Marking the first national tour for the band in over five years, the 26 date jaunt will bring the iconic band's virtuosic musicianship and exhilarating live shows to amphitheatres and arenas across North America. The tour will kick off July 12th in Quebec City and wrap-up on August 22nd in Los Angeles. Produced by Live Nation, tickets for the "Close to the Edge and Back" tour go on sale beginning March 29th (go to livenation.com not ticketbastards)

"As you might know, we've had our share of difficulties managing the vocal position. And once again we're without a permanent singer. A while ago we and Kjetil [Hektoen] decided to go separate ways. He's been busy with his other bands/projects and simply didn't find the time and devotion required to rehearse with us as much as we wanted. We think it's really sad since we like him both as a person, as well as for his amazing skills vocally. We really wish him all the best for the future and thank him for his time with us and his support in our live performances."

Knoxville Voice compared the band to "Radiohead vs. fifteen bottles of Southern Comfort" while others put them in the presence of Modest Mouse, TV on the Radio, and Architecture in Helsinki. Royal Bangs are constantly reinventing ways to play music and who they play for.

The special lineup features three bands that all have a close association with Paul � and none more so than GUNDOGS, who feature Paul's brother Dan on bass. Dan said of the event, "I hope that this show and the love that underpins its spirit, will be loud enough to reach Paul at the right hand of God. He would be proud to see so many of his great friends come together in this way."

Recorded live in concert on July 9, 2007, "Gossip - Live In Liverpool" brilliantly captures and focuses the stunning ferocity, energy and intensity at the heart of Gossip's groundbreaking meld of sound + politics. This incendiary concert showcase breaks out definitive performances of Gossip signature tunes including the band's UK #1 Indie chart-topping smash, "Standing In The Way Of Control"; the UK Top 40 hit, "Listen
Up"; and the #3 UK Indie track, "Jealous Girls" in addition to delightfully provocative covers of Wham!'s "Careless Whisper" and Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody?"

Sarah VonderHaar is a young and blossoming singer/songwriter, who despite her age has already accomplished more than many of her peers. She has been a contestant on "America's Next Top Model," photographed her first Forbes magazine spread (as the shooter, not the subject) when she was 20, acted in a film and, at 21, has just completed her debut album, Are You Listening Now?

And now she is. Last night Britney Spears squeezed in an appearance on South Park. Well, most of Britney Spears, at least. A large part of Britney's brain was missing at the time, but what's new about that, huh? Huh?

The screening will start at 8pm on April 1st at the Village East Theatre.

antiMusic: You also have a live record that was released last fall in Europe. I assume it will be over here in the not too distant future. Is it from one show and what can you tell us about that show that made you want to put it on tape? Jorn: Yes, the whole show is actually from [the ProgPower] festival [in Atlanta, Georgia]. I had headlined the gig in 2006. And you know it was just accidental really because all the bands at the festival were offered to have their show recorded since the promoter of the festival would normally have a professional team anyway to both film and record it. And I was thinking, "wow, lets record the show and if it's a potential record or DVD then we'll use it for something." And I think it came out quite good. And we actually played another 45 minutes, almost an hour, longer than what's on the live CD.

antiMusic: Excellent. Can we look forward to DVD release? Jorn: Yeah, well, it's there on the hard disk and I've looked thorough the material already and it looks cool. The footage is good and the band looks half young. (laughs) and it's definitely a great testament, or some kind of biography in a way to have. I would like to release it it's just that we did some covers there as well. You have, there's a Whitesnake medley at the end of the show. And we did a Purple song. And we did a couple of other songs as well. What has been the delay with the DVD so far has been the rights to use those songs. because you see rights to release it as a double cd wasn't really a big problem. But you have something called synchronization rights between sound and picture, which is totally different story. So, the second you�the same show is filmed and the second you want to have it, to put it out on DVD then you get in trouble unless you get the right approval. And what happened there was, I had a little trouble getting those rights for some of those songs, and to make a choice: either delay the whole DVD or take out the covers, or some of the covers, and release it with less material. Or put in some more of the other songs that I had removed to make it a full length DVD. I just felt this was the wrong thing to do. Either we release it as is, same as the double cd, it should be the same concert. If anything should be done it should be added to it instead, not removed. And I think the whole thing for me as an artist, the important thing, especially if you look at America, and Canada and other parts of the world, it's definitely important to me to show the diversity and to show me doing these songs. I think for my career as well, it's important for me as well to have some of those covers there as well. So I decided just to delay everything, and postpone the whole DVD. So what's going to happen right now, I don't know. Maybe it's going to be released by the end of this year. If not, if I can't find a solution to it, then I'll probably wait, and write a new Jorn album because I already have one coming out in May or June.