Queens Of The Stone Age will commemorate the upcoming reissue of its self-titled debut album with a limited series of intimate shows at which the band will play the record in its entirety, plus B-sides and other rarities and hits from the early Queens catalogue up to the present.

The tour, which kicks off  March 16 in Austin TX and concludes April 12 in Los Angeles. celebrates the expanded, remastered re-release of the 1998 classic on Queens’ Joshua Homme’s own Rekords Rekords label. The album will be the first released via a worldwide alliance between Rekords Rekords and Domino Records to market, promote and distribute selected titles from their catalogue.

Tickets for the tour will begin going on sale  February 18. Customers purchasing tickets will have an opportunity to pre-order the CD or LP, and if they choose to do so will receive an instant digital download of the album, directly from Rekords Rekords/Domino–nearly a month before its commercial release.

The record will be released commercially in March at a date yet to be determined.

The genesis of Queens Of The Stone Age-the band and this first album-goes back to the 1995 dissolution of the criminally overlooked Kyuss, specifically founding guitarist Homme’s migration from the California Desert to the Pacific Northwest to work on a new project concurrent with spending time on the road as second guitarist in Screaming Trees. Homme discarded the sludgy low-end expanses of his former band for much tighter song structure (for the most part) and honest-to-goodness capital ‘H’ hooks and what was originally christened Gamma Ray was quickly changed to Queens Of The Stone Age shortly after its 1996 birth.

Homme returned to his old stomping grounds and reunited with latter day Kyuss drummer Alfredo Hernandez to record as a fake trio (bass player “Carlo Von Sexron” is a nom-de-boom for Homme) and QOTSA came into full bloom, releasing the original version of this first album in 1998. If this re-issue doesn’t document “hour zero,” it’s only a few minutes past. “Regular John” introduces Homme as a smooth and assured vocalist with great melodic instinct. Tracks like “Avon” and “Walkin On Sidewalks” lock into heavy riffs that are in entrancing in their repetition and subtle shifts. And it’s hard to believe that insistently catchy “How To Handle A Rope” didn’t make a greater impact on mainstream radio upon its initial release.

The Rekords Rekords/Domino re-issue has been fully remastered from the original tapes and has been expanded by three tracks: “The Bronze” and “These Aren’t the Droids Your Looking For” from the  long out of print 1998 QOTSA/Beaver split EP and “Spiders and Vinegaroons” from the posthumous Kyuss/QOTSA split EP. Listen to album opener, Regular John, here: http://soundcloud.com/qotsa/regular-john

Queens Of The Stone Age will be available on CD (REK001CD), double vinyl LP (REK001LP) and via digital download (REK001D).

The complete itinerary for the Queens Of The Stone Age commemorative tour is as follows:

03/16/11 – Austin, TX – La Zona Rosa
03/18/11 – New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jacks
03/19/11 – Birmingham, AL – Workplay Soundstage
03/20/11 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
03/21/11 – Atlanta, GA – Center Stage
03/23/11 – Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
03/24/11 – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory
03/25/11 – New York, NY – Terminal 5
03/26/11 – Boston, MA – House of Blues
03/27/11 – Montreal, Canada – Metropolis
03/29/11 – Toronto, Canada – Sound Academy
03/30/11 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
03/31/11 – Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue
04/01/11 – Chicago, IL – The Riv
04/02/11 – Omaha, NE – Sokol Auditorium
04/04/11 – Des Moines, IA – Val Air Ballroom
04/05/11 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
04/06/11 – Kansas City, MO – Beaumont Club
04/08/11 – Denver, CO – Ogden
04/11/11 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
04/12/11 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern

LET ENGLAND SHAKE OUT TOMORROW

LIVE WEBCAST THIS AFTERNOON ON deezer.com, arteliveweb.com AND pjharvey.net

(NEW YORK, Feb. 14, 2011) — PJ Harvey has added a second show at New York City’s Terminal 5. The new date will take place April 19, the day before the previously announced April 20 show which sold out completely within hours of on-sale.

PJ Harvey will be making two other U.S. appearances in support of her new album Let England Shake: an already sold out April 14 date at the Warfield in San Francisco and an April 17 set at Coachella.

Let England Shake is out tomorrow in the U.S. and today, February 14th,  in the UK and Europe-the same day PJ Harvey will debut her new album live in a one-off, special show from Paris to be streamed live at 8pm GMT by the French music site Deezer  www.deezer.com and the cultural chanel ARTE www.arteliveweb.com

The webcast will also be available on the official PJ Harvey site www.pjharvey.net

Let England Shake, Harvey’s eighth studio album has already received exceptional reviews internationally.  This week’s NME awards it a rare 10/10, calling it “arguably her most brilliant record to date.” Here in the U.S., SPIN said in a 9/10 review that raved “Harvey’s eclecticism — her ability to gracefully flit between genres and tones — is what keeps her work so vital, yet Let England Shake is still something of a revelation.”

Harvey will play two sold out shows at The Troxy in London later this month, as well as sold-out dates in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris.

Them Crooked Vultures won its first Grammy last night at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards.

“New Fang” from the band’s self-titled debut took Best Hard Rock Performance honors, marking a first ever statue for guitarist/vocalist Joshua Homme, a second for bassist and Lifetime Achievement Grammy honoree John Paul Jones, and number eight for drummer Dave Grohl.

“It feels good just to be nominated,” said Homme. “But not as good as it does to win.”

Them Crooked Vultures is currently on hiatus as its principals are busy with various other endeavors.

Danger Mouse has been named ‘Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical’ at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards.

Previously nominated in the category four times in just five years, the artist and producer was last night awarded the accolade in recognition of his output alongside James Mercer as Broken Bells, production work with The Black Keys and his unique Dark Night Of The Soul collaborative project with Sparklehorse, David Lynch and others.

Danger Mouse is currently recording with U2 and recently completed a new album entitled Rome.  A collaboration with composer and arranger Daniele Luppi featuring vocals from Jack White and Norah Jones, Rome has been five years in the making and is now scheduled for a May 17th  release.

For more information contact Laura Eldeiry, laura@nastylittleman.com

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM EXTENDS THE LONG GOODBYE

March 28-31 Terminal 5 Tickets On Sale February 18 For $40 + Fees at Ticketmaster.com

“Fuck you, scalpers”–James Murphy

LCD Soundsystem has confirmed a run of four shows at New York City’s Terminal 5 to precede its instantly sold out April 2 Long Goodbye farewell event at Madison Square Garden.

The Terminal 5 dates will take place March 28, 29, 30 and 31 and were booked with the intent of making sure every LCD fan possible will have his/her chance bid the band adieu—as well as deflating the prices of tickets being scalped for the MSG show (despite the band’s best efforts to keep these tickets off the secondary market, which included a no-surcharge presale earlier this week).

Reached for comment, LCD’s James Murphy said (in part), “… We were more than taken aback and surprised about the speed of ticket sales for the April 2nd MSG gig, as well as the effectiveness of scalper pieces of fucking shit at getting their hands on said tickets before fans could, and it’s knocked us on our asses… We never dreamed some shitbags would try to get THOUSANDS for our show.  It’s insane…

So to the point.  You can’t make everyone happy… But we’ve come up with the best solution I can think of, as quickly as possible so as to deflate the market for those scalping scumfucks: We’re going to play 4 shows at Terminal 5 in NYC leading up to the MSG show, and they will include most if not all of the songs we play at MSG. The farewell run-up to the last dance… OBVIOUSLY we’re going to look seriously at the way we sell these tickets… (though it’ll take a minute to get folks in the door)…

We’re announcing all the shows at once, and if they don’t sell out, I don’t care. I just want to give people who actually want to see us a chance to see us.  For a reasonable ticket price.  And I want to drop the price of the MSG tickets being sold by piece of shit scalpers.

Oh, and a small thing to scalpers: ‘It’s legal’ is what people say when they don’t have ethics.  The law is there to set the LIMIT of what is PUNISHABLE (aka where the state needs to intervene)  but we are supposed to have ethics, and that should be the primary guiding force in our actions…

And to everyone else: Thank you.  You rule.  Don’t let the shitbags win.”

(For James’ statement in full, go to LCDSoundsystem.com)

Tickets for LCD Soundsystem’s four T5 shows will go on sale February 18 at Ticketmaster.com for $40 each (plus applicable fees). Ticket holders will be required to show ID day of show to gain entry. There will be a 2 ticket limit per customer.

Jack White, Norah Jones and Original Musicians from Classic Ennio Morricone Scores Pay Homage to Italian Film Music on 15-Track Epic

Acclaimed Director & Photographer Chris Milk Enlisted as Visual Director

Website Now Live At http://www.romealbum.com/

Capitol Records has confirmed a new U.S. release date of May 17, 2011 for Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi’s long awaited collaborative effort, Rome.

Some five years in the making, the conception of Rome actually dates back even further, to the 2004 meeting of Brian Burton a/k/a Danger Mouse and Italian composer/arranger Daniele Luppi. Burton was emerging from the aftermath of the media storm around his Grey Album and beginning work on Gorillaz now multi-platinum and Grammy winning Demon Days. Luppi was amassing acclaim for his album An Italian Story, which paid tribute to the cinematic sounds that shaped his childhood, while writing music for the screen (Sex In The City, Nine, etc.) and soon thereafter contributing arrangements to Burton projects including Gnarls Barkley, Dark Night of the Soul and Broken Bells.

United in their shared passion for classic Italian film music, Burton and Luppi have created a record like no other: Intense songwriting periods – both together and apart –  and travels to Rome during which Luppi reunited for the first time in decades original musicians from the scores of The Good, the Bad and the Uglyand Once Upon a Time in the West – including the legendary Marc 4 backing band and Alessandro Alessandroni’s ‘I Cantori Moderni’ choir laid the groundwork. Recording took place in Rome’s cavernous Forum Studios – formerly Ortophonic Studios, founded, amongst others, by the great Ennio Morricone — employing vintage equipment, for which Burton and Luppi would pay with bottles of wine, and making every effort to replicate the recording practices of the 1960s/70s golden age, recording live to tape, with no electronics, computers or 21st-century effects.

Crucial to the completion of Rome has been the enlistment of two lead vocalists who not only do justice to but complete the three songs each written for a man and a woman.  While on tour with Gnarls Barkley, Burton met Jack White and a year later, White recorded his contributions – The Rose With The Broken Neck, Two Against One and The World – in Nashville. White’s counterpart, in a revelatory turn, is Norah Jones, who flew to Burton’s L.A. studio from New York to sing on Season’s Trees, Black and Problem Queen.

With acclaimed director and photographer Chris Milk brought in as “Visual Director,” half a decade of hard work and unstinting perfectionism would draw to a close as the album and package were completed.

From Rome’s opening with soprano Edda Dell’Orso’s dramatic voice (the same haunting vocal presence fromThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly 44 years ago) gracing Theme of Rome to the closing strains of The World,Rome — for all its cinematic qualities — is not the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, but rather a complex, nuanced pop record rife with counterpoints of intensity and darkness as well as uplift and light.  (Luppi calls it “a small window on human life, touching on love, death, happiness, desperation, and the visceral connection of a man and a woman”.)  It’s an ambitious work with a uniquely modern sound achieved through traditional, vintage means.  It is, above all, a fully realized album, perfectly formed and hauntingly beautiful.

Welcome to Rome.

http://www.romealbum.com/

http://nastylittleman.wpengine.com/artists/rome/