or three nights, STS9 brought the heat to the state of Colorado and showed the music world just why they are a band to look out for in 2005. With Artifact now released and the band in the midst of a massive national tour to support, watch out for a band poised to make a big splash and change the music world as we know it.
Santana has announced plans for a summer North American tour, which will begin May 30 in Tampa, Fla., according to his official Web site. The tour will hit arenas and amphitheatres before closing with festival performances at Taste of Chicago and Milwaukee’s Summerfest.
As previously reported, the dates will be preceded by a tour of Latin America that begins April 1 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Santana is expected to release a new studio album this spring via Arista.
Tomorrow (Feb. 11), the artist will join Black Eyed Peas, James Brown, Earth Wind & Fire, Justin Timberlake, Macy Gray and Herbie Hancock for the Tsumani Benefit Peapod Jam, to be held at the Avalon in Los Angeles.
Here are Santana’s North American dates:
May 30: Tampa, Fla. (Ford Amphitheatre)
June 1: Miami (American Airlines Arena)
June 7: Columbia, Md. (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
June 8: Philadelphia (Penn’s Landing)
June 11-12: Atlantic City (Borgata Casino)
June 14: Holmdel, N.J. (PNC Bank Arts Center)
June 15: New York (Madison Square Garden)
June 17: Mansfield, Mass. (Tweeter Center)
June 18: Wallingford, Conn. (Oakdale Theatre)
June 21: Montreal (Bell Centre)
June 22: Quebec City, Quebec (Colisee Pepsi Arena)
June 24: Toronto (Molson Amphitheatre)
June 25: Clarkston, Mich. (DTE Energy Music Theater)
June 26: Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio (Blossom Music Center)
June 29: Minneapolis (Xcel Center)
July 2: Chicago (Taste of Chicago)
July 3: Milwaukee (Summerfest)
Source billboard.com.
Australian indie troubadour Ben Lee is set to release his fifthalbum, Awake Is the New Sleep, on February 22nd. Lee, who was famously signed by the Beastie Boys to their now-defunct Grand Royal label as a teenager, stayed true to his roots for the effort, self-financing the fourteen-tracker before inking a deal with Los Angeles imprint New West.
“I don’t need to make records for huge budgets at this point,” Lee says. “I knew I was going to make a pretty special record this time — it was just something I couldn’t put my finger on. I wanted to leave my options open, and New West — these are real music people. For me, it’s exactly the kind of place I need to be at right now.”
Lee wrote the songs for Awake Is the New Sleep while on tour in the U.S. between October 2003 and March 2004 in towns like San Francisco, Austin and New York. But it was at his sometime-home in Los Angeles (the singer spends time throughout the year in New York, India and Australia) that Lee laid down the tracks with former Smashing Pumpkins producer Brad Wood and a collection of local musician friends.
“It was a hugely social time, making this record,” he says of hanging out with pals like Har Mar Superstar, who turn up throughout the record on backing vocals. “There always seemed to be parties, and so we’d go out every night drinking and dancing. It was a really fun time, with all those people around you. That’s L.A.”
Former Phantom Planet drummer (and actor) Jason Schwartzman plays on “Light” and “Close I’ve Come.” And while supporting Schwartzman’s old band in California, Lee came up with one of the album’s standout tracks, “Catch My Disease.” Featuring Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis and singer-songwriter Jason Falkner in the chorus, the jangly number follows a classic Fab Four formula.
“I was watching The Beatles Anthology, and Paul McCartney talked about how the best pop songs are songs that are sung from the artist to the female teenage audience — like ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand,'” explains Lee. “‘Catch My Disease’ follows that model, too. The message [in my] music is a bit complex. But pop music’s so great, because as long as you put it to a catchy melody everyone’s happy.”
Lee says he’s refreshed and ready to take his new bag of songs on the road this spring, having just wrapped up a month-long visit to India, where he studied with a spiritual guide.
“The last few years, I feel like my music and my spirituality have become one and the same thing,” he says. “And I feel like, more and more, I’ve been drawn to music as a form of sharing hope and inspiring. Teachers have helped me clarify that my job as a musician — whatever gift I was given — is here to help people feel some joy. So that’s what I’ve been working on.”
Source rollingstone.com.
Janis Joplin’s estate has thrown its support behind a three-pronged celebration of the late singer’s life. The key component will be “Search for the Pearl,” a TV talent search to uncover the next Joplin that will begin production later this year and air on a channel to be announced. Eventually, five finalists will be chosen to audition before a panel of judges in San Francisco.
The winner will then embark on a world tour with Joplin’s former backing bands: Big Brother & the Holding Company, the Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie Band. A star-studded tribute concert featuring the winner is also in the works for 2006.
The news comes days before Joplin will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement award this weekend at the Grammys. Melissa Etheridge and Joss Stone will participate in a musical tribute to Joplin during the ceremony, which airs Sunday (Feb. 13) on CBS.
Joplin’s life will be the subject of the biopic “The Gospel According to Janis,” which will star pop vocalist Pink. The film will be directed by Penelope Spheeris (“The Decline of Western Civilization,” “Wayne’s World”) and is slated for release by the end of the year.
Renee Zellweger is also attached to a Joplin film titled “Piece of My Heart,” but the status of the project is unknown.
Source billboard.com.
Playwright Arthur Miller, the creator of The Crucible and Death of a Salesman, has died at the age of 89. Miller died on Thursday evening, having battled with cancer, pneumonia and a heart condition.
He was one of the most significant American writers of the 20th Century, whose fame was further magnified by his short-lived marriage to Marilyn Monroe.
His play The Crucible was inspired by the hysteria of the McCarthy witch hunts which he became embroiled in.
New York-born Miller was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Death of a Salesman in 1949 at the age of just 33.
The main character in Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, became a symbol of the struggle of the “little man” to realize the American Dream.
The play is still widely performed today, while the TV movie version picked up numerous awards for its star Dustin Hoffman.
Source: bbc
Steely Dan’s February 2003 visit to Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” show on National Public Radio will be released March 15 on CD via Concord Records. The 16-track set finds group principals Walter Becker and Donald Fagen discussing their jazz influences and pre-Steely Dan formative experiences.
Joined by legendary pianist McPartland and backed by its rhythm section of bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Keith Carlock, Steely Dan also performs such favorites as “Josie,” “Black Friday” and “Chain Lightning.”
In addition, the quintet runs through the Duke Ellington-popularized “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be,” “Mood Indigo” and “Limbo Jazz,” W.C. Handy’s “Hesitation Blues” and Gene DePaul and Don Raye’s “Star Eyes.”
Steely Dan has kept a low profile since the tour in support of its 2003 Reprise album, “Everything Must Go,” which debuted at No. 9 on The Billboard 200. A spokersperson did not respond to requests for comment on the group’s upcoming plans.
As for McPartland, her 85th birthday celebration at New York’s Birdland club in 2003 is being prepped for CD release in April by Concord. The collection features appearances by Regina Carter, Ravi Coltrane and Jason Moran, among others.
Source billboard.com.
