November 2005

British singer and songwriter Phil Collins said on Sunday he would be open to a reunion of his old band Genesis, a day before he is set to perform in Israel as part of his what he calls his final tour.

“I’m open for it,” said Collins, 54, the most prominent international music star to perform in Israel since the start of a Palestinian uprising more than five years ago.

“I’m happy to sit behind the drums and let Peter (Gabriel) be the singer. If (a reunion) happens, I’ll be there. If it doesn’t happen … it would just be because there are too many things in the way,” Collins told reporters in Tel Aviv.

Collins’ concert on Monday in Jaffa, a quarter of Tel Aviv, is part of his “First Final Farewell Tour.” He said that he would stop touring “soon” in order to be able to spend more time with his family, but would like to continue to record music.

Collins said he wasn’t afraid in Israel, where Israeli-Palestinian violence has raged for more than five years, although attacks have largely decreased during the past year since a February truce. He performed in Lebanon a day earlier.

“I wish it wasn’t like this,” Collins said of the conflict. “I sit and watch stuff on the television, I think, ‘Why, why, why.”‘

Groups like progressive rockers Jethro Tull, boy band Westlife and metal bands Megadeth and the Scorpions, have performed in Israel during the uprising. Other artists, such as Madonna, have canceled planned concerts, though she visited Israel last year on a Kabbalah pilgrimage.

The progressive rock group Genesis formed in 1967 and were internationally successful for more than 30 years. Collins, the band’s first drummer, took over as singer after Gabriel quit the group in 1975 to become a solo artist.

Collins left in 1996 to concentrate on his own solo career having already scored solo hits in the 1980s with “Against All Odds” and “In the Air Tonight.”

After a shuffle of band members, including an Israeli drummer, Genesis finally called it quits in 1998.

Source yahoo.com.

Vorcza is set to release their second album, Corner of the Morning, at Higher Ground in South Burlington, VT on Dec. 9. The instrumental trio based out of Burlington, VT features Ray Paczkowski on keys, Gabe Jarret on drums and Rob Morse on bass. Corner of the Morning marks the recorded debut of Paczkowski as a singer and lyricist and also features Trey Anastasio on several cuts as well as other guests.

Vorcza will be playing a release party at the Higher Ground in Sout Burlington, Vermont on Dec. 9 which is also a benefit for Burlington- based homeless support organization COTS (Committee On Temporary Shelter). Vorcza will also be playing at least one support date for 70 Volt Parade, starting with an opening slot at the Chevrolet Theater in Wallingford, CT on Nov. 19. Vorcza will tour in support of this new release starting in the new year.

For more information, visit vorcza.com.

The owners and operators of the Grokster peer-to-peer (P2P) network–the lead and most well-known defendants in one of the Supreme Court’s seminal decisions this year–agreed today (November 7) to shut down operations to settle the three-year-old piracy case with the nation’s major record companies, motion picture studios and music publishers.

The settlement includes a permanent injunction prohibiting infringement–directly or indirectly–of any of the plaintiffs’ copyrighted works. This includes ceasing immediately distribution of the Grokster client application and ceasing to operate the Grokster system and software. An RIAA spokesperson also said Grokster is to pay the plaintiff companies $50 million in damages.

Full story: billboard.biz

Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy kicked off his fall solo tour Friday in Madison, Wis., treating the crowd to songs recent (“Spiders (Kidsmoke)”), vintage (“Sunken Treasure,” the Uncle Tupelo-recorded traditional “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down”) and rare (“Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard”). His young son Spencer also joined him on drums for “I’m the Man Who Loves You,” the first song of the encore.

In addition to an as-yet-unnamed song from Tweedy’s upcoming album with his side band Loose Fur, the show also featured four songs with Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche to close the evening, including “The Late Greats” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “John Wesley Harding.”

“By the nature of playing by yourself, my repertoire gets a lot bigger than what it is with the band, that’s for sure,” Tweedy tells Billboard.com of the shows. “The band is capable of playing everything in the catalog, but at any given point you can’t just pull something out and expect everybody to know it. With this band, we have to take time to revisit things.”

“Going out by myself, I really only have myself to worry about, and I know most of the songs,” he adds with a laugh.

Prior to Tweedy’s sets, Kotche is performing material from his upcoming Nonesuch solo album. Wilco guitarist Nels Cline will fill the opening slot for a lone gig on Nov. 16 in New York. “Glenn will probably come out and do a few songs with me, but I kind of like to keep it a surprise if it is going to happen,” Tweedy says.

The solo tour runs through Nov. 22 in London, after which Wilco will continue work on their next studio album, which Tweedy is hoping to release sometime next year. As previously reported, the group has been working on 13 songs at its Chicago rehearsal space, including “I’m Talking to Myself About You” and the tentatively titled “On and On and On and On.”

Source billboard.com.

Provocative West Coast duo Xiu Xiu will tour the U.S. into mid-December on its latest outing.

Starting November 27 in Tucson, Ariz., Jamie Stewart and Caralee McElroy will take their assortment of guitars, keyboards and percussion instruments through the South and back through the Midwest to California. The tour wraps at The Troubadour in West Hollywood December 15.

A November 9 one-off in New York City will precede the tour.

The prolific group released its latest full-length album, La Foret, this summer on 5 Rue Christine / Kill Rock Stars. According to the band’s official Web site, Stewart and friends are already at work on a follow-up.

Source pollstar.com.

The White Stripes will on Dec. 6 release the EP “Walking With a Ghost” via Third Man/V2, featuring a cover of Tegan & Sara’s title song plus previously unreleased live versions of “Same Boy You’ve Always Known,” “As Ugly As I Seem,” “The Denial Twist” and “Screwdriver.” “Ghost” will debut Nov. 14 via Apple’s iTunes Music Store.

Meanwhile, the duo is also planning to sell a live download of “The Denial Twist” from every show on its current U.K. tour via the Web site for XL Recordings, its U.K. label. At each show, fans can pick a blank CD to burn the tracks as well as artwork specific to the performance.

The studio version of “The Denial Twist,” taken from the group’s latest album, “Get Behind Me Satan,” will be released next week as a single in the United Kingdom, backed by a cover of the Greenhornes’ “Shelter of Your Arms.”

On Wednesday, the Stripes will also play a private show for 35 fans at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios in London. The group’s U.K. tour will run through Nov. 17 in Manchester, and extended with a Nov. 20 gig in Reykjavik.

After a holiday break, the band will be back on the road beginning Jan. 12 in Tokyo, leading up to their run on the annual Big Day Out festival tour of Australia and New Zealand later that month.

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.

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.

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.

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).