2004

Although it’s an election year, politically active singer Natalie Merchant is making time to focus on the music. The singer is doing a series of U.S. dates on both coasts this summer, beginning July 31 in Northampton, Mass., and continuing through late August.

It’s her first road trip since 2002, when she shared headlining duties with Chris Isaak on a cross-country trek. The singer, who keeps a busy schedule of social activism and volunteering, promises that this will be her only tour of 2004.

She’ll be accompanied by the same band that played on her most recent release, The House Carpenter’s Daughter. The album features Merchant’s interpretations of seven traditional folk songs and four covers by the likes of the Carter Family and Fairport Convention.

Source pollstar.com.

Liz Phair will headline the Chicks With Attitude Tour, which will visit 18 North American cities from August to early September. Other artists set to appear include Cardigans lead singer Nina Persson, Katy Rose and Charlotte Martin. Maybelline has signed on to be the tour’s sponsor; a preview show will take place May 3 at the Hudson Theatre in New York.

A tour spokesperson would not reveal exact dates, but confirmed the trek will visit the following cities: Atlanta; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Houston; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; New York; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Providence, R.I.; San Antonio; San Diego; San Francisco; Toronto; and Washington, D.C.

Persson and the Cardigans will launch their first U.S. tour in five years on May 8 in Hoboken, N.J. The group’s latest album, “Long Gone Before Daylight,” will be released May 25 in North America via Koch.

Newcomers Rose and Martin will be touring in support of their debut albums. Rose’s “Because I Can” was issued Jan. 27 via V2, while Martin’s “On Your Shore” is due Aug. 10 via RCA.

Source billboard.com.

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Copyright 2004 Billboard

In celebration of both their music and their legacy, MC5/DKT (Davis, Kramer, Thompson) will begin a worldwide tour in mid 2004 that includes a stop in their hometown of Detroit as well as Japan, Canada, Europe, America and Australia. As they did in London last year, they will be joined by a rotating cast of guest musicians, making each show a singular celebration of the work of the MC5.

The tour coincides with the release of the DVD Sonic Revolution: A Celebration of the MC5, which includes footage from the 2003 Concert, a 30 minute documentary narrated by Mojo editor, Andrew Male, that traces the band’s history from their working class beginnings in 1960’s Detroit, through their controversial, politically charged and short lived career, into the present, and even US Dept of Defense footage of the MC5, taken from the government’s investigation of the notorious rock group during 1968’s Democratic National Convention.

A signed sketch believed to be the last thing John Lennon wrote before being assassinated about half an hour later is on sale for $325,000, the former switchboard operator to whom he gave it said on Monday.

Rabiah Seminole said she was working at the Record Plant recording studios in Manhattan on Dec. 8, 1980 when Lennon left the building with Yoko Ono at about 10:25 p.m.

She asked him for an autograph and he dashed off a sketch of two faces, signing it “for Ribeah, love, John.” Ono also signed it.

The former Beatle was shot and killed by Mark Chapman when he arrived back at his apartment just before 11 p.m.

Seminole said she had decided to sell the sketch to raise money for a horse rescue center she runs in Chesapeake, Virginia.

The Blue Horse Mukwa Equine Retirement and Rescue Center is home to 27 horses who have suffered such injuries as broken legs, gunshot wounds and abuse. One horse had his eye poked out by a former owner, she said.

Damage from a hurricane last fall has put a strain on the rescue center’s finances, she said.

The sketch and autograph by Lennon is being sold online by dealer Gary Zimet on a site called www.momentsintime.com.

“Drawings like this are fairly common from him. He probably did thousands of these in his lifetime,” he said. “But what is special is it’s the last thing he ever wrote. That puts it in a league by itself.”

Last fall, a copy of Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to the song “Nowhere Man” fetched $455,000 in an auction at Christie’s.

Source yahoo.com.

Radiohead concluded the first leg of their 2004 Tour with a 23,000 sell-out show at Tokyo’s Makuhari Messe Sunday night.

It was the second of two shows at the venue and the final gig of a Japanese jaunt that has also included two shows in Osaka. The tour is coinciding with the Japan only release of the B-Sides compilation Com Lag: 2+2=5, as well as closing the promotional campaign for last year`s Hail To The Thief album.

The setlist included the seldom played “Bullet Proof (I Wish I Was)” and a rare performance of the recently resurrected “Planet Telex” which has not been played live for over a year.

The full setlist was:

The music industry’s trade group has ended a program that offered to prevent people from being sued by recording companies if the downloaders admitted to illegally sharing music online, according to court documents.

The Recording Industry Association of America launched the “Clean Slate” program in September, when it embarked on a strategy of suing individual computer users for copyright infringement.

The program required individuals to acknowledge in writing that they shared music files online and then remove the files from their computers. In exchange, the RIAA pledged not to target them in its lawsuit campaign.

While hundreds signed up, critics dismissed the program, saying the trade group could not possibly guarantee that anyone who admitted to file-sharing would not be the target of a lawsuit.

In its motion, the trade group explained that it no longer deems the program useful because it considers the public educated or aware enough now to know that they could be sued for file-sharing. The RIAA added that the number of people stepping forward to participate in the program has slowed “to a trickle.”

Source launch.com.

An original movie about the life of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is being developed by the WB Network, according to Billboard.com. The WB has bought the rights to Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography Of Kurt Cobain, written by journalist Charles Cross and published in 2001. A screenwriter has already been hired to pen a script for the film, although there’s no word on a director or star.

The film will reportedly follow Cobain’s life from his troubled youth in Washington state to his emergence as an alternative rock icon with Nirvana. Cobain’s struggles with depression and drug abuse will also be explored, along with his turbulent relationship with wife Courtney Love.

A WB executive said that the network may air a public service announcement about depression after the film.

April 5 was the tenth anniversary of Cobain’s suicide. He shot himself to death at his Seattle home, where his body was discovered three days later.

Source Launch.com.

The New England based Wormtown Trading Company has announced the initial line-up of the Strange Creek Campout set for May 29-30, 2004. Taking place at Camp Kee-Wanee in Greenfield, MA, the roster includes Max Creek, The Breakfast, Strangefolk, Jiggle, Uncle Billys Smokehouse, Depth Quartet, Oak Street, Rev Tor Band, Dr. Juice, Gordon Stone Band, Josh Teter & The Late Messengers, Luke Patchen, The Brew, Ed