2005

Natalie Merchant, Widespread Panic, Juliana Hatfield and Jorma Kaukonen and are among the artists contributing songs to the benefit CD Too Many Years: A Benefit for Clear Path International.

Formed five years ago, Clear Path is dedicated to aiding landmine and bomb victims in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Released in recognition of the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, Too Many Years — which takes its title from a Kaukonen song — will fund the organization’s mission to provide “direct medical and social services to the survivors and their families as well as equipment support to hospitals.”

The CD will be available for sale at cpi.org in early May, to follow the April 30th anniversary. Among the other artists contributing tracks are Philip Glass, the String Cheese Incident and the Samples.

Source rollingstone.com.

After a disastrous 2004 when the entire tour was canceled due to sluggish ticket sales, Lollapalooza will return this summer as a one-off festival in Chicago’s Grant Park. The event will be held July 23-24 and Billboard.com has learned that Beck, the Killers, Kings Of Leon and Widespread Panic are among the bands being eyed to appear.

The Lollapalooza Web site will re-launch on Friday (April 1), while the full lineup is expected to be announced three weeks later.

Last year’s festival was to be a two-day traveling affair featuring Morrissey, String Cheese Incident, Wilco, the Pixies, Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth, among others, but was pulled in late June, less than a month before its planned start date.

How bad were advance ticket sales? “The worst I’ve ever seen,” one promoter who asked not to be identified told Billboard at the time. “I know a market in the Northeast doing two nights that [sold] 450 tickets for the second night and 1,100 for the first. Other counts were less than 1,000 for both nights.”

The William Morris Agency and Jane’s Addiction leader/Lollapalooza co-founder Perry Farrell are back on board with the 2005 edition and are joined this year by Capitol Sports and Entertainment, which also books Texas’ Austin City Limits festival.

Source billboard.com.

Introducing a brand-new songwriting and performance ensemble: the Tempting Fate Revue. The group’s aims are threefold: to provide a showcase for unsigned, emerging singers; to raise money for charity; and above all, to develop new original music.

The group includes several accomplished musicians (such as Grammy winner Eguie Castrillo on percussion and John Lennon Songwriting Contest award winner Leo Mellace on guitar). Two are also Berklee professors (Castrillo and drummer Dave DiCenso). Five songs from their debut album, Tempting Fate, have won honorable mentions in the 2004 Billboard Song Contest. With five songwriters in all, the music spans the genres of Rock, R&B, and Latin.

Inaugural gig: Thursday, March 31, 2005
Axis, 13 Landsdowne St., Boston 617 262 2437
Doors at 8, music at 9. 18+
Tickets available at teapartyconcerts.com.

This upcoming gig will be the first in a series of dates, each showcasing a different group of hot young local singers with the band. Each one will also donate 100% of ticket sales and 100% of album sales to a worthy charity. Proceeds from the inaugural gig will be donated to Religions for Peace, the world’s largest interreligious organization. Dedicated to promoting peace, disarmament, small arms elimination, and women and children’s advocacy in more than 100 countries, the group has been given a oveted top four-star rating by the Charity Navigator rating service. (See rfpusa.org for more information.)

The group’s second gig will be held on May 5, with 100% of ticket and album sales going to benefit the AIDS Action Committee of Boston, a nonprofit community-based health organization that has garnered consistent national praise for its efficiency and effectiveness as an organization. (See www.aac.org for more information.)

Tempting Fate Revue founder and guitarist Frank Ingari is no stranger to raising money for charity

Rilo Kiley has confirmed a two-month of tour, beginning April 28 in San Diego. The trek will take the band across the country and back — including an April 30 appearance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and a June 11 stop at Tennessee’s Bonnaroo festival — before ending with a June 19 homecoming show in Los Angeles.

On the night between the tour opener and Coachella, Rilo Kiley will open for Coldplay at a previously announced show in Las Vegas. Inside Entertainment magazine recently reported that Rilo Kiley and Franz Ferdinand had been tapped as support acts for Coldplay’s summer North American tour, but a routing has yet to be announced.

Source billboard.com.

The reunited original lineup of influential modern rock act Dinosaur Jr. will perform on television for the first time April 15 on CBS’ “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson.” The following day, guitarist J Mascis will play at Los Angeles’ Spaceland club with his band the Fog, as well as guests described only as “very special.”

As previously reported, Dinosaur Jr. will this summer play its first shows with the lineup of Mascis, bassist/future Sebadoh leader Lou Barlow and drummer Murph since 1989. The only confirmed dates at deadline are June 8 in London, June 10 at the U.K.’s Download Festival and July 29-31 at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival.

Last week, Merge reissued the band’s first three albums, “Dinosaur,” “You’re Living All Over Me” and “Bug,” with remastered audio and smattering of bonus tracks and rare photos. Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Mike Watt and Guided By Voices’ Robert Pollard contributed to new liner notes.

In related news, Barlow, who just finished a run of dates in support of his new Merge album “Emoh,” reports on his official Web site that he recently spent time with Sebadoh drummer Eric Gaffney. The experience “bodes well for some comprehensive Sebadoh reissues in the future,” he said.

Source billboard.com.

Rock duo the White Stripes will release their next studio album on June 14 via Third Man/V2. The as-yet-untitled set was recently recorded in the group’s Detroit home base. It will be the follow-up to 2003’s “Elephant,” which debuted at a career-best No. 6 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 1.7 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

A handful of live dates have already been announced ahead of the album, including a three-night run in Mexico that begins May 11 in Monterrey. As previously reported, the group will also play June 10 at Atlanta’s Music Midtown festival.

Beyond the White Stripes disc, singer/guitarist Jack White has also been working on an album with fellow Detroit native Brendan Benson. The project, which also features Greenhornes bassist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler, will most likely not see the light of day until the end of the year or early 2006, according to a V2 spokesperson.

Source billboard.com.

In a move that might be the equivilent of Bob Weir playing guitar for Motorhead, funk minded Galactic drummer Stanton Moore mans the kit for metal band Corrosion of Conformity and their latest release

Basement Jaxx, Royksopp, David Byrne, the Arcade Fire, Yo-Yo Ma, Femi Kuti and Mos Def have signed on for Los Angeles radio station KCRW’s World Music Festival, to be held throughout the summer at the Hollywood Bowl. Byrne, the Arcade Fire, Si*Se and the Extra Action Marching Band will kick things off on June 26; KCRW music director Nic Harcourt will host.

Basement Jaxx, Royksopp and Bossacucanova will headline the Planet Electronica event on July 17, followed by a bill featuring Femi Kuti and Mos Def on July 24. Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble are confirmed for Aug. 7, while Desmond Dekker, Maxi Priest and Black Uhuru will lead Reggae Night IV on Aug. 28. The event will close Sept. 11 with Destination Hawaii, featuring a host of performers from the island.

Source billboard.com.