2004

Weezer is more than a month into recording sessions for its long-gestating fifth studio album. After a 10-day break, the band will resume work on the set in hopes of finishing it in time for frontman Rivers Cuomo to start the fall semester at Harvard, which he last attended in 1997.

In yet another new development, producer Rick Rubin, who Cuomo credited with helping him turn a corner in his personal and professional life, has bowed out of the day-to-day work process, according to Weezer’s official Web site. Work behind the boards is being handled by engineer Chad Bramford, who has worked with the band for the past several years in various capacities.

“The sessions with Rick started back in [December 2003] have been shelved in favor of the fresh start that commenced three weeks ago in the current sessions,” the site says. “This was done mainly in response to Rivers regaining his sense of momentum with his songwriting, and not feeling right about continuing with the incomplete recordings from December. In effect, the band is now producing itself, as it did on [the prior albums] ‘Pinkerton’ and ‘Maladroit,’ but this time they have a wise shoulder to lean on if and when need be. So far, it’s working out pretty excellently.”

The site stresses the 12 “songs being recorded now are not ‘brand new,’ they have been worked up since early this year as demos, over the entire spring time, by Rivers. In some cases, they were developed from songs being worked on in ’03, but underwent such changes as to now be totally distinct from their origins. Basically, these 12 songs are ‘new’, but ‘new’ means early and spring 2004 (not last week or whatever). Also, there is the possibility of trying some additional songs if there is time, and such material could be ’04 or ’03 stuff.”

The as-yet-untitled set will be released by the end of the year or early 2005 via Geffen. It will be the follow-up to 2002’s “Maladroit,” which debuted at No. 3 on The Billboard 200.

Source: billboard.com

Glider

Kevin Smith is making another convenience store run.

The writer-director of “Dogma,” “Chasing Amy” and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” told the Associated Press on Friday that he has begun work on a sequel to “Clerks,” his homemade indie classic from 1994.

That $27,000 movie, shot at night in a store where Smith worked, chronicled the adventures of Dante and Randal, two guys who talk about life, death, sex and movies while working at neighboring stores.

The sequel picks up 10 years later.

“It’s about what happens when that lazy, 20-something malaise lasts into your 30s. Those dudes are kind of still mired, not in that same exact situation, but in a place where it’s time to actually grow up and do something more than just sit around and dissect pop culture and talk about sex,” Smith said during an interview at his Hollywood office. “It’s: What happened to these dudes?”

A new 10th anniversary DVD of “Clerks” debuts September 7, and Smith said working on that three-disc set inspired him to write about what became of those characters.

The sequel — titled “The Passion of the Clerks” — is set to begin shooting in January. Miramax Films, which turned the original into a cult-hit after buying it at the Sundance Film Festival, plans to distribute the follow-up.

“It’s funny, it’s very raw, insanely foul-mouthed. In many ways it’s the antithesis of ‘Jersey Girl,”‘ Smith said, referring to his recent PG-13 comedy with Ben Affleck as the widowed father of a little girl.

Smith is also writing the screenplay for a movie version of “The Green Hornet,” but no longer thinks he will direct it. The “Clerks” movie has moved to the top of his to-do list.

He said he called Jeff Anderson, who played the combative video-store worker Randal, and Brian O’Halloran, who was the besieged-by-strangeness convenience store employee Dante, to run the idea by them first.

“Jeff was actually very protective of ‘Clerks,”‘ Smith said. “Jeff was like, ‘Are you sure you want to do this? That movie means a lot to people and do you want to go back?’ I thought about it honestly, and it would seem chicken to not give it a shot just because I’m afraid of (messing) with the first film.”

So far, he said he has gotten only positive responses from the people who have read the script, so he decided to move forward with it. Both O’Halloran and Anderson are signed on, and Jason Mewes, will return as stoner Jay, the “hetero life-mate” of Smith’s stoic Silent Bob.

“I’m sure there will be naysayers who say, ‘Oh my God, it’s an opportunistic grab at a buck,’ but it’s not. We’re doing it for nothing,” Smith said. “We’re going to do it insanely inexpensively. The budget will be somewhere between 250 grand and $5 million.”

The original was shot pre-dawn, and most of the actors worked for free and then went straight to their day-jobs with little or no sleep.

“This time around we’ll afford ourselves the luxury of nice 12-hour days,” Smith said. “And people can get paid.”

Source CNN.com.

Rachel Yamagata is leaving her home in the Windy City at the right time. The 20-something singer/songwriter has been quietly building critical attention for her two musical releases, the self-evident EP and this year’s Happenstance.
Yet, her appearances outside of Chicago so far have been in support of others, including Damien Rice, Liz Phair, and Gomez.

Yamagata made a splash during her L.A. showcase and signed with RCA in the spring of last year. Her songs are about heartbreak and the awkwardness of relationships (although she swears she’s a happy person in real life), and the ballads are sung with a breathy, sultry voice.

The piano player and sometimes guitarist sang backup and played tambourine five years for Chicago funk outfit Bumpus, but she never felt she had a proper amount of creative input. In the meantime, she attended theatre classes at Northwestern University and built a catalog of her own songs.

With a little luck and the usual hard work, Yamagata could grab some of the attention that’s been afforded other piano playing young women, but comparisons to Fiona Apple and Norah Jones are oversimplified because the three play piano.

Find out for yourself: Yamagata is criss-crossing the U.S. from September through November, from New York City to San Diego. After an intimate show at NYC’s Fez Under Time August 31st, Yamagata hits Philadelphia, Boston, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with other stops, before winding things October 21st. (She visits Chicago September 30th.)

Tom McRae supports most dates.

Source pollstar.com.

Back in June, Aimee Mann played a three-night stand in Brooklyn. On November 2nd, she’ll release the fruits of those performances in the form of the Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse CD and DVD.

“There was a big crane and people bustling around wearing headsets,” Mann says of the filming, “and suddenly I felt like, ‘Oh, this had better be good.’ It was a ninety-degree New York night and the venue didn’t have any air conditioning. There were definitely some long periods where my manager would come up and say, ‘Your face is shiny. We need to powder you.’ And I’d have the indignity of having powder applied to my face in front of people.”

The DVD features interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, as well as performances of two new songs, “Going Through the Motions” and “King of the Jailhouse.” The CD set is abbreviated but also spans Mann’s solo career.

“I try to pick songs that I think people might possibly know, like a couple songs from the Magnolia soundtrack, any song that was released as a single or I played on David Letterman,” Mann says. “It’s hard to put a greatest hits together when you don’t have any hits — you have to aim in a different direction. But there’s songs I know that people request or sometimes there’s songs I feel like playing. My catalog is heavily skewed with super-slow ballads, so there’s a lot of those that made the cut.”

Mann is winding up her summer tour. She finishes Sunday in San Juan Capistrano, California.

Aimee Mann tour dates:

8/27: Petaluma, CA, McNear’s Mystic Theater
8/28: Ventura, CA, Ventura Theater
8/29: San Juan Capistrano, CA, Coach House

Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse CD track listing:

The Moth
Sugar Coated
Driving Sideways
Amateur
Wise Up
Save Me
Stupid Things
Pavlov’s Bell
Long Shot
4th of July
Invisible Ink

Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse DVD track listing:

The Moth
Calling It Quits
Sugar Coated
Going Through the Motions
Humpty Dumpty
Amateur
Wise Up
Save Me
Stupid Thing
Pavlov’s Bell
Long Shot
4th of July
Red Vines
Invisible Ink
King of the Jailhouse
Deathly
Real Bad News

Source rollingstone.com.