Archive: 2003

The recording industry and Internet music broadcasters hope a new agreement will prevent a repeat of their recent battle over online music royalties, allowing them to focus instead on providing better music services for consumers. The two sides agreed Thursday on how much big webcasters like Yahoo!, America Online, Microsoft and RealNetworks must pay to broadcast songs over the Internet during 2003 and 2004. The new deal, if approved by the U.S. Copyright Office, will allow the two industries to avoid a lengthy arbitration process to set the royalty rates. “We are delighted to have reached an agreement that will bring compensation to musicians without a costly arbitration,” said Thomas Lee, president of the American Federation of Musicians. “We hope webcasting will bring more music to more fans.”
Source CNN.com.

The Trey Anastasio Band has announced a 10-date tour in support of their live album Plasma to be released April 29th. It includes 2 night runs at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC, the Warfield in San Francisco, Chicago Theatre, and the Memorial Auditorium in Burlington , VT which will be part of the city

Dozens walked out of Pearl Jam ‘s U.S. tour opener after lead singer Eddie Vedder took a mask of President Bush and impaled it on a microphone stand. Several concert-goers booed and shouted Tuesday night (April 1) for Vedder to shut up as he told the crowd he was against the war and Bush. “It was like he decapitated someone in a primal ritual and stuck their head on a stick,” said attendee Keith Zimmerman. Vedder used a Bush mask in Australia and Japan to perform the song “Bushleaguer,” from the band’s latest album, Riot Act. The song’s lyrics say, “He’s not a leader, he’s a Texas leaguer.”
Source Pollstar.com.

More than two months before its planned June 10 North American release by Capitol, Radiohead’s upcoming album, “Hail to the Thief,” began appearing online in its entirety last weekend. Radiohead’s past two albums, “Kid A” and “Amnesiac,” were also were available online several weeks before street date, despite the fact that no advance copies were circulated and journalists were required to listen to them at the office of the band’s publicist.Early listens to “Hail to the Thief” reveal it to be just as experimental as “Kid A” and “Amnesiac,” which debuted at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on The Billboard 200. The band continues to dabble in electronic music on such tracks as “Backdrifts” and “The Gloaming,” but veers back slightly to the more guitar-centric sound of its earlier work on such cuts as opener “2+2=5” and “There There.” The latter track is due to arrive May 26 as commercial single internationally.
Radiohead begins a U.K. tour of theater-sized venues May 17 in Dublin.
` Source Billboard.com.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse have announced that their US summer tour will be with Lucinda Williams as the opening act. 26 dates are planned for the US tour with 16 confirmed right now, as the tour will launch in June and go through August. Noteworthy shows include a July 4th visit to Saratoga Center for the Performing Arts and a June 26th date at Madison Square Garden. Lucinda

Former Pavement front man and lyrical genius Stephen Malkmus will be hitting clubs across the US in support of his most recent release Pig Lib with his band

For anybody who wants to hear energy up close and personal, get ready for this. The Beastie Boys have announced that they will play a club show at the House of Blues in Las Vegas on April 25th. The show will serve as a warm up to the band

In case you missed getting tickets to the Tennessee Bonnaroo, there will be another one on the East wing of Long Island near the Hamptons. Superfly and AC Entertainment have announced Bonnaroo NE will take place August 8-10 at Enterprise Park at Calverton – Riverhead, New York. Bonnaroo NE is modeled after the original Bonnaroo, as it will be a camping-and-music festival, featuring several performance stages, and a unique lineup of major headline artists and high-quality emerging acts. The festival will be similar in purpose and set-up to the original Bonnaroo, with its own individual character.
More details, including confirmed artists, ticket prices, and the on-sale date, will be announced soon. Stay tuned to the mailing list and www.bonnaroo.com for updates.
Source Bonnaroo.com.

It was the trip I had waited over ten years for, my first ski trip out west. I had done the research and read the magazines, and it all came down to one resort…Snowbird.

The White Stripes, whose upcoming release Elephant was given an illustrous five stars by Rollingstone will be making a small residency at the Late Night With Conan O