News

The Strokes will begin a spring U.S. tour on March 3 with a hometown show at New York Hammerstein Ballroom. According to the band’s Web site, a five-week theatre outing will run through April 11 in Minneapolis, with more are expected to be added.

The quintet is also rumored to be playing the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in late April in Indio, Calif. “I loved it when we played it last time [in 2002],” guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. tells Billboard.com. “Absolutely loved it. It was one of the coolest festivals. No offense to American festivals, but it felt very European. It’s outdoors but it’s warm, which is so important.”

The Strokes will be out in support of their just-released third RCA studio album, “First Impressions of Earth,” which debuted earlier this month at No. 4 on The Billboard 200.

Before the U.S. run, the band will be in the United Kingdom for an 18-date tour that begins tomorrow (Jan. 24) in London.

Here are The Strokes U.S. tour dates:

March 3: New York (Hammerstein Ballroom)
March 6: Nashville (Ryman Auditorium)
March 8: Atlanta (Tabernacle)
March 10: Kansas City, Mo. (Uptown Theatre)
March 11: Tusla, Okla. (Cain’s Ballroom)
March 14: Austin, Texas (Stubb’s Barbeque)
March 15: Houston (Verizon Wireless Theater)
March 17: Grand Prairie, Texas (Nokia Theatre)
March 19: Denver (Filmore Auditorium)
March 21: Meza, Ariz. (Mesa Amphitheatre)
March. 24: San Francisco (Concourse)
April 2: Portland, Ore. (Roseland Ballroom)
April 4: Seattle (Paramount Theatre)
Apri 7: Chicago (Aragon Ballroom)
April 8: St. Louis (Pageant)
April 10: Milwaukee (Eagles Club)
April 11: Minneapolis (Orpheum Theatre)

Source billboard.com.

Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah Harmer will begin a North American tour Feb. 2 in Buffalo, N.Y. The 32-date run will include a March 17 performance at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, and will close April 16 in Santa Monica, Calif. The Shiftless Rounders will support through a March 4 show in Pittsburgh.

Harmer is touring in support of her third solo album, “I’m a Mountain,” due Feb. 7 via Zoe/Rounder. As previously reported, the set boasts 11 songs, including first single “I Am Aglow” and a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Will He Be Waiting for Me.” The disc was released in Canada in November and will come out March 6 in Europe.

Here are Harmer’s tour dates:

Feb. 22: Buffalo, N.Y. (Town Ballroom)
Feb. 23: Burlington, Vt. (Higher Ground)
Feb. 24: Boston (Paradise Rock Club)
Feb. 25: Newmarket, N.H. (Stone Church)

Feb. 27: Northampton, Mass. (Iron Horse)
Feb. 28: Alexandria, Va. (Birchmere Music Hall)
March 1: New York (Canal Room)
March 3: Philadelphia (World Cafe Live)
March 4: Pittsburgh (Dowes)
March 7: Carrboro, N.C. (Cat’s Cradle)
March 8: Greenville, S.C. (The Handlebar)
March 9: Asheville, N.C. (The Grey Eagle)
March 10: Nashville (Exit/In)
March 11: Decatur, Ga. (Eddie’s Attic)
March 13: Louisville, Ky. (Headliner’s Music Hall)
March 14: St. Louis, Mo. (Blueberry Hill)
March 17: Austin, Texas (Momo’s South By Southwest)
March 27: Ann Arbor, Mich. (The Ark)
March 29-30: Chicago (Schuba’s Tavern)
March 31: Madison, Wis. (High Noon Saloon)
April 1: Minneapolis (Fine Line)
April 4: Thunder Bay, Ontario (Thunder Bay Community Auditorium)
April 5: Winnipeg (Westminster United Church)
April 6: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Knox United Church)
April 8: Calgary, Alberta (Knox United Church)
April 10: Vancouver (Stanley Theatre)
April 11: Victoria, British Columbia (Alix Goolden Hall)
April 12: Seattle (Tractor Tavern)
April 14: San Francisco (Cafe Du Nord)
April 15: Los Angeles (Knitting Factory)
April 16: Santa Monica, Calif. (McCabe’s Guitar Shop)

Source billboard.com.

Online search engine leader Google Inc. has agreed to censor its results in China, adhering to the country’s free-speech restrictions in return for better access in the Internet’s fastest growing market.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company planned to roll out a new version of its search engine bearing China’s Web suffix “.cn,” on Wednesday. A Chinese-language version of Google’s search engine has previously been available through the company’s dot-com address in the United States.

By creating a unique address for China, Google hopes to make its search engine more widely available and easier to use in the world’s most populous country.

Because of government barriers set up to suppress information, Google’s China users previously have been blocked from using the search engine or encountered lengthy delays in response time.
To obtain the Chinese license, Google agreed to omit Web content that the country’s government finds objectionable. Google will base its censorship decisons on guidance provided by Chinese government officials.

Although China has loosened some of its controls in recent years, some topics, such as Taiwan’s independence and 1989’s Tiananmen Square massacre, remain forbidden subjects.

Google’s decision rankled Reporters Without Borders, a media watchdog group that has sharply criticized Internet companies including Yahoo and Microsoft Corp.’s MSN.com for submitting to China’s censorship regime.

“This is a real shame,” said Julien Pain, head of Reporters Without Borders’ Internet desk. “When a search engine collaborates with the government like this, it makes it much easier for the Chinese government to control what is being said on the Internet.”

Full article: cnn

The initial artist announcement for this summer’s Bonnaroo Music Festival will be this Wednesday, February 1st. This announcement will include an initial lineup of artists, as well as ticket on-sale information for the festival being held June 16-18, 2006.

For updated info on Bonnaroo, please visit bonnaroo.com.

Musically speaking, there are few events as highly anticipated as the venerable Mac Rebennack, aka, Dr. John, performing “live” in New Orleans. Perhaps the greatest living musician from the Crescent City, the Doctor’s hometown appearances always prove to be a full-scale celebration of New Orleans culture and people. Add Mardi Gras night at Tipitina’s into the mix and the stage is set for an intangible X-factor to enter the musical equation. Proof of that resounds in the forthcoming, Right Place, Right Time: Live At Tipitina’s Mardi Gras ’89, a single disc set capturing the one and only New Orleans Night Tripper, Dr. John, on Mardi Gras night 1989 at the hallowed Big Easy music venue, Tipitina’s. Scheduled for release on March 14, 2006, Right Place, Right Time is Volume Two of “The Rebennack Chronicles” on Dr. John’s Skinji Brim imprint distributed through HYENA Records and produced by Joel Dorn.

Playing off the title of one of Dr. John’s biggest hits, “Right Place, Wrong Time” (which topped the rock charts in 1973), Right Place, Right Time opens to the introduction: “Ladies and gentleman, Mardi Gras ’89 here at Tipitina’s, The High Priest, The Night Tripper, Dr. John!” The good Doctor and company blast into the “jailbird beat” of the New Orleans standard, “Junco Partner.” It’s a full-tilt boogie ‘n’ blues number based primarily on Dr. John’s “steady comin’ at ya” piano groove. Joined here by an all-star New Orleans band, including Tommy Moran on guitar, David Barard on electric bass, Herman Ernest III on drums, Trazi Williams on percussion, Amadee Castanell on saxophones and Charlie Miller on trumpet, they follow with the Gerry Goffin/Mac Rebennack-penned number, “Renegade.” The version is highlighted by an extended breakdown complete with a fiery Dr. John sermon that declares, “I like to do what I wanna do anytime I feel like doing what I wanna do, I like to say what I feel like sayin’ anytime I feel like sayin’ how I want to say it.” It’s vintage Night Tripper.

Mardi Gras wouldn’t be complete without a nod to voodoo. “I Walk On Guilded Splinters” takes care of that. Locked to a hypnotic pulse, Dr. John sings in a haunted cadence, while saxophonist Amadee Castanell summons the spirits with a fiery solo that reverberates through Tipitina’s. The band picks the tempo back up with a stellar reading of “Traveling Mood,” a classic first performed by Dr. John on his 1973 album, In The Right Place. The audience’s elation is clearly audible.

As the evening proceeds, Dr. John keeps the music coming with stand-out numbers like “Black Widow,” “Kinfolks,” the Earl King gem “Let The Good Times Roll,” and the Louis Jordan classic “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying.” Tipitina’s hits the stratosphere as Dr. John rounds out the set with rave-up renditions of the Willie Dixon show stopper, “Wang Dang Doodle” and his own, “Such A Night.” As the music fades, it’s hard not to think of New Orleans in better days, but like a well-timed postcard from the past, Right Place, Right Time keeps the spirit of the magical city alive and well.

“The Rebennack Chronicles” began in 2004 with the release of All By Hisself: Live At The Lonestar. It featured Dr. John alone on vocals and piano at the late, lamented New York City nightclub, The Lonestar. The series is drawn from a collection of over 600 cassette recordings of Dr. John performances that’ve been passed along to him at concerts over the last 20 years.

Gordon Stone will head out on the road this month, touring the northeast before appearing at the previously announced snoe.down festival hosted by moe. in Lake Placid, NY.

Tour dates include:

01-26-2006 American Flatbread Burlington Hearth, Burlington, VT

01-27-2006 The Monopole, Plattsburg, NY

01-28-2006 RiRa’s, Burlington, VT

01-31-2006 Stone, Coane, Sacher Bluegrass at The Lincoln Inn, Essex Junction, VT

02-02-2006 American Flatbread Burlington Hearth, Burlington, VT

02-03-2006 Stone, Coane & Sacher – The Black Door, Montpelier, VT

02-04-2006 Olde Yankee Restaurant, Jericho, VT

02-09-2006 American Flatbread Burlington Hearth, Burlington, VT

02-10-2006 Miguel’s Stowe Away, Burlington, VT

02-16-2006 American Flatbread Burlington Hearth, Burlington, VT

02-18-2006 Burke Ski Resort, Burke Mountain, VT

02-24-2006 The Black Door, Montpelier, VT

03-10-2006 Langdon Street Cafe, Montpelier, VT

03-17-2006 snoe.down – moe.s Winter Music Festival, Lake Placid, NY
moe. will host Snoe.down March 17-19, 2006. This event, which kicks off the week long Adirondack Almost Springfest celebration, will take place at the famed Olympic Center in Lake Placid, NY, home of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics, and at nearby Whiteface.

Great Northeast Productions, the organizers behind all of Phish’s legendary festivals, have joined with moe. to make Snoe.down a unique Winter event not to be missed.

Tickets for Snoe.down are on sale now at the Olympic Center Box Office. Snoe.down tickets may also be purchased by phone at 518-523-3330 or via internet at orda.org and tickets.com.

03-18-2006 Acoustic Cafe – Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, NH

The Slip will be touring to SXSW in Austin, TX in early March. Full details will be announced shortly, but the early details have been posted. Beginning in Ithaca, the band will make it’s way through the northeast before making appearances at the SXSW festival in Texas. Colorado shows are also expected. Apollo Sunshine and Sam Champion will open each show from March 1 to March 11.

Mar 1 2006 Castaway’s Ithaca, NY

Mar 2 2006 Main Hall Montreal

Mar 3 2006 Higher Ground Burlington, VT

Mar 4 2006 TBA Upstate NY

Mar 5 2006 Mezzanote Syracuse, NY

Mar 6 2006 The Icon Buffalo, NY

Mar 7 2006 Mr. Small’s Pittsburgh, PA

Mar 8 2006 Grog Shop Cleveland, OH

Mar 9 2006 TBA Columbus, OH

Mar 10 2006 Martyr’s Chicago, IL

Mar 11 2006 TBA Columbia, MO

Mar 14-18 2006 SXSW Austin, TX

Mar 17 2006 Brad Barr Solo SXSW Austin

Mar 22-25 2006 TBA Colorado Tour

Jack Johnson will be joined by Ben Harper and Willie Nelson and the Planetary Bandits at his third annual Kokua Festival. The event will be held April 19 at Maui’s Arts and Cultural Center and April 22 (Earth Day) at the Waikiki Shell in Honolulu. The lineup also features Henry Kapono, Paula Fuga and Animal Liberation Orchestra.

Proceeds from the shows will benefit the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, which works to preserve Hawaii’s natural environment. Some funds have been earmarked to expand recycling programs in schools, sponsor field trips and curriculum development.

Local environmental groups will be on hand at both shows, which will also offer local organic food vendors, childrens’ activities and goods purveyed by environmentally friendly, Hawaii-based companies.

Tickets go on sale Feb. 4 via Ticketmaster, but a limited number of pre-sale tickets will be available beginning Jan. 28 via Johnson’s official Web site.

Johnson is gearing up for the Feb. 7 release of the soundtrack to the animated film “Curious George,” which features a number of his songs plus appearances by Harper, G. Love and Matt Costa.

He is also about to embark on an extensive international tour, beginning Feb. 22 in Dublin and wrapping April 15 in Chiba, Japan.

Source billboard.com.

Up-and-coming British rock act Nine Black Alps is plotting a spring North American tour with Giant Drag and the Cribs, lead singer Sam Forrest tells Billboard.com. “We know both those bands really well, so that would be ace,” he says. An appearance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in late April in Indio, Calif., is “on my schedule, but I’m not sure if that’s confirmed,” according to Forrest.

Nine Black Alps will be out behind its full-length debut, “Everything Is,” due Feb. 28 via Interscope. The set has been out since last fall in the band’s native land, and in the ensuing months, a number of new songs have taken shape.

“Hopefully on the American tour we should get a few new songs out there,” Forrest says. “In England, we have to do hour-long sets on a headline tour, but our album is only 30 minutes long. We have to play B-sides and things nobody really knows. I actually prefer some of the B-sides to the songs on the album.”

Forrest says the time lag between the album’s American release has allowed the band to “correct all the mistakes we made the first time around in England. We were so new to it. We didn’t know what we’re doing. Now we can relax and hopefully take control and rely less on other people’s wisdom.”

Later this month, Nine Black Alps will be back in the studio to begin work on its sophomore album. “I’ve got tons of songs written — over 30, I think,” Forrest says. “Most of January we’ll be in our rehearsal space in Manchester, bashing things out and seeing what works and seeing what direction it takes. That’s the most exciting time for us — when you actually realize what you’re trying to achieve or how good you are.”

The band will return to the road Feb. 9, when a two-week U.K./Ireland trek kicks off in Belfast. Asked how closely he’s following the much buzzed-about new wave of young English acts that have emerged of late, Forrest says, “We don’t have much in common with them musically. I don’t really see any of them as our contemporaries, really. It’s based on geography rather than musicality.”

Source billboard.com.

Soul/R&B legend Wilson Pickett died of a heart attack today (Jan. 19) at a hospital near his Virginia home, according to a spokesperson. He was 64.

Born in Pratville, Ala., Pickett moved to Detroit as a teen and joined the Falcons, singing on their 1962 hit “I Found a Love.” By 1965, he had signed a solo deal with Atlantic, scoring a No. 21 pop hit with “In the Midnight Hour,” which he co-wrote with legendary sessions musician Steve Cropper.

A slew of late ’60s R&B/soul hits followed, including “Land of 1,000 Dances,” “Funky Broadway,” “634-5789,” “She’s Lookin’ Good” and “Mustang Sally.” As the ’70s dawned, Pickett scored three consecutive top 20 pop singles with “Engine Number 9,” “Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You” and “Don’t Knock My Love Pt. 1.”

In all, five of his singles reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B charts. Pickett associated himself with some of the top sessions musicians of the time, and was a frequent visitor to Stax and Muscle Shoals Studios. He even hired the late Duane Allman to play guitar on his 1969 cover of the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.”

Pickett recorded regularly into the mid 1980s and was a 1991 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That year, his career was revived thanks to the film “The Commitments,” which followed an unknown Irish soul band of the same name pursuing its dream of performing with Pickett. The artist also joined the band for performances at the Los Angeles and New York film premieres.

The artist’s last studio album, 1999’s “It’s Harder Now,” won WC Handy Awards for soul/blues album of the year and comeback album of the year, while Pickett was named soul/blues male artist of the year.

Pickett is survived by his fiance and four children. He will be buried beside his mother Lena in Louisville, Ky.

Source billboard.com.