Behind practically Motown song you know, the backing band was the Funk Brothers. The surviving Funk Brothers will celebrate the impending release of the DVD version of “Standing in the Shadows of Motown” by embarking on a short North American tour tonight (April 9) in Boston. The critically acclaimed film about the history of the Funk Brothers — the Motown Records house band that played on hundreds of hits during that label’s heyday — will be released April 22 from Artisan Home Entertainment.
The group will be joined on the tour by special guests Joan Osborne, Maxi Priest, Bootsy Collins, and Darlene Love. In a unique contest, an open call will be held April 21 at Virgin Records’ Los Angeles studios, where interested parties can sing a Motown song on which the Funk Brothers played. Five finalists will be chosen to return two days later to perform their songs for the Funk Brothers and label execs, at which point a winner will be chosen and welcomed on stage later that night at the group’s show at the Wiltern Theater.
The Funk Brothers’ tour dates:
April 9: Boston (Avalon Ballroom)April 11: New York (Hammerstein Ballroom)April 12: Philadelphia (Keswick Theater)April 13: Washington, D.C. (Lisner Auditorium)April 15: Toronto (Massey Hall)April 16: Cleveland (Playhouse Square Center — Palace Theater)April 18: Detroit (Opera House)April 19: Chicago (Riviera Theater)April 20: Minneapolis (the Quest)April 22: Oakland, Calif. (Paramount Theater)
Source Billboard.com.

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Yahoo! Inc. is rolling out a charged up search engine Monday in a bid to supplant its business partner, Google, as the most popular place to find things on the Internet. With the revisions, Yahoo believes its search engine will provide more useful information than Google’s and be simpler to use. The rebuilt version will combine Google’s index with Yahoo’s customized services spanning sports, driving directions and weather reports. Toppling Google won’t be easy. In just five years, Google has become synonymous with online searching. Yahoo played a vital role in Google’s rise. After encouraging Google to create its search engine, Yahoo raised the startup’s profile nearly three years ago by licensing Google’s software to run the searches on its popular online portal.
Source CNN.com.

Volumes 17-20 in the ongoing live Phish CD series have been announced and will be released on May 20. These selections were made by bassist Mike Gordon, who after reviewing 20 years worth of personal journals dwindled his favorites down to four.
Live Phish 17 is from 7/15/98 at the Portland Meadows in Portland, OR with a filler disc that includes material from the 7/29/98 show at Riverport Ampitheatre in Maryland Heights, MO
Live Phish 18 is from 5/7/94 at the Bomb Factory in Dallas, TX. It’s commonly referred to as the “Tweezerfest,” due to the spontaneous segues in and out of “Tweezer” during the course of the entire second set. It was only a matter of time before this was released. The filler contains material from 11/22/94 at the Jesse Auditorium in Columbia, MO, a show at the end of their live bluegrass experiments with the Rev. Jeff Mosier.
Live Phish 19 is from 7/12/91 at the Colonial Theatre in Keene, NH. This show was part of the “horn tour” featuring the Giant Country Horns that included at the time: Dave Grippo, Russ Remmington and Carl Gearhard.
Live Phish 20 is from 12/29/94 at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, RI. This show of course featured the epic “David Bowie” that found it

Another summer tour has been announced. The Counting Crowes and John Mayer will be on a twin-bill, co-headling outdoor ampitheaters from July 7th to early September across the United States. The Counting Crowes are currently touring the Eastern states with Sixpence None The Richer and Blue Merle as openers on select dates.John Mayer, a recent Grammy winner, has been laying low this year after his breakthrough 2002 that saw him rise to pop stardom. With the exception of a couple shows in Europe earlier this year, this will be Mayer

Donald Fagen, Walter Becker and the rest of the yet-announced 2003 version of the Steely Dan Orchestra will embark on a US tour late this summer, which is the first leg of a large tour. The band

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.

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