So do Dinosaur Jr., Tapes 'n Tapes, Voxtrot, more! -- home of the $35 ironic, threadbare t-shirt-- has partnered up with a bunch of broke-ass radio stations and (the first car made exclusively for hipsters).
And what, you may inquire, has this alliance wrought? An Oprah-style auto giveaway? Comped Bayside Tigers tees?
Nah, even better: , an initiative designed with the three-pronged goal of supporting independent/college radio stations, boosting brand awareness, and giving free indie rock shows away to everybody!
FreeYrRadio will put on a series of afternoon performances in the bowels of Urban Outfitters stores around the country, all the while making it rain on local airwave-fillers. It ll work like this: First and foremost, bands will play; you ll need to run off an invite from the FreeYrRadio website, but a little dot matrix action makes for an awfully cheap date with the likes of Klaxons, the Rapture, Man Man, Dinosaur Jr.
Voxtrot, Tapes n Tapes, Annuals, the Ponys, the Long Winters, and Rogue Wave. Yaris is also donating a car to each station, which can be used for fund raising purposes. Each band will be asked for suggestions for modifying the car, and those modifications will be realized in a drawing posted on the FreeYrRadio website.
Whoever ends up with the car gets $5000 to pimp their ride. So if Man Man suggests planting a tree in the trunk and painting it neon yellow, go for it! Additionally, proceeds from a FreeYrRadio CD sold through the Urban Outfitters website will go to the stations.
Sounds pretty complicated, but I ll take a free show over pledge-drive-borne guilt and a crappy totebag any day.
The current schedule is below, with shows in Los Angeles, Boulder, Cleveland, and New Haven to follow.
On July 10, the aliens descend, and the elephants rejoice.
For on that day, Warner Bros. Records will rocket the DVD U.F.
O.s at the Zoo: The Legendary Concert in Oklahoma City into the stratosphere.
, the DVD captures a September 15, 2006 show at the Zoo Amphitheater in the band s hometown.
And yes, there is a on stage. There is also probably fake blood, santa and/or animal costumes, and Wayne Coyne in a giant bubble.
According to a press release, live tracks will be interspersed with backstage sneak peeks and various absurd events of the day preparing for the big homecoming spectacle.
And not only do you get the whole movie, but you get MP3s of the audio, digital artwork, [and] a ringtone application, which will allow fans to make and buy their own Lips ringtones. Ooh, I hope you can make a Yoshimi screaming ringtone!
The set also includes a PDF of the art booklet, Buddy icons, photos, and various digital extras.
Tabs of acid not included. Sorry. You have to buy your own.
that the Lips contributed not one but two songs to the forthcoming : the awesomely titled The Supreme Being Teaches Spider-Man How to Be in Love and a take on the Spider-Man theme song for the deluxe edition of the album.
They may only have had Carissa s Wierd in their clutches for a 7 before the cherished Pacific Northwest act , but s sure making a stake on the Carissa legacy. Already home to -- fronted by ex-Wierdo Ben Bridwell-- Sub Pop has rolled out the welcome mat for two more Carissa s alums: ex-CW drummer and ex-CW frontman Mat Brooke s new outfit , recently profiled over in .
Incestuously enough, both of these vets also appear on Band of Horses .
Cahoone played drums on Everything and self-released her self-titled debut-- on which she sings and plays guitar-- back in February 2006. She ll treat show-goers at Seattle s Neumos to some back porch country-folk tunes on June 10, appearing alongside Okkervil River at the Noise for the Needy benefit.
No news yet on her first Sub Pop release, but we ll certainly keep y all posted.
Carissa s co-lead vocalist and co-lead songwriter Mat Brooke, a founding member of Band of Horses (and the short-lived Nov. 16), played on Everything and Horses first tour (with Iron and Wine) before going off to do his own thing last year.
His own thing, as it turned out, was Grand Archives (originally known as just Archives). Featuring four harmonizing male vocalists, the band already has a sweet set of demos and will begin recording its debut for Sub Pop soon. Until then, catch a glimpse of Grand Archives through 200 yards of baseball caps as they open the first leg of the tour.
That was fast. Almost as soon as a signed guitar on bulk retailer s website, it disappeared. So what happened?
Sorry, conspiracy theorists, it wasn t some evil corporate plot or some sort of sell-out move. It was merely an accident.
, the guitar company, issued the following statement:
The guitar listed on the Costco website is a single guitar that was signed by Conor Oberst after an acoustic performance in New York on September 16th, 2005.
Due to an internal mistake at First Act the guitar was put up for sale on the Costco website.
First Act takes full responsibility for this error and had it removed from the site yesterday (April 11, 2007). In no way was Costco misrepresenting the item; it s actually an authentically signed guitar.
First Act regrets the error, as the guitar was not intended to be sold to the public.
So that s that. Apologies to those who tried to buy a jar of 500 signed Conor Oberst guitars.
But he will play moe.down, so that's something Eighth wonder of the world draw amongst the megalith-loving set is just too great. NME.
com reports that organizers of the have put the kibosh on for fear of drawing too many onlookers without tickets. This would be a much cooler news item had the structural integrity of the 4,000+ year old monument been suspect; instead, Ryan and the fest planners are merely trying to squelch freeloaders. Lame.
And it appears that it was Stonehenge or nothing, as a suitable alternative site cannot be found, and Adams is no longer taking part in the festival, according to NME.com.
It s not the same, but Mid-Atlantic region fans will get a crack at Adams in a few May dates, as will, um, moe.
fans at September s moe.down in Turin, New York. And his new album Easy Tiger s June 5, and Adams and his band the Cardinals are still all over the Tiny Motorist .
Books can transport readers to the most exotic places, and can do the same. Or more accurately, the sample-heavy duo can travel to far-off places in search of new listeners, and that s just what they ll do on their tour, which kicks off tonight in Ottawa. Adventurers who desire a souvenir from their journey can go home with the Books DVD , available only at their shows and from their website.
On June 2, the Books will participate in NYC avant-garde troupe Bang on a Can s festival, which will take over the World Financial Center for 26 hours.
This tour affords fans the opportunity to visit the Books in exotic destinations such as Riga, Latvia Zagreb, Croatia and Malibu, California. But you don t have to take my word for it.
..
Boredoms Tour Europe, Do One-Off in Canada You ve been holding it in for too long, but now, it s time to let your soul discharge: are coming!
(Well, if you live in Japan, Europe, or Calgary, that is.)
Japan s longest-running Sun Ra tribute band (or face-melting, cerebrum-punishing noise-rock geniuses, depending on how you choose to look at it) will pull up their super roots for a few European festivals and a lone Canadian date in the coming months; that is, after wrapping up slots with daydream believers Sonic Youth.
In other Boredoms news, Yoshimi s stayed plenty busy on her own of late, with her and and and all.
Oh, and the Boredoms scrambled up , and . With all that activity, you d think they d change their name to Excitems! Am I right, people?
Nah, they probably won t be doing that.
will reissue Young Americans, the 1974 album on which he first ventured into full-on blue-eyed soul territory, via Virgin/EMI on June 5. The reissue comes as a CD/DVD set with three bonus tracks.
The DVD features newly mixed audio from producer Tony Visconti as well as video clips from a 1974 Dick Cavett Show performance and interview.
Also on June 5, Virgin/EMI will release a new Bowie best-of chronicling his 1980s output. The Best of David Bowie 1980-1987: Sight Sound also comes as a CD/DVD, but this DVD consists entirely of Bowie s videos from this era, two of which have not seen release before now.
After the record comes out we hope to hit the road with some kind of planet o' ice themed musical stage extravaganza. Brace yourselves, for come August 21, all we have known will cease to be. Come August 21, Planet Earth collides with.
..Planet of Ice!
!! (If we first survive next Tuesday, that is.
)
Don t worry though, this is a good thing. Particularly if you re a fan of Seattle s advanced math mavens .
Minus follow up the 2005 release of (that s Spanish for Neon Bible ) and with Planet of Ice, out on that twice aforementioned date via .
As Bear den-leader Jake Snider told Pitchfork recently, Planet is not quite as dry as the last record. It s a little more ambient; it has more of a really spacious sound.
Before you raise the red flags, however, know this: there s also a lot more rock riffin going on, as Jake added half in jest.
Planet of Ice was produced by the band in tandem with Chris Common and longtime producer/former bandmate Matt Bayles, both of whom lent their talents behind the boards to Menos.
The LP features ten songs, a couple of which should be familiar to frequenters of Minus live shows. There are songs from 2:40 to 10 minutes long, said Snider.
There s a variety of material.
Among Snider s favorites is Dr. L Ling , coined after a nickname for MtB s tour manager, Che Arthur, which features this super heavy and slow, beat-heavy groove thing, according to Snider.
It s not as frantic as a lot of the music we ve come up with in the past.
Also gone for the most part are the extra-long, math rock-derived, t-shirt slogan titles that adorn many of the earlier Minus releases. We ve definitely tried to tone [those] down.
..[and] get some emphasis away from that stuff, said Snider.
Other song highlights include Ice Monster , which turned out really well on the record and nearly ten-minute closer Lotus . Snider s stoked to play the new tunes live, and he ll get quite a few chances to do so as his band hits the road later this month with and .
To celebrate, the band has some new gear to show off.
We did get some white amps and a clear drum set recently, Snider reported. [They re] pretty icy..
.After the record comes out we hope to hit the road with some kind of planet o ice themed musical stage extravaganza.
In other news: water wet, turtles have shells, sun rises in east These MySpace celebrities just don t know when to quit, huh?
Think back to a simpler time before bulletins and top 8, when , drive over the Brooklyn Bridge to a pre-arranged press conference, and definitively announce their tour schedule for the forthcoming months. A little overcooked, maybe, but it made a point. Now?
Now, it never ends.
, who just last week announced , has announced a whole bunch of other new tour dates, while on the road scratching off a whole bunch of old tour dates. To be fair, we love her, but Lil knows she s got us in her clutches, and I suspect she likes it that way.
In other Lily news, she s on the , the , the , and the road, for at least the next few months. She s also on The Today Show tomorrow, The View May 29, and Letterman June 18. And if you haven t had enough Lily, her hit Smile is on the latest edition of Now That s What I Call Music!
Look for her to start booking gigs between bites of lunch in the coming months.
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