2004

Advance ticket sales have been announced for a Ben Fold’s peformance at London’s Hammersmith Apollo on May 31st, 2005. Fans can buy tickets on Ben’s website starting Wednesday, December 15th — at 10:00am london time (that’s 5:00am new york time).

So far 13 dates have been confirmed through June 17, 2005 including shows in Germany and Scotland.

Tour Dates

6/04/05 berlin, germany columbia halle
6/05/05 koln, germany live music hall
6/07/05 glasgow, scotland royal concert hall
6/08/05 dublin, ireland vicar street
6/10/05 southampton, england guild hall
6/11/05 manchester, england lowry
6/13/05 sheffield, england octagon
6/14/05 leicester, england de montford hall
6/16/05 cambridge, england corn exchange
6/17/05 warwick, england arts centre

Singer-songwriter Conor Oberst’s Bright Eyes will launch two separate winter tours for their two upcoming full-length releases, I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn (both due January 25th).

The first of the dates — beginning January 14th in Oberst’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska — will be in support of the largely acoustic I’m Wide Awake, which Oberst says is packed with tunes about “drinkin’, travelin’, love gained and love lost.” These include the tearjerker “Lua” and the gorgeous “Land Locked Blues” — one of three songs that feature Emmylou Harris. “We sent her the songs, and she said she liked ’em, and we were like, ‘No way!'” explains Oberst. “A few weeks later, we flew to Nashville and did it in one day. She’s super-rad.”

Dates for the second tour, also featuring Saddle Creek labelmates the Faint, is set for early May, with dates to be announced. These shows will focus on Digital Ash, which Oberst describes as the darker of the two records, dealing with “the fear of death and trying to move past that.” The album features string arrangements, heavy guitar from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner and electro synths on the single “Take It Easy (Love Nothing).”

Bright Eyes’ I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning tour dates:

With Tilly and the Wall:

1/14: Omaha, NE, Sokol Auditorium
1/15: Minneapolis, State Theatre
1/16: Milwaukee, Pabst Theatre
1/17: Chicago, Riviera Theatre
1/18: Ann Arbor, MI, Michigan Theatre
1/19: Columbus, OH, Wexner Center for the Arts
1/21: Toronto, Phoenix Theatre
1/22: Montreal, Spectrum de Montreal
1/23: Burlington, VT, Higher Ground
1/24: Cambridge, MA, Sanders Theatre (Harvard University)
1/25, 1/26: New York, NY, Town Hall
1/28: Philadelphia, Academy of Music
1/29: Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
1/30: Norfolk, VA, Norva Theatre
1/31: Raleigh, NC, Raleigh Memorial Auditorium
2/1: Atlanta, Variety Playhouse

With Neva Dinova:

2/3: Miami, Olympia Theatre at Gusman Center
2/4: Tampa, Tampa Theatre
2/5: Orlando, House of Blues
2/7: Fort Worth, TX, Ridglea Theatre
2/8: Austin, La Zona Rosa
2/10: Phoenix, Celebrity Theatre
2/11: San Diego, Spreckles Theatre
2/12, 2/13: Los Angeles, Orpheum Theatre

Source rollingstone.com.

Queen is reforming and is planning a European tour next year with former Bad Company and Free lead singer Paul Rodgers. “I won’t go into more details right now, but, barring accidents, Queen and Paul Rodgers will be on the road, pretty much for sure, around April 2005,” guitarist Brian May wrote on his official Web site.

“It really all came about because of the Fender 50th Anniversary gig that I did with Paul Rodgers,” he continued. “We were both so amazed at the chemistry that was going on in ‘All Right Now’ that suddenly it seems blindingly obvious that there was ‘something happening here.'” According to Queen’s official Web site, the shows will feature both Queen and Rodgers material.

May said the last two or three weeks have been spent discussing venues as well as material both Queen and Rodgers may approach in concert. “Suddenly the Queen Phoenix is rising from the again from the ashes, and will take precedence over everything in our lives,” he added.

Queen has not toured since the death of lead singer Freddie Mercury in November 1991. In the spring of 1992, the surviving members staged a star-studded tribute concert at London’s Wembley Stadium for the Mercury Phoenix Trust, an AIDS-related charity.

The group’s last studio album was 1991’s “Innuendo” but May, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon reunited to release 1995’s “Made in Heaven,” which featured vocals Mercury recorded prior to his death.

Queen returned to further notoriety with the recent musical “We Will Rock You,” which is playing at Las Vegas’ Paris Hotel.

Source billboard.com.

Merge will on March 22 reissue Dinosaur Jr.’s first three albums “Dinosaur,” “You’re Living All Over Me” and “Bug.” Previously released by the Homestead and SST labels, the sets have been remastered and include a smattering of bonus tracks and rare photos. Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Mike Watt and Guided By Voices’ Robert Pollard contributed to new liner notes.

The Massachusetts-based trio’s 1985 Homestead debut, “Dinosaur,” introduced the template of Neil Young-influenced guitar leads from J Mascis and a balancing act between noise and melody. The new edition is bolstered with a live version of album track “Does It Float.”

The group made a dramatic leap on 1987’s “You’re Living All Over Me,” featuring future college radio staples such as “In a Jar” and “Little Fury Things,” as well as “Poledo,” a track penned by bassist Lou Barlow that foreshadowed his future work in Sebadoh. The new edition features videos for “Little Fury Things” and “Just Like Heaven.”

Released a year later, “Bug” became the band’s best-selling album to date on the strength of such tracks as “Freak Scene” and “No Bones.” Videos for both are included on the reissue.

With Barlow having left to form Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr. signed to Sire in 1990 and released four albums for the label before splitting at the end of the decade. Mascis has subsequently released albums with his band the Fog for Artemis and Ultimatum.

In an unusual twist, Barlow is now also signed to Merge, which will in late January release his new solo album, “EMOH.” The set sports a cover of Ratt’s “Round and Round” plus guest spots by Sebadoh colleagues Jason Loewenstein and Russ Pollard.

Source billboard.com.

Irish rockers U2, R&B singers The O’Jays and soul balladeer Percy Sledge are among five musical legends to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during the foundation’s 20th annual induction ceremony next year, the organization announced Monday.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation will hold its induction ceremony March 14 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.

U2, which became one of the planet’s most popular bands in the 1980s with their megahit “The Joshua Tree,” is still making the charts: Their November release, “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” is the No. 2 album according to Billboard.

The O’Jays had eight No. 1 R&B hits during the 1970s and ’80s, including “Love Train” and “Use Ta Be My Girl.” Sledge will forever be associated with “When a Man Loves a Woman,” one of the songs that made him a figure in deep Southern Soul in the late 1960s.

The Pretenders and blues guitarist Buddy Guy will also join the organization’s Class of 2005.

The artists beat out an impressive list of nominees including Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, which would have been the first rap group to be inducted; “Centerfold” singers the J. Geils Band, and the late country singer Conway Twitty.

Also, Frank Barsalona and Seymour Stein will be inducted in the non-performer category.

Barsalona is credited with creating the first legitimate rock and roll booking agency. His roster included acts like Led Zepplin, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and The Who.

Stein, who is chairman and co-founder of Sire Records, is noted as one of the most successful executives in the recording industry. He is known for signing artists like Madonna, The Ramones and The Talking Heads.

Musicians, industry professionals and journalists vote on the nominations, which were announced in September. Artists are eligible to be inducted into the Rock Hall after at least 25 years have passed since their first record was released.

Source CNN.com.

Please read Glide’s recent article on the omission of Lynyrd Skynyrd in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The road-trip flick “Sideways” led Golden Globe contenders Monday with seven nominations, including best musical or comedy film, three acting nominations and best director, while Jamie Foxx (news) scored a record three nominations.

The Howard Hughes biography “The Aviator” landed six nominations including best dramatic feature and best director.

Other best drama nominees were the caustic sex tale “Closer”; “Finding Neverland,” the story of “Peter Pan” creator J.M. Barrie; “Hotel Rwanda,” a tale set against the genocide in that country; “Kinsey,” a film biography of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, and the boxing saga “Million Dollar Baby.”

Along with “Sideways,” best musical or comedy nominees were the whimsical romance “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”; the animated superhero adventure “The Incredibles”; “The Phantom of the Opera,” adapted from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, and the Ray Charles film biography “Ray.”

“Ray” star Foxx was nominated for best musical or comedy actor for that film, for supporting actor for “Collateral” as a taxi driver whose cab is hijacked by a hit man, and as best actor in a TV movie or miniseries for “Redemption.”

Other stars have received two nominations in a single year, but Foxx was the first to receive three.

Source yahoo.com.

While their five-times-platinum 2003 Arista set, “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” continues to yield hit singles, the members of acclaimed hip-hop duo OutKast have an ambitious slate of projects on tap for 2005. Andre 3000 and Big Boi have just finished filming their first movie, which will air on HBO, and are simultaneously working on two albums.

The pair has also signed a distribution deal with Virgin for its Purple Label imprint, which will house longtime collaborator Sleepy Brown and rapper Bubba Sparxxx (formerly of Interscope).

“We just finished the OutKast movie, which will be out next year,” Big Boi said on the red carpet at the Billboard Music Awards, where OutKast took home five trophies. “We don’t know what it will be called yet. The next album probably will be the soundtrack to the movie. But we’re also working on another album called ‘The Hard 10,’ which is top secret.”

Big Boi added that the new music features he and Andre 3000 working together, as opposed to “Speakerboxx/The Love Below,” which comprised one disc of material from each artist. As for the film, it is set in the Prohibition-era South and features Ving Rhames, Terrence Howard and Paula Jai Parker, in addition to Big Boi and Andre.

OutKast manager Kenneth “Blue” Williams told Billboard.com scheduling is still up in the air for the film and album projects. “If the movie comes out in the spring, the next album will be the soundtrack to that,” he said. “If we push the movie until fall, we may drop ‘The Hard 10’ in the spring, to hold fans over. But creatively, with Dre and Big, they may just say, ‘No, we’ll wait,’ and the next album will be the soundtrack to the movie.”

Asked to describe the sound of the new tunes thus far, Williams enthused, “You’re going to be surprised, because you’ll be like, ‘How did they do it again, musically?’ I can’t really describe it, but whenever I go into one of their new projects and hear the music, I find myself going, ‘Wow, it’s different, but it’s still a hit.'”

Source billboard.com.