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Latest Concert Blog Posts
Check Out North American Dates For The Cribs
Monday, November 23, 2009
Results from the American Music Awards
Monday, November 23, 2009
Aziz Ansari talks music
Monday, November 23, 2009
Learning a foreign language through pop music
Monday, November 23, 2009
Courtney Love talks shrimp
Friday, November 20, 2009
Concert Blog
Check Out North American Dates For The Cribs
British indie rock band, The Cribs, is going to be heading back to North America come the new year! The group played shows this month in California and New York and are promising a return to this side of the “pond” in a only a matter of weeks. Their tour stars on Jan. 13 at the Lincoln Hall in Chicago and will wrap up on Jan. 31 at the Venue in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Other stops on their itinerary include:
Jan. 15: Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto
Jan. 17: Paradise Rock Club in Boston
Jan. 19: 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.
Jan. 23: The Parish Room in Austin, Texas
Jan. 27: Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco
Jan. 30 Showbox at The Market in Seattle
The supporting acts for this brief tour include Adam Green and The Dead Trees and Jemina Pearl. Get your Cribs tickets today from StubHub!
Results from the American Music Awards
The American Music Awards were held last night (Nov. 22) and Taylor Swift proved to be the biggest winner. Swift walked away with five awards, including Artist of the Year, which was expected to go to the late pop icon Michael Jackson. In addition to the final award of the night, Swift was also named Favorite Female Artist in the Pop/Rock and Country categories, Favorite Adult-Contemporary Artist and her 2008 sophomore album Fearless was hailed Favorite Country Album. Jay-Z and the Black Eyed Peas were also multiple winners, taking home two awards apiece; Jay-Z was named Favorite Male Artist and Favorite Album in the Rap/Hip-Hop categories while his wife Beyonce was named Favorite Female Artist in the Soul/R&B category and the Black Eyed Peas took home awards for Favorite Group in both the Pop/Rock and Soul/R&B categories.
While Jackson didn’t win the Entertainer of the Year award, he was named Favorite Male Artist in the Pop/Rock and Soul/R&B categories and his 2003 hits album Number Ones was also named Favorite Album in both categories. Jackson’s brother Jermaine accepted the awards on his behalf along with his sons Jaafar and Jermajesty, taking Allah for “blessing my entire family.” Despite four nominations, Eminem went home empty-handed (although he did make an appearance) and three-time nominees Lady GaGa, Kings of Leon and T.I. also walked away without any awards. Green Day won Favorite Alternative Artist and Rascal Flatts took home the Favorite Country Artist award for the fourth year in a row.
Get concert tickets to see these winning artists at StubHub.
Aziz Ansari talks music
Pitchfork continued 5-10-15-20 this month with comedian Aziz Ansari, who is a great addition to the running feature. As you recall, various musical celebrities or cool people in general are asked what their favorite music was at five year intervals during their life. A running trend that’s been noticeable is that a lot of these guests are in their mid-20s, which means certain music is always going to be predominant at certain points at their life.
For Ansari, the feature starts with Micheal Jackson’s “Beat It” being a standout song, but it’s his choice for age 10, Nirvana’s “Lithium,” that stands out. He didn’t have that much of a connection to Nirvana to talk about, but he did wax about growing up in South Carolina, where he just wasn’t as exposed to great music. He tells a neat anecdote about LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy skipping school to go to New York and buy “This Charming Man” by The Smiths (“The Smiths Brothers? Do you have their record?”), and being able to respond with a story about begging his mom to buy him a Vanilla Ice cassette tape. Not as cool, but certainly funny.
His selection at 25 is a hodgepodge of indie-rock bands, many of whom are currently touring. Get concert tickets for them at StubHub.
Learning a foreign language through pop music
The easiest way to learn another language is to practice, practice, practice. Repeating a phrase or word over and over again always helps to commit it to memory. That’s probably why certain foreign phrases have entered the American consciousness after being featured in pop songs.
The AV Club has a really interesting Inventory feature up: A list of foreign phrases taught to us via pop music. The obvious ones are tracks like “Ca Plane Pour Moi,” Plastic Bertrand’s hit from the ‘70s that has long been a kind of underground hit. It’s a great song, and entirely in French. If you were to translate the lyrics, you’d realize it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense; it’s about whiskey-drinking cats and “the king of the divan.” You could probably pick up a little French just reading this list, seeing as the world’s most romantic language is featured pretty prominently here. Of course, you don’t really want to repeat all the phrases you’ll learn. The disco hit “Lady Marmalade,” for example, has an infamous line that goes, “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soir).” Look up what it means on the Club’s list, and then be carefully about repeating that to anyone.
Most of these bands probably aren’t touring any more, but you can check for concert tickets on StubHub if they are.
Courtney Love talks shrimp
“It’s time to speak of many things,” the Walrus said, “of Courtney Love and shrimp farmers, and how that guy in Interpol sings.” Yes, that was the best attempt we could muster to merge Alice in Wonderland with today’s post over at Spinner. Interpol, it seems, is hard at work on their new record, and the band’s drummer spoke to Paste about it (though the interview is available in excerpts on Spinner), saying that you can expect plenty of reverb included on the songs. But the really amazing thing wasn’t the work on the record. It was Courtney Love barging in on the studio and talking about shrimp farmers.
“You hear so many bad and good things [about Love], it sets your counter back to zero,” Fogarino said. “But she was a f—-ing blast. She’d been working with our assistant engineer before we moved in, and she ran into the control room; all I recall was her rambling about someone, saying ‘And he was a f—-ing shrimp farmer!’ Then she said sorry and walked out. Our engineer said sorry, but I said ‘Are you kidding? That was Courtney Love, yelling about a shrimp farmer! Like some weird Coen brothers s—-. I should pay you for this.’”
That’s pretty cool stuff. Look for concert tickets to see Interpol on StubHub.
Pitchfork talks to Jarvis Cocker music video director
Jarvis Cocker’s record, Further Complications, came out earlier this year to quite a bit of buzz from the blogosphere. Like anything related to Cocker, his personality shone on the cover—a white background with Cocker seemingly falling limply out of sight. When director Stephanie di Gusto was approached to shoot a music video for the title track, she looked toward the cover art for inspiration, and came up with a very simple but novel concept: Jarvis trapped in a box. That sounds a lot like real life, doesn’t it?
Jarvis seemed to really get into it, if a Pitchfork interview with the director is to be believed. He preened and pouted throughout the shoot as fake walls and barriers pushed up against him, cramping him into a corner. Apparently, they originally wanted to use a stand-in for some of the falls or sudden contractions of walls in the video, but the end result, di Gusto says, looked like “a crap Chaplain.” Can’t have that. And Jarvis was so much better, anyways.
Watch the video at Pitchfork, then check for concert tickets to Cocker’s live shows at StubHub.
All About Alice in Chains
Alice in Chains just recently announced dates for their 2010 North American tour, which they will be headlining. The band is excited to play tunes from their extensive catalog and will also be performing ballads from their latest release, called Black Gives Way to Blue. It is their first studio album in 14 years.
The tour is scheduled to kick off on Feb. 2 at the Orpheum in Vancouver and will wrap up on March 21 at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in Saint Paul. Other dates that have been included on their itinerary include: Feb. 19 at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver; Feb. 22 at The Pageant in St. Louis, Mo.; March 3 at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.; March 14 at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston and March 20 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago.
Don’t miss seeing these wild rockers take the stage! Get your Alice in Chains tickets today from StubHub!
Bonnaroo Music Festival Dates Announced!
Bonnaroo organizers Superfly Productions and A.C. Entertainment announced the dates for the 2010 festival, to be held at its usual Manchester, Tennessee location. Although fans will have to wait until early next year to find out who will be performing at this year’s festival, Bonnaroo will be held June 10-13, 2010. The 2009 Bonnaroo headliners were the recently reunited jam band Phish as well as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, making their maiden American festival performance. Also in 2009, Bonnaroo featured performances by Wilco, Nine Inch Nails, Cage the Elephant, Elvis Costello, the Decemberists, Mars Volta, Band Of Horses, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Gov’t Mule, Merle Haggard, Snoop Dogg, Animal Collective, Booker T and the DBTS, as well as Jimmy Buffet, who was added on to the bill at the last minute.
Billboard.com estimates that around 80,000 people attended the 2009 edition of Bonnaroo, with gross revenue estimated at $17-18 million. According to those estimations, Bonnaroo is the top-grossing festival in North America and has been since its creation (sorry Coachella!).
Get your Bonnaroo Music Festival tickets at StubHub.
Stone Temple Pilots Postpone Dates
The Stone Temple Pilots have delayed their December and January dates so that they can regroup and finish up work on their upcoming studio album. The affected dates include: Dec. 29 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Biloxi, Miss and the Jan. 1 performance at the Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma. The popular rock back made the official announcement on their website and explained that their “highly anticipated record…will be coming out in the early spring of next year.” The brand new album will be the group’s sixth release. They have not put forth a studio record since their 2001 release Shangri-La Dee Da.
The band does still have four more dates on their Canadian trek. They are scheduled for the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario; the K-Rock Centre in Kingston, Ontario; the Moncton Coliseum Complex in Moncton and the Halifax Metro Centre in Halifax.
Don’t miss seeing them perform live, get your Stone Temple Pilots tickets from StubHub.
Maynard talks about meeting a guy with a gun
The AV Club has a pretty interesting Q&A up with metal figurehead and outrageous statement maker Maynard James Keenan, who is currently on tour with his current band, Puscifier. Mostly, the Q&A has Maynard talk about various tours he’s been on and the wacky events that transpired on them. Unfortunately, many of them are pretty bland—he just talks about how great the bands he toured with are, and mentions that he doesn’t remember much.
But the first entry is more interesting. He talks about playing a venue in Hollywood that is apparently owned by the Church of Scientology. Apparently, the opening band decided to open up with a screed against the Church, which led to a man in a suit walking over to Maynard and flashing a piece at him. “They were so offensive to L. Ron Hubbard that one of the L. Ron Hubbard guys came to me backstage and mildly threatened me. He had his coat open and he had his gun. He basically made comments about the opening band, and how they were being disrespectful to the space. And I told him that this is a glass building and if you piss me off, it’s coming down, so f*** off.”
What else would you expect from the guy who fronted Tool? Get concert tickets for his band at StubHub.
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