2004

Fresh off last fall’s release of Tour de France Soundtracks, their first album in more than 15 years, electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk have posted dates for a world tour.
The trek is set to begin February 6 in Helsinki, Finland. After a week of Scandinavian dates, they’ll jump to Japan for eight shows, five of them in Tokyo. Then it’s back to Europe, where they’ll make the rounds until mid-April, when they cross the Atlantic for some North American exposure.
According to the current itinerary, Canada and the United States get two shows each, but don’t be surprised if more dates are forthcoming.
The story of their latest album actually began about 20 years ago. The single “Tour de France” was released in 1983 and was originally slated to appear on the Techno Pop album. However, due to a variety of complications, that album never made it to stores. An updated version of the original single appears on the Astralwerks release of Tour de France Soundtracks, along with a bevy of new compositions.
Source pollstar.com.

Liz Phair, Junior Senior, Mission Of Burma, N*E*R*D, the Walkmen, TV On The Radio, Papa Roach and Modest Mouse are among the first crop of acts confirmed for the South by Southwest music festival, to be held March 17-21 in Austin, Texas.
Other acts set to perform are comedian David Cross, the B-52s, Alkaline Trio, Crystal Method, Ozomatli, the Decemberists, Pretty Girls Make Graves, the Thrills, Athlete, Matthew Dear, Battles, British Sea Power, Cex, Cooper Temple Clause, the National, Cracker, Spoon’s Britt Daniel, Preston School Of Industry, the Delgados, Radio 4 and Dillinger Escape Plan.
In addition, the conference has confirmed interview segments with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne (March 19) and independent icon Ani DiFranco (March 20). For more information, visit South by Southwest’s official Web site.
Source billboard.com.

Before The String Cheese Incident heads out of the country for a Spring tour, this years Mid-Winter Music Festival will have the band returning to the Fillmore in Denver, March 11, 12 & 13th. As usual, special guests will join The Cheese, with this years acts being Mofro, David Lindley and Wally Ingram, and Vassar Clements.
The band’s 4th International Incident will be held shortly after, on March 19 & 20 in Interlaken, Switzerland. This year’s International Incident, dubbed The Swiss Cheese Incident combines 4 days of skiing in the magnificent Jungfrau region of Switzerland with 2 full-blown shows. Madison House Travel has secured special negotiated rates and will be offering full travel packages available to all who wish to attend.
These intimate shows high in the Swiss Alps will kick off a two-week whirlwind tour of Europe which takes the band from Milan and Munich to Amsterdam and London with stops in-between.
And that’s not all. After Europe, SCI is heading to Australia and Japan from April 10th thru the 23rd where they will share the stage with James Brown, Taj Mahal, Dr. John, and many more great artists at the Blues & Roots Festival in Byron Bay.
For all tour dates and related news, see stringcheeseincident.com.

Big Head Todd and the Monsters eighth album Crimes of Passion on Sanctuary Records is due in stores February 10th. Two themes run consistently through Crimes of Passion, a love of rock and roll and the need to tell compelling, human stories.
The band will hit the road on February 10th in support of the release with shows running through March 27th in Park City, UT.
For complete tour dates visit bigheadtodd.com.

Five studio albums George Harrison recorded for his own Dark Horse label, most of which have been out of print for years, will be reissued on February 24th along with a box set covering the same span.
The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992, includes 1976’s 33 1/3, 1979’s George Harrison, 1981’s Somewhere in England, 1982’s Gone Troppo and Cloud Nine, which broke into the Top Ten in 1987. The box also contains 1992’s Live in Japan, a set in which Harrison performed songs from his solo career as well as his Beatles highlights backed by Eric Clapton and his band. Each record contains bonus tracks, and the box is augmented with a seventy-five-minute DVD featuring live clips and promotional footage. Also included is a history of Dark Horse Records by Harrison’s wife Olivia and liner notes by Rolling Stone’s David Fricke.
The remastered albums will also be issued separate from the set.
Source rollingstone.com.

As expected, organizers have officially confirmed that Radiohead and the Pixies will perform on the first day of the fifth Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, to be held May 1-2 in Indio, Calif. Pioneering German rock act Kraftwerk will also play on May 1. As first reported here, the lineup will also feature Air, Prefuse 73, the Thrills and Electric Six, plus the newly added Sahara Hotnights and the (International) Noise Conspiracy.
The Pixies will be playing their first show since abruptly disbanding in 1993. It is unknown if all four original members — guitarists Frank Black and Joey Santiago, bassist Kim Deal and drummer David Lovering — will be present, or if the show will dovetail into a tour or new recording project.
As previously reported, a Pixies DVD is in the works, featuring eight videos and a full 1988 concert, as is a newly compiled “best of” to replace the out-of-print 1997 album “Death to the Pixies.” Billboard.com can confirm that Black is also planning a spring release for new solo music on spinART, which has issued his last three studio albums.
Kraftwerk’s appearance will come at the end of a three-month world tour that begins Feb. 6 in Helsinki. Last year, the group released “Tour de France Soundtracks,” its first new album since 1986’s “Electric Cafe.”
Source billboard.com.

Queen’s 1976 rock opera “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Marvin Gaye’s 1973 album “Let’s Get It On” and Simon & Garfunkel’s signature 1965 song “Sounds of Silence” are among 33 recordings that have been added to the Recording Academy’s Grammy Hall of Fame. The Hall, which was formed in 1973, now includes 639 titles.
“This year’s inductees span nine decades and represent a diverse array of genres from classical and show tunes to blues, jazz and rock’n’roll,” said Academy president Neil Portnow in a statement. “They exemplify the best qualities that make the recording arts such a vital part of our culture — and each not only uniquely reflects the zeitgeist of its time, but also possesses the enduring power of transcending time.”

Other songs added in this year’s induction include the Everly Brothers’ 1958 recording of “All I Have To Do Is Dream,” B.B. King’s 1955 song “Everyday I Have the Blues,” Glen Campbell’s 1967 single “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” Carly Simon’s 1973 hit “You’re So Vain,” the Beatles’ 1970 classic “Let It Be” and the 5th Dimension’s 1969 composition “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.”
The slate of albums includes folk hero Joni Mitchell’s 1974 set “Court and Spark,” Johnny Cash’s live 1969 document “Johnny Cash at San Quentin,” the Miles Davis Sextet’s 1958 album “Milestones,” Led Zeppelin’s self-titled 1969 debut and the soundtracks to “Walt Disney’s Fantasia” (1956), “West Side Story” (1961), “Saturday Night Fever” (1967) and “Funny Girl” (1964).
Frank Sinatra is represented in this year’s crop by both the 1953 single “I’ve Got the World on a String” and the 1958 album “Come Fly With Me.”
Grammy Hall of Fame selections must be at least 25 years old, and are selected by a special Academy member committee. The oldest recording among this year’s inductions is Al Jolson’s 1918 song “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody,” while the most recent are a song and an album from 1978: Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are” and the classical album “Golden Jubilee Concert: Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3,” featuring Vladmir Horowitz and Eugene Ormandy conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
Source billboard.com.

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference and Festival, scheduled to take place Wednesday, March 17 – 21, 2004 in Austin, Texas, has announced two SXSW Interviews with notable artists Ani DiFranco and Wayne Coyne along with a partial list of bands.
Many more speakers, panelists and session topics will be announced in the near future.
Some highlighted acts scheduled to appear include: Alkaline Trio (Chicago IL), The B-52’s (Athens GA), Cory Branan (Memphis TN), Cartel de Santa (Monterrey MEXICO), The Church (Sydney AUSTRALIA), Carmen Consoli (Catania ITALY), David Cross (Atlanta GA), The Crystal Method (Las Vegas NV), Matthew Dear (Detroit MI), The Decemberists (Portland WA), The Fiery Furnaces (New York NY), The Holmes Brothers (New York NY), Junior Senior (Copenhagen DENMARK), Jimmy LaFave (Austin TX), Bernie Leadon Band (Nashville TN), Los Lonely Boys (San Angelo TX), Mission Of Burma (Boston MA), Modest Mouse (Issaquah WA), N.E.R.D. (Virginia Beach VA), NOFX (Los Angeles CA), Ozomatli (Los Angeles CA), Papa Roach (Sacramento CA), Pedro the Lion (Seattle WA), Liz Phair (Los Angeles CA), Pretty Girls Make Graves (Seattle WA), The Sleepy Jackson (Perth AUSTRALIA), The Stills (Montreal QC), Telefon Tel Aviv (New Orleans LA), Tendril (Dallas TX), The Flatlanders (Lubbock TX), Sharde Thomas and The Rising Star Fife And Drum Band (Senatobia MS), The Thrills (Dublin IRELAND), Tv On The Radio (New York NY), Uzbegim Taronasi (Tashkent UZBEKISTAN), The Walkmen (New York NY)
see sxsw.com for more info.

Oscar statuettes will be presented to audio company Digidesign and to Bill Tondreau of Kuper Controls at the scientific and technical awards ceremony February 14, which precedes the main Oscars on February 29.
Tondreau is being honored for developing robotic-camera systems used in visual effects. Digidesign is being honored for its Pro Tools workstation, a digital setup used in movie soundtracks.
Other technical awards announced Monday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences include: Oscar plaques for four Eastman Kodak employees who developed technology to control static-charge buildup on film; Kinoton GmbH for developing a new high-speed studio projector; and Stephen Regelous for an animation system used to create large numbers of computer-generated extras in battle sequences for “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
Source cnn.com.

Fresh off its well-received, yearlong comeback following a two