2004

No one is really more surprised about this success than me,” says Isaac Brock, lead singer of indie-rocker heroes Modest Mouse, who, after a decade of struggles, disappointments and near-breakups, finally have a hit record. The group’s fourth album, Good News for People Who Love Bad News, debuted at Number Nineteen on the Billboard Album Chart in April, is still hanging tough at Number Twenty-three this week and has sold more than 300,000 copies. Modest Mouse’s video, “Float On,” is an MTV buzz clip, and they were one of the first bands announced for this year’s Lollapalooza.

“We’ve been such a slow-grow band for so many years, none of this fazes us,” Brock says. Still, when told Good News is higher on the charts than Britney Spears, even he is impressed. “You’re kidding me,” he replies.

Good News is moody and eclectic guitar rock, but it’s also filled with enough hooks to make it fit in among other left-of-center bands — such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Von Bondies — on modern-rock radio. In fact, retailers say consumers are eager for new and different sounds. “It’s drawing a lot of Radiohead-type fans, people in search of something off the beaten path,” says Bob Zimmerman, a manager for Tower Records in Philadelphia. “We’ve had so much throwaway stuff on the charts recently — the time is finally right for something with substance.”

Formed in Issaquah, Washington, east of Seattle, in 1993, Modest Mouse released two studio albums of introspective indie-rock before signing to Epic Records in 1999. Their Epic debut, 2000’s TheMoon and Antarctica, charted for two weeks, then disappeared. Assuming the band would be dropped, Brock started work on a smaller-scale side project, Ugly Casanova.

Good News began with bad omens. The band’s longtime drummer quit halfway into the sessions, and Brock got a DUI-related charge, which earned him a ten-day jail stint. In the end, the band rushed to find a new drummer and finish the album in a month. “We didn’t have time to think,” Brock says. “It ended up being a very instinctual record.”

The new album got a bigger push from its label after Columbia Records president Don Ienner began overseeing Epic last year. (Both labels are owned by Sony.) “He has a good perspective on career bands vs. one-hit wonders,” says Brock.

The label gave the group a video budget and spent more onmarketing Good News. “America always loves an underdog,” says Steve Barnett, Epic executive vice president and general manager. “And this is an indie band that finally came good.”

As for Brock, he’s recently had the words “life is still sweet” tattooed on his wrist. “Every once in a while this sort of thing happens in music,” he says. “Whoever tries to figure it out fails, because even the people in the bands can’t figure it out. Just do what you want, since that’s the only thing that works.”

source rollingstone.com .

Drummer Elvin Jones, whose distinctive style helped define the sound of John Coltrane’s classic quartet, died of heart failure in an Englewood, New Jersey, hospital; he was seventy-six.

Jones was a larger-than-life figure, known among friends and fans for bearish hugs and radiant grins, the latter often flashed as he splashed his signature, cymbal-centric rhythmic patterns on his drum kit with a superhuman energy and thunderous effect. Jones’ tenure with Coltrane was just five years, but the albums they recorded with pianist McCoy Tyner and bassist Jimmy Garrison were part of the vanguard of Sixties jazz and continue to be a standard by which recordings in the genre are measured, peaking with 1964’s A Love Supreme, one of the finest jazz albums ever recorded.

But the measure of Jones’ career extends well beyond those five years. Elvin Ray Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1927; two of his siblings were also jazz players. By the early Forties, he was playing around Detroit, before a stint in the military. By the Fifties, Jones was scoring regular work, recording with Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Kenny Burrell, Stan Getz and numerous others, before joining Coltrane’s groundbreaking troupe. Even while working with Coltrane, Jones’ drums could be heard on landmark Sixties recordings by Grant Green and Joe Henderson. The partnership between Coltrane and Jones began to sour by the mix-Sixties when the saxophonist added drummer Rashied Ali to the lineup and began making moves towards a more experimental style of free jazz.

Since the early Sixties, Jones also maintained a busy schedule as a bandleader, recording dozens of albums under his own name or with his Jazz Machine. With that ensemble he’s also been something of a talent scout, bringing things full circle with 1991’s Live in Europe that featured a young Ravi Coltrane on saxophone.

Jones remained an active player and recording artist almost to the point of his death. A frail and gaunt Jones showed up for a gig in San Francisco last month after having spent weeks in the hospital. The weakened drummer needed help from his wife to get behind his kit, but according to a post by one fan, “his time and sound was impeccable.”

Source rollingstone.com.

The Surfers

As previously reported, HeadCount, a voter registration group affiliated with most of the top improvisational music acts, will be holding a benefit concert at BB King Blues Club on June 7, 2004 to raise money for its nationwide voter registration campaign.

Today they proudly announce that Mike Gordon, Joe Russo and Marco Benevento will be performing at the event, as will Michael Kang of String Cheese Incident. Already announced on the bill are moe. and a separate performance by The HeadCount All-Stars, featuring Al Schnier and Vinnie Amico of moe., and Marc Brownstein and Aron Magner of the Disco Biscuits.

“We are very honored to have this sort of talent supporting HeadCount and performing at this event,” said Bernstein, HeadCount’s Co-Chair. “There’s almost universal agreement that the November election is among the most important in history, and the musicians are truly getting behind our efforts to register their fans.”

All proceeds from the event will go to HeadCount. The organization’s web site, HeadCount.org, is also accepting volunteer applications and donations. It also houses a proprietary on-line voter registration system.

PHISH will end their 2004 Summer Tour with a two-day festival, COVENTRY. The event will take place August 14th and 15th on the grounds of the Newport State Airport and adjacent fields in the rural town of Coventry, Vermont. COVENTRY is the band’s first-ever home state festival, and first public outdoor Vermont appearance since 1995.

Located amidst the rolling hills and lush green valleys of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, COVENTRY will be Phish’s seventh “city-size” festival, with an expected turnout that will qualify it as Vermont’s most populated city for the weekend of August 14th and 15th. As with all prior Phish festivals, COVENTRY will see the band performing three live sets each day, with on-site camping as well as numerous attractions and art installations created by teams of talented artists and performers.

Tickets for COVENTRY will go on sale on Thursday, May 20th, at 10AM for $149.50 (plus applicable service fees) via the Phish Tickets website, located at http://phishtickets.rlc.net . Starting Friday, May 21st at 9AM, tickets will also be available via Ticketmaster by phone or online at http://ticketmaster.com . Tickets may also be charged by phone at the following Northeast Ticketmaster numbers: 802-862-5300; 603-868-7300; 207-775-3331; 617-931-2000; 413-733-2500; 212-307-7171; 518-476-1000; 401-331-2211; 757-671-8100

Source phish.com.

Nearly four decades after it was initially slated for release on Capitol, Brian Wilson’s “lost” Beach Boys masterpiece “SMiLE” will finally be heard by the record-buying public. A newly recorded version of the album is to be released Sept. 28 worldwide by Nonesuch Records.

The new “SMiLE” was produced by Wilson and features the pop icon’s 10-member touring band along with the Stockholm Strings and Horns ensemble. Wilson first revisited the project in November 2003 along with lyricist Van Dyke Parks and keyboardist Darian Sahanaja, reviewing the original 37-year-old tapes with the intent to prepare a version of the album for live performance.

The material was debuted Feb. 20 live at London’s Royal Festival Hall and played to audiences on a brief European tour. Following the album’s release, Wilson plans to take the performance on the road in the United States this fall.

The reworked “SMiLE” features recreations of songs and musical motifs first recorded in 1966-1967, as Wilson attempted to produce a highly ambitious follow-up to the Beach Boys’ orchestral pop classic “Pet Sounds.” The project was famously abandoned in 1967 after it already appeared on a Capitol release schedule. Instead, the group released the patchwork album “Smiley Smile” later that year.

Parks, who collaborated with Wilson on the original “SMiLE” sessions, also co-wrote new material with Wilson to complete the album for performance and release.

As previously reported, Wilson will release a new solo studio album, “Gettin’ in Over My Head,” June 22 via Rhino.

Source billboard.com.

British heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath will reunite for the first time since 2001 during the Ozzfest tour, which begins July 10 in Hartford, Conn., according to a tour spokesperson.

Ozzfest co-founder and headliner Ozzy Osbourne will revisit such hard rocking classics as “War Pigs” and “Paranoid” along with guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler. But original drummer Bill Ward will be replaced by Mike Bordin, who backs Osbourne on his solo gigs.

Along with three-quarters of the original Black Sabbath, Ozzfest will also feature four-fifths of the original Judas Priest (including singer Rob Halford), and such acts as Slayer, Dimmu Borgir, Superjoint Ritual (featuring former Pantera singer Phil Anselmo) and Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society.

Black Sabbath, with Ward on board, last played live during the 2001 version of Ozzfest, but plans to play its own shows afterwards were canceled because Osbourne had to finish work on a solo album. The group’s legacy was recently celebrated with the eight-disc Warner Bros./Rhino boxed set “Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970-1978.”

Source billboard.com.

On June 29, 2004 beloved one-man-band Keller Williams releases an album that highlights his awe-inspiring live performance. Stage (SCI Fidelity) is a sonic snapshot of the singer/multi-instrumentalist settling into the groove with digital looping devices that make his solo performances sound as if he’s backed by a full-band. Williams’ is fully enveloped in the rising art of digital looping on the album’s two discs, which were recorded during spring and fall of 2003. The first disc is culled from a performance in the spring on the West Coast, while the second was captured several months later in the Northeast. Listen closely and you’ll hear Williams’ art evolving from disc to disc. More obvious is the difference in mood. Says Williams, “Ninety-nine percent of the first CD was recorded at the Cal Poly Theater in San Luis Obispo; and that was an all-seated venue, listening intently and it’s quiet, whereas the show in the Northeast was seatless. There was much more of a dance energy vibe there.”

For summer 2004, Williams will open select dates with the Dave Matthews Band, will tour with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and Yonder Mountain String Band as part of the Acoustic Planet Tour, and will hop around to some of the countries best festivals.

For more info see Kellerwilliams.net.