2005

Rock trio the Secret Machines is eyeing a mid-to-late March release for its second Reprise album, “Ten Silver Drops.” Primarily recorded at Allaire Studios in upstate New York, the eight-track set will be led by the single “Alone, Jealous and Stoned,” which will be commercially released in the United Kingdom in late January.

“We started writing the record last January in preparation for the touring we did last year,” vocalist/bassist Brandon Curtis tells Billboard.com. “Basically, all the material, with the exception of maybe two or three songs, was really finished and completed structurally and lyrically on tour. The feedback from performing in front of an audience was really instructive in how the songs were put together. I’m not sure I’d say I’d do it every time, but it was an interesting thing to do.”

Curtis is particularly excited by “I Want To Know if It’s Still Possible,” which features a guest appearance from the Band’s Garth Hudson. “At first he sat down on the Hammond [organ]. He was playing really beautifully, but I don’t think anybody was thinking it was really working,” Curtis says. “We took a break and he came back and picked up the accordion. We wound up running it through a remodulator and a low-pass filter and really kind of freaking it out.”

“Ten Silver Drops” is the follow-up to 2004’s “Now Here Is Nowhere,” which has sold more than 84,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Curtis admits that while the new songs run to similar lengths as the often-epic material on “Nowhere,” they “are all more focused and a little sharper. It’s funny — it just seems like we can’t write a song shorter than five minutes. Maybe we’re just long-winded and we can’t get to the point,” he says with a laugh.

The artist adds that several new songs, including “A Thousand Seconds” and “All at Once It’s Not Important,” will be a challenge to replicate live, considering their overdub-heavy studio versions. “That’s something we’re dealing with: how do you do all of it? Maybe we won’t or maybe we’ll re-write it,” he says. “We haven’t had a real strong rehearsal session yet where we can start re-examining the new material we haven’t played.”

For now, the only show on Secret Machines’ schedule is a Dec. 1 benefit at New York’s Webster Hall with TV On The Radio and Annie, with proceeds earmarked for the non-profit Mercy Corps. Curtis says the band will return to regular live duty in North America at the beginning of March, followed by a five-week tour of Europe and additional North American shows starting in late April or early May.

Source billboard.com.

Canadian sibling rock act Tegan & Sara’s upcoming DVD, “If It’s Not Fun, Don’t Do It,” will include the usual ingredients: a full concert recorded last year in Toronto, the band’s videos and some surprising fan-created footage. But according to group member Sara Quin, it will also feature a lot of good, old fashioned chatting.

“There’s going to be so much commentary — Tegan and I just use any excuse we can to talk,” she tells Billboard.com of the set, due Feb. 7. “We already did the commentary [over the live show], and we don’t even talk about the concert. We just use it as a jumping off point, like, ‘Hi, we’re Tegan & Sara and this is our show. So anyway, this one time…'”

“If It’s Not Fun” will also include the DVD component that was packaged with the 2004 studio album, “So Jealous,” as well a 24-minute tour movie shot by Tegan. “We think it’s absolutely hilarious,” Sara says, “But it’s a lot of inside jokes, so it’s hard to get a handle on if it’s actually funny.”

Along those lines, Sara says to look out for an unusual fan enterprise that made her “lose [her] mind. We had a fan e-mail us and say she was making marionettes of our band. We get tons of e-mails about crafty things. But this girl made puppets of our entire band!” The attention to detail was such that the girl sewed clothes to resemble what the band wears on stage.

“So we told her, ‘If you film the marionettes, we will put it on the DVD.’ And she made drums and amps and filmed a video and a 10-minute documentary of the marionettes talking on the bus,” Sara reports. “It’s so weird and bizarre, but it’s great.”

Tegan & Sara open a headlining tour of the Southeast Wednesday (Nov. 23) in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and will spend part of January in Japan opening for the All-American Rejects. In addition, Sara says plans are in the works for the band to return to America in early 2006.

Source billboard.com.

Elvis Costello is planning a world symphony tour with longtime collaborator Steve Nieve. Dates have not yet been confirmed for the outing, which is expected to launch early in January.

The pair will be joined by local orchestras throughout the tour, which will feature a suite from “Il Sogno,” Costello’s inaugural full-length orchestral work, originally commissioned by the Italian dance company Aterbaletto, and recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. Also to be included are songs arranged for voice, piano and orchestra by Costello, Nieve, Sy Johnson, Bill Frisell and Vince Mendoza.

In that vein, a July 2004 performance by Costello with the Metropole Orkest will be released Feb. 24 via Deutsche Grammophon as “My Flame Turns Blue.” Captured at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, the concert found the artist joined by the 52-piece jazz orchestra to perform songs from his catalog and several previously unrecorded works. The group also joined Costello for a New York performance later in the month.

Among the offerings are versions of Costello’s “Clubland” and “Watching the Detectives,” his lyrical version of Charles Mingus’ “Hora Decubitus” and the title track, which features lyrics he wrote for Billy Strayhorn’s final composition, “Blood Count.” The set also includes performances of “Speak Darkly, My Angel,” “Can You Be True?” and “Upon a Veil of Midnight Blue,” none of which have previously appeared on an official Costello release. A bonus disc features a 45-minute suite from “Il Sogno.”

“This record may explain what I’ve been doing during the last 12 years when I haven’t had an electric guitar in my hands,” Costello writes in the disc’s liner notes.

As first reported here, Costello is slated to head into the studio this week to begin a collaboration with songwriter/arranger/pianist Allen Toussaint. Joe Henry will produce the album for Verve Records.

Source billboard.com.

Dinosaur Jr. – who has never before released a DVD – has finally announced plans to issue an official Dinosaur Jr. DVD release. This full length concert DVD, which will feature the band in its original line-up, will be filmed at New York’s legendary Irving Plaza on December 2-3, and at other shows along the band’s Fall Tour. The DVD will be directed by Gold In Berlin, which is run by Mascis’ own brother in-law, German filmmaker Phillip Virus. With unfettered access to this famously elusive band, fans can expect complete backstage access to Dinosaur Jr.’s recent reunion tour, one-on-one interviews, behind the scenes goings-on and a full set of performances of Dinosaur Jr. favorites. The DVD will be packed with bonus materials that any fan of the band – seasoned or brand new – will find thrilling and entertaining. Look for the DVD to be released during the first half of 2006.

In spring of 2005 the original members of Dinosaur Jr. – J Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph – announced they would play their first shows together in fifteen years; one of music’s most celebrated alternative rock pioneers, who split abruptly after only three albums, would roam again. Avid fans of the band knew that the impossible had happened – the reunion of J and Lou seemed as likely as aliens landing, music lovers quietly anticipated a rare second chance to see the legendary live show they had regretfully missed over a decade before, and young listeners, too young to have been there for the first time around, lined up for venue entrance like the generation before them.

Dinosaur Jr.’s current list of tour dates is as follows:

Monday, November 28 Blind Pig Ann Arbor, MI
Tuesday, November 29 Metro Chicago, IL
Wednesday, November 30 Metro Chicago, IL
Thursday, December 1 Mr. Smalls Theater Millval, PA
Friday, December 2 Irving Plaza New York, NY
Saturday, December 3 Irving Plaza New York, NY
Sunday, December 4 Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub, Cambridge MA
Monday, December 5 Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub, Cambridge MA

Rock legend David Bowie is in talks to play inventor Nikola Tesla in “The Prestige,” a thriller from “Batman Begins” director Christopher Nolan.

The cast also includes Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Michael Caine in a tale of rival magicians in early 20th century London. The Tesla character is based on the real-life Serbian-American who discovered the rotating magnetic field.

The script, on which Nolan is working, is based on Christopher Priest’s 1996 novel and was adapted by Nolan’s brother, Jonathan, who also wrote the short story on which Nolan’s breakout movie, “Memento,” was based. The movie is scheduled to shoot in January with a budget in the $40 million range.

Bowie’s screen acting credits range from 1976’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth” to 1983’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” 1996’s “Basquiat” and, most recently, 2000’s “Mr. Rice’s Secret.”

Source billboard.com.

Benny