February 2004

Public Enemy will release two albums this year. Due in early summer, How Do You Sell Souls to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Souls? is a classic-soul-minded album, while the fall-targeted New Whirl Odor is an “eclectic, typical Public Enemy record,” according to frontman Chuck D.
“They’re two totally different albums,” he continues. “But they come together like a nice double set. I can’t write a record without at least mentioning what’s going on. I delve real deep on the second album, and dig deep into the music on the first one.”
The albums and his current lecture tour titled “Rap, Race, Reality and Technology” will all touch on the current events and issues endemic to an election year. “I think this is a year that art can actually speak,” D says. “But I don’t see enough of it being done. I don’t see enough attention given to rap groups that might do it, like the Coup and Dead Prez. The industry is presenting rappers as one-dimensional, and that doesn’t hold as much water in 2004.”
Source Rollingstone.com.

Phish will play three shows at the Thomas and Mack Arena in Las Vegas on April 15, 16 and 17. These dates will be Phish’s only shows before the summer.
A limited number of tickets for all three shows are available directly through PHISH TICKET’s secure online ticketing system at http://phishtickets.rlc.net for a six-day ordering period beginning Friday, February 13, at 12:01 PM EST and ending Wednesday, February 18, at 11:59 AM EST. Tickets go on sale to the public March 6 at 10 am. Full tour information can be found on the Phish web site at http://phish.com/tourdates

Trey Anastasio appears on two tracks of the upcoming Toots and the Maytals album “True Love”. In addition to Anastasio, the album features many special guests, including Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Ben Harper, No Doubt, and The Roots. Trey appears on the Toots classic “Sweet and Dandy” and drops a guitar solo into “Still is Still Moving to Me”, a duet with Toots and Willie Nelson. The album appears in stores on April 6.

Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne’s new album, “Grown Backwards,” will also be his debut for Nonesuch Records. Due March 16, the set includes a duet with Rufus Wainwright on “Au found du Temple Saint” from Georges Bizet’s opera “The Pearl Fishers,” plus a collaboration with the Carla Bley Band on “Empire.”
“Grown Backwards” is Byrne’s first studio album since 2001’s “Look Into the Eyeball,” which was issued by Virgin. Last year, Byrne collaborated with members of Mogwai and Belle & Sebastian for “Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (Thrill Jockey), a soundtrack to the film “Young Adam.”
As previously reported, Byrne will join Ray Davies, Bright Eyes, Yo La Tengo, Keb’ Mo’, Nawang Khechog and artistic director Philip Glass at the 14th annual Tibet House benefit concert on Feb. 25 at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
On March 22 in Milan, he will begin an extensive spring European tour. A run of April U.K. dates will feature fellow Luaka Bop artist Jim White.
Source billboard.com.

Saxophonist Cornelius Bumpus, a former member of the Doobie Brothers who has performed with Steely Dan since 1993, died yesterday (Feb. 4) en route to a series of performances in California. He was 58. Bumpus had a heart attack on a commercial flight from New York, said his friend, Rod Harris, an organizer of the Columbia College Jazz Concert Series, where Bumpus was to perform this week.
Bumpus’ wife, Linda, told Harris that her husband was dead when the plane made an emergency landing. “Cornelius was a man of great modesty and simplicity,” she writes on her husband’s official Web site, she says. “His life was music, family, and church. He never liked giving talks or speeches. He always felt more articulate with a horn in his mouth.”
On its site, Steely Dan expressed its “profound sorrow and sympathy to Cornelius’ wife and family.”
Bumpus began his career at age 10, playing alto saxophone in the school band in Santa Cruz, Calif. In 1966, he spent six months performing with Bobby Freeman, and joined Moby Grape in 1977, writing one tune for the “Live Grape” album. Bumpus also recorded two solo albums and toured with his own band.
Since performing with the Doobie Brothers in the early 1980s, Bumpus played with a number of bands, most recently with Steely Dan, which won the album of the year Grammy award for its 2000 release, “Two Against Nature.”
His relations with his former Doobie Brothers bandmates turned contentious in the late 1990s, when they sued him and several other musicians over their use of the band’s name. A federal judge in 1999 ruled against Bumpus and the other musicians, ordering them not to use the name.
Source billboard.com.

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Death Cab for Cutie and Ben Kweller are headlining a spring North American tour. The month and a half-long outing kicks off March 24 at Omaha, Neb.’s Sokol Underground. Clubs and theatres across the nation will play host to the two young indie pop acts, with Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Seattle all getting double doses. The co-bill runs through May 8, after which Kweller will continue with a string of West Coast dates. Death Cab for Cutie is warming up with a sizable European tour, set to begin February 7 in Oxford, U.K. They’ll hit at least 10 countries on the monthlong jaunt.
Source pollstar.com.

The ALL GOOD Summer Festival and Campout, traditionally held the weekend before Memorial Day, will celebrate its ninth annual edition Friday, July 9 through Sunday, July 11 at Marvin

Indie-rock gods The Pixies have officially confirmed they are to reunite for a full tour this year.
The band, who split in 1993, had already been announced as one of the acts at this year’s Coachella festival in California, where they will appear on May 1.
The band are expected to play some warm-up shows in Canada before they appear at the Coachella bash. They will go on to visit Europe, with a host of festival appearances planned – slots at the UK’s V Festival, T In The Park and Glastonbury are strongly rumoured. The band are also thought to have a number of indooor shows pencilled in, including two nights at London Brixton Academy, as well as a support slot on Red Hot Chili Peppers’ summer European tour.
Full tourdates are expected to be announced shortly.
Source: NME.comUnofficial Official Site: FrankBlack.net

The new Modest Mouse release, Good News For People Who Love Bad News, already delayed once from an expected September 2003 release, has been pushed back one more agonizing week. New date: Tuesday, April 6th.
The album was produced by Dennis Herring, whose credits include Camper Van Beethoven and Sparklehorse, among others. The new lineup includes the return of founding guitarist Dann Gallucci, whose only prior appearance was on the band’s shelved (but eventually released) K Records debut, Sad Sappy Sucker. And new drummer Benjamin Weikel, who took over following Jeremiah Green’s departure from the band last year, will apparently be sticking around. Good News also features appearances by The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Tom Peloso of the Hackensaw Boys, as well as a remix of “The Good Times Are Killing Me,” by producer Dave Fridmann and The Flaming Lips. Tracklist:
01 Horn Intro02 World at Large03 Float On04 The Ocean Breathes Salty05 Dig Your Grave06 Bury Me With It07 Dance Hall08 Bukowski09 The Devil’s Work Day10 The View11 Satin In A Coffin12 Eric’s Interlude13 Blame It On The Tetons14 Black Cadillacs15 One Chance16 The Good Times Are Killing Me
The first single, “Float On,” will be released next Tuesday, February 10th via iTunes and other digital services. The single will also be available on a limited-edition seven-inch appearing in finer music stores around February 10th.
Source: Pitchfork