News

The Allman Brothers Band kicked off its annual residency at New York’s Beacon Theatre last night (March 9) with an epic set highlighted by a cover of the Band’s “The Weight” and a guest appearance by longtime Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin.

Introduced by guitarist/vocalist Warren Haynes as “someone who has influenced everybody,” 74-year-old Sumlin joined the Allmans for the first three songs of the second set, kicked off by a Gregg Allman-sung take on the late Wolf’s signature, “Smokestack Lighting.” One of the few remaining original Chicago bluesmen, Sumlin basked in the opportunity and took a seemingly unexpected turn at the mic, leaving band members smiling.

An annual tradition in New York since 1992, the Allmans’ Beacon stand routinely offers the iconic act an opportunity to spread its creative wings and tinker with the set list, as opposed to playing the hits-driven set expected on summer shed treks. This year’s 14-night Beacon run continues through March 26.

Source billboard.com.

The mainstage lineup for Ozzfest 2006 will boast founder and namesake Ozzy Osbourne for 10 shows, along with System Of A Down, Disturbed, Hatebreed, Lacuna Coil and another major act to be announced on May 23. The tour begins July 1 in San Francisco and will play 20 cities.

The second stage features Black Label Society, Atreyu, Unearth, Bleeding Through, Norma Jean, A Life Once Lost, Strapping Young Lad, the Red Chord, Full Blown Chaos, All That Remains and Between The Buried And Me.

The Ozzfest dates will be Osbourne’s first solo performances in three years; he has spent the last two summers on stage with his pioneering metal act Black Sabbath.

Ozzfest’s Village of the Damned concourse attractions will again be an active part of the tour and Ozzfest remains a valuable commodity for corporate sponsors. On board this year are Monster Energy, Hot Topic, Sony PlayStation, F.Y.E., Trojan and Jagermeister.

Source billboard.com.

Rock act Tool will break a five-year silence on May 2 with its next Volcano album, “10,000 Days.” No other details have yet been revealed about the project, which is the follow-up to 2001’s “Lateralus.” That set debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 2.3 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

As previously reported, Tool will play its first U.S. show since late 2002 when it headlines the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival on April 30 in Indio, Calif. No other U.S. dates have been confirmed.

Afterward, Tool will spend the first portion of the summer playing the European festival circuit, with dates on tap through July 9 at Finland’s Turku Festival.

Here are Tool’s tour dates:

May 26: Lisbon (Parque Tejo)
May 27: Madrid (Festimad)

Mat 29: Barcelona (Razzmatazz)
May 30: Villeurbanne, France (Transbordeur)
May 31: Luxembourg (Rockhal)
June 2: Nurburgring, Germany (Rock am Ring)
June 3: Nuremberg, Germany (Rock im Park)
June 4: Landgraaf, Holland (Pink Pop Festival)
June 5: Hamburg (Sporthalle)
June 7: Berlin (Columbiahalle)
June 8: Dusseldorf, Germany (Phillipshalle)
June 9: Donington, England (Download Festival)
June 17: Nickelsdorf, Austria (Nova Rock Festival)
June 19: Milan (Filaforum)
June 21: Rome (Foro Italico Center)
June 22: Bologna, Italy (L.R. Arena)
June 24: Katowice, Poland (Spodek)
June 25: Prage (T-Mobile Arena)
June 28: Paris (Le Zenith)
June 29: Werchter, Belgium (Rock Werchter Festival)
July 1: Roskilde, Denmark (Roskilde Festival)
July 4: Kristiansand, Norway (Quart Festival)
July 7: Gothenburg, Sweden (Metal Town Festival)
July 9: Turku, Finland (Turku Festival)

Source billboard.com.

The T. J. Martell Foundation is proud to announce it will auction off on eBay a limited number of one-of-a-kind, numbered and framed concert poster prints of legendary guitarist Derek Trucks, beginning March 15, 2006, at 9 p.m. EST/6 p.m. PST, with proceeds going to Leukemia, Cancer and AIDS Research. The framed Derek Trucks concert poster prints will be autographed by Derek Trucks and the poster

Regina Spektor will release her new record entitled BEGIN TO HOPE (Sire Records) June 13, 2006 and will embark on a warm-up tour in support, beginning April 8th in Montreal, Canada. Spektor recently completed a tour of the UK and Ireland, which included sold-out shows at London’s Shepherd Bush Empire and Manchester’s Academy. The dates in the US are the first for Spektor since her 25-date sold-out tour in the summer of 2005.

Produced by David Kahne in New York City at New York Noise Studios, Spektor’s new record offers the touchstones of her last album, SOVIET KITSCH, which garnered praise from such magazines as Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, Spin, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and many others. BEGIN TO HOPE will reveal that this Russian-born, Bronx-bred musician isn’t the same artist that emerged from the NYC caf

Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes music and video store on Wednesday took its first step toward a monthly subscription model with a new service called Multi-Pass that lets users buy TV shows on a monthly basis.

The service is being launched by iTunes in partnership with Viacom Inc.’s Comedy Central cable network, which is rolling out “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” on the service.

Fans will be able to buy the next month’s series of 16 new episodes via Multi-Pass for $9.99, or to pay $1.99 per episode. Four episodes air each week and viewers can download each episode after it’s been broadcast.

TV shows and other video have been available for sale on iTunes since late last year. Comedy Central announced a relationship with iTunes six weeks ago with shows including “South Park,” “Drawn Together” and “Comedy Central Stand-Up.”

Michele Ganeless, executive vice president at Comedy Central, said there would be no advertising on the service for the time being, similar to the network’s DVD business.

Apple has so far resisted calls from media companies and competitors to adopt a monthly subscription fee favored by the likes of Napster and Real Networks Inc.’s Rhapsody, preferring an a la carte download model where music tracks cost 99 cents and videos $1.99.

Videos downloaded from the iTunes Music Store can be played back on a personal computer or an Apple iPod portable media player, among other devices. More than 8 million videos have been sold since it launched at the end of last year.

Shows including Walt Disney Co.’s “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” were among the first to be made available on the service.

Source yahoo.com.

Bruce Springsteen and his new Seeger Sessions Band, Herbie Hancock, Etta James and Warren Haynes have been added to the lineup for the 2006 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which will be held April 28-30 and May 5-7 at the Fair Grounds Race Course.

As previously reported, Springsteen will on April 25 release an album featuring songs long associated with folk icon Pete Seeger. It is not known if the Jazz Fest appearance will be the new band’s first, but at deadline it is the first to be confirmed as part of a spring tour.

Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Dave Matthews Band, Jimmy Buffet, Allen Toussaint with Elvis Costello, Lionel Richie, Keith Urban, Ani DiFranco, the Meters and Fats Domino are among the other superstars on the bill for Jazz Fest, which is moving forward despite New Orleans’ ravaging at the hands of Hurricane Katrina.

Source billboard.com.

Frank Black has wrapped work on a new solo album. The double-disc “Fastman/Raiderman” will arrive June 20 via Back Porch/EMI and is the follow-up to 2005’s country-tinged “Honeycomb.”

Among the musicians that lent a hand on “Fastman/Raiderman” were Steve Cropper, Spooner Oldham, the Band’s Levon Helm, Bad Company’s Simon Kirke, Cheap Trick’s Tom Petersson, Al Kooper and Rich Gilbert, a member of Black’s one-time solo band, the Catholics. Tracks confirmed to appear include “My Terrible Ways,” “Elijah,” “In the Time of My Ruin,” “Sad Man’s Song,” “Fitzgerald” and “Kiss My Ring.”

Source billboard.com.

The lineup has been confirmed for this year’s V Festival in the U.K., with Radiohead and Morrissey topping the bill.

The two-day event, which sold out all 130,000 tickets within hours of the March 3 on-sale, will take place August 19-20 at Hylands Park in Chelmsford and Weston Park in Staffordshire.

Beck, Faithless, Razorlight, Kasabian, Paul Weller, Fatboy Slim, Bloc Party, Keane, The Charlatans U.K., The Magic Numbers, Rufus Wainwright, The Go! Team, Gavin DeGraw, Fatboy Slim, and Editors are among the names set to appear over the weekend.

Last year’s V Festival featured close to 80 acts, including headliners Oasis, Franz Ferdinand, and Scissor Sisters.

Source pollstar.com.

Billboard.com reports “MMJ are roaring back to life this spring as the support act on the first leg of Pearl Jam’s North American tour. A number of high-profile festival appearances are also confirmed, including Coachella, Bonnaroo and High Sierra. In late summer or early fall, MMJ plans to make up dates it was forced to cancel in Europe after Jim James took ill, to hopefully be followed by a North American headlining run.

And while James says not to expect MMJ back in the studio until the spring of 2007, there will be new product to savor this fall. The band is finishing up work on a double-disc live album as well as a DVD, which will be released separately. Eschewing the straight-up “film the show” approach, the DVD follows a storyline that transports fans to an MMJ show in the middle of a forest (oddly enough, the “Z” track “Into the Woods” is not included).”

My Morning Jacket’s tour dates:

April 21: Nashville (Rites of Spring)
April 29: Indio, Calif. (Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival)
May 9-10: Toronto (Air Canada Centre; w/ Pearl Jam)
May 12: Albany, N.Y. (Pepsi Arena; w/ Pearl Jam)
May 13: Hartford, Conn. (New England Dodge Music Arena; w/ Pearl Jam)
May 16: Chicago (United Center; w/ Pearl Jam)
May 19: Grand Rapids, Mich. (Van Andel Arena; w/ Pearl Jam)
May 20: Cleveland (Quicken Loans Arena; w/ Pearl Jam)
May 22: Auburn Hills, Mich. (Palace of Auburn Hills; w/ Pearl Jam)
May 24: Boston (TD Banknorth Garden; w/ Pearl Jam)
May 27: Camden, N.J. (Tweeter Center; w/ Pearl Jam)
May 30: Washington, D.C. (MCI Center; w/ Pearl Jam)
June 1, 3: East Rutherford, N.J. (Continental Airlines Arena; w/ Pearl Jam)
June 16-18: Manchester, Tenn. (Bonnaroo Festival)
June 29-July 2: Quincy, Calif. (High Sierra Festival)

Tomorrow evening, (Friday March 10th) Billy Martin (Medeski, Martin and Wood, Illy B)will join forces with fellow percussion master Cyro Baptista for a special intimate show at Brooklyn’s Issue Project Room. The show promises to create “sound-scapes and rhythms-exotique.”

For more info see: issueprojectroom.org

Pearl Jam will return to the road May 9 in Toronto, a week after the release of its eighth studio album. As previously reported, the self-titled set will be the band’s first for J Records. First single “World Wide Suicide” is available for free download from Pearl Jam’s official Web site.

At deadline, only the first leg of the tour has been confirmed, with dates running through a June 1 and 3 stand in East Rutherford, N.J. Acclaimed rock act My Morning Jacket will support on this portion of the outing. The rest of the band’s 2006 touring plans will be announced in the coming weeks.

“World Wide Suicide” is off to a blazing start at U.S. rock radio outlets, clocking in as the track with the largest total audience at the format in the past 24 hours, according to Broadcast Data Systems.

Here are Pearl Jam’s tour dates:

May 9-10: Toronto (Air Canada Centre)
May 12: Albany, N.Y. (Pepsi Arena)

May 13: Hartford, Conn. (New England Dodge Music Arena)
May 16: Chicago (United Center)
May 19: Grand Rapids, Mich. (Van Andel Arena)
May 20: Cleveland (Quicken Loans Arena)
May 22: Auburn Hills, Mich. (Palace of Auburn Hills)
May 24: Boston (TD Banknorth Garden)
May 27: Camden, N.J. (Tweeter Center)
May 30: Washington, D.C. (MCI Center)
June 1, 3: East Rutherford, N.J. (Continental Airlines Arena)

Source billboard.com.

Slayer has lined up a new batch of tour dates as the group’s original four members work on their first album together in more than 15 years.
The tour starts on the ominous date of 6/6/06, and is dubbed The Unholy Alliance Tour – Preaching to the Perverted.
Arenas and amphitheatres in 17 U.S. cities are booked through late July, with more dates to be added soon.
Lamb of God, Mastodon, Children of Bodom, and Thine Eyes Bleed will support.
Slayer’s Tom Araya, Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman haven’t recorded an album with drummer Dave Lombardo since 1990’s Seasons In The Abyss. Paul Bostaph, who handled drum duties through most of the ’90s, left the group after 2001’s God Hates Us All.
“Dave’s been back with us, playing live, for a couple of years now, and we’re all looking forward to recording together again,” Araya said.
“It feels really good being back with the same guys I started out with,” Lombardo added. “The chemistry is definitely there, that’s the exciting part of it, to capture that chemistry again. And that’s what is happening.”
Slayer is recording in a Los Angeles studio with longtime associate Rick Rubin in the executive producer’s chair. The band plans to have the album out this fall.
The upcoming shows will be the group’s first road trip since headlining the Jagermeister Music Tour in late 2004. That same year, they also toured with Slipknot and Ozzfest.

Source pollstar.com.

The Dresden Dolls will release their sophomore album, “Yes, Virginia,” April 18 via Roadrunner. It’s the follow-up to their 2004 self-titled debut, though some of the songs here have been waiting in the wings for close to six years.

“I’m an impressionable songwriter, I don’t set things in stone,” head Doll Amanda Palmer tells Billboard.com. “We liked to shape and polish these songs over time.” The 29-year-old pianist/vocalist says she allowed herself “more simplicity” on the album and moved away from the Dolls’ signature cabaret sound.

“As a younger songwriter, I felt the need to over-complicate things to sound more impressive,” she says. “On this one, there’s three-chord songs. And they sound f*cking great.”

Source billboard.com.

Common, Sonic Youth, Matt Costa, Tortured Soul are the latest round of additions for Bonnaroo 2006. This is the second Bonnaroo appearance for Sonic Youth, who played the music & arts festival in 2003. This will be the first appearance in Manchester, TN for Common, Costa and Tortured Soul.

For more information, visit the festival’s website.

How does a band like Stereophonics follow up five studio albums and four consecutive number one albums in the UK? They release a live package that showcases their career in a way that few bands can. On April 18, Stereophonics are set to release Live From Dakota on their own imprint label, Vox Populi Records. After reaching a crossroads in North America, Stereophonics have jumped at the chance to go it alone with a DIY approach. Live From Dakota is a 2-disc compilation featuring 20 tracks spanning all five of the bands albums and captures the best of their 2005 world tour.

Their fifth album, ‘Language. Sex. Violence. Other…’, heralded a fantastic return to form, sending them out on tour in front of sell-out crowds all over the world, including over 200, 000 fans in the UK alone. The last year has been so successful, the band felt the need to celebrate it in a special way: their first live album.

“We didn’t want to do a greatest hits package or anything like that,” says Kelly. “We wanted to do a live album because it feels like a celebration of the year we’ve had and also of the ten years that this band has been going. I wanted to put this out as a souvenir, for the fans and for ourselves, because I wanted to capture the moment where we’re all really into the band again. To not share that would be silly. The feeling and excitement in the band hasn’t ever been as strong as this which is why we’ve never done anything like this before.”

The energy and raw feel of Stereophonics live has been perfectly captured on these recordings. “Even just when we were rehearsing it felt really energetic, gritty and in your face. As soon as we started playing with Javier it felt so natural. We felt like a unit onstage – it was like the old gang mentality,” adds Richard. “The shows last year were among the best we’ve ever played.”

“If you’ve never been to one of our gigs before, then this will make you want to come. If the only perception you have of us is from a few singles on the radio, then this will totally change your mind.”
-Kelly Jones

Track listing:

Disc One:
1. Superman
2. Doorman
3. A Thousand Trees
4. Devil
5. Mr. Writer
6. Pedalpusher
7. Deadhead
8. Maybe Tomorrow
9. The Bartender and The Thief
10. Local Boy In The Photograph

Disk Two:
1. Hurry Up and Wait
2. Madame Helga
3. Vegas Two Times
4. Carrot Cake and Wine
5. I’m Alright
6. Jayne
7. Too Many Sandwiches
8. Traffic
9. Just Looking
10. Dakota

The surviving members of Alice In Chains are hitting the road this summer for the first time since frontman Layne Staley’s death from a drug overdose in 2002. With Staley, Alice In Chains’ last tour was in 1996. Since then, guitarist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney have only taken the stage together once, at a February 2005 tsunami benefit show in Seattle.

According to Cantrell’s official Web site, the lone reunion show confirmed at present is the Nova Rock Festival in Austria on June 28, alongside such heavy-hitters as Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age and Massive Attack.

The trio will warm up for its summer dates with a March 10 performance in Atlantic City, N.J., as part of a VH1 “Decades Rock” episode devoted to Heart. For that show, Staley’s shoes will be filled by Comes With The Fall singer William DuVall, who also doubles as a member of Cantrell’s touring band.

Source billboard.com.

Pearl Jam wears its emotions on its sleeve on its self-titled eighth album, which, as previously reported, will be released May 2 via J Records. Material for the 13-track set took shape in the wake of President George W. Bush’s re-election as well as the United States’ invasion of Iraq, the third anniversary of which is quickly approaching.

To read more about the new Pearl Jam release please visit billboard.com.

The New Amsterdams are a side project no more, with spring plans including a headlining tour and their first album since the dissolution of frontman Matt Pryor’s other band, the Get Up Kids.

Following a March 16 appearance at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, the New Amsterdams will kick off a round of North American dates at San Francisco’s Bottom Of The Hill.

The band – comprising Pryor, guitarist/singer Dustin Kinsey, bassist Eric McCann and drummer Bill Belzer – will head east to the legendary C.B.G.B in New York City and stay on the road through April 15, when they play Virginia Beach’s Peppermint Beach Club.

They’ll be back in California two weeks later to play the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival

Source pollstar.com.

As predicted by Glide last week, in a year when best picture nominees thrived on controversy, the Academy Awards’ top honor went to the film that attacked its issues most bluntly.

The Los Angeles social drama “Crash,” which interwove plots and characters from different racial and economic backgrounds in Los Angeles, won best picture honors despite favorite “Brokeback Mountain” winning virtually every other major award it had been up for leading up the the 78th Oscars.

The ensemble film, with a cast that included Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock and hip-hop star Ludacris, also won awards for best original screenplay and best editing.

“Brokeback Mountain” director Ang Lee won best director for his film about the homosexual relationship that grows between two sheepherders in remote Wyoming.

“Brokeback” writers Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay, and Gustavo Santaolalla took the award for best original score.

hilip Seymour Hoffman and Reese Witherspoon were awarded best actor and actress honors.

Hoffman won for his portrayal of Truman Capote in “Capote,” while Witherspoon won her Oscar for playing June Carter Cash in the Johnny Cash biography, “Walk the Line.”

Rachel Weisz won her first Academy Award for her performance as an impassioned activist who dies under mysterious circumstances in “The Constant Gardener.”

And George Clooney won best supporting actor for his performance as a CIA man who starts unraveling the truth in the political thriller “Syriana.”