2004

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.

Indie rock stalwarts Ted Leo & the Pharmacists have confirmed a host of headlining tour dates in support of their forthcoming fourth album, “Shake the Sheets.” As previously reported, the album is due Oct. 19 via Lookout!

The band will play New York’s Knitting Factory five days before the album’s street date, as part of the Lookout! Records CMJ Music Marathon showcase. The tour kicks off a week later (Oct. 21) in Baltimore, and dates are set through Dec. 10 in Philadelphia.

Support acts signed on for the tour include Brendan Benson, the Natural History, Mary Timony, the Lashes, Engine Down, Lucero, Matt Pond PA and Just A Fire.

The outing includes two-night stands at Washington, D.C.’s Black Cat (Dec. 1-2) and Cambridge, Mass.’ Middle East venue (Dec. 8-9). On Oct. 23 in Atlanta, the band will play two shows — a 5:00 p.m. all-ages gig and a 9:30 p.m. performance for fans 21-and-over. Leo also has a DJ set scheduled for Nov. 4 at Hollywood’s Beauty Bar.

Here are Ted Leo & the Pharmacists’ tour dates:

Oct. 14: New York (Knitting Factory)
Oct. 21: Baltimore (Ottobar)
Oct. 22: Raleigh, N.C. (Kings Lounge)
Oct. 23: Atlanta (the Earl — two shows)
Oct. 25: Orlando, Fla. (The Social)
Oct. 26: Tallahassee, Fla. (Club Downunder)
Oct. 27: New Orleans (Twiropa)
Oct. 28: Houston (Rice University Student Center)
Oct. 29: Dallas (Gypsy Tea Room)
Oct. 30: Austin, Texas (Emo’s Alternative Lounge)
Nov. 1: Tucson, Ariz. (Solar Culture Gallery)
Nov. 2: San Diego (Porters Pub)
Nov. 3: Anaheim, Calif. (Chain Reaction)
Nov. 4: Hollywood (Beauty Bar — Ted Leo DJ set)
Nov. 5: Los Angeles (El Rey Theater)
Nov. 6: San Francisco (Great American Music Hall)
Nov. 8: Portland, Ore. (Bossanova)
Nov. 9: Seattle (Neumos Crystal Ball Reading)
Nov. 10: Vancouver, B.C. (the Red Room)
Nov. 12: Salt Lake City (Kilby Court)
Nov. 13: Denver (Climax Lounge)
Nov. 14: Lawrence, Kan. (Bottleneck)
Nov. 15: Grinnell, Iowa (Gardner Lounge)
Nov. 16: Duluth, Minn. (University of Minnesota-Duluth)
Nov. 18: Chicago (Metro)
Nov. 19: Detroit (Magic Stick)
Nov. 20: Cleveland (Grog Shop)
Dec. 1-2: Washington, D.C. (Black Cat)
Dec. 4: Ithaca, N.Y. (Noyes Community Center at Cornell)
Dec. 8-9: Cambridge, Mass. (the Middle East)
Dec. 10: Philadelphia (Beyond Nightclub)

Source billboard.com.

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

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.

If rock stars were superheroes BANYAN’s ferocious new full length, “LIVE AT PERKINS PALACE” (out October 12 on Sanctuary Records), would be the stuff of comic book collecting fantasies. Over the course of their previous two full-length albums (1997’s “Banyan,” and 1999’s “Anytime At All”), Jane’s Addiction’s resident skin pounding guru, Stephen Perkins, lead a rotating cast of a veritable who’s who in California’s collaboration happy music scene. Banyan seemed to consist
of everybody from eccentric beat junkies like Money Mark and the Dust Brothers, to Chili Peppers’ Flea and John Frusciante, to critically acclaimed Lou Reed collaborating bassist Rob Wasserman.

For “Live At Perkins Palace,” though, Perkins wanted to try and capture the very essence of Banyan’s ambitious live experience. In doing so, he trimmed the group’s far-reaching lineup down to its four core members. This time around Banyan consists of former Minute Men bassist and low-frequency iconoclast, Mike Watt handling bass duties, Wilco’s current ghost-birthing guitarist, Nels Cline, one-time Death Row records session musician, Willie Waldman on trumpet, and, of course, Jane’s Addiction’s tribal rhythm provider, Stephen Perkins, holding it all together on the kit.

Fans who pick up “The Wilco Book” on Nov. 15 will be treated to an exclusive bonus CD with 12 previously unreleased songs recorded during sessions for this year’s Nonesuch album “A Ghost Is Born.” Among the cuts are an alternate version of album track “Hummingbird,” “Pure Bug Beauty,” “The High Heat,” “Barnyard Pimp” and “Diamond Claw.”

The tracks showcase the more experimental side of Wilco’s sound, including “What Good Am I,” which was recorded in February 2003 in a hotel room in Perth, Australia. “Barnyard Pimp” blends a studio improvisation session with a tour bus jam, while “Rottnest” features only former member Leroy Bach on piano and Mikael Jorgensen on laptop computer. Closer “Hamami” finds band members utilizing screws, coins and chunks of metal as percussion instruments.

Jorgensen calls “Diamond Claw” “technically and musically my favorite piece of recorded music that came out of the sessions for ‘A Ghost Is Born.'” As for album contender “The High Heat,” he notes, “This particular drum sound isn’t my favorite; it’s rather unsophisticated. However, the feel and atmosphere of the tune trumps and technical issues that I have.”

As for the 160-page “The Wilco Book” (Picture Box Inc.), it sports previously unseen images of Wilco by photographer Michael Schmelling, essays from band members and authors such as Rick Moody, paintings and assorted other visual images. The tome will retail for $29.95.

Fans who pre-order the book from Wilco’s official Web site by Sept. 30 will be eligible to win an autographed reprint of a photo from the volume.

The group’s latest lineup has also recorded its first song, “Just a Kid,” for the upcoming “Spongebob Squarepants” soundtrack, due in November. The cut sports backing vocals by frontman Jeff Tweedy’s son Spencer’s band, the Blisters.

In related news, Wilco bassist John Stirratt and his sister Laurie (ex-Blue Mountain) will on Sept. 21 release “Arabella,” their debut album for Broadmoor Records. The set boasts contributions from Tweedy, Bach and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, as well as John’s Autumn Defense colleague Pat Sansone.

Wilco kicks off an extensive North American tour in support of “A Ghost Is Born” Tuesday (Sept. 14) in Columbia, Mo. Calexico, Joseph Arthur, Fiery Furnaces and Deerhoof will support at various stages.

Here is the track list for “The Wilco Book” CD:

“Pure Bug Beauty”
“This Is New”
“Diamond Claw”
“This Is New (The Explanation)”
“What Good Am I”
“Here Comes Everybody”
“Hummingbird” (Soma version)
“The High Heat”
“Doubt”
“Barnyard Pimp”
“Rottnest”
“Hamami”

i] Source billboard.com.

Ernie Ball, a pioneer maker of rock’n’roll guitar strings used by legions of artists from the Rolling Stones to Merle Travis, died yesterday (Sept. 9) at his home in San Luis Obispo, Calif. He was 74. Ball had suffered an ongoing illness, the mortuary handling services announced.

Music stars from B.B. King to Metallica have used his strings and instruments over the past four decades. Beginning with a small music shop in the San Fernando Valley, Ball built a business with annual sales of $40 million and a worldwide reputation. Along the way, he bucked traditional thinking in the music business.

“He changed the way people thought of guitar accessories, and how they sold and marketed them, and to this day the Ernie Ball way is the industry standard,” his son, Sterling Ball, said in a statement.

In 1958, Ball opened a shop in Tarzana that, uniquely, sold only guitars. “Sales reps would come in and say, ‘Ern, you’ve got to sell clarinet reeds, drum sticks, valve oil, blah blah blah,'” Ball once recalled. “And I’d tell them, ‘I just want to sell guitars.'”

In 1962, complaints from customers that they couldn’t find lighter-gauge, flexible strings for their rock’n’roll instruments prompted Ball to create and sell sets of strings he called “Slinkys.” They were a hit. He later branched out into instruments and accessories, buying the Music Man electric guitar company in 1985.

Today, Ernie Ball items are sold in more than 5,000 music stores in the United States and exported to more than 70 countries.

Source billboard.com.