2003

Wilco will be appearing with Sonic Youth on the new PBS show “Soundstage” this weekend. Sonic Youth’s performance will deliver the usual part rock, part free-form noise, part avant-garde punk delivery, featuring a new song “Sympathy for the Strawberry.” Following Sonic Youth, Chicago-based Wilco will take the stage with their blend of idiosyncratic pop sounds from their most recent album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Highlights include “War on War” and “Jesus.”
Check your local listings or go to wilcoworld.net for further details.

A Perfect Circle, whose second album, Thirteenth Step, arrived in stores Tuesday (September 16), has announced its fall North American tour. The current lineup which features Tool singer Maynard James Keenan, ex-Marilyn Manson bassist Jeordie White (a.k.a. Twiggy Ramirez) and former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, made its live debut this past summer on a short club tour and some Lollapalooza dates.
October 31 – San Antonio, TX – Freeman ColiseumNovember 1 – Houston, TX – Reliant ArenaNovember 2 – New Orleans, LA – Voodoo FestivalNovember 4 – Pensacola, FL – Bay Front AuditoriumNovember 5 – Birmingham, AL – Boutwell AuditoriumNovember 7 – Tampa, FL – USF SundomeNovember 8 – Pompano Beach, FL – Pompano Beach AmphitheatreNovember 9 – Jacksonville, FL – Moran TheatreNovember 11 – Orlando, FL – Hard Rock LiveNovember 13 – Knoxville, TN – ColiseumNovember 14 – Memphis, TN – Mid-South ColiseumNovember 15 – Nashville, TN – Municipal Auditorium
Source launch.com.

Phish will play a four-show run beginning Thanksgiving weekend, culminating in a 20th Anniversary performance at Boston’s FleetCenter on December 2.
The Boston show comes twenty years to the day of Phish’s first performance, at an ROTC dance on the campus of the University of Vermont. While the exact date has been the subject of some dispute over the years, carbon dating, diligent research and a little common sense confirmed that December 2, 1983 was indeed the date of the band’s first show.
At the end of December, Phish returns to Florida for a four-night run at American Airlines Arena in Miami, including a three-set New Year’s Eve show. The shows are the band’s first performances in Florida since their millennium festival at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in 1999.
ticket info can be found at [url]http://www.phishtickets.rlc.net

Stephen King, brand-name writer, master of the horror story and e-book pioneer, is receiving this year’s honorary National Book Award for lifetime achievement medal for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters. The prize, worth $10,000, was announced Monday by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization that sponsors the awards.
“This is probably the most exciting thing to happen to me in my career as a writer since the sale of my first book in 1973,” King said in a statement issued by the foundation.
“I’ll return the cash award to the National Book Foundation for the support of their many educational and literary outreach programs for children and youth across the country; the Medal I will keep and treasure for the rest of my life.”
King, who turns 56 next Sunday, will be presented the award at the annual National Book Awards ceremony, on November 19.
Source cnn.com.

Political singer/songwriters Steve Earle and Billy Bragg will join ex-Rage Against The Machine/current Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello next month for the Tell Us the Truth tour. Timed to coincide with the start of the 2004 presidential race, the three-week tour of U.S. clubs is slated to kick off in early November. Due to scheduling conflicts, Earle won’t join the others until Nov. 11.
Before extending to the Northeast, the tour — which will also feature Lester Chambers of the Chambers Brothers — will dip into Florida in time for the forthcoming World Trade Organization meetings in Miami, Earle tells Billboard.com. According to Earle, Morello, famed for his innovations and often unusual technique on the electric guitar, will be playing acoustic sets.
Earle says the tour is looking, quite simply, for more honesty and accountability from the mass media in their coverage of elections and the wars in Afghanistan and, especially, Iraq.
Source Billboard.com.

The Republican-led U.S. Senate on Tuesday defied Bush administration opposition and voted to rescind new regulations allowing large media companies to grow even bigger.
The Senate approved, 55-40, a resolution that would roll back the Federal Communications Commission (news – web sites) rules allowing television networks to own more local stations and permitting conglomerates to own a newspaper, television stations and radio outlets in a single market.
The measure faces a tougher battle in the U.S. House of Representatives and a threat of a veto by President Bush if it reaches his desk.
The Republican-led FCC narrowly adopted the new rules in June, which would allow television networks to own local stations that collectively reach 45 percent of the national audience, up from 35 percent.
The new rules permit one company to own a newspaper, a television station and several radio stations in a single market, lifting a decades-old ban on cross-ownership. A company would also be permitted to own two local television stations in more local markets.
The regulations were drawn up under the leadership of FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who argued the relaxed limits were necessary to reflect the proliferation of cable, satellite television and the Internet offerings as well as preserve over-the-air broadcast television.
Television networks like Viacom Inc.’s CBS and News Corp.’s Fox contended they need to acquire more local stations to better compete against cable and satellite television services.
Critics, ranging from the National Rifle Association to Consumers Union as well as Democrats and Republicans in Congress, charged that the rules would narrow the choices of viewpoints and cut local news coverage.
Source CNN.com.

A DVD of consisting of rare performance footage will round out a nine-disc Black Sabbath collection due out for the holiday season. The bulk of “Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath (1970-1978)” will consist of remastered versions of the band’s eight original studio albums. The set will be released Nov. 4 via Warner Bros./Rhino.
The DVD boasts live performances of “Iron Man,” “Paranoid” and a cover of “Blue Suede Shoes,” plus a promotional clip for the 1970 album “Black Sabbath.”
All of the albums feature the band’s original lineup: vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Terry “Geezer” Butler and drummer Bill Ward. Each set — “Black Sabbath,” “Paranoid,” “Master of Reality,” “Vol. 4,” “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” “Sabotage,” “Technical Ecstasy” and “Never Say Die!” — will be packaged in individual slip cases within the box.
In addition to the albums, the non-album studio track “Evil Woman,” originally released as a single in 1970 prior to the band’s self-titled debut, is also included.
All of the lyrics from each will be included in an 80-page book, which comprises vintage photographs, a group timeline and essays. Also included will be testimonials from the likes of Rob Zombie, Metallica’s James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett and Zakk Wylde, the guitarist in Osbourne’s band.
Source Billboard.com.

David Bowie has announced US dates for his upcoming winter tour They follow Bowie’s U.K. arena outing and will continue through the new year Macy Gray is slated to accompany Bowie as a special guest on the North American leg. Additional shows are forthcoming.
The trek, titled A Reality Tour, is expected to include 17 countries over an anticipated seven months. Currently, Bowie is wowing fans in Europe on the arena outing, a marked change to his tour plans in recent years. The US portion begins December 6th in Atlantic City and includes shows at Boston’s Fleet Center and New York’s Madison Square Garden.
For a full list of the tour schedule visit Pollstar.com.

Former Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan announced that Zwan, the band he had started two years ago has broken up.
Corgan said his heart was always in the Smashing Pumpkins and admits he was na

Next spring, 34-year-old Scott Rogers will begin a journey down the entire length of the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail. Like all distance athletes, he will proceed toward his goal one step at a time. What separates Rogers from other hikers, however, is the fact that his steps will be powered by a high-tech prosthetic leg. If Rogers succeeds in the trek from Georgia to Maine, he will be the first through-hiker to complete the journey with an artificial leg. “This is the result of a lifelong dream,” said the Georgia native. “I decided that if I were ever to accomplish this, the time is now while I’m still relatively young.”
Source Outsideonline.com.