Thursday, August 07, 2003
Revamped Doors lineup to perform ‘L.A. Woman’
The Doors 21st Century will perform the 1971 album “L.A. Woman” in its entirety for the first time in Wantagh, NY.
The group plans to film the performance and release it as a concert DVD in early 2004.Original Doors frontman Jim Morrison died before the band released the “L.A. Woman” album.
Read more at The Doors 21st Century website
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Dave Matthews solo album to feature Phish’s Trey Anastasio
Dave Matthews’ first solo album, “Some Devil,” unites Matthews with Trey Anastasio, known to many a jam-band fan as the guitar wizard from Phish.
Anastasio performs on four tracks and co-wrote one song, Grey Blue Eyes,” with Matthews. Longtime Matthews collaborator Tim Reynolds appears on the album as well.
In a press statement, Matthews said that the album sprang from a few songs that just weren’t right for the full Dave Matthews Band treatment.
“The sessions grew into a sort of writing and recording experience—something I hadn’t really planned on,” Matthews said. “Eventually the tracks began to take on a personality and grew into an album. I’m really excited and I hope people like it.”
The 14-track collection is due in stores Sept. 23.
Monday, August 04, 2003
Aerosmith, Britney, Mary J. Blige perform at NFL event
Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, Aretha Franklin and others have signed on to perform at The National Mall in Washington, DC, on Sept. 4 as part of “NFL Kickoff Live 2003.”
The event—which ABC will air live from 8-9 p.m. ET—leads up to that night’s season-opening match-up between the Washington Redskins and New York Jets.Spears reportedly plans to perform a couple of new songs at the show.
Phish ends tour with a two-day party
An estimated 70,000 fans braved washed-out campgrounds and knee-deep mud to witness the return of Phish to the former Loring Air Force base in Limestone, Maine over the weekend. About 2 a.m. Sunday, the band launched into a surprise 4th set of the festival, performing atop the air traffic control tower as gymnasts in rappelling gear dangled, bounced and danced on the sides of the tower.
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Dwight Yoakam heads into cover territory again
Dwight Yoakam will release his second CD of cover songs Sept. 23rd. Songs on the set include the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’,” “Mystery Train,” and “T For Texas.” A U.S. tour, in progress since June, will continue through October 10th.
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Timberlake sings with Rolling Stones, dodges bottles
Pop-star Justin Timberlake, who performed at Wednesday night’s SARS benefit concert, reportedly faced a tough crowd when he hit the stage. Some members of the roughly 400,000-person audience threw water bottles at the singer and heckled him during his brief solo set. He was again faced with flying bottles when he joined The Rolling Stones during the group’s song “Miss You.”
Pop-star Justin Timberlake, who performed at Wednesday night’s SARS benefit concert, reportedly faced a tough crowd when he hit the stage. Some members of the roughly 400,000-person audience threw water bottles at the singer and heckled him during his brief solo set. He was again faced with flying bottles when he joined The Rolling Stones during the group’s song “Miss You.”
Read more at MTV.com
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Elvis’ Producer Sam Phillips dead at 80
Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, best known for discovering Elvis Presley, died of respiratory failure on Wednesday (7/30). Phillips also worked with Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, B.B. King, Charlie Rich and Carl Perkins.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=529&ncid=529&e=1&u=/ap/20030731/ap_en_ot/obit_Phillips >Read the full story from Reuters
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Dixie Chicks’ tour bus rear-ended
A pickup truck struck the back of The Dixie Chicks’ tour bus near San Antonio in the early hours of Thursday morning (7/31). The only member of the country trio on board, Emily Robison, was not hurt.
The bus was parked at the time of the accident, and was reportedly partially blocking a lane of traffic in which the pick-up truck was traveling.
Read more from the Houston Chronicle
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Title and release date surface for new Pink album
Pink’s follow-up to her multi-platinum 2001 release “Mizzundastood” will hit stores on Nov. 11, and is tentatively titled “Try This.” The set features a cut tentatively titled “God Is a DJ,” which will likely be the first single.
Read more at VH1.com
Sting plots TV Special, pulls in Josh Wink for remix duties
Sting will follow the September release of his new album “Send Your Love” with a special on the A&E Network in October. According to Sting.com, the special will cover the making of the album and include musical performances. Sting has also lined up noted techno artist Josh Wink to remix “Sacred Love,” the leadoff single from the album. “Send Your Love” is due September 10th. The original mix of the single goes to radio the first week of August.
John Mellencamp to pair with Kenney Chesney for CMT Crossroads
On the heels of a whirlwind promo tour supporting his “Trouble No More” blues album, John Mellencamp is scheduled to tape an installment of CMT’s “Crossroads” program on August 6th. The series has in the past paired the likes of Travis Tritt and ZZ Top, Elton John and Ryan Adams and James Taylor and the Dixie Chicks. Mellencamp will perform with Kenney Chesney. Their pairing is schedule to air October 3rd.
Sunday, July 27, 2003
Limp Bizkit makes an early exit in Chicago
Limp Bizkit’s Saturday (7/26) night set at the Summer Sanitarium tour’s Chicago-area stop came to an early end after frontman Fred Durst was pelted with debris and subjected to a chorus of boos and chants.
Limp Bizkit’s Saturday (7/26) night set at the Summer Sanitarium tour’s Chicago-area stop came to an early end after frontman Fred Durst was pelted with debris and subjected to a chorus of boos and chants.
“From the very beginning of the show, there were people in the crowd with ‘Fred Sucks’ banners, and every time one of the other bands mentioned Limp Bizkit, [the audience] booed,” Chicago Tribune reviewer Bob Gendron told MTV News.
After trying to weather the storm for about 30 minutes—the group typically plays for an hour—Durst walked off stage.
Read the story at MTV.com
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RIAA taps former GOP staffer as chief executive
Mitch Brainwol, former chief of staff to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, has been selected to replace exiting Recording Industry Association of America chief executive Hilary Rosen.
Brainwol reportedly doesn’t have much experience inside the music industry, but has deep connections to the Republican Party.
Read the story at CNET News
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NFL kick-off event to feature Britney, Mary J. Blige
Britney Spears and Mary J. Blige will perform during a free Sept. 4 concert at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the opening of the 2003 season. Other acts are also under consideration for the show, which will be broadcast on ABC-TV.
Read the story at Billboard.com
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Iron Butterfly guitarist dead at 52
Erik Braunn, the lead guitarist on Iron Butterfly’s 1968 rock classic “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” died of cardiac arrest on Friday (7/25) in Los Angeles.
Read the story at the Los Angeles Times
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Ray Charles cancels shows due to hip injury
R&B legend Ray Charles, 72, has canceled 14 upcoming concert dates because he is suffering from acute hip discomfort. He plans to resume his tour on Aug. 22 at Harrah’s Casino in Escondido, Calif.
Read the story from Reuters
Thursday, July 24, 2003
Missy Elliott snares eight MTV VMA nominations
Reigning diva of rap Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott leads the pack of nominees for this year’s MTV Video Music Awards with eight nominations, all for her music video “Work It.”
Reigning diva of rap Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott leads the pack of nominees for this year’s MTV Video Music Awards with eight nominations, all for her music video “Work It.”
‘NSync-er-gone-solo Justin Timberlake follows with seven nods—five of which are for his “Cry Me A River” video, and two for “Rock Your Body”—and unlikely nominee Johnny Cash snared six nominations for the video to his cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt.”
The MTV Video Music Awards are set to take place at New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Aug. 28.
Read more at MTV.com
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Ace Frehley gets KISS-ed off
Original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley issued a statement this week to let his fans know that the guy they’ll be seeing wearing his make-up and costume during KISS’s upcoming co-headlining tour with Aerosmith isn’t the real McCoy.
“I love my fans, and so there is no confusion, I took ‘The Farewell Tour’ for what it was billed as,” Frehley said. “We had a great final leg in Australia and, as far as I was concerned, my career with KISS was over. It was called ‘The Farewell Tour’ and that’s what I was told it was.”
Read Ace’s complete statement at RockRage Online
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Ozzy Osbourne’s tour manager found dead in hotel
Bobby Thomson, tour manager for Ozzy Osbourne, was found dead in his Birmingham, Mich., hotel room on Thursday (7/24), one day before the Osbourne-fronted Ozzfest tour touched down in the area. He had reportedly battled throat cancer for 18 months, and appeared to have died in his sleep.
Read more at Billboard.com
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Columnist pans BuyMusic.com as inferior to iTunes
Mac-friendly author and columnist Bob Levitus—a.k.a. Dr. Mac—in his column on Friday (7/25) soundly flogged the new Windows-based BuyMusic.com store, which opened earlier this week. While comparing BuyMusic.com to Apple’s fledgling iTunes Music Store, Levitus took issue with BuyMusic.com touting a 79-cent-per-song pricing plan, which he called a “bogus claim” because “only one song in its Top 100 Downloads section cost 79 cents; all others had prices from 99 cents to $1.29.” All songs at Apple’s iTunes Music Store cost 99 cents.
Levitus also blasted BuyMusic.com’s rights-management features, which include limiting the number of CDs that a user can burn their purchased music on to, and limiting the number of portable digital-music players that a user can transfer most songs to. The iTunes Music Store does not impose these restrictions.
Read more at HoustonChronicle.com
Stones-led concert on track for 430,000 fans
The Toronto concert headlined by the Rolling Stones for the benefit of healthcare worked in the only North American city to suffer significant deaths due to this year’s SARS outbreak has expanded to a 9 1/2 hour affair, drawing an expected 430,000 ticketholders. The massive festival will culminated in a peformance by the Stones, which Canadian networks CBC and MuchMusic plan to broadcast in part.
More at the Toronto Sun
The Toronto concert headlined by the Rolling Stones for the benefit of healthcare worked in the only North American city to suffer significant deaths due to this year’s SARS outbreak has expanded to a 9 1/2 hour affair, drawing an expected 430,000 ticketholders. The massive festival will culminated in a peformance by the Stones, which Canadian networks CBC and MuchMusic plan to broadcast in part.
More at the Toronto Sun
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Back injury cited in Boston cancellations
Boston leader Tom Scholz reportedly suffered a back injury this week, forcing the band to cancel shows in Salt Lake City, Utah and Nampa, Idaho on their tour in support of “Corporate America.” A Saturday (7/26) show in Portland was still scheduled at press time.
Tour updates at Boston.org
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Elliott, Timberlake lead MTV Video Awards nominees
Missy “Midemeanor” Elliott and Justin Timberlake lead the pack of nominees in the running for 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, with eight and seven nominations, respectively. Johnny Cash, with six nominations for his stark rendition of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” issued a statement. “I am overwhelmed by this great honor. I thank you all for thinking of me,” Cash said. “It’s been 48 years since I cut my first record and it’s nice that people are still digging them up.”
More at liveDaily.com
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RIAA lawsuit “hit list” emerging
TechTV has listed the email aliases of some of the initial targets of RIAA lawsuits, available via public records. The list, previewed on the TechTV website, is just a portion of the hundreds of file swappers currently being subpoena’d for offering large numbers of files for sharing via Kazaa and other trading services. The TechTV report notes that one of the first to be served notice by the RIAA has already settled his case out of court for $12,000.
More at TechTV.com
Monday, July 21, 2003
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band add more shows
More summer stadium tour dates continue to trickle in for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The latest additions are the group’s Aug. 16 performance at San Francisco’s Pacific Bell Park (home of Major League Baseball team the Giants) and Aug. 17 performance at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium (home of the Dodgers).
More summer stadium tour dates continue to trickle in for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The latest additions are the group’s Aug. 16 performance at San Francisco’s Pacific Bell Park (home of Major League Baseball team the Giants) and Aug. 17 performance at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium (home of the Dodgers).
Tickets for the new shows go on sale on July 28.
Read more at Billboard.com
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Sergio George emerges as Latin Grammy frontrunner
Producer/songwriter Sergio George has garnered six nominations for this year’s Latin Grammy awards, the most snagged by any of this year’s nominees. His nominations include Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Tropical Song” for Bacilos’ “Mi Premer Millon”; Album of the Year for Bacilos’ “Caraluna”; and Best Tropical Song for Tito Nieves’ “La Salsa Vive.”
Other nominees include singer-songwriter Juanes and producer Gustavo Santaolalla with five apiece.
The ceremony will air on CBS-TV on Sept. 3.
Read more at the Latin Grammy Awards website
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Radiohead, Coldplay among Mercury Music Prize finalists
The Panasonic Mercury Music Prize—an annual award that “aims to celebrate the best in British Music—has unveiled its 12 Album of the Year nominees for 2003: Radiohead’s “Hail to the Thief,” Dizzee Rascal’s “Boy In Da Corner,” The Thrills’ “So Much for the City,” Soweto Kinch’s “Conversations with the Unseen,” Floetry’s “Floetic,” The Darkness’ “Permission to Land,” Coldplay’s “A Rush of Blood to the Head,” Martina Topley-Bird’s “Quixotic,” Eliza Carthy’s “Anglicana,” Athlete’s “Vehicles and Animals,” Terri Walker’s “Untitled,” and Lemon Jelly’s “Lost Horizons.”
The winner will be named on Sept. 9.
Read more at the Panasonic Mercury Music Prize website
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BuyMusic.com launches Windows-based music store
Almost three months after Apple Computer made a significant splash in the world of digital music by launching its proprietary iTunes Music Store—and several months before Apple’s intended launch of a Windows-based version—Buy.com has launched a Windows-only digital-music store dubbed BuyMusic.com.
The company—which has hired former Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee as its poster boy—is heralding a pricing spectrum that begins at 79-cents per-song and $7.95 per-album; at press time, very few items shown on the site were less than 99 cents per-song or $12-$13 per album.
Read more at BuyMusic.com