The Wooden Birds Premiere Tour Diary And Hit The Road

Tour diaries generally only interest die hard fans; the casual listener doesn’t necessarily care about what kind of pranks band members pull on each other or what their favorite food is. The Wooden Birds just released one of their own tour diaries to celebrate the beginning of the summer tour they kicked off in Phoenix, AZ on June 16th, but everyone can find something in it for themselves. Directed and narrated by front Andrew Kenny, this tour diary isn’t just a quick montage of random and silly video; it’s a story. And it’s told so well that Crawdaddy called Kenny “the indie rock Ira Glass.” Watch the video below:

But even better than just hearing about what tour life is like for The Wooden Birds would be to just catch them live supporting their album Two Matchsticks! Check the dates below to see if they’re coming near you in their summer-long trip around North America.

Here are their upcoming tour dates:

7/8 – Chicago, IL @ The Hideout (21+)
7/9 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Founders Brewery (21+)
7/10 – Toronto, ON @ The Drake (all ages)
7/11 – Montreal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo  (all ages)
7/12 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott (18+)
7/14 – New York, NY @ Mercury (21+)
7/15 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rock Shop (21+)
7/16 – Washington, DC @ DC9 (all ages)
7/17 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl (21+)
7/20 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk (all ages)

This Week in NYC Shows!

MONDAY

The Kooks, Smoke Signal @ The Bowery Ballroom

Jump Into The Gospel, Your 33 Black Angels, Hospitality (FREE SHOW) 
@ The Rock Shop

Golden Animals, Sky Picnic, Twin Killers @ Cameo Gallery

 

TUESDAY

Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players @ Bowery Electric

The Present, People Get Ready, Man Forever (Guitar Quintet) @ Union Pool

 

WEDNESDAY

Sloan, Hotkid @ Bowery Ballroom

Seefeel @ Brooklyn Bowl CANCELED

Greg Laswell, Elizabeth Ziman (of Elizabeth and The Catapult) @ City Winery

Hussle Club, Jump Into The Gospel, Fort Lean, The Stationary Set  (FREE)
@ Pianos

Matt & Kim, The Thermals, Autobot (from Flosstradomus) @ Terminal 5

 

THURSDAY

Sloan, Hotkid @ Knitting Factory

Sean Bones, New Moods, Keelay, Popular Music @ Cameo Gallery

ArpLine, Bad Girlfriend, Hard Nips, Huntronik @ Coco66

No Age, HEALTH, Cults, Ceremony @ House of Vans
RSVP HERE

I’m Turning Into, Clouder, Quiet Loudly, EULA, Little Racer @ Silent Barn

Josiah Wolf, First Nature, Prussia, ohnomoon @ The Rock Shop

 

FRIDAY

Ceremony, Veins, Give, Wet Witch @ Death by Audio

Memory Tapes, New Moods @ Mercury Lounge

Dinowalrus, Total Slacker, Soft Black, Life Size Maps
@ Monster Island Basement

Lower Dens, Dirty Beaches @ South Street Seaport

The Thermals, Big Troubles, EULA @ The Bell House

Jack White and Stephen Colbert Release Single

Jack White has apparently been trying to fill his idle time lately, especially since disbanding The White Stripes. For better or for worse, White teamed up with news funny man, Stephen Colbert to record and release a 7″ single. Called “Charlene II (I’m Over You)”, with backing band the Black Belles, it features the b-side “Charlene (I’m Right Behind You).” You can buy the single at itunes or Third Man Records, which White owns. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Listen below.

Weezer, My Morning Jacket, Andrew Bird and More Cover The Muppets

Reunited, and it feels so good...

What does Weezer, My Morning Jacket and Andrew Bird all have in common? Apparently The Muppets. The bands, along with others including OK Go, Sondre Lerche, Rachael Yamagata and more, will be featured on the upcoming Muppets tribute called Muppets: The Green Album. This coincides with the new Muppets movie coming out this fall, but the record will be out on August 23rd. Weezer teams up with Paramore’s Haley Williams to sing “The Rainbow Connection,” as OK Go takes over “The Muppet Show Theme.” Oh God let there be a music video for that. The tracklisting is below, in case you wanted to get all Gonzo about it.

Muppets: The Green Album

01 OK Go: “Muppet Show Theme”
02 Weezer and Paramore’s Hayley Williams: “Rainbow Connection”
03 The Fray: “Mahna Mahna”
04 Alkaline Trio: “Moving Right Along”
05 My Morning Jacket: “Our World”
06 Amy Lee: “Halfway Down the Stairs”
07 Sondre Lerche: “Mr. Bassman”
08 The Airborne Toxic Event: “Wishing Song”
09 Atreyu’s Brandon Saller and Good Charlotte’s Billy Martin: “Night Life”
10 Andrew Bird: “Bein’ Green”
11 Matt Nathanson: “I Hope That Something Better Comes Along”
12 Rachael Yamagata: “I’m Going to Go Back There Someday”

Brendan Benson Re-Releases “Lapalco”

When Brendan Benson released his sophomore album, Lapalco, in 2002, the album was met with a flood of critical praise. NPR called it “terrific,” Rolling Stone proclaimed it “as universal as the late night, semi-drunken answering machine message or the love note you never quite had the guts to send,” and The Onion said it was an “almost overwhelmingly assured sophomore effort.”

Now, nearly a decade later, Benson has decided to re-release the record via his website. Digital and Limited Edition Vinyl versions of the remastered Lapalco paired with bonus tracks are available at brendanbenson.com

In addition to overseeing the re-release of Lapalco, Benson is recording and self-producing his fifth full-length album at Nashville’s Welcome to 1979 studios. More on that as it comes.

Hunx and His Punx Take Their Act on the Road

Hunx and His Punx is like a modern gay Everly Brother with an entourage of three hot vixens singing raunchy doo-wop back up vocals. Whatever it is these punk darlings featuring Seth Bogart as Hunx, and four lovely ladies – or “punkettes – are doing comes together in a reckless display of playful lamentation. Their first album release, Too Young to be In Love offers 10 oldies style songs about heartbreak masked by the freedom of youth. The music and their stage antics as seen in the video for “Bad Boy” begs for a sweaty house show or a dingy dive bar small enough so as to gyrate on your neighbor. There’s a chance to do just that at one of the shows listed below, so go, dance, and find an angsty Johnny Angel of your very own.

05/13 San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore !

06/22 Seattle, WA Crocodile $

06/24 – 06/25 Calgary, AB – Sled Island

06/27 Vancouver, BC – Waldorf Cabaret $*

06/28 Portland, OR – Doug Fir $

! = w/ Of Montreal

$ = w/ Shannon and the Clams

* = w/ Sonny and the Sunsets