Concert Dates, Concert Tour News, Artist Information

Austin City Limits photos available

Undoubtedly one of the most exciting and eclectic music festivals in the country, Austin City Limits draws some of the hottest artists on tour, as well as music media outlets like Pitchfork. Fortunately for those of us with neither the money nor time to visit, Pitchfork’s photographers provide weekend-after pictures of who was there.

There was plenty to look forward to this year, and everyone from Vampire Weekend to M. Ward and the Swell Season made an appearance. There are some great shots of David Byrne and his back-up dancers and vocalists, all of them dressed in white. There’s also a brilliant picture of M. Ward’s guitarist. It’s not clear who that is, but he’s got great taste in T-shirts.

Of all the ones who were there, you know you can still get concert tickets to David Byrne’s shows if you missed him. Look up David Byrne tickets at Stubhub.com.

Chinese Democracy is due to be released!

Exciting news for any Guns N’ Roses fan that’s maintained their interest in the band’s album in development for the past decade, Chinese Democracy. According to Billboard, it appears that the record is finally getting a release date—and it’s sometime this year! That’s right—2008 will be the year in which you get to rock out with Guns N’ Roses again.

Billboard also reveals that Best Buy will be the exclusive distributor of the new record, so you’d better locate the nearest store to you now. It’s sure to sell out soon after becoming available. The album infamously cost millions to record and has been in the works since the mid-’90s. One of the new tracks on the record, “Shackler’s Revenge,” recently became available on Rock Band 2. If you absolutely can’t wait until the end of the year, then you can pick up the game and play along to the new single.

The other option is getting concert tickets to one of the band’s shows and hoping they play some new material there. Guns N’ Roses tickets are now available at Stubhub.com.

Springsteen Will be at Halftime Show!

Bruce Springsteen will be adding a star-element to this year’s Super Bowl, as he will be the performing act during half-time.  The event will be taking place in Tampa, Florida, and just as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers wowed fans, Springsteen will likely bring everyone to their feet.  In the past, musicians that have appeared as the halftime act have included not only Tom Petty, but the Rolling Stones, U2, Paul McCartney and Prince.

Bruce Springsteen is certainly a seasoned singer and will bring the element of down-to-earth all American sound to the stadium.  The Super Bowl is arguably the biggest event watched in the sports industry and the halftime show itself is watched by millions of people, especially when there is a big name musician or band set to take the stage.  Be sure to check out this year’s show and get your Bruce Springsteen tickets from Stubhub.com.

N.E.R.D. and Mars Volta Kick off A.C.L.

The seventh annual Austin City Limits festival began Sept. 26 and Mars Volta, N.E.R.D., Vampire Weekend and the Swell Season were among the bands playing on the opening day. Among the Mars Volta set list were “The Widow” and “Goliath,” as the band took the stage as the first day-headliner. N.E.R.D. brought fans up on stage earlier that day, urging them to dance along to “Lapdance,” “Everyone Nose” and “She Wants to Move” in a melody that fused the two latter songs with the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” tune. N.E.R.D. frontman Pharrell Williams also urged fans to vote, regardless of their party affiliation, in the upcoming election.

The until recently unknown act the Swell Season (who gained notoriety for the film Once) proved themselves to be worthy to perform at A.C.L. with “People Get Ready” and a rendition of Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks.” Indie darlings Vampire Weekend drew a huge crowd with performances of “Oxford Comma,” “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” “M79” and “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance;” the band also debuted a new song tentatively titled “White SKy.” M. Ward appeared solo (taking a break from touring with Zoey Deshanel as She & Him) and Yeasayer also took the stage earlier on, as did Hot Chip. The festival continued the following day with Beck, Conor Oberst, MGMT, the Black Keys and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.

Get your tickets to Austin City Limits at Stubhub.com.