2005

On April Fools’ Day, Sting walked onstage at San Jose State University’s Event Center in California and kicked off his Broken Music Tour by performing the Police classic “Message in a Bottle.” In the next eighty minutes, he and his stripped-down backing trio shocked the crowd by dusting off eleven Police songs, including deep cuts like “Demolition Man” and “Invisible Sun,” which Sting hasn’t performed since he was in the band.

It wasn’t an April Fools’ joke aimed at music fans desperate for a Police reunion — on each night of this twenty-eight-date tour, which mostly hits college campuses, Sting devotes roughly half of his set to the Police, the trio that broke up in 1984 when Sting went solo.

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Hot Hot Heat will follow their current European tour with almost a dozen headlining dates in the U.S., beginning May 20th at New York’s Webster Hall. Elevator, the Canadian rockers’ follow-up to 2002’s breakthrough Make Up the Break Down, was released last month.

The band recently recorded acoustic versions of five songs from Elevator — “Jingle Jangle,” “You Owe Me an IOU,” “Pickin’ It Up,” “Goodnight, Goodnight” and “Middle of Nowhere” — with hopes of releasing an EP later this year. “It’s just a totally different vibe — like it sounds like old Johnny Cash,” says frontman Steve Bays. “Just two acoustic guitars, vocals and harmonies – but it’s not watered-down versions of the album. It’s really, really cool.”

Hot Hot Heat will also begin releasing some of the twenty-five songs they originally recorded for Elevator but scrapped because they were too “dark.” ! The first, “When We Were Kids,” will be available May 16th as the U.K. B side to the single “Goodnight, Goodnight.” Other shelved tracks include “Wait a Second” and “Eyes Ears Mouth,” a track that Bays says has “a Pacific Northwest sound” and is about his leaving the sleeping Victoria for Vancouver. “It’s weird and emotional to move away from your hometown,” he says, “but I don’t think I’ll ever move back.”

Hot Hot Heat tour dates:

5/20: New York, Webster Hall
5/21: North Hampton, MA, Pearl Street Nightclub
5/22: Philadelphia, Torcadero Theatre
5/23: Boston, Avalon
5/26: Cincinatti, Bogart’s
5/27: Columbus, OH, PromoWest Pavillion (with the Killers)
5/28: Cleveland, Scene Pavillion (with the Killers)
5/30: Detroit, State Theatre (89X bash with Social Distortion, the Killers, Sum 41 and Keane)
5/31: Milwaukee, The Rave at the Eagle’s Club
6/01: Minneapolis, The Quest
6/04: Auburn, WA, White River Amphitheater (107.7’s Endfest with Social Distortion, Interpol, Queens of the Stone Age)
6/09: Reno, NV, Reno Events Center
6/11: Santa Barbara, CA, Santa Barbara Bowl
6/13: Los Angeles, Avalon
7/13: Orlando, FL, Hard Rock Live (MTV taping)

Source rollingstone.com.

A month after undergoing surgery to address a brain aneurysm, veteran singer/songwriter Neil Young has returned to Nashville to resume sessions for his next album.

According to a post by Young’s sister Astrid on her official Web site, longtime collaborators such as keyboardist Spooner Oldham, pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith and drummer Carl Himmel have joined Young in the studio.

The artist’s medical status forced him to cancel his planned appearance last month at Canada’s Juno Awards. “He’s feeling good, has everything under control and is back in the saddle,” Astrid Young wrote, likening the lineup of musicians to Young’s acclaimed 1992 album “Harvest Moon.”

Source billboard.com.

In support of its brand new album, Deadwing, British quartet Porcupine Tree will cross the pond for North American dates. The tour begins May 13 at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club and wraps June 11 at The Grove of Anaheim in Los Angeles.

The band just concluded a European tour during which they performed in Switzerland, Italy, Spain and France.

While touring the U.S., Porcupine Tree will make their way through the East hitting up New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania along the way. From there, they’ll travel through the Midwest, eventually landing on the West Coast.

Some gigs include the House of Blues in Cleveland May 25; Boulder, Colo.’s Fox Theatre June 1; and The Fillmore in San Francisco June 8.

Former King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp will open for Porcupine Tree on various West coast dates. Additional openers are still in the works.

Porcupine’s current lineup -comprising singer/guitarist Steven Wilson, Richard Barbieri on keyboards, Colin Edwin on bass, and drummer Gavin Harrison – has been together since 1993. Along with its success on the British indie charts, the band also has a reputation as a pioneering underground force in the U.K.

Source pollstar.com.

Sleater-Kinney’s whose seventh album, The Woods is due out out May 24th has announced tour dates to support the release. While The Woods’ ten tracks may not sport the trenchant political content of 2002’s One Beat, the album is said to be just as strong.

Tour Dates

5/31: Seattle, Moore Theater
6/2: Portland, OR, Crystal Ballroom
6/4: San Francisco, Warfield
6/7: Pomona, CA, Glass House
6/8: Los Angeles, Henry Fonda Theater
6/9: Los Angeles, Henry Fonda Theater
6/15: Minneapolis, First Avenue
6/16: Chicago, Riviera
6/17: Cleveland, OH, Beachland Ballroom
6/18: Toronto, Phoenix
6/19: Montreal, La Tulipe
6/21: Burlington, VT, Higher Ground
6/22: Boston, Avalon
6/23: New York, Roseland
6/25: Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
6/30: Knoxville, TN, Sundown in the City
7/1: Atlanta, The Variety

Performances from some of the world’s most popular and influential bands highlighted the sixth Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, which concluded last night (May 1) at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif. About 50,000 people descended on this desert town for the two-day event, which featured headlining sets by Coldplay and Nine Inch Nails, plus rare appearances from Bauhaus, Gang Of Four and hip-hop duo Black Star.

Coldplay’s Saturday set went heavy on such anthems as “Clocks,” “The Scientist,” “Yellow” and “In My Place” but was bookended by songs from its upcoming Capitol album, “X&Y”: opener “Square One” and closer “Fix You.” The group also debuted new album track “Low” and “‘Til Kingdom Come,” the latter of which was penned for Johnny Cash prior to death but appears as a bonus cut on the upcoming disc.

Last night, the Trent Reznor-led Nine Inch Nails drew one of the biggest crowds of the weekend to the main stage for intense versions of “Head Like a Hole,” “Closer” and “Piggy,” plus its latest single, “The Hand That Feeds.” That cut is the lead track from the new Interscope album “With Teeth,” NIN’s first since 1999.

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