Archive: 2003

In order to integrate Comedy Central with Viacom’s MTV Networks, which purchased AOL Time Warner’s half-interest in the network in April, Comedy Central on Tuesday announced the layoff of 20% of the company, which affected many different areas, particularly departments that would overlap with MTV’s centralized operations, including affiliate sales, legal, finance, human resources and research.
“This has been a very difficult process for us to go through,” the network said in a statement. “We truly have some of the best and brightest people in the business at Comedy Central and, unfortunately, implementing the integration plan means that some very capable, devoted and hard working people will be leaving us.”
Source yahoo.com.

Before the band that bears his name was formed, Robert Bradley was the blind man with the guitar and stool riding the Greyhound from city to city for 18 years. He would hop off the bus, hang out on street corners and play songs he made up on the spot. Since a fated day in 1992 when he joined a jam session with the Nehra brothers, Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise have redefined the term road hogs, playing more than 400 shows in recent years alongside Dave Matthews Band, Sonic Youth, Brian Setzer Orchestra, Beck, and Ben Folds Five. The band has announced a new run of dates in support of the band

A massive free Rolling Stones concert has been scheduled for July 30 in Toronto. The outdoor show is aimed at giving the city an economic boost in the wake of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak earlier in the year. Although the official announcement is expected tomorrow (June 24), a taped video message from the band due to be played during a press conference was shown to several local media outlets over the weekend.
“We’re happy to tell you that we’re coming to play on July 30 in a great concert for the people in the city of Toronto, to help bring back the energy to our favorite city,” Stones frontman Mick Jagger says in the message taped at the site of the Stones recent show in Munich.
The event will take place in the docklands area of the city, with the downtown skyline as a backdrop. It is estimated that 10 to 15 supporting acts will be announced.
Source Billboard.com.

According to the band’s official website, “due to forces and some personal situations” beyond their control Sonic Youth will not be appearing with Wilco at tonight’s Boston date or in Connecticut tomorrow. The dates after that (New York, Philly and DC) are still in limbo at the moment.
The Wilco shows will go on as planned in both Boston and Connecticut. Mission of Burma will replace SY in Boston, no word yet on the Wallingford show.
for more details, see sonicyouth.com.

Phil Lesh and Friends has added concerts on September 13-14 at Seaside Park in Bridgeport, CT as part of Terrrapin’s Summit on the Sound at Seaside Park. This concert will feature old friends – Jimmy Herring, Rob Barraco, and John Molo. However, the show will also be special as this version of Phil and Friends will feature Joan Osborne, guitarist John Scofield, and saxophonist Branford Marsalis in an ensemble constructed specifically for Summit on the Sound.
The familiar Phil and Friends lineup of Lesh, Herring, Barraco, Molo, and Warren Haynes returns for three nights at the Warfield in San Francisco on September 25, 26, and 27.
Source Philzone.com.

Apple Computer introduced on Monday its new “G5” computer chip, a breakthrough design by International Business Machines which can handle twice as much data at once as traditional PC microchips. Cupertino-California-based Apple introduced a new desktop computer based on the G5 chip, which can manage 64 bits of data at once, compared with 32 bits for traditional computers.
“The PowerPC G5 changes all the rules. This 64-bit race car is the heart of our new Power Mac G5, now the world’s fastest desktop computer,” Steve Jobs,.
Source CNN.com.

The Dead have added two three set shows to conclude their 2003 Summer Getaway Tour on August 9 and 10 at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, NY. The first set of each night will feature an acoustic set.
Source Dead.net.

The final album from late Clash principal Joe Strummer will be released Oct. 7 via Hellcat/Epitaph. Titled “Streetcore,” the set was assembled by Strummer’s former bandmates in the Mescaleros and drawn from sessions recorded prior to the artist’s sudden death last December.
Although the track list has not yet been announced, among the cuts that have reportedly made the album are “The Road to Rock’N’Roll,” which was written for inclusion on a Johnny Cash album, and a Rick Rubin-produced cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.”
Source Billboard.com.

Neil Young, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews – have been confirmed for the September 7th Farm Aid gig, but that’s bound to change in the near future as more artists are added to the lineup.The concert, which raises funds for poor families in rural farming communities, will descend on the Germain Amphitheatre in Columbus, Ohio.Tickets go on sale June 28 and range from $36-$78. However, certain artists – including Dave Matthews, for example – are offering pre-sale tickets to their fan club members. Proceeds from the event are donated to farm organizations throughout the States.
Source Pollstar.com.

Weekly rentals of DVDs outpaced videos for the first time last week, an industry group said Thursday, as movies and entertainment on disks continued their steady conquest over VHS videocassettes. Encino, California-based Video Software Dealers Association said 28.2 million DVDs were rented in the week ended June 15 compared with 27.3 million VHS cassettes. “Since the advent of video rental 25 years ago, videocassettes have been the dominant format for video rental. Just over six years since its launch, DVD has supplanted that pioneering technology in the rental market,” said VSDA President Bo Andersen.
Source CNN.com.

With a handful of new deals and several high-profile live projects planned, Sanctuary Records is positioning itself as a major player in the burgeoning jam band scene. The New York-based label, which recently issued new albums by Widespread Panic and the Allman Brothers Band, has inked deals with Blues Traveler and Ween, and is in discussions with Galactic and G. Love & Special Sauce.
In addition, Sanctuary is preparing live CDs and DVDs capturing last weekend’s Bonnaroo festival and last fall’s third annual jam-band awards show, the Jammys.
The label will on Aug. 19 release its third album collecting live performances from Bonnaroo, which featured performances from Neil Young, the Dead, and James Brown. The double-disc set will be followed by a DVD in October. “We’re trying to capture the momentum of the festival itself,” says VP of marketing Cory Brennan, explaining the album’s rush release.
Last year, Sanctuary issued a two-disc set and a DVD chronicling the 2002 inaugural Bonnaroo. Earlier this year, the label issued yet another album of Bonnaroo performances, the single-disc “Live From Bonnaroo, Vol. 2,” featuring cuts by lesser-known artists that performed on the smaller stages at the first festival.
Sanctuary’s two-disc Jammys set is slated to arrive in October, although a track list has not yet been nailed down. A DVD will be issued in tandem with the album. Held Oct. 2, 2002, the seven-hour show featured performances by Trey Anastasio, the Allman Brothers Band, the Dead’s Bob Weir and his band Ratdog and many more.
On Aug. 5, the label issues new sets from Ween (“Quebec”) and Blues Traveler (“Truth Be Told”). Both artists were signed to the label in the past few months.
The label hopes to secure a deal with G. Love & Special Sauce soon. Frontman Garrett Dutton has more than 40 songs from which to pick from for his next, as-yet-untitled set, according to his management. The group recently parted ways with Epic after nearly 10 years.
Galactic is now mixing its next effort, which was produced by Dan “The Automator” Nakamura. Over the past year, Sanctuary has worked in tandem with the group’s management, New Orleans-based Superfly Productions, creator of the Bonnaroo festivals.
Over the past year, Sanctuary has also signed deals with Tricky, Morrissey, Kiss, Robert Cray and such lesser known acts as Buddahead and 4-Way Street.
Source Billboard.com.

The Joe Jackson Band has announced a second US tour on the heels of their latest release, Volume 4. The tour begins August 9th in Hartford followed by a date at the Avalon in Boston on August 10th. A number of US dates follow and can be seen by visiting JoeJackson.com..
Jackson first reunited the band — bassist Graham Maby, guitarist Gary Sanford, drummer Dave Houghton, and Jackson on vocals and piano — last year, and played a string of club shows in the U.K. prior to recording a new album. The band is known for their signature style of brash piano punk and infectious melodic tunes with past hits like

Velvet Revolver — the new group featuring Guns N’ Roses vets Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, David Kushner of Suicidal Tendencies and former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland — will play its first show tonight (June 19) at Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre.
“[Weiland] is just awesome,” Slash said. “We’ve been writing new songs. He’s a great singer, and he’s a great arranger. The music just sounds unique. We just fit together as a band. There’s not this weird subconscious pressure going on that something’s not right.”
The group’s single, “Set Me Free,” which hit stores this week as part of Decca/Universal’s score/soundtrack to “The Hulk,” leaked to radio early and is already among the most-requested songs on alternative stations WBCN in Boston and KROQ in Los Angeles. The group’s managers, Dana Millman-DuFine and David Codikow of Immortal Entertainment, pacted with Apple’s new iTunes download service to offer the single, and it’s already the No. 2 most-downloaded song.
Source Billboard.com[/url.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is going after independent record labels in hopes of adding them to their iTunes music store. This could increase the number of songs the service offers to 400,000 within four months. Labels that would be included are Sub Pop and Bay Area electronica label Delvian Records. Although Apple would make no comment, it

Currently on the East coast leg of their tour, The Dead will make a brief stop in NYC to play The Late Show With David Letterman tonight. Also appearing on the show will be Sarah Jessica Parker.
Check local CBS listings for details
Source cbs.com.

A 2000 ruling against former Dead Kennedy’s frontman Jello Biafra was unanimously upheld by a California Court of Appeals yesterday. The three-judge panel found that Biafra still owed bandmates guitarist East Bay Ray, bassist Klaus Flouride and drummer D.H. Peligro more than $200,000 in compensatory and punitive damages because his label, Alternative Tentacles, withheld money from the band partnership, Decay Music. Biafra’s attempts to dissolve the partnership and gain sole custody over the Kennedy’s music was also denied.
Source RollingStone.com.

Three of hip hop’s most intriguing groups have been assembled for this year’s version of the Sprite Liquid Mix Tour. The 20-date outing, headlined by the Roots, N.E.R.D. and Talib Kweli with more acts to come, begins with a doubleheader at Denver’s Pepsi Center (August 14 and 15), followed by any eastward progression that concludes with a September 15 performance at the Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts in Mansfield, Massachusetts.
Tickets are on sale now; for more information, check out Sprite’s Web site, www.sprite.com.

Preliminary plans are underway for a Simon and Garfunkel reunion tour for the fall. The agents for Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel are collaborating on “initial explorations” regarding a tour, which is tentatively set to play arenas.
Aside from a rendition of “The Sounds of Silence” at the Grammys earlier this year, the famed folk/pop duo hasn’t performed together since the Concert Event of a Lifetime tour in early 1994. On that trek, the pair played to large crowds, including a sold-out run of 21 shows at the Paramount in New York.
Source Billboard.com.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said he favors developing technology to remotely destroy computers used for illegal downloads represents a dramatic escalation in the increasingly contentious rhetoric over pirated music.
During a discussion of methods to frustrate computer users who illegally exchange music and movie files over the Internet, Hatch asked technology executives about ways to damage computers involved in such file trading. Legal experts have said any such attack would violate federal anti-hacking laws.
“No one is interested in destroying anyone’s computer,” replied Randy Saaf of MediaDefender Inc., a secretive Los Angeles company that builds technology to deliberately download pirated material very slowly so other users can’t.
“I’m interested,” Hatch interrupted. He said damaging someone’s computer “may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights.”
The senator, a composer who earned $18,000 last year in song-writing royalties, acknowledged Congress would have to enact an exemption for copyright owners from liability for damaging computers. He endorsed technology that would twice warn a computer user about illegal online behavior, “then destroy their computer.”
“If we can find some way to do this without destroying their machines, we’d be interested in hearing about that,” Hatch said. “If that’s the only way, then I’m all for destroying their machines. If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize” the seriousness of their actions.
“There’s no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws,” Hatch said.
Source Billbord.com.

HBO has announced that it has agreed with producers of the award-winning mob drama, “The Sopranos” in filming a sixth season. The cast currently is wrapping up production on the fifth season, which will begin in March 2004. The sixth season will consist of 10 episodes, shorter than the 13-episode seasons “The Sopranos” usually offers.
Source Yahoo.com.