Fellow blogger Brooklyn Vegan posted some tour dates for The Hold Steady that includes a few dates that we here at sonic itch music cannot seem to verify, but they look legit. Looks like us folks here in the Lone Star State will have the pleasure of being granted a visit by The Hold Steady gang, and here are the dates that we somehow missed:

Thursday, June 7 – Houston, TX @ Walter’s on Washington
Friday, June 8 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s
Sunday, June 10 – Norman, OK @ Opolis Production

mp3 for “your little hoodrat friend”

The Hold Steady on Letterman “Stuck Between Stations”

We all love the fine folks over at Pitchfork, and the reasons why just keep multiplying. For those of us with plans on attending the second coming of the newly birthed music fest, the anticipation is slowing being swathed into a mild fever for the modern rock experience taking place July 13th, 14th, and 15th in Chicago. Some recent exciting additions to the line-up have just been announced, giving the festival an ever growing glow, and yet only about 50 percent of the entire line-up has been released.

added band The Ponys mp3s from Turn the Lights Out Go Here

or you have this old Ponys video for fun

check out the current schedule: Read more

Nick Cave fans in the U.S. may have a reason to celebrate, as the debut release from his new project Grinderman is about to make itself available in the states April 10th, being released by Anti. If you are a Nick Cave fan for the reason that you are moved by his style of crooning blues revelling in subject material that covers the broad spectrum of life in it’s most personal intimate moments, then you may want to prepare yourself for a trip into the gritty dirty side of Nick Cave. With a scattering of The Bad Seeds in tow for this project, Nick Cave is exploring an avenue of artistic expression not ventured into since The Birthday Party, which is dark, loud, fuzzy, bluesy, rockin, and downright crude at times. We are welcoming the other side of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds a.k.a. Grinderman, and we’re sure that we won’t be the only ones.

even the photo tells the tale.

check out the mp3 for “get it on”

log onto the Grinderman for more info and a cool digital experience of the band.

photo : valerie@fremin.net
I know that we all enjoyed the performances of The Rosebuds @ SXSW this year and if those performances don’t have you checking the calender in anticipation of the release of Night of the Furies , you may want to check your pulse. If the release date of April 10th seems to far wedged in the future, then scramble on over to the Merge Records site (home of the Rosebuds, and many other great artists) and stream the new recording. And with great satisfaction we also are able to present to you the list of tour dates which will bring The Rosebuds to a town near you, where they are sure to deliver an evening of ass shakin 80’s influenced modern indie pop rock compliments of Ivan and the lovely Kelly.

Merge Records site for stream
mp3 for Get Up Get Out

read on for tour dates Read more

Sasquatch! Festival and Tag Team Media have put together a chance for you to win a pair of 2 day passes to this years Sasquatch! Music Festival. This year the festivals line-up includes, but not limited to:The Beastie Boys, Bjork, The Arcade Fire, The Hold Steady, Spoon, The Black Angels, MIA, Neko Case, The Dandy Wharhols, Ghostland Observatory, Minus the Bear, The Blakes, and many more.

All you need to do is send your name, age, phone number, and website where you found out this joyous information to:

sasquatchgiveaway@tagteammedia.com

Check out the trailer for the festival just to get the juices flowin

2007 Sasquatch! Music Festival Trailer on Vimeo

Ted Leo and his ever changing group of Pharmacists are embarking on a tour in support of their newest release Living with the Living, which we here at sonic itch music are quite fond of the record as well as the title. Although we here at sonic itch music have been aware of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists for awhile now, the buzz around the band currently is opening our eyes to what has been an evolving progression of a musical personal political montage of expression by Ted Leo. Government and politics can be considered the main focus of a lot of what Ted Leo does musically, but when it works its way to the end of the day, it really almost can be simplified as a continuous internal struggle with the frustrations in life that the each of us are trying to simplify enough for us to deal with on a scaled down production size. It’s a true step to be frustrated at what is going on in the world, but the honest reality is that our power is limited despite the outcries that democracy really exists and it possesses power in this society to implement change, yet we can express our concerns and observations on a scale that keeps it relevant in our small circle of associates.

All of that aside, it’s nice to rock out to the Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

They will be coming to a town near you soon, and we will promise to have coverage sonic itch music style for you of their Austin show.

Death + Taxes magazine has a great interview with mr Ted Leo in their March/April issue. We suggest you check it out.

check out the new video for Bomb.Repeat.Bomb
Bomb.Repeat.Bomb.

continue on for tour dates Read more

Not too long after announcing the upcoming release of the acoustic EP titled Live at Fingerprints, The Hold Steady announce plans to bring their truely american style of post punk guitar rock back to the states after jaunting around Europe for awhile. With shows scheduled @ Washington’s Sasquatch Festival and the ever growing Tennessee Music Fest Bonnaroo, the tour unfortunately is concentrated in the ever familiar stomping ground of The Hold Steady boys, Midwest USA. The boys and girls that reside here in the Lone Star state will have to patiently await future news of live performances that will hopefully land the band in a city near us.

killer parties remix mp3

keep reading for announced dates Read more

Austin’s own indie pop rock quintent Voxtrot have just announced the wrap-up of their first full length recording, handled by well known producer Victor Van Vugt (PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Luna), as well as the first set of live dates soon to be followed by many more shows in support of the new recording. Voxtrot fans can look forward to the new disc, titled Voxtrot, being available worldwide May 22nd with the first single “blood red blood” being released in Europe on May 14th in 7 inch download formats. If you feel the need to satisfy your itch for some new Voxtrot you can scoot on over to their myspace page for a listen of “kid gloves” or find the mp3 download of the same, over at voxtrot.net.

Need a live Voxtrot fix? Tickets go on sale today @ noon for their June 14th show @ New York City’s Webster Hall at which the band with be joined by Austin’s own Tosca String Quartet on stage. www.ticketmaster.com is where you can purchase tickets to this unique Voxtrot performance. If you aren’t going to be in NYC for this particular show then check the following dates for a performance near you.
Read more

Seems a little late in the game, but the lineup for the David Bowie curated High Line Festival taking place in New York May 9th – 19th, has been released. Early reports about the festival claimed that Bowie himself would be taking the stage for a performance, and after reviewing the website, sonic itch music doesn’t believe this to be the case. What a shame.

check the website for details: High Line Festival

on a side note: who designed this image?? does Bowie know that his face is stuck in the middle of a graphic straight out of Miami Vice??

photo : valerie@fremin.net

We’re sure that everyone is completely saturated in SXSW news and postings, and we wish we could’ve put them out as quickly as we experienced them, but if you were there you would understand the demand on the physical and mental. We didn’t want to leave out any coverage of You Am I @ SXSW, being that the extremely popular band in Australia is embarking on their first serious attempt to win over more fans in the United States with their most recently released recording Convicts on Yep Roc Records being released in the states with a U.S. tour to follow that began at SXSW. Granted these guys have been stars in their home country and Europe for years and may be edging towards the end of their careers, the attempt to broaden their audience in the U.S. will hopefully be embraced by the fans here that have followed the more popular exports from Australia (Jet, Silverchair, Wolfmother, the Sleepy Jackson) that owe You Am I a thanks for being the launchpad for their careers. Check out our contributor, Mark Bradley’s assessment of the bands three performances on Friday @ SXSW at which You Am I knocked out some serious Aussie rock.

Longtime Ausssie rockers You Am I offered up three fiery performance on Friday. Hugely successful and influential in their homeland and the UK; You Am I has never received much recognition in the states. Frontman Tim Rogers is part of the continuing line of post punk songwriters that are not afraid to mix clever lyrics backed by some powerful rock n roll. Roger’s is a word-smith worthy of the likes of Ray Davies or Paul Westerberg. Mostly pulling from their new release Convicts on Yep Roc Records the veterans schooled the locals w/ their well delivered showmanship. Standout numbers from each set include Friends Like You and Thuggery from the new release and classic hits Berlin Chair and Cathy’s Clown.

It would be nice to see this band get some traction in the US w/ the support of a new label new release Convicts. I look forward to catching them on their next trip around.

Thanks to Mark Bradley for the You Am I coverage.

photo : valerie@fremin.net

Go here for some bad-ass photos of You Am I from our lady of photography Valerie Fremin

You also might want to check out this photo gallery of Iggy and The Stooges from SXSW

With great anticipation we await the May 22nd release The Boxer from one of our favorite bands The National, and with the just recently released mp3 for Fake Empire, the anticipation grows even more.

check it out: Fake Empire mp3

sonic itch music ran into Ben Nichols from Lucero @ SXSW and questioned him about the bands decision to not play the conference this year after already being accepted and scheduled to appear. According to Ben, the decision was based on aligning priorities for the band at the moment, and future endeavours out weighed traveling to Austin to perform at SXSW 2007. Ben assured us that the band would be in our town,as well as yours, soon to scratch our longing itch for a little live Lucero.

Here are the dates for the tour Read more

For those of you viewing the site with Explorer 6 or older, we apologize. We have just realized that if you are viewing the site with Explorer 6 or older, the site isn’t looking as well as we hope it would be. We’ll be making adjustments to our future posts to insure that our users that are using Explorer 6 or older, will be able to view the site as we intend it to be viewed, but if you can upgrade to Explorer 7 or even Firefox the viewing will be right on.

go here for IE 7

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photo : valerie@fremin.net

Once again thanks to our friends over at KEXP for bringing us some of the best live music experiences of SXSW 2007, several of which took place during their live broadcast @ the Austin City Limits Studios. With the March 20th release date of their Matador debut recording “Turn the Lights Out” just a few days away, The Ponys didn’t hesistate to break out the new tunes for the crowd of folks that gathered on Thursday 3.15 at the studios during the live broadcast. Double Vision is quickly becoming one of our favorites off of the newest recording, and we are looking forward to getting into the record a bit more, as there are sure to be many more treats in store. If you missed out, you can always check the KEXP archive of live performances and broadcasts for a listen.

The PonysPhoto Gallery compliments of Valerie Fremin

The Ponys on the road coming to a town near you Read more

Just a few more days left for your chance to purchase presale tickets for the 2007 spring road trek of Seattle’s Minus the Bear along with The Honorary Title and Suicide Squeeze labelmates Chin Up Chin Up. March 24th will be the last day to purchase your presale tickets for the tour before the tickets become available to the public.

go here for presale: Minus the Bear

While we patiently await the upcoming release from the boys, “Planet of Ice” due out Aug 21st, we’ll have to settle for a live preview of the newest musical offerings.

tour dates follow: Read more