2004

Loveland Ski Area in Colorado was the first U.S. resort to open for the new 2004-2005 ski season this morning. Loveland, which is located at the base of the Continental Divide and at an elevation of 10,600 feet, is the first resort to open with continuous operation for the season.

Only in Las Vegas: Beatles songs, as portrayed by the acrobatic troupe Cirque du Soleil, will replace animal training duo Siegfried and Roy at one of the city’s biggest tourist theaters, according to a deal announced on Thursday.

Characters from Beatles songs like “Eleanor Rigby,” “Nowhere Man” and “I am the Walrus” will be featured in the $30 million show about the Beatles’ life in the 1960s, said Gilles Ste-Croix, the Cirque du Soleil vice president of creation in charge of the project.

The show marks a musical first: the Beatles have never before allowed a major theatrical performance of their music, but surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as well as Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison have approved the deal.

The show will take the place of the magic and animal taming duo Siegfried & Roy, in a new, roughly $100 million, theater at the Mirage casino on the Las Vegas Strip, Montreal-based Cirque said.

Siegfried & Roy closed a year ago after a tiger mauled animal trainer Roy Horn.

The Cirque show will be a financial partnership between Cirque, the Beatles’ Apple Corp, and casino owner MGM Mirage, which will also pay for the theater.

Before his death, former Beatle George Harrison struck up a friendship with Cirque founder Guy Laliberte, leading to the idea for the production.

Source CNN.com.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday announced Chris Rock will host the next Academy Awards telecast.

Rock, who’s been in the films “Head of State” and “Dogma,” is best known for his standup comedy specials “Bigger & Blacker,” “Bring the Pain” and “Never Scared.”

Rock, 39, has previously hosted the MTV’s Movie Awards.

“I am a huge fan of Chris Rock,” said Gil Cates, the producer of the Oscars telecast. “He always makes me laugh and he always has something interesting to say. Chris represents the best of the new generation of comics. Having him host the Oscars is terrific.”

The one-time “Saturday Night Live” regular has won three Emmys for his TV programs and two Grammys for his comedy albums.

Rock currently is shooting a remake of “The Longest Yard” with Adam Sandler and recently provided the voice of the zebra in the animated feature “Madagascar,” both to be released in May 2005.

His other film credits include “Head of State,” “Bad Company,” “Down to Earth” and “Nurse Betty.”

The 77th Academy Awards telecast is set for February 27.

Source CNN.com.

Late Morphine frontman Mark Sandman will be celebrated via the forthcoming two-CD/DVD box set “Sandbox: Mark Sandman Original Music,” due Nov. 16 from Hi-N-Dry Records.

The collection features cuts taken largely from his stints with Morphine and its predecessor Treat Her Right, a blues-based quartet that also featured Morphine drummer Billy Conway. The 31 tracks will include a handful of previously released items as well as a host of rarities, while the DVD boasts rare footage and live performances.

Sandman died in 1999 after collapsing on stage during a Morphine show in Rome. Conway and saxophonist Dana Colley organized the Morphine Orchestra tour the following year, taking a host of musicians on the road to play the band’s songs in tribute to the fallen songwriter.

Source billboard.com.

Pearl Jam will cap its tenure on Epic next month with its first hits collection. Due Nov. 16 via Epic, the double-disc, 33-track “rearviewmirror (greatest hits 1991-2003)” sports 16 top 10 hits on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, including the No. 1s “Daughter,” “Betterman” and “Given To Fly,” as well as 13 top 10 entries on the Modern Rock Tracks survey.

In lieu of new songs, “rearviewmirror” (the discs for which are split into an “Upside” and “Downside”) boasts remixes of three songs from the Seattle rock act’s seminal 1991 debut, “Ten.” Longtime producer Brendan O’Brien was behind the boards for new mixes of “Once,” “Alive” and “Black.”

Beyond such staples as “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town,” “Dissident,” “Wishlist” and “Even Flow,” the album includes a cover of Victoria Williams’ “Crazy Mary” (first issued on the 1993 “Sweet Relief” compilation), the live favorite “Yellow Ledbetter” (which reached seven Billboard charts in the mid-’90s despite never being promoted to radio) and “Man of the Hour,” penned for the 2003 Tim Burton film “Big Fish.”

Also featured is “Last Kiss,” a 1950s cover released on a 1999 charity single that improbably became the band’s biggest hit, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The lone Pearl Jam track that appeared on the Hot 100 but is missing from the album is “Tremor Christ,” which peaked at No. 18 in the fall of 1995.

Pearl Jam recently wrapped its run on the Vote for Change tour and is expected to hit the studio next month to begin work on its eighth album.

Here is the track listing for “rearviewmirror”:

Upside:
“Once”
“Alive”
“Even Flow”
“Jeremy”
“State of Love and Trust”
“Animal”
“Go”
“Dissident”
“Rearviewmirror”
“Spin the Black Circle”
“Corduroy”
“Not for You”
“I Got ID”
“Hail Hail”
“Do the Evolution”
“Save You”

Downside:
“Black”
“Breath”
“Daughter”
“Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town”
“Immortality”
“Betterman”
“Nothingman”
“Who You Are”
“Off He Goes”
“Given to Fly”
“Wishlist”
“Last Kiss”
“Nothing As It Seems”
“Light Years”
“I Am Mine”
“Man of the Hour”
“Yellow Ledbetter”

Source billboard.com.

De La Soul’s seventh album,The Grind Date, is aptly titled, as the hip-hop vets have been slogging away for fifteen years. “We’ve remained relevant,” says Pos, “but it’s been a lot of work.”

The Grind Date is De La Soul’s first since 2001’sAOI: Bionix and it’s the debut release on Sanctuary Urban Records Group, the fledgling hip-hop label of Destiny’s Child manager (and Beyonce’s father) Matthew Knowles. And while the De La Soul always strives to be innovative, they delivered more thoughtful, narrative songs — especially the first single, “Shopping Bags.”

“It focuses on how men trick women,” Pos says. “I was like, ‘Wow, that’s not something men usually talk about.’ They want to pay for the drinks to get something in return.”

The album features a guest spot from director Spike Lee, who introduces “Church.” “It just reminded me of the end of [Lee’s 1988 film]School Daze, when Laurence Fishburne screams “Wake up!'” Pos says. “I was like, ‘Yo, that would be great if we could get Spike Lee.’ He was in the middle of scouting for a movie, but he gave a call and said, ‘Look, I’m in the area.’ And he was in and out in five minutes.”

De La Soul will embark on an extensive tour with a stop in a rather unconventional venue: a college classroom — the group is set to lecture on the subject of hip-hop at New York University this fall. Pos says that while being a hip-hop veteran doesn’t mean he has license to be more critical of younger acts, he does claim to have a bit more perspective.

“My problem [with hip-hop] is there’s no balance,” he explains. “Before I even came on in rap, there was always drugs and materialism. But there was also always a balance . . . Alongside [Naughty by Nature’s] ‘O.P.P.,’ there was [Public Enemy’s] ‘Fight the Power.’ Alongside N.W.A there was [De La Soul’s]3 Feet High and Rising . . . We just play a balance in comparison to what everybody else is doing.”

De La Soul tour dates:

10/19: Atlanta, GA, Earthlink Live
10/20: Charleston, SC, Music Farm
10/21: Lexington, KY, The Dame
10/22: Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
10/23: Amagansett, NY, Stephen Talkhouse
10/24: New Haven, CT, Toad’s Place
10/25: Boston, Paradise Rock Club
10/26: Philadelphia, The Trocadero, Balcony Bar
10/27: New York, B.B. King’s Blues Club
10/29: Northampton, MA, Pearl Street
10/31: Toronto, Phoenix Concert Theatre
11/1: Pittsburgh, Mr. Smalls Fun House
11/2: Cleveland, Peabody’s Down Under
11/3: Columbus, OH, Al Rosa Villa
11/4: Bloomington, IN, Bluebird Nightclub
11/7: Lawrence, KS, Granada Theatre
11/8: Boulder, CO, Fox Theatre
11/9: Colorado Springs, CO, 32 Bleu
11/10: Salt Lake City, Shaggy’s Velvet Room
11/12: Portland, OR, Roseland Theater
11/15: Seattle, Showbox
11/16: Eugene, OR, McDonald Theatre
11/17: San Francisco, Slim’s
11/18: Sacramento, Empire
11/19: Santa Cruz, CA, The Catalyst
11/20: West Hollywood, CA, House of Blues

Source .

The Basement Jaxx will finish the tour behind 2003’s Kish Kash by making their first appearance in South Africa. The dance duo will play the D+10 festival — a series of art, comedy, music and sporting events sponsored by the British High Commission — celebrating a decade of South African democracy. The Jaxx perform Friday at the Cape Town Convention Center, and the following day at the Johannesburg Gallagher Estate.
When asked why they made the trip, the Jaxx’s Simon Ratcliffe says simply, “They’re celebrating ten years since the end of Apartheid!”

The crowd expected at D+10 was also a plus. “It’ll be a lot more mixed,” bandmate Felix Buxton says. “Normally it’s the white middle-classes. We were offered DJ gigs there before that we didn’t do because going to South Africa to play a big, white rave seemed a bit like carrying on the privilege. It’s nice to try to do something positive.”

Joining them for the shows will be American-born chanteuse Nomvula Malinga (Vula), whose father hails from South Africa. She recorded a track this summer with the Jaxx that may end up on their next album. “That sounded really good,” Buxton says. “It’s going somewhere, and it’s different.”

As with their 2001 album Rooty — named for a club night the duo started in London — the Jaxx won’t hibernate in the studio for long, but road-test the new material before they release it.

“The most important thing for us at the moment is to get some songs finished and on vinyl,” Ratcliffe says, “and go out and play.”

Source rollingstone.com.