Holy Fuck! Crocodiles Tour!

Despite what my headline might insinuate, I'm talking about a tour. Of rock ‘n’ roll musicians. Across The United States. Crocodiles is a little band made up of big colorful glasses and rock ‘n’ roll intentions that's releasing its first album, Summer of Hate, April 28 on Fat Possum.

And Holy Fuck? Well, you may recall that the Tories up north of the border cited them as the reason for cutting the $4.7 million PromAct program. (The PromAct gave artists grants to go abroad and promote Canadian culture.) Indeed, the Canadian Man made an example of Holy Fuck, pointing at them and saying that the money was going to support "fringe art groups that, in many cases, would be at best, unrepresentative, and at worst, offensive." Do I smell a scapegoat? Holy fuck, they only received $3000 to go on a short tour of the UK! What is that, like 0.06% of the program? And they're hardly fringe. They were nominated for last year's Polaris Prize and a Juno Award, too, which in Canadian terms, means they're practically at the same stature as David Lee Roth is here in The States.

Solo Croc tourdates:
04.14.09 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club*
04.15.09 - Baltimore, MD - Sonar*
04.17.09 - Asheville, NC - Orange Peel*
04.18.09 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse*
04.20.09 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live*
04.21.09 - Austin, TX - Stubb's*
04.22.09 - Dallas, TX - Granada*
04.24.09 - Tuscon, AZ - Rialto Theater *
04.25.09 - Anaheim, CA - The Grove*
04.26.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater*
04.27.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater*
04.29.09 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore*
04.30.09 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore*
05.01.09 - Portland, OR - Roseland*
05.02.09 - Seattle, WA - Showbox*
05.05.09 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre*
05.07.09 - Las Vegas, NV - Beauty Bar w/ Old Blood
05.11.09 - San Diego, CA - The Casbah w/ Spectrum

* The Faint & Ladytron

The Holy Fuckin' Cussin' anti-Canadian tourdates with The Crocodiles are as follows:
05.21.09 - Boston, MA - Middle East
05.22.09 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
05.23.09 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
05.24.09 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
05.25.09 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
05.27.09 - Washington, DC - Rock And Roll Hotel
05.28.09 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
05.29.09 - Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
05.30.09 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
05.31.09 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
06.03.09 - Bellingham, WA - Nightlight Lounge
06.04.09 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir
06.05.09 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
06.06.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
06.07.09 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
06.08.09 - Tucson, AZ - Plush
06.10.09 - Dallas, TX - Lounge on Elm
06.11.09 - Austin, TX - Mohawk
06.12.09 - Houston, TX - Walter's
06.13.09 - Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
06.14.09 - Birmingham, AL - Bottletree
06.15.09 - Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn

Grab Your Water Wings and Get Your Shots, Flipper Floats Again with New Studio and Live Albums

As the first decade of the oughts crawls ever closer to its inevitable conclusion, one has to suspect that for some these past 10 years in pop music will not be remembered for its new material, but for its reunions. Thanks to enablers like All Music Guide, Pitchfork, and Soulseek, the double zeros’ younger generation caught wind of many a classic act from rock’s halcyon days (basically everything before 1999), and once the bands themselves caught wind of the younger generation’s wind-catching, oh how the reunions flowed! Some bands seemed to inexplicably pick up where they left off and immediately began cranking out new, fantastic albums as if not a day had passed since their last jam (i.e. Mission of Burma and Dinosaur Jr), while others simply cranked out their back catalogue and cashed the check in the morning (i.e. everybody else).

After San Francisco scuzzbags Flipper reunited in 2005, their sporadic touring and seemingly false promises of a new record dropped them into the latter category, at least for my dumb cynical ass. But as it turns out, Flipper have finally found a label to release their totes new record Love along with a live album Fight, which features both new and old material. Recorded in Krist Novoselic’s home studio (with Novoselic on bass, as well) and produced by grunge guru Jack Endino, Love is Flipper’s first studio album in over 16 years. You can check out some of the new tracks on the band’s MySpace, and even though the site only lists a few scattered West Coast dates and the Australian leg of Flipper’s upcoming tour, the band has promised a list of American and European dates sometime in the future. Oh the anticipation!

I’m sorry I ever doubted you, Flipper, you big sack of misanthropic angst, you!
04.24.09 – Berkeley, CA – Amoeba Records
04.25.09 – San Francisco, CA – El Rio
05.08.09 – South Lake Tahoe, CA – Whiskey Dicks
05.09.09 – Sparks, NV – Vixens
06.04.09 – Perth, Australia – Amplifier Bar
06.05.09 – Adelaide, Australia - Live on Light Square
06.06.09 – Melbourne, Australia – The Esplanade Hotel
06.07.09 – Hobart, Australia – The Brisbane Hotel
06.09.09 – Melbourne, Australia – The Arthouse Hotel
06.11.09 – Brisbane, Australia – The Step Inn
06.12.09 – Canberra, Australia - Australian National University Bar
06.13.09 – Sydney, Australia – Manning Bar
06.14.09 – Newcastle, Australia – Cambridge Hotel

Asobi Seksu Tour with Amélie Soundtrack Yann Tiersen

Asobi Seksu, the band poised to steal the hearts and minds of dreamy indie-pop Brooklyn new-music-junkies around the world*, are hitting the road again (TMT News), but this time in support of everybody's favorite French accordionist/cafe background music creator extraordinaire, Yann Tiersen. Asobi just released Hush on Polyvinyl this last February, while Tiersen's last album was released in 2005, but judging from the fact that you probably have one of his accordion melodies already stuck in your head, does it really matter how long ago Les Retrouvailles was released? I just hope someone can make a decent double short dry soy cappuccino at the show. Yann's music sure does make me want to drink some coffee.

Tourdates:
04.15.09 - Washington, DC - La Maison Francais
04.16.09 - New York, NY - Irving Plaza
04.17.09 - Montreal, PQ - Club Soda
04.18.09 - Montreal, PQ - Club Soda
04.19.09 - Toronto, ONT - Mod Club
04.21.09 - Chicago, IL - Logan Theater
04.22.09 - Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club
04.24.09 - Denver, CO - Bluebird
04.25.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
04.27.09 - Vancouver, BC - Richard’s on Richards
04.28.09 - Seattle, WA - Neumo's
04.29.09 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom
05.01.09 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
05.02.09 - Los Angeles, CA - El Rey

*It's palatable music, he's white, she's Japanese, there's not much more you need to make a runaway hit, right?

Computer Program Randomly Generates Spring Tourdates, Menomena Obey

You may remember the geeked-out, left-coast, loop-obsessed, computer-reliant, christian-but-not-“Christian,” experimental pop trio Menomena from their 2007 Barsuk release Friend and Foe (TMT Review).

You may also remember this scene from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Sure, both parties have their valid points to make with regards to the role that technology plays in our daily lives, but only ONE is about to launch a spring tour of the United States next week. Can you guess which one? (Hint: letterman jackets get awfully hot come late May in Chicago...)

Okay, I’ll leave it to you to make your guess. But don’t think about it too much, right Ted?

Right:
04.14.09 - Santa Cruz, CA - Crepe Place
04.15.09 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Palladium
04.17.09 - Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones
04.18.09 - San Diego, CA - M-Theory Music Foosball Tournament
04.18.09 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
04.19.09 - San Luis Obispo, CA - SLO Vets Auditorium
04.20.09 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
04.21.09 - Davis, CA - UC Davis
04.22.09 - Portland, OR - Roseland Theatre
04.24.09 - Seattle, WA - Showbox at The Market
04.25.09 - Seattle, WA - Showbox at The Market
05.16.09 - Eugene, OR - Cuthbert Amphitheatre
05.31.09 - Chicago, IL - Division Street Fest
06.01.09 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle

Domino Records Adds The Fall to Roster, Stocks Up on “Business Casual” Oxford Shirts for Mark E. Smith

Some things are timeless. If you are a beaver, these things might include being brown or chopping wood all the time. If you are Dubai, these things could be constructing new buildings in the shape of things that aren't buildings, or putting a scale model of the Atlantic Ocean in a shopping mall. Now if you are, say, Mark E. Smith of seminal post-punk outfit The Fall, these things might include buttoning your nerdy oxford shirt all the way to the top at all times -- decade be damned -- and cultivating a reputation for having some major ’tude. This is important because, as you may have guessed, this story is about The Fall.

Which leads me to my next point: some things change. For example, right now The Fall has found a new label to add to its ever-growing list of conquests. This time around it's Domino, home to Animal Collective and Franz Ferdinand, to name but a few. Domino previously released Tromatic Reflexxions (TMT Review), the 2007 album from the Mark E. Smith/Mouse on Mars collabo known as Von Südenfed.

The Fall are heading back to the studio in the very near future, so word on the street is that a late-2009 release might be a possibility.

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