Midwest Round Up!

• Cincinnati/New York band The National are gonna get a bigger exposure to America, with an upcoming tour with mega bands REM and Modest Mouse. Here are the tour dates:
REM, The National & Modest Mouse - 2008 Tour Dates
May 23 - Vancouver, BC - Deer Lake Park
May 29 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
May 31 - San Francisco, CA - Greek Theatre
June 03 - Denver, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
June 06 - Chicago, IL - United Center
June 08 - Toronto, ON - Molson Amphitheatre
June 10 - Raleigh, NC - Walnut Creek Amphitheatre
June 11 - Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion
June 13 - Boston, MA - Tweeter Center
June 14 - Long Island, NY - Jones Beach
June 18 - Philadelphia, PA - Mann Center
June 21 - Atlanta, GA - Lakewood Amphitheatre
• Former Stylus writer Kevin Elliott, and World of Wumme writer, takes a moment to discuss his brother's band Times New Viking. He admits it's hard to remain journalistically removed when you have DNA ties, but the man is proud of his brother!
Elliott also drops a little link to your own beloved PWAH.
• The Wheel Still in Spin site has updated with numerous Cincinnati band related reviews. I also noticed that he discussed a new Spectacular Fantastic CD that I hadn't heard about yet. Singer/songwriter Mike Detmer has the spirit of rock and roll in him and has taken it upon himself to record and distribute his music for free. Click on the link to the lower right to read reviews on that band, plus a bit on The Seedy Seeds, Pearlene, 500 Miles to Memphis, and more.
• PWAH favorites, Columbus rock/hip hop group The Lab Rats have officially broken up. Two equally talented guys, so I imagine they will be back out there making music soon.
• WOXY has a new Local Lixx session up for download.
• You GOTTA check out another OSU Lantern article on how the Columbus music scene is "out of tune." The comments are priceless, because this article is the type of shit that pisses musicians off big time. I have been specifically looking into every city's music scene in the entire Midwest over the past year. Not only isn't Columbus "out of tune," but other than Chicago, you're not going to find a more diverse scene than Columbus - even if the bands never leave town...