Quick rundown of the events attended by the D this past week: Wednesday saw August Burns Red with openers Chasing Victory and Arise and Ruin tear Mavericks Bar apart. Quite out of character for myself, I grabbed an extra mic with some other dude and we did impromptu backup vocals for the closer, 'The Seventh Trumpet,' which gets better with each live hearing. Last night(Thursday), California MC Pigeon John, ably supported by Melbourne, Australia's Macromantics, kicked up a ruckus at Heaven Nightclub downtown; PJ's brought a live drummer and multi-instrumentalist with him on this tour, so catch him if you can. My favourite rapper by far.
Aight. To the news.
We've heard about the Toronto edition this fall - what of the U.S. version of the Virgin Festival? The second presentation of Richard Branson's baby will feature headliners The Police, Smashing Pumpkins(also doing Toronto's version) and Beastie Boys. Rumour has it Pearl Jam, who put out what critics call their best album in years last year, are also on the bill. And for west-coast Canadians, there is a Vancouver edition happening May 20th and featuring The Killers and My Chemical Romance. [Billboard]
There's an arrest warrant out across the state of Florida for rapper Foxy Brown. Is anyone really surprised here?
The headliners for this summer's free OzzFest tour(yes, free) include Lamb of God and Hatebreed, while other bands participating feature the likes of Nile and The Showdown. The tour kicks off in Seattle July 12th. To gain entry into this year's Ozzfest, fans must go to Ozzfest.com or LiveNation.com to find links that will direct them to special sponsor sites where tickets can be secured. Tickets will be available for download on June 12th. Oh, and Nile main man Karl had a great quote on why the band chose to play the traveling metal fest: "We will be the first real death metal band to ever play Ozzfest, and the chance to lay waste to thousands and thousands of mall metal posers is just too once-in-a-lifetime to pass up." Awesome.
One of Canada's best and most underrated/unheard bands, Sloan, will open a handful of shows for The Police on their coming stadum tour! Sweet! Eight hundred thousand tickets have already sold for this tour, which will easily surpass a hundred million bucks' gross by the time it's wrapped.
Mutemath(they can do no wrong) have a weird video up on Youtube for their tune 'Typical' - the entire thing is in reverse. Go watch and learn from the best. [infuzemag]
We reported earlier this week that Lost Angels crew Jurassic 5 are calling it quits, and now comes word that there might be some tension in the ranks. Doh. I loved them.
Guitarist Matt Sherwood has left one of the best punk bands ever; Strike Anywhere asked in a statement online not to make a big deal out of it, as they surely are not - eight years touring with any band is quite enough for a lot of people. Sherwood might be best known for winning some sort of contest a few years back whereby model/tennis player Anna Kournikova showed up out of the blue at his house in Richmond, VA - his bandmates had submitted his picture to some magazine's "Most Adorable Face" contest or something. This story gets funnier with each re-telling. [punkbands]
Damn it: Everclear are touring cross-Canada for the first time in forever, and Ottawa isn't on the list? GEEZ. Here's the itinerary:
April 29th in Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace
April 30th in Kingston, ON @ Ale House
May 2nd in Winnipeg, MB @ Cowboy's
May 3rd in Saskatoon, SK @ Roxy on Broadway
May 4th in Regina, SK @ The Drink
May 5th in Lloydminster, AB @ The Kooler
May 6th in Banff, AB @ Wild Bill's
May 7th in Calgary, AB @ Cowboy's
May 9th in Edmonton, AB @ Cowboy's
May 10th in Grand Prairie, AB @ The Corral
May 11th in Penticton, BC @ Element
May 13th in Vancouver, BC @ Plaza Club
[tunelabmusic]
Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots has signed the first act to his label Softdrive Records; Los Angeles' The Actual are the lucky winners.
Funniest thing ever. Thanks to Steve for linkage.
Posted by mike at March 23, 2007 10:42 PM