Hurly-Burly

Nine Inch Nails will be touring North America in support of their upcoming album With Teeth. The tour kicks off April 27 and runs through May 31 including a May 6-7 engagement at the Congress Theatre in Chicago.

Sub Pop’s The Album Leaf have an extensive North American tour planned from March 11 through April 21, including an April 8 date at the Empty Bottle in Chicago.

De La Soul have announced a series of dates from March 2 to March 30. Many of the performances will be accompanied by a symposium on hip-hop music, including March 21 date at Columbia College in Chicago. All tickets are available at the “less-than-a-beer” price of $1.20.

Will Oldham, aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy is teaming up with his Louisville counterpart, Matt Sweeney (formerly of Zwan) for a string of dates in April following the release of the frighteningly dynamic, Superwolf. Billy wowed a packed crowd at Nargile last April in a rare club stop in Champaign, but the closest he’s coming to Urbana will be in Columbus, Ohio on April 13 at The Wexner Center for the Arts.

Fed up with “best song”-writer John Mayer? Unlike the Grammys, where the music industry elite decide what’s best, The PLUG Independent Music Awards are voted on by fans. PLUG has announced the decidedly less commercial winners for 2005 (you’ll note that there are no groups, songs or bands which won both a Grammy and PLUG award). Taking the Album of the Year award is TV on the Radio’s danceable “Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes”. Interpol scored the Band of the Year, likely a nod to their not-a-slouch sophomore effort “Antics”. Madvillian’s “Madvilliany”, a collaboration between Madlib and MF Doom, took Hip-Hop Album Of The Year. Other winners of interest include Buzz favorites The Arcade Fire (Best New Band and Best Album Art/Packaging for their dramatic “Funeral”) and Liars (Avant Album Of The Year for “They Were Wrong, So We Drowned”). Somewhat subversively, Record Producer Of The Year went to DJ Danger Mouse, who shot to fame with the underground release of his “Gray Album”, which mixes instrumental tracks the Beatles’ “White Album” with the vocal mixes of Jay-Z’s “Black Album” (which, coincidentally, won the rapper a Best Rap Solo Grammy for “99 Problems”, which Danger Mouse paired with samples from “Helter Skelter”).

The PLUG awards don’t only recognize bands, though. The inexplicably popular pitchforkmedia.com was the shoe-in for Music Website Of The Year, while Oxford, OH’s WOXY (woxy.com), which has the dubious honor of being the first radio station to make the the transformation from a terrestrial to an internet-only station due to a corporate buyout, was honored as Internet Radio Station Of The Year. Also in radio, Champaign-Urbana’s own Liz Mozzocco, nominated for Best Specialty Show for her “Off The Record” show on WPGU, lost in a close race to L.A.’s KDLD.

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