The San Francisco Giants will again honor their local house-band, The Grateful Dead, and Jerry Garcia on August 9th, 2011.  August 9th will mark the 16th anniversary of Jerry's passing.  Last year the annual Grateful Dead night ended up in a very exciting 11th inning win for the SF Giants, who eventually went on to win the World Series!  Check out more details below.

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Giants VS Pirates

National Anthem performed by Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, And Giants Own Tim Flannery

7th Inning Stretch by Mickey Hart and NBA Hall Of Famer Bill Walton

Special Ticket Package Includes:

•A seat in one of the "Dead Head" tribute section, spread through the park

•A very special limited-edition "Dancing Bears" collectible statue

•Pregame performance by Grateful Dead tribute bands

•Members of the Garcia family and the original band to throw out the first pitch and perform the National Anthem

•Ticket proceeds will be donated to the Furthur Foundation, Rex Foundation and the Unbroken Chain Foundation as well as other non-profits affiliated with the individual band members causes...

Get your tickets here. Please note you will be automatically directed to purchase tickets in the Special Events sections.

Pick up a Grateful Dead Giants hat and t-shirt here.

An independent band nationally-recognized for their live show, Greensky Bluegrass defy the boundaries of acoustic music with their self-produced fourth studio effort, Handguns, released on October 4.

This new studio offering is a brave expression of what separates their original music from the rest of the bluegrass genre. For years, while the Kalamazoo, MI band has been gaining recognition for their high energy live show, Handguns proves that they can handle themselves in the studio as well.

Recent internet chatter would have you believe that the entire music industry is lost in a vast and inescapable dust bowl; everything that was once thriving and sustainable has now dried into a mere husk of what it once was. But lest we forget, bands used to make their living on the road, playing in front of new audiences every night. Albums were something that were recorded in between tours and then sold on the road to help keep gas in the tank. It’s the way it was and it looks like the way it might become, but the music never stops.

Handguns was recorded in between tours this winter as the band holed up in a studio in Lansing, committing the songs straight-to-tape on the exact recording console that originally birthed Lynyrd Skynyrd’s infamous track "Free Bird” decades earlier. Matching the warmth of the analog sound, vintage microphones were utilized alongside state-of-the-art studio equipment to create a truly blended and artful sonic experience.

This overlap of traditional and forward-thinking runs throughout most every aspect of Greensky Bluegrass. The opening cut is titled "Don't Lie", and the result of "Handguns" is just that, a collection of songs that speak true. Greensky doesn't boast to know it all, but they don't restrain, letting the listener in on the trials and triumphs of their journey.

"Should have been a farmer and blamed it on the weather, with soiled hands and a tired back to show for my efforts," sings Hoffman on the album's title track.  Modest maybe, but as the listener continues, they are relieved that the band did not trade their instruments for plows or cubicles.

Greensky has continued to gain national momentum since they won the Telluride Bluegrass Festival’s coveted Band Competition in 2006 and have been invited to play at this summer’s Northwest String Summit, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival and NPR’s Mountain Stage, while also playing at Bonnaroo, Bumbershoot and The Hangout Festivals. They’re a bluegrass band but they’re not. Bluegrass doesn’t have distortion, or horns for that matter. Handguns does.

Of course, none of this happened overnight or without sacrifice. Greensky Bluegrass is just as much a grit of the asphalt band as they are a salt of the earth band, having played over 160 shows nationwide, every year, for the last six years. It was by winning over folks on the band’s never-ending tour that got them where they are today – not by a label, syndicated radio play or being on the shelves at big box stores.

As a bonus for all, Greensky Bluegrass is giving away half of Handguns for free. This five-song Handguns EP is available on the Greensky Bluegrass website for anyone who wants to listen.

The motive? To be heard.  For musicians, the model has changed with satellite radio where the F word flies free and name-your-own-price record releases. One thing remains true, however: when the music is great, people will listen.

New York City based blues rockers, Memphis Crawl, recently released their debut album, “Falling Down Against The Sun” in the winter of 2011. The band will be hitting the road this summer, playing select dates in support of the new record. For more information, please visit: www.memphiscrawl.com

Formed in the summer of 2004 by songwriter and front man, Matty O’Brien, Memphis Crawl has been regarded as one of the best and most exciting live acts around. O’Brien himself has been described as “one of the most charismatic rock n roll frontmen of all time, with the voice and looks to back it up”. He amplified and perfected the sound with the addition of lead guitarist Bryan Stevens, bassist Mad Freik, drummer Mike Vincenti, and rhythm guitarist Nick Vincenti.

Memphis Crawl dropped their debut EP, “Falling Down Against The Sun”, in January 2011. The bands first studio effort received an enormously positive response from both music critics and fans alike, catapulting them to new career heights.

Having performed from New York to Los Angeles, sharing the stage with notable acts such as Leon Russell and Silvertide, the band built a solid following with their fusion of psychedelic rock-blues and hypnotic live performances. Their fans have become as infamous as the band with their wild behavior, and are often referred to as the Memphis Mafia or Crawl Dogs.

Memphis Crawl proves that rock n roll is alive and well and can hold its own on any stage in the land!

Tour Dates:

9.2.11 - The Velvet Lounge                    East Setauket, NY

9.15.11 - Trash Bar                                Williamsburg, NY

9.17.11 - The Brickhouse Brewery           Patchogue, NY

For more on Memphis Crawl, please visit: www.memphiscrawl.com

Brooklyn-based art-pop band Rubblebucket is heading out on an expansive summer/fall tour. Hitting New York, Los Angeles, SF, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Portland, Atlanta and a series of other cities, the eight-piece art pop group is happy to take their infectious, genre spanning music out on the road.

In honor of the new tour, Rubblebucket is happy to announce Paste Magazine’s premiere of the band’s latest single, “Came Out of a Lady.” Listen to the track HERE. Writing on the site, Paste noted that “As one of the LP’s standouts, “Came Out of a Lady’s” hilarious lyrics perfectly showcase Traver’s buttery vocals, while allowing for the group’s soulful instrumentation to highlight the song’s silly tone.” In conjunction, the band has also premiered their latest video for their “L’homme” with Consequence of Sound this morning. Watch the video HERE and read CoS’ premiere HERE.

2011 has been a breakout year for Rubblebucket. Releasing Omega La La this summer, Rubblebucket has earned praise from across the spectrum, with critics at Paste Magazine, Blurt, Stereogum, and more hailing the band as one of most promising up-and-coming bands in the U.S. Some critics have even gone as far as labeling the band’s upbeat, multifaceted sound “Yes Wave,” in opposition to the nihilistic, late-70s New York genre. Recorded last year at Plantain/DFA Studios with Producer Eric Broucek (LCD Soundsystem, Cut Copy, Hercules and Love Affair) at the helm, Omega La la is the Brooklyn eight piece’s most adventurous record yet, with the band dipping into everything from the dancey indie-pop arrangements to Fela-Kuti inspired afro-beat stomps.

For Rubblebucket, it’s been a long journey to make Omega La La. Led by the musical couple of bandleader/trumpeter Alex Toth and frontwoman Kalmia Traver, Rubblebucket has spent the last four years building a reputation as a band that blurs the lines between psychedelic indie rock, upbeat dance, and radiant, left-field arrangements. In 2009, Rubblebucket released a self-titled album that turned heads. SPIN hailed the band as a "must-hear artist from the CMJ Festival” in 2009 and the band won that year’s Boston Music Award for Live Act of the Year.  The band then relocated to Brooklyn and released the Triangular Daises EP in 2010. A stylistic precursor to Omega La La, the Triangular Daises EP was hailed by The Wall Street Journal, NYLON, Paste, and a host of others.

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Rubblebucket Summer/Fall Tour Dates:
08/13: Burlington, VT @ Grand Point North
08/18: Stephentown, NY @ Bella Terra
08/19: Brooklyn, NY  @ Brooklyn Bowl * 
08/20: Sheldon, VT @ Liberate Festival
09/03: Chicago, IL @ North Coast Festival
09/04: Mohawk, NY @ Moe.Down
09/10: Peru, NY @ Backwoods Pondfest
09/30: Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
10/01: Syracuse, NY @ The Westcott Theater
10/05: Philadelphia, PA @ The Blockley
10/06: Baltimore, MD @ Sound Stage
10/08: Roseland, VA @ The Festy
10/10: Lexington, KY @ Cosmic Charlie's
10/13: Urbana, IL @ The Canopy Club
10/14: Chicago, IL @ Double Door
10/15: Grand Rapids, MI @ Founders
10/16: Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom
10/17: Iowa City, IA @ Gabe's Oasis
10/18: St. Louis, MO @ The Old Rock House **
10/21: Denver, CO @ Cervantes' Other Side
10/23: Aspen, CO @ Belly Up
10/25: Salt Lake City - UT @ Kilby Court
10/27: Seattle, WA @ Crocodile, Cafe
10/29: Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
11/02: San Francisco, CA @ TBA
11/04: Los Angeles, CA @ TBA
11/05: San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
11/06: Flagstaff, AZ @ Green Room
11/08: Austin TX @ Beauty Bar
11/10: Mobile, AL @ Alabama Music Box
11/11: Live Oak, FL @ Bear Creek Music & Arts Fest
11/12: Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn

* Janka Nabay & Diamond Doves support
** Trombone Shorty co-headline

The ever prolific Preservation Hall Jazz Band are on a perpetual quest to bring New Orleans jazz to new places and faces.  This Wednesday August 3^rd at NYC’s Lincoln Center, they will reunite with celebrated choreographer Trey McIntyre to perform the live score for two ballets: “Ma Maison” and “The Sweeter End.”  The two creative forces originally came together in 2008 for “Ma Maison,” commissioned by the New Orleans Ballet Association, and performed again last year at The Hollywood Bowl in LA..  Then earlier this year, they reunited to debut a companion piece to that ballet, titled “The Sweeter End.”  This Wednesday’s performance is free and begins at 7:30pm.

Another one of Pres Hall’s long-running collaboration has been with My Morning Jacket, the subject of which is documented in the film Louisiana Fairytale, directed by Danny Clinch.  The piece was shown at SXSW and Bonnaroo this past year and will have upcoming screenings at the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival (Aug 26 – 28th in Birmingham, AL) and at the New Orleans Film Festival (Oct 14 – 20^th in New Orleans, LA).  Click HERE to watch the trailer.

Pres Hall’s most recent collaboration has been with Grammy-winning bluegrass icons, the Del McCoury Band, who they will perform with at this year’s Austin City Limits Festival September 17^th at 7pm.  The two groups released a joint album earlier this year titled American Legacies, and have been performing together regularly including a spot on the Late Show With David Letterman.  Click HERE to watch their take on “I’ll Fly Away” for the show.

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Preservation Hall Jazz Band US Tour Dates:

8/2: Wellfleet, MA @ Wellfleet Preservation Hall
8/3: New York, NY @ Lincoln Center w/ Trey McIntyre Project
8/4: Gettysburg, PA @ The Majestic Theatre
8/5: Clayton, NY @ Clayton Opera House
8/13: Windsor, CT @ Summerwind Perf. Arts Center w/ The Del McCoury Band
8/20: Eagle, ID @ Eagle River Outdoor Pavillion w/ Trey McIntyre Project
9/2: Camp Mather, CA @ Strawberry Music Festival
9/3: Irvine, CA @ Great Park Summer Series
9/17: Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
9/22: Grinnell, IA @ Grinnell College Herrick Chapel
9/23: Des Moines, IA @ Drake University - Sheslow Auditorium
9/24: Grand Rapids, MI @  Calvin College
9/25: S. Milwaukee, WI @ South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center
9/26: S. Milwaukee, WI @ South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center
10/2: San Francisco, CA @ Hardly Strictly Bluegrass w/ The Del McCoury Band
10/15: Aurora, IL @ Aurora University - Crimi Auditorium
10/19: Easton, MD @ The Avalon Theatre
10/21: Florence, SC @ Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology
10/22: Athens, GA @ University of Georgia w/The Del McCoury Band
10/29: Plymouth, NH @ Plymouth State University - Silver Cultural Arts Center
11/5: Carmel, IN @ The Center for the Performing Arts
11/12: Davis, CA @ UC Davis - Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
11/13: Arroyo Grande, CA @ Clark Center for the Performing Arts
11/19: Shreveport, LA @ Highland Jazz & Blues Festival - Columbia Park