We Heart Music

This week on W♥M Radio: John.

NEWS: THIS WEEK IN DEATH

Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman was killed due to an alcohol-related cirrhosis (which is an alcoholic liver disease due to years of drinking), a coroner has confirmed. Hanneman died May 2nd, cause of death was revealed by Slayer's official statement: "While he had his health struggles over the years, including the recent Necrotizing fasciitis infection that devastated his well-being, Jeff and those close to him were not aware of the true extent of his liver condition until the last days of his life. Contrary to some reports, Jeff was not on a transplant list at the time of his passing, or at any time prior to that. In fact, by all accounts, it appeared that he had been improving – he was excited and looking forward to working on a new record."
Mac Daddy (Chris Kelly) passed away May 1st, due to drug overdose in Atlanta (according to TMZ). Kelly was one half of the popular 90s duo Kris Kross, who was famous for their hits "Jump" and "I Miss the Bus" - and for wearing their clothes backwards. Kelly was 34 years old.

ENGLAND DREAMING

Brody (Georgia) and Jess (California) are in the UK this month. I am setting up some shows for them, these are the ones Brody requested:

May 15th Diiv @ Heaven (London) (Canceled)
May 15th Lucy Rose at Junction, Cambridge
May 19th Noah and The Whale @ Palace Theater (London)
May 20th On An On @ Cargo (London)

Notes: London and Cambridge are nowhere near each other (it is about 50 miles apart, you need to take a train or a coach/bus). Good luck!

Also: Great Escape Festival (mamacolive.com/thegreatescape) - May 16-May 18 in Brighton. They wanted to attend one UK music festival, and this one is it (most of the major ones, Glastonbury, Reading are probably sold out and logistically not within reach). Festival tickets for Great Escape are now sold out. Headliners are: Bastille (Saturday), Billy Bragg (Friday), and Everything Everything (Thursday). Plus one million other smaller support acts.

SPRING NEVER CAME, WE'RE STILL IN WINTER

Month of April was incredibly busy for shows - the last week, John was at these events:

04/22 Proclaimers at Varsity Theater
04/23 Airborne Toxic Event at First Ave
04/24 Poliça at First Avenue
04/27 Mat Kearney at University of Minnesota
04/28 Palma Violet at 7th Street
05/06 Colourists at Triple Rock (Vu)

Upcoming (mostly mentioned here)

05/14 Limp Bizkit at Varsity
05/14 Joshua Radin at Dakota Jazz Club
05/15 Star Trek: Into Darkness
05/15 Presets/Dragonette at First Ave
05/17 Shout Out Louds and Haerts at Varsity Theater
05/17 Youth Lagoon at 7th Street

SONG OF THE SHOW

"Don't Swallow the Cap" is the new lead single from the forthcoming National's album, Trouble Will Find Me (May 20th, 2013 via 4AD Records).

For a Monday night, the turnout for Generationals and Brass Bed’s concert at 7th Street Entry in downtown Minneapolis was exceptional.

Prior to the show, I got a chance to briefly talk to singer Christiaan from Brass Bed about the tour and the recent album. You can listen to the five-minute show at the podcast.

BRASS BED
As you can hear in the recording, this was Brass Bed's first support for a major national tour (for Generationals). Their tour just kicked off in New York, then up north to Montreal and Toronto, before playing to a sold-out show in Chicago. You can tell, talking to Christiaan, that all the shows so far have been absolutely outstanding.

Songs from their set were newer songs like "Please Don't Go" and the set closer "A Bullet for You" from their recently released album, The Secret Will Keep You (just released April 23rd, 2013, on Crossbill Records / Off The Air Recordings).

As for Generationals, I couldn't stay for their show because of prior commitments, although a quote I got from a fan tells me that they "were fantastic!"

Generationals is currently on tour for their Polyvinyl album Heza, which was released earlier last month (April 2nd).

Dates below are what is left of the Brass Bed/Generationals tour:

05.08.13 - Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville Muse
05.09.13 - St. Louis, MO @ Old Rock House
05.10.13 - Nashvile, TB @ The High Watt
05.11.13 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl

This week on W♥M Radio: Nicole, aka her stagename, Vague-à-bonde.

Some things we talked about:

Origin of the name Vague-a-bonde. The variant spelling of the word 'vagabond' is a word that Nicole love and also from the 1985 Agnès Varda film of the same name.

Whatever happened to Waxx Maxx? The band is no longer around, due to personal growth and everyone else doing their thing.

We saw Vague-à-bonde last year with Diamond Rings, apparently they are still friends.

The long and hard recording process of the debut 2012 album Involution/Evolution.

Song of the show is "Our Love" (taken from the recent EP, 222), available as a free download via soundcloud.com/vagueabonde. The song was recently remixed by Comanche.

For more information, head over to vagueabonde.com.

Carrie Rodriguez's last date on a very long National tour for her latest album, Give Me All You Got was at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis last night, April 14th.

Opening up were Jack Torrey and Page Burkum of The Cactus Blossoms, their fifth show working for Rodriguez. They did The Cactus Blossoms songs, but stripped down to double acoustics… lending their music to sound overtly very country and western.

Highlight of their set was a cover of Roger Miller's "The Moon Is High", containing the very funny word-play lyrics of "but come the dawn and it will dawn on me you're gone".

As expected, fiddler and singer/songwriter Carrie Rodriguez played a lot of tracks from her latest album, Give Me All You Got. Helping Rodriguez on various instruments and sometime backing vocals was Romantica's Luke Jacobs (with Ben Kyle nowhere to be found).

My favorite track off the new album, "Lake Harriet", was played fairly early in with Rodriguez explaining her love for the city. She also dedicated "Absence" with its "snow, sleet, wind and rain" lyrics as only fitting to the current climate.

As mentioned in the podcast, she did a couple of covers, Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again", John Prine's "Unwed Fathers", and the encore Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry".

Carrie Rodriguez is currently back home in Austin, taking a much-needed break from the tour. Her latest album, Give Me All You Got, is out now via Ninth Street Opus.

Emily came on W♥M radio to talk about some news and events.

Vu: I just saw the advance preview for Danny Boyle's "Trance" - a mind-bending thriller, about Simon (played by James McAvoy) who stole the Goya's "Witches' Sabbath" painting and forgot what he did with it. He undergoes hypnotherapist treatment with Elizabeth (played by Rosario Dawson), and that's when the movie enters into this weird surreal part of the film. It's one of those movies, like "Inception", that you want to watch again to try it fully comprehend the picture.

More details on TranceTheMovie.com, movie gets limited distribution this week. Soundtrack is typically really good. The "Trance" Soundtrack featured Rick Smith from Underworld - so it made sense to hear those pulse-pounding beats at the more intense scenes. Smith also co-wrote the movie's theme song, "Here It Comes", with multi-Brit Award winner Emeli Sandé.

You may recall that Danny Boyle put together one of the greatest movie soundtrack for "Trainspotting" (so good that they released part 1 and 2 of the soundtrack) and his personal British music choices for the recent 2012 Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

News: Margaret Thatcher passed away this week (April 8th) to a stroke. Thatcher's uncompromising style of leadership as Prime Minister, left a long lasting bad impression on the people in England…. Particularly on protest singers and songwriters, who wrote and sang anti-Thatcher songs. This is not a complete list, but the songs that I've heard:

Sinead O'Connor, "Black Boys on Moped"
The English Beat, "Stand Down Margaret"
Morrissey, "Margaret on the Guillotine"
Elvis Costello, "Tramp the Dirt Down"
Billy Bragg, "Thatcherites"
Notsensibles, "I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher"
Hefner, "The Day that Thatcher Dies"
Pete Wylie, "The Day that Margaret Thatcher Dies" (song used in the podcast)

News: Record Store Day 2013 is happening next week, April 20th. This year is bigger than ever (I say this every year!), and Emily throws down some of her picks: Mad Season's deluxe double-disc Above on Record Store Day. Mad Season was considered a supergroup, featuring members from Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Screaming Trees.

Big Star is releasing some singles on Record Store Day. This is to coincide with the release of the documentary of Big Star called "Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me", which you can check out the trailer on www.bigstarstory.com. The film was made possible by Kickstarter, which we previously covered.

Husker Du has "Statues"/"Amusement" to be re-issued and Mark Lanegan is teaming up with Moby for "The Lonely Night". Plus, Lanegan will be collaborating with UK folk Duke Garwood for a new album in May.

Topic: Concerts for nostalgic acts are too high! Depeche Mode, Prince, Rolling Stones, etc., they are charging on average about $75 or more for one ticket, which is too much to ask. We're not even talking about hidden "convenience" fee and charges!

Song of the show: The Dandy Warhols's "Bohemian Like You", taken from their breakout album Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia. The album was released 13 years ago, so the band is heading out on tour to do all 13 songs from the Thirteen Tales album this year.

At the moment, only 12 dates are listed. I am assuming the 13th date will be in their original hometown of Portland?

05/28/13 Millvale, PA Mr. Small's Theatre
05/31/13 New York, NY Terminal 5
06/01/13 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory
06/02/13 Boston, MA Wilbur Theatre
06/05/13 Toronto, ON Phoenix Concert Theatre
06/07/13 Cleveland Heights, OH Grog Shop
06/08/13 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre
06/09/13 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
06/11/13 Englewood, CO Gothic Theatre
06/14/13 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern
06/15/13 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
06/21/13 Seattle, WA Showbox At The Market

BONUS: The Jealous Sound's gentle reminder about their Gentle Reminder album.

Corrections: Title for Boyle's movie is "Trance", not "Trancer". Dandy Warhol's "white album" is their debut album, Dandy Warhols OK.

Jess and Brody from W♥M stopped in to talk about their upcoming European trip and what they are expecting. I am hoping to have them cover some shows in London when they are there from May 15th to June 3rd; we'll see how that will work out or not.

Topics we discussed:

News: Daft Punk fourth studio album, Random Access Memories, out on Daft Life/Columbia Records on May 21st, 2013. Personally, I love the French dance/techno duo, been a fan since Homework in 1997. I don't know how successful their new Random Access Memories will be on their own imprint, Daft Life via Columbia Records, but millions of fans will let us know this May.

On Tour: Chicago/Minneapolis trio On an On just announced their spring tour with Savoir Adore (who we covered last year). On an On is one of those bands that got the attention of Jess, who said they look and sound amazing from their recent SXSW appearance.

On an On will kick off their tour in support of Give In this April - which I'm only listing their North American dates below. See their website for more UK and overseas dates.

04/04 - Washington, DC - Rock 'n Roll Hotel
04/05 - Harrisonburg, VA - MacRock Fest
04/06 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
04/08 - Athens, GA - Georgia Theatre Rooftop
04/09 - Atlanta, GA - The Drunken Unicorn
04/11 - Columbus, OH - Rumba Café
04/12 - Toronto, ON - The Drake
04/13 - Montreal, QC - Club Lambi
04/14 - Boston, MA - Church of Boston
04/16 - Burlington, VT - Signal Kitchen
04/18 - New York, NY - Knitting Factory
04/26 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry

Also on tour is Caveman. I've already listed Caveman's tour dates yesterday, so I won't list it here. Jess is excited to see the band this week (Thursday at the Troubadour).

Also, Vu recounts his tragic Caveman story around the time they were on tour for Koko B. Ware.

New Albums: Johnny Marr's The Messenger. See previous article on his tour dates. We all love the Smiths, but can a guitarist make it as a solo artist (note: Johnny Marr + Healers tour and album didn't go too well, but I saw them in 2003). The Stokes's Come Down Machine is coming out tomorrow (March 26th). No one's heard the new album yet, but if you're a fan, you'll definitely want to pick up the Best Buy exclusive which comes with a bonus T-Shirt. Shout Out Louds' new album Optica came out last month on Merge Records.

Palma Violets' 180, according to Brody is the "best album so far." Hey, guess what? It just so happens that Palma Violet is doing a North American tour (and they are stopping by Minneapolis!)

04/12/13 – Indio, CA – Coachella Music and Arts Festival
04/17/13 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo *
04/19/13 – Indio, CA – Coachella Music and Arts Festival
04/23/13 – San Francisco, CA – The Independent
04/30/13 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry
05/01/13 – Chicago, IL – Schuba’s Tavern
05/02/13 – Cleveland Heights, OH – The Grog
05/06/13 – Allston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
05/07/13 – Washington, D.C. – Rock & Roll Hotel
05/08/13 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
05/09/13 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg

Song of the Show: "Only Heather" by Virginia's Wild Nothing, taken from their second album Nocturne (August 28, 2012) via Captured Tracks.

Wild Nothing came highly recommended by both Jess and Brody, so it's a good song to end the show.

The band is currently on tour.

Mar 07 Brisbane - Alhambra Lounge
Mar 08 Sydney, NSW - The Oxford Art Factory
Mar 09 Meredith, Victoria - Golden Plains Festival
Mar 11 Melbourne - The Tote
Mar 12 Melbourne - The Toff in Town
Mar 15 Tokyo - Astro Hall
Mar 18 Liverpool - The Kazimier
Mar 19 Manchester - Sound Control
Mar 20 Birmingham - Hare & Hounds
Mar 21 London - Scala

Mar 23 Paris - Nouveau Casino
Mar 24 Lille - L’Aeronef
Mar 26 Antwerpen - Muziekcentrum Trix
Mar 27 Amsterdam - Bitterzoet
Mar 28 Istanbul - Babylon Istanbul
Apr 13 + Apr 20 Indio, CA - Coachella
May 23 Barcelona - Primavera Sound
May 25 London - Field Day
May 30 Porto - Optimus Primavera Sound
Jun 08 New York, NY - Governor’s Ball

BONUS: Family of the Year, Free Energy, and Dedicate Steve. Fun British terms. Supergrass' "Late in the Day".

Corrections: Bonnet is the car's hood, while the boot is the car's trunk. The Strokes' debut album is called Is This It, not self-titled.

Veronica Falls is currently on tour in support of Waiting for Something to Happen, their February 2013 release. The London four-piece stopped by Minneapolis' 7th Street Entry last night, March 16th.

COLD SHOWER
Cold Showers' was a good fit for the band, having opened up for Veronica Falls on the first part of their tour. Their sound is described as shoegazing, and vocals were heavily mixed in their guitar noise. I can tell right away that these guys are from California, based on singer Jonathan Weinberg's golden bear tattooed on his arm.

The majority of Cold Showers' 45-minute set were from their debut LP, Love and Regret, although the band seems more excited to play new songs, such as "Some Kind of Sunday" and "The Fire."

Cold Showers' last show with Veronica Falls will be at the Hi-Dive in Colorado on Monday.

As for Veronica Falls, this is the second time I've seen them. Comparing the two performances, it's like night and day. Gone is the 'shy' part, the band, especially Roxanne Clifford, is more confident on stage. That's evident in their performance and also hearing songs from their new album, Waiting for Something to Happen. You can tell that they love to play their new songs.

Since it was the eve to St Patrick's Day, there was definitely more loud drunkards than the typical 7th Street Entry show, but that was okay, they were all having a good time singing and dancing along.

As expected, the majority of their set was from the new album, including "Tell Me" and "Teenage", but managing to throw in some old favorites like the excellent closer song, "Come on Over."

Encore was "Right Side of My Brain" and another song I didn't recognize.

Veronica Falls' brilliant new album Waiting for Something to Happen is out now on Slumberland/Bella Union. Catch them on tour later this month with fellow labelmates Golden Grrrls.

Shayna from the Varsity Theater is our guest this week on W♥M Radio.

The Varsity Theater is the prettiest/best-looking venue around town; this is mostly thanks to their other business of booking wedding receptions and private events. They also get some of the best national bands with upcoming acts such as funnyman John Mulaney (03/16) , one of my favorite Britpop acts Ash (03/18), Frightened Rabbit (03/21), Mercury Prize Winner Alt-J (04/01), Pop Star Mika (04/02). We are actually covering a lot of bands at the Varsity - if I'm not there, usually I send someone else to cover it for me.

Anyway, too many good bands to mention, head over to varsitytheater.org to see their full calendar.

Shayna is really excited about Carroll (carrollmusic.net). The band won Vita.mn's fourth annual "Are You Local" contest and is heading down to SXSW:

03/14 SXSW Funk-It Rec Showcase
03/15 SXSW Minnesota Nice Showcase
03/15 SXSW Free Now Showcase

Song of the show is Jim James' "State of the Art (A. E. I. O. U)" from his album Regions of Light and Sound of God. I've previously written about James and how he's the singer of My Morning Jacket. He recently announced some exclusive "Conversation at SXSW", which I'll list all the tour dates and information below. His North American tour kicks in April.

For the latest updates, check with jimjames.com.

03/12 SXSW MTV/VH1/CMT Present
03/13 SXSW Interview w/ Bill Flanagan
03/13 SXSW Aquarium Drunkard Presents
03/14 SXSW Heartbreaker Banquet
03/15 SXSW Auditorium Shores’ show
03/16 SXSW Record Signing @ Waterloo Records
04/17: Louisville, KY @ Brown Theatre
04/19: Milwaukee, WI @ The Pabst Theater
04/20: Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
04/21: Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
04/23: Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
04/24: Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
04/26: Boston, MA @ Royale
04/27: Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
04/29: New York, NY @ Webster Hall

04/30: Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
05/02: Nashville, TN @ Cannery Ballroom
05/3: Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
05/6: Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek
05/7: Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
05/9: Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
05/11: Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
05/12: San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
05/14: Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
05/15: Seattle, WA @ Neptune
05/17: Gulf Shores, AL @ Hangout Music Fest
06/13-06/15: Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo
06/22: Dove, DE @ Firefly Music Festival
07/12-7/14: Louisville, KY @ Forcastle Festival
07/27: Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival

BONUS: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (or rather the shortened OMD) is coming to the Varsity Theater on July 8 July 22. This is a long way from now, but hopefully, if it all works out, I will be at that show. I don't want to call Shayna out on this one, but the song appeared on "Pretty in Pink". Although between you and me, I often get all of those John Hughes/Molly Ringwald movies mixed up ("The Breakfast Club", "Sixteen Candles", and "Pretty in Pink").

I don't think if it's officially announced yet, but Diamond Rings will be opening up for OMD on their US dates. We previously covered the Thomas Hardy book lover at 7th Street Entry. Update: OMD made the Diamond Rings news official on March 6th.

04/05/13 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
04/06/13 Seattle, WA Showbox At The Market
04/07/13 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom
04/10/13 Salt Lake City, UT The Depot
04/12/13 San Francisco, CA Regency Ballroom
04/14/13 Indio, CA Empire Polo Club
04/21/13 Indio, CA Empire Polo Club
04/28/13 Margate, UK Winter Gardens
04/29/13 Birmingham, UK Symphony Hall
05/01/13 Nottingham, UK Royal Centre
05/02/13 Ipswich, UK Ipswich Regent Theatre
05/03/13 London, UK Roundhouse
05/05/13 Bristol, UK Colston Hall
05/06/13 Oxford, UK New Theatre Oxford
05/08/13 Sheffield, UK Sheffield City Hall
05/09/13 Leeds, UK O2 Academy Leeds
05/10/13 Manchester, UK Manchester Academy

05/13/13 Gateshead, UK The Sage Gateshead
05/14/13 Liverpool, UK Liverpool Empire Theatre
05/21/13 Hamburg, Germany Docks Konzerte
05/22/13 Bielefeld, Germany Ringlokschuppen
05/24/13 Berlin, Germany Tempodrom
05/25/13 Leipzig, Germany Haus Auensee
05/27/13 Cologne, Germany E-Werk
07/11/13 Toronto, ON Danforth Music Hall
07/12/13 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
07/13/13 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
07/15/13 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club
07/17/13 New York, NY Terminal 5
07/19/13 Toronto, ON Danforth Music Hall
07/20/13 Detroit - St. Andrew's Hall
07/22/13 Minneapolis, MN Varsity Theater
07/23/13 Chicago, IL Metro / Smart Bar

Paid Dues is the annual independent hip hop festival that started in 2006. Last year, I mentioned the festival because they had one of the biggest and best lineup that year: Wu-Tang Clan and Odd Future. The problem with these festival is that you have to live within the San Bernardino area. So the good news is that Paid Dues is taking some of their acts on the road to a city near you.

Murs is the headliner, and he's brought together Fashawn, Black Cloud Music, and our friend Kosha Dillz to the Fine Line Music Café in Minneapolis last night, March 2nd.

BLACK CLOUD MUSIC
After DJ Kid Disko spun some tunes to a darkened Fine Line, Noa James and Curtiss King came on stage. They are two of seven members of Black Cloud Music - however, I could have sworn I saw David May on the sideline.

Anyway, the two seems like an unlikely pair as they traded singing duties. They ended their set with "OhMyGod".

KOSHA DILLZ
Kosha Dillz (real name: Rami Even-Esh) was next. Although he was allocated a thirty-minute set (as were all the openers), he did not jump straight into his set. Instead, he had a listening party and played two of his favorite songs to get us pumped up.

Set included: "Everything is Kosha", "Cellular Phone", "Garage Sale", "Hangin' Out", "They Don't Know", (freestyle), and "The Future".

My favorite was the freestyling portion. This is the part of the show where audience members were encouraged to put whatever they have in their pockets on stage and Kosha Dillz would just come up with raps off the top of his head based on those objects.

FOSHAWN
I've never heard of Fashawn, but I can tell he was a big deal. The audience was clearly there for Murs and Fashawn and loved all the songs about weed and how it never rains in "Sunny California."

Incidentally, when I found out that he was from Fresno, I kept thinking about "Fashawn" Fair. That's a joke for any Fresnian.

Finally the man of the hour closed off the night. DJ Foundation introduced Murs as he came on asking "whatupdawg?"

While most people will probably list "I Used to Love H.E.R." or the Nate Dogg homage as their favorite of the night, I was more drawn to the funnier "67 Cutlass." According to Murs, this is based on a true story that happened to him. I did think he embellished the story a little, but the more factual aspect is that he had a pipe dream of making mad money by buying two pounds of pot in Mexico and driving back to Los Angeles with intent of selling and distributing. Of course, a sheriff pulls him over. The song takes it on a more comical point of view.

Road to Paid Dues is the tour. If you can't make it to the big music festival this year, catching the Road to Paid Dues is a pretty good indication of what you'll get at the stadium show - but on a smaller and more intimate scale.

BONUS: Be sure to listen to my interview with Rami, aka Kosha Dillz. He confirmed on the recording that his new project will be under Rami Rules name. The name has a double meaning, that he "rules"/awesome/in charge and that there are "rules" you follow.

Audrey is our guest this week at W♥M Radio.

Just some topics we covered:

■ News: The Temptations singer Damon Harris has died aged 62 (passed away February 18th) after losing his battle with prostate cancer. Harris was known for being the youngest member to join group at the age of 21.
■ Concert: Toro y Moi. Audrey reported that the show at the Fine Line Music Café on February 20th was sold out.

Not a whole lot of interaction with the audience, but lighting was fantastic. Certainly the audience didn't care as they danced away.

Toro Y Moi's third album, Anything In Return, is out now on Carpark Records. Tour ending next week:

02/24 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge ^
02/26 Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret ^
02/27 Seattle, WA - Crocodile ^
02/28 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom ^
03/03 Los Angeles, CA - Fonda Theatre ^

^ w/ Sinkane and Dog Bite

■ Upcoming show: Mika. Winner of the Brit Award's British Breakthrough Act 2008, the British pop singer will be doing a series of intimate North American dates (see full date listing here).
■ Song of the show is Mika's "Celebration".

BONUS: Deer Tick's penis, Varsity Theater and toilets…

Painted Palms, The Ruby Suns, and ZZ Ward

John and Vu recap show at Triple Rock: Gold Fields, A Silent Film, and Greycoats

Three Days Grace

Sally and Kristen take over WHM Radio for a long overdue chat about some of the blasts from the past resurfacing with new songs and tour dates.
- Suede - new song, Barriers.
- Stone Roses - It seems that there are some americans who don't know who they are. The recent announcement of them headlining the Coachella festival in the US caused a little bit of controversy with a few clueless kids. The Stone Roses are also coming to Australia playing Future Music festival and a whole heap of sold out side shows and aren't we excited??! (Yes) - (http://www.futureentertainment.com.au/futuremusicfestival/)
- Groovin The Moo, WHM's favourite regional touring festival 2013 line-up announced - Tame Impala, They Might Be Giants, Tegan and Sara, Regurgitator, Alpine, The Bronx, The Kooks, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Frightened Rabbit... (http://www.gtm.net.au/)
- It was the hottest day in Sydney ever and Evan Dando played in a small (air-conditioned) pub in Newtown for free.
- Pulp has released a "new" song, About You, which really isn't that new at all and Kristen has a theory about how it all went down.
- David Bowie is releasing a new album and he is also the winner of creepiest film clip of the day. Ball magic and socks down his leotard.

Brody came on W♥M Radio to talk list some Winter shows. Incidentally, I don't go to shows in the Winter, so I'm not attending most of these shows (I don't even have their tour itinerary): The Maccabees, The Cribs, Kasabian, Phoenix (France), Palma Violets, Kooks, Peace, Xx, Kaiser Chiefs (lost a guitarist). The only show I'm attending is The Faint, which is happening tomorrow at First Avenue (December 13th).

Shows Brody wants to go to: Andrew Bird (12/17 at State Theatre), Of Monsters and Men (12/18 at First Ave), Steel Panthers (12/20 at Mill City Nights). … And even more bands on tour, too numerous to mention (Vaccines, Drop Kick Murphy, Muse, Django Django, Alt-J, Ben Howard, The Staves, Mumford and Sons, Peggy Sue).

News discussed: Adele hit Diamond Certification with her 25+ million record sold of 21. Psy's "Gangnam Style" became the #1 video on YouTube. It was so popular, it was covered by Glee, you can read all about that here.

Stars just announced their The North North American tour, you can see all the tour dates and read all about it here on W♥M. Song of the show is "Calendar Girl", from their Set Yourself on Fire 2004 album.

BONUS: Eels are heading out on tour, plus new album Wonderful, Glorious.

02/14 Santa Ana, CA The Observatory
02/15 Los Angeles, CA The Fonda Theatre
02/16 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
02/18 Portland, OR Aladdin Theater
02/19 Seattle, WA Showbox Theater
02/22 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
02/23 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre
02/24 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall
02/25 Toronto, ON Phoenix Concert Theatre
02/26 Montreal, QC Theatre Corona
02/27 Boston, MA Paradise
03/01 New York, NY Webster Hall
03/02 Philadelphia, PA World Café Live
03/03 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
03/04 Carrboro, NC Cat's Cradle
03/05 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
03/07 Dallas, TX Granada Theater
03/08 Houston, TX Warehouse Live Ballroom
03/14 Belfast, Ireland Limelight
03/15 Dublin, Ireland Olympia
03/17 Manchester, UK Academy
03/18 Glasgow, UK O2 Academy

03/19 Leeds, UK O2 Academy
03/21 London, UK O2 Academy
03/23 Bournemouth, UK O2 Academy
03/25 Brighton, UK Dome
03/26 Norwich, UK UEA
03/27 Nottingham, UK Rock City
03/29 Bristol, UK O2 Academy
03/30 Birmingham, UK O2 Academy
04/01 Amsterdam, Holland Paradiso
04/06 Copenhagen, Denmark Grey Hall
04/07 Hamburg, Germany Grosse Freiheit
04/08 Berlin, Germany Astra
04/10 Belgium, Brussels Cirque Royal
04/12 Caen, France Le Cargo
04/14 Salzburg, Austria Republic
04/15 Fribourg, Switzerland Frison
04/16 Zurich, Switzerland Volkshaus
04/18 Milan, Italy Alcatraz
04/19 Graz, Austria Orpheum
04/20 Linz, Austria Posthof
04/21 Vienna, Austria Gasometer
04/22 Munich, Germany Muffathalle
04/24 Paris, France Trianon

Also, Trust and Morrissey.

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