This summer’s official Park The Van Tour brings Asheville, North Carolina’s Floating Action and New Orleans’ Generationals on a trek across the Mississippi and Rocky Mountains for a Western U.S. jaunt. The tour includes cities like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tucson, with select dates including fellow PTV bands Golden Boots (Tucson) and Eagle Winged Palace (Los Angeles).
audio: Generationals “When They Fight They Fight” (Con Law) Floating Action “50 Lashes” (s/t)
dates: 07-22 Missoula, MT @ Badlander
07-23 Spokane, WA @ the Blvd.
07-24 Portland, OR @ Someday Lounge
07-25 Seattle, WA @ ToST
07-27 San Francisco, CA @ Café du Nord
07-28 Big Sur, CA @ TBA
07-29 Sacramento, CA @ TBA
07-30 Costa Mesa, CA @ Detroit Bar w/ Golden Boots + Eagle Winged Palace
07-/31 Hollywood, CA @ Hotel Café + Golden Boots
08-01 Long Beach, CA @ DiPiazza’s (Floating Action only)
08-02 San Diego, CA @ Bar Pink (free) + Golden Boots
08-03 Phoenix, AZ @ the Trunkspace + Golden Boots
08-04 Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress + Golden Boots
08-06 Austin, TX @ Stubbs Jr.
08-07 Houston, TX @ Super Happy Funland
08-08 New Orleans, LA @ the Hi-Ho Lounge
If you haven’t gotten enough, TV Guide Network will pay homage to Michael Jackson in two television specials airing this week. “Stars Reflect on the Man in the Mirror,” premiering on Tuesday, June 30 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT will include performance highlights and celebrity interviews from Sunday night’s “BET Awards,” where the stars showed up in full force to honor Michael Jackson. “Michael Jackson: His Music Legacy,” premiering on Wednesday, July 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT, will include Michael Jackson’s popular music videos throughout the decades.
“Stars Reflect on the Man in the Mirror” special will feature interviews with Joe Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Ne-Yo, Alicia Keys, New Edition, Ciara, Sherri Shepherd, Arsenio Hall and Wyclef Jean, as they discuss Michael Jackson’s legendary career, his pop culture influence and how he paved the way for so many artists today. The special will also include some of the most memorable tribute highlights from the “BET Awards,” including Janet Jackson’s touching remarks about her brother, Jamie Foxx’s Moonwalk and New Edition’s medley rendition of Jackson 5 hits.
“Michael Jackson: His Music Legacy” will feature iconic music videos from Michael Jackson’s solo artist career. Featured music videos will include “Human Nature,” “Bad,” “The Way You Make Me Feel” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” among others.
Since June 25, TV Guide Network has premiered over 10 hours of tribute coverage dedicated to Michael Jackson, including the upcoming specials, live news coverage and other feature programming to celebrate the entertainer’s life and career.
If you missed out on last month’s release of Middle Class Rut’s 25 years EP, it isn’t too late. Expect sky lurking songs with a Nothing’s Shocking era Jane’s Addiction sound and swagger.
dates: Jul 10 Bottom of the Hill San Francisco, California
Jul 30 HARLOW’S 18+ sacramento, California
Aug 19 BONE BASH X (w/Aerosmith, ZZ Top and others) Concord, California
Aug 25 Colchester Arts Centre Colchester, Essex, UK
Aug 26 The Sugar Mill Stoke-On-Trent, UK
Aug 28 LEEDS FESTIVAL – Festival Republic stage Leeds, UK
Aug 30 READING FESTIVAL – Festival Republic stage Reading, UK
Anna Ternheim will be back in the States and Canada this fall as a special guest on the co-headlining Loney Dear / Asobi Seksu tour. Anna will be playing music from her new album, Leaving on a mayday, in 14 North American cities. Check out the tour dates below.
dates: 09.30.09 – Casbah – San Diego, CA
10.01.09 – Troubador – Los Angeles, CA
10.02.09 – Slims – San Francisco, CA
10.03.09 – Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR
10.04.09 – Chop Suey – Seattle, WA
10.06.09 – Biltmore Cabaret – Vancouver, BC
10.09.09 – 7th Street Entry – Minneapolis, MN
10.10.09 – Bottom Lounge – Chicago, IL
10.11.09 – Grog Shop – Cleveland, OH
10.12.09 – Horseshoe Tavern – Toronto, ON
10.13.09 – Il Motore – Montreal, Quebec
10.14.09 – Great Scott – Boston, MA
10.15.09 – Maxwells – Hoboken, NJ
10.16.09 – Bowery Ballroom – New York, NY
10.17.09 – Johnny Brendas – Philadelphia, PA
Chicago’s Yourself and The Air have a tour scheduled for July, and a recently completed Daytrotter Session. Their third recording, Friend of All Breeds EP, is out now.
In case you forgot, Discovery is Rostam from Vampire Weekend and Wes from Ra Ra Riot. Their debut album is titled LP, and it blooms with an summery aquatic feel built from frantic high-hats, hand claps, and a glowing musicality.
While LP is officially slated for release on July 7th on XL Recordings, it is now available one week early exclusively on AmieStreet.com at the sale price of $8 in an effort by the group to raise money for Oxfam America. The exclusive release marks the seventh major release for AmieStreet.com’s Download To Make A Difference campaign, which has raised tens of thousands of dollars for organizations like the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Food Bank For New York City, and the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation since its launch ten months ago.
LP is released by XL Recordings (Sigur Rós, Adele, Vampire Weekend). To download the new album and support Oxfam America go here.
Blue Roses is Yorkshire, England’s Laura Groves. The self-titled debut will be out on July 21st, and was recorded partly in bedrooms in Bradford as well as piano shops, local colleges and churches in Yorkshire and was entirely self-produced and arranged by Blue Roses.
LA femme punk outfit Mika Miko recently stopped by Chessvolt Studios for Luxury Wafers’ ongoing live session project. They are on tour in support of the band’s tenth official release, We Be Xuxa, available now on Post Present Medium.
Malcolm Middleton will release his fifth solo album, Waxing Gibbous, in the US on August 11th. The was self-produced and recorded, with backing vocals from King Creosote and The Pictish Trail, the piano of Barry from Mogwai and the vocals of Jenny Reeve.
Domino and Geographic have announced the Pastels and Tenniscoats collaboration, Two Sunsets, out September 2nd. The album will be preceded by a single for “Vivid Youth” with the b-sides “About You” (from the extremely overlooked JAMC album Darklands) and “About You (Instrumental).”
The Pastels are from Glasgow and Tenniscoats from Tokyo. They have different sounds but something in common too. This collaboration which eventually became the Two Sunsets album arose from a suggestion by Tenniscoats that some studio time be booked while they were in Glasgow, just to see what happens, and maybe to try to find out what it is that they have in common. The first recording was promising and slightly rushed, but suggested enough to carry on. Tenniscoats had often been playing shows in Scotland, over a two or three year period at various recording sessions, it suddenly seemed like they’d accumulated about an album of songs which originated from members of both groups, Saya and Ueno from Tenniscoats, and Stephen and Katrina from The Pastels, with Gerard Love always there too, and often Tom Crossley, Alison Mitchell, and sometimes Norman Blake and Bill Wells.
This summer’s official Park The Van Tour brings Asheville, North Carolina’s Floating Action and New Orleans’ Generationals on a trek across the Mississippi and Rocky Mountains for a Western U.S. jaunt. The tour includes cities like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tucson, with select dates including fellow PTV bands Golden Boots (Tucson) and Eagle Winged Palace (Los Angeles).
