The Vaselines Visit the States, the Summer Concert Business, and Sting Calls Rock's BS

-- Sup Pop: The Vaselines will be supporting their forthcoming album, Sex With An X (Sept. 14), with a U.S. tour that so far is skipping Seattle. But the band's playing Portland on Oct. 24 and Minneapolis on the 27th, so maybe they'll sneak in a stop in the 206.

-- Pitchfork: Arcade Fire will give a million bucks to Haiti...if you do.

-- NPR Music: Seth Hurwitz, owner of D.C.'s 9:30 Club said: "Sales are down in bad situations, like they should be. But, you know, talking about the concert business as a whole, as it relates to the large companies that try to run the whole industry, is a little like asking BP, 'How's the oil business these days?' "

-- NY Times: Interesting note from the NYT's Sting profile, "From the Police to the Met: A Renaissance Man":

Sting, 58, said the appreciation for classical music he cultivated from the piano playing of his hairdresser mother and BBC radio of the 1950s was not something he could readily confess to back in his Police days.

"It was frowned upon," he said, "and that's the whole ridiculous premise of rock 'n' roll becoming this Taliban-esque, closed thing. 'You can't do that, you can't do that.' What's the spirit of rock 'n' roll except freedom -- freedom to do whatever you want?"