Complete B.O.M.B. Fest Lineup Revealed

The full artist lineup for the third annual B.O.M.B. Fest has been announced. Set to take place on May 28 and 29 at the Comcast Theatre in Hartford, CT, the bill includes superstar acts like Weezer, Snoop Dogg, George Clinton and Wiz Khalifa, as well as indie acts like The Cool Kids, Against Me! and The New Pornographers.

All proceeds from this year's festival will go towards music scholarships, music enrichment and education programs and community support and outreach. Go to www.bombfest.com, for more information, and view the full festival lineup below.

SATURDAY, May 28
Weezer, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic, Best Coast, HEALTH, Titus Andronicus, RJD2, Wavves, EOTO, The Cool Kids, Dan Deacon, The Felice Brothers, ESKMO, Real Estate, Woods, Free Energy, Roots of Creation, David Wax Museum, Turbo Fruits, Walk the Moon, Sun Hotel, The Manchurians, The Frank Critelli Band, The Rebel Yell, Emjae, EULA, Ovlov, Forget Paris, Lobster Quadrille, The Goonies, Swear & Shake, Dirty Dishes, Distoria

SUNDAY, May 29
Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Big Freedia, Coheed and Cambria, Against Me!, Shpongle presents The Shpongletron Experience, Neon Trees, The New Pornographers, State Radio, Dam-Funk, Dum Dum Girls, Man Man, Holy F••k, Portugal. The Man, Freelance Whales, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Daedelus, 12th Planet, Nosaj Thing, The Files & Fires, Toubab Krewe, Urban Sun, Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez, Fake Babies, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Hood Internet, The Backyard Committee, Cosmic Dust Bunnies, OConn, Super Nice Bros, Wry, Raina Mullen, Chalk Talk, Small Black, River City Extension, The Revivalists

Chilly Gonzales To Release The First Orchestral Rap Album

Chilly Gonzales has announced a new album, The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales,which will be the world's first orchestral rap album. A follow up to his last album Ivory Tower, which yielded piano-driven rap hits "The Grudge" and "Crying" the new release is a creative progression of sorts.

Arranged by Hollywood film composer Christopher Beck and influenced by Prokofiev, Morricone and Phillip Glass, The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales features plenty of old-school Hollywood swells, tympani rolls and French horns, as revealed by "The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales Medley." Take a listen to the track HERE.

The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales will be released digitally on June 7. 

New Music: Danger Mouse Daniele Luppi 'Rome'

Although Rome, a collaboration between producer Danger Mouse and Italian composer Daniele Luppi, isn't set to drop until next week, the entire album is streaming on NPR. The album also features collaborations with Norah Jones and Jack White. Listen HERE.

Jay-Z And Kanye West Switch Hotels To Finish 'Watch The Throne'

I guess the phrase "location, location, location" not only applies in business but in superstar collaborations. According to The New York Post, the duo has switched recording spots from the swanky Mercer Hotel to the equally upscale Tribeca Grand Hotel in Manhattan.

Much of Watch The Throne's recording process has taken place in makeshift studios around the globe, from the Mercer in NYC's Soho District to Paris. According to the New York Post's source, it looks like the two recognize it's crunch time. "They were laying down tons of tracks," a witness said. "It was intense -- no Beyoncé and no booze."

Tori Amos To Release Classical Music-Inspired Night Of The Hunter

Tori Amos' debut release for world-renowned classical music label Deutshe Grammophon Night Of The Hunter, may be one of her most ambitious yet, a modern song cycle inspired by select classical pieces spanning back 400 years.

Amos said of Night Of The Hunter, which she wrote and produced: "I have used the structure of a classical song cycle to tell an ongoing, modern story. The protagonist is a woman who finds herself in the dying embers of a relationship. In the course of one night she goes through an initiation of sorts that leads her to reinvent herself allowing the listener to follow her on a journey to explore complex musical and emotional subject matter."

She added,“One of the main themes explored on this album is the hunter and the hunted and how both exist within us.”


Amos will support the album, set for release in September, with a European and U.S. tour starting in Helsinki, Finland on September 28.

WATCH: Beyonce's New Video Teaser For "Run The World (Girls)"

Beyonce has released another visual morsel from her upcoming video epic "Run The World (Girls)" for fans to salivate over. Watch the short clip below. Another B-Day seems to be upon us.....

B.O.M.B. Fest Announces Local Lineup

The third annual B.O.M.B. Fest, set to take place later this month on May 28 and 29 in Hartford, CT, has announced its local artist lineup. Co-founder Frank Bombaci Sr. said shining the spotlight on budding stars is part of the mission of B.O.M.B. Fest.

"Live local music is a very focused part of the overall non-profit mission of Bring Our Music Back Inc!” Bombaci said. “There are amazing talented young musicians that need to be heard and we take pride in incorporating that mission into B.O.M.B. Fest.”

For more information about the festival, visit the official website. View the the full local talent lineup below.

Forget Paris • Heirlooms • The Frank Critelli Band • The Backyard Committee • The Guru • Fake Babies • The Manchurians • Raina Mullen • Midi & The Modern Dance • EULA • Wry • The Lobster Quadrille • OConn • Distoria • The Files and Fires • The Rebel Yell • The Goonies • Emjae • Chalk Talk • Cosmic Dust Bunnies • Ovlov • Urban Sun • Swear and Shake • sayWHAT? • Dirty Dishes

Soulive's Al Evans Unearths Crushed Velvet's Long Lost Movie Soundtrack

Soulive's Alan Evans stumbled upon a long-lost musical gem, the motion picture soundtrack to The Big One by Crushed Velvet and The Velveteers, when a family friend in Buffalo, NY  put him in touch with the movie's director Cleo McBride. One of NYC's premiere funk and soul bands of the late 60's and 70's, The Velveteers, led by vocalist and guitarist Crushed Velvet, were contacted by McBride, an old band mate, to record the soundtrack to the film.

A Shaft-meets James Bond style Blaxploitation flick originally set to be released in 1974, The Big One never got a chance to shine on the big screen, as the film was said to have been destroyed in a fire after it was finished. With no film to accompany the music, the soundtrack was shelved and the band broke up.Lost to obscurity, the album languished until Evans was called in to mix the original sessions and release the soundtrack through Soulive's record label Royal Family Records.

The Big One will be released as a free MP3 album download and on limited vinyl edition on May 24. View the track list and listen to the The Big One's "Main Theme" below. You can also watch a video of Alan Evans explaining the movie's history.

1. The Big One (Main Theme)
2. Thunderbird
3. Felecia's Love Theme
4. Detroit Slim
5. The Lay Down
6. Memphis Stomp
7. London Black (pts. 1,2,3)
8. Big Chase
9. The Big One (End Theme)

Vandaveer Drops "Dig Down Deep" Video, Kicks Off Spring Tour

Washington D.C.'s own Vandaveer have released a new video for their single "Dig Down Deep." Filmed in Long Island, NY in the freezing January cold with collaborators Pierre Dejon and Just Philippot, who also shot the band's previous clip for "The Nature Of Our Kind," the video follows the band on a trek towards the sea.

The brainchild of alt-folk musician Mark Charles Heidinger, Vandaveer features a revolving cast of musicians and singers, with vocalist Rose Guerin as the sole mainstay. The results of this musical melting pot can be heard on Dig Down Deep, the group's third album released late last month. Churning rhythms, piano and steady guitar provide a melodic backdrop for stories of war, loss and love.

Vandaveer is also in midst of an extensive U.S. tour, which kicked off yesterday in Boston. Watch the "Dig Down Deep" video and view the list of tour date below.




05/03: Boston, MA @ TT The Bears #
05/04: New York, NY @ Rockwood Music Hall #
05/05: New Hope, PA @ Triumph Brewery #
05/06: Brooklyn, NY @ The Rock Shop #
05/07: Pittsburgh, PA @ Brillobox #
05/10: Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern #
05/11: Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle #
05/12: Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop #
05/13: Newport, KY @ Parlour @ The Southgate House #
05/14: Lexington, KY @ Natasha's #
05/15: Louisville, KY @ Uncle Slaytons #
05/16: Nashville, TN @ The Basement #
05/17: Winston-Salem, NC @ Krankies # *
05/18: Roanoke, VA @ Kirk Ave Music Hall #
05/19: Richmond, VA @ Sound Of Music Studios #^
05/20: Charlottesville, VA @ Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar #
05/21: Washington, DC @ IOTA #
05/22: Baltimore, MD @ The Metro Gallery #

# w/ Ferraby Lionheart
* w/ Marcus Hodges
^ w/ The Low Branches

Digitalism To Headline U.S. HARD Tour This Summer

The summer of 2011 is shaping up to be a busy season for Digitalism. Along with the June 21 release of I Love You Dude, their first album in four years, the electro duo will also be headlining the HARD Summer Tour. The festival bill will include Caspa, Destructo, Jack Beats and Gesaffelstein.

This year marks the second year of the traveling music festival, which brings together electronic music's heavy hitters. The tour will hit fourteen markets across North America, including a stop in Toronto for the World Electronic Music Festival. For more information or to get tickets, visit www.hardfest.com. View the HARD tour dates below.

8/3 - SEATTLE, WA - Showbox
8/4 - PORTLAND, OR - Roseland
8/5 - SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Fox Theater
8/6 - LOS ANGELES, CA - Hard Fest
8/9 - DALLAS, TX - Granada
8/10 - AUSTIN, TX - Stubb's
8/12 - CHICAGO, IL – Congress Theater
8/13 - TORONTO, ON - World Electronic Music Festival
8/14 - MONTREAL, PQ - Metropolis
8/16 - BOSTON, MA - House of Blues
8/17 - BALTIMORE, MD - Bourbon Street
8/18 - WASHINGTON, DC - Fur Nightclub
8/19 - PHILADELPHIA, PA - Electric Factory
8/20 - NEW YORK, NY - Terminal 5

Atari Teenage Riot To Tour U.S.

Reunited cyberpunks Atari Teenage Riot will invading the U.S. again for a fall tour in support of their upcoming album Is This Hyperreal?, set to drop on June 7th. With harsh, digital atomic bombs like "Activiate" and the human-trafficking tale "Blood In My Eyes" the shows are sure to be anything but laidback affairs.

Get a taste of the band's hardcore style by clicking here, and view the list of tour dates below.

9/4 Seattle, WA, Bumbershoot Festival

9/9 Los Angeles, CA, The Keyclub
9/13 Fort Lauderdale, FL, Culture Room
9/15 Atlanta, GA, The Masquerade
9/17 Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
9/24 Pittsburgh, PA, Rex Theater
9/27 Detroit, MI, The Majestic Theatre
9/28 Chicago, IL, Reggies Rock Club

Architecture In Helsinki's "Contact High" Remixed By Javelin, Drop New Album

Modern pop masters Architecture In Helsinki's new album Moment Bends drops today. Recorded over two years at the band's Buckingham Palace, bandmember Cameron Bird says "Moment Bends was all about being at one with our ideas, obsessed with popular music and falling in love with our hometown. We wanted to build a record to get lost in. A record that always feels exactly what you are feeling."

To celebrate the new album, the band is sharing a remix of the track "Conact High." Reworked by Brooklyn-based cratediggers Javelin, the song becomes a sleek, lush piece of pop perfect for sunny, summertime drives. Architecture in Helsinki will be kicking off a U.S. tour in Los Angeles at the Henry Fonda Theater on June 1st. Listen to and download the "Contact High" remix and view the band's tour dates below.

Contact High-Javelin Remix by Javelin


06/01: Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theater
06/02: San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
06/03: San Francisco, CA @ Slims
06/04: Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
06/05: Vancouver, BC @ Venur
06/06: Seattle, WA @ Neumo's
06/09: Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater
06/10: Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
06/11: Toronto, ON @ Mod Club
06/12: Montreal, QC @ Le Tulipe
06/13: Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
06/15: Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
06/16: New York, NY @ Webster Hall
06/17: Washington, DC @ Black Cat
06/18: Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live

'The Big 4' To Come To NYC

East coast metalheads rejoice! The Big 4, otherwise known as Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth, have announced a New York date as part of their historic reunion concert, their second U.S. show after last month's gig in Indio, CA. The thrash legends will descend on Yankee Stadium on September 14. Tickets go on sale May 6 at Ticketmaster.

Modest Mouse Working With Big Boi On New Tracks

Indie rockers Modest Mouse are back in the studio working on new songs for their first album since 2007's We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, and having managed to wrangle Big Boi to collaborate on the new tracks, according to the rappers' Twitter account.

"Been camped out in the Lab with Modest Mouse all week, workin on the new mouse LP, coolest cats ever. Long Live The Funk," he tweeted. The rapper also tweeted that producer Chris Carmouche, who worked on Outkast's Speakerboxx/The Love Below is also in the studio.

While the band hasn't revealed when their album will be released they have teasing new material. Watch a performance of an untitled song on the online series Don't Move Here which documents the Portland music scene. The performance occurs at around the 7:56 mark.

Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, Neil Gaiman and Damien Kulash Write New Album In A Day

Giving new meaning to the phrase "in record time" Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman and Damien Kulash set out to write and record eight songs in eight hours Monday at Berklee College Of Music and release them 10 hours later during the Rethink Music program in Boston.

The marathon collaboration was broadcast live from the recording studio at rethink-music.com. The group  gave a presenation later that morning, followed by a private concert for conference registrants at the Berklee Performance Center.

The 8in8 album, appropriately titled Night Night, is currently available on Bandcamp.com. All proceeds from the first week of downloads will benefit Berklee City Music, which provides free music education to underprivileged teens. Listen to and download 8in8 track "One Tiny Thing" below.

One Tiny Thing by 8in8

Metallica To Make New Album With Rick Rubin

Metallica will be teaming up with producer Rick Rubin again for their next album, a follow up to 2008's Death Magnetic, according to bassist Robert Trujillo. In an interview with 93.7 KCLB Rocks! Radio Trujillo explained the group's relationship to Rubin, who they believe has a "zen guru spirit."

"Yeah, I love working with Rick. Rick, to me, he's sort of a Zen guru spirit that Metallica needs right now, he said. "Not to say that we need it, because we're getting along incredibly well, we're really excited to write some new music. There's no shortage of riffage in Metallica world right now. And I think it's only gonna get better."

Before heading back into the studio though, the band will playing a few more special shows. "The Big Four" dates with fellow thrash legends Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax will take place in Europe, South America and Southern Asia, and India.

Read the full story at Spinner.

Rival Schools Get Remixed By The Beastie Boys' Ad-Rock

Rival Schools must take the old adage 'better late than never' to heart. After a decade the group has finally released the follow up to their debut, with a new disc entitled Pedals. Since then things have seemed to kick into overdrive for the band, between playing sold  shows, including a  few European gigs with Trail Of Dead, and dropping videos for the tracks "Wring It Out" and "Shot After Shot."

The band has also enlisted the help of The Beastie Boys' Ad Rock for a remix of "69 Guns," which is more an entire deconstruction of the song than a remix. Rival Schools will also be performing at Lollapalooza and are kicking off a tour of the west coast in May. View the tour dates and listen to "69 Guns" below.

RIVAL SCHOOLS - 69 Gunz (Ad-Rock Remix) by Photo Finish Records

05/20:  Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction
05/21:  Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater
05/23:  San Jose, CA @ The Blank Club
05/24:  San Francisco, CA @ Slim's
05/26:  Portland, OR @ Peter's Room
05/27:  George, WA @ Sasquatch! Music Festival
08/05 – 08/07:  Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza

Holy Ghost! Premiere "Wait And See" Video

With their self-titled debut finally unleashed on the world and fresh off a tour with Cut Copy, Holy Ghost! are plowing ahead with a performance at Music Hall of Williamsburg this Friday, April 29, and also gearing up for a European tour before crossing back over the pond for some U.S. gigs. In the meantime the band has released a new video for the single "Wait And See."

Set in the duo's familiar NYC stomping grounds, they decided to include some very special guests for the clip. "For a long time Nick and I joked that our dads should take our press photos," Alex Frankel said. "At some point our go-to director, Ben Fries, came up with the idea of actually making a video with playing us and "Wait And See" seemed like the perfect song to do it for."

While both dads were a little nervous about their cameos, Frankel assured them they weren't butt of the joke. "My dad was appalled at the sizing options at American Apparel. But when we explained that the joke wasn't on them--that it was actually kind of making fun of us getting older and still living like teenagers--they were game. For the record they agree: We need to grow up."

Watch the video below.








Holy Ghost! - Wait & See from DFA Records on Vimeo.

Smashing Pumpkins Planning Reissues, Announce New Album

Looks like the The Smashing Pumpkins are taking a page out of Pearl Jam's book by reissuing their back catalogue over the next three years. According to Rolling Stone, the first wave of reissues will take place in the fall, and will include the band's debut Gish, their second album Siamese Dream and 1994's compilation Pisces Iscariot.

Although it's unclear what extra goodies will be included on each reissue, frontman Billy Corgan tweeted that he recently found tapes of the band's first performance of "Starla" as well as a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," so unreleased tracks may be on the menu.

The other round of reissues, which include 1995's Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness, five-disc rarities set The Aeroplane Flies High and 1998's Adore, will be released in 2012. But it's not all nostalgia, as The Smashing Pumpkins also plan to release a new album entitled Oceania, "an album within an album" as part of the group's ambitious 44-song Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. A new song "Owata" will be released for free online next week.

They Might Be Giants "Join Us" Tracks On iTunes, Live Dates Announced

Veteran rockers They Might Be Giants new album Join Us, created in the band's new private studio with long-time collaborator Patrick Dillet, a producer who's also work with Mary J. Blige, David Byrne and Tegan and Sara. Advance tracks from the album were released digitally today on iTunes through the "Complete My Album" program, while the full album will drop on July 19.

The advance offering includes pop songs like "Can't Keep Johnny Down," electronic ballad "Never Knew Love," and the folk pop jam "Old Pine Box." The band is also launching its first international tour in over a decade this fall, with shows in six countries and more than 50 cities in the U.S. While more details will be announced in a month, view of some of the dates below. You can also stream the advance tracks over at AOL Spinner.

5/29: Des Moines, IA @ Iowa State Fair Grounds
6/11: Toronto, ON @ Luminato Festival FREE CONCERT
7/15: London, UK @ Koko
7/16: Southwold, UK @ Latitude Festival
7/29: Brooklyn, NY @ Williamsburg Waterfront w/Eugene Mirman FREE CONCERT