2005

The revival of Brian Wilson’s long dormant “Smile” album will be the subject of an all-star panel discussion at this year’s South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Wilson will be on hand for the March 18 panel in Austin, Texas, alongside longtime lyricist Van Dyke Parks, producer Mark Linette and author David Leaf.

Leading the list of newly confirmed acts is Elvis Costello, who will be making his first appearance at South by Southwest. Also new to the lineup are Ambulance Ltd, Lou Barlow, the Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Bloc Party, Vic Chesnutt, the Dears, the Donnas, Kathleen Edwards, Hot Hot Heat, Isis, Kings Of Convenience, Ulrich Schnauss, Magnolia Electric Co., Sleater Kinney, Nada Surf and Stephen Malkmus.

They join previously confirmed artists such as Robert Plant, Doves, Beth Orton, Fatboy Slim, Mavis Staples and Billy Idol.

Source billboard.com.

Tennessee-based rock act Kings Of Leon will hit the road in North America later this month in support of its sophomore album, “Aha Shake Heartbreak.” Already out in the United Kingdom, the RCA set is due Feb. 22 in the United States.

As previously reported, the band will be in Park City, Utah, on Friday (Jan. 21) playing an ASCAP-sponsored showcase at the Sundance Film Festival. A handful of other West Coast dates will follow before the band heads to Japan for the Sonicmania Festival, which will also feature Good Charlotte, Marilyn Manson, the Mars Volta and Dogs Die In Hot Cars, among others.

On the day of and the day after the set’s release, Kings Of Leon will be in New York to play the city’s Irving Plaza and Webster Hall, respectively. Eastern and Midwest U.S. dates follow, with a sole Canadian stop March 2 in Toronto.

Here are Kings Of Leon’s tour dates:

Jan. 21: Park City, Utah (Harry O’s)
Jan. 25: Seattle (Neumo’s)
Jan. 26: Portland, Ore. (Aladdin Theater)
Jan. 28: San Francisco (Slim’s)
Feb. 5: Tokyo (Makuhari Messe)
Feb. 6: Osaka, Japan (Intex)
Feb. 17-18: Nashville (Exit/In)
Feb. 22: New York (Irving Plaza)
Feb. 23: New York (Webster Hall)
Feb. 25: Philadelphia (Theatre Of Living Arts)
Feb. 26: Washington, D.C. (9:30 Club)
Feb. 27: Boston (Paradise Rock Club)
March 2: Toronto (Opera House)
March 3: Chicago (Metro)
March 5: Minneapolis (Fine Line Music Cafe)
March 8: St. Louis (Mississippi Nights)
March 12: Austin, Texas (La Zona Rosa)
March 13: Dallas (Gypsy Tea Room)
March 17: New Orleans (House Of Blues)
March 18: Atlanta (Coca Cola Roxy Theatre)
March 19: Birmingham, Ala. (Workplay Theatre)

Source billboard.com.

Many doubted that the potentially combustible combination of Scott Weiland and former members of Guns N’ Roses could last more than one album, but Velvet Revolver are hoping to have the last laugh. Guitarist Slash says that, after a worldwide tour, the supergroup plans to get cracking on its second record in the fall.

“As soon as we get off the road, we want to start getting the next record done and get it out,” he says. “We don’t want to lose momentum.”

The group already has plenty of material to follow up its 2004 chart-topping debut, Contraband. “We’ve got tapes and tapes of stuff that we’ve been writing at soundcheck,” Slash says. “There should be more than an album’s worth of material. And then there’s all the stuff we wrote before we did the first record that we never really touched.”

Slash also thinks that, with the orientation phase of the band over, their sophomore effort should come together more easily. “When we did this first record, it was like a bunch of kids in a sandbox all thrown in at one time,” he says. “Now we’ve managed to play together as a band, grow as a band and get to know each other as a band.”

Velvet Revolver’s U.S. tour dates:

3/24: Centennial Gardens, Bakersfield, CA
3/25: Compaq/Bill Graham Civic Center, San Francisco
3/26: Forum, Los Angeles
3/28: Cox Arena, San Diego
3/29: America West, Phoenix
3/31: TBA, Las Cruces, NM
4/1: American Airlines Arena, Dallas
4/2: Reliant Arena, Houston
4/4: UNO Arena, New Orleans,br> 4/7: American Airlines Arena, Miami
4/8: TD Waterhouse, Tampa
4/9: Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, Jacksonville
4/11: Gwinett Center, Atlanta
4/12: Cricket Arena, Charlotte, NC
4/14: Constant Convocation Center, Norfolk, VA
4/15: Patriot Center, Washington, D.C.
4/16: TBA, New York City
4/18: Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, NY
4/19: Cobo/Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit
4/21: Savvis Center, St. Louis
4/22: US Cellular, Milwaukee, WI
4/23: Target, Minneapolis, MN
4/25: Magness/Pepsi Center, Denver
4/26: E Center, Salt Lake City, UT
4/29: Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BC
4/30: Key Arena/Everette Arena, Seattle, WA

Source rollingstone.com.

The Offspring is the latest act to sign on for the 2005 Vans Warped Tour. Beyond the California rock act, which is making its first Warped appearance, the 11th annual trek will also feature the Transplants, Thrice, My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy. Dates and venues will be unveiled next month.

It is unknown if the Offspring will be touring in support of a new studio album. The group’s most recent was 2003’s “Conspiracy of One,” which debuted at No. 9 on The Billboard 200.

Warped, which claims to be the longest-running music and extreme sports festival in the world, celebrated its most successful year in 2004. Attendance was 652,000, up 26% from 2003.

“We’ve learned not to mess with the brand too much,” tour founder Kevin Lyman said in October at the What Teens Want Conference in Los Angeles. “The formula when we started was to have a backyard party, and that’s what this tour is all about. After 10 years we’ve kept that same atmosphere.”

Lyman said the 2005 tour will include a Samsung-sponsored Adult Day Care area, where kids can drop off parents and have fun on their own. But he notes he has also added a stroller section.

The goal for this year, he said, is to expand the appeal to the third generation. “Live touring and events are in a bad state right now. If we can get 11-year-olds in the trend of going to shows, we’ll be in better shape in the future.”

Source billboard.com.

A previously uncirculated tape of a pre-fame Bob Dylan performing folk songs in a Minneapolis apartment has been donated to the Minnesota Historical Society Library. The recordings have been in the possession of Minneapolis resident Cleve Pettersen since 1960.

At the time, Pettersen was a teenager who frequented the coffeehouses in Minneapolis’ Dinkytown neighborhood, which brought him into contact with the fledgling Dylan. Dylan later agreed to perform some tunes for posterity after Pettersen purchased a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

Taped in an apartment on Minneapolis’ 15th Ave. S.E., the recordings feature Dylan performing “Blues Yodel No. 8,” “Come See Jerusalem,” “San Francisco Bay Blues,” “I’m a Gambler,” “Talkin’ Merchant Marine,” “Talkin’ Hugh Brown,” “Talkin’ Lobbyist,” “Red Rosey Bush,” “Johnny I Hardly Knew You,” “Jesus Christ,” “Streets of Glory” and “K.C. Moan.”

Interested parties can listen to the recordings at the library but are not permitted to make copies.

Source billboard.com.

Ben Folds has announced a series of U.S Tour dates that will take place at colleges and universities across the U.S. Dates and venues are listed below:

1/16/05 nashville, tn
vanderbilt university blair school of music
“conversation series”
ben will be speaking at 7pm

1/27/05 durham, nc
duke university – page auditorium
on sale now

1/28/05 carlisle, pa
dickinson college – anita tuvin schlechter auditorium
rescheduled show

1/29/05 syracuse, ny
syracuse university – goldstein auditorium
ages 18+
on sale 1/16

2/10/05 norman, ok
university of oklahoma – lloyd noble center
rescheduled show

2/12/05 crawfordsville, in
wabash college – allen center
on sale now

2/17/05 storrs, ct
university of connecticut – jorgensen center

Jefferson Airplane drummer Spencer Dryden died Tuesday at his home in Petaluma, California, after a battle with colon cancer. He was sixty-six.

Dryden joined Jefferson Airplane in 1966 and played with the band during its heyday, drumming on their breakthrough, Surrealistic Pillow, and playing shows with the group at Woodstock, Altamont and the Monterey Pop Festival.

“For me, the incarnation of the Airplane I liked the best was the one with Spencer, Paul [guitarist Kantner], Marty [singer Balin], Jack [bassist Casady], Grace [singer Slick] and myself,” says Jorma Kaukonen. “We struggled together . . . occasionally lived together . . . argued together . . . and made some great music together.”

The nephew of Charlie Chaplin, Dryden was drumming at a strip club in Hollywood when he was recommended to Jefferson Airplane’s manager by fellow skinsman Earl Palmer. Dryden took over for Skip Spence, who had left and later formed Moby Grape.

After Dryden split from Jefferson Airplane in 1970, he played with Grateful Dead side project New Riders of the Purple Sage in the Seventies, and with members of Country Joe and the Fish, Big Brother and the Holding Company and Quicksilver Messenger Service in a knowingly titled combo called the Dinosaurs in the Eighties.

Dryden had fallen on hard times in recent years, losing his home and possessions in a September 2003 fire. The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule played a benefit last year for him at Slim’s in San Francisco, raising $36,000 to help pay for a pair of hip replacement surgeries and pending heart surgery.

Dryden attended a DVD release party for Jefferson Airplane last September, at the Great American Musical Hall in San Francisco, in what became his final public appearance.

Dryden was married three times. He is survived by his sons Jessie and Jackson.

Source rollingstone.com.

The wife of reggae star Bob Marley said Wednesday that she plans to exhume his remains in Jamaica and rebury them in his “spiritual resting place,” Ethiopia.

The reburial is set for February when monthlong celebrations of Bob Marley’s 60th birth anniversary will be held in Ethiopia and both Ethiopian church and government officials have expressed support for the project, Rita Marley told The Associated Press.

“We are working on bringing his remains to Ethiopia,” said Rita, the former backing singer for Marleys band, The Wailers. “It is part of Bob’s own mission.”

Marley was born in St. Ann, Jamaica on Feb. 6, 1945 but died of cancer in 1981.

Rita said Marley would be reburied in Shashemene, 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Addis Ababa where several hundred Rastafarians have lived since they were given land by Ethiopia’s last emperor, Haile Selassie.

Hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans embraced Haile as their living god and head of the Rastafarian religious movement.

Marley was a devout Rastafarian, a faith whose followers preach a oneness with nature, grow their hair into long matted strands called dreadlocks and smoke marijuana as a sacrament.

“Bob’s whole life is about Africa, it is not about Jamaica,” said Rita, a Cuban-born singer who married Marley in 1966.

“How can you give up a continent for an island? He has a right for his remains to be where he would love them to be. This was his mission. Ethiopia is his spiritual resting place,” she said. “With the 60th anniversary this year, the impact is there and the time is right.”

Together with the African Union and the U.N. children’s agency, Rita has organized celebrations in Ethiopia, including a concert on Marley’s birthday to be held in Addis Ababa.

The monthlong celebration, dubbed “Africa Unite” after one of Marley’s songs, aims to raise funds to help poor families in Ethiopia.

The Marley Family, Senegal’s Baaba Maal and Youssou N’Dour, Angelique Kidjo of Benin and other African and reggae artists will sing as part of the US$1 million (