[ad#rightpost]The Reverend Horton Heat is on the road through August in support of his latest record, Laughin’ & Cryin’.
Toots & the Maytals will support their new album, Flip & Twist, with a US tour this spring.
The Specials will tour the US later this year.
Also in the US in the coming months will be The Buzzcocks, who are touring in support of their recently reissued and remastered back catalog.
Later this year The Happy Mondays and The Psychedelic Furs will hook up for an American club tour.
The new M.I.A. album hits the streets on June 29th.
Suede is reforming for a December UK gig.
The Libertines have called a cease-fire to their unfriendly relationship to reform for gigs at the Leeds and Reading festivals. Neither Carl Barat nor Pete Doherty has given any indication that they will record again or add extra live dates.
The Fratellis have split up.
Supergrass has also split up.
Idlewild is going on hiatus after their current tour of the UK and Ireland.
She just could not go away… Courtney Love is launching a tour with Hole in support of her new record, Nobody’s Daughter.
Black Tambourine has returned with a self-titled reissue of their Complete Recordings on Slumberland. The album throws in some demos for good measure.
Green Day is releasing a Broadway cast recording of their American Idiot musical. It also is being redone as a film with Tom Hanks directing.
I can’t sleep at night now that Natalie Merchant is back on the scene to bore and annoy us all.
The same could be said for Crash Test Dummies who have returned after six years with a new record, Ooh La La!
It’s been two decades since Concrete Blonde released Bloodletting. To celebrate this auspicious event they are reissuing the album with extra tracks and touring this summer.
I Need That Record: The Death (Or Possible Survival) Of The Independent Record Store is a documentary from filmmaker Brenden Toller about how new media, money grubbing record labels, a changing economy and lots more have all meant a possible death knell for the local indie store. Despite all of this stores hang on and have become more important then ever. For the docu, Toller recruited Mike Watt, Glenn Branca, Thurston Moore and Ian MacKaye and others.
As a member of N.W A., Ice Cube exuberantly flashed his Raiders gear. Now the rapper has made a film about the relationship between the Raiders football team and hip hop culture. Straight Out Of LA was made for ESPN but screened recently at The Tribeca Film Festival. The film centers on how the Raiders and their swagger silver and back colors and attitude influence the imagery and sound of hip-hop.
If you want to boogie or need to have a better day throw on I Learned The Hard Way, the fantastic fourth album from Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings.
Direct link for the feedreaders.
July 13 sees the CD release of Dark Night of The Soul, the project from Danger Mouse, David Lynch and the late Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse. Iggy Pop and Julian Casablancas are also featured on the album.
Mumford & Sons will release a full-on bluegrass EP later this summer.
Bombay Bicycle Club is releasing an acoustic album this July. Amongst the tracks featured is a cover of Joanna Newsom’s “Swansea.”
The kids love them some Death Cab For Cutie. Well, they will be happy and filled with glee to learn that the band has begun work on their new album that should drop in 2011.
Peter Wolf has returned with Midnight Souvenirs. The album features appearances from Merle Haggard, Shelby Lynne and Neko Case.
Pressure Drop is a play/gig art installation from Mick Gordon featuring Billy Bragg. The production centers on what it means to be quintessentially English as it follows three generations of a working class family.
Band of Horses are supporting their new record, Infinite Arms, by touring with Snow Patrol, Widespread Panic, and Pearl Jam.
As we move into the summer a handful of bands will leave their sonic footprint behind them and move out of the kiddy pool. There also will be lots of bands playing festivals while some great new bands will sweat it out in small clubs. However for these few bands, they will enter the next tier of their rising careers.
It is going to be a massive summer for LCD Soundsystem. In addition to playing lots of festivals, “the band” has released what could be the album of the summer, This Is Happening.
Despite a slight change in sound that sees them moving away from stomping anthems toward a more indie sound, MGMT will still breakout and have a nice summer. In support of Congratulations. The band is everywhere. They recently played SNL and have several festival gigs lined up. A USA tour is forthcoming.
However, the biggest band of the summer could very well be The National whose new album, High Violet, will put them in the big leagues.
Direct link for the feedreaders.
Finally, please take advantage of the seasons and discover a new artist or band. Go out and see live local music and try on some interesting sounds. Now, more than in years past, the music industry is rife with interesting sounds by bold and daring artists with a hunger to get themselves heard.
