Upcoming Show: Local Natives are Back! The Mill in Iowa City on 5/18, RIBCO on 5/15

Posted on February 20, 2010 by mike

It was last July when Local Natives graced our bucolic farmlands as part of the inaugural Daytrotter Barnstormer tour. I saw them twice– once in Bellevue at Mooney Hollow Barn and once at the Secrest Octagonal Barn. I recount my experience here. It was the case that at least for the two shows I saw, the Silverlake, CA group really stole the show in my opinion, and which is why I’m really excited to announce that they will be back in the area in May!

Since they played the barns last year, the Natives have seemingly been on the road non-stop. They had a package tour with Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and Fool’s Gold that brought them to Madison, Chicago and Minneapolis at the end of November and beginning of December. It seems like they’ve been to Europe a couple of times already, and are currently there through March 11th before coming back to do a run of dates in the US which include some high-profile festival shows: SXSW on 3/18-20, Coachella on 3/18, and Sasquatch! on 5/30 and Bonnaroo on 6/10!

Local Natives’ album Gorilla Manor released in the US on French Kiss this week (2/16) and is available as CD, mp3 (with bonus tracks) and vinyl LP! I received my LP yesterday and because I pre-ordered I got a bonus 7″ of “Sun Hands” with a Daytrotter version of “Airplanes” as its b-side.

Local Natives will be hitting the very cozy Rock Island Brewing Company on Saturday, May 15th, The 400 Bar in Minneapolis on Monday, May 17th, and The Mill Restaurant in Iowa City on Tuesday, May 18th. That gap on Sunday makes me wonder if they might be sneaking in an encore Daytrotter session?

Click Here for the Facebook Event for the Rock Island Brewing Company.

Click Here for the Facebook Event for the Mill Restaurant Show.

Live Dates (from MySpace)

Feb 17 2010     8:00P SOLD OUT Maroquinerie    Paris
Feb 18 2010    8:00P Le Grand Mix    Tourcoing, Lille
Feb 19 2010    8:00P Le Normandy    Saint Lo
Feb 20 2010    8:00P Route du Rock Winter Festival    Saint Malo
Feb 24 2010    8:00P Thekla    Bristol
Feb 25 2010    8:00P Rescue Rooms    Nottingham
Feb 26 2010    8:00P Concorde II    Brighton
Feb 27 2010    8:00P Brudenell    Leeds
Feb 28 2010    8:00P Arts Centre    Norwich
Mar 2 2010    8:00P SOLD OUT Heaven    London
Mar 3 2010    8:00P Academy 3    Birmingham
Mar 4 2010    8:00P Club Academy    Manchester
Mar 5 2010    8:00P King Tuts    Glasgow
Mar 6 2010    8:00P Academy 2    Newcastle
Mar 10 2010    8:00P Academy 2    Dublin
Mar 11 2010    8:00P Limelight    Belfast
Mar 18 2010    8:00P SXSW    Austin, Texas
Mar 19 2010    8:00P SXSW    Austin, Texas
Mar 20 2010    8:00P SXSW    Austin, Texas
Apr 18 2010    3:00P Coachella    Indio, California
Apr 20 2010    8:00P Solar Culture    Tuscon, Arizona
Apr 22 2010    8:00P The Cavern    Dallas, Texas
Apr 23 2010    8:00P Emo’s (inside)    Austin, Texas
Apr 24 2010    8:00P Mango’s    Houston, Texas
Apr 26 2010    8:00P Sticky Fingerz Chicken Shack    Little Rock, Arkansas
Apr 27 2010    8:00P Thirsty Hippo    Haittesburg, Mississippi
Apr 29 2010    8:00P Cafe 11    St. Augustine, Florida
Apr 30 2010    8:00P The Basement    Nashville, Tennessee
May 1 2010    8:00P Masquerade    Atlanta, Georgia
May 4 2010    8:00P Local 506    Chapel Hill, North Carolina
May 5 2010    8:00P DC 9    Washington DC, Washington DC
May 6 2010    8:00P Bowery Ballroom    New York, New York
May 7 2010    8:00P Kung Fu Necktie    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
May 8 2010    8:00P Great Scott    Allston, Massachusetts
May 11 2010    8:00P Beachland Tavern    Cleveland, Ohio
May 12 2010    8:00P The Basement    Columbus, Ohio
May 14 2010    8:00P Schubas    Chicago, Illinois
May 15 2010    8:00P Rock Island Brewing Company    Rock Island, Illinois
May 17 2010    8:00P 400 Bar    Minneapolis, Minnesota
May 18 2010    8:00P The Mill    Iowa City, Iowa
May 19 2010    8:00P Mojo’s    Columbia, Missouri
May 21 2010    8:00P Larimer Lounge    Denver, Colorado
May 22 2010    8:00P Kilby Court    Salt Lake City, Utah
May 25 2010    8:00P Empyrean    Spokane, Washington
May 26 2010    8:00P Neurolux    Boise, Idaho
May 27 2010    8:00P Mississippi Studios    Portland, Oregon
May 28 2010    8:00P Media Club    Vancouver, British Columbia
May 30 2010    8:00P Sasquatch!    Seattle, Washington
Jun 3 2010    8:00P Bottom of the Hill    San Francisco, California
Jun 10 2010    8:00P Bonnaroo    Manchester, Tennessee
Jun 15 2010    8:00P Shepherds Bush Empire    London

Click Here for Local Natives Website

Click Here for Local Natives MySpace Page

Click Here for Local Natives Facebook Fan Page

Click Here for Local Natives Blog

Click Here for the Local Natives Daytrotter Session

Upcoming Shows: Pezzettino Swings Through Iowa On Her Way East

Posted on January 27, 2010 by mike

The constant storm of activity that is Pezzettino is kicking off a tour this week that will take her through Minnesota and Iowa on her way west wrapping up at the end of February on the East Coast. This tour hits a lot of the same stops she made in October of last year, which is a smart move to build her fanbase in some of these cities. When she stopped in Cedar Rapids in October, she played a house show at my home. This was a new experience for me, and it was a lot of fun and she quickly made fans of everyone who attended. She also threatened to kidnap my dachshund, but I’m not going to hold that against her! She also performed a very cool show at CSPS opening for another singer-songwriter named Melissa Greener.

This time she’s playing some key stops in Iowa including an interview and performance at the main Java House location in Iowa City on Washington for Ben Kieffer’s Java Blend radio show on Iowa Public Radio which will air on Friday 2/19 and Saturday 2/20. She’s also performing at the very cool Vaudeville Mews venue in Des Moines and two coffee house shows– Roaster’s Coffee House in Hiawatha, IA (near Cedar Rapids) and Monk’s Kaffee Pub in Dubuque. Roaster’s, incidentally, is where I buy all of my coffee. They roast on site some of the best coffee I’ve ever had and includes Free Trade and Organic coffees.

She announced today via twitter, that all proceeds of teeshirt sales will be donated to benefit Haiti!

While you have your wallet out, I suggest you get the ultra-cool colored 7″ vinyl for “You Never Know” with hand-painted sleeves!!!

Click Here to visit her website, which is pretty much the launching point for all of her online shenanigans.

Tour Dates: (from MySpace)

Jan 27 2010 10:00P Bedlam Theater Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jan 28 2010 8:00P Ed’s Winona, Minnesota
Jan 29 2010 2:00P Java Blend Iowa Public Radio Iowa City, Iowa (Facebook Event)
Jan 29 2010 8:00P Ames Progressive Ames, Iowa
Jan 30 2010 8:00P Vaudeville Mews Des Moines, Iowa
Jan 31 2010 1:00P Roaster’s Coffee House Hiawatha, Iowa (Facebook Event)
Feb 1 2010 8:00P Monks Dubuque, Iowa
Feb 2 2010 8:00P Elbo Room Lounge Chicago, Illinois
Feb 3 2010 8:00P Earth House Indianapolis, Indiana
Feb 4 2010 8:00P House Show Bloomington, Indiana
Feb 5 2010 8:00P House Show South Bend, Indiana
Feb 6 2010 8:00P Cole’s Chicago, Illinois
Feb 11 2010 8:00P High Noon Saloon opening for Gene Ween Madison, Wisconsin
Feb 13 2010 8:00P Arts Council Racine, Wisconsin
Feb 19 2010 10:00P Hank’s Saloon Brooklyn, New York
Feb 22 2010 5:00P Sonicbids Office Boston, Massachusetts
Feb 24 2010 8:00P Parkside Lounge New York, New York
Feb 27 2010 10:00P VoxPop Cafe Brooklyn, New York

Upcoming Show: Mountains at The Picador in Iowa City 2/1/10

Posted on January 10, 2010 by mike

Last year on April 24th, Mountains made their first Iowa appearance at The Picador headlining a lineup of experimental electronic musicians. They performed a piece that would become Etching, which was released by Thrill Jockey on limited edition vinyl only and is currently out-of-print.

Koen told me via e-mail they will be playing a new composition for this tour that they debuted during their recent tour of Europe. This new composition does not include their laptops as they implemented in past shows, which will be interesting. More knob twiddling in their extensive effects pedal arrays, I imagine!

Mountains is returning to the Midwest at the end of January as part of a tour that will kick off in Buffalo, NY and wrap up with a run of East Coast dates ending on February 11th in Boston. They’ll be hitting Chicago at the Empty Bottle on January 28th, Omaha on the 29th at the Bemis Center, Northfield, MN at the Cave which is on the Carleton College Campus on the 30th, The Project Lodge in Madison, WI on the 31st, then Iowa City at the Picador on Monday, February 1st. The Empty Bottle show will have David Daniell and Doug McCombs whose Thrill Jockey release Sycamore (still available on LP!) is one of my favorites from TJ last year! I wish they were continuing on tour with them so I could catch them in Iowa City! (update: David said that they are planning a trip out here in early March! Stay tuned!)

Supporting Mountains on this run is Swedish trio Tape. Tape is an ambient band that features guitars in kind of an Eno-esque fashion. They’ve been producing their music since 2000 and has been steadily growing their fanbase. They have a penchant for vinyl and their last brilliant release Luminarium and their upcoming release with Bill Wells Fugue are both available in limited vinyl pressings on Immune Recordings. I’m hoping they bring some with them on tour! Be sure to check out some of Tape’s music on their MySpace Page. I’ve been listening to their songs for the past couple of days and really like the dreamy atmospherics.

Click Here for Mountains’ Website

Click Here for Mountains’ MySpace Page

Click Here for Tape’s Website.

Tour Dates (from Thrill Jockey)

Wed   Jan 27   Buffalo, NY   – Soundlab   w/ Tape
Thu   Jan 28   Chicago, IL   – Empty Bottle   w/ Tape
Fri   Jan 29   Omaha, NE   – Bemis Center for the Contemporary Arts   w/ Tape
Sat   Jan 30   Northfield, MN   – The Cave @ Carleton College   w/ Tape
Sun   Jan 31   Madison, WI   – The Project Lodge   w/ Tape
Mon   Feb 1   Iowa City, IA   – The Picador   w/ Tape
Wed   Feb 3   Louisville, KY   – Skull Alley   w/ Tape
Thu   Feb 4   Lexington, KY   – Al’s Bar   w/ Tape
Fri   Feb 5   Knoxville, TN   – The Pilot Light   w/ Tape
Sat   Feb 6   Chapel Hill, NC   – Nightlight   w/ Tape
Mon   Feb 8   Washington, DC   – Bossa   w/ Tape
Tue   Feb 9   Philadelphia, PA   – The Chapel @ First Unitarian   w/ Tape
Wed   Feb 10   New York, NY   – Le Poisson Rouge (Unsound Festival)   w/ Tape, Radian, Tim Hecker
Thu   Feb 11   Boston, MA   – TBA

Upcoming Show: Lotus Announces Winter 2010 Shows with a Stop at the Cap in Davenport

Posted on December 26, 2009 by mike

Although the band Lotus is one of the new additions to the SCIFidelity stable of bands, their label debut Hammerstrike in 2008 was actually their seventh release since their formation in 2002 in Goshen, Indiana at Goshen College (according to their Wikipedia article). With the label switch, Hammerstrike proved to be a refining and commitment to the more instrumental and unique sound that Lotus had started to drift towards in 2006 with The Strength of Weak Ties. If Umphrey’s McGee is a jamband with Prog Rock leanings, Lotus is a jamband with Post Rock leanings.

After Hammerstrike, the band continued their regimine of extensive touring pausing only to revisit some tracks for the album that either weren’t completed or the band didn’t feel fit. These tracks were completed and collected into two EP’s released in October– Oil on Glass and Feather on Wood. In addition to the eight new songs, they include three remixes of tracks from Hammerstrike.

Lotus just announced a run of dates in February 2010 which includes two nights in Madison at the Majestic and Davenport at the wonderful Capitol Theatre. I saw Umphrey’s McGee in July at the Capitol and was really impressed with it– a nice old theatre with beautiful ceilings and a balcony.

Click Here to visit Lotus’s Website which includes tourdate updates and news.

Click Here to listen to live shows on archive.org

Click Here to listen to “Simian” from Oil on Glass live at The Town Hall in Buffalo, NY on 10/30/09

Winter 2010 Tour Dates (from lotusvibes.com)

Fri Feb 12, 2010 The National Richmond, VA

Time: Doors: 8:00pm, Show: 9:00pm
Address: 708 E Broad Street
Web: http://www.thenationalva.com
Ages: All Ages
Price: $16 adv, $19 dos
Buy Tickets Online
With: Toubab Krewe
Additional Info: On Sale NOW!

Details

Sat Feb 13, 2010 9:30 Club Washington, DC

Time: Doors: 8:00pm, Show: 9:00pm
Address: 815 V Street NW
Web: http://www.930.com
Ages: All Ages
Price: $17 adv/dos
Buy Tickets Online
With: Toubab Krewe
Additional Info: On Sale NOW!

Details

Sun Feb 14, 2010 Sherman Theater Stroudsburg, PA

Time: Doors: 8:00pm, Show: 9:00pm
Address: 524 Main Street
Web: http://www.shermantheater.com
Ages: All Ages
Price: $20 adv/dos
Buy Tickets Online
With: none
Additional Info: On Sale NOW!

Details

Wed Feb 17, 2010 Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH

Time: Doors: 7:00pm, Show: 8:00pm
Address: 1722 N High Street
Web: http://www.promowestlive.com
Ages: All Ages
Price: $15 adv, $17 dos
Buy Tickets Online
With: none
Additional Info: On Sale NOW!

Details

Thu Feb 18, 2010 The Vogue Indianapolis, IN

Time: Doors: 7:00pm, Show: 8:00pm
Address: 6259 N College Avenue
Web: http://www.thevogue.com
Ages: 21+
Price: $12 adv, $14 dos
Buy Tickets Online
With: none
Additional Info: On Sale NOW!

Details

Fri Feb 19, 2010 Majestic Theatre Madison, WI

Time: Doors: 8:30pm, Show: 9:30pm
Address: 115 King Street
Web: http://www.majesticmadison.com
Ages: All Ages
Price: $16 adv, $18 dos
Buy Tickets Online
With: none
Additional Info: Limited Two-Night Tix available – On Sale NOW!

Details

Sat Feb 20, 2010 Majestic Theatre Madison, WI

Details

Sun Feb 21, 2010 Schubas Chicago, IL

Time: Doors: 6:00pm, Lotus: 6:30pm
Address: 3159 N Southport
Web: http://www.schubas.com
Ages: All Ages
Price: $22.50 adv
Buy Tickets Online
With: none
Additional Info: On Sale Fri 12/18 at 10am – 2 ticket limit – 100% non-transferable will-call On-line sales only

Details

Mon Feb 22, 2010 Schubas Chicago, IL

Time: Doors: 7:30pm, Music: 8:00pm
Address: 3159 N Southport
Web: http://www.schubas.com
Ages: 18+
Price: $22.50 adv
Buy Tickets Online
With: none
Additional Info: On Sale Fri 12/18 at 10am – 2 ticket limit – 100% non-transferable will-call On-line sales only

Details

Tue Feb 23, 2010 Mercy Lounge Nashville, TN

Time: Doors: 8:00pm, Show: 9:00pm
Address: One Cannery Row
Web: http://www.mercylounge.com
Ages: 18+
Price: $12 adv, $15 dos
Buy Tickets Online
With: none
Additional Info: On Sale NOW!

Details

Wed Feb 24, 2010 The Capitol Theatre Davenport, IA

Time: Doors: 7:00pm, Show: 8:00pm
Address: 311 Ripley Street
Web: http://www.thecapdavenport.com
Ages: All Ages
Price: $15 adv, $18 dos
Buy Tickets Online
With: none
Additional Info: On Sale NOW!

Details

Thu Feb 25, 2010 Royal Oak Music Theatre Royal Oak (Detroit), MI

Time: Doors: 8:00pm, Show: 9:00pm
Address: 318 W Fourth Street
Web: http://www.royaloakmusictheatre.com
Ages: All Ages
Price: $15 adv, $18 dos
Buy Tickets Online
With: none
Additional Info: Tickets on sale 1/8 at 5pm

Details

Fri Feb 26, 2010 Water Street Music Hall Rochester, NY

Time: Doors: 8:00pm, Show: 9:00pm
Address: 204 N Water Street
Web: http://www.waterstreetmusic.com
Ages: 16+
Price: $15 adv, $17 dos
Buy Tickets Online
With: none
Additional Info: Tickets on sale 12/19 at 10am

Details

Sat Feb 27, 2010 Opera House Toronto, ON

Time: Doors: 8:00pm, Show: 9:00pm
Address: 735 Queen Street East
Web: http://www.theoperahousetoronto.com
Ages: All Ages
Price: $18.50 adv, $20 dos (CDN)
Buy Tickets Online
With: none
Additional Info: On Sale NOW!

Details

Free Download: Pezzettino Covers

Posted on November 14, 2009 by mike

I’ve mentioned Pezzettino here before and I have some more to write about her coming up. To sum up, Margaret Stutt who performs as Pezzettino is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and crafts her unique almost outsider-art singer-songwriter tunes centered around her life and experiences propelled by her trusty accordion.

With two albums under her belt and an infectious new single and a new album waiting to be loosed in the studio, Margaret is currently on a tour of the Midwest and East coast hitting mostly homes and art-spaces. She’s doing this solo– just her and her accordion!

To fund the trip she took donations to make requests for songs to be covered with videos posted to YouTube. The range of covers was all over the map ranging from rap to indie to classic rock. All of them were deconstructed and re-assembled and given a distinctly ethereal electronic spin. When she was in Cedar Rapids in October I suggested that they had a Tricky or Massive Attack feel to which she gave an unfamiliar shrug. The electro-clubby breakdown in her cover of Skynyrd’s “Freebird” prompted me to ask if she’d consider remixing her own material. She said that this style was fun to use for these covers– and easy to do with GarageBand, but she didn’t feel she’d extend to her releases. This is an important point, these songs are fun, but really more of a distraction for her and not really representative of her two albums.

At one point she was going to sell pillowcases that she custom embroidered which would have a download of these songs. Releasing this collection as a free download like this works really well, and is a good introductory collaboration with the artists’ collective Sixty Years War.

It’s cool to get these songs, but to really appreciate these you have to watch the videos. Margaret usually recorded the song and edited the video in a matter of a day which is reflected in the immediacy and detail committed to both aspects of the projects.

Click Here to listen to the tracks and download a .zip file of Covers.

Click Here to visit the Pezzettino Channel on YouTube which includes the Covers project as well as her video blog and live performances.

Click Here to visit Pezzettino’s Blog covering her travels.

Upcoming Show: Ladyhawke in Chicago and Minneapolis 9/19 & 9/21

Posted on August 30, 2009 by mike

One of our favorite albums from 2008 was the debut release from New Zealand artist Phillipa “Pip” Brown who performs as Ladyhawke (yes, after the Rutger Hauer film of the same name). Released on Modular Recordings– also the home of Cut Copy– it launched four very successful singles in “Magic,” “Back of the Van,” “Paris is Burning,” and “My Delirium.”

How this record managed to not have a U.S. release before now seems unimaginable, but September sees the release of Ladyhawke in CD and LP on Universal/Decca Records in a Special Edition with bonus tracks.

Coinciding with this release is Ladyhawke’s first US tour which as luck would have it brings her to the Midwest in Chicago and Minneapolis. This tour is being sponsored by celebrity mud-slinger Perez Hilton under the “Perez Hilton Presents” banner. This questionable vehicle aside, Hilton seems to have the good taste to include Pip in the lineup of otherwise unfamiliar (except for Ida Maria, I guess) acts.

The tour stops at The Metro in Chicago on Saturday, September 19th and Minneapolis at the Fine Line Music Cafe on Monday September 21st. Both stops have the same lineup– Ladyhawke and Ida Maria as co-headliners and Semi-Precious Weapons from NYC and French electro-pop musician Sliimy.

The tour seems to be providing a fairly wide selection of artists and music (at least within whatever Hilton’s tastes are). At least in the Chicago and Minneapolis stops, we have dancy late 70’s/early 80’s new wavy rock from Ladyhawke, punky indie rock from Ida Maria, Semi-Precious Weapons sounds like The White Stripes-gone-Glam (a good thing, I think), and Sliimy provides a French-pop perspective.

Four diverse acts for under $30! The ticket prices seem to vary. If you get the Minneapolis tickets from Ticketmaster, they are a flat $25 (no fees!), but if you get the tickets from The Fine Line boxoffice, they are $18. The Metro tickets are $17.50 from Metro on line (plus fees). So, visit the sites to find out the best way to get tickets.

Here are the other dates for the Perez Hilton Presents tour:

September 10th – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
September 12th – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
September 13th – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of the Living Arts
September 14th – Boston, MA – House of Blues
September 16th – New York, NY – The Fillmore @ Irving Plaza
September 17th – Toronto, ONT – Opera House Concert Venue
September 19th – Chicago, IL – Metro
September 21st – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line Music Café
September 22nd – Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall Ballroom
September 23rd – Kansas City, MO – The Beaumont Club
September 25th – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater
September 26th – Salt Lake City, UT – Club Sound
September 28th – Seattle, WA – The Showbox @ The Market
September 29th – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
September 30th – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
October 2nd – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
October 3rd – Hollywood, CA – Avalon

Click Here for the Ladyhawke Official Website

Click Here to download a free remix of “My Delirium” hosted at RCRD_LBL

Click Here for the Ida Maria Website

Click Here for the Ida Maria Daytrotter.com Session

Click Here for the Semi-Precious Weapons Website

Click Here for the Sliimy Website

Upcoming Show: Cracker at The Mill in Iowa City 8/30

Posted on August 12, 2009 by mike

The ever-touring machine that is Cracker will be making another stop in Eastern Iowa at the end of this month at The Mill in Iowa City. Cracker is touring behind their new rocking release and debut on 429 Records Sunrise in the Land of Mint and Honey. Their stop at the Mississippi Moon bar in Dubuque in February was great– they played a handful of the new songs, but I’m hoping to hear more of the new album in a live setting.

The show will be at 9PM on Sunday, 8/30 with doors at 8PM. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased here. The opening act is garage rock band The High Strung.

Click Here for Cracker’s Website

Click Here for Cracker Tour Dates

Tortoise Announce Fall Dates in Support of Beacons of Ancestorship

Posted on June 18, 2009 by mike

Tortoise’s Beacons of Ancestorship— their sixth official studio album– arrives in stores and online on Tuesday, June 23rd. The release was available online for pre-order as CD, LP and mp3 and a special set of packages of the CD and LP release that included a folded poster of Beacons and a very limited brass belt buckle with the “TRTS” logo with the eye that was used on the hoodies. Apparently the buckles were only available to the first 75 preorders. The LP’s– which are 180g virgin vinyl which was mastered by Ray Janos at Stirling Sound — are sold out online, but thre should be copies available at your favorite indie record stores. It sounds like there will be a future re-repressing, too. At this moment there are still some CD+buckle packages left on the site. See the “artist’s rendering” below. I’m going to need to run to WalMart and get a belt with the snaps so I can rock this thing!

The Tortoise touring machine is getting ready to jam econo in support of the new album. They’ve been playing some sporadic shows already and are hitting some festivals, but the fall tour is already starting to shape up with some Midwestern dates starting in September and October.

Notably (for me anyway) Iowa is getting its first tour date in a very long time. The show is going to take place at the very cool Voices Warehouse Gallery in Dubuque, IA. It has a similar artsy space feel as CSPS in Cedar Rapids. I saw Bo Ramsey there in October of 2006. I called Tim McNamara who handles setting the shows up and there will be more information coming soon about tickets and the possibility of other opening acts. 10/3 ends up being the end of the season for the gallery and last year they had a number of acts playing. I’ll post an upcoming show article when I get more details.

Tortoise Tour Dates:
Sat. July 11 — Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
Mon. July 13 — San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Wed. July 15 — Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
Fri. July 17 — Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
Sun. July 19 — Washington, DC @ Black Cat
Mon. July 20 — Philadelphia, PA @ Sanctuary at First Unitarian Church
Tue. July 21 — New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
Fri. July 24 — Tokyo, Japan @ Fuji Rock Festival
Fri. Aug. 14 — St. Malo, France @ La Route Du Rock
Sat. Aug. 22 — Hasselt, Belgium @ Pukkelpop
Tue. Sep. 29 — St. Louis, MO @ Firebird
Wed. Sep. 30 — Kansas City, MO @ Beaumont Club
Thu. Oct. 1 — Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room
Fri. Oct. 2 — Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center
Sat. Oct. 3 — Dubuque, IA @ Voices Warehouse Gallery

Other articles at playbsides.com about Tortoise

Arbouretum On Tour and On Taping Shows

Posted on March 29, 2009 by mike

In anticipation for the Spring and Summer tour in support of Song of the Pearl, Dave Heumann posted from his blog today stating his official stance on taping his shows. I applaud his “taper-friendly” stance, and contributing to archive.org is also a very cool thing and should help spread the word about his band. Dave comments on the archive.org page that he’s going to contribute some shows as well!

In essence, we are into it, as long as it’s done with sharing as the goal. We have several shows already posted already on archive.org. All of these have been recorded locally by Baltimore Taper Jeff Mewborn, a huge music fan who has been very generous with his time spent recording not only us, but lots and lots of other bands.

If you are someone who tapes shows and would like to record us, that’s great- the more, the merrier…ESPECIALLY if you don’t mind uploading it to archive.org afterward, or just making us a copy so that we can. I will be happy to give you the setlist after the show, and will do my best to update this blog with our setlists as well.

I’ve posted here in the past about a couple of shows that Jeff “Baltimore Taper” Mewborn has recorded, and they are very good and I find myself listening to them often.

The current list of tour dates for Arbouretum is posted on the MySpace page. Right now there are dates through June with a concentration on the East Coast, with a May gap that hopefully will bring Arbouretum closer to the Midwest.

Click Here for Dave Heumann’s Blog

Click Here for the Arbouretum MySpace page

Click Here for the Arbouretum archive.org page

Click Here to listen to “Another Hiding Place” from Song of the Pearl performed live January 30, 2009.

Preview of New Cracker Album Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey; Relase Date 5/5/09

Posted on March 22, 2009 by mike

As posted earlier here, Cracker has been working on a new album– their last studio album Greenland was released in 2006. The album titled Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey will be released on May 5th, 2009 on a new label 429 Records. 429 Records is “a unit of the Savoy Label Group (SLG). SLG is the North American unit of CME (Columbia Music Entertainment), the oldest music company in Japan.” According to Wikipedia, CME is not affiliated with SonyBMG, who own the U.S. label Columbia Records. I guess that is why this company operates as Savoy Label Group in the U.S. Either way, I’m sure Cracker got a better deal than they ended up with at Virgin.

According to the Press Release the first single will be “Turn On, Tune In Drop Out With Me” which will be added to whatever radio plays Cracker on April 7th. “Turn On” has been getting a workout on the road lately, and it is a pretty spirited rocker like the other tracks seem to be on the record, which was produced by one-time Sugar member David Barbe, which seems like a copasetic partnership. Other noted musicians joined the fold for Sunrise. In addition to Barbe’s production, Patterson Hood from Drive-By Truckers (who was also produced by Barbe) lends a hand on long-time live favorite “Friends” as well as Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows on “Darling One” and John Doe from X on “We All Shine A Light.”

Here is the tracklisting with links to archive.org when a song has been played:

Yalla Yalla (Let’s Go) (Live 4/19/09 in Chicago)
Show Me How This Thing Works (Live 2/7/09 in Dubuque)
Turn On, Tune In Drop Out With Me (Live 2/7/09 in Dubuque)
We All Shine A Light (w/ John Doe)
Hand Me My Inhaler
Friends (w/ Patterson Hood) (Live 2/7/09 in Dubuque)
I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right
Time Machine (Live 2/6/09 in Palatine, IL)
Hey Bret (You Know What Time It Is)
Darling One (w/ Adam Duritz)(Live 10/20/08 in Vienna, Austria)
Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey (Live 10/20/08 in Vienna, Austria)

Cracker has released two music videos to YouTube, one for “Hand Me My Inhaler” earlier, and one for “Yalla Yalla”:

Click Here to visit the 429 Records page with samples of the new album.

Time to play b-sides

Mike Roeder muses over things musical

Tag Archives: tour

Upcoming Show: Local Natives are Back! The Mill in Iowa City on 5/18, RIBCO on 5/15

Upcoming Shows: Pezzettino Swings Through Iowa On Her Way East

Upcoming Show: Mountains at The Picador in Iowa City 2/1/10

Upcoming Show: Lotus Announces Winter 2010 Shows with a Stop at the Cap in Davenport

Fri Feb 12, 2010 The National Richmond, VA

Sat Feb 13, 2010 9:30 Club Washington, DC

Sun Feb 14, 2010 Sherman Theater Stroudsburg, PA

Wed Feb 17, 2010 Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH

Thu Feb 18, 2010 The Vogue Indianapolis, IN

Fri Feb 19, 2010 Majestic Theatre Madison, WI

Sat Feb 20, 2010 Majestic Theatre Madison, WI

Sun Feb 21, 2010 Schubas Chicago, IL

Mon Feb 22, 2010 Schubas Chicago, IL

Tue Feb 23, 2010 Mercy Lounge Nashville, TN

Wed Feb 24, 2010 The Capitol Theatre Davenport, IA

Thu Feb 25, 2010 Royal Oak Music Theatre Royal Oak (Detroit), MI

Fri Feb 26, 2010 Water Street Music Hall Rochester, NY

Sat Feb 27, 2010 Opera House Toronto, ON

Free Download: Pezzettino Covers

Upcoming Show: Ladyhawke in Chicago and Minneapolis 9/19 & 9/21

Upcoming Show: Cracker at The Mill in Iowa City 8/30

Tortoise Announce Fall Dates in Support of Beacons of Ancestorship

Arbouretum On Tour and On Taping Shows

Preview of New Cracker Album Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey; Relase Date 5/5/09