Cult heroes Violent Femmes are putting together a new North American tour, much to the delight of their ever-growing fanbase.
The band – singer/guitarist Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie and drummer Guy Hoffman – is currently on the tail end of its European tour, which wraps in early May.

On May 22, they’ll kick off a round of U.S. dates with an appearance at Washington, D.C.’s WHFStival at RFK Stadium. Although only a handful of shows have been announced, the itinerary stretches through early September. A hometown show at the Milwaukee Zoo is set for August 21.

The trio hasn’t released a studio album since 2000’s Freak Magnet, but they’ve kept up a steady touring schedule at home and abroad. In 2002, their self-titled debut album was re-released in a two-disc deluxe edition.

Source pollstar.com.

Singer Billy Joel was involved in his third car accident in two years Sunday when he slammed into a house on a wet road on Long Island. No one was seriously injured.

There was no evidence that alcohol or drugs were involved and Joel was not suspected of any crime, said Nassau County police Officer Joan Eames. Joel suffered a small cut on a finger but refused medical attention, Eames said.

Joel was alone in the car, and no one in the house was injured, police said.

Last year Joel was hospitalized after smashing his car into a tree along a Long Island highway. No summonses were issued, and Joel was not given a Breathalyzer test.

Joel escaped serious injury in a crash in East Hampton in June 2002.

He later checked into a substance abuse and psychiatric center, reportedly after becoming depressed when a respiratory infection forced him to cut short a tour with fellow piano player Elton John .

Source Launch.com.

Beatles drumming legend Ringo Starr is reported to have undergone surgery on a shoulder injury.

Friends of the 63-year-old state he’s had an operation for bone spurs, which is a painful condition in which there’s abnormal bone growth on joints.

The operation took place in California and forced him to cancel a number of gigs by his All Starr band.

A source close to Starr said: “He was told this could be something to do with his drumming. He uses his arm much more than normal. It’s been hurting him for some time.

“He’s resting up now while undergoing physiotherapy and is determined this will not stop him playing in future. He’s well on the way to recovery.”

Source NME.com.

After a six-year layoff, the Beastie Boys are back with To the 5 Boroughs. Adam “MCA” Yauch, Adam “AdRock” Horovitz and Mike “Mike D” Diamond produced the new album themselves during the past two years, working out of their own downtown Manhattan studio.

With the World Trade Center on the cover, To the 5 Boroughs is a salute to New York, full of old-school hip-hop beats and political anger.

Source Rollingstone.com.

Internet-search pioneer Google Inc. plans to announce within days that it will push forward with an initial public offering, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

Major elements of Google’s expected offering remain unknown, including its size, which banks have been tapped to lead it, and the extent to which individual investors will be able to participate. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

Source CNN.com.

Spam Allstars celebrate the release of their fourth album – Spam Allstars Contra Los Roboticos Mutantes – on May 7th.

The album features DJ Le Spam on turntables samplers, fx, bass, and guitar; Adam Zimmon on guitars; Mercedes Abal on flute, vox; John Speck on trombone, vox; AJ Hill on alto & c melody sax, vox; Steve Welsh on tenor & baritone sax; Tomas Diaz on timbales, bata, and lead vox; Lazaro Alfonso on bata, vox; Brendan Buckley on drum loops; and invitados Sammy Figueroa on congas and percussion, Michel Diaz Fragoso on keys; Albert Menendez on keys, David Font on bata; and Juan Carlos Valdivia on violins. This CD was recorded at City of Progress Studio in North Miami Beach, produced by DJ Le Spam, and independently released on Spamusica Records.

In 2002, Spam Allstars released their third album Fuacata Live! to critical acclaim and were recognized with a Latin Grammy nomination in the Pop Instrumental category.

See Spamallstars.com for more information.

Irish rock act the Thrills have signed on for a portion of this summer’s Lollapalooza tour. The group joins a lineup that already includes Morrissey, String Cheese Incident, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, Polyphonic Spree, Sonic Youth, Gomez and Le Tigre. The tour kicks off July 14 in Auburn, Wash.

The Thrills will be touring in support of their acclaimed Virgin debut, So Much for the City,[i/] which debuted last November at No. 14 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and has sold 82,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The group has North American dates already booked through May 29 in Providence, R.I., including an appearance next weekend at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. The Thrills have been in a Los Angeles recording studio working on their sophomore album, having already laid down 13 tracks with an eye on an early 2005 release.

Source Billboard.com.

Aimee Mann has revealed the initial dates in what looks to be an extensive summer outing. The only confirmed dates thus far consist of an opening two-night stand in Los Angeles

According to a post on the band

The future of The Simpsons may be in jeopardy if the most recent contract dispute between the show’s actors and Simpsons network Fox continues to simmer.

Six actors who provide the voices for dozens of Simpsons characters–Hank Azaria (Moe, Apu and Comic Book Guy), Nancy Cartwright (Bart and Nelson), Dan Castellaneta (Homer and Krusty), Julie Kavner (Marge), Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns and Smithers) and Yeardley Smith (Lisa)–are asking the network for more money. Currently, the stars make $125,000 per episode, and they’re looking for the powers that be to nearly triple that figure, to $360,000 per episode or almost $8 million a year for a 22-episode season.

Their other demand: profit participation, which is especially lucrative considering The Simpsons’ potential merchandising, syndication and DVD profits.

The group, which has banded together in the past to hit their bosses up for salary increases, kicked off the current brouhaha when they recently failed to show up for table readings for the show’s 16th season. Six episodes for the 2004-05 season, set to kick off post-baseball in November, are in the can, but the actors haven’t gone to the office for tapings in a month.

With negotiations still at an impasse earlier this week, Fox announced it would be forced to shorten the episode order for next season–which would definitely give fans a cow.

According to Yeardley Smith’s agent, John Kelly, however, Fox’s refusal to play ball with the actors is not just about money but is tantamount to a lack of acknowledgement of the actors’ contributions to the wildly successful franchise. Fox claims the figure is high, but the actors’ reps have estimated that Springfieldian saga has earned Fox and the show’s executive producers more than $2.5 billion since it debuted in 1989.

The Simpsons, the longest-running animated series in TV history, has averaged 11.5 million viewers this season. And, though that marks a drop of almost 2 million viewers from last season’s average, it’s still enough to make the series the cornerstone of Fox’s Sunday-night lineup.

Source eonline.com.