Broken Bells
The Morning Benders
Thursday, June 10
Center Stage
Doors 8PM, Show 9PM | $26ADV/$28DOS | All Ages

To win a pair of tickets to see Broken Bells and The Morning Benders at their SOLD OUT concert at Center Stage on Thursday, June 10, comment on Drive A Faster Car’s Facebook Page with and tell me why you should win the tickets.

One winner will be chosen at random from the rule abiding contestants and notified via email by 4PM on the day of the show. Upon confirmation, the winner will receive two tickets which they will receive at Will Call. You must be able to confirm by 5PM EST on June 10. (If you don’t, we will be giving them to someone else.)

[mp3] Broken Bells – The High Road
[mp3] The Morning Benders – Cold War

Pavement, the indie college rockers who led the lo-fi movement of the early 90s, are back on the road for for the first time in a decade and visiting Atlanta’s Tabernacle on September 26.

Tickets will be available via Live Nation this Friday, March 5.

Chuck Klosterman, pop culture writer who likely shares many shelves with Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, gets the down-low on the forthcoming Pavement reunion straight from frontman Stephen Malkmus over at GQ.

Of a similar note, Aussie shoegazers, The Church, will be playing at Center Stage on May 1 and tickets are on sale now.

[mp3] Pavement – Gold Soundz
[mp3] Pavement – Here (Live)
[mp3] Pavement – Home (Live)
[mp3] The Happy Hollows – Under The Milky Way (The Church cover)
[mp3] Isidore (Steve Kilbey of The Church and Jeffrey Cain of Remy Zero) – Sanskrit

This track from their 2002 release Amore del Tropico matches this Friday weather quite closely.

[mp3] The Black Heart Procession – Tropics Of Love

Vocalist and keyboard player Emily Haines continuously delivers solid song after song on their latest release, Fantasies and she is guaranteed to do the same this weekend and warm you up this almost freezing (low of 36 degrees!) holiday weekend. Their dynamic synthpop/new wave/dance rock/electronic verses will keep your head bobbing and hips rocking.

The much buzzed about UK trio Band Of Skulls open the show in support of their debut album, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey.

Metric
Band Of Skulls
Saturday, November 28
Center Stage
8PM Doors, 9PM Show | $20 ADV | All Ages

To win a pair of tickets to see Metric and Band Of Skulls at Center Stage on Saturday, November 28, enter via email with your full name and tell me why you should win the tickets. First one to enter (and confirm) will win the tickets and notified via email by 1PM TODAY. Upon confirmation, the winner will receive two tickets which they will receive at Will Call. You must be able to confirm by 2PM EST TODAY.

[mp3] Metric – Help I’m Alive
[mp3] Band Of Skulls – I Know What I Am

Pinback
Bellini
Thursday, October 22
Masquerade
8PM | $15 | All Ages

To win a pair of tickets to see Pinback at Masquerade on Thursday, October 22, enter via email with your full name and tell me why you should win the tickets. One winner will be chosen at random from the rule abiding contestants and notified via email by 5PM on the day of the show. Upon confirmation, the winner will receive two tickets which they will receive at Will Call. You must be able to confirm ASAP!

[mp3] Pinback – Fortress

Cohen is back on the road in support of his upcoming live CD/DVD release featuring his performance at The Isle Of Wight music festival in the summer of 1970. The new, beautiful film documentary by Lerner features interviews with fellow festival performers, as well as Cohen’s full performance on CD. All tracks are previously unreleased (sans bits of “Suzanne” which were featured in the documentary Message to Love, also by Lerner). Included are live versions of classic songs from the first two Leonard Cohen LPs: “So Long, Marianne,” “The Stranger Song,” “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye,” “Suzanne,” “Bird On The Wire,” “You Know Who I Am,” and “The Partisan” as well as spoken word and poetry.

To win a pair of tickets to see Leonard Cohen at the Fox Theatre on Tuesday, October 20, enter via email with your full name and tell me why you should win the tickets. One winner will be chosen at random from the rule abiding contestants and notified via email by 10 AM on Monday, October 19. Upon confirmation, the winner will receive two tickets which they will receive at Will Call. You must be able to confirm by 11AM.

[mp3] Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen cover)
[pre-order] Leonard Cohen – Live At The Isle of Wight (CD/DVD)

Deer Tick
J-Roddy Walston & the Business, Jonny Corndawg
Saturday, October 17
40 Watt
9PM Doors | $10 ADV | 18+

To win a pair of tickets to see Deer Tick at the 40 Watt on Saturday, October 17, enter via email with your full name and tell me why you should win the tickets. First one to enter (and confirm) will win the tickets and notified via email by 2PM on the day of show. Upon confirmation, the winner will receive two tickets which they will receive at Will Call. You must be able to confirm by 4PM EST.

[mp3] Deer Tick – Art Isn’t Real (City Of Sin)

There’s a great WTWTA site created by Vice Magazine for the release featuring 24 artists inspired by Where The Wild Things Are including Ben Jones, Benjamin Marra, Dan Zettwoch, Esther Pearl Watson, Frédéric Fleury, Hellen Jo, Jordan Crane, Josh Simmons, Le Merde, Lisa Hanawalt, Mark Todd, Martin Ontiveros, Matt Furie, Matthew Thurber, Nick Gazin, Ray Sohn, Ron Rege, Jr., Imiri Sakabashira, Sammy Harkham, Shintaro Kago, Skinner, Ted May, Tony Millionaire, and Vanessa Davis.

In addition, the site offers up buddy icons and iPhone wallpaper for those of you interested in flaunting some of the pieces and your adoration of the book or film.

We’re giving away three awesome mini-mags and a copy of Where The Wild Things Are soundtrack featuring original songs by Karen O And The Kids (of Yeah Yeah Yeahs), courtesy of Vice Magazine!

To win a mini-mag or copy of the Where The Wild Things Are soundtrack featuring Karen O And The Kids, enter via email with your full name, mailing address and tell me why you should win. Each of the winners will be chosen at random from the rule abiding contestants and notified via email by 3PM on Monday.

Vice is also throwing a little art contest of their own around the release of Where The Wild Things Are.

[mp3] Karen O And The Kids – All Is Love

The Soul Collective Tour has nothing to do with heaven letting its light shine down and everything to do with promoting the Kia Soul, a boxy competitor to the Scion XB. The Soul is soulful and street and edgy (“The new way to roll!”) because it can be tricked out with superfluous spoilers, and it comes in colors with names like “Molten,” “Alien,” and “Java.” Though I have a distinct No Alien Anything policy when it comes to marketing, it ain’t the worst-looking thing on the road, which I realize is not a bold statement as long as Pontiac Azteks roam the earth. I used to make fun of the Scion XB and Honda Element. Then I rode in them and loved their emphasis on design minimalism and the utilitarian. I reserve judgment on the Kia Soul until I encounter one in its natural habitat, which is probably outside of a club with tinted windows and a name like Oxygen or Club 324.

Anyway, the lineup for the festival is pretty good, featuring a mix of DJs and buzzed-about indie bands. The first night is a media/RSVP thingy featuring Columbia, SC’s newest blog hero, Washed Out. Washed Out is a bellwether artist in the so-called “chillwave” movement, the hilarious and awful new term given to a group of pretty okay lo-fi electronic artists who just happened to arrive on the scene at the same time needing a stupid name for their non-movement. I’m not sure how you get into this thing, but I’m sure it has something to do with Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kiacollective.

Also, performing will be Atlanta’s very own Atlas Sound (which is too good to just be considered a Deerhunter side project) on Saturday, and guitar-slinger/oddball songwriter St. Vincent on Sunday. St. Vincent really brings it live, so you should probably check that out, especially considering that you’ll get two tickets to the show for free if you go there and test drive the Soul. A word of warning: Big Sean is playing on Friday night, and his performance at SXSW was the most atrocious I saw (and I saw Third Eye Blind), more hateful and misogynistic than your usual hip-hop performance and just not very good to boot.

Here is the full lineup:

More events and details can be found via the Kia Soul Collective Web site at http://www.kiasoulcollective.com, and through its Twitter, http://www.twitter.com/kiacollective.

[mp3] Atlas Sound – Requiem For All The Lonely Teenagers With Passed Out Moms

The Dead Weather
Imaad Wasif
Friday, October 2
Tabernacle
8PM | $30 | All Ages

To win a pair of tickets to see The Dead Weather at Tabernacle on Friday, October 2, enter via email with your full name and tell me why you should win the tickets. One winner will be chosen at random from the rule abiding contestants and notified via email by 3PM on the day of the show. Upon confirmation, the winner will receive two tickets which they will receive at Will Call. You must be able to confirm by 5PM EST.

[mp3] The Dead Weather – Hang You From The Heavens
[mp3] The Dead Weather – Are We Friends Electric