2003

Colorado-based jam band String Cheese Incident filed suit against Ticketmaster yesterday (Aug. 6) in federal court in Denver, charging the No. 1 concert ticket retailer had tried to cut off direct ticket sales to fans.
In the lawsuit, SCI Ticketing, a company formed by a partnership between the band and Madison House, a booking agency, charge Ticketmaster had used its “monopoly power” and “a web of long-term” contracts to cut off its supply of concert tickets. The suit asks for damages and a court order barring Ticketmaster from the alleged anti-competitive practices.
Los Angeles-based Ticketmaster is a unit of media mogul Barry Diller’s InterActiveCorp. A spokesperson said the company does not comment on pending lawsuits as a matter of policy.
Boulder, Colo.-based SCI Ticketing provides tickets for concerts by String Cheese Incident, King Crimson and others. The company is one of several businesses spun off by String Cheese Incident, which sells its own concert CDs and DVDs, books travel for fans and supports charity causes through its affiliates.
SCI Ticketing says in the lawsuit that Ticketmaster had targeted the artist-run agency and instructed concert venues and promoters to stop supplying it with tickets. “This concerted refusal to deal with SCI Ticketing, and Ticketmaster’s monopolization of the relevant market and its abuse of that monopoly power, are causing damage to SCI Ticketing and may lead to its demise,” the lawsuit says.
The company also alleges Ticketmaster had told concert promoters and venues with which it has long-term contracts in May 2002 that it would only allow direct-to-fan sales by SCI and others if the bands in question had “legitimate” fan clubs.
Those were defined in part as fan clubs that charge at least $15 per person for membership. String Cheese Incident has never charged its fans for belonging to a fan club and saw no reason to impose such a charge just to obtain tickets, according to the suit.
The band will release a new album, “Untying the Not,” Sept. 23 through its own SCI Fidelity label. The hard-touring group has a slate of North American performances set through mid-October.
Source Billboard.com.

Sonic Youth, Alex Chilton, J. Mascis, Wayne Kramer, and Mike Watt

Neil Young has added another fifteen dates to his summer tour in support of his new album, Greendale. The tour consists of a cast of more than fifty reenacting the story of Greendale as told by Young, along with longtime backing band Crazy Horse. A full-length concert DVD of the song cycle, filmed earlier this year is also slated for release. Longtime friend and cohort, Emmylou Harris will be opening the second run of shows.
For list of dates visit Rollingstone.com.

Lucinda Williams has added a number of shows following her tour with Neil Young for this fall. The Grammy winner will be touring in support of her latest release, ” A World Without Tears.” the tour beings September 9th in San Diego and wraps up October 19th in Minneapolis and includes two nights at the Beacon Theater in New York and two nights at the 9:30 club in Washington D.C.
For a list of tour dates, check Pollstar.com.

Original Doors members Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger have something special in mind for their Aug. 24 performance at Jones Beach in Wantagh, N.Y. The group, touring under the name Doors 21st Century with Cult vocalist Ian Astbury, will perform the Doors’ 1971 Elektra album “L.A. Woman” for the first time in its entirety. Original frontman Jim Morrison died shortly before the album’s release.
The New York concert will be filmed for a DVD due for release in early 2004. The band will also play “L.A. Woman” at a Dec. 9 concert at the Zenith in Paris to commemorate what would have been Morrison’s 60th birthday. Morrison, who was born Dec. 8, 1943, is buried in Paris. Manzarek has said that he and Kreiger will visit Morrison’s grave on Dec. 8.
Source Billboard.com.

A new DVD, Dark Side of the Moon Classic Album, will look into the making of Pink Floyd’s 1973 album. The film will break Dark Side down track by track, offering commentary about its nine songs from Floyd principals singer/bassist Roger Waters, guitarist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason, keyboardist Richard Wright and engineer Alan Parsons.
In addition to commentary about Dark Side, which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in March, the DVD (due August 26th) will feature bonus footage, including Waters performing a stripped-down “Brain Damage” and Gilmour’s acoustic “Breathe.”
The album was Floyd’s first to chart in the U.S., reaching Number One in 1973 and residing in the Top Forty for over a year (it remained on Billboard charts for more than 700 consecutive weeks). Over the past thirty years, Dark Side of the Moon has sold nearly 30 million copies.
Source rollingstone.com.

Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a big ticket give-away to its annual One World One Heart Festival. The music fest is taking over the historic site of the original Woodstock Festival in Bethel, N.Y., for two days, August 23-24. Artists on the bill include Tracy Chapman and LeAnn Rimes, who are headlining, as well as Third Eye Blind, Soulive, George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic, Darius Rucker of Hootie & The Blowfish fame, Terrance Simien, and Recycled Percussion.
Source Pollstar.com.

Stand-up comedians and Comedy Central stars Lewis Black and Dave Attell are co-headlining a big tour set to launch September 10 in Dallas. “Comedy Central Live Starring Lewis Black and Dave Attell” finds the two funnymen taking their special brand of comedy to theatres across the States for the rest of the year.
Black and Attell will alternate the order of their performances and a special guest will perform as the opening act. Along with hosting Pollstar’s Concert Industry Awards earlier this year, Black is featured every Wednesday on Comedy Central’s hugely popular mock newscast “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.”
Attell is the star of the network’s “Insomniac With Dave Attell,” which features weird late-night goings-on and the people who partake of them. Meanwhile, both guys have a few shows of their own. Black has a two-night run in Atlantic City and four shows at The Improv in Southern California, while Attell’s schedule includes three-night runs in Tampa and Raleigh, N.C.

Louisville outfit My Morning Jacket have announced tour plans taking them through late October. They’ll follow a couple Japanese festival dates with some late-August U.K. and Ireland shows before kicking off their North American tour in earnest.
The Stateside itinerary sees them on the road from September 5 to October 24, beginning and ending in Philadelphia. Several double dates are scheduled, in New York, Louisville, Los Angeles and Austin.This is actually the second Stateside tour for the Jacket this year – the tireless band did a five-week spring jaunt in April and May, in addition to some summer festival dates.
The increasingly high-profile group signed with Dave Matthews’ ATO Records last fall, and will release their new full-length, It Still Moves, September 9.
For full list of dates, visit Pollstar.com.

James Brown, Carol Burnett, Loretta Lynn, Mike Nichols and Itzhak Perlman have been chosen for the 26th annual Kennedy Center Honors.
James A. Johnson, chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, said Tuesday that all five are being honored “for the unique and extremely valuable contributions they have made to the cultural life of our nation.”
President Bush and first lady Laura Bush will hold a White House reception for the honorees on December 7, followed by a gala performance at the Kennedy Center Opera House. Stars from around the world take part in the performance, but the five winners traditionally remain in the audience.
The show will reopen the Opera House, which has been closed for refurbishing since last fall.
Source cnn.com.