The B-52's

When a long-running, massively influential band breaks up, it’s a given that hordes of crazy fans will travel from the far ends of the earth to be at that band’s final concert. For the Police, that concert is taking place on Aug. 7 at Madison Square Garden—the B-52’s are opening—and New York Public Television is giving the crazy fans all the more reason to add a little debt to their credit cards.

It’s auctioning off various “rare VIP access packages” on eBay that include chances to actually meet the band, with proceeds going toward Thirteen/WNET and WLIW21. The first wave of auctions is live now through July 24, and the second one begins on Aug. 4, just days before the MSG show. Up for grabs:  read more »

The original release date for Gnarls Barkley's second album, The Odd Couple, was April 8. But the creative partnership of Cee-Lo Green and Danger Mouse has always marched to the beat of its own drum machines; they pushed up the date a couple weeks at the last minute. We were certainly curious whether the new record would provide a clear follow-up to the pop smash "Crazy"; it doesn't, even if "Run" (listen below) captures the unbridled fun of Outkast's popular dance track "Bombs Over Baghdad." EW labeled the new album "dense," but "a compulsively listenable, if somber, effort." Sounds good to me.

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CONCERTS

Cyndi Lauper is bringing her True Colors to Radio City Music Hall on June 1 (and to Jones Beach on June 3), along with fellow new wavers the B-52s, Rosie O'Donnell, and the Indigo Girls, in a Logo channel-sponsored benefit for the LGBT lobbying organization the Human Rights Campaign. Icing on the cake: Queer Eye's Carson Kressley is hosting. [On Sale: Friday, March 14 at 10 a.m.]

From the "bands it's hard to believe are still around" vault come New York hardcore legends H20, performing Friday, May 30, 1995...er, we mean 2008, at the Blender Theater at Gramercy. [On Sale: Friday, March 14 at noon]  read more »