Your BTE update

After briefly hitting the Top 10 (on iTunes at least), Better than Ezra's new album Paper Empire debuted at #62 this week, their highest placement since their first album, Deluxe (you know, the one with "Good" on it).

And now the band's on tour all summer. Dates below:

May 29 & 30 - House of Blues, New Orleans
June 2 - Flytrap, Tulsa
June 3 - Whiskey Roadhouse, Council Bluffs, IA
June 5 - Fort Worth Zoo, Fort Worth
June 6 - House of Blues, Houston
June 7 - House of Blues, Dallas
June 9 - Soul Kitchen, Mobile, AL
June 11 - Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
June 12 - Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg, FL
June 13 - House of Blues, Lake Buena Vista, FL
June 14 - Variety Playhouse, Atlanta
June 16 - 9:30 Club, Washington DC
June 17 - Trocadero Theatre, Philadelphia
June 18 - Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY
June 19 - Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza, New York City
June 20 - Paradise Rock Club, Boston
June 23 - House of Blues, Cleveland
June 24 - Pioneer Court, Chicago
June 25 - The Vogue, Indianapolis
June 26 - 4th Street Live, Louisville
June 27 - House of Blues, Chicago
June 28 - Summerfest, Milwaukee
July 9 - Alive at Five, Stamford, CT
July 10 - Bottle and Cork, Dewey Beach, DE
July 11 - NorVA, Norfolk, VA
July 12 - The National, Richmond, VA
July 14 - Rex Theatre, Pittsburgh
July 15 - Emerald Theatre, Mount Clemens, MI
July 17 - Snowden Grove Amphitheater, Southaven, MS
July 19 - 3rd and Lindsley, Nashville
July 24 - Kansas City Live, Kansas City
July 25 - The Pageant, St. Louis
July 30 - Alive @ Five, Stamford, CT
August 12 - The Independent, San Francisco
August 13 - Music in the Park, San Jose, CA
August 21 - Power Plant Live, Baltimore
August 22 - Downtown Live, Raleigh, NC

And for fun, here's Taylor Swift covering BTE's "Our Last Night:"

Links roundup

* Chris Cornell, whose Timbaland collaboration only came out Tuesday despite all the pre-Xmas hype, is on tour. Get dates here.

* You can listen to a new Oasis b-side which finally goes whole-hog with the Beatles-influence over at Spin.

* A tribute to Mike Watt's 1995 solo album Ball-Hog or Tugboat?, which featured an all-star cast of alt-rock luminaries, including Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, and Evan Dando, among others. Check the comments section for fond remembrances of the supporting tour (the Foo Fighters opened up).

*If, like me, Jimmy Eat World didn't come anywhere near you on their Clarity 10th-anniversary tour, you can live vicariously with the Clarity Live album, which is out in April in a digital-only format.

* And Lamestain has a bunch of mp3s up right now of obscure tracks from 7-inches put out by various early-'90s Seattle bands.

Lots of '90s acts on tour this fall

I've been out of town, and my inbox has filled up with lots of tourdates. So here's a round-up:

* Alanis Morrisette (still not fat), September-November, US and Canada
* Less than Jake w/Rancid and Reel Big Fish, September, Pacific Northwest and Canada
* Nine Inch Nails, now through October, US and Mexico
* Cake, September and October, Canada and the Northeast
* Counting Crows, on tour through October with Maroon 5, US (plus Toronto)
* Jackopierce, September-November, US
* Beck, August 21-October 3, US
* Everlast, August 15 - October 29, US
* Juliana Hatfield, September, major US cities
* Smashing Pumpkins' "20th anniversary tour," August 8-20, Midwest and Southeast
* Liz Phair, performing Exile to Guyville in its entirety, August 27-29, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston
* Everclear, August and September, Midwest and Northeast