Bits: Railroad Revival Tour, SXSW, Raekwon, Booker T. Jones, Shivering Timbers

  • Old Crow Medicine Show, Mumford & Sons and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros will be kicking off the Railroad Revival Tour on April 21. The bands will travel by train across the southwestern United States and perform at outdoor venues in California, Arizona, Texas and Louisiana. Not quite as fun as the Roots on the Rails shows since the audience won’t get to travel on the train with the bands, but a unique and cool gimmick nonetheless.
  • Our friends at Ninebullets.net will be throwing a couple of fine parties at SXSW this year – on March 18 and 19 – featuring artists like Caitlin Rose, Kasey Anderson and the Honkies, Two Cow Garage, the Only Sons and more. Details here.
  • If you can stand heading over to MySpace, you can stream Raekwon’s new album Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang.
  • Booker T. Jones will be releasing a new album, The Road from Memphis, on May 10. THe album is produced by Jones, ?uestlove and Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliot Smith), and Jones is backed by the Roots.
  • Shivering Timbers will be in the WRUW studios on March 31 around 5 PM EST. Listen via the internet here.

Happy Mardi Gras! Laissez les bons temps rouler, y’all.

Bits: R.I.P. Guru, Kings Go Forth debut, Ketch Secor deejays, Arcadia re-issue, Hip Hop Alley mixtape

  • After having survived a heart attack last month, Gang Starr MC Guru has died of cancer at the age of 43.
  • Kings Go Forth release their debut album, The Outsiders Are Back today. Good, classic stuff.
  • From Old Crow Medicine Show: “You can now listen to archives of “The Old Time Hour with Ketch Secor” at the WSM website. Go to the WSM archives, click the arrow in upper right hand corner of the player, scroll right and click ‘Guest Hosts’. Then scroll down to find Ketch’s shows – and stay tuned for next’s month’s show.”
  • Who remembers the Duran Duran one-off side-project Arcadia? NTSIB remembers it fondly and has discovered that the album, So Red the Rose, is being re-issued. You can take a listen at Spinner.
  • Pigeons & Planes and the Music Ninja bring you a pretty sweet mixtape called The Hip Hop Alley, featuring Big Boi, Mos Def and Damian Marley & Nas, among others.
  • I’m just going to say London, Pixies, and drop this here.

If you haven’t already, it’s high time you introduced your face to the Dirtbombs.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-53uojoesME]