2004

Andre 3000, one-half of the chart-topping hip-hop group OutKast, is developing a potential series project with Cartoon Network.

The musician is hashing out ideas for a half-hour special pegged for the cable channel’s “Adult Swim” block. If Andre 3000 and Cartoon — both based in Atlanta — are happy with the results, the channel will greenlight the special for series treatment.

Mike Lazzo, senior vp of Cartoon’s “Adult Swim” program block, quickly got over his reservations about collaborating with celebrities upon meeting with Andre 3000, who has worked as an illustrator. “I’m extremely wary of it, but in Andre’s case, I think he is a creative genius,” he said. “He has definite opinions of what he likes visually.”

While still in the early stages, the project is expected to be inspired by the rapper’s life or possibly his alter ego, Johnny Vulture, the guitar-playing wildman seen in OutKast’s video for the Grammy-winning hit single “Hey Ya!” The special will likely have a musical component similar in style to such off-kilter animated films as “Cool World” and “Yellow Submarine.” The rapper is expected to contribute music to the project.

Andre 3000 also is enjoying a burgeoning film career with a role in the “Get Shorty” sequel, “Be Cool.” He also is gearing up for a starring role in a Jimi Hendrix (news) biopic, to be directed by the Hughes brothers.

Source yahoo.com.

Umphrey’s McGee’s new album, Anchor Drops will be released June 29th nationwide. The album is being released on SCI Fidelity Records/Hanging Brains Music, and will be distributed coast to coast and beyond by Ryko Distribution. This will mark the sixth release by Umphrey’s McGee, but the first that will be available in record stores around the country.

In support, the band brings their live show on the road this summer. Current tour dates include:

Thu May 20 Bendix Theater South Bend IN
Thu May 27 Shank Hall Milwaukee WI
Fri May 28 Harmony Park Geneva MN
Thu Jun 3 Piere’s Fort Wayne, IN
Fri Jun 4 Newport Music Hall Columbus OH
Jun 6 Belmont-Sheffield Festival Chicago, IL
Fri Jun 11-13 Bonnaroo Music Festival Manchester TN
Thu Jul 22 Smilefest Harmony NC

See umphreysmcgee.com for more info.

Willie Nelson has canceled concerts for the next two months to have surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome. The 71-year-old star was apparently in so much pain he couldn’t finish a show Saturday in Las Vegas. Nelson had 10 concerts scheduled for the remainder of May and June, including a June 12 appearance at the three-day Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn.

It is unclear when Nelson will resume touring. Among the events on his upcoming schedule include a June 26 show in Chicago’s Grant Park and his annual Fourth of July Picnic in Ft. Worth, Texas. That show is also tipped to feature performances by Asleep At The Wheel, Los Lonely Boys, Merle Haggard and David Allan Coe, among others.

Source billboard.com.

Yo La Tengo sure know how to keep busy. Last year, the band released a full-length album and an EP, and toured from March through October. They recently got back from a U.K. outing with Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, and now they’re suiting up for another round of U.S. dates.

The new tour begins May 24 in Vancouver, B.C., and ends June 11 with a stop at the Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, Tenn. The band has set aside three nights in a row for San Francisco, where they consistently sell out multiple gigs.

Southern indie rock vets Antietam are set to support on the trek. Their new album, Victory Park, was just released on Carrot Top Records.

Source pollstar.com.

Time to get out the hairspray and black eyeliner again. Less than a week after headlining the Coachella festival in the Southern California desert, goth pioneers the Cure have unveiled plans for a full U.S. tour this summer.

The Curiosa Festival 2004 will feature the Cure headlining a bill that also includes three bands plainly influenced by Robert Smith and company: Interpol, the Rapture and Mogwai.
A second stage will also be part of the traveling road show, with Muse, Thursday, Cursive, Melissa Auf Der Maur, Cooper Temple Clause and Head Automatica rotating as performers.

The Cure formed in 1976, and only iconoclastic singer/songwriter Smith remains from the group’s initial lineup. Simon Gallup, who joined the group in 1979, is the only other longstanding member in the current lineup. The group plans to release a new eponymous album on June 29, the band’s first LP since 2000’s Bloodflowers. The first single from the album bears the cheery title “The End of the World.”

The tour kicks off July 24 in the unlikely tropical setting of West Palm Beach, Florida, and ends August 27 in Los Angeles. Venues have yet to be confirmed, and additional dates are still being added.
Dates for the Curiosa Festival 2004, according to a band spokesperson:

* 7/24 – West Palm Beach, FL
* 7/25 – Tampa, FL
* 7/28 – Nashville, TN
* 7/29 – Atlanta, GA
* 7/31 – New York, NY
* 8/1 – Camden, NJ
* 8/3 – Cincinnati, OH
* 8/4 – Cleveland, OH
* 8/7 – Boston, MA
* 8/11 – Detroit, MI
* 8/12 – Chicago, IL
* 8/14 – Dallas, TX
* 8/15 – Houston, TX
* 8/17 – Denver, CO
* 8/18 – Salt Lake City, UT
* 8/27 – Los Angeles, CA

Source VH1.com.

The brainchild of Widespread Panic bassist Dave Schools and Jerry Joseph of the Jackmormons, Stockholm Syndrome will launch a U.S. tour June 29, the same day its debut album, Holy Happy Hour, hits stores.

The group, which also includes guitarist Eric McFadden, keyboardist Danny Dziuk, and drummer Wally Ingram, will reportedly tour until October, although dates are only confirmed through early August.

The group is currently touring Europe, where Schools and Joseph made a preliminary run as an acoustic duo in 2003.

Full dates are available on Pollstar.com

The second Northeast Kingdom Music Festival will be held on Friday and Saturday, August 6th and 7th at the Chilly Ranch in Albany, VT. The festival will provide two days and nights of camping, community, culture, circus acts, poetry, performance, and politics. The lineup includes: Hieroglyphics, Israel Vibration, The Breakestra, Cyro Baptista & Beat the Donkey, Oteil Burbridge & The Peacemakers, Snake Oil Medicine Show and Nero. For a full list of performers and festival details, visit their website.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been wowing audiences for three decades, with a rigorous worldwide touring schedule and an average of at least an album a year.

This summer, the South African group is kicking off a mammoth tour of North America and Europe in support of its latest effort, Raise Your Spirit Higher: Wenyukela.

The trek is set to launch June 11 in Ketchum, Idaho, at Sun Valley Center. The ten-member vocal group will play a few weeks’ worth of U.S. gigs before heading to Europe in July. They’ll do stints in both North America and Europe throughout the fall and winter, including a five-show run in Hawaii in January.

The group is already booked solid for next spring, with North American dates stretching all the way through April. Joseph Shabalala founded Ladysmith Black Mambazo in 1974, combining Zulu vocal traditions with the hymnal music of the Christian church. The ensemble became well-known in South Africa almost immediately and achieved widespread fame in the mid-’80s after performing on Paul Simon’s album Graceland.

Source pollstar.com.