2005

Wilco has put the finishing touches on a benefit concert at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago on Tuesday, November 1. Proceeds from this show will benefit the New Orleans Musician Relief and Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans

Pre-sale via wilcoworld will take place on Thursday, October 13 at 10 am CDT, and the remaining tickets go on sale Saturday, October 15 at 11 am at the Auditorium Theatre Box Office and via Ticketmaster. Tickets are $50 and $35 and both Ticketmaster and Musictoday have agreed to reduce their processing fees for this show.In addition, the band has reserved 36 of the Auditorium Theatre’s private opera boxes, which will be sold exclusively via wilcoworld. Boxes include an equal number of passes to the soundcheck party on the day of the show.

Percy Hill singer/songwriter/drummer/producer Aaron Katz is bringing Geminatrix to The Stone Church in Newmarket NH this Friday Oct 14th. One dollar from each ticket sold is going to the New Hampshire Red Cross Hurricane Katrina benefit fund.

For more information please visit one of the links below:

geminatrix.com
stonechurch.com
myspace.com
percyhill.com

Friends, tour mates and titans of the

Rock legend Eric Clapton, now sixty, is set to write his autobiography for Doubleday, due for publication in spring of 2007.

The as-yet-untitled book, which will also be issued in audio format by Random House, will be written in collaboration with Christopher Simon Sykes, a close friend of Clapton’s since 1967. The book will also coincide with a North American tour and a Warner Brothers release of a complete retrospective box set of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s recordings.

The announcement finds Clapton following in the footsteps of two other high-profile rock autobiographies: Sting’s Broken Music: A Memoir (2003) and Bob Dylan’s Chronicles: Volume One (2004). Both were strong sellers.

Meanwhile, Clapton will join his original Cream bandmates — bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker — for three nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden from October 24th through the 26th. The performances come on the heels of their triumphant four-night stand in London last May. Those shows were released on a two-CD live album and DVD earlier this month.

Clapton released a new studio album, Back Home, featuring guests John Mayer, Steve Winwood and Robert Randolph, in August. The set debuted at Number Thirteen.

Source rollingstone.com.

EMI has set a Dec. 5 U.K. release for the long-awaited DVD debut of the Pink Floyd concert film “Pulse,” which will arrive the following day in North America via Sony Music. The project was originally released in 1995 in conjunction with a double-disc CD set of the same name. The film chronicles the band’s 1994 tour in support of the album “The Division Bell,” which turned out to be its last.

The DVD was taped during a 14-night run at London’s Earl’s Court and is highlighted by the first complete performance of the 1973 album “Dark Side of the Moon,” which can be found on the second disc. The first disc features a blend of older hits (“Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2,” “Learning To Fly”) and material from “The Division Bell” (“Keep Talking,” “Take It Back”).

Among the bonus features are the back-screen stage projections for such songs as “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” “High Hopes” and the majority of the “Dark Side of the Moon” material, plus videos for “Learning To Fly” and “Take It Back.”

Bonus performances of four “Division Bell” songs are included in the feature “Bootlegging the Bootleggers,” while the documentary “Goodbye to Life As We Know It” offers previously unseen off-stage footage of Pink Floyd on the road.

Source billboard.com.

After two albums of lushly orchestrated pop that brought them to a new level of acclaim, the Flaming Lips are returning to guitar-based rock’n’roll as they finish up their next studio set. “At War With the Mystics” is due in February or March via Warner Bros. Lips frontman Wayne Coyne tells Billboard.com the group was inspired to plug in after featuring a cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” in its live shows.

“You can’t tell if [the members of Sabbath] are farmers, wizards, hippies or members of a cult,” Coyne says. “It’s mysterious territory. Part of that, we really fell in love with. So, there are some tracks we’ve delved into production-wise, where we’re trying to get some of that heavy rock’n’roll with heavy guitar riffs, but not just to be aggressive. On the last couple of records, we’ve tried to be more expressive in beautiful ways. But sometimes, volume and intensity are great too.”

The idea for one particularly Sabbath-influenced cut, “The Wand,” came to Coyne after observing a homeless man wandering around Oklahoma City who always carries a giant stick with him.

To read more visit billboard.com.

With the upcoming release of the world

Longtime hip-hop colleagues Mos Def and Talib Kweli will team for a fall tour under the heading Breed Love Odyssey, marking their first appearances together since a one-off reunion of their group Black Star earlier this year at the Coachella festival. The trek will be sponsored by PlayStation and will kick off Oct. 28 in Sacramento, Calif. Jean Grae and Pharoahe Monch are also on the bill.

PlayStation will offer a variety of giveaways at the shows, including PSP software and free downloads from the Sony Connect store. Fans will also be able to sample PSP games.

Of late, Mos Def has focused on furthering his acting career via such films as “The Italian Job,” “The Woodsman” and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” He is presently in Brazil shooting the movie “Journey to the End of the Night,” and will also create original music for the soundtrack.

The artist’s next solo album is expected to be released early next year via his Geffen; sources say it is his last album under contract with the label. It will be the follow up to 2004’s “The New Danger,” which debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

As for Kweli, he will unveil his next album, “Right About Now,” Nov. 22 via his own Blacksmith Music imprint through Warner Bros., which is also home to Grae.

Here are the Breed Love Odyssey tour dates:

Oct. 28: Sacramento, Calif. (Memorial Auditorium)
Oct. 29-30: San Francisco (Mezzanine)
Oct. 31: Santa Cruz, Calif. (Catalyst Club)
Nov. 3: Los Angeles (Gibson Amphitheatre)
Nov. 4: Anaheim, Calif. (House of Blues / 2 shows)
Nov. 5: San Diego (House of Blues / 2 shows)
Nov. 6: Las Vegas (House of Blues)
Nov. 7: Phoenix (Marquee Theatre)
Nov. 10-11: Denver (Ogden Theatre)
Nov. 12: Albuquerque, N.M. (Sunshine Theatre)
Nov. 13: Austin, Texas (Stubbs BBQ)
Nov. 14: Houston (Warehouse Live)

Source billboard.com.