Ted Leo and the Pharmacists have just announced tour dates in June that will take them from the East Coast all the way down to the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee! Teddy and the gang will be heading out with Titus Andronicus on their jaunt through the South East.

Head over to our tour page for complete details!

In addition to both being Lookout staff alums, Erika and Pat own and personally run Little Type Mail Order. Little Type handles not only our mail order but also delivers other fine quality punk rock records and merch directly to your home. Recently, Erika fell ill, so here's an update from Pat about her status as well as the status of orders placed through Little Type:

"Dear Friends,

It's our sad duty to inform you that Erika, mail order mistress supreme and the heart and soul of Little Type Mail Order, is seriously ill and has been hospitalized for some time now.

As a result, some aspects of Little Type may not have been functioning as smoothly as we'd like them to. Here's the situation:

Please feel free to continue ordering from the website. Orders are being filled and will continue to be filled. However, because of the current situation, we recommend that you make your orders online to be sure of the fastest service. Also, if you have any questions or complaints about existing or future orders, please contact us via email at service@littletype.com. Unfortunately, there's nobody available to answer the Little Type phone right now, and while mail sent to the Little Type post office box will eventually be read and responded to, it may take a while.

If you're a record label or zine that has sent stuff in to sell, please be advised that most items that have come in for the past several months have not yet been processed, which is why you haven't seen them for sale on the website yes. We are currently in the process of getting some help to catch up with this situation. Again, if you have any questions or problems in this area, please contact us via email. If you have stuff that you're hoping to sell through Little Type but haven't sent it in yet, you might want to wait until things are a little better sorted out and we issue the all clear.

If you're someone who has been selling things though Little Type and are waiting to get paid, rest assured that checks and statements for the most recent pay period have been issued, but not yet mailed out. We have a couple people ready to start putting them in envelopes and sending them out, so you shouldn't have to wait too much longer.

To everyone who loves and misses Erika and wants to know what they can do to help: what she needs most of all right now is your prayers and best wishes. You're welcome to send get well cards to the Little Type PO box 1993, El Cerrito, CA. 94530. But please, no flowers, candy, or other bulky objects, as they won't be allowed into her hospital room anyway. We all look forward to her making a full recovery and returning to the helm of the good ship Little Type as soon as possible, but in the meantime, please bear with us.

Thanking you for your patience and understanding,
The Folks at Little Type Mail Order"

After a long and heated election cycle, nothing says "We Did It!" like a show at the Black Cat in the nation's capitol the night before Barack Obama's inauguration. In addition to Lookout! alumns Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, the show will feature bands from the President Elect's hometown of Chicago, including: Andrew Bird, Tortoise, Waco Bros., and countless others. Head over to our tour page for the full scoop!

In other Ted Leo news, his song "Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone" is featured in The Pichfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present, a book compiled by Pitchfork Media of the 500 greatest songs of since the late 70's. Also mentioned in the book are past Lookout! artists Bratmobile, The Tourettes, Green Day, and Operation Ivy! Congrats to Teddy and all the other bands for writing amazing music over the years!

The Oranges Band have just self-released their brand new album called "The Oranges Band Are Invisible"! You can purchase the album as well as sign up for Roman's song of the month club over at Every7th.com. If you need to read a review or two to make your decision to pick up this wonderful new cd, head over to the band's official website to read what people are saying about the new record!

Jesse Michaels is hitting the road for a few days performing solo as a part of Mike Park's Plea For Peace Holiday Tour. Seven Second's frontman, Kevin Seconds will accompany Jesse and Mike on the California tour as well. They ask that everyone bring at least one unwrapped toy which will be given to homeless children ages 3-10, and if giving for givings sake isn't enough reason for you to bring a toy to the show, Asian Man Records will be trading cd's for toys at the toy drive booth, so bring a toy, get some music and help a homeless child have a happy holiday.