2004

“Ch-Check It Out,” the first single from the Beastie Boys’ upcoming album “To the 5 Boroughs,” will be available for digital download April 28 via Apple’s iTunes Music Store, the same date it is delivered to U.S. radio outlets for airplay consideration. A video for the track was recently shot by group member Adam Yauch’s alter-ego Nathaniel Hornblower, best known for directing previous Beasties clips “So What’cha Want” and “Intergalactic.”

As previously reported, “To the 5 Boroughs” will be released this summer by Capitol. It’s the rap trio’s first new album since 1998’s “Hello Nasty.” A world tour is expected later this year.

Source billboard.com.

New York rock act Interpol is hard at work on its sophomore Matador album. The as-yet-untitled set is being targeted for a September release and re-teams Interpol with producer Peter Katis, who was behind the boards for the group’s 2002 debut, “Turn on the Bright Lights.” Confirmed tracks recorded so far include “NARC” and “Length of Love.”

Interpol will tour in support of the new album but has no plans to play live “for the next several months,” according to its official Web site. For now, fans can enjoy an unsolicited remix of the last album’s “Untitled,” dubbed “Swimwear Remix,” available on the site.

In addition, the instrumental “Interlude,” which was only released on the Japanese edition of “Turn on the Bright Lights,” can be downloaded via Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Guitarist Daniel Kessler has also contributed a “celebrity playlist” to the store.

Source billboard.com.

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Copyright 2004 Billboard

Phish will perform thirteen concerts this summer in two short legs – eight shows in June and another five in August. The June concerts kick off with a special two night run at Coney Island’s Keyspan Park in Brooklyn, NY, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball club, and also include a long overdue return to SPAC in Saratoga, NY as well as two-nighters at old favorites Deer Creek and Alpine Valley. In August, the band returns to Great Woods for two shows and to the Tweeter Center in Camden NJ for one night.

From there, the band is hard at work seeking necessary approvals to stage a festival in northern Vermont the weekend of August 14 & 15.

June 17 KeySpan Park, Brooklyn, NY
June 18 KeySpan park, Brooklyn, NY
June 19 Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
June 20 Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
June 23 Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, IN (Deer Creek)
June 24 Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, IN (Deer Creek)
June 25 Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI
June 26 Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI
August 10 Tweeter Center, Mansfield, MA (Great Woods)
August 11 Tweeter Center, Mansfield, MA (Great Woods)
August 12 Tweeter Center, Camden, NJ

Online file-sharing and other digital piracy persist, but a gradual turnaround in U.S. music sales that began last fall picked up in the first quarter of this year, resulting in the industry’s best domestic sales in years.

Overall U.S. music sales — CDs, legal downloads, DVDs — rose 9.1 percent in the first three months of the year over the same period in 2003, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Album sales were up 9.2 percent. Sales of CDs, which represent 96 percent of album sales, rose 10.6 percent. For the first time since 2000, two recording artists — Norah Jones and Usher — managed to sell more than 1 million copies of their albums in a single week.

U.S. album sales declined annually in the three years following 2000, the biggest year since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking U.S. music sales.

In 2001, sales were down 3 percent. The next year, sales dropped 11 percent. Last year, until September, sales were down 8.5 percent, but the pickup in sales at the end of the year narrowed the total decline for 2003 to less than 4 percent.

The burgeoning online music market accounted for the sale of more than 25 million tracks between January and March, eclipsing the 19.2 million tracks purchased in the last six months of 2003, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Source canoe.ca.

There will be an MSN chat with Bob Weir on April 15th, at 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT

As a member of the Grateful Dead and RatDog, Bob Weir knows good music. Meet this legend and ask him how music has changed in the last 30 years. Hear about stories from the road and his newest project Weir Here: The Best of Bob Weir.

Click here for more info on the MSN Chat.

Click here for a chance to win a copy of Weir Here from Glide!

In an evening billed as a “Vermont Easter Jam” a special surprise live concert treat awaited music fans at Winooski, Vermont

While Maynard James Keenan is on the road with A Perfect Circle, his Tool bandmates are hard at work on their next project.

As expected, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Gomez have joined the lineup for this year’s Lollapalooza festival. The tour will kick off July 14 at White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, Wash., with a two-day bill that also includes Morrissey, Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, the Polyphonic Spree and String Cheese Incident.

Morrissey will close the first night’s show, while String Cheese Incident will wrap things up on day two. A host of additional acts, as well as the full tour routing, have yet to be announced.

Source billboard.com.