2005

Southern rock act the Drive-By Truckers are spending much of their fall putting the finishing touches on their as-yet-untitled sixth studio album, due next spring on New West Records. According to group member Patterson Hood, the songs will be fresh to even the band’s die-hard fan base.

“Most everything on it is real new,” he tells Billboard.com. “Lord knows I’ve got a backlog of songs, but when we went into the studio I pretty much ignored it. Everything else we’ve written since we started recording.”

That’s a new technique for the Truckers, whose catalog stretches back almost two decades — Hood and Trucker co-founder Mike Cooley will celebrate their 20th anniversary making music together next August.

“We’re at that point where we’ve cut enough songs, but I’m not quite sure where the final edit’s gonna go,” he says. “It could go three pretty radically different directions — to me there’s one that’s probably a little more obvious, so most likely that’s what’ll happen. But things can always change when you have this many crazy, temperamental people in a room,” he adds with a chuckle.

Hood is also keeping busy on the solo side as well. Asked if his second solo album, “Murdering Oscar and Other Love Songs” would see the light of day soon, he replied with a laugh, “Goddammit, it needs to!”

Hood will wait until after the next Truckers record to mix and master “Oscar,” the follow-up to his dark 2004 release “Killers and Stars.” “Oscar” will feature Hood’s father, longtime Muscle Shoals session man David Hood, as well as Truckers Cooley, Jason Isbell and Shonna Tucker. Rough mixes of the tracks “Pollyanna” and “Grandaddy” are available at PattersonHood.com.

“I couldn’t be prouder of it,” Hood says of the album. “I think chronologically, it was the next record for me, it’s was what needed to follow up ‘The Dirty South.’ But for right now, it’s on hold.”

The solo set, as well as some of Hood’s new Truckers material, have been influenced his new status as a father. His first daughter was born eight months ago; “Oscar,” he says, was written and recorded “while I was pretty much waiting for her to be born, because the studio’s five minutes from my house.”

In addition, Hood says the song “World of Hurt,” inspired by his daughter, will be the Truckers’ disc’s last track. Of the tune, he says, “It’s about figuring out a way to turn the demons that can threaten to destroy you when you’re an angry young man into something that you live with and maybe even do well with, and I think certainly that’s been the case with me.”

Hood will play solo Oct. 25 in New York, then rejoin the Truckers for fall shows beginning Oct. 27 in Auburn, Ala. Solo albums from Cooley and Isbell are also in the pipeline.

Source billboard.com.

Widely regarded as one of Phish’s finest live performances and named one of the “Greatest Concerts of the ’90s” by Rolling Stone, Phish celebrates the 10th Anniversary of their 12/31/95 performance with the release of “Phish: New Year’s Eve 1995 – Live At Madison Square Garden”, in stores December 20th.

“The years just keep sliding by.” Trey said it best during Fly Famous Mockingbird. Phish stormed Madison Square Garden on their annual holiday tour for a night of music, myth, theater and celebration. The Deluxe 3-CD set includes the complete three-set show (27 tracks and more than three and a half hours of music).

Phish.com will be your official Backstage Pass to New Year’s Eve 1995, so keep checking in for exciting announcements in the coming months.

The Mars Volta has committed its epic live show to disc on “Scab Dates,” due Nov. 8 via GSL/Universal. Recorded at various shows between 2003-2005, the set features only six songs over the course of its 72-minute running time. The four-part closer “Cicatriz” alone runs more than 40 minutes, half of which is taken up by its 20-minute final portion.

Samples of “Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt” and “And Ghosted Pouts” can be streamed on the band’s official Web site.

Having recently completed a run with System Of A Down, the group is gearing up for the Dec. 2-4 edition of the U.K.’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, which it will curate. Among the acts slated to perform are Antony & the Johnsons, Dungen, Diamanda Galas, the Kills, Weird War, Les Savy Fav, Blonde Redhead, Acid Mothers Temple and various members of Can.

As previously reported, Mars Volta has also signed on for the annual Big Day Out festival tour of Australia and New Zealand, which kicks off Jan. 20 in Auckland.

Here is the track list for “Scab Dates”:

“Abrasions Mount the Timpani”
“Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt”
a) “Gust of Mutts”
b) “And Ghousted Pouts”
“Caviglia”
“Concertina”
“Haruspex”
“Cicatriz”
a) “Pt. I”
b) “Pt. II”
c) “Pt. III”
d) “Pt. IV”

Source billboard.com .

Start with two of the Caribbean

ck is eyeing a Dec. 6 release for the Interscope project “Guerolito,” which will feature a remix of every track on his latest studio album, “Guero.” Although the track list is not yet finalized, among the confirmed participants are Boards Of Canada, Octet, the Beastie Boys’ Ad Rock and the Dust Brothers’ John King.

Royksopp and Dizzee Rascal previously contributed remixes for the deluxe edition of “Guero” but it unknown if those songs will appear on “Guerolito.”

Since its March release, “Guero” has sold more than 707,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Beck has a handful of fall tour dates left on his schedule, which resume Oct. 27 in San Diego. He will also be in Las Vegas later that week for two shows associated with the first Vegoose festival.

Source billboard.com.

Two live Jack Johnson DVDs will be released together Nov. 22 via his own Brushfire Records label. “Live in Japan” was shot in August 2004, while “A Weekend at the Greek Theatre” was lensed during an Aug. 19-20, 2005, stand at the Berkeley, Calif., venue. Both DVDs were directed by Brendan and Emmett Malloy.

“Live in Japan” spotlights Johnson’s band in a trio setting, with bassist Merlo Podlewski and drummer Adam Topol focusing on songs from the albums “Brushfire Fairytales” and “On and On.” Also featured is an early version of “Banana Pancakes,” which turned up on this year’s album “In Between Dreams,” plus guest shots from Donavon Frankenreiter and Money Mark.

“A Weekend at the Greek Theatre” finds Johnson’s band expanded to a quartet with pianist/accordionist Zach Gill of the Animal Liberation Orchestra. The group is joined again by Money Mark and fellow Brushfire signees G. Love, Animal Liberation Orchestra and Matt Costa.

Beyond an Oct. 29 appearance at Las Vegas’ Vegoose Festival and a Nov. 20 show in Kahului, Hawaii, Johnson has begun lining up 2006 tour dates, beginning Feb. 22 in Dublin.

He is also at work on new music for the upcoming animated film “Curious George,” the soundtrack for which is due in February via Brushfire. The movie will boast the voice talents of Will Ferrell, David Cross, Drew Barrymore, Eugene Levy and Dick Van Dyke.

Source billboard.com.