Pretenders Fan In Your Fam? Here's The Perfect Gift...

The Pretenders have announced their first headlining tour in five years, kicking off on January 29th in Albany, New York. The band, which is playing a few select holiday shows this month, will be promoting their latest album, Break Up The Concrete.

Chrissie Hynde says that the new album wasn't spurred on by any great artistic vision that she needed to get out to the band's fans: "Well, I guess I just had a few songs. It just seemed like the time was right. I'm not any kind of a deadline or anything. These things kind of fall into place when the time's right. You can't really plan them... or I certainly don't. I'd been doing a lot of touring and you can't keep playing the old songs all the time 'cause it's just boring. So it just seemed like the time had come."

• The Pretenders tour dates:
  December 10 - Los Angeles, CA - Club Nokia
  December 12 - Portland, OR - Roseland Theater
  December 13 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre
  January 29 - Albany, NY - Palace Theatre
  January 30 - New York, NY - Roseland Ballroom
  January 31 - Atlantic City, NJ - Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa/Music Box
  February 2 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
  February 4 - Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre
  February 5 - Jim Thorpe, PA - Penn's Peak
  February 6 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
  February 7 - Mashantucket, CT - Fox Theatre
  February 9 - Ann Arbor, MI - Michigan Theater
  February 10 - Cleveland, OH - House Of Blues
  February 11 - Indianapolis, IN - Murat Theatre
  February 13 - Cincinnati, OH - Taft Theatre
  February 14 - Akron, OH - Akron Civic Center
  February 15 - Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre
  February 17, 18 - Milwaukee, WI - Northern Lights Theater
  February 20 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
  February 21 - Kansas City, MO - Ameristar Hotel & Casino
  February 22 - Tulsa, OK - Brady Theater
  February 24 - Denver, CO - Paramount Theatre
  February 25 - Aspen, CO - Belly Up Aspen
  February 27 - Dallas, TX - House Of Blues
  February 28 - Houston, TX - House Of Blues
  March 1 - Austin, TX - Stubb's Bar-B-Q / Waller Creek Amph.
  March 4 - Phoenix, AZ - Dodge Theatre
  March 5 - San Diego, CA - House Of Blues
  March 6 - Pala, CA - Pala Casino
  March 7 - Las Vegas, NV - House Of Blues
  March 8 - Anaheim, CA - Grove Of Anaheim
  March 10 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
  March 13 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
  March 14 - Reno, NV - Silver Legacy Resort Casino

The Pretenders have just issued their first E.P. of Christmas music. The four-track collection features the band's own holiday standard, "2000 Miles," along with yuletide evergreens "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," "Blue Christmas," and "Blue Christmas Part 2."
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Paul McCartney has ruled out a major world tour -- but says that he may do some select gigs as part of the Fireman. McCartney's latest Fireman collaboration with producer Youth called Electric Arguments is out now and receiving mostly positive reviews. McCartney was asked if he and Youth have any intentions of taking the show on the road. The former Beatle told BBC News, "At the moment we haven't got any plans. But we're kind of anticipating it. Me and Youth have said we'll see how it goes. If suddenly there's a big demand for it, I'd like to try it. It would be quite challenging."