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Nine Inch Nails have chosen Interscope labelmates Queens Of The Stone Age to open their fall North American arena tour. The itinerary will be announced early next month, according to NIN’s official Web site, and will most likely not begin until mid-September. Sources say a third band may join the bill, but that a final decision has not been made.

NIN will wrap its current North American run with Dresden Dolls June 2 in Mexico City. International festival and headlining dates are on tap through August. QOTSA will follow a similar path, completing a North American tour June 4 in Auburn, Wash., and then heading to Europe through late August.

The Trent Reznor-led NIN has returned to the top of the charts thanks to “With Teeth,” its first album since 1999. Save for a headlining slot at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, the first batch of North American dates have been held in theaters and large ballrooms and have done big business at the box office.

To read more, visit billboard.com.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s founding in San Francisco, as well as the 10th anniversary of the death of the band’s reluctant leader, Jerry Garcia. Monterey Video will commemorate the milestones with concert and documentary DVDs, due July 5.

“Truckin’ Up to Buffalo” captures the band on July 4, 1989, at Rich Stadium in Buffalo, N.Y., in the midst of a tour that was arguably the peak of the band’s latter era career. The nearly three-hour Independence Day show is preserved in its entirety, and includes a host of classics, including “Deal,” “Ship of Fools,” “Bertha,” and an apropos encore performance of “U.S. Blues.”

One song from the show was previously officially released; “Man Smart, Woman Smarter” appeared on guitarist Bob Weir’s 2004 retrospective “Weir Here” (Hybrid Recordings).

The video portion of “Truckin'” utilizes the original master tape from a six-camera shoot at the venue, while the DVD’s audio includes 5.1 Surround and stereo mixes taken from multi-track soundboard tapes. A two-disc CD version of the show due from Grateful Dead Records was mastered in HDCD.

Monterey’s second offering, “The End of the Road,” is a documentary about the Grateful Dead’s final tour. Begun three months before Garcia’s death, the filmmakers planned to capture life on the road with the enduring act but ended up witnessing the outpouring of grief and celebration of his life at the public memorial held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

The film includes appearances by late Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji, organist and frequent Garcia collaborator Merl Saunders and 1960s counter-culture figure Wavy Gravy. Bonus features include uncut footage of the memorial and extended interviews.

Source billboard.com.

In support of their new live album, Live In Japan, The Bad Plus will be touring the world. The jazz trio will kick things off in Norway, with dates planned through early 2006.

Tour Dates

Wed 05/25/05

Sam Beam’s Iron And Wine alter ego will hit the road this June with dates throughout the East Coast and South.

The trek will start off, conveniently enough, in Beam’s home state of Florida with a performance at Tallahassee’s Beta Bar June 8. Then it’s up through Louisiana and ol’ Miss. on the way to Bonnaroo. Iron And Wine will do a June 11 set at the three-day Manchester, Tenn., festival.

After taking a day off to recover – or perhaps just to enjoy Bonnaroo – Beam will head up to Ohio and back across the East Coast. He’ll play two nights in a row at New York City’s Webster Hall before making his way down the seaboard, winding up in Florida once again by the end of the month and closing the tour with a June 24 show in Jacksonville.

Horses will open on all dates.

Iron & Wine’s latest release, the Woman King EP, dropped in February.
Last year, Beam went into the studio with members of Calexico to record a collaboration EP called Lays In The Reigns. The disc is scheduled for a fall release on Overcoat, and tour dates are expected to follow.

Tour Dates

Wed 06/08/05

Snoop Dogg, the White Stripes, 311, the Black Eyed Peas and the Pixies are among the acts confirmed for the 2005 edition of the San Diego Street Scene festival. Set for July 29-30 at an area adjacent to the city’s Qualcomm Stadium, the event will feature more than 30 artists.

Others on the bill are Garbage, the Used, Flaming Lips, Method Man, Unwritten Law, Flogging Molly, Dashboard Confessional, Social Distortion, Death Cab For Cutie, Kasabian, Hot Hot Heat, Rise Against, Louis XIV, the Adolescents, (International) Noise Conspiracy, Autolux, Von Bondies, Swollen Members, Morningwood, the Locust, West Indian Girl, Mixmaster Mike and Hard-Fi. More artists are expected.

Source billboard.com.

Hasidic reggae rapper Matisyahu will release his next album this fall via a new deal with Epic. Having recently demoed two songs with noted producer Bill Laswell, Matisyahu and his band plan to hit the studio in the next two weeks to begin work on the follow-up to last month’s “Live at Stubb’s” (Or Music/JDub), which reached No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Reggae Albums chart.
Hasidic reggae rapper Matisyahu will release his next album this fall via a new deal with Epic. Having recently demoed two songs with noted producer Bill Laswell, Matisyahu and his band plan to hit the studio in the next two weeks to begin work on the follow-up to last month’s “Live at Stubb’s” (Or Music/JDub), which reached No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Reggae Albums chart.

“We have material ready, but a lot of the way we write material is to just come together in a room and someone will have an idea that forms into a song,” the artist tells Billboard.com. “It happens pretty quickly.” As for why Laswell was chosen to produce, Matisyahu says, “We thought Bill would get the dub thing and the reggae thing.”

While he’s out West in the coming days to perform at the Sasquatch! Festival outside Seattle, Matisyahu will also record a track intended to appear on rap/rock outfit P.O.D.’s next album, due later this year via Atlantic.

Source billboard.com.

Nas, Redman, the Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon and Ghostface (performing material from their 1995 album “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx”) and Gang Starr MC Guru lead the lineup for the Rock the Bells festival, to be held July 30 at the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernadino, Calif.

The show will be hosted by Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA, Cypress Hill’s B-Real and the Beat Junkies’ Mr. Choc. Pre-sale tickets go on sale Friday (May 27) and will gradually increase in price as the show date approaches.

The Rock the Bells lineup will also boast performances by Sage Francis, Q-Bert, Cut Chemist, Living Legends, Heiroglyphics, Supernatural, DJ Muggs and Nonphixion.

At last year’s show, the Wu-Tang Clan reunited with all of its principal members, including the now deceased Ol’ Dirty Bastard, for the first time in years. That performance will form the basis of the film “Rock the Bells (The Documentary),” which will hit theaters and DVD later this year.

Source billboard.com.

Jerry Garcia’s artwork has been compiled in a book and traveling exhibition to debut this fall. Jerry Garcia: The Collected Artwork — featuring texts by GRATEFUL DEAD drummer MICKEY HART, BOB DYLAN, CARLOS SANTANA, PATTI SMITH and GRACE SLICK — hits stores September 9th. The show will tour museums in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta .

Source rollingstone.com.

Two classic early Bob Dylan albums will be reissued in remastered form June 21 via Legacy. 1961’s “Bob Dylan” and 1964’s “The Times They Are A-Changin'” will also boast the original LP artwork plus previously unseen photos from their respective recording sessions.

“Bob Dylan” was the artist’s full-length debut, featuring two originals plus renditions of traditional songs such as “Pretty Peggy-O” and “Man of Constant Sorrow.” “The Times They Are A-Changin'” was Dylan’s first album of all-original material, including such future classics as the title cut, “Boots of Spanish Leather” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.”

Source billboard.com.

The movie critics for Time magazine, Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss, have compiled an unranked list of the 100 greatest films. It was posted Sunday on www.Time.com. Included are traditionally acclaimed flicks like “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Casablanca” and “Citizen Kane,” as well as more atypical choices like “Finding Nemo,” “Star Wars” and the 2002 Brazilian gang story, “City of God.” Other rnotable picks include: Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas, A Hard Days Night, The Lord Of The Rings and Blade Runner.

To read more about Time Magazine’s list, please visit time.com.