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For the first time since 2006, Switchfoot is releasing a full-length CD of entirely new material. Hello Hurricane, bowing November 10, is their seventh album but first under a new mainstream label partnership. After initially crossing over with Columbia Records, Switchfoot switched to Atlantic Records on the secular side; Sparrow Records will continue to distribute the band in the Christian market.

"Hello Hurricane acknowledges the storms that tear through our lives," frontman Jon Foreman said in a statement. "This album is an attempt to respond to those storms with an element of hope, trying to understand what it means to be hopeful in a world that keeps on spinning."

Meanwhile, Switchfoot scored a major opening act slot last weekend, joining the Dave Matthews Band for two mammoth amphitheatre shows in southern California. Switchfood will next co-headline a fall tour alongside alternative act Blue October.

U2 kicked off the North American leg of its 360 Tour with a two-night stand over the weekend at Chicago's Soldier Field. The gig featured a 54-ton cylindrical screen and 90-foot-tall canopy, according to the Chicago Tribune, along with a circular stage, a giant disco ball, and other props. The group is currently touring in support of the CD No Line on the Horizon, though the career-spanning set lists also included spiritually-inspired staples like "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "Pride (In the Name of Love)," "Walk On" and "One."

You don't have to wait outside the backstage door anymore to score autographs from major Christian artists like Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, MercyMe. The celebrity auction website Clothes Off Our Back finds these artists signing personally worn stage garments and sending all proceeds to Porter's Call in Franklin, Tennessee (which offers free counseling and support to recording artists and their families). Bidders can also score concert tickets and meet-and-greet passes from Casting Crowns, Diamond Rio and Mandisa, plus framed, handwritten and autographed lyrics from Grant and her country star husband Vince Gill.

For the first time since the passing of his daughter Maria, Steven Curtis Chapman released a new single to radio and digital download outlets. Inspired by his family's healing process over the past year, "Heaven in the Face" comes from the November 3 album Beauty Will Rise, which Chapman equates to his personal Psalms. "Obviously heaven has become a much more real place and something I long for more now than ever before," he says in a press release. "I can't wait to see the face of my little girl that I long to see again. I'm saying to God, 'You know my heart, and I know that heaven is so much more than that, but right now Lord, this where my heart is.' So I'm just crying out to God with this song, and it's as honest and personal as I've ever been."

Jasmine, who partners with iShine Records, is branching out beyond her church roots with a highly desirable slot on Radio Disney's "Next Big Thing" competition. The pop singer's music will be broadcast throughout Radio Disney and the Disney Channel from October 21 through November 3, followed by open fan voting opportunity from December 2 through December 9 on the contest's official website.

Modern rockers Sanctus Real announced the "Something Heavenly Tour 2009," which kicks off this week and runs through mid-October. Others on the tour include singer/songwriter Jason Gray, worship leader Phil Wickham and pop/rockers Addison Road. Click here for a full list of dates.

Future of Forestry recently released the EP Travel II, marking the second of a three-part trilogy that will resume in early 2010, continuing in the band's pensive alternative pop tradition inspired by C.S. Lewis' poetry.

Copyright © 2009 Christian Music Today. Click for reprint information.

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