The tribute to Michael Jackson, with appearances by Phonte (Foreign Exchange
+ Little Brother), Angela Johnson, Silver Logan Sharp (Chic & Kid
Rock), & Ayanna Gregory, at Washingon D.C.'s Rock and Roll Hotel, has been canceled. No word yet on whether or not the party will be rescheduled.
The concert will be replaced with Remember the Time ('80s Retro + MJ Birthday Dance party, presented by MN8): "DJ Rockactivo plays the very best of Michael Jackson in the main room for a non-stop sweaty tribute to the king of pop!" It'll be a free dance party for all!
Just announced: there has been a time change for the Jack Penate/Miike Snow show coming up at Rock and Roll Hotel in Washington, D.C. on September 18. The show will now start at 10 p.m. instead of 9.30 p.m., as previously stated. Doors will open at 9 p.m. You can still buy tickets at Ticket Alternative.
We're giving some tickets away via our DC Twitter (DC_Concerts) for a couple of upcoming shows at Washington D.C.'s Rock and Roll Hotel. Right now there is still a chance for you to win tickets for Mother Mother on August 29 and Throw Me The Statue on September 4. Simply follow us on Twitter to get the details on this and other competitions.
Hello campers! It's been a pretty crazy week over here at the Ticket Alternative offices - and summer is supposed to be our downtime! Guess all those ticket orders didn't get the memo. Not that we're complaining...
Anyway, onwards and upwards to my three picks of the week, most of which have to do with some pretty awesome concert announcements.
The Selmanaires - Always nice to start with some local boys, this Atlanta band manages to stride multitudes of genres, from post punk to world beats to esoteric jazz, while still keeping their sound hip and sharp. They're touring with Broadcast and Atlas Sound, who will be stopping in D.C. and Atlanta (tickets at Ticket Alternative now).
Heavy Trash - We all need some good, solid, raw rock 'n' rawl every once in a while, and Heavy Trash - made up of Jon Spencer (of Blues Explosion fame) and Matt Verta-Ray (Madder Rose and Speedball Baby) - deliver in spades. They'll be at The EARL in Atlanta on November 19 (tickets at Ticket Alternative).
ChipMunk - And lastly, a little taste of what's been on the buds of folks overseas in the Mother Country. ChipMunk is that perfect summer blend that Lily Allen also serves up - cheeky, charming and cheerful. There's a lil' bit of ska here, a good dash of hip-hop there, and a fab stock of solid pop cool to hold it all together. The kid's only just got his A Level results (yesterday in fact) and he's got a record deal and a hit record. And he was still fretting over his grades! Good lad we say - study hard, kids! Check out his video for the new single, "Diamond Rings," above.
It is with a heavy heart that we must announce the cancellation of The Charlatans' entire American tour, which includes their stop in Atlanta on October 5 for a show at The Loft and their Washington D.C. show at Black Cat on October 3. Tickets are currently being refunded.
The band announced the news when they discovered that their drummer Jon Brookes was going to need surgery to repair severe damage done to his shoulder. No word yet on whether on not the gigs will be rescheduled.
What do The Fiery Furnaces play on I'm Going
Away? They play a lot that you've heard on their previous albums, but
dulled, continuing the progression towards a more accessible, less challenging,
sound that they began with Bitter Tea in 2006.
Within minutes, you're reintroduced to all The Fiery Furnaces elements you've
heard over these last nine years: Eleanor Friedberger's distinctive voice,
lyrics which are structurally (short, repeated statements) and thematically
(loss, a certain mocking anger) similar to previous albums, and a tendency
towards escalating, looping, frantic musical breakdown. Pick any track at
random from I'm Going Away, and you'll recognize it as a Fiery Furnaces
song. Even with these similarities, Eleanor Friedberger and Matthew Friedberger
have made a definite effort in I'm Going Away to surprise first time listeners
and long time fans.
Anyone over the age of 30 knows Colin Hay. He was the guy with the lazy eye fronting the reggae influenced pop band Men at Work, who invaded America from Australia with songs such as “Who Can It Be Now?” and “Down Under,” and had us wondering what vegemite tasted like.
Hay (a native Scot) has quietly been carving out a little niche for himself in the singer/songwriter vein for the last 10 years or so. His music has shown up in the soundtrack to Garden State, and his songs, and face, frequently appear on "Scrubs." His last CD, Are You Lookin' at Me?, provided the same wit and playful tone that played such a vital role in his best Men at Work material, yet toned down and slightly more mature. It was quite possibly the greatest overlooked CD of 2007.
The White Rabbits must be exhausted. After extensive
touring with the likes of Spoon, The Walkmen and Tokyo Police Club, and
festival stops at Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Sasquatch, and signing with TBD
Records (U.S. home to Radiohead, Other Lives and Hatcham Social) the Brooklyn based
six-piece returned to their makeshift basement studio to record their second
full-length album, It’s Frightening. And if there is anything in a name,
it is frightening what a little life on the road will do to the quality of music
from a new band. Though some of It’s Frightening’s brilliance must be
accredited to producer Britt Daniel (of Spoon), whose unique melodies
heavily influence this beat driven album, the kaleidoscope of sounds blend
brilliantly into an interesting auditory experience.
It has been a decade since Sister Hazel was “happy,
happy;” from divorce, to birth and death, every member of the band seems to have
dealt with some sort of personal tragedy in the past few years. This turmoil
provided plenty to write about for their seventh studio album in which each
member of the band contributed at least two original songs for the album. What
is left is an Americana quilt, filled with dusty patches of five weathered
musicians who have stuck together, but missed the boat on trend-setting
music.
Australian songwriter (and son of famed Crowded House singer Neil Finn) Liam Finn is going to be joined by Eliza Jane for a show on November 3. Tickets are available at Ticket Alternative.
Pete Silberman’s warbling voice exposes a beautiful but
deep-rooted anger throughout Hospice,
the breakthrough full-length from Brooklyn’s The Antlers. After a wildly successful self-release earlier in
the year, the record is getting a proper reissue August 18 via Frenchkiss
records, home of other heavyweights like Les Savy Fav, Passion Pit, The Hold
Steady and The Dodos.
It’ll give a wider audience the chance to experience the
band’s exploration of the idea of having an abusive loved one in hospice
care — of having to be kind at the end of their life, but being beaten down
emotionally by them all the same. Silberman speaks of screaming and cursing and
apologizing, of fictions, of pushing someone to wake them up, very literally of
hospitals (“Epilogue”). His voice cracks with intensity from whispering in a
lower register into tortured, strained falsetto at various points;
instrumentation ranges from simple four-chord acoustic guitar to huge, piano-driven
anthems to electronic ambient swaths that shimmer against each other, all
dissonant and pretty.
On Saturday, August 15th Ticket Alternative UK Ltd launched a brand new website to allow customers order Tyvek event wristbands online. The website www.UKEventwristbands.com went live to support the growing demand for the company's latest product Tyvek® event wristbands.
"So many of our clients were requesting wristbands along with their printed tickets, that it was an obvious move for us" commented company president Iain Bluett. "We started selling them from our main site in the UK www.ticketalternative.co.uk, but the demand was so great that we knew we needed a seperate website just to be able to list all the different colors, styles and patterns."
The wristbands are sold in multiples of 250 for only £12.48 plus shipping. As ever, as long as you place your order by 3pm GMT your wristbands will ship the same day.
Oh dear. It seems this feature has been seriously neglected. But never again, I swear! So without further ado, let's get to what's been kicking around my iTunes this week (or, actually, for the past few weeks).
Drummer - though the band is made up an array of different (you guessed it) drummers from bands like Black Keys, Teeth of the Hydra, Party of Helicopters, Beaten Awake, Houseguest and Six Parts Seven, the drums are just awesome enough to feature but not overshadow the record. Fuzzy guitars and college rock melodies make the band's debut album Feel Good Together a must-listen this year. The band is about to embark on their first tour and will be playing The EARL in Atlanta on October 16. Tickets are available at Ticket Alternative.
The Aliens - the relatively-new project from members of the oft-overlooked Beta Band might have only been making a noise on the most underground of levels so far, but when their quirky mix of psychedelia, garage rock and elecro fuzz hits the American shores on October 20 in the form of their LP Luna, you can be sure every hipster will be grabbing a copy for a good old freak out. Check out their video for the live version of "Billy Jack" above.
Cage The Elephant - I've gushed about this band in my SXSW posts way back in March, and the band's self-titled debut has also received praise on our sister blog Atlanta Music Guide; now it looks like their down-and-dirty mix of "bluesy Delta rock, American grunge and early Britpop" is taking over the rest of the country. They're touring with Silversun Pickups and Manchester Orchestra in a triple-threat-indie-rock-out fashion, and will be hitting Little Rock's Revolution Music Room on September 25 and Johnson City's Electric Cowboy September 29. Tickets are on sale now at Ticket Alternative.
We've just been told that the Kirk Franklin event at Birmingham's Cathedral of the Cross on August 21 has been canceled. No word on whether or not the event will be rescheduled. Refunds are currently being issued.
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