show in your area. April 15 at the gorgeous Orpheum Theatre in downtown L.A. I saw Cat Power there not too long ago – the bomb! They're also playing at KCRW's Sounds Eclectic evening the night before. Here's a link to an innerview I did with Shins' James Mercer a few years back for One Way magazine.

Sketches of Cheadle

HELL YES: The good folks at Variety.com are reporting that Don Cheadle is going to direct, produce and star in a Miles Davis biopic. You can see that, right? This may be the best musical biopic casting since…oh, I don't know, take your pick, maybe Dennis Quaid in "Great Balls of Fire!" or Forest Whitaker in "Bird". What say you?

Fog Yeah!

HELL YES: Fog's oft-delayed Lex Records LP "Ditherer" is now promised in "April/Early May". So mark your calendars with a giant marker that covers two or three weeks at once. A tour is sure to coincide with the release. They've booked some sporadic shows around their homebase of Minneapolis. The rest of youse keep it locked to www.fogtimewaster.com, and in the meantime, do like me and listen to "Your Beef is Mine" and "I Have Been Wronged" over and over and over on their Myspace page. Fog is fucking awesome.