News

A Princeton graduate student said on Monday that he has figured out a way to defeat new software intended to keep music CDs from being copied on a computer — simply by pressing the Shift-key.
In a paper posted on his Web site late Monday, John Halderman said the MediaMax CD3 software developed by SunnComm Technologies Inc. (OTC BB:STEH.OB – news) could be defeated on computers running the Windows operating system by holding down the Shift key, disabling a Windows feature that automatically launches the encryption software on the disc.
Halderman said the protection could also be disabled by stopping the driver the CD installs when it is first inserted into a computer’s drive.
Computers running Linux (news – web sites) and older versions of the Mac operating system are unable to run the software and are able to copy the disc freely, he said.
The CD in question, Anthony Hamilton’s “Comin’ From Where I’m From,” was released by BMG’s Arista label in late September. Music retailers praised the release, which BMG touted as a breakthrough in the industry’s efforts to prevent music piracy.
Source Yahoo.com.

Dave Matthews will be touring with Trey Anastasio, Brady Blade, Tony Hall, Ray Paczkowski and Tim Reynolds, with “special guest” Emmylou Harris and her band, Spyboy. It’s not clear if Harris will be opening for Matthews, or playing with him. The twelve-stop tour will take Matthews and company around the country, with dates in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Washington and California. The date that the tickets go on sale to the general public has not been announced, but the DMB fan association, Warehouse, will have a lottery period running from October 9-October 20.
Source nancies.org.

A year after the death of founding member Jam Master Jay, rap act Run-D.M.C. will be release on October 28th

The Del McCoury Band won top honors at the 14th annual International Bluegrass Music Awards. The group took home the entertainer of the year award for the eighth time. Band members Mike Bub and Jason Carter won in the instrumental categories for bassist and fiddler of the year.
Source Billboard.com.

“Sixty Six to Timbuktu” a two-CD solo collection from former Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant is due out on November 4th. The 35 set traces Plant’s career, starting with his first solo single in 1966 through a live performance this year in Timbuktu. The first disc features material from his first solo albums, while the second disc contains more osbscure material. It’s full of rarities, bonus tracks, his work with pre- Zeppelin groups Listen and the Band of Joy and side projects like “Philadelphia Baby,” recorded under the Crawling Kingsnakes, a one-off that included Dave Edmunds and Phil Collins.
Source Billboard.com.

Ice Cube has landed the starring role in the “XXX” sequel with Van Diesel stepping aside. Director Rob Cohen has also opted out of the sequel to the 2002 action film about an extreme-turned-secret agent, and will be replaced by “Die Another Day” director Lee Tamahori. The film will begin production in the summer and hit theaters in 2005.
Source Billboard.com.

Courtney Love, 39, was found early Thursday outside a Los Angeles home where she had allegedly broken the windows in an attempt to enter, police spokesman Don Cox said. She was arrested and booked for investigation of using illegal drugs, posted $2,500 bail and was released.
Hours later, police and paramedics in Beverly Hills responded to an emergency call and took a woman to a hospital for treatment, according to a story in Friday’s editions of the Los Angeles Times. Law enforcement sources told the newspaper that the woman was Love and that she had overdosed. It was not immediately known what her condition was.
Love was arrested earlier this year in London for allegedly verbally abusing cabin staff on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Los Angeles. She was later released.
Source CNN.com.

Music mogul and Grammy-winning songwriter Kenneth Gamble has assembled a team to develop a proposal for a museum devoted to rhythm & blues music in Philadelphia. The proposed development would serve both residential and retail needs. A closed African American museum purchased by Gamble several years ago would also likely be part of the facility.
Source Billboard.com.

The Barenaked Laides will be release a new album on October 21st entitled “Everything For Everyone.”

A new brand of wine will honor the late Jerry Garcia. Winemaker Erik Olsen is overseeing the production of the J.Garcia Wines, which will be bottled at the Clos du Bois winery in Geyserville, California.
Three wines are included in the initial release

Coldplay, will be release a two-disc live DVD/CD, called Coldplay Live 2003 on November 4th.
Filmed at Sydney

San Francisco will once again be the site of the funkiest place in October when the third annual Funk Festival takes over from October 8-25. Celebrating all things funk, the event will feature music, art and film.
This year’s lineup boasts DJ Greyboy, The Headhunters, Grandmaster Flash, and Robert Walter’s 20th Congress. Various venues in and around San Francisco – including Bimbo’s 365 Club, the Elbo Room and the Great American Music Hall – host the concerts.
The San Francisco Funk Fest first descended on the bay city in 2001. Even though the event was held a couple months after September 11, it managed to attract upward of 3,000 people, laying the ground for the successive festivals.
Source Pollstar.com.

Chris Rock is bringing his whip-smart brand of comedy to theatres across North America this winter. Under the Black Ambition Tour, the comedian will laugh it up from mid-October well into the new year.There are a couple two-night engagements scheduled – one in New York City and another in Los Angeles. Additional dates are expected to be announced.
Aside from hosting various award shows, including this year’s MTV Video Awards, and doing a few one-off gigs, it’s been four long years since Rock last toured stages. In the in-between time, he’s been anything but lazy. He hosted the critically acclaimed “The Chris Rock Show” on HBO, has put out a couple comedy albums, won three Emmys and two Grammys, and has starred in several films.
For a full list of performance dates visit Pollstar.com.

Singer Robert Palmer has died in Paris of a heart attack at the age of 54, his manager said. The British star, whose chart hits in the 1980s included “Addicted to Love,” suffered the attack in the early hours of Friday morning, Mick Cater said.
The Yorkshireman, who had lived in Switzerland for 16 years, was staying in the French capital with his partner, Mary Ambrose, after traveling from the United Kingdom where he had been recording a TV show.
Palmer was in several British rock bands before he hit the big time as a solo artist with singles that also included “Simply Irresistible” and “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On.”
Source cnn.com.

Pearl Jam is tossing plans to release a comprehensive DVD of its 2003 Riot Act tour in favor of spotlighting the band

Metallica will bring in the New Year with a performance at the Joint In Las Vegas

Three Days,” a Jane’s Addiction documentary that played at various 1999 film festivals but was never officialy released, will be issued on DVD on Oct. 7.
The film, directed by Carter Smith and Kevin Ford, follows the band on and off stage during its 1997 tour in support of it’s album Kettle Whistle.

Over 70,000 people attended the Dave Matthews Band free concert in central park Wednesday night, and although rumors spread across the net this week of various special guests, only one inevitably emerged. Midway through the two-hour set, Warren Haynes joined the band for Neil Young’s “Cortez The Killer” and DMB’s “Jimi Thing.”
Proceeds were donated to building music programs in city schools

As eclectic as the festival itself, a two-disc CD release and a DVD commemorating this year’s second Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tenn., will showcase everyone from the Dead and Emmylou Harris to Sonic Youth and the Polyphonic Spree. The audio set “Live From Bonnaroo” and the DVD “270 Miles From Graceland – Bonnaroo 2003” will be issued Oct. 21 via Sanctuary.
John Alagia (John Mayer, Keller Williams) produced the 23-track CD compilation. It includes such highlights from the June 13-15 event as the Dead’s “Sugar Magnolia,” Warren Haynes’ “The Real Thing,” James Brown’s “I Feel Good” and Ben Harper’s cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing.”
“For all my previous films, I was the main cinematographer,” Clinch says in a statement, recalling such features as “Pleasure & Pain,” his 2002 Harper documentary. “For shooting something of this magnitude — four stages, 80,000 people — I hired cinematographers who I could trust to translate the feeling I was trying to capture… a classic hand-held documentary style combined with adventurous framing and point of view.”
The film will receive a theatrical premiere Oct. 8 at New York’s Ziegfeld Theater.

Source Billboard.com.

Aterna/jam band O.A.R. will be hitting the college circuit this fall. Following the university run, O.A.R. will step things up and headline a string of dates at larger venues, including a two-night stand at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom. O.A.R will also be opening for 311 on two nights in November in Providence, RI and State College, PA. The band just wrapped a stint aboard the Sprite Liquid Mix Tour where they shared the stage with N.E.R.D., Robert Randolph & The Family Band, and The Roots. In addition to rocking the mic, O.A.R. have seen the single “Hey Girl” from their major label debut, In Between Now And Then, hit the Top 40 chart.
Source Pollstar.com.