Tuesday, June 8, 2010

It's The Dig's Vinyl District Giveaway!


As we mentioned this morning, The Dig's 'Electric Toys' hits your local record store shelves today and the band has come up with a pretty unique way to give a few away and to see them live.

On them. And on us. In your town and venue of choice.

Fresh off a string of dates with The Joy Formidable, The Dig are gearing up for a tour with Thrice, Bad Veins and Kevin Devine this summer with 28 dates in 28 different cities.

Typically we offer tickets for the DC-area date alone, but we're opening up the entire itinerary for you to chose the city in which you want to see the band.

Reading TVD in Philly? Enter to win tickets for the Trocadero show. Maybe you're in Orlando? Enter to win tickets for the House of Blues show. Anywhere the band is playing, you can enter to see them live in your city of choice.

The full list of tour dates to choose from are:

June 11 - St. Paul, MN - Station 4
June 15 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix Concert Theatre
June 16 - Montreal, QC - Le National
June 17 - Boston, MA - House Of Blues
June 18 - New Haven, CT - Toad’s Place
June 19 - Lancaster, PA - Chameleon
June 21 - Clifton Park, NY - Northern Lights
June 22 - Allentown, PA - Crocodile Rock Café
June 23 - Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero
June 24 - New York, NY - Fillmore At Irving Plaza
June 25 - Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom
June 26 - Towson, MD - The Recher Theatre
June 28 - Norfolk, VA - The Norva
June 29 - Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
June 30 - Charleston, SC - The Music Farm
July 1 - Orlando, FL - House Of Blues
July 2 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Revolution
July 3 - St. Petersburg, FL - State Theatre
July 6 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
July 7 - Austin, TX - Emo’s
July 8 - Dallas, TX - The Palladium Ballroom
July 9 - Tulsa, OK - Cain’s Ballroom
July 10 - Kansas City, MO - Midland Theatre
July 11 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
July 13 - Salt Lake City, UT - In The Venue
July 15 - Tempe, AZ - The Marquee
July 16 - San Diego, CA - House Of Blues
July 17 - Pomona, CA - Fox Theater




So, how do you win the tickets and the new 'Electric Toys' you're asking? It's simple.

In the comments to this post, tell us the city and venue you'd like to see the band in and why we should select you and your city of choice. The one person with the most convincing entry will see the band in the venue and town they've selected and will be sent the new 'Electric Toys' on vinyl.

Three runners up
will receive a CD copy of 'Electric Toys'
into the bargain!

We'll choose the winners on Monday (6/14) by noon and I can't stress this enough—leave us a contact email address! Good luck!

TVD Fresh Track | New from Tom Petty


Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers return with two new videos for the driving "Jefferson Jericho Blues" and the gorgeous "Something Good Coming," both on the new album Mojo out June 15.

The band play the oddly named Jiffy Lube Live on August, 15.




TVD's Twitter Music Monday for 6/7/10


New column! Our friend Allyson delves into the miasma of Twitter's #musicmonday (on Tuesdays) because nothing says "listen to my music" like a trending topic.

Be afraid Justin Bieber. Be very afraid. —Ed.



Sunday was the MTV Music Awards, yesterday was Prince’s birthday, the new Twilight soundtrack just debuted, Lady Gaga is pushing a new video…and people on Twitter are broadcasting crappy alt-rock from the ‘90s.


Not just alt-rock. Nu-metal. Is there a revival? Am I missing it? (Please let me be missing it.) Nickelback, Incubus, and Linkin Park are popping up all over #musicmonday.

None of these bands has a new album out—in fact, Wikipedia thinks the members of Incubus have been threatening each other and taking out restraining orders. Nickelback is touring but their last album came out in 2008, according to their official site. Linkin Park seems to have been busy getting an awesome logo and putting out charity albums. I suppose I underestimate the endurance of people’s love for (and willingness to publicly proclaim their love for) these bands.

It’s just civilians doing all this nu-metal tweeting—not promoters or band members, near as I can tell. @giasee and @brownoso seem like normal folk, and are both listening to tons of Nickelback. This is kind of cute actually—they both tweeted all their songs at about the same time of day. In my mind, each is a gender that the other is attracted to, and they are otherwise compatible in important ways, and they’re soul mates and will someday discover that they’ve been simultaneously broadcasting their love of awful nu-metal and run away together.

Similarly @_Maryta_ and @jhoncubus are both #musicmonday-ing the heck out of some Incubus and are probably going to be ‘90s alt-rock married soon. (I checked, @jhoncubus doesn’t appear to be affiliated with the band, despite having part of their name in his name. I have part of Weird Al’s name in my name, so I should know that this doesn’t have to mean anything.) The Incubus romance might get a little kinky, actually: @ignachoenpiedra was also listening. Hot.

Full disclosure: I owned and listened to the Make Yourself album in high school. But unless Incubus suddenly begins making female-fronted garage-revival rock (which is basically all I listen to at the moment, because…I don’t know why, actually) you will never ever see me telling my entire Twitter feed that I’m currently listening to them.

@mrnicehandle, whose username I like enough to consider asking him to be my Twitter friend, is listening to Butterfly, by Crazy Town, otherwise known as “the song I declared the worst song in the world when it came out in 2000 and might still think is the worst song in the world now that @mrnicehandle has gone and gotten it stuck in my head.” Thanks @mrnicehandle. We’re not imaginary friends any more.

Role#mmodel: @Duarys told the world that he was listening to Kiss From A Rose (acoustic) by Seal. That takes moxy. I’m glad to know there are people in the world who don’t care what jerks like me think about them.

My #musicmonday pick: If I’m going to make fun of other people, I have to open myself up to mockery. This should be good fodder: I’ve been listening to the new Gaslight Anthem album streaming on NPR all day. No, really. All day. Fire away.

It's The Dig's Vinyl District!

...annnd we're back from a brief birthday hiatus on the very day The Dig release the brand new, highly recommended, 'Electric Toys.'

To herald the release we've got the boys hanging out and blogging with us all week—talking vinyl, record stores, and everything in between. And of course we've got some opportunities to win copies of 'Electric Toys' and tickets to see the band live later today.

For now, sit back and relax—the band's in the driver seat. It's The Dig's Vinyl District—we just work here.
—Ed.


“I started a record collection not too long ago. I remember buying CD's growing up. I would go to the Punk Rock section of my favorite record store (The Record Alley, in Palm Desert California) and pick out a band that I'd never heard of; try to find something that jumped out at me.

Usually the band was awful, but because I spent at least $10 on the CD, I'd convince myself I liked it. CD's have a sentimental value to them. You can explore the lyrics and artwork and it affects the way you hear the music.

Vinyl is even more powerful in this way. One of my favorite records that I've been listening to non-stop is a Best Of record by the Ventures. I love listening to their songs on vinyl because it brings out a rawness in their music. I'd really like to come across a live Ventures record....know of any I should check out?"
—Erick Eiser, Keyboards, Guitar



"I was really young (maybe 5 or 6) and found a bunch of my dad's 45s in an old coffee table drawer. I quickly ran to the record player to play them and I remember the one that stuck out to me the most was a Hall & Oates record which had the song "Private Eyes" on it. Great song.

I remember the sound, the music and the rhythm of that track always grabbed my attention. Lots of great hooks, killer guitar solo that I still remember. Didn't really understand what the lyrics meant but they were simple and catchy and easy to sing along to. I'll never forget that experience."

—Jamie Alegre, Drums



The Dig - You're Already Gone (Mp3)
The Dig - Two Sisters in Love (Mp3)
Approved for download!