Old photo, by Jered Scott.

Following a month on the road, traveling to and from the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, Tumbledown returns to Bremerton for a dive bar homecoming tonight (April 2) at Winterland (1220 Sylvan Way in Bremerton). They’ll share the stage with their brethren band The New Old Stock (featuring 3/4 of Tumbledown with the soulful Chebon Tiger) and the melodious Handlebar Mustangs.

The show starts around 9 p.m., 21+, $5 cover.

Next week, Tumbledown heads back to the Southwest for an 10-day stint from The Launchpad in Albuquerque, New Mexico (April 7) to the Redwood Room in Los Angeles (April 17) — by way of the 2010 Dallas Musink Festival, a quick stop in Austin and the band’s first international gig in the border town of Tecate, Mexico, home of the fine Mexican cerveza of the same name.

Find more, including Tumbledown shot glasses, at myspace.com/tumbledowncountry. —BAM

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Ruxton Towers will play Weezer’s Blue Album top to bottom March 20 at Winterland.

Like many great — and some not so great — ideas often do, it all started with a joke.

A few months back, Handlebar Mustangs — a local band featuring Tony Winters, owner of Bremerton’s Winterland — was recording at Ruxton Towers’ guitarist Chris Matthews Jr.’s Joonior Studios. With the Ruxton Towers’ crew in the studio at the time, Winters asked the band if they’d be willing to play his birthday show, later in March.

“And as a joke,” Matthews Jr. explained, “my brother, Brian, says, ‘Sure, we’ll play Weezer’s Blue Album, in its entirety.’”

But that’s not something you just joke around about. Especially not within earshot of the folks from Winterland. The Bremerton rock club recently hosted (and plans to host monthly) The Artists Formerly Known As Alligators, playing a full night of various covers, and they’re also gearing up for what looks to be a gloriously 80′s cover band extravaganza for Rock ‘N Roll Nicole Pike’s birthday bash, April 10.

Needless to say, Winters was stoked on Ruxton’s idea and marked the Towers down for a full performance of Weezer’s epic 1994 debut album to be joined by the almost equally epic Port Angeles two-piece Robot Pi and a set from prolific local stringer James Hunnicutt, this Saturday night at Winterland.

“So, I guess we kind of have to now,” Ruxton Towers’ lead singer/six-stringer John Boyce joked when asked about his preparations for the upcoming feat of Weezerness. “But it’s cool… We all know these songs. We all kind of grew up on this album.” —BAM

RUXTON TOWERS will play Weezer’s Blue Album in it’s entirety for Tony Winters’ birthday show, joined by Robot Pi and James Hunnicutt, March 20 at Winterland, 1220 Sylvan Way in Bremerton. Show starts 9 p.m., 21+, $5 cover. More at www.myspace.com/winterlandrocks, www.myspace.com/ruxtontowers, www.weezer.com.

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Find a full list of tour dates at myspace.com/tumbledowncountry.

So, this local music blog begins amidst the nationwide buzz of the upcoming South by Southwest Music and Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

When I last talked to Tumbledown — MxPx bassist/lead singer Mike Herrera’s cow punk side project, one Bremerton band headed to the Texas mecca this month — they were at a punk rock pizza joint in Fort Collins, Colo., midway through a three-day stint in that state, on the front end of their epic 11-state, 24-show, more than 7000-mile round-trip ‘North By Southwest Tour’ from Bremerton to Austin.

“Did you see that?” Mike Herrera got pulled away from the conversation at the Fort Collins pizza parlor. “Karl Alvarez, from the Descendents, just walked by… I’m gonna go say hi to him.”

Check back with The Racket, as we’ll be following up with Mike and the band as they make their way to Austin, on the rebel ticket to South by Southwest.

Next, they play The Conservatory March 12 in Oklahoma City, then it’s onto Missouri, Arkansas, Texarkana, Dallas and SXSW. Find a full list of Tumbledown’s NXSW Tour dates at myspace.com/tumbledowncountry and follow the band virtually through their twitter page at twitter.com/tumbledown. —BAM

More Tumbledown at www.tumbledownhq.com.

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