You would think that there is nowhere to go but down after you collaborate on a single with the second most awesome man at Princeton University, Cornel West. (The first being, naturally, Stephen Kotkin, everyone's favorite MC and Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History.)
Mugison, the Icelandic rocker with the eccentric sense of humor, just announced nearly a dozen dates for his fall U.S. trek, his first true American tour after the occasional stray show here and there. Born Örn Elías Guðmundsson, Mugison is touring to support his third studio album, Mugiboogie, which was released in his native Iceland last year (where it quickly became a commercial and critical success) but finally made it stateside back in July. With songs like "Jesus is a Good Name to Moan" and "Two Thumb Sucking Son of a Boyo," Mugison's music definitely has an endearing oddness to it.
Canadian folkies Great Lake Swimmers had a busy summer. They've been touring since May, mostly north of the border, including one date when they opened for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss in GLS's hometown of Toronto. They performed at charity concerts and focused on building community. But when Tony Dekker wasn't busy scoring a documentary, paying homeage to Canadian concrete, or playing drill sergeant in folk boot camp, Great Lake Swimmers began creating new material. Nettwerk just announced the anticipated release of the band’s fourth album, set for early Spring 2009.
Santogold, who first started making some serious noise in April with her self-titled debut, is headed out on her first U.S. headlining tour. The Goldrush tour, sponsered by MySpace Music, comes on the heels of her opening run for Coldplay.
North Carolina native Ben Folds has a huge surprise for fans in his home state: his defunct band, Ben Folds Five, will reunite for a one-time Sept. 18 show in Chapel Hill, N.C. and play the entire track list of the band's 1999 (and final) album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. Tickets go on sale Sept. 8 at Etix.com.
Ron Sexsmith’s humility is the stuff of legend, and
though his records have never quite been hits in the 
Acony Records, label-child of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, has announced its first signing. The Whispertown 2000 is an indie-folk amalgamation from Los Angeles whose members include singer-songwriter Morgan Nagler, guitarist Tod Adrian Wisenbaker, little brother and bassist Casey Holden Wisenbaker and vocalist Vanesa Corbala. The group's first album, Swim, will be released Oct. 21.
Goldfrapp will bring its infectious electronica pop (electronipop? poptronica? too much?) to North American shores this fall.
A pitfall of writing about bands and songwriters that wield acoustic guitars is that one rarely gets to invoke overused rock-writing lingo like "killer," "blazing," or (let's not mince words here) "totally shredding."
Liam Finn has had a long year. Newly minted as among the
Best of What’s Next in the September issue of Paste,
he put out his solo debut, I’ll Be
Lightning, in January, and proceeded with an intense tour of trans-continental dates that took him to the
Although it seemingly runs counter to his habit of deleting or amending much of his non-musical writing (see someone's chronicle of his volatile blog activity), Ryan Adams has announced his submission of a manuscript to Akashic, who accepted and will turn the project into an actual, permanent hard-copy book, titled Infinity Blues. As evidenced by the official working-cover above, this is Adams' mustard-colored ticket to the literary realm.
Well, Joe Jackson, circa 1979, to answer your question, yes, she is really going out with him. Out on tour, that is. So stop moping around, all playing the victim, trying to stir up pity with your catchy hooks when we at Paste are alerting you well ahead of time to buy good tickets.
New(ish)ly signed to Barsuk Records, Syracuse, N.Y.-based band Ra Ra Riot will be at the helm of an extensive North American tour, with Walter Meego supporting, reports Brooklyn Vegan.
We here at Paste have lied awake more than a few cold nights this past year pacing back and forth through the hall waiting for something new to come from Band of the Week alum Bishop Allen. Sure, it's only been a little over a year, but we find ourselves lost without the group's soothing melodies, clever lyricism and indie-film sensibility in our daily lives. And we like the slap-in-the-face of oversaturation (the band released one EP in each month of 2006). We were so inspired we decided to come out with one magazine for every month of the year. (That is, except December and January, because they're simply too cute together. Who could keep those crazy kids apart?)
Modular has announced a joint tour for two of the label's biggest acts, Cut Copy and The Presets. Cut Copy is starting out with a short run in Mexico and will pick up with its labelmates in Denver.
It's only fitting that Northwest chanteuse Mirah, whose voice mews and coos with whimsy usually reserved for those who still believe in unicorns, will tour this fall teensy-weensy bits at a time.
After he wraps up a string of European tour dates this month, softspoken Swede José González will hit U.S. shores to bring his music to American fans for a mere five shows in September.
In the fall, legendary rocker Neil Young will begin a North American tour toting two of alternative rock’s biggest, most college-y names. Death Cab for Cutie will play at the first concert Oct. 14 in St. Paul, Minn, and Wilco will take over the opening act during the second half of the circuit, beginning Nov. 29 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Los Angeles indie rock trio Everest joins the powerhouse playbill on every date of the tour.
Fans hoping to catch a glimpse of indie rocker Andrew Bird this fall are in luck…that is, if they live in the New York and New England region. Bird just announced a small handful of tour dates in October.
Poor Bradford Cox. 
What exactly would an Oxford collapse sound like? Thousands of cardigan-clad scholars hitting the deck after learning that the Vampire Weekend show sold out? Christopher Hitchens going to bed after another round of exhaustive self-improvement? Turns out, it sounds pretty good.
Bayou soulster Marc Broussard is hitting the road to promote his upcoming record, Keep Coming Back, and he's bringing Paste along with him. But we're not talking the latest issue here; Paste is sponsoring Broussard's "Keep Coming Back Tour," which kicks off on Sept.14 in Fairfield, Conn.
In case you missed it, on July 15 The Hold Steady released one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the summer, Stay Positive. On Sept. 29, the Brooklyn rock outfit will start taking over Europe on its month-long tour of the continent. On Oct. 30, the band returns stateside and tours across North America until the end of November.
We Are Scientists seem to be popping up everywhere these days: sounding out in the Nick and Norah's infinite Playlist trailer, supporting R.E.M. while they frolic all about Europe and, now, joining Southern rockers the Kings of Leon on a tour across the States. What began in a dorm room back in '97 just keeps getting greater.
Hey, kids! Enjoy getting psychedelic in the desert? Possibly with a talking coyote? Boy, does Black Mountain have a video for you! The Sabbath-worshiping British Columbians recently retreated to an anonymously sandy place to film the clip for "Wucan," and it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect. Tripped out visuals and the usual Black Mountain rawk abound (see below).
In his cover-story essay for Paste back in May, Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard mulled over Kerouac's On The Road. "I thought," Gibbard wrote then, "'that’s the way, that’s the ideal life, that’s great. You get in a car and you drive and you see your friends and you end up in a city for a night and you go out drinking and you catch up and you share these really intense experiences. And then you’re on the road and you’re doing it again.'"
After finishing a tour with MGMT, the percussion-happy Brooklynites of Yeasayer decided it would be in everyone's best interest if they suited up for another outing. We're inclined to agree with them.
Before its sixth studio album was even released to the public, Atmosphere solidified its membership in Club Badass by bestowing upon us one of the best record titles of 2008, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold. Now, the Minneapolis duo is giving fans a chance to bask in the flow of Slug and Ant's hip-hop artistry first hand with the "Paint the Nation" tour.
We'll forgive Robin Williams that wacky little foray into RV gags and admit that getting back on the road to perform stand-up is pretty cool. For Williams, it's been about six years, which we hope means plenty of brand-new jokes.
Disposable Heroes, they ain't. Five years and a new producer later, Metallica is back to prove that old-school Bay Area thrash is still kicking. After tossing ex-producer Bob Rock to the curb and hiring Slayer wizard Rick Rubin in his place, the band holed up in the studio for two years, incubating Death Magnetic until it was honed to the razor edge of a Kirk Hammett guitar solo. Recently, Metallica announced that the album is finished, unveiled a tracklist, and set a release of late August for the album's first single, "The Day that Never Comes."
Maybe Ted Leo can see the future. He and his merry band of Pharmacists released the single "Bomb.Repeat.Bomb" from their 2007 album Living With The Living (#19 on Paste's Signs of Life for that year). Few song titles in the history of the world have sounded more like an Against Me! b-side than "Bomb.Repeat.Bomb." And now, a mere year later, the two groups are teaming up for a fall tour.
There comes a time in every dance rocker’s life when he must strike out on his own, or maybe with a partner, and deejay a worldwide disco tour. In the case of LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy and drummer Pat Mahoney, that time is now.
Ben Kweller will release his fourth album, Changing Horses, in January 2009. Kweller will album-tease us all with newly announced fall tour dates leading up to the fresh release.
What's on your resume? You can type 80 words per minute? You can tap dance? Well, Adrian Thaws (AKA: Tricky) has made an album NME deemed the best of an entire year and played in a band that made Rob Gordon's top five singles of all-time list in High Fidelity. So yeah, he's not really sweating it either.
Not that we were betting against it, but it turns out that Paste Emergent artist Ingrid Michaelson has got some philanthropic game to go along with those cooing acoustic tracks she self-released last September on breakout Girls and Boys.
With a summer tour already in full swing, M.I.A. co-conspirator Diplo would have earned a month or two of downtime come fall. Yet, like his music, he soldiers on in one long crunky grind, gliding across states and continents as effortlessly as he mixes songs and genres. His new outing is a tour for his label, Mad Decent, titled as such. Joining him in this quest for the freshest beats will be post-punk primas Abe Vigoda who, while not on the Mad Decent label, are nonetheless mad decent themselves.
