Arcade Fire Announces "Reflektor" Tour (Two Brooklyn Dates); Metric Adds Small-Venue Show

Ever since Arcade Fire announced its new album "Reflektor," fans have been wondering when they would tour to support the new work. We got the answer today, when the band announced its "Reflektor" tour on Twitter.

Arcade Fire is hitting the road to support is new album, "Reflektor."

The band kicks things off with a show in Louisville, Kentucky on March 6th, and the tour comes to Brooklyn in the summer for two nights at the Barclays Center, August 22nd and 23rd. Tickets for all dates go on sale next Friday, Nov. 22nd.

Another Canadian band, Metric, is currently on tour, and is playing a rare small-venue gig next Tuesday (the 19th) at Bowery Ballroom. The gig is listed on their tour schedule, but clicking on the Buy Tickets link takes you to an information page, not a Ticketmaster link.

We'd guess the link to buy will go live tomorrow (the tickets are supposed to go on sale at noon Friday the 15th, according to Brooklyn Vegan). Also, the page for this show notes, "All tickets are for WILL CALL ONLY and will be available exclusively for pick up at the venue on the evening of the show with valid ID. Tickets are non-transferable."

UPDATE: I couldn't find the Metric ticket link searching on Ticketmaster, but Brooklyn Vegan found it: Metric Bowery Ballroom tickets.

Until tickets go on sale tomorrow, you can watch Metric perform on the Letterman show tonight.

Concert Notes: Titus Andronicus Ends Tour in NYC; Nick Cave, Fleetwood Mac Announce Tours; Another Sandy Benefit; More

Some concert notes from the (near) past and the future:


* New Jersey's Titus Andronicus rocked Webster Hall Sunday night to wrap up its Fall tour. It was tough to get good photos, with the band members in constant motion (especially frontman Patrick Stickles). And fans were stage-diving throughout the show; a few times, there were four fans on stage at the same time. This is only my second time seeing the band, and as before, they delivered a great, high-energy show. They played a good mix of songs from their three albums, as well as a couple of fun covers: the Dave Clark Five's "Do You Love Me" and the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar."

Hardcore band Ceremony played before Titus and revved the crowd up (and Stickles wore the band's t-shirt during the Titus Andronicus set). See photos below and at the bottom of the page.

Titus Andronicus at Webster Hall Sunday night.

* Tickets are still available for Wednesday's WFUV Holiday Cheer benefit concert at the Beacon, featuring Lucinda Williams, Shelby Lynne, Shawn Colvin, special guest Steve Earle, and Lake Street Dive.

* Pitchfork is presenting a Hurricane Sandy benefit Dec. 14th featuring The Men, Widowspeak, Lust for Youth, and Waxahatchee. More guests will be announced later. The show will take place at St. Vitus in Brooklyn; tickets are $12.

* Fleetwood Mac will tour next year, playing 35 dates beginning in April (including Madison Square Garden on April 8th). Some sources say a new album is in the works, too. (via Pitchfork)

* Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are headed out on tour, too, and will do two nights at the Beacon March 28th and 29th to support their upcoming album, "Push The Sky Away." Sharon van Etten will open on the U.S. dates. A presale will be held Dec. 5th from 12 Noon to 10 p.m. (promo code: CAVE) before the general public sale on Dec. 6th at 10 a.m. (via CMJ and MSG)

* Arcade Fire tried out some new songs in a Montreal club show over the weekend, performing under a pseudonym. Expect a new album from them late in 2013. (via Spin)

More Titus Andronics photos:

Mick Jagger, Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters: "SNL" Finale is Full of Stones Tunes

Mick Jagger sent the 37th season of "Saturday Night Live" off with a big musical bang last night, thanks to help from some heavyweight friends and an extra dose of Rolling Stones tunes. Before the show I was wondering how "SNL" would fit Jagger, Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, and Jeff Beck into one hour-and-a-half program, and they did it by having two of the bands backing Jagger and adding in an extra musical segment to the show's traditional two-performance limit by musical guests.


Mick Jagger performs a medley of "19th Nervous Breakdown" and "It's Only Rock and Roll" with Foo Fighters.


Jagger sings "The Last Time" with Arcade Fire.

The third musical segment was Jagger performing "Tea Party," a blues song he wrote about the upcoming U.S. election. He performed this song with Jeff Beck and band (including Tal Wilkenfeld on bass). An odd piece, to be sure.


Jagger performs "Tea Party" with Jeff Beck and band.

The final musical performance, which closed the show, came at the end of a skit about a high-school graduation, with departing "SNL" cast member Kristin Wiig being singled out. The other "students" each took turns dancing with or hugging Wiig as Arcade Fire performed a medley of "She's A Rainbow" and "Ruby Tuesday."


Jagger and Arcade Fire send off Kristin Wiig with a medley of "She's a Rainbow" and "Ruby Tuesday." 

Wiig shed a few tears as she said goodbye to her cast members, and even "SNL" creator Lorne Michaels gave her a during the finale. John Hamm, Steve Martin, and Amy Poehler were also on hand. With her recent film success, especially the big hit "Bridesmaids" (which she starred in and co-wrote), Wiig becomes the latest talented comedian/actress to "graduate" from "SNL" to bigger things.

Music Notes: Radiohead Plays Roseland, Arcade Fire Wins Polaris, $5 MP3 Albums

Radiohead video for "Lotus Flower" from their most recent album, "The King of Limbs."

Radiohead playing two shows at Roseland next week and Arcade Fire taking home the Polaris Prize headline this latest edition of Music Notes. Also in this edition: last call for Amazon.com's $5 MP3 album salefor September.  

* Radiohead is returning to New York for two shows at Roseland Ballroom on Sept. 28th and 29th. Roseland isn't exactly an intimate setting, but it's much smaller than the arenas the band is capable of selling out. There have been a couple of presales for the shows, but if you misssed out on those you can get Radiohead at Roseland tickets here at 10 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 26th.

All tickets are priced at $79.75 ($65 base price plus $14.75 in fees).

Note: an announcement on Radiohead's website says: "There is a 2 ticket limit per household. All tickets will be available for pick up at will call the evening of the event beginning at 6:30 PM and entry into the venue is required immediately upon receipt. No tickets shall be distributed prior to the event."

You can also get a shot at winning tickets to the concerts by contributing to L.A. radio station KCRW (a very worthy cause). Enter for a chance to win Radiohead at Roseland tickets here (enter by 3 p.m. Eastern time on Monday).

Also on the bill with Radiohead are Four Tet and rocketnumbernine.

* Arcade Fire took home the 2011 Polaris Music Prize for best Canadian album, which could be considered something of an upset since the award prides itself on going to the most deserving candidate based only on artistic merit, regardless of commercial success. (In the past more well-known acts have lost out to relatively obscure artists; last year's winner, the francophone group Karkwa, beat out albums by Broken Social Scene, Tegan and Sara, and The Sadies.)

Big congrats to Arcade Fire on taking home the Polaris (and the $30,000 prize).

* Amazon.com's $5 MP3 album salefor September is in its final week. If you're looking to expand your music collection on the cheap, you'll find albums there by artists including Mumford & Sons, The Decemberists, Feist, Fitz & the Tantrums, Regina Spektor, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blind Pilot, Surfer Blood, Richard Buckner, and TV on the Radio.

Are you going to try to get tickets to see Radiohead at Roseland next week? What shows are folks exciting to see this weekend?

Neil Young, Arcade Fire Win Multiple Juno Awards

Neil Young won three Juno Awards Sunday night in Toronto. Photo: Andrea Barsant via Flickr

Neil Young is on a roll: the crusty old rocker won three Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys) Sunday night, just weeks after winning his first-ever music Grammy. In a night otherwise dominated (on the rock side, anyway) by indie darlings Arcade Fire, the 65-year-old rocker took home Artist of the Year honors and Adult Alternative Album of the Year for "Le Noise," as well as the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award. The latter is said to be given to a prominent artist with a long history of humanitarian work, and the Spinner.com article says that it was given to Young primarily for his work in co-founding Farm Aid, the annual concert that benefits farmers.

Montreal's Arcade Fire took home some of the night's biggest awards, including Album of the Year (for "The Suburbs"), Group of the year, and Songwriter of the Year. Some other major Juno winners in rock and pop:

• New Artist of the Year: Meaghan Smith
  
• New Group of the Year: Said the Whale
  
• Rock Album of the Year: Matthew Good, "Vancouver"
  
• Producer of the Year: Daniel Lanois for "Hitchhiker" (from "Le Noise" by Neil Young) and "I Believe in You" (from Black Dub's self-titled album)
  

See the full list of 2011 Juno Awards winners here.

Last Call for Amazon.com $5 MP3 Albums for Feb.: Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs," The Black Keys, The Smiths, Sara Bareilles, & Much More

Arcade Fire's Grammy-winning "The Suburbs" is on sale for  $5 on MP3 download for the rest of February.

It's coming down to the final days of Amazon.com's $5 MP3 albums for February, so I thought I'd post a reminder of some of the notable releases on the list. One is a new, and newly honored, album: Arcade Fire's Grammy-winning "The Suburbs."

Also on the list of Amazon.com $5 MP3 albums for the rest of February:

* Alt-rock, indie-rock, and Americana albums including the Avett Brothers live, "Thickfreakness" by The Black Keys, "Little Voice" by Sara Bareilles, "Once" movie soundtrack, "Begin To Hope" by Regina Spektor, "Revival" by Gillian Welch, "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" by Sarah McLachlan,

* "The Queen is Dead" by The Smiths, "13 Songs" by Fugazi, Buffalo Springfield's self-titled album, "69 Love Songs Volume 2" by The Magnetic Fields, Erasure's self-titled album, "Crimes Of Passion" by Pat Benatar, and "Shake It Up" by The Cars

2011 Grammys: Arcade Fire Wins Album of Year for "The Suburbs"

Above: Arcade Fire performs "Ready to Start" at Madison Square Garden last December.

The celebration of music and spectacle know as the 2011 Grammys had a little bit of everything, from bizarre costumes (see: Lady Gaga egg; Cee Lo Green chicken/peacock outfit) to heartfelt performances. You'll find the full list of 2010 Grammy winners and nominees here, including the nearly 100 awards that weren't televised.

The evening's top prize, Album of the Year, went to the Canadian indie-rock band Arcade Fire for "The Suburbs."Although a favorite of both critics and music fans, the band's third album had lost out in the two other Grammys it had been nominated for this year, and for the Album of the Year it was facing a number of popular Grammy-winning favorites: Eminem, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and country band Lady Antebellum (a multiple winner on the night).

Arcade Fire had just performed "Month of May"and was waiting under the stage for the announcement, and was quite surprised when "The Suburbs"was named for the top prize. And then it went on to play a second song from the album, "Ready to Start,"to finish the show. (That had nothing to do with them winning; it had been agreed to beforehand that the band would play a second tune to wrap up the show, no matter who won the night's final award.)

As usual for the Grammys, youth and current trends were served, with nominations and wins for—and performances by—acts like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry,  Enimem, and the ever-bizarre Lady Gaga. But the performances also featured a nod to the older generation influencers: Bob Dylan performed "Maggie's Farm" with two younger, Americana bands, Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers.

Lady Antebellum's “Need You Now”won Record of the Year and Song of the Year, while jazz singer and upright bass player Esperanza Spalding won the new artist, beating out the megastars Justin Bieber and Drake and indie acts Florence and the Machine and Mumford and Sons.

One artist who made an impression Sunday night was singer/songwriter/producer Skylar Grey, who co-wrote Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie"(and received a Song of the Year nomination for it) and performed on Eminem and Dr. Dre's rendition of "I Need a Doctor"on the Grammy telecast. Skylar Grey, whose real name is Holly Brook Hafermann, is a Wisconsin native who has one solo album out under the name Holly Brook.

She has a website, skylargreymusic.com, that only has a few photos and the message "Coming Soon," but she's active on Twitter (@SkylarGrey), where her follower count has gone from 6,000 to over 10,000 in the last few days. There's also an unofficial fan site, skylargreynews.com, which has news, videos, and tweets, among other information.

More on the 2011 Grammys in the next day or so...

Arcade Fire Rocks MSG - Watch Webcast Highlights

OK, this will be my last post on Arcade Fire, their new album "The Suburbs," and their current tour... for a while, anyway. Last Thursday's concert at Madison Square Garden was great, and the nine (or 10?) band members on stage had no problem creating sound big enough to fill the cavernous arena.

Of course, being at the show meant that I missed their live webcast of it, directed by Terry Gilliam, Monty Python member and director of films including "Brazil," "Time Bandits," "The Fisher King," and "12 Monkeys." You can see some of the Arcade Fire webcast highlights at their YouTube page, including Arcade Fire favorites "Wake Up" and "Keep the Car Running" and tunes from "The Suburbs" including "Ready to Start," "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)," and "Rococo."



Speaking of Terry Gilliam, he did a video with Arcade Fire before the webcast (below) in which he talks about directing the program. (The video also reveals the band members to be robots whom Gilliam controls with a large computer-game console.)

Get Arcade Fire's New "The Suburbs" MP3 Download for Just $3.99 - Tuesday Only!

I'd planned on buying "The Suburbs" on CD so I could check out the artwork, credits, etc., but I may reconsider that since finding out that Amazon. com has made the new Arcade Fire album its "deal of the day" for Tuesday, August 3rd (the album's release date). For this day only, you can get the album for just $3.99 (U.S. customers only, I'm pretty sure).

Amazon.com has featured Arcade Fire's first two albums in the last couple of months as part of its regular "100 MP3 albums for $5" deal, so I took advantage of those deals. If I buy "The Suburbs" today, I will have gotten all three Arcade Fire albums for $14.00. No album artwork, credits, band photos, etc., but you can't beat the price.

Listen to Arcade Fire's New Album "The Suburbs" Free Online

Arcade Fire's eagerly awaited new album "The Suburbs" drops tomorrow, and you can stream the entire album FREE online below via NPR Music. The band is on the road with shows in Philadelphia and New York this week (two dates at Madison Square Garden, Wednesday and Thursday). Spoon is also on the bill, so is Owen Pallett, the Canadian singer/composer/violinist/Arcade Fire collaborator who won the inaugural Polaris Prize in 2006 (under his former identity, Final Fantasy).

The Thursday, August 5th Arcade Fire show will be webcast live, in a production directed by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame. (Tickets are still available for the August 5th Arcade Fire concert, though the August 4th show is sold out.)

Music stores around North America are having Arcade Fire listening parties with food and drink, giveaways, and more; to find out about these and other events follow the Merge Records Twitter account.

Arcade Fire Will Stream August 5th NYC Show LIVE on YouTube

Arcade Fire announced last week that it will be streaming its August 5th concert live from Madison Square Garden, the second of its two New York City shows. (The first concert on August 4th is sold out, but it seems there are still tickets available for the 5th.)

The band's new album, "The Suburbs," will be released on August 3rd, with eight (slightly) different album covers.

Arcade Fire Adds Second NYC Show at Madison Square Garden

Arcade Fire has added a second New York City date, on August 5th. Their first NYC show on August 4th, which was announced with the other Arcade Fire North American tour dates, has already sold out -- a pretty enthusiastic reception for the indie rockers, especially considering they have just two albums out (their third, "The Suburbs," will be released in a few weeks).

Spoon will be the opener, as with the first Arcade Fire show.

Tickets for the August 5th Arcade Fire concert go on sale Saturday, June 26th at 9 a.m.

Arcade Fire Announces North American Tour Dates (Some with Spoon)

Arcade Fire has posted new tour dates! Just a couple days ago I wrote about their upcoming album "The Suburbs" and noted that they had very few North American gigs listed, and yesterday they announced new dates in the U.S. All the gigs shown below are from the Merge Records Arcade Fire tour page. Presales for some of the dates became live at 10 a.m. Eastern time today. (Note: there are some discrepancies between the Arcade Fire tour dates listed at the top of the page and the ones below.)

2010 Arcade Fire tour dates:

June
7 Sherbrooke Quebec - Theater Granada
8 Sherbrooke, Quebec - Theater Granada
28 Helsinki, Finland - The Senate Square
30 Rättvik, Sweden - Dalhalla

July
2 Arendal, Norway - Hove Festival
4 Werchter, Belgium - Rock Werchter
9 Dublin, Ireland - Oxegen Festival
13 Ottawa, Ontario - Ottawa Bluesfest
31 Montreal, Quebec - Osheaga Festival

August
1 Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion
2 Philadelphia, PA (w/ Spoon) - Mann Centre for the Performing Arts
4 New York, NY (w/ Spoon) - Madison Square Garden
6 Washington, DC (w/ Spoon) - Merriweather Post Pavilion
8 Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
9 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium
11 Atlanta, GA  (w/ Spoon) - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
14 Toronto, Ontario - Olympic Island
27 Leeds, UK - Leeds Festival
28 Reading, UK - Reading Festival
29 Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, France - Rock En Seine
31 Berlin, Germany - Tempodrom

September
2 Bologna, Italy - Arena Parco Nord

Arcade Fire Return with New Songs, Interview; Album to Come

After making a big splash with its first two albums, "Funeral" and "Neon Bible," Montreal band Arcade Fire is preparing for the release of its third album, "The Suburbs." Two songs from it, the title track and "Month of May," have been previewed online since their release last week and digital versions can be bought online from the Arcade Fire website.

The album "The Suburbs" will be released on August 3rd in the U.S. and Canada. It's available for pre-order now in a variety of formats from the band's website.

You can listen to the two new Arcade Fire songs free on NPR Music, and also hear a chat they did with Arcade Fire's Win and Will Butler. (You can stream the chat online or download it.)

You can learn more about the album at www.mergerecords.com/thesuburbs, and find the latest Arcade Fire tour dates as well (not many so far; a bunch in Europe, a couple in Canada, and Lollapalooza in Chicago on August 8th).