French Rock band Phoenix made huge waves last year with the release of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. The album won a Grammy for best Alternative Rock album and was rated the #3 best of the year by Spin Magazine.  catapulting themselves into the shine of mainstream music world. The melody makers have been at it for 10 years and are finally start to see some big results come their way. Lead singer Thomas Mars and the gang have a knack for writing inspired short epics that stay with you long after you hear them. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’s “Lisztomania” was featured in the trailer for the movie Where The Wild Things Are and a number of American television shows. The band will be on tour this year in both the United States and Europe.

After taking a year off from touring, My Morning Jacket is embarking on a 9 city tour featuring the Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans. The partnership between the two bands began when MMJ lead man Jim James recorded a benefit song with the group of New Orleans jazz musicians last spring. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has long been a New Orleans institution playing shows in the historic Preservation Hall on St. Peter Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The jazz band has fallen on tough times since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Big Easy in 2005. Band members have struggled to find consistent paying gigs since the hurricane, but My Morning Jacket has partnered with them on the up coming tour. It is unclear whether the PHJB will play an opening set alone, but expect the two bands to play at least a few songs together.

When you get to see Kiss, you will be treated to a big show. After all, that’s what the main idea of the band is in the first place. Back when it was founded, the concept of a band was very different; it was often kind of button-down and normal. But they introduced big costumes, makeup and other aspects of the current rock-and-roll world that they hadn’t seen before. In case you didn’t know it, the band is back on tour and they’re bringing in some of the most interesting work they’ve done yet. I don’t think they’ve written any or many new songs, but they are still giving a big flashy show. Does he still breathe fire and throw up blood? You’ll have to see them to find out, but I will tell you they still have fireworks and other pyrotechnics, exciting lighting and great music!

When Andy Murray became a tennis player, we knew that he was going to be amazing. He’d already proven it in a lot of ways, which is some of the most fun for us. We are in awe of his serving and volleying. But suddenly, it starts to look like he wants to start a new career: he produced a rap. I haven’t heard the rap yet, but there are a lot of people who have and they don’t like it. It’s become a bit of a joking matter for tennis watchers. He doesn’t have a very good voice and his instincts for the style just aren’t there. He’s never really tried it before, so maybe he could get better. So if you think about tennis and rap at the same time ever again, you will know!

Though Radiohead is still in action and they’re still working on music, Thom Yorke is working on his solo career and experimenting with new projects with other musicians. His music is still as intelligent and tough from a musical standpoint as it ever has been. His latest foray in Los Angeles with a mixture of musicians from several different bands included a lot of dance music. It wasn’t, however, necessarily the kind of music that makes you want to get up and dance. It was almost a melancholy kind of piece that makes people not want to dance as much. But the critics are saying that it has real potential to be great music. They might get this group back together sometime next year. It is great and Yorke will really show his skill if they end up doing that!

Peter, Paul, and Mary was a group that had a surprising amount of impact back in the 60s. They brought folk rock to the fore like few others could. They had a little more emphasis on the “folk” part of the name, as opposed to Clapton and so on. We loved them. Mary Travers, of that group, passed away this week at the age of 72. She had been ill for awhile, but it’s sad news anyway. They did impressive covers of a lot of the music back then too. Their compilations for children are also well-loved, even to this day. It’s a little bit odd to watch this generation of musicians as they pass away because they are actually so iconic for many of us. Travers will be missed.

If you’re lacking for good alternative music, you might want to try getting Kings of Leon concert tickets and it might be the perfect thing for you. These guys, all from the same family, have such great musical style and their songs are just fun to listen to. While they have been more successful in Britain than they have in the US, they are still a lot of fun to listen to. In the UK they have had 9 Top 40 hits over the course of their ten years in the music world. Meanwhile, we can enjoy their music live during their current tour. They are apparently going to be performing in cities across the the country and North America for the next few months so make sure that you are there to see them!

George Russell was one of the best jazz players in the world and was a pioneer of modal jazz. He passed away this weekend of Alzheimers Disease. He was never a famous musician in the public world, but he was one of the most influential in the jazz world. This musician has been well-known over the course of many years on the inside world of the music. Modal jazz was more simple than Bebop and allowed the musicians, like Miles Davis etc, to be more free and interesting in the way that they played. When we hear jazz now, you can often hear a lot of this modal style, though sometimes it gets combined with the regular kind of jazz too, in a great fusion. George Russell gave us some of the best jazz that we had ever heard and we certainly appreciate it.

The annual festival in Germany, the Bayreuth Festival, is no longer in danger of having a strike! This Wagner Festival is one of the most respected and longest running festivals of any kind and it’s going to run this year yet again! It is more a long line of different operas by Wagner and is part of the lore of the Bayreuth area. The best performers in Europe show up there and perform some of the best music in classical history. It’s supposed to start on the 25th with “Tristan and Isolde”, one of the most highly rated operas in the world. We will have a great time seeing these performers in person, if you happen to be in that part of the world. It’s a great relief to see that the workers and the management have come to an agreement!

It’s like a throwback to the 1980s. But when it’s the best music from those years, you can’t go very wrong! Journey tickets are on sale and you can see this band during their new “re-united” shows. It’s going to be a lot of fun and everyone will have a lot of fun seeing this band together again. Some of the members have changed and the others are a little older, but the music is better and better! Their music is some of the best in the world, with songs like “Don’t Stop Believin’”, “Who’s Cryin Now”, and “Open Arms”. And the attitude of all the other people who are at the concert have a lot of fun and are some of the nicest folks you’ll ever meet. Make sure to order your tickets so that you don’t miss this group!