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Ween has tacked on additional dates to its fall North American tour, with a new leg scheduled to begin Oct. 31 with a Halloween show in Boulder, Colo., and wrap Nov. 10 in Bloomington, Ind. The seven-date first leg runs from Oct. 8 in Girdwood, Alaska, to Oct. 17 in San Diego.

In the meantime, a post on the band’s official Web site reveals, “We have slowly started to prepare to begin thinking about talking about working on the new album and are very excited by the prospect of the talks. We’ve basically written and recorded a few songs and are moving forward on the record at our typically slow pace.” The next installment in the group’s self-released live series is also in the planning stages.

Here are Ween’s new tour dates:

Oct. 31-Nov. 1: Boulder, Colo. (Boulder Theatre)
Nov. 3: Tulsa, Okla. (Cain’s Ballroom)
Nov. 4: Lawrence, Kan. (Liberty Hall)
Nov. 5: Omaha, Neb. (Sokol Auditorium)
Nov. 7: Des Moines, Iowa (Val Air Ballroom)
Nov. 8: Madison, Wis. (Orpheum Theater)
Nov. 9: Cincinnati (Bogart’s)
Nov. 10: Bloomington, Ind. (Axis)

Source billboard.com.

Beginning October 12, Nickel Creek and Howie Day are heading out on a co-headliner.

That’s right: the bluegrass phenoms are going to match forces with the pop sensibilities of Day. How in the heck did this creative packaging come about?

As it turns out, Creek got to see Day play last year at Boulder, Colo.’s Fox Theatre. The band’s mandolin player, Chris Thile – himself an awesome musician – stood at the front of the stage, watching in awe.

That’s not uncommon. Day recently mesmerized the audience at the Austin City Limits Music Festival, creating his own percussion by basically pounding on his acoustic guitar and playing back the recorded sound.

It also happens that Nickel Creek and Day are booked by William Morris Agency and the respective agents, Jay Williams in Nashville and Aaron Pinkus in Los Angeles, are friends who have talked about putting their bands out on the same bill.

It’s a hit already: both agents are reporting brisk ticket sales. The ticket price is at $25 or less in most markets, which is less than Nickel Creek charges on its own.

The tour should introduce the artists to new fans. Nickel Creek has a hipster bluegrass following and Day appeals mostly to the college set.This could be a battle of the musicians, and Pinkus speculated that these ringers might find themselves stepping up to the next level because of it.

The tour ends November 3 because Nickel Creek needs to go back to the studio to record their next album. If things go well, though, there may be another road trip in the summer.

The tour covers much of the East Coast, including Portland, Maine; Pittsburgh; Newport News, Va.; Philadelphia; Nashville; and Kansas City, Mo.

Source pollstar.com.

The December 14 home video release of director Peter Jackson’s extended version of the Academy Award-winning The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King will feature 50 additional minutes of new footage, a new musical score and a cameo appearance of Jackson being felled by an arrant arrow.

The 200-minute theatrical version of King has sold more than 10 million combined DVD and VHS units since its May 25 release, according to several industry sources.

The extended-version home-video releases of the first two films in the Rings trilogy, Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, have sold about 5 million combined DVD and VHS units each, generating high sales expectations for the $39.99 extended King release.

The extended four-disc DVD and double-cassette VHS will feature 300 additional special effects shots and scenes among the 50 additional minutes of never-before-seen footage, giving the new extended version a 250-minute running time.

The limited collector’s edition DVD of the King extended version includes a fifth disc that contains a 52-minute feature, “Howard Shore: Creating the Lord of the Rings Symphony — A Composer’s Journey Through Middle-Earth.” The bonus feature includes excerpts of live concert footage of the Lord of the Rings Symphony recorded with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. There’s also a hand-painted polystone sculpture of Minas Tirith and its accompanying keepsake box.

All DVD and VHS extended versions of “King” will be featured in a widescreen format with Dolby Digital EX 5.1 Surround Sound, DTS ES 6.1 Surround Sound and stereo surround sound.

The extended-version DVD also offers four audio commentaries. One is from Jackson, while the other three include members of the cast and the production crew — among them actors Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Orlando Bloom and Academy Award winners Richard Taylor (makeup), Howard Shore (music) and Randy Cook (visual effects).

Source: CNN.

Some of the top names in bluegrass and country music have signed on for the 2005 edition of MerleFest, to be held April 28-May 1 at Wilkesboro, N.C. Among the first batch of confirmed artists are Loretta Lynn, the Del McCoury Band, Allison Moorer, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Vassar Clements and Jerry Douglas.

Veteran Irish act the Chieftains will perform on two nights with guests from the 2002 album “Down the Old Plank Road,” including Doc Watson, Douglas, John Hiatt, McCoury, Moorer, Scruggs, Skaggs and Bela Fleck.

In addition, MerleFest will boast a reunion of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, whose ranks included Scruggs, Clements, McCoury, Peter Rowan, Bobby Hicks and Roland White, among others.

Rounding out this year’s lineup are Henry Butler, Rodney Crowell, BR549, Buddy Miller, Tony Rice Unit, Jim Lauderdale and Robert Lockwood Jr. Tickets for the event on go on sale Nov. 9.

Source billboard.com.

Following a brief European tour, Tom Waits has scheduled a lone U.S. concert date this year. The Oct. 18 show at Seattle’s Paramount Theater will be one of only two North American shows the artist has planned in 2004, the other coming Oct. 15 in Vancouver.

Because Waits has rarely toured in recent years, word of his performances has been met with overwhelming response from fans. The Vancouver show sold out in just nine minutes, according to a representative for the artist, while requests for tickets greatly outpaced availability for European theater stops in London, Antwerp and Berlin. Tickets for a Nov. 19-21 stand in Amsterdam will to on sale Saturday (Oct. 2).

Along with Waits’ new Anti- studio album, “Real Gone,” tickets for the Seattle show will go on sale as the clock strikes midnight on Oct. 5 at the city’s two Tower Records locations. Remaining tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. that day via Ticketmaster and the 2,800-capacity venue’s box office.

Waits, who will make a rare television appearance tomorrow (Sept. 28) on CBS’ “The Late Show With David Letterman,” will be backed on the road by bassist Larry Taylor, guitarist Marc Ribot and percussionist Brain. All three appear on “Real Gone,” Waits’ 20th album and fourth for Epitaph Records imprint Anti-.

As previously reported, the album was recorded in an old Mississippi schoolhouse and boasts appearances by Primus founder Les Claypool, Shotgun Messiah’s Harry Cody (guitar, banjo), as well as Waits’ son, Casey. It was written and produced by Waits and his wife/longtime collaborator Kathleen Brennan.

A larger U.S. tour in support of the set is possible in 2005, although nothing is yet confirmed. Waits last toured the country in 1999 in support of his Anti- debut, “Mule Variations.”

Source billboard.com.

U2 has confirmed the full track list for its upcoming album, “How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” due Nov. 23 via Interscope. The set does not include the tracks “Tough” or “Full Metal Jacket,” which band members had previously mentioned as possible selections. Among the newly announced titles are “Miracle Drug,” “One Step Closer” and “Love and Peace or Else.”

The album’s first single, “Vertigo,” is already making a bomb-size impact at U.S. radio outlets. After just three days of airplay, the cut is expected to debut this week in the top 20 of Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart and the top 30 of the Mainstream Rock Tracks tally.

At present, “Vertigo” is exclusively available for download via Apple’s iTunes Music Store. According to a spokesperson, the track ascended into the service’s top 10 within 24 hours and is now No. 1 on the list of most downloaded selections.

U2’s official Web site is hosting clips of the band performing “Vertigo” in its Dublin recording studio plus other exclusive footage of a recent photo shoot.

And while the band is not expected to begin touring until next spring, tidbits have begun leaking out about specific stops. According to Ireland’s Sunday Business Report, U2 will play Dublin’s Croke Park on June 26-27, with the possibility of a third show depending on demand.

Here is the track list for “How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”:

“Vertigo”
“Miracle Drug”
“Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own”
“Love and Peace or Else”
“City of Blinding Lights”
“All Because of You”
“A Man and a Woman”
“Crumbs From Your Table”
“One Step Closer”
“Original of the Species”
“Yahweh”

Source billboard.com.

Record producer Phil Spector was charged in an indictment unsealed today (Sept. 27) with murder in the shooting death of a B-movie actress at his mansion last year.

Spector, 64, leaned on the arm of his attorney as the indictment in the slaying of 40-year-old Lana Clarkson was read, but showed no emotion. Outside the Los Angeles court, he railed at prosecutors, comparing District Attorney Steve Cooley to Adolf Hitler.

“The actions of the Hitler-like DA and his storm trooper henchmen are reprehensible, unconscionable and despicable,” said Spector, who remains free on $1 million bail.

He spoke only briefly in court, answering, “Yes, your honor,” to Judge David S. Wesley’s questions. Lesley set Dec. 16 as the earliest possible trial date.

Spector, creator of rock music’s “Wall of Sound” recording technique in the 1960s, suggested in an interview with Esquire magazine that Clarkson shot herself.

If he had been allowed a preliminary hearing, Spector said, his attorneys would have called to the witness stand three of the foremost forensic scientists and coroners in the world and each would have testified that Clarkson shot herself. Prosecutors avoided a preliminary hearing by taking the case directly to a grand jury, which returned the indictments.

District attorney spokesperson Sandi Gibbons said that was done in part to avoid any further delay in bringing Spector to trial for the Feb. 3, 2003, shooting. “It’s been almost two years since Ms. Clarkson was killed in Mr. Spector’s home and it’s time for a trial,” she said. “We believe there is a crime. We charged a crime. And that crime is murder. Nothing is politically motivated in this case.”

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. Spector could receive a life sentence with the possibility of parole if convicted.

The judge agreed to keep the trial in Los Angeles rather than move it to Pasadena, closer to Spector’s home in Alhambra. Attorneys for both sides expressed concern about the crush of reporters expected to attend it, and the courtrooms in Los Angeles are bigger.

Clarkson starred in Roger Corman’s cult film classic “Barbarian Queen.” She was working as a hostess at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip and went home from there with Spector the night she was killed.

Source billboard.com.

Sundance Channel will broadcast the Oct. 11 finale of the Vote for Change tour in Washington, D.C. Along with live concert footage of the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Dave Matthews Band and James Taylor, “National Anthem: Inside the ‘Vote for Change’ Concert Tour” will feature pre-taped behind-the-scenes segments lensed by veteran filmmakers Albert Maysles and D A Pennebaker.

Each of the dozen-plus artists are expected to perform for about 22 minutes at the Oct. 11 show, which wraps a 10-day Vote for Choice blitz through upcoming presidential election battleground states.

A Sundance spokesperson tells Billboard.com Maysles and Pennebaker will be on the road with the Vote for Choice tour in the days ahead to document rehearsals and off-stage interaction between the acts.

“From the Kennedys to Dylan, the Beatles, and Stones, Al Maysles and D A Pennebaker are the pre-eminent observers of politics and music in our time,” says Sundance founder Robert Redford. “Sundance is pleased to present these legendary filmmakers’ view of the collision between pop culture and politics at this fascinating moment in U.S. history.”

“This documentary presents a unique opportunity to extend the music from this amazing finale show beyond the walls of the arena to a broader audience, and provide viewers with an insider’s look at what the ‘Vote for Change’ tour is all about,” says Springsteen manager Jon Landau.

According to Pearl Jam’s official Web site, the show may also by Webcast, with details to be announced.

Source billboard.com.

Fans of the Band should mark their calendars for May 2005, when Capitol/EMI is slated to release a box set, curated by band member Robbie Robertson. “I’m working on the definitive musical history of the Band,” Robertson tells Billboard. The seminal group, which included Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel, famously disbanded in 1976, as captured in the Martin Scorsese-directed concert film, “The Last Waltz.”

Robertson says the five-CD set will include more than 100 songs, many of them previously unreleased, as well as a DVD. The artist was also involved in “Across the Great Divide,” a three-CD set released in 1994. However, this Band collection will include more unreleased material.

Billboard caught up with Robertson at a party for the film “Ladder 49,” where he performed his song “Shine Your Light,” the movie’s end title, and jammed with Dave Stewart and the party’s host, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Robertson says he is also revisiting the music for “Raging Bull” for a two-CD soundtrack that will be released Feb. 15 by Capitol. He wrote the source music and scored three pieces for the 1980 movie, as well as selected the other music with director Scorsese.

“I’m just finishing mixing and compiling the original music. It’s 38 tracks,” Robertson says. Additionally, he and Scorsese wrote the liner notes. It marks the first time a soundtrack to the film has been released. A special-edition DVD of “Raging Bull” comes out Dec. 14.

But Robertson seems most excited about his work on a Native American musical with the working title “Ceremony.” The artist, who is part Native American, is writing the music for the Broadway project, David Henry Wang (“M. Butterfly”) is penning the book and David Lavoie (“Nine”) is directing.

Source billboard.com.

Perpetual Groove, which by all accounts is comprised of four movie geeks (insert “PG” joke here) will be performing selections from the soundtracks of two of their favorite Cohen Brother’s movies, “The Big Lebowski” and “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou,” for their annual Halloweekend Festivities. The band will be celebrating Halloween twice, once on Saturday in Jacksonville at The Freebird and then again the following night in Tampa, helping to close out the annual Guavaween celebration at The Masquerade. Both shows are featured stops on the band’s October Speed of Surround Tour, which is being presented in full 5.1 surround sound. Expect costumes galore, more musical bust outs, and of course, some crazy stage antics. We’ll see you in Florida!

Tickets for the Freebird show are $10 adv / $15 dos and can be purchased through Ticketmaster. The Freebird show is all ages.

Tickets for the Masquerade show are $12 adv and can be purchased through their website at www.masqueradetampa.com.