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Billy Bob Thornton Releasing Album

Big Deal Records has announced the signing of the celebrated American artist, Billy Bob Thornton. Best known for his work as an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director and actor, it is music that serves as Thornton’s first and greatest passion. Hobo, his brand new album to be released nationwide on September 13, 2005, is Thornton’s third full length release to date. The collection features ten tracks, nine of which are new songs written or co-written by Thornton, that focus on the California experience, offering his own personal accounts alongside profound observations of the Golden State’s people, tempos and landscapes.

“I am very pleased and honored to be associated with a label like Big Deal. They love music and songwriting the way record label people used to,” states Billy Bob Thornton. “I’m very proud of Hobo, and the label gets it. I’d rather sell ten records for people who care, than a million for people who don’t.”

Billy Bob Thornton’s keen revelations and poetic unraveling of California — “the new frontier” — on Hobo exposes startling insights about life in Los Angeles, a city where dreams are achieved, but also crushed. On “The Late Great Golden State,” Thornton warns, “Leave your expectations at the gate of the late great golden state ’cause they can pack you up and send you home in a crate.”

One of the album’s stand-out cuts, “I Used To Be A Lion,” finds Thornton turning inward, musing “I don’t have the pride to hold my head up high and I don’t have the strength to make the kill.” Musically, the songs range from the ethereal Americana of the title track to the hallucinogenic Chicano-flavored rock of “El Centro On Five Dollars A Day.” Thornton recorded Hobo at The Cave, his state-of-the-art home studio in Los Angeles, with his co-producers, Randy Mitchell and Jim Mitchell. At a time when so many albums rehash tired cliches, Thornton’s songwriting is continually pushing the envelope in its search for new and vital means of expression. The results are powerful songs of deeply personal stories and philosophical lyrics that reflect Thornton’s love for life and music itself.

For Billy Bob Thornton, writing, recording and performing music is something he has lived his entire life. He received his first drum kit at age nine and made his first public appearance as a musician by age ten. Throughout the 1960s, he performed in bands across Arkansas and Texas, including the well known, Tres Hombres. Thornton put music aside only temporarily upon arriving in Hollywood to pursue a career in film. However, it wasn’t long before he was jamming with local Los Angeles musicians and once again writing songs. The rest, as they say, is history. Thornton has since received two RIAA gold record certifications, performed on the Grammy Award-winning album, The Wind, by Warren Zevon, performed alongside Willie Nelson, The Allman Brothers Band and Kris Kristofferson, in addition to receiving critical acclaim for his first two albums, Private Radio and The Edge of The World. The Los Angeles Times observed: “If Thornton had tried to make it as a singer-songwriter in Nashville in the early ’70s, he would have surely played the same clubs as Kris Kristofferson. They might have even shared an apartment.” Legendary singer/songwriter Tom Petty declared: “Billy Bob’s music has a style and lean all its own. It can catch you off guard with as much as a word’s inflection.”

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ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings Dies of Lung Cancer

Nearly four months to the day since he announced in a hoarse voice on his evening newscast that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, longtime ABC “World News Tonight” anchor Peter Jennings died Sunday, according to the ABC News network. He was 67.

To read more please visit CNN.com.

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Widespread Panic Plans Fall Tour

Widespread Panic has announced a lengthy fall tour that will kick off on September 18th at Farm Aid. From there the band will play a majority of their shows in a variety of southern venues, concluding with a southwest run in New Mexico, Arizona and the tour finale – Vegoos on Halloween. For a full list of tour dates please visit widespreadpanic.com

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Innaugural New York Music Festival Expanded

The inaugural New York music festival initially dubbed Across the Pond has been rechristened Across the Narrows. Set for Oct. 1-2 at Brooklyn’s Keyspan Park and Staten Island’s Richmond County Bank Ballpark, the event will feature headlining sets from Oasis, the Killers, Beck and the Pixies.

The Pixies will anchor the Oct. 1 bill in Brooklyn, alongside Gang Of Four, Built To Spill, Rilo Kiley, Death From Above 1979, Mando Diao and Nine Black Alps. Simultaneously in Staten Island, the Killers will play with Interpol, the New York Dolls, British Sea Power, Lake Trout, Tegan & Sara and the Ordinary Boys.

The next day’s shows will feature Beck, Belle & Sebastian, the Polyphonic Spree, the Raveonettes, Gang Gang Dance, Whirlwind Heat and a band to be announced in Brooklyn, and Oasis, Jet, Doves, the reunited Lemonheads, Kasabian, Jesse Malin, the Redwalls and an undetermined act in Staten Island.

Tickets can be purchased separately for each of the four shows, and a discounted ticket will be available for any two concerts. VIP package details are still being finalized.

Source billboard.com.

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OutKast Eyeing Album In Fall, Film In January

After several delays, OutKast is planning a fall release for its next album and a January launch for its debut film, tentatively titled “My Life in Idlewild.” Group member Big Boi tells Billboard.com a second studio album, “The Hard 10,” may even hit stores before 2006 is out.

The first set will serve as the soundtrack to the film and is “about 80% finished,” according to Big Boi. It will be OutKast’s first new music since its 2003 double-album “Speakerboxx/The Love Below,” which has sold 5.5 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

To read more visit .

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Complete Hendrix Woodstock Set Heads To DVD

Jimi Hendrix’s closisng performance at Woodstock on Aug. 18, 1969, is arguably one of the most iconic moments in rock history, but it has never been commercially available in its entirety. That will change on Sept. 13, when Universal Music and Experience Hendrix release the DVD “Jimi Hendrix — Live at Woodstock.” The project comes out a day earlier in the U.K.

The double-disc set captures one of Hendrix’s only performances with an extended backing band, dubbed Gypsy Sun And Rainbows. Longtime Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer supervised a new audio mix in both 5.1 and 2.0 stereo sound. Bonus features include “The Road to Woodstock” documentary, a contemporaneous press conference and “A Second Look,” which blends black-and-white video footage with color clips from alternate angles.

To read more, visit .

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Tragically Hip Reading CD/DVD Box Set

Canadian rock act the Tragically Hip is compiling a four disc music and video boxed set. The limited-edition “Hipeponymous” will boast two audio discs dubbed “Yer Favourites” that will feature 37 tracks recently chosen by fans through an Internet vote on MSN’s Canadian site. Two new songs will also be included.

The box will be bolstered by the concert DVD “That Night in Toronto,” shot in November 2004 at the Air Canada Centre in High Definition. Another DVD will feature the band’s entire video oeuvre of 23 clips, plus 11 new “video pieces.” A 48-page book will round out the package.

The four-disc set will be released as a Nov. 1 in the Great White North by Universal Canada. “Yer Favourites” and “That Night in Toronto” will also be released separately on the same day. At deadline, it was unknown if the collection will be released in any fashion in the United States. The group’s last two studio sets, 2002’s “In Violet Light” and 2004’s “In Between Evolution,” saw U.S. release on Rounder’s Zoe imprint, but a Rounder spokesperson confirms the label and the group are no longer working together.

The Hip has made only two appearances in 2005, playing the Toronto Live 8 concert and Newfoundland’s Salmon Splash Festival. The band will return to live duty when it opens for the Rolling Stones Sept. 3 in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Here is “Yer Favourites” track listing:

Disc one:
“No Threat”
“Grace, Too”
“My Music at Work”
“38 Years Old”
“Gift Shop”
“Ahead by a Century”
“Vaccination Scar”
“Three Pistols”
“So Hard Done By”
“Fiddler’s Green”
“Looking for a Place To Happen”
“Cordelia”
“It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken”
“Blow at High Dough”
“Wheat Kings”
“50 Mission Cap”
“New Orleans Is Sinking”
“Escape Is at Hand for the Travelin’ Man”

Disc two:
“Fully Completely”
“Twist My Arm”
“Courage”
“Lake Fever”
“Poets”
“Fireworks”
“Boots or Hearts”
“Bobcaygeon”
“Nautical Disaster”
“Highway Girl”
“Gus: The Polar Bear From Central Park”
“Scared”
“Something On”
“At the Hundredth Meridian”
“Long Time Running”
“The Darkest One”
“Locked in the Trunk of a Car”
“Little Bones”
“The New Maybe”

Source billboard.com.

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Jimmy Herring To Join The CodeTalkers For August Gigs

Ater what was such a fun and successful tour in April, Jimmy Herring has decided to join The CodeTalkers once again this time for the complete month of August. Jimmy has many connections with The CodeTalkers: for years he played with Col. Bruce Hampton, who, after parting ways with Herring and others, formed The CodeTalkers five years ago with Bobby Lee Rodgers. After sitting in with the band during this year’s Magnolia Festival, it was obvious a new connection had been made. Rodgers and Herring hit it off musically, and just such a project has been brewing now for a while.

For more information, please visit the CodeTalker’s website

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Nickel Creek Plans Three Month Tour

When Nickel Creek mandolinist/vocalist Chris Thile entered the studio to record the band’s third album, Why Should the Fire Die?, due August 9th, he did as he always does: took a shot of Jameson’s and lit a candle.

“The studio needs to be dark,” Thile says. “I don’t want to be reminded by my surroundings that what I’m singing about isn’t happening right then. I like to really dissolve into the story. But the Jameson’s I use more for keeping my vocal cords relaxed and clear.”

Recording in Los Angeles with producers Eric Valentine (Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth) and Tony Berg (Aimee Mann, Michael Penn), the California bluegrass trio — Thile, guitarist Sean Watkins and violinist and younger sis Sara Watkins — approached the sessions with a newfound confidence after winning a Grammy for 2002’s This Side. “As a band we have started to come to terms with what we have to offer,” Thile says. “On our first two albums, we were concerned about the perceptions of what we could do as a bluegrass band or a country band. This time, we felt completely at ease with those perceptions.”

The result is an incisive collection of traditional bluegrass and alt-country rock that Thile says was inspired by relationships, both intimate and removed. “The title alludes to dissolution,” he says. “The deeper you get in with anyone, certainly the darker and more complex it becomes. It seems like most relationships, particularly romantic, inevitably deteriorate . . . including, recently, my marriage.”

Among the new songs are the Celtic-infused “Scotch & Chocolate” and a delicate cover of Bob Dylan’s “Tomorrow Is a Long Time.” But it’s the storytelling and swirling instrumentation of “Helena” that Thile considers “the ultimate climax” of the record. “All moments in the album point to that second when the drums begin to swell,” Thile says. “As a songwriter, I was happy with the development of the character and how he deteriorates before your eyes and exposes himself to be the desperate, conniving asshole that he is.”

Despite Nickel Creek’s success, Thile doesn’t feel any outside pressure. “All the pressure is self-imposed,” he says. “We feel incredibly confident that we can beat what we did last. And we have. We obliterated the last one.”

The trio will head to Europe before kicking off a North American tour on September 30th in Burlington, Vermont.

Nickel Creek tour dates:

9/30: Burlington, VT, Higher Ground
10/1: Burlington, VT, Higher Ground
10/2: Portland, ME, Merrill Auditorium
10/4: Philadelphia, Electric Factory
10/6: Boston, Orpheum Theatre
10/7: New York, Nokia Theatre Times Square
10/8: Charlottesville, VA, Charlottesville Pavillion
10/9: Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
10/11: Baltimore, Rams Head Live
10/13: Charlotte, NC, Ovens Auditorium
10/14: Atlanta, Fox Theatre
10/15: Nashville, War Memorial Auditorium
10/16: Nashville, War Memorial Auditorium
10/17: Lexington, KY, Singletary Center for the Arts
10/20: Columbus, OH, Newport Music Hall
10/21: Cleveland, House of Blues
10/22: Ypsilanti, MI, Pease Auditorium
10/23: Indianapolis, Egyptian Room
10/25: St. Louis, The Pageant
10/26: Chicago, Vic Theater
10/28: Milwaukee, WI, Pabst Theater
10/29: St. Paul, MN, Fitzgerald Theatre
10/29: Minneapolis, State Theatre
10/30: Madison, WI, Orpheum Theatre
11/1: Kansas City, MO, Uptown Theatre
11/3: Dallas, Gypsy Ballroom
11/4: Austin, Stubbs Bar-B-Q
11/5: Helotes, TX, Floores Country Store
11/6: Tulsa, OK, Cain’s Ballroom
11/8: New Orleans, House of Blues
11/10: Louisville, KY, Brown Theatre
11/11: Birmingham, AL, Alabama Theater
11/12: Greensboro, NC, War Memorial Auditorium
11/13: Norfolk, VA, Norva Theatre
11/15: Charleston, SC, Charleston Music Hall
11/16: Knoxville, TN, Tennessee Theater
11/18: Orlando, FL, Hard Rock Live
11/19: Tampa, FL, Tampa Theater
11/20: Jacksonville, FL, Florida Theater
12/1: Denver, Fillmore Auditorium
12/2: Park City, UT, Eccles Center
12/3: Spokane, WA The Big Easy Concert House
12/4: Seattle, Paramount Theatre
12/6: Portland, OR, Roseland Theater
12/7: Portland, OR, Roseland Theater
12/10: San Francisco, Warfield Theatre
12/11: Reno, NV, Reno Hilton Theatre
12/14: Tempe, AZ, Marquee Theater
12/15: San Diego, House of Blues
12/16: San Diego, House of Blues
12/17: Los Angeles, The Wiltern LG

Source rollingstone.com.

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Pixies Finalize 2004 Tour DVD Plans

The Pixies’ triumphant 2004 reunion tour will be chronicled on a DVD due Oct. 4 via Rhino. The bulk of “Pixies Sell Out” is drawn from a July 3, 2004, show in Belfort, France, featuring such favorites as “Gigantic,” “Bone Machine,” “Monkey Gone to Heaven” and “Here Comes Your Man.”

Sixteen additional songs will be included as bonus tracks, including “Caribou,” “Gigantic” and “Into the White” from the Pixies’ 2004 appearance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Other cuts were shot at such festivals as Austin City Limits, Fuji Rock, Voodoo, Move and T in the Park.

The Pixies have continued to draw big box-office numbers during their 2005 tour, which plays Albany, N.Y., tonight (Aug. 4) and will find the group playing its first full-length acoustic set Saturday at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island.

Afterward, 12 international dates are on tap, beginning Aug. 17 in Porto, Portugal. As previously reported, the Pixies will then join Beck, Oasis and the Killers at the inaugural Across the Pond Festival, which will be held Oct. 1-2 simultaneously at Brooklyn’s Key Span Park and Staten Island

Here is the track list for “Pixies Sell Out”:

“Bone Machine”
“Wave of Mutilation”
“In Heaven”
“Something Against You”
“River Euphrates”
“U-Mass”
“Bone Machine”
“Cactus”
“Ed Is Dead”
“I Bleed”
“Monkey Gone to Heaven”
“Hey”
“Levitate Me”
“Subbacultcha”
“Dead”
“Gouge Away”
“Velouria”
“Mr. Grieves”
“Crackity Jones”
“Broken Face”
“Isla De Encanta”
“Tame”
“Here Comes Your Man”
“The Holiday Song”
“Where Is My Mind?”
“Vamos”
“Wave of Mutilation”
“Gigantic”

Bonus performances:

“Caribou” (Coachella)
“Here Comes Your Man” (Move)
“Debaser” (T in the Park)
“Gigantic” (Coachella)
“U-Mass” (Lowell, Mass.)
“Crackity Jones” (Fuji Rock)
“Nimrod’s Son” (Fuji Rock)
“The Holiday Song” (Fuji Rock)
“Subbacultcha” (Austin, Texas)
“Vamos” (Austin, Texas)
“No. 13 Baby” (Lowell, Mass.)
“Planet of Sound” (Voodoo Music Experience)
“Is She Weird?” (Lowell, Mass.)
“Into the White” (Coachella)
“Where Is My Mind?” (Move)
“Monkey Gone to Heaven” (Move)

Source billboard.com .

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