Satan May Not Be Telling You To Go, But You Should!

In a loving and respectful way you might call Guided By Voices the grandfathers of indie rock. GBV (the shorthand I will use to refer to the band Guided By Voices for the rest of this post) had been prolifically making music for over two decades when they disbanded in 2004. Well three cheers for great music and nostalgia cause GBV will be reuniting to tour the country this September, October and November.

From their genre-bending style to their enormous catalog it is certain that you or people you love dearly dearly love many of the songs on the 16 studio albums GBV released between 1987 and 2004. Founding member and frontman Robert Pollard gathered the “classic lineup” of Greg Demos, Kevin Fennel, Tobin Sprout and Charles Mitchell to tour material primarily created between 1992 and 1996.

GBV will begin their tour September 30, in Austin, TX but will quickly move onto Las Vegas where they will join Pavement, Belle & Sebastian, Spoon, The New Pornographers, Sonic Youth and others for Matador Records three day 21st birthday event titled The Lost Weekend.

Look for Guided By Voices to help christen the newly reopened Buckhead Theater in Atlanta on October 23.

For full tour info go to here: http://www.gbv.com/

Arcade Fire Performing with Spoon in North America Tour Dates

Arcade Fire is preparing for a run of North American dates with Spoon this August after the anticipated Aug 3^rd release of their sophomore album, The Suburbs. 

Spoon is confirmed as Arcade Fire’s supporting band for four dates at the beginning of August.  The Austin, Texas indie rock band recently released their seventh studio album since their 1993 formation. Transference debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 53,000 copies in its first week.

The performance dates scheduled all center around Arcade Fire’s August 8th headlining slot at Lollapalooza in Chicago, IL.  Incidentally, Spoon will be playing Lollapalooza as well.  The tour dates include Philadelphia (Aug 2), New York (Aug 4), Columbia, MD (Aug 6), and Atlanta (Aug 11).  More dates may still be announced.

Tickets for Boston and Nashville (with Spoon supporting) are slated to go on sale June 4th; New York on sale June 11th. (Other cities are TBA).

Head to Ticketmaster.com for more information. Arcade Fire will donate $1 from every ticket sold to Partners In Health http://www.pih.org/, an organization helping impoverished communities around the world.

Arcade Fire 2010 North American Tour Dates:
07-12 Quebec City, Quebec – Quebec City Summer Festival
07-13 Ottawa, Ontario – Ottawa Blues Fest
07-31 Montreal, Quebec – Osheaga Festival
08-01 Boston, MA – Bank of America Pavilion
08-02 Philadelphia, PA – The Mann Center *
08-04 New York, NY – Madison Square Garden *
08-06 Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion *
08-08 Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza
08-09 Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
08-11 Atlanta, GA – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre *
08-14 Toronto, Ontario – Olympic Island

* with Spoon

Watch the Premier of Spoon’s Video “Written In Reverse”

The video for “Written In Reverse,” the first single from Spoon’s recently released seventh album Transference, premiered today at Pitchfork.com. The video, directed by Danny Clinch documents an actual live performance of the song recorded expressly for the video.

Tickets recently went on sale for Spoon’s 2010 North American tour, which commences with a March 17 headlining appearance at Stubbs in Austin kicking off the annual South by Southwest conference. The tour’s March 27 show at Boston’s House of Blues and the first of two Minneapolis shows, April 2 at First Avenue, have just sold out, joining a pair of advance sell-outs March 22 and 23 at Washington DC’s 9:30 Club.

Spoon has also announced a run of Australian dates following the their performance April 17 at the Coachella festival. The Australian tour kicks off April 30 in Melbourne.

SPOON ON TOUR 2010

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Groovin’ The Moo Festival First Line Up Announced

Groovin’ The Moo Festival has announced their first line up, and its going to be an exciting year by the looks of it!

Band of the moment, Vampire Weekend will lead the international charge, with Tegan & Sara and Spoon coming along for the ride too. Silverchair is making their first festival appearance for the year, with promises of yet another new sound on their new record. Check out the full list below:

Vampire Weekend
Tegan & Sara
Spoon
Silverchair
Grinspoon
Empire Of The Sun
British India
Lisa Mitchell
Kisschasy
Miami Horror
Bag Raiders
Kid Koala presents The Slew live
Muph and Plutonic
Funkoars
Illy
Ajax
Jonathan Boulet
Yacht Club DJs

The festival will stop off in Bunbury, Canberra, Bendigo, Townsville and Maitland in May. Check the Groovin’ The Moo website for more info.

Spoon Announces 2010 North American Tour Dates; Full Album Streaming on NPR

Spoon has announced their 2010 North American tour dates. The tour kick off March 17 at Stubb’s in Austin as part of the annual South by Southwest conference, will and include the band’s first ever headline engagement at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

Spoon will be touring in support of “Transference”, the seventh Spoon album and the first produced by the band itself. The record’s release is preceded by first single “Written In Reverse,” released earlier this month. The album is currently streaming in its entirety as an NPR First Listen.

The band has also confirmed an appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien on January 19. For more information go to Spoontheband.com.

SPOON North America 2010

17-Mar  Stubbs                                                        Austin, TX
18-Mar  Republic                                                   New Orleans, LA
19-Mar  Workplay Soundstage                     Birmingham, AL
20-Mar  Tabernacle                                            Atlanta, GA
22-Mar  9:30 Club                                                 Washington, DC
23-Mar  9:30 Club                                                 Washington, DC
24-Mar  The National                                          Richmond, VA
26-Mar  Radio City Music Hall                      New York, NY
27-Mar  House of Blues                                      Boston, MA, USA
29-Mar  Sound Academy                                  Toronto, ON
30-Mar  Royal Oak Music Theatre            Royal Oak, MI
1-Apr    Aragon Ballroom                                 Chicago, IL
2-Apr    First Avenue                                          Minneapolis, MN
3-Apr    First Avenue                                         Minneapolis, MN
5-Apr    Ogden Theatre                                    Denver, CO
6-Apr    Ogden Theatre                                    Denver, CO
7-Apr    In the Venue                                        Salt Lake City, UT
9-Apr    Moore Theatre                                   Seattle, WA
10-Apr  Moore Theatre                                  Seattle, WA
11-Apr  Orpheum Theatre                           Vancouver, BC
13-Apr  Fox Theater                                        Oakland, CA

*Deerhunter direct support on all dates.
*New Orleans – Royal Oak w/ The Strange Boys
*Chicago – Oakland w/ Micachu & the Shapes

Best of 2009: Top 25 Indie Songs

Keeping up with the year’s independent releases is a daunting task, but also among my favorite constant activities.  Oodles of great music have come out this year, and because some of my favorites have been singles, I decided to focus on songs, rather than albums.

Besides that, the introduction to an artist always begins with a single song, so I felt compelled to deliver to you the song that I consider could turn you on to the album within which it resides.  In deciding which songs to include on this list, I focused on the music that has consistently impressed and moved me musically, but also poetically and philosophically, and so I hope you’ll enjoy this compilation. [Read more]

Spoon “Written In Reverse” Single Available on iTunes; Streaming on NPR

“Written In Reverse,” the first single from Spoon’s new album ‘Transference‘, is now available for purchase on iTunes. The song is also streaming free courtesy of NPR’s All Songs Considered.

“Written In Reverse” will be released January 5 to independent retail in a 7″ vinyl format featuring the non-album B-side “Mean Red Spider.”

Transference will be in stores January 19, but the album cover photo by William Eggleston can be viewed on Stereogum by clicking HERE.

[Read more]

Spoon Announce First Dates of 2010 World Tour

The first six dates of Spoon’s world tour to support the band’s seventh album, Transference, have been released.  The tour starts out in Glasgow in February at King Tut’s.  The US Tour dates will be announced as they are confirmed, but Spoon will be in the states New Years Eve headlining a show at the Riverside Theatre in Milwaukee with Jay Reatard. [Read more]

Spoon to Release Seventh Album

Long-time indie rockers, Spoon are going to release another new album.

The new album, set to release next year, is the band’s seventh LP and includes the recent single “Got Nuffin.”  Totaling 11 tracks, the album, called ‘Transference‘ will released by Merge Records in North America on January 26, while the European release will be January 25 via Anti-Records.

[Read more]