Chicago's Pitchfork Music Festival 2010 kicked off on July 16 at Union Park, giving exposure and highlighting a unique assortment of artists from indie rock powerhouse Modest Mouse to Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene to Swedish pop sensation Robyn to art rockers Liars to hip hop act El-P to folk singer-songwriter The Tallest Man On Earth.

* The Tallest Man On Earth

It's hard for any band to capture a hot, sweaty, and antsy audience at any music festival, so the folk artist has a lot of extra work to do to make you forgot about all of your problems and negative outside forces that could break...

Converge
Kyleza
Gaza
Kvelertak
Birmingham O2 Academy
Tuesday, 13th July 2010

Apologies first and...

Following hot on the heels of the very successful first shows EVER featuring the Big Four of Thrash in Europe, Slayer and Megadeth have announced the second leg of their highly anticipated American Carnage Tour. The first leg was originally to run through America this past winter, but Slayer vocalist Tom Araya's back surgery postponed that tour until this summer. That leg is set to start on August 11th with Testament opening, and the new leg will feature the recently reunited original lineup of Anthrax. People have been waiting a long time for a Big Four tour, could this be the bands dipping their toes in the water? How long will we have...

While they are packing their bags to head out on the road for their summer tour, Rogue Wave have just announced a full fall tour of the U.S. with Midlake and Peter Wolf Crier. The Oakland based indie rock band will perform fan favorites as well as new tracks from their critically acclaimed Brushfire Records release, Permalight.

The video for their current single, “Solitary Gun,” premiered on IFC.com and has been just been added to MTVU. Directed by Tyler Manson, the video documents Zach Rogue’s search for Oscar Grant (whom the song is about) – the...

Dynamic DJ duo Thievery Corporation have announced the release of their first ‘best of’ album, It Takes A Thief, coming out on ESL Music on September 21st. The album is a collection of tracks specially selected by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton for longtime fans and for music lovers who have heard of Thievery Corporation but may have never listened to the band.

It Take A Thief will feature “Lebanese Blonde,” the beautiful song used on the Grammy award-winning Garden State Soundtrack, as well as “Sound the Alarm,” the funk infused track that has become a staple opening track for the band’s live shows. “We’ve...

80/35 2010 – Des Moines, IA, July 3 & 4

In the wake of the success of Bonnaroo, Sasquatch, and the modern day Lollapalooza, we’ve seen a great number of smaller music festivals pop up, but few of them have made as much sense to me as Des Moines’s 80-35. I don’t say that strictly because I am an Iowan, but because of the original logistics behind the festival. Summer is prime touring time for almost every band out there, but for whatever reason, most of the bands that have played 80-35 usually choose not to stop in Iowa. Enter the festival, named for the fact that most of these touring bands usually cross through Des...

Malaysian Singer Songwriter Zee Avi is set to release of her first EP, Once More With Colors on July 20th through Brushfire and Monotone Records. The five-song EP includes one never-before heard track, "I Wish I Never" as well as four re-mixed songs off her critically acclaimed 2009 LP, Zee Avi.

Once More With Colors was produced by Sunny Levine (Happy Mondays, Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson, Mickey Avalon) from Los Angeles, CA with multi-instrumentalist Yoad Nevo...

Phil Selway, the prominent drummer from Radiohead, has announced that during their downtime he's taken his own shot at a solo release. While a tracklist has yet to be seen, Phil's stated the album will be called Familial, and hit store shelves August 30/31st on Bella Union Records, and Nonesuch in the US.

To give you a little taste, Phil has offered a free download of the album opener "By Some Miracle" on his website.

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Punk rock leaders Social Distortion have unveiled a fall North American tour with quite a bill assembled that will feature American cowpunks Lucero and English folk-punk singer-songwriter Frank Turner. The shows get rocking on October 14 at The Complex in Salt Lake City, UT and run through November 23 at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, AZ. Recently Social D signed to Epitaph Records and will drop their first LP since 2004's Sex, Love and Rock 'n Roll on the label. Lucero released their most recent album 1372 Overton Park in 2009 on Universal Republic while Frank Turner pumped out full-length Poetry of the...

Indie pop trio fun. are taking another run through the US in support of their 2009 debut album, Aim + Ignite, with a headlining tour that will go down beginning September 29 at Higher Ground in Burlington, VT. This is just the first leg of the tour and special guests are to be announced, so stay tuned for those. Check out all of the stops they'll be hitting up this time around so far below.

Tour Dates
09-29-2010 / Higher Ground @ Burlington, VT
10-01-2010 / World Cafe Live @ Philadelphia, PA
10-02-2010 / Mr. Small’s @ Pittsburgh, PA
10-03-2010 / The Grog Shop @ Cleveland, OH
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Swedesh folk singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson a.k.a. The Tallest Man On Earth will be bringing his gripping show on the road through North America and Europe this Summer and fall in support of his 2010 sophomore album The Wild Hunt. The dates start up on July 16 at the Pitchfork Music Festival before sandwiching a string of dates with Bon Iver percussionist S. Carey opening in the US and Canada between festival stops and other shows in Europe. Check out all of the dates below.

Tour Dates
07-16-2010 / Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
07-30-2010 / Paredes de Coura, Portugal @ Paredes...