May 8th, 2011 marks the 100-year anniversary of blues legend Robert Johnson’s birthday. In celebration of the most influential bluesman that ever lived, the Big Head Blues Club – an ad-hoc collaboration featuring Big Head Todd and The Monsters and special guests Hubert Sumlin, Honeyboy Edwards, Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcolm – has been touring coast to coast playing the material of Johnson. The tour, which has been garnering rave reviews, wraps up on March 8, just after the studio album, titled 100 Years of Robert Johnson, hits the streets (March 1, 2011 - Ryko/Big Records).

100 Years of Robert Johnson is a stirring collection featuring 10 potent interpretations of some of the most vital and durable music of the past century. In addition to the above-mentioned artists, 100 Years of Robert Johnson includes performances by blues greats B.B. King and Charlie Musselwhite, as well as keeper of the blues flame Ruthie Foster. The album was recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis, and produced by Grammy award winning blues producer Chris Goldsmith (Blind Boys of Alabama), 100 Years of Robert Johnson will be released in early 2011.

For Todd Park Mohr, who founded Big Head Todd and The Monsters with Rob Squires (bass) and Brian Nevin (drums) nearly a quarter-century ago, the project has served to re-introduce him to the iconic music of Johnson, whose songs provided many of the pioneering blues-rock bands—Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Cream, Canned Heat, etc.—with some of their most popular material.

100 Years of Robert Johnson features several inspired takes on Johnson’s best known compositions. For Mohr and Goldsmith, the challenge in recording the tribute was to give new voice to Johnson’s music, to avoid copying the countless cover versions already extant. “In so many of the takes on Robert’s stuff, you don’t get the depth of emotion that’s in the lyrics and in Robert’s voice. That’s one thing that Chris and the band and my voice were able to bring to it. Chris had great ideas about how to represent the stuff, and all the musicians were just so good at what they did, the unique arrangements just came naturally.”

Robert Johnson’s story is the stuff of myth and legend alike, and his music has fascinated blues fans and musicians for more than seven decades. Born in Mississippi in 1911, Johnson recorded only 29 songs, all during the years 1936 and ’37. His unique guitar style and haunting vocal phrasing, and the evocative, often mysterious nature of his lyrics, made him a popular artist during his short time in the spotlight and has continued to intrigue since. A persistent tale that as a young man Johnson sold his soul to the Devil in order to become a more proficient musician has been attached to his biography since his untimely death at age 27—the alleged victim of a poisoning incident at the hands of the jealous husband of a woman with whom Johnson had been flirting.

A hundred years after the birth of its greatest artist, it looks like the blues itself is about to be reborn.

BLUES AT THE CROSSROADS: THE ROBERT JOHNSON CENTENNIAL CONCERTS tour featuring Big Head Todd and The Monsters and special guests David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Hubert Sumlin and Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm is as follows:

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Jan. 28 San Francisco, CA Regency Ballroom
Jan. 29 Costa Mesa, CA Orange County Performing Arts Center
Jan. 30 San Diego, CA (2 shows) Anthology
Jan. 31 Santa Barbara, CA Campbell Hall / UCSB
Feb. 04 Austin, TX Paramount Theatre
Feb. 05 Dallas, TX Lakewood Theatre
Feb. 10 Ann Arbor, MI Hill Auditorium / U of M
Feb. 11 Chicago, IL Orchestra Hall
Feb. 12 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theatre
Feb. 13 Meridian, MS Riley Center / MSU
Feb. 16 Chapel Hill, NC Memorial Hall / UNC Chapel Hill
Feb. 17 New Bethesda, MD The Music Center at Strathmore
Feb. 18 Boston, MA Berklee School of Music
Feb. 24 Ridgefield, CT Ridgefield Playhouse
Feb. 25 Princeton, NJ McCarter Theatre
Feb. 26 Blue Bell, PA Montgomery County Community College
Feb. 27 New Bedford, MA Zeiterion Theater
March 4 Milwaukee, WI Potowatomi Casino

March 5 Omaha, NE Holland Performing Arts Center

March 6 Minneapolis, MN Orchestra Hall

March 8 Urbana, IL Krannert Center – Tyrone Festival Theatre

Due to high-demand, Hangout Music Festival will offer a payment plan for fans looking for a flexible budgeting option. 3-day passes to the Hangout  (May 20-22, 2011) can now be made in 3 easy payments, starting at 10 am EST Friday, February 18^th.

Tickets and VIP Packages paid for under the payment plan will be charged 34% of total plus shipping and handling fees at time of purchase. After that, the customer’s card used at the time of purchase will be billed another portion of the charges on April 1^st, and then charged the final amount on May 1^st.

Scheduling for Payment:

Deposit (at time of purchase) – 34% of ticket price plus shipping and handling charges

Payment 2 (April 1, 2011) – 33% of ticket price

Payment 3 (May 1, 2011) – final 33% of ticket price

The last day to order on the payment plan will be March 31st.

Payment plans have become a popular purchasing alternative for some of the nation’s biggest music festivals including Bonnaroo and Coachella.  Hangout is pleased to now offer this option to its patrons.

For more information and to purchase tickets to the Hangout Music Festival, go to www.hangoutmusicfest.com or visit Front Gate tickets.

EOTO will kick off 2011 on the west coast in less than two weeks in sunny Stateline, NV with stops in San Francisco and San Diego before kicking off their extensive Spring Tour in March. The band, known for their signature 100% live improvised performances, will also be playing alongside a number of well known openers including NastyNasty and Vibesquad for select west coast shows.

Throbbing bass and thudding beats are the signatures of this project from drummers Michael Travis and Jason Hann. The duo moves effortlessly from choppy dubstep to whip-smart, four-on-the-floor house to psychedelic trip-hop. It's a dance marathon and everyone's in it together. A nebulous beast, set lists are only broken up into tracks for the sake of posterity. In reality, changes in mood, energy, and inspiration are reflected "in real-time" by rhythmic and melodic shifts.

Because EOTO starts fresh every night, the band's evolutionary progress has been thrust into hyperspeed, eclipsing standard acts who return to their dusty catalog for every performance. This is apparent when following the musical evolution of their live performances, which are recorded every night and made available to their fans for purchase. On EOTO's first 2 studio releases -- 2006's Elephants Only Talk Occasionally, and the 2008 release Razed, EOTO bounced playfully between house, trance, and breakbeat. A huge change in their sound came when Travis and Hann first saw, felt, and heard the cathartic vibes that dubstep could produce at DJ Skream's set at Shambhala during the Summer of 2008. This influence saw the duo become the first National, live, dubstep act in the US. The wobbly, buzz-saw bass and heavy backbeat style has become a signature of their sets, as heard on their live recordings and on the 2009 studio release, Fire the Lazers!!! Newer material has the duo co-opting sounds from outside the realm of electronic music with scratchy punk riffs and fuzzy sludge metal bass.

The duo will then set forth on their Spring Tour on March 18th of this year and will crisscross the united states with stops on both coasts including dates in St Louis, Denver, Atlanta, Boston, Washington DC and NYC to name a few.

The perfect match for EOTO's incredible live improvised performances, projection designer known lovingly as "Zebbler" will also join the band with a custom animated projection show for select dates along the Spring 2011 tour. Zebbler was voted one of the top 20 VJ's in DJ magazine, 2007 and is known for delivering an organic visually odyssey with a genuinely live feel.

FAN VIDEO CONTEST
To kick off the extensive tour, EOTO has launched a video contest allowing fans the opportunity to submit their own content for the live HD video show. Of course 3D animations, animations and complex sequences are encouraged for the overall appeal of the live performance. (Submissions: zebbler@zebbler.com)

For more information about EOTO and their forthcoming tour and instructions for submitting your animations to the Spring Tour Projection show, tune into the band's website at www.eotomusic.com

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Spring Tour 2011

Former Thieves have been a band characterized by their hard work and grueling tour regimens in their seemingly short life span. But, that's about to change with their debut full length on No Sleep Records.

Coming from the barren and simple fields of Iowa, Former Thieves have created a pummeling new record that personifies the feelings and emotions of coming from nothing and fighting the entire way to what they have created. "The Language That We Speak" takes the listener through a thorough commentary on the frustration of Midwestern life. Articulate, sharp, and sincerely pissed.

Recorded December 1st through 10th 2010 at The Red Room in Seattle, WA with Chris Common (Mastodon, The Sword) at the helm, No Sleep Records looks to release "The Language That We Speak" on Tuesday April 19th 2011. The record will be released on CD, vinyl, and digital formats and recalls the sounds made famous by the likes of Converge, Botch, Coalesce, and Modern Life Is War while maintaining its own unique formula.

Watch the first short video feat. studio footage of the band here!

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Former Thieves Live!

03/16/11 - Kansas City, MO @ Salt Walter Taffy House
03/18/11 - Austin, TX @ The Mellow Mushroom
03/19/11 - Austin, TX (SXSW)
03/20/11 - Austin, TX (SXSW)
03/23/11 - Hattiesburg, MS @ 1126 House
03/26/11 - Columbia, SC @ House of Hardcore
03/28/11 - Greensboro, NC @ Legitimate Business
03/29/11 - Richmond, VA @ The Barn
03/30/11 - State College, PA @ La Casa Blanca
04/01/11 - Louisville, KY @ Ear X-Tacy
04/02/11 - St. Louis, MO @ Lemp Arts

Advance tickets to the tenth annual Northwest String Summit music festival featuring four days of music and camping will be available Friday, February 4 at all TicketsWest outlets and online at TicketsWest.

The boutique music festival, located at Hornings Hideout near Portland, Ore., will increase to a four day festival from July 21 through Sunday, July 24, 2011 in celebration of its ten year anniversary.

All ages advance 4-day passes will cost $125 from February 4 through March 11 and include four nights of music, camping, parking and free early entry to the festival on Thursday, July 24, 2011.  A limited supply of RV passes will also be available for purchase beginning on Friday, February 4 for $75.

Featured artists confirmed to date include Yonder Mountain String Band; Keller and the Keels featuring Kelly Williams, and the husband and wife combo of Larry and Jenny Keel; Todd Snider & Great American Taxi Featuring Vince Herman; the Emmitt Nershi Band; the Cascadia Project featuring Darol Anger, Scott Law, Sharon Gilchrist and Samson Grisman; Jackstraw; and Pert Near Sandstone.

Additional bands have recently confirmed to play the festival each to be announced soon.

Three-day passes for Friday, July 22 through Sunday, July 24, 2011 will be available at all TicketsWest outlets and online at TicketsWest on March 12, 2010 for $125.  Patrons can also upgrade to a 4-day pass after March 12 by purchasing a single day Thursday pass for an additional $20.

After May 14, 2011, 3-day passes for Friday, July 22 through Sunday, July 24, 2011 will be available at all TicketsWest outlets and online at TicketsWest for $145.  Patrons can still upgrade to a 4-day pass after May 14 by purchasing a single day Thursday pass for an additional $20.

For more information about the Northwest String Summit, click here.  For more information about Hornings Hideout, click here.

Considered the Pacific Northwest’s premier boutique music festival, the Northwest String Summit will provide four days of mostly acoustic music and camping in a family-fun atmosphere nestled in one of the most gorgeous festival sites on the west coast, Hornings Hideout, a beautiful forested site located just 20 minutes from Portland in North Plains, Ore. at the edge of Horning Reservoir.