What the World Needs Now: David Lowery Releasing Solo Debut, Cracker & Camper Van Beethoven Touring January 2011

RadioVA interviewer, Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven frontman Dave Lowery is releasing his first solo record on 2/1, The Palace Guards.

A little Appalachian-woven folk, a little psychedelia, and a little of the usual suspects for a Lowery song, the record is meant to show many of the musical sides of Lowery and his cohorts. “One of the reasons the album sounds the way it does is that I have pretty strong personalities playing with me,” says Lowery, “guys who I’ve worked with for years, who have done engineering or playing on Camper and Cracker albums. There’s that instant easy rapport that shines through. Working with them brought out the more extreme edges in these songs and amplified them. It was also liberating to start with no preconceived notions of what they would end up sounding like or worrying about how they might sound in a live setting, as I have to do when I write songs for Cracker."

The Palace Guards has many of the musicians that Lowery has played with over the years at his Richmond, VA-based studio (Sound of Music), as well as Cracker bandmates Sal Maida and Johnny Hickman, and the late Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) who played keyboards on “Big Life.”

Tracklist for The Palace Guards
1. Raise 'em up on Honey
2. The Palace Guards
3. Deep Oblivion
4. Ah, You Left Me
5. Baby, All Those Girls Meant Nothing To Me
6. I Sold the Arabs the Moon
7. Marigold
8. Big Life
9. Submarine

Give a Listen: The Palace Guards-Dave Lowery/Buy The Palace Guards

In January, Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker will join together to perform Key Lime Pie and Kerosene Hat respectively, in their entireties, live as a doubleheader on the east coast. New music from both bands will be out in 2011.

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN & CRACKER'S "KEY LIME & KEROSENE" SHOWS
1/14: NY, NY, Highline Ballroom
1/15: Toronto, ONT, Lee’s Palace
1/16: Cambridge, MA, Middle East Downstairs

Airborne Toxic Event Doing Acoustic Tour with Calder Quartet in September, Releasing Show Documentary Film

The Airborne Toxic Event is currently at work on their second record, set for a release in early 2011, but they announced yesterday that they will be heading back out this fall to do a series of acoustic dates with The Calder Quartet. This includes a DC date at the Sixth and I Synagogue. Probably be a bit tight on that stage with all of them but if you've been there, you know it's a great place to see a show.

For many of the dates, there is a presale going on now with various packages, including VIP (here). The public onsale for most dates is this weekend (starting tomorrow).



Fall tour dates for The Airborne Toxic Event w/ the Calder Quartet
Sept. 7: Sixth and I Synagogue, Washington, DC
Onsale: Friday, 7/16, 10 AM (here)

Sept. 8: Somerville Theatre, Somerville, MA
Public Onsale: Friday 7/16, 10 AM (here)

Sept. 10: Keswick Theatre, Philadelphia, PA
Public Onsale: Friday 7/16, noon, (here)

Sept. 11: Town Hall, New York, NY
Publilc Onsale: Friday 7/16, 11 AM, (here)
Presale Amex Card Members: Wed 7/14-Fri 7/16, 10 AM (here)

Sept. 13: Trinity St. Paul's Church, Toronto, ON
Public Onsale: Friday 7/16, 10 AM (here)
Presale: Thurs 7/15, 10AM-10PM (here)

Sept. 15: Park West, Chicago, IL
Public Onsale: Saturday, 7/17, 10 AM (here)

Sept. 18: Town Hall, Seattle, WA
Public Onsale: Unsure, not even on the Town Hall calendar yet.
Presale: Tickets can be purchased right now (here)

Sept. 19: Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, CA
Public Onsale: Sunday 7/18, 10 AM (here)

Sept. 22: John Anson Ford Ampitheatre, Los Angeles, CA
Public Onsale: Unsure, not even on the venue calendar yet.
Presale: Tickets can be purchased right now (here)

Fun fact: This tour out will also be a family affair for them as Calder violinist Andrew Bulbrook is, in fact, the brother of ATE's violinist Anna Bulbrook. The Calder Quartet has played with ATE often over the past couple of years, including their sold-out show last December at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. That show was filmed and made into a documentary film being released on DVD.

The DVD, titled "All I Ever Wanted: Live from the Walt Disney Concert Hall," is out 9/7. The show features selections from that album, as well as new songs and never-before-recorded cover versions of the Ramones' "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?" (with the Belmont High School Marching Band), the Magnet Fields' "The Book of Love," and Q Lazzarus's "Goodbye Horses."

Ray LaMontagne Tickets to Benefit Children's Cancer Charity

Ray LaMontagne announced his first North American tour dates of 2009 for his latest release, Gossip in the Grain today, and fans will have the opportunity to buy front row seats and support The National Children's Cancer Society charity at the same time. A portion of each ticket package purchased through Tickets for Charity will automatically benefit The National Children's Cancer Society, and purchasers will be able to donate further proceeds to a wide variety of other charities. The National Children's Cancer Society has provided direct financial assistance to the families of more than 23,000 children battling cancer in the United States, and helped thousands more worldwide through the Global Outreach Program and Beyond the Cure.

Listen: You Are the Best Thing_Ray LaMontagne

This leg of the Gossip in the Grain tour will run the east coast, the midwest, and Canada throughout the month of April:

April 2: Montclair, NJ, Wellmont Theatre
April 3: Pittsburgh, PA, Palace Theater
April 4: Philadelphia, PA, Tower Theater
April 6: Albany, NY, The Egg
April 7: Northampton, MA, Calvin Theatre
April 8: New Haven, CT, Schubert Theater
April 11: Portland, ME, Merrill Auditorium
April 12: Burlington, VT, Flynn Center For The Performing Arts
April 14: Montreal, QUE, Metropolis
April 15: Toronto, ONT, Massey Hall
April 17: Cleveland, OH, State Theatre
April 18: Cincinnati, OH, Taft Theatre
April 19: Ann Arbor, MI, Michigan Theatre
April 21: Milwaukee, WI, Riverside Theater
April 22: St. Louis, MO, Pageant Theater
April 24: Asheville, NC, Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
April 25: Louisville, KY, Brown Theater
April 27: Birmingham, AL, Alabama Theatre
April 28: Jacksonville, FL, Florida Theatre
April 29: Tampa, FL, Tampa Theatre
April 30: Miami, FL, Fillmore @ Jackie Gleason