Music News: Smashing Pumpkins Auditions, Allman Bros. Cancel NYC Shows, Joan Jett on the Runaways Movie

Some news briefs this week in the world of rock, from various music news outlets:

Have you ever dreamed of playing in the Smashing Pumpkins? Leader Billy Corgan is looking for band members. (NME)

The Allman Brothers Band has cancelled its second week of shows in New York City (March 22nd - 27th) due to an "unforeseen family matter," according to an e-mail from the band. The first set of shows, March 11th - 20th, will go on as planned.

Joan Jett met Kristen Stewart, the "Twilight" star who will be playing her in the upcoming movie "The Runaways." The former Runaway found Stewart to be "through and through totally professional and just great to be around." (Interview Magazine)

The Go-Go's are performing at least a couple of shows this summer, but Kathy Valentine has been making music with her latest all-girl (and all-Texas) group, the BlueBonnets. You can hear "Don't Pass Me By," a new song from the BlueBonnets, here.

Ian Dury, my favorite wacky singer from the 1970s, is the subject of a "loose biopic" that will be shown at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. The Ian Dury film is, of course, titled after his best-known song, "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll." Andy Serkis plays Dury.

New York Concerts on Sale: Glee, Massive Attack, Public Image Limited, Broken Social Scene, Thom Yorke, and More

I usually don't do two consecutive posts about tickets on sale for New York City concerts, but there are some great ones that will be in high demand and that just went on sale or are about to. The first few listed are already on sale; after that the public on-sale date is listed.

* Massive Attack, Tues. May 11th, Terminal 5
* Atoms for Peace (Thom Yorke's new band), Mon. & Tues. April 5th & 6th, Roseland Ballroom
* Regina Spektor (benefit for Doctors without Borders), Tues. March 23rd, The Fillmore at Irving Plaza
* Public Image Ltd., Tues. May 18th, Terminal 5
* Broken Social Scene, Sat. September 19th, Central Park Summerstage 
* The Thermals, Wed. April 21st, Brooklyn Bowl
* Glee "Live in Concert!," Fri., Sat., Sun. May 28th, 29th, & 30th, Radio City Music Hall (ON SALE: March 23rd)
* Willie Nelson & Family, with special guest the Levon Helm Band, Wed. July 28th, Radio City Music Hall (ON SALE: March 12th)
* Carole King & James Taylor "Troubadour Reunion" (3rd show), Wed., July 30th, Madison Square Garden (ON SALE: March 15th)

New York Concerts on Sale: Vampire Weekend, Sharon Jones, Peter Gabriel, K'Naan, Mo'nique

UPDATE: Tickets now on sale for second Vampire Weekend show (9/16)
- - - - -
Here's the latest in my semi-irregular listing of New York area concerts that are going on sale soon or that recently went on sale. As usual, there's a good mix of big stars and up-and-coming artists who are popular.

Going on sale Friday, February 26th or Saturday, February 27th:

* Vampire Weekend, September 15th, Radio City Music Hall (SECOND VAMPIRE WEEKEND SHOW ADDED for September 16th; tickets on sale now)

* Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, May 1st, Apollo Theater (April 30th show already on sale)

* Mo'nique, April 9th at Prudential Center (Newark) & April 24th (The Theater at Madison Square Garden)

Now on sale:

* Peter Gabriel (with 54-piece orchestra), May 2nd & May 3rd, Radio City Music Hall

* DJ Rekha, April 23rd, The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza

* K'naan and Wale with John Forte, March 31st, The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza

* April Fools Comedy Show hosted by DL Hughley, April 1st, The Theater at Madison Square Garden

More to come next week.

2010 Sasquatch Festival Lineup Announced

The lineup for the 2010 Sasquatch Festival was announced at a free show at the Crocodile February 15th. The festival's home page is swamped by traffic and won't load as of 2 a.m. Eastern time, but here are some details I've been able to get from the Twitter account of the Ear Candy music blog (and a photo of the 2010 Sasquatch poster that Ear Candy posted):

My Morning Jacket / Massive Attack / Pavement / Ween / Vampire Weekend / MGMT / The National / Band of Horses / Broken Social Scene / The xx / The New Pornographers / LCD Soundsystem / Tegan & Sara / Broken Social Scene / Passion Pit / The Hold Steady / Dirty Projectors / OK Go / Drive By Truckers / Kid Cudi / Long Winters / Minus the Bear / The Mountain Goats / Camera Obscura / Dr. Dog

Brooklyn Vegan has a more complete 2010 Sasquatch lineup here, which may or may not be completely final and accurate. Paste has what it says is the full Sasquatch lineup on its Web site. Sasquatch will issue a press release Tuesday morning, Feb. 16th.

This year's festival takes place May 29th to 31st at The Gorge in Washington State. 2010 Sasquatch tickets go on sale at 12 Noon Eastern time.

The Sasquatch Festival home page, www.sasquatchfestival.com, shows only info for the 2009 festival at this point. Let's hope it's updated soon.

Bonnaroo 2010 Lineup Announced: Dave Matthews, Weezer, Jay-Z, Jimmy Cliff, and Much More

The folks at Bonnaroo announced their 2010 schedule today, and as usual it's a great lineup. Among the most well-known names are the Dave Matthews Band, Jay-Z, Stevie Wonder, Jeff Beck, Weezer, John Fogerty, OK Go, Norah Jones, Phoenix, and The Flaming Lips (performing Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon").

This year's Bonnaroo Festival will be held June 10th to 13th, and as always will take place in Manchester, Tennessee. You can get your Bonnaroo 2010 tickets here.

Among the many, many performers announced today: The Avett Brothers, Medeski Martin and Wood
, 
The Black Keys, Calexico, Blues Traveler, Blitzen Trapper, Brandi Carlile, Cross Canadian Ragweed, 
Ingrid Michaelson
, 
The xx
, Regina Spektor, 
Mayer Hawthorne & the County, 
Wale, 
Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers
, 

Thievery Corporation, 
GWAR, 
She & Him, 
Jimmy Cliff
, Tokyo Police Club, Kid Cudi
, Japandroids, and Dr. Dog.

And here's an interesting combination I wouldn't have foreseen: Daryl Hall (yes, half of Hall & Oates) and Canadian hip-hop duo Chromeo.

You can find more information at the Bonnaroo home page and the Bonnaroo MySpace page. The official site has a new Bonnaroo information guide with details on how to get there, where to stay, what you can and can't bring, etc.  

The first two price levels sold out during a pre-sale in December, so make your plans now for Bonnaroo 2010!

The Who Play the Super Bowl (VIDEO)

As someone who's been a fan of The Who since the 1960s, I was delighted to see the band play the Super Bowl halftime show tonight, even though they weren't in touring form and only had a 12-minute window to play as many segments of songs as they could squeeze into that time.

Here's what was in The Who's medley: “Pinball Wizard” into “Baba O’Riley,” “Who Are You,” a bit of “See Me/Feel Me” (from Tommy), and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

The New York Times noted that The Who "exhibited flashes of age and familiarity," whereas Rachel Sklar over at Mediaite echoed my reactions to the show: would've liked some lesser-known tunes, but overall thought it was a great show. (Judge for yourself in the videos of the performance, unfortunately split into two parts.)


Speaking of which, how old are the members of The Who these days? According to The Times (which seems to have trouble getting dates right these days), guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend is 64, and singer Roger Daltrey is 65. I wasn't sure who the bassist was, but the drummer was Zak Starkey, son of Richard Starkey (better known as Ringo Starr). Zak has been The Who's drummer since the mid-'90s, and is a relative youngster at 44.

The Who was my favorite of the top rock groups growing up, even more than the Rolling Stones and The Beatles. I was glad to see them rocking out on such a big stage, and hope the performance wins them some new fans and sells some albums.