popwreckoning

by Sam Jones

Tom Petty is releasing his first album with the Heartbreakers in eight years: Mojo. As a special incentive for fans purchasing Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers tour tickets online, each ticket will come with an mp3 download of Mojo.

The full album won’t be available for download until the release date, but fans will get an immediate download of “First Flash of Freedom” and “Good Enough.” After the tour, they’ll also get a selection of live tracks.

“First Flash of Freedom” is streaming now on TomPetty.com. Tickets for the tour are available here.

Tour Dates:
June 3 – Denver, CO – Red Rocks
June 5 – Oakland, CA – Oracle Arena
June 8 – Vancouver, BC – GM Place
June 11 – Seattle, WA – The Gorge
June 12 – Seattle, WA – The Gorge
June 15 – Calgary, AB – Pengrowth Saddledome
June 16 – Edmonton, AB – Rexall Place
June 19 – Winnipeg, MB – MTS Centre
June 22 – St. Paul, MN – XCEL Energy Center
June 23 – Omaha, NE – Qwest Center
June 25 – Milwaukee, WI – Marcus Ampitheatre/Summerfest
June 26 – Milwaukee, WI – Marcus Ampitheatre/Summerfest
July 10 – Indianapolis, IN – Verizon Wireless Music Center
July 13 – Kansas City, MO – Sprint Center
July 15 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center
July 17 – Chicago, IL – United Center
July 20 – Cleveland, OH – Blossom Music Center
July 22 – Detroit, MI – Palace of Auburn Hills
July 24 – Pittsburgh, PA – First Niagara Pavillion
July 28 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
July 31 – Philadelphia, PA – Wachovia Center
Aug 11 – Atlanta, GA – Philips Arena
Aug 12 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
Aug 14 – Darien Lake, NY – Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
Aug 15 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live
Aug 17 – Hartford, CT – Comcast Theatre
Aug 19 – Boston, MA – Comcast Center
Aug 21 – Boston, MA – Comcast Center
Aug 24 – East Rutherford, NJ – Izod Center
Aug 25 – Toronto, ON – Air Canada Center
Aug 27 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Center
Sept 16 – Tampa, FL – St Pete Times Forum
Sept 18 – Raleigh, NC – Time Warner Cable Pavilion at Walnut Creek
Sept 19 – Charlotte, NC – Charlotte Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Sept 21 – Dallas, TX – Superpages.com Center
Sept 24 – Houston, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Sept 26 – Phoenix, AZ – U.S. Airways Center
Sept 28 – San Diego, CA – Cricket Pavilion
Oct 1 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl
Oct 2 – Irvine, CA – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

Just today, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers announced a 2010 North American tour and the upcoming release of Mojo, their first studio album in eight years, this spring. The tour will take the band through a mix of top arenas and amphitheaters across the US and Canada beginning May 6th in Raleigh, NC. Tickets go on sale beginning Monday, March 8 at LiveNation.com. Special guest artists on the tour will include a mix of appearances by My Morning Jacket, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Joe Cocker, ZZ Top, and Drive By Truckers.

All 2010 tour tickets purchased online will include an MP3 download of every track on Mojo. Once fans purchase tickets online, they will receive an email with codes entitling them to download two tracks from Mojo (“First Flash Of Freedom” and “Good Enough.”) Then, on the release date of the album, currently slated for this spring, ticket buyers will be sent a download of the entire album. Also included with every online ticket purchase, to be delivered at the end of the 2010 tour, will be a selection of live tracks recorded during the tour. Pretty good perks for what are sure to be pricey tickets.

Tour Dates:
May 06 – Time Warner Cable Pavilion at Walnut Creek / Raleigh, NC *
May 07 - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre / Charlotte, NC*
May 09 -  St. Pete Times Forum / Tampa *
May 15 -  Superpages.com Center / Dallas *
May 16 -  Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion / Houston *
May 18 -  US Airways Arena / Phoenix *
May 22 – Hollywood Bowl / Los Angeles *
Jun 02 -  Cricket Wireless Pavilion / San Diego *
Jun 03 -  Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre / Irvine, Ca. *
Jun 05 -  Oracle Pavilion / Oakland, Ca. *
Jun 08 -  GM Place / Vancouver *
Jun 11 -  The Gorge / Seattle *
Jun 12 -  The Gorge / Seattle *
Jun 15 -  Pengrowth Saddledome / Calgary *
Jun 16 -  Rexall Place / Edmonton *
Jun 19 -  MTS Centre / Winnipeg *
Jun 22 -  Xcel Energy Center / St. Paul ^
Jun 23 - Qwest Center / Omaha ^
Jun 25 -  Summerfest / Milwaukee
Jul 10 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre / Indianapolis ^
Jul 13 – Sprint Center / Kansas City ^
Jul 15 – Riverbend Music Center / Cincinnati ^
Jul 17 - United Center / Chicago ^
Jul 20 – Blossom Music Center / Cleveland ^
Jul 22 - Palace of Auburn Hills / Detroit ^
Jul 24 - First Niagra Pavilion / Pittsburgh ^
Jul 28 - Madison Square Garden / New York City
Jul 31  – Wachovia Center / Philadelphia
Aug 11 - Philips Arena / Atlanta #
Aug 12 - Sommet Center / Nashville #
Aug 14 – Darien Lake Performing Arts Center / Darien Lake, NY #
Aug 15 – Jiffy Lube Live / Bristow #
Aug 17 – Comcast Theater / Hartford, Ct. #
Aug 19 - Comcast Center / Boston %
Aug 21 – Comcast Center / Boston %
Aug 24 - IZOD Center / East Rutherford, NJ %
Aug 25 – Air Canada Center / Toronto #
Aug 27 - Saratoga Performing Arts Center / Saratoga Springs, Fl. #

* w/ Joe Cocker
^ w/Drive-By Truckers
# w/ Crosby, Stills and Nash
% w/ My Morning Jacket

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: website | myspace

His MySpace page reads like that of a scrappy Brooklyn any-kid who makes music for his friends from the unassuming far corner of his childhood bedroom, next to a pinup of Tom Petty and a wide-eyed girl he might be in love with. The self-tweeted “Rambling Man” doesn’t have that many “friends,” a mere 3,968, is still grateful for small NYC club gigs, and cites both Biggie and Pavement as influences, but his music begs a much bigger bio than his profile suggests. One listen to “Buriedfed,” from his eponymous 2008 debut will destroy you. It’s the best of Dylan’s rawness, the starkness of Hemingway, and reminds me of the hometown lyrical longing and driving guitar momentum that is so inherently Springsteen. Up until now, I haven’t come across a voice that so accurately portrays the hope and fear that is the underbelly of change defining our generation. Like a memoir unfolding in real time, playing parallel to us, Miles is your spot on soundtrack.

On Summer of Fear, produced by TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone, and a little help from the boys of Grizzly Bear, out October 20th on Saddle Creek Records, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson sings us a dark, dark story of the anxiety that accompanies the risk of dreaming in uncertain times. A hazardous balladeer compared to his peers, Robinson swims all the way out, far past the buoys, through scratchy, shaking whispers and blood curdling screams looking for answers to questions most of us are afraid to ask, doing things we know we shouldn’t, just to remind himself of the feeling, a lyrical cutter trying to make a mark deep enough that he never forgets.

The Summer of Fear is the story about the summer of 2007, when Robinson, beat up and reckless, mounts the greatest fight of his life tackling the catastrophe of heartbreak, the saltiness of something new, the satisfaction of anger, and the hope of redemption. Robinson say’s “Listening to it now…It’s like someone banging on a door really hard, until they start throwing their shoulder into it….then someone on the other side simply opens it and on the next lunge the solicitor goes hurtling across the threshold. It’s well produced, but there’s a lot of frustration and rage on the record. Every song has a point of catharsis.”

“Summer of Fear Part 2″ is easily the most arresting track on the album beginning with a carefree little whistle that you swear you’ve heard a thousand times, that you know you’ve hummed before is anchored by a riff as melancholy and infinitely as sad as a great Pumpkins song, Robinson makes a plea for what was, desperate for the memory. “I said knock-knock” a voice in the way back calls, “who’s there?” Robinson screams, “You said you’d never forget…you said you’d never forget.”

Surrounding lyrics and Robinson’s strum is a complex orchestration to the music with hidden whispers, fuzzy guitars, warming choirs, and miscellaneous trinkets of sound, creating an audio scrapbook that will last forever even if the memory can’t. While The Summer of Fear may have been his biggest battle to date, I have a feeling Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson has quite a few more fights left in him and I’ll be damned if I miss another.

Tracklisting:
01. Shake a Shot
02. Always an Anchor
03. The Sound
04. Hard Row
05. Trap Door
06. The 100th of March
07. Summer of Fear pt. 1
08. Death by Dust
09. Summer of Fear pt. 2
10. Losing 4 Winners
11. More than a Mess
12. Boat

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson: website | myspace

Burbank, CA – Beloved Canadian pop-rock icons Tegan and Sara have announced that they will launch their first extensive tour of the U.S. in nearly two years in February 2010. The tour kicks off February 12th in Northampton, MA, and criss-crosses the country before finishing up on April 6th in Salt Lake City, UT. The ticket pre-sale begins this Wednesday, October 14th, at 10 a.m. The password for all pre-sales is “Sainthood.” Tickets will go on sale to the public on Friday, October 16th, at 10 a.m.

Twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin are hitting the road in support of their eagerly awaited sixth studio album Sainthood, which is due from Sire/Vapor Records on October 27th. Sainthood was produced by Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla (who also produced 2007’s critically applauded The Con) and Howard Redekopp (who produced 2004’s groundbreaking effort So Jealous) and mixed by Grammy Award winner Dave Sardy (Oasis, Primal Scream, Marilyn Manson). Tegan and Sara began recording Sainthood in May at the legendary Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, CA, where Tom Petty, Nirvana, and Fleetwood Mac have all recorded. They finished laying down tracks at Seattle’s Two Sticks Audio, owned by Death Cab drummer Jason McGerr.

“Hell,” the first digital single from Sainthood, is now available for purchase from all digital service providers and is currently streaming live on the band’s website www.teganandsara.com. It is the band’s first new song released to fans since July 2007. Fans who pre-order Sainthood on iTunes will receive the track as a free digital download. An iTunes exclusive deluxe version of the album will feature two bonus tracks: “Wrists” and “Light Up.”

As previously mentioned, a triumvirate of books entitled On, In, At, will be released in conjunction with the release of Sainthood. The three-book set, which chronicles different time periods from the past year in the lives of Tegan and Sara, will be available through teganandsara.com. These books are a Must Have item for fans and have been beautifully photographed, annotated and packaged. Check the site for additional details.

To celebrate the release of Sainthood, Tegan and Sara will perform four very special shows: October 25th and 26th at Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theater, and October 30th and 31st at New York City’s Town Hall. The band will also appear on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien on November 2nd.

Tour Dates:
Feb. 12 – Calvin Theatre / Northampton, MA
Feb. 13 – The Orpheum / Boston, MA
Feb. 16 – Tower Theatre (Upper Darby) / Philadelphia, PA
Feb. 17 – Warner Theatre / Washington, DC
Feb. 18 – The National / Richmond, VA
Feb. 20 – Tampa Theatre / Tampa, FL
Feb. 21 – Sunset Cove / Miami, FL
Feb. 23 – Variety Playhouse / Atlanta, GA
Feb. 24 – Tipitina’s / New Orleans, LA
Feb. 25 – Palladium / Dallas, TX
Feb. 26 – Bass Concert Hall / Austin, TX
Feb. 27 – The Warehouse / Houston, TX
Mar. 02 – House of Blues / Las Vegas, NV
Mar. 03 - Copley Symphony Hall / San Diego, CA 
Mar. 05 – Fox Theater / San Francisco, CA
Mar. 06 – Fox Theater / San Francisco, CA
Mar. 24 – The Orpheum / Minneapolis, MN
Mar. 25 – The Riverside / Milwaukee, WI
Mar. 26 – The Aragon / Chicago IL
Mar. 27 – Royal Oak Theatre / Detroit, MI
Mar. 28 – Lakewood Civic / Cleveland, OH
Mar. 30 – Promo West Pavilion / Columbus, OH
Apr. 02 – The Pageant / St. Louis, MO
Apr. 03 – Uptown Theatre / Kansas City, MO
Apr. 04 – The Ogden / Denver, CO
Apr. 06 – In The Venue / Salt Lake City, UT 

Tegan and Sara: website | myspace | interview with: Tegan pt. 1, pt. 2 | @ terminal 5

Photo by: Dese’Rae L. Stage