Loretta Lynn, Wilco, Franz Ferdinand and the Killers are among 73 artists whose latest albums made the “Longlist” of initial nominations for the 2004 Shortlist Music Prize, which honors critically acclaimed albums that have not yet been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for U.S. shipments of 500,000 copies.

The list will be winnowed to 10 finalists by late September, with the winner to be crowned Nov. 10 at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles during a concert featuring nominees.

Nominees and winners are chosen by a panel of Listmakers which this year includes Norah Jones, the Dixie Chicks, John Mayer, Jack Black, Jim Jarmusch, the Cure’s Robert Smith, System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian and the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am.

To be eligible, an artist’s latest album must have been released between July 1, 2003, and June 30, 2004. Other artists on the “Long List” include TV On The Radio, Dizzee Rascal, Ghostface Killah, Bebel Gilberto, Caf

Nashville rockers Kings of Leon will release their second album, A-Ha Shake Heartbreak, in January. The band reteamed with producer Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Counting Crows) to record the follow-up to 2003’s Youth and Young Manhood earlier this summer in Studio City, California.
“We played so many shows and saw so much stuff, that when we got time off, it was just pouring out,” says drummer Nathan Followill of the five-week, twelve-song recording stint, which yielded the likes of “Pistol of Fire,” “Razz,” “Soft” and “Milk.” “On the last record there were no expectations, because we had no fans and we had never made music before,” Followill says. “On this one we knew what we wanted, and we were very comfortable and confident.”

Kings of Leon — Nathan and brothers Caleb (guitar, vocals) and Jared (bass), and cousin Matthew (guitar) — have broadened their sound from the bluesy roots of Youth and Young Manhood, and the new material reflects such diverse influences as Run-DMC, Talking Heads and the Ronettes. “There are definitely songs on there that you hear and think, ‘That’s the Kings of Leon,'” Nathan says, “and then there are songs that take three or four listens to realize that it’s us.”

Kings of Leon will head out on an East Coast U.S. tour in October.

Source rollingstone.com.

Elektra/Rhino Vinyl has set an Oct. 26 release date for Metallica’s “Vinyl Box.” The set will collect special editions of the veteran hard rock act’s first four studio albums, plus the “Garage Days Re-Revisited” EP and the import-only “Creeping Death” picture disc.

The albums “Kill ‘Em All,” “Ride the Lightning,” “Master of Puppets” and “…And Justice for All” have been expanded to double-vinyl sets on 180-gram audiophile vinyl with new gatefold jackets. “Vinyl Box” will be limited to 5,000 numbered copies and will carry a suggested retail price of $99.98.

Source billboard.com.

Two Dublin stops on David Bowie’s recent wildly successful world tour are the basis for the upcoming DVD “David Bowie – A Reality Tour.” Due Oct. 19 via ISO/Columbia, the 30-track collection was shot Nov. 22-23, 2003, at the Point Depot. It was mixed in 5.1 Surround Sound by longtime collaborator Tony Visconti, co-producer of Bowie’s 2003 studio album “Reality.”

Beyond such classics as “Ashes to Ashes,” “Fame,” “The Man Who Sold the World,” “Under Pressure,” “Heroes” and “Ziggy Stardust,” the DVD sports such live rarities as “Hang on to Yourself” and “Five Years,” which have not been a part of Bowie’s concert repertoire since the early 1980s.

The North American portion of the A Reality tour was the top-grossing trek of the first half of 2004, according to Billboard Boxscore. It grossed $45.4 million from 82 shows that drew 722,158 fans.

Bowie was forced to cancel the final 10 dates on the European leg of the tour in June. At the time it was said he was suffering from a pinched nerve. Shortly after, he underwent emergency heart surgery for a blocked artery.

According to a spokesperson, “he’s recovering nicely.”

Here is the “A Reality Tour” DVD track list:

“Rebel Rebel”
“New Killer Star”
“Reality”
“Fame”
“Cactus”
“Sister Midnight”
“Afraid”
“All the Young Dudes”
“Be My Wife”
“The Loneliest Guy”
“The Man Who Sold the World”
“Fantastic Voyage”
“Hallo Spaceboy”
“Sunday”
“Under Pressure”
“Life on Mars?”
“Battle for Britain”
“Ashes to Ashes”
“The Motel”
“Loving the Alien”
“Never Get Old”
“Changes”
“I’m Afraid of Americans”
“Heroes”
“Bring Me the Disco King”
“Slip Away”
“Heathen”
“Five Years”
“Hang on to Yourself”
“Ziggy Stardust”

Source billboard.com.

The Foo Fighters are about to begin pre-production on their next studio album, which, as first revealed here last month, will likely be a double-disc set.

“Having a year to write and demo things at your own pace sure makes for better songs,” frontman Dave Grohl writes on the Foos’ official Web site. “In preparing for today’s pre-production, I dumped all of the things I’ve recorded onto my computer and I wound up with five-and-a-half hours of music. I just laughed.”

Explaining his hopes for a double LP with one disc each of acoustic and electric material, Grohl says, “I’d love to have an album that requires us to stretch farther in both directions, eliminating any middle ground. The idea also comes from the fact that we’ve always explored both dynamics, just not to their fullest potential. Why not get heavier? Or quieter? Why try and cram all of that onto one CD? Why not make two albums, and call it one?”

Grohl is in the midst of rebuilding his Virginia home studio in Los Angeles. “We came up with a plan: Buy a warehouse,” he says. “Build a bigger, better studio. Have a massive space to store our mountains of gear that we’ve amassed over the past decade. Have somewhere to jam that we don’t have to move out of at the end of the week. A full-on headquarters, designed to further the idea of self-sufficiency. We will never have to go anywhere else as long as we live.”

The lone date on the Foos’ upcoming schedule is Aug. 28 at San Diego’s Street Scene festival, but the band’s name is already being whispered as part of a major package tour next summer. “I’m dying to get this sh*t on tape and play it live,” Grohl says. “The whole album every night — Something we haven’t done in a long, long time.”

As for his drum work on Nine Inch Nails’ forthcoming Interscope album, “Bleed Through,” Grohl enthuses, “you’re gonna flip when you hear [it].”

Source billboard.com.

Fans can pre-order DJ Harry

R.E.M.’s upcoming North American tour will feature support from such acts as Joseph Arthur, Charlie Mars, Five Eight, Angela McCluskey and Now It’s Overhead.

Rock outfit Five Eight, which hails from R.E.M.’s Athens, Ga., hometown, will open the first four shows of the six-week tour, which kicks off Oct. 13 in Los Angeles. Sprinkled through the subsequent 11 dates will be the lone appearance of newcomer Trent Dabbs (Oct. 22, Nashville), four opening sets by fellow Athens natives Now It’s Overhead and six by former Wild Colonials vocalist McCluskey.

Akron, Ohio-bred, New York-based singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur, who will release the album “Our Shadows Will Remain” this fall via Vector, opens the next six shows through Nov. 12 in Montreal. V2 rock artist Charlie Mars will support on seven of the final eight dates, with Five Eight returning for a Nov. 19 performance in Seattle.

R.E.M. will be touring in support of its new Warner Bros. album, “Around the Sun,” due Oct. 5 in North America. First single “Leaving New York” can be streamed via the band’s official Web site; a video, directed by Peter Care, is in the works.

In other news, the group has contributed its vintage track “We Walk” to the Epic compilation “Mary Had a Little Amp,” also due Oct. 5. The Dixie Chicks, Moby, Maroon 5 and Lou Reed are among the other artists donating cuts to the album, proceeds from which will benefit Project Kid Smart and Start Smart America.

Source billboard.com.

U2’s as-yet-untitled new studio album will be released Nov. 22 internationally and a day later in North America via Interscope. First single “Vertigo” will hit radio in late September, to be followed by a video. A commercial single is tentatively due for a Nov. 8 international release.

A spokesperson for the band’s U.K.-based Principle Management says the information is “broadly correct” but would not confirm specific details.

Even though a disc featuring album tracks was reported stolen during a photo shoot last month in France, few details have emerged about the set. Among the song titles mentioned in recent comments by band members are “Tough” and “Full Metal Jacket.”

Author/band friend Neil McCormick recently told Ireland’s Hot Press magazine that the album featured “an interesting title, an interesting philosophical idea as a title, and quite a difficult title.”

As first reported here in February, production was handled by Steve Lillywhite, who has worked on such past U2 albums as “The Joshua Tree” and “Achtung Baby.”

The upcoming release will be the follow-up to 2000’s “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” which has sold more than 4 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. A world tour is expected to launch early next year.

Preceding the album will be the photo book “U2 Show: The Art of Touring,” due Oct. 21 via Riverhead Books. More than 400 rare photographs and illustrations appear in the volume, which chronicles the band’s live performance history.

Source billboard.com.

The bounty of vintage Grateful Dead and posthumous Jerry Garcia releases will continue to overflow this fall. In September, Rhino will release a three-disc live Garcia set and follow it in October with a 12-disc box culling the Dead’s post-Warner Bros. studio albums, rarities and live cuts.

Due Sept. 28, “After Midnight” stems from a Garcia performance at Kean College in Union, N.J., captured on 24-track masters. The nearly three-hour show featured 16 songs, including Bob Dylan’s “Simple Twist Of Fate” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” and the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.”

Dead lyricist and frequent Garcia collaborator Robert Hunter was on hand to sing lead vocals on his songs “Tiger Rose” and “Promontory Rider.” Joining Garcia on stage was Ozzie Ahlers (keyboards/vocals), John Kahn (bass) and Johnny De Foncesca (bass).

As previously reported, Jerry Garcia Estate LLC discovered a treasure trove of Garcia tapes when the Dead reorganized its storied tape vault. Two-track concert recordings will emerge via the “Pure Jerry” series, which will be released exclusively online. Further multi-track recordings are expected to emerge via the estate’s relationship with Rhino.

“There’s over 500 live concerts in two-track, and then … several multi-track concerts that haven’t been mined yet,” Christopher Sabec, CEO of the Jerry Garcia Estate LLC recently told Billboard.com. “It’s unbelievably impressive, the number of solo projects that he performed.”

On Oct. 26, Grateful Dead Productions/Rhino will release “Beyond Description (1973-1989),” which will boast remastered and repackaged version of the band’s Arista-era output on its own Grateful Dead Records label. In the vein of the Warner Bros. -era 2001 box “The Golden Road (1965-1973),” this sprawling set captures 161 songs, 65 of them previously unreleased.

The box will boast sonically improved versions of the studio albums “Wake of the Flood” (1973) “The Grateful Dead From the Mars Hotel” (1974), “Blues for Allah” (1975), “Terrapin Station” (1977), “Shakedown Street” (1978), “Go to Heaven” (1980), “In the Dark” (1987) and “Built to Last” (1989). Each title has been expanded to include outtakes, live tracks, alternate versions and rehearsal peroformances.

Additionally, the 1981 live albums “Reckoning” and “Dead Set” have been expanded to two-disc sets that include further material from the original concert dates. The first, from San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre, adds 16 songs, including “Cassidy,” “Ripple” and “Heaven Help the Fool” from the concert, and a studio rehearsal version of “To Lay Me Down.”

“Dead Set” has been expanded with a nine-track bonus disc featuring previously unreleased versions of such Dead staples as “Sugaree,” “Not Fade Away,” “Jack Straw” and “Shakedown Street.”

“Beyond Description” was co-produced by Dead archivist David Lemieux and Rhino’s James Austin. Joe Gastwirt remastered each disc in the set utilizing HDCD technology; he had previously remastered the titles for their initial CD release.

The set will also include a book with essays by Rolling Stone music critic David Fricke, “Grateful Dead Hour” host David Gans and author Blair Jackson. Lemieux and Dead biographer/spokesperson Dennis McNally (“A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead”) contribute liner notes.

Source billboard.com.