Event Watch! - Check out the Crescent Room on Saturday Feb 28th for 'The Lager Lout's Night' - Sorted Entertainment takes over the Crescent Room for a lager fueled night of Brit Pop, Indie and House music. You'll hear everything from Madness to the White Stripes, Paul Oakenfold to Primal Scream, The Clash to Lil' Louis Vega, My Bloody Valentine to Groove Armarda, Underworld to the Verve, plus some Slam, Leftfield, Kylie, The Streets, FC Kahuna, Goldfrapp, Silicon Soul, Orbital and even some Sunscreem! Advance tickets available here.

Relapse Records recording artists MASTODON will co-host MTV2's Headbangers Ball. MASTODON will make an in-studio appearance on the program's Saturday, February 14th edition, where they will be interviewed by host Jamey Jasta. Headbangers Ball airs Saturdays from 10-12 PM EST on MTV2.

Ticket Alternative has announced a deal with Vinyl to handle the ticketing for their upcoming shows. In addition, Ticket Alternative has teamed up with The Rock Boat to power their ticketing system for their annual event.

Yes, the Pixies really are getting back together and touring for the first time since God knows when. (1992, actually). Dates have not been announced yet, except for the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California, on May 1st., when they will co-headline with Radiohead and Kraftwerk. An extensive DVD and a best-of CD collection will also come out this year.

Dodd Ferrelle & The Tinfoil Stars play the Earl on February 12th, along with Tim Lee & In-Line Six and National Grain. The following day, they all turn up at the Roadhouse in Athens. Ferrelle's album is called Sweet Lowland and the songs on it are based on his childhood in Tybee Island and Savannah. www.doddferrelle.com

Levinhurst is the new project by Cure co-founder Lol Tolhurst. The album is called Perfect Life and will be available in April. Now you can't say I never told you.

Speaking of the Cure....Another project about to see the light of day is Tweaker, the alter-ego of Chris Vrenna (ex Nine Inch Nails), who has invited Robert Smith, David Sylvian, Will Oldham, Hamilton Leithauser from the Walkmen, Mellowdrone, Jennifer Charles from Elysian Fields and Johnny Marr from the Smiths to help out on 2am Wake Up Call, (iMusic) his second album. www.tweaker.net

Denali will play at the Echo Lounge (with Murder By Death) on March 5th. They've been on the road with the Deftones of late but this time they get to headline.

During the course of their upcoming trek from Florida to New York, Th' Legendary Shack*Shakers will shake the Earl to its very foundations, as is their custom. This will occur on February 23rd. You should go. Really. Don't be afraid.

Ruckus trio Gossip will be arriving in town with the express purpose of starting a melee of some sort or perhaps just instigating some bad ass dancing, according to their publicist. They will be doing this at the Echo Lounge on February 16th, with The Young People also on the bill.

Spacey Parisian duo Air will embark on a U.S. tour to promote the Talkie Walkie album, recently released by Astralwerks. The tour begins in Austin on April 2nd and comes to Atlanta's Earthlink Live on the 6th, with a stop at the Coachella Festival in California set for May 2nd. These guys don't come here very often, so make the most of it. www.astralwerks.com

For a trip with a difference, try hitting the slopes of Steamboat Springs, Colorado on the weekend of March 25th-28th, along with a bunch of area musicians, and watch them fall down repeatedly. Known as the Rock Slope, this event is based on the Rock Boat, a successful venture that involves sailing around the Caribbean, imbibing and carrying on while bands play. The getaway in the Rockies will feature Dexter Freebish, Tonic, Shawn Mullins and Sister Hazel. Booking info at www.therockslope.com .

Brace yourselves: The Tarbox Ramblers have just put out their first album in four years. It's called A Fix Back East (Rounder) and was produced by Jim Dickinson in Memphis. The music is a wild mixture of delta blues, garage rock and murderous stomp. Rumor has it that their live show is something to behold. They play the Echo Lounge on February 6th. I'm there.

On February 19th, South comes back to town, performing a set at the Cotton Club that will include songs from the new With The Tides album. The producer on the record is Dave Eringa of Manic Street Preachers, Idlewild and Ash fame. The Brits have been going bananas over this band, and Nylon Magazine said: "South make a strong claim to the British music throne that’s been dusty since the days when Stone Roses held court."

The Steve Tombstone show on February 21st at 9 Lives Saloon has been postponed until late March or April. Instead, Tombstone will be taking part in the Johnny Cash tribute tour. He also has a song on the Twisted Cash record being put out by Cargo Records, which is sponsoring the tour.

Silence is Easy is the follow-up to Starsailor's debut Love is Here, and has just been released by Capitol Records with the obligatory enhanced CD that has bonus tracks, a documentary on the making of the album as well as live footage. The album was produced by the legendary Phil Spector, shortly before he fell foul of the law. This could well be the final recording of his illustrious career...

An interesting line-up is taking shape for this year's Dogwood Festival, with the great Dave Mason among the performers. (Mason is about to be inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame as a founding member of Traffic). Some of the others on the festival bill are Bill Malonee, Jan Smith, Moe Loughran, Caren Armstrong, Ras Alan, Cowboy Envy, Michelle Malone and Randall Bramblett, with able assistance from keyboard player and tree lover Chuck Leavell. The annual springtime event is happening on the weekend of April 2nd through the 4th at Piedmont Park and is usually a blast.

Launchpad is, appropriately enough, the title of the debut album by Particle, to be released on March 23rd on the Or Music label and produced by Tom Rothrock (Beck, Coldplay, Foo Fighters). Described as "high-energy funktronic," Particle has been touring relentlessly for the last three years and will play at the Variety Playhouse on April 15th.

The DVD release of On The Road With The Dropkick Murphys is set for March 9th by the fine folks at Epitaph Records, and among other things, will include every video ever made by these punky wonderboys from Boston. (Click here to purchase)

Atlanta singer-songwriter Jackson Sneed will perform live at the Roxy on February 7th to showcase his new CD, Sit. www.jacksonsneed.com

Klubb Kourtesy in conjunction with Backstreet, The Crescent Room, Eleven 50 (and many many more local clubs) is organizing a massive (18 years & up) Rally For Life event at The Riviera Club. The non-stop event runs from Friday January 30th - Sunday February 1st and features over 80 local DJ's as well as Pete "The Shaker" Bones from the UK in an effort to voice their dislike of the new 2am closing law. 24 hour mainstays The Riviera and Backstreet were not exempt from the new law that passed and many feel this city will suffer with a lack of true 'late night' night life. Gerry Webber from the ACLU and representatives from the Atlanta Chapter of Dancesafe will be speaking about the legal ramifications and helping everyone register to vote. www.klubbkourtesy.com www.therivieraclub.com

The 3rd Annual Hero's Awards takes place on April 1st. The event, presented by the Atlanta Chapter of the Recording Academy, is to honor the success and community commitment of local music Heroes: this years honorees include; Outkast, Dallas Austin, Alex Cooley, and Chuck Leavell.

The Heroes Award is the highest honor bestowed by an Academy Chapter and is given to honor outstanding individuals and institutions in the Georgia region who have improved the environment for the creative community. Proceeds will benefit the Academy's professional arts education programs for the music community of the Atlanta region and a portion to benefit the MusiCares Foundation, the health and human services charity founded by the Recording Academy.

The Hiss have signed to Sanctuary Records Group in America. Sanctuary will release Panic Movement in the U.S. and Canada on March 23, 2004, with distribution handled through BMG. www.thehiss.com

Stevie Tombstone's new record, called 7.30am, is out now on the Saustex Music label. He will be performing in Atlanta at 9 Lives Saloon on Saturday, February 21st. The man has a new website as well: www.stevietombstone.com

Relentless, last year's excellent, rocking album by Walter Trout & The Radicals, is about to get the multi-media treatment from Ruf America, which is putting out a DVD as well as a 5.1- channel high definition Super Audio CD (SACD). The 165 minute-long DVD was filmed at the famous Paradiso in Amsterdam last May and is said to be "incendiary."

Boston's The Push Stars will have their fourth studio album, Paint The Town out on March 9th. (33rd Street Records). The first single is 'Outside Of A Dream' and tour plans are under way. www.pushstars.com

The upcoming album by Grant-Lee Phillips, Virginia Creeper, (Zoe) has critics from Mojo and Vanity Fair slathering over their word processors. Truth be told, it's extremely good, and we can see him perform selections from it when he pays us a visit on March 10th at the Echo Lounge.

Dweezil Zappa, talented offspring of the late, great Frank, is back with a new album titled Automatic  and a television show called Dweezil and Lisa, on the Food Network, of all places. The debut of the show, this Friday, January 16th, at 10.00pm, was filmed here in Atlanta and finds the goofy twosome performing at the Cotton Club and cavorting about in some local establishments like Emily Saliers' Watershed in Decatur and the Buckhead Diner. The Lisa  in question is of course, Lisa Loeb, an under-rated musician who has new album of her own out shortly and is tentatively scheduled to play a solo gig at the Cotton Club on February 27th.

Deadlines! Deadlines! - The deadline for local artists to submit their info for a chance to perform at Music Midtown (Apr 30-May 2) is February 2nd. For more info visit www.musicmidtown.com - The deadline for the 2004 Atlantis Music Conference (July 21st - 24th) is March 15th. For more info visit www.atlantismusic.com

The Vines' Winning Days,  the follow-up to the Australian quartet's 2002 hit debut Highly Evolved,  will be released by Capitol Records on March 23rd. The album was produced by Rob Schnapf, who has twiddled the knobs for the likes of Beck, Guided By Voices and Elliott Smith.