NINE INCH NAILS THE SLIP - First ever completely free full album download - Available now at NIN.com

Trent Reznor to Fans: "Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years. This one's on me."

As of 12:01 a.m. PST May 5, Nine Inch Nails' brand new full length album The Slip is available as free download at NIN.com.

Unlike NIN's recently released Ghosts I-IV, there are NO paid options available for The Slip, nor are there any retail partners. At present, The Slip is available exclusively as a free download at NIN.com. A physical configuration on CD and vinyl is in the works for a July release.

The Slip marks the first time Nine Inch Nails--or any artist of NIN's stature--has made its new album available completely and exclusively for free as a DRM-free digital download. The Slip is available as a high-quality MP3 or in a variety of lossless formats including, for the first time, a higher-than-CD quality 24 bit 96k version. All downloads include a PDF with credits and artwork.

Like the free single "Discipline" released last week to terrestrial radio stations and their websites and the track "Echoplex" appearing on iLike, The Slip is a classic straightforward NIN album, featuring Trent Reznor on vocals and various instruments as well as Josh Freese, Robin Finck and Alessandro Cortini. The record was produced by Reznor, Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder. Art direction by Rob Sheridan.

As with previous Nine Inch Nails releases Year Zero and Ghosts I-IV, the complete multi-track files to The Slip will be available free at launch, allowing anyone who wants to create his or her own remixes and reinterpretations of the songs. As always, the Remix.NIN.com community will provide a sire and infrastructure for fans to upload, share, stream and download these various remixes as well as the original masters, all free of charge or restrictions.

The Slip, like Ghosts I-IV, is being released under a Creative Commons license, allowing fans to distribute the songs and files freely and without fear of copyright infringement. More details regarding this license can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

FINAL 2008 DATES ANNOUNCED, Don't You Evah EP Debuts #1 on Billboard Singles Sales Chart

Following on a standing-room-only U.S. tour that culminated in the Don't You Evah EP entering Billboard's singles sales chart at #1, Britt Daniel, Jim Eno, Eric Harvey and Rob Pope-collectively known as Spoon-have confirmed their final live engagements of 2008.

This last run of Spoon shows will be preceded by a May 3 Britt Daniel solo performance at the Belly Up in Solana Beach CA. From there, the full band will be headlining the KNRK Pet Aid Benefit in Troutdale OR, playing their biggest ever New York show July 15 at Brooklyn's Prospect Park, appearing at the Mile High and Pitchfork festivals, making their debut at the Hollywood Bowl September 20 supporting Beck, and concluding with a three-night residency at the Fillmore Theater in San Francisco-the last dates of the tour and first Spoon SF headline engagement since the July 2007 release of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Tickets for the Fillmore shows go on sale to the general public May 11.

These dates will mark the close of more than a year's worth of touring in support of Spoon's sixth full-length studio album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, which was Spoon's first Top 10 album and most acclaimed release of their career. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga's U.S. sales are now approaching 300,000, the band's biggest ever coverage has run in the likes of TIME and THE NEW YORKER, Best of 2007 placements have included NPR, GQ, NEW YORK, ROLLING STONE, PITCHFORK, BLENDER, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, SPIN THE ONION, PASTE and the WASHINGTON POST, and Oct. 6 marked the band's debut appearance on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.

The full itinerary for the May-September dates is as follows:

Sat May 3^rd - Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up (Britt Daniel solo)

Fri June 13^th - Troutdale, OR - Edgefield Amphitheater (KNRK Pet Aid 2008)

Tue July 15^th - Brooklyn, NY - Prospect Park

Sat July 19^th - Denver, CO - Mile High Festival

Sun July 20^th - Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Music Festival

Sat Sep 20^th - Hollywood, CA - Hollywood Bowl

Mon Sep 22^nd - San Francisco, CA - Fillmore Theatre

Tue Sep 23^rd - San Francisco, CA - Fillmore Theatre

Wed Sep 24^th - San Francisco, CA - Fillmore Theatre

Violens Release “Trance–Like Turn” On Green Owl Comp. Named One Of 8 Bands To Watch in 2008 by The L Magazine!

Click Here To Listen To “Trance-Like Turn” & Two Songs from their Single.

Click Here To Download Debut Single “Violent Sensation Descends”

See VIOLENS performing live in NYC:

May 8 @ Music Hall of Williamsburg w/ Clinic & caUSE co-MOTION!

May 9 @ Union Pool w/Amazing Baby & Savoir Adore

Violens song "Trance-Like Turn" is included on The Green Owl Records Comp: A Benefit for the Energy Action Coalition. Their contribution is featured among tracks by other notable artists such as Feist, Muse, Deerhoof, Bloc Party, A Place To Bury Strangers, and many more. 100% of profits from the album sales will be donated to the EAC, to support their efforts to raise environmental awareness in our community. http://greenowlrecords.com/comp.php

The band was recently named one of 8 bands to watch in 2008 by The L Magazine. Follow the link below to their feature, alongside Brooklyn's High Places: http://thelmagazine.com/6/11/feature/feature4.cfm?ctype=1

Violens (pronounced "vy-lenz") are a New York-via-Miami four-piece formed in the fall of 2007, featuring members Iddo Arad (synths/vocals), Ben Brantley (bass), Jorge Elbrecht (lead vocals/guitar) and Kris King (drums). Their music imagines a place where The Zombies & The Byrds meet Wire & The Violent Femmes, and Crass meets Angelo Badalamenti & Prefab Sprout.

Violens songs conjure descriptions of nightmares, the passing of time, speculations on spiritual messages, and accounts of psychedelic hallucinations. Even their most frenetic guitar work and aggressive rhythms are draped in a gauze of reverberant, harmonized vocals and synths which create a sense of creepy, artificial comfort. A fitting characterization, lyrically and musically, for a group whose name sounds like a melding of the words "violence" and "violins".

Icelandic Wunderkind, Mugison, Debuts His Magical New LP, Mugiboogie

Canadian Tour With Queens Of The Stone Age Starts This Week. Fourth LP Out July 15th On Ipecac Recordings.

When Tom Waits astutely pointed out that “no dog ever pissed on a moving car” Mugison must have been nodding in bemused agreement.

Impulsively nomadic, creatively restless, Mugi is the kind of post-modern dude that flows with the flux - one of those ants-in-the-pants artists that naturally negates stagnation and actively seeks out new challenges.

His two key albums to date - 2003’s “Lonely Mountain” and 2005’s “Mugimama: Is This Monkey Music?” (released on Matthew Herbert’s Life? and Accidental & IPECAC labels, respectively) are significant snapshots of the Icelander’s maverick style. Delightfully shambolic, they both evince a passion for provocative sonic mischief as well as good old-fashioned songwriting.

Mugi’s endearing DIY ethic (he taught himself everything he knows) allows him to haphazardly hurl everything from glitchy electronica and avant-noise to Bonnie Prince Billy-esque ballads and soaring choruses into his sorcerer’s saucepan. Somehow it all fits together, for he is the Mugician.

In the three years since touring “Mugimama…” he settled in Sudavik, a miniscule fishing village in the remote Westfjords, raised a family, traded his laptop for a flesh-and-blood rock & roll band and set about reinventing himself and his sound. The result? One of the great rock & roll albums of the century.

“I listened to hundreds of CDs,” says the maestro. “I became aware that artists like John Lee Hooker, Hendrix, Screaming Jay, Bowie, Dylan, The Beatles, Aphex Twin, Björk, Sepultura, the Pixies and Tom Waits all had one thing in common: they were all expressing true feelings and there were no compromises.”

“Mugiboogie,” his third official solo release, was recorded in his home studio, which offers views out onto silent, ancient fjords. Mugi put everything he had into the project. He worked 16 hours a day, started drinking and smoking again, and didn’t just flirt with a nervous breakdown but got into bed with one and spent quite a bit of time fighting to get back out.

But the aim - to achieve something classic, something visceral and “beyond the norm” – was ultimately achieved. Click-tracks were foresworn to get that old school standards feel. Songs were played over and over again until they were perfected, exorcised of any superficiality.

“There was to be no time reference, no time frame,” says Mugi. “The lyrics had to be straight to the point and all the songs played with eyes closed and always in a state of emergency. I had to ensure that all pretentiousness was deleted from the songs. All nearly’s, all maybe´s. Every song had to sound like it was the last song I’d play if the world was going down.”

Brimming with emotion and freighted with recognizable musical references, “Mugibogie” is a mind-trip back to yesteryear when music was free from categorization, when gothic guitars towered and scintillated and when you could hear guts being spilled out all over the record.

From opener “Mugiboogie”, with its swirling Hammond, wailing guitar and loping drum rhythms to the foot-tapping blues of “The Pathetic Album” and the grindingly sensual “Jesus Is A Good Name To Moan,” plus a couple of seriously heartfelt ballads, Mugi has crafted a modern classic.

The record has already sold over 10,000 copies in Iceland alone. When it’s released internationally next month, you’ll feel the earth move too.

Canadian Tour With Queens Of The Stone Age

April 30 7:30PM Vancouver, BC PNE Forum
May 1st 7:30 PM Victoria, BC Save On Foods Memorial Centre
May 3rd 7:30 PM Calgary, AB Calgary Stampede Corral
May 4th 7:30 PM Edmonton, AB Northlands Agricom Arena
May 5th 7:30 PM Saskatoon, SK Odeon Events Centre
May 6th 7:30 PM Regina, SK Conexus Centre of the Arts
May 7th 7:30 PM Winnipeg, MB Burton Cummings Theatre
May 10th 7:30 PM Hamilton, ON Copps Coliseum
May 11th 7:30 PM Ottawa, ON Ottawa Civic Center
May 13th 7:30PM Halifax, NS Cunard Events Centre
May 15th 9 PM New York, NY Hiro Ballroom

RADIOHEAD APPEAL TO FANS TO CONSIDER METHODS OF TRAVEL TO UPCOMING SHOWS

On the eve of their 2008 tour, which begins this Monday in West Palm Beach FL, Radiohead are appealing to fans to think about how they travel to and from shows.

Last year, the band commissioned carbon footprint analysts Best Foot Forward to calculate the carbon generated on their two previous US tours. The report showed that fans' travel to and from the shows accounted for the greatest proportion of the CO2 generated during each tour, something now widely accepted across the industry.

Following the report's recommendations, Radiohead are encouraging fans to consider public transport where available, or increased carpooling for shows outside city centers. Gig goers can compare the CO2 generated by different methods of transport by visiting an online calculator on Radiohead's website. Some of the venues have also helped by offering incentives to fans coming by public transport or in a full car.

After the tour, the band will invite ticket holders to submit information on their methods of travel so further research can be done on carbon emissions and methods to reduce them.

Radiohead's production team will also be posting information on how the band are trying to reduce their own carbon emissions on tour without compromising the quality of the shows.

For more information go here:
http://www.radiohead.com/themostgiganticflyingmouthforsometime/

For a copy of the commissioned report, go here:
http://www.radiohead.com/radiohead_bff.zip

Radiohead's full 2008 North American itinerary is as follows. For ticketing info, etc., check: http://www.radiohead.com/tourdates/

May 5th - Cruzan Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, FL
May 6th - Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa, FL
May 8th - Lakewood Amphitheatre, Atlanta, GA Sold Out
May 9th - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte, NC Sold Out
May 11th - Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge, Bristow, VA Sold Out
May 14th - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, St Louis, MO
May 17th - Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston, TX Sold Out
May 18th - Superpages.com Center, Dallas, TX Sold Out


August 1st - Lollapalooza Festival, Chicago, IL
August 3rd - Verizon Wireless Music Center, Indianapolis, IN
August 4th - Blossom Music Center, Cleveland, OH
August 6th - Parc Jean Drapeau, Montreal, Quebec
August 8th - All Points West Festival Liberty State Park, New York
August 9th - All Points West Festival Liberty State Park, New York
August 12th - Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden NJ
August 13th - Tweeter Center, Mansfield, MA
August 15th - Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, Ontario Sold Out
August 19th - Thunderbird Stadium, Vancouver, BC Sold Out
August 20th - White River Amphitheatre, Auburn, WA Sold Out
August 22nd - Outside Lands Festival, San Francisco, CA
August 24th - Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California Sold Out
August 25th - Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California Sold Out
August 27th - Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre, Chula Vista, CA
August 28th - Santa Barbara Bowl, Santa Barbara, CA Sold Out

JellyNYC's POOL PARTIES 2008

Here Are Just Some Of The Artists That You Will Be Seeing This Summer At JellyNYC's POoL PARTIES 2008!

The Breeders, MGMT, The Hold Steady, Liars, Aesop Rock, Black Lips, Deerhunter, Fuck Buttons, Matt Kim, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Team Robespierre, The Loved Ones, Panther, King Khan and His Shrines, Ting Tings...dates and more additions coming soon!

Over two years, JELLYNYC has hosted over 100,000 people for these free Sunday concerts and have had bands such as TV on the Radio, Blonde Redhead, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Band of Horses and more. We have also worked with such brands as Helio, Brooklyn Brewery, RedBull, Dewars, Coke, New York Magazine, Yaris and SPIN.com for this ground-breaking series. JELLYNYC also produced the legendary Boredoms 7.7.07 event at the Tobacco Warehouse for Nike and Vice Records. Beyond these marquee events, they have produced hundreds of shows for both our own brand and such companies as Heavy.com, Flavorpill, New York Magazine, Imeem.com, and The Tripwire.com. JELLYNYC's name is synonymous with style, creativity and uniqueness. We welcome all challenges and love the chance to showcase our particular brand of idea integration.

MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST U.S. PREMIERE

Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewlett & Chen Shi-Zheng Present
MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST U.S. PREMIERE MAY 22-JUNE 8 AT 2008 SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA IN CHARLESTON, SC

London Premiere July 23-26 At The Royal Opera House

Following sold-out runs in Manchester and Paris, Director Chen Shi-Zheng and GORILLAZ masterminds Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's adaptation of MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST will make its Stateside debut with a May 22 preview performance followed by 17 shows staged May 23 -June 8 all at the 2008 Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina. The show will open in London two months later at the Royal Opera House.

MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST was first staged June 28, 2007 in the UK at the inaugural Manchester International Festival, whose director Alex Poots suggested that world-renowned theatre, opera and film director Shi-Zheng enlist GORILLAZ co-creators Albarn and Hewlett to provide unique, modern musical and visual interpretations of the themes and characters of this most beloved work of Chinese folklore.

The result is a new opera for the 21st century based on an ancient Chinese legend reworked as a dazzling spectacle involving nearly 40 Chinese circus acrobats, martial artists and singers from China with an orchestra of Western and traditional Chinese instruments. Developed in Beijing, Paris, Berlin and London the show has had sell-out runs in Manchester and Paris.

MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST is performed in Mandarin with subtitles, its storyline chronicling the Monkey King's journey to enlightenment as it takes him undersea, to decadent banquets in heaven, through encounters with Spider Maidens and Skeleton Demons, and eventually to paradise. Hewlett's renditions of MONKEY's cacophony of characters combine with Albarn's debut opera score's deft integration of western and traditional Chinese instrumentation to create a wholly engrossing new universe that reinvents a legend with a thrilling combination of music and action.

Chen Shi-Zheng's previous credits range from Chinese opera and theatre to the Hollywood movie Dark Matter (starring Meryl Streep). Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett are the co-creators of award-winning virtual band Gorillaz, whose two albums Gorillaz and Demon Days have amassed global sales of over 10 million, the latter of which spawned the Demon Days Live extravaganza, a tribute to the animated group featuring guest performers ranging from Dennis Hopper to the late Ike Turner, performed a total of five times each at the Manchester Opera House and New York City's Apollo Theater.

About Spoleto Festival USA
Spoleto Festival USA has firmly established itself as one of the world's major arts festivals since its inception in 1977. For 17 days and nights each spring, Spoleto Festival USA fills Charleston, South Carolina's historic theatres, churches and outdoor spaces with over 100 performances by renowned artists and emerging performers in disciplines ranging from opera, theater, music theater, dance, and chamber, symphonic, choral and jazz music, as well as the visual arts. For more information, please visit www.spoletousa.org.