The Big 3 - Roo Dates, Contra, and moe.

1. 2010 Bonnaroo Dates Released
Sooo...another year is quickly approaching which means that Bonnaroo is only 6 months (or so) away! Although the initial artist announcements are still 2 months (or so) away, the fantastic folks at Superfly Productions have announced this years festival dates as June 10-13. Unfortunately for me I may not be able to swing Roo this year, but I will let the initial lineup decide that for me. If My Morning Jacket is on the list nothing but death itself could stop me from making it down to Manchester in early June. Pre-sale tickets go on sale soon for the holiday season. I would imagine the ticket price is gonna stay around $250 for 1st Round.

In other Roo news the 2009 DVD should be arriving at my house any day now. Pretty pumped because it has "Welcome Home" by Coheed & Cambria on it and Rob and I were definitely front row for that show so it'd be cool to have my face on one of these DVD's (missed out on 08's...dammit). You can check out some of the live performances that will be on the DVD at http://www.bonnaroo.com/

NOTE: If you look at the "Watch it performed here..." section on the right you
can view the Song of the Week, "Little Secrets" performed by Passion Pit at
Bonnaroo 2009 (it's the second one down)...it is one of the ones included on the
DVD.

2. Vampire Weekend's NYC Album Release Shows
Good news and bad news...

Good news first...Vampire Weekend's new album, "Contra" (title inspired by one of the greatest video games of all time), comes out January 12th and to correspond with the album release the band will be playing 3 shows at 3 different venues in New York.

Sunday, January 17th - United Palace
Monday, January 18th - Webster Hall
Tuesday, January 19th - Bowery Ballroom

Bad news...Monday and Tuesday's shows are both 100% sold out. No single tickets are available and tickets are going for $90-175 a piece on StubHub and eBay. So save up that Christmahannukwanza money kids.

I've heard two songs so far off the album and they're both pretty decent. I posted "Horchata" on the blog about a month ago. You can hear their first single "Cousins" on the front page of their website http://www.vampireweekend.com/


3. moe. Announces 20th Anniversary Tour
Chuck, Al, Rob, and Vinny are getting ready to celebrate their 20th anniversary with a nationwide tour starting in January. According to http://www.jambase.com/ the band will be starting their tour where they got big, in the Northeast. The cities that have been rumored so far are Rochester (of course), Boston, New York, Ithaca, and Pennsylvania (apparently it is a whole city now). Tour dates should be solidified in the coming weeks.

Also, moe. is bring back their winter festival, snoe.Down, which will be returning this year from March 26th-28th in Killington/Rutland, Vermont. I wish it was a couple weeks early because my buddies from home and I are going up skiing for a week in KTown. Guess I might have to go back a few weeks later.

Finally, if you haven't seen or heard any videos from moe.'s now-historic Halloween 2009 set from Albany, you really should. They let the fans vote on which covers they would play and the band came out and covered "Dark Star" by Grateful Dead, "Stash" by Phish, "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon, "Echoes" by Pink Floyd, and...I saved the best for last....