2004

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.

Akron, Ohio-based rock duo the Black Keys will spend the bulk of the fall on the road in support of their third studio album, “Rubber Factory,” due Sept. 7 via Fat Possum/Epitaph. North American dates begin Saturday (Sept. 4) at Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival and run through an Oct. 9-10 stand in Cleveland, just north of the pair’s hometown.

After a two-week break, the Keys will cross the Atlantic for 12 dates in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Spain. “Rubber Factory” is led by the single “10 A.M. Automatic,” a video for which was recently conceived and directed by comedian David Cross.

The set is the follow-up to 2003’s “Thickfreakness,” which crept onto Billboard’s Top Independent Albums chart at No. 50. “Last time, we had a bunch of songs we’d been playing and we knew exactly what we were going to do,” vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach told Billboard.com in May. “This time, we went in with basically nothing. I’d written a lot of songs and had worked stuff out on my own, but me and [drummer] Patrick [Carney] hadn’t played anything together. It took us a couple months to get it all working right.”

Here are the Black Keys’ tour dates:

Sept. 4: Seattle (Bumbershoot Festival)
Sept. 7: Portland, Ore. (Aladdin Theater)
Sept. 10: Hollywood, Calif. (Avalon)
Sept. 11: San Diego (Brick by Brick)
Sept. 12: Phoenix (Mason Jar)
Sept. 15: Denver (Gothic Theatre)
Sept. 16: Omaha, Neb. (Sokol Underground)
Sept. 17: Lawrence, Kan. (Granada)
Sept. 18: Columbia, Mo. (Mojo’s)
Sept. 21: Minneapolis (First Avenue)
Sept. 23: Milwaukee (Mad Planet)
Sept. 24: Chicago (Metro)
Sept. 28: Toronto (Lee’s Palace)
Oct. 1: Boston (Paradise)
Oct. 2-3: New York (Bowery Ballroom)
Oct. 6: Washington, D.C. (9:30 Club)
Oct. 7: Pittsburgh (the World)
Oct. 8: Columbus, Ohio (Newport Music Hall)
Oct. 9-10: Cleveland (Beachland Ballroom)
Oct. 26: London (Scala)
Oct. 27: Bristol, England (Anson Rooms)
Oct. 29: Glasgow (Garage)
Oct. 30: Leeds, England (Cockpit)
Oct. 31: Manchester, England (Academy 2)
Nov. 1: Wolverhampton, England (Wulfren Hall)
Nov. 3: Brussels (AB Club)
Nov. 4: Evreux, France (MJC)
Nov. 5: Paris (La Boule Noir)
Nov. 7: Bordeaux, France (Le Cat)
Nov. 9: Bilbao, Spain (Azkena)
Nov. 11: Barcelona (Razzmatazz 3)

Source billboard.com.

Ween has lined up a seven-date tour of the West Coast, beginning Oct. 8 in Girdwood, Alaska, and wrapping Oct. 17 in San Diego. The group will be taking a break from work on its next studio album, which will be the follow-up to 2003’s “Quebec” (Sanctuary). That set reached a career-best No. 50 on The Billboard 200 and has sold nearly 69,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Here are Ween’s tour dates:

Oct. 8: Girdwood, Alaska (Alyeska Resort)
Oct. 10: Bellingham, Wash. (Mt. Baker Theatre)
Oct. 12: Eugene, Ore. (McDonald Theatre)
Oct. 14: Santa Cruz, Calif. (Rio Theatre)
Oct. 15: Ventura, Calif. (Ventura Theatre)
Oct. 16: Los Angeles (Wiltern)
Oct. 17: San Diego (Cane’s)

]i] Source billboard.com.

Back in the day when Too Short and N.W.A were pioneering gangsta rap, a more light-hearted group of artists was mixing up the hip-hop scene with its own brand of alternative beats and rhymes. De La Soul has outlived many of its peers and predecessors. The group continues to evolve and create a more amicable style of hip-hop in contrast to today’s top-selling bling-and-booty obsessed rappers.

In support of its upcoming album, The Grind Date, which is scheduled for release on September 28 on Sanctuary Records, the idiosyncratic old-school hip-hop act has announced a September – November tour that will be sure to please fans of the Long Island trio.

The trek kicks off in Chicago September 18 at the city’s House of Blues. De La Soul crisscrosses the nation, making stops in California, Arizona, the South, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Utah, Oregon and finishes up in Seattle November 15.

Since the group’s high school formation in 1987, the three musketeers – Posdnuos (Kelvin Mercer), Trugoy the Dove (David Jude Jolicoeur) and Pasemaster Mase (Vincent Mason) – have released seven full-length albums.
Their colorful 1989 debut, 3 Feet High and Rising, was hailed at the future of hip-hop until their unique stylings were drowned out by the sound of gangsta rap.

Through ups and downs in their career, however, the low-key New Yorkers didn’t lose sight of their music or their loyal fan base; De La Soul has stayed in touch through touring.

An interesting De La Soul factoid: The group was involved in a precedent setting lawsuit that would affect all musicians who use sampled material.

A legal battle ensued when they sampled a song by the

Nate Wilson, songwriter and keyboardist of Percy Hill, and the Assembly of
Dust (AOD), will bring his own group to The Stone Church in Newmarket, NH
for a month long residency beginning in September.

New York rock act Interpol will kick off a North American tour Oct. 11 in Boston with Secret Machines, On Air Library! and an additional band to be announced. Five European shows and an Oct. 1 appearance on NBC’s “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” will precede the fall run, which wraps with a Nov. 11-12 hometown stand at Hammerstein Ballroom.

Interpol will be touring in support of its sophomore Matador album, “Antics,” due Sept. 28. First single “Slow Hands” will be released Sept. 13 internationally, backed by remixes from Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and Spoon’s Britt Daniel. Tracks from the album can previewed on Interpol’s official Web site.

Secret Machines will be out behind their acclaimed Reprise debut, “Now Hear Is Nowhere,” which reached No. 33 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart.

Here are Interpol’s North American tour dates:

Oct. 11: Boston (Avalon)
Oct. 12: Montreal (Metropolis)
Oct. 13: Toronto (Docks)
Oct. 15: Detroit (State Theater)
Oct. 16: Columbus, Ohio (Newport Music Hall)
Oct. 17: Chicago (Riviera Theatre)
Oct. 19: Minneapolis (First Avenue)
Oct. 22: Seattle (Paramount Theatre)
Oct. 23: Vancouver (Commodore Ballroom)
Oct. 24: Portland, Ore. (Crystal Ballroom)
Oct. 25: San Francisco (Warfield Theatre)
Oct. 27-28: Los Angeles (Wiltern)
Oct. 29: San Diego (Soma)
Oct. 30: Tempe, Ariz. (Marquee Theatre)
Nov. 1: Dallas (Gypsy Ballroom)
Nov. 2: Austin, Texas (Stubbs)
Nov. 4: Atlanta (Coca Cola Roxy Theatre)
Nov. 5: Asheville, N.C. (Orange Peel)
Nov. 7: Philadelphia (Electric Factory)
Nov. 8: Providence, R.I. (Lupo’s)
Nov. 9: Washington, D.C. (9:30 Club)
Nov. 11-12: New York (Hammerstein Ballroom)

Source billboard.com.

Eminem will release his fourth album, to be called “Encore,” on Nov. 16, his Interscope Records label said Monday.

The set will be the follow-up to 2002’s “The Eminem Show,” which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 9.2 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Interscope said its global sales stand at more than 19 million copies.

Because of Internet piracy, that album officially went on sale in the United States on a Sunday, nine days ahead of its originally scheduled street date.

The 2002 soundtrack to his hit film “8 Mile” also reached No. 1 on The Billboard 200. It spawned the hit “Lose Yourself,” which spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and yielded an Oscar for Eminem and his two co-writers. Interscope said its global sales stand at almost nine million copies.

Although he released a new album with his group D-12 this spring, Eminem has kept a low profile over the past year. He recently announced plans to launch a hip-hop music channel with Sirius Satellite Radio, on which he will host shows with acts from his Shady Records imprint. The channel is expected to go live in the fall.

Source yahoo.com.

Cake hasn’t indulged its rock