2004

Although a label spokesperson declined to confirm specifics, Universal Music Enterprises will release a three-CD boxed set from Nirvana in November. Limited editions of the project will include a DVD, which boasts footage of the Kurt Cobain-led band playing at a 1987 house party.

The box is expected to be one of the most in-demand items at music retail this holiday season. High hopes were fueled when portions of the DVD were screened at the recent National Association of Recording Merchandisers conference.

“From what I saw at [NARM] — which was amazing — I think it’s going to blow everyone away,” Newbury Comics music buyer Carl Mello tells Billboard. “It really will out-perform any expectations that customers may have — even if their expectations are huge.”

The boxed set was originally intended for release in Christmas 2001, to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of Nirvana’s breakthrough album, “Nevermind.” But surviving members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic were thwarted by lawsuits from Cobain’s widow Courtney Love, who objected to their planned use of the previously unreleased track “You Know You’re Right” in the set.

The artists traded vicious barbs in the press, with Grohl and Novoselic claiming Love “couldn’t care less about Nirvana fans. She is using Nirvana’s music as a bargaining chip to increase leverage for her personal gain, without any regard for the Nirvana legacy.” For her part, Love maintained Cobain was by far the driving force in Nirvana’s success, and that Grohl and Novoselic were little more than hired hands.

The dispute was eventually settled in September 2002, with the parties agreeing to earmark “You Know You’re Right” for a self-titled Nirvana compilation released on Oct. 29, 2002. The album has gone on to sell 1.45 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, while the song rocketed to No. 1 on both Billboard’s Modern and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts.

“We were looking forward to releasing unheard Nirvana material for our personal sense of closure,” Grohl and Novoselic said before the suit was settled. “As the cycle of life moves forward, we are each living our own lives and moving on to new things. We only wanted to go on with the assurance of knowing that all of Nirvana’s music is where it really belongs; in the hearts and minds of millions of people in the world.

As previously reported, Novoselic will revisit his Nirvana past in the upcoming book “Of Grunge & Government: Let’s Fix this Broken Democracy!” Due later this month via RDV Books, the volume will also address Novoselic’s longstanding work in political activism.

Source billboard.com.

The Oct. 26 DVD release of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant’s “No Quarter: Unledded” will be preceded the day before by screenings in 35 Regal Entertainment Group cinemas. A similar promotion with Loews Theatres heralded the 2003 release of the “Led Zeppelin” DVD, which has sold 683,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

“Unledded,” which premiered in 1994 on MTV, features a mix of acoustic and electric tracks — including the classics “Kashmir,” “Gallows Pole” and “When the Levee Breaks” — along with 17 tracks filmed in such locations as Morocco and Wales and studio segments filmed at the London Weekend Television Studios.

Coming 10 years after the film was originally released on VHS and 24 years after the dissolution of Led Zeppelin, the DVD includes an extra track, “Black Dog,” which was filmed at the American Music Awards; the bonus video “Most High”; a 13-minute interview with Plant and Page; and a montage of footage from Morocco.

Also due the same day is a re-release of the 1994 “Unledded” album that features two bonus tracks: “The Rain Song” and “Wah Wah.” The track “Yallah” from the original album also is included but is listed as “The Truth Explodes.”

Source billboard.com.

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Copyright 2004 Billboard

U.S. rock quartet Kings Of Leon will hope to repeat the international success of its 2003 RCA debut album, “Youth and Young Manhood,” by releasing the follow-up in the U.K. before its domestic appearance. “A-Ha Shake Heartbreak” will be issued on Hand Me Down via BMG on Nov. 1 in Britain, preceded by the single “Bucket” on Oct. 25. A North American release will follow early next year.

“Manhood” has sold about 500,000 copies in the U.K., and led to two 2004 BRIT Award nominations for best international group and international breakthrough artist.

In the United States, the set debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and has sold more than 117,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Produced again by Ethan Johns and Angelo, “A-Ha Shake Heartbreak” was recorded this summer at Johns’ studio in Los Angeles, and an early listen to several tracks suggests the band’s sound has matured considerably, with less emphasis on its southern rock influences.

Kings Of Leon have returned home to Nashville after a busy summer of European festival performances. A North American tour will begin Oct. 1 in Washington, D.C.

Source billboard.com.

Sam Roberts, one of Canada’s platinum-selling new rockers, will get a second chance at a U.S. career. A repackaged version of his album We Were Born In A Flame was released on Lost Highway this week.

Roberts, a household name in Canada, swept 2003’s Juno Awards, picking up Artist of the Year, among other accolades, and performed alongside the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and the Guess Who at Toronto’s Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto SARS benefit last summer.

“It’s hard enough to get a crack at this,” Roberts says. “Not a lot of people get a second chance . . . [and] we’ll do what we do best — turn people on the only way we know how.”

While Roberts, who plays unpretentious, scrappy rock and roll, is the one in the spotlight, he does front a four-piece band. “I’m not a singer-songwriter/crooner in any way,” he says. “I play in a rock and roll band. And like anyone else whose name just happens to be on the marquee, like David Bowie or Neil Young, there’s a band out there that makes the rock and roll happen.” The Montreal-based group comprises Dave Nugent on lead guitar, James Hall on bass, Eric Fares on guitars/keyboards and drummer Corey Zadorozny.

This is not the first time Roberts has sought U.S. distribution. Last summer, Universal picked up We Were Born In A Flame but the album failed to break on the radio. Roberts says the Lost Highway deal allows the band to do what it loves — perform live. “They’re a record label that has managed to support their artists in a way we want to be supported . . . just letting us go out and play shows.”

The newly released version of We Were Born in A Flame features two bonus tracks, “When Everything Was Alright” and “This Is How I Live,” taken from 2002’s The Inhuman Condition EP. The lead single will be the rocking “Don’t Walk Away Eileen” which the band will perform Thursday on Late Night With Conan O’Brien. Roberts will hit the road in mid-September with veteran Canadian rockers The Tragically Hip.

“We’ve been given an opportunity to go out and play as a band and get people into it,” he says.

Sam Roberts tour dates:
9/6: Seattle, Bumbershoot
9/7: Portland, OR, Berbati’s Pan
9/8: San Francisco, Bottom of the Hill
9/10: Silver Lake, CA, Spacelake of Dreams

Dates with The Tragically Hip
9/18: Detroit, Fox Theater
9/19: Cleveland, Odeon
9/21: Boston, Avalon
9/22: New York, Webster Hall
9/23: Syracuse, NY, Landmark Theater
9/25: Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
9/26: Philadelphia, Trocadero
9/28: Atlanta, Variety Playhouse
9/29: New Orleans, Howlin’ Wolf
10/1: Dallas, Gypsy Tea Room Ballroom
10/2: Austin, La Zona Rosa
10/4: Tempe, Marquee Theater
10/5: San Diego, 4th and B
10/6: Los Angeles, Avalon
10/7: San Francisco, Fillmore
10/9: Portland, Aladdin Theater
10/10: Seattle, Showbox
10/11: Spokane,WA, Big Easy
10/13: Denver, Gothic Theater
10/15: Minneapolis, Quest
10/16: Chicago, Riviera Theater
10/17: Pittsburgh, Rock Club
10/19: Rochester, NY, Auditorium Theater
10/20: Burlington, VT, Memorial Auditorium
10/21: Clifton Park, NY, Northern Lights
10/25: Baltimore, Recher Theater
10/26: Myrtle Beach, SC, House Of Blues
10/27: Asheville, NC, The Orange Peel
10/29: Toledo, OH, Stranahan Theater
10/30: Grand Rapids, MI, Orbit Room

Source rollingstone.com.