Archive: 2004

Upon her recent high profile marriage to the brash pop rocker, Elvis Costell, the husband/wife team has penned six of the twelve songs on Krall

Borrowing the term eclectic to describe a David Byrne performance is perhaps clich

Charlotte Martin’s day will come. Her voice is too pure. Her piano playing is too chilling. Her songs are too damn catchy. Charlotte Martin is too good to
be opening a show in one of Portland’s smaller clubs. Her show would fit just as comfortably in front of thousands headlining Carnegie Hall.

Bruce Hornsby’s upcoming Columbia album “Halcyon Days” features a number of high-profile guest performers, including Eric Clapton, Sting and Elton John. Clapton contributes guitar to three songs on the album, due Aug. 10, and vocals to the track “Candy Mountain Run.” Sting duets with Hornsby on opener “Gonna Be Some Changes Made,” while John joins the artist on the song “Dreamland.”

“Halcyon Days” finds Hornsby backed by his regular band, bassist J.V. Collier, drummer Sonny Emory, multi-instrumentalist Bobby Read, guitarist Doug Derryberry and organist John “JT” Thomas. Also guesting on the set is the artist’s brother, guitarist RS “Bobby” Hornsby.

“Halcyon Days” is Hornsby’s first album for Columbia, following a career spent on RCA. His last release, 2002’s “Big Swing Face,” debuted at No. 22 on Billboard’s Top Internet Album Sales chart. Its electronic beats and looped samples marked a departure from the jazz-inflected adult contemporary music for which he’s known.

A national U.S. viewing audience saw guitarist Pat Metheny join Hornsby Sunday night in Indianapolis for a performance of the National Anthem prior to game five of the National Basketball Association’s Eastern Conference Finals. The game was broadcast live on cable sports channel ESPN.

Hornsby has a U.S. summer tour on the books that will kick off in advance of the new album. The run gets underway July 14 in Saratoga, Calif., and will close Aug. 27 in Memphis. A European tour is slated to kick off Sept. 10 in Dublin. For the full list of dates, visit Hornsby’s official Web site.

Here is the “Halcyon Days” track list:

“Gonna Be Some Changes Made”
“Candy Mountain Run”
“Dreamland”
“Circus on the Moon”
“Halcyon Days”
“What the Hell Happened”
“Hooray for Tom”
“Heir Gordon”
“Mirror on the Wall”
“Song F”
“Lost in the Snow”

Source billboard.com.

Fans of progressive Americana have reason to rejoice: Bela Fleck & The Flecktones are coming through this summer on the Acoustic Planet Tour, featuring friends Keller Williams and Yonder Mountain String Band on almost all dates.

The tour kicks off August 5 at Interlochen, Mich.’s Kresge Auditorium. They’ll play amphitheatres across the eastern half of the U.S. for just over a month, finishing up September 5 in Myrtle Beach, S.C., at the House of Blues.

Bela Fleck & The Flecktones will precede the tour with dates of their own in June and July, including Colorado’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival and the Playboy Jazz Festival in Hollywood, Calif.

Telluride will also feature Yonder Mountain String Band, who have a busy early summer schedule of their own. Keller Williams is no exception, with a host of solo dates and festival appearances in addition to an opening stint for Dave Matthews in late June.

Source pollstar.com.

L.A. rock veterans gone solo Grant Lee Phillips and John Doe are teaming up for a tour of the eastern U.S. this June.

Phillips, who spent the bulk of the ’90s fronting the critically acclaimed Grant Lee Buffalo, is supporting his new release, Virginia Creeper.

Doe has been doing solo work for more than a dozen years now, along with occasional reunions with X, the seminal punk band he co-founded in the late ’70s. His most recent album is Dim Stars, Bright Sky.

The two troubadours will hit the highway June 2, when they play Headliners in Louisville, Ky. They’ll move on to Nashville, New York City, Boston and other hot spots throughout the East Coast and Midwest before wrapping in Chicago June 17.

Immediately following the tour, Doe will hook up with original X bandmates Exene Cervenka, D.J. Bonebrake, and Billy Zoom for two shows at Anaheim’s House of Blues June 18-19.

Source pollstar.com.

I got an irresistible invitation from a friend this month. My friend Tina called and asked if I wanted to go outdoor rock climbing with some of her climbing friends. She said they had an extra harness and all the gear I

Every inch and breath of my being feels compelled to pen the greatest review ever to leave these fingertips, because, without question this is the finest record in my collection.

Stone, Steel, & Bright Lights, Jay Farrar

Van Halen is hitting the road this summer for the first time in eight years, and drummer Alex Van Halen and vocalist Sammy Hagar promise it will be well worth the wait. “This set we’re playing right now is better than any set we ever played before,” Hagar said during a teleconference today (May 27). “I used to be a little sensitive to the old material, but I’m not now. We have a whole different outlook on everything. Let’s make this the greatest songs the Van Halen fans have ever heard. The set list will kill you!”

Although neither artist would reveal specifics, the show will find Hagar singing many more songs from Van Halen’s David Lee Roth era than he did during his first stint in the band. “I’m really digging ‘Jump’ right now,” he said. “In the old days I never got off on singing that song. I would pull a guy out of the audience to sing it. Now, I want to sing this song better than it has ever been sung. I’m tearing it up!” He also insisted “there’s a couple of surprises in [the set], one in particular that is completely oddball.”

The group will issue its first new material since 1998’s “Van Halen III” on the upcoming “Best of Both Worlds” retrospective, due July 20 via Warner Bros. Hagar boasted that “there were 10 other songs we could have worked on. If there’d been time, we’d love to have done a whole record.”

“[Alex and guitarist Eddie Van Halen had been] jamming in the studio for years putting ideas down,” he continued. “I’d say, ‘that song’s great, let’s work on that.’ But then they’d say, ‘listen to this.’ It was never-ending. There’s so much material that needs to be finished for sure. It became a heavy workload on me as soon as we started getting into it. We had to kind of pick and choose. I took about two hours of stuff home with me and used to work out to it every day. That’s really how it got defined.”

Both artists said any ill will they may have harbored following Hagar’s rancorous 1996 exit from Van Halen is now water under the bridge, but Hagar admitted that before last fall, he hadn’t even spoken to Eddie Van Halen in at least six-and-a-half years. “Not even one conversation,” he said. “The first one, I was a little nervous. It was kind of like a little uncomfortable. It actually got heavy fast.”

“[But] when you see a person you truly have a deep relationship with, all the sudden you realize after time that, hey, forget it. We decided rather than go to therapy, no, no, we’re going to pretend like it never happened. We’re going to rise above it.”

The tour will be documented for potential release on DVD or a live album. “We’re very particular about how our music is presented,” Van Halen said. “When we do it, we do want control over it. But these days with all the different technologies, we might just join the bandwagon and do our own bootlegs.” Either way, Hagar stressed the impact of experiencing the show first hand: “the only way you’re gonna get fulfilled is to sit right there in that front row and just get your face bashed in.”

Source billboard.com.

Musician, activist and poet Michael Franti will join a delegation of peace workers, musicians, artists and film makers who are traveling to Iraq andIsrael from June 2nd through the 15th. The intention of the trip is to see first-hand the affects of the war on all those involved from Iraqi civilians to men and women in uniform. Although no concerts are planned for the trip, Michael and the others are planning on meeting with as many Iraqi musicians and artists as possible as well as students and other youth organizations.

The late Bob Marley’s sons Ziggy, Stephen, Julian and Damian will team this summer for the first Bob Marley Roots Rock Reggae Festival. The trek begins Aug. 7 in Portsmouth, Va., and will wrap Aug. 29 in Berkeley, Calif. Other artists confirmed to perform are Toots & the Maytals, Common, Slightly Stoopid and Looner.

Roots Rock Reggae marks the first time the Marley family is collaborating on a national tour that is this extensive. Stops on the trek include an Aug. 10 appearance at Celebrate Brooklyn in the borough’s Prospect Park, an Aug. 22 show at Red Rocks outside Denver and an Aug. 28 gig at San Diego’s annual Street Scene festival.

A number of the headliners are supporting new albums. Stephen is scheduled to release a solo effort on Motown this fall. Ziggy is touring in support of 2003’s “Dragonfly” on Private Music/Arista, while Julian rolled out “Time & Place” in November 2003 on Ghetto Youths/Tuff Gong Records.

Common has recently collaborated with hot producer Kanye West on his next set, the follow-up to 2002’s “Electric Circus.” Toots & the Maytals just released their newest album, “True Love,” via V2.

Here are the Roots Rock Reggae dates:

Aug. 7: Portsmouth, Va. (nTelos Pavilion Harbor Center)
Aug. 8: Vienna, Va. (Wolf Trap)
Aug. 10: Brooklyn, N.Y. (Celebrate Brooklyn)
Aug. 12: Boston (Fleet Boston Pavilion)
Aug. 13: Trenton, N.J. (Sovereign Bank Arena)
Aug. 14: Wilmington, Del. (Tubman-Garrett Park)
Aug. 15: Pittsfield, Mass. (Berkshire Music Glen)
Aug. 17: Cleveland (Tower City Amphitheatre)
Aug. 18: Rochester Hills, Mich. (Meadowbrook Music Festival)
Aug. 20: Chicago (The Chill on Kingsbury Street)
Aug. 21: Riverside, Mo. (E.H. Young Riverfront Park)
Aug. 22: Morrison, Colo. (Red Rocks Amphitheater)
Aug. 24: Albuquerque, N.M. (Journal Pavilion)
Aug. 26: Mesa, Ariz. (Mesa Amphitheatre)
Aug. 27: Los Angeles (Greek Theatre)
Aug. 28: San Diego (San Diego Street Scene)
Aug. 29: Berkeley, Calif. (Greek Theatre)

Source billboard.com.

After a long break, activity is slowly brewing in the Pearl Jam camp. The group’s official Web site hints at a handful of future releases and live performances by the fall. “There could be some shows — maybe acoustic, maybe not, a possible CD of some sort, and it’s possible the band may head back to the studio towards the end of the year to begin work on their eighth album,” the site says.

“As far as new music from side projects goes, some releases are possible but not definite,” the post continues, referring to such affiliated acts as Brad and the Rockfords. In addition, frontman Eddie Vedder is confirmed to appear on former Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons’ upcoming solo album, but will not make a rumored guest spot on the Who’s in-progress studio release.

The prospective fall shows may be held in swing states in the run-up toward the U.S. presidential election. And while Pearl Jam actively campaigned for Ralph Nader in the 2000 election, the site says the group will not play any fundraisers on his behalf this year.

Bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard will be seen in the upcoming documentary “Malfunksun: The Andrew Wood Story,” which chronicles the life of the late Mother Love Bone vocalist. Former Soundgarden members Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil have also participated in the film.

Finally, the site confirms that Sony Music is working on a Pearl Jam greatest hits album, with details to be announced. The band exited Sony’s Epic Records last year after spending its entire career on the label. Pearl Jam says it is “still leaving options open” for a new record deal.

Source billboard.com.

Woodstock, Monterey Pop, Altamont and Isle of Wight are famous music festivals of the late ’60s/early ’70s that have been immortalized on film. But the new documentary “Festival Express” may rank among fans and critics as one of the era’s “must see” concert films.

The documentary focuses on an overlooked event in rock history: the five-day, cross-country festival tour of Canada in 1970, where acts including Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, the Band and Buddy Guy traveled together on a train called the Festival Express.

THINKFilm will release “Festival Express” in select U.S. theaters this summer. The movie opens July 23 in San Francisco and July 30 in New York and Los Angeles. It will have a rollout in other cities in August.

“This just may be the last great rock’n’roll movie of that time,” says documentary director Bob Smeaton, who has won two Grammy Awards for directing such longform music videos as “The Beatles Anthology” and “Live at Fillmore East” from Jimi Hendrix’s Band Of Gypsys.

Footage of “Festival Express,” originally shot by Peter Bizou, had been stored in the Canadian National Archives for nearly 25 years. It then took almost 10 years for the project to be completed for theatrical release. “It was truly a labor of love,” says Gavin Poolman, who produced the movie with John Trapman.

When Smeaton came on board for the project, he had to comb through about 40 hours of raw footage, much of which had to be “cleaned up” through digital transfers and audio restoration. “It took about nine months to get the performances’ sound and pictures to match,” Smeaton tells Billboard.

Joplin is undoubtedly the highlight of the film, with electrifying performances of “Cry Baby” and “Tell Mama” that underscore her legendary status. The movie documents the problems the tour encountered when protesters demanded free admission for concertgoers. It also captures the camaraderie that existed among the musicians as they socialized and performed together on the train. The Dead even wrote a song about the experience, “Might As Well.”

The film includes commentary from the festival’s participants, who offer their perspectives on the event. The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Phil Lesh; Guy; and festival co-promoter Ken Walker are among those interviewed.

Poolman theorizes why the tour remained in the shadows of the Woodstock and Monterey Pop festivals. “At the time, the Festival Express tour was not considered a success. It lost money, and the venues weren’t that full. But the musicians involved remembered it as a phenomenal event.”

Source billboard.com.

Photos by Robert Massie of M. Ward and My Morning Jacket’s live performance at the Odeon in Cleveland, OH on May 25th, 2004.

Live at Bonnaroo, like the festival

Sidelined for much of last year after undergoing vocal surgery, Dispatch guitarist Chad Urmston prepares for the band’s final perfomance this summer – and goes in the studio with his new band, State Radio.

Though it may appear these are milk and honey times for the Truckers, evidently they walked on egg shells, or broken glass as it may be, for a time at least, a couple years back. Killers and Stars was recorded in 2001 and in essence it chronicles these rotten and ambiguous times, at least from the perspective of one Patterson Hood, the principle song writer in the most important band in America.

Kid Rock, Cypress Hill, Nickelback, Ludacris, Galactic, Our Lady Peace, Lil’ Jon and Tha Eastside Boyz and Molotov are the first acts confirmed for the second Coors Light Mountain Jam. The event will be held Aug. 14 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver and will be hosted by comedian Dave Attell. Tickets are $50 and go on sale June 5 via CoorsLight.com.

Among the non-musical diversions will be the Coors Light Oasis Deck, complete with a hot tub, and the Coors Light Kasbah, in which select contest winners will get to mingle with the artists. Early entrants to the venue grounds will receive coupons for free food and drink plus Coors-branded t-shirts and hats.

The first Coors Light Mountain Jam boasted performances by 50 Cent, the Doors of the 21st Century, Korn, P.O.D., the Roots, Evanescence, Gov’t Mule and Toots and the Maytals.

Source billboard.com.

In an article published on Rollingtone online –

“If there’s one thing I discovered since I came back from [Phish’s two-year] hiatus, it’s that you can’t go backwards,” guitarist Trey Anastasio said last Thursday, the day before his twenty-year-old Vermont jam band decided to break up after its summer tour.
“I try to remember, now, that feeling that I had when I was writing [complex early Phish material like] ‘Reba,’ ‘Foam’ and ‘Split Open and Melt.’ There was a single-mindedness. Our relationship hadn’t developed as a foursome, as people. I was very aggressive. So, I came into band practice and I said, ‘Play this, play this, play this.’ . . . I can’t really do that anymore. That’s nature . . . At this point, the whole thing has become a much, much heavier and harder boat to move . . . As the years went by, Phish became about improvisation a little bit more, and that kind of music got pushed to the side.”

Phish have indeed shied away from Anastasio’s more elaborate compositions in recent years and the frontman was left to find other outlets. “Lo and behold, the next thing you know, I’ve got a ten-piece band that has lots of complicated horn charts,” he said of the outfit he has toured with during Phish’s downtime.

Last month, Anastasio’s released the orchestral, instrumental solo effort Seis de Mayo, an album that showcases his ability as a composer. For his June 14th performance on the closing night of this year’s Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee, he will lead the Nashville Chamber Orchestra through selections from the album, before performing a set with his solo band.

“That was the dream from the beginning,” the thirty-nine-year-old former Goddard College composition major said earnestly. “When I met Phish, I was studying orchestral music. I wanted to be a composer. They were kind enough to facilitate me and learn it.”

When Phish took their two-year break between 2000 and 2002, Anastasio was invited to expand Phish’s “Guyute,” from 1998’s Story of the Ghost, into an orchestral work for the Vermont Youth Symphony. The project eventually grew into Seis De Mayo, a varied set which ranges from the string quartet puzzlebox of “All Things Reconsidered” (originally on Phish’s Rift) to the brassy Americana of “Coming To.”

The performance at Bonnaroo will include these, as well as two other new pieces. “I’m seeing this Bonnaroo experience as a big stone in the water to where I wanna go,” Anastasio said. “The first set is going to range from string quartets to eighteen people, twelve people, forty people. The second set will be ten. I would like to have that gap start to close, to have the energy and intensity of the second set meld with the composition of the first set, along the lines of [Frank Zappa’s] The Grand Wazoo.”

“People have done it before,” he continued. “Duke Ellington did it. That was a dance band. That’s dance music, as far as I’m concerned.”

After Bonnaroo, Anastasio will head north to rejoin his smaller ensemble, Phish. On June 15th, they will release their final studio album, Undermind, and on the 17th they will kick off their summer tour at Coney Island’s KeySpan Park. The show will be broadcast to select movie theaters nationwide. The tour will conclude August 14th and 15th with Coventry, the seventh and last installment in Phish’s annual city-sized camping festivals, which will bring their career to a close in their native Vermont.

“In a funny way, I wish I was in a wedding band,” Anastasio said. “[My solo band] just played at a birthday party, and there were grandmas and little teeny kids dancing on the stage. We played for hours, we did an Earth, Wind and Fire song, everybody was dancing, and I was so happy. Along with all this crazy stuff that’s going on, I want to be inclusive. I’m not trying to be high art. Basically, I’d like to have a forty-three-piece wedding band.”

Source rollingstone.com.