I might have a few cents to throw in about Atmosphere, the time I interviewed Slug, the state of independent hip-hop and other topics, but seeing as how I have an article due for Jake for the Synthesis weekly…here’s the part where I copy and paste an entire press release.

ATMOSPHERE TO PAINT THE NATION ON FALL TOUR
Atmosphere’s Fall tour embarks on September 10th in the US.

Atmosphere are ready to “Paint The Nation” and will do so by playing over 50 shows across the US this Fall in support of their new album, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold. The trek kicks off September 10th in Fargo, ND and includes festival dates including Monolifth in Denver, Street Scene in San Diego, Edge Fest in Phoenix and KFMA Fall Ball in Tucson. The full lineup of the “Paint The Nation” Tour is Atmosphere featuring special guests Abstract Rude, Blueprint and DJ Rare Groove. The first leg of the tour is below and the second leg will be announced next week.

Atmosphere killed it on the Late Show with David Letterman this past Wednesday night, check out the performance of “You” featuring backup vocals from P.O.S. here:

Atmosphere's sixth studio album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold debuted at #5 on the Top Billboard Top 200 in April and has now scanned almost 120,000 units and is the fastest selling Atmosphere record to date. Atmosphere was MTV's 52/52 "Artist Of The Week." back in May (you can watch clips on Atmosphere's MySpace). Atmosphere headlined the first ever Soundset Festival in Minneapolis this past May that featured the very best in independent Hip Hop. Soundset sold over 12,000 tickets. The first single off the album, "You" is getting heavy airplay across the country and is currently climbing the Alternative charts thanks to rotations at KROQ/LA, INDIE 103/LA, 91X/San Diego, KNDD/Seattle, KVGS/Las Vegas, KITS/San Francisco, KEDJ/Phoenix, KROX/Austin, KWOD/Sacramento, KCCQ/Des Moins, KFMA/Tucson, WLUM/Milwaukee, Sirius, XM and Music Choice among others. Look for the music video for "You" to hit in the beginning of September. Atmosphere has now performed "You" on Conan, Letterman and is booked for Jimmy Kimmel's outdoor stage on Wednesday, September 24th.

"As a front-man, the charismatic Slug has matured into one of hip-hop's best performers." LA Times

First Leg of the "PAINT THE NATION" Tour Ft. Atmosphere & Special Guests Abstract Rude, Blueprint and DJ Rare Groove
**Bold are festival dates w/just Atmosphere
Wednesday 10-Sep-08 Fargo, ND The Venue
Thursday 11-Sep-08 Sioux Falls, SD Sioux Empire Expo Center
Friday 12-Sep-08 Omaha, NE Slowdown
Saturday 13-Sep-08 Denver, CO Monolifth
Monday 15-Sep-08 Boise, ID Knitting Factory
Tuesday 16-Sep-08 Missoula, MT Wilma Theater
Thursday 18-Sep-08 Eugene, OR McDonald Theater
Friday 19-Sep-08 Sacramento, CA Empire
Saturday 20-Sep-08 San Diego, CA Street Scene
Sunday 21-Sep-08 Bakersfield, CA the Dome
Monday 22-Sep-08 Santa Cruz, CA Catalyst
Thursday 25-Sep-08 Los Angeles, CA Wiltern
Friday 26-Sep-08 Las Vegas, NV HOB
Saturday 27-Sep-08 Phoenix, AZ Edge Fest
Sunday 28-Sep-08 Tucson, AZ KFMA Fall Ball
Tuesday 30-Sep-08 Houston, TX Warehouse Live
Wednesday 1-Oct-08 New Orleans, LA Tipitina's
Friday 3-Oct-08 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Revolution
Saturday 4-Oct-08 Orlando, FL Firestone
Monday 6-Oct-08 Atlanta, GA Masquerade
Tuesday 7-Oct-08 Ashville, NC Orange Peel
Wednesday 8-Oct-08 Richmond, VA Toads Place
Friday 10-Oct-08 Baltimore Ram's Head
Saturday 11-Oct-08 New Haven, CT Toad's Place

MySpace: www.myspace.com/atmosphere
Label: www.rhymesayers.com

Edging out Austin, TX bands I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness and …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Springfield, Missouri quartet Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin has emerged as this year’s winner of SXSW’s most ridiculous AND uncomfortably long band name. Destined to never fit onto a venue’s marquee (at least without using “5″s as “S”s), or become a catchy acronym (SSLYBY…nope, I got nothing. But I guess you can spell their acronym in a calculator: 551484. SWEET HUH.), the band is slugging it out, confounding bloggers with their vaguely political name and early ’90s college rock throwback sound. But if you’re like me and never got over In The Aeroplane Over the Sea and still light up at the mention of Archers of Loaf, then your hornrimmed glasses will fog up with delight/mouthbreathing.

Here’s a good SSLYBY/551484 sampler:

There, and now you love them.
Still, I’d rather listen to NPR’s David Sedaris yammer on about pissing into a cup. God that’s depressing.

Tour dates (shamelessly lifted from Filer’s site) after the jump. (more…)

Not being much of a TV watcher, and having no cable access, I must admit that the writer’s strike hasn’t really affected me. Still, I had to see what John Stewart and Steven Colbert had to say about the ordeal of them crossing the picket lines and returning to the air waves, sans writing staff. Seeing as I have no cable, I of course checked out the comedy central web site. This simple action cuts right down to what the strike is about. I watched their content, Comedy Central made their money by advertising a credit card, a new movie and a new [adult swim] video game , and the writers believe (justly, in my opinion) that they deserve a cut for their work on the content that I watched. As of 10:40 AM PST, the first clip from Jon Stewart’s temporarily retitled A Daily Show has accrued 64,496 views (and is currently growing at roughly 100 hits a minute).

Meanwhile, Daily Show writer (and Chico expat) Jason Ross’s YouTube video, which tells their side of the story (in a very Daily Show manner) has garnered over 500,000 hits. Check it out. Make Google some money.

Also, get a load of Letterman’s hippy beard. He’s growing it in support of the striking writers (while his own company has struck an independent deal with the Writers Guild of America).