Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Beck and the Flaming Lips pair up for tour
Beck, who sets out on a fall tour in mid-October, has tapped the Flaming Lips to serve as both his opening act and backing band during the run.
Beck, who sets out on a fall tour in mid-October, has tapped the Flaming Lips to serve as both his opening act and backing band during the run.
Tickets for each date will be available through Beck’s official website, which is selling pre-sale tickets prior to the general on-sale dates.
Beck’s tour supports his Sept. 24 release, “Sea Change.” The eclectic musician’s website features a complete track-list, album-cover artwork and audio samples.
The Flaming Lips continue to tour behind their July release, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” which debuted at No. 50 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The group is re-releasing all of its pre-1991 albums in the form of two box sets, the first of which hits stores on Sept. 17, followed by the second on Oct. 1. Complete details are posted at the band’s official website.
Tuesday, September 10, 2002
Silverchair, “Diorama” (Atlantic)
The members of this Australian group were in their mid teens when they became well known for doing a mean Pearl Jam impression on the hit single “Tomorrow.” It’s seven years hence, and the group surprisingly hasn’t faded away.
The members of this Australian group were in their mid teens when they became well known for doing a mean Pearl Jam impression on the hit single “Tomorrow.” It’s seven years hence, and the group surprisingly hasn’t faded away.
More surprisingly, it’s developed into one of popular rock’s most adventurous acts. Daniel Johns, the group’s vocalist and primary creative force, has taken a shining to unapologetically melodic, orchestral pop--a sound that resides somewhere between “Pet Sounds” and XTC. On three tracks, Johns turned to the master of such sounds, Van Dyke Parks, to provide orchestral arrangements.
Johns’ voice--once an Eddie Vedder-esque monotone--is up to the task of cleanly delivering the sweeping melodies here; he’s clearly become comfortable with the idea of singing.
The lyric sheet is sometimes painful to behold--to wit: “Violent, big and violent/Like a thing that’s big, big/And violent"--but “Diorama” is certainly a worthwhile endeavor; one that suggests that Johns is only beginning to discover what he’s capable of doing with his talent.
Album Chart: Dixie Chicks maintain grip on No. 1
For the second consecutive week, the Dixie Chicks’ “Home” will grace the top slot on the forthcoming Billboard 200 album chart.
For the second consecutive week, the Dixie Chicks’ “Home” will grace the top slot on the forthcoming Billboard 200 album chart.
“Home"--which debuted at No. 1 last week after selling almost 780,000 copies--has now sold a total of more than 1.1 million copies after moving an additional 366,000 copies during its second week in stores, according to industry sources.
Also staying put on the rather-stagnant chart are Eminem’s “The Eminem Show,” Avril Lavigne’s “Let Go” and Nelly’s “Nellyville,” which hold on to the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 slots, respectively.
Bruce Springsteen’s Sept. 11th-inspired “The Rising” climbs two spots to No. 5, while Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me"--which features the hit “Don’t Know Why"--jumps from No. 11 to No. 6.
Coldplay’s “A Rush of Blood to the Head,” which debuted at No. 5 last week, slips two places to No. 7, while the “Now That’s What I Call Music! 10” compilation climbs two spots from No. 10 to No. 8.
Closing out the Top 10 are Eve’s “Eve-o-lution,” which slips from its No. 6 debut of last week to No. 8, and Clipse’s “Lord Willin’,” down one spot from No. 9 to No. 10.
Only two newcomers surface in the Top 100 this week, with teen popster Aaron Carter’s “Another Earthquake!” checking in at No. 18, and the “Ozzfest 2002” live compilation at No. 82.
Monday, September 09, 2002
Jerry Cantrell sets up headlining tour
Jerry Cantrell, who spent much of the summer opening for both Nickelback and Creed, kicks off a solo run in mid October.
Jerry Cantrell, who spent much of the summer opening for both Nickelback and Creed, kicks off a solo run in mid October.
Tickets are priced from about $17 to about $25 for various dates, according to Roadrunner Records’ official website. Rock acts Mad at Gravity and Comes with the Fall will open.
Cantrell, guitarist and founding member of the ‘90s grunge band Alice in Chains, is supporting his June release, ”Degradation Trip.” The album features the hit single “Anger Rising,” which Cantrell’s official website offers as a free mp3 download.
“Degradation Trip"--which is the follow up to Cantrell’s 1998 solo debut, “Boggy Depot"--hit stores just a couple of months after Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley died from a drug overdose. The group had not released an album of new material since 1995’s “Alice in Chains,” its third full-length studio effort.
Mad at Gravity released its debut CD, “Resonance,” on July 16. The album features the cut “Walk Away.”
The Offspring, Social Distortion, others sign on for extreme-sports tour
Skateboarding star Tony Hawk has created a tour during which the music--from acts like The Offspring and Social Distortion--plays second fiddle to extreme sports.
Skateboarding star Tony Hawk has created a tour during which the music--from acts like The Offspring and Social Distortion--plays second fiddle to extreme sports.
Hawk’s 20-city “Boom Boom HuckJam Arena Tour 2002,” runs in October and November. Musical acts include The Offspring (Oct. 10-13), Face to Face (Oct. 17-20), Devo (Oct. 24-26), CKY (Oct.30-Nov. 3), Social Distortion (Nov. 7-11) and Good Charlotte (Nov. 14-17).
At the core of the event, however, are skateboarders, BMX bikers and motocross riders, who will perform on a Hawk-designed million-dollar ramp system. Performance artists will mingle with the crowds, and pyrotechnics will surround the performance area.
A series of all-star athletes have signed up for the tour. Among them will be Mat Hoffmann, the winner of the lifetime achievement award at the 2002 ESPN Action Sports and Music Awards. Hoffman created the series of bicycle stunts that serve as a qualifier to the X Games.
Also appearing is BMX biker Dave Mirra, who has won more X Games medals than any other athlete; and Carey Hart, known to music fans as the boyfriend of singer Pink. Hart landed the first backflip on a motorcycle at the 2000 Gravity Games.
Others include: skateboarders Andy Macdonald, Bucky Lasek and Lincoln Ueda; BMX bikers Kevin Robinson and John Parker; Motocross athletes Clifford Adoptante, Mike Cinqmars, Ronnie Faisst and Dustin Miller.
Hawk became a pro skateboarder at age 14 and has since won or placed at nearly every major contest. He retired from competition in 1999, at age 31.
Sunday, September 08, 2002
Street Date Sept. 10: Ani DiFranco, Megadeth
Also: Rebecca Lynn Howard, John Doe, Peter Wolf and more.
Also: Rebecca Lynn Howard, John Doe, Peter Wolf and more.
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Ani DiFranco - “So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter” (Righteous Babe)
This double-disc includes 23 songs culled from various concerts from 2000 to 2002. With the exception of two tracks, all of the songs on the new live disc were written after the release of DiFranco’s first live album, 1997’s “Living in Clip.” “So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter” also includes three songs not available on any other albums, including “Self Evident,” which DiFranco penned shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.
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Megadeth - “Still Alive ... and Well?” (Sanctuary)
In late May, Megadeth founder and frontman Dave Mustaine announced that he was ending the group due to an arm injury that he suffered. Four months later, Mustaine releases this collection of new live cuts and previously released studio material. Complete album details--including a written message from Mustaine, in which he hints that the group might not be totally defunct just yet--are posted at the band’s official website.
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Rebecca Lynn Howard - “Forgive” (MCA Nashville)
Last month, the soundtrack for the NBC television series “Providence” surfaced, featuring Howard’s track “Forgive.” Now, Howard’s album of the same name--her sophomore effort--surfaces. MCA Nashville is streaming “Forgive” and the song’s companion music video at Howard’s label website.
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John Doe - “Dim Stars, Bright Sky” (iMusic)
Guest vocalists on this acoustic album from X’s singer-bassist include Jakob Dylan (The Wallflowers), Jane Wiedlin (Go-Go’s), Juliana Hatfield, and Rhet Miller (Old 97’s). According to Doe’s label, the album “leans toward the singer-songwriter genre more than the alt-rock or alt-country Doe has usually been labeled over his previous four albums.”
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Peter Wolf - “Sleepless” (Artemis)
The former J. Geils frontman’s latest is his first new release in four years. Wolf’s official website features samples from “Sleepless,” while his label’s site features a track-by-track commentary that Wolf wrote. The singer plans to tour behind the album, according to his website.
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Other new releases:
Authority Zero - “A Passage in Time” (Lava/Atlantic)
Bangs - “Call & Response” (Kill Rock Stars)
Broken Spindles - “Broken Spindles” (Tiger Style)
The Brooklyn Cowboys - “Dodging Bullets” (Leaps)
Richard Buckner - “Born Into” (Overcoat Recordings)
John Creamer and Stephane K. - “Bedrock Compiled and Mixed” (two CDs) (Bedrock)
Cross Canadian Ragweed - “Cross Canadian Ragweed” (Universal South)
Cynthia Dall - “Sound Restores Young Men” (Drag City)
Coco de Mer - “Coco de Mer” (Tommy Boy)
Dead to Fall - “Everything I Touch Falls to Pieces” (Victory)
The Detachment Kit - “They Raging. Quiet Army.” (Spin Art)
Dropkick Murphys - “Live on St. Patrick’s Day from Boston, MA” (Epitaph)
Drums & Tuba - “Mostly Ape” (Righteous Babe)
Faultline - “Your Love Means Everything” (Elektra)
Radney Foster - “Another Way to Go” (DualTone)
The Four Bitchin’ Babes - “Some Assembly Required” (Shanachie)
Goapele - “Even Closer” (Red Urban)
Chico Hamilton - “Thoughts of ...” (Koch Jazz)
Gordon Haskell - “Harry’s Bar” (Compass)
Hayden - “Live at Convocation Hall” (Badman)
Richard X. Heyman - “Basic Glee” (Turn-Up)
Holiday Express - “Live” (Oglio)
Dave Holland Big Band - “What Goes Around” (ECM)
Peter Huttlinger - “Naked Pop” (Favored Nations)
Ill Lit - “Wacmusic” (Badman)
In Strict Confidence - “Mistrust the Angels” (Metropolis)
Ivy - “Guest Room” (Minty Fresh)
Doug Kershaw - “Easy” (Spin Art)
Kylesa - “Kylesa” (Prank)
Layo & Bushwacka! - “Night Works” (XL)
Magellan - “Hundred Year Flood” (Ian Anderson guests) (Magna Carta)
John McCutcheon - “The Greatest Story Never Told” (Red House)
Roger Miret & the Disasters - “Roger Miret & the Disasters” (Epitaph)
The Mission UK - “Aura” (Metropolis)
Gary Moore - “Scars” (Sanctuary)
Carrie Newcomer - “The Gathering of Spirits” (Philo)
No Good - “Game Day PBB” (Artist Direct)
Anders Osborne with Monk Boudreaux - “Bury the Hatchet” (Shanachie)
The Pattern - “Real Feelness” (Lookout)
Ellis Paul - “The Speed of Trees” (Philo)
Ralph’s World - “Happy Lemons” (Minty Fresh)
Jordan Rudess - “4NYC” (Magna Carta)
Sahara Hotnights - “Jennie Bomb” (Jetset)
Santana - “Essential Santana” (Sony)
Shade Sheist - “Informal Introduction” (MCA)
The Smokey River Boys - “The Smokey River Boys Sing O Brother” (MCA)
Speech - “Spiritual People” (Artist Direct)
Stick Men with Rayguns - “Some People Deserve to Suffer” (Emperor Jones)
Supreme Beings of Leisure - “Divine Operating System” (Palm Pictures)
T-Model Ford - “Bad Man” (Fat Possum)
Tin Hat Trio - “The Rodeo Eroded” (Atlantic)
Aaron Tippin - “Stars & Stripes” (Hollywood)
Tre Hardson - “Liberation” (Artist Direct)
Vandermark 5 - “Free Jazz Classics Vol. 1 & 2” (Atavistic)
Dave Weckl Band - “Perpetual Motion” (Stretch)
The Wondermints - “Mind if We Make Love to You” (Image Entertainment)
Xmarsx - “Xmarsx” (Atavistic)
Yohimbe Brothers “Front End Lifter” (Ropeadope/Atlantic)
Various artists - “Going Driftless - An Artist’s Tribute to Greg Brown” (Red House)
Various artists - “Radio Jams Disney 5” (Disney)
Soundtracks and scores:
“The Banger Sisters” (Sanctuary)
“City by the Sea” (Varèse Sarabande)
“Invincible" (Milan)
“The Lathe of Heaven” (Milan)
“Rebecca" (Varèse Sarabande)
“The Transporter” (Elektra)
Former Nirvana, Meat Puppets, Sublime members join forces
The Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood, Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic and Sublime’s Bud Gaugh are hitting the road to support the self-titled debut from their new band Eyes Adrift, which hits stores on Sept. 24.
The Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood, Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic and Sublime’s Bud Gaugh are hitting the road to support the self-titled debut from their new band Eyes Adrift, which hits stores on Sept. 24.
On Aug. 19, the trio played a warm-up gig in New York to prepare for the upcoming tour. Kirkwood handles guitar and vocals, Novoselic is on bass and Gaugh plays drums.
The band was formed last year when Novoselic called Kirkwood to suggest that the two begin performing and writing. Around the same time, Gaugh read in a local paper that Kirkwood was playing solo. Like Novoselic, he called Kirkwood and suggested that they get together. Novoselic and Gaugh then traveled to Austin, Texas, to join Kirkwood and begin writing.
“The second day it was just like ‘oh, we’ve been doing this for a long time,’” Gaugh says in a statement that is posted on the band’s official website. “We just started burning tape, and it was like, yep, this is definitely golden here. And it just kept getting better and better. And by the end when we had [the song] ‘Pasted,’ it was like, we could be really dangerous here.”
The group completed a brief tour early this year.
Thursday, September 05, 2002
Tool hammers out fall tour dates
Tool wraps up its summer tour this weekend, but returns to the road later this month for more dates behind last year’s “Lateralus.”
Tool wraps up its summer tour this weekend, but returns to the road later this month for more dates behind last year’s “Lateralus.”
Dates have so far been confirmed through late October, and more are expected, according to the band’s official website. Swedish metal act Meshuggah will open.
Tool’s fall run is the latest leg of its world tour in support of “Lateralus,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart in May of last year. The album features the singles “Schism” and “Parabola.”
Meshuggah released its latest album, “Nothing,” in early August.
Report: Notorious B.I.G. supplied the gun that killed Tupac
An investigation by the Los Angeles Times has found that the likely killer of rapper Tupac Shakur was a gang member who received a gun and payment from rapper Notorious B.I.G.
An investigation by the Los Angeles Times has found that the likely killer of rapper Tupac Shakur was a gang member who received a gun and payment from rapper Notorious B.I.G.
The Times, in a one-year investigation, found that a Los Angeles gang member named Orlando Anderson likely killed Shakur.
According to the Times--which based much of its investigation on interviews it conducted with unidentified members of the Southside Crips gang in the Los Angeles area--Shakur and his entourage attacked Anderson in Las Vegas as retaliation for a prior incident during which Anderson beat one of Shakur’s bodyguards.
Later that night, according to the newspaper, Anderson gathered some Crips for a meeting, and the group decided to kill Shakur. The gang then met with Wallace, who was in Las Vegas at the time, and asked the rapper for $1 million in exchange for killing Shakur. Wallace agreed to pay the $1 million, on the condition that his own .40-caliber pistol be used in the killing, the Times said.
Shakur was shot on Las Vegas Boulevard on Sept. 7, 1996, just hours after Anderson was attacked. Shakur died several days later, and a week later Wallace reportedly paid the gang his first $50,000 installment of the $1 million bounty.
Anderson was questioned briefly by police soon after Shakur was shot, but wasn’t considered a serious suspect. The Compton, Calif., gang member was later shot and killed in an unrelated incident. Police have claimed that they were unable to solve the Shakur case because witnesses refused to cooperate with their investigation.
Wallace, during an interview that took place a few days before he was murdered on March 9, 1997, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he wasn’t involved in Shakur’s death.
At the time of Shakur’s shooting, Wallace and Shakur were in the midst of a yearlong feud during which they exchanged insults in their music, at concerts and at awards shows.
Wednesday, September 04, 2002
Ticket Window: Cher, Tool, George Strait
This week’s major new on-sales also include Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen, Counting Crows, Incubus and The Strokes.
This week’s major new on-sales also include Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen, Counting Crows, Incubus and The Strokes.
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Aerosmith
Read about the tour.
- Marysville, Calif. (11/7, Autowest Amphitheatre), on sale 9/7 at 10 a.m.
- Mountain View, Calif. (11/14, Shoreline Amphitheatre), on sale 9/8 at 10 a.m.
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Bruce Springsteen
Read about the tour.
- Columbia, S.C. (12/9, Carolina Center), on sale 9/7 at 10 a.m.
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Cher
Read about the tour.
- Hershey, Pa. (10/15, Giant Center), on sale 9/7 at 10 a.m.
- Boston (11/3, FleetCenter), on sale 9/9 at 10 a.m.
- Providence, R.I. (11/4, Dunkin Donuts Center), on sale 9/7 at 10 a.m.
- New Orleans (11/14, New Orleans Arena), on sale 9/7 at noon
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Counting Crows
Read about the tour.
- Philadelphia, Pa. (10/12, Temple University), on sale 9/9 at 10 a.m.
- South Bend, Ind. (10/14, Morris Center), on sale 9/7 at 10 a.m.
- West Lafayette, Ind. (10/16, Elliott Hall of Music), on sale 9/7 at 10 a.m.
- Washington, D.C. (10/27, Smith Center), on sale 9/7 at 11 a.m.
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George Strait
Read about the tour.
- Albany, N.Y. (Oct. 3, Pepsi Arena), on sale 9/7 at 10 a.m.
- University Park, Pa. (Oct. 4, Bryce Jordan Center), on sale 9/7 at 10 a.m.
- Buffalo, N.Y. (Oct. 5, HSBC Arena), on sale 9/7 at 9 a.m.
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Incubus
Read about the tour.
- Jackson, Miss. (10/25, Mississippi Coliseum), on sale 9/7 at 10 a.m.
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The Strokes
Read about the tour.
- Portland, Maine (10/1, State Theater), on sale 9/6 at noon
- Toronto (10/9, Air Canada Centre), on sale 9/6 at 10 a.m.
- Mesa, Ariz. (11/10, Mesa Amphitheatre), on sale 9/7 at 10 a.m.
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Tool
Read about the tour.
- Seattle (10/2, KeyArena), on sale 9/7 at 10 a.m.
- Denver (10/11, Coors Events Center), on sale 9/7 at noon
- Kansas City, Mo. (10/16, Kemper Arena), on sale 9/7 at 11 a.m.
- Kalamazoo, Mich. (10/18 Wings Stadium), on sale 9/6 at 10 a.m.
- Erie, Pa. (10/19, Civic Center), on sale 9/7 at 10 a.m.
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All ticket on-sale times and concert dates are subject to change without notice. Confirm with your local venue and/or ticket seller.
SoundSpike’s Ticket Window feature is updated each Thursday evening.