Music

Bjork has announced more tour dates. These shows will not be festival gigs. These are Bjork shows. New York City has been blessed with three performances at three beautiful venues.

There will be an exclusive 48 hour pre-sale to subscribers of bjork.com on March 22 and 23 for the San Francisco show. The pre-sale for the rest of the dates will take place on March 28 and 29.......

BJORK TOUR DATES

• May 2 - New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
• May 5 - New York, NY @ United Palace Theater
• May 8 - New York, NY @ Apollo Theater
• May 12 - Chicago, IL @ Auditorium Theatre
• May 15 - Denver, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
• May 19 - San Francisco, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
• May 23 - Vancouver, BC @ Deer Lake Park

Governor Elliot Spitzer is about making ticket scalping in New York legal. The plan to drop the scalping law got an okay from theater owners, who were once the biggest lobby group against ticket brokers. Here's the scoop:

Spitzer...argued that the free market should drive ticket prices for concerts, plays and sporting events.

"My view has always been that the laws don't work," Spitzer told The Post last week.

"The reason the laws don't work is it's the only product I know where we are regulating the secondary market but we don't set a price for the primary market. It makes no sense."

The state's anti-scalping law is set to expire in June.

So get ready for those already expensive sold out tickets to get even more expensive, especially when a very popular band plays some small capacity club where only 1/3 third of the tickets actually go on sale to the public, another 1/3 get held by the record company and the venue and the last 1/3 mystery turned up on eBay.

And how will this effect the secondary market for trading tickets for sex.

And in all seriousness, how long until Ticketmaster develops their own secondary market ticketing site. Oh wait, they already have..........

The Arcade Fire have announed information regarding their three New York City tour dates. They're the latest group to make the downtown set travel all the way uptown when they play the United Palace Theater on May 7th and 8th. Tickets are $35 and on sale March 30th at 10am.

The third show, May 9th, will be part of the High Line Music and take place at Radio City Music Hall, which is nowhere near New York's high line.......

Below we told you that Arcade Fire will be kicking off the inaugural High Line Festival and now we have the entire line-up for the Bowie curated shindig.

Sadly, the events will not be free, outdoor events taking place below the beautifully restored New York City High Line Park. Nor will TV on the Radio be participating. Nor is it that much of an actual festival. I am psyched to see Ricky Gervais. I hope Bowie makes a cameo a la Extras

Tickets go on sale for all events on March 30th at 10am........

THE 2007 HIGH LINE FESTIVAL

• May 9th ARCADE FIRE Radio City Music Hall
• May 10th AIR Theatre at Madison Square Garden
• May 11th THE POLYPHONIC SPREE Hammerstein Ballroom
• May 15th DEERHOOF Irving Plaza
• May 16th DANIEL JOHNSTON, BANG ON A CAN ALL STARS, THE LEGENDARY STARDUST COWBOY High Line Ballroom
• May 18th MEOW MEOW INCITED BY JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL Hiro Ballroom
• May 19th THE SECRET MACHINES High Line Ballroom
• May 19th RICKY GERVAIS Theatre at Madison Square Garden
• May 17th & 18th LAURIE ANDERSON High Line Ballroom

Tickets go on sale this friday and saturday for some great shows. The Bjork NYC pre-sale sold out instantly. Rock The Bells is currently having a pre-sale of some sort. It's going to be an expensive weekend.

And is the Daft Punk + Rapture show worth $47.50 (plus surcharges)?

• ARCADE FIRE | United Palace Theatre | May 7 | On sale Friday 10AM
• ARCADE FIRE | United Palace Theatre | May 8 | On Sale Friday 10AM
• ARCADE FIRE | Radio City Music Hall | May 9 | On Sale Friday 10AM
• AIR | Theater at MSG | May 10 | On Sale Friday 10AM
• RICKY GERVAIS | Theater at MSG | May 19 | On Sale Friday 10AM
• POLYPHONIC SPREE | Manhattan Center | May 11 | On Sale Friday 10AM
• BJORK | Radio City Music Hall | May 2 | On Sale Friday at 11AM
• BJORK | United Palace Theatre | May 5 | $86-$46 | On sale Friday 11AM
• BJORK | Apollo Theatre | May 8 | On sale Friday at 11AM
• ROCK THE BELLS | Randalls Island | July 28 | $83 | On sa Saturday 10AM
• DAFT PUNK + THE RAPTURE + SEBASTIAN | Keyspan Park | August 9 | On Sale Saturday 11AM

Jamie T took a minimal approach to what may be his first New York gig at the Mercury Lounge on Wednesday night. This 21-year-old kid from the London suburbs of Wimbledon was not headlining but the line wrapped around the corner before the doors opened. This was for a guy who had no backing band and only brought along an acoustic bass guitar. That might sound like overkill, but most of the audience seemed to know the lyrics too. Perched from a stool on stage, Jamie T crooned and easily flowed through tricky phrasing while picking out a bare-boned melody of his songs, and the audience sang right along. Anglophiles? Maybe but the boy can write a verse. The whole set felt like one of those moments in a rap show where the beat drops and the rapper continues his verse a cappella. Those moments are usually saved for their best lyrics because you can understand every word. Jamie T had no problem holding that moment the whole set, albeit a short 35 minute one. He also rambled about his SXSW experience and the uselessness of the light beer Americans love to drink.

Jamie T will be back soon, maybe with some friends and more instruments. But who knows if we will get another acoustic show or if he will try to recreate the beats on his album Panic Prevention. Either way, I am sure there will be even more people there to sing along. The kid has already garnered a strong fan base in England and even won a NME Shockwave Award earlier this month for Best Solo Artist beating Thom Yorke, Jarvis Cocker, Lily Allen, and Get Cape Wear Cape Fly. Be on the look out for this guy. Luke Schurman and The Panda Band also performed. Luke is an even younger guy who plays rock that sounds older than he is. He was backed by Ryan and Jack of Sam Champion. They sounded pretty good. I could not stick around for The Panda Band.

I'm loving Ted Leo's Living With The Living. Here's the video for "Bomb.Repeat.Bomb." What you think of the album?

Some quick news for you:

• Stephen Colbert is set to be a keynote speaker at this year's Book Expo America convention at the Jacob Javitts Center in New York City on Saturday, June 2nd. He will be discussing his debut book, I Am America and So Can You (Grand Central Publishing), that comes out this fall. Please not this is not a public event. It's for book industry folks only....
• The Happy Mondays will release their first new album in fifteen years. It has to be better than Yes, Please.......
• The Beastie Boys will play some instrumental only shows this summer. In additional to doing the instrumental set at festivals they'll be doing regular performances at including Sasquatch and Sonar. The band will play surprise instrumental shows in various U.S. cities......
• Friction moves its monthly party from the closing Sin-e to the powerful Mercury Lounge! The first shindig at the new venue will be April 5th and will headlined by Land of Talk.......
• Sanjaya has made it into American Idol's Top 9. The vocally-challenged teenager has been kept on the show thanks to the "Vote for the Worst" campaign.
• The Black Crowes are in the studio recording a new album. Meanwhile, former Crowes' guitarist Marc Ford just released Weary & Wired.............

We're just contest crazy over here at Product Shop NYC.

Email productshopnyc@gmail.com to win a pair of tickets to Mason Proper at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City on Saturday, March 31st. Mason Proper will be joined by Jena Malone and Her Bloodstains and Birdmonster! (Subject line: Mason Proper Is My Hot Sex). One winner will be selected at random.

DOWNLOAD: Mason Proper -"My My (Bad Fruit)" 

DOWNLOAD: Mason Proper - "Miss Marylou Carreau"

On Tuesday, April 24th, Patti Smith will celebrate the release of her new covers record with three shows in one evening at the Bowery Ballroom. The shows, dubbed "The Bowery Sessions," will take place at 6pm, 8:30pm and 10:30pm.

Tickets to each show is $17 and are now on sale. This ticket will include copy of her new record that you will pick up at show. You can also get a pass to all three sessions for $51.

On April 18th, Patti Smith will also perform at the Hiro Ballroom. Consider it a warm-up show for the Bowery Sesions. Those tickets are $35 and you don't get a copy of her new record with admission.

On Twelve, Patti's first album since being inducted to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, covers "Smells LIke Teen Spirit", "Gimme Shelter" and "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"...........

PATTI SMITH - THE BOWERY SESSIONS

• April 24 - 6pm - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY - $17 (tix)
• April 24 - 8:30pm - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY - $17 (tix)
• April 24 - 10:30pm - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY - $17 (tix)
• April 24 - three show pass - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY - $51 (tix)

Sam Champion. Best unsigned band in America.

They posted a song from their untitled, unsigned, no release date sophomore album on their myspace page called "Like A Secret." It's so stellar. Also, it's not even close to the best new track they got.

The band plays the Mercury Lounge in New York City with Soundtrack of Our Lives on April 4th. They've also been added to the Bonnaroo Festival.........

DOWNLOAD: Sam Champion - "Like A Secret"

When it comes to cool and worthwhile fundriasers, the folks at 826NYC know how to throw-down. They're an amazing organization that does awesome and important work. Plus, they know how to put together killer benefit show. Here's the scoop on an event that's happening on April 10th at New York's Symphony Space:

826NYC, 826LA and McSweeney’s present "The World, Explained," an evening of erudite comedy and fact-based entertainment with John Oliver (Daily Show correspondent), David Rakoff (author of Fraud), Joshua Davis (the lightest man ever to compete in the U.S. Sumo Open), and Rodney Rothman (former Undeclared writer and author of Early Bird). Hosted by Eugene Mirman. Using slides, charts, and other primary sources, the presenters will illuminate various topics, including: how to create boy bands; the reasons to hate Rent; and strategies for defeating an opponent four times your weight in a sumo arena.

The event will also feature the premiere performance by Final Fantasy: Online a.k.a. Internet, an ad-hoc indie supergroup made up of members featuring: Nick Thorburn & Jamie Thompson of Islands, Dante DeCaro & Hadji Bakara of Wolf Parade, Amber Webber of Black Mountain, and Syd Butler of Les Savy Fav..

Symphony Space
Tuesday, April 10, 8:00 P.M.
2537 Broadway (at 95th St.), New York
Tickets: $21 advance, $26 day of show
Tickets available HERE or by calling (212) 864-5400
All proceeds go toward 826NYC and 826LA

826NYC is located at 372 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn......

Wilco just expanded the first leg of their Sky Blue Sky tour to include some tri-state area shows. They'll hit the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on June 25th. That's way more intimate than when Wilco last played New York City, which was December 31, 2005, with Sleater-Kinney and Flaming Lips.

So Sky Blue Sky has been floating around the old internet for awhile and we have to admit that we're kind of disappointed by it. Sadly, it's just nowhere near as powerful as A Ghost Is Born or Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Some of Sky Blue Sky's faults can be blamed on sequencing. The album's best tracks first arrive around number ten and eleven, "Walken" and "What Light." Meanwhile, the first couple tracks sound like songs that could have been on the Grateful Dead's American Beauty. I admit that I'm no fan of the Dead, but if you're gonna take their blues-jam aesthetic, you may as well knock-off "Ripple." When Wilco open their new album with "Either Way," I don't get overtaken they way I did with "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" or "At Least That's What You Said."

All that said, this may not be Wilco's best album, but it's still really good. Most bands would kill to make a record like Sky Blue Sky, but the bar has been raised so high for this band that I feel let down........

WILCO TOUR DATES

• 06-13 Davenport, IA - Adler Theater
• 06-15 Indianapolis, IN - Murat Theater
• 06-17 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo
• 06-19 Atlanta, GA - Chastain Park Amphitheatre
• 06-20 Charlotte, NC - Ovens Auditorium
• 06-22 Red Bank, NJ - Count Basie Theater
• 06-24 Northampton, MA - The Pines
• 06-25 New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom
• 06-28 Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion
• 06-29 Shelburne, VT - The Green at Shelburne Museum

Cat Power continues to tour behind her brilliant last LP, The Greatest. She just announced a bunch of US dates, including a July 7th date at McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg-Greenpoint. To make our local show a bit more awesometastic, Built To Spill will be her very special co-headliner for this show only.

Also, Matador Records will continue their tradional free July 4th party at New York City's Battery Park. Confirmed to play this year is The New Pornographers. It's also rumored that Cat Power will be joining the line-up........

CAT POWER TOUR DATES
July 7 - Brooklyn, NY - McCarren Pool
July 8 - Boston, MA - Avalon Ballroom
July 9 - Northampton, MA - Pearl Street
July 10 - Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix
July 13 - Detroit, MI - Majestic Theatre
July 14 - Chicago, IL - Union Park

Lollapalooza has become the latest festival to officially announce their line-up.

A three-day pass costs $195. In a smart move, the organizers have listed the ticket price so it will include no service fees or add-ons of any kind. What it's billed as is what ya get. Smart......

LOLLAPALOOZA | GRANT PARK, CHICAGO | AUGUST 3-5, 2007
Pearl Jam * Daft Punk * Ben Harper And The Innocent Criminals * Muse * Iggy And The Stooges * Modest Mouse * Interpol * My Morning Jacket * Satellite Party * Yeah Yeah Yeahs * Snow Patrol * Roots * Patti Smith * Kings Of Leon * Black Keys * Regina Spektor * Spoon * Lupe Fiasco * TV On The Radio * Pete Yorn * G. Love And Special Sauce * Paulo Nutini * Amy Winehouse * LCD Soundsystem * Clap Your Hands Say Yeah * Silverchair * Femi Kuti And The Positive Force * Yo La Tengo * Slightly Stoopid * Hold Steady * Jack's Mannequin * Stephen Marley * STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9) * M.I.A. * Blonde Redhead * Sparklehorse * Sean Lennon * !!! * Blue October * Son Volt * Motion City Soundtrack * Polyphonic Spree * Ted Leo And The Pharmacists * Peter Bjorn And John * Silversun Pickups * CSS * Rapture * Wailers * Roky Erickson And The Explosions * Tapes 'N Tapes * Heartless Bastards * The View * Cribs * Fratellis * Ghostland Observatory * Tokyo Police Club * Rhymefest * Soulive * Cold War Kids * Annuals * Fields * Electric Six * Elvis Perkins In Dearland * Sam Roberts Band * Black Angels * Charlie Musselwhite * Aqueduct * Juliette And The Licks * Dios * Viva Voce * David Vandervelde * Los Campesinos! * Chin Up Chin Up * Ryan Shaw * Colour Revolt * Satin Peaches * Illinois * Arckid * Mikey Avalon * 1900's * Bang Bang Bang * Bound Stems * High Class Elite * Carey Ott * Matt Roan

As a huge Johnny Cash fan, story breaks my heart:

The lakeside Tennessee home of late country music superstar Johnny Cash has been destroyed in a fire.

It burned down on Tuesday while renovations were being carried out for its new owner, Bee Gee Barry Gibb.

The interior of the house, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, was used in the video for Cash's final hit, his 2002 cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt.

Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, lived in the house from 1968 until their deaths, months apart, in 2003.

This is also where Johnny Cash wrote and/or recorded a majority of his musical output, from the Folsom Prison tracks to his American series..........

Feist gets the full New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure treatment. The cover story on the one-time Peaches back-up dancer includes this tasty nugget of information:

When she tours this time around, Feist will have a luxury: a seated audience in theaters rather than her former circuit of rock clubs. She is booked at Massey Hall, Toronto’s equivalent of Carnegie Hall, and she comes to Town Hall in Manhattan on June 11.

She played guitar in By Divine Right, a rock band that opened a stadium tour for the Canadian favorites the Tragically Hip, and she released her own promising but unexceptional debut album, “Monarch,” in 1999, without much impact. She joined her roommate, the conceptually bawdy rapper Peaches, as singer, rapper, dancer and sock puppeteer (billing herself as Bitch Lap Lap), and went on to tour Europe with Peaches’s keyboardist, Gonzales, in his own comically glam mode. A video circulating on YouTube shows him rapping with Feist, who is in a unitard, singing backup and pretending to tap-dance.

Back in Toronto (although she still has a Paris apartment) Feist found herself among the group of friends that evolved into the large, ever-changing band Broken Social Scene, and she went on to tour with them, singing and sometimes stage-diving. Broken Social Scene’s main songwriter, Kevin Drew, is now her boyfriend.

Feist's video for "1-2-3-4" is one-shot dance explosion that recalls a GAP ad, Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet" and The Chemical Brothers' "Let Forever Be". Check it out below......

The title track from the Queens Of The Stone Age's upcoming new album "Era Vulgaris," to be released in June, has been posted on the bands myspace page. Oddly, this track does not appear on the album's announced tracklisting:

DOWNLOAD: Queens of the Stone Age - "Era Vulgaris"

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE'S ERA VULGARIS
01 Turnin on the Screw
02 Sick, Sick, Sick
03 I'm Designer
04 Into the Hollows
05 Misfit Love
06 Battery Acid
07 Make It Wit Chu
08 3's & 7's
09 Suture Up Your Future
10 River in the Road
11 Run Pig Run

Last night, New York Magazine threw one hell of a party at Studio B in Brooklyn. Of Montreal performed their (un)usual fantastic stage show, then after a short comedy set from emcee Michael Showalter, in character as the Alan Shemper from Wet Hot American Summer, the Elephant 6ers returned to the stage as the backing band for a twenty-plus song karaoke fiesta. Both sets were fantastic.

The karaoke highlight was when Paul Rudd and David Wain performing a rocking version of Boston's "More Than A Feeling." Another duo threw in an a cappella verse from "Kiss From A Rose" while performing The Pixies' "Here Comes Your Man." Other songs performed were Guns N Roses's "Sweet Child O' Mine," INXS' "Need You Tonight" (done by Michael Showalter), The Rolling Stones' "Rocks Off" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"..........

More picture after the jump......

Here's what is up and where you can throw your money down.

If you haven't seen Bling Kong perform their Chose Your Own (Mis)Adventure Rock Opera, then we highly recommend you check it out. As an added bonus, they'll be joined by Dracula Zombie USA........

MONDAY

• Benefit for Callum Robbins with Bob Mould + Radio 4 + Harmony Rockets (Members of Mercury Rev) | Bowery Ballroom | $25
• Rhizome Benefit with Gang Gang Dance + Professor Murder + Yacht | Hiro | $35
• Smoosh + The Postmarks | Knitting Factory | $14
• Chris Cornell | The Fillmore (Irving Plaza) | $tba
• Rodrigo y Gabriela | Webster Hall | $tba

TUESDAY

• Art Brut + Holy Hail + Ra Ra Riot | Bowery Ballroom | $16
• Soulwax Nite Versions + Muscles | Hiro | $12adv, $20dos
• Jesse Malin + Holly Ramos | Mercury Lounge | $17

WEDNESDAY

• Patti Smith & Her Band | Hiro | $35
• Art Brut, O'Death | Studio B (early) | $12
• Fixed presents Soulwax Nite Versions + Muscles + 2MANYDJS | Studio B (late) | $12
• Ghostland Observatory | Bowery Ballroom | $13
• Atakke + Team Robespierre + Fresh Kills + Beat the Devil | Europa | $5
• Wild Bee + Grand Mal | Glasslands | $6
• The End of the World + The Narrator + The Subjects | Mercury Lounge | $10
• Hymns + Arizona, Head Like A Kite + Frances | The Annex | $tba
• Son Volt + Jason Isbell | Fillmore NY (Irving Plaza) | $25
• Oakley Hall + The Woods | Union Pool | $tba
• Ratatat | Webster Hall | $20
• Gore Gore Girls | Pianos | $10

THURSDAY

• Bling Kong + Dracula Zombie USA + The Shamblers | Old Volume Space (29 Wythe) | $5
• La Dolce Vite (Michael Imperioli) & Friends | Pianos | $8
• Hot Chip + Tussle | Webster Hall | $22
• Balkan Beat Box + Golem + DeLeon | Bowery Ballroom | $17
• Peelander Z + Right on Dynamite + The Waylons | Luna Lounge | $10
• Battles + O'Death + Dirty Projectors | NYU Kimmel Center | $6
• The Postmarks + Die Romantik | Union Hall | $10
• Joseph Arthur & The Lonely Astronauts | Southpaw | $15
• Cute Is What We Aim For + As Tall As Lions + Envy On The Coast | Fillmore NY | $tba
• A Place to Bury Strangers + Gold Streets | Union Pool | $tba
• Rock To Save Darfur with George Clinton & 420 Funk Mob | Concert Hall @ the New York Society for Ethical Culture | $40

FRIDAY

• The Comas + The Octagon + Hymns, De Novo Dahl | Luna Lounge | $10
• The Jealous Girlfriends + Unlove + The Swimmers | Glasslands | $tba
• Joseph Arthur & The Lonely Astronauts + Stars of Track and Field | Maxwells | $15
• Harry & the Potters + Japanther + Jason Anderson & The Best | Sugar Factory | $tba
• Coco Rosie | Warsaw | $18.50
• Hot Chip + Tussle | $22

SATURDAY

• The Muggabears + Please Department | Cake Shop | $7
• Jesse Malin + Mirrortest | Mercury Lounge | $17
• Beans + Game Rebellion + Dragons of Zynth + The Gray Kid | Southpaw | $10
• Seasick + Barkuna + Weird Owl | The Annex | $tba

SUNDAY

• Jarvis Cocker | Webster Hall | $32
• Benji Cossa + Double Fantasy + Yoni Gordon + Raybees | Cake Shop | $6
• Brand New + Kevin Devine | The Fillmore | $20

I'm always happy to see an opening act I truly dig get added to a show I'm already attending.

First off, Low have postponed their West Coast headlining tour until September to open a string of dates for Wilco. This will include a date at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

And with five gigs at the Bowery Ballroom was not enough area shows for The National. The band have now been confirmed as the opening act for The Arcade Fire's three New York Shows. The National will also open for The Arcade Fire in a couple other cities......

The annual Joey Ramone's Birthday Bash is scheduled for Saturday, May 19th at the Fillmore NY. They always seem to put together great line-ups for this shindig and this year seems to be no exception. The first confirmed act is the New York Dolls. Mickey Leigh and Richie Ramone are also appearing.

Last year's bash featured The Strokes, The Alarm, Wayne Kramer, and Mindless Self Indulgence.

Tickets are $25 and now on sale......