Along for the ride on the all acoustic Spooked and garnishing Robyn Hitchcock
The fact that George Clinton is still touring at sixty-four is reason alone for celebration. But the fact that he and his fellow funkateerz dropped their P-Funk circus on us for over four hours a few nights ago at the Crystal Ballroom was truly reason to dance like you
Michael Moore plans a follow-up to “Fahrenheit 9/11,” his hit documentary that assails President Bush over the handling of the Sept. 11 attacks and the war on terrorism, according to a Hollywood trade paper.
Moore told Daily Variety that he and Harvey Weinstein, the Miramax boss who produced the film, hope to have “Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2” ready in two to three years.
“Fifty-one percent of the American people lacked information (in this election) and we want to educate and enlighten them,” Moore was quoted in Thursday’s edition of Variety. “They weren’t told the truth. We’re communicators and it’s up to us to start doing it now.”
A spokesman for Fellowship Adventure Group, formed by Weinstein and brother Bob to help distribute “Fahrenheit 9/11,” did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
“Fahrenheit 9/11,” which won top honors at May’s Cannes Film Festival (news – web sites), became the first documentary to top $100 million at the domestic box office. Moore, who won the documentary Academy Award for “Bowling for Columbine,” is pushing “Fahrenheit 9/11″ in the best-picture category for the upcoming Oscars (news – web sites).
The issues for the follow-up film will remain the same, Iraq (news – web sites) and terrorism, Moore said.
The official mourning period is over today and there is a silver lining: George W. Bush is prohibited by law from running again,” Moore said.
Source yahoo.com.
THE BLOCK Party Rail Contest and 200 person VIP Booth after party will air on Project: DETENTION. A unique half hour televsion show broadcast to 20 million homes on the FUEL network sometimes airing once daily. (see fuel.tv for scheduled air times)
RedSquare TV in association with FUEL (24/7action sports network) have developed, Project: DETENTION. Project: DETENTION is dedicated to documenting the actions,lifestyles and freedom that surrounds the constantly evolving action sports culture…the most direct and influential voice for the ever growing action sports population.
Heat or event results are not reported. In each episode the producers and host
Coldplay have announced their first gig of 2005. The group will headline
As the Pixies’ reunion tour plows ahead, singer/guitarist Frank Black plans to release two albums’ worth of material recorded earlier this year in Nashville, with a solo trek to follow. As tipped here this summer, the first release will be titled “Honeycomb” but the second has yet to be named.
“In the spring maybe, but the labels take f*cking forever,” Black tells Billboard.com of a potential release date for the first set. “It’s not like the old days when everyone use to release a record every five months. Now, everything is so calculated and so precious and so careful.”
The Nashville sessions, which were literally finished days before Black joined his former Pixie bandmates on the road, feature an array of legendary players, including the Band’s Levon Helm, Bob Babbitt, Spooner Oldham, Dan Penn, Duane Jarvis and Steve Cropper.
While Black says “Honeycomb,” which is finished and contains such songs as “Lone Child” and “My Life Is in Storage,” is “magic,” the remaining album “has so many people playing on it, we have to kind of wade through it to find the magic.” As for the creative direction of the sessions, one word describes the entire project.
“Mellow,” says Black. “It’s just the way it came out. Maybe I wrote a little bit in anticipation with playing with those kinds of guys. But they are definitely pre-punk, these guys. So it’s not like they don’t get it, it’s just that they come from a different world, where it’s a little more groove-oriented. They don’t necessarily play loud.”
“It’s not necessarily not tough or not aggressive but it’s just… I think of Leonard Cohen as being mellow but I don’t think of him as being wimpy,” he continues.
As for the Pixies, the band is currently being followed around by a camera crew for an eventual DVD release. Black hints a possible summer 2005 street date for the set, documenting the reunion tour, as well as backstage interaction between band members.
Black remains elusive when asked if a new Pixies studio album could be in the offing. “I don’t even know,” he says. ” I think the next time we go out, if we go out next summer, there won’t even be the record out yet. Like I said, these record companies take forever.”
Source billboard.com.
The Flaming Lips are the subject of the new documentary My Life With the Fearless Freaks, due out on DVD from Shout Films on March 23rd.
Taking its name from a Sunday youth football team on which Lips frontman Wayne Coyne played with his brothers, The Fearless Freaks explores the evolution of the Oklahoma band. In particular it focuses on the families and life experiences that shaped members Coyne, drummer Steven Drodz and bassist Michael Ivins.
“I started in Wayne’s neighborhood and really tried to tell the story of how he grew up because he has so many older brothers that were a huge influence on his life,” says director Bradley Beesley, whose previous credits include Lips’ videos, as well as documentaries about Oklahoma catfishing and blues label Fat Possum Records. “They shaped the music that he listened to and his early career drawing, and playing guitar, and going to concerts, and doing drugs.”
Beesley is a longtime associate of the Lips, and they were comfortable enough to let him film very personal moments. “I’ve got some pretty intimate footage of Steven using drugs and talking about how drugs destroyed his life, as they’re destroying his life,” Beesley says. “It’s not like a VH1 thing where the guy talks about shooting up like ten years ago. I was capturing it literally as he was shooting up.”
In addition to such gritty scenes, Freaks includes cameos from Beck, Jack White, Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donahue, Juliette Lewis and Liz Phair, as well as outtakes from the long-awaited Lips movie Christmas on Mars (due out December 2005). The film also features four new Flaming Lips songs made specifically for the film.
“It’s a cool film,” says Coyne. “When you get to appear inside someone’s life I don’t think it would even matter who they are. I think if you followed anybody around for eleven years and talked to their relatives and were there when poignant things in their life happened, it wouldn’t matter who you are, it’d be interesting.”
Beesley and Coyne hope to have Freaks make its cinematic premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in January, or at the South by Southwest Music/Film Festival in Austin, Texas, in March.
Source rollingstone.com.
On December 7th, the White Stripes will release Under Blackpool Lights, a live DVD filmed during the band’s January performance at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool, England. Select U.S. theaters will screen the film — along with bonus scenes not available on the DVD — on December 9th. The film was directed by Dick Carruthers, who has chronicled the live performances of the Rolling Stones, Oasis and Led Zeppelin.
“They’re quite unique, I can safely say,” Carruthers reports of frontman Jack White and drummer Meg White. “The way that they play, the sounds that they make and the relationship between them, which is both strong and ambiguous at the same time — it’s quite a powerful combination.”
The seventy-five-minute film includes staples like “Seven Nation Army” and “Hotel Yorba,” as well as the band’s cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” Much of the footage was shot on Super 8, which deliberately gives the movie a dated, grainy look. “The texture and color of the film itself becomes an expression of the White Stripes’ sound, which is raw, retro and iconoclastic,” says Carruthers, who adds that many of the comedic moments and extras on the DVD were Jack White’s ideas.
This past spring, the White Stripes pulled the plug on another concert film, George Roca’s Nobody Knows How to Talk to Children. The group had the documentary, culled from of a string of 2002 gigs at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, banned from circulation after its premiere at the Seattle Film Festival, citing disappointment with the look and sound of the movie. “They rigorously adhere to their aesthetic,” says Carruthers.
As for Blackpool’s single night on the big screen, Carruthers is excited, announcing, “It’s a beast in the cinema.”
The White Stripes’ Under Blackpool Lights December 9th screenings
New York, Empire 25
Burbank, CA, Burbank 14
Chicago, River East 21
Springfield, PA, Marple 10
San Francisco, Van Ness 14
Boston, Fenway 13
Washington, DC, Mazza Gallerie 7
Atlanta, Phillips Plaza Mall
Livonia, MI, Laurel Park 10
Seattle, Pacific Place
Edina, MN, Southdale Center
Westminster, Co, Westminister Promedade 24
San Diego, Mission Valley 20
Source rollingstone.com.
The Duo, featuring Joe Russo and Marco Benevento have announced a string of shows in the Far East. The Duo have been invited by SMASH to support the Dirty Dozen Brass Band in Japan for 5 peformances from February 24th through March 1st of 2005. This tour will coincide with the Japanese release of our upcoming release on ropeadope records.
In other Duo news, the drums and organ combo will be playing a New Years run with special guest Mike Gordon on bass 12/28/04 to 1/1/2005.
For more info, please check the band’s website.
