News

Loretta Lynn, Wilco, Franz Ferdinand and the Killers are among 73 artists whose latest albums made the “Longlist” of initial nominations for the 2004 Shortlist Music 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 list will be winnowed to 10 finalists by late September, with the winner to be crowned Nov. 10 at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles during a concert featuring nominees.

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. Other artists on the “Long List” include TV On The Radio, Dizzee Rascal, Ghostface Killah, Bebel Gilberto, Caf

Nashville rockers Kings of Leon will release their second album, A-Ha Shake Heartbreak, in January. The band reteamed with producer Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Counting Crows) to record the follow-up to 2003’s Youth and Young Manhood earlier this summer in Studio City, California.
“We played so many shows and saw so much stuff, that when we got time off, it was just pouring out,” says drummer Nathan Followill of the five-week, twelve-song recording stint, which yielded the likes of “Pistol of Fire,” “Razz,” “Soft” and “Milk.” “On the last record there were no expectations, because we had no fans and we had never made music before,” Followill says. “On this one we knew what we wanted, and we were very comfortable and confident.”

Kings of Leon — Nathan and brothers Caleb (guitar, vocals) and Jared (bass), and cousin Matthew (guitar) — have broadened their sound from the bluesy roots of Youth and Young Manhood, and the new material reflects such diverse influences as Run-DMC, Talking Heads and the Ronettes. “There are definitely songs on there that you hear and think, ‘That’s the Kings of Leon,'” Nathan says, “and then there are songs that take three or four listens to realize that it’s us.”

Kings of Leon will head out on an East Coast U.S. tour in October.

Source rollingstone.com.

In a letter addressed to Phish fans that were told not to enter the concert grounds for the bands final shows as part of the Coventry festival, band mananger John Paluska issued the below statement. Holders of unripped tickets will be a entitled to a free download (including the soundcheck) through livephish.com of the entire weekend in either mp3 or FLAC format. In addition, the band will be collaborating with longtime photographer Danny Clinch to create a special photo book. The book will feature Danny’s photos of the band spanning from 1994 to the present, including many unpublished shots. Each copy will be signed by the band. These books are being created specifically for those who missed the Coventry shows and will never be sold or available in any other way.

COVENTRY STATEMENT

August 23, 2004
This letter is addressed to all of you who didn’t make it in to the Coventry shows. It’s also addressed to those of you who did attend the shows but experienced great difficulties in the process of doing so. I have spent most of the last few days reading hundreds of emails from heartbroken, angry fans and trying to make sense of how things went the way they did in Coventry. I’ve also printed them out and shared them with the band. My goal with this letter is to set the facts straight. In my fifteen years of managing the band, I’ve never issued any kind of statement directly to fans; but, based on my central role in Coventry’s planning and execution, I feel most qualified to write to you now. Given the huge hardship and disappointment many of you experienced last weekend, you deserve not only an apology but a thorough explanation of what happened.
As I write this letter, I am struck by how ironic this situation is. My mind drifts back to the Clifford Ball and the spirit that brought that weekend to life. Having outgrown nearby Sugarbush, we set about finding a larger space to accommodate a weekend camping festival in or near Vermont. After accidentally stumbling on the Plattsburgh Air Force Base (we had gone there to look at another site), our plans quickly grew more ambitious. What if we created a brand new style of festival, where people were treated with care and respect – one that celebrated not just the band’s music but the creativity of a community of artists and fans? A festival that flew in the face of everything we disliked about “regular” concert venues.
What happened that weekend in Plattsburgh exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations and along the way a blueprint was created. With each festival that followed we tried to raise the bar a notch on every level – our goal was to go out of our way to make it a special experience for fans. And in the process we learned an amazing lesson – that taking this approach provided the band and festival staff with a great sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.
Over the years, the band has often spoken about the importance of intent in music. I’ve always interpreted that as meaning that people will be moved if you play from the heart. On a similar note, we have always “played from the heart” in putting on these festivals. I want each and every one of you to know that our intent has always been pure and remains so. When we wrote “Our intent is all for your delight” on the entry gate to the IT concert venue last year, we meant it.
Fast forward to 2004. When we first visited the site in April 2004, the grounds were just showing signs of spring, with some lingering drifts of snow here and there. We drove around the site and marveled at the stability of the ground – muddy in some spots, but surprisingly well drained given the wetness of the season. We spoke with local farmers who have farmed these lands for many years and they told us they routinely drive large trucks around the cornfields during the August harvest. They told us that mid-August is a very dry part of their summer, and that they never had problems driving on the land that time of year. Our weather research confirmed that typical August rainfall in the Newport area was well within acceptable limits.
However, as July rolled along, it became clear that we were experiencing exceptionally wet weather. Nearby Burlington was nearly 300% above normal rainfall for the month. Though the grounds were soft as we headed into August, we moved forward with confidence that we’d get the drying cycle we needed. The first part of August included a number of good drying days. Work was moving along well and spirits were high. As we headed into the home stretch the grounds continued to improve.
I want to note that we went to great lengths this year to improve the traffic/parking situation from recent fests. We hired two parking companies (we’d always used one in the past) and dramatically increased the number of parking staff. We laid out the entire 600 acre site into painted grids so as to maximize the space we had. We chose to open a full day earlier than in past years in order to allow more time for people to get settled. We acquired additional pieces of neighboring land as a further contingency. By our most conservative estimates (based on data from past festivals) we had significantly more land than we would need under normal conditions. Everything seemed in place. In fact, we felt more thoroughly and conservatively prepared than we had felt before any previous festival.
Going into Thursday and Friday, the forecast called for possible showers each day. Throughout the summer we’ve been experiencing isolated bands of intense showers – sometimes the forecast will call for rain and it will miss us completely, other times the forecast will be a 20% chance of showers and we’ll get hit with a couple inches of rain in an hour. As it turned out, on Thursday and Friday we received nearly three inches of rain, much of it in the form of torrential downpours. Roads were washed out and we were suddenly faced with losing a good portion of our camping terrain. Huge areas that had been solid enough for camping a day earlier were now saturated with water. We struggled to move cars in, often abandoning large sections of land soon after we started parking them and seeking drier ground. Our main access road from the tollbooths required regular maintenance and this slowed the flow of traffic into the campground.
We soon realized that we had two big problems. The first was that we weren’t bringing cars in at a fast enough rate. The second was that it was almost irrelevant how fast they were coming in because we had lost so much parkable terrain. We did everything in our power to improve the flow of cars into the campground. We mobilized a large team of local farmers and their tractors to assist cars into their spaces and pull out stuck cars. We brought in numerous truckloads of gravel and built new roads and shored up existing ones. None of these actions improved the flow in any significant way. At our best we were processing 500 cars per hour, less than half of our normal average from past events.
Late Thursday, the decision was made to ask those of you who hadn’t already headed to Coventry to delay your trip until Saturday morning. We already had considerable traffic backed up and it was flowing in at a slow pace. We knew anyone arriving at the back of the line of traffic on Interstate 91 would wait until Saturday to get to the site anyway, so we were simply trying to save you the trouble of waiting in your car for that whole time. We knew that Saturday’s weather would be better and bring with it the possibility of regaining camping terrain. When we made that announcement, we did so with the hope and intention that it would save those of you who hadn’t yet left considerable frustration and that it would ultimately allow us to park the campground more effectively.
We started exploring satellite parking scenarios with the State Police. All the neighboring fields were in similar shape, so we focused on the few solid options we had. We visited a nearby gravel pit but it was too small. We explored the possibility of closing down sections of road (rt. 191 in Newport, for instance) and “stadium parking” cars, but none of the options we looked at could possibly accommodate the volume of cars still left to be parked.
We realized that we had run out of options as the rain continued to pour down. At 4 am Saturday morning festival co-producer Dave Werlin and I met with Vermont’s Commissioner of Public Safety to discuss the situation. The Commissioner told us that, given the condition of the grounds and the pace we were bringing cars in, the backup on I-91 was quickly becoming a crisis situation. He told us we were faced with two choices – either cancel the concert completely or start turning cars around. Dave and I told him that we felt confident that we could park the cars that had exited I-91 by first light Saturday morning, but couldn’t guarantee anything beyond that. We were also closely watching Hurricane Charley as it moved up the coast. Several models pointed to the possibility of heavy wind and rains on Sunday and the Commissioner and the State Police all expressed strong fears about the impact that possible weather event could have on things (in keeping with the unpredictable weather, the storm luckily ended up missing us). Nonetheless, we all agreed that canceling the concert at that point wasn’t the right decision. We had nearly 30,000 people on site who had endured considerable hardship already, many of whose cars were stuck in the mud.
So the Commissioner notified the commanding officers that they should formulate a plan to start turning cars around immediately. I convened a meeting with the band to apprise them of the situation. Mike volunteered to meet Sgt. Melendy from the VT State Police at the radio station to record the announcement. I felt horrible standing in the radio station as the announcements aired for the first time. I want to emphasize to you that once the situation was deemed a matter of public safety we needed to abide by the decisions made by public authorities and the State Police. This is a crucial point. I’m not in any way trying to paint them in a negative light, for nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout this whole ordeal they were calm, focused and clearly understood the emotional gravity of the situation. But in the end, their decisions were based on what they felt was in the best interest of public safety, and we respected their need to make the decisions they did.
A large number of you chose to ignore their requests to turn around and instead parked your cars on I-91 or secondary roads and walked to the site. The police realized that from a public safety viewpoint it would not be advisable to try and turn around those of you coming in on foot. From our point of view, we wanted as many of you as possible to see the concert, and certainly weren’t going to turn around people holding tickets. We were in a maddening bind. While we would have liked to alert those of you who turned around or hadn’t approached the Newport area yet that people were parking their cars on the side of the roads and walking to the site, our hands were tied by legitimate public safety concerns.
A frustration expressed in many of your emails is that those of you who followed instructions every step of the way ended up with the short end of the stick, while those who didn’t heed our requests ended up getting in to see the show. And that on top of that, the band expressed their appreciation to those of you who parked your cars on the road and walked in. I can completely understand how many of you who turned around (or never left your houses) are angry about this, and I’m deeply sorry that things went the way they did. I’ve tried to explain our intent and the underlying circumstances the best I can. We never stopped wanting all of you to make it to the site, but once it became a matter of public safety it was out of our hands.
Another common frustration expressed in your emails regards our decision to sell some tickets at the gate after announcing in advance that we wouldn’t be doing so. We had to reposition so many security and parking personnel due to the extraordinary weather situation that we realized we didn’t have the resources to efficiently turn away ticketless fans, particularly those in cars where some passengers had tickets. Turning cars around is a time-consuming and tedious process and we made a spot decision that the flow of cars into the campground was the priority. In the end, it was a good decision. We only sold approximately 1000 tickets at the gate in total, and the vast majority of those were to people in cars where some already had tickets.
The symbiotic relationship between the band and all of you has always been at the heart of what makes the Phish experience so special. These festivals came into being out of the band’s respect and gratitude toward their fans. It’s been the same core group of people producing every Phish festival since the Clifford Ball, and we’ve always tried to embody the band’s gratitude toward all of you in our work. The last thing any of us wanted in the band’s final hour was to leave some of our most dedicated fans feeling angry and disillusioned. The fact that Coventry was the band’s last show only intensified all of these feelings.
In the end, after reviewing all the events of Coventry in my mind, I don’t second guess any of the key decisions that were made. We were dealt some extreme conditions by Mother Nature and we made the best of a very difficult situation. All of you were incredibly patient and considerate in the face of these trying circumstances. The locals are still talking about how courteous and friendly the fans were to them. People worked together. Our staff worked long hours on little sleep and under immense pressure, yet never wavered from the task at hand. I wish things had turned out differently, but I’m proud of the job we all did.
Any of you still holding unripped tickets are entitled to a full refund. Please visit the Phish web site for more details on the refund process. We will also be offering each person holding an unripped ticket a free download (including the soundcheck) through livephish.com of the entire weekend in either mp3 or FLAC format. We’ll be announcing full details regarding the free downloads this week. In addition, the band will be collaborating with longtime photographer Danny Clinch to create a special photo book. The book will feature Danny’s photos of the band spanning from 1994 to the present, including many unpublished shots. Each copy will be signed by the band. These books are being created specifically for those of you who missed the Coventry shows and will never be sold or available in any other way. It will take a number of weeks to get these books printed, signed and shipped, but we will get them to you as quickly as we can.
Many of your emails used the term “bittersweet” to describe your experience. This certainly applies just as well to myself, the band members, and the other festival planners. In the end, despite the weather, the festival took place and Phish played their final show. That many fans were so terribly inconvenienced and unable to attend Coventry is heartbreaking to me, the band, and everyone else involved in producing this event. Please understand that we did the best we could in the face of unpredictable and extraordinary circumstances.

Sincerely,

John Paluska

Phish Manager
Please note that event co-producer Dave Werlin has also issued a statement, posted at www.greatnortheast.com.

Jimmy Page hasn’t yet made it up the stairway to heaven, but he’s the first to reach the new British Walk of Fame.

The former Led Zeppelin guitarist cast his hand prints in cement Monday as the first music legend to feature on London’s reply to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“It’s a real privilege and a great honor to be the first. I’m really chuffed,” said Page, 60. “A Walk of Fame is a fantastic idea, and it’s high time we had one in London.”

The site of the British version, which will feature popular music giants, is taking shape outside the new Virgin Music superstore on Piccadilly Circus, London’s landmark crossroads.

Page predicted it would soon become crowded with hand prints. “If you started putting in all the people I think are deserving, you could cover the whole of London,” he said.

Led Zeppelin

The Foo Fighters are about to begin pre-production on their next studio album, which, as first revealed here last month, will likely be a double-disc set.

“Having a year to write and demo things at your own pace sure makes for better songs,” frontman Dave Grohl writes on the Foos’ official Web site. “In preparing for today’s pre-production, I dumped all of the things I’ve recorded onto my computer and I wound up with five-and-a-half hours of music. I just laughed.”

Explaining his hopes for a double LP with one disc each of acoustic and electric material, Grohl says, “I’d love to have an album that requires us to stretch farther in both directions, eliminating any middle ground. The idea also comes from the fact that we’ve always explored both dynamics, just not to their fullest potential. Why not get heavier? Or quieter? Why try and cram all of that onto one CD? Why not make two albums, and call it one?”

Grohl is in the midst of rebuilding his Virginia home studio in Los Angeles. “We came up with a plan: Buy a warehouse,” he says. “Build a bigger, better studio. Have a massive space to store our mountains of gear that we’ve amassed over the past decade. Have somewhere to jam that we don’t have to move out of at the end of the week. A full-on headquarters, designed to further the idea of self-sufficiency. We will never have to go anywhere else as long as we live.”

The lone date on the Foos’ upcoming schedule is Aug. 28 at San Diego’s Street Scene festival, but the band’s name is already being whispered as part of a major package tour next summer. “I’m dying to get this sh*t on tape and play it live,” Grohl says. “The whole album every night — Something we haven’t done in a long, long time.”

As for his drum work on Nine Inch Nails’ forthcoming Interscope album, “Bleed Through,” Grohl enthuses, “you’re gonna flip when you hear [it].”

Source billboard.com.

Two Dublin stops on David Bowie’s recent wildly successful world tour are the basis for the upcoming DVD “David Bowie – A Reality Tour.” Due Oct. 19 via ISO/Columbia, the 30-track collection was shot Nov. 22-23, 2003, at the Point Depot. It was mixed in 5.1 Surround Sound by longtime collaborator Tony Visconti, co-producer of Bowie’s 2003 studio album “Reality.”

Beyond such classics as “Ashes to Ashes,” “Fame,” “The Man Who Sold the World,” “Under Pressure,” “Heroes” and “Ziggy Stardust,” the DVD sports such live rarities as “Hang on to Yourself” and “Five Years,” which have not been a part of Bowie’s concert repertoire since the early 1980s.

The North American portion of the A Reality tour was the top-grossing trek of the first half of 2004, according to Billboard Boxscore. It grossed $45.4 million from 82 shows that drew 722,158 fans.

Bowie was forced to cancel the final 10 dates on the European leg of the tour in June. At the time it was said he was suffering from a pinched nerve. Shortly after, he underwent emergency heart surgery for a blocked artery.

According to a spokesperson, “he’s recovering nicely.”

Here is the “A Reality Tour” DVD track list:

“Rebel Rebel”
“New Killer Star”
“Reality”
“Fame”
“Cactus”
“Sister Midnight”
“Afraid”
“All the Young Dudes”
“Be My Wife”
“The Loneliest Guy”
“The Man Who Sold the World”
“Fantastic Voyage”
“Hallo Spaceboy”
“Sunday”
“Under Pressure”
“Life on Mars?”
“Battle for Britain”
“Ashes to Ashes”
“The Motel”
“Loving the Alien”
“Never Get Old”
“Changes”
“I’m Afraid of Americans”
“Heroes”
“Bring Me the Disco King”
“Slip Away”
“Heathen”
“Five Years”
“Hang on to Yourself”
“Ziggy Stardust”

Source billboard.com.

Fans can pre-order DJ Harry

R.E.M.’s upcoming North American tour will feature support from such acts as Joseph Arthur, Charlie Mars, Five Eight, Angela McCluskey and Now It’s Overhead.

Rock outfit Five Eight, which hails from R.E.M.’s Athens, Ga., hometown, will open the first four shows of the six-week tour, which kicks off Oct. 13 in Los Angeles. Sprinkled through the subsequent 11 dates will be the lone appearance of newcomer Trent Dabbs (Oct. 22, Nashville), four opening sets by fellow Athens natives Now It’s Overhead and six by former Wild Colonials vocalist McCluskey.

Akron, Ohio-bred, New York-based singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur, who will release the album “Our Shadows Will Remain” this fall via Vector, opens the next six shows through Nov. 12 in Montreal. V2 rock artist Charlie Mars will support on seven of the final eight dates, with Five Eight returning for a Nov. 19 performance in Seattle.

R.E.M. will be touring in support of its new Warner Bros. album, “Around the Sun,” due Oct. 5 in North America. First single “Leaving New York” can be streamed via the band’s official Web site; a video, directed by Peter Care, is in the works.

In other news, the group has contributed its vintage track “We Walk” to the Epic compilation “Mary Had a Little Amp,” also due Oct. 5. The Dixie Chicks, Moby, Maroon 5 and Lou Reed are among the other artists donating cuts to the album, proceeds from which will benefit Project Kid Smart and Start Smart America.

Source billboard.com.

The Del McCoury Band tops the list of nominees for the 15th annual International Bluegrass Music Awards, set for Oct. 7 at the Kentucky Center in Louisville, Ky. The awards show, hosted by Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski, is the centerpiece of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) annual World of Bluegrass Trade Show and Fan Fest, which runs Oct. 4-10.

The Del McCoury Band, eight-time winners of the award for entertainer of the year, have 12 nominations this year, including entertainer, vocal group, instrumental group and album of the year for “It’s Just the Night.” McCoury earned an individual nod in the male vocalist category, and other band members received individual nominations on their respective instruments: Rob McCoury, banjo; Mike Bub, bass; Jason Carter, fiddle; and Ronnie McCoury, mandolin.

Krauss & Union Station earned nine nominations, including entertainer of the year, instrumental group, vocal group and female vocalist of the year for Krauss. Blue Highway earned seven nominations. Other multiple nominees include Rhonda Vincent & the Rage, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Mountain Heart and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.

This year’s Hall of Honor inductees are Curly Seckler and Bill Vernon. Distinguished Achievement Awards will be presented to Moses “Mo” Asch, Kirk & Becky Brandenberger, Tom T. & Dixie Hall, Jimmie Skinner and Art Stamper.

The winners are voted on by the professional membership of the IBMA. This year marks the last year in Louisville before the IBMA’s World of Bluegrass event moves to Nashville in 2005. The awards will be broadcast to more than 300 U.S. markets and 14 foreign networks.

Source billboard.com.

The bounty of vintage Grateful Dead and posthumous Jerry Garcia releases will continue to overflow this fall. In September, Rhino will release a three-disc live Garcia set and follow it in October with a 12-disc box culling the Dead’s post-Warner Bros. studio albums, rarities and live cuts.

Due Sept. 28, “After Midnight” stems from a Garcia performance at Kean College in Union, N.J., captured on 24-track masters. The nearly three-hour show featured 16 songs, including Bob Dylan’s “Simple Twist Of Fate” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” and the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.”

Dead lyricist and frequent Garcia collaborator Robert Hunter was on hand to sing lead vocals on his songs “Tiger Rose” and “Promontory Rider.” Joining Garcia on stage was Ozzie Ahlers (keyboards/vocals), John Kahn (bass) and Johnny De Foncesca (bass).

As previously reported, Jerry Garcia Estate LLC discovered a treasure trove of Garcia tapes when the Dead reorganized its storied tape vault. Two-track concert recordings will emerge via the “Pure Jerry” series, which will be released exclusively online. Further multi-track recordings are expected to emerge via the estate’s relationship with Rhino.

“There’s over 500 live concerts in two-track, and then … several multi-track concerts that haven’t been mined yet,” Christopher Sabec, CEO of the Jerry Garcia Estate LLC recently told Billboard.com. “It’s unbelievably impressive, the number of solo projects that he performed.”

On Oct. 26, Grateful Dead Productions/Rhino will release “Beyond Description (1973-1989),” which will boast remastered and repackaged version of the band’s Arista-era output on its own Grateful Dead Records label. In the vein of the Warner Bros. -era 2001 box “The Golden Road (1965-1973),” this sprawling set captures 161 songs, 65 of them previously unreleased.

The box will boast sonically improved versions of the studio albums “Wake of the Flood” (1973) “The Grateful Dead From the Mars Hotel” (1974), “Blues for Allah” (1975), “Terrapin Station” (1977), “Shakedown Street” (1978), “Go to Heaven” (1980), “In the Dark” (1987) and “Built to Last” (1989). Each title has been expanded to include outtakes, live tracks, alternate versions and rehearsal peroformances.

Additionally, the 1981 live albums “Reckoning” and “Dead Set” have been expanded to two-disc sets that include further material from the original concert dates. The first, from San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre, adds 16 songs, including “Cassidy,” “Ripple” and “Heaven Help the Fool” from the concert, and a studio rehearsal version of “To Lay Me Down.”

“Dead Set” has been expanded with a nine-track bonus disc featuring previously unreleased versions of such Dead staples as “Sugaree,” “Not Fade Away,” “Jack Straw” and “Shakedown Street.”

“Beyond Description” was co-produced by Dead archivist David Lemieux and Rhino’s James Austin. Joe Gastwirt remastered each disc in the set utilizing HDCD technology; he had previously remastered the titles for their initial CD release.

The set will also include a book with essays by Rolling Stone music critic David Fricke, “Grateful Dead Hour” host David Gans and author Blair Jackson. Lemieux and Dead biographer/spokesperson Dennis McNally (“A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead”) contribute liner notes.

Source billboard.com.