Music Notes: CMJ Announces More Acts; Amanda Palmer Seeking Musicians; Pussy Riot to Go Free?; & More

Here's a collection of musical tidbits from far and wide:

* CMJ has announced a second round of artists for its 2012 music schedule (Oct. 16th - 20th), including AraabMUZIK, Savages, and Hey Rosetta!. Bands already announced include Mountain Goats, DIIV, and The Walkmen, among many others.



* Amanda Palmer attracted much derision when she called for musicians to come play on stage with her during her current tour—despite raising more than $1 million through Kickstarter for her current album (which is streaming online this week). Palmer insists that it would be too expensive to hire the string quartet, horns, etc. for the tour, and notes that participating musicians will get the experience of playing before her enthusiastic fans, and getting "beer and hugs." And hey, no one's forcing musicians to play with Palmer.

* Could Pussy Riot go free soon? Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that the three imprisoned members of the punk rock performance group should be let out of jail, and there are hints that this could happen after their appeal comes up on Oct. 1st. (via Spinner)

* Bonnaroo has announced the dates of its 2013 festival. The long-running Manchester, Tennessee shindig will take place June 13th - 16th. (via Consequence of Sound)

* Madonna has announced a second Madison Square Garden show, which will take place on Tues., Nov. 13th. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Fri., Sept. 14th at 10 a.m. Her Nov. 12th show is sold out, although sometimes extra tickets are placed on sale later.

* Canada's CBC Music has announced several new online streams in the continuing upgrade of its music website, which was totally revamped and relaunched several months ago. There's a stream of new-wave music that went live today, with songs hand picked by DJ and talk-show host Jian Ghomesi, and new offerings devoted to electronic dance music (EDM) and other genres as well as specialty streams dedicated to k.d. Lang and one-hit wonders.



* Finally, Brooklyn band Leda (fronted by Amy Klein, formerly of Titus Andronicus) released a new video (above) on Klein's Tumblr yesterday. It's a live performance of a song called "You Are the One," and Klein says more videos are coming. Based on the the tunes I've heard from Leda so far, I'm looking forward to hearing their debut album, whenever it comes.

Music Notes: Metallica's NJ Festival, Madonna on Tour, Obama's Spotify, & More

Some random concert and music news from this week:

* Metallica's rumored music festival in New Jersey is a reality: the "Orion: Music + More" fest will take place on June 23rd and 24th at Bader Field in Atlantic City. The band will be headliners both days as well as curators of this new event, which also includes Arctic Monkeys, Modest Mouse, the Gaslight Anthem, F"*cked Up, Titus Andronicus, The Black Angels, Best Coast, and more.

Metallica's Orion music festival is officially on; see ticket info and other details below.

Tickets will be sold at "the early bird price of $150" starting tomorrow, Feb. 11th at 10 a.m. Eastern time at www.orionmusicandmore.com. Supplies are limited at this special price and ticket purchases are limited to no more than ten per person. You'll find an Orion fest FAQ here.

* Following up on her much-discussed Super Bowl halftime show, Madonna announced her 2012 world tour this week. The tour comes to North America on August 28th (in Philadelphia) and comes to Yankee Stadium on Sept. 6th. Tickets for all North American shows go on sale on Feb. 13th at Ticketmaster.com and LiveNation.com

* Maura Johnston of the Village Voice today penned a scathing take-down of how women in music are discussed in the press in her article "How Not to Write About Female Musicians: A Handy Guide." Apparently one thing that spurred the article was the recent profile of Lana Del Rey in T, the New York Times style magazine (Johnston lowered the boom on Del Rey in her review of the singer's "Born to Die" a couple of weeks ago.)

* The White House yesterday tweeted the official Spotify playlist of Pres. Barack Obama's re-election campaign, which the L.A. Times lists in full here (and humorously analyzes). The playlist includes soul and R&B (Earth, Wind and Fire, Aretha Franklin), country (Sugarland, Zac Brown Band), and some classic rock (REO Speedwagon, Electric Light Orchestra), among other things. And, of course, Al Green's "Let's Stay Together."

While many people have referred to this as Obama's playlist, the actual link says the songs are the picks of the campaign staff, with "a few of President Obama's favorites."