Honky-tonk bars and love-sick cowboys aren’t exactly common on Long Island. And they certainly don’t make it into the New York punk scene. But somehow Earl Pickens managed to transition his Anti-Folk, East Village holler to more subdued, Lone Star drawl and do just that.
Matt Hales is Aqualung, or at least the most vital part of the English based band. Drawing vocal comparisons to Thom Yorke and musical hints to Coldplay and Keane, it’s been the “year of America” for Matt and his four-piece band, as they’ve traveled the U.S. for the better part of 2005.
Widespread Panic performed two separate sets yesterday (July 24) to close out the second night of Lollapalooza in Chicago, the first time the 1990s touring festival has been held as a single-city event. Sunday’s attendance equaled that of Saturday’s with 33,000 people, according to a festival spokesperson.
Perry Farrell noted that Widespread Panic was the first act he thought of for Lollapalooza 2005. In turn, the group was rewarded with 150 minutes of set time, nearly double what any other act enjoyed.
Lollapalooza on Sunday sometimes felt closer to a jam band event than the multi-genre, eclectic sort of festival it was known as throughout much of the ’90s. Saturday also saw performances from Blue Merle, G. Love and Special Sauce, Sound Tribe Sector 9 and Farrell’s new rock/funk/electronic collective Satellite Party, which featured Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal and percussionist Gabriele Corcos.
Full Article: Billboard.com
A successful 32-date European tour now complete, Queen + Paul Rodgers have scheduled two fall U.S. shows, one on each coast. In the east, the tour will on Oct. 16 visit East Rutherford, N.J.’s Continental Airlines Arena, while an Oct. 22 stop is scheduled California’s famed Hollywood Bowl. Queen has not played the U.S. since 1982.
An additional date in each venue is also possible, according to a source, but no additional U.S. dates are being considered in 2005. As previously reported, a larger slate of 2006 shows is under consideration.
Tickets go on sale Saturday (July 30) for the New Jersey date (priced $37-127) and Sunday for the Hollywood show (prices unavailable at deadline). Tickets can be purchased via Ticketmaster, Queenpluspaulrodgers.com, Queenonline.com and Paulrodgers.com. The artist-related Web sites will also have information about pre-sale opportunities and VIP ticket packages.
Ramping up to the Stateside dates, the group will play Oct. 8 at the Aruba Music Festival. After the U.S., it heads on for four Japanese dates (Oct. 26-27 in Tokyo, Nov. 1 in Nagoya and Nov. 3 in Fukuoka).
Rodgers, a veteran of rock acts Bad Company, Free and the Firm, stands in for Queen’s charismatic frontman, Freddie Mercury, who died of complications from AIDS in 1991. He joins original Queen members Brian May (guitar/vocals) and Roger Taylor (drums), with former Blue Oyster Cult bassist Danny Miranda filling the role of John Deacon, who has retired from touring. The touring group is rounded out by guitarist Jamie Moses and keyboardist Spike Edney.
Recent shows have found the group airing out such Queen favorites as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” “Fat Bottomed Girls,” “We Are the Champions” and “We Will Rock You” as well as Rodgers-associated songs like Free’s “All Right Now” and “Wishing Well” and Bad Company’s “Can’t Get Enough” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love.”
More than 45 songs from the European tour can be purchased at Queenpluspaulrodgers.com. In the U.K., the songs are also available as mobile phone downloads.
Source billboard.com.
Electric Six isn’t known for its seriousness as a band. In fact, the sextet admits it changed its name from the Wildbunch because the group “wanted a shot at the big time.”
Even the band members aren’t sure if they’ve hit the big time yet, but one thing for certain is that the group will hit the road this fall, beginning September 22 at Lee’s Palace in Toronto. E6 is scheduled to spend two more days in Canada before heading Stateside.
In support of its latest release, Senor Smoke, E6 will head to the U.S. October 3 for a gig at Carrboro, N.C.’s Cat’s Cradle. The band will play three shows in what the band calls “our neighbors to the South, the great nation of Florida,” before heading to Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan in mid-October.
The Detroit natives – who “use stage names because we had a stupid idea one night and now we have to live with it” – have been through approximately four guitar players, four bass players, five keyboard players, and three drummers.
Source pollstar.com.
Former Doors drummer John Densmore won a permanent injunction against his ex- bandmates Friday, preventing keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger from continuing to tour or record under any name that contains the words “The Doors.” The two had been touring with various members under the name “The Doors of the 21st Century” since 2003.
“I think our old lead singer would be happy,” Densmore told Rolling Stone on Saturday, referencing the late Jim Morrison, who died in 1971, effectively ending the original incarnation of the group.
Densmore was joined in his suit by Morrison’s parents, as well as the parents of Morrison’s common-law wife, Pamela Courson. Under the terms of the ruling, Manzarek and Krieger are required to give Densmore and the Morrison estate portions of the profits from their recent tours. The ruling also restores the band partnership that the group began with, where each of the four members held an equal share.
“It’s a sweet little democracy that Jim orchestrated with no lawyers, in a garage in Venice, California,” Densmore told Rolling Stone after filing the suit in 2003. “And he included veto power in case anybody didn’t like what went down. I’m just trying to keep the integrity of what we did a long time ago.”
Krieger and Manzarek could not be reached for comment by press time.
Source rollingstone.com.
