TA Live! Ticket Alternative Blog

Check Out: Franz Nicolay Announces He's Leaving The Hold Steady; Playing Solo Show @ DC9, February 20

Franz Nicolay, who is embarking on a solo tour that has already been announced, wrote a message on his website about leaving The Hold Steady yesterday:

1/20/10

You should know: I've left The Hold Steady. I told the band I'd be leaving in early September, played my last show with them in Minneapolis around Thanksgiving, and dotted the t's and crossed the i's this week. Five years seemed like a nice round number. Thanks to everyone who was a part of the experience, especially the Unified Scene, who are nice folks. I'll see you all soon in any case.

In the meantime: My story collection Complicated Gardening Techniques is out next month, "Guignol & Mischief Brew Fighty Dirty" is out now, as is my EP "St. Sebastian of the Short Stage; and I'm producing a record from Brooklyn's The Debutante Hour. EDIT: And a Valentine's Day 7" release of the Comedian Harmonists-inspired acapella project "World/Inferno Presents: Vox Inferne."

Franz Nicolay plays DC9 February 20. Tickets are on sale at Ticket Alternative.

Hard Rock Cafe Nashville Signs on with Ticket Alternative!

We're very excited to welcome Hard Rock Cafe into our fold of rapidly-increasing venues! We've worked with Hard Rock Nashville a few times in the past, but are now officially their ticket outlet.

And they're just added some great new shows:

Darryl "DMC" McDaniels w/ Broken Frame & November Monday, December 28, 2009 - 8:00 PM Tickets are at Ticket Alternative.

An Evening with Bucky Covington Tuesday, December 29, 2009 - 8:00 PM Tickets are at Ticket Alternative.

Sweethearts of the Rodeo Wednesday, December 30, 2009 - 8:00 PM Tickets are at Ticket Alternative.

Leila's Three Picks of the Week - The Slackers, Nouvelle Vague, The Cribs

Another fabulous trio of videos, freshly picked by yours truly!

The Slackers lovely soulful and sweet version of ska keep the genre hip 'n' cool. And they're off on tour again, stopping at the Rock and Roll Hotel in Washington, D.C. on January 28. Get your tickets now at Ticket Alternative.

Sometimes your punk and new wave classics need a shot of smooth French bossa nova. That's where Nouvelle Vague come in. And lucky for you they're about to tour. They're planning a tour right now so watch this space for tickets!

ça plane pour moi, performed by Jenia Lubitch

Nouvelle Vague | MySpace Music Videos

The Cribs maybe be one of the coolest band in Yorkshire right now (Wakefield to be exact). We obviously like them (check out the review of their latest record, Ignore the Ignorant, over on Atlanta Music Guide), and are pretty happy that they're going to be playing Atlanta's EARL on January 20, with their latest member, a little-known chap called Johnny Marr. Tickets are on sale now at Ticket Alternative.

Since they don't seem to like people imbedding videos from the new record, here's an oldie but a goodie from the band's 2005 record, The New Fellas.

CANCELED: Laura Izibor @ The Loft, December 11

Due to health issues, Laura Izibor has had to cancel her tour through December, which includes her Atlanta date at The Loft on December 11. Tickets bought online or over the phone through Ticket Alternative are currently being refunded. If you purchased a ticket through an outlet please take it back to point of purchase.

The Frederick Brown, Jr. Amphitheater Switches from Ticketmaster to Ticket Alternative

We're excited to announce that Ticket Alternative has its first Ticketmaster venue in Georgia to switch over! Below is the press release from the venue:

***

"The Fred" has built its reputation through the years on small town values that have extended in part to providing superior customer service to a loyal and passionate customer base.  Being accessible and friendly is often cited by these customers as the reason the 2,500 seat venue is chosen over others to attend summer concerts under the stars.   

In 2005 the venue entered into a contract with Ticketmaster to provide ticketing services for the concert series that ran throughout the summer. The Fred has been utilizing this service through the box office and other outlets for the past four years. Some might say that this change adversely affected the home-town service once offered through the rustic box office nestled in the trees.   

In 2010 there will be a change. After examining several ticketing options and looking over numerous proposals, Atlanta based Ticket Alternative has been selected as the ticketing vendor of choice for The Fred.  

Snow Patrol - Just Say Yes (video)

Ahead of the release of their first 'Best Of' CD, Snow Patrol have released the video for their latest single Just Say Yes. The CD Up To Now is released on November 10th

More info available at www.SnowPatrol.com

Get Out of the Garage Music Contest

Converse and Journeys have a pretty cool contest going on right now that could see your band playing a 'festival in Austin' come March. Last year's winners, Flying Machines, signed to EMI Records. This March, they’ll play for thousands of fans at a music festival in Austin.

Enter your band before November 22nd at www.getoutofthegaragemusiccontest.com

Rock Band Comes to the iPhone

Looking for a little music this Monday? Well here it is! Rock Band is now available for the iPhone or iPod Touch for $9.99 from the app store. The initial download comes with 20 songs and additional songs/bundles are available to purchase. The game uses the same format. Just use your thumbs to strum the notes and shake the iPhone for extra points.

Official site: www.rockband.com/games/iphone

Download from iTunes


There are 4 ways to play, with a variety of levels. Multiplayer via Wi-Fi is also available.

Song List

    * 30 Seconds to Mars - “Attack”
    * AFI - “Girls Not Grey”
    * All American Rejects - “Move Along”
    * Beastie Boys - “Sabotage”
    * Blink 182 - “All the Small Things”
    * Blondie - “Hanging on the Telephone”
    * Foo Fighters - “Learn to Fly”
    * Foo Fighters - “Everlong”
    * George Thorogood and the Destroyers - “Bad to the Bone”
    * Jethro Tull - “Hymn 43”

    * Joan Jett - “Bad Reputation”
    * Lynyrd Skynyrd - “Simple Man”
    * Motörhead - “Ace of Spades”
    * Rise Against - “Give It All”
    * Silversun Pickups - “Lazy Eye”
    * Steve Miller Band - “Take the Money and Run”
    * The Pixies - “Debaser”
    * The Presidents of the United States of America - “Ladybug”
    * The Go Go’s - “We Got The Beat”
    * Smashing Pumpkins - “Cherub Rock”

Leila's Three Picks of the Week

Did you miss the feature last week? We had an office outing, complete with massive quantities of Mexican food, so had to cut the day short, which meant this poor little feature got cut. But now it's back and better than ever! Or, at least, hopefully just as good as it usually is.

Karen O & the Kids - Don't tell me you haven't heard the delightful song Karen O and various other uber-cool musicians have recorded for Where The Wild Things Are? Well then listen to "All Is Love" via the video at the top of the post and get your cheerful on.

The Whiskey Gentry - The Atlanta music scene was pretty bummed out when Missy Gossip and the Secret Keepers, a rockin' indie band with a hefty dose of tradional country, broke up just as they were getting started. For many of us, they could do no wrong. But thankfully, there's a new band that has risen out of those ashes to heal our hurt, and that band is The Whiskey Gentry. The band's debut EP was reviewed on our sister site Atlanta Music Guide, and we proclaimed it was "how music ought to be," with banjos, mandolins and fiddles filling out the group's country-fried curves nicely. They'll be playing The EARL on September 9 with Mike LaSage and the Stumbling Troubadours, and tickets are available at Ticket Alternative.

Slaraffenland - I've been keen on this hard-to-spell, impossible-to-pronounce Danish band since I saw them at SXSW. Over at Atlanta Music Guide, their debut record was reviewed to high praise, with a sound that we've never heard before yet is not in the beyond-bizarro category. It's glorious, soaring and deep with layer upon layer of vocals and looped sounds. Though it might be tough to categorize it sure ain't difficult to love, so even the most intimidated of music fans should check them out.

Leila's Three Picks of the Week

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.

CANCELED: The Charlatans @ Black Cat on October 3, The Loft on October 5

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.

Leila's Three Picks of the Week

The Aliens - Billy Jack Live from The Aliens on Vimeo.

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.

Help Save Paste Magazine!

A quick bit of disclosure regarding my (Leila, editor of TA Live) connection with Paste - I was an intern and writer there and am now married to Tim, the president of the company. So obviously this cause is going to be super-close to me. But even if it wasn't, in my humble opinion, Paste is pretty much the best music magazine in the country, if not the world, and we just can't afford to lose it. They seek out new artists as well as giving props to established ones, regardless of their cool status. Their writers take the time to really craft a story no matter what the subject, creating a piece work that could stand alone anywhere but is a part of something greater in this magazine.

 

The magazine, like so many other publications, while having a fantastic subscriber base and dedicated readers, has really been hurting from the downturn of the economy, and therefore the loss in many advertising dollars. Though the group has expanded in many great ways, the funds that used to be there are drying up. While this will only be a temporary situation, it is clear that Paste is in desperate need of some help to hold them over until things start to look up again.

 

Here's link to the campaign, in which Paste is asking for donations. In return, donators will get (in addition to the satisfying feeling of saving a great company) a ton of rare mp3s from some ace musicians:

 

Artists include The Decemberists, Neko Case, She & Him, Cowboy Junkies, Of Montreal, Indigo Girls, Jayhawks, String Cheese Incident, G. Love, Josh Rouse, The Hives, Matthew Sweet, The Avett Brothers, Joe Henry, John Roderick of The Long Winters, Over the Rhine, Bob Mould, Arrested Development, Brandi Carlile, John Doe, Josh Ritter, Marc Broussard and more. There is also a number of goodies (such as signed R.E.M. and Band of Horses posters, an ocean-view cabin on next year's Cayamo cruise, and more) to give to donors in random drawings.

 

Click http://www.pastemagazine.com/paste/the-campaign-to-save-paste.html for more info and to donate, and please, please, please post this, email this, tell everyone you know, and heck, even people you don't know. Stop folks in the street and tell them - you could make a friend.

Patrick Wolf and More For Nylon Summer Tour's Stop at Rock and Roll Hotel in DC

Nylon Magazine has just announced their second-annual summer music tour, with the innovative Patrick Wolf and Plastiscines (both on Nylon Records), along with Living Things and Jaguar Love.

Wolf will be releasing his latest record, The Bachelor, on iTunes June 2 and on CD August 11. It promises to be a more dramatic take on his usual songwriting, which will translate to a breathtaking live performance.

The tour will stop by Rock and Roll Hotel in Washington, DC on June 24. Tickets have just gone on sale on Ticket Alternative.

Sorted for Cheese and Wizz!

By Stephanie Roman

Either Jarvis Cocker has reached the seventh level of enlightened musical nirvana, or he's gone completely off his rocker. Pulp's ex-frontman is recently divorced and has a new album, Further Complications, due out May 19. Check out today's letter to Jarv's fans from the man himself. He's just announced either a well-timed publicity stunt or a genuine breakdown. Imagine Jarvis leading an aerobics class or joining a drum circle with local school kids. Cheesy or brilliant?

Jarvis is making an exhibition of himself!

Friends of Jarvis,

As we're sure some of you are already aware, the man is back, so is his
groove and he wants to share it with you. Hence, he's giving a series of
dance, music and aerobics classes for you all to enjoy live via the
Internets right now, or more specifically 12pm til 6pm Parisian time. If
you haven't logged on already, then we're sad to inform you of some of the
things you've missed; Jarvis managing a musically accompanied yoga class, a
beautiful belly dancer, performing hard rock with class of over excited 8
year olds and numerous jam sessions with an eclectic mix of locals fresh
off the street.