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Camper Van Beethoven has reunited to record its first studio album in 15 years. A rock opera of sorts, “New Roman Times” is due Oct. 12 via Pitch-A-Tent/Vanguard and features all five original members of the infamous quasi-folk rock band.

Leading the band is guitarist/vocalist David Lowery, who went on to form the commercially successful modern rock act Cracker following CBV’s demise in 1990. Bassist Victor Krummenacher and drummer Chris Pederson formed Monks Of Doom after leaving Camper, while guitarist Greg Lisher joined Swingin’ Utters side project Filthy Thevin’ Bastards.

Violinist Jonathan Segel rounds out the original group, while later-era CBV members guitarist Chris Molla and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist David Immergluck (Counting Crows) are also featured.

“New Roman Times” relays the story of a troubled young Texan. After some instrumental scene-setting, “51 7” describes his tough adolescence and home life, and a desire to prove himself that leads to enlisting in the military and a stint in a war.

In “Might Makes Right,” the character discusses his invading force’s occupation and questions whether or not God is on their side, as he’s been told. Later, “I Am Talking to This Flower” finds the drug-addled former soldier fighting his conscience back at home.

Though obviously reflecting Lowery’s views on current world affairs, the 20-track set is also inspired by the military veterans within the songwriter’s own family, including his father. To ensure accuracy in his tales, he discussed weapons and tactics with soldiers currently serving.

Despite the serious nature of much the subject matter, there is plenty of room for levity, as should be expected from an act whose best-known song is “Take the Skinheads Bowling.”

“This story isn’t really supposed to be about Iraq, Afghanistan or even war,” Lowery says. “It’s actually about the deep gulf between the ‘red’ and the ‘blue’ parts of the country. I made it a sci-fi alternate reality so that I could exaggerate the differences. Plus I could make things lighter and more tongue in cheek.”

Camper Van Beethoven’s last studio album was 1989’s “Key Lime Pie,” its second and final album for Virgin, the future home of Cracker. The album yielded a No. 1 Modern Rock Tracks hit in the band’s cover of Status Quo’s “Pictures of Matchstick Men.”

In 2002, Pitch-A-Tent produced an artifact from the CBV archives with the release of “Tusk,” a complete remake of the classic Fleetwood Mac album of the same name recorded between 1987’s “Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart” and “Key Lime Pie.”

Camper will hit the road beginning Aug. 4 in Boulder, Colo., and has dates on tap through Aug. 27 in Tucson, Ariz.

Here is the “New Roman Times” track list:

“Prelude”
“New Sons of the Golden West”
“51 7”
“White Fluffy Clouds”
“That Gum You Like Is Back in Style”
“Might Makes Might”
“Militia Song”
“R and R Uzbekistan”
“Sons of the New Golden West Reprise”
“New Roman Times”
“The Poppies of Balmorhea”
“Long Plastic Hallway”
“I Am Talking to This Flower”
“Come Out”
“Los Tigres Traficantes”
“I Hate This Part of Texas”
“Hippy Chix (Oath of the CBV)”
“Civil Disobedience”
“Discoteque CVB”
“Hey Brother”

Source billboard.com.

Bob Edwards, who recently was removed as host of National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” after nearly a quarter-century, is leaving the network to start a new morning show for distribution on satellite radio.

Edwards’ new program will be distributed through the XM Satellite Radio system, a fee-based, commercial-free digital provider, NPR reported Wednesday.

His departure from NPR — which he joined in 1974, its third year of existence — wasn’t unexpected. On a publicity tour since early May to promote his latest book, “Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism,” he said last week that he was considering a number of job offers.

Edwards was host of “Morning Edition” — a daily program offering news, commentary and coverage of arts and sports — from its start in 1979 until April 30, when he was reassigned as an NPR senior correspondent. The change, explained by NPR management as an effort to refresh the broadcast, infuriated many of its listeners, who total 13 million each week.

A phone call seeking comment from Edwards on the new venture was not immediately returned.

Source CNN.com.

Carlos Santana will be honored as the 2004 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year via performances by Black Eyed Peas, Dave Matthews, matchbox twenty’s Rob Thomas, Robi Draco Rosa and Ozomatli, among others. The tribute will be held Aug. 30 at Los Angeles’s Century Plaza Hotel.

Santana is also tipped to perform at the event, at which he will be honored for his “professional, cultural and philanthropic accomplishments,” according to the organization. A portion of the proceeds from the evening will benefit the MusiCares Foundation, which offers medical and financial aid to individuals connected to the industry.

Santana’s latest charitable endeavor is the 10-track album “Food for Thought,” which is being sold exclusively at Baja Fresh Mexican Grill outlets. The disc includes four new Santana songs and one previously unreleased archive cut, plus handpicked tracks by Etta James, Buddy Guy, Indigenous and Cesaria Evora.

Proceeds will benefit the Milagro Foundation, which Santana founded in 1998 with his wife Deborah.

Santana is taking a break from the road but will return to the stage with a Sept. 30-Oct. 1 stand at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre.

Source billboard.com.

Interpol have set a September 28th release for their second album, Antics. The New York quartet recorded the follow-up to 2002’s Turn on the Bright Lights in rural Connecticut, where, according to bassist-keyboardist Carlos D., “the boredom was sometimes spirit-crushing.”
Some of that angst made its way onto the album in songs such as “Narc,” which singer Paul Banks says is about “manipulation, surveillance, intimidation and blackmail.”

Interpol are currently touring with their sonic godfathers, the Cure, on the Curiosa Festival. The Rapture and Mogwai are also playing the main stage, with Auf Der Maur, Cursive, the Cooper Temple Clause, Cursive, Thursday and Muse among the bands on the second stage. Though the Cure follow Interpol on the main stage, don’t expect any live collaborations. “It would be like getting too close to the sun,” says Carlos D.

Track list for Antics:

Next Exit
Evil
Narc
Take You on a Cruise
Slow Hands
Not Even Jail
Public Pervert
C’mere
Length of Love
A Time to Be So Small

Curiosa tour dates:

7/28: Nashville, Starwood Amphitheater
7/29: Atlanta, HiFi Buys Amphitheater
7/31: New York, Randall’s Island
8/1: Camden, NJ, Tweeter Center
8/3: Cincinnati, Riverbend Music Center
8/4: Cleveland, Blossom Music Center
8/6: Columbia, MD, Merriweather Post Pavilion
8/7: Boston, Tweeter Center
8/9: Toronto, Molson Amphitheater
8/11: Detroit, DTE Energy Music Center
8/12: Chicago, Tweeter Center
8/14: Dallas, Smirnoff Music Center
8/15: Houston, Woodlands Pavilion
8/17: Denver, Coors Amphitheater
8/18: Salt Lake City, USANA Amphitheater
8/21: Seattle, The Gorge
8/24: San Diego, Coors Amphitheater
8/25: Phoenix, Cricket Amphitheater
8/27: Los Angeles, Home Depot Center
8/28: San Francisco, SBC Park
8/29: Sacramento, Arco Arena

Source rollingstone.com.

The Beastie Boys have begun confirming dates for their fall North American tour, with rapper Talib Kweli in tow. Arena shows are set for Sept. 14 in Long Beach, Calif., Sept. 16 in San Francisco and Sept. 19 in Seattle. Pre-sale information is available on the Beasties’ official Web site.

The tour officially gets underway Aug. 7-8 at Japan’s Summer Sonic Festival. The trio will also appear Oct. 16 at New Orleans’ Voodoo Music Festival.

Source billboard.com.

The follow-up to 2002’s “Sea Change” reunites Beck with production team the Dust Brothers, with whom he had not worked since 1999’s “Midnite Vultures.” The Dust Brothers were also behind the boards for 1996’s “Odelay,” which won a Grammy for best alternative music performance.

“Sea Change” debuted at No. 8 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 574,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Before the new album’s release, Beck can be heard covering Daniel Johnston’s “Things Last a Long Time” on the tribute album “The Late, Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered,” due Sept. 21 via Gammon.

Source billboard.com.

The Polyphonic Spree have confirmed a two-week run of headline club dates in August that will include two-night engagements in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and New York, as well as a single show in Washington DC. The Dallas-based orchestral pop ensemble is touring in support of its sophomore album “Together We’re Heavy.”

A booking on CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” has been confirmed for an August 27 air date; and in early August the Spree will tape an episode of PBS’ “Austin City Limits,” which will air in November. A recently-taped performance on CBS’ “The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn” will air this Tuesday, July 27.

“Together We’re Heavy” was released in the U.S. by Hollywood Records on July 13, and is currently #1 on Soundscan’s Top New Artist Albums chart. The album was #1 most-added at college radio in its first week, and is #5 on CMJ’s Radio 200 chart.

Meanwhile, critics nationwide have responded enthusiastically to “Together We’re Heavy.” Rolling Stone said “substance exceeds style on ‘Together We’re Heavy…’ The gorgeous shape-shifting songs allow the diversity of the Spree’s instrumentation, from strings to brass to theremin, to shine.” Interview praised the group as “fantastically original” and Heavy as “a fascinating, ambitious, and majestic masterpiece,” a sentiment Nylon echoed, saying “anthemic, dynamic and enlivening… Polyphonic Spree have made a masterpiece.” And the Spree’s hometown weekly Dallas Observer called the album “stirring and singular and worthy of the swimming pools of critical ink in which the band has frolicked.”

THE POLYPHONIC SPREE SUMMER 2004 TOUR DATES

Aug 13 – Chicago, IL – Park West

Aug 14 – Chicago, IL – Park West

Aug 16 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club

Aug 18 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club

Aug 19 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club

Aug 21 – Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church

Aug 22 – Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church

Aug 24 – New York, NY – Irving Plaza

Aug 25 – New York, NY – Irving Plaza

Aug 26 – New York, NY – Late Show with David Letterman

Quannum will on Sept. 7 release “The Underground Spiritual Game,” a mix CD of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti’s music spearheaded by Blackalicious’ Chief Xcel. The project was previously released internationally on French label Barclay.

According to Xcel, organizers originally wanted him to remix Kuti’s entire catalog, which spans 30+ albums. “So rather than do it all at one time, I decided to chop it off little by little,” he says. “Hopefully this will be the first in a long list of remixes I do of Fela’s music.”

In addition to working on the next Blackalicious record, Xcel is eyeing an Oct. 5 release for “Ambush,” the debut album from his Maroons project with Lateef.

Source billboard.com.

RealNetworks has developed a technology solution that makes tracks from its RealPlayer Music Store compatible with Apple Computer’s iPod, as well as with a number of portable music players that use Microsoft technology.

Real’s new technology, called “Harmony,” will be demonstrated for the first time tomorrow (July 27) at the Jupiter Plug.In conference in New York. The same day, a beta of the Harmony technology — which will be integrated into the RealPlayer Music Store and RealPlayer 10 — will be available to consumers on a limited basis at Real.com/harmony.

Real sells tracks in an AAC-based version of its RealAudio format; it secures the files with its own proprietary Helix digital rights management (DRM) solution.

Until now, music from the Real download store has not been compatible with either the iPod or Windows Media-compatible devices due to competing DRM standards from Apple and Microsoft.

With the introduction of Harmony, Real claims that its files now work with devices from Apple, Creative, iRiver, RCA, Rio, Samsung and PalmOne, among others.

Real’s solution to the compatibility problem is to give consumers two files of the same song when they purchase a track from the RealPlayer Music Store. The first is the normal file, designed for playback via Real’s RealPlayer music management software. The second is a transparent, “optimized” file that is not seen in the music collection but resides on the user’s hard drive. This second file is used specifically for transfer to a portable device.

The RealPlayer determines whether a device uses Apple or Windows Media DRM, and then converts the optimized file into the proper format to enable portability. “Users don’t have to think about the format,” says Sean Ryan, senior VP of music services at Real. “The proposition is: Buy it here; move it anywhere.”

The Harmony technology still doesn’t allow for tracks secured with Windows Media DRM to be directly transferred to the iPod, or for iTunes tracks to be transferred to Windows-based devices from the likes of Creative and Rio.

Previously, there has been no meaningful compatibility between legitimate digital-music offerings from rival technology companies.

Market leader Apple has yet to license its FairPlay DRM technology to any competitors — a fact that has kept secure tracks from music services other than iTunes off the iPod. In April, Apple rebuffed overtures from Real to make the iPod compatible with the RealPlayer Music Store.

Real still does not have a license for FairPlay. Instead, the company has engineered its own technology solution that allows RealPlayer Music Store tracks to work with FairPlay. Real says it is converting tracks into the Windows Media format under an existing licensing agreement with Microsoft.

Source billboard.com.

Saturday, July 24th was a very special day for HeadCount. The not-for profit, nonpartisan organization devoted to voter registration set a single-show record of 466 registrations at the Dead show at Alpine Valley. They also generated about $370 in donations. That too would have been a HeadCount record, only at a moe./Chris Robinson/Particle concert on the same day, a Glide sponsored raffle generated $421.

This new donation record was reached through a special raffle made possible by the music and lifestyle Web site Glide Magazine, which donated two Great Woods Phish tickets as the prize. All of the funds generated by donations and raffles at concerts go directly toward HeadCount’s nationwide voter registration campaign, and are crucial to their efforts. HeadCount offered sincere thanks to all the good folks at www.glidemagazine.com for their generosity and support for the cause of voter registration, and to the Dead fans and volunteers in Wisconsin.

Saturday was also very special for another reason. HeadCount co-Chair, Disco Biscuits bassist Marc Brownstein, and his wife Deborah had their first child. A healthy 6 lbs 8 oz. baby boy. The mother-to-be went into labor the night before at a Sound Tribe Sector Nine show in their hometown of Santa Cruz, Calif., with HeadCount volunteers registering voters nearby.

HeadCount is a not-for profit, nonpartisan organization devoted to voter regustration and participation. We are run entirely by volunteers and rely on the generosity of others. Volunteer or make a tax deductible donation today.