Archive: 2004

Liz Phair will headline the Chicks With Attitude Tour, which will visit 18 North American cities from August to early September. Other artists set to appear include Cardigans lead singer Nina Persson, Katy Rose and Charlotte Martin. Maybelline has signed on to be the tour’s sponsor; a preview show will take place May 3 at the Hudson Theatre in New York.

A tour spokesperson would not reveal exact dates, but confirmed the trek will visit the following cities: Atlanta; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Houston; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; New York; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Providence, R.I.; San Antonio; San Diego; San Francisco; Toronto; and Washington, D.C.

Persson and the Cardigans will launch their first U.S. tour in five years on May 8 in Hoboken, N.J. The group’s latest album, “Long Gone Before Daylight,” will be released May 25 in North America via Koch.

Newcomers Rose and Martin will be touring in support of their debut albums. Rose’s “Because I Can” was issued Jan. 27 via V2, while Martin’s “On Your Shore” is due Aug. 10 via RCA.

Source billboard.com.

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Copyright 2004 Billboard

Pioneering Washington, D.C.-based rock act Fugazi has begun selling 20 complete concerts from its archive online, under the banner Fugazi Live Series. Priced at $8 for a single-disc show and $10 for a double-disc, the performances run the gamut from Fugazi’s first show on Sept. 3, 1987, in D.C., to a May 7, 1999, appearance in Kilkenny, Ireland.

“These are very much the original recordings without any attempt to correct for things like volume changes, strange mixing effects, or the occasionally out-of-tune guitar,” reads a statement on the Live Series Web site. “Though the sound quality on these tapes does vary, if a show was too poorly recorded it didn’t make the cut.” The discs will be burned on-demand and will come housed in a “generic cover with concert information and a track listing.”

Fans can sample MP3s and view set lists from each show on the Web site. Fugazi’s members have been kicking around the idea for several years, but the concept finally came to fruition in the past few months, while the group enjoys a hiatus from recording and touring.

In related news, Fugazi frontman Ian MacKaye’s new band, the Evens, will play May 1 at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. MacKaye has also launched the Northern Liberties label, to release “work that may seem obscure, but in MacKaye’s opinion speaks clearly to the point of music and expression,” according to its official Web site.

Source billboard.com.

In celebration of both their music and their legacy, MC5/DKT (Davis, Kramer, Thompson) will begin a worldwide tour in mid 2004 that includes a stop in their hometown of Detroit as well as Japan, Canada, Europe, America and Australia. As they did in London last year, they will be joined by a rotating cast of guest musicians, making each show a singular celebration of the work of the MC5.

The tour coincides with the release of the DVD Sonic Revolution: A Celebration of the MC5, which includes footage from the 2003 Concert, a 30 minute documentary narrated by Mojo editor, Andrew Male, that traces the band’s history from their working class beginnings in 1960’s Detroit, through their controversial, politically charged and short lived career, into the present, and even US Dept of Defense footage of the MC5, taken from the government’s investigation of the notorious rock group during 1968’s Democratic National Convention.

Toots Hibbert entered the collaboration game, but left the teenyboppers and exposed boobs off the lineup, opting for a more mature, authentic all-star cast to join him on True Love. The result is far from a Maytals reggae classic, but it

A signed sketch believed to be the last thing John Lennon wrote before being assassinated about half an hour later is on sale for $325,000, the former switchboard operator to whom he gave it said on Monday.

Rabiah Seminole said she was working at the Record Plant recording studios in Manhattan on Dec. 8, 1980 when Lennon left the building with Yoko Ono at about 10:25 p.m.

She asked him for an autograph and he dashed off a sketch of two faces, signing it “for Ribeah, love, John.” Ono also signed it.

The former Beatle was shot and killed by Mark Chapman when he arrived back at his apartment just before 11 p.m.

Seminole said she had decided to sell the sketch to raise money for a horse rescue center she runs in Chesapeake, Virginia.

The Blue Horse Mukwa Equine Retirement and Rescue Center is home to 27 horses who have suffered such injuries as broken legs, gunshot wounds and abuse. One horse had his eye poked out by a former owner, she said.

Damage from a hurricane last fall has put a strain on the rescue center’s finances, she said.

The sketch and autograph by Lennon is being sold online by dealer Gary Zimet on a site called www.momentsintime.com.

“Drawings like this are fairly common from him. He probably did thousands of these in his lifetime,” he said. “But what is special is it’s the last thing he ever wrote. That puts it in a league by itself.”

Last fall, a copy of Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to the song “Nowhere Man” fetched $455,000 in an auction at Christie’s.

Source yahoo.com.

The music industry’s trade group has ended a program that offered to prevent people from being sued by recording companies if the downloaders admitted to illegally sharing music online, according to court documents.

The Recording Industry Association of America launched the “Clean Slate” program in September, when it embarked on a strategy of suing individual computer users for copyright infringement.

The program required individuals to acknowledge in writing that they shared music files online and then remove the files from their computers. In exchange, the RIAA pledged not to target them in its lawsuit campaign.

While hundreds signed up, critics dismissed the program, saying the trade group could not possibly guarantee that anyone who admitted to file-sharing would not be the target of a lawsuit.

In its motion, the trade group explained that it no longer deems the program useful because it considers the public educated or aware enough now to know that they could be sued for file-sharing. The RIAA added that the number of people stepping forward to participate in the program has slowed “to a trickle.”

Source launch.com.

Radiohead concluded the first leg of their 2004 Tour with a 23,000 sell-out show at Tokyo’s Makuhari Messe Sunday night.

It was the second of two shows at the venue and the final gig of a Japanese jaunt that has also included two shows in Osaka. The tour is coinciding with the Japan only release of the B-Sides compilation Com Lag: 2+2=5, as well as closing the promotional campaign for last year`s Hail To The Thief album.

The setlist included the seldom played “Bullet Proof (I Wish I Was)” and a rare performance of the recently resurrected “Planet Telex” which has not been played live for over a year.

The full setlist was:

An original movie about the life of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is being developed by the WB Network, according to Billboard.com. The WB has bought the rights to Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography Of Kurt Cobain, written by journalist Charles Cross and published in 2001. A screenwriter has already been hired to pen a script for the film, although there’s no word on a director or star.

The film will reportedly follow Cobain’s life from his troubled youth in Washington state to his emergence as an alternative rock icon with Nirvana. Cobain’s struggles with depression and drug abuse will also be explored, along with his turbulent relationship with wife Courtney Love.

A WB executive said that the network may air a public service announcement about depression after the film.

April 5 was the tenth anniversary of Cobain’s suicide. He shot himself to death at his Seattle home, where his body was discovered three days later.

Source Launch.com.

The New England based Wormtown Trading Company has announced the initial line-up of the Strange Creek Campout set for May 29-30, 2004. Taking place at Camp Kee-Wanee in Greenfield, MA, the roster includes Max Creek, The Breakfast, Strangefolk, Jiggle, Uncle Billys Smokehouse, Depth Quartet, Oak Street, Rev Tor Band, Dr. Juice, Gordon Stone Band, Josh Teter & The Late Messengers, Luke Patchen, The Brew, Ed

Part Six of Six

Photos by Robert Massie of Sound Tribe Sector Nine’s live performance at the Odeon in Cleveland on April 9th, 2004.

Check out more pictures from Robert Massie at www.jampics.com.

Funk legend William “Bootsy” Collins is the latest addition to Thump Records’ new classic R&B division. On June 8, the label will release Play With Bootsy, his first studio album in six years. Guests on the project range from Snoop Dogg, Fatboy Slim and Macy Gray to Bobby Womack and George Clinton.

Play With Bootsy doubles as Thump’s inaugural classic R&B release. Under the direction of Jay King, the label will issue two CDs each month from a roster that includes Lakeside, Midnight Star and Michael Cooper.

Meanwhile, Collins has executive-produced a second album by fellow Cincinnati bassist Freekbass. The Air Is Fresher Underground (Gemini Records/Bootzilla Productions) features Collins, Catfish Collins, Buckethead and Bernie Worrell. Among the ear-worthy tracks are “Burnt Cat” and “Always Here.”

Source Billboard.com.

A guitar once owned by Kurt Cobain has been auctioned and has fetched a huge sum. The instrument was sold for $117,500 at the auction at the Heritage Galleries in Dallas, Texas, according to BBC.

The guitar is the only known example in existence of a right-handed 1960’s Mosrite Gospel Mark IV and was bought by Cobain in San Francisco in 1990 and modified by him for a left-handed player.

The customised guitar is the first of the Nirvana star’s instruments to go on public sale since his death ten years ago.

Other instruments at the auction include a piano owned by Elton John, Roger McGuinn from The Byrds’ custom-built guitar, a Woodstock ticket autographed by Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon’s 1975 Grammy Medal.

Source nme.com.

One of reggae’s original superstars will be touring the U.S. all summer long. Having just finished a stint downunder with fellow Jamaican legends Toots & The Maytals, Burning Spear will kick off more than three months of U.S. dates June 12 in Cleveland.

He’ll hit the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn., the next day, and proceed across the country, wrapping back around to New York City by September 19, when he’ll play the Central Park SummerStage concert.

Last summer, Burning Spear (real name Winston Rodney) released Freeman, a new album recorded at the famous Harry J’s studio in Jamaica. Rodney’s own Burning Music label is re-releasing a batch of classic albums from throughout his 35-year career this month.

Source pollstar.com.

ZZ Top will celebrate its 35th anniversary with a North American summer tour. The shows begin June 25 at Kay Yaeger Coliseum in Wichita Falls, Texas, and will include visits to arenas, amphitheaters, fairs, festivals and casinos.

The recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees have dates on the books through September, concluding with a Sept. 24-25 stand at the Las Vegas Hilton. Preceding the tour is a previously announced June 6 engagement at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas with Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, B.B. King and Buddy Guy, as part of the Crossroads Guitar Festival to benefit Crossroads Centre Antigua, the treatment and education center founded by Clapton in 1997.

ZZ Top, which boasts founding members Frank Beard, Billy F. Gibbons and Dusty Hill, claims to be the longest running “intact” road show in rock history. The summer tour is support of the band’s latest RCA release, “Mescalero.” A comprehensive boxed set, “Chrome, Smoke & BBQ,” was released last October.

Source and complete list of tour dates visit billboard.com.

Plans are underway for a Hip-Hop Hall of Fame Museum, which will open in November in New York. Organizers of the museum — including Hip-Hop Hall of Fame Awards founder/executive producer James “J.T.” Thompson and legendary artist Grandmaster Caz — last week announced plans for a Hip-Hop Hall of Fame mini-empire, which will include the museum, a televised awards show and a TV network called Hip-Hop 1. The museum will house memorabilia and historical records, as well as a TV studio, a retail store and a themed restaurant.

The Hip-Hop Hall of Fame ceremony was first televised on BET in 1996, but organizers say competition from the Source Hip-Hop Awards (which has been televised on UPN and BET) in part hindered plans to bring the award show back to TV. But with the planned opening of the museum in November, organizers are aiming to televise the next Hip-Hop Hall of Fame ceremony, which will take place in February 2005.

The Hip-Hop Hall of Fame also plans to stage other events, including the Urban Music Festival and Back 2 School Music & Fashion Fest. The 1999 Urban Music Festival, featuring Goodie Mob and the Ying Yang Twins, aired on NBC.

There will also be a Hip-Hop Hall of Fame reunion concert featuring host Grandmaster Caz and performances by several artists, including Rob Base, Melle Mel and Raheim. The concert will take place May 19 at private location in New York. Thompson says that the organization is in talks with the USA Network and Fox to televise the event, which may be released on home video/DVD.

Grandmaster Caz is also the president of the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame’s music and video operations. Hip-Hop 1, headed by chief programming officer Craig Cason, is expected to initially launch later this year on satellite TV for up to 10 hours a week and expand to 24-hour programming next year.

The Hip-Hop Hall of Fame organizers say that they will reveal the exact location of the museum at a later date, but they did confirm that it will be an existing building in midtown Manhattan. The museum plans to host workshops and seminars aimed at improving communities and hip-hop relations in the music industry.

Source billboard.com.

As expected, tickets for the first day of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival have sold out, as have two-day passes. Fans can now only purchase tickets for the second day of the May 1-2 event, which will feature Radiohead, the Pixies and the Cure, among others. The festival is expected to boast its biggest crowd to date, on the heels of its 2003 edition, which drew 60,000 people to the Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif.

In other news, the event’s on-site film festival has confirmed a sizable slate of offerings, including “Bodysong,” scored by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, and “Dig!,” a documentary about the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. For more information, visit CoachellaFilmFestival.com.

Source billboard.com.

Part Five of Six

Where The Beta Band

Tarantino