Five More Reasons To Follow Us On The Twitterzez

This is a true story about how a rep at LiveNation gives us tickets to give away, and then we give them away, and then someone wins them, and then that persons goes to a rock show for free, and then the world spins around, and then birds sing, and then love blooms, and... well, you get the picture. When we were an up-and-comer we dug the free stuff, still do, as a matter of fact, and the only thing we like more than getting free stuff is giving free stuff. And so we were pleased when our friendly neighborhood corporate ticketing person offered us the opportunity to give tickets away. And the latest batch is hot stuff: we have a pair of free tickets to the already-sold-out Stars show June 1 at Paradise Rock Club. We have tickets to see Psychedelic Furs at House Of Blues; we saw the band there -- well, at Avalon -- so very long ago it isn't in the archives of this blog, and they were fantastic, even then, some five thousand years into their career. And then we've got tickets to The Futureheads at the Paradise June 7, New Pornographers at House Of Blues June 18, and way off in the distance for Wolf Parade July 12. We think you'll agree that is a fine slate of shows. But the only way you can win tickets from us is to follow us on the Twitterzez, where you'll find us @clickyclicky. So start following.

Today's Hotness: The Futureheads, Fields, Asobi Seksu

>> You know what totally smokes? The forthcoming Futureheads single "I Wouldn't Be Like This If You Were Here." The high-octane slammer hearkens back to the Sunderland-situated quartet's amazing 2004 full-length debut. The single will be issued Dec. 8, but you can already hear a crappy-sounding stream of the track at the band's MySpace dojo here. The Futureheads embark on a three-week tour of the U.K. and Ireland with clicky clicky faves Johnny Foreigner at the end of the month. We weren't all that certain of the pairing, but now that we've streamed "I Wouldn't Be Like This If You Were Here" a few times and hear The Futureheads are back with their A game it is starting to make sense. Full tour dates are listed at the aforementioned MySpace page. The Futureheads released its third set This Is Not The World on its own Nul Recordings label in May; we reviewed the band's July 2006 Boston gig here. We just remembered something Johnny Foreigner and The Futureheads have in common: both acts have been remixed by Dolby Anol. Here's the remix of "Radio Heart."

The Futureheads -- "Radio Heart (Dolby Anol Remix)"
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[buy Futureheads records from Newbury Comics right here]

>> London-based indie rock foursome Fields Tuesday cited label negotiations as the precipitating factor behind the cancellation of a planned strand of November tour dates. The cancellation isn't quite as interesting as the fact that Fields, which was apparently the subject of a bidding war in the U.K. in 2006 after playing only a small number of shows, is -- according to a MySpace blog from fronter Nick Peill -- "in talks with a new record label." The band's full-length debut Everything Last Winter was issued by Warners in the UK; in our opinion it did not live up to the promise of the mysterious, stellar preceding EP 7 From The Village. As we reported here in October, Fields had intended to issue its sophomore set Hollow Mountains in March 2009 (after previously hoping it could be out by the end of this year). However, the aforementioned label negotiations could push back the release of the long-anticipated set. Strangely, a second MySpace blog posted Tuesday made it sound as if a new label deal was already in place, and that it was the new label's decision to scotch the dates. "We have been trying to get the label to organise some shows for us for months now and the decision to pull this tour was not that of the band." Drama!

>> News circulated Tuesday that Asobi Seksu's forthcoming third full-length us titled Hush. We had reported here in September that the New York-based dream pop duo would issue the new set in early 2009, and Asobi Seksu now says the release will be in March, which we expect is timed perfectly with the annual South By Southwest confab. As we had also reported previously, Hush will be preceded by the single "Me & Mary" b/w "Breathe Into Glass" Nov. 18. For you vinyl-ophiles, the band's supremely great sophomore set Citrus will finally be issued on vinyl Nov. 25 by Friendly Fire. More details and the Hush track listing can be found in this Pitchfork item.

>> Pun Canoes here points to this recent post on The Lemonheads' blog, in which band leader Evan Dando explains the delay of the planned covers album Varshons, which was to have streeted in September. The set will apparently now be released in March, Mr. Dando says.

Free Range Music: Spiritualized, The Futureheads, The Cure

>> Hey, remember when we'd do all those Free Range Music posts listing off worthwhile album streams and such suchness? Those were good times, right? Let's endeavor to resuscitate that, shall we? Jason Spaceman fans will be pleased to know that they can stream the new Spiritualized set Songs In A And E at the band's MySpace apothecary right here. It is funny, the little ways in which Mr. Spaceman -- or his label's marketing department -- trades on the man's past. For example, said MySpace page describes the act as Psychedelic/Experimental/Rock. And while we wouldn't quibble with that last genre, until the third track "Death Take Your Fiddle" the new record sounds like a straight, slightly overblown Britpop record, with the accent on pop. Thankfully, the proceedings get a lot more interesting very quickly, but are we over-generalizing if we say that Songs In A And E sounds like it could have been written and produced by Damon Albarn? This is not a slag; longtime readers will recall The Good, The Bad & The Queen's self-titled set was one of our favorites of 2006. But back to Spiritualized: as we are starting to come back around about saxophone in rock music, we're pleased to hear some bumping up the close of "I Gotta Fire." Songs In A And E will be issued in the U.S. by UMG May 27, and we think we might actually buy this one.

>> By supplying MTV.co.uk with a fake name and email address (call us Karl) one can gain access to streams of all the songs on the forthcoming set from fidgety Brit indie quartet The Futureheads. Unfortunately you will be forced to stream it in the relatively intolerable Windows Media Player, but what are you going to do, right? Anyway, we heard this morning on WMBR the second track from the forthcoming set, "Walking Backwards," on WMBR as we were shuttling to work and we were pleased to hear some of the vim and vigor of the 'Heads of old. Well, 2005 or so. So going through all the trouble of defrauding MTV and launching your Windows Media Player is worth it just to hear this song, although the title track with its waltz time pummellation in the chorus may eclipse it as the best number on the record. The Sunderland-based act issues its third set This Is Not The World on its own Nul Records on May 26 in the UK; not sure of the U.S. release date. The set was preceded by the single "Radio Heart," which of course you can stream at the same web site. Here's the link.

>> Don't feel bad if you are not among the cool kids that already know Bradley's Almanac is hosting here the entire three-hour live set performed by legendary alternative act The Cure in Boston earlier this month. It's filled with highlights, not the least of which is a scorching "From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea." The epic-length set list is filled with gems. Anyway, in case you didn't know you can download the whole shebang right here. But if you are like us and are sick of downloading stuff unless you actually need to, let it be known you can also just stream the whole set at Hype Machine right here. Radical.

>> Speaking of free, we still have one copy of the forthcoming Julie Ocean record Long Gone And Nearly There waiting to be given away to the first person who emails us with the phrase "Ghost In The Mirror" in the subject line. C'mon, people, this isn't hard, and the disc is sitting on our desk at work waiting to go in the outbin. You can do this. Our email is in the sidebar.