News

The Black Keys will rumble again with the release of their third album, Rubber Factory, September 7th on Fat Possum Records. The Akron, Ohio, garage blues rawk duo’s new set follows their breakthrough album, 2003’s Thickfreakness, which earned the band a spot in the final ten albums for the Shortlist Prize.

Among Thickfreakness’ converts were Sleater-Kinney and Beck, both of whom offered the Black Keys opening spots on tours last year. Those bits of good fortune were tempered by the fact that singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney barely left the road all year, a rugged schedule that prompted them to postpone a European tour late last year due to exhaustion.

“We were given opportunities we really couldn’t pass up,” Auerbach says. “But that touring really kicked the shit out of us. I just saw some pictures from Europe and we looked so fucking miserable. So we took a little time off, because we didn’t want to have anything to do with each other.”

Auerbach had started to write some of the songs for Rubber Factory while on tour last year, but the bulk of the new material began to take shape after he and Carney were able to spend a few weeks apart. When the time came to record, the Black Keys had to find a new haven to do so, as Carney’s landlord sold the house he was renting, depriving the duo of the basement that yielded Thickfreakness. Earlier this year, Auerbach and Carney hopped in the car and began to scout new locations. “There’s no shortage of old, empty industrial buildings in Akron,” Auerbach says. They settled on a warehouse that housed a tire manufacturer, a locale that gave the new album its title.

“I guess it’s probably not ideal for a studio,” Auerbach says, “but then, we don’t really know what ideal would be. The first floor of this place is a cavernous room where they stored the tires. The second floor was the lab with the offices. They just put us in the corner by ourselves, where no one could hear us.”

Auerbach promises a bit of evolution from the Black Keys, as on “The Lengths,” a song that he says features a “hypnotic vibe.” “There are a few slower songs, some acoustic guitar, there’s a more atmospheric thing going on,” he says. “And I’m happier with my songwriting. It’s still simplified and raw, but more experimental.”

But Rubber Factory won’t be a shocking departure from the spare racket of their previous two albums. “We still know what we want to do,” Auerbach says, “the same as we did when we were seventeen. I’ve heard enough records with bands changing their format that end up sucking ass to know better. We upgraded our tape player — the tape is now a bit thicker. That’s about the only thing that changed.”

Source rollingstone.com.

Ben Folds is pushing back the release date of his next solo album to early 2005 in order to give William Shatner’s upcoming collection, “Has Been,” his full attention. The set is being targeted for a September release by Shout! Factory.

“It is a great record and it is really worth going out and doing some shows in major cities,” Folds tells Billboard.com. “[Shatner] is not a musician at all — he’s not rapping or singing — but he is still part of the music. I’ve never heard a record quite like it.” Shatner previously guested on Folds’1998 solo album “Fear of Pop, Vol.1”

Shatner’s album was produced and written mostly by Folds and includes cameos by Henry Rollins, Aimee Mann and Joe Jackson, who duets with Shatner on Pulp’s “Common People.” Author Nick Hornby (“High Fidelity”) also co-wrote a song with Folds for the project.

Currently on the road with Rufus Wainwright and Guster through mid-July, Folds plans on returning home to Nashville after the tour to finish his next studio release. Due out in January via Epic and currently untitled, the album includes new tracks such as “Trusted” and “Late,” as well as a few remixed or alternate versions of tracks from Folds’ recent EPs.

“Right now, it doesn’t feel like an album that has a title,” says Folds. “I think because the songs are basic enough to me, it almost has a debut solo artist feel to it. It seems less like a tangent to me in the songs and the production than ‘Rockin’ the Suburbs’ [Folds’ last studio disc], which seems like an over-the-top pop kind of [album]. This doesn’t seem like a direction to me, it just seems like songs I wrote and they are approached much more from the piano and with a little more of a live, rougher edges, feel.”

While Folds enjoys the unfettered creativity and spontaneity associated with releasing EPs (“I love putting out EPs — that keeps me sane,” he says), he foresees a day when all of his non-album projects will be released as “a cheap box set of EPs.”

Fans are finally about to get Folds’ third EP, which is due out in a few weeks and will be available via online and at his shows. Originally scheduled for release last November, “Super D” includes new tracks “Rent a Cop,” “Adelaide” and “Kalamazoo,” along with a cover of the Darkness’ “Get Your Hands Off My Woman” and, more than likely, a live version of the late Ray Charles’ “Them That Got.”

Source billboard.com.

After taking a few years off from extended tours, David Byrne is back with a vengeance.

He’s been performing all over the world the since the March release of his new album, Grown Backwards, and the dates just keep rolling in.

The latest round of shows has him on the road in Europe through the end of July, with shows in nearly a dozen countries. Stops in Italy, the U.K., and Germany are on the itinerary, along with Eastern European shows in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.

A new North American leg begins August 10 in Vancouver, B.C., and looks to stretch into mid-September.

The former Talking Head’s latest release features collaborations with Rufus Wainwright and the Carla Bley Band. The album is his first since 2001’s Look Into The Eyeball, not counting last year’s Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Music From The Film “Young Adam,” which he conceived and recorded with Belle & Sebastian and Mogwai. His last major tour took place in 2001.

Source pollstar.com.

David Crosby and Graham Nash will release their first album as a duo in 28 years Aug. 10 via Sanctuary. Recorded earlier this year in Los Angeles, the two-disc, 20-track “Crosby-Nash” was produced by the artists and the father/son team of Russell and Nathaniel Kunkel. Russ Kunkel, who played drums on 1972’s “Crosby & Nash,” also contributes to the new album, as does guitarist Dean Parks, bassist Leland Sklar and Crosby’s son, James Raymond, his bandmate in the group CPR.

Crosby and Nash, who have released three previous albums a duo, will kick off a tour with Stephen Stills as Crosby, Stills & Nash July 1 in Prior Lake, Minn. At some point following that outing’s Sept. 22 close in Woodinville, Wash., they will stage a tour in support of “Crosby-Nash.”

Source billboard.com.

After six years away, the Beastie Boys return this week to the No. 1 position on The Billboard 200 with “To the 5 Boroughs.” Their latest Capitol set opened with sales of 360,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

It’s the follow-up to 1998’s “Hello Nasty,” which also debuted at No. 1, selling 682,000 copies in its opening week. It remained on top for three weeks and has sold 3.8 million to date.

Source billboard.com.

Former Pearl Jam/Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons gets a lift from a host of his ex-bandmates on his solo debut, “Attention Dimension,” due in August. Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder takes the mic on a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On, You Crazy Diamond,” featuring Primus’ Les Claypool on bass. Chili Peppers bassist Flea guests on “Suluhiana” and “Water Song,” the latter boasting Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard on guitar.

Irons left Pearl Jam for health reasons in early 1998, following the release of the album “Yield” and an Australian tour. “I had to dedicate myself to living a life that would promote healing and a right way of life for me and my family,” he says. “The music on these recordings [is] what was creatively inspired along the way. I could not tour at that point but I still needed to create.”

“Making this music was a way for me to work through all the changes and growing I had to do to become healthy again,” he continues. “This music also helped me reconnect with some old friends and former bandmates, who I am very happy and thankful to say have performed as guest artists.”

Irons is abetted throughout “Attention Dimension” by his Eleven colleague Alain Johannes, who plays an array of instruments on seven tracks. Eleven’s Natasha Shneider offers vocals on “Hearing It Doubled,” while Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament augments the groove on “Dunes.” The cut “Breaking Sea” includes a sample of Spectrasonics’ “Heart of Africa.”

Irons joined Pearl Jam for two songs during an all-star concert last October in Santa Barbara, Calif. It was just the second time he had played with the group since he left.

Here is the track list for “Attention Dimension”:

“Jackie Groove” featuring Alain Johannes
“Suluhiana” featuring Flea, Johannes
“Ocean’s Light”
“Hearing It Doubled” featuring Johannes, Natasha Shneider
“Shine On, You Crazy Diamond” featuring Eddie Vedder, Les Claypool, Johanne, Shneider
“Underwater Circus Music”
“Dunes” featuring Jeff Ament, Johannes
“Come Running” featuring Johannes
“Water Song” featuring Flea, Stone Gossard
“Breaking Sea” featuring Johannes
“Aquaman’s Electric Band” featuring Johannes

Source billboard.com.

Former Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell and former Cult guitarist Billy Duffy have teamed up to form Cardboard Vampyres. Rounded out by one-time Motley Crue and Ratt vocalist John Corabi, latter era Cult bassist Chris Wyse and drummer Josh Howser, the group has few aspirations besides having a good time playing live.

“This band is really just about having fun and playing tunes that we were fans of growing up”, Cantrell says. A typical set list consists of Cult and Alice In Chains songs set amid a selection of hard rock covers by Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Stooges, Black Sabbath and Aerosmith classics.

“We’re putting the music back into the business,” Duffy says. “It’s not about albums or contracts or singles. The music speaks for itself. It doesn’t matter who wrote the songs; they can never be what they were. This band is a natural evolution; we’re creating something entirely new.”

Cardboard Vampyres made its public debut at an April Sweet Relief benefit show in Los Angeles, and played Sammy Hagar’s Wabo Cantina at Harveys Lake Tahoe (Nev.) last month.

Since the demise of Alice In Chains, Cantrell has released two solo albums, 1998’s “Boggy Depot” (Columbia) and 2002’s “Degradation Trip” (Roadrunner). Earlier this spring, he opened a slate of shows on Kid Rock’s U.S. tour.

Between the Cult’s 1995 split and its 2000 reunion, Duffy formed the band Colorsound with Alarm lead singer Mike Peters. In 1999, the guitarist linked with Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and the Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver rhythm section of Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum to record “Elected” for the Alice Cooper tribute album “Humanitary Stew.”

Source billboard.com.

2004 edition of the Lollapalooza tour has been abruptly cancelled due to poor ticket sales, according to the event’s official Web site. “This morning (June 22), tour organizers and concert promoters, faced with several million dollars of losses, made the very tough decision to pull the tour,” the site says.

Morrissey, the Pixies, Wilco, String Cheese Incident, Modest Mouse and Sonic Youth were among the acts set to appear at various dates. The tour was to run from July 14 in Auburn, Wash., through Aug. 25 in Dallas.

My heart aches along with the bands, and all of our employees, whose hard work developed one of the most exciting and important tours that this nation was to see,” says Lollapalooza co-founder Perry Farrell. “My heart is broken.”

Adds booking agent/tour co-founder Marc Geiger, “I am in utter disbelief that a concert of this stature, with the most exciting line-up I’ve seen in years did not galvanize ticket sales. I’m surprised that given the great bands and the reduced ticket prices that we didn’t have enough sales to sustain the tour. Concert promoters across the country are facing similar problems. Many summer tours are experiencing weak ticket sales.”

Refunds will be available at points of purchase.

Source billboard.com.

Electronica act the Prodigy has finally nailed down details for its first album since 1997’s “The Fat of the Land.” The 12-track “Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned” will arrive Sept. 14 via Maverick/XL, preceded by the single “Girls” featuring the Ping Pong Bitches. The Liam Howlett-led group is planning to tour later in the year.

“Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned” boasts an array of eclectic guest artists, including actress Juliette Lewis on “Hot Ride,” Oasis’ Liam Gallagher on “Shoot Down,” rapper Twista on “Get Up Get Off,” rapper Kool Keith on “Wake Up Call” and “You’ll Be Under My Wheels” and Princess Superstar on “Memphis Bells.”

Sessions for the album were said to have begun as far back as 2001. In July 2002, Prodigy released the single “Baby’s Got a Temper,” which debuted at No. 21 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Sales chart. It has been the only piece of new music the threesome has released in recent years but is not included on “Always Outnumbered.”

Source billboard.com.

Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson will hit the road together this summer, visiting minor league baseball parks across the United States. Kicking off Aug. 6 at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y., home to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the 22-date Bob Dylan Show will close Sept. 4 at Community America Ball Park in Kansas City, Kan.

“What we aim to do with this tour is hit the ball out of the park, touch all the bases and get home safely,” quips Dylan in a statement.

Tickets for the first 13 shows go on sale Saturday (June 26) via Ticketmaster, with the balance of the other dates set to go up July 10.

While its not the first time Dylan and Nelson have shared the stage in their storied careers, the Bob Dylan Show outing marks the pair’s first tour together. The tour will also feature Austin, Texas-based Western swing act the Hot Club Of Cowtown in the opening slot.

“Having produced several of Bob Dylan’s concerts in these types of venues over the years, we found that the special atmosphere of a minor league ballpark adds a unique element to his already great shows,” Jerry Mickelson of tour promoter Jam Productions says. “A complete tour of these ballparks will have fans, young and old, experiencing a great evening of music.”

Dylan, who closed out a brief slate of stateside dates at the recent Bonnarroo festival in Manchester, Tenn., is currently on the road in Europe. That touring leg plays Newcastle, England, tomorrow (June 22) and will wrap July 18 in Portugal.

Having recovered from endoscopic carpal tunnel release surgery, Nelson is slated to appear Thursday (June 24) at a fundraising event for expected Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry in Los Angeles. He’ll be back on the road beginning July 3 at Merle Haggard’s annual UFO Music Fest in Roswell, N.M., and his own Fourth of July Picnic following day in Fort Worth, Texas.

Here are the Bob Dylan Show tour dates:

Aug. 6: Cooperstown, N.Y. (Doubleday Field)
Aug. 7: New Haven, Conn. (Yale Field)
Aug. 8: Brockton, Mass. (Campanelli Stadium)
Aug. 10: Wappinger Falls, N.Y. (Duchess Stadium)
Aug. 11: Altoona, Pa. (Blair County Ballpark)
Aug. 12: Aberdeen, Md. (Ripken Stadium)
Aug. 14: Salisbury, Md. (Arthur W. Perdue Stadium)
Aug. 15: Richmond, Va. (The Diamond)
Aug. 17: Charleston, S.C. (Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park)
Aug. 18: Sevierville, Tenn. (Smokies Stadium
Aug. 20: Jackson, Tenn. (Pringles Park)
Aug. 21: Lexington, Ky. (Applebee’s Park)
Aug. 22: South Bend, Ind. (Coveleski Stadium)
Aug. 24: Comstock Park, Mich. (Fifth-Third Ballpark)
Aug. 25: Peoria, Ill. (O’Brien Field)
Aug. 27: Madison, Wis. (Warner Park)
Aug. 28: Des Moines, Iowa (Sec Taylor Stadium)
Aug. 29: Sioux City, Iowa (Lewis & Clark Stadium)
Aug. 31: Lincoln, Neb. (Haymarket Park)
Sept. 1: Wichita (Lawrence-Dumont Stadium)
Sept. 3: Oklahoma City (SBC Bricktown Ballpark)
Sept. 4: Kansas City, Kan. (Community America Ball Park)

Source billboard.com.