In April, Brooklyn Bowl will host a weekly residency featuring jam-fusion act Kung Fu. Starting on April 9 and running each Monday through the 30th, The Bowl Sessions will see Kung Fu team up with different support acts from a variety of genres each week. Of particular note, the band will welcome Wyllys and The New York Hustlers on the 9th and Jon “The Barber” Gutwillig will guest during Kung Fu and Damn Right!’s interlocking sets on the 23rd. Head over to JamBase for complete details.

In other news, Paul Simon has announced a batch of Graceland 25th Anniversary dates featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Unfortunately for us on this side of the Atlantic, each show will take place in Europe. The tour kicks off on July 12 in Dublin and runs through a July 26th performance in Bergen, Norway.

Finally, Krautrock pioneers Can have just announced a new box set called The Lost Tapes featuring three CDs worth of previously unreleased material. The set, containing both live and studio tracks, will hit stores on June 19th. Here’s a taste of Millionenspiel, which opens The Lost Tapes…

Prince has added another NYC show to his schedule – February 7th at Madison Square Garden. No word yet on who will open that show, but it was announced today that Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings have been tapped to open The Purple One’s January 18th sold out performance at the same venue. Tickets for the February 7th concert go on sale this Friday.

In other news, Rolling Stone published an interesting interview with Robert Plant in which the former Honeydrippers front man discussed the Led Zeppelin reunion, his failed follow-up with Alison Krauss and his upcoming new album. You must be a subscriber to read the whole article online, but this piece provides some highlights from the piece.

Finally, Pearl Jam will celebrate its 20th Anniversary in 2011 with two reissues, a new documentary, a festival and hopefully a shit-load of shows. Both Vs. and Vitalogy will get the re-issue treatment, while the Cameron Crowe-directed Pearl Jam Twenty doc will also be the basis for a book and soundtrack. The band’s website also promises “a number of special events and new, unexpected releases!” and a “20th anniversary destination weekend bash sometime in late summer.” [PearlJam.com via CoS]

The 30 Days of Dead program wrapped up recently at Dead.net and if you missed out on downloading any of the 30 tracks from the Grateful Dead vault that were shared, we’ve got good news for you. From now until December 8th, you can download any or all of the MP3s from this project through the 30 Days of Dead Archive. Don’t miss your second chance.

In other news, the pre-book period for Jam Cruise 10 – which sets sail in January 2012 – has started and runs until January 9th. For $250 you can reserve your spot on the milestone 10th cruise and get preferential treatment when it comes time to pick rooms. As a special bonus, all those who pre-book will be entered to win an iPad filled with every Cruise Tunes set from Jam Cruise 9 as well as photos from JC9′s official photographers. Head over to JamCruise.com for more details and to reserve your spot on the boat.

Finally, those attending Saturday night’s Jake and Brendan Acoustic Christmas show featuring Umphrey’s guitarists Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss should aim to get to Park West early as Umphrey’s and USTORM will be cleaning out their closets and offering merchandise from throughout the past 10 years for a special Holiday Garage Sale. The sale goes down from 6PM to 7PM and anyone who spends more than $25 will get to sit on Ryan “Santa” Stasik’s lap and tell him what you want for Christmas.

We told you we’d keep you posted on the launch of HT co-founder Slade Sohmer’s new website, HyperVocal, and today is the big day. Check out Slade’s intro letter to find out why HyperVocal should be added to your daily list of sites you must visit. Best of luck to Slade and the whole HV crew.

In other news, as a reminder, you can catch a 45-minute My Morning Jacket performance live this evening at 8PM EDT through the Live at Letterman website. They’ll also be Dave’s guest on The Late Show tonight.

Finally, Umphrey’s McGee just announced the location of this fall’s third S2/Stew Art event – Kalamazoo, MI on Friday, October 22. Doors will open at 4:00 pm, with the S2 to start at 4:30. Tickets are $99.00 and go on sale Friday October 15th, at 12:00 pm EDT via Umphrey’s Ticketing.

We’re closing in on My Morning Jacket’s five-night stand at NYC’s Terminal 5 in which the group will perform each of its studio albums in their entirety. Jarrod Dicker spoke with MMJ co-founder and bassist Tom “Two-Tone Tommy” Blankenship about the dates for an interesting Relix.com feature. Among the nuggets of info Dicker extracts from Two-Tone Tommy is that ex-MMJer Danny Cash might join the band for the first two shows.

Speaking of shows in New York City, last Wednesday we shared the news that Arcade Fire would webcast its August 5th performance at Madison Square Garden. At the time there were rumors that Spike Jonze would be directing the broadcast, but it turns out the directing gig went to Monty Python vet Terry Gilliam. Tune in to YouTube’s Arcade Fire – Unstaged channel at 10PM EDT on the 5th to watch all the action from MSG.

Following up on another story we covered, it turns out all the chatter of a Beach Boys reunion may have been a bit premature. Beach Boy Mike Love tells Billboard.com that “there have been a lot of ideas floated, but nothing decided. So far it’s just conversation. There are no big plans yet — although there’s a lot of interest from a lot of people to see what would happen if we got together and did some new music and maybe did some shows. But so far nothing’s firm.”  We think there’s too much money on the table for the band to pass up a lucrative reunion tour in 2011.

The new 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, CO has snagged some stellar gigs in its short lifespan and apparently the streak of good bookings will continue into the fall with word that Ween will perform at the venue on Halloween – the brownest of days. Tickets for HalloWEEN go on sale this Saturday through Ticket Horse. Ween returns to the stage on July 29th in Toronto.

In other news, the San Francisco Giants have released more details about Jerry Garcia Night, which is slated to take place at AT&T Park on the anniversary of Garcia’s death – August 9. Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Jeff Pehrson will sing the anthem and the Rhythm Devils will perform during the Seventh Inning Stretch. For more details check out the Giants’ Jerry Garcia Tribute Day webpage or click on the image below…

Finally, SPIN’s 25 anniversary party kicks off this coming Monday with five nights of shows in NYC featuring the likes of the Smashing Pumpkins, the Flaming Lips, the Black Keys, the National and Spiritualized. Didn’t get tickets or can’t make it to the Big Apple? You can still watch the concerts as SPIN will be webcasting each show at 8PM every night next week on SPIN.com.

Now that John Kadlecik’s departure from the Dark Star Orchestra has been confirmed, the group will give fans a look at their new lineup. iClips will webcast tomorrow night’s Dark Star Orchestra show at the Klein Auditorium in Bridgeport, CT. This show/webcast will also feature the initial artist announcement for next year’s Gathering of the Vibes.

• RAQ keyboardist Todd Stoops has teamed up with saxophonist Kris Jensen, bassist David Livols and The Breakfast guitarist Tim Palmieri and drummer Adrian Tramontano to form Kung Fu. The ensemble will kick off a Monday night residency at Stella Blues in New Haven, CT next Monday. They will be playing a mix of covers, improvisation and eventually will be writing original tunes as well.

• Have you ever wondered if professionals would be able to tell the difference between high-quality MP3s and lossless FLAC files? The staffers at Trusted Reviews participated in a “blind” listening test in which they heard a number of tracks in FLAC and 320kbps MP3 formats and were asked which sounded better.  The results led Trusted Reviews to an interesting conclusion.

It turns out Pavement won’t be the only band curating an All Tomorrow’s Parties event in the U.K. next May, as festival organizers have announced that Simpsons creator Matt Groening will curate an event of his own in Minefield between May 7-9. Groening last curated an ATP event in Los Angeles back in 2003. No word on the lineup yet.

Speaking of Pavement, band member Bob Nastanovich revealed that the group won’t be performing or recording any new music as part of their reunion next year in an interview over at The Quietus. Nastanovich also mentioned that Stephen Malkmus will be calling all of the shots during the alleged “once and once only” reunion.

While we’re on the topic of reunions, we’re less than two weeks away from the first Rod Stewart-less The Faces reunion date on October 25 in London. Classic Rock magazine spoke with drummer Kenney Jones about the reunion and Jones tells them that there will probably be more shows in the future and won’t reveal who will sing on the 25th.

Umphrey’s McGee announced that they will be busting out more musical mash ups at their first visit to Las Tortugas  on Halloween. The group played a number of mash ups at the Warfield in San Francisco for last year’s Halloween concert including a spot-on Thriller/Another Brick in the Wall mix. The sextet will kick off their Fall tour in Bloomington, IN this evening. Keep up with the action by following @Originalwyllys all tour long.

[Photo by Dave Vann]

In other news, Tea Leaf Green is giving away downloads of their September 12th performance at the Pour House in James Island, SC via the Live Music Archive.  This show featured the debut of a new song titled Oklahoma Sun and a smokin’ cover of Dig A Pony. Tea Leaf, who recently signed with Red Light Management, will also play at Las Tortugas – which is currently the only show on the band’s schedule.

Finally, when we were putting together our list of touring jambands that didn’t make it through the ’00s, there was one band who just missed qualifying. From Good Homes, the pride of Northwestern New Jersey, broke up in 1999. The group put out a press release today announcing that they will reunite for a pair of shows at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ. Follow the From Good Homes Twitter feed for all the latest FGH info.

It was a big news day at Phish.com, where three new articles were posted about the band. First came word that a limited number of $80 tickets to Trey’s Carnegie Hall show on September 12 have just been released to the public through the venue’s website. Big Red will play Time Turns Elastic plus a number of Phish and TAB classics backed by the New York Philharmonic.

[Photo by Adam Kaufman]

Next, we got word that NPR’s Morning Edition will include a feature on Phish tomorrow including interviews with Trey and Page. You can stream the show through NPR.com or use their station locator to find your local station and to see what time Morning Edition airs in your neck of the woods.

Finally, the band shared with us the track listing for the DVD that’s included in the Joy Box. READ ON for the full list and be sure to answer question #1, #2 and/or #3 for three chances to win your own Joy Box…

As Lotus set out on their highly successful spring tour there were cameras following them to give fans an inside look at the band. The first episode of the resulting bi-weekly web series includes footage from Higher Ground March ’09 and Starscape ’09 and features the song Spiritualize…

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Meanwhile, Pearl Jam has teamed up with Global Inheritance to create Hand-Crank Listening Stations featuring four tracks from the band’s new album, Backspacer, that will be available at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco this weekend. Head over to the Green Village for a chance to use your arm strength to hear new Pearl Jam tunes.

Finally, you can stream Rich Pagano’s bold new track You Want to Stay High featuring tasty licks from Big Red himself, Trey Anastasio, over at EW’s Music Mix blog. Pagano, the drummer in the Fab Faux, put together a fantastic new album that will be available everywhere next month. Click here to read our chat with Rich where he spoke about playing with the Phish frontman and the blood, sweat and tears that went into making his new record.

Gov’t Mule haven’t detailed what band they’ll be covering at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia on Halloween, but this ad sure gives it away…

Tickets for this  special show go on sale tomorrow at 10AM.

Also, before we take off for the weekend we wanted to post what’s old news at this point – Widespread Panic keyboardist JoJo Hermann will be teaming up with NYC-based singer/songwriter Sherman Ewing for the debut tour of the newly formed Missing Cats as they prepare to enter the studio to record their first album. Here are the dates…

Sep 15 The ArtsCenter Carrboro, NC
Sep 16 The Soapbox Wilmington, NC
Sep 17 Pour House Charleston, SC
Sep 18 The Melting Point Athens, GA
Sep 19 The Grey Eagle Asheville, NC

Have a great weekend everybody!

The latest release on STS9′s 1320 Records label, Peaceblaster : The New Orleans Make It Right Remixes, features remixes of songs from the group’s 2008 release, Peaceblaster, from a veritable all-star team of artists including Pretty Lights, The Glitch Mob, Count Bass D, Richard Devine, Eskmo, Alex B., Ronald Jenkees and many more. This fantastic compilation is currently available at the label’s website and through iTunes with all proceeds going to the Make It Right Foundation, who has been chosen by the band to be the sole beneficiary of all of STS9′s 2009 charity programs.

In other news, the String Cheese Incident played what was billed as a “private show” in Denver last night at the Ogden Theatre. The group used the gig – which was their first performance in nearly two years – as a soundcheck of sorts for their upcoming appearance at the Rothbury Festival on July 4th weekend. Here’s a look at last night’s setlist…

Set 1: Lonesome Fiddle Blues, Lost, Rhum n’ Zouc, Just One Story, Whiskey for Breakfast, Jellyfish > Birdland > Johnny Cash > Birdland
Set 2: Rivertrance, Piece of Mine, MLT, Sometimes a River, Barstool, Black & White, Land’s End, Search
Encore: It Is What It Is
Encore 2: I Know You Rider [via Friends of Cheese]

Finally, former HT Blips artist Viva brings her powerful blues-guitar chops to New York City’s Slipper Room tonight for an evening of Rock & Roll Burlesque. Viva will be joined by hula-hoop queen Miss Saturn for a crazy show featuring  a 7-piece band playing live rock & roll music while three sexy burlesque dancers do their thing. For only $5 a ticket, this is quite a deal.

With the announcement of a set of three shows at Citi Field in NYC and another show at FedEx Field in Washington D.C., a real live Paul McCartney Tour is breaking out. Today comes the news of two additional stops on this pseudo-tour. Sir Paul will perform at Boston’s Fenway Park on August 5 and 6 and the former Wings lead singer will headline this year’s Green Concert at Piedmont Park in Atlanta on August 15.

We also wanted to hip you to Andy Gadiel’s fantastic summary of all the Phish 3.0 coverage from the band’s just-completed tour over at the HeadCount blog. Considering Andy’s Phish Page was the home page on our browsers for a good ten years, we’re honored to have made his list. If you haven’t been keeping up with the HeadCount blog lately, you’re missing out.

Finally, one of our contributors, Alex Borsody, has taken over the long-dormant Partyin’ Peeps blog from another one of our contributors, Reuben Schy. Alex already has published a few posts at Peeps including a review of a private U-Melt show in Brooklyn. Best of luck to Alex.

While the Beastie Boys are hard at work prepping for a summer filled with festival appearances, they have announced the details of their new album. Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 will drop on September 15th and contains 17 tracks. Among the tracks will be Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win featuring Santigold, Too Many Rappers featuring Nas and a song titled Crazy Ass Shit. The B Boys performed Too Many Rappers with Nas at Bonnaroo.

[Photo by Dave Vann]

Also of note, the initial lineup announcement for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival has been released with Little Feat, Booker T. and the DBTs, Dr. Dog and Gillian Welch among those performing at the free festie in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on October 2 – 4. Visit the festival’s website for the full list of performers and more details.

Finally, our friend videographer Jake Krolick has been prolific as fuck these days in recording and editing videos from a wide range of artists and uploading them to YouTube. Besides fantastic montages of Marco Benevento, The Brakes and Vieux Farka Toure, he released our personal favorite of the latest batch – a clip of The Dirty Projectors rockin’ Remade Horizon and Stillness Is The Move live in Philadelphia. Check it…