Dropkick Murphys:

What: Tour dates for North American tour

When: February - March

Tixs: Price varies depending on location

Buy: Ticketmaster.com at 10:00 AM EST

Jay-Z:

What: Tour date for East Rutherford, NJ

When: March 6th, 2010

Tixs: $36.50 - $136.50

Buy: Ticketmaster.com at 10:00 AM EST

John Mayer (w/ special guests Michael Franti & Spearhead):

What: Tour dates for North American Tour

When: February - March

Tixs: Price varies depending on location

Buy: Ticketmaster.com at 09:00 AM EST

The Magnetic Fields:

What: Tour dates for North American tour

When: January - February

Tixs: Price varies depending on location

Buy: Ticketmaster.com from 10:00 AM EST

Mariah Carey:

What: Tour date for Atlantic City, NJ

When: January 2nd, 2010

Tixs: Price unavailable

Buy: Livenation.com at 10:00 AM EST

Phish:

What: Tour dates for Miami, FL (New Years)

When: December 28 - 31, 2009

Tixs: Price varies depending on location

Buy: Ticketmaster.com at 10:00 AM EST

The Roots:

What: Tour date for Atlantic City, NJ

When: December 26th, 2009

Tixs: Price unknown

Buy: Livenation.com at 10:00 AM EST

Shinedown & Puddle of Mudd:

What: Tour dates for North American tour

When: January - February

Tixs: Price varies depending on location

Buy: Ticketmaster.com at 10:00 AM EST

U2:

What: Tour date for Minneapolis, MN

When: June 27th, 2010

Tixs: $30.00 - $250.00

Buy: Ticketmaster.com at 10:00 AM CST

Weezer:

What: Tour date for La Jolla, CA

When: January 13th, 2010

Tixs: $36.00

Buy: Ticketmaster.com at 10:00 AM PST

As a disclaimer, if you’re reading this at work, you shouldn’t. Unless you know, you’re the boss, or have no fear about what the naked flesh could do for your status as an employee. Either way, this is going to be an adult discussion, right?

Let’s be honest, it’s clear where the appeal is. Nakedness is fantastic. We should all love our bodies and most of us don’t. It’s this crazy modern world we live in, with those crazy expectations.

Case in point, The Flaming Lips’ video for “Watching the Planets”. We know Wayne Coyne is his own individual, so this sort of experience is sort of expected of him. Then, there’s Girls XXX-rated version of “Lust for Life”. Here you have just people being naked, living life by the day, worry free and accepting their faults. Finally, although not technically a music video, Yeasayer just released an interactive loading video where you can pan around and watch as naked people run around as you wait for your download of the band’s new single, “Ambling Alp”, to finish.

These videos seem to be living in the moment, and the stripped down nature of the participants reflect their comfort with who they are. It is as if this is all daily routine. While we may all feel progressive, sex tends to be a hot topic. Be it about body types (remember the hoopla Ralph Lauren received for phtoshopping a model into a wasp, American Apparel’s disastrous ad campaigns or horrifying job practices?) or relationships, sex is always on our minds.

So what gives? Is nudity the last boundary? Is it a direct call to arms to let loose, to not care so much about our own manufactured desires for identity and self-purpose? Or is it all a scam, where the notion of nudity is exploited and the suits are pandering to us about “freedom”?

It seems strange that this rise in nudity in music videos comes when the usefulness of said videos have been called into question. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, maybe it is honesty. Either way, don’t expect this to go away any time soon.

NEW Singles:

• “Norway” by Beach House
• “Harry Partch” by Beck
• “Whatever I Say” by The Grouch
• “JFK’s LSD” by Hot Hot Heat
• “Into The Mirror” by Minus The Bear
• “Don’t Dance” by The New Loud
• “Ca Plane Pour Moi” by Nouvelle Vague
• “Go/No/Go” by Roman Numerals
• “Blessa” by Toro Y Moi
• “The Pipe” by Vulture Whale
• “Away In A Manager” by The Very Most

Covers, Remixes, and all that JAZZ:

• “Idioteque” (Radiohead) by Camera
• “The Wimp” (Sam Billen Remix) by Capybara
• “Perfect Day” (Remix) by Cassettes Won’t Listen
• “I Love London” (Goldierocks Remix) by Crystal Fighters
• “Easy” (Buffetlibre Remix) by Dragonette
• “Disorder” (Joy Division cover) by El Ten Eleven
• “Snake” (Sutekh ‘Acid in my Bed’ Mix) by Oy
• “The Mayor” (Dave Wrangler Remix) by N.A.S.A. vs YACHT
• “Syndrome” (Tom Furse Remix) by Project: Komakino
• “No Light Escapes” (Bright Lights Remix) by The Prairie Cartel
• “Scantrons” (City Light Remix) by Tape Deck Mountain
• “Big Boom” (Gentlemen Losers Remix) by Windmill

Something to CHECK OUT:

• “The Rain Becomes the Clouds” by Emanuel and the Fear
• “The Day Before” by Hush Arbors
• “Ask Me No Question” by Learning Music
• “Good Boys” by The Minor Leagues
• “The Yeah Conditioner” by by Mukaizake
• “Double Life” by Peter Squires
• “Away From” by Robot Kotch
• “California In The Ether” by Tin Can Notes
• “A Funeral Dressed as a Birthday” by We Are The Willows

I suppose it is fathomable to grasp a tween pop newbie like Emily Osment being a fan of Bends/Honey-era Radiohead; after all, “Creep” is still a radio staple and is probably the definitive song for those who yearn to belong. Frankly, Osment’s desperation shines through in her ear-piercing live rendition of Radiohead’s “High And Dry”. Pro- and anti-Yorke parties alike are reaching for the cotton balls, all because this happy snappy gringa decided to rape a perfectly good song with loud wails on the chorus. We refuse to mock Emily Osment’s status amongst the Disney tween market because the company she keeps is not all bad. We refuse to mock the location choice of this particular performance, as a Walmart concert is simply a recession-heavy cycling back of old 80s mall tours. Instead, let us focus on the more apparent problem at hand…the girl can’t sing for shit on a live set.

Word to the wise: If you seek a “High And Dry” definitive cover version, go hunting for a man named Jamie Cullum. He has a decent following in the U.K., and is well known for his jazz piano cover tracks of pop music and Broadway tunes (”Dancing In The Rain”, to name one). To boost his reputation, he has also appeared on the illustrious Austin City Limits at one point.

Instant legend has it (according to the text box accompanying this HILARIOUS VIDEO OF THE MUSICOMIC EPIC WHICH DEMANDS TO BE VIEWED RIGHT NOW) that Segel and everyone else’s favorite funny dude, Paul Rudd, happened upon Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova & Co. (i.e., The Frames) at a restaurant. Acquaintance-making ensued, resulting in Segel being invited to perform at the show. Taking Irglova’s songwriting advice to heart — reveal something of yourself personally — the highly competent pianist belted out a phone number-revealing chorus, thus finally ending Tommy Tutone’s 27-year reign as the King of Sung Dialing.

There are also two fantastic penis jokes somewhere around the third or fourth verse. This is composing on a much higher caliber than the duddish “Dracula” stuff Segel did in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Segel’s dropped digits begin with area code 315, which is upstate New York, which is not where he’s from. Call and you’ll hear Segel politely instructing you to email what sounds like “healthtronic at gmail dot com.” I did, requesting to be sent something that has been recently touched by Jason Segel, but as of the past 20 minutes have received no reply. Then I Googled both “Healthtronics” and “Healthtronix”. Neither seems to use gmail, but both can sell you some urological or lymphonic equipment.

Kicking off the indie rocker’s album is the catchy and straight-to-the-point “I Hit Another Wall.” Complete with 80’s Casio keyboard synth-drums and a penchant for English guitar chords (think Stone Roses & early Oasis), Williams belts out in a soft falsetto his eagerness to move on with his life. Taken directly from the chorus, Williams throws his own curveball on traditional pop-rock with a pretty catchy line that sticks in your head. “I hit another wall /just like before /not dizzy in the head /no not again.” Why not? Simplicity always works, and in this case, it works well into the musical foresight Williams is aiming for, given his recent history in his personal life.

Afterward, the quirky and bouncy cuts “Ozone Street” and “Oceans” come along. Williams is good at crafting simple yet elegant guitar melodies behind the backdrop of subtle drumbeats and good production. Think of them as a bright sunny days outside in the dead of spring with everything in full bloom. Williams’ usage of these musical ideals bring to mind many images of these forgotten spring days. Images of kids bike riding, flowers in full bloom and old, beaten dirt roads reminisce and bubble amongst the Brooklynite’s pop-rock bonanza. However, the album’s most downtrodden tune, “All In”, comes off rather weak and slows down the overall smoothness of this record.

While “All In” musically is a departure, vocally and lyrically, Williams doesn’t seem to be at his peak. After the first three gleaming cuts, “All In” feels like a forced throwaway with a bit too much drama behind it, given the subject matter. Minor piano dominates the song and Williams’ lyrics are a bit bleak, but it’s an unexpected turn that could have been fixed up more. Fortunately, Williams goes back into the fire with his hip-swaying “Stilts”, complete with silky guitar arpeggios and his trademark simplistic songwriting skills. What’s interesting to note is the bass line that dominates the song. Subtly distorted, it’s rather rough in the mix compared to the much cleaner guitars and drums. Definitely some musical significance there, especially as Williams chants, “Home/ This is home.” “Stilts” ties “I Hit Another Wall” for best song on the album by far.

Coming around the home stretch, Careful Love rounds itself out with melancholy “Love Hate” (think a very somber White Stripes), the soft spoken “Murderous Air” and the finale, “I Want To Die In California.” After the dust settles on this light and somber trip, Williams emerges with a smile and a new lease on life. While the album overall is a nice departure from the typical rat-race day, Careful Love has a few weak spots that rob from its overall cohesiveness. Williams is a good songwriter, no doubt, but some of his compositions come off as a little too basic; a little bit of “I’ve heard this before” comes up once in a while. Vocally he’s gifted, as well as with his piano skills, but Careful Love throughout its entirety seems to lack something to really push it over. The cake is done, so to speak, but not enough icing made it onto the final product. For the acclaimed singer/songwriter’s third record, it’s not bad, but it could have definitely been something much, much more.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Check Out:

Buy:
Careful Love

Speaking as to what the future holds, the supergroup of Josh Homme, John Paul Jones, and Dave Grohl revealed that they are indeed planning to followup their recently unveiled masterful self-titled debut.

“I felt we’ve only just started to pick up steam. Why would we want to stop now?” explained Homme, a sentiment which was further backed up by Jones. “We all know we have so much more in us yet.”

Mr. Grohl then chirped in and confirmed what we all were waiting to here: “When we make our second record, it’s going to be even more powerful than this one.”

No specifics were given, but that won’t stop us from now engaging in a collective fist pump. Ready… go!

The five-piece group, famous for combining live instruments with electronic music, has posted an entry on the weirdly, offbeat development of its latest project on its website. Basically, the whole process started when keyboardist David Phipps’ daughter messed around with a shortwave radio the band had. The dial stopped on a super low frequency and out from the speaker came an artificial voice of a woman counting off numbers. The STS9 members soon became obsessed with what they had stumbled onto and spent weeks trying to find more voices. They only found one more voice but it proved to be helpful, since it’s sampled in the introduction of the song “Central”.

After a trip down research lane, the band discovered that they were tuning into number stations, thought to be coded messages used by governments to communicate with spies overseas. This information isn’t confirmed by any government, but it was enough to capture STS9’s imagination. They recruited a crypto-hacker friend in an attempt to decode the number sequence they had found. The numbers led them to an old abandoned bunker where they found several photos, one of which is the cover for the single “Atlas”. Also discovered was a symbol of a secret team whose job was to gather signals from another civilization in our galaxy. Their motto was… “Ad Explorata, Forward into the Unexplored”. Talk about going off the beaten path!

Stream the aforementioned “Atlas” below. Find the band’s upcoming tour dates after that.

STS9 Tour Dates:
12/29 - Denver, CO @ June Swaner Gates Concert Hall
12/30 - Denver, CO @ Wells Fargo Theatre
12/31 - Denver, CO @ Wells Fargo Theatre
01/02 - Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution Live
01/03-08 - Caribbean Ocean @ Jam Cruise

Well, kids, don’t get too excited yet. As confirmed by the band’s label, these supposed “leaked” dates are in fact fake. While the legendary French electric duo is expected to make a return in the not so distant future, it WILL NOT be at the places and on the dates listed below. So, tell your friends.

FAKE DAFT PUNK 2010 Tour Dates:
07/30 - Paris, FR @ Le Zenith
08/01 - Amsterdam, NL @ Heineken Music Hall
08/03 - Munich, DE @ Allianz Arena
08/05 - Dublin, IE @ O2
08/07 - Nice, FR @ Parc de Sports
08/15 - New York, NY @ Yankee Stadium
08/28 - Melbourne, AU @ Olympic Park Stadium
09/03 - London, UK @ Wembley Arena
09/06 - Manchester, UK @ MEN Arena

A few months and a plane ride across the Atlantic later, ATP’s New York incarnation, ATP New York, will return to Monticello, NY for its third edition. This year’s festivities will go down from September 3-5 (Labor Day Weekend!) and, as we learned today, will include the four following acts performing the four following albums:

The recently reunited Iggy & the Stooges performing Raw Power, Mudhoney performing Superfuzz Bigmuff, Scientists performing Blood Red River, and the also recently reunited Sleep performing Holy Mountain.

Of course, plenty acts for both events are still forthcoming. Tickets for All Tomorrow’s Parties are on sale here. Tickets for ATP New York, priced at $250 + booking fee, are on pre-sale now via Paypal direct to ATP. To buy tickets email feedback@atpfestival.com with NEW YORK TICKET BUY in the subject line and specifying how many tickets you would like to purchase. Got it? Good.