Working For The Weekend …

We maimed a lot of interns while preparing the following items scheduled to post between now and early Monday morning. But we think you’ll agree it was well worth it.

Saturday

Die! Die! Die! On Tour! Tour! Tour! – The New Zealand punk trio heads to North America in support of its sophomore release, Promises, Promises.

Sunday

Lou Reed Revisits Berlin – The singer heads back to Europe this summer to perform his landmark 1973 album.

Monday

Ra Ra Riot Kicks Off Major Tour – The New York septet heads out to preview material from its forthcoming full-length debut.

OneRepublic, Fabolous Team Up For College Trek – The two diverse acts are this year’s headliners for the Crocs Next Step Tour.

Next week’s HotStar is Matt Costa.

Link-O-Rama …

Celebrating that most excellent music team known as Gamble and Huff – Associated Press

The ever-growing swag bag problem at SxSW – CNET / News.com

How the labels hope to make money on free music – Forbes.com

Here’s one for all you Mensa members. See if you can wrap your oversized brains around this piece about geometry and music – Science News

BlackBerry manufacture to work with online music site to compete against iTunes – Los Angeles Times (registration may be required)

Star of Britain’s “X Factor,” Leona Lewis is set to conquer America – The Times Online U.K.

Dates, Dates & More Dates …

We have new April dates for Ari Hest. The new listings include April 10 in Atlanta, GA, and April 18 in Washington, DC.

Ra Ra Riot updates with a hefty load of show listings for April and May. Stops include Austin on April 11, Chapel Hill on April 20, Pittsburgh on April 28, Cincinnati on April 30 and Detroit on May 4.

Urge Overkill also updates today with new April listings. Catch the band in Philadelphia on April 26, Washington on April 27, Baltimore on April 28 and a two-fer in New York City, April 29 & 30.

During the day we also updated the schedules for Mark Knopfler, Sister Hazel, The Teenagers, Todd Rundgren, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Crash Romeo, Elbow, Lucas Prata, Far Beyond Frail, Michael Fracasso, Monstrosity, KC & The Sunshine Band, Comets On Fire, Burt Bacharach, Taj Mahal, The Blow, The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, The Wailers, 30 Seconds To Mars, Andre Rieu, Cephas & Wiggins, plus so many artists and bands that, if you were to start at the top and read every single tour date posted on Pollstar.com, not only would you still be reading come Monday morning, but you would also hate yourself for spending all weekend reading tour dates when you could have actually gone out and seen some live music.

And that wraps up the work week. Have a great weekend!