2004

Singer/songwriter Elliott Smith’s final album, “From a Basement on the Hill,” will be released Oct. 19 via Epitaph’s Anti- imprint. Smith committed suicide last October; the material he had been working on was posthumously overseen by members of his family, as well as longtime collaborator Rob Schnapf and musician Joanna Bolme.

The 15-track album features drumming by the Flaming Lips’ Steven Drozd on opener “Coast to Coast,” while Quasi’s Sam Coomes plays bass and sings on “Pretty (Ugly Before),” which was issued in August 2003 as a single by Suicide Squeeze Records. The cut “A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity To Be Free” will appear first on MoveOn.org’s “Future Soundtrack for America” compilation, which hits stores Aug. 10.

Other song titles suggest Smith may have been contemplating suicide and revisiting his frequent themes of addiction, including “Strung Out Again,” “Shooting Star,” “Memory Lane” and “Last Hour.”

It is believed Smith had tracked more than 30 songs during work on the project, for which he’d reached an agreement with DreamWorks to release on an independent label of his choosing. But it’s unclear how many songs were complete, or if they will ever see the light of day. “He was always editing and working,” DreamWorks A&R executive Luke Wood told Billboard last year. “He always had a large cycle of songs that he was making better, and sometimes that cycle took years.”

Here is the track list for “From a Basement on the Hill”:

“Coast to Coast”
“Let’s Get Lost”
“Pretty (Ugly Before)”
“Don’t Go Down”
“Strung Out Again”
“Fond Farewell”
“King’s Crossing”
“Ostriches & Chirping”
“Twilight”
“A Passing Feeling”
“Last Hour”
“Shooting Star”
“Memory Lane”
“Little One”
“A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity To Be Free”

Source billboard.com.

Elvis Costello & the Imposters have been added to the Austin City Limits Music Festival lineup. Costello, a Grammy winner and Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame inductee, joins The Neville Brothers, Henry Butler, and Chris Robinson & The New Earth Mud as the latest artists to be confirmed for the September Festival.

These artists add to the more than 130 other performers confirmed for
the Festival including The Pixies, Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper & the
Innocent Criminals, Trey Anastasio, Jack Johnson, Big Head Todd & the
Monsters, Calexico, Franz Ferdinand, Dashboard Confessional, Wilco, Los Lonely Boys and many others.

More than 200,000 music lovers are expected to converge on Austin, TX,
Sept. 17-19, for the third annual Austin City Limits Music Festival, one of the nation’s most anticipated music events. Set in downtown Austin’s beautiful Zilker Park, the ACL Music Festival is a larger than life extension of the television program and returns bigger and better in 2004, with eight stages, more than 130 music performances, a vibrant artist village, the unique tastes of local food vendors and much more.

Pianist Brad Mehldau’s next album, “Live in Tokyo,” will arrive Aug. 31 via Nonesuch. The set features covers of Nick Drake’s “Things Behind the Sun” and “River Man,” Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android,” Thelonious Monk’s “Monk’s Dream” and the George Gershwin standards “Someone To Watch Over Me” and “How Long Has This Been Going On?”

Mehldau will end a short break from the road July 26 in La Roque, France, with a North American tour due to kick off Sept. 28 at New York’s Village Vanguard. The artist already has a handful of shows scheduled in 2005 with the John Scofield Trio.

Source billboard.com.

With noted jam band Leftover Salmon planning a hiatus, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Drew Emmitt is making plans to hit the road this fall on a solo tour. Joining him will be the band’s Greg Garrison on bass, as well as noted bluegrass banjo player Matt Flinner and guitarist Ross Martin.

Although not yet fully booked, the run looks set to kick off in late September and run through early December, and encompass an appearance at San Francisco’s Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park.

The group will head into the studio in January with an eye on releasing the debut Drew Emmitt Band album in April 2005 via Compass.

Leftover Salmon has a slate of shows scheduled through a Sept. 18 appearance in Bristol, Tenn., and a one-off Oct. 30 show in Denver.

Source billboard.com.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion has exited longtime home Matador Records and inked with Sanctuary. The first release under the new pact will be “Damage,” due Sept. 29. It features production work from several unlikely collaborators more known for their work in hip-hop and electronica, including DJ Shadow, Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and David Holmes.

Also contributing behind the boards were Steve Jordan, who produced JSBX’s 2002 album “Plastic Fang,” and Alan Moulder. The set was recorded in part at drummer Russell Simins’ New York Studio.

Among the guests lending a hand on “Damage” are Public Enemy frontman Chuck D, vocalist Martina Topley Bird and veteran New York post-punk artist James Chance.

The group has begun confirming fall North American tour dates, beginning Nov. 6 in Detroit. Beforehand, JSBX will appear Aug. 6 at Norway’s Notodden Blues Festival, which will also feature the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jeff Healey and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, among many others.

Source billboard.com.

Lou Reed looks set for a return to the U.K. singles chart with the July 19 release by NuLife/BMG of a pop remix of “Satellite of Love,” originally produced by David Bowie and included on Reed’s classic 1972 album “Transformer.” The new mix, by London team Dab Hands, has been personally approved by Reed.

“Satellite of Love 2004” was well-received at the Winter Music Conference in Miami earlier this year and has been gaining club popularity since then. Reed not only gave the green light for a full commercial release of the track — which was never a U.K. single in its original version — but is fully involved in promoting the single.

“I’ve been getting all these great mixes sent to me out of the U.K. for years and years,” he told Attitude magazine, “and I just started saying to the record company, ‘Look, I really, really love what they are doing.’ I think that my record company was a little taken aback but, genuinely, if I could make that type of music then I would. If I could master the equipment then I would love to. Maybe I will now that I’ve got my own studio set up.”

The track will be included, alongside the original, on a new single-disc version of the 2003 compilation “Lou Reed … NYC Man,” also due July 19. It includes his best-known material as a solo artist and with the Velvet Underground.

Source billboard.com.

Bjork’s upcoming album, “Medulla,” finds the artist singing over rhythms fashioned by such beatboxers as former Roots member Rahzel, Shlomo and Dokaka. As previously reported, the 14-track set is due Aug. 31 via Elektra. It was produced by Bjork, with assistance on four tracks by longtime collaborator Mark Bell.

Other guests include Fantomas/Mr. Bungle principal Mike Patton, singer/songwriter Robert Wyatt (on the duet “Submarine”), classical vocalist Gregory Purnhagen, Inuit throat singer Tagaq and the Icelandic and London Choirs. Programming was supplied by Matmos, Mum’s Valgeir Sigurdsson, Olivier Alary and Jake Davies.

A limited edition of “Medulla” will sport expanded artwork and a 16-panel poster. According to her spokesperson, Bjork is not expected to embark on a full tour in support of its release. It is unclear if select dates are a possibility.

Here is the track listing for “Medulla”:

“Pleasure Is All Mine”
“Show Me Forgiveness”
“Where Is the Line?”
“Vokuro”
“Oll Birtan”
“Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)”
“Submarine”
“Desired Constellation”
“Oceania”
“Sonnets/Unrealities XI”
“Piano II”
“Mouths Cradle”
“Wednesday (Midvikudags)”
“Triumph of a Heart”

Source billboard.com.

PBS stations across the United States will on Aug. 2 premiere a 90-minute special chronicling Phish’s August 2003 IT festival at Maine’s Loring Air Force Base. The film was directed by Mary Wharton, who won a Grammy for her Sam Cooke documentary “Legend,” and features sound engineering by multiple Grammy winner Elliot Scheiner. Select stations will broadcast the special in high-definition.

Phish’s official Web site hosts a list of stations planning to screen the film. IT drew 60,000 fans to watch the band play six sets over the course of the Aug. 2-3, 2003, event.

As previously reported, Phish is planning to split following its Aug. 14-15 Coventry festival in Coventry, Vt. Although the event is sold out, the band is auctioning a handful of tickets via Yahoo! Auctions, with proceeds above face value earmarked for its charitable Waterwheel Foundation. A contest is also underway via Phish.com to design the official Coventry t-shirt.

Meanwhile, the band has made the previously unreleased track “Tiny” available for download exclusively from Apple’s iTunes Music Store. The cut was recorded during sessions for Phish’s recent Elektra studio album, “Undermind.”

Source billboard.com.

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