News

Wilco has cancelled an eight-date U.S. tour to allow lead singer Jeff Tweedy additional time to undergo rehabilitation for an addiction to painkillers. The trek was set to kick off April 21 in Columbia, Mo., and culminate May 1 at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Ticketholders can obtain refunds for all of the shows except Coachella via local venues.

It is unclear if Wilco will be replaced by another act in the Coachella lineup. “Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. We fully expect all dates after May 1 to go off as scheduled,” the band writes on its official Web site.

Wilco will resume touring May 28 at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. The group then returns to the United States for four shows, including the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn. A month-long European tour will get underway June 20 in Oslo.

The group’s highly anticipated new album, “A Ghost Is Born,” will arrive June 22 via Nonesuch. The set can be streamed from Wilco’s official Web site.

Here are Wilco’s cancelled tour dates:

April 21: Columbia, Mo. (Blue Note)
April 23: New Orleans (Orpheum)
April 24-25: Austin, Texas (Stubb’s BBQ)
April 27: Santa Fe, N.M. (Lensic Theatre)
April 28: Flagstaff, Ariz. (Orpheum Theatre)
April 29: Tucson, Ariz. (Rialto Theatre)
May 1: Indio, Calif. (Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival)

Source billboard.com.

Tortoise’s April 24 show at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club will by cybercast on the Web site of the Chicago band’s label, Thrill Jockey Records. Afterward, the concert will be available from the site as an audio stream, as will photos from the gig. The label says it is hoping to begin offering live music events on the site on a regular basis.

Tortoise recently launched its first official Web site, which features a 15-track online radio show and will in the future host remixes and hard-to-find tracks for download. The group is touring in support of its brand new sixth album, “It’s All Around You.”

Source billboard.com.

The Pixies unleashed a 27-song set last night (April 13) at Minneapolis’ Fine Line Music Cafe in what was the pioneering alternative rock act’s first show in 12 years. The evening went heavy on the group’s earlier material, including nine songs from the album “Doolittle” but just one each from the Pixies’ final two releases, “Bossanova” and “Trompe le Monde”

Tickets to the gig were selling for $400 on Internet auction site eBay, and shirts inside jokingly commemorated the production as the “Pixies Sellout” tour. Perhaps the lone track not immediately recognizable to the audience was a cover of Neil Young’s “Winterlong,” which was sandwiched in-between the group’s own “The Holiday Song” and “Nimrod’s Son.”

Obscure oldies such as “Broken Face” and “Levitate Me” were received as warmly and vocally as the band’s nearest things to hits: “Here Comes Your Man,” “Velouria” and “Monkey Gone to Heaven.”

As previously reported, the Pixies are selling instant live CDs from the tour, which culminates May 1 at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Pre-orders for the first three gigs have already sold out.

After spending the summer touring internationally, the group will return to North America for an extensive fall run. Ten dates for that tour have been booked so far, through Nov. 24 in Toronto.

Source billboard.com.

You Are the Quarry, the first new solo material in seven years from Morrissey, is to be released May 17th in the UK and May 18th in the US on Sanctuary’s revamped imprint, Attack. Recorded in Los Angeles and London, Quarry is an album of extraordinary original songs using keyboards interwoven with crunchy guitars that work to create a lush, musical backdrop.

“There are no links to the past. This is a much brighter sounding album, than much of my previous work. We’ve turned the page with Quarry. It’s a dynamic album and I couldn’t be any happier.” says Morrissey.

See morrisseymusic.com for more info.

A Frank Zappa celebration featuring Zappa alumni Ike Willis, Ernie Watts, and Napoleon Murphy Brock & The Burlington Discover Jazz Festival Big Band Conducted and arranged by Ed Palermo will be one of the highlights of this years Burlington Discover Jazz Festival to be held June 4th-13th in Burlington, VT.

Other acts named to the festival include: the Vorcza Trio, Medeski Martin & Wood, Soulive, DJ Logic, Branford Marsalis, Randy Weston

After a hugely successful national tour this winter with Phish’s Mike Gordon, celebrated guitarist Scott Murawski brings his legendary band, Max Creek, back to the edge of the Rockies for a three night run.

Thursday, April 29th @ The Fox Theatre in Boulder, Friday, April 30th @ Cervante

“Ch-Check It Out,” the first single from the Beastie Boys’ upcoming album “To the 5 Boroughs,” will be available for digital download April 28 via Apple’s iTunes Music Store, the same date it is delivered to U.S. radio outlets for airplay consideration. A video for the track was recently shot by group member Adam Yauch’s alter-ego Nathaniel Hornblower, best known for directing previous Beasties clips “So What’cha Want” and “Intergalactic.”

As previously reported, “To the 5 Boroughs” will be released this summer by Capitol. It’s the rap trio’s first new album since 1998’s “Hello Nasty.” A world tour is expected later this year.

Source billboard.com.

New York rock act Interpol is hard at work on its sophomore Matador album. The as-yet-untitled set is being targeted for a September release and re-teams Interpol with producer Peter Katis, who was behind the boards for the group’s 2002 debut, “Turn on the Bright Lights.” Confirmed tracks recorded so far include “NARC” and “Length of Love.”

Interpol will tour in support of the new album but has no plans to play live “for the next several months,” according to its official Web site. For now, fans can enjoy an unsolicited remix of the last album’s “Untitled,” dubbed “Swimwear Remix,” available on the site.

In addition, the instrumental “Interlude,” which was only released on the Japanese edition of “Turn on the Bright Lights,” can be downloaded via Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Guitarist Daniel Kessler has also contributed a “celebrity playlist” to the store.

Source billboard.com.

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Copyright 2004 Billboard

A number of new artists have been added to this years Bonnaroo Festival lineup. The newest wave of additions include: Robert Earl Keen, Addison Groove Project, Jem, Antigone Rising, Xavier Rudd and Praxis

Phish will perform thirteen concerts this summer in two short legs – eight shows in June and another five in August. The June concerts kick off with a special two night run at Coney Island’s Keyspan Park in Brooklyn, NY, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball club, and also include a long overdue return to SPAC in Saratoga, NY as well as two-nighters at old favorites Deer Creek and Alpine Valley. In August, the band returns to Great Woods for two shows and to the Tweeter Center in Camden NJ for one night.

From there, the band is hard at work seeking necessary approvals to stage a festival in northern Vermont the weekend of August 14 & 15.

June 17 KeySpan Park, Brooklyn, NY
June 18 KeySpan park, Brooklyn, NY
June 19 Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
June 20 Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
June 23 Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, IN (Deer Creek)
June 24 Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, IN (Deer Creek)
June 25 Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI
June 26 Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI
August 10 Tweeter Center, Mansfield, MA (Great Woods)
August 11 Tweeter Center, Mansfield, MA (Great Woods)
August 12 Tweeter Center, Camden, NJ

Online file-sharing and other digital piracy persist, but a gradual turnaround in U.S. music sales that began last fall picked up in the first quarter of this year, resulting in the industry’s best domestic sales in years.

Overall U.S. music sales — CDs, legal downloads, DVDs — rose 9.1 percent in the first three months of the year over the same period in 2003, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Album sales were up 9.2 percent. Sales of CDs, which represent 96 percent of album sales, rose 10.6 percent. For the first time since 2000, two recording artists — Norah Jones and Usher — managed to sell more than 1 million copies of their albums in a single week.

U.S. album sales declined annually in the three years following 2000, the biggest year since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking U.S. music sales.

In 2001, sales were down 3 percent. The next year, sales dropped 11 percent. Last year, until September, sales were down 8.5 percent, but the pickup in sales at the end of the year narrowed the total decline for 2003 to less than 4 percent.

The burgeoning online music market accounted for the sale of more than 25 million tracks between January and March, eclipsing the 19.2 million tracks purchased in the last six months of 2003, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Source canoe.ca.

There will be an MSN chat with Bob Weir on April 15th, at 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT

As a member of the Grateful Dead and RatDog, Bob Weir knows good music. Meet this legend and ask him how music has changed in the last 30 years. Hear about stories from the road and his newest project Weir Here: The Best of Bob Weir.

Click here for more info on the MSN Chat.

Click here for a chance to win a copy of Weir Here from Glide!

In an evening billed as a “Vermont Easter Jam” a special surprise live concert treat awaited music fans at Winooski, Vermont

While Maynard James Keenan is on the road with A Perfect Circle, his Tool bandmates are hard at work on their next project.

The Who look to perform all over the world this summer, with dates rolling in from all corners of the globe.

The classic rockers are booked for the U.K.’s Isle of Wight Festival June 12. Come late July, they’ll be playing the Yokohama and Osaka Festivals in Japan, before heading downunder for a string of Australian arena gigs.

The band has not played in Australia in more than 35 years. During their 1968 tour with Small Faces, they were arrested after an airline pilot complained of misbehavior by the group and their entourage. Then-Prime Minister John Gorton asked the band not to return to the continent and the band promised they never would.

Time heals all wounds, evidently, and they’ll follow the Aussie stint with two California gigs – August 7 at Mountain View’s Shoreline Amphitheatre and August 9 at the Hollywood Bowl. No word yet on whether these dates are the beginning of a larger U.S. tour.

The band features original members Roger Daltrey (vocals) and Pete Townshend (guitar), along with Ringo Starr’s son Zak Starkey on drums. Pino Palladino played bass on the band’s 2002 tour, but it is unclear who will be filling the late John Entwistle’s shoes this summer.

Source pollstar.com.

As expected, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Gomez have joined the lineup for this year’s Lollapalooza festival. The tour will kick off July 14 at White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, Wash., with a two-day bill that also includes Morrissey, Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, the Polyphonic Spree and String Cheese Incident.

Morrissey will close the first night’s show, while String Cheese Incident will wrap things up on day two. A host of additional acts, as well as the full tour routing, have yet to be announced.

Source billboard.com.

Elvis Costello will simultaneously release two diverse albums later this year. The ever-prolific veteran artist is in the midst of recording a new rock album backed by his band the Imposters. In addition, the London Symphony Orchestra has recorded his composition “Il Sogno.” Both albums will be issued in the fall by Universal labels; an exact release date has not yet been determined.

Currently being recorded in Oxford, Miss., and Memphis, the as-yet-untitled rock album will come out on Lost Highway Records.

“Il Sogno” is Costello first full-length orchestral composition. Deutsche Grammophon will release the London Symphony Orchestra’s recording, conducted by Michael Tilson-Thomas. Plans are for the set to include a bonus disc that will be recorded at this summer’s North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Holland.

Costello is to open the four-day event with a July 8 performance at North Sea’s Buhrmann Midsummer Jazz Gala. Longtime collaborator Steve Nieve (the Attractions, the Imposters) and the Metropole Orkest will accompany Costello in solo piano, big band, string quartet and full orchestra settings.

In addition, the 52-member Metropole Orkest is scheduled to make its North American debut July 13 during the first of three Costello performances at New York’s Lincoln Center Festival 2004. Costello and the Imposters will perform two nights later, while on July 17, “Il Songo” will receive its continental premiere as performed by the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Additionally, Costello is providing new liner notes and combing through possible bonus material for his next set of catalog reissues. Due in August from Rhino are revamped versions of his 1981 country-leaning album “Almost Blue,” 1984’s bittersweet and slickly produced “Goodbye Cruel World” and the 1995 covers album, “Kojak Variety.” As with the label’s past updates of Costello albums, each will comprise the remastered and remixed original album on one disc and a full complement of related bonus material on a second.

As previously reported, Costello will publish two books next year through a deal with Simon & Schuster. One will center around “styles, themes and characters” in the artist’s lyrics, while the other is described as a “work of comic philosophy. ” That set carries the title “How to Play the Guitar, Sing Loudly and Impress Girls… or Boys.”

Source billboard.com.

Tori Amos will release her first live DVD next month. Due May 18 via Epic, “Welcome to Sunny Florida” was recorded Sept. 4, 2003 at the Sound Advice Amphitheater in West Palm Beach, Fla. The 18-track release is augmented with an interview with Amos, behind-the-scenes footage, a tour yearbook and a live version of “Past the Mission.”

“Welcome to Sunny Florida” is further enriched by a six-song CD featuring the previously unreleased tracks “Ruby through the Looking-Glass,” “Seaside,” “Bug a Martini,” “Apollo’s Frock,” “Indian Summer” and “Tombigbee.” The latter track is performed live on the DVD.

The show goes heavy on Amos’ more recent work, including her 2002 album “Scarlet’s Walk,” while her back catalog is represented by such favorites as “Crucify,” “Cornflake Girl” and “Leather.” Amos’ previous live release was “Still Orbiting,” part of the 1999 two-disc set “To Venus and Back.”

The artist has no appearances on her schedule at present. Her latest release was last year’s “Tales of a Librarian,” which chronicled her tenure recording for Atlantic.

Here is the track list for “Welcome to Sunny Florida”:

“A Sorta Fairytale”
“Sugar”
“Crucify”
“Cornflake Girl”
“Bells for Her”
“Concertina”
“Take to the Sky”
“Leather”
“Cloud on My Tongue”
“Cooling”

“Your Cloud”
“Father Lucifer”
“Professional Widow”
“I Can’t See New York”
“Precious Things”

Encore:
“Tombigbee”
“Amber Waves”
“Hey Jupiter”

Source billboard.com.

More than two years have passed since Rich and Chris Robinson grounded the Black Crowes after six albums and the better part of two decades. Chris was out of the gate first with a solo record in 2002, and out of the gate second too, as his next album, This Magnificent Distance, is due in June. Rich Robinson’s next phase has been a bit longer coming, as his band Hookah Brown derailed in May 2003 due to financial disagreements, just months after assembling. But the younger Robinson sib has decided to go it alone and is mixing twenty-two songs at New York’s Hit Factory studio, some of which will appear on his own solo debut this summer.

Robinson hasn’t settled on a title or even a format yet — the batch of songs could be whittled down to a single CD, two separate discs or a double — but the new tunes find Robinson untethered in the realm of epic rock, with some of the Crowesy Seventies-inspired riffing, flourishes of country, a bit of honkin’ on the blues and anything else the guitarist sees fit.

Visit rollingstone.com to read more in detail about this upcoming release.

TV On The Radio are carrying on New York City’s avant-garde tradition with their eclectic brand of experimental art rock, which incorporates elements of post-punk, doo-wop, jazz and more.

Their Young Liars EP kicked off a firestorm of hype last summer, and they’ve dropped a stick of dynamite in the buzzbin with their debut full-length, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes.

They’re looking to keep the talkers talking and win some new fans with a nationwide tour this spring. They just kicked off in New York City and they’ll be art-rocking their way to California and back, finishing up May 13 at Supreme Imperial in Boston.

The band consists of Tunde Adepimbe, David Sitek and Kyp Malone, and their live performances often feature a guest rhythm section. Adepimbe and Sitek, both visual artists, met in their apartment building and discovered an affinity for pushing musical boundaries, adding Malone soon after.

The group has strong connections with other hot New Yorkers – Adepimbe created the video for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Pin,” and Sitek has produced albums by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Liars. Several members of those bands have reciprocated by appearing live and on tape with TV On The Radio.

Source pollstar.com.