2003

When Brian Bowe learned that Creem, a defunct rock magazine he’d read as a child, was making a comeback after 15 years, he sat down and wrote an E-mail to publisher Robert Matheu. As a music fanatic, the 31-year-old Laketown Township, Mich., resident wanted to work for the magazine in some way. After writing back and forth with Matheu for a while, Bowe submitted a few reviews and essays.
“I started writing stuff, and he liked the stuff I was writing,” Bowe told the Holland Sentinel. “He sent me some copy to edit, and he liked the way I was editing stuff.”
Less than a year later, Matheu asked Bowe, a spokesman for Grand Valley State University, to edit the new Creem. “When he asked me, I was floored,” Bowe said. “I couldn’t have been happier. To this day, it just, the very idea, blows my mind. I feel very honored, and I take it very seriously.”
Creem began in Detroit in March 1969 and ran monthly until folding in November 1988. A revival was launched in the early 1990s, but the publication largely lay dormant until fall 2000, when Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical movie “Almost Famous” was released.
Crowe wrote for Creem as a teenager under the editing of the late Lester Bangs, an eccentric, prolific writer who became synonymous with the publication.
The film renewed interest in Bangs and Creem, and Matheu decided to try to restore luster to the magazine’s name. He contacted the owners of the publication rights and obtained permission to bring it back. Currently a Web-only publication, Creem is expected be on store shelves in a print edition next spring, Matheu said.
Source billboard.com.

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the members of Tenacious D announced today (Nov. 3) that they would begin a 45-day hunger strike at 5 p.m.
In a satirical move to promote the DVD “The Complete Masterworks,” due tomorrow via Epic, members Jack Black and Kyle Gass said they will climb into a seven-foot by three-foot by seven-foot glass box 50 yards above Times Square at the intersection of 45th Street and Broadway, where they will remain for the length of the strike.
The intersection is the location of MTV studios, where they are to appear on today’s episode of “Total Request Live.”
Actor/singer/guitarist Black said the strike would end early one three conditions: if “The Complete Masterworks” goes platinum, if “hunger is solved” or if there is peace in Middle East.
The duo made the announcement dressed in silver and white superhero costumes, with the letter “D” covering their barrel-shaped chests, white gloves on their hands and white capes tied around their necks. In addition to water and one red cell phone, Black quipped that they would bring one guitar into the glass box with them. “If we need extra nourishment, we will live off each others’ rock.”
When the pair was asked the longest duration either had gone without sustenance, Gass replied that one time he had gone eight hours between meals. Black said that once he slept for 12 hours, effectively spending 13 hours in-between meals. “It’s gonna test our will, but I feel confident we’re gonna make it,” said Gass.
Source Billboard.com.

The backlash against the Rolling Stones at Canadian retail regarding the band’s exclusive deal with Best Buy for its upcoming “Four Flicks” DVD has spilled over the border into the United States.
Some U.S. retailers are protesting the move, saying they feel left out of the loop. For example, 24-unit Newbury Comics in Brighton, Massachusetts, is pulling the Stones’ deep catalog — about 32 titles — from its stores. “Obviously, retail isn’t important to them,” CEO Mike Dreese wrote in an e-mail to employees. “So much for good will in deep-stocking an artist just because you thought their stuff was important to someone.”
In Albany, New York, Trans World Entertainment executive VP Fred Fox says his chain will pull Stones catalog from its 940 units, trimming the 72 titles that Trans World stocks to about five albums and returning the product. “If the Rolling Stones elect to market their new product exclusively with someone because they are more important to them,” Fox says, “I would have to step back and question why I would offer the slower-turning, older catalog pieces when I am not afforded the opportunity to sell the newer pieces, which are in higher demand.”
And Circuit City, Best Buy’s main competitor, is pulling a Rolling Stones catalog promotion it had planned to run in November and December. “We are disappointed with the Rolling Stones’ exclusive arrangement with a single retailer,” Circuit City spokesman Jim Babb says. “We feel the arrangement not only damages other retailers who have supported the band for years, but it also damages the band because this product will be available to the public in far fewer outlets.”
Source cnn.com.

Never one to back away from political debate, singer-songwriter Steve Earle will face off with Bill O

California rock/pop ensemble Counting Crows has settled on a track list for an upcoming greatest-hits album, “Films About Ghosts.” The collection is due Nov. 25 from Geffen Records. “Films About Ghosts” comprises selections from each of the band’s four studio albums as well as the rarity, “Einstein on the Beach,” the new song “She Don’t Want Nobody Near” and a newly recorded cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil.”
Both of the new tunes were produced by Brendan O’Brien; the former is tapped as the lead single and hit radio last week. The Dead cover was performed over the weekend at both Bridge School Benefits outside San Francisco.
Other cuts set for the album include “Round Here,” “A Long December,” “Mr. Jones,” a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Hangin’ Around,” “Anna Begins” and “Angels of the Silences.” “Einstein on the Beach” is taken from the 1994 Geffen label compilation “DGC Rarities Vol. 1.”
Source Billboard.com.

Radiohead

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel threatened to sue the makers of “The Simpsons” over a parody of the channel’s right-wing political stance, the creator of the hit US television show has claimed.
In an interview this week with National Public Radio, Matt Groening recalled how the news channel had considered legal action, despite the fact that “The Simpsons” is broadcast on sister network, Fox Entertainment.
According to Groening, Fox took exception took a Simpsons’ version of the Fox News rolling news ticker which parodied the channel’s anti-Democrat stance, with headlines like “Do Democrats Cause Cancer?”
“Fox fought against it and said they would sue the show,” Groening said.
“We called their bluff because we didn’t think Rupert Murdoch would pay for Fox to sue itself. So, we got away with it.”
Other satirical Fox news bulletins featured in the show included: “Study: 92 per cent of Democrats are gay… JFK posthumously joins Republican Party… Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple…”
While the lawsuit never materialized, Groening said some action was taken.
“Now Fox has a new rule that we can’t do those little fake news crawls on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it’s real news,” he said.
“The Simpsons,” featuring the dysfunctional family of patriarch Homer Simpson and his rowdy brood, is now in its 14th year and is expected to become the longest-running situation comedy in US history in 2005.
Source yahoo.com.

Always one up for a good public display

Veteran singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones has set a month-long U.S. tour for November, in support of her latest album, “The Evening of My Best Day.” The album was released Oct. 7 in the U.S. by V2.
Jones will kick off the outing Nov. 2 in Rochester, N.H., and will hit 18 cities across the country, performing new and old songs with her touring band. The dates will wrap Nov. 25 at Los Angeles’ Wilshire Theater.
Here are Rickie Lee Jones’ tour dates:
Nov. 2: Rochester, N.H. (Rochester Music Hall)Nov. 3: Sommerville, Mass. (Sommerville Theatre)Nov. 5: Pittsburgh (Palace Theatre)Nov. 6: Philadelphia (Keswick Theatre)Nov. 7: New York (Town Hall)Nov. 9: Washington, D.C. (Lisner Auditorium)Nov. 10: Columbus, Ohio (Southern Theatre)Nov. 12: Toronto (Phoenix Concert Theatre)Nov. 13: Chicago (Chicago Theatre)Nov. 14: Madison, Wis. (Barrymore Theatre)Nov. 15: St. Paul, Minn. (Fitzgerald Theatre)Nov. 17: Denver (Gates Concert Hall)Nov. 19: Boise, Idaho (Egyptian Theatre)Nov. 20: Seattle (Moore Theatre)Nov. 21: Portland, Ore. (Aladdin Theatre)Nov. 22: Vancouver (Vogue Theatre)Nov. 24: Sam Francisco (Palace of Fine Arts)Nov. 25: Los Angeles (Wiltshire Theatre
Source Billboard.com.

Ween has lined up a three-week European tour, kicking off Nov. 27 in Stockholm and wrapping Dec. 16 in Dublin. The group’s North American trek in support of its latest Sanctuary album, “Quebec,” will run through a Nov. 7-9 stand at Chicago’s Vic Theatre. While in the Windy City, Ween will also make an in-store appearance Nov. 8 at Tower Records on Clark Street.
“There is a very good chance that all three nights in Chicago will be professionally filmed and recorded for a DVD to be released on Sanctuary,” guitarist Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo writes on the band’s official Web site. “The Chicago shows are selling unlike any other concerts we’ve ever done, so please follow the crowd and be a part of the first ever official live Ween concert movie.”
With “Quebec” having debuted at a career-best No. 81 on The Billboard 200 in August, Ween is also getting a lift thanks to the usage of an older song, “Ocean Man,” in a commercial for the Honda Civic.
Source Billboard.com.