Archive: 2005

Less than two weeks before the planned Jan. 3 release of her sophomore Columbia album, “Pretty Little Head,” singer/songwriter Nellie McKay has voluntarily left the label, sources tell Billboard.com. At deadline, the fate of the album is unknown; a spokesperson for the artist had no comment and McKay could not be reached.

The parties apparently reached an impasse over the length of the project. McKay insisted the label release her 23-song, 65-minute version, while Columbia sent out promotional copies of a 16-song, 48-minute album. Reviews of the set, which features guest appearances from Cyndi Lauper and k.d. lang, have already begun appearing in music magazines.

At recent shows, McKay had given out the personal email address of Columbia chairman Will Botwin from the stage, encouraging fans to press for the release of the longer version of the album. Botwin left the company earlier this month.

Source billboard.com.

Bruce Springsteen’s celebrated 1982 album, “Nebraska,” will be performed in its entirety by a host of notable artists next month as part of the New York Guitar Festival. Dubbed the Nebraska Project, the event will serve as the kick-off for the Guitar Festival, which will open Jan. 14 at the World Financial Center Winter Garden.

A different artist will perform each album track, beginning with Michelle Shocked on the title cut and also including the National (“Manson on the Hill”), Martha Wainwright with Marc Ribot (“Highway Patrolman”), Meshell Ndegeocello (“Up All Night”) and Dan Zanes with Vernon Reid (“State Trooper”).

Other performers set to appear are Jesse Harris (“Atlantic City”), Chocolate Genius (“Johnny 99”), Laura Cantrell (“Used Cars”), Mark Eitzel (“My Father’s House”) and Kevn Kinney with Lenny Kaye (“Reason To Believe”). Additional instrumental interludes will be provided by Ribot, Gary Lucas and Harry Manx.

“Nebraska” was previously the subject of a 2000 Sub Pop tribute album that featured Johnny Cash, Aimee Mann, Ben Harper, Ani DiFranco and Los Lobos, among others.

The New York Guitar Festival, which runs through Feb. 8, will feature 60 artists at seven venues, including Daniel Lanois, Bill Frisell, Jorma Kaukonen and Taj Mahal.

Source billboard.com.

If you’re really in the mood for this kind of thing, do yourself a favor and put in some Television, Velvet Underground or Stooges.

This album is a walk down memory lane from the birth and early adolescence of rap and hip-hop, to the modern mind-melting compositions that are quickly becoming staples of my play lists.

This is much more than a stocking stuffer for your resident music fan, its history, it is prolific in a worldly sense of the word, and above all, the statement made on this great day hopefully opened some ears and eyes to the horrid truth of world hunger in a day and age when it is not necessary.

Immolation/Immersion is the type of noisy, grating, experimental jazz that sends obsessive freaks into a tailspin of self-doubt and discovery.

With rock bands coming and going like visitors to a mid-Western brothel, it

Veteran singer/songwriter Van Morrison has aligned with Lost Highway for the release of his next studio album, the country-dominated “Pay the Devil.” Due March 7, the 15-track set features the Morrison originals “This Has Got To Stop,” “Playhouse” and the title cut.

“Pay the Devil” is rounded out by songs popularized by Webb Pierce (“There Stands the Glass”), Hank Williams (“Your Cheatin’ Heart”), Conway Twitty (“What Am I Living For”), Emmylou Harris (“‘Til I Gain Control”), Big Joe Turner (“Don’t You Make Me High”) and George Jones (“Things Have Gone to Pieces”), among others.

Morrison most recently recorded for Geffen, which released his “Magic Time” album in May. The set debuted at No. 25 on The Billboard 200. Prior to that, he was with Blue Note for the 2004 release “What’s Wrong With This Picture?”

The artist has been previewing some of the “Pay the Devil” material at recent live shows. His schedule will resume Jan. 3 on Spain’s Grand Canary Island; it is unknown if North American dates are in the works.

Here is the track list for “Pay the Devil”:

“There Stands the Glass”
“Half As Much”
“Things Have Gone to Pieces”
“Big Blue Diamonds”
“Playhouse”
“Your Cheatin’ Heart”
“Don’t You Make Me High”
“My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It”
“Back Street Affair”
“Pay the Devil”
“What Am I Living For”
“This Has Got To Stop”
“Once a Day”
“More and More”
“‘Til I Gain Control Again”

Source billboard.com.

Nearly four decades after Johnny Cash recorded his groundbreaking live album “Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison,” 20th Century Fox will screen its Cash biopic “Walk the Line” at the California state prison.

Film star Joaquin Phoenix, who received a Golden Globe nomination last week for his portrayal of the late “Man in Black,” will be on hand for the Jan. 3 screening. The film begins and ends with Cash’s electrifying performance at the prison.

“We invited 20th Century Fox to screen ‘Walk the Line’ at Folsom because the lesson of Johnny Cash is that it’s never too late for a man to turn his life around, and that’s a story these men need to hear,” said Joe Avila, California executive director of the nonprofit Prison Fellowship.

Added Phoenix: “[Cash] believed in the power of redemption and offered his unique gift to anyone who needed to find it within them, and in the process, he inspired millions. I can think of no greater way to honor him than to carry on his legacy of using music to connect to all people.”

Founded in 1976 by Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship partners with local churches nationwide to aid prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families.

Source billboard.com.

Photos by Robert Massie of Umphrey

Rock and roll by its very nature is secular music, but few bands have indulged as extremely as Motley Crue. Their exercises in debauchery

Nice Talking To Me sounds like the same band you played hacky-sack to, but with a new found vigor and a contemporary flair. Still, second chances are hard to come by and rock reunions are typically better received at the twenty year mark instead of just a decade – just ask Motley Crue and Duran Duran. So we put drummer Aaron Comess on the hot seat and threw a few questions his way.

On their Steve Albini produced debut, Ahead of the Lions, Living Things rekindle a Stooges/MC5 riot rock energy with them, that muscles up whatever glam inklings their Marc Bolan side wants to reveal. Like most cheap riff living bands, Living Things offer little in the way of lyrics, but many meat servings in the way of balls to the wall guitar hero riffs that would fit into “School of Rock 101. “

You may not have realized they

On December 10, 2005, Low performed a Christmas concert in the Sacred Heart Music Center in Duluth, Minnesota, for a church full of appreciative music go-ers, to benefit the Maasai School Project in Kenya. Out of a perfectly satisfying seventeen song set, Low performed only one up-tempo song, “It Was Just Like Christmas.”

The fifth annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival is confirmed to take place June 16 – 18, 2005. The three-day camping and music festival will once again be held on the same beautiful, 700-acre farm in Manchester, TN, 60 miles southeast of Nashville.

Festival organizers have also announced that they’ve decided to reduce the total capacity in 2006 by 10,000 people, returning to the same capacity as the 2003 festival. The size will create a more comfortable environment for everyone involved and to create the best festival experience possible.

Stay tuned to the official website for all info including lineup announcements, ticketing info, special activities and more.

Paul Simon and Herbie Hancock will headline the Berklee College of Music’s 60th anniversary concert, to be held Jan. 28 at Boston’s Wang Theatre. The show will be produced by Phil Ramone and hosted by comedian Bill Cosby. Performances will also be featured from vibes player Gary Burton and vocalist Chiara Civello.

Proceeds will benefit the Berklee Presidential Scholarship Fund; Simon, Hancock and Cosby are donating their usual compensation to Berklee scholarships that will be created in their name.

Hancock and Simon teamed up earlier this year for a new version of the latter’s “I Do It for Your Love,” which appeared on Hancock’s album “Possibilities.” Simon is also progressing on his long-in-the-works collaboration with Brian Eno. Billboard.com understands a number of tracks are finished, but no release date has yet been announced.

Source billboard.com.

Beginning with the band’s 2001 eponymous debut, the Memphis, Tenn. quartet has maintained an irreverent blend of country and punk that, over time, has been blurred into a very cohesive and organic coupling.

Sauerwine outfunks even the strongest 70s bands you

The band