November 4, 2005

Warren Haynes has announced his 17 Annual X-Mas Jam, which will take palce at the Asheville Civic Center in Asheville, NC on December 17th. The initial artist lineup includes: Gov’t Mule, Trey Anastasio, Hot Tuna, Warren Haynes, Ray LaMontagne, John Medeski, Ivan Neville, Dave Schools, Jon Scofield, Paterson Hood and Jason Isbell from The Drive By Truckers, Ralph Stanley, Marty Stuart and Kevin Kinney. More artists will be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets are $41.50 + $1 facility fee. All proceeds go to the Asheville Area Habitat For Humanity. This year’s funds will be earmarked to build houses for new Asheville residents who were displaced from thir Gulf Coast homes.Tickets will go on-sale through X-Mas Jam Ticketing on Friday November 4th at 3pm (EST) and through Ticketmaster and The Civic Center Box Office (no service charge) on Friday November 18th at 10am (EST).

Mike Love is suing his cousin and former Beach Boys bandmate Brian Wilson, but Love’s lawyer hopes the lawsuit won’t mar their good vibrations.

Love filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court yesterday (Nov. 3) accusing Wilson of promoting his 2004 album, “Smile,” in a manner that “shamelessly misappropriated Mike Love’s songs, likeness and the Beach Boys trademark, as well as the ‘Smile’ album itself.”

Love’s lawyer says it’s nothing personal. “Mike has a lot of affection for Brian and they have a good relationship and cordial relations,” said Phil Stillman, who has represented Love since 1992. “There’s obviously some problem with the way Brian’s [associates] have promoted the albums.”

Stillman added, “They remain family and the co-founders of a very important band in rock’n’roll history.”

The Beach Boys never completed “Smile” in the mid 1960s, and it was regarded as a lost classic until Wilson opted to finish it himself in 2004. The album earned international acclaim and marked a dramatic return for the 63-year-old singer-songwriter, who had avoided performing the “Smile” material for decades.

Love objected to a promotion in which 2.6 million copies of a Beach Boys compilation CD were given away to readers of Britain’s The Daily Mail on Sunday newspaper. The lawsuit said the giveaway undercut the band’s sales.

The lawsuit seeks damages, including “millions of dollars in illicit profits,” and seeks at least $1 million for international advertising “to correct the effects of … unfair competition and infringing uses.” A lawyer for Wilson didn’t return a call for comment.

Love formed the group in Hawthorne, Calif., in 1961 with Wilson, Wilson’s brothers Carl and Dennis, and Wilson’s friend Al Jardine. Wilson’s brothers have died, and he split acrimoniously with Love and Jardine years ago. Love now has the exclusive legal right to tour under the Beach Boys name.

Source billboard.com.

Rapper Talib Kweli has inked a one-album deal with Koch, which will on Nov. 22 release his next project, “Right About Now.” Led by the singles “Right About Now,” the set features guest appearances by Kweli’s longtime Black Star colleague Mos Def plus Jean Grae and Papoose, among others.

Keweli remains signed as a solo artist to Warner Bros., with whom his Blacksmith Music imprint is affiliated. “Usually when my music comes out, the people hear where I was a year ago,” the artist says. “This project represents where I am right now.”

“Right About Now” is the follow-up to last year’s “The Beautiful Struggle,” Kweli’s last album for Rawkus/Geffen. The set debuted at No. 3 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

As previously reported, Kweli and Mos Def are currently on the road as part of the Breed Love Odyssey tour, which visits Anaheim, Calif., tonight (Nov. 4). Kweli will also play two solo dates at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. (Nov. 17) and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (Nov. 18).

Here is the track list for “Right About Now”:

“Right About Now”
“Drugs, Basketball & Rap,” featuring Planet Asia and Phil The Agony
“Who Got It”
“Fly That Knot”
“Ms. Hill”
“Flash Gordon”
“Supreme Supreme,” featuring Mos Def
“The Beast,” featuring Papoose
“Roll of Me”
“Rock On”
“Where Ya Gonna”
“Two & Two”

Source billboard.com.

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones will return Jan. 31 with “The Hiddden Land,” the quartet’s first Columbia studio album since 2003’s “Little Worlds.” The Flecktones spent 2005 on hiatus while group leader Bela Fleck pursued a variety of other projects.

For “Hidden Land,” the group gathered at Fleck’s home studio in Nashville and quickly began working on ideas. For the song “P’lod,” Fleck says, “[Percussionist] Future Man shared the song with us, and said that it had come from a dream, where [saxophonist] Jeff [Coffin] had taught it to him. He’s still pretty convinced that Jeff wrote it, but we can’t quite figure out how that’s possible.”

Other tracks include the Flecktones’ take on J.S. Bach’s “Bach Fugue,” “Who’s Got Three,” “Labyrinth,” “Kaleiloscope” and “Chennai.”

Fleck is in the midst of a trio tour with bassist Stanley Clarke and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty but is planning to regroup with the Flecktones for North American touring next year.

Source billboard.com.

Iron & Wine and Calexico have extended their co-headlining tour, with a new leg kicking off November 30 in Washington, D.C., and covering much of the South and East Coast.

The two bands first got together to record a collaborative album, In The Reins. The disc, released in September on Overcoat, features renditions of Iron & Wine songs that didn’t appear on the one-man band’s first two records.

In October, the bands covered the Western U.S., so the second round of dates will focus on the rest of the country. The itinerary includes dates in Montreal and Toronto as well as a three-night stand at New York City’s Webster Hall.

The tour wraps December 16 in Atlanta.

Source pollstar.com.