One of the cool things about Eric Clapton is that he will never show up a musician he considers a superior artist or a true peer. Watching him in a jam session with a guitarist such as Buddy Guy, he lays back a bit, avoids the cliches and focuses on creating a dialogue rather than demonstrate his speed and dexterity. Too often, when he's performing solo in front of one of his own ensembles, he plays it too safe, reproducing the recorded solos or emphasizing repeated lightning-fast notes high on the neck followed by a sustain and an agonizing grimace.
Put him onstage with Steve Winwood and he has a brilliant foil, a man whose voice goes places Clapton's never will and whose R&B grounding gets Clapton's train a-rolling at a better rhythmic clip.
Maybe not a holy grail of reunion tours, but one that certainly will demonstrate the staying power of one of the world's first supergroups. Clapton and Winwood will embark on a 14-city U.S. tour beginning June 10 in E. Rutherford, N.J.
The lead guys from Blind Faith reunited at Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago in July 2007 and played three shows at Madison Square Garden. A two-disc DVD/CD of the the Garden shows will be released this Spring. The set list included Blind Faith classics and solo hits from each artist.

JUNE TOUR SCHEDULE:

10             East Rutherford, NJ                   Izod Center
12             Philadelphia                        Wachovia Center
13             Washington, DC                        Verizon Center
15             Columbus, oH                          Schottenstein Center
17             Chicago,                                United Center
18             St. Paul, MN                             Xcel Energy Center
20             Omaha, NE                               Qwest Center
21             Denver                               Pepsi Center
23             Dallas                                 American Airlines Center
24             Houston                              Toyota Center
26             Glendale, AZ                             Jobing.com Arena
27             Las Vegas                         MGM Grand Arena
29             Oakland                              Oracle Arena
30             Los Angeles                       Hollywood Bowl

It's always a treat when an artist sends you back into the library to pull out old vinyl or CDs that you have not thought about for awhile. Kurt Elling, the jazz singer, and the saxophonist Ernie Watts are touring with a tribute to "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman," the album of duets they recorded on March 7, 1963. The album  is one of those distinctly beautiful and romantic albums that any jazz fan would hold onto it with a hope to someday share it; it's jazz at its most sensual and inviting.
Hartman's baritone, Trane's tenor sax and McCoy Tyner's supple piano take the album's six ballads at a relaxed pace, each note articulated with warmth and belying the fact that there was little, if any, rehearsal for the work. It reflected Coltrane's mood at the time, his most recent recordings being the equally sensitive "Ballads" and his collaboration with Duke Ellington. (Their "Prelude to a Kiss" still sends shivers).
Elling and Watts, whose best known work has been with Charlie Haden's Quartet West, add a string quartet and take their program into more upbeat terrain. Thursday at USC's Bing Theater, "Coltrane and Hartman" was a starting point - two of the album's cuts, "Lush Life" and "Autumn Serenade," went into a medley with "What's New" and  "My One and Only Love" was partnered "Nancy (With the Laughing  Face)." The emphasis was Coltrane, with Elling using his voice in the styles of both Hartman and Trane. He connected in the baritone with the singer, using flourishes, some of them wordless, to channel a Coltrane improvisation.
Watts has a tone substantially  different from Coltrane. Trane's playing at the time was moans, caresses and hallelujahs; Watts opts for pleas, promises and linear thought. Pianist Laurence Hobgood, who has been with Elling for 15 years, combined Tyner's romanticism with some of Bill Evans'' pensiveness in addition to writing the arrangements for the evening.
There are no plans at this time to record the program, which also includes Coltrane versions of "Bessie's Blues," "All of Nothing at All and "Say It (Over and Over Again)."   Elling, who now records for Concord after a decade with Blue Note, is in the early stages of selecting songs with producer Don Was for his next album.   
On a side note, Elling has one of the most interesting collection of links I have ever seen on a website.

For the record, my quest to attend 100 shows and see 300 acts this year is down to  34 shows and 128 acts to go.

Once Boz Scaggs wraps up his tour of small theaters, he will hit a few jazz clubs in support of his second album of standards, "Speak Low," which will be released Oct. 28 on Decca.
He will also unveil jazz versions of hit tunes from "Silk Degrees": "Lowdown," "JoJo" and "Lido Shuffle." Since the album is all ballads, those tunes could go a long way to bringing some pep to the show.
Scaggs will perform at Jazz Alley in Seattle Oct.30-Nov.2;Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis on Nov. 5 and 6; UCO Jazz Club in Edmond, Okla., on Nov. 7; the Blue Note in New York  Nov. 10-11 and 14-16;
Blue Alley in D.C. on Nov. 19;  Ram's Head on Stage in Annapolis, Md., on Nov. 20; and Boston's Wilbur Theatre on Nov. 23.

Mogwai will release two discs in September, the "Batcat" EP featuring a collaboration with Roky Erickson on the ninth and the full-length "The Hawk is Howling" the 23rd.
A unique band in concert - their set at Coachella a few years ago was one of my faves in the fest's history - they will spend the month touring.
Matador has posted an mp3 of "The Sun Smells Too Loud."

TOUR DATES
Sep 3-Portland, OR @ Music Fest NW (Mogwai headlining ; also appearing Del The Funkee Homosapien, Steel Pole Bathtub, Polvo, Jaguar Love and many more)
Sep 4-Seattle @ Showbox SoDo
Sep 5-Victoria, BC @ Sugar
Sep 6-Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
Sep 8-San Francisco @ The Grand Ballroom
Sep 9-Los Angeles @ Wiltern Theatre
Sep 10-Tucson, Ariz. @ The Rialto
Sep 12-Austin @ Stubb's Wailer Creek
Sep 13-Dallas @ Granada Theater
Sep 15-Atlanta @ Variety Playhouse
Sep 16-Richmond, Va. @ The National
Sep 17-Washington D.C. @ 9:30 Club
Sep 18-New York @ Terminal 5
Sep 19-Philadelphia @ Starlight Ballroom
Sep 21-Monticello, N.Y. @ ATP Festival
Sep 22-Boston @ Wilbur Theatre
Sep 23-Montreal @ Metropolis
Sep 24-Toronto @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
Sep 25-Pontiac, Mich. @ The Crofoot
Sep 26-Chicago @ Congress Theater
Sep 27-Minneapolis @ First Avenue

THE WHO HAS ANNOUNCED MORE FALL TOUR DATES:

Oct. 21 Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit
Oct. 22 Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, Ontario
Oct. 24 TD Banknorth Garden, Boston
Oct. 26 Wachovia Center, Philadelphia
Oct. 28 Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, Conn.
Oct. 29 Izod Center, East Rutherford, NJ
Oct. 31 The Borgata, Atlantic City, NJ
Nov. 3 Verizon Center, Washington, DC
plus the previously announced

Nov. 8 & 9 Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles

Taking a page out of the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers playbook, the Who will follow-up a significant television appearance with the announcement of a tour and on-sale dates for tickets.
The Who will tour the U.S. in the fall but are only initially announcing two dates -- Nov. 8 and 9 at the 7,100-seat Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. (It's a guess but the last time they did an official show in L.A. at a venue of less than 10,00 seats was probably the "Who's Next" show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in the early 1970s).
Tickets for fan club members go on sale Monday. The Who and a collection of bands that look up to Pete Townshend and his gang will perform Saturday at Pauley Pavilion at the VH1 Rock Honors concert that is being televised by the cabler.
Petty and the Heartbreakers put tickets onsale for their summer tour the day after they appeared on the Super Bowl.

Story by Matt Kivel

Hopeless romantics rejoice! Canadian popsters Stars will likely be coming to a town near you. The band is currently finishing up some European dates, but they'll be kicking out the jams for stateside audiences starting with the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco August 24.

Also, the band just issued a new video (co-directed by Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew) for "Bitches In Tokyo" from the "In Our Bedroom After The War" LP. It's got an appealing, coming-of age in the '70s aesthetic ... and they namedrop a number of awesome bands from the glam-rock scene. Think "Virgin Suicides" meets "Detroit Rock City":

Bitches In Tokyo

Stars 2008 US Tour: 

Sunday August 24th, 2008 San Francisco, CA - San Francisco's Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival

Wednesday September 17th, 2008 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street

Friday September 19th, 2008 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero Theatre

Saturday September 20th, 2008 New York, NY - Terminal 5

Wednesday September 24th, 2008 Chicago, IL - The Riviera Theatre

Thursday September 25th, 2008 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant

Friday September 26th, 2008 Lawrence, KS - The Granada

Sunday September 28th, 2008 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Music Festival

Wednesday October 1st, 2008 Hollywood, CA - Avalon

Thursday October 2nd, 2008 Anaheim, CA - House of Blues

Saturday October 4th, 2008 Santa Cruz, CA - Rio Theatre

Wednesday October 8th, 2008 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom

Thursday October 9th, 2008 Seattle, WA - The Showbox Theatre

Story by Matt Kivel

Seminal shoegazers My Bloody Valentine returned to the stage for the first time in over 16 years this past weekend. Concertgoers at London's Roundhouse were treated to a set plucked entirely from the band's back catalogue with the exception of their marginal goth-rock debut "This Is Your Bloody Valentine." Reviewers have been mixed in terms of enthusiasm, but all agree on the sheer, ear-crushing power Kevin Shields and Co were able to unleash upon a seemingly unprepared audience.

MBV is infamous for its live aural assaults -- documented poignantly in Mike McGonical's 33 1/3 book about "Loveless" -- which were dispatched upon audiences in the late '80s and early '90s with an unrelenting sense of vision and tenacity. The fact that so many reviewers seemed overwhelmed by the noise is a testament to the band's uncompromising devotion to its sound and the partial picture that is painted by the two major studio albums -- which, along with the group's stellar EPs, have been the only source of MBV music fans have had access to for 16 years.

"Loveless" and "Isn't Anything" are undeniable masterpieces of guitar-based rock music, the seismic shifts in tone and texture are breathtaking and, unsurprisingly, have proven massively influential to subsequent generations, but they only hint at MBV's sheer power as a live unit. Listening to "Loveless" at certain volumes can be downright soothing, like some sort of lullabye for crazed noisenicks. Now, 16 years on, we get both sides of the story - live and in the studio.

Set List (Roundhouse - London):

1) Only Shallow 2) When You Sleep 3) You Never Should 4) (When You Wake) You’re Still In A Dream 5) Lose My Breath 6) I Only Said 7) Come In Alone 8) Thorn 9) Nothing Much to Lose 10) To Here Knows When 11) Slow 12) Blown A Wish 13)Soon 14)Feed Me With Your Kiss 15) Sueisfine 16)You Made Me Realize

MBV North American Tour 2008:

Sept 19 ATP New York -Kutshers Country Club (Monticello, NY)

Sept 22 Roseland Ballroom (NY, NY)

Sept 23 Roseland Ballroom (NY, NY) *Sold Out

Sept 25 Ricoh Coliseum (Toronto, Ontario)

Sept 27 Aragon Ballroom (Chicago, Il) *Sold Out

Sept 30 The Concourse Exhibition Center (San Francisco, Ca)

Oct 1 Santa Monica Civic (Santa Monica, Ca)

Oct 2 Santa Monica Civic (Santa Monica, Ca)

Videos:

1991, Interview with Kevin Shields

6/13/08, warm up gig "Only Shallow"

6/20/08, Roundhouse "When You Sleep"

Coldplay has no use for Los Angeles, at least in the announcement of 29 cities they will play in North America int he summer and fall.  "Viva La Vida"  will be released June 17; the tour,  produced by Live Nation, will kick off June 29 in Philadelphia.
Coldplay will play free concerts in London (June 16th at the Brixton Academy) and New York (June 23 at Madison Square Garden). Information on how to win tickets to these shows will be available here.  Contest will run through June 1; winners will receive notification on June 5.
The album's lead single "Violet Hill" was downloaded by 2 million people in its first week of release.
Tour dates after the jump.

Epic, extended sets are being promised on My Morning Jacket's 27-date tour that features a June 20 gig at New York's Radio City Music Hall and then a straight run from a hometown gig Aug. 16 in Louisville, Ky, to Oct. 10 in Chicago.
They play "Saturday Night Live" for the first time on Saturday. ATO will release "Evil Urges" on June 10.

THE TOUR DATES:
JUNE
20  New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
AUGUST
16  Louisville, Ky @ The Great Lawn at Louisville Waterfront Park
18  Kansas City, Mo. @ Uptown Theatre
19  Council Bluffs, Iowa @ Stir Cove
21  Morrison, Colo. @ Red Rocks Amphitheater*
23  Dallas @  Palladium Ballroom
24  Austin @ Stubbs
27  Atlanta @ Fox Theatre-Atlanta
29  Miami @ The Fillmore Miami Beach@ the Jackie Gleason Theater
30  Lake Buena Vista, Fla. @ House of Blues- Orlando
31  Myrtle Beach, S.C. @ House of Blues- Myrtle Beach
SEPTEMBER
2  Charlottesville, Va. @ Charlottesville Pavilion
3  Washington, D.C. @ Constitution Hall
5  Philadelphia @ Festival Pier @ Penn’s Landing
6  Boston @ Bank of America Pavilion
19  Berkeley, Calif. @ Greek Theatre
21  Los Angeles @ Greek Theatre
23  Tempe, Ariz. @ The Marquee
24  Las Vegas @ The Joint
25  San Diego @ SDSU Open Air Theater
27  Portland, Ore. @ McMenamins Edgefield
28  Seattle  @ McCaw Hall
OCTOBER
2  Minneapolis @ Orpheum Theatre
3  Milwaukee @ Riverside Theater
4  Detroit @ The Fillmore Detroit
9/10  Chicago @ Chicago Theatre

"Hard Candy" is the album, "Sweet & Sticky" is the name of the tour.
Madonna will tour Europe before coming to the States in October, where she will perform 18 shows at stadiums and arena from Oct. 3 through Thanksgiving weekend.
Tour starts  Aug. 23 in Cardiff, Wales and hits  London on Sept. 11 and Paris on the 20th.
U.S. legs opens in the basketball arena at the Meadowlands in New Jersey on Oct. 3. She plays New York's Madison Square Garden on Oct. 6 and 7. She will be at Dodger Stadium on Nov. 6. (Brrrrrr). Mexico and South America dates will follow.
On sale dates start as early as May 16 (London, Paris, Cardiff and Nice), 17 (Amsterdam, Boston and Chicago) and 19 (E. Rutherford, N.J.) and New York. Tour is the first one under her $100 million deal with Live Nation.
Tickets will be as high as $300 and, of course, there will be "premium tickets" and VIP packages sold as well.
Jamie King will direct the show; Kevin Antunes is musical director.
The tour dates followed by on sale date:

AUGUST
23 Cardiff Millennium Stadium - Fri. May 16
26 Nice Stade Charles Ehrmann - Fri. May 16
28 Berlin Olympic Stadium - Wed. May 21
SEPTEMBER
02 Amsterdam Arena - Sat. May 17
04 Dusseldorf LTU Arena - Wed. May 21
06 Rome Olympic Stadium - Fri. May 23
09 Frankfurt Commerzbank Arena - Wed. May 21
11 London Wembley Stadium - Fri. May 16
20 Paris Stade de France - Fri. May 16
OCTOBER
03- E. Rutherford Izod Center - Mon. May 19
06 New York City Madison Square Garden - Mon. May 19
07- New York City Madison Square Garden - Mon. May 19
15 Boston TD BankNorth Garden - Sat. May 17
18 Toronto Air Canada Centre - Sat. May 24
22 Montreal Bell Centre - Sat. May 24
26- Chicago United Center - Sat. May 17
30 Vancouver BC Place Stadium - Sat. May 24
NOVEMBER
01 Oakland Oracle Arena - Sun. June 1
04 San Diego Petco Park - Sun. June 1
06 Los Angeles Dodger Stadium - Sun. June 1
08 Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena - Sat. May 31
11 Denver Pepsi Center - Sat. May 31
16 Houston Minute Maid Park - Sat. May 31
19 Philadelphia Wachovia Center - Mon. June 2
22 Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall - Mon. June 2
24 Atlanta Philips Arena - Sat. May 31
26 Miami Dolphin Stadium - Sat. May 31

Tom Waits is using the constellation Hydra to guide his U.S. tour and a collection of stars that might only exist in his mind to plot a Spain to Dublin European trek, which translates to no gigs west of Phoenix or north of Atlanta along the East Coast. 
His "press conference" spells out details below. Tour dates:
June
17/18  Orpheum, Phoenix
20  Plaza Theater, El Paso, Tex.
22  Jones Hall, Houston
23  Palladium, Dallas
25  Brady Theater Tulsa, Okla.
26  Fox Theater, St Louis
28 Ohio Theater, Columbus, Ohio
29 Civic Theater, Knoxville, Tenn.
July
1 Moran Theater, Jacksonville, Fla.
2 Saenger Theater, Mobile, Ala.
3 Alabama Theater, Birmingham
5 Fox Theater, Atlanta

Gilberto Gil is taking a cue from the jam bands and embracing the tapers. Actually, he intends to tell audience members they may record and film whatever they want however they want when he goes on an 11-city tour of North America beginning June 18 in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Rather than greatest hits, he will be emphasizing material from his new CD “Banda Larga Cordel,” which Warner Music Latina will release in June.It will be his largest North American tour in nine years.
A long-time proponent of the Internet - he first posted a tune in 1996 and as Brazil's minister of culture has heavily promoted technology - he intends to track life in the road through a new blog. His PR materials even emphasize his longtime interest in technology, pointing listeners toward Tropicalia masterpieces such as “Cérebro Electrônica” and “Futurivel” from 1969, in addition to “Cibernética” (1974), “Parabolicamará” (1991) and “Quanta” (1997).
Gil's BroadBand Band features Arthur Maia on bass, Alex Fonseca on drums, Bem Gil on guitars, Claudio Andrade on keyboards, Gustavo di Dalva on percussion, and Sergio Chiavazzolli, also on guitars.
Tour dates after the jump. He's a pretty good performer in the kitchen, too

Radiohead in August: Three festivals, five California shows, two different opening acts and one on on-sale date. The second leg of the  North American tour:

Aug. 1 - Lollapalooza - Chicago
3 - Verizon Wireless Music Center - Indianapolis
4 - Blossom Music Center - Cleveland
6 - Parc Jean Drapeau - Montreal
8/9 - All Points West Music & Arts Festival/Liberty State Park -
Jersey City, N.J.
12 - Susquehanna Bank Center - Camden, N.J.
13 - Tweeter Center For the Performing Arts - Mansfield, Mass.
15 - Molson Amphitheatre - Toronto
19 - Thunderbird Stadium - Vancouver, B.C.
20 - White River Amphitheatre - Auburn, Wash.
22 - Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival @ Golden Gate Park -
San Francisco
24/25  Hollywood Bowl
27 - Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre - Chula Vista, Calif.
28 - Santa Barbara Bowl - Santa Barbara, Calif.

With the exception of the festivals (Lollapalooza, All Points West,
Outside Lands), pre-sales  begin Wednesday with general on-sale on Saturday.
Grizzly Bear will open  Aug. 3-15 and  Liars plat Aug. 19-28.

The biggest rock band in the world has made a deal with the largest concert promoter in the world that cements their next 12 years as a partnership.
U2 has joined Madonna on the Live Nation Artists roster but unlike Madge, the Irish band will keep its recordings and publishing within the Universal Music Group empire. Deal does include U2's  merchandising, digital and branding rights.
This time, Live Nation did not disclose the financial arrangement, but it does not sound that far off from the way the Rolling Stones have been conducting business for years. Band gets a lump sum for a certain amount of dates and it is up to the promoter to make it work financially on their end. Naturally, both sides take a cut from the profits.
Bono is obviously drinking the Live Nation Kool-Aid. The buying and selling spree of LN chief Michael Rapino - designed to focus the company strictly on concert promotion, ticketing and merchandising - is paying off as it looks very much like a one-stop of the future. Rapino's pitch, now that his ducks are in a row, is that the concert promoter can have a lasting and enduring relationship with a music consumer beyond the two or three hours spent inside the concert venue.
"(U2 wants) a closer, more direct relationship between the band and its audience and Live Nation has pledged to help us with that," Bono said in a statement.
It is highly conceivable that when U2 issues the album they are working on now, they may well find a need to promote the album with viral efforts similar to one being executed by R.E.M. over the last month to raise awareness and enthusiasm for "Accelerate," which comes out Tuesday.
Difference for R.E.M., though, is a dramatic return to a raw guitar sound that the band and Warner Bros. believe may well help it outperform their last three releases, which have fared poorly at retail. U2, on the other hand, has been the rare beacon of success in the rock marketplace since the early 1980s.

Hollywood’s haven for singer-songwriters, the dimly lit and intimate Hotel Cafe, is expanding its brand from live music to recordings with the release this week of Jim Bianco’s “Sing.”
The disc, distributed by Rykodisc, hits stores just weeks after a remote edition of the venue operated during the Sundance Film Festival and just days before the third edition of the Hotel Café Tour hits the road. The 16-concert tour, which features Bianco and other Café regulars such as Ingrid Michaelson, Cary Brothers and Sara Bareilles, opens March 6 in San Diego and runs through April 12 at L.A.’s Music Box at Henry Fonda Theater.
The entourage will also perform March 9 at the Café itself and has a major showcase lined up for SXSW in Austin next week. Shows on the tours have been anything goes affairs with musicians alternating lineups, jamming together for finales and keeping the evenings wide open, much like the Hotel Café has been during its seven years of existence – and one remodeling 
“We all needed a scene, a place to go” says Bianco, who moved to L.A. from New York eight years ago and found a local club scene very set in its ways. “It was very unintentional, but great that it worked out this way.”
Bianco has been a mainstay at the Café and on the tour, appearing on all three and remaining enthused by the collaborative nature of the shows. The venue, meanwhile, has become something of a workshop for him: he has tried out theatrical ideas involving catwalks, found new musicians to work with and even written songs on the a piano tucked away in the venue’s front room.
“At least a part of every song on the album was conceived on the piano at the Hotel Café,” Bianco says, apparently surprising himself as he comes to that realization as he connects the dots between his first two discs and the new one. “The heart opens a little more on ‘Sing.’ “The last record had lots of sex. This has some loss, some love and some sex.”
Sex, or at least the libido, produces some of Bianco’s best lines. “Sing’s” “Painkiller,” for example, offers a lecherous twist: “Your skirt blew up high enough that I could see your skin/It appeared as though I was owed a favor by the wind." Love and commitment is there,too: "To hell with the devil/ I'm selling my soul to you.”
Intriguingly, Bianco is hardly a standard HC character: He’s more rambunctious and less in touch with his inner-Laurel Canyon than his peers. His songs have elements from European cabaret, South American dances, Chicago blues and wrong-side-of-the-tracks authors. And he does not possess what anyone would call a mellifluous voice.
Since everyone listening to Bianco is familiar with the raspy tone of Tom Waits, he gets that comparison. Some of that owes to the lyrical content, but his voice never even threatens to go as deep as Waits; it’s not a failed impersonation. His vocals, to my ears, are actually much closer to Fats Waller with a hint of gravel; it’s the hacking voice of a hangover, one that be tolerated. It suits the control clatter behind him just fine.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of (people) with weird voices – Tom Waits, Muddy Waters, Billie Holiday. I have yet to truly find mine but the more I do, the more comfortable with it I become.”
Bianco held his record release party Tuesday at the Hotel Café and performs today (March 5) at 7 p.m. at Amoeba Records in Hollywood.

Merle Haggard and entertainment businessman Bob Wolf will announce in Nashville Monday the creation of the Green Train, a multi-concert informational train tour that will travel coast to coast.
The Green Train is scheduled to start in Portland, Ore., this summer and will pass through every geographic region in the nation during a six-week whistle stop tour. It will culminate with a volunteer outreach day in Washington, D.C. in August. Haggard and friends will ride aboard the Green Train this summer to promote global awareness.
“Merle and I felt it was important to try and unite our country through a message of common sense, simple conservation and education that carries on through our generations to come,” Wolf said. “We decided a whistle-stop train with a circus-style atmosphere should be the vessel carrying our message, along with a concert tour allowing a younger generation of entertainers to honor the stage with America’s legendary icons in a ‘pass the baton’ kind of ceremony to the next ‘breed of legends.’"

Herbie Hancock and the band that backed him on the disc that won the album of the year Grammy has announced the first five dates of a U.S. tour that begins June 15 at the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl.
Hancock will appear with bassist Dave Holland, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and guitarist Lionel Loueke. Saxophonist Chris Potter is taking Wayne Shorter’s place on the tour. Band will perform at Carnegie Hall on June 23. Cities already booked are Seattle, Vancouver, B.C., and Ottawa, Ontario; East Coast cities are in the process of being booked.

Robert Plant, fresh from hanging out with his Led Zep pals, and Alison Krauss have been booked for 17 dates between June 2 in Roanoke, Va., and July 1 in Phoenix. They will play Madison Square Garden on June 10 and L.A.'s Greek Theatre in June 23 and 24.
The Grammy winning duo start their Raising Sand World Tour in April with two gigs in Louisville, Ky., two Tennessee appearances, a stop at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and a gig in Birmingham, Ala. May will be spent in in Europe, concluding with a performance at Wembley Arena on May 22.
The duo will perform tracks from the album as well as material from their own discographies.
Band for the tour features two musicians from the "Raising Sand" sessions -  Jay Bellerose on drums and Dennis Crouch on bass - plus Emmylou Harris' band leader and solo artist  Buddy Miller on guitar and former Union Station fiddler/mandolinist Stuart Duncan.

Dolly Parton  has re-set the dates for her tour in support of her "Dolly's Backwoods Barbie" album being released Feb. 26 on Dolly Records. She is likely to still be recuperating when SXSW hits where she was going to make a showcase appearance.
The tour
April 22 Pittsburgh Benedum Center
23 Hershey, Pa.Hershey Center
25 Uncasville, Conn. Mohegan Sun Arena
28 Fairfax, Va. Patriot Center
29 Atlanta Fox Theatre

May 1 New York Radio City Music Hall
3 Atlantic City, N.J.Borgata
5 Boston Opera House
7 Minneapolis Northrup Auditorium
8/9 Chicago Theatre
11 Dallas Nokia Theatre

They had already announced the cities; now they have dates and venues.

Mon 05/05/08   West Palm Beach, Fla.  Cruzan Amphitheatre   

Tue 05/06/08   Tampa, Fla.  Ford Amphitheatre @ State Fairgrds.   

Thu 05/08/08   Atlanta  HiFi Buys Amphitheatre   

Fri 05/09/08   Charlotte, N.C.  Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre   

Sun 05/11/08   Bristow, Va.  Nissan Pavilion At Stone Ridge   

Wed 05/14/08   Maryland Heights, Mo.  Verizon Wireless Amph. St. Louis   

Sat 05/17/08   The Woodlands, Texas  The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion   

Sun 05/18/08   Dallas  Superpages.com Centre

The other cities are: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver, B.C.

Just two days after being given the president's award by the Recording Academy, pianist  McCoy Tyner has announced a tour with dancer Savion Glover that will start in mid-February.
The band is Tyner, Glover, bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer Eric Kamau Gravatt.
Tour dates:
Feb. 15 - Atlanta Ferst Center
21 - Roanoke, Va. Jefferson Center
23 - Camden, N.J., Center
24 - Washington, D.C. Kennedy Center
28 - Buffalo, N.Y. U of Buffalo
29 - Red Bank, N.J. Count Basie Theatre.

March 2 - Wilmington, Del. Grand Opera House
7 - Albany, N.Y. The Egg
8 - Peekskill, N.Y. Paramount Center for the Arts
14 - San Francisco Jazz Festival

The Super Bowl ad that did not actually get to plug its product, the appearance by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, has not generated gangbuster business the day after.
Petty's appearance, like any other musician or actor who showed up to the game, was to get fans to make purchases, in his case concert tickets. Tickets went on sale today about three hours ago in many cities; that fact was never mentioned on air nor in any Petty advertisements. (Nice full page in the New York Times, though).
Clearly, though, fans are either not putting one and one together or they simply don't want to lock in plans for a night in July or August. Petty is selling tickets seven months out to people in Texas and Washington; his first show is May 30 - nearly four months from the on-sale date.
A quick perusal of Ticketmaster offerings nearly three hours into the sale found tickets about half way up in the Hollywood Bowl, far stage right on the second level at Irvine Meadows in Orange County and in the 300 level at Madison Square Garden where the view will be Benmont Tench's side and Steve Ferrone's back. Maybe there are a lot of Giants fans figuring Petty brought the team luck and are therefor scooping up ducats faster than the rest of the country.
Tour opener in Grand Rapids, Mich., had side of the stage seats available and night two, in Auburn Hills outside Detroit, had second level straight back available.

A few friends started debating last week about what might be included in Tom Petty's set  during halftime at the Super Bowl and most of us figured "Running Down a Dream" and "Free Fallin'" were locks until a rumor spread that he's working on  new material.
That certainly threw a wrench into any plans for song pool. Naturally, the discussion turned toward: Is there a Petty album on the horizon that no one knows anything about? Well, right now, no. But there is a tour.
Petty and the Heartbreakers play Sunday in Arizona; tickets for his summer tour go on sale the next day. Steve Winwood will be opening the shows, which start May 30 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Tour dates after the jump

Three major tours were announced Friday. Jimmy Eat World and Paramore will do a U.S. co-headline tour starting in March; Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds has added 13 cities for his "Playlist" shows; and Rush's
Snakes & Arrows World Tour, with a set list updated from last year, will hit 45 cities, starting April 11 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Rush will hitting cities they have not visited in more than a decade, among them Orlando, Fla., Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Reno, Nev., Boise, Idaho, and Winnipeg. They will also get the opportunity to shout "Hello,  Hershey" for the first time in a dog's age this summer.
Live Nation Global Touring and SRO/Anthem are presenting the show; a MusicToday fan club presale,  in conjunction with rush.com, starts Jan. 22; American Express cardholders get dibs on tickets after that.
Babyface opens Feb. 15 in Minneapolis and then heads south before winding up in Long Beach on March 5.
Jimmy Eat World and Paramore will announce their schedule, on-sale dates and support acts soon.
Edmonds and Rush tour dates after the jump.

The Eagles will play four shows at London’s  02 Arena (March 20, 22, 23 and 26) to kick-off the "Long Road Out of Eden World Tour." 
The O2 Arena concerts will debut an all-new stage production.Tickets are £70 and £85; Golden Circle tickets run £110. Tickets go on sale Friday. No other date shave been announced.
Eagles are also offering an "ultimate fan experience" package.

Moms, Dads: If you thought the crying was unbearable when little Samantha or Ashley was told there was no way to get Miley Cyrus concert tickets, well hold on.
Turns out the Jonas Brothers can sell ducats at potentially an even faster rate. In L.A., the Jonas Brothers set a new record for the fastest sell-out in the 36-year history of the Gibson, formerly Universal, Amphitheater. Two minutes. More than 5,000 seats sold.
The band immediately added two more shows and sold every ticket again. And this is in a  town where many parents can tell their kids "I know a guy who knows a guy who can hook us up" and not the Midwest where the Cyrus dust-up originated. 
But if you think that sell out was fast, how about the 203 postings that went up today on StubHub for the Jonas Brothers' Universal shows. Ducats are running from $69.95 apiece to $858 a ticket for four seats in the fourth row.   Face value is $49.50 for the orchestra; $39.50 for the mezzanine. Then there are the 130 listings on eBay, including one that started at one dollar from the private party known as Mr. Best Available Seating. 
Dates for the teens 'n' ticket scalping extravaganza after the jump:

Having waxed enthusiastically about the pending return of Joe Jackson, the singer has added U.S. dates to his world tour. He starts in Toronto on April 1, heads to New York for shows on April 15 and 16 (Apollo and Town Hall) and closes the run in L.A. on May 13 at the Orpheum. That's 25 shows in 43 days

Justice, the French electronic duo of Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé that received considerable year-end love from websites and critics, will headline the  Spring 2008 MySpace Music Tour.
Tour kicks off March 3 in Austin, Texas, and ends March 31 in Los Angeles. Joining Justice on the bill are Diplo, DJ Mehdi, Chromeo, Busy P and Fancy on select dates.
Tickets  go on sale Jan. 9-12  depending on the show.
Tour dates after the jump

Jose  Gonzalez' next tour is a green one.
The guitarist-singer is partnering with Reverb, a non-profit organization designed to educate and  engage  music fans and  promote  environmental  sustainability. 
Gonzalez' rider requests biodegradable  catering  products and  a reduction  of   plastic water
bottles; Gonzalez  and Reverb will calculate the CO2 footprint of the tour  and  neutralize  emissions from  venue  energy  use,  ground  transportation,   flights   and hotel
accommodations  by  supporting    clean   renewable   energy   projects.
There will be a 50 cent add-on to  tickets to support  Reverb. Ticketstoday.com will also  offer the  option  to  add an  additional 50 cents to NativeEnergy's CO2  Offset  program. 
Music Today will do pre-sales on this tour today through Friday. General Sales begin Jan. 15
Tour dates are after the jump

Paul Potts, the opera-singing winner of the U.K. TV show "Britain's Got Talent," starts his first U.S. tour on  March 1 in Hollywood, Fla.
Potts has put his career in the hands of Simon Cowell, who produced his first CD, "One Chance" for Columbia Records.
His tour dates, all in March:

1 Hollywood, Fla. Hard Rock Live @ Seminole Casino
2 Tampa, Fla. Tampa Theatre
3  Washington, D.C. Lisner Auditorium
5  Ledyard, Conn. Fox Theater @ Foxwoods Casino
6  Westbury, N.Y. North Fork Theatre
8  Atlantic City, N.J. Music Box Theater @ Borgata Hotel & Casino
9  Boston Berklee Performance Center
11  New York Town Hall
13  Hamilton, Canada Hamilton Place Theatre
14  Montreal Place des Arts
15  Toronto Roy Thompson Hall
17  Ottawa Centrepoint Theater
19  Edmonton Winspear Theater
20  Vancouver,B.C. Centre for Performing Arts
24  Calgary Jack Singer Concert Hall
26  Los Angeles Wiltern Theatre
27  Mesa, Ariz. Ikeda Theatre

Foo Fighters have confirmed the bulk of their first American tour in support of their new album "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace," including their first-ever show at Madison Square Garden.
A limited number of premium tickets for some shows will be available through Ticketmaster auctions, proceeds from which will benefit local tree planting through TreeBank. Most shows go on sale Saturday.
The second half of March is filled with Canadian dates, leaving the first part of either March or April  open for West Coast shows. Band is booked Down Under at the end of April.
For the tour, Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins and Chris Shiflett will be joined by Pat Smear on guitar, Rami Jaffee on keyboards, Drew Hester on percussion, and Jessy Greene on strings.
Tour dates:
1/16 - Sunrise, Fla. BankAtlantic Center
1/17 - Orlando, Fla. Amway Arena
1/19 - Birmingham, Ala. BJCC Arena
1/20 - Pensacola, Fla. Pensacola Civic Center
1/22 - Houston Toyota Center
1/23 - Dallas American Airlines Center (on sale now)
1/25 - Memphis, Tenn. FedEx Forum (on sale now)
1/26 - Nashville, Tenn. Nashville Municipal Auditorium (on sale now)
1/28 - Fayetteville, Ark. Barnhill Arena
1/29 - Oklahoma City Ford Center
2/18 - Worcester, Mass. DCU Center (on sale now)
2/19 - New York Madison Square Garden
2/21 - Philadelphia Wachovia Spectrum (on sale now)
2/24 - Detroit Joe Louis Arena (on sale now)
2/25 - Chicago Allstate Arena
2/27 - Minneapolis Target Center

Celine Dion has booked 45 North American dates from Aug. 12 in Boston and to Jan. 30, 2009 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Dion will perform at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sept. 15 and in L.A. at Staples Center on Dec. 2, 2008.
Dion’s album “Taking Chances” will be released Tuesday by Columbia Records. From Feb. 14 until July 9, Dion will be touring Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. Show is being directed by Jamie King, who most recently did Madonna's Confessions World Tour.
North American tour dates after the jump

Avril Lavigne announced Tuesday afternoon a 32-date North American tour that starts March 5 in Victoria, B.C., Canada and winds up May 9 in Spokane, Wash.
Dubbed the "Best Damn Tour" - it's to support her third album, "Best Damn Thing" - venues range from arenas such as the Palace outside Detroit on March 22 to the Pearl in Las Vegas on April 29. The L.A. show is May 54 at Gibson Amphitheater;  she has yet to book a New York date.
Live Nation is booking the tour.
Lavigne announced the tour at the Whisky A Go-Go in West Hollywood before performing three songs acoustic - "Girlfriend," the new single "Hit" and "Sk8ter Boi" - with her new band.
"By having 10 singles I have a lot more to work with, which makes it easier for me," she said. "Playing the hits onstage is the most exciting (portion of the show)."
"Best Damn Thing" was released in April and has sold 1.23 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Since its release, Lavigne has been traveling internationally doing promotional dates. 

The Smashing Pumpkins have rescheduled five shows following the hospitalization of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin in Atanta.
The new dates are:
Nov 11, Nashville, TN, Ryman Theater
Nov 13, Austin, TX, Backyard
Nov 15 & 16, Atlanta, Fox Theater
Nov 18, Dallas, Nokia Theater
Chamberlin wrote on the Pumpkins website:

“I just want to say ’thank you’ to everyone who sent me energy and love while I was in the hospital.  I've had a rough couple of days but thanks to my friends, family, God, and my angels. I have come through this ordeal as best as I could have expected. It all started Tuesday morning when I awoke with what seemed to be indigestion.  I took some antacid and tried to go back to sleep. The pain was increasing and I started to get worried--heart disease runs in my family so it is something I take very seriously.  I called [group tour manager] Doug and told him what was going on, and the next thing I knew I was off to the emergency room here in Atlanta.  After an EKG showed that something indeed was going on, I was whisked out of the ER and into pre-op. As you can imagine, by this time I was a nervous wreck not knowing if I was going to live or die and the doctor talking about ‘open heart surgery,’ and heart stents. All very troubling words for a young man like me who sees himself at the peak of health. I do yoga, play drums, don't drink, take drugs, or smoke.   Many things were going through my head. Family, career, heaven.............hell. Mortality becomes a very stern face when you are looking it in the eye. The doctor told me that because of the inconclusiveness of the EKG, that he was going to do an angiogram. Basically what this is, is this: they make an incision in a large artery in the upper leg area and thread a tube up through your circulatory system towards your heart. They then inject dye into the bloodstream and watch its progress with an MRI. This all took place in about a 40-minute period. All in all a harrowing experience. The good news is that my heart checked out. No damage. Basically a small build up of plaque on one of my arteries. This combined with stress, fatigue and all of the other good things that go along with being on tour was the cause of my pain. So obviously we had to postpone the end of the tour while I recover. It should only be a week or so until JC is ready to rock again.  Once again I thank all of you from the bottom of my Heart for your prayers, letters, and love.”  Jimmy Chamberlin, 10/31/07

Cafe Tacvba has booked a 20-city tour of the U.S. in support of their Oct. 9 release "Sino." Their first studio release in four years was co-produced by Tony Peluso and Gustavo Santaolalla. First single is "Volver a Comenzar" (To Begin Again), the video for which premieres today worldwide.
Tickets for most shows go on sale Friday.

Fri-Nov-16      Charlotte, NC - Neighborhood Theatre
Sat-Nov-17     Washington, DC - 9:30 Club                  
Sun-Nov-18     Boston – Roxy                              
Tue-Nov-20     New York–Hammerstein Ballroom
Thu-Nov-22     Detroit - St. Andrews Hall               
Fri-Nov-23      Chicago – Aragon                           
Sat-Nov-24     Kansas City, Mo. - Beaumont Club       
Sun-Nov-25     Denver - Gothic Theatre                
Mon-Nov-26   Lehi, Utah - Thanksgiving Point Amp.      
Wed-Nov-28   San Francisco - The Warfield         
Thu-Nov-29     Los Angeles – The Gibson Amp.    
Sat-Dec-01      San Diego - 4th & B
Sun-Dec-02     Phoenix, Ariz. - Celebrity Theatre
Tue-Dec-04     El Paso, Tex. - Club 101
Thu-Dec-06     Austin – La Zona Rosa
Fri-Dec-07       McAllen, Tex. - McAllen Civic Center
Sun-Dec-09     Houston - Warehouse         
Mon-Dec-10    Dallas - House of Blues      
Tue-Dec-11     New Orleans - House of Blues
Thu-Dec-13     Atlanta - Arena Palladium
Fri-Dec-14       W. Palm Beach, Fla. - Jimmy's Nightclub
Sun-Dec-16     Miami - Gusman Center

L7 leader Donita Sparks started her first solo tour last week, opening for the Donnas. Five week national tour will be followed by solo dates in Brazil and more U.S. dates at the end of the year.
Sparks will be releasing her first solo album, "Transmiticate," on Jan. 22. Her band, the Stellar Moments, includes former L7 drummer Lady Dee Plakas.

9/24    Avalon Theater, Salt Lake City, UT
9/25    Marquis Theater, Denver, CO
9/27    Sokol Underground, Omaha, NE
9/28    Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN
9/29    Double Door, Chicago, IL
9/30     Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH
10/2    The Basement, Columbus, OH
10/3    The Mod Club,  Toronto, ON CANADA
10/5    Tralf Music Hall, Buffalo, NY
10/6    The Ottobar, Baltimore, MD
10/7    Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA
10/8    World Café Live, Philadelphia, PA
10/10    Highline Ballroom, New York, NY
10/12    Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NC
10/13    The Earl, Atlanta, GA
10/14    The Bottle Tree, Birmingham, AL
10/16    House of Blues, Dallas, TX
10/17    The Meridian, Houston, TX
10/18    The Parish, Austin, TX
10/20    The Brickhouse, Phoenix, AZ
10/27    The Roxy, Los Angeles, CA

Sparks will alos perform with Social Distortion at the L.A. House of Blues on Dec.23.

Django Reinhardt's grandson David will be appearing at the eighth annual Django Reinhardt Festival at New York's Birdland, running Nov. 6-11, and appearing at a handful of shows across the country.
David Reinhardt will be making his first trip to the U.S.  (One hopes that, unlike his esteemed grandfather, he brings a guitar). He will perform with guitarists Dorado Schmitt, his son Samson and Kruno, who have made a career playing the hot jazz that Reinhardt pioneered in France in the 1930s and '40s.
Playing Stephane Grappelli parts will be violinist Florin Nicuescu, a Romanian who lives  in Paris.
Bassist Brian Torf serves as musical director.
Each night will feature a guest artist: Saxophonist Houston Person on Nov. 6; harmonica player Howard Levy on Nov. 7; saxophonist Joel Frahm on the eighth and 11th; Itallian singer Roberta Gambarini on Nov. 9; and Colombian jazz harpist Edmar Castaneda on Nov. 10.
The Django Festival also has dates beyond Gotham: Oct. 26 at Chicago Symphony Hall; Nov. 2 at Kimmel Center in Philadelphia; Nov. 3 at the Napa Opera House in Napa, Calif.; Nov. 4 at the SF Jazz Festival in Herbst Hall; and Nov. 16 and 17 at D.C.'s Kennedy Center.
The real deal:

Neil Young's "Chrome Dreams II" tour will go to 16 major markets and a venue in between New Haven and Hartford, Conn., starting Oct. 18. Neil's L.A. show will be at the Nokia on Oct. 30.
Young's touring band will feature the musicians on the album:  Ben Keith, Ralph Molina and Rick Rosas. he may add a backup singer.
Neil's wife Pegi will be the opening act.

10-18 Boise, Idaho - Morrison Center
10-20 Spokane, Wash. - INB Performing Arts Center
10-22 Portland, Oregon - Keller Theater
10-23 Seattle, WA - WaMu Center
10-27 Mountain View, Calif - Shoreline Amphitheatre (Bridge School benefit)
10-28 Mountain View, Calif - Shoreline Amphitheatre (Bridge School benefit)
10-30 Los Angeles - Nokia Theatre
11-05 Denver - Wells Fargo Theatre
11-08 Minneapolis - Northrop Auditorium
11-10 Detroit - Fox Theatre
11-12 Chicago - Chicago Theatre
11-13 Chicago - Chicago Theatre
11-15 Washington, D.C. - Constitution Hall
11-18 St. Louis - Fox Theatre
11-26 Toronto - Massey Hall
11-27 Toronto - Massey Hall
12-02 Boston - Orpheum Theatre
12-03 Boston - Orpheum Theatre
12-05 Wallingford, Conn. - Chevrolet Theatre
12-09 Philadelphia - Tower Theatre
12-12 New York, NY - United Palace
12-13 New York, NY - United Palace

On sales don't begin until Saturday for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's tour, but the scalpers are already out in force, even offering specific seats. StubHub has plenty listed -- up to $4,400 at the Garden and a mere $530 in Albany - and one site that Pollstar found is listing tickets for sale at Staples Center. Thing is, Springsteen has yet to announce where he will play in Los Angeles. (The date is Oct.28). 

The Klaxons won the Nationwide Mercury Prize for best British or Irish album at a ceremony in London on Monday night.
The East London trio's debut album, ``Myths of the Near Future,'' was released in January in the U.K. Now in its 15th year, the Mercury Prize is worth 20,000 pounds ($40,250) and generally gives a significant sales boost to albums on the prize's shortlist. Geffen released the album in the U.S. in March.
The Klaxons start a 14-city North American tour in Boston on Sept. 23.
Amy Winehouse sang "Love is a Losing Game" at the ceremony, her first performance since finishign a stay in rehab. Among this year's nominees were Winehouse and last year's winners the Arctic Monkeys plus Dizzee Rascal, the View, Bat For Lashes and Jamie T. The ceremony took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
The band spoke with NME after their win.

Kelly Clarkson has made it official: 26 performances in 23 cities over the course of seven weeks. Clarkson, whose arena tour was canceled dues to slow ticket sales, will be playing venues with between 3,000 and 7,000 seats, including Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. A Texan, Kelly plays the Nokia Theater in Dallas on Nov. 23 and the Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston on Nov. 25. Clarkson's "My December" sold nearly 300,000 copies in its first week of release. Its cume is now 619,000.

The tour dates:
Oct. 14/15/16 New York The Beacon Theater
18 Philadelphia The Tower Theater
21 Uncasville, Conn. The Mohegan Sun
23 Boston The Orpheum Theatre
24 Washington D.C. DAR Constitution Hall
26 Buffalo, N.Y. Seneca Casino
28 Detroit The Fillmore
30 Toronto Massey Hall
Nov. 1 Chicago Chicago Theater
2 Minneapolis State Theater
5 Denver Paramount Theater
10 San Jose, Calif. San Jose Events Center
12 Seattle Paramount Theater
14 Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
16 San Diego Civic Auditorium
18 Los Angeles Gibson Amphitheatre
20 Phoenix Gammage Theater
23 Dallas Nokia Theater
25 Houston Verizon Wireless Theater
27 Atlanta Cobb Energy Center
29 Miami Mizner Park
Dec. 1 Tampa Ruth Eckerd Hall
3 Nashville Ryman Auditorium

Hellogoodbye and Say Anything will headline the first MySpace Music Tour, which opens Oct. 16 in Seattle and will include more than 30 shows. While extending the MySpace brand,tour will also be sponsored Extreme Style by VO5. The MySpace Music Tour will have a dedicated online community on MySpace, where fans can find tour information and purchase tickets. Profile will also feature exclusive content, including band blogs from the road, photo galleries and exclusive offers and sweepstakes for MySpace users to win a chance to hang out backstage with the bands. Hellogoodbye's Forrest Kline said he would be posting post-show blogs. Press release also noted that the concert venues will have "styling stations for men and women to achieve their personal looks.” Japan’s Polysics will open the shows. Band is touring in support of their first album for MySpace Records, "Polysics or Die: VISTA!!!, which will be released Oct. 9. Polysics sings in Japanese, English and their own space-language.
The tour dates are after the jump.

The website for the Guardian newspaper is offering a free download of the first single from Bruce Springsteen's upcoming "Magic" album, "Radio Nowhere." The newspaper's blogging critic calls the single "a masterpiece." iTunes has it free as well.
Tour has been announced as well, with opening nght in Hartford, Conn.For all the dates.

The Waterboys, whose "Book Of Lightning" was released last week on Decca, will be doing a nine-city tour in the first two weeks of November.
Using the same lineup as at all this year’s European concerts - Mike Scott, Steve Wickham, Richard Naiff, Mark Smith and Damon Wilson - these are the first full-band Waterboys shows since 2001.  On sale information is not yet available.

Nov 1: Berklee Theatre, Boston
Nov 2: Webster Hall, NYC
Nov 3: Keswick Theatre, Glenside, Pa.
Nov 5: The Music Hall, Toronto
Nov 6: Park West, Chicago
Nov 9: Moore Theatre, Seattle
Nov 10: Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver
Nov 11: Aladdin Theatre, Portland, Oregon
Nov 13: The Fillmore, San Francisco
Clare Burson will open the shows at Glenside and New York. Great Aunt Ida  will open in Toronto, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland and San Francisco. Both acts are playing at the personal invitation of Mike Scott. There will be no support act in Boston or Chicago.

The first "American Idol" champ has a gig Sept. 6 at Monument Circle in Indianapolis to perform as part of the opening of the NFL season. She has three New York dates slated: A casino outing in Verona on Oct. 10 and two at Gotham's Beacon Theatre, Oct. 15 and 17. Details, as first alerted by idolator, appear in the tour section of her website. Anyone who bought a ticket for the tour announced in the spring gets dibs on the pre-sales.

Rather than issue a CD that longtime fans will wonder if its as good as "Workbook" or as unlistenable as "Modulate," the man who led Husker Du and then Sugar will try a little something different on an upcoming 11-city tour. 
Mould will open each night with a half-hour acoustic set, then do 30 minutes of Q&A, then screen his DVD "Circle Of Friends" and then close the night by selling and signing DVDs as fans tell him how important "New Day Rising" is to their lives.
The tour:
October
9 Schuba's, Chicago
10 Bryant Lake Bowl, Minneapolis
12 Chop Suey, Seattle
14 Doug Fir Lounge, Portland
16 Herbst Theater, San Francisco
17 The Roxy,  West Hollywood

November
2  Highline Ballroom, New York
5  Paradise Lounge, Boston
8  Gravity Lounge, Charlottesville, Va.
10 John & Peter’s, New Hope, Pa.
11 World Café Live, Philadelphia
 
Mould will release a new studio album on Anti- Records in late January. It will be his first release  since 2005’s "Body of Song."
"Circle Of Friends" was filmed at the  9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 7 2005.
Husker Du tunes on "Circle" are: "Hardly Getting Over It," "Could You Be The One?," "I Apologize," Chartered Trips," "Celebrated Summer"  and "Makes No Sense At All."

Elvis Costello will be opening shows for Bob Dylan and his Band, beginning Sept. 22 in Duluth, Ga. Most of the 13 shows featuring Costello, playing by his lonesome,
are in the Northeast in secondary and tertiary markets. Amos Lee is also on the bill.

The Tour:

Sat 9/22 Duluth, Ga.
Sun 9/23 Clemson, S.C.
Tue 9/25 Norfolk, Va.
Thu 9/27 Charlottesville, Va.
Fri 9/28 Columbia, Md.
Sat 9/29 Kingston, R.I.
Sun 9/30 Bridgeport, Conn.
Tue 10/2 Worcester, Mass.
Thu 10/4 Portland, Me.
Fri 10/5 Manchester, N.H.
Sat 10/6 Albany, N.Y.
Mon 10/8 Syracuse, N.Y.
Tue 10/9 Rochester, N.Y.

Rolling Stone is reporting that an overzealous member of Ticketmaster's team inadvertently posted the dates of Bruce Springsteen's "Magic" tour. Fans of the Boss might want to get out a pencil and write down the following:

10/2, 10/3 Hartford
10/5, 10/6 Philly
10/9, 10/10 E. Rutherford, N.J.
10/14, 10/15 NYC
10/21 Chicago
10/22 St. Paul, Minn.
10/26 Oakland
10/28, 10/29 LA (Forum)
11/4 Cleveland
11/5 Detroit
11/11, 11/12 Washington
11/18, 11/19 Boston