It’s been a week of tour announcements hasn’t it! Ben Harper is about to embark on his summer/fall tour that starts in June. There’s a European run there in the middle of it, but he comes back stateside in August. A few dates are already sold out. You know the drill.

Oh yeah, and did I mention Ben released a new, free song this week on iTunes? It’s for his latest single “Don’t Give Up On Me Now.” Party on!

6/4 - Ozark, AR - Wakarusa Festival
6/5 - Kansas City, MO - Crossroads
6/6 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre SOLD OUT
6/7 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre SOLD OUT
6/12 - Fès, Morocco - Festival de Fès
6/30 - Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre SOLD OUT
7/1 - Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre SOLD OUT
7/2 - Sioux City, OA - Saturday in the Park
7/3 - Milwaukee, WI - Summerfest
7/5 - Toronto, ON - The Sound Academy
7/6 - Ottawa, ON - Bluesfest
7/8 - Quebec City, QC - Quebec City International Summer Festival
7/16 - Aix les Bains, France - Festival Musilac
7/18 - Lucca, Italy - Piazza Napoleone
7/19 - Rome, Italy - Fiesta Ippodromo delle Capannelle
7/20 - Milan, Italy - Arena Civica
7/22 - Nimes, France - Festival de Nimes
7/23 - Carcassonne, France - Festival de Carcassonne
7/25 - Saint-Malo-Du-Bois, France - Festival de Poupet
7/28 - Lucerne, Switzerland - Swiss Blues Festival
7/29 - Tarvisio, Italy - Piazza Unita
7/30 - Verona, Italy - Castello Scaligero Di Villafranca
8/1 - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Sporting Summer Festival
8/3 - Corsica, France - La Citadelle
8/5 - Avenches, Switzerland - Rock Oz Arènes
8/6 - Colmar, France - Festival Foire aux Vins d’Alsace
8/7 - Dranouter, Belgium - Dranouter Festival
8/25 - San Francisco, CA - The Warfield
8/26 - Bend, OR - Les Schwab Amphitheatre
8/27 - Seattle, WA - Marymoor Amphitheatre
8/28 - Vancouver, BC - Malkin Bowl
9/2 - Stateline, NV - Harvey’s Lake Tahoe
9/3 - Las Vegas, NV - Pool at Cosmopolitan
9/4 - Del Mar, CA - Del Mar Racetrack (concert following the races)
9/10 - Dana Point, CA - Doheny Days Music Festival
9/27 - Montreal, QC - Metropolis
9/29 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
9/30 - Boston, MA - House of Blues
10/1 - New York, NY - Terminal 5
10/4 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
10/5 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club

                            

The Aquabats! have been itching for a new full-length since their 2005 release Charge!! and we finally have some details on the upcoming CD.

The new album is titled Hi-Five Soup. It will feature 12 tracks (listed below) and will hit shelves and the net on January 18th with Fearless Records. The first track “The Shark Fighter!” can also be heard in it’s entirety on the band’s Facebook page.

1. The Shark Fighter!
2. B.F.F.!
3. The Legend Is True!
4. Radio Down! (Featuring Biz Markie)
5. Poppin’ A Wheelie!
6. Hey Homies!
7. In My Dreams!
8. Just Can’t Lose!
9. All My Money!
10. Pink Pants!
11. Food Fight On The Moon!
12. Luck Dragon Lady!

There will also be a few lucky cities who get to see The Aquabats! early next year for a mini ska-tastic tour with Reel Big Fish, Suburban Legends, & Koo Koo Kanga Roo:

January 14 - Dallas, TX @ House Of Blues
January 15 - Houston, TX @ Verizon Wireless Theater
January 17 - Tallahassee, FL @ Floyd’s Music Store
January 18 - Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
January 19 - Ybor City, FL @ The Ritz
January 20 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ The Revolution
January 21 - Jacksonville, FL @ Freebird Cafe
January 22 - Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live

The Damned Things (you know- the crazy mash up Every Time I Die, Anthrax and Fall Out Boy) have announced their new album Ironiclast will be available on December 14th. Word on the street says it’s amazing and after seeing the band’s second performance ever, there’s no debating that claim over here.

There are a few of the new tracks on the band’s MySpace, but the latest song “Little Darling” can be heard over at AbsolutePunk. Keith comments on the song:

“Little Darling” may have been the most instinctually oriented song on the record as far as the lyric writing was concerned. I remember when Joe and Rob and I sat down to go over possible melodies, the first line was the “example” we gave as to the vocal cadence of the verse. I remember saying “ok, so something that SOUNDS like ‘little darling’” and went to the drawing board. After nothing really felt right, I realized that those two words were perfect from the beginning. It set the tone for the entire rest of the song which is essentially just a letter of apology for being so absent from certain peoples lives.

A second song “Friday Night (Going Down In Flames)” can be downloaded for free via Facebook and for another taste, check out the song “We’ve Got A Situation Here” below (which is available for download on iTunes):

Just for kicks, see how the guys look live! These photos are from The Borderline in London back in June:

               

Daytrotter, a website that features music sessions from a massive variety of artists, recently had Tumbledown in their studio. The website has a different band session available everyday- which leaves 28 free songs a week for all of us to enjoy for free. On behalf of everyone who likes good music, thanks for bringing TB in!

Tumbledown’s session features new, live recordings of “Butcher of San Antone,” “Let’s Drink,” “State Line” and “Son of a Gun.” To download the set, you must register for the site (all of which is free). If you don’t feel like downloading the tracks, you can simply stream them.

And don’t forget to pick up TD’s latest release Empty Bottle with these awesome packages- like an MP3 download, autographed poster and a t-shirt for $15.

            

As you may know from my previous posts, Bad Religion is celebrating their 30th year as a band in 2010. Crazy, right? And because we love them so much, and vice versa (we hope), we are bringing you an exclusive, free download!

The track is a live version of Suffer from the band’s 1988 album. We will have it available for you to download for a limited time from Vans.com/BadReligion. Just so you know, this is the only place to get this track!

If you aren’t happy with one song, then I have even better news for you. Starting May 18th you can download the FULL live album…also for free! You must sign up at BadReligion.com to get the download when it’s available.

Awesome.

Finding out about this literally just blew my mind….

                             

You should know Stephen Egerton as the guitarist from both ALL and The Descendents. But do you know about The Seven Degrees of Stephen Egerton?

That’s the name of his new solo album. It features a crazy amount vocalists, too. Just check out this track list:

1. Flip (feat. John Speck of The Fags)
2. Fire’s On (feat. Jon Snodgrass of Drag The River)
3. Abundance Of Fluff (feat. John Moreland)
4. South For The Winter *
5. Funny Face (feat. Chad Price of ALL/Drag The River)
6. Never Again (feat. Bill McShane of Ultimate Fakebook)
7. On The Avenue (feat. Jesse Cole of In Stereo/Le Fang)
8. Our Last Song (feat. Dan Andriano of Alkaline Trio)
9. She’s Got Everything (feat. Milo Aukerman of The Descendents)
10. Cut Me Down To Size (feat. Mike Herrera of MXPX)
11. Sunny Disposition (feat. Scott Reynolds of ALL)
12. When They Roam (feat. Joey Cape of Lagwagon/Me First And The Gimme Gimmes)
13. Print On Paper (feat. Chris DeMakes of Less Than Jake)
14. Falling Out (feat. Frank Daly of Big Drill Car
15. Silencer (feat. Mark Vecchiarelli of Shades Apart)
16. Willie Wicked (feat. Abe Brennan of My Name/Wretch Like Me)

Now that’s alot of awesome packed into one album! This release will be available on May 11th.

If you are lucky enough, you can also catch out two release shows featuring a few of the guest vocalists:

May 14th- The Conservatory, Oklahoma City
May 15th- The Crystal Pistol, Tulsa

Not know what to expect? Well, you can check out “Our Last Song” here:

Stephen Egerton (feat. Dan Andriano of Alkaline Trio) - Our Last Song by altpress

This remix is fantastic!

P.O.S. has taken Manchester Orchestra’s track “Shake It Out” to an entirely new level. The original song is on MO’s Mean Everything To Nothing.

Check out what Stef can do to this track:

Manchester Orchestra “Shake It Out” (P.O.S. remix) — Altpress.com exclusive by altpress

You can download the track “Explode,” yes for free, from Trash Talk’s newest album Eyes and Nines directly from their website. The full album will be released digitally on May 18th and you can find it on shelves starting June 8th. Since I know everyone reading this right now is going to buy this album (if you aren’t, I may have to track you down), you might as well get a jump kick and grab this song!

The band’s sophomore album will feature guest appearances from Bad Religion’s Greg Heston as well as Matt Caughthrah of The Bronx.

To round out the release, the band will be heading out on the road in late April with Alexisonfire, Therefore I Am and La Dispute:

April 21st Cleveland, OH - Peabody’s Down Under
April 22nd Detroit, MI - St. Andrew’s Hall
April 23rd Buffalo, NY - The Town Ballroom
April 24th Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
April 25th Richmond, VA - Canal Club (Downstairs Lounge)
April 27th West Palm Beach, FL - Ground Control
April 28th Orlando, FL - The Social
April 29th St. Petersburg, FL - State Theatre
April 30th Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade
May 01st Greensboro, NC - Greene Street Club
May 03rd Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
May 04th Dallas, TX - The Door
May 05th Austin, TX - Emo’s
May 07th Mesa, AZ - The Nile
May 08th Anaheim, CA - Chain Reaction
May 09th West Hollywood, CA - Troubadour
May 10th San Francisco, CA - Slim’s
May 12th Portland, OR - Peter’s Room
May 13th Seattle, WA - El Corazon
May 14th Boise, ID - The Venue
May 15th Salt Lake City, UT - In The Venue’s Club Sound
May 16th Denver, CO - Marquis Theater
May 18th Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock
May 19th Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
May 21st New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
May 22nd Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts
May 23rd Worcester, MA - The Palladium

         

Brant Bjork, of both Kyuss and Fu Manchu, is releasing a new recorded titled “Gods and Goddesses” on March 30.

But! Thanks to some team work, we have the full album available to stream over at http://vans.com/brantnjork. You can also download a totally free track from the CD!

Vans.com is the only place to pick it up, too so spread the word!

Killswitch Engage has just premiered a new song called “My Obsession” for the upcoming video game God Of War III. To get the track, you can get special code to download the God Of War: Blood and Metal digital EP (gnarly name, right?) if you get the ultimate edition of the game. For those who don’t feel like listening to some death metal and killing some stuff in the process, you can pre-order the EP for $1.99.

Listen to “My Obsession” here:

The band is currently on tour with Phil Labonte, singer of All The Remains, filling in on vocals:

March 3 Las Vegas, NV House of Blues
March4 Tucson, AZ Rialto Theatre
March 5 Tempe, AZ Marquee Theatre
March 6 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern
March 7 San Francisco, CA The Warfield
March 9 Portland, OR Roseland Theatre
March 10 Seattle, WA Showbox Sodo
March 12 Salt Lake City, UT The Great Salt Air
March 13 Denver, CO The Fillmore Auditorium
March 14 Kansas City, MO Midland Theatre by AMC
March 15 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
March 16 Nashville, TN Rocketown
March 18 New York, NY The Fillmore At Irving Plaza
March 19 New York, NY The Fillmore At Irving Plaza
March 20 Clifton Park, NY Northern Lights w/ Dark Tranquility
March 21 Wallingford, CT The Dome At Oakdale
May 19 Norfolk, VA The Norva - (Rescheduled from February 6th)
May 22 Columbus, OH Columbus Crew Stadium

Ninjasonik recently did a remix of Matt & Kim’s “Daylight.” I think I actually like this version better. I’m also a big fan of one-take videos and this one has a rad ending. Check it out!