Pitchfork

Photo by Charles Harris

When two bands whose names involve the pluralization of nouns that are more often used in singular form get together for a tour, you can damn well bet grammatical eccentricities are the least exciting thing about it.

As previously reported, Pitchfork Recommended North Carolinians Annuals and Pitchfork ho-hummed Canadians the Dears join forces for a January tour of the Eastern USA. The ten-date jaunt kicks off tomorrow night in Boston and whirls through DC, Florida, and New York City-- where Annuals will be arriving a night early in order to play "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" on January 18. Perhaps they can coax some tips on looking good on television out of their tourmates, who rocked "The Late Show with David Letterman" last month.

After a few weeks' rest, Annuals hop in the van again to sweep across the U.S. solo-style, then join up with Aqueduct to swoop down the West Coast and Southwest, all en route to SXSW.

Also more exciting than grammar: Annuals follow up last year's Ace Fu-stamped Be He Me LP with a brand new EP titled Big Zeus and released exclusively in the UK. The five-track set bears Ace Fu's insignia once again and features "Ease My Mind", a tune originally by the band's pre-Annuals incarnation Sedona and the first Annuals jam written and sung by guitarist Kenny Florence. The song smacks heavily of Broken Social Scene (in a good way), and you can stream it along with another Big Zeus cut on Annuals' MySpace right now. Praise Jesus, neither of them sound like Sublime.

Vinyl fetishists and folks not ready to take the five-track EP plunge can scoop up a concurrently-released 7" collecting two Big Zeus tracks, "Carry Around" and "Ida, My".

Big Zeus EP:

01 Carry Around
02 Complete or Completing
03 Ida, My
04 Ease My Mind
05 Misty Coy

Annuals:

01-16 Boston, MA - Paradise *
01-17 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts *
01-19 New York, NY - Webster Hall *
01-20 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
01-22 Chapel Hill, NC - Cat's Cradle *
01-23 Jacksonville, FL - Jack Rabbit's *
01-24 Miami, FL - Studio A *
01-25 Orlando, FL - Social *
01-26 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse *
01-27 Nashville, TN - Exit/In *
02-20 Newport, KY - Southgate House
02-21 Cleveland, OH - Case Western University
02-22 Chicago, IL - Schubas
02-24 Minneapolis, MN - 400 Bar
02-27 Seattle, WA - Neumos
02-28 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
03-02 San Francisco, CA - Café du Nord
03-03 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland ^
03-04 San Diego, CA - Casbah ^
03-05 Tucson, AZ - Club Congress ^
03-06 Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room ^
03-07 Albuquerque, NM - Launchpad ^
03-09 Tulsa, OK - Mooch and Burn ^
03-10 Springfield, MO - Randy Bacon Gallery ^
03-11 Little Rock, AR - Sticky Fingerz ^
03-12 Fayetteville, AR - Dickson Theatre ^
03-13 Norman, OK - Opolis ^

* with the Dears
^ with Aqueduct