Matador Records is having a free show on July 4th in New York's Battery Park featuring Laura Cantrell, Stephen Malkmus, and Yo La Tengo. Doors open at 2pm.

The upcoming Black Rebel Motorcycle Club album Howl is now slated for an August 23rd release in North America via RCA Records. You already know the details so I won't bore you with that again.

Kid606 has announced a pleathora of show dates despite the fact that he has no new album on the horizon (or future releases that we've heard of). That's no reason not to get out there and show people a good time is it?

We told you that the Voodoo Music Festival was going to feature Nine Inch Nails this year but now we know we can expect a crapload of other amazing artists such as Queens Of The Stone Age, The Flaming Lips, Secret Machines, The Bravery, Ryan Adams, LCD Soundsystem, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Louis XIV, Social Distortion, the Decemberists, and VHS Or Beta. For more information visit the official site.

We finally got in the dates for that Glassjaw/Used tour we mentioned. 30 Seconds To Mars will also be support on the tour.

Bloc Party has put their recent Washington DC show up on the NPR site as a downloadable podcast. Apparently this is a first for NPR and you can check it out right here.

You can't stop the insane touring this summer, so don't even try. Turin Brakes will be touring the States throughout July in support of JackInABox.

You may not think you know who Seu Jorge is but if you've seen The Life Aquatic you do. Remember the guy constantly playing guitar, featuring the previews, and sort of noted for doing some great versions of David Bowie songs? Yea, that's him. Catch him on tour...

You thought you just needed their self-titled album but fans of Violent Femmes have a Best Of on the way - including 16 tracks, music videos, and concert footage. Look for Permanent Record: The Very Best of Violent Femmes on July 12th.

Lollapalooza 2005 will mark the unveiling of the latest project from Perry Farrell entitled Satellite Party. Backed by No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal, Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, and percussionist Gabriele Corcos the group will play "excerpts" from the grand story of Satellite Party. The band itself is a conceptual manifestation from Farrell and I couldn't possibly make up something as ludicrous as he did.. read about it in the more.

If you've missed out on the pleathora of amazing live performances on Seattle's KEXP fret not - they are planning on releasing their first ever compilation on August 23rd. The disc will only be available through the stations website and in local Seattle stores but it looks to be worth that little bit of effort to get some undoubtedly great performances from The Shins, Interpol, AIR, Sonic Youth, Rilo Kiley, Flaming Lips and a bunch more.

The Posies will release Every Kind of Light on June 28th via Rykodisc. The disc marks the end of a seven year drought of new releases for the band. You can read more about the disc here, preview some songs here, or (as always) check them out on MySpace.

Rhino Records will be releasing a rather large boxset for The Ramones on August 16th. Weird Tales Of The Ramones will contain over 80 songs, an expanded DVD version of Lifestyles Of The Ramones, and a comic book tribute.

Remember when we told you that Oneida would be releasing The Wedding some time ago? Turns out they did and now they're touring in support of it throughout August. That gives you just enough time to buy it, love it, and go see them.

According to a blurb in this article, Fiona Apple is in the studio with Brian Kehew (Moog Cookbook) working on her third full-length album. Extraordinary Machine apparently will stay shelved indefinitely (assuming you don't know how to use google to find mp3's).

Word has come that Hellcat Records will release a DVD entitled Give 'Em the Boot (a film by Tim Armstrong) on August 2nd. Lot's more details below, but basically the DVD features rare live tunes from the likes of Rancid, Joe Strummer, The Transplants, Dropkick Murphys, and The Slackers.

I'm not afraid to admit that I used to like Sugar Ray back in the "Mean Machine"days, so I am happy to tell you that the band just release a 15 track, career-spanning collection yesterday. Check below for the tracks that made the cut and take a listen with this media player.

Having just completed their most successful US tour to date Electrelane have been added to the forthcoming Le Tigre tour. They will be main support on the following dates:

James Lavelle of UNKLE will be putting together a remix for Autolux of "Turnstile Blues." What this track will be released on is beyond us but it's intriguing regardless.

Check out this video for the Bloc Party song "Pioneers." The animated video was put together by Minivegas.