Beastie Boy MCA Diagnosed wih Cancer

Some sad news. Waiting in our inbox this morning was an email from the Beastie Boys titled "Houston We Have a Problem". Through a video message to fans, B-Boy MCA, aka Adam Yauch and bandmate Ad-Rock, aka Adam Horovitz broke the news that MCA has a tumor in his parotid (salivary) gland.

The good news is that it is treatable, and MCA will be undergoing a surgical procedure and radiation treatment to kill the cancer. The other bad news is the Beastie Boys have cancelled all touring commitments for the summer and have pushed back the release date of their upcoming album Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 to a later date.

Albums and tours can wait. We wish MCA and his family a speedy recovery. Get well and rock well.

Outside Lands Announces Initial Festival Lineup

Nice diverse lineup for the festival in Golden Gate Park, August 28-30th. So who has $300 to blow on tickets?

Outside Lands Festival

Pearl Jam
Dave Matthews Band
Beastie Boys
Incubus
Black Eyed Peas
M.I.A
Jason Mraz
Ween
The Mars Volta
Thievery Corporation
Modest Mouse
Band of Horses
TV on the Radio
Dead Weather
Atmosphere
Tom Jones
Silversun Pickups
The National
Q-Tip
Brett Dennen
Built To Spill
Mastodon
Raphael Saadiq
Calexico
Os Mutantes
Midnite
JJ Grey

Mofro
Kinky
Deerhunter
Lila Downs
Trombone Shorty

Orleans Avenue
The Dodos
Bettye LaVette
Dengue Fever
Heartless Bastards
The Dirtbombs
Lenka
Akron/Family
John Vanderslice
Matt and Kim
Portugal. The Man
The Morning Benders
The Duke Spirit
Zee Avi
Blind Pilot
SambaDa
Ryan Bingham
West Indian Girl
Extra Golden

Music News

Finally, some music news worth reporting....











Sonic Youth are in the final stages of finishing the recording of their new album, tentatively titled The Eternal. This will be Sonic Youth's first album since 2006's Rather Ripped. It is also the first album the band will record for Matador Records. The new album is due sometime in June 09.













Vetiver has posted the album cover artwork and tracklisting on its website for the band's forthcoming album Tight Knit. The album is the first recorded for Sub Pop records. If you pre-order the album through Sub Pop, you can stream the album in its entirety ahead of the February 17th drop date.

Tracklist:
1. Rolling Sea
2. Sister
3. Everyday
4. Through the Front Door
5. Down from Above
6. On the Other Side
7. More of This
8. Another Reason to Go
9. Strictly Rule
10. At Forest Edge












The Cold War Kids have announced a Spring tour to continue promoting last year's Loyalty to Loyalty album. After playing the Conan O'Brien show and the Mercury Lounge in NYC on January 28th, the band embarks on the following tour dates in March and April. Expect more dates to be announced based on the gaps in the schedule:

Jan 28th - Mercury Lounge, NYC/Conan O'Brien Show
Mar 7th - Langerado Festival, Miami, FL
Mar 26th - 4th & B, San Diego, CA
Mar 27th - Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Apr 2nd - Wilbur Theatre, Boston MA
Apr 3rd - Terminal 5, New York, NY
Apr 4th - Water St Music Hall, Rochester, NY
Apr 20th - Gothic Theatre, Denver, CO
Apr 21st - Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC
Apr 22nd - The Showbox, Seattle WA
Apr 23rd - Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
Apr 28th - The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA











With 2009 being the band's 20 year anniversary, Pavement guitarist Scott Kannberg revealed the band is mulling reforming to play this year's Coachella festival in Indio, CA. and maybe even mount a full scale reunion tour.

Kannberg told the following to music tabloid Loud and Quiet:
"I don't see why not, you know, it could be a fun thing to do, go and play your favourite songs every night...Everything's fine now [between the band members]."













Finally, in the damn-this-makes-me-feel-fucking-old department, the Beastie Boys have announced on their website that their seminal 1989 album, Paul's Boutique is getting the 20th anniversary reissue treatment. Aside from a sonic upgrade, what the reissue version of the album will include as bonus material is unknown, but to have a sonically scrubbed version of "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" or "Eggman" sounds pretty damn cool to this aging music freak.

Calmer Than You Are

Wow. What a week. As we collectively watch the National economy eat itself into non-existence and the Presidential elections take a late-inning nasty turn into racial mud-slinging and excessive non-truths, it's good to know there music out there to elevate our minds and spirits to a better place.

Some music news:

According to Billboard.com, the Beastie Boys are planning a series of shows to encourage fans to get and vote. Ben Harper, Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow, David Crosby & Graham Nash and Jack Johnson will help fans fall asleep, err I mean energize people to make the trip to their local polling stations in November.

Check www.beastieboys.com for details of the tour.



My Morning Jacket lead man Jim James took a nasty spill during the band's concert at the University of Iowa. According to various reports on the web, James' went to lean on a stage monitor with his foot while rocking out and ended up stepping right off the front of the stage and hitting his noggin pretty hard. The injury forced the band to cancel the rest of the show and postpone a series of dates including shows in Chicago and a Jim James acoustic show at a Barack Obama event as well. Rest up and get better Jim!




Noel Gallagher thwarts fans of iTunes. Alway's a goldmine for quotes, Gallagher recently spoke to XFM radio and discussed his disdain for the modern youth's penchant for cherry picking a few tunes off a new album and not listening to the album as a whole.

"I think it's the first album we've ever made where we're consciously not hanging a collection of songs around three songs, which is what seems to happen these days." Gallagher says. "That's why all the songs fade into each other and there's sound effects that join them all together. It was a conscious effort to say to people 'Well, if you're going to cherry pick songs off iTunes, you can have a few seconds either side of what you're missing. It's a real album - 'Get Off Your High Horse' or 'Falling Down' don't make sense if you haven't heard the rest of the record....The new technology's a great thing, but the 'album' had died a little bit. The reason people only want three songs off an album is 'cos most albums are shite."

Well said Noel.

Lastly, here's Ryan Adams & the Cardinals performing "Cobwebs" off their upcoming album Cardinology in Boston, MA last month. Rock.