DAVE MATTHEWS RAISES THE WHISKEY BAR

The group’s summer tour gets underway tonight with a show at Darien Lake Performing Arts Center in upstate New York, while the band’s new RCA album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, its first in four years, is slated to come out June 2.

The entire album can now be streamed on Pandora here.

Upcoming TV appearances include CBS Sunday Morning (5/31), Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (6/3), and a performance on Rockefeller Plaza for NBC’s Today Show (6/5).

In addition, Matthews will be interviewed on The Charlie Rose Show next week, while the band will play the season premiere of Austin City Limits (10/3) as well as headlining the namesake Festival that same day.

Next Monday night (6/1), DMB will play a benefit concert at the Beacon Theatre in N.Y.C., broadcast on Madison Square Garden’s Fuse network, with proceeds benefiting the band’s Bama Works Fund, which provides grants to a broad range of humanitarian, environmental, educational and artistic programs. The show will air live and commercial-free at 9 p.m. (ET) on Fuse, as well as being streamed on both Hulu and Yahoo, available at www.hulu.com and www.music.yahoo.com. Fuse will kick off seven days of original DMB programming with the live broadcast.

In addition, DMB will host its own music channel on Sirius XM from June 1 through 8, showcasing the band’s entire catalog. The group has also teamed up with Apple to offer the new album as part of its iTunes Pass program, which includes getting three new tracks prior to street date, the documentary Scenes from Big Whiskey, exclusive b-sides and live performances from the tour. The iTunes store is also offering Tap Tap Revenge: Dave Matthews Band, an application for the iPhone and iPod Touch featuring 10 of the band’s songs to accompany the game.

The album’s first single, "Funny the Way It Is," is #1 at Triple-A and in the Top 20 at Alternative. Big Whiskey pays tribute to group saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who passed away last summer while the band were on tour and midway through recording the album.

Produced by Rob Cavallo (Green Day, My Chemical Romance), Big Whiskey is DMB's seventh studio album and the follow-up to 2005's Stand Up, their fourth consecutive studio album to debut at #1.

The album will be available in three versions: standard, deluxe (including the Scenes from Big Whiskey making-of documentary) and super-deluxe, which features bonus tracks, a photo book and lithographs in addition to the CD and documentary. The CD will be carried by Starbucks, Whole Foods, Ambercrombie & Fitch and Nordstrom as well as traditional and online music retailers.