July 2004

The Beastie Boys, Green Day, Kid Rock and Velvet Revolver are among the more than 60 acts that will play the sixth annual Voodoo Music Experience. Following last year’s expansion to a three-day format, promoter Stephen Rehage has scaled this year’s event back to a two-day event in New Orleans’ City Park on Oct. 16-17.

As previously reported, the Pixies and Black Rebel Motorcycle are on a three stage bill that now also features the reunited A Tribe Called Quest, Paul Van Dyk, the Polyphonic Spree, the Killers, Cypress Hill, Shinedown, New Found Glory, Sonic Youth, Phantom Planet, Cowboy Mouth, Snow Patrol, Particle and De La Soul.

Also on the initial confirmed artist list is Gomez, the Thrills, Supagroup, Wylde Bunch, Kill Radio, Gooding, Ghost, Gogol Bordello and Metric, as well as Alter Bridge, the band formed by Creed songwriter/guitarist Mark Tremonti and drummer Scott Phillips with original Creed bassist Brian Marshall and former Mayfield Four singer/songwriter Myles Kennedy. More artists will be confirmed as the festival approaches.

Voodoo Music Experience tickets go on sale Aug. 2 via Ticketmaster and the event’s Web site. Tickets are priced at $40 per day or $70 for a two-day pass through Sept. 30.

Source billboard.com.

Vermont jam-band titans Phish will give fans who can’t attend its upcoming retirement bash a chance to peek in via satellite radio and local movie theaters. As previously reported, the group plans to call it quits after its Aug. 14-15 Coventry festival in its home state.

The band has struck a deal with XM Satellite Radio for live broadcasts of all six planned Coventry sets, as well as feeds throughout the weekend from the band’s on-site radio station “The Bunny.” The XM broadcast stretches from 6 a.m. on Aug. 14 through 6 a.m. on Aug. 16 on the XM Live and XM Music Lab channels. The band says it will post information on its Web site next week with details on a special discounted rate for Phish fans who’d like to subscribe.

For those desiring the full visual experience of Coventry, the band is planning to simulcast the event on both days at select Regal, Edwards and United Artists movie theaters. Specifics on theater locations and ticket information are not yet available, but the group says it will sell separate tickets to simulcasts on Aug. 14 and Aug. 15. This follows a theater simulcast of a June 17 concert at New York’s Coney Island.

Phish’s final studio album, “Undermind,” was released last month via Elektra and debuted at No. 13 on The Billboard 200.

Source billboard.com.

Due to an overwhelming demand from their audiences, the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd will tour together for the first time this fall at seven performances.

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready will preview tracks from the group’s upcoming double-disc concert set “Live at Benaroya Hall” via a live, one-hour radio broadcast beginning 8 p.m. ET Sunday (July 25). A band spokesperson confirms such outlets as WBCN Boston, KNDD Seattle, WWDC Washington, D.C., KOMP Las Vegas, XTRA San Diego, WRIF Detroit and WMMR Philadelphia will carry the program.

In addition, McCready was interviewed by XM Satellite Radio for broadcast on the Ethel XM47 show, which will air Sunday at 7 p.m. ET and Monday at 10 p.m. ET.

Due Tuesday, “Live at Benaroya Hall” is Pearl Jam’s first release since splitting with longtime label Epic, and will be issued via the band’s own Ten Club fan organization with distribution by BMG. The largely acoustic set was taped Oct. 22, 2003, as part of a benefit for the Seattle-based aid organization YouthCare.

In related news, Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard is scheduled to appear Tuesday morning on KNDD’s Morning Alternative show.

Source billboard.com.

Famed producer Eddie Kramer put more than 2,000 items from his collection up for sale at the online site Backstage Auctions, including a host of rare Led Zeppelin recordings, Kiss’ 1973 demo tape, rough mixes for Peter Frampton’s iconic live set “Frampton Comes Alive” and a wealth of test pressings and acetates from Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie.

“I’ve had this stuff in my basement for 30-odd years,” Kramer tells Billboard.com. “I’m actually making a move to California, so I decided to clean house. I don’t need to schlep this stuff around with me anymore.”

Among the tantalizing items available for bidding is a nine-song Led Zeppelin studio session from 1974, featuring different versions of five songs eventually released on the following year’s “Physical Graffiti” (“Custard Pie,” “In My Time of Dying,” “The Wanton Song” and “Boogie With Stu”), plus four tracks that have not been identified.

Other Zeppelin sessions include a rough mix from 1972 or 1973 of the “Graffiti” track “The Rover” on a tape that “ends with a total burst of sound,” according to the lot description; a four-song session for the album “Led Zeppelin II”; an undated early recording of tracks intended for “Houses of the Holy” that excludes opener “The Song Remains the Same”; and mixes for the 1976 live album of the same.

The auction, which also features photographs and memorabilia, concludes Aug. 1.

Rock act PJ Harvey won’t embark on a North American headlining tour until the fall, but the Polly Jean Harvey-led act has confirmed six summer California shows. The run begins Aug. 13 in Solana Beach and wraps Aug. 20 in Santa Cruz. On Aug. 11, the group will perform its North American single, “The Letter,” on NBC’s “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”

Among the upcoming dates is an Aug. 15 appearance at the Don’t Knock the Rock Festival at Los Angeles’ Henry Fonda Theatre, on a bill that also features Jon Brion and the Black Heart Procession. Other acts performing during the event, which kicks off Aug. 12, are X’s John Doe, Built To Spill, Dead Moon and Built To Spill’s Doug Martsch and J Mascis performing a live score to surprise film footage.

Harvey and company are touring in support of their latest Island album, “Uh Huh Her,” which debuted in June at No. 29 on The Billboard 200. A new single, “You Come Through,” was released yesterday (July 20) in the U.K., augmented with the B-sides “Angel,” “Stone” and a four-track demo of album cut “Who the F***?”

Prior to the U.S. shows, PJ Harvey will play Saturday (July 24) at the Splendour in the Grass Festival in Byron Bay, Australia, and July 30 at the Fuji Rock Festival in Nigata, Japan. A U.K. tour gets underway Sept. 1 in Dublin.

Here are PJ Harvey’s tour dates:

July 24: Byron Bay, Australia (Splendour in the Grass Festival)
July 25: Byron Bay, Australia (Back Room)
July 30: Nigata, Japan (Fuji Rock Festival)
Aug. 13: Solana Beach, Calif. (Belly Up)
Aug. 15: Los Angeles (Don’t Knock the Rock Festival)
Aug. 16-17: Los Angeles (Knitting Factory)
Aug. 19: San Francisco (Great American Music Hall)
Aug. 20: Santa Cruz, Calif. (Catalyst Club)
Sept. 1: Dublin (Olympia Theatre)
Sept. 2: Belfast (Waterfront Hall)
Sept. 4: Glasgow (Carling Glasgow Academy)
Sept. 5: Manchester, U.K. (Carling Apollo Manchester)
Sept. 7: Leeds, U.K. (Leeds University)
Sept. 8: Nottingham, U.K. (Rock City)
Sept. 9: Cambridge, U.K. (Corn Exchange)
Sept. 11: Birmingham, U.K. (Carling Birmingham Academy)
Sept. 12: Bristol, U.K. (Carling Bristol Academy)
Sept. 14: Brighton, U.K. (the Dome)
Sept. 15: London (Carling Apollo Hammersmith)

Source billboard.com.

After leaving the road in January to rehab a wrist injured in a stage fall, Ryan Adams is prepping for a brief tour to close out the summer. According to Lost Highway Records, his first show will come Sept. 13 in Columbia, Mo.

At deadline just six dates were confirmed for the jaunt, including a Sept. 17 appearance at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

Last week, Adams and Norah Jones joined Gillian Welch and David Rawlings during a show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. As proof of his recovery, Adams reportedly played guitar and sang on two songs, including a cover of Neil Young’s “Helpless.”

Here are Adams’ tour dates:

Sept. 13: Columbia, Mo. (Blue Note)
Sept. 14: Memphis (New Daisy Theatre)
Sept. 15: Atlanta (Tabernacle)
Sept. 18: Austin, Texas (Austin City Limits)
Sept. 20: Los Angeles (Wiltern Theatre)
Sept. 22: San Francisco (Warfield)

Source billboard.com.