The Flaming Lips are the subject of the new documentary My Life With the Fearless Freaks, due out on DVD from Shout Films on March 23rd.
Taking its name from a Sunday youth football team on which Lips frontman Wayne Coyne played with his brothers, The Fearless Freaks explores the evolution of the Oklahoma band. In particular it focuses on the families and life experiences that shaped members Coyne, drummer Steven Drodz and bassist Michael Ivins.

“I started in Wayne’s neighborhood and really tried to tell the story of how he grew up because he has so many older brothers that were a huge influence on his life,” says director Bradley Beesley, whose previous credits include Lips’ videos, as well as documentaries about Oklahoma catfishing and blues label Fat Possum Records. “They shaped the music that he listened to and his early career drawing, and playing guitar, and going to concerts, and doing drugs.”

Beesley is a longtime associate of the Lips, and they were comfortable enough to let him film very personal moments. “I’ve got some pretty intimate footage of Steven using drugs and talking about how drugs destroyed his life, as they’re destroying his life,” Beesley says. “It’s not like a VH1 thing where the guy talks about shooting up like ten years ago. I was capturing it literally as he was shooting up.”

In addition to such gritty scenes, Freaks includes cameos from Beck, Jack White, Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donahue, Juliette Lewis and Liz Phair, as well as outtakes from the long-awaited Lips movie Christmas on Mars (due out December 2005). The film also features four new Flaming Lips songs made specifically for the film.

“It’s a cool film,” says Coyne. “When you get to appear inside someone’s life I don’t think it would even matter who they are. I think if you followed anybody around for eleven years and talked to their relatives and were there when poignant things in their life happened, it wouldn’t matter who you are, it’d be interesting.”

Beesley and Coyne hope to have Freaks make its cinematic premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in January, or at the South by Southwest Music/Film Festival in Austin, Texas, in March.

Source rollingstone.com.

On December 7th, the White Stripes will release Under Blackpool Lights, a live DVD filmed during the band’s January performance at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool, England. Select U.S. theaters will screen the film — along with bonus scenes not available on the DVD — on December 9th. The film was directed by Dick Carruthers, who has chronicled the live performances of the Rolling Stones, Oasis and Led Zeppelin.

“They’re quite unique, I can safely say,” Carruthers reports of frontman Jack White and drummer Meg White. “The way that they play, the sounds that they make and the relationship between them, which is both strong and ambiguous at the same time — it’s quite a powerful combination.”

The seventy-five-minute film includes staples like “Seven Nation Army” and “Hotel Yorba,” as well as the band’s cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” Much of the footage was shot on Super 8, which deliberately gives the movie a dated, grainy look. “The texture and color of the film itself becomes an expression of the White Stripes’ sound, which is raw, retro and iconoclastic,” says Carruthers, who adds that many of the comedic moments and extras on the DVD were Jack White’s ideas.

This past spring, the White Stripes pulled the plug on another concert film, George Roca’s Nobody Knows How to Talk to Children. The group had the documentary, culled from of a string of 2002 gigs at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, banned from circulation after its premiere at the Seattle Film Festival, citing disappointment with the look and sound of the movie. “They rigorously adhere to their aesthetic,” says Carruthers.

As for Blackpool’s single night on the big screen, Carruthers is excited, announcing, “It’s a beast in the cinema.”

The White Stripes’ Under Blackpool Lights December 9th screenings

New York, Empire 25
Burbank, CA, Burbank 14
Chicago, River East 21
Springfield, PA, Marple 10
San Francisco, Van Ness 14
Boston, Fenway 13
Washington, DC, Mazza Gallerie 7
Atlanta, Phillips Plaza Mall
Livonia, MI, Laurel Park 10
Seattle, Pacific Place
Edina, MN, Southdale Center
Westminster, Co, Westminister Promedade 24
San Diego, Mission Valley 20

Source rollingstone.com.

The Duo, featuring Joe Russo and Marco Benevento have announced a string of shows in the Far East. The Duo have been invited by SMASH to support the Dirty Dozen Brass Band in Japan for 5 peformances from February 24th through March 1st of 2005. This tour will coincide with the Japanese release of our upcoming release on ropeadope records.

In other Duo news, the drums and organ combo will be playing a New Years run with special guest Mike Gordon on bass 12/28/04 to 1/1/2005.

For more info, please check the band’s website.

Reid Geneuar & the Assembly of Dust have annonced they will be playing a two night New Year’s Eve Bash At The Paradise Theater in Boston, MA. Touring in support of their latest release -The Honest Hour – the disc’s nine original songs are a mix of new Assembly of Dust songs and re-imagined versions of songs Genauer wrote with his former band, Strangefolk.
For more information visit the band’s website at www.assemblyofdust.com

In other New England new year’s eve news, The Jazz Mandolin Project featuring Jon Fishman will be playing a Dec. 31 gig at the new Higher Ground music club in South Burlington, VT. For more info- check the venues website at www.highergroundmusic.com

“Six Feet Under”

Dave Matthews Band has confirmed that its Sept. 12 free show in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park will be the second in its Live Trax series of self-released live albums. No release date has yet been unveiled for the show, which can be purchased as a 3-CD set or MP3 and FLAC digital downloads via the band’s official Web site.

The performance featured airings of the new songs “Joyride,” “Hello Again” and “Sugar Will,” the latter featuring Carlos Santana. Fans who pre-order the show online will be entered to win a framed, autographed concert poster.

DMB kicked off the Live Trax series earlier this month with the release of a Dec. 8, 1998, show from Worcester, Mass., which featured guest spots by guitarist Tim Reynolds and banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck.

Source billboard.com.

For over a decade the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey have been crisscrossing America, slowly but surely blossoming into one of the most visionary and fearless bands in improvisational music.

As a musician, Warren Haynes is infamous for his improvisational prowess and his spontaneous guest appearances. So it might seem odd that he becomes so darn reliable — and charitable — each holiday season.

For 16 years, Haynes has coordinated the Warren Haynes Annual Christmas Jam. Like a family reunion, the annual, one-of-a-kind, semi-structured marathon of music brings together old friends on stage and in the audience at the Civic Center Arena in Asheville, N.C.

This year the event will be held again at the Asheville Civic Center Arena, Saturday, December 18 at 7:00PM. WNCW’s Pre-Jam Jam Broadcast Live from the Orange Peel is on Friday, December, 17. Past Performers Include: The Allman Brothers Band, Alvin Youngblood Heart, Blues Traveler, Bob Weir, Derek Trucks Band, DJ Logic, Edwin McCain, John Hiatt & The Goners, moe., North Mississippi All-Stars, Phil Lesh and Friends, Phish’s Mike Gordon, Robert Randolph and The Family Band, Sam Bush, Sonny Landreth, String Cheese Incident’s Michael Kang, and Widespread Panic’s John Bell, Dave Schools & Todd Nance.

Haynes, who will open the evening with a brief solo performance, will perform with his band Gov’t Mule, and, of course, join many of the artists for spontaneous collaborations. But the impact goes far beyond the entertainment.

The show thrives on the generous support of volunteer talent and behind-the-scenes personnel, with post-production proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity. In 2002, Haynes received the Key to the City by Asheville Mayor Worley. The benefit event raised $70,000 for the organization, selling 7000 tickets. Prior to the 2003 concert, Haynes gave keys to a family for their new Habitat for Humanity home, which was constructed with funds from the 2002 concert. The 2003 event raised $100,000 – bringing the total for the last three years over $200,000.

“Christmas Jam started 16 years ago as an opportunity for local musicians to jam at the one time of year they were all in town at the same time. Back then, we gave the money to whatever charity we felt like. As the event grew and we became aware of Habitat For Humanity, we settled on them because we believe in the organization and know the money goes where its supposed to. When your work is music, its easy and fun to give back.”

Vintage rock trio Cream will reunite for a string of shows next year at London’s Royal Albert Hall, sources tell Billboard.com. The group — guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce — played its final shows at Albert Hall before splintering in November 1968. Cream has not performed together since its 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Billboard.com understands the trio will begin rehearsals after the first of the year, with an eye on a week-long run of gigs at Albert Hall. It is unknown if plans call for additional shows in other parts of the world. A spokesperson for Clapton had no comment.

Source billboard.com.

A U.S. appeals court in San Francisco has handed a victory to pioneering hip-hop group the Beastie Boys in a dispute over the musical practice of sampling, in which recording artists incorporate snippets of other songs into their own work.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined today (Nov. 9) to reconsider its decision last year allowing the group to use a six-second segment of music from jazz flutist James Newton’s 1978 composition “Choir.” The Beastie Boys used the sample in their song “Pass the Mic” on their 1992 album “Check Your Head.”

A three-judge panel of the court held in 2003 that the band had abided by copyright protections by paying a license fee for a sample of Newton’s recording and therefore did not have to pay an additional fee to license the underlying composition.

That finding upheld a lower-court dismissal of the case in favor of the Beastie Boys, and the 9th Circuit today refused to reconsider its ruling before a larger 11-judge panel.

“We hold that Beastie Boys’ use of a brief segment of that composition, consisting of three notes separated by a half-step over a background C note, is not sufficient to sustain a claim for infringement of Newton’s copyright,” Chief Judge Mary Schroeder wrote in her opinion.

Representatives for Newton and the Beastie Boys were not immediately available for comment.

The Beastie Boys helped spark the modern sampling trend in popular music with the 1989 album “Paul’s Boutique,” which incorporated bits of music from sources as diverse as Johnny Cash, Bob Marley and the Beatles to create new music. Sampling has since become a staple of many artists, especially in the rap and hip-hop genres.

Source billboard.com.