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Paul Westerberg, Bob Mould, the Gear Daddies are confirmed for an Oct. 23 benefit concert in Minneapolis for Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller, who was recently diagnosed with throat cancer. According to Westerberg’s official Web site, the show, to be held at the Quest, will also feature members of Soul Asylum as well as the super group Golden Smog, staffed by members of Wilco and the Jayhawks. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

Westerberg recently told Billboard.com that for one of the first times since the demise of the Replacements, he considered reuniting the band for the benefit. “I didn’t call the guys myself,” he admitted. “One of our old roadie pals came over who owns a bar now and runs a club and was asking if I would do a benefit for Karl and I said, ‘See if the boys want to play.’ And he kind of went around and got various answers and it didn’t come back real strong like, ‘Hey let’s do it.’ And I felt like that was the opportunity, that was the chance and we just missed it.

“Now I say, there’s probably no chance we’ll get back together again,” he said, without pinpointing which former band mates were not interested. “It bothered me for like an afternoon,” he laughed. “But, it did bother me for that long because I was secretly excited and some of them weren’t.”

As previously reported, Columbia/Legacy will on Oct. 12 release the Soul Asylum concert set “After the Flood: Live From the Grand Forks Prom.” The album was taped June 28, 1997, at the Grand Forks Airbase in North Dakota. The veteran rock act accepted an offer from two area high schools to perform, after the town was decimated by heavy flooding.

Source billboard.com.

Eleven never-before-heard tracks will be unveiled on Matador’s 10th anniversary edition of seminal indie rock act Pavement’s sophomore album, “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.” Due Oct. 26, the double-disc set sports 14 additional unreleased versions of songs from the album, including a 1994 Peel Session on BBC Radio. The package will include a 40-page booklet with essays, rare Pavement photos and memorabilia.

“There’s some things I would veto now and then, but Matador more than anything has been the driving force in digging up stuff and making these records into ’90s classics,” Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus tells Billboard.com with a chuckle. “I mean, they’re doing a 40-page booklet! I didn’t even know there was that much stuff that you could use for this!”

Thanks to such infectious cuts as “Range Life,” “Gold Soundz” and “Cut Your Hair,” “Crooked Rain” exposed Pavement to listeners well beyond the confines of indie rock. The set is the band’s top-selling to date, having shifted more than 234,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

“There are some extras that I guess just failed,” Malkmus says of unreleased tracks like “All My Friends,” “Hands off the Bayou” and “Flood Victim.” “There are some full songs that are pretty cool; they sound just like ‘Crooked Rain.’ They maybe have not as good mixes or bad singing, or are just slightly inferior. But they’re still pretty good.”

Malkmus says he never listens to old Pavement albums, but was pleased to hear “Crooked Rain” recently in a bar in his Portland, Ore., home base. “I made an effort to record it and mix it in a way that was not completely ’90s,” he says of the album. “In the end, if you listened to it a lot when it came out, it will take you back to that time. It’s just a little more fleshed out than [the 1992 debut album] ‘Slanted and Enchanted.’ It’s not necessarily more ambitious, but just by making a second album, it’s more ambitious. On a first album, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Pavement split after 1999’s “Terror Twilight,” with Malkmus going on to a solo career leading the band the Jicks. He says there’s no fundamental obstacle to a Pavement reunion some day, but it’s not something he’s anticipating in the near future.

“It doesn’t feel exactly right yet for me to do it,” he admits. “I mean, it could. I guess you just know when it’s right, just like so many other things in your life. Or, you force it due to financial reasons or someone telling you how much you could make. No one has told us that, so that’s not an issue at all. But we all get along; no one is like a lawyer with a huge caseload or has lost an arm.”

As for the possibility of future expanded editions of other Pavement albums, Malkmus says, “they might run out of B-sides and stuff at [1995’s] ‘Wowee Zowee.’ But they could go up to [1997’s] ‘Brighten the Corners.’ There’s a million extra songs from that one. That’s a case where there are songs that were undoubtedly better than the ones on the album. Ultimately, it depends on how special Matador think the records are and if other people do too.”

Here is the track list for “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain”:

Disc one: “Back to the Gold Soundz” (Phantom Power Parable)
“Silence Kit”
“Elevate Me Later”
“Stop Breathin”
“Cut Your Hair”
“Newark Wilder”
“Unfair”
“Gold Soundz”
“5-4=Unity”
“Range Life”
“Heaven Is a Truck”
“Hit the Plane Down”
“Fillmore Jive”
“Camera” (“Cut Your Hair” B-side)
“Stare” (“Cut Your Hair” B-side)
“Raft” (“Range Life” B-side)
“Coolin’ by Sound” (“Range Life” B-side)
“Kneeling Bus” (“Gold Soundz” B-side)
“Strings of Nashville” (“Gold Soundz” B-side)
“Exit Theory” (“Gold Soundz” B-side)
“5-4 Vocal” (“Gold Soundz” B-side)
“Jam Kids” (“Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” bonus 7-inch)
“Haunt You Down” (“Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” bonus 7-inch)
“Unseen Power of the Picket Fence” (from “No Alternative”)
“Nail Clinic” (from “Hey Drag City!”)

Disc two: “After the Glow (Where Eagles Dare)”:
“All My Friends”
“Soiled Little Filly”
“Range Life”
“Stop Breathin”
“Ell Ess Two”
“Flux=Rad”
“Bad Version of War”
“Same Way of Staying”
“Hands Off the Bayou”
“Heaven Is a Truck (Egg Shell)”
“Grounded”
“Kennel District”
“Pueblo (Beach Boys)”
“F***ing Righteous”
“Colorado”
“Dark Ages”
“Flood Victim”
“JMC Retro”
“Rug Rat”
“String of Nashville (instrumental)”
“Instrumental”
“Brink of the Clouds” (John Peel Session, BBC Radio)
“Tartar Martyr” (John Peel Session, BBC Radio)
“Pueblo Domain” (John Peel Session, BBC Radio)
“The Sutcliffe Catering Song” (John Peel Session, BBC Radio)

Source billboard.com.

Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle has assembled a mix CD to be issued under the moniker “Below the Radio” this fall via Ultra Records. Beyond tracks by Pavement, Beck, Snow Patrol and Elbow, the set features a new Grandaddy track, “Nature Anthem.”

“I can

This fall Vector Recordings will release Joseph Arthur

R.E.M has partnered with MySpace.com to preview its new Warner Bros. album, “Around the Sun,” beginning today (Sept. 21). This represents the first such initiative involving a social networking portal.

For the next two weeks, visitors to MySpace will be able to play tracks from the album for free. The preview also will offer links to tour dates, an iTunes clips sampler, photos and mobile ring tones and wallpapers on a dedicated site.

“R.E.M. is one of those legendary bands that create an event-like atmosphere on our site,” MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe says. “This is a unique chance to get millions of people talking, simultaneously, about the new album.”

MySpace.com has about 4 million registered users, but there is no need to register in order to listen to the album. Registered users, however, have the additional capability of adding the R.E.M. profile link to their personal list and passing the link to other users. DeWolfe says that besides the sheer numbers, placement on MySpace benefited from the “exponential” effect of users spreading the word to each other.

DeWolfe declined to detail the underlying business arrangement. “Our site is supported by advertising,” he says. “But there will be times that a music company will pay for advertising, and there are times when we will do business development deals.”

“We expect many more deals like this in the future,” he continues. “It’s a new way for indie and major labels to get their music out to the masses, and we believe it will work out well for the labels, MySpace and for music fans.”

Source billboard.com.

Russ Meyer, who helped spawn the “skin flick” with such films as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Vixen, has died. He was 82.

Meyer died Saturday at his home in the Hollywood Hills, according to his company, RM Films International Inc. Spokeswoman Janice Cowart said Meyer had suffered from dementia and died of complications of pneumonia.

Meyer’s films were considered pornographic in their time but are less shocking by today’s standards, with their focus on violence and large-busted women but little graphic sex.

Altogether he produced, directed, financed, wrote, edited and shot at least 23 films, including his debut, The Immoral Mr. Teas, in 1959 and the 1968 film Vixen, whose success earned him notice from major studios.

He went on to direct the major studio release Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, which was co-written by film critic Roger Ebert.

Source: CNN

Few groups seem to explore popular music’s back-pages as profoundly as everyone’s favorite Ozzy Osbourne covering bluegrass group, Yonder Mountain String Band. On October 12, YMSB will more than live up to their “everything old is new again” credo, with the third and latest installment in their on-going series of incendiary live recordings, “Mountain Tracks Volume 3.” Unlike the previous two volumes, “Mountain Tracks Volume 3” is the first double-album compiled by the band,
andbrings together an inspired collection of moments taken from last year’s annual Kinfolk Celebration (Sept. 12 -13, 2003 at Planet Bluegrass in Lyons, Colorado), a two-day celebration for the band’s extensive nationwide family of fans.

If you’ve never experienced YMSB’s singular brand of riff-rollicking Americana, “Mountain Tracks Vol. 3,” is the ideal place to begin. YMSB has shared the stage with everyone from harmonica-shredding Blues Traveler frontman John Popper, to like-minded bluegrass visionaries such as Bela Fleck and Sam Bush. Put simply, “Mountain Tracks Vol. 3” presents one of the most captivating live bands placing their fingers to steel-strings today. Furthermore, the album also serves as a moving tribute to the inspiration behind YMSB’s innovation: Namely, The Kinfolk, or to laymen, YMSB’s uber-dedicated fan-base by way of street-team by way of adoring friends and family. Having a 2-disc document of YMSB beaming live from The Kinfolk Celebration is more than just newsworthy; it’s akin (no pun intended) to Jerry Garcia coming down from the heavens, and gracing his audience with another legendary live album with The Dead.

A plane bound for Washington from London was diverted to Maine on Tuesday after passenger Yusuf Islam

Albums by Wilco, Air, the Killers and Franz Ferdinand are among the 10 finalists for the 2004 Shortlist Prize, which honors critically acclaimed albums that have not yet been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for U.S. shipments of 500,000 copies. The winner will be crowned Nov. 10 at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles during a concert featuring nominees.

The 10 finalists are Air’s “Talkie Walkie” (Astralwerks), Dizzee Rascal’s “Boy in Da Corner” (Matador/XL), Franz Ferdinand’s self-titled Domino/Epic debut, Ghostface Killah’s “The Pretty Toney Album” (Def Jam), the Killers’ “Hot Fuss” (Island), Loretta Lynn’s “Van Lear Rose” (Interscope), Nellie McKay’s “Get Away From Me” (Columbia), the Streets’ “A Grand Don’t Come for Free” (Vice), TV On The Radio’s “Desparate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes” (Touch & Go) and Wilco’s “A Ghost Is Born” (Nonesuch).

Nominees and winners are chosen by a panel of Listmakers which this year includes Norah Jones, the Dixie Chicks, John Mayer, Jack Black, Jim Jarmusch, the Cure’s Robert Smith, System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian and the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am.

To be eligible, an artist’s latest album must have been released between July 1, 2003, and June 30, 2004.

Source billboard.com.

Rhino will on Oct. 26 release a three-DVD set spotlighting the on- and off-stage activities of Crosby, Stills & Nash. In addition to the recently released concert DVDs “Acoustic” and “Daylight Again,” the set includes the DVD debut of the 1990 documentary “Long Time Comin’,” featuring interviews, TV performances and live clips.

“Acoustic” was taped at San Francisco’s Warfield Theater in 1991 and boasts 16 performances, including “Deja Vu,” “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Our House,” “Teach Your Children” and Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.”

Recorded in 1983 at Los Angeles’ Universal Amphitheatre, “Daylight Again” finds CSN touring in support of the album of the same name, released that year. Although David Crosby’s substance abuse problems are apparent in his physical appearance and demeanor, the trio still pulls together strong performances of such tracks as “Wasted on the Way” and “Southern Cross.”

“Long Time Comin'” presents a narration-free look into the band’s history, including 11 full song performances and snippets of nine others. Among the highlights are an acoustic version of “Marrakesh Express” from the 1969 Woodstock festival and several live tracks from the group’s 1977 tour, such as “Dark Star” and “Wooden Ships.”

Clips of CSN members playing in other bands are also featured, including Crosby with the Byrds on “Hollywood A-Go-Go” in 1966, plus separate clips of Nash with the Hollies and Stills with Buffalo Springfield on “The Smothers Brothers Show” in 1967.

CSN will wrap a run of tour dates with performances tomorrow (Sept. 21) in Bend, Ore., Wednesday in Woodlinville, Wash., and Sept. 29 as part of the Vote for Change tour in Phoenix.

Source billboard.com.