As expected, the Pixies have begun booking dates for a fall North American tour, which will begin Sept. 4 in Bend, Ore. Only six additional shows are so far confirmed through a Nov. 24 stop in Toronto, with more expected. Some of the announced shows will go on-sale Friday (April 9) via Ticketmaster.

Concerts booked so far include a Sept. 6 appearance at Seattle’s annual Bumbershoot festival and a Sept. 18 visit to the annual Austin City Limits festival in Austin, Texas. Other dates will include the 4,600-capacity Fox Theatre in Atlanta on Oct. 14, and the 4,500-capacity Aragon Ballroom in Chicago on Nov. 13.

The reunited alternative rock act kicks off its first tour in 12 years April 13 in Minneapolis. After a May 1 appearance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., the group will head to Europe for headlining and festival dates through July 11.

As previously reported, the Pixies will sell instant authorized live recordings from the upcoming spring North American shows via DiscLive. It is unknown if the same set-up will be employed for the fall tour.

Here are the Pixies’ confirmed fall tour dates:

Sept. 4: Bend, Ore. (Les Schwab Amphitheatre)
Sept. 6: Seattle (Bumbershoot Festival)
Sept. 18: Austin, Texas (Austin City Limits)
Oct. 14: Atlanta (Fox Theatre)
Nov. 11: Minneapolis (Wilkins Auditorium)
Nov. 13: Chicago (Aragon Ballroom)
Nov. 24: Toronto (Arrow Hall)

Source billboard.com.

Get ready to get reggae. The Marley Family Presents: Roots, Rock, Reggae tour is coming this summer, featuring the legendary Bob Marley’s sons Ziggy, Stephen, Julian and Damien.

The outing marks the first time that the Marley family has officially presented and collaborated on a major tour under their father’s name. The brothers promise to fuse music, art and culture with infectious Rasta vibes.

The tour will play approximately 20-25 cities and run from late July through early September, although no specific dates have been confirmed. Support acts have yet to be announced, but organizers are promising “a dynamic mix of reggae, hip-hop, ska, blues, alt-country, electronic and soul music.”

Each of the brothers has been performing since childhood. Ziggy, the eldest, has won several Grammys with his band the Melody Makers. He released his solo record, Dragonfly, in the spring of 2003. Stephen, a member of the Melody Makers, is due to release an album on the Motown label this fall. Julian’s Time & Place was released on Ghetto Youths / Tuff Gong last November. The youngest of Bob’s children, Damien, received a Grammy for his last album, 2001’s Halfway Tree.

Not another wardrode malfunction … feisty rock singer Alanis Morissette poked fun at Janet Jackson’s notorious breast-baring episode by stripping on stage to reveal cartoonish fake nipples and pubic hair.

Morissette, hosting Canada’s annual music awards, said the stunt, in which she appeared in a provocative skin-hugging body-suit was intended to expose US “censorship.”

The singer, renowned for her angst-ridden lyrics, told the audience at the Juno Awards in Edmonton “we live in a land where we still think the human body is beautiful and we’re not afraid of the female breast.”

Morissette let a dressing gown fall to the floor to reveal her “nudity” after an announcer warned : “we can’t show nipples on national TV,” in an obvious dig at US outrage fanned by Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” at the Superbowl.

“I am proud to be able to stand here and do this,” Morissette said, to wild cheers from the audience at Sunday night’s show.

Morissette then blasted US radio stations which have forced her to change the word “asshole” in one of her songs.

“They’re in an era when they’re scared, when there’s lots of fear,” she said.

The awards, Canada’s answer to the US Grammy’s, were dominated by Montreal rocker Sam Roberts, who picked up three awards.

Songbird Nelly Furtado won best single for “What you want” while singer Sarah McLachlan scooped best songwriter and hard rock band Nickelback walked away with the Juno for best group.

Source yahoo.com.

Although all dates are subject to change, The Grateful Dead Almanac has published the summer tour dates for The Dead

When Wilco superfan Ronen Givony downloaded a copy of the band’s fifth album, A Ghost Is Born (not due for release until June 22nd), from the Internet two weeks ago, he felt simultaneously elated and indebted.

The Boston-based Web master of bemydemon.org — a Wilco lyric site that singer Jeff Tweedy has occasionally consulted backstage in moments of forgetfulness — the twenty-five-year-old Givony transcribed the new songs’ lyrics and sent them to Tweedy with an apology for having the album early, a promise to purchase it when it is commercially available and a solicitation for lyric corrections.

After Tweedy complied, Givony dreamed up a unique way of showing his gratitude: the just-launched justafan.org, a site set up specifically for fans who download copies of the new Wilco album and want to show their appreciation by making a donation to the band-selected charity Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres. In less than a day online, with nothing more than word-of-mouth publicity, donations exceeded $1,500.

“If you have a community or a fan base that is vocal and has real enthusiasm for the bands and music they love,” Givony says, “a project like this can really work.”

The fact that the album was in circulation so early surprised no one, including Wilco manager Tony Margherita.

“How do I feel about the record leaking on the Internet?” he says. “Well, that’s a little bit like asking me how I felt about the sun coming up today. It’s an inevitable thing and not something we ever perceive as a problem. We were — to be honest — surprised it took as long as it did [about ten days]. Basically, once the first batch of promotional CDs began circulating at record companies and in the media, we knew it was just a matter of days. It’s just something you plan for and assume at this point.”

Margherita’s matter-of-fact approach to the downloading issue stems in part from the success Wilco had after streaming their previous album, 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, while it was in limbo during Wilco’s well-documented exit from Warner Bros. At last count the album had sold 440,000 copies in the U.S. alone, Wilco’s best-selling release to date.

“The band and I think this idea is great because it just underscores something we believe very strongly: that real music fans are prepared, even anxious, to prove their loyalty and support their favorite artists,” Margherita says. “They want to participate. These people are not the enemy . . . They’re the backbone of what we all do. Plus, we get to support a charity that we think is very important, and I’m certain that a vast majority of the people who are downloading the record are going to want the real thing when it comes out in June.”

Source rollingstone.com.

Every Thursday night in April, the Sit n’ Bull Pub in Maynard, MA (978-897-4663) (www.sitnbull.com) will feature a show to benefit the Mark Sandman Music Education Fund, which promotes innovative approaches to music education for children in Massachusetts. The fund was created to honor musician Mark Sandman of the band Morphine, who passed away on stage in July 1999. For the shows, 100% of the net profits go to the music programs of the Cambridge education system.

The schedule includes:
April 1st: Treat Her Right, The Coots & The Heygoods
April 8th: Club d’Elf, Bourbon Princess & Blasto
April 15th: Asa Brebner & Family Jewels
April 22nd: Dennis Brennen, One Thin Dime
April 29th: Jimmy Ryan, Twinemen & Orchestra Morphine

for more info see hi-n-dry.com.

The actors who provide the voices for the cartoon characters on the long-running TV show “The Simpsons” have stopped work in a bid to force a settlement of lengthy contract renewal talks, Daily Variety reported in its Thursday edition.

The Hollywood trade paper said the six actors have not shown up for two script readings in the past few weeks, holding up production on the hit satire’s upcoming 16th season.

It quoted insiders as saying each cast member is asking for about $360,000 an episode, or $8 million for a 22-episode season. Each member currently earns $125,000 an episode. The highest-paid star in TV is Ray Romano, who reportedly earns between $1.7 million and $2 million per episode of his Emmy-winning series “Everybody Loves Raymond.”

The three-year contracts for Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Hank Azaria (Moe, Apu, Comic Book Guy), Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns and others), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), Julie Kavner (Marge) and Nancy Cartwright (Bart) expired several months ago, and their representatives have been negotiating new ones to no avail, Daily Variety said.

The last “Simpsons” work dispute was in 1998, at a time when the actors were making $30,000 per episode. The show’s producer, Twentieth Century Fox TV, hired casting directors in five cities to replace most of them before both sides worked out a new deal and resumed production.

Source CNN.com.

Indie country-pop outfit My Morning Jacket has a new round of dates coming up. Beginning May 7 in San Diego, the band will traverse North America through late June. They plan to hit some European festivals this summer before returning to work on their next album.

California singer/songwriter M. Ward will be along for most North American shows, with Andrew Bird and Dr. Dog helping out on assorted dates.
Earlier this year, My Morning Jacket lost guitarist Johnny Quaid and keyboardist Danny Cash when the two decided that touring life didn’t suit them too well. The band has soldiered on, with new recruits Bo Koster (keyboards) and Carl Broemel (guitar) helping out on the road.

The increasingly high-profile group released their third full-length album, It Still Moves, on Dave Matthews’ ATO Records last September. During recording sessions in Shelbyville, Ky., they enlisted the help of the legendary Memphis Horns, who have lent their inimitable talents to recordings by Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, and virtually every Stax Records artist of the ’60s and ’70s.

Source pollstar.com.

Sonic Youth, My Morning Jacket, moe. and On The Speakers are among the bands confirmed to play the Great Bamboozle, to be held June 4-6 at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J. Three-day and single-day tickets can be purchased from the event’s official Web site. Antigone Rising, Railroad Earth, Om Trio, De Sol and the Breakfast will also be on the bill.

From there, Sonic Youth heads Down Under for eight shows in Australia and New Zealand, beginning June 15 in Canberra and wrapping June 26 in Auckland. Dinosaur Jr. principal J Mascis will support.

Sonic Youth is touring in support of its 19th full-length, “Sonic Nurse,” due June 8 via Geffen. The 10-track set is three songs and nearly 15 minutes longer than its 2002 predecessor, “Murray Street,” but revels in a similarly less bombastic sound, with a noticeable classic rock shading. Highlights include the wistful “Unmade Bed,” the uptempo, melodically memorable “Dripping Dream,” the subtle political commentary of “Peace Attack” and the Kim Gordon-sung opener, “Pattern Recognition.”

As previously reported, Sonic Youth is confirmed to appear on this summer’s Lollapalooza tour alongside Morrissey, Modest Mouse, Flaming Lips, String Cheese Incident and the Polyphonic Spree. The group previously headlined the tour in 1995.

Source billboard.com.

Former Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson gets a lift from the group’s one-time guitarist Audley Freed on “This Magnificent Distance,” his debut for Vector Recordings. Due June 29, the set features one Robinson/Freed co-write plus several tracks featuring Freed on guitar. In addition, Freed has joined Robinson’s backing band New Earth Mud, which now features bassist George Reiff, drummer Steve Distanislao and keyboardist Rob Barraco, who until recently was a member of the Dead.

The set is the follow-up to Robinson’s 2002 solo debut, “New Earth Mud” (Redline), which reached No. 2 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and No. 4 on the Top Independent Albums tally. Five songs were penned by Robinson, while six are co-writes with frequent collaborator Paul Stacey, who also co-produced. The tracks “Mother of Stone” and “Like a Tumbleweed in Eden,” were produced by Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Counting Crows).

Highlights include the Crowes-leaning “Mother of Stone” and first single “40 Days,” the soulful vocal performance on “Like a Tumbleweeed in Eden” and “Girl on the Mountain,” which recalls the trippy, haunting side of Pink Floyd. The album also features the 8-minute “When a Cold Wind Blows on the Dark Edge of Night.”

“My first album sounds like a Sunday morning record — it’s about being in love — and this one brings up a lot of questions about freedom,” Robinson says. “And what does freedom mean, because I don’t think it’s the freedom to consume. I think in America people have forgotten their imagination.”

Robinson and New Earth Mud will begin an extensive tour April 30 in New Orleans and will also make a previously announced June 11 appearance at the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn. Beginning July 4 in Portland, Ore., the group will open six dates for the Allman Brothers Band.

Source billboard.com.