Continuing in the thread of bands that my band played with two or three years ago, Deerhoof have announced their October tour. If you jock Asian shorties and you miss their show you are BOWING IT.

10-03 Los Angeles - Avalon *
10-04 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
10-06 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom ^!
10-07 Seattle, WA - Neumo’s ^!
10-09 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge ^!
10-11 Denver, CO - Bluebird ^!
10-13 Omaha, NE - The Slowdown ^%
10-14 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue ^%
10-15 Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall ^%
10-16 Bloomington, IN - Buskirk Chumley Theater ^%
10-17 Chicago, IL - Metro ^#
10-18 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom ^#
10-21 New York, NY- Spiegeltent
10-22 New York, NY - Irving Plaza ^#
10-23 Cambridge, MA - Middle East ^#
10-24 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street ^#
10-25 Philadelphia, PA - Starlight Ballroom ^#
10-26 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ^#
10-28 Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle ^#
10-29 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle ^#
10-30 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge ^#
10-31 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club ^#
11-01 Orlando, FL - The Social ^#
11-02 Tampa, FL - Crowbar ^#
11-05 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues ^#
11-06 Houston, TX - Numbers ^#
11-07 Dallas, TX - Granada ^@
11-08 Austin, TX - Fun Fun Fun Fest
11-10 El Paso, TX - Club 101 ^+
11-12 Tucson, AZ - Club Congress ^+
11-13 Tempe, AZ - The Clubhouse ^+
* with Okay, Happy Hollows
^ with Experimental Dental School
! with Coconut
% with Au
# with Flying
@ with Hawnay Troof
+ with KIT
Deerhoof will also be performing on August 31 in Vancouver, BC at Stanley Park Singing Exhibition at The Malkin Bowl along with The Evaporators, Andrew Bird, Destroyer, Neko Case and others.

Love Andrew Bird. Great songwriter, lyricist and arranger, and the only name whistler in modern rock. He’s going on tour and utilizing (some) biodiesel to get him and his crew around. Using Biodiesel is great and all, but what’s this about “select dates?”

C’mon hippie, get with t.

Continuing his eco-friendly efforts, Chicago native Andrew Bird will hit the road aboard a bio-diesel tour bus for select dates in the US
and Canada this fall, including appearances at the Austin City Limits Festival and Bumbershoot.

Earlier in May, a concert at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC was webcast by NPR and is available for download here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10213407

On August 16th, the music video for “Imitosis” will debut on Andrew’s Myspace page for one week. Filmed in Seattle by noted short film director Britta Johnson, this video features Andrew and his band, Martin Dosh and Jeremy Ylvisaker, performing in a part science-film, part dream-world drawing from the palettes and photographic style of science books from the late 1960s.

Be sure to watch tomorrow!
http://www.myspace.com/andrewbird

tour dates after the jump. (more…)

I’ve been listening to Jesu since December of 2005 when I received their self-titled debut. It took me little time to figure out that Jesu is fronted by Justin Broadrick, the main guy from Godflesh, who won me over during my dreary days as a college disc jockey.

I finally saw Jesu live for the first time during SXSW 2007. Coincidentally, it was their first time visiting the states because visa issues had defeated them prior (Justin writes extensively about it in his blog).

I know music journalists are supposed to keep their cool, sitting off to the side of the stage, arms folded in front of them, stern look of concentration on their faces. But I’ve always thought that forced stoicism was absolute bullshit. So there I was front and center, hair in slow-motion headbang, arms outstretched, fully rocking. To hell with the non-believers, this was what I came to Austin for.

People ask me what my favorite part of SXSW 2007 was. I’ll answer “Jesu.” (That is, when I am not answering “The Mountain Goats” or “Melvins with Big Business” or “Andrew Bird” or “Robyn Hitchcock with Peter Buck” or whatever pops into mind as being above awesome.)

I wrote a long-winded history of Justin K. Broadrick and Jesu, complete with purple prose, mixed metaphors and a reference to Shiva . Read it after the jump if you like.

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