Veteran rockers The Smithereens [ tickets ] have lined up a short, mostly West Coast tour behind their recently released Beatles cover album, "Meet the Smithereens!"

The New Jersey foursome will kick off the first of a scattered string of dates Feb. 15 in West Hollywood, CA, with several more California dates following.
Further along in March, the group will participate in "The Fest for Beatles Fans" in their home state. Details for the upcoming shows are included below.

"Meet the Smithereens!" is a song-for-song remake of The Beatles [ tickets ]' 1964 American debut, "Meet the Beatles!"

The disc features all 12 songs from the first Beatles album, presented in their original order, and performed by the Smithereens.

"'Meet the Beatles!' was a call to arms to an army of musically-inclined kids across the nation," Smithereens drummer Dennis Diken said in a press release. "There was no turning back after hearing this LP and seeing The Beatles on the 'Ed Sullivan Show.' We were instantly hipped to the fact that there can never be anything cooler than playing in a rock 'n' roll band."

The album, the band's first studio effort since 1999's "God Save the Smithereens," hit stores Tuesday (1/16). The set features liner note contributions from former Beatles promoter Sid Bernstein, musician Lenny Kaye, and Beatles historians Bruce Spizer, Dennis Mitchell and Andy Babiuk.