The fifth annual Record Store Day is upon us, and hundreds of artists, including Paul McCartney, Phish and David Bowie, will have exclusive releases available to mark the occasion.

Record Store Day will be celebrated at independent record shops around the world tomorrow, April 21, and in addition to the many exclusive releases, many stores will have special events and concert performances to mark the occasion.

Other notable artists that will offer exclusive releases include the Black Keys, Flaming Lips, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder and Metallica.

Record Store Day was first held in 2008, and was designed to support the struggling independent record stores around the U.S. Since then, the event has grown international and includes some of the world’s biggest artists getting in on the action to save indie record stores.

Record Store Day’s official website defines exactly what an independent record store is:

A Record Store Day participating store is defined as a stand alone brick and mortar retailer whose main primary business focuses on a physical store location, whose product line consists of at least 50% music retail, whose company is not publicly traded and whose ownership is at least 70% located in the state of operation.  (In other words, we’re dealing with real, live, physical, indie record stores—not online retailers or corporate behemoths).

The website also has quotes from artists describing why independent record stores have been important in their musical upbringing.

“My introduction to all this great music and to ‘the music business’ came from hanging around, and eventually, working at independent record stores,” said Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. “Nothing beats browsing in your favorite store, listening to music, finding something new or old that you’ve been searching for, all that. And without these stores, there’s just no way Wilco would still be around.”

When Phish released the initial tour dates for a summer tour earlier this year, many fans were disappointed to see that the concerts were relegated to the eastern portion of the U.S. Well, with a newly announced second leg of the tour, Phish Phans in western America will probably be a little happier.

The second leg of the tour will kick off just over a month after the end of the first leg, and the first show will be held at the Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, Calif. The tour will then continue into Labor Day weekend, when the band undertakes a three-night stay at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo. August 31-September 2. This will be the second year in a row the band has played in Commerce City over Labor Day weekend, and the event will feature onsite camping for those who wish to see more than a single show.

The band also will play a three-night stand at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco August 17-19. Other cities the band will visit during the second leg of the tour include Kansas City, Mo.; Birmingham, Ala.; Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; St. Louis and Oklahoma City, Okla.

The last date mentioned above will be the first time in the band has played anywhere in Oklahoma in the group’s nearly 30 year history. The Birmingham show will be the first time the band has played in Alabama since 1999.

The first leg of the tour will run from June 7 though July 8 of this year. No additional dates have were announced for that leg with the second leg dates.

Phish is also gearing up for the reissue of its debut album, Junta. The special new vinyl edition of the album will be released for this year’s Record Store Day on April 21.

Though Phish has taken off most of this year for band members to pursue solo work and other endeavors, the group has announced that they will hit the road later this year for a tour that will run into the summer.

The trek will begin with a two night stand at the DCU Center in Worchester, Mass. June 7-8, and will run through the beginning of July, and the last announced shows will find the group performing a three night stand at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. July 6-8. Other cities on the tour include Atlantic City, N.J.; Portsmouth, Va.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Burgettstown, Penn.; Cuyahoga Falls, N.Y.; Noblesville, Ind.; East Troy, Wisc. and Wantagh, N.Y. The band also will be playing a previously announced set at this year’s Bonnaroo Festival on June 10.

In addition to the tour, Phish fans also will be glad to know that the group is reissuing its debut album, Junta, as a vinyl set for this year’s Record Store Day, which is April 21. The limited edition set will contain three LPs.

The band announced the tour with a short video on its website featuring drummer Jon Fishman getting ready for the tour. Fishman appears in the band’s “secret training facility somewhere in Vermont” looking tired and out of shape and proceeds to begin playing the drums. Then footage is shown of him running, lifting weights and making vegetable juice. The video can be seen on the band’s official website.

Phish hasn’t performed in public since a four night New Year’s Eve run at Madison Square Garden in late December of last year. Frontman Trey Anastasio currently is in the midst of a solo symphony tour. At each stop on the tour, Anastasio makes use of a symphony from the city he’s playing in to provide back up for his shows.

The 11^th Annual Bonnaroo Music Festival features a massive and eclectic lineup headlined by Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Phish.

The Manchester, Tenn. festival will stretch across 13 stages and include more than 125 band and 20 comedians. The festival, which takes place on a 700 acre farm about an hour south of Nashville, will be held from June 7 to June 10, this year.

In addition to the headliners, other big names this year include the recently reunited original lineup of the Beach Boys, who recently performed their first public show in decades at the 54^th Annual Grammy Awards, which were held last Sunday. A reunited Ben Folds Five also will play at the festival. Appearances also will be made by recent Grammy winners Skrillex and Bon Iver, the latter of which picked up both the Best New Artist and the Best Alternative Music album on Sunday.

Other notable acts performing at this year’s festival include Ludacris, the Shins, the Avett Brothers, Feist, the Roots and Bad Brains. Also appearing will be Childish Gambino, the hip-hop act of “Community” star Donald Glover.

Radiohead hasn’t played Bonnaroo since 2006, and Phish hasn’t played since 2009, when they headlined two nights of the festival. Phish represents the jam-band roots of the festival that has widely expanded the genres represented by its lineup since the first festival was held in 2002.

By the time the Red Hot Chili Peppers play the festival, they will be new inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The group will be inducted during this year’s induction ceremony, which will be held April 14, along with Guns N’ Roses, the Beastie Boys and The Small Faces/The Faces, among others.

Though specifics have yet to be announced, Bonnaroo events typically include various vender tents and activities in addition to the music and comedy stages.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Phish announced it would perform this year’s version of its legendary New Year’s shows over a four night run at Madison Square Garden in New York, but frontman Trey Anastasio already is looking into the future. On Monday, he announced his first ever orchestral tour—dubbed the Trey Anastasio Winter Symphony Tour—that will begin in February 2012. Though the trek is only four dates long, there will be about a week in between each show, so the tour will stretch from February 9 to March 10. Beginning in Atlanta, then moving to Pittsburgh and Denver before concluding in Los Angeles, Anastasio will make use of each cities respective symphony orchestras at each stop.

At each show, Anastasio will play orchestral versions of a wide variety of Phish songs, as well as mixing in selections from his own solo catalog. Though this will be the singer/songwriter/guitarist’s first symphony tour, he previously has played with orchestras on a few occasions. Most notably, he worked closely with Orchestra Nashville composer Don Hart to produce Time Turns Elastic, a long form piece that was recorded by that orchestra and later played live with the same group of musicians at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Anastasio later performed the work in Baltimore and at Carnegie Hall in New York, and Phish also has played a new version of the song.

Joining Anastasio at all shows will be Scott Dunn, who is the associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the group that will accompany the singer at the final show of the tour.

As per recent tradition, all four Phish New Year’s Eve shows already have sold out, and as of now are the only announced future dates for the band.

Trey Anastasio, front man for jam band gods Phish, once told the New York Times he wanted to play a 30-hour show. We’ll have to wait to see if this ever actually happens (with Phish, you never know), but the band may come close this New Year’s Eve…sort of.

The Burlington, Vt. based 4-piece recently announced a four night New Year’s Eve run at New York’s fabled Madison Square Garden from December 28 to December 31 of this year. With Phish shows often (read: usually) clocking in at over three hours apiece, the run may be the closest Phish phans get to that 30-hour show.

Known for its extravagant New Year’s shows, the band is already expanding on last year’s production that consisted of three nights at the Garden. Those show featured dancers, balloons, and the band disappearing from the stage shortly before midnight only to reappear on the other side of the Garden in a giant hot dog. Yes, a hot dog. So what other standards have the band set at previous New Year’s shows that it will be looking to top this year? Let’s have a look at the short list.

There are usually dancers, either onstage or elevated above the audience, and often both. In 1996, the band set a record at the time for the most balloons dropped, as 79,627 balloons descended on the audience at midnight. One time the stage was transformed into a giant aquarium, and at another show it was a giant terrarium featuring actual grass. A stagehand was once suspended above the stage in something resembling a chicken suit. And to ring in the new millennium, Phish performed a rare outdoor New Year’s Eve gig on December 31, 1999 and played a midnight to sunrise set, lasting over seven hours (!).

Obviously there’s a lot to live up to here, but Phish is known for producing the unexpected, and no one would expect this year to be an exception. Stay tuned for any more news of the shows as it comes in, though usually the band is pretty mum about what we can expect until the shows actually happen. Happy early New Year!

In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Trey Anastasio revealed that this winter Phish will begin working in the studio on a new album. The Phish guitarist admitted that the band is planning to start working on their first studio set since their 2009 release “Joy and Party Time.” Anastasio also said the band is planning to do less touring in 2012. He said, we are discussing the possibility of some type of new album for this winter. It looks like we will be doing less touring next year, mostly due to some of our band members having family obligations. This winter we want to start working on a new project. It’s still undefined. We will keep it like that on purpose. We’ll get together, then see where things go.

Recently, Phish debuted “Steam,” the new song from Tom Marshall and Anastasio. Following Super Ball IX, Phish had a couple dates in August and September booked, but will then be off road for the rest of the fall. Anastasio also mentioned in the interview that he loves Beach House, the indie band, as well as possibly covering the Metallica song “Master of Puppets.”

On Monday, producers announced that Arcade Fire, Phish and Muse will be headlining the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival’s fourth annual edition. The event will be returning to their original run of three days on August 12-14 at Golden Gate Park.

Over 50 performers and bands are scheduled to perform at the mega event, including big name artists like the Roots, the Decemberists, Girl Talk, MGMT and the Black Keys. On Thursday tickets will be going on sale.

We are ecstatic about this stated Gregg Perloff, Another Planet Entertainment founder, the concert-promotion firm from Berkeley co-presenting the festival along with New Orleans-based Super Fly Productions, who also present Tennessee’s Bonnaroo Music and Art Festival. We believe this is the world’s best lineup.

Organizers last year had to cope with a summer concert season that was sluggish by trimming down the festival to just two days. The event still drew approximately 80,000 people over the course of the weekend to the park. Perloff is hoping with the bill this year to have even bigger numbers.

He said, the great thing about these bands is that they are credible and popular. That combination is rare.

Other performers scheduled to make appearances include OK Go and Beirut, Erykah Badu, the Original Meters, Deadmau5, Warren Haynes Band, Big Audio Dynamite, Arctic Monkeys and John Fogerty. Two sets will be formed by Phish. SFOutsideLands.com lists the complete lineup.

Once again, the festival will be spotlighting several local wineries and restaurants. Several art installations will also be spread across Speedway Meadow and Polo Field.

Perloff said, each year we want to do things better. This is a work in progress. However we have always thought to hit our stride would take four years.

Three days passes for Outside Land Music and Arts Festival taking place on August 12-14 will cost $175 to $199.50. Three day VIP tickets cost $450. A three day VIP parking pass will cost $140. For more information, visit SFOutsideLands.com.

Following their reunion, Phish is still wildly popular and as such, has decided to tour in the United States this summer.

The first concerts will be on Memorial Day Weekend (May 27, 28, 29) in Bethel, NY at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. The tour will see 18 concerts including the final concert on June 19 in Portsmouth, VA at nTelos Wireless Pavilion.

In addition to the three dates in a row on Memorial Day, the group will play consecutive concerts in Homdel NJ on May 31 and June 1 at PNC Bank Arts Center. Another group of concerts is scheduled for June 11 and June 12 in Columbia, MD at Merriweather Post Pavilion. The final multi-concert set will be on June 14 and June 15 in Alpharetta, GA at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre.

Fans can make requests for tickets using Phish’s Internet-based ticketing program. After a set number of tickets is awarded by way of lottery, the general public can purchase tickets on March 11 and March 12. Based on information from their website, the tickets will cost between $45 and $65 plus fees.

There is every indication that Phish will add more concerts to their tour this summer, but they will not be verified until later. However, according to the band’s site, once the summer tour is over, “the band has no touring plans for the remainder of the year.

Following a break that lasted 5 years, Phish began touring again in the spring of 2009 beginning with a set of shows in Hampton, VA. They continued their tour in the summer and fall of 2009 and the summer and fall of 2010.

Frontman Trey Anastasio, after three successful Phish shows rang the New Year in, has announced a string of dates for next month that will feature a solo set from Anastasio and set from the entire band as well.

Phish, which currently includes Anastasio and six other musicians, are kicking off their “Acoustic/Electric Tour” in Portland, ME on February 18. The outing of 11 cities will hit both coasts but also make its way to the Midwest for concerts in Columbus, OH on February 26; Chicago on February 27 and in Denver on March 1 and 2.

Ticket presales will start on January 14 and run until January 20 at Phish’s website. General onsales will start on January 21.

According to a recent press release, each of the shows will be featuring an entire acoustic set by Anastasio as well as a complete electric set featuring the entire band. It’s the first tour like this for Anastasio since 1999 when he launched his solo career.

The Trey Anastasio Band in December released a live album called “TAB at the Tab.” It was recorded last February at a performance in Atlanta. The most recent studio album from Anastasio is “Time Turns Elastic.” It was released in May 2009.