What goes together better than peanut butter and jelly? Depends on who you ask, but for this blog posting, I’ll go with music and beer. International beer giant Heineken has brought the two together this summer with the Heineken Inspire concert series, which stops in four major U.S. cities this summer: Miami, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. The Miami and Chicago dates are already in the books, but those interested in free beer and great music can catch up with Heineken Inspire tour in New York City on July 30-31 and in Los Angeles on Aug. 27-28. The concert series features live performances by Cold War Kids (seen below), J Cole, Rogue Wave, Tito El Bambino and Wale, as well as music spun by some of the hottest deejays.

Also, you can learn to rock the house yourself, with free guitar lessons from Fender and a chance to take the new Fender G-DEC® 3 Thirty amp for a spin.

Get your free tickets at Heineken’s Facebook page.

Photo by Chris Kies, courtesy Premier Guitar. Click here for more Crossroads photos. Although Chicago was graced with the all-day live version of Eric Clapton’s 2010 Crossroads, the star-studded guitar festival can be viewed at more than 475 movie theaters nationwide starting  July 27. Filmed at the Toyota Park in Chicago on June 26, the 2010 Crossroads Festival features performances by Clapton and his guests Jeff Beck, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, Buddy Guy, BB King, John Mayer, Steve Winwood and others, as well as artist interviews and backstage and behind-the-scenes footage.

Photo by Keith Klenowski Spin’s 25th Anniversary Concert Series, featuring performances by the Flaming Lips, Smashing Pumpkins, the National, Spiritualized and the Black Keys kicks off Monday night in New York. The SPIN25 concerts will be held for five straight nights. Schedule is as follows: July 26 Smashing Pumpkins July 27 The Flaming Lips July 28 The Black Keys July 29 The National July 30 Spiritualized Performances will be streamed live on the ZYNC Facebook page.

Photo by Keith Klenowski Spin’s 25th Anniversary Concert Series, featuring performances by the Flaming Lips, Smashing Pumpkins, the National, Spiritualized and the Black Keys kicks off this Saturday in New York. The SPIN25 concerts will be held for five straight nights. Schedule is as follows: July 26 Smashing Pumpkins July 27 The Flaming Lips July 28 The Black Keys July 29 The National July 30 Spiritualized Performances will be streamed live on the ZYNC Facebook page.

Not that summer is much of a tourist season in Arizona, but for those local and anyone else suckered into visiting the desert during peak temperatures because you just couldn’t resist the amazing savings you came across for one of our many beautiful resorts, I highly recommend you check out the Cars & Guitars exhibit at the Tempe Center for the Arts. Number one, I nearly had my eye poked out while moving the Fender guitars, amps, photos and more over to the exhibit hall and I’d like to think I risked my eyesight for a worthy cause. Number two, it’s well air-conditioned. And even if you are in a hotel pool with a swim-up bar that serves the frostiest cocktails you’ve ever laid your paws on, they’re still going to melt faster than you can slurp them down. Number three, it’s free. Number four, and most importantly, the exhibition is a sight to see. Some of the items on display include a Stratocaster, amp and case designed by Eric Clapton for the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival, a brocade-covered Fender guitar that was used by OK Go in their 2007 “Do What You Want” video and a guitar autographed by the Rolling Stones and director Martin Scorsese, who made the 2008 Shine A Light documentary about the band. And to go along with the custom bikes designed by Sucker Punch Sally’s, we also took over the 90th Anniversary Harley-Davidson guitar. Also, in what I call the disco room, they’ve got the Wii Rock Band lounge for visitors to play the popular video game live in the gallery. Again, admission is free. For more details, click here.

Jimmy Eat World, Joan Jett, LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A, Pavement and The Temper Trap are among the featured acts at the 2010 Virgin Mobile Free Fest, going down Sept. 25 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. Free tickets will be made available starting this Sat. at 10 a.m. EDT via http://www.ticketfly.com. And in related news, platinum-selling Jimmy Eat World recently confirmed Sept. 28 as the release date for their upcoming album Invented. The Arizona-based emo kings reunited with producer Mark Trombino for this latest studio album, whose first single “My Best Theory” is expected to hit the radio waves in August. Here’s the Invented cover.

Runner Runner, the first band signed to David Letterman’s new record label Clear Entertainment/C.E. Music, is scheduled to perform tonight on Jimmy Kimmel. The punk quintet’s self-titled debut is due out later this summer. Watch them before their lead single, “So Obvious” below.

Reunited indie giants Pavement closed out the 2010 Pitchfork Musical Festival at Union Park in Chicago on Sunday night. The band opened with “Cut Your Hair” and finished their 21-song set list with “The Hexx.” There’s plenty of other videos swirling around on You Tube, but here’s one of the better ones I came across.

The 2010 Pitchfork Music Festival featuring Modest Mouse, LCD Sound System, Pavement and dozens of other indie bands kicks off today at Union Park in Chicago. Although tickets are sold out for all three days of the event, Pitchfork is streaming most of the sets live. Watch them here.

Go behind-the-scenes of Steve Miller Band’s summer tour by watching the video below. “The theme of the set is guitars,” says Miller of the stage design. “This is my life. I love guitars. I collect guitars. I’ve been playing guitars since I was 5-years old.”

Get Steve Miller Band tour info here.

Corey Feldman’s band Truth Movement will be playing a free show this Wednesday night at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk at 6:30 p.m. The performance will be followed by a free movie screening of his 1987 hit film Lost Boys, which included several scenes that were shot on the Boardwalk. More details available here. Fender News recently caught up with the actor/musician to talk about the show and his Tourology Analogy tour. Check the story out here. 39

Click the thumbnail to view the New York Times Crossroads photo gallery! Jon Pareles of the New York Times penned a detailed review of Eric Clapton’s 2010 Crossroads Festival. “It was the third Crossroads guitar marathon Mr. Clapton has organized; the others were in 2004 in Dallas and in 2007 here,” wrote Pareles.”While the concerts are benefits for Crossroads Center, Antigua, a nonprofit addiction-treatment clinic that Mr. Clapton founded in the Caribbean, they are also rallies for what sometimes seems to be an endangered species: the guitar hero, the kind of player who can seize and hold an audience with chorus after chorus of an instrumental solo.” Read the rest of the review here.

Eric Clapton’s 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival goes down tomorrow at Toyota Park in Chicago and it promises to be a magical affair with Clapton being joined by Albert Lee, the Allman Brothers Band, BB King, Bert Jansch, Buddy Guy, David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, Doyle Bramhall II, Earl Klugh, Gary Clark Jr., Hubert Sumlin, James Burton, Jeff Beck, Jimmie Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa, John Mayer, Johnny Winter, Jonny Lang, Keb’ Mo’, Pino Daniele, Robert Cray, Robert Randolph, Sheryl Crow, Sonny Landreth, Stefan Grossman, Steve Winwood, Vince Gill and ZZ Top scheduled to appear. Fender News recently caught up with Lang, who talked about being invited to participate in Crossroads for the second time. “I don’t take any of those moments for granted,” he said. “Being asked to play at something like that is so cool. It’s also really awesome because I’m actually playing with Buddy Guy as a member of his band.” Lang, who is currently in the middle of his own summer tour,  said he’d only have limited time to rehearse for the Crossroads performance with Guy, but that it would be a non-issue. “I’ve known him since I started playing, basically, and we’ve done so many shows together,” Lang said. “I know his songs and stuff and it’s just blues, you know. Any amount of rehearsing would just be undone at the outset of the show anyway because it would all change.” Read more from the Lang story here. A large Fender contingency has been on site in Chicago the last few days, and just a few minutes ago I noticed that the Fender Custom Shop posted a mobile upload on Facebook of Sheryl Crow and Doyle Bramhall. So keep an eye there and I’ll also be sure to post photos as I receive them. Lastly, we’d like to congratulate Derek Everson and Peter Vasquez for winning the Sold-Out Fender Giveaway. We wish you save travels to Chicago and hope you greatly enjoy your free tickets to the show!

Coheed and Cambria’s bassist Michael Todd Photo by Billy Siegle Fresh off a run of completely selling out all 27 of their U.S. dates, New York’s indie-prog-metal-storytellers, Coheed and Cambria, have announced their newest leg of dates, this time with legendary British prog-rock-masters Porcupine Tree. Touring in support of their latest album, Year of the Black Rainbow (which debuted at #5), the band’s upcoming jaunt will include stops at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, The Joint in Las Vegas and War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville. Circa Survive, who joined the band for their spring run, returns for the last lap of the tour in place of Porcupine Tree, while The Deer Hunter is on the bill for the entire run. Coheed and Cambria with Porcupine Tree and Circa Survive 8/12 Hollywood, CA Hollywood Palladium * 8/13 Las Vegas, CA The Joint * 8/14 San Diego, CA 4th and B (21+) * 8/16 Albuquerque, CA Sunshine Theater * 8/17 El Paso,TX Club 101 * 8/18 San Antonio,TX Sunset Station * 8/20 Memphis,TN Minglewood Hall * 8/21 Asheville, NC Thomas Wolfe Auditorium * 8/22 Nashville, TN War Memorial Auditorium * 8/23 St Louis,MO Pageant * 8/24 Grand Rapids,MI Orbit Room * 8/26 Cleveland,OH Nautica Pavillion * 8/27 Columbus,OH LC Pavilion Outdoor Amphitheatre ** 8/28 Pittsburgh, PA Ches Arena ** 8/30 Richmond,VA National ** 8/31 Norfolk,VA Norva ** *With Porcupine Tree, The Dear Hunter **With Circa Survive, The Dear Hunter

This Saturday, L.A.-based band Everest — deemed “Dylanesque punk” by USA Today — will play a free show for KCRW at One Colorado in Old Pasadena, Calif. KCRW’s own DJ Chris Douridas will open and close the show, which runs from 3:30 – 9:30 p.m. Get parking info and directions here. Everest’s frontman Russell Pollard recently chatted with spinner.com about the band’s sophomore album On Approach, revealing that its popular feisty opener “Let Go,” was originally the odd man out. “It started off as a riff Jason [Soda] came up with and over time we kept tweaking it and it kept morphing,” he says. “We then added a second drum kit and the song developed into what it is now. It’s become our favorite to play live … for me especially, since I get to return to my roots as a drummer and play alongside Davey [Latter], while singing.” Watch the video below.

The French pop-rockers Phoenix topped Spin.com’s Best & Worst of Bonnaroo’s Day 4 list for “Best Farewell Sun-Kiss.” “Having graduated from the tent they played in ‘09 to the massive outdoor Which Stage, the dapper boys played much of their new album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, as the setting sun shot sherbet blues, yellows, and oranges on the clouds shining above the stage,” wrote Spin’s reviewer William Goodman. Read more of his review here, and watch the Fender-wielding Phoenix perform “Girlfriend” below.

Against Me! also topped the Day 4 list for having the “best attitude,” while Temper Trap’s frontman Dougie Mandagi earned “best sexy Chris Martin stand-in. Mandagi can be seen up-close in this Spin video interview.

The Temper Trap has been a hit on the festival scene this year, playing (above) to a packed audience this spring at Coachella. Photo by Billy Siegle.

The 2010 Bonnaroo Festival kicked off in Manchester, TN, on Thursday with The xx, The Temper Trap, Manchester Orchestra, Blitzen Trapper and Local Natives taking the various stages. The rest of the weekend will include performances by artists of all different walks — country acts such as Miranda Lambert and Jamey Johnson to rock outfits Phoenix and the Dead Weather to rapper B.o.B and comedian Margaret Cho. Follow all of the action on Bonnaroo’s official website, and take advantage of free music downloads, courtesy of spinner.com and spin.com, from some of the acts scheduled for Bonnaroo.

Click thumbnail for the full Just Jared gallery of Mayer/Urban photos from dress rehearsal. There’s also a live shot from their performance here. Who saw Fender signature artist John Mayer trading licks last night with Keith Urban during the CMT Awards? Urban used one of his Custom Shop La Cabronita guitars while Mayer rocked his Stratocaster—“The Black One.” The pair previewed Urban’s unreleased single “Hit the Ground Running” from his album Defying Gravity for the first time on television, but unfortunately, it’s one of the few performances that CMT hasn’t made available via video yet on their website. The Grammy-award winning artists also teamed up for CMT Crossroads, set to premier on June 18.Below is a preview…

Teargarden by Kaleidyscope 1: Songs for a Sailor On Wednesday, the Smashing Pumpkins announced a 12-show summer run at intimate U.S. venues that begins July 6 in Cleveland and wraps in Tampa on July 21. The summer club tour marks the iconic band’s first tour since 2008 that according to frontman Billy Corgan will feature a “a balance of classics, a few obscure ones and new Teargarden material.” Corgan will be joined on the road by guitarist Jeff Schroeder, drummer Mike Byrne and recently revealed bassist Nicole Florentino. “I haven’t been this comfortable in a band situation since about 1995,” Corgan said in a release on the official Pumpkins website. “Musically, we seem to have wound our way back to a more kinetic, electric, and psychedelic sound that reminds me of SP in Gish-Siamese era.” Following the U.S. dates, the Pumpkins will head to Japan for four shows, including headline performances at two Summer Sonic Festivals, which as Corgan explained, follows the Pumpkins “long-standing tradition of trying to start up new tours at smaller venues because it allows the band the opportunity to take some chances musically.” Smashing Pumpkin Tour Dates 7/6  Cleveland, OH   House of Blues 7/8  Grand Rapids, MI  Orbit Room 7/9 Columbus, OH  Newport Music Hall 7/10 Louisville, KY  Forecastle Festival 7/12 Baltimore, MD  Rams Head Live 7/13 Richmond, VA  The National 7/15 Norfolk, VA  The Norva 7/16 Charlotte, NC  Fillmore 7/17 Charleston, SC  Music Farm 7/19 Orlando, FL  House of Blues 7/20 Ft. Lauderdale, FL  Revolution 7/21 Tampa, FL  Ritz

The Pixies are bringing the Doolittle Tour back to the United States this fall for an extended 20th anniversary celebration of the band’s classic 1989 album, Doolittle, which includes popular tunes such as “Here Comes Your Man,” “Hey,” and “Wave of Mutilation. The pioneers of the ’80s alt/rock movement will perform all of the songs from Doolittle and its related B-sides, such as “Weird at My School,” “Dancing the Manta Ray,” and “Bailey’s Walk.” The performance will also be accompanied by an imaginative cinematic production. Designed by long-time Pixies lighting designer Myles Mangino and designer Paul Normandale, the set features four huge, undulating, eyeball-like spheres flown just below the lighting rig and are part of the concert’s light show. Filmmakers Judy Jacobs, Tom Winkler, Brent Felix and Melinda Tupling were brought on board to create 11 films especially for the production. The films are projected onto a massive backdrop video screen to accompany 12 of the 21 songs that comprise the show. The 11-city tour gets under way on Sept. 7 in Philadelphia. A special pre-sale for members of the band’s email list begins this Monday at 9 a.m. EST at pixiesmusic.com, also marking the soft-launch of the first-ever official Pixies website. (The site appears to offer a FREE download of the live EP in exchange for your email address, but I can’t seem to get it to work. If someone smarter than me figures it out, let us know in the comments below!) For most dates, the public on-sale begins Mon., June 14; Nashville goes on sale Sat., June 19. On sale times, ticket prices and where to buy tickets vary city to city. Confirmed dates for the Pixies’ 2010 U.S. Doolittle Tour are as follows: SEPTEMBER 7 Tower Theatre, Philadelphia, PA* 10 Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN* 13 Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA* 17 Uptown Theatre, Kansas City, MO 18 Brady Theatre, Tulsa, OK** 19 Verizon Theatre, Dallas, TX* 20 Verizon Wireless Theatre, Houston, TX 22 Austin Music Hall, Austin, TX*** 24 Mesa Amphitheatre, Mesa, AZ (tix sold through the venue) 25 The Joint, Las Vegas, NV* 26 RIMAC Arena, San Diego, CA* * Tickets sold through Ticketmaster ** Tickets sold through Protix *** Tickets sold through Frontgate