2005

Veteran indie rockers Sleater-Kinney will release their seventhalbum, The Woods, on May 24th. The follow-up to 2002’s One Beat was produced by David Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Weezer) and will be the band’s first on Seattle’s Sub Pop Records.

The Olympia, Washington, trio — vocalist/guitarist Corin Tucker, guitarist Carrie Brownstein and drummer Janet Weiss — has scheduled a string of live dates prior to the record’s release, including a performance at this year’s South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

A complete tour in support of the release is expected in June.

Current Sleater-Kinney tour dates:

2/14: Bellingham, WA, Western Washington University
2/25: Bellingham, WA, Night Light Lounge
2/26: Vancouver, the Commodore Ballroom
3/2-3: New York, Mercury Lounge
3/16: Austin, South by Southwest Music Festival, Venue TBA

Source rollingstone.com.

Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry,” the Rolling Stones’ “Let It Bleed” album and Ray Charles’ rendition of “America the Beautiful” are among the latest additions to the Recording Academy’s Grammy Hall of Fame. The Hall, which was founded in 1973, now hosts 659 titles.

This year’s crop focuses mainly on the pre-rock era, beginning with Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan’s 1911 single “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” Other vintage titles to be inducted include “California Here I Come” by Al Jolson with the Isham Jones Orchestra (1924), Gene Austin’s “Bye Bye Blackbird” (1926), Bing Crosby’s “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (1932) and Bob Hope and Shirley Ross’ “Thanks for the Memories” (1938).

More modern fare is represented by Les Paul and Mary Ford’s “Vaya Con Dios (May God Be With You)” (1953), Frank Sinatra’s “One for My Baby” (1958) and Henry Mancini’s theme “Peter Gunn” (1959).

Grammy Hall of Fame selections must be at least 25 years old, and are selected by a special Academy member committee.

Source billboard.com.

Fox Sports’ coverage of the Super Bowl on Feb. 6 will be able to include pictures from miniature cameras embedded in the field, network and NFL officials said Tuesday.

This is the first time such images will be available during an NFL telecast.

Fox unveiled the devices, which have a lens the size of a pencil eraser, during last summer’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game and used them during the playoffs and World Series (news – web sites). Three of the cameras – dubbed “diamond cams” – were implanted in the grass in front of the home-plate area. Another was buried in the grass just in front of the pitcher’s mound. They had no impact on play.

For the Super Bowl, Fox will deploy at least 12 “turf cams” in various positions on the playing field, all within the hash marks, Fox executive vice president of production Bill Brown said.

Brown said each embedded camera would be attached by cable to a small electric box buried in the field. The only thing protruding above the surface will be the camera lens. The cameras will be placed at a slight angle so they can bounce back up if a player falls on them.

“A normal game has 150-160 plays. We’re hoping to get five plays within the view of these cameras,” Brown said. “If the camera is at the line of scrimmage, after the ball is snapped you can see what it’s like to be there when NFL linemen collide at the snap of the ball.”

Fox personnel implanted the cables for the cameras when the turf at Alltel Stadium was replaced Jan. 3-4 after the Jacksonville Jaguars (news)’ last home game. Brown said up to four more turf cams might be added Super Bowl week.

“The technology has become so good there’s no reason not to approve it,” NFL public relations vice president Greg Aiello said. “The players are not going to notice it. It’s another technical innovation that has our support.”

Aiello said league officials would use the week before the game to make sure the cameras won’t interfere with place kicks.

Fox’s turf cams will become part of the NFL’s video review system of calls on the field if images from one of the cameras can aid in the decision. “If Fox puts it on the air, then it’s fair game for instant replay,” Aiello said. “But it has to be put on the air for viewers to see.”

Source yahoo.com.

With an eye towards a summer double-disc release that will feature packaging in the vein of OutKast’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,” the Fiery Furnaces’ prolific sibling team of Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger is currently working at a rate that is nothing short of frenetic.

“Maybe [it is] just because I felt like we had a late start to all of this,” Eleanor tells Billboard.com. “I wish that I was 23 and Matt was 27, [but] instead I’m 28 and Matt’s 32. So, I think it’s something we finally got going and we want to do as much as we can, as quickly as we can.”

Beginning with last summer’s critically acclaimed sophomore Rough Trade album, “Blueberry Boat,” and leading up to the duo’s new 10-track, 41-minute B-side set “EP,” the Friedbergers have been writing at a feverish pace. As for the hopeful double release, the first album is already finished and is truly a family affair, with the siblings’ 82-year-old grandmother, Olga Sarantos, providing narrative vocal support in what Eleanor characterizes as “almost a radio play” delivered with a pop aesthetic.

“She’s a great character and she’s always been a musician,” Eleanor says of her Chicago native grandmother. “She’s been the choir director of her church since the ’50s. And if anyone in our family was supposed to make records, it was probably her. She has a real diva personality and is always telling lots of funny stories. And she has a great voice and has a great presence.”

Tentatively titled “Garfield L,” the project includes the title track and “Zapped by the Zombie,” which Eleanor says is about her grandmother getting drunk the night she was supposed to meet her father-in-law for the first time.

As for the accompanying disc, the Friedbergers are currently working on “short, poppy songs” in a Benton Harbor, Mich., studio. While Matt has tentatively titled the album “Singing to Speak Chinese,” which includes new tracks “Teach Me Sweetheart” and “Nevers,” Eleanor says a decision on the final title hasn’t been made.

Leading up to an appearance at California’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival (April 30-May 1), the Fiery Furnaces will head to Australia and Japan in March and return for a month’s worth of U.S. college dates in April. The twosome expects to be back on the road in the fall in support of “Garfield L,” which hasn’t received official label approval.

“Who knows if [Rough Trade] will do that,” says Eleanor. “I’m optimistic, especially if we keep talking about it in the press. Then they have to do it. That’s what happened with the grandmother thing. We talked about it for about a year or so and they couldn’t really say no.”

Source billboard.com.

Stereolab has inked a new partnership for its Duophonic label with Too Pure, the label for which it released its earliest EPs. The first release under the deal will be the Feb. 22 reissue of the group’s 1992 compilation “Switched On.” A new album from frontwoman Laetitia Sadier’s Monade project, “A Few Steps More,” will follow on March 8.

Also in the planning stages is a three-disc boxed set, “Oscillons From the Anti-Sun,” which will arrive in mid-year. As previously reported, the collection will feature two discs worth of EP and rare tracks, plus a DVD of videos and performances.

In addition, the band has begun work on its next studio album, which will arrive in 2006 and be supported by a North American tour.

Stereolab split last year with longtime North American label Elektra. Its last album for the label, “Margerine Eclipse,” debuted at No. 6 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart.

Source billboard.com.

Superfly Productions and A.C. Entertainment have announced the initial lineup for the 2005 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. The fourth annual three-day camping and music festival will be held on June 10-12, 2005, on the same 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. A list of confirmed acts follows, with more to be announced before the on sale and in the weeks ahead to round out the festival’s 60-plus acts.
Tickets for the 2005 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival will go on sale Saturday, January 29th at 10:00 AM Eastern Time through www.bonnaroo.com.

2005 Bonnaroo Confirmed Artists (many more to be announced):
Widespread Panic (2 shows)
Dave Matthews Band
The Allman Brothers Band
Jack Johnson
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Modest Mouse
Gov

Glastonbury, Britain’s biggest open-air rock festival, is to take a year off in 2006 to give a rest to both the long-suffering villagers and organizer Michael Eavis’ cows. The festival renowned for mud and merriment in the genteel countryside of the west country has been held at Eavis’ farm since 1970.

“It’s a good chance for the cows, the farm, the farm workers and the villagers to recover,” Eavis said. “It’s been tough on the cows. This will be like a fallow year in farming terms.”

When Glastonbury was first held on Eavis’ farm near Pilton in Somerset, about 1,500 hippies paid one pound each to hear a handful of bands, including Marc Bolan’s T-Rex.

From small beginnings, the event expanded rapidly, but as the festival grew in popularity, so did the problems. Villagers were soon complaining that their tranquil corner of England had been hit by vandalism, theft, litter and deafening noise.

The festival was cancelled in 2001 after crime and crowd-control problems a year earlier. It was reinstated in 2002 with tightened security, including a giant “super-fence” and relations with the locals have improved markedly.

Eavis had additional good news to offer 150,000 fans that pour into the site every year for three days of rock’n’roll excess — he has found a spring on the farm that will supply enough water to quench thirsts and clean mud-spattered bodies.

But he insisted: “The mud really only arrives once in every five years. We would like to coincide our next year off with a wet year.”

Glastonbury 2004 was headlined by Oasis, Muse and former Beatle Paul McCartney. Eavis declined to say who will headline this year’s festival, to be held June 24-26, although he says the main acts are all confirmed.

Source billboard.com.

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.