In what is sure to be a stunning setting, Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum will play a solo acoustic show at New York City's Town Hall on October 29th. Ticket information should be released in the next week.

Additionally, he'll return to New Jersey following his two sold out shows at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park as part of All Tomorrow's Parties for a show at Jersey City's Loew’s Theatre on November 6th.

The once-reclusive Mangum will also hit up Toronto, Boston and Somerset (where he'll be curating an ATP event) for more shows.

JEFF MANGUM TOUR DATES
Aug 12 Toronto, ON Trinity St. Paul’s United Church – on sale 2/25
Aug 13 Toronto, ON Trinity St. Paul’s United Church – on sale 2/25
Sept 09 Cambridge, MA TBA
Sept 10 Boston, MA Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory – on sale 2/25
Sept 30 Asbury Park, NJ Paramount Theatre – Sold Out
Oct 03 Asbury Park, NJ Paramount Theatre – Sold Out
Oct 29 New York, NY Town Hall – on sale TBA
Nov 06 Jersey City, NJ Loew’s Theatre – on sale TBA
Dec 02 Somerset, UK All Tomorrow’s Parties Curated by Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel) – on sale 2/18

This might explain why LCD Soundsystem couldn't book a show at New York's Madison Square Garden on April 1st! It's because The Strokes already had a hold on the room. Well, now it's all official, The Strokes will be headlining the big room on April Fools Day and tickets go on sale February 25th.

Additionally, it's been announced that The Strokes will be the music guest on Saturday Night Live on March 5th. Miley Cyrus will host.

And yesterday, it was also announced that The Strokes will be participants in this summer's Bonnaroo festival.

Radiohead dropped the awesome news that they will release The King of Limbs, their brand spanking new studio album this Saturday, February 19th, via their own website for as cheap as $9.

In an absolute stunner, Arcade Fire's The Suburbs beat out albums by Eminem and Lady Gaga to take home The Grammy's top honor of Album of the Year. Most people in the audience, not to mention the band themselves, seemed totally stunned.

After the jump, check out the video of Arcade Fire winning the Album of the Year award and then crashing the stage to perform an encore of "Ready to Start," after already performing their scheduled ceremony performance of "Month of May".....

Continue reading "Arcade Fire win Grammy's Album of the Year!" »

TV On The Radio will celebrate their fifth studio LP, Nine Types of Light, with an album launch show at Radio City Music Hall on April 13th. Tickets go on sale Friday 2/18 at 11AM.

This seems like a massive move forward for the band and I look forward to seeing how they perform in such a large venue.

Here's the scoop:

We are happy to announce that at 10.00am on Wednesday 9th February there will be a sale of a limited amount of General Admission Tickets at The Mercury Lounge Box Office 217 E. Houston, New York, NY 10022. These tickets will not carry a Ticketmaster charge. Strictly limited to two per person. First come first served!!!!!!

Additionally, it appears that Ticketmaster will hold a Pitchfork presale on Wednesday....

It's been a short but thrilling ride for LCD Soundsystem. Formed in 2002, they've been rocking my noggin since dropping their fantastic first single, "Losing My Edge." I clearly remember watching one of their earliest gigs, when they opened for The Rapture at the Bowery Ballroom, and they blew the room apart. To this day, one of the best live shows I've ever been to was LCD Soundsystem's "Sound of Silver" tour stop at Studio B in Brooklyn. And then there was last year's Music Hall of Williamsburg show, where the band kicked off their "This Is Happening" tour in truly magnificent style.

Sadly, LCD Soundsystem will play their final show ever on Saturday, April 2nd at New York's Madison Square Garden. I'm sure the show will be a huge triumph, but it will also mark the ending to a truly excellent band.

Here's the official statement from the band:

good people of earth:
lcd soundsystem are playing madison square garden on april 2nd, and it will be our last show ever. we are retiring from the game. gettin’ out. movin’ on. but for just one more night, we will be playing with friends and family for nearly 3 hours–playing stuff we’ve never played before and going out with a bang. and we’d like you to be there.

if you would, we’d love it if people all came in white. or black. or black and white. and come ready to have fun, please. and come early, as the festivities will be opened by our favorites, liquid liquid. yes: liquid
liquid.

if it’s a funeral, let’s have the best funeral ever!!!

general onsale february 11th at bowerypresents.com and ticketmaster.com. check lcd website and pitchfork for fan pre-sale mid week, details posted on tuesday 8th.

This is the saddest news of the day.

The White Stripes are done.

The groundbreaking rock duo announced Wednesday they are splitting up and "will make no further new recordings or perform live."

Jack White and Meg White say there are a "myriad of reasons" for the breakup, but the main reason is to "preserve what is beautiful and special about the band."

The last recording by the White Stripes was the live album "Under the Great White Northern Lights," released last year.

Over the years, Jack White has focused attention on other projects, including the bands the Dead Weather and the Raconteurs, as well as his Nashville, Tenn.-based Third Man Records.

Fleet Foxes will release Helplessness Blues, their 12-song sophomore lp on May 3rd via Sub Pop. You can listen to a stream of the album's title track after the jump.

Additionally, Fleet Foxes have announce spring tour dates, which include a May 18th show at New York's United Palace Theatre.

FLEET FOXES TOUR DATES
04/30 – Vancouver, BC @ The Vogue Theatre
05/01 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
05/03 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
05/05 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
05/06 – San Diego, CA @ Spreckels Theatre
05/07 – Hollywood, CA @ Hollywood Palladium
05/08 – Tuscon, AZ @ Rialto Theatre
05/10 – Austin, TX @ Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheater
05/11 – Dallas, TX @ Palladium Ballroom
05/13 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
05/14 – Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle
05/15 – Washington, DC @ DAR Constitution Hall
05/17 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
05/18 – New York, NY @ The United Palace Theatr
05/21 – Upper Darby, PA @ Tower Theatre

Continue reading "Fleet Foxes announce details of LP2, tour (United Palace)" »

PJ Harvey will be performing a post-Coachella show in New York City at Terminal 5 on April 20th. Tickets for the show go on-sale on February 4th.

You can still grab some tickets for Jeff Mangum at the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park right now here. I'm sure these will be gone very quickly.

This is mega! (vi CoS)

After bringing tantalizing lineups to Kutsher’s Country Club in Monticello, New York for the last three years, All Tomorrow’s Parties is moving the festivities to Asbury Park, New Jersey for 2011 and its inaugural bill includes two of music’s most sought over acts — reclusive Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum and UK trip-hop icons Portishead.

The three-day “I’ll Be Your Mirror” event will take place from September 30th – October 2nd at the Convention Hall and the adjacent Paramount Theater. Mangum’s performance, his first large public show of Neutral Milk Hotel songs in over a decade, will take place on the 30th at the 1,300-capacity Paramout, while Portishead will both headline and curate the festival’s other two days.

Other confirmed acts include Shellac, Chavez, Cults, and The Album Leaf, with some other 30 acts still to be confirmed. A comedy stage, cinema, DJs, and other activities are also promised.

Tickets for the festival will go on sale Friday, January 28th via the festival’s website. Mangum’s Friday night performance will be limited to those who buy three-day passes (priced at $249), but he’ll also play a second, nonfestival appearance on Oct. 3, also at the Paramount, tickets for which are $35.

The Strokes announce the release date for their highly anticipated fourth album, Angles, on March 22nd via RCA records in the US, and March 21st via Rough Trade Records in the UK. A new single titled "Under Cover of Darkness," will be heard on radio starting in February. The complete track-listing for the album can be found below. More details on Angles will be released in the coming weeks, as will details for a Spring US tour.

Angles is the band's first new release since 2006's First Impressions of Earth and marks the ambition of that album with the immediacy of the band's earlier albums Is This It (2001) and Room On Fire (2003). In 2010, the band returned to the road, playing and headlining major festivals in the United States and UK, including the Isle of Wight Festival, Lollapalooza, Hurricane Festival, Splendour In The Grass, Rockness, Outside Lands, and Austin City Limits. Time Out Chicago hailed the Lollapalooza performance as "the best set I've seen since covering Lollapalooza. Better than Radiohead in 2008. Better than... who headlined last year? ...The crowd...was euphoric."

The Strokes' Angles track listing:
1. Machu Picchu
2. Under Cover of Darkness
3. Two Kinds of Happiness
4. You're So Right
5. Taken For A Fool
6. Games
7. Call Me Back
8. Gratisfaction
9. Metabolism
10. Life Is Simple In The Moonlight

The Big 4 (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax) will stage a massive one-day festival at the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, California on April 23rd.

The week prior to The Big 4 Festival, the Coachella Festival will take place at the very same festival site.

Tickets for The Big 4 will be available on Ticketmaster this Friday January 28th at 10am PST.

Golden Globe winner Trent Reznor, along with Atticus Ross, have been nominated for Best Original Score at the 83rd annual Academy Awards for his soundtrack to the film "The Social Network."

Elsewhere, Banksy has received a nomination as producer for Best Documentary for "Exit Through The Gift Shop."

And....

The British monarchy saga "The King's Speech" leads the Academy Awards with 12 nominations, including best picture and acting honors for Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush.

Also nominated for best picture Tuesday were the psychosexual thriller "Black Swan"; the boxing drama "The Fighter"; the sci-fi blockbuster "Inception"; the lesbian-family tale "The Kids Are All Right"; the survival story "127 Hours"; the Facebook chronicle "The Social Network"; the animated smash "Toy Story 3"; the Western "True Grit"; and the Ozarks crime thriller "Winter's Bone."

Considering how much I've been loving the songs that have been released from Collapse Into Now, I'm sad to report that R.E.M. are not touring behind their upcoming album.

Here's the word from The Athens Banner-Herald:

So it comes as no surprise since we haven’t heard anything about it, anyway, but the official word is R.E.M. is not touring with the new record, “Collapse Into Now,” due out March 8. The ever lovely Bertis Downs, R.E.M. manager, said the simple answer is the band doesn’t tour with every album and this is one of those cases.

DOWNLOAD:Lifeguards - "Paradise Is Not So Bad"

Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard & Doug Gillard are dropping an amazing new album under the moniker LIFEGUARDS. The album, Waving at the Astronauts (Serious Business Records), is probably the best thing that Pollard and Gillard have put out since the heyday of GBV!

This should be some noisey, delicious fun. The Black Lips and Vivian Girls are heading out starting in February on a joint tour. The package hits NYC's Webster Hall on April 12th.

THE BLACK LIPS + VIVIAN GIRLS TOUR DATES
04-06 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
04-07 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
04-08 Washington, DC - Black Cat
04-09 Philadelphia, PA - The Trocadero
04-12 New York, NY - Webster Hall
04-13 Pawtucket, RI - The Met
04-14 Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
04-15 Montreal, Quebec - Le National
04-16 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre
04-17 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
04-19 Columbus, OH - Outland Live
04-20 Newport, KY - Southgate House
04-21 St. Louis, MO - The Firebird
04-22 Chicago, IL - Logan Square Auditorium
04-23 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater
04-25 Omaha, NE - The Waiting Room
04-26 Kansas City, MO - The Beaumont Club
04-27 Dallas, TX - The Loft
04-28 Austin, TX - Emo's
04-29 Houston, TX - Fitzgerald's
04-30 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon

Arcade Fire have announced a massive show at London's Hyde Park (capacity 60,000) on June 30th with support coming from Mumford & Sons, Beirut and The Vaccines! This should be epic.

This London date fuels rumors that Arcade Fire will also headline one of the nights at this year's Glastonbury Festival. The other two headliners at Glastonbury are rumors to be U2 and Coldplay.

Back in the States, Arcade Fire are already confirmed to headline both the Coachella Festival and the New Orleans Jazz Fest, as well as two regular shows at Chicago's UIC Pavilion with The National opening.

After a highly successful European tour, the Big 4 (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax) are on the verge of announcing a massive U.S. tour. Get psyched. The announcement is due tomorrow, January 25th at 8AM PT.....