Now that the calendar has flipped over to May, summer is beginning to feel tantalizingly close. As you head out to enjoy your weekend, here's Exclaim!'s usual news roundup of all of the major happenings from the past week.
Unquestionably the biggest news this week was the death of Beastie Boys rapper Adam "MCA" Yauch, who passed away at the age of 47 following a three-year battle with cancer. In response to the tragic loss, tributes soon began pouring in from many of Yauch's music industry peers and the Beastie Boys released and official statement.
We also learned about many of the tours that will be taking place in our country in the coming weeks and months. Sam Roberts Band are hitting the road, as is legendary troubadour Leonard Cohen, and East Coast indie rock act Tour Hours Traffic will tour prior to recording a new album. And let's not forget about How to Dress Well, who nabbed Cam Reed (a.k.a. Babe Rainbow) and Aaron Read to play with him. In other live music news, festival season got even better with announcements from the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Sackville, NB's SappyFest, and St. Catharines, ON's S.C.E.N.E. Music Festival.
As for new albums, Twin Shadow announced that he's got a new LP coming our way, as did Gaslight Anthem, while Canuck favourites Japandroids bumped up their release date to May.
Let's round things out on a lighthearted note: the Flaming Lips confirmed some of the details of their pricy, blood-infused compilation LPs, and Wavves rolled out that video game he's been talking about. Y'know, just in case you felt like spending the whole weekend gaming.
Unquestionably the biggest news this week was the death of Beastie Boys rapper Adam "MCA" Yauch, who passed away at the age of 47 following a three-year battle with cancer. In response to the tragic loss, tributes soon began pouring in from many of Yauch's music industry peers and the Beastie Boys released and official statement.
We also learned about many of the tours that will be taking place in our country in the coming weeks and months. Sam Roberts Band are hitting the road, as is legendary troubadour Leonard Cohen, and East Coast indie rock act Tour Hours Traffic will tour prior to recording a new album. And let's not forget about How to Dress Well, who nabbed Cam Reed (a.k.a. Babe Rainbow) and Aaron Read to play with him. In other live music news, festival season got even better with announcements from the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Sackville, NB's SappyFest, and St. Catharines, ON's S.C.E.N.E. Music Festival.
As for new albums, Twin Shadow announced that he's got a new LP coming our way, as did Gaslight Anthem, while Canuck favourites Japandroids bumped up their release date to May.
Let's round things out on a lighthearted note: the Flaming Lips confirmed some of the details of their pricy, blood-infused compilation LPs, and Wavves rolled out that video game he's been talking about. Y'know, just in case you felt like spending the whole weekend gaming.
