With the third installment in the tech trilogy, Matters & Dunaway have finally risen to respected LP status, and deservedly so. A richly delivered work, Hightech is yet another instrumental album, full of textured soundscapes and patient breath.
Although it had been penciled in for an Oct. 26 release, Beck’s next Geffen album won’t see the light of day this year. The as-yet-untitled set, which is being produced by the Dust Brothers and Tony Hoffer, is now being eyed for an early 2005 release.
A source tells Billboard.com the album was unlikely to be finished in time for a fall release, necessitating the schedule change. Geffen parent Interscope also has a host of other major releases on tap for the fall, including U2, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani and a Nirvana boxed set.
Little is known about what Beck is cooking up, although producer Dan “The Automator” recently revealed to Billboard.com that he’d remixed intended first single “Gospel.” White Stripes vocalist/guitarist Jack White also collaborated with Beck on an as-yet-untitled track.
The new album will be the follow-up to 2002’s “Sea Change,” which debuted at No. 8 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 578,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Beck can be heard on the upcoming Daniel Johnston tribute “The Late, Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered,” due Sept. 21 via Gammon.
Source billboard.com.
To coincide with its release on DVD, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus will screen in fifty theaters nationwide on October 11th. This will be only the second screening of the performance film since its 1996 premiere at the New York Film Festival.
In December of 1968, the Rolling Stones rounded up some of rock’s biggest names (along with aerialists and fire-eaters) for a two-day shoot intended as a BBC TV special and limited theatrical release. Performances included the operetta “A Quick One While He’s Away” by the Who; songs by Yoko Ono, Jethro Tull and Marianne Faithfull; and John Lennon’s first solo material, backed by Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and Eric Clapton (Cream had split the previous month). The rambling, free-form concert culminated in the Stones’ renditions of six songs, the highlight of which was a particularly intense “Sympathy for the Devil.”
But the hour-long film was shelved because co-producers the Stones were dissatisfied, feeling that the Who, fresh off their Magic Bus tour, had upstaged them. This was one of the Stones’ last performances with founding member Brian Jones, who was found dead in his swimming pool the following summer after exiting the band.
The Rock and Roll Circus DVD, which hits stores October 12th, has been remastered in surround sound and features new commentary from Mick Jagger and Richards and an interview with Who guitarist Pete Townshend.
Source rollingstone.com.
R.E.M. unveiled several songs from its upcoming Warner Bros. album, “Around the Sun” in London last night (Sept. 15) at a secret gig in a London church. Staged and recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 2, the gig was held at St. James’ Church in Piccadilly, and featured a surprise guest appearance by Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke of Radiohead.
The show opened with “Animal,” from R.E.M.’s 2003 best-of “In Time,” but thereafter was dominated by material from “Around the Sun,” due Oct. 4 internationally and a day later in North America. After lead singer Michael Stipe quipped to journalists that he didn’t want to see any reviews of the event headlined “Losing Their Religion,” the band performed such new songs as “Wanderlust,” “I Wanted To Be Wrong,” “Final Straw” and the album’s title track
Yorke joined the band for a guest vocal on the 1996 hit “E-Bow the Letter,” while the encore featured new single “Leaving New York” and 1992’s “Man on the Moon.” The show will air Oct. 23 on Radio 2.
R.E.M. has confirmed the U.K. and Irish leg of its 2005 European tour, which will see them play six shows from Feb. 19-26, with other European shows preceding them from Jan. 7-Feb. 11. The band will also play outdoor U.K. shows next summer, including a massive July 9 Hyde Park date.
Source billboard.com.
Having recorded Attention Dimension as a five-year project, while healing from anxiety disorders, Jack Irons’ solo album has an obvious new-age feel, sounding like a yoga/meditation soundtrack in between guest spots from Eddie Vedder, Flea, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and Les Claypool.
Some larger festivals boast a similar peace, love and music philosophy, but Floyd actually lives it, not just for one weekend, but throughout the entire year. Long renowned for its artist communities and unique roots music drawing power, Floyd often seems like a place from another time, a vaguely recollected dream from which most of the world woke up decades ago.
Deb Talan is definitely in the mold of Shawn Colvin and Dar Williams, and is something of a mix of the two vocally. She tells her stories well on A Bird Flies Out, and uses her unique voice to give her characters some substance. Her voice is steady and welcoming throughout; the flow and inflection of some notes providing a rich backdrop for the lyrics to paint their pictures in your mind.
Bruce Hornsby has announced a number of new east coast dates in support of his latest release Halcyon Days. These dates include an October 30th date at the Flynn Theater in Burlington VT and dates that follow in Portland, Maine and in Boston, MA.
In other Hornsby news, long time drummer John Molo will be touring this fall with former Creedence Clearwater Revival front man John Fogerty.
Fall US Tour Dates –
10/8
Hampden-Sydney College, VA Kirby Fieldhouse Lawn
www.hsc.edu
10/9 Ovens Auditorium – Charlotte, NC
www.ovensauditorium.com
10/10 Mountain Stage – Charleston, WV
www.mountainstage.org
10/12 Byham Theater – Pittsburgh, PA
www.pgharts.org
10/13 Roanoke VA – Shaftman Performance Hall
www.jeffcenter.org
10/15 Portsmouth VA – Harbor Center
www.harborcenter.com
“Internet Pre-Sale Friday August 27 at 10am.
Password is ‘changes’
10/16 Richmond VA – Carpenter Center
www.carpentercenter.com
Tickets on sale 9/10/04
Internet pre-sale Sept. 9 at 10am. Password = “changes”. Click here for link!
General tickets on sale Sept. 10.
10/17 Baltimore MD – Hippodrome
www.france-merrickpac.com
10/19 Ridgefield Playhouse – Ridgefield, CT
10/20 Palace Theater – Albany, NY
www.palacealbany.com
10/22 York, PA
Lou Reed, the Walkmen and the Eagles Of Death Metal have joined the lineup for the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, to be held Nov. 6-7 at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif. As previously reported, the event will be curated by Modest Mouse, who will also perform, as will the Shins and Flaming Lips.
The first day’s schedule will feature Modest Mouse, Reed, the Black Heart Procession, Sufjan Stevens, Lungfish, Willy Mason, Explosions In The Sky, Wolf Parade and White Hassle, whose song “Life Is Still Sweet” was the inspiration for Modest Mouse’s breakthrough hit “Float On.”
In addition to the Shins, Flaming Lips, the Walkmen, the Cramps and the Eagles Of Death Metal (with Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme on drums), ATP’s second day will sport performances by Radar Brothers, Love As Laughter and White Magic.
Tickets for ATP are on sale now via the event’s official Web site and will be available Thursday (Sept. 16) via Ticketmaster. Single-day tickets are $55, while a two-day pass is $90.
Source billboard.com.
Wilco have written and recorded “Just a Kid” for the soundtrack to The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie. The big-screen cartoon, which hits theaters November 19th, features the voices of James Earl Jones, Scarlett Johansson and Alec Baldwin, and the soundtrack will also include a new track by the Flaming Lips.
One of the movie’s producers contacted frontman Jeff Tweedy after noticing a SpongeBob air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror in a scene from the band documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. Tweedy got turned on to the SpongeBob TV show by his sons Spencer, 8, and Sam, 4.
“I fell in love with SpongeBob when I heard him describe the darkness at the bottom of the sea as ‘advanced darkness,'” Tweedy says. “How could I not write a song for this film? It automatically makes me the coolest dad on the block.”
“Just a Kid” also makes young drummer Spencer the coolest kid on the block, as his band the Blisters accompany Wilco on the song. Tweedy the elder reports that early returns from a dad’s toughest critic are positive: “My son’s band thinks it rocks.”
Source rollingstone.com.
