Will Johnson featured on MLB.com!!!

Will Johnson has been touring with his indie rock band Centro-matic for a long time — long enough that he has summer tour scheduling pretty much dialed in.

After his booking agent identifies the American cities Centro-matic will be hitting with their unique brand of alt-country tinged lo-fi pop, Johnson gets on the computer.

“I immediately hop over to MLB.com and start looking at the schedules to see who’s in town and what games I can go to,” Johnson says. “On nights off, I’ll definitely try to get to the closest park, and it doesn’t matter if it’s A-ball or ‘The Show.’ I’m just happy to get to a game. Without a doubt, it’s complete therapy for me and a real treat.”

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Centro-matic dispatch August 2008

It’s been a while, and that’s because I’ve been roughed up this summer by the heat, the inescapable white pants-ed and moppy presence of the Jonas Brothers, general ceremonies (opening and closing), and by being able to watch both live and archived baseball games on mlb.tv. It’s like they knew exactly what kinda Kryptonite would take me down, and good homeslices, it has. Anyway, it’s time to get outta the house. We’re bringing both Centro-matic and South San Gabriel to the western realm here starting in just a few days, and we wanted to give a heads up on that:

Aug 31: Tucson, AZ – Club Congress
Sept 2: Los Angeles, CA – Spaceland
Sept 3: San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop
Sept 5: Seattle, WA – High Dive
Sept 6: Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
Sept 8: Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
Sept 9: Denver, CO – Hi-Dive
Sept 10: Omaha, NE – Slowdown JR
Sept 11: Iowa City, IA – The Picador
Sept 12: Madison, WI – Orpheum Side Door
Sept 13: Saint Louis, MO – Billiken Club

We are planning a midwestern and eastern US tour with both bands in November. Those dates will be announced very soon.

Also, I will be playing guitar with my friends, The New Year on their Fall US dates, starting in Dallas on September 18.

Sept 18: Granada Theatre – Dallas, TX
Sept 19: Rudyards – Houston, TX
Sept 20: Emo’s Alternative Lounge – Austin, TX
Sept 22: Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM
Sept 23: Modified – Phoenix, AZ
Sept 24: The Echo – Los Angeles, CA
Sept 25: Bottom of the Hill – San Francisco, CA
Sept 26: Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR
Sept 27: Sunset Tavern – Seattle, WA
Sept 29: Larimer Lounge – Denver, CO
Oct 9
: Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA
Oct 10: Music Hall of Williamsburg – Brooklyn, NY
Oct 11: The Middle East – Boston, MA
Oct 12: The Livingroom – Providence, RI
Oct 13: Club Metronome – Burlington, VT
Oct 14: Le Divan Orange – Montreal, QC
Oct 15: Lee’s Palace – Toronto, ON
Oct 16: The Pike Room – Pontiac, MI
Oct 17: Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL
Oct 18: Maintenance Shop – Ames, IA
Oct 19: High Dive – Champaign, IL
Oct 20: Grog Shop – Cleveland, OH
Oct 21: DC9 – Washington, DC

Lastly I want to salute and congratulate our friends at Downstate Productions and all that were involved with the movie, Salt Creek County. The film won awards for Best Picture and Best Ensemble Cast at last week’s River’s Edge Film Festival in Kentucky. They are golden spartans of true inspiration and I am happy to know them.

Thank you, friends. See you at the rock show. – Will J

Centro-matic to play HOCO FEST in Tucson!

We are please to announce that Centro-matic has added a show in Tucson to the west coast tour. The show is part of the HOCO FEST! Tucson’s Green Music Festival.

Forget about wasting all that gas money going to Rocky Point this Labor Day Weekend. The 4th Annual HoCo Festival is bigger, better, greener and cheaper than ever before. Check this out: we’ve scheduled over 40 great regional and national acts for our three stages, the festival is two days and three nights, there’s two delicious gourmet BBQs and one humongous record fair. Even cooler is that we will be doing it with some of Tucson’s best eco-friendly organizations as we use solar power for the stages, biodegradable plateware and well, so much more!!!

If you’ve been to our Labor Day party in the past you know how much fun it is. This year will be better! Hotel rooms will go fast, so if you want to join the fun and stay over, get your reservations now!

BAND LIST!
Meat Puppets, Dusty Roads, POWER SOLO(denmark,) Devil Makes 3,Gentlemen After Dark howe Gelb, Mother truckers (Austin, TX), Centro-matic (Denton Tx), Dusky buskers, Fell City, Shouts, Lemondrop Gang, Blackwood and Co Fuzz All Stars, Al Perry Surf Show, Wolfman And the Nards, Shrimp Chaparone, Big Galoot, Al Perry, Ned Sutton And The Rabbits… and many more!!!