2003

R.E.M. is offering fans the opportunity to request songs for any date on the tour. The band — which has rehearsed over 70 songs for the tour — has set up a request form on its official Web site inviting suggestions for setlists.
“Want to hear a specific song when the band plays in your town?,” reads a post on the site. “The band wants to know what you want to hear. Click on the show you are attending to e-mail the band what you want to hear, whether it’s a single song, or a whole setlist. Be careful what you ask for, because you might just hear it.”
And in other R.E.M. news, the band has set a title and release date for its long-anticipated greatest-hits album. Warner Bros. will release “In Time: The Best of R.E.M.: 1988-2003” Oct. 27 internationally and Oct. 28 in the U.S. The disc will feature two new songs, “Bad Day” and “Animal.”
Source Billboard.com.

The real Slim Shady stood up and made fun of Michael Jackson by dangling a baby doll over a hotel balcony.
Rapper Eminem also wore a surgical mask over his face Tuesday in an obvious swipe at Jackson, who dangled his baby, Prince Michael II, over a balcony railing in Berlin in November.
Eminem, who was staying at the Art House Hotel in Glasgow, Scotland, went further than Jackson by tossing the doll into the air and catching it.
“Empersonator,” said a headline in the Daily Mirror tabloid, which published three photos. The New York Post’s front page blared: “Oh baby! Eminem does his best Jacko.”
Scotland’s Daily Record tabloid said the incident occurred as fans and photographers gathered outside the hotel before Eminem’s concert in the city Tuesday.
Eminem, whose nickname is Slim Shady, is on a British tour but has kept a low-profile between shows.
Source CNN.com.

Things are heating up this summer for pedal steel guitar phenom Robert Randolph as we approach the release date of his first studio album with the Family Band on August 5th

After ridiculing Saddam Hussein in the animated feature “South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut,” the cartoon’s creators are taking on terrorism, marionette-style, in a new film project.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone are writing the untitled project, previously known as “American Heroes,” which Paramount Pictures is expected to distribute. Parker and Stone will direct and voice the film as well. According to several sources, the project in development is a marionette movie about superheroes on a mission to eradicate such things as terrorism and certain celebrities who have outworn their welcome in the public eye.
Source etonline.com.

The embattled music industry disclosed aggressive plans Wednesday for an unprecedented escalation in its fight against Internet piracy, threatening to sue hundreds of individual computer users who illegally share music files online.
The Recording Industry Association of America, citing substantial sales declines, said it will begin Thursday to search Internet file-sharing networks to identify users who offer “substantial” collections of mp3 music files for downloading. It expects to file at least several hundred lawsuits seeking financial damages within eight to 10 weeks.
Source CNN.com,

Blues Traveler has signed with Sanctuary for the Aug. 5 release of a new studio album, “Truth Be Told.” The set was recorded at Sound Design Studio in Santa Barbara, Calif., with producer Don Gehman (John Mellencamp, Hootie & the Blowfish). Tracks include “This Ache,” “Partner in Crime” and “Can’t Get Free,” marked by a trademark harmonica solo from frontman John Popper.
The 12-track set is Blues Traveler’s first studio album since 2001’s “Bridge,” its final release for A&M/Interscope. That album peaked at No. 91 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 137,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. A live album, “What You and I Have Been Through,” was issued last October by iMusic.
Blues Traveler will spend the bulk of the summer on the road in North America. The group’s next show comes Saturday (June 28) in Granite Falls, Minn.
Source and tour dates visit Billboard.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

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.

Justin Timberlake, the Flaming Lips, AC/DC, the Guess Who, the Isley Brothers, and Canadian acts Sam Roberts, Kathleen Edwards, Sass Jordan and La Chicane are among the artists who will join the Rolling Stones in Toronto’s Downsview Park July 30th for an all-day benefit concert.
The concert, which the Stones confirmed yesterday, is intended to mitigate the major economic hit Toronto has taken since Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was first diagnosed there this winter. Like last weekend’s Concert for Toronto that featured Avril Lavigne, Sum 41, Sarah McLachlan and others, the event will promote tourism to the city’s downtown, but the upcoming show will also directly benefit the local economy.
“All of the profit after the basic costs are covered will go toward our healthcare workers and our hospitality workers who have been hit hard,” says Member of Parliament Dennis Mills. Thousands in those industries are out of work as a result of the SARS outbreak.
The site holds a half-million people, and 250,000 tickets go on sale Friday at $21.50 Canadian (approximately $16 U.S.).
More acts will be added to the bill in the coming weeks.
Source Rollingstone.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.