2005

Led Zeppelin got a “whole lotta” belated love from the music industry on Saturday, earning a lifetime achievement Grammy in recognition of a career that changed the face of rock ‘n’ roll.

The English band was one of 10 performers, alongside the likes of rockabilly hellraiser Jerry Lee Lewis, blues belter Janis Joplin and country crooner Eddy Arnold, celebrated at a luncheon one day before the Grammy Awards.

During their 12 years together, Led Zeppelin never won a Grammy, even though they were arguably the biggest band of the 1970s, a combo whose blues-based rock anthems resonate loudly to this day.

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page (news) and keyboardist John Paul Jones showed up with the two children of late drummer John Bonham to receive crystal trophies. Singer Robert Plant (news), busy rehearsing for a tour, sent in a video message.

“It wouldn’t have taken much just to pop over here and meet everybody, would it really?” Page asked Reuters.

For his part, the newly svelte guitarist said he found the ceremony very emotional. From the stage, he blew a kiss to his old label boss, Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, and later chatted with soul guitarist Ike Turner, who jokingly exclaimed, “You’re a grown man now!”

As for the belated recognition, Page bore no ill will, saying that Led Zeppelin’s eclectic oeuvre — with one album completely different from the next — may have been too difficult for Grammy voters to comprehend.

In a separate interview, Jones said Led Zeppelin was too busy touring and recording to pay much attention to awards. But now, the recognition was “incredibly cool.”

Bonham, whose alcohol-related death in 1980 at the age of 32 spelled the end of Led Zeppelin, was represented by children Jason and Zoe.

“It’s totally overwhelming,” said Zoe, who was five when he died. “The whole crazy thing about it is that it’s a lifetime achievement award, and he’s not here. The legend lives on.”

Other posthumous recipients, most represented by family members, included Joplin, country pioneers the Carter Family, jazz drummer Art Blakey, composer Morton Gould, and jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton.

The honorees were rounded out by gospel crossover group the Staple Singers, represented by Mavis and Yvonne Staples, and 91-year-old Delta blues pianist Pinetop Perkins, who will vie for his first Grammy on Sunday.

Source yahoo.com.

Santana has announced plans for a summer North American tour, which will begin May 30 in Tampa, Fla., according to his official Web site. The tour will hit arenas and amphitheatres before closing with festival performances at Taste of Chicago and Milwaukee’s Summerfest.

As previously reported, the dates will be preceded by a tour of Latin America that begins April 1 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Santana is expected to release a new studio album this spring via Arista.

Tomorrow (Feb. 11), the artist will join Black Eyed Peas, James Brown, Earth Wind & Fire, Justin Timberlake, Macy Gray and Herbie Hancock for the Tsumani Benefit Peapod Jam, to be held at the Avalon in Los Angeles.

Here are Santana’s North American dates:

May 30: Tampa, Fla. (Ford Amphitheatre)
June 1: Miami (American Airlines Arena)
June 7: Columbia, Md. (Merriweather Post Pavilion)
June 8: Philadelphia (Penn’s Landing)
June 11-12: Atlantic City (Borgata Casino)
June 14: Holmdel, N.J. (PNC Bank Arts Center)
June 15: New York (Madison Square Garden)
June 17: Mansfield, Mass. (Tweeter Center)
June 18: Wallingford, Conn. (Oakdale Theatre)
June 21: Montreal (Bell Centre)
June 22: Quebec City, Quebec (Colisee Pepsi Arena)
June 24: Toronto (Molson Amphitheatre)
June 25: Clarkston, Mich. (DTE Energy Music Theater)
June 26: Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio (Blossom Music Center)
June 29: Minneapolis (Xcel Center)
July 2: Chicago (Taste of Chicago)
July 3: Milwaukee (Summerfest)

Source billboard.com.

Australian indie troubadour Ben Lee is set to release his fifthalbum, Awake Is the New Sleep, on February 22nd. Lee, who was famously signed by the Beastie Boys to their now-defunct Grand Royal label as a teenager, stayed true to his roots for the effort, self-financing the fourteen-tracker before inking a deal with Los Angeles imprint New West.

“I don’t need to make records for huge budgets at this point,” Lee says. “I knew I was going to make a pretty special record this time — it was just something I couldn’t put my finger on. I wanted to leave my options open, and New West — these are real music people. For me, it’s exactly the kind of place I need to be at right now.”

Lee wrote the songs for Awake Is the New Sleep while on tour in the U.S. between October 2003 and March 2004 in towns like San Francisco, Austin and New York. But it was at his sometime-home in Los Angeles (the singer spends time throughout the year in New York, India and Australia) that Lee laid down the tracks with former Smashing Pumpkins producer Brad Wood and a collection of local musician friends.

“It was a hugely social time, making this record,” he says of hanging out with pals like Har Mar Superstar, who turn up throughout the record on backing vocals. “There always seemed to be parties, and so we’d go out every night drinking and dancing. It was a really fun time, with all those people around you. That’s L.A.”

Former Phantom Planet drummer (and actor) Jason Schwartzman plays on “Light” and “Close I’ve Come.” And while supporting Schwartzman’s old band in California, Lee came up with one of the album’s standout tracks, “Catch My Disease.” Featuring Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis and singer-songwriter Jason Falkner in the chorus, the jangly number follows a classic Fab Four formula.

“I was watching The Beatles Anthology, and Paul McCartney talked about how the best pop songs are songs that are sung from the artist to the female teenage audience — like ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand,'” explains Lee. “‘Catch My Disease’ follows that model, too. The message [in my] music is a bit complex. But pop music’s so great, because as long as you put it to a catchy melody everyone’s happy.”

Lee says he’s refreshed and ready to take his new bag of songs on the road this spring, having just wrapped up a month-long visit to India, where he studied with a spiritual guide.

“The last few years, I feel like my music and my spirituality have become one and the same thing,” he says. “And I feel like, more and more, I’ve been drawn to music as a form of sharing hope and inspiring. Teachers have helped me clarify that my job as a musician — whatever gift I was given — is here to help people feel some joy. So that’s what I’ve been working on.”

Source rollingstone.com.

Janis Joplin’s estate has thrown its support behind a three-pronged celebration of the late singer’s life. The key component will be “Search for the Pearl,” a TV talent search to uncover the next Joplin that will begin production later this year and air on a channel to be announced. Eventually, five finalists will be chosen to audition before a panel of judges in San Francisco.

The winner will then embark on a world tour with Joplin’s former backing bands: Big Brother & the Holding Company, the Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie Band. A star-studded tribute concert featuring the winner is also in the works for 2006.

The news comes days before Joplin will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement award this weekend at the Grammys. Melissa Etheridge and Joss Stone will participate in a musical tribute to Joplin during the ceremony, which airs Sunday (Feb. 13) on CBS.

Joplin’s life will be the subject of the biopic “The Gospel According to Janis,” which will star pop vocalist Pink. The film will be directed by Penelope Spheeris (“The Decline of Western Civilization,” “Wayne’s World”) and is slated for release by the end of the year.

Renee Zellweger is also attached to a Joplin film titled “Piece of My Heart,” but the status of the project is unknown.

Source billboard.com.

Playwright Arthur Miller, the creator of The Crucible and Death of a Salesman, has died at the age of 89. Miller died on Thursday evening, having battled with cancer, pneumonia and a heart condition.

He was one of the most significant American writers of the 20th Century, whose fame was further magnified by his short-lived marriage to Marilyn Monroe.

His play The Crucible was inspired by the hysteria of the McCarthy witch hunts which he became embroiled in.

New York-born Miller was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Death of a Salesman in 1949 at the age of just 33.

The main character in Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, became a symbol of the struggle of the “little man” to realize the American Dream.

The play is still widely performed today, while the TV movie version picked up numerous awards for its star Dustin Hoffman.

Source: bbc

Steely Dan’s February 2003 visit to Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” show on National Public Radio will be released March 15 on CD via Concord Records. The 16-track set finds group principals Walter Becker and Donald Fagen discussing their jazz influences and pre-Steely Dan formative experiences.

Joined by legendary pianist McPartland and backed by its rhythm section of bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Keith Carlock, Steely Dan also performs such favorites as “Josie,” “Black Friday” and “Chain Lightning.”

In addition, the quintet runs through the Duke Ellington-popularized “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be,” “Mood Indigo” and “Limbo Jazz,” W.C. Handy’s “Hesitation Blues” and Gene DePaul and Don Raye’s “Star Eyes.”

Steely Dan has kept a low profile since the tour in support of its 2003 Reprise album, “Everything Must Go,” which debuted at No. 9 on The Billboard 200. A spokersperson did not respond to requests for comment on the group’s upcoming plans.

As for McPartland, her 85th birthday celebration at New York’s Birdland club in 2003 is being prepped for CD release in April by Concord. The collection features appearances by Regina Carter, Ravi Coltrane and Jason Moran, among others.

Source billboard.com.

The Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart and Particle, a pioneering electronic/jam-rock band, have come together to form HYDRA.

The new group will launch a 14-date tour debuting their innovative sound nationwide, beginning April 7 in Santa Cruz, Calif. and ending on April 24 in Washington, DC. Stops include The Fillmore in San Francisco, Henry Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, and New York’s Roseland Ballroom while wrapping it’s way around the country.

This union marks the first time Hart has joined an existing act to create a new unit. Of the venture he explains, “Hydra is about extreme music. Extreme music for extreme people. I need it!” Equally as excited about the collaboration, the members of Particle describe, “Hydra’s sound is a departure from anything we’ve ever done before. It’s a whole new breed of sonic exploration.” Concertgoers can expect to hear original material such as “Heart Of The Hydra”, “Creature of Comfort” and “The Glow” as well as a sampling of Particle songs, and a dose from Hart’s catalogue, including the possibility of fresh takes on Grateful Dead classics.

Mickey Hart is a Grammy award winner and a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee. His near 40 years with the Dead plus myriad of world music projects have brought a heightened awareness to the role of the drum in global cultures. As half the percussion tandem known as the Rhythm Devils, Mickey transcended the conventions of rock drumming.

Particle has enjoyed a whirlwind career trajectory since forming in 2000. The instrumental quartet’s signature “funktronic” blend has earned them a core audience of adventurous music fans dubbed “Particle People”. Highlight performances include Coachella, Bonnaroo, Burning Man,Austin City Limits Festival, and recent shows in Japan and Europe. Particle was recently hailed as one of pop’s “New Faces” by Rolling Stone and their debut album Launchpad garnered critical praise and was named one of 2004’s Top Ten Records by the Associated Press.

For MP3s log on to hydra-music.com

New York-based rock acts TV On The Radio and Interpol took top honors at last night

Scissor Sisters led the winners at the UK music industry’s Brit Awards, walking off with three prizes. The flamboyant act scored a hat-trick in the international categories, winning the best group, best album and best newcomer awards.

Glasgow group Franz Ferdinand won two prizes, as did Keane and Joss Stone, who was voted best urban act by digital TV viewers.

Scissor Sisters frontwoman Ana Matronic collected the best international album prize from singer Siouxsie Sioux.

She told the audience: “If you told us a year ago we would be getting these awards today we would have called you crazy. You guys made our dream come true.”

Source: bbc