Concert Dates, Concert Tour News, Artist Information

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.

AVC releases their best of the decade list

With just a little over a month left in the decade, the AV Club has published their end of the decade list, and it’s got some shockers on it. To begin with, it’s surprisingly much more “pop” than Pitchfork’s—that is to say, there are more bands you have actually heard of on here—but it seems pretty complete, too. The biggest surprise by far was seeing Radiohead’s Kid A coming in at number three, simply because it seems to be the default number one for many lists.

But the staff’s list puts Kanye West’s The College Dropout ahead of it, and The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells at number one. That’s earned some rage in the comments section, but looking over the track listing for White Blood Cells should offer a decent reminder of how great that record is, and why the White Stripes earned so much buzz at the beginning of the decade to begin with. The Kanye pick has confounded quite a few people, as well, but once again, there’s a lot on his debut to be impressed with.

In any case, look over the list, pick out your favorite bands and see if they’re still touring. You can find concert tickets at StubHub.

John Mayer Poised for No. 1 Billboard Showing

Billboard.com reports that John Mayer’s new album Battle Studies is set to debut at the coveted No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart. According to some industry sources, Mayer’s new set could move anywhere between 275,000 and 300,000 copies by Sunday (Nov. 22). If Battle Studies does top the chart, it will be Mayer’s second album to do so, as his 2003 album Heavier Things landed at No. 1 in 2003 and sold 317,000 copies. Battle Studies is the follow-up to the singer/songwriter’s 2006 album Continuum, which debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at No. 2 with 300,000 copies sold.

Mayer’s Battle Studies is among nine other albums poised to debut in the Top 20 on the Billboard 200 chart next week. Billboard.com predicts that Casting Crowns’ Until the Whole World Hears may be next to top the chart with as many as 175,000 copies sold while 50 Cent’s Before I Self Destruct and Norah Jones’ The Fall are expected to make strong debuts, selling an estimated 150,000 apiece. Other albums predicted to do well on the charts are Justin Bieber’s debut My World, American Idol winner Kris Allen’s debut, Them Crooked Vultures’ debut, Leona Lewis’ sophomore set Echo and Paul McCartney’s new live album Good Evening New York City.

Get your John Mayer tickets at StubHub.

An astronaut with pancakes for a head.

A soccer player running from a spinning axe. A knife fight. Double-hamburger skateboard wheels.

No, this isn’t a Dadaist experiment in blogging. Those are all images that you can expect to see in Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck’s new music video for “Heaven Can Wait,” and it is awesome. Pitchfork is currently hosting the video, which features the lovely and talented French chanteuse with indie-rocker Beck along with a lot of really, really wacky stuff. Like giant walnuts and a nacho bomb. Really, how can you not watch this?

Apparently, it’s all promotion for Gainsbourg’s new album, IRM, which Beck produced. The singer, whose father was the infamous French pop star/lothario Serge Gainsbourg, has been famous in her homeland for a while now, but only in the past few years has broken into the American public spotlight. While she’s a very talented singer, she’s mostly made her name in the film business, appearing in Michel Gondry’s whimsical The Science of Sleep as well as the much more serious and disturbing Lars von Trier film Antichrist, which polarized critics at Cannes this year.

In any case, if you have the chance to see her live, get concert tickets at StubHub.

King Khan and BBQ issue statement about drug arrest

So last week, news broke on Pitchfork that garage rockers King Khan and BBQ were stopped at a safety checkpoint in Kentucky that resulted in their tour manager being arrested for possession of magic mushrooms. Pitchfork reports that the two musicians have issued a statement concerning the arrest, noting that the tour manager, Kristin Klein, was not aware of the contraband at the time and that the validity of her driver’s license was “indeterminable” at the time as well.

Nevertheless, she entered a second degree guilty plea and has to provide proof of her license to the authorities on April 2. That’s caused a brief interruption in the touring schedule: “King Khan & BBQ Show are driving through the night to make their Los Angeles show at Troubadour tomorrow. Tonight’s show in Phoenix is cancelled, but all further west coast dates and will to be honored. Kristin Klein is safe with the band and continuing her tenure as tour manager.”

Seems like things were generally ironed out, though Klein can’t be happy about how they turned out. In any case, this is an awesome band to catch live, so get concert tickets at StubHub and see them while they’re on tour.