Queens of the Stone Age

Must-see sets at Lollapalooza 2013

Need to plan your itinerary for three days of tunes at Chicago’s Grant Park? We’ve done it for you, and Friday’s alignment is near perfect – complete with a dinner break. Also, graciously, we’ve directed you away from the glow-stick-raving teenagers.

Contest: Win a Relapse Records five-CD prize pack!

From its modest roots as a basement mail-order operation to its status as one of the premier independent metal labels, Relapse Records has carved a niche as purveyor of distortion-heavy talent. In addition to a few ALARM favorites from Pig Destroyer, Liberteer, and Primate, this year saw noteworthy releases from Dying Fetus, Baroness, Horseback, LocrianSerpentine Path, and many others.

Hopscotch Festival 2012

Hopscotch Festival 2012 lineup revealed

Some big names in independent music will roll through Raleigh, NC this September 6-8 for The Independent Weekly’s third annual Hopscotch Music Festival, with 170+ bands joining headliners The Roots, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Built to Spill.

OFF Festival

Lineup for OFF Festival 2012 (Katowice, Poland)

Poland’s much-loved OFF Festival returns August 3-5, featuring ALARM favorites such as Battles, Converge, Baroness, Henry Rollins, Other Lives, Swans, Das Racist, Jacaszek, Africa HiTech, Akron/Family, and more.

Kylesa to release Spiral Shadow on Season of Mist

Just a year and a half after Static Tensions, psych-sludge quintet Kylesa will release Spiral Shadow, its fifth full-length album, on October 26 via Season of Mist. With the album, Kylesa’s cross-genre sound jumps from Prosthetic Records, which put out its last three discs.

The new album was produced again by Kylesa’s guitarist/vocalist Phillip Cope, who has manned the boards for Baroness and Withered.

Weekly Music News Roundup

Details emerge about new albums from Isis, Tortoise, Akron/Family, and Stinking Lizaveta; Zu announces some dates for a world tour (a pair of which are with Mike Patton); Dark Meat will go on tour with its 17 members; the Scion Rock Fest hosts a spate of crushing metal bands in Atlanta on February 28.

Keep readin’…