This
year's edition of the Vans Warped Tour – slated to hunker down on August
4 at the Nassau Coliseum – has gobs of activities scheduled as well as
the usual 4,353 whiny teen "emo" bands that take part. While most
attendees will be there to check out headliners such as Coheed & Cambria,
several of these "special features" on the bill are amazingly unique,
if not downright hilarious.
One such howler: Since parents and their teens don’t always have the same taste in music, concertgoers can drop off their parents at the air-conditioned "Reverse Daycare Tent." While teens are rocking out to their favorite bands, parents can enjoy a cold beverage, a massage, and a movie with the help of soundproof headphones. Isn't there a lesson in there somewhere?
Other attractions include Rock Out With Guitar Hero II, where patrons can jam along with the popular X-Box game; a MySpace tent, presumably where underage teen girls will point cameras at bathroom mirrors … er, actually, it will be a forum for emerging artists with raffles and giveaways; the Fuse Network's Warped Wednesdays; Vans Amateur Mini-Ramp Skate Jam; and too many more sidelines to list here. For a complete list of activities during the tour, log on to warpedtour.com.
Sustainable Table supports the bossy bovine sisters of "Cows Unite"
in their mission to get dairy-loving humans to choose the best organic milk.
According to their "Bovine Bill of Rights," this means choosing
milk that comes from cows that are given the rights to pasture, sunshine,
exercise, clean air, and freedom from antibiotics and toxic chemicals. For
more information, log on to cowsunite.org.
Kicking off in Hollywood on August 2, Sustainable Table's "Eat Well Guided Tour of America" will travel across the United States, stopping in towns in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, all in hopes of getting to the Farm Aid concert in time. They'll visit family farms, farmers markets, and restaurants that serve local, in-season, sustainable produced food. Some stops will be hosted by local groups that will bring together area residents for barbecues, as well as events that include local food, conversation, and local music.
Megadeth's
new full-length album, United Abominations, debuted at #8 on the Billboard
Top 200 chart, selling 54,000 copies in its first week of release. This surpasses
the 46,000 first-week tally of its predecessor, The System Has Failed, which
debuted at #18.
According to information gathered from Hits Daily Double, United Abominations debuted at #2 on the Finnish charts, #24 on the Italian charts, and #21 on the Norwegian charts. Starting next month, Megadeth will tour the U.K., Europe, and the U.S. in support of the album, and another Gigantour is expected in 2008.
Stone Sour recently announced a new round of U.S. tour dates. The summer run
will commence August 3 in Fargo, North Dakota and run through September 2
in Ft. Lauderdale. The trek will make a local stop at Mulchay's in Wantagh
on August 16.
"We are simply too far gone to not come and bug you people some more. These venues have electrical outlets and we have instruments – game on," enthused frontman Corey Taylor. "Look for us to be tearing a swath through America one more time before we take a breath, close our eyes and wait for something else to happen. And you never know what that will be, eh?"
"Through Glass," a hit single from their album Come What(ever) May, recently crossed the 500,000 digital downloads mark.
Early response to Easy Tiger has been universally positive; Q gave the album
four stars and wrote, "the bad boy is back, and he's really, really good."
On our shores, Rolling Stone weighed in, noting, "Perhaps thanks to maturity,
sobriety or both, Adams' voice sounds better than ever." Harp's lead
review in the current issue calls the album "easily Adams' most consistent
recording."
For a complete list of tour dates, log on to ryan-adams.com.
The current version of Deep Purple will perform on August 7 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
