June 23, 2004

Former Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell and former Cult guitarist Billy Duffy have teamed up to form Cardboard Vampyres. Rounded out by one-time Motley Crue and Ratt vocalist John Corabi, latter era Cult bassist Chris Wyse and drummer Josh Howser, the group has few aspirations besides having a good time playing live.

“This band is really just about having fun and playing tunes that we were fans of growing up”, Cantrell says. A typical set list consists of Cult and Alice In Chains songs set amid a selection of hard rock covers by Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Stooges, Black Sabbath and Aerosmith classics.

“We’re putting the music back into the business,” Duffy says. “It’s not about albums or contracts or singles. The music speaks for itself. It doesn’t matter who wrote the songs; they can never be what they were. This band is a natural evolution; we’re creating something entirely new.”

Cardboard Vampyres made its public debut at an April Sweet Relief benefit show in Los Angeles, and played Sammy Hagar’s Wabo Cantina at Harveys Lake Tahoe (Nev.) last month.

Since the demise of Alice In Chains, Cantrell has released two solo albums, 1998’s “Boggy Depot” (Columbia) and 2002’s “Degradation Trip” (Roadrunner). Earlier this spring, he opened a slate of shows on Kid Rock’s U.S. tour.

Between the Cult’s 1995 split and its 2000 reunion, Duffy formed the band Colorsound with Alarm lead singer Mike Peters. In 1999, the guitarist linked with Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and the Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver rhythm section of Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum to record “Elected” for the Alice Cooper tribute album “Humanitary Stew.”

Source billboard.com.

After taking a few years off from extended tours, David Byrne is back with a vengeance.

He’s been performing all over the world the since the March release of his new album, Grown Backwards, and the dates just keep rolling in.

The latest round of shows has him on the road in Europe through the end of July, with shows in nearly a dozen countries. Stops in Italy, the U.K., and Germany are on the itinerary, along with Eastern European shows in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.

A new North American leg begins August 10 in Vancouver, B.C., and looks to stretch into mid-September.

The former Talking Head’s latest release features collaborations with Rufus Wainwright and the Carla Bley Band. The album is his first since 2001’s Look Into The Eyeball, not counting last year’s Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Music From The Film “Young Adam,” which he conceived and recorded with Belle & Sebastian and Mogwai. His last major tour took place in 2001.

Source pollstar.com.

After six years away, the Beastie Boys return this week to the No. 1 position on The Billboard 200 with “To the 5 Boroughs.” Their latest Capitol set opened with sales of 360,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

It’s the follow-up to 1998’s “Hello Nasty,” which also debuted at No. 1, selling 682,000 copies in its opening week. It remained on top for three weeks and has sold 3.8 million to date.

Source billboard.com.

David Crosby and Graham Nash will release their first album as a duo in 28 years Aug. 10 via Sanctuary. Recorded earlier this year in Los Angeles, the two-disc, 20-track “Crosby-Nash” was produced by the artists and the father/son team of Russell and Nathaniel Kunkel. Russ Kunkel, who played drums on 1972’s “Crosby & Nash,” also contributes to the new album, as does guitarist Dean Parks, bassist Leland Sklar and Crosby’s son, James Raymond, his bandmate in the group CPR.

Crosby and Nash, who have released three previous albums a duo, will kick off a tour with Stephen Stills as Crosby, Stills & Nash July 1 in Prior Lake, Minn. At some point following that outing’s Sept. 22 close in Woodinville, Wash., they will stage a tour in support of “Crosby-Nash.”

Source billboard.com.

Former Pearl Jam/Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons gets a lift from a host of his ex-bandmates on his solo debut, “Attention Dimension,” due in August. Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder takes the mic on a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On, You Crazy Diamond,” featuring Primus’ Les Claypool on bass. Chili Peppers bassist Flea guests on “Suluhiana” and “Water Song,” the latter boasting Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard on guitar.

Irons left Pearl Jam for health reasons in early 1998, following the release of the album “Yield” and an Australian tour. “I had to dedicate myself to living a life that would promote healing and a right way of life for me and my family,” he says. “The music on these recordings [is] what was creatively inspired along the way. I could not tour at that point but I still needed to create.”

“Making this music was a way for me to work through all the changes and growing I had to do to become healthy again,” he continues. “This music also helped me reconnect with some old friends and former bandmates, who I am very happy and thankful to say have performed as guest artists.”

Irons is abetted throughout “Attention Dimension” by his Eleven colleague Alain Johannes, who plays an array of instruments on seven tracks. Eleven’s Natasha Shneider offers vocals on “Hearing It Doubled,” while Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament augments the groove on “Dunes.” The cut “Breaking Sea” includes a sample of Spectrasonics’ “Heart of Africa.”

Irons joined Pearl Jam for two songs during an all-star concert last October in Santa Barbara, Calif. It was just the second time he had played with the group since he left.

Here is the track list for “Attention Dimension”:

“Jackie Groove” featuring Alain Johannes
“Suluhiana” featuring Flea, Johannes
“Ocean’s Light”
“Hearing It Doubled” featuring Johannes, Natasha Shneider
“Shine On, You Crazy Diamond” featuring Eddie Vedder, Les Claypool, Johanne, Shneider
“Underwater Circus Music”
“Dunes” featuring Jeff Ament, Johannes
“Come Running” featuring Johannes
“Water Song” featuring Flea, Stone Gossard
“Breaking Sea” featuring Johannes
“Aquaman’s Electric Band” featuring Johannes

Source billboard.com.

Ben Folds is pushing back the release date of his next solo album to early 2005 in order to give William Shatner’s upcoming collection, “Has Been,” his full attention. The set is being targeted for a September release by Shout! Factory.

“It is a great record and it is really worth going out and doing some shows in major cities,” Folds tells Billboard.com. “[Shatner] is not a musician at all — he’s not rapping or singing — but he is still part of the music. I’ve never heard a record quite like it.” Shatner previously guested on Folds’1998 solo album “Fear of Pop, Vol.1”

Shatner’s album was produced and written mostly by Folds and includes cameos by Henry Rollins, Aimee Mann and Joe Jackson, who duets with Shatner on Pulp’s “Common People.” Author Nick Hornby (“High Fidelity”) also co-wrote a song with Folds for the project.

Currently on the road with Rufus Wainwright and Guster through mid-July, Folds plans on returning home to Nashville after the tour to finish his next studio release. Due out in January via Epic and currently untitled, the album includes new tracks such as “Trusted” and “Late,” as well as a few remixed or alternate versions of tracks from Folds’ recent EPs.

“Right now, it doesn’t feel like an album that has a title,” says Folds. “I think because the songs are basic enough to me, it almost has a debut solo artist feel to it. It seems less like a tangent to me in the songs and the production than ‘Rockin’ the Suburbs’ [Folds’ last studio disc], which seems like an over-the-top pop kind of [album]. This doesn’t seem like a direction to me, it just seems like songs I wrote and they are approached much more from the piano and with a little more of a live, rougher edges, feel.”

While Folds enjoys the unfettered creativity and spontaneity associated with releasing EPs (“I love putting out EPs — that keeps me sane,” he says), he foresees a day when all of his non-album projects will be released as “a cheap box set of EPs.”

Fans are finally about to get Folds’ third EP, which is due out in a few weeks and will be available via online and at his shows. Originally scheduled for release last November, “Super D” includes new tracks “Rent a Cop,” “Adelaide” and “Kalamazoo,” along with a cover of the Darkness’ “Get Your Hands Off My Woman” and, more than likely, a live version of the late Ray Charles’ “Them That Got.”

Source billboard.com.