Tour is always an adventure. Tour with 9 guys, double the instruments, a broken trailer, a killer soundtrack and over a thousands miles of driving in four days is the making of an awesome first Maldives tour vlog.

We’ll be following and sharing The Maldives tour adventures here on Sound on the Sound. Not only will we be sharing the boys’ video blogs, we’ve also equipped them with cash for the most obscene postcards they can find, postage, and a couple disposable cameras. We’ll share whatever arrives in our mailbox from the Maldives with you.

If you, like us, just can’t get enough of The Maldives you can also follow their tour blog Straight Chooglin’.

Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

Often the hardest things for me to write about are the things I love the most. No one wants to be the blogger who cried “best band ever” over and over again, and there’s more self-imposed pressure to find the perfect description for what you find to be most compelling. That’s why there’s been nary a mention of what was quite possibly my favorite show and live discovery of 2010 thus far: Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives.

Hailing from Portland, Drew Grow plays with the riveting passion of a revival tent preacher, full of captivating apocalyptic bombast. And just like that revival preacher, Drew Grow controls the audience. When I saw him at The Comet in January you could’ve heard a pin drop by the end of his set. An unassuming man and band takes the stage, and with no antics, just a pure and righteous emotional force, a prophet steps off, inevitably amidst a sea of stunned converts. Grow’s songs are his visions and parables, and with crash and crescendo they stir the soul.

Vocally and in terms of the emotional wallop per note, Drew Grow most reminds me of a Grace-era Jeff Buckley. There is a broken but beautiful timbre to Drew Grow’s voice, just as there was to Buckley’s, that seems to tug directly at the heart strings. I should have known when a music teacher told me she’d never had a “more moving experience with music than at a Drew Grow show” that he was the Truth, but it’s the kind of performance you have to witness for yourself to actually believe. If you haven’t seen Drew Grow or discovered his soaring spirituals yet, I sincerely can’t recommend that you check them out enough.

Seattle will have to wait about a month for their chance to see Drew Grow again, as he’s playing the Tractor Tavern on April 28th with another Sound on the Sound favorite Ravenna Woods, for what I assure you is the makings of an unmissable show. Portland, you lucky bastards, don’t have to wait that long for Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives since the band will be celebrating the release of two new songs “Do You Feel It” and “Bon Voyage Hymn” this Friday at The Woods. This show will sell out, so be sure to get your tickets in advance lest you miss out.

Us, well we’ll be anticipating Drew Grow shows throughout the summer: the band will also be performing on June 26th with Grand Hallway during the Grand Opening celebrations of the Columbia City Theater and making a return trip to the Doe Bay Festival this August. Two events, I assure you, you want to put on your calendar now. Keep reading Sound on the Sound for more exciting announcements about both Columbia City Theater and Doe Bay.

Here’s some video proof of Drew Grow’s powerful live performance and the band’s effect on a crowd. This video was  shot at a sold out show in Tacoma (r.i.p Warehouse) and the crowd is so quiet you can hear Drew breathing between notes.

Drew Grow & The Pastors’ Wives - I Want You to Come Home Now from Jake Rohr on Vimeo.

Song Release Show & West Coast Tour Dates:
March 19th - Portland, OR - The Woods
April 28th - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern (w/ Ravenna Woods)
May 23rd - San Francisco, CA - Hotel Utah
May 24th - Sacramento, CA - Old Ironsides
May 26th - San Diego, CA - Bar Pink
May 27th - Davis, CA - Aramdillo Records
May 27th - Davis, CA - Sophias Thai Kitchen
May 28th - Chico, CA - Cafe Coda
May 28th - Eugene, OR - Sam Bonds Garage
June 26th - Seattle, WA - Columia City Theater (Grand Opening w/ Grand Hallway)
Aug 14th - Olga, Orcas Island, WA - Doe Bay Festival

Rusty Gold from michael jeter on Vimeo.

[Warning: Video above may be NSFW. If you consider out-of-focus penis NSFW. -The Editor]

This is a tour to phone dad about. San Fransisco Americana-tinged mega-group Or, The Whale have joined forces with Seattle’s own likeminded mega-group the Maldives to make the ride down to SXSW this March a whole lot more fun. These two bands both put out strong records last year, made friends after playing a few dates together, and now they’re hoping to ride each other’s coattails a bit. Since my pop had to jet a bit early for my birthday show, this will be the show I’ll be making him the sell on. I don’t think it’ll be a hard sell at all.

The video above is a song called “Rusty Gold” from Or, The Whale’s self-titled LP, released in September of 2009.

Or, The Whale Winter 2010 Tour Dates

Feb 27th - Solana Beach, CA Belly Up Tavern
Mar 9th - Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge ^
Mar 10th - Seattle, WA Tractor Tavern ^
Mar 11th - Cottage Grove, OR Axe and Fiddle ^
Mar 12th - San Francisco, CA The Independent ^
Mar 13th - Los Angeles, CA Hotel Cafe ^
Mar 14th - San Diego, CA Bar Pink ^
Mar 15th - Tucscon, AZ Club Congress ^
Mar 17th - Mar 20th - Austin, TX SXSW

^ = w/ The Maldives

The Maldives will be playing the SXSW Seattle Party themselves on March 20th, happening again this year at The Beauty Bar, where they’ll be joined by . Then they’ll looping around back into Utah and Boise for a few dates after SXSW. Those dates are below.

The Maldives at SXSW and beyond:

Mar 20th - The Beauty Bar - Austin, TX
Mar 21st - Lola’s Saloon - Fort Worth, Texas
Mar 24th - Bar Deluxe - Salt Lake City, Utah
Mar 25th - The Bouquet - Boise, Idaho

Tickets for the Tractor Tavern show on March 10th, a bill that also includes PDX band Weinland, can be had at TicketWeb for $10 adv.

J Tillman ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

With today’s announcement of a month of November (and into December) dates in the U.S. supporting his new album A Year in the Kingdom, Josh Tillman has finished planning a busy few months of double duty. Starting this week, in addition to headlining, he’s taking his brother’s band Pearly Gate Music, a band in which he also drums, on a month long route through Europe. Then after a short break, beginning early November he’s taking the same group on the road for a clockwise traverse of North America.

MP3: “Earthly Bodies” by J Tillman from A Year in the Kingdom courtesy of Western Vinyl

Though Josh has taken his brother Zach’s band to Europe before, and down the west coast, this is Pearly Gate Music’s first nationwide tour. On December 11th, the Tillman brothers will wrap up their trek in Seattle at Neumos. Hopefully sometime in there we might actually see a Pearly Gate Music recording materialize.

Complete J Tillman European and North American Tour dates are below the fold.

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Nurses play “Technicolor” on an old piano, and then “In Rhythm” in a backyard, and then “Caterpillar Playground” on the piano courtesy of LEFT|RIGHT

No wonder we couldn’t get them to play our bloggy birthday party later this month. Our Portland fav’s of the moment Nurses just posted a slew of dates in support of their soon to be public album Apple’s Acre, dates which all together make up two national tours over the next few months. First, starting at the end of August, they’ll be spending nearly a month on the road supporting Throw Me the Statue and the Brunettes, and then in October they’ve got another month of shows scheduled with Le Loup. Upcoming Seattle Dates include a September 23rd date at the Vera Project and an October 23rd date at Chop Suey with Le Loup.

MP3: “Technicolor” by Nurses courtesy of Dead Oceans

Apple’s Acre arrive August 4th via Dead Oceans.

The complete list of Nurses tour dates is below the fold.

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I understand if you are. The video for the single “No You Girls” from Franz Ferdinand’s latest album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand just dropped and it’s fun. And if you’ve still got the will, watch it above.

In full, the song is a good song. Unfortunately we’ve been bombarded with this song, or rather remixed parts of the song, as a part of an iPod campaign for sometime now. In order to make it commercial-ready they modified the timing and the changes and mashed-up the song, condensing it in a catchy but unfortunate way. So now when I listen to the actual song I’m anticipating changes that aren’t there and feeling like a great song has been ruined for me before it ever had a chance. Yikes.

Franz Ferdinand starts their American tour in Seattle on April 13 at the Paramount Theater. Tickets are $32.50 and can be bought online.

Fleet Foxes at SXSW 2008 ::: Photo by Josh

Fresh off touring, these gentlemen look to be planning on continuing the momentum throughout the rest of the year. Starting mid-September and through mid October they’ll be doing North America, adding to their already announced tour of Western Europe through November, with drummer J Tillman opening those dates. They’ll be starting the North American leg with our Canuck neighbors to the north and finishing off in Seattle on October 19th, at the Moore Theatre(!). Talk about movin’ on up. I would be scared too.

See the full list of dates at the Fleet Foxes myspace.

Oh hooray — the Mountain Goats have announced a fall tour and Seattle is included on the list! I was pleased to see the band will be playing the Showbox instead of trying to cram every John Darnielle obsessed boozer poet (myself included) in Neumo’s again.

So for the rest of you, who like me, spend nights crying in our whiskey with our head phones on thinking of lost loves and past wrongs — set aside October 20th at The Showbox for the Mountain Goats — with Kaki King.

Last night we headed to our favorite bar, The Blue Moon, to see off our favorite garage-rockers Thunderbird Motel on a two week tour. T-shirts were going like hotcakes, and since one band canceled they played an extended set. For a couple of their upcoming SoCal dates, they will be joined by fellow SOTS favorites The Lonely H. If you like southern styled balls-to-the-wall garage rock, this lineup is for you.

Thunderbird Motel West Coast Tour Dates

May 2 - Oak Street Speakeasy - Eugene, Oregon
May 3 - NORTH STAR CRAFT BREWERY - Shasta Lake, California
May 4 - ELEMENT LOUNGE - Bakersfield, California
May 5 - Che Cafe - W/ THE LONELY H - San Diego, California
May 6 - ECHO CURIO- W/ THE LONELY H - LA (Echo Park), California
May 7 - THE STORK CLUB- W/ THE LONELY H - Oakland, California
May 8 - KIMO’S - San Francisco, California
May 10 - JAMBALAYA - Arcata, California
May 11 - The TONIC LOUNGE - Portland, Oregon
May 12 - NEUMO’S/ A BENEFIT FOR ELISE KINNAMON-ALL AGES - Seattle

Comes courtesy of Pwrfl Power/Kaz and his Gradnparents: