NY Area Concerts On Sale: Radiohead, That Dog, Edward Sharpe, & More

Some big shows in the NYC area are going on sale Friday and Saturday, so here's a heads-up on a few of them, with links to tickets. The biggest event is Radiohead's return to the metro region with two concerts at Newark's Prudential Center, May 31st and June 1st. These are the first shows the band will play at The Pru, as well as the only New York area shows scheduled on this leg of their tour.

Indie rock favorites That Dog return for a concert at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

At the other end of the spectrum (in terms of commercial success, anyway) is the first East concert in more than 15 years by the much-loved 1990s indie rock band, That Dog. There's no words on whether the band will be mounting a full tour, but after doing at least a couple of reunion shows in L.A. last year, they're playing at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 25th. Comedian Fred Armisen of "Saturday Night Live" opens.

The members of That Dog have an impressive musical pedigree: frontwoman Anna Waronker is the daughter of record producer Lenny Waronker (and is married to Steve McDonald of Redd Kross); sisters Rachel and Petra Haden are daughters of famed bass player Charlie Haden.

• That Dog at Music Hall of Williamsburg, Thurs., May 24th. With Fred Armisen. On sale: Fri., March 9th, 12 Noon.
• Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros at Roseland Ballroom, Tues., May 8th. On sale: Fri., March 9th, 12 Noon.
• Zappa Plays Zappa at NYCB Theatre at Westbury, NY, Sat., June 30th (Dweezil Zappa and others playing the music of Frank Zappa). On sale: Fri., March 9th, 10 a.m.
• Radiohead at Prudential Center, May 31st and June 1st; with special guest Caribou. On sale: Sat., March 10th, 10 a.m.

For all those trying to get Radiohead tickets, let's hope that Ticketmaster is more prepared for the onslaught than it was for Springsteen tickets when they went on sale.

Coachella Announces 2012 Lineup; Expands to Two Weekends

Coachella fans, your wait is over: the lineup was announced last night for the festival's 2012 edition. For the first time ever, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will be held over two consecutive weekends, April 12th to the 15th and April 20th to the 22th. What's more, the lineups are exactly the same for each weekend (all bands playing on the first Friday are playing on the second Friday. etc.).

You'll see the full lineup in the poster below, and some of it in this post below the poster. (Since the poster photo here is small, see the Coachella site and click on the poster graphic at the lower left corner to see a larger version.) Check out the Coachella 2012 lineup in alphabetical order, with social media links for performers, on the festival's lineup page.

Coachella 2012 has a strong lineup each day.

Headliners for Coachella 2012 will be the Black Keys on Friday, Radiohead on Saturday, and Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg on Sunday. And the rest of the lineup is quite strong, too. Here's a brief look at some of the acts performing:

Friday: The Black Keys, Swedish House Mafia, Pulp, Refused, Arctic Monkeys, Mazzy Star, Afrojack, Explosions in the Sky, M83, Amon Tobin, Cat Power, Jimmy Cliff, Girls, and The Horrors.

Saturday: Radiohead, Bon Iver, the Shins, David Guetta, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Kaskade, Miike Snow, Jeff Mangum, Sebatian Ingrosso, Andrew Bird, Feist, Firehose, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, St. Vincent, SDTRKT, Kasabian, and Buzzcocks.

Sunday: Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, At the Drive-In, Justice, Florence and the Machine, AVICII, La Roux, Beirut, The Weeknd, Girl Talk, the Hives, DJ Shadow, Wild Flag, and Calvin Harris.

And those are just the acts listed on the top three of the six or seven lines on the Coachella poster. Other highly popular performers include groups that have headlines arena shows or have had well-reviewed albums that showed up on many "best-of" lists in 2011.

This includes Texas psychedelic rockers the Black Angels, the quirky Tune-Yards, British pop-folk singer Laura Marling, and the all-female Mexican garage-rock group Le Butcherettes, whose album "Sin Sin Sin" was named best of the year by Jim DeRogatis of the "Sound Opinions" music podcast.

It's not unusual for defunct bands to herald their return at big festivals, such as Rage Against the Machine did at Coachella a few years back. This year the much-admired post-hardcore band At the Drive-In, which split up more than a decade ago, announced its return with a new Twitter account (@AtTheDriveIn_).

Coachella is held at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, California. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific time.

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?