December 2004

Redsand today announced its exclusive agreement with Propaganda Headquarters, Inc. to present the 2nd annual

If all goes according to plan, fans should get to hear new music from the Panic Channel — which features three quarters of the most recent lineup of Jane’s Addiction (guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins, and bassist Chris Chaney) and former Skycycle vocalist Steve Isaacs — as early as this month.

“We’re gonna go and mix some tracks and potentially put some stuff out, maybe do it online [at thepanicchannel.com],” Navarro said backstage at Los Angeles’ Key Club, where the quartet made its official live debut Thursday night as part of a benefit to feed the homeless sponsored by L.A. radio station Indie 103.1.

The Panic Channel played nine songs, all of which are likely to come from their as-yet-untitled debut album, currently being recorded in L.A. with producer Brian Virtue (who worked on the last Jane’s album, Strays). At present the group is not working with a label, but Navarro says the project is coming along. “We’re almost done recording our record, and we’re very happy with where we’re at,” he says. “We’re kind of doing this homegrown, and it’s a blast. It’s like when we were fifteen years old.”

“It’s power and melody,” says Isaacs, who played Tommy for a year and a half in the stage production of the Who’s rock opera, of the group’s sound. Perkins believes that all four musicians get to express themselves in the Panic Channel. “You can hear Dave and me and Chris and Steve all say something throughout the songs,” he says. “That’s important to me: being surrounded by great musicians and then having something to say.”

Onstage those unique blended together effectively, as the quartet showed off surprisingly heavy chops on the Tool-esque opener “Go On” and paid homage to Chaney’s favorite band, Led Zeppelin, on the “Rain Song”-like ballad, “Outsider.” The band hopes to launch a tour this spring.

The quartet has been working together since May, when Navarro, Chaney and Perkins recruited Isaacs to handle vocals for a song they were asked to record for a film. “I met Steve when he was working at as a VJ at MTV,” says Navarro, who starred in the cable network’s reality show ‘Til Death Do Us Part with actress/model wife Carmen Electra. “I knew he was a great singer, and we did this track and it came out phenomenal. The film passed on it, but we continued working and decided, ‘Why not just make music?'”

The Jane’s members formed the Panic Channel after a less-than-friendly split with their frontman Perry Farrell, who told Rolling Stone at the time, “The band went astray, falling into shallow holes … Jane was getting stripped of her majesty.”

According to Navarro, the new band is still forming its identity. “We’re just getting to know each other musically,” he says. “Us three have played together for a long time, but the four of us is a new unit.”

Source rollingstone.com.

After several delays, Stevie Wonder’s new studio album, “A Time 2 Love,” is expected to be out in April via Motown.

“As an artist, you get anxious and excited — you want to show what you can do,” Wonder tells Billboard in an exclusive interview for the Dec. 11 issue, on newsstands today (Dec. 3). “But for me, I had to make a real decision not to rush. I wasn’t feeling that the timing is right. A lot of what I do when I do an album is based on whether the timing is right.”

“A Time 2 Love” will be Wonder’s first studio set since 1995’s “Conversation Peace,” which debuted at No. 16 on The Billboard 200. “I didn’t mean for that to happen,” he says of the amount of time that elapsed between projects. “On the other hand, it wasn’t a panic-mode situation, either, where we’ve got to do this or we’re going to have a problem up in here.”

The set will be a single-disc affair, although Wonder says, “in these nine years I’ve done more than just the songs that will be on the album. And it’s going good. In these nine years I’ve found the songs that feel most comfortable for me.”

Among the tracks earmarked for the set are “If the Creek Don’t Rise” (“something I wrote a while back that I recently revisited,” Wonder says) and “If Your Love Cannot Be Moved,” the latter of which features live instrumentation by Wonder and several guest spots.

“I have myself playing, some symphony musicians from [Los Angeles] and Doug E. Fresh doing a little beat-box thing,” he reveals. “I also have a female talking-drum player from Nigeria. And we’re going to have the West Los Angeles choir sing. I’m going to record the choir at the church.”

After “Time” is released, Wonder says he has “three immediate goals”: a “jazz album with harmonica,” a gospel album and a musical.

Source billboard.com.

Festival season begins early in South Florida, and the Langerado Music Festival is quickly becoming the destination of choice for traveling music lovers ready to start the journey. The festival, now in its third year, is preparing to host a slew offans from colder climates: music lovers, college spring-breakers and sun seekers who are aching for festival season to begin.

Langerado’s current line-up includes headliners The String Cheese Incident (two nights), Medeski Martin & Wood, Toots and the Maytals, Keller Williams, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Michael Franti & Spearhead, De La Soul, MOFRO, Particle, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Soulive, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Robert Walters 20th
Congress, New Monsoon, Benevento Russo Duo, Donavon Frankenreiter, Kaki King, Spam Allstars, Hackensaw Boys, deSol, DJ Williams Projekt and many others still to be announced. Please visit www.langerado.com/artists.htm for a complete list of performers. In addition, through a partnership with Sonic Bids (www.sonicbids.com) one unsigned band will have the opportunity to perform at the festival. Please visit the Langerado website for information on how to submit your band for consideration.

The third annual Langerado Music Festival will be held at Markham Park in Sunrise, Florida; a gorgeous sprawling facility perched at the eastern edge of the Everglades Conservation Area. The festival’s two days will offer up 20 + popular musical acts, performing on 3 stages from 11 am – 9 pm, and details are being worked out for plenty of late-night shows in clubs scattered throughout Ft. Lauderdale’s thriving night-life community.

After taking himself out of the music business “to regenerate, get free of myself and make an album for the right reasons,” Billy Idol has completed his first album featuring new songs in over 10 years, aptly titled DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND. The CD, which may or may not be named after a location deep inside the Idol mind, is scheduled for release on March 22, 2005, and is the English rocker’s first for Sanctuary Records.

The single, “Scream,” is a down and dirty love romp featuring the
sinister signature guitar of Steve Stevens and Idol’s rock and roll
holla in the familiar vain of “Rebel Yell.” It will go to radio on
January 3, with an impact date set for January 24. Widely credited as
one of the critical artists responsible for the golden age of Music
Television and an early disciple of the art of controversy on the small screen, Idol will attempt to reinvent the video art form by making one for “Scream,” which will be completed early next year.

DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND is a journey through the musical mind, influences and taste of Billy Idol. The trip begins with the visceral thrust of the album’s opener “Super Overdrive, followed by the punk anthem “World Coming Down,” which borrows from his own history in the Bromley Contingent-the crew that included Siouxie Sioux, Steve Severin, The Clash’s Mick Jones and others who followed the Sex Pistols-as well as his own early group, Generation X. In total, there are 13 tracks to be experienced on DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND.

Produced by Dan Myers and recorded with his touring band, Adam Green follows up his critically acclaimed album FRIENDS OF MINE, which featured the Rolling Stone Song Of The Year Jessica, with an album that takes a step closer to the likes of Bacharach and Jacques Brel.

Combining his singular songwriting vision and plaintive, almost-angelic tenor with elegant melodies and playful art-pop arrangements, GEMSTONES showcases Adam’s unmistakable romantic sensibility as well as his barbed sense of humor.

GEMSTONES will be released March 1st on Rough Trade Records.