2005

There’s a fine line between Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven. The groups share several members, including frontman David Lowery, and they often perform together.

This fall, each band has its own tour booked, starting with Cracker’s Midwest run from October 27 to November 4. The gigs are billed as “Cracker Acoustic,” a stripped-down version of the band comprising Lowery and Johnny Hickman.

After a Chicago show at Martyrs’, Lowery will round up his Camper Van Beethoven bandmates and set out on what looks to be a week’s worth of West Coast shows. The current schedule spans November 14-19, staying mostly in the Northern California area, along with a Reno, Nev., gig.

The two bands have done several co-headlining tours together over the last couple of years, including some East Coast dates this past spring.

Source pollstar.com.

British singer/songwriter James Blunt is pairing with Jason Mraz for select tour dates this fall during his first North American tour. His run is set to open Oct. 24 in Denver with dates confirmed through Nov. 26 and more expected.

The tour comes in support of Blunt’s debut album, “Back To Bedlam,” released Tuesday in the United States via Atlantic. The album was previously issued in the United Kingdom in October 2004, and spent nine non-consecutive weeks in the No. 1 slot on the U.K. album chart. The set also spawned the No. 1 single “You

A bomb threat halted a Rolling Stones concert in Charlottesville, Va., last night, but police found nothing and the band returned to the stage about 45 minutes later, officials said on Friday.

The threat was made in a phone call just before 9 p.m. and was “specific to the stage area” of the concert at the University of Virginia’s Scott stadium, which was packed with 50,000 fans, said university spokesperson Carol Wood.

“Word was got to [Stones frontman] Mick Jagger and he announced that the band would take a 10-minute break,” Wood said.

The band, which had performed eight songs, left the stage and police with sniffer dogs, already in the stadium for checks before the concert, searched the area.

When the all-clear was given, the Stones went back on stage and played past midnight to complete the concert.

Source: Billboard

The ruthless efficiency of our consumer culture in co-opting anything organic and true is the subject of “Colonized,” one of the first new songs in more than four years from the San Francisco Bay Area’s beloved Mother Hips.

Ironically, for more than a decade the roots-rockers worked overtime trying to market their own music. The industry, for the most part, wasn’t buying. Despite a brief, two-album run with Rick Rubin’s American Recordings in the mid-Nineties, the band toiled for years on the road-warrior circuit, self-releasing two of its five albums and building a fiercely devoted following, one set of ears at a time.

Those ears are now ringing with word of mouth that the Mother Hips are back together after an extended hiatus.

Singer-guitarist Greg Loiacono, co-founder and co-songwriter with his fellow frontman Tim Bluhm, opted out of the group two years ago, leaving Bluhm, drummer John Hofer and bassist Paul Hoaglin to pursue side projects. But now the Mother Hips have officially reunited, with an EP and single due in November on New York-based Camera Records and a spate of West Coast dates beginning October 28th in Santa Barbara. The band also has plans to play New York and other eastern cities in February.

To read more, visit rollingstone.com.

When you pay a thousand bucks for a concert ticket, there better be a damn good reason. And, Wednesday night at Chicago’s House of Blues, there was one. The final show on Pearl Jam’s tour wasn’t on the original itinerary, but once Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and its surrounding areas, an encore was in order. With all proceeds — including merchandise sales — going toward Katrina relief, Pearl Jam headlined the relatively intimate venue, bringing Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation along for support. And the inspired pairing of frontman Eddie Vedder and Plant brought the worthy evening’s loosest, most raucous moments.

The price of admission included nearly two hours of Pearl Jam’s catalog, ranging from Ten’s “Evenflow” and “Porch” to more obscure tracks like “Man of the Hour” and “I Got Id.” It was a sermon- and filibuster-free night, devoid of cracks at the Commander in Chief and without a rendition of the band’s vitriolic “Bushleaguer.” Vedder’s first mention of Katrina came during the first encore, when he briefly acknowledged FEMA’s failures before adding, “Hopefully they’ll learn in the future.” That was as didactic as it got.

With a stellar set already behind them, Pearl Jam’s second encore made the ticket price seem like a bargain. The band began it with the Yield song “Given to Fly” — a track both the Seattle rockers and Led Zeppelin have acknowledged owes a debt to the Seventies veterans’ “Going to California.” Vedder went so far as to dedicate the song to Plant and, as it tapered off, the Strange Sensation supplanted Pearl Jam, with Plant, who’d performed a seven-song opening set, appearing at stage left to transform the song into the tune that inspired it. Vedder, bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Mike McCready stood back and were regaled by the Tall Cool One.

Next, Pearl Jam jumped back in so that Vedder and Plant could trade verses on rock & roll standards “Little Sister” and the appropriate “Money (That’s What I Want).” Plant dusted off a song he’s never performed live (or just doesn’t remember performing live), the In Through the Out Door pop nugget “Fool in the Rain.” One thing’s for certain, neither he nor Vedder remembered the words, and flubbed them often. Afterwards, Plant smiled and conceded, “I never remember the lyrics to me own songs.” Warts and all, it was a classic moment, one that would only be upstaged by the show closer, Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” which featured Plant on — drum roll, please — guitar. McCready could be seen actually teaching Plant the chord changes as the supercharged anthem rolled on.

Source rollingstone.com.