Starting tomorrow, the new Dave Matthews Band "Live Trax" CD will be exclusively available at Starbucks locations throughout North America. The CD features recordings of Dave Matthews Band performances dating back to 1995.

As part of the launch, XM and Starbucks are kicking off a promotion to support the "Live Trax" release and to introduce customers to the newly re-launched Starbucks music channel on XM, Starbucks XM Café (Ch 45).

From July 31st through August 31st, Starbucks will offer customers the chance to win tickets, passes and a meet and greet with Dave Matthews at The Hollywood Bowl on October 2nd, among other prizes. All you have to do is sign up for a free trial of XM Radio Online.

Complete details will be available online starting July 31st (pssst, that's tomorrow, so don't click the link yet).

In addition to the in-store sweepstakes, XM will air special Dave Matthews Band programming on the Starbucks XM Café channel with special episodes of the music show "The Daily Grind," highlighting songs from the new album throughout the week.

"The Daily Grind" can be heard weekdays at 3pm ET on the Starbucks XM Café channel, with encores airing weeknights at 1am.

Shibuya Airwaves, an hour-long show featuring Japanese pop and rock music leading the Oricon music charts, is coming to WorldSpace and XM satellite radio on UPop (ch 29).

Shibuya Airwaves will also include regular commentary on the latest trends in Japanese pop culture and other topics. The show will highlight bands touring the U.S., interview special guests, as well as interact with listeners on-line and over the phone.

The weekly music show created by eigoMANGA "Shibuya Airwaves" has already grown in popularity for terrestrial radio listeners in San Francisco. Currently airing on KYCY in San Francisco as part of KYOU Radio (podcasts on terrestrial), Shibuya Airwaves has become one of KYOU Radio's top programs. Shibuya Airways has extended it brand into producing live concert events and television programming aimed at promoting Japanese music. These events and programs will now promote Shibuya Airwaves program and WorldSpace/XM's UPop channel.

The show will debut mid-August, and will broadcast live on Saturday nights beginning at 12am ET (9pm PT).

[Shibuya Airwaves] 

XM's gone completely crazy with the unveiling a new "Christmas In July" microchannel on XM Live (ch 120), set to air from July 25th through July 26th.

Featuring classic holiday hits from Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, the Ronettes, Amy Grant, Harry Connick, Jr., and many other yule log favorites, the "Christmas In July" channel will give us a taste of what's to come... 5-months from now.

The Holiday madness is spilling out onto other XM channels as well. Radio Classics (ch 164) is featuring Bing's Christmas, and Miracle on 34th Street, at various times throughout the week. And XM's '70s channel (ch 7) - which is one of XM's most popular channels - will feature Casey Kasem's American Top 40 from December 1973, with a Christmas song countdown.

Check out the Christmas In July microchannel page, and join in on the confusion. 

Blue Man Group recently visited XM's NYC studios at Jazz at Lincoln Center for the taping of an especially offbeat episode of "Artist Confidential."
 
The founding members talked about how the group came into being, and brought along some well-oiled members of the NYC team to partake in the enjoyment. Blue Man performed on some highly modified musical instruments, combined with a good dose of electronics and added in some vocals from Tracy Bonham as icing to the cake. The show was apparently a Vegas-quality show (which is actually a good designation nowadays), and I’m curious to hear how it translates to the radio.

Fun fact:  Members of the Blue Man Group were among the first XM subscribers.

The airdate is TBA, but I've got some photos featuring the Blue Men themselves with Lee Abrams (who talks about the show at length in a recent blog post) and the always lovable Lou Brutus who also hosted the show. Both Lee and Lou are making some hilarious faces, well worth checking out after the jump...
 
Photo credit: Larry Busacca/Wire Image © 2007

The Smashing Pumpkins have been busy making the rounds in the satellite radio circles. Not only did they take over Sirius' Alt Nation, but yesterday they played for a live audience at XM’s D.C. studios.

Yesterday (7/10) was also the same day that the band’s new album "Zeitgeist" hit the shelves.

Smashing Pumpkins taped an episode of the XM show "Artist Confidential" at the XM Performance Theater. Billy Corgan and company played XM in advance of their sold-out show at the 9:30 Club, the renowned rock venue which located is about a mile north of the Eck.

The "Artist Confidential" featuring the Smashing Pumpkins will air, uhm, sometime in the future. (I don't have broadcast times yet.)

But I do have photos from the band's performance at XM. Check 'em out after the jump...

XM Satellite Radio has added the Live Earth concert in Washington, DC to its Live Earth coverage roster. The concert is a surprise addition to the Live Earth lineup and almost didn't happen.

Former Vice President Al Gore just yesterday announced the concert will be held on the National Mall at the National Museum of the American Indian, about two blocks from the Capitol. Tentatively scheduled to begin at 10:30am ET on July 7th, the event will be the earliest US concert.

XM will carry the performances from Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, who are the only musical acts for the DC show (the rest are speakers). You can hear their performances along with other event highlights and interviews on XM's Live Earth All Access (ch 40).

XM Satellite Radio has officially announced the XM Exclusives channel - or XMX - that we learned about from the leaked channel guide a few days ago.

If you were one of the skeptical, this thankfully validates that the channel changes in that guide were, in fact, real... albeit the timing was off by a month. XMX and the other changes will all go live on August 1st. Ah, the beauty of unofficial information!

XMX will feature XM's most popular original music shows, including "Theme Time Radio Hour with Your Host Bob Dylan," "Ludacris' Open Mic," "Tom Petty's Buried Treasure," "In the Swing Seat with Wynton Marsalis," "Quincy Jones' Off the Charts" and XM's signature performance/interview series "Artist Confidential," all in one place.

XM also announced the merging of XM Cafe and Hear Music, as well as those college sports channel changes that we also knew all about.

Check out the XMX info page here, and rejoice in that this wasn't another Radio Wasabi incident.