Sunset Rubdown announces spring tour dates
It's out of the bag—Brooklyn Vegan reports that Sunset Rubdown will play a show billed as “The Secret Society” at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. The Canadian band will follow it up with a brief stop in familiar territory and a European tour after that: March 27 - Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple 30 - Toronto, Ontario @ Lee's Palace May 16 - Minehead, U.K. @ All Tomorrow's Parties 17 - Minehead, U.K. @ All Tomorrow's Parties 18 - Minehead, U.K. @ All Tomorrow's Parties 19 - Manchester, U.K. @ Moho Live 20 - Dublin, Ireland @ Crawdaddy 21 -... read more
Dead Meadow hits the road
You’ve got to hand it to Dead Meadow. For connoisseurs of “stoner rock,” the band sure has set up quite the ambitious tour. Yes, the good ship Dead Meadow keeps chugging along on in support of Old Growth, the band's newest record. After hitting up some of the southern states, the guys will hop the pond to Amsterdam—where they’ll visit Anne Frank’s house, go to the Waterlooplein open air market, and do nothing that happens to be illegal here in the U.S.—and quite a few major stops in Europe. After a brief repose from their European debauchery, they'll return to... read more
Paste's editor-in-chief debates Juno with Greg Kot
It's no industry secret that indie-teen-pregnancy flick Juno and its quirky, Kimya Dawson-led soundtrack have been opening hearts and wallets across America. The Oscar-nominated film surpassed the $125 million mark last weekend, making it the "biggest specialty hit in six years" and by far the highest-grossing runner in this year's Best Picture race, according to Variety. But Juno's accompanying album—the first #1 hit record in the history of its label, Rhino—apparently sounds less sweet and more cloying when played in the Chicago area. Or, even more specifically, in the vicinity of two of the city's nationally-known music critics, the Chicago... read more
NBC announces plans to schedule year-round television
[Above: The cast of NBC's The Office] Back in 1991, Fox, a then-fledgling network, unveiled a revolutionary plan to show new episodes of its struggling teen drama Beverly Hills 90210 over the summer. Critics were astounded. Who would watch TV over the summer? Wouldn't most folks rather spend the warm nights outside enjoying nature, rather than plopped in front of the tube? Of course not. After all, this is America! Land of the free and home of the obese! Sandwiches for all! We kid, of course...but mostly because we're worried about CIA operatives silencing our dissenting voice. ANYWAY... 90210's summer... read more
Restless in Peace: No Depression ceases publication
Today groundbreaking alt.country magazine No Depression announced its upcoming May/June issue—the publication's 75th—will be its last. This makes us very, very sad. No Depression isn’t just a wonderful magazine full of love and respect for, if you’ll allow us, Signs of Life in authentic American music with a focus on alt.country. It’s a magazine that has eschewed the mainstream media's focus on celebrity as adamantly as anyone, choosing instead to highlight great music. No Depression actually means quite a lot to us here at Paste. We’re music fans and “No Dep” has been a key source of great information on... read more
TVT Records to claim Chapter 11 bankruptcy?
On Tuesday, TVT Records reportedly fired all but 20 staff members without a dismissal wage in preparation of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the end of the week. Even as recently as 2006, TVT was named Billboard’s number one independent label, according to the label’s site. In the days since Steve Gottlieb founded TVT in his New York City apartment, circa 1985, the label has seen a wide range of artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Lil Jon, Guided by Voices and the Polyphonic Spree bear its insignia. But it hasn’t consistently been with pride, it seems. In recent... read more
The Police announce final tour, bring Elvis Costello along
The Police are here to teach us all a lesson. What to do after your reunion tour is named the highest-grossing of 2007? Run that sucker into the ground! To honor the news that the trio will circle North America one final time, with Elvis Costello and the Imposters in tow, Paste offers the imagined by-laws of The Police: Keep that castle-money comin'. With tickets priced at $50, $90 and $225, it's gonna take a Zenyatta of Mondatta to attend the upcoming concerts. The dates are being billed as the band's "final area appearances," but it wasn't so long ago... read more
Spore coming in Sept., complete with music by Brian Eno
In 2005, Will Wright's Spore stole the show at E3. Then the next year this happened again, as the game's "SimEverything" approach seemed nearly ready for release and looked increasingly polished. Well, it's been more than a year since then and finally the game has a release date: Sept. 7. At the very least, this should take the game off the Vaporeware awards list, and quite possibly push gaming itself a good deal forward. "We're in our final stages of testing and polish with Spore, and the team at Maxis can't wait to see the cosmos of content created by... read more
El-P to tour U.S. with Dizzee Rascal
Ever since El-P burst onto the underground hip-hop scene as one half of Company Flow, his talent has been obvious. (Just compare his lyrics, where he regularly rhymes words like tyrannical with mechanical, to the lyrics of any rap song on the Billboard Top 100, which rhyme words like go with...umm... go. How creative!) Last year, the lyrical linguist released his second solo album, ferociously titled I'll Sleep When You're Dead, which received rave reviews, and early this year it was reported that El-P had remixed Dizzee Rascal's song "Where Da G's." The business man in El also inked a... read more
No Doubt, Korn, Kelly Ripa featured in Duran Duran doc
[Above: Durandy and a small portion of his collection] Ask Andrew Golub (his friends call him Durandy) anything about Duran Duran's history, and chances are that the 36-year-old Seattle native has a piece of memorabilia to match up with the question. Golub's collection, amassed since 1984, consists of thousands of Duran Duran albums, books, tour programs, magazines and more. Golub's, in fact, is the largest collection of Duran Duran posters in the world, many of which the band members themselves claim to have never before seen. Although Golub's extensive online fanography contains countless images of his prized possessions, he says... read more
Throw Me the Statue readies for U.S. jaunt
A few notable things happened yesterday: Washington, Winsconsin and Hawaii held their primaries; Castro officially resigned as president of Cuba; Throw Me The Statue's album Moonbeams came out in stores. In celebration of this historic event, the recent Paste 4 to Watch selection will headline a record release show this Friday, followed by a cross-country tour: February 22 - Bellingham, Wash. @ Boundary Bay Brewery 28 - San Francisco, Calif. @ NoisePop! Fest at Great American Music Hall w/ Stellastarr March 6 - Seattle, Wash. - Neumo's w/ Arthur and Yu 12 - 3/16 - Austin, Texas @ South by... read more
U2 back in the studio with Eno, Lanois
The globe-trotting members of U2 have finally returned to their home turf and are back in the studio, Billboard.com reports. Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. are working on a new album in a Dublin, Ireland studio with longtime collaborators Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. The band, Eno and Lanois met several times over the past year in France and Morocco, and have already produced a plethora of new material – maybe even enough for two albums, Lanois told Billboard. U2’s last album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, was released in 2004, but the band has... read more
Billy Joel adds second Shea Stadium gig
It's likely that not many people can answer with authenticity if asked for their worth in legal tender. But if you're Billy Joel, you can honestly say that someone thinks you're worth upwards of $20,000 a night. That amount is the highest listing price for a ticket on StubHub for his sold-out show at Shea Stadium. Luckily, for fans who don’t believe anything less than a car is worth that much, a second show has been added for Joel's Last Play at Shea. As previously reported, Joel was selected to headline the final Shea concert. Fans took to this news... read more
Rufus Wainwright stages Blackoutsabbath for June 21
Last we heard from Rufus Wainwright, he was releasing an album of Judy Garland covers following Release The Stars. Now he's turning his attention in a different direction. March 19 will witness an un-amplified, candlie-lit Rufus playing to benefit his "Blackoutsabbath" initiative, a plan that has multitudes cutting their power for 12 hours on the Summer solstice (June 21) to make a statement about energy conservation. "This intimate concert is being held to raise awareness about Blackoutsabbath and personally lowering one's carbon footprint," Wainwright explains via BlackoutSabbath.org. He also proposes that people use their time in the dark to make... read more
Moby, David Byrne, more unite for Iraq veterans
Regardless of anyone’s stance on the Iraq war, the fact remains that there has been U.S. military presence in the country for nearly five years. With that comes ramifications. St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn and a host of artists will present “Speak Up! A Benefit Concert for Peace in Iraq & Justice at Home.” The event will take place on March 18, the eve of the fifth anniversary of the war. Artists set to perform include Laurie Anderson, Antony, Blonde Redhead, David Byrne, Norah Jones, MEN, Moby, Lou Reed, Damien Rice and Scissor Sisters, to name a few. The evening... read more
The National rocks out on Rhapsody, preps for tour
Recently, the band behind Paste’s top record of 2007 quietly released a live EP to remind those not in the know just what they are missing. The National's latest, titled Rhapsody Rocks NYC, was released exclusively via online music retailer Rhapsody. (And really, it would have been in bad taste to release it on iTunes with a title like that.) The EP features four songs from the band's last album, Boxer, recorded during the CMJ Music Marathon. Aside from a live EP, fans will get another chance to experience The National in person. As previously reported, the band of brotherly... read more
The Devil Stole the Beat returns to Atlanta
[Above: Rising Appalachia live at Decatur CD] The Devil Stole the Beat will return to Atlanta this week, and organizers are promising three nights of performances from some of the country’s finest emerging artists. The event’s eighth installment will kick off with a launch party Wednesday night (Feb. 20) at Cypress Street Bar (6th and Cypress), and continue with artist showcases Thursday and Friday night at Smith’s Olde Bar (1580 Piedmont Ave NE), hosted by BMI and ASCAP. Paste will join PureVolume.com and DiscRevolt as sponsors of this year’s event. The Paste stage will feature performances by artists including Matthew... read more
"World's greatest" music collection on eBay for $3 million
Paul Mawhinney, a 69-year old Pittsburgh man, is selling off his old record collection. Nothing too unusual about that, except that Mawhinney happens to own one of the largest collections of music in the world. The result of 60 years of obsessive music hunting, the collection covers the span of American recorded music, “from Edison to American Idol,” as written on Mawhinney’s website, TheGreatestMusicCollection.com. The collection is up for auction on eBay, and the lucky winner will be purchasing over three million records, 300,000 CDs and the unmerciful envy of every record geek on the planet. To listen to the... read more
Yeasayer reveals “Wait for the Summer” video
How do we know that Yeasayer’s a buzz band? For one thing, it appeared as a Band of the Week back in January on these very (web) pages. And for another thing, when we wrote about Yeasayer’s tour with MGMT, we used the word “buzz” in the title. But perhaps you need some arty, visual evidence to legitimize your enthusiasm. Well, you’re in luck, unbeliever, because the band has just premiered its loopy video for “Wait for the Summer,” off of 2007’s acclaimed All Hour Cymbals. The video features bugs, apples, and general trippiness, resulting in a whole other kind... read more
Nick Hornby adapts An Education for the screen
Three Nick Hornby novels have been turned into films, and one of them even got that honor twice. High Fidelity and About a Boy were both turned into movies, and Fever Pitch was first turned into a British film (for which Hornby wrote the screenplay), and then into a movie with Jimmy Fallon. And now there’s An Education, the screenplay of which Hornby adapted. Unlike his other filmic experiences, Education is not based on a book by Hornby, but on a memoir by Lynn Barber, originally published in Granta. The film has quite the cast, including Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina... read more
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