The Red Hot Chili Peppers entered a California studio earlier this summer to record two new tracks for an upcoming greatest hits collection. They left with fifteen. “It was the fastest we have ever recorded so much material,” says bassist Flea. “We gave it no thought, we just rocked and it worked well…[it]is among the most diverse and dynamic good-feeling shit we have ever done.”
The still-untitled greatest hits collection is due in November, but no release date has been set for the album of new material.
The Chili Peppers begin the second leg of their North American tour September 6th in Washington D.C.
Source Rollingstone.com.
Six months after the Station nightclub fire killed 100 people in West Warwick, Rhode Island, and injured hundreds more, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the club’s owners nearly $100,000, and Great White, the band whose pyrotechnics ignited the February 20th blaze was fined $7,000.
Station owners Michael and Jeffrey Derderian were cited for one “willful” violation — installing an exit door that opened in — and six “serious,” including covering the walls with flammable foam for soundproofing.
Great White’s guitarist Ty Longley was among those who died in the fire.
Source Rollingstone.com.
The latest Democratic drive to make sure President Bush serves just one term takes a page from the effort to oust a Democratic governor in California, calling its web site “bushrecall” and garnering support through petitions.
A new committee called the Fair and Balanced PAC plans to launch its www.bushrecall.org Web site Thursday. The PAC’s founders include Joe Lockhart, a press secretary to former President Clinton, and Mike Lux, a Democratic political consultant.
The Constitution provides no way to recall a president through a ballot initiative, as California voters have a chance to do to Democrat Gray Davis in October.
Instead, the PAC will work to defeat Bush in next year’s election, building lists of supporters through a petition drive and raising money to run ads against the Republican, he said.
“What we hope to do is to remind people that all of the things that are being said about Gray Davis as the reasons for the recall can be applied to George Bush,” Lux said Wednesday. “For example, they say Davis turned big surpluses into deficits in a matter of a couple of years. That’s the same thing that happened with George Bush.”
Source CNN.com.
Akron, Ohio-based rock duo the Black Keys will spend most of the fall on a world tour in support of its Fat Possum album, “Thickfreakness.” The group will appear this weekend at the U.K.’s Reading and Leeds festivals, followed by 10 additional dates in the region through Sept. 5. A six-date tour of Australia will follow, wrapping Sept. 19 in Sydney.
From there, the group will take a few weeks off before beginning an 11-date U.S. tour Oct. 6 in Northampton, Mass. A one-off Dec. 6 gig in Oberlin, Ohio, is also on the itinerary, as is a New Year’s Eve bash at Cleveland’s Beachland Ballroom. A spokesperson says the group will likely not have time to record new material until early next year.
For a list of tour dates visit Billboard.com.
