Kings of Leon are going on tour. I only listened to that one song that was in that one commercial, but I imagine they’re pretty good on tour. Their new album is called Only By The Night, comes out September 23rd at their first kickoff gig. Sex On Fire will be their eyebrow-raising single. Here’s their dates if you’re hella into them:

September
23 New York, NY Webster Hall w/The Whigs
October (w/The Stills and We Are Scientists)
11 Las Vegas, NV The Joint
12 San Diego, CA House of Blues
15 Los Angeles, CA Nokia Theatre
17 and 18 San Francisco, CA Warfield Theatre
20 Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre
21 Portland, OR Schnitzer Hall
23 Denver, CO The Fillmore Auditorium
25 Austin, TX Austin Music Hall
26 Oklahoma City, OK Bricktown Events Center
28 Houston, TX Verizon Wireless Theater
29 Dallas, TX Palladium Ballroom
31 Chicago, IL Aragon Ballroom
November (w/The Whigs and We Are Scientists)
1 Minneapolis, MN Orpheum Theatre
3 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
5 Milwaukee, WI The Eagles Ballroom
7 Toronto, ONT Kool Haus
8 Detroit, MI The Fillmore
10 Washington, DC DAR Constitution Hall
12 Boston, MA Orpheum Theatre
15 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory Ballroom
18 Atlanta, GA The Tabernacle
19 Nashville, TN Nashville Municipal Auditorium

When it was announced that they were ceasing to publish No Depression magazine, who far and away featured the best coverage of Americana, indie-folk and alt-country, I’d like to think I knew how the publishers felt. Rug pulled out from under you anyone? So with no small amount of joy I’m happy to pass along the good news that NoDepression.com is getting a shot in the arm come this September.

Plans for a major overhaul of NoDepression.com — the website of the former bimonthly alternative/roots-music magazine No Depression — are well under way this summer, with the new site set to be launched in late September.
NoDepression.com, which will be edited by the magazine’s founding co-editor Peter Blackstock, will include regular blogs by many of the magazine’s most frequent contributors, including Blackstock and fellow founding co-editor Grant Alden. The new site will also include record reviews and live reviews, features on emerging artists, news updates, the current website’s popular upcoming-releases list, reader-participant discussion forums — and, perhaps most significantly, a vast and cross-referenced archive featuring almost all the content from No Depression magazine’s 75 issues published from 1995 to 2008.
In preparation for the September relaunch, the website is promoting the No Depression Founders Circle, a way for fans and supporters of the magazine to assist with its continued presence on the internet. In addition, those who sign up for the website’s mailing list at NoDepression.com will be eligible to win an Epiphone DR-100 Vintage Sunburst acoustic guitar which has been provided by Epiphone.

(more…)

Contrary to my dream last night, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was not recently fired from her position for not disclosing that she was, indeed, a Hermaphrodite. One thing’s for certain: I really should stop listening to BBC World Service while I’m trying to fall asleep. The Aqua Teen Hunger Force episodes probably didn’t help either. I mean, really, when do they?

The weird dream prompted me to look up Condi on google news this morning. After attempting the key words “Condoleezza Rice Hermaphrodite,” which luckily found no results, I stumbled upon an article from ABC News about Condi’s former life as an aspiring pianist.

From ABC:

As a 17-year-old sophomore at the University of Denver, Rice was a music major with big dreams, who had started learning to play the piano from her grandmother at the age of three.

“I could read music before I could read. And I was absolutely certain that I was going to end up playing at Carnegie Hall,” Rice said onstage prior to her performance on Saturday.

Her first appearance at the Aspen Music Festival, however, quickly changed a young Condoleezza Rice’s mind.

“After listening to some of the 11- and 12-year-olds play, who could play from sight everything it had taken me all year to learn, I thought, ‘you know, you’re going to end up playing at Nordstrom or a piano bar, but not Carnegie Hall,’” she said.

Imagine the world that could have been. Actually, there’s probably no difference as Bush would have just appointed some other tool into a high position, but it does give me a giggle thinking of Condi hammering away at Nordstrom or some bullshit.

PLAY SOME SKYNNARD!!! WHOO!!!

Last time we checked in with the elusive Ronnie Radke, Tiger Beat cover boy and former frontman for shithead rock band Escape the Fate, he was on the lamb, wanted for Battery in connection with an altercation that claimed the life of 18-year old Michael Cook. However, it seems Mr. Radke could only escape his fate for so long, and today he was sentenced to four years in jail. Somewhere, a fat teenage girl’s make-up is running down her face…

If you haven’t realized, we have a tab on our page entitled ‘Sweeps‘.  Roll on over to check out some of the free stuff we’re giving away.  We’ve got hot shwag from Shwayze, CSNY, Sick of Sarah, Def Leppard, Atmosphere, a bajillion graphic designers… really, the list is huge.  This stuff is laying in a giant, well kept mound on Ms. Nickel’s desk, and she’s fed up with it.  Go check it out, sign up and win!

Video Matt keeps cranking out the vids, so here’s another segment of Kotton Mouth Kings‘ set from their Strange Noise Tour ever.  The filming is so high quality you can almost smell the massive quantity of blunts being passed around.