2004

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.

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.