2005

Tenacious D will be joined by such rock heavyweights as Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, Beck, Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl and Queens Of The Stone Age principal Josh Homme at a Jan. 17 benefit for the victims of the Asian tsunami. The event, which will also boast an appearance by actor Will Ferrell, will be held at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Tickets are $60 and $100 and are available through Ticketmaster.

The show is being organized via the new collective Music for Relief, with proceeds to benefit the American Red Cross.

As previously reported, Tenacious D is expected to begin shooting this spring on its feature film debut, “Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny.”

Source billboard.com.

Just as the release of their 2002 debut, Turn on the Bright Lights, was followed by over two years of touring, Interpol are supporting their sophomore effort, last year’s Antics, with nearly as rigorous an international jaunt. The New York foursome return next month to launch another string of U.S. dates. The fifteen-city tour, with opening act Blonde Redhead, kicks off February 7th in Cincinnati and wraps on February 28th in Philadelphia.

All this after opening for the Cure’s Curiosa summer festival, headlining a twenty-two-city tour of North America last fall and spending January in Japan.

After doing their duty stateside, the moody indie darlings will rush back for more U.K. dates, followed by shows in Germany, Italy, France and Spain.

Interpol U.S. tour dates, with Blonde Redhead:

2/7: Bogarts, Cincinnati
2/8: Liberty Hall, Lawrence, KS
2/9: Fillmore Auditorium, Denver
2/10: The Big Easy, Boise
2/11: Paramount Theatre, Seattle
2/13: Roseland Theatre, Portland, OR
2/14, 2/15: Warfield Theatre, San Francisco
2/18: Grand Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles
2/20: SOMA, San Diego
2/21: Coconuts, Tucson, AZ
2/23: Austin Music Hall, Austin
2/24: Numbers, Houston
2/25: TwiRoPa, New Orleans
2/27: Disco Rodeo, Raleigh, NC
2/28: Electric Factory, Philadelphia

Source rollingstone.com.

Indie rock outfit the Decemberists will unveil a new album, “Picaresque,” March 22 via Kill Rock Stars. The 11-track set was produced by Death Cab For Cutie guitarist Chris Walla and recorded in a church in the group’s Portland, Ore., hometown. “Picaresque” is the follow-up to 2003’s acclaimed “Her Majesty the Decemberists,” which has sold 40,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Highlights of the new set include the multi-faceted, spy-themed “Espionage,” the horn-drenched, celebrity deflating “16 by 32” and the gently chugging, organ-tinged “The Sporting Life,” a humorous reflection on failed athletic pursuits.

The Decemberists have yet to announce tour plans in support of the new album, but frontman Colin Meloy is expected to perform some of the material on his upcoming 10-date solo trek, which begins Thursday (Jan. 13) in Seattle. According to the group’s official Web site, Meloy will be selling a tour-only EP “comprised entirely of Morrissey rarities covers.”

Here is the track list for “Picaresque”:

“The Infanta”
“We Both Go Down Together”
“Eli, The Barrowboy”
“The Sporting Life”
“Espionage”
“Lost at Sea”
“16 by 32”
“Engine Driver”
“Bus Mall”
“The Mariner”
“Angels”

Here are Meloy’s solo dates:

Jan. 13: Seattle (Triple Door)
Jan. 14: Portland, Ore. (Doug Fir)
Jan. 16: San Francisco (Cafe du Nord)
Jan. 17-18: Los Angeles (Hotel Cafe)
Jan. 19: Chicago (Schuba’s)
Jan. 21: Arlington, Va. (Iota)
Jan. 22, 24: New York (Fez)
Jan. 23: Cambridge, Mass. (TT the Bear’s)

Source billboard.com.

Coldplay is putting the finishing touches on its third studio album, expected in March or April via Capitol. Initial sessions for the as-yet-untitled set with producer Ken Nelson were set aside, with the U.K. rock act opting to start over with producer Danton Supple, who mixed Coldplay’s 2002 breakthrough, “A Rush of Blood to the Head.”

“It’s been quite turbulent,” frontman Chris Martin tells NME of the sessions. “We’ve been through a lot of songs and a lot of sounds, a lot of studios. It took us a long time to realize the four of us should go into a rehearsal room again and play together rather than rely on technological assistance.”

Among the tracks earmarked for the album include “The Hardest Part,” “Square One,” “‘Till Kingdom Come,” “What If,” “X&Y” and “Talk,” which is said to feature the main riff from Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love.”

Coldplay is expected to make its return to the live stage, possibly armed with new material, as part of a March 12 benefit for California radio station KCRW in Los Angeles.

Source billboard.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 (

Queens Of The Stone Age are gearing up for their first tour since late 2003, which comes in support of their highly anticipated Interscope album, “Lullabies To Paralyze.” According to its official Web site, QOTSA will begin touring in Europe and February and touch down in North America in March.

Due March 22 via Interscope, “Lullabies” is led by the single “Little Sister,” which is already burning up the airwaves on such stations as WXRK New York and KNDD Seattle.

Other tracks on the set include the relentless “Everybody Knows That You’re Insane,” the ominous “Tangled Up in Plaid” and a mellower-than-usual album closer, “Long Slow Goodbye.” Short films for “Everybody Knows That You’re Insane” (directed by Chapman Baehler) and “Someone’s in the Wolf” (directed by Terry Richardson) are expected to be posted on the QOTSA site later this month.

“Lullabies” is the follow-up to 2002’s “Songs for the Deaf,” which peaked at No. 17 on The Billboard 200 and has sold more than 917,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

In related news, frontman Josh Homme’s side band, the Eagles Of Death Metal, recently recorded a new album in eight days. The set is tentatively titled “Death by Sexy.”

Source billboard.com.

Somewhat edgier than its better-known Sundance cousin, this year’s Slamdance Film Festival will offer its share of musical treats to entertain moviegoers. This year’s 11th annual event in Park City, Utah — which runs Jan. 21-28, concurrent with the Sundance Film Festival — will see performances by Spearhead’s Michael Franti, DJ/producer Prince Paul and former Soul Coughing frontman Mike Doughty, among others.

In addition performing, Franti will be on hand for a screening of his documentary “I Know I’m Not Alone.” The film, which will serve as the Slamdance 2005 closing night documentary, is described as personal diary chronicling the artist/activist’s 2004 visit to Israel, Iraq and Palestine.

Franti is slated to stage a solo acoustic show Jan. 27 at Park City’s 608 Interchange gallery. As previously reported, Franti and Spearhead will perform at two Sundance events, including one of that festival’s Jan. 20 opening night galas.

Prince Paul is slated to play a Jan. 28 DJ set at Suede prior to a headlining performance by P-Funk’s Bernie Worrell with Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun and bassist Doug Wimbish. Director Phillip DiFiore’s “Stranger: Bernie Worrell on Earth” will receive its world premiere at Slamdance, competing in the short documentary competition.

Doughty will be on hand to headline a Jan. 23 acoustic show at Suede that will also feature the Apex Theory. A number of Park City venues will boast performances by Elliott Sharp, Purr Bats, JW Blackout, the Rubes, Modern Soul Movement and Starmy, along with others to be announced.

Onscreen, the Slamdance “midnight screening” roster includes “Malfunkshun,” director/producer Scot Barbour’s documentary about Andrew Wood, featuring rare performance and interview footage of the late Mother Love Bone singer, as well as unreleased solo music.

In Taylor Neary’s “Liquid Vinyl,” well-known DJs such as Tall Paul and Goldie discuss DJ culture and dance music. The film will receive its world premiere at Slamdance and compete in the documentary field, as will Booker Sim’s “Tragedy: The Story of Queensbridge,” which details the stark reality of hip-hop artist Percy Chapman, aka Tragedy, who released two A&M albums in the early 1990s under the pseudonym Intelligent Hoodlum.

In addition to the Worrell title, the short documentary competition will also feature the music-based “Drummer Wanted.” For Slamdance Film Festival details, including descriptions of the various films being screened and to view titles in the “Anarchy Online Films” category, visit the event’s Web site.

Source billboard.com.

Dave Matthews Band has enlisted producer Mark Batson (Seal, Indie.Arie) for its as-yet-untitled sixth studio album, due later this year via RCA. “Mark met the band at their [Los Angeles] show in August of last year,” reads a message on a new Web site dedicated to the project. “After a late night of musical dialogue and shared experiences, it was obvious to all the guys that they had to work with Mark.”

The site features a brief video of DMB in the studio, working on a song with a major-key groove in the vein of Sting. The unnamed track features the line “everybody wake up / if you’re living with your eyes closed.”

Source billboard.com.

British rock act The Music have announced dates for a winter U.S. club tour. Uk funk/rock outfit Kasabian will be opening. The Music are touring in support of their late 2004 release Welcome To The North.

2/17 New York, NY
Irving Plaza w/Kasabian

2/18 Washington DC
9:30 Club w/Kasabian

2/19 Philadelphia, PA
Theatre of the Living Arts w/ Kasabian

2/22 Providence, RI
The Call w/ Kasabian

2/23 Boston, MA
Paradise Rock Club w/Kasabian

2/24 Quebec City, QUE
Imperial w/ Kasabian

2/26 London, ONT
Centennial Hall w/Kasabian

2/27 Detroit, MI
St. Andrews Hall w/Kasabian

3/2 Chicago, IL
Metro w/Kasabian

3/3 St. Louis, MO
The Pageant w/Kasabian

3/7 Seattle, WA
Neumos w/ Kasabian

3/8 Vancouver, BC
Commodore Ballroom w/Kasabian

3/11 San Francisco, CA
Slim’s w/Kasabian

3/12 Los Angeles, CA
Henry Fonda Theatre w/ Kasabian

3/13 San Diego, CA
Canes Bar & Grill w/Kasabian

3/15 Tempe, AZ
Marquee Theatre w/ Kasabian

3/17 Dallas, TX
Gypsy Tea Room w/Kasabian

3/19 Houston, TX
Meridian w/Kasabian

Apple Computer Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled a very small $499 computer on Tuesday and a flash memory-based music player called the iPod Shuffle.

The new products seek to make inroads against the traditionally more affordable PC market and against lower-cost competitors to Apple’s wildly popular iPod.

The Mini Mac computers, smaller than even some standalone external computer drives, go on sale Jan. 22. They lack a monitor, mouse and keyboard. The 40-gigabyte Mini Mac will cost $499, an 80-gigabyte model $599.

“People who are thinking of switching will have no more excuses,” Jobs said during a keynote speech at Macworld and Expo. “It’s the newest and most affordable Mac ever.”

The product for the first time puts Apple in the budget desktop PC arena, which so has been largely confined to personal computers that rely on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system.

Building upon the success in a rapidly growing niche that it already dominates, Apple also is rolling out two lower-priced versions of its iPod music players.

The iPod Shuffle, available immediately, is smaller than most packs of gum, weighing less than an ounce.

Unlike the hard drive-based iPod Mini, it doesn’t have a display. There’s a scroll wheel for the controls so a user can either play the songs in order or have the device automatically shuffle stored songs in a random order.

Apple is selling two versions of the iPod Shuffle.

The smallest will have 512 megabytes of storage and cost $99. A one-gigabyte version, which holds 240 songs, will sell for $149. The lowest cost iPod is the mini, which costs $249 for four gigabytes