Mike Shinoda is set to headline the latest installment of the Monster Energy Outbreak Tour. Tickets go on sale starting Friday, August 10th at 10am local time at mikeshinoda.com and outbreakpresents.com, with special pre-sales starting Tuesday, August 7th at 10am local time. The full itinerary can be found below.
Shinoda’s North American tour follows a string of headline shows and festival appearances across Asia and Europe, including Reading & Leeds (UK), Summer Sonic (Japan), and Rock en Seine (France).
In June, Shinoda released his raw and inspiring solo album, Post Traumatic. The album received widespread critical acclaim and garnered a slew of positive reviews and profiles in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Complex, Time, Pitchfork, Forbes, GQ, People, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, LA Times, Spin, Noisey, Genius, and more. The album features genre-melding singles “Crossing a Line” and “Make It Up As I Go feat. K.Flay” along with a host of eclectic cameos from Blackbear, Machine Gun Kelly, Chino Moreno, and grandson.
The Monster Energy Outbreak Tour marks the first time Shinoda steps out on a full-scale North American solo tour. The highly-anticipated five-week run kicks off on October 10th at MTELUS in Montreal and wraps on November 17th at the Fillmore in Silver Spring, MD.
As a special treat for fans, at each show Mike will be showcasing the art pieces he created while writing and recording Post Traumatic.
TOUR DATES:
10/10 – MONTREAL, QC – MTELUS
10/11 – TORONTO, ON – REBEL
10/13 – NEW YORK, NY – PIER 17
10/14 – PHILADELPHIA, PA – FILLMORE
10/15 – STROUDSBURG, PA – SHERMAN THEATER
10/17 – CHARLOTTE, NC – FILLMORE
10/19 – TAMPA, FL – THE RITZ YBOR
10/20 – ORLANDO, FL – HOUSE OF BLUES
10/21 – ATLANTA, GA – TABERNACLE
10/23 – RALEIGH, NC – RITZ
10/25 – NEW ORLEANS, LA – HOUSE OF BLUES
10/28 – DALLAS, TX – HOUSE OF BLUES
10/30 – LAS VEGAS, NV – HOUSE OF BLUES
11/2 – LOS ANGELES, CA – HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM
11/5 – ANAHEIM, CA – HOUSE OF BLUES
11/6 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA – THE MASONIC
11/8 – SALT LAKE CITY, UT – THE DEPOT
11/9 – DENVER, CO – FILLMORE AUDITORIUM
11/11 – CHICAGO, IL – HOUSE OF BLUES
11/14 – BOSTON, MA – HOUSE OF BLUES
11/16 – DETROIT, MI – FILLMORE
11/17 – SILVER SPRING, MD – FILLMORE
Legendary artist Graham Nash released an animated video by New York-based filmmaker, animator, and painter Jeff Scher for the timeless Nash-penned Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young anthem “Teach Your Children.” The political video parallels the social justice issues the U.S. faced in the 1960s with those it faces today. Nash also announced a new batch of North American tour dates in fall 2018 as he continues to support his most recent studio album This Path Tonight in 2016 and the June 29th release of Over the Years…, a 2-disc collection of Nash’s best-known songs from the past 50 years and more than a dozen unreleased demos and mixes.
On tour, Nash will be accompanied by longtime collaborator and This Path Tonight producer, Shane Fontayne on guitars and vocals, and former CSN keyboard player and vocalist, Todd Caldwell. Nash and friends will perform songs from his days in the Hollies through his years with Crosby, Stills & Nash and from his beloved solo recordings, weaving anecdotes and tales from his 50-year career throughout the evening.
In addition to his solo tour, Nash will join Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, and others on The Lantern Tour’s New York City date at Town Hall. The Lantern Tour will benefit the Women’s Refugee Commission and their advocacy on behalf of migrant and refugee families seeking safety at the U.S. border.
Towering above virtually everything that Graham Nash has accomplished in his long and multi-faceted career stands the litany of songs that he has written and introduced to the soundtrack of the past half-century. His remarkable body of work, beginning with his contributions to the Hollies opus, including “Stop Stop Stop” and “Carrie Anne”, his signature CSN (&Y) offerings like “Teach Your Children”, “Our House” and “Marrakesh Express” and his solo standouts “Chicago/We Can Change the World” and “Military Madness.
No Depression proclaimed of a recent tour date, “”Nash walked the audience through his catalog, a rich tapestry of music spanning more than five decades, accompanied by Shane Fontayne on guitar and vocals. Touring in support of his latest release, This Path Tonight, the strength of the material and the resilience in Nash’s voice made for a wonderful evening. And, as the crowd soon discovered, the new songs were every bit as vital as the classic anthems they came to hear.”
2018 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
SEPT 19 – Paramount Theatre – Austin, TX
SEPT 20 – Dosey Doe – The Big Barn – The Woodlands, TX
SEPT 21 – Arlington Music Hall – Arlington, TX
SEPT 23 – Chautauqua Auditorium – Boulder, CO
SEPT 24 – The Stanley Hotel – Estes Park, CO
SEPT 25 – Strings Music Pavilion – Steamboat Springs, CO
SEPT 27 – The Commonwealth Room – Salt Lake City, UT
SEPT 29 – The Montbleu Resort Casino & Spa – Lake Tahoe, CA
OCT 1 – Edmonds Center for the Arts – Edmonds, WA
OCT 2 – The Aladdin – Portland, OR
OCT 3 – Cascade Theatre – Redding, CA
OCT 5 – Crest Theatre – Sacramento, CA
OCT 7 – Golden State Theater – Monterey, CA
OCT 9 – Lobero Theatre – Santa Barbara, CA
OCT 10 – Tower Theatre Fresno – Fresno, CA
OCT 11 – The Theatre at Ace Hotel – Los Angeles, CA
OCT 13 – Humphrey’s Concerts – San Diego, CA
OCT 15 – Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts – Scottsdale, AZ
OCT 16 – Fox Theatre – Tucson, AZ
OCT 17 – The Lensic – Santa Fe, NM
Drive-By Truckers have announced the long-awaited arrival of TOWN BURNED DOWN, the first-ever official release from singer/songwriter/guitarists Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood’s original incarnation as Adam’s House Cat.Recorded in 1990, but never-before-released as intended, the album arrives in stores and at all DSPs and streaming services via ATO Records on Friday September 21.
While Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood may have founded Drive-By Truckers in 1996, the two musicians had in fact first come together more than a decade prior. They met on August 1, 1985, the day Hood moved into a dank basement apartment in North Florence, AL shared by Cooley. The two young musicians took notice of each other’s guitars and became fast friends, drinking cheap beer and singing songs together on the flat’s shabby couch. Among those songs were originals penned by Hood, including one that took its title from the Southern colloquialism, I wouldn’t know him from Adam’s house cat. Hood and Cooley worked out a rendition of the song that quickly led to another and then another. That first collaboration eventually gave the band its moniker – Adam’s House Cat was born.
Adam’s House Cat proved rebellious from the jump, the only young band in the Muscle Shoals region playing hard rocking original music. Despite the area’s long musical tradition and legendary studio scene – including of course FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound, the latter co-founded by Hood’s dad, session bassist extraordinaire David Hood – times had changed in Muscle Shoals. No matter the cause, be it a downturned local economy or a record industry shift towards studios in Nashville and Los Angeles, the Muscle Shoals live scene in the mid-1980s was now limited to Top 40 cover bands and country and western, more likely a bit of both.
Undeterred, Hood and Cooley enlisted drummer Chuck Tremblay, more than a decade their senior but a gifted musician who after years toiling in motel lounge combos had his own personal commitment to only playing original music. A series of bass players did short time with the band before the arrival of John Cahoon, son of the mayor of Tuscumbia, AL and more importantly, a rebellious, rock-solid bassist.
Beginning in 1987, Adam’s House Cat spent three years grinding it out in bars and clubs around their home region, from Birmingham and Huntsville to Nashville, Memphis, and Oxford, MS. Wider attention came when the band’s infectious “Smiling At Girls” was named one of 10 First Place winners (out of over 1,500 entries) in MUSICIAN Magazine‘s Best Unsigned Band Contest, judged by an all-star panel that included Elvis Costello, T-Bone Burnett, Mitchell Froom, and Mark Knopfler. The track was featured on a nationally distributed compilation CD, garnering interest from an array of labels and managers across the South.
Despite hard touring around the Southeast, no deals came of Adam’s House Cat’s first success. The band took matters into their own hands, recording a collection of original train songs on four-track cassette dubbed TRAINS OF THOUGHT. Songs like “6 O’ Clock Train” and “Buttholeville” reflected the band’s frustration with their home region, a profound dissatisfaction that often enraged local audiences, occasionally to the point of incipient violence.
On November 25, 1990, Adam’s House Cat set up in the rooms upstairs from Muscle Shoals Sound Recording Studio and recorded basic tracks for 15 songs with producer/engineer Steve Melton (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Traffic). Tracked live on 2” analog 24-track tape, the songs recorded that freezing cold day represent an historic document of Adam’s House Cat in all their electrifying, unwieldy glory. The cavernous studio’s plaster walls, hardwood floors, and 25-foot ceilings enabled the band to create a massive sound without using the digital reverb common in that era. As a result, the recordings – mostly first and second takes – capture Adam’s House Cat as they truly were, loud, passionate and bracingly determined.
1991 saw Adam’s House Cat struggling to both fund their album’s completion and simply stay together. Hood tracked his lead vocals on the same January night in which George H.W. Bush began Operation Desert Storm. Backing vocals and minimal overdubs were added that winter and though Hood was not entirely thrilled with his vocal performances, by spring, Melton had begun mixing the raw recordings. Cahoon abruptly left the band mid-summer, replaced by Chris Quillen, who eventually contributed a memorable high-harmony vocal to the album’s “Long Time Ago.”
Alas, Adam’s House Cat’s days were numbered. Hood and Cooley relocated to Memphis in early September, and though their live shows that month proved among the band’s best ever, by month’s end, the band had played its last, quietly breaking up after an uneventful gig in Nashville. TOWN BURNED DOWN not only went unreleased, the original 24-track tapes were lost after Muscle Shoals Sound was sold and liquidated. As if that weren’t bad enough, Melton’s mixes were boxed up and sent to Jackson, MS’s Malaco Studio where they were later destroyed when a devastating tornado struck the historic building in 2011.
Hood and Cooley carried on, collaborating on a couple of ill-fated projects, but in 1993, the two had a falling out that lasted until Hood relocated to Athens, GA in April the following year. Their musical partnership resumed, with Hood making monthly visits to Cooley’s Birmingham apartment to record four-track demos together. With Cooley now also writing original songs, a new vision began to take shape. Hood and Cooley intended Chris Quillen to be a founding member but the bassist was tragically killed in a car accident that May, mere weeks before Drive-By Truckers officially came into being. John Cahoon passed away in 1999.
Fast-forward more than 20 years in which Drive-By Truckers grew to become what Stereogum hailed as “perhaps the greatest extant American rock and roll band,” equally acclaimed for their landmark 11-LP canon as well as their epic live performances. In 2015, three boxes labeled “ADAM’S HOUSE CAT” mysteriously appeared in the tape vault of longtime friend and DBT producer David Barbe’s Athens, GA studio. Contained within were the unmixed 2” tape master tapes of TOWN BURNED DOWN, along with another reel containing an EP’s worth of songs recorded the previous year.
Partly inspired by Chuck Tremblay’s near fatal heart attack in the spring of 2017, Hood made a New Year’s resolution to finally complete TOWN BURNED DOWN and in February 2018, Barbe baked the fragile tapes and placed them on reels for the first time in more than a quarter century.
Though the music and material were as powerful as ever, perhaps even more so, Hood remained as unhappy with his vocal performance as he had been in the past. Wondering if his hard-earned abilities would allow him to finally sing his songs as originally intended, Hood decided to attempt new vocal tracks. Within two hours, vocals were recorded for the entire album, raw and cathartic takes that were at once true to Hood’s original intent but reflecting the lessons of the intervening years.
On April 16, 2016, Hood, Cooley, and Tremblay convened at Barbe’s Chase Park Transduction studio in Athens to complete mixing TOWN BURNED DOWN – the first reunion of the Adam’s House Cat founding members in more than 27 years. The final mixes were later mastered at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, NJ by longtime DBT collaborator Greg Calbi.
TOWN BURNED DOWN can at last be properly heard the way Adam’s House Cat always wanted it to be heard, its raw soul and boisterous enthusiasm already hinting at what was yet to come. Songs like “Runaway Train” and “Cemeteries” display dark edges that surely must’ve intimated audiences in their time, but now sound startlingly heartfelt and full of fiery joy, energized by Cahoon and Tremblay’s versatile, dynamic backing and of course, the ever-present, undeniable chemistry between Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley.
Nearly three decades later, Muscle Shoals is once again an important American musical scene boasting countless new bands and young artists who proudly attest their deep roots in the community and its culture. Though few have actually heard their music, Adam’s House Cat has long loomed large as both groundbreaking innovators and the missing link between Muscle Shoals’ celebrated then and vibrant now.
“Finally releasing TOWN BURNED DOWN brings a sort of closure to one of the saddest and most important chapters of mine and Cooley’s lives,” writes Hood in the LP’s detailed liner notes. “The years we spent pounding out these songs made us the people and artists that we have later become, but we carried with us a darkness from never having been able to get the album out. The sound of these songs blasting out of the control room after all of these years while Cooley, Chuck and I grinned from ear to ear has truly been one of the most joyous events of my entire life. Songs from literally half of my life ago that somehow still seem vital to me all of these years later.”
To support the release of TOWN BURNED DOWN, Adam’s House Cat will perform live for the first time in 27 years, opening for the Drive-By Truckers in Knoxville, TN on September 27, and Atlanta, GA on September 28 and 29. The complete DBT tour dates are below. For more information, please visit drivebytruckers.com/shows.
Also of note, and available now, is a brand new Drive-By Truckers themed coffee flavor from Jittery Joe’s called “Cups of Dawn.” This is the second DBT-themed roast, following “Truckers Speed” from 2015. Hood says that flavor, “was such a success a few years ago that they’ve conspired with us to create ‘Cups of Dawn,’ a delightful city’s medium roasted blend perfect to launch you into a brighter day. Cans were designed by long-time DBT artist Wes Freed, and a portion of the money will go to Nuci’s Space. There’s no resisting that.”
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS TOUR DATES 2018:
August 25 – Amsterdam NL – Once in a Blue Moon Festival
September 2 – Sausalito, CA – Sausalito Art Festival
September 3 – Richmond, VA – Stone’s Throw Down
September 22 – Chicago, IL – Goose Island Block Party
September 27 – Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theatre #
September 28 & 29 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse #
September 30 – Chattanooga, TN – Walker Theatre
October 2 – Peoria, IL – Monarch Music Hall *
October 3 – Lincoln, NE – Bourbon Theatre *
October 5 – Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater *
October 6 & 7 – Fort Collins, CO – Washington’s
November 6, 7 & 8 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn
November 9 & 10 – Nashville, TN – Cannery Ballroom &*
November 13 – Little Rock, AR – Revolution Music Room *
November 14 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom *
November 15 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
November 16 & 17 – Austin, TX – The Scoot Inn *
January 27 – Feb 1 – Tampa, FL – Outlaw Music Cruise – SOLD OUT
# – w/Adam’s House Cat
*- w/T. Hardy Morris
& – w/Lily Hiatt
PATTERSON HOOD SOLO DATES
October 12 – San Diego, CA – Music Box
October 13 – Santa Monica, CA – McCabes
October 14 – Mill Valley, CA – Sweetwater Music Hall
DIMMER TWINS DATES (Patterson Hood & Mike Cooley)
September 7 – Cockeysville, MD – Drool of Rock
I don’t know who would ever think about this, but it’s really cool. It turns out that when you plug in a drawing of some of the major continents into MIDI sequencing software, it makes music. I mean, it’s not world music, or coincidentally reminiscent of that actual country, (because THAT would be bizarre), but still worth a listen.
Metropolitan Opera singers Piotr Beczala and Susanna Phillips, accompanied by Gerald Martin Moore, record arias on wax cylinder equipment that was used in the early days of recording around 1909. This video was firmed on location at the NYPL Sound Archives at Lincoln Center.
Check out this bizarre, but wonderful cover version of The White Stripes’ hit track Seven Nation Army, using a rubber band, a toy frog, a kid’s maraca, and a vacuum cleaner.
Pomplamoose perform an excellent mashup of pop hits with the word “Bad” in the title – Michael Jackson’s Bad, Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood, Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, and even Inner Circle’s Bad Boys given a tribute here.
American choreographer Jacob Jonas, who began his career with legendary Venice Beach boardwalk dancers, the Calypso Tumblers, collaborates in this thoughtful new film with ILL-Abilities—a dance group representing the differently-abled community, basing the performance on the group’s mantra: “No excuses, no limits.” As a dance group, ILL-Abilities are made up of the world’s best differently-abled breakdancers,” explains Jonas, an award-winning dance-maker. “I was inspired by these artists with real stories who have overcome an obstacle of their own, inspiring others.”
You were at the party but you were uncompromisingly relied upon to bring the energy and happiness to that party, night after night after night.
Mel C: That has its pros and cons. It is such an odd career, and such an odd thing to do with yourself. Obviously, at that time we were followed everywhere; fans waited for us everywhere, paparazzi was always present, so you always have to be on and that’s why the whole thing feels so tiring. Some people in the public eye handle things differently and will tell people to “f**k off,” but personally for me, you always have to be nice. We had such a young audience, and that pressure was always present to be a role model. As a young person, you have to make mistakes, but then there’s the pressure of always behaving like a role model. We ways took that seriously because we knew we had super young fans. You do get so much from it though; you are living out your dreams, your childhood fantasies. When you are making music and people are loving it and singing it back to you it’s amazing. It’s more social media-driven now, but l still receive fan mail and tweets. I’ve met quite a lot fans, meet and greets at shows are great. In the ’90s we never really did that, but we did do that on my last tour, and meeting fans and hearing their stores is incredible because literally your music has molded and shaped people’s lives and given them strength and that’s what l loved.
Girl power was a defining theme throughout my late childhood and l really drew strength from this bright, musical club that was exclusively geared towards women. I remember feeling like men held so much power in the ’90s, but this fun and fierce attitude championed by the Spice Girls was revelatory. You shattered and mocked sexism’s limiting stuffy, dated and ignorant opinions.
Mel C: It’s amazing because it wasn’t intended; it happened so naturally. We were going into labels and magazines and hearing, “Well girl bands don’t sell, it’s all about the boy bands,” and you can imagine us five — five opinionated women. We realized, we have a point to prove here. We started as a band, trying to dress the same, singing other people’s music, messing about and then we were meeting producers and becoming frustrated. We thought, Victoria looks ridiculous in casual clothes, and l look stupid in a babydoll dress. We were trying all these different styles because it was the ’90s and when we used to show up to rehearsals every day l would be in trackie, Emma would be in a babydoll dress, Geri would be in something kooky, and we just thought, Why don’t we just wear what we wear and be ourselves? We never gave it that much thought.
Within the band there are strong characters, some quieter than others. Together we were just a force and we gave each other the strength. There were a few lineup changes before Emma was introduced into the band. Then when she was there, something really special happened. It was like she was the missing piece in the jigsaw. There was just this shift, and we all started to feel like something special was happening, before we had a sea, we used to go out, to a club and there would be a queue and Geri would say, “We are a band. Let us in.” and we would get in. There was something about the power of us all together and the solidarity that we had. When we did come up against any adversity we said, “Just do it.” It was a magical thing.
