is kind of busy with right now, but all signs point to a new album coming our way verrry soon. , Britt Daniel and the guys headed into the studio in the fall, aiming for an April or May release. And now, they ve lined up a string of late April dates on the East Coast.

So be on the lookout. A bunch of lucky drunks in Bloomington, Indiana get to see Spoon tonight for free, . Tickets are all gone for that show, but they re playing in Nashville on April 12.

have announced the dates of their summer North American tour, which follows a brief European trek and four shows at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City in May. The tour is in support of the band s forthcoming album , which comes out May 22 on . The newly announced dates run until June 30, and the band plans to be on the road for most of this year.

Seems the four winds have really picked up, and they re about to blow Conor Oberst and his merry warble all over the continent this spring. Following up their current in support of the (out today on ), are ready to put out for fans across North America.
The enormous trek-- which culminates with an insane seven nights at NYC s Town Hall-- has Conor and new core bandmates Mike Mogis and Nate Wolcott visiting larger venues and numerous cities skipped over on the present jaunt, all to preach the good word of , out April 10 on Def Jam.

Just kidding.
In case you ve been living under a rock and/or don t care, Conor s . Get there early and maybe you can run your fingers through his hair when he stoops down to pick up his beer.

Um, I mean, give him a hearty, manly high-five. Right. Before folks across the Pacific get their angst on to the scowl of forever-unhappy frontman Trent Reznor, they ll drift in the reverbed haze of pretty shoegaze machines .

The Norwegian pedal-pushers have signed on to take the reigns from Ladytron, opening a string of dates in Australia and Japan for NIN s previously reported world tour (in support of Year Zero, out April 17). These gigs will draw Serena-Maneesh out of their magical den of musical creation, in which they re presently working on the follow-up to 2005 s gatecrashing debut, .
These gigs will also bring main Maneesher Emil Nikolaisen back in the vicinity of his beloved India, from which the guitarist/vocalist just returned.

Seems he readily soaked up the culture while there. The band s manager speaks of Tibetan chants and classical Indian string instruments, so we might just be in for a difficult sophomore album.
Brian Eno, Warren Ellis appear on record Former Roxy Music frontman has featured Bob Dylan covers on his albums before, but his 12th solo album, Dylanesque, is dedicated entirely to them.

The album is out now in the UK, and Capitol will release it in the U.S. on June 19.

Most of Dylanesque was recorded in one week in the studio with Ferry s touring band. According to a press release, Brian Eno, Procol Harum guitarist Robin Trower, and Dirty Three/Grinderman/Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds member Warren Ellis provide sonic enhancements, guitar, and string arrangements, respectively.
Ferry is currently on tour in the UK and Europe in support of Dylanesque.

He will continue to play live through mid-April, and he has one date at a Princess Diana tribute in July. Wrens, Beirut Help Get Him Eat Him Lay Arms Down Spirited indie-rockers -- fronted by Pitchfork s very own Matt LeMay-- continue their cannibalistic pursuit with Arms Down, out June 5 via . The 13-track set follows up the Providence, Rhode Island-based quintet s 2005 debut , and boasts quite an array of special guests.

Charles Bissell rocks the 12-string guitar, while s Zach Condon and Jon Natchez contribute horns alongside bandmate Kristin Ferebee, who handles strings. DC-area veteran (Garland of Hours) shreds cello, while Broken Social Scene associate Chris Brown serves up some jazz keyboard action. Holding the whole thing together is co-producer , of Dismemberment Plan fame, who engineered a recording session at DC s and oversaw several others.

Arms Down collects some tunes originally written for a series of limited edition tour EPs-- at least one of which, it should be noted, is housed inside a toy basketball game doodad. The band plans to hit the road in June and July in support of its new baby. Be sure to tip your hat to brand new keyboardist Kevin Sparks, who replaces Raf Spielman following what LeMay calls a totally amicable split.

Friday was a tense day at Pitchfork HQ, as a few of us braced ourselves for the stress of constantly refreshing the Ticketmaster website around 5 p.m. EST to ensure that we got tickets to the s reunion at a Washington, D.

C. benefit concert for .
It turns out our anxieties were well founded, as tickets to the show sold out in a scant three or four minutes.

Those who weren t quick enough on the draw, however, may have a second chance. The Washington Post s entertainment blog, , reports that the band will play another reunion show/benefit on April 27. Like the April 28 show, it will be at .

Plan frontman Travis Morrison, who works for the Post as a programmer, confirmed the information.
Detroit s will feature Thunderbirds Are Now! and Adult.

this year as headliners. The festival claims to be the largest local music festival in the U.S.

, featuring 250 Detroit bands at over 20 venues. It will take place March 7-10 in Hamtramck, Michigan, a town located inside the city limits of Detroit.
Adult.

will play the festival s launch party at the Majestic Theatre Center in downtown Detroit on March 7, along with Great Lakes Myth Society. Then things move to Hamtramck, where Thunderbirds, NOMO, His Name Is Alive, the Muldoons, Outrageous Cherry, the Go, the High Strung, and Slumber Party will all perform at various venues over the next three days.
For Blowout s full lineup, visit the festival s .

You can probably write an album from a good date and a kiss. probably wasn t the first you expected to go solo. And guess what?

Albert Hammond, Jr. wasn t the first Stroke Albert Hammond, Jr. expected to go solo either.

And yet, tomorrow, March 6, the Strokes guitarist treats U.S. audiences to his , , via / .

Yours to Keep almost didn t happen, however. I wasn t going to put it out at all, Hammond revealed to Pitchfork in a recent interview. When I was doing it, I wasn t really making a record, [but] by the time I was done, I realized I was.

So I thought maybe it would be fun to put it out quietly, you know? I never thought I would be playing shows or anything like that.
Thanks to a little prodding from his bandmates and label, Hammond agreed to play a few gigs-- and things just took off from there.

He recently wrapped up a , and after a stretch of headlining dates, Albert will for another monster act with a slightly different fanbase, Bloc Party.
I don t think anyone knew who the hell I was at all, Albert revealed about his stint opening for Incubus. Nonetheless, the tour was an apparent success.

I think we got a lot of people who wouldn t have known about us otherwise, which was kind of the purpose of the tour, you know? So it was fun; it went well. It was very intense.

..Things are moving fast, and you can t stop it or slow it down.

But we got through it.
Hammond, who admits my favorite place in the world is probably the studio, already has a sizable cache of new tunes cooked up. But between his rigorous tour schedule and his duties in that other band, however, don t expect any new material coming out soon.

I ve got a whole bunch...

[but] you don t really get that much time on the road to work it out.
So what about that other band, the Strokes? I think all the guys are just hanging out and doing life things, said Hammond.

The guitarist also couldn t say when we ll see a follow-up to last year s . I have no idea. I always get in trouble when I speculate about stuff.

So I have zero clue. If I did know I would tell you, though. are adding tour dates left and right, in the U.

S. and France, in Belgium and Germany and the Netherlands. And now, they will supplement their most recently added dates with the April 9 release of the Australia single on .

The CD single includes the B-sides Sleeping Lessons ( ) , Saint Simon (Live on BBC2 s Mark Radcliffe show) , and Girl on a Wing (Live on KCRW s Morning Becomes Eclectic ) . Unfortunately, it is only scheduled for release in the UK.
Wife Kelis arrested for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest.

Both star in reality show. Whether hip hop is dead or not, career is revitalized after the release of his . In a month, he will kick off a full tour of North America with a show at Cleveland s House of Blues.

And according to NME.com, he will soon star in an MTV reality show titled Mr. and Mrs.

Jones with his wife .
Kelis has been keeping herself busy; this past weekend, she was arrested. On March 2, the R B singer was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after screaming racial profanities at two female police officers posing as prostitutes in Miami Beach, according to an AP report.

She was detained at 4:30 a.m. and released on a $1500 bond hours later.

We re don t know whether or not she knew the officers were undercover, but we do know she takes . And by mean, we mean totally cute. Most.

Badass. Couple. Ever.

has assembled another impressive guest list to follow up her reinvention album. Basement Jaxx, Pet Shop Boys, and Felix Da Housecat all contribute to remix disc Open Your Box, which will release April 24.
In contrast to Yes, I m a Witch, on which collaborators kept Ono s original vocals and wrote new music in accompaniment, the remixes on Open Your Box are slightly more traditional.

They take the originals-- including Everyman Everywoman twice and Walking on Thin Ice three times-- and aim straight for the dance floor. Do you have a news tip for us? Anything crazy happen at a show you attended recently?

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