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Music News: Arcade Fire announce new album, tour

Regine Chassagne and Win Butler of Arcade Fire perform at the Panorama NYC Festival in 2016.
Regine Chassagne and Win Butler of Arcade Fire perform at the Panorama NYC Festival in 2016.Theo Wargo/Getty Images

by Jay Gabler

June 01, 2017

It's official: Arcade Fire’s fifth album will be released July 28. Everything Now will be accompanied by an "Infinite Content" tour that stops at the Xcel Energy Center on Oct. 29.

The band have released the title track along with a video, and they played the song — along with another new song, "Creature Comfort" — at a surprise Thursday show, ahead of their scheduled Saturday slot, at Barcelona's Primavera Sound Festival. The title track is produced by the band with Steve Mackey (Pulp), Thomas Bangalter (Daft Punk), and Markus Dravs.

It may be summer, but wear your scarf anyway

Two new Grandstand shows have been announced for this year's Minnesota State Fair: Garrison Keillor’s "Minnesota Show" on Sept. 1, and Stevie Nicks on Aug. 25. Tickets for both shows go on sale Friday, June 9.

Spike Lee announces Prince party

Spike Lee wants Prince fans to "rock your purple" at his second annual "Prince Born Day Purple People Party." The party will take place in New York on June 3; Prince's birthday is June 7.

Bill Murray announces classical album

Earlier this year, Bill Murray announced a tour with an ensemble of classical musicians. Now, there's news that music will become an album. New Worlds will be out in September, and Rolling Stone explains what's on it.

New Worlds blends classical music, American standards and literary readings. The track list includes selections from composers like Johann Sebastian Bach and Maurice Ravel as well as authors such as Ernest Hemingway, Walt Whitman and Mark Twain. Murray will also perform several tunes, including Stephen Foster’s "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" and a West Side Story medley of "Somewhere," "I Feel Pretty" and "America."

Jerry Garcia guitar sells for almost $2 million

Jerry Garcia’s storied "Wolf" guitar — so named because of a decal on its surface — has sold for $1.9 in a charity auction benefiting the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Believe it or not, that doesn't make it the most expensive guitar ever sold — or even the second-most expensive. "The only guitars that have sold for more money are John Lennon's 1962 Gibson Acoustic-Electric and a Fender Stratocaster signed by a laundry list of guitar heroes," notes Stereogum.

The Wolf did, however, bump Bob Dylan’s Newport Folk Festival Strat from the top three most expensive guitars ever.

Name a more iconic duo

It takes a lot to coax comic/actor/singer Rick Moranis into the public eye these days: he even turned down a cameo in the new Ghostbusters. He'll be making an appearance in Toronto on July 18, though, reuniting with former SCTV castmate Dave Thomas to reprise their roles as Bob and Ray McKenzie.

"The duo will be putting on a special live version of their legendary SCTV public access show, Great White North," reports the AV Club, "delighting fans with Bob and Doug's simple, beer-swilling take on Canadian life."

The show is a benefit to raise funds for Thomas's nephew, who was recently paralyzed in a snowmobiling accident. The McKenzie Brothers will be joined by other comedy greats, including Dan Aykroyd and fellow Canadian icons the Kids in the Hall.

The McKenzie Brothers made their first appearance on SCTV in 1980. They quickly became North American pop culture sensations, even landing an unlikely Top 20 hit in 1982 with their Geddy Lee collaboration "Take Off."