Working For The Weekend …

The following items scheduled to post this weekend means you’ll have yet another reason to ignore those banner ads running on the far right side of our home page.

Saturday

Brendan James Braves The Road – The singer/songwriter heads out in support of his debut full-length release, The Day Is Brave.

Sunday

Monterey Music Summit Returns – The second outing of the interactive event features Slightly Stoopid, Coheed and Cambria, Ozomatli, Tea Leaf Green and more.

Monday

The Ting Tings Start Something – The U.K. pop/dance duo hits the road to mark the release of its debut album.

The Roots Throw Picnic, Join Erykah Badu On Tour – The hip-hop trailblazers host a party on Philadelphia’s Festval Pier and head out with Badu.

Link-O-Rama …

Meet the conspiratorial Alicia Keys – Associated Press

Debt silences Scotland’s Isle Of Skye Music Festival – BBC News

Citigroup has trouble reducing loan exposure from financing EMI buyout – FinancialTimes

Is Jay-Z the greatest rapper alive? – The Independent U.K.

Another angle on why brick & mortar record stores are failing – CNET / News.com

The lastest on the great Mexico / Emo controversy – The Monitor

Dates, Dates & More Dates …

The Mars Volta gets their update in under the wire and now we’re listing new dates for May and July. Additions include May 22 in Edmonton, Alberta, and May 24 in Vancouver, British Columbia. New July listings are London on July 16 and Vienna on July 23.

Heroine Sheiks hit the clubs this month and next. Dates include April 26 (Minneapolis), May 3 (Fargo), May 24 (Baltimore), May 29 (Lansing) and May 30 (Chicago).

Rodney Atkins updates today with new shows for Tennessee, Washington and Texas. Dates include May 3 (Midland, TX), June 3 (Nashville, TN) and August 20 (Pasco, WA).

And we have a couple of new gigs for The Robert Cray Band – June 14 in Kansas City and June 29 in Saskatoon.

During the day we also updated the schedules for Coheed and Cambria, Jackson Browne, Ben Harper, ZZ Top, Brooks & Dunn, The Von Bondies, The Rocket Summer, The Quakes, The Sadies, Dokken, Eve 6, Insane Clown Posse, Alan Parsons Live Project, Travis Tritt, Smash Mouth, Los Lobos, Ben Folds, Westlife, Journey, Jaguar Love, Jewel, McFly, O.A.R., M.I.A., Carlos Mencia, Sugarland, Apocalyptica, plus thousands upon thousands of bands and artists, including those with names we cannot pronounce as well as those with names we don’t know how to spell. So we’ll just mumble and scribble those names.

And that’s a wrap for Friday, April 11. Have a great weekend!