News

British rock quintet GOMEZ have confirmed a five-city, ten-date tour of the western U.S. in January 2005. The run will feature three performances in San Francisco; two each in the San Diego area, San Francisco and Boulder, CO; and one concluding show in Colorado Springs, CO. See below for a complete list of tour dates.

Gomez, whose 1998 debut BRING IT ON won the U.K.’s prestigious Mercury Music Prize, released their fourth LP SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE through Virgin Records in May. (The band and label have since parted ways.) The group enjoyed a breakthrough year in the U.S. on the strength of the album, which was produced by Tchad Blake (Neil Finn, Soul Coughing, Phish). Gomez performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in June and headlined a successful five-week summer tour in July and August. They also appeared on CBS’s The Late Late Show and NBC’s Last Call with Carson Daly.

Rolling Stone said of SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE, “Gomez pour on the punch that makes their live shows such a gas. The fuzz ‘n’ swing in ‘Do One’ proves that Gomez are a better rock band than they’ve been willing to admit.” The New York Times raved, “‘We Don’t Know Where We’re Going’ illustrates its title with a Ping-Pong stereo introduction, amazing on headphones, played on acoustic guitars so rhythmically perfect some listeners will have seizures… If only all stupid rock music could be this intelligent.”

GOMEZ 2005 U.S. TOUR DATES

January
14 – Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up Tavern
15 – Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up Tavern
17 – West Hollywood, CA – House Of Blues
18 – West Hollywood, CA – House Of Blues
20 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
21 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
22 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
24 – Boulder, CO – Fox Theatre
25 – Boulder, CO – Fox Theatre
26 – Colorado Springs, CO – 32 Bleu

We are sad to report that a note posted on the official AGP website indicates that bassist John Hall has passed away after battling cancer for the past year and a half.

Our thoughts are with the Hall family, friends and the entire Addison Groove Project community at this time.

To share memories, stories or comments about John, or to read the note from the band, please visit addisongrooveproject.com

Iggy and the Stooges, the Black Keys and Pete Yorn are among the artists who have contributed tracks to a forthcoming tribute to Junior Kimbrough. The independent Fat Possum label will release “Sunday Nights: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough” Jan. 17, the exact six year anniversary of the death of the blues guitar great.

“Sunday Nights” includes 14 songs, including two takes of “You Better Run” recorded in the spring by founding Stooges members Iggy Pop (vocals), Ron Asheton (guitar) and Scott Asheton (drums), with punk rock icon Mike Watt standing in for late bassist Dave Alexander. The set will mark the first release by this lineup of the band, which has toured the United States twice since early 2003.

“Here is the “Sunday Nights: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough” track list:

“You Better Run” (first version), Iggy and the Stooges
“Sad Days Lonely Nights,” Spiritualized
“Meet Me In the City,” Blues Explosion with Elliott Smith
“Done Got Old,” Heartless Bastards
“My Mind Is Rambling,” the Black Keys
“I’m Leaving,” Fiery Furnaces
“I Feel Good Again,” Pete Yorn
“Do the Romp,” Cat Power & Entrance
“All Night Long,” Mark Lanegan
“Release Me,” Thee Shams
“Done Got Old,” Jim White
“Lord Have Mercy On Me,” Outrageous Cherry
“Pull Your Clothes Off,” Whitey Kirst
“Burn In Hell,” the Ponys
“You Better Run” (second version), Iggy and the Stooges

Source billboard.com.

Sony Corp unveiled its first MP3-compatible, hard disk Walkman music player on Tuesday in an attempt to recover ground lost to Apple Computer’s iPod.

The world’s biggest consumer electronics maker aims to reclaim the market for portable and personal music devices, which it helped to launch 25 years ago with its first Walkman.

The product will be available in Britain before Christmas at 249 pounds ($462.70) and elsewhere in Europe in early 2005 at 369 euros ($489).

The new hard disk player is the successor of Sony’s first hard disk Walkman, which it introduced this summer but which can play back only music compressed with Sony’s proprietary Atrac software. Atrac is the format Sony uses on its Internet music shop Connect, which opened in Europe this summer.

Putting MP3 playback capability in the new Sony Walkman NW-HD3 means consumers can directly import and export tracks in the MP3 format, which is more popular than Atrac.

Sony Europe President Chris Deering said the new Walkman was important to the success of Connect, whose performance to date he described as “not an entrenched recognizable service.”

Sony has sold 340 million Walkman devices over the past 25 years, including models based on compact disks and on minidisks.

Apple’s iPod, the world’s best-selling hard disk portable music player which works with the most popular music store, iTunes, also allows MP3 playback. At Apple’s online music store, however, consumers can buy only in Apple’s own format.

Mutually exclusive
Consumers who buy songs at iTunes Music Store cannot play these back on a Sony network Walkman, and Connect customers cannot play back songs on an iPod. Microsoft also uses a proprietary compression format on its Internet music store, open only to consumers who own Windows Media-enabled devices.

Sony’s new 20 gigabyte Walkman is 30 pounds more expensive than Apple’s 20 gigabyte product selling for 219 pounds.

But Sony says the device comes in five colors, plays 2.5 times longer on one battery charge than iPod’s 12 hours and can contain 10,000 to 13,000 songs, at least twice as many as an iPod because of Atrac’s better compression technology.

Sony President Kunitake Ando said this summer, at the launch of the new Walkman, that he was determined to take the spotlight in the market for portable music players away from iPod.

“I don’t know if we can take this market back in a year … But this launch is our message that we will work hard to put an end to the dominance by just one company,” Ando said.

Source CNN.com.

While Tony Iommi has released albums under his own name before, he has never toured outside of Black Sabbath. This should change next year, after the guitarist issues a new album with ex-Deep Purple vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes.

“Glenn’s a true professional, and he’s very energetic,” says Iommi, who plans to tour with Hughes stateside. “He comes up with stuff instantly.”

Iommi and Hughes both hail from northern England, and they’ve crossed paths many times as members of Sabbath and Purple (most notably at the mammoth 1974 Cal Jam festival). Hughes briefly joined Sabbath in 1986, singing on Seventh Star and fronting the band for a handful of shows before abruptly exiting. A decade later, Iommi and Hughes recorded a collection of songs that were shelved when Iommi reunited with the original Sabbath lineup. This past September, the tracks were finally issued as The 1996 DEP Sessions.

The album’s release rekindled the veteran rockers’ desire to work together, and they — along with ex-John Mellencamp drummer Kenny Aronoff — are currently working on new songs in England. They plan to enter a recording studio around Christmas, and release the new album next year on Sanctuary Records.

Compared to the melodic DEP Sessions, the new material is “more riff-oriented,” explains Iommi. He also promises that, like its impromptu predecessor, the songs will “come together very, very quick.”

As for Black Sabbath’s long-rumored follow-up to 1978’s aptlytitled Never Say Die, Iommi is holding out hope for regrouping in the studio with Ozzy Osbourne and Co. “I’d like to think that we’ll be doing another album,” he says. “With Sabbath, things just happen. We weren’t supposed to be doing the last Ozzfest, but we did.”

Source rollingstone.cm.

Franz Ferdinand bassist Bob Hardy has been hospitalised in Japan

Rock ‘n’ roll fans with deep pockets can buy a Beatles guitar or a mugshot of the pop star formerly known as Cat Stevens at what Christie’s calls its biggest auction of show business memorabilia.

The Gibson SG electric guitar, played by George Harrison from 1966-1969, is the star attraction among over 400 lots, ranging from Britney Spears’ book report to a handwritten 1991 letter from the late Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love.

The guitar, expected to fetch around $500,000, was used while recording the Beatles’ “Revolver” album and in two Beatles films “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.”

John Lennon also played it on what is commonly known as “The White Album.”

Another big draw at the December 17 sale is a Keith Richards guitar from around 1964-1965, which he played when the Rolling Stones appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Singer Mick Jagger also played the guitar during the “Beggar’s Banquet” recording sessions. It is estimated to sell for about $400,000.

The Beatles guitar was recently rediscovered and has been on loan to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2002.

Source: cnn.com

For some Southern rockers

GorillaPop launches the first social networking service bringing
people together based on their favorite music. GorillaPop’s new service makes it easy, and fun, for people who love the same kind of music to connect from anywhere around the world.

Monitoring songs someone plays on their computer, GorillaPop builds a real time profile of a person’s musical preferences. This data along with other search criteria (sex, age, location, etc…), provide an ever changing landscape of possibilities for people to meet, discover new music, and maybe even find their funk/soul mate.

For more information see – gorillapop.com

The String Cheese Incident will ring in this New Year in the Big Apple. The band is confirmed to perform December 28 and 29 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden and December 31 at Radio City Music Hall. Radio City Music Hall is sold out but a few tickets still remain for December 28 and 29.

In year’s past The String Cheese Incident have announced a NYE theme and audience participatory opportunities. This year the band is forgoing the hoopla, instead opting for a good ‘ole rock &; roll concert. What better place than New York City’s historic Radio City Music Hall for a straight up, no chaser rock show? This SCI New York New Year’s run marks the band’s first NYE on the east coast!

Throughout the year, The String Cheese Incident and their community continued to nurture Gouda Causes, the band’s philanthropic arm. Activities during 2004 included local cleanups close to home in Telluride, Colorado, and as far as Byron Bay Australia. In addition, Conscious Alliance has been on the road with SCI for every show this year. So far this year Conscious Alliance and Gouda Causes have collected over 16 tons of food donations to help feed America’s hungry. Gouda Causes and Conscious Alliance will be hosting yet another food drive along this New Year’s Eve run. Concert attendees are encouraged to bring 10 non-perishable food items to the shows in exchange for an exclusive food drive poster. All donations will go to local affiliates of America’s Second Harvest Food Share and to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

During the beginning of 2005, The String Cheese Incident will be wrapping-up studio time with producer Malcom Burns (Bob Dylan, Chris Whitley, Emmylou Harris, Daniel Lanois). Malcom and the band are to begin recording SCI’s fifth studio album this December, at a private studio in the hills of their hometown, Boulder, Colorado.