2004

Broadening the scope of Eric Clapton’s recent album of Robert Johnson interpretations, “Me and Mr. Johnson,” the guitarist will on Dec. 7 unveil the CD/DVD package “Sessions for Robert J.” The Duck/Reprise release comprises tour rehearsals in London, a Los Angeles hotel room and the Dallas warehouse where the late Johnson made some of his last recordings.

Throughout, Clapton performs Johnson’s songs with his live band, acoustically with guitarist Doyle Bramhall II and in a solo setting. The “Sessions” DVD sports five Johnson songs that did not appear on “Me and Mr. Johnson”: “Terraplane Blues,” “Ramblin’ on My Mind,” “Stones in My Passway,” “From Four Until Late” and “Sweet Home Chicago,” which will be worked as a single to U.S. AAA and classic rock radio stations.

“Me and Mr. Johnson” debuted in April at No. 6 on The Billboard 200 and has sold more than 563,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Clapton can currently be heard guesting on Rod Stewart’s No. 1 album, “Stardust…The Great American Songbook, Vol. 3” (J). As previously reported, his all-star summer Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas will be released on DVD Nov. 9 via Duck/Reprise/Warner Strategic Marketing.

Here is the track list for “Sessions for Robert J”:

CD:
“Sweet Home Chicago”
“Milkcow’s Calf Blues”
“Terraplane Blues”
“If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day”
“Stop Breakin’ Down Blues”
“Little Queen of Spades”
“Traveling Riverside Blues”
“Me and the Devil Blues”
“From Four Until Late”
“Kindhearted Woman Blues”
“Ramblin’ on My Mind”

DVD:
“Kindhearted Woman Blues”
“They’re Red Hot”
“Hellhound on My Trail”
“Sweet Home Chicago”
“When You Got a Good Friend”
“Milkcow’s Calf Blues”
“If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day”
“Stop Breakin’ Down Blues”
“Terraplane Blues”
“Me and the Devil Blues”
“From Four Until Late”
“Love in Vain”
“Ramblin’ on My Mind”
“Stones in My Passway”

Source billboard.com.

The moment for which Boston waited 86 years finally occurred when the Red Sox completed a four-game sweep of the Cardinals on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium. With clouds blocking a total lunar eclipse, the Red Sox blanked St. Louis 3-0 in Game 4 of the World Series to win their first title since 1918 and send their fans dancing into the streets more wildly than Carlton Fisk twisting down the first-base line.

Believe it. The team that crushed hopes more surely than any club outside of Chicago, the team synonymous with postseason failure, the team that was three outs from being swept by the Yankees just over a week ago … is now officially the World Series champion.

Source: espn.com

The Flaming Lips’ official Web site will be the sole source for the photo collection “Waking Up With a Placebo Head Wound: Images of the Flaming Lips From the Archives of Jay Blakesberg and J. Michelle Martin-Coyne — 1987-2004.” The 184-page book will be limited to 1,500 copies, housed in a handmade box and autographed by the band.

In addition to comments from the photographers, “Waking Up” sports essays from band members Michael Ivins and Steven Drozd, manager Scott Booker and publicist Rick Gershon plus an introduction by vocalist Wayne Coyne.

Fans who pre-order the book by Nov. 12 will receive a limited-edition 7-inch single featuring two songs earmarked for the soundtrack to the Lips’ film “Christmas on Mars,” due for release in late 2005.

As previously reported, the Lips will cap 2004 with a New Year’s Eve concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden alongside Wilco and Sleater-Kinney.

Source billboard.com.

Snowboarding is all about individual style and expression — from the way you ride to your sticker job on your snowboard. Now riders have the ultimate tool for creating their own unique board with Series 13

The Duo, featuring Marco Beneventto and Joe Russo, will be joined by Mike Gordon for a New Years Run of performances from 12/28/04 to 1/1/2005. The first night kicks things off at The Theater of Living Arts In Philadelphia, followed by a show at the Paradise in Boston on the 29th. On December 30th band will be visiting the new Higher Ground in South Burlington, VT and a New Years Eve show will take place on December 31st at BB Kings in New York City.

Source organanddrums.com.

Fatboy Slim will visit unique venues on his seven-date North American tour, which kicks off Nov. 10 at Film Studios in Toronto. At that gig, the artist will recreate the set from his “Slash Dot Dash” video, while at the following night’s show in Chicago, the Metro will be turned into the “Palookaville” train station.

Fatboy Slim’s new album of the same name debuted earlier this month at No. 14 on the U.K. album chart and No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Electronic Albums tally. Astralwerks is prepping the release of a 12-inch vinyl single for “Wonderful Night” featuring Lateef, with remixes by Blackalicious’ Chief Xcel and DJ Marky.

The day before the tour kicks off, Fatboy Slim will make his live U.S. television performance debut on NBC’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.” Elsewhere on the trek, he will drop in on Los Angeles’ Natural History Museum and at a loft party at New York’s Drive-In Studios.

“With the new album, it’s back to real song structures — almost proper songs, which have never appeared on a Fatboy Slim record before,” says Slim, who plays bass and guitar on “Palookaville.” He adds, ” ‘Palookaville’ is not a DJ’s record. It’s a record for the public — for playing at home and in the car.”

Here are Fatboy Slim’s tour dates:

Nov. 10: Toronto (Film Studios)
Nov. 12: Chicago (Metro)
Nov. 13: New York (Drive-In Studios)
Dec. 7: Seattle (the Premier)
Dec. 8: Los Angeles (Natural History Museum)
Dec. 10: San Francisco (Mezzanine)
Dec. 11: Dallas (Forest Theater)

Source billboard.com.

According to a diary post on his own site, Tony Levin is busy “Doing an album with guitarist Trey Anastasio, of the band Phish. He’s got a barn/studio out in the Vermont woods, and the multi-colored Autumn leaves makes it a perfect setting for having fun while making good music. Jerry Marotta is here playing drums, and the music, some jams, some songs, is coming out very well. Lots of recording, so I’ve been too busy to take photos – will do that today and get them uploaded!”

In the late ’70s Tony Levin joined Peter Gabriel’s band. He had met Peter through producer Bob Ezrin (with whom Tony had recorded Alice Cooper’s Welcome to My Nightmare, and Lou Reed’s Berlin.) Levin has played with Gabriel, both on the road and in the studio, since then. On that first Peter Gabriel album, he played some tuba as well as bass, and directed a short barbershop quartet version of a song.

On Peter Gabriel’s first album, he met Robert Fripp and, in 1980, after having played on Fripp’s solo album Exposure, he became a member of the ’80s incarnation of King Crimson.

Through the years, Levin has toured with quite a few artists including: Paul Simon (with whom Tony appeared in Simon’s 1980 film “One Trick Pony”), Gary Burton, James Taylor, Herbie Mann, Goro Noguchi, Judy Collins, Joe Yamanaka, Carly Simon, Peter Frampton, Anderson/Bruford/Wakeman/Howe, Tim Finn, Richie Samborra, and Claudio Baglioni.

see tonylevin.com for more info

The estranged songwriters of Husker Du reunited onstage Thursday in Minneapolis as part of a benefit for Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller, who was diagnosed with throat cancer last spring. Bob Mould and Grant Hart played a pair of Husker Du songs, “Hardly Getting Over It” and — ironically enough — “Never Talking to You Again” in their first performance together in sixteen years.

Hart joked about the improbable nature of the reunion, with an eye towards next week’s presidential election. “If me and Bob can get together, that means we can all get together and put [President] Bush out of office, right?” he said from the stage.

Other performers at the Quest club included Soul Asylum, Paul Westerberg, a reunited Gear Daddies and an ad-hoc lineup of self-described “stupor group” Golden Smog.

In 1988 Husker Du had an acrimonious breakup over songwriting credits and the band’s musical direction, shortly after they made the jump from an indie label to Warner Bros., with drummer Hart and guitarist Mould rarely speaking and taking shots at each other in the press over the years. Bassist Greg Norton now runs a restaurant outside of Minneapolis, but did not participate in the reunion.

“Thursday night’s show was a total success, at least $50K was raised for Karl Mueller,” posted Mould on his Web site. “It was a bit of an old home night, lots of familiar faces, and some serious blasts from the past . . . It was all about Karl, the good cause, and thanks to everyone who plunked down the cash for tickets — I hope you all got your money’s worth.”

Source rollingstone.com.