Drive-By Truckers announce winter tour, coming to Carrboro

Georgia rockers Drive-By Truckers will hit the road on a short run of dates in early 2015, including a quick trip to Mexico and a return to the Triangle.

The band will play the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro on Saturday, January 31. Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, December 5, via Ticketfly for $25.

The band just released a deluxe edition of their latest album, English Oceans last month. Check out the band's full performance for KEXP earlier this year featuring four songs from the album below.

Drive-By Truckers announce spring tour with Blitzen Trapper

Georgia alt-country mainstays Drive-By Truckers are releasing a new album on March 4 titled English Oceans and they'll hit the road on a big spring tour this spring with Blitzen Trapper.

The two bands will play The Ritz in Raleigh on Friday, March 14. Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, January 10, via Ticketfly for $25.

Check out the fourth track from the forthcoming album English Oceans titled "Pauline Hawkins," below.

Drive-By Truckers announces March tour

After Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley finish a series of solo shows early this year, they'll come back together with Drive-By Truckers to hit the road in March.

The tour will bring the band to the Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw on Tuesday, March 5. Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, January 18, via Ticketfly for $22.

As we mentioned earlier, Patterson Hood will be playing a solo show at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro on Tuesday, February 12. Check out more info HERE.

Video: Drive-By Truckers & Megafaun pay tribute to Levon Helm

The recent passing of The Band's Levon Helm had a deep impact on fans and musicians across world. Tributes have popped up in the live shows of quite a few bands including the Drive-By Truckers and Megafaun, who performed a rousing version of "The Weight" at their show at Cat's Cradle on Thursday night.

Check out the performance below which features Phil Cook on verse three and Brad Cook on verse four.

Megafaun will play a special set at the Hopscotch Music Festival in September with German composer Arnold Dreyblatt. Check out more info about the festival lineup HERE.

Drive-By Truckers announces spring tour, coming to Carrboro

Georgia rock band Drive-By Truckers played the City Plaza stage at the Hopscotch Music Festival last fall (see a review and photos HERE) and now they're hitting the road again this spring and will stop in the Triangle for a more intimate gig.

They'll play the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro on Thursday, April 19. Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, February 8 via Etix for $25. An opener has not been announced for the show yet, but Megafaun is opening the surrounding dates.

Drive-By Truckers latest album Go-Go Boots was released last year. Check out a video of the band performing "Used To Be a Cop" from the album at Hopscotch last year below.

Hopscotch 2011 Day 2: Guided by Voices, Drive-By Truckers and The Dodos at City Plaza

All photos by Kevin Norris

One of Hopscotch’s weaknesses last year was headliners that looked good on paper, but didn’t deliver on stage. This year the festival addressed that problem by finding bands that can live up to their promise.

Top billing went to the classic lineup of Guided by Voices. Leader Robert Pollard and the band were sloppy, incoherent, drunk and exuberant. In short, they were a rock band and their experience showed.

Before each number, Pollard shouted out the song titles before counting the band down and signaling the beginning of a song with a kick or a microphone twirl. GBV wasn’t messing around. They ripped through songs one after another, whipping the crowd into a frenzy.

Hopscotch announces speaker series with big names

As September draws closer, more Hopscotch special events are being finalized, and now we know the details of the Artist and Author speaker series.

The event is held each day of the festival, September 8-10, from the 3 to 5 p.m. at the Raleigh City Museum. Speakers featured over the the three days include Wayne Coyne (of The Flaming Lips), Patterson Hood (of Drive-By Truckers), John Vanderslice, Peter Holsapple and many more.

Check out the full lineup of speakers below. For more details on the topics of each event, head HERE.

2011 Hopscotch Festival lineup is here! Flaming Lips, Guided By Voices & much more

In case you didn't already know, the second annual Hopscotch Festival is hitting downtown Raleigh on September 8-10. We have the lineup, and somehow, the organizers have managed to make it bigger and better than last year.

This year's City Plaza headliners are none other than the wildly psychedelic The Flaming Lips and reunited indie legends Guided By Voices. Guided By Voices will headline September 9 with Drive-By Truckers and The Dodos. The Flaming Lips will headline September 10 with Superchunk and The Light Pines.

There are currently 136 bands on the docket for 2011, and like last year, include a wide variety of both national and local acts. There are only a few repeats from 2010 including local favorites The Love Language and Future Islands. Check out the full lineup below.

The Hold Steady and Drive-By Truckers plan co-headline tour

After playing a sold-out show at the Cat's Cradle just last week, The Hold Steady have announced that they will hit the road for a month long co-headline tour with Drive-By Truckers. The tour will be dubbed the "Rock and Roll Means Well Tour."

The tour will kick off in Louisville, Kentucky on October 30 and run through November 25 in Los Angeles. The two bands will swap the closing set each night. A Raleigh date is on the books for November 3 at the Lincoln Theatre. Tickets for that show go on sale this Friday, August 22 via etix.com for $23. Drive-By Truckers will close the show that night.

10-30 Louisville, KY - Coyote's at City Block *
10-31 Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium !
11-01 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle !
11-02 Tallahassee, FL - The Moon *
11-03 Raleigh, NC - Lincoln Theatre !
11-05 State College, PA - The State Theatre *
11-06 New York, NY - Terminal 5 !
11-07 New York, NY - Terminal 5 *
11-08 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory !
11-09 Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre *
11-11 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Theatre !
11-12 Pittsburgh, PA - Carnegie Music Hall *
11-13 Bloomington, IN - Bluebird !
11-13 Chicago, IL - Riviera *
11-15 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue !
11-16 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *
11-19 Boise, ID - The Big Easy !
11-20 Seattle, WA - Showbox *
11-21 Seattle, WA - Showbox !
11-22 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *
11-23 San Francisco, CA - Fillmore !
11-24 San Francisco, CA - Fillmore *
11-25 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern *

* The Hold Steady play last.
! Drive-By Truckers play last.

The Hold Steady - "Chips Ahoy!" (mp3) from Boys and Girls in America
Drive-By Truckers - "A World of Hurt" (mp3) from A Blessing and a Curse

Schoolkids stage opens for business

We understand your dilemma. You're the World's Biggest Fan of the Drive-By Truckers, but you just don't want to shell out the cash to see them open for the Black Crows Wednesday night at Walnut Creek. Never fear, dear reader.

The Truckers will play a free show Wednesday at 2 p.m., christening the brand new stage at Schoolkids Records on Hillsborough Street.

Also coming to Schoolkids is Pete Yorn, this Saturday July 15 at 5 p.m. The show will be recorded for an "exclusive EP," so be sure to get there early so someday you can tell your kids that you were there. According to Schoolkids, the EP will be available for sale in-store in a few weeks.