News

On the heels of his latest album, “Back Home,” Eric Clapton hits the road again launching a just announced world tour beginning in Europe on May 5 and travelling to 13 European countries with an already sold out 7-night run at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Additional news of this tour will follow shortly, including announcements of several exciting tour dates featuring venues never-before-played by Clapton and his band.

Clapton has assembled an impressive band, including several album collaborators. The 2006 tour band will consist of: Eric Clapton, Guitar, as well as Doyle Bramhall II and Derek Trucks also on Guitar, Chris Stainton and Tim Carmon on Keyboards, Willie Weeks on Bass, Steve Jordan on Drums, The Kick Horns: Simon Clarke, Roddy Lorimer, and Tim Sanders on Brass, and backing vocals by Michelle John and Sharon White.

Particle unveiled its new five-piece outfit on February 24 at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood. The band now boasts Scott Metzger and Ben Combe on guitar and vocals, in addition to original members Eric Gould (bass), Steve Molitz (keys) and Darren Pujalet (drums). The group plans to unleash more new material throughout its forty city cross-country Spring tour, which begins with an appearance at South by Southwest in mid-March. The newly formed quintet will also make appearances at Jazzfest in New Orleans and The Green Apple Music Festival in New York City.

Scott Metzger is a New York City native who has played in numerous projects including Amfibian and Rana. He has collaborated with Gov

In support of their new release due April 4th, Safety In Numbers Umphrey’s McGee has announced their spring tour dates, which includes an appearance at the Langerado music festival, a quick European jaunt, a special CD release party in their hometown of Chicago, and an exclusive and intimate performance at NYC’s CBGB as part of the first annual Green Apple Festival.

The complete list of confirmed tour dates is as follows:

February24 The PageantSt. Louis MO
February25 Murat Theatre / Egyptian Room Indianapolis IN
March10 The Chicago Theatre ChicagoIL
March11 Langerado Music Festival Sunrise FL
March11 Revolution Fort Lauderdale FL
March14 Mean Fiddler London UK
March15 La Boule Noir Paris France
March16 Transilvania Club Milan Italy
March19-21 Jam in the ‘Dam Amsterdam Netherlands
March23 Knust Hamburg Germany
April03 The Park West – cd release party Chicago IL
April07 The Showbox Seattle WA
April08 Roseland Theatre Portland OR
April09 The Mystic Theatre Petaluma CA
April12 House of Blues San Diego CA
April13 The Avalon Hollywood CA
April14, 15 The Fillmore San Francisco CA
April16 World Ski and Snowboard Championships Whistler BC
April21 CBGB New York NY
April27-28 Canopy Club Urbana IL
May01 Workplay Theater Birmingham AL
May02 The Orange Peel Asheville NC
May03 Disco Rodeo Raleigh NC
May05 Electric Factory Philadelphia PA
May06 Avalon Ballroom Boston MA
May26-28 Summer Camp Chillicothe IL
June16-18 Bonnaroo Manchester TN
June29-30 High Sierra Music Festival Quincy CA
July20 10,000 Lakes Festival Detroit Lakes IL

Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen are both planning new albums for 2006 — and each will likely launch a tour as well. Dylan has just begun work on his thirty-first studio disc, and Springsteen is wrapping up his first-ever CD of cover songs, focusing on music from the repertoire of folk icon Pete Seeger.
On January 31st, Dylan arrived at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie, New York, with his current touring band. For the next four days, according to Bardavon’s executive director, Chris Silva, the band rehearsed new material. “It was experimental, all kinds of different licks,” Silva told the Poughkeepsie Journal. “They would get into one thing, and they would go over it and over it. Then they would change gears.”

Dylan — whose first announced tour date of 2006 is a performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in late April — then moved the operation to Manhattan to lay down his new tunes. His previous studio album, 2001’s acclaimed Love and Theft, was also cut in New York, in just two and a half weeks at Sony Music Studios, with Dylan producing under the name Jack Frost.

Meanwhile, sources familiar with the Springsteen project say that he has nearly completed his covers album, which has the working title The Seeger Sessions and will include both Seeger-penned tunes and American standards the folk patriarch helped popularize. Seeger, 86, is the author of folk classics such as “If I Had a Hammer” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”

Source rollingstone.com.

Lost Highway has set July 18 as the release date for “Another Fine Day,” the first release in eight years from Golden Smog. The lauded supergroup features Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Soul Asylum’s Dan Murphy, Big Star’s Jody Stephens and the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, Marc Perlman and Kraig Johnson.

Again sporting separate songwriting contributions from Tweedy, Louris, Perlman, Murphy and Johnson, the band’s fourth album is composed of 14 originals and a cover of the Kinks’ Dave Davies’ “Strangers,” sung by Louris and Tweedy.

The first Golden Smog album to follow both Wilco’s ascension to “it”-band status and reports of a Jayhawks break-up, “Another Fine Day” was recorded last year in two separate sessions, the first sans Tweedy and Stephens in the south of Spain, the second with the full band in Minneapolis.

The songs from the first session, captured in Puerto De Santa Maria, feature Linda Pitmon (Steve Wynn, Zuzu’s Petals) on drums, and vocals from Muni Loco, wife of Paco Loco, who co-produced the disc with Ed Ackerson (Mason Jennings, the Jayhawks) and the band.

Source billboard.com.

George Clinton & Parliament / Funkadelic are starting their spring tour on February 27, 2006. The monthlong tour includes stops in Washington D.C., New York City, Providence New Haven, Worcester, Atlantic City, Burlington VT, Baltimore, Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati and Philadelphia.

Mon 02/27/2006 Washington, D.C.: Nightclub 9:30
Tue 02/28/2006 New York City, NY: B.B. King Blues Club & Grill
Wed 03/01/2006 Providence, RI: Lupo’s
Fri 03/03/2006 New Haven, CT: Toad’s Place
Sat 03/04/2006 Worcester, MA: Palladium
Sun 03/05/2006 Atlantic City, NJ: House of Blues
Tue 03/07/2006 Burlington, VT: Higher Ground
Thu 03/09/2006 Allentown, PA: Crocodile Rock Cafe
Fri 03/10/2006 Baltimore, MD: Rams Head
Sat 03/11/2006 Sayerville, NJ: Starland Ballroom
Sun 03/12/2006 Farmingdale, NY: Crazy Donkey
Wed 03/15/2006 Chicago, IL: House of Blues
Fri 03/17/2006 Traverse City, MI: Streeters
Sat 03/18/2006 Columbus, OH: PromoWest Lifestyle Communities Pavilion
Sun 03/19/2006 Cincinnati, OH: Bogart’s
Tue 03/21/2006 Madison, WI: Orpheum
Wed 03/22/2006 Indianapolis, IN: Music Mill

See georgeclinton.com for more info.

From the start, the deeply soulful sounds of the American South helped inspire Morrison to one of the most enduring and consistently impressive careers in music history. For forty-years, he

Seldom seen but often gossiped about Guns N’ Roses is set to play the RDS Arena in Dublin, Ireland, June 9 and at the Download Festival in Donington, England, on June 11.

The Dublin gig also features Motley Crue. Tickets go on sale February 25 through Ticketmaster and the usual outlets. Guns N’ Roses’ last Irish concert was at Slane Castle in May 1992.

Tickets are already on sale for the Download Festival. The three-day event will see Metallica headline on June 12. Other artists confirmed include The Prodigy, Deftones, Korn, Lacuna Coil, Clutch, and Hatebreed.

The GNR touring lineup hasn’t been announced – at least not by Axl Rose. There have been a lot of Internet forum posts about the classic GNR band-mates reuniting to perform but that seems unlikely, even under the most ideal circumstances.

The real questions are: Is the incredibly long-time-coming album ever going to see the light of day, and can a tour happen without the drama and trauma that has surrounded the last several efforts to get the band in front of its fans?

Earlier this year, Rose told Rolling Stone that GNR would finally release the Chinese Democracy album this year. A number of tour dates have been talked about – including a Rock in Rio Lisbon stop and summer festival dates in Italy, Germany and Austria. So far, only the Dublin and Donington concerts have been confirmed.

Source pollstar.com.

According to Billboard.com: Nine Inch Nails, Beck, Death Cab For Cutie, Queens Of The Stone Age, the Flaming Lips, the Shins, Ben Harper, Arctic Monkeys and Matisyahu lead the bill for the fifth Sasquatch! Festival, which will be held May 26-28 at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Wash. The event will also feature Sufjan Stevens’ only scheduled performance of the summer.

For more info see: billboard.com

Classic British rock band The Charlatans UK are set to release Simpatico. on May 2nd on Sanctuary records. This record is their first American release since 200,1 and the band