April 27, 2004

Cult heroes Violent Femmes are putting together a new North American tour, much to the delight of their ever-growing fanbase.
The band – singer/guitarist Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie and drummer Guy Hoffman – is currently on the tail end of its European tour, which wraps in early May.

On May 22, they’ll kick off a round of U.S. dates with an appearance at Washington, D.C.’s WHFStival at RFK Stadium. Although only a handful of shows have been announced, the itinerary stretches through early September. A hometown show at the Milwaukee Zoo is set for August 21.

The trio hasn’t released a studio album since 2000’s Freak Magnet, but they’ve kept up a steady touring schedule at home and abroad. In 2002, their self-titled debut album was re-released in a two-disc deluxe edition.

Source pollstar.com.

Rock veterans Crosby, Stills & Nash are celebrating 35 years together with the 2K4 USA Tour, which has them hitting amphitheatres in more than 40 cities.

As previously reported, the group will hit the Midwest and East Coast in July. The just-announced additions have them spreading to the South and West Coast over the next two months, running through September 22, when they’ll wrap in Woodinville, Wash.

Crosby recently finished a tour with his side project CPR, which features guitarist Jeff Pevar and Crosby’s son James Raymond on keyboards. Pevar and Raymond will reportedly join Crosby, Stills & Nash onstage this summer.

Source pollstar.com.

Beginning today (April 27), the Beastie Boys catalog will be available for paid digital download for the first time at Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Seven of the group’s studio and compilation releases, including such classics as “Paul’s Boutique” and “Check Your Head” but omitting its 1986 Def Jam debut “License To Ill,” are augmented with 21 exclusive non-LP mixes. In all, more than 120 tracks will be available for sale.

As previously reported, the rap trio’s new single, “Ch-Check It Out,” arrives for sale on iTunes tomorrow. It is drawn from the Beasties’ upcoming new album, “To the 5 Boroughs,” due this summer via Capitol.

Source billboard.com.

Broken Social Scene, the Walkmen, the Killers, the Von Bondies, Secret Machines, Bumblebeez, Sahara Hotnights, Danger Mouse and the Datsuns have been added to this summer’s Lollapalooza festival, Billboard.com has learned. The tour will kick off July 14 outside Seattle and will feature its first two-day lineup.

One night’s lineup will sport the above bands as well as Morrissey, Sonic Youth, Le Tigre, PJ Harvey, Modest Mouse and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. The second night includes String Cheese Incident, Gomez, Flaming Lips, the Thrills, the Polyphonic Spree, the Coup, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Elbow, Wheat and Dresden Dolls. DJ Peretz (tour co-founder Perry Farrell) will perform with both bills.

Source billboard.com.

U.K. rock act Gomez will offer fans in New York, Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio, a special ticket package for its shows there in June. For an extra $10, fans will receive admission to the show, a copy of the group’s upcoming Virgin album, “Split the Difference” and three live downloads from the specific performance, which will be E-mailed in the days following.

It is not known if the June 8-10 shows will be part of a more extensive U.S. run. As previously reported, Gomez has already signed on for the 2004 Lollapalooza tour, which kicks off July 14 outside Seattle. The group’s new album, “Split the Difference,” will arrive May 18 via Virgin.

Before Lollapalooza, Gomez will head out for an eight-date U.K. tour, beginning May 23 in Manchester. A performance in late June at the U.K.’s Glastonbury festival has also been confirmed.

Source billboard.com.

Willie Nelson, B.B. King, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and Mavis Staples are among the artists who have collaborated with Dr. John for his forthcoming album. Described as a musical love letter to New Orleans, “N’Awlinz: Dis, Dat or D’udda” is due July 13 via Blue Note.

Others who appear on the legendary piano man’s latest release include Randy Newman, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Willie Tee, Nicholas Payton, Wardell Quezergue, the Creolettes and Snooks Eaglin. The set also reunites Dr. John (real name: Malcolm John Rebennack Jr.) with drummer Earl Palmer, who played on his very first recording, as well as famed cuts by Little Richard, Lloyd Price and Fats Domino, among many others.

The 18-track collection comprises traditional and cover songs such as “Ate Up the Apple Tree” and “Hen Layin’ Rooster, as well as the Dr. John originals “Quatre Parishe,” “Chickee Le Pas” and “I’m Comin’ Home.” All are said to capture the New Orleans native’s unique view of the storied Louisiana city.

Dr. John will perform Friday (April 30) in Detroit and Saturday in Kalamazoo, Mich. In late June, he’ll head overseas to play seven dates with B.B. King in Spain before visiting Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and England. He’s also expected to take part in the B.B. King Blues Festival’s annual late summer North American tour.

Source billboard.com.

Dave Matthews Band has scrapped plans to hold a festival in the New York metropolitan area during the U.S. Independence Day (July 4) weekend. Instead, the group has added July 2-3 shows at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., to its summer itinerary, which kicks off June 17 in Maryland Heights, Mo.

The event was reportedly to be held on Governor’s Island, which is only accessible via ferry.

“We have been putting a great deal of time and effort over the past few months into trying to make the festival happen but due to logistical issues, it simply cannot happen this year,” the group writes of the planned festival on its official Web site. “We assure you that we will continue to look for suitable opportunities and locations for DMB festivals in the future.”

Tickets for the Saratoga shows are available now to members of DMB’s Warehouse fan organization and will go on-sale May 8 to the general public.

DMB is at work on its next RCA studio album, following the recent renewal of its contract with the label. As part of the deal, sources say the band now has control of its master recordings outside of North America and is free to make its own deals for catalog and future projects in the rest of the world. For the first time, DMB will also begin distributing authorized concert recordings online.

Source billboard.com.

Guided by Voices are planning to split after releasing and promoting their new album, Half Smiles of the Decomposed, later this summer.

“I’ve always said that when I make a record that I’m totally satisfied with as befitting a final album, then that will be it,” frontman Robert Pollard wrote in a Web post. “And this is it. I love the guys in the band, but I’m getting too old to be a gang leader.”

Pollard became that gang leader in 1985 when he was a fourth-grade schoolteacher. With guitarist Mitch Mitchell and drummer Kevin Fennell, he formed Guided by Voices, playing in local bars in Dayton, Ohio. A prolific songwriter, Pollard inked material for numerous albums, EPs and other releases starting with 1987’s Devil Between My Toes. More than twenty musicians would be included in GBV’s fold in its nineteen years, as the group found a bigger following in the Nineties, allowing Pollard to quit his teaching job in 1994.

Last year, GBV issued a new studio album, Earthquake Glue, along with Human Amusements at Hourly Rates, a single-disc compilation, and the 129-song, five-CD/one-DVD Hardcore UFOs box set.

Half Smiles will be the group’s fifteenth long player and is due August 24th. Pollard, who has released several albums under his own name and with other non-GBV ensembles, plans to continue working as a solo artist. “There’s a sense of maturity, and even integrity, I think, in continuing as one’s self,” he wrote.

Source rollingstone.com.