GETTING ROOTY

Big news at hand for music fans down under: The Roots are heading back to Australia and New Zealand and for the first time their headline tour will include dates in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth in addition to Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Wellington.

The Roots are true hip-hop stars. Forming in 1987, they have achieved credibility and respect in a musical realm often scorned for celebrating drugs, guns and girls.

Throughout their career, The Roots have produced seven albums, including the critically acclaimed, Grammy-winning Things Fall Apart. Their latest release, The Tipping Point debuted at #4 on the overseas Billboard Chart, scoring them two Grammy nominations and earning them 42nd place in Blender Magazine’s Top 50 CDs for the year 2004.

Live, The Roots are mind-numbingly awesome. ?uestlove has described touring as the band’s ‘bread and butter’. On the road up to 250 days a year, The Roots have played shows all over the world, from America to Europe to Australia, at clubs, theatres, festivals and even Grammy after-parties. In 2003, The Roots were voted one of the ‘Twenty Greatest Live Acts in the World’ by Rolling Stone readers.

Unlike many of their hip hop compatriots The Roots are also well-known for performing lengthy shows. Their upcoming tour will see them performing an approximately two hour set.

Touring for The Roots this winter is Ahmir ?uestlove (drums), Thompson (musical director/ drums), Tarik ‘Black Thought’ Trotter (mc), Leonard ‘Hub’ Hubbard (bass), James ’Kamal’ Gray (keyboards), Kirk ‘Cap’n Kirk’ Douglas (guitar), Frank ‘Knuckles’ Walker (percussion) and Maimouna Youssef (vocals).

Dates:
Friday 29 July - The Arena, Brisbane (Over 18s)
Saturday 30 July - Enmore Theatre, Sydney (All ages)
Sunday 31 July - Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide (All ages)
Wednesday 03 August - Metro City, Perth (Over 18s)
Friday 05 August - The Metro, Melbourne (Over 18s)
Monday 08 August - Town Hall, Wellington (All ages)
Tuesday 09 August - St James Theatre, Auckland (Over 18s)

BLOODY BOYS

Rebellious and nasty, the Blood Brothers defined their own punk-soaked angst rock when they came together in 1997.

Hailing from Seattle, Blood Brothers formed around the dual vocal nucleus of Jordan Blilie and Johnny Whitney, but also include in their line-up Cody Votolato (guitar), Morgan Henderson (bass), and Mark Gajadhar (drums).

A rough-edged, sour set of songs found their way onto the band’s debut effort, This Adultery is Ripe, and the music press immediately praised the Blood Brothers’ scowl at mainstream society.

March on Electric Children, which appeared in 2001, continued on with the Blood Brothers’ spastic presentation, but it was their third album that really saw the band reach out their arm and demand to be scratched.

Burn Piano Island, Burn was their most cohesive release, fusing the fury with a more melodic sense, complete with the ever-so-catchy sounds of the single of the same name.

Last year’s Crimes (released this year in Australia) took that step a further leap forward, recorded with Seattle local John Goodmanson (Blonde Redhead and Sleater-Kinney, amongst others). It was, in a word, outrageous.

Now they’re bringing themselves to Australia to wallop our ears with their sonic delights.

Dates:
Thursday July 14: Corner Hotel, Melbourne (Over 18)
Friday July 15: Gaelic Club, Sydney (All ages)
Saturday July 16: The Rev, Brisbane (Over 18)
Sunday July 17: The Rev, Brisbane (All ages)
Tuesday July 19: Kings Arms, Auckland (Over 18)