After the American rock renaissance of the past few years, with bands from New York to Detroit to Omaha breaking into the spotlight, our British cousins have finally struck back.
The buzz about Rilo Kiley being everybody
With the final, rain-soaked Phish fest in Coventry, Vt., now in the books after a lengthy refund reconciliation, longtime band manager John Paluska will dismantle the band’s Burlington, Vt.-based management company, Dionysian Productions.
“Dionysian Productions will be a non-entity as of the end of the year,” Paluska, Phish’s manager for 16 years, tells Billboard. “I’m taking a sabbatical and I don’t know where I’ll re-emerge. It may be in the music business, or it may not be.”
Paluska started managing Phish while he was still in college. “My entire adult life has been consumed with this band,” he says. “It has been an amazing 16 years.”
Phish will maintain a small headquarters in Vermont, headed by longtime Phish archivist Kevin Shapiro. “The rest of us are all splitting off and doing different things,” says Paluska. Dionysian’s staff, including Phish Dry Goods, the band’s merchandising company, numbered more than 25 when the band was on the road.
Jason Colton, a key executive at Dionysian, will continue to work with Phish bassist Mike Gordon as manager; Gordon is recording a second album with Leo Kottke in December and the pair will tour together again.
As previously reported, keyboardist Page McConnell just released a DVD, “Live at the Fillmore,” with his band Vida Blue and the Spam Allstars on Image Entertainment. Drummer Jon Fishman’s side project, Pork Tornado, currently has no tour dates booked.
Sources say band guitarist Trey Anastasio is close to announcing a new management deal with Dave Matthews Band manager Coran Capshaw, but the move could not be immediately confirmed. Anastasio, who owns the most box office clout of any Phish member, will likely tour in 2005. The artist was recently visited in the studio by Gordon and Fishman while he at work on his next project.
The last major effort of Dionysian Productions was orchestrating the mass refunding effort for fans turned away from Coventry. The Aug. 14-15 event sold out and grossed more than $8.8 million, but at least 10,000 people never made it into the grounds due to torrential rains that closed roads in the area.
Each of those ticket holders were fully refunded and also received a limited edition Danny Clinch photo-documentary about Phish. Band members hand-signed every copy.
“That in itself was quite an effort,” says Paluska. “We rented space, and seeing all those books was quite a sight. It took the band a couple of solid days of signing to get it done. I hope people appreciate the gesture, because it was heartfelt. The band put a lot into it, and I think it was somewhat therapeutic.”
On its final tour, Phish stayed true to its history, keeping ticket prices at the normal rate when it likely could have charged devoted fans three times as much.
“It would have been a little late to change our whole strategy,” observes Paluska. “These guys will continue to have careers as musicians, and hopefully Phish fans will follow them in their new careers. So there wasn’t any thinking of ‘this is our last chance to squeeze every penny out before it ends.'”
Source billboard.com.
Kazaa has been branded the world’s biggest “copyright piracy engine” by five record labels which launched a legal case against Sharman Networks, the company behind the internet file-swapping website.
At a hearing before Australia’s Federal Court in Sydney into alleged copyright violations, lawyers for record labels including EMI, Sony BMG and Warner told the court that Kazaa was responsible for three billion music downloads a month and the cornerstone of its popularity was unlicensed sharing of music files.
“The Kazaa system is an engine of copyright piracy to a degree of magnitude never before seen,” Tony Bannon, the labels’ lawyer, said.
The conventional music industry has led a worldwide drive against illegal downloading, aligning its own fate with the defeat of unlicensed sites where music is available for free. Last week, the world
Bob Dylan will appear on 60 Minutes, in his first television interview in 19 years. The music icon sat down with Correspondent Ed Bradley while on tour in Northampton, Mass. His interview will be broadcast on Dec. 5, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Dylan delves into several subjects in the intense interview, discussing his career, the burden of his fame, his difficult relationship with the press, and the relationship he had with his father.
He has recently written a memoir titled “Chronicles Volume One.” The book’s publisher, Simon & Schuster and CBS News are subsidiaries of Viacom.
Source CBSnews.com.
A totally unofficial, yet highly probable, partial line-up for Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2005 is running rampant on the Internet.
Festival organizer Goldenvoice says “nothing has been confirmed” but that’s not going to keep fans from getting excited about who might be coming to Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif., this spring.
There are plenty of hot acts on the list and a number of surprises, including David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, and Coldplay.
And it wouldn’t be Coachella without a bevy of buzz bands. The 2005 edition that’s being circulated includes recent Shortlist Prize winner TV On The Radio, as well as Dogs Die In Hot Cars, Death From Above 1979, and Iron and Wine.
Goldenvoice isn’t saying when the official roster will be announced, but here’s the not-so-secret preview to whet your appetite:
April 30
David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Coldplay, PJ Harvey, Interpol, The Faint, Franz Ferdinand, Polyphonic Spree, Boards of Canada, TV On the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Squarepusher, Clinic, French Kicks, Secret Machines, Phoenix, Beep Beep, Dogs Die In Hot Cars, Death From Above 1979, and The Helio Sequence
May 1
R.E.M., Tears For Fears, Wilco, Bright Eyes, Jimmy Eat World, Mos Def, Badly Drawn Boy, The Streets, Cake, The Shins, Sleater-Kinney, Rilo Kiley, Radio 4, Doves, Iron and Wine, The Arcade Fire, and Moving Units
Source pollstar.com.
Iron & Wine will continue its prolific run of releases early next year with the six-song EP “Woman King.” Due Feb. 22 via Sub Pop, the set was recorded in August in Chicago with producer Brian Deck. The EP finds Iron & Wine mastermind Sam Beam broadening his acoustic-based repertoire with banjo, electric guitar, piano and violin on such tracks as “Jezebel,” “My Lady’s House” and “Gray Stables.”
“Woman King” arrives on the heels of this year’s studio album “Our Endless Numbered Days,” which debuted at No. 6 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and No. 7 on the Top Independent Albums tally. It has sold 65,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Beam is primed for further mainstream exposure next month, as three of his songs are set for inclusion on the soundtrack to the film “In Good Company.” Due Jan. 11 via Hollywood, the set features the previously unreleased cut “The Trapeze Swinger” as well as the “Numbered Days” tracks “Sunset Soon Forgotten” and “Naked as We Came.”
Sub Pop labelmates the Shins contribute two previously released tracks to the album, which also boasts songs from Peter Gabriel, Steely Dan, Aretha Franklin and Damien Rice, among others. The film, starring Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace and Scarlett Johansson, opens Jan. 14 in U.S. theaters.
Beam has eight upcoming shows on his schedule with Love As Laughter principal Sam Jayne, beginning Monday (Dec. 6) in Solana Beach, Calif.
Here are Iron & Wine’s tour dates:
Dec. 6: Solana Beach, Calif. (Belly Up Tavern)
Dec. 7: Los Angeles (Avalon)
Dec. 8: San Francisco (Great American Music Hall)
Dec. 9: San Francisco (Slim’s)
Dec. 10: Eugene, Ore. (W.O.W. Hall)
Dec. 11: Portland, Ore. (Meow Meow)
Dec. 12-13: Seattle (Neumo’s)
Source billboard.com.
This month I brewed up my “Reverse the Curse” Hazelnut Coffee Stout. Good story behind the name; I brewed it the night of Game 4 against the Yanks. I don’t remember if I did that because I was sick of the Sox and wanted something to do during the game, or I had a feeling something big was going to happen.
