Check out Maps & Atlases new single ”Fever”  off the upcoming sophomore LP Beware & Be Grateful, set to release April 17th.  The album – which follows the Chicago-based band’s acclaimed 2010 debut, Perch Patchwork - was recorded last year in a series of week-long sessions at Omaha’s ARC Studios with producer Jason Cupp (Nurses, Good Old War). You can pre-order the album and get the bands blend of Intelligentsia coffee (Chicago based roaster).

Maps & Atlases US tour kicks off  May 11^th at the Metro in Chicago, and wraps up on June 19^th at Amsterdam Hall in St. Paul.

Maps & Atlases On Tour:

 3/31 Bethelem, PA – NOWADAYS Festival

4/6 Lafayette, IN – Lafayette Theater

5/11 Chicago, IL – Metro

5/12 St Louis, MO – Firebird

5/14 Columbus, OH – The Basement

5/15 Akron, OH – Musica

5/16 Toronto, ON – Horseshoe Tavern

5/17 Ithaca, NY – The Haunt

5/18 Boston, MA – Middle East

5/19 Brooklyn, NY – Glasslands

5/21 New York, NY – The Studio at Webster Hall

5/22 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer

5/23 Washington, DC – Rock and Roll Hotel

5/24 Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506

5/25 Atlanta, GA – The Earl

5/26 Tampa, FL – Crowbar

5/27 Orlando, FL – The Plaza

5/28 Panama City, FL – A&M Theatre

5/29 Birmingham, AL – Bottletree

5/31 Dallas, TX – Sons of Herman Hall

6/1 Austin, TX – The Parish

6/2 Houston, TX – Free Press SummerFest

6/4 El Paso, TX – Lowbrow Palace

6/5 Phoenix, AZ – TBA

6/6 San Diego, CA – Casbah

6/7 Santa Ana, CA – Constellation Room

6/8 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour

6/9 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill

6/11 Portland, OR – Bunk Bar

6/12 Vancouver, BC – Media Club

6/13 Seattle, WA – Crocodile Cafe

6/15 Boise, ID – Neurolux

6/16 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court

6/17 Denver, CO – Hi Dive

6/18 Omaha, NE – Waiting Room

6/19 St Paul, MN – Amsterdam Hall

Andrew

Avid movie goer, music aficionado and Netflix junkie. I also strive to quote Jurassic Park on a daily basis and I sing like no one is listening when in the car.

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Check out the pics from behind the scenes of The Avengers, due out in theaters May 4.

Midcoast Station

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Come back with me on a journey through time. It is Christmas Day, 1990 and The Godfather III is just opening. For 16 years people had been waiting for a sequel for what were perhaps the 2 best American films ever made. After seeing the completion of the trilogy, people were left with a bad taste in their mouths (I imagine. I was 3 at the time so I didn’t see it). Upon reflection it isn’t that it is a bad movie, it’s just didn’t live up to the standard of the first 2. How could it?

Now take that scenario and make it the complete opposite. 2010′s Clash of the Titans was universally panned. The acting was bad, the writing was bad, the action was dull and because of a rushed 3D job you couldn’t see anything (some would say that they wish they hadn’t actually seen it). In fact the 3D was so bad that it almost killed all of the great momentum the technology had from Avatar.

Wrath of the Titans tells the story (I use this phrase loosely) of Perseus, son of Zeus, as he is forced to fight through the Underworld to save his father from Hades and stop him from releasing the Titans.

Sam Worthington has been unimpressive as an actor and his second crack at the role of Perseus will not sway his doubters. He certainly looks convincing in fight scenes, but in scenes that feature him using words instead of his fists he is anything but convincing. He lacks the screen presence that some of his peers have that really draws you to them while they are on screen and make you anxious for their next scene.

Ralph Fiennes as Hades and Liam Neeson as Zeus are both quite goodactors but are given such poor material that you kind of just want them both to die so they don’t have to appear in a third movie (God, please don’t let there be a third movie).

While watching the movie I thought quite a lot of the production design looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite figure out the familiar film. Then I remembered that it wasn’t a film, it was the video game God of War III. Many sets and characters designs are almost lifted straight out of that video game. As the movie ended I couldn’t help but wish I had spent the preceding 100 minutes playing that game instead of watching this movie.

When Avatar was released to a record-breaking box office take studios rushed to have all their ‘tentpoles’ offered as 3D films.Perhaps none was as rushed as Clash of the Titans. When you watch a movie in 3D you are essentially watching a movie while wearing sunglasses so they need to be brighter. Clash of the Titans seemingly did nothing to compensate for this and it became nearly impossible to tell what was happening on screen. Wrath of the Titans was filmed in 3D and the effects actually looked quite good. There were a few instances of the gimmicky ‘stuff flying at you’ 3D but it seemed to mostly be used to add depth, and it did it quite well.

Unlike the impossible expectations that faced The Godfather III, Wrath of the Titans can still be a bad movie and be better than the Clash of the Titans. And it is. On both counts. I just wish that they spent as much time to fix the other problems of the franchise that they seemingly spent to fix the 3D. I enjoyed it more than Clash of the Titans, although that isn’t saying much.

2 out of 5 Stars

Nathan

Nathan enjoys film, music, sports and most of all, speaking in the third person.

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Check out the infographic below from PromotionsCodes.net mapping out the past successful startups and showcasing the top gotta-have apps from this year.

If you have tried or checked out any of this years apps let us know what you think by commenting below.

Source: PromotionalCodes.net

Midcoast Station

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 Remaining Tour Dates:

Mar 30             The Southern                                     Charlottesville, VA
Apr 02             Cactus Club                                                 Milwaukee, WI
Apr 03            7th Street Entry                                     Minneapolis, MN
Apr 04            High Noon Saloon                        Madison, WI
Apr 05             Schubas                                                 Chicago, IL
Apr 06            The Firebird                                     St Louis, MO
Apr 07             Lifestyle Communities Pavilion Columbus, OH
Apr 09             Ninth Ward                                               Buffalo, NY
Apr 12             Great Scott                                                 Allston, MA
Apr 13             KungFu Necktie                                     Philadelphia, PA
Apr 14             Bowery Ballroom                                     New York, NY
May 07             The Met                                                 Pawtucket, RI
May 08             Cabaret Mile-End #                         Montreal, QC
May 09             Wrongbar #                                     Toronto, ON
May 11             Crofoot Ballroom #                        Detroit, MI
May 13             The Rave II #                                     Milwaukee, WI
May 16             Wooly’s #                                                 Des Moines, IA
May 17            The Waiting Room Lounge #             Omaha, NE
May 19             Bluebird Theater #                         Denver, CO
May 20             Belly Up #                                                 Aspen, CO
May 23             Knitting Factory Concert House # Boise, ID
May 28             Sasquatch Music Festival             George, WA
June 11             The Theater of Living Arts #            Philadelphia, PA
June 13             930 Club #                                                 Washington, DC

# with Grouplove

Midcoast Station

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April 5-7, 2012, national and local acts will be taking over venues in Kansas City’s Westport neighborhood for the second annual Middle of the Map Festival.

The three-day lineup is presented by Ink KC & local label The Record Machine. National acts include fun., Neon Indian & Mates of State, while local acts include Capybara, Cowboy Indian Bear and Jaenki. This year, the festival has expanded its hip hop presence with acts such as Steddy P & Max Justus. There’s also an added technological portion. The full lineup and tickets are available at middleofthemapfest.com.

With the festival just around the corner, we wanted to help get you acquainted with some of the performing acts. We put together a Spotify playlist of as many of the artists as we could share (not everyone is offered on the Spotify service, but we encourage you to listen to them on the Middle of the Map website or their own sites).

To hear our compilation,  click: http://open.spotify.com/user/1212215607/playlist/39l5XA1C0DYTeMi9oCs1fF.

Bethany Smith

I'm a geek; I love music, technology and grammar.

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The Midland in Kansas City was packed this weekend with fans eager to hear some of their favorite national hip hop acts join forces with some of Kansas City’s own finest, which included headliner Tech N9ne.

Though Tech N9Ne was the night’s big draw, MGK is the band to put on your radar. The crowd went just as nuts for MGK as Tech N9ne and our photographer says that MGK’s show was on par with the headlining act. They’re definitely a group to watch.

Here are some great photos from photographer Scott Spychalski that recapture the event:

Midcoast Station

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Grammy-nominated Silversun Pickups will be releasing their third album, Neck of the Woods on May 8– same day the band will be perform from the Jimmy Kimmel Live! outdoor stage. The record was produced by the Grammy Award-winning Jacknife Lee (U2, Weezer, REM, Snow Patrol), and is now available for pre-order  at http://www.silversunpickups.com/

Check out their first single off the new record “Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)”:

Midcoast Station

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