Big Head Todd & The Monsters plan to log some major miles early next year, with the group lining up a winter road trip that launches in mid-January and supports a forthcoming compilation album.

The Denver-based trio kicks things off in its home state with shows in Aspen and Grand Junction on Jan. 18 and 19, respectively, and is scheduled to touch down in about 30 cities throughout the US by early March. Details are included below.

Also penciled in on the group's calendar is a six-day May event in Hawaii that will take the place of the band's annual "fan cruise" to the Virgin Islands. Instead, the group will spend a week on Hawaii's Big island, "playing intimate shows and spending time at the beach with fans," according to a press release. Information is available at the event's website.

To coincide with the tour, BHTM is set to release "From the Archives," a CD comprising demos and archived material from the band's early years. The disc will be available at the group's upcoming shows, as well as via its website and select independent record stores beginning in mid-January, according to an announcement from the band.

Big Head Todd & The Monsters haven't released a new studio album since last year's "Crimes of Passion." Instead, the group--guitarist/keyboardist/singer Todd Park Mohr, drummer Brian Nevin and bassist Rob Squires--has been going strictly digital these days, delivering new music to fans via free, monthly, four-song podcast files posted at their website, and encouraging those fans to share the material with others.

"Although we are open to all possibilities for the future, for now we are not thinking about records or 'albums,' although we will at some point soon make the podcast stuff available in CD form," Mohr wrote in a message posted at the site earlier this year. "BHTM is enjoying being able to get our work to you immediately, freely. ... If we continue at this rate, which I see no reason why not--you'll get the equivalent of 3 albums worth of BHTM a year for free! All we ask in return is if you like it--spread it. Oh, and we want you to check us out live too!"

Mohr, who said that he has "always believed that art should be free," can apparently afford to give his music away by keeping his overhead low; he and his bandmates record their material at his own solar-powered Colorado studio.

Despite the online availability of the group's newest music, fan demand has BHTM considering a traditional record release for sometime in 2007, according to the band's publicist.