Working for the weekend …

You could spend the weekend hanging around the pool, or you could improve your mind by reading the following items scheduled to post during the next 72 hours. Yeah, we know it’s an easy choice, but some people just need a little push.

Saturday: Railroad Earth Puts Fans In The Mix – Roots and Americana outfit Railroad Earth had so much fun self-producing its latest album, Amen Corner, the band decided to let fans get in on the act.

Oh The Humanity – Germany’s Scorpions are preparing to hit the shores of the U.S. again as part of the world-wide Humanity Tour 2008.

Sunday: Taj Mahal Joins Long Beach Fest – Blues Legend Taj Mahal has stepped into a vacant slot on the Long Beach Blues Festival lineup and will co-headline the second day of the festival with Booker T. Jones.

Stand By Your Menzel – Broadway vet Idina Menzel is preparing to hit the road for another round of dates in support of her latest CD, I Stand.

Monday: Where The Buffalo Roams – Eclectic New York collective Donna The Buffalo is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a new album and a North American tour.

Link-O-Rama …

Two days ago the media was buzzing about David Lee Roth’s narrow escape from a peanut allergy attack. Then yesterday Diamond Dave said it didn’t happen. Now it looks as if it happened, but it didn’t involve DLR. Instead, it was just someone claiming to be Dave – London Free Press

Bands come and they go. Music tastes change and some artists are destined to fall out of favor with their audience. But heavy metal rocks on! – The Vancouver Sun

Hard to believe, but apparently police in a midwestern town were totally oblivious to the fact there was a music festival in the area. That is, until they noticed a sudden increase in drug busts – UPI

Owner of Rothbury Festival site misses deadline to put festival funds in judge-ordered escrow as part of bankruptcy proceedings – The Grand Rapids Press / MiLive.com

Dave Matthews sits still long enough to do the ol’ Q&A – Rocky Mountain News

The many, many musical styles of George Michael – The Dallas Morning News / Quick

Dates, Dates & More Dates …

“Taste Of Chaos” rocks the U.K. this fall with Atreyu, Story Of The Year, As I Lay Dying and MUCC. Newly posted dates include October 15 in London, October 17 in Norwich, October 19 in Cardiff and October 20 in Nottingham. Other cities include Leeds, Hull, Edinburgh, Preston and Oxford.

Former Drive-By Trucker Jason Isbell updates today with new dates in Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas and Georgia. New dates include September 5 in Auburn, AL, at Strutting Duck; September 6 in Knoxville, TN, at Barley’s Taproom and September 17 in Athens, GA, at Georgia Theatre.

Shinedown manages to get an update in before today’s final deadline. In Idaho you can catch the band in Idaho Falls at Sandy Downs on August 29; in Montana the place to be is Great Falls on August 30 at Expo Park and on August 31 the city is Spokane and the venue is Knitting Factory Concert House.

Finally, two new U.K. shows for Van Morrison – October 3 in Liverpool at Philharmonic Hall and October 4 in Birmingham at Symphony Hall.

During the day we also updated the schedules for Eagles, Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Thackery, Todd Snider, Buckethead, Simple Plan, R.E.M., The Gourds, The Wedding Present, Dash Rip Rock, Jonathan Richman, Supersuckers, Joe Satriani, Lloyd Dobler Effect, Gary Pfaff, Bryan Adams, plus all the bands and artists that have current tour dates. And a few that don’t.

And that will do it for another weekly excursion into the wild and wooly world of concert data. As always, thank you for your patronage. Have a great weekend!