2003

Pearl Jam recently wrapped its Riot Act world tour, but a host of live releases are on tap for the coming months. On Sept. 16, the band will release complete concerts from July 8-9 at New York’s Madison Square Garden and a two-set, 45-song blowout taped July 11 outside of Boston.
As previously reported, Pearl Jam released CDs of each show from the tour exclusively via its Ten Club fan organization, although three performances were later made available through traditional retailers. The deadline to order individual shows from the Ten Club is Aug. 20; afterward, the CDs will only be sold in complete sets from the tour’s three legs.
Both Madison Square Garden shows featured 30 songs. The July 8 concert, which ran just shy of three hours, sported a guest appearance by Ben Harper on “Daughter” and “Indifference.” The July 11 gig was another Pearl Jam first, as the group played a 12-song, largely acoustic set prior to opening act Sleater-Kinney, then returned for a 33-song set packed with rarities.
On the visual front, a DVD of a March 1 show in Yokohama, Japan, is “incubating,” according to the band’s official Web site. The site says Pearl Jam is also compiling a comprehensive DVD of the Riot Act tour, shot by the same crew members who worked on the 2000 DVD release “Touring Band.”
Pearl Jam’s lone shows for the rest of the year will come in late October at Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit outside San Francisco. The band is considering going back on the road in 2004, including a trip to Europe, “but nothing is firm at the moment,” according to the site.
Source Billboard.com.

R&B singer/songwriter Erykah Badu will release her third studio album, “Worldwide Underground,” Sept. 16 through Motown Records. The set will be the follow-up to 2000’s “Mama’s Gun,” which has sold 1.2 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.
“Worldwide Underground” will be preceded by the lead single “Danger,” which will officially ship to radio in early August. The track was produced by Badu and co-written with R.C. Williams. Also set for the new disc is a collaboration with Lenny Kravitz titled “Back in the Day” and a remake of the girl rap trio Sequence’s classic hip-hop tune “Funk You Up.” The latter features Badu rapping with Queen Latifah, Angie Stone and Bahmadia.
Source Billboard.com.

Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana, one of the crowned jewels of the National Park system, is in the midst of a sever forest fire. as firefighters started a defensive backfire Sunday in an effort to save buildings at Glacier National Park headquarters and more than 500 homes and summer cabins threatened by a 9,300-acre fire.
Evacuation plans had been prepared for residents of the park entrance town of West Glacier and for remaining workers at Glacier National Park’s headquarters.
The blaze near West Glacier was one of three major blazes in and around the park that had blackened 44,500 acres by Sunday.
Source CNN.com.

Perhaps arguably, the greatest sports feat ever, Texan Lance Armstrong equaled the record of five consecutive wins in the Tour de France when he crossed the line maintaining his overall lead in Paris Sunday.
The cyclist, who has come back from cancer, has vowed to go on for a record sixth consecutive victory.
He beat German rival Jan Ullrich by 61 seconds after 2,1125 miles staged over 23 days. He had never won by less than six minutes in his previous victories.
Armstrong smiled broadly and chatted with other riders as they rolled into Paris. The race’s final stage is traditionally a ceremonial ride where no one challenges the overall leader. Armstrong insists the problems that nearly cost him the Tour title this year will not be repeated.
“I don’t plan on being this vulnerable again next year, I really don’t,” Armstrong said Saturday, relieved to have scraped through a Tour that pushed him to the limits of his physical and mental strength.
Ullrich, the Tour winner in 1997 is a five-time runner-up in the race, including twice to Armstrong.
Ullrich’s challenge effectively ended when he crashed on the wet surface trying to trim Armstrong’s 65-second lead during Saturday’s individual time trial.
In that 19th stage, the 31-year-old Texan all but guaranteed himself a record-tying fifth straight Tour win, matching the mark set by Spain’s Miguel Indurain.
Source CNN.com.

Veteran Canadian rock trio Rush will release the triple-disc live album and double-disc DVD “Rush in Rio” in September via Anthem/Atlantic. The label is eyeing a Sept. 23 release for the sets, although the release date for the DVD may move.
“Rush in Rio” was recorded last Nov. 23 on the last show of the band’s Vapor Trails tour. The disc features 28 songs, ranging from staples such as “Tom Sawyer,” “Limelight,” “The Spirit of Radio” and “YYZ” to newer album cuts like “One Little Victory,” “Earthshine” and “Secret Touch.” Said bassist Geddy Lee on his official Web site, “It was quite an evening with another incredible crowd and we managed pull off a pretty darn good performance to boot.”
The DVD version of “Rush in Rio” includes all 28 songs from the CD, augmented with a documentary with footage from other shows in the Brazilian cities Porte Allegre and Sao Paolo. Fans will be able to view the action from multiple cameras, and, according to Lee, will be treated to “extra stuff like pictures of Big Al [guitarist Alex Lifeson] at home in his pajamas and some other unusual things hidden in there somewhere.”
Rush has been inactive since the end of its last tour, but will regroup Wednesday (July 30) to play the Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto benefit, alongside the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Justin Timberlake.
Source Billboard.com.

The comedy duo – Cheech and Chong is reuniting after 20 years for a new feature set up at New Line Cinema that will catch up with Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong’s wacky stoner personas in the present day.The untitled project is in the early stages of development at New Line. Marin and Chong already have worked out a story line and will pen the script along with an additional writer to be recruited by New Line. Robbi Chong, one of Chong’s daughters, will serve as a producer on the project.”The world is ripe and ready for a new Cheech & Chong movie, especially considering they have a whole new generation of fans out there,” said New Line senior vp production Kent Alterman, who is overseeing the project alongside New Line production president Toby Emmerich. “They came in and told us that they’re ready to do something again, which we think is a great idea.”After parting company in the mid-1980s, Marin and Chong started talking about working together again about a year ago when they realized that there was a lot of Cheech & Chong-related merchandise being sold — particularly through the Internet — that they weren’t profiting from at all.
Source etonline.com.

Rhino’s upgrade of Elvis Costello’s back catalog will continue with a staggering expansion of three early 1980s albums. Due Sept. 9 are two-disc versions of 1980’s “Get Happy,” 1981’s “Trust” and 1983’s “Punch the Clock.”
A total of 73 additional tracks have been added across the three titles, which only comprised 47 songs in their original incarnation. All were recorded with the Attractions — keyboardist Steve Nieve, drummer Pete Thomas and bassist Bruce Thomas — as Costello’s core backing band.
Each disc substantially grows from the mid-1990s Rykodisc reissues of the same albums. Those were part of a program to internationalize the titles in Costello’s catalog, making U.S. and European versions the same. Rhino’s distinguish themselves not only with additional bonus material, but keep the remastered original album on one disc, while adding a second to house outtakes, demos and live tracks.
Source Billboard.com.

Steve Winwood has announced plans for a fall U.S. tour, kicking off Sept. 18 in Austin, Texas, and wrapping Oct. 12 in Philadelphia. The outing comes in support of his first solo album in seven years, “About Time,” released on his own Wincraft Music label.
Visit Glide’s exclusive interview with Steve Winwood’s drummer Walfredo Reyes in our July issue.
Here are Steve Winwood’s tour dates:
Sept. 18: Austin, Texas (Stubb’s)Sept. 19: Austin, Texas (Austin City Limits)Sept. 20: Dallas (Granada Theatre)Sept. 22: Phoenix (Celebrity Theatre)Sept. 23: Temecula, Calif. (Pachanga Resort)Sept. 25: Los Angeles (Wiltern Theatre)Sept. 26: Las Vegas (the Joint)Sept. 27: Lake Tahoe, Nev. (Caesars Tahoe)Sept. 28: San Francisco (Warfield)Sept. 30: Salt Lake City (Kingsbury)Oct. 2: Denver (Fillmore)Oct. 3: Kansas City, Kan. (Uptown)Oct. 4: Chicago (House of Blues)Oct. 5: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Michigan Theatre)Oct. 8: Boston (Orpheum Theatre)Oct. 9: New York (Beacon Theatre)Oct. 11: Washington, D.C. (9:30 Club)Oct. 12: Philadelphia (Tower Theatre)

Weezer is reportedly about to head back in the studio working on the follow up to 2002

Tyler Hamilton has been a media favorite since making the decision to continue in this year’s Tour de France despite a broken collarbone suffered early in the race. Next year, filmmakers will take the story of Hamilton’s perseverence to the big screen