Pitchfork

Mastodon are masters of self-promotion, posing with Borat backstage during their appearance on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien", documenting an attack by a gorilla-suited Tool while opening for the band on tour, and releasing multiple installments in their video tour diary on their YouTube. So what next?

How about a video game?

That's right, the band announced their most recent effort to promote the excellent Blood Mountain-- Mastodon: Quest for Blood Mountain-- via their MySpace: "You can collect diamonds to get pieces of a key to gain entrance to Blood Mountain... Keep an eye out for the special cheat codes that you can enter in the game. They're available on Mastodon flyers that are being handed out across the country."

I've played the game-- it seems the only controls are the keyboard arrows and space bar-- and I have a bone to pick: the thing is hard! I didn't get five game inches until I was eaten by dogs or I fell down some hole or, even worse, the game got all glitchy on me. There's potential there, but Mastodon need to get their tech department on the case ASAP.

Mastodon will begin their previously reported United States/United Kingdom/United Arab Emirates tour January 26 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Dates:

01-26 Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Culture Room *#
01-27 Lake Buena Vista, FL - House of Blues *#
01-28 St. Petersburg, FL - Jannus Landing *#
01-30 Tallahassee, FL - Beta Bar *#
01-31 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club *#
02-01 Knoxville, TN - Blue Cat's *#
02-02 Nashville, TN - Rocketown *#
02-03 Sauget, IL - Pop's *#
02-05 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *#
02-07 Grand Rapids, MI - The Orbit Room *#
02-08 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall *#
02-09 Pittsburgh, PA - Rex Theater *#
02-10 Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom *#
02-11 Providence, RI - Lupo's *#
02-13 Allentown, PA - Crocodile Rock *#
02-14 Rochester, NY - Water Street Music Hall *#
02-15 Clifton Park, NY - Northern Lights *#
02-16 New Haven, CT - Toad's Place *#
02-17 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *#
02-18 Norfolk, VA - NorVa Theatre *#
02-20 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel *
03-02 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Mandela Hall
03-03 Dublin, Ireland - Ambassador Theatre
03-05 Wolverhampton, England - Wulfrun Hall
03-06 Manchester, England - Academy 2
03-07 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC
03-09 Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Desert Rock Festival
03-11 Peterborough, England - The Solstice
03-12 Sheffield, England - Sheffield Corporation
03-13 Nottingham, England - Rock City
03-14 Portsmouth, England - Pyramid Centre
03-15 London, England - Mean Fiddler

* with Priestess
# with Converge