Recently reunited grunge godfathers Alice in Chains have been making a go at the Billboard charts in the past few weeks behind their new album Black Gives Way To Blue, the comeback effort entering at No. 5 when it dropped a few weeks back. Though they’re headbanging their way through Europe (check their Jools Holland appearance above) at the moment, they’ve just announced lengthy trek through North American venues in coming months. See a complete list of dates below.

11.20 Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix Zaal
11.21 Wiesbaden, Germany @ Schlachthof
11.23 Dortmund, Germany @ FZW
11.24 Prague, Czech Rep. @ Lucerna
11.25 Warsaw, Poland @ Stodola
11.27 Budapest, Hungary @ Petofi Csarnok
11.29 Vienna, Austria @ Gasometer
12.30 Munich, Germany @ Thearterfabrick
12.02 Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz
12.03 Fribourg, Switzerland @ Fri-Son
12.04 Paris, France @ Bataclan
12.06 Nottingham, UK @ Rock City
12.07 London, UK @ Brixton Academy
12.11 Las Vegas, NV @ The Joint (KXTE radio show)
02.12 Los Angeles, CA @ Gibson Amphitheatre (KROQ Acoustic Xmas)
02.02 Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theatre
02.04 Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
02.06 Salem, OR @ Salem Armory
02.11 Oakland, CA @ Fox Theatre
02.17 Phoenix, AZ @ Dodge Theatre
02.19 Denver, CO @ Fillmore
02.21 Kansas City, MO @ Midland
02.22 St. Louis, MO @ Pageant
02.23 Louisville, KY @ Louisville Palace
02.25 Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
02.27 Myrtle Beach, SC @ House of Blues
03.01 Nashville, TN @ Municipal Auditorium
03.02 Charlotte, NC @ Fillmore
03.03 Washington, DC @ DAR Constitution Hall
03.05 Richmond, VA @ The National
03.06 Mashantucket, CT @ Foxwoods
03.08 New York, NY @ Terminal 5
03.12 Atlantic, City, NJ @ Borgata
03.13 Philadelphia, PA @ Tower Theatre
03.14 Boston, MA @ Orpheum
03.16 Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
03.17 Toronto, ONT @ Sound Academy
03.19 Detroit, MI @ Fillmore State Theatre
03.20 Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom
03.21 St. Paul, MN @ Roy Wilkens Auditorium

Bottom, left: Mr. Dent May, folks.

Wuh oh, it looks like not even ukuleles can keep one safe from the Obama declared national emergency. This time around the swine flu has attacked the immune system of Mississippi romantic Dent May.

He and his magnificent ukulele have been touring with The Fiery Furnaces and Cryptacize. That is, until the menacing H1N1 reared its ugly snouted head. According to his blog, May was forced to cancel a handful of dates; unfortunate news for Hoboken, Northampton, Troy, and Toronto. If you were planning on going to one of those shows, cheer up and watch him perform “Love Song 2009″ live in the Levi’s/FADER Fort bathroom at CMJ. Thankfully, May shouldn’t be contagious come November 10^th where he’ll headline a show at Schuba’s in Chicago and then resume touring with his mates.

Canceled shows:

11.4 Hoboken, NJ
11.5 Northampton, MA
11.6 Troy, NY
11.7 Toronto, ON

Tour Dates:

11.10 Chicago, IL @ Schuba’s
11.19 Eugene, OR @ The Lorax
01.16 Melbourne, AS @ Summer Tones
01.19 Melbourne, AS @ The Empress
01.20 Sydney, AS @ Spectrum
01.21 Sydney, AS @ Troubadour

with Fiery Furnaces and Cryptacize
11.11 Ferndale, MI @ The Magic Bag
11.12 Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
11.13 Madison, WI @ The Majestic Theater
11.14 St. Paul, MN @ The Turf Club
11.17 Vancouver, BC @ The Red Room
11.18 Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
11.20 San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
11.21 Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre

We miss Dead Moon, but they never really left. Fred and Toody Cole retired that band in 2006 and sure enough, up sprouted Pierced Arrows in its place months later. Word from our inbox is that the Coles, along with new drummer Kelly Halliburton, have opted to release the Arrows’ sophomore set of crusty punk tunes through Vice. Indeed, the label plans to share Descending Shadows on February 2nd, an effort the trio recorded at Portland’s Buzz or Howl Studios and according to the press release, “mastered to vinyl lacquer per tradition at Fred and Toody’s home.” Some things never change.

Best Coast neé Bethany Cosentino had people dancing last night during the set we caught at the Group Tightener party in the Monster Island basement.  A few hours earlier in the day she stopped by our suite (501!) at the Ace Hotel-slash-Levi’s®/FADER Fort in lower Midtown Manhattan to pirouette through stripped down versions of  ”Sun Was High (So Was I)” and “Brat.” The fuzz was gone, but the melodies most definitely were not. See what we mean in the Tripwire TV footage below.

Are you smiling yet?

Best band in the world?
Yes. Unless Barack starts one
He’s great. Phoenix too

Miles B.A. Robinson, who last year released his excellent if overlooked self-titled LP, recently moved to Portland from Brooklyn (a trend we’ve been noticing lately) to either clear his mind or muddy it further. His follow-up album, produced by TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone, is supposedly still coming out soon and will presumably increase his popularity among fans of his friends’ band Grizzly Bear, but since we have heard zero songs from that record, we’ll settle for a pair of songs he recorded in the UK recently while there playing the Stag & Dagger festival. One is a Thin Lizzy cover, the other is the never before heard “Gold and Grey.” Both are available here along with an extensive interview.

Ever since Wavves aka Nathan Williams had a little mental breakdown on the Pitchfork-curated stage at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona a few weeks ago, the music site has taken a not-so-subtle negative stance towards Williams whenever it sees an opportunity. It began with the actual news story of Wavves bad Primavera show, which Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber himself began with this little cat scratch directed at the Best New Music-earning band…

Over the past six months, the San Diego no-fi outfit Wavves has notoriously made a better bedroom project than live band.

… and finished with a suggestion that Williams and drummer Ryan Ulsh might kill each other before they even made it to Pitchfork’s own music festival on July 18th. The latter bit of blood lust has proven itself to be untrue with the passage of time, but the former seems an odd assertion considering Schreiber is presumably the one who booked (or approved the booking of) Wavves at both Primavera and the Pitchfork Festival. We’ve also seen Wavves several times in venues both large and small and he’s never failed to be pretty awesome, if not more accessible than he is on record.

So what are we to make of Pitchfork’s recent Wavves-bashing editorial direction, which culminated today in a post that quotes Black Lips’ Jared Swilley talking wildly about Williams in a Norwegian radio interview, crescendos (yeah, blog posts crescendo) with “it should be noted that this is not the first time a band has talked shit about Wavves” (yes, clearly should be noted) and mentions both bands will be at Pitchfork’s festival and ends with “Feel the drama!” (really?)?

We’d like to hear what you think in the comments section. Has Wavves one bad show earned the ire of music’s biggest critic? Is Pitchfork just trying to pump up its festival’s ticket sales? Or is Pitchfork just being a dick? Let’s hear it.