2005

In a show of support, organizers of the Blue Ridge HarvestFest – to be held on October 7-8-9 in LaFayette, Georgia – are turning their 8th annual event into a benefit for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Berkeley-based High Sierra Music and Atlanta’s T-Dawg’s Productions are proud to announce that 100% of net proceeds from HarvestFest will be given as direct aid to those in the music community affected by the hurricane. A food drive and raffle will be held as well. Additional funds raised through the High Sierra Foundation will also be donated to hurricane relief efforts.

Featuring a bounty of bluegrass and Americana artists with a dash of rock, soul and funk, this year’s HarvestFest line-up includes world-class bluegrass ensemble The Del McCoury Band, whose new album The Company We Keep is earning praise from The Washington Post to People Magazine; Victor Wooten’s Soul Circus led by the innovative bassist from Grammy-winning supergroup Bela Fleck and The Flecktones; The CodeTalkers featuring “The Godfather of Southern Alternative Music” Col. Bruce Hampton, Bobby Lee Rodgers and special guest Jimmy Herring (The Dead, Phil Lesh & Friends, The Allman Brothers Band); Tim O’Brien, Hot Rize founder and acclaimed multi-instrumentalist whose band features Danny Barnes (Bad Livers, Bill Frisell), Casey Driesen (Bela Fleck, Steve Earle) and Dennis Crouch (Johnny and June Carter Cash, Emmylou Harris); recently reunited the subdudes from New Orleans whose new release Miracle Mule prompted Billboard Magazine to declare the band “still has it”; Drew Emmitt Band led by the incendiary mandolinist formerly with Leftover Salmon; Great American Taxi featuring festival favorite Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon; Railroad Earth, The Duhks, Split Lip Rayfield, and many more.

HarvestFest is celebrating its third year at Cherokee Farms, a beautiful 250+ acre private site that offers plenty of room for car camping, RVs, and tent camping in the woods, showers, and a swimming pond. The three-day music and camping festival attracts music lovers of all ages with two stages, children’s activities, quiet family camping, Zaxby’s Sports Bar featuring college and pro football games on a big screen, a food and beverage court featuring microbrew beer from Sweetwater and Terrapin Brewing, a craft fair, and the opportunity to catch top-notch artists in an intimate and relaxed setting. The festival is holding its first Vassar Clements Band Competition, open to bluegrass bands who are not performing as part of the official HarvestFest line-up with the winner receiving a performance slot on the main stage on Sunday and other prizes.

Three-day, two-day and single-day tickets are available, so whether patrons camp out for the weekend or come up for the day they will be helping to contribute toward hurricane relief. HarvestFest tickets are available online via harvestfest.com , by phone at 510.595.1115, and at local ticket outlets Cat’s Records in Chattanooga, IFO in Atlanta, Wuxtry and Athens Music Museum in Athens, and Hernes’ in East Rome. Group discounts are also available: with the purchase of 15 or more 3-day HarvestFest passes patrons will receive 10% off the ticket price plus a reserved camping spot. Please call 510.595.1115 for more information on group ticket sales.

In order to mark the band’s 10th anniversary, Galactic is proud to announce the plans for their “Ten Year Invasion” fall tour. The invasion will begin October 26th in Crystal Bay, NV, and will include stops in New York, Boston, Washington DC, and Las Vegas for the upcoming Vegoose music festival. Openers for the tour are as diverse as always with Lyrics Born and ALO each taking on different legs. This year’s special Halloween show, one of Galactic’s most anticipated annual events, will take place in Austin, TX, and with Mofro in the opening slot it’s sure to be a highlight on the fall tour. A longtime staple of the vibrant New Orleans music scene, Galactic is thrilled to hit the road to celebrate a decade of good times and great music. “We’ve all grown up together and learned so much,” says bassist Robert Mercurio. “We’re not only best friends, we’re like family.”

Although the fall tour plans remain intact, due to the current conditions in New Orleans Galactic must postpone their 10th Anniversary shows that were scheduled for September 9th & 10th at Tipitina’s. As longtime residents of New Orleans the members of Galactic have been particularly affected by last week’s tragedy. Although the band was on the road at the time of the event, they plan on doing all they can to assist in the recovery effort. They are currently exploring different options as far as benefits in which they can participate, and they will also use this time to work on their next studio album.

Galactic was born in the mid-’90s, after two Washington DC punks–guitarist Jeff Raines and bassist Robert Mercurio–relocated to New Orleans and found themselves intoxicated by the sounds of the scene that nurtured The Meters, Professor Longhair, the Neville Brothers and Dr. John. Armed with the rhythmic tradition of their adopted hometown, Raines, Mercurio, saxophonist Ben Ellman, keyboardist Rich Vogel, and drummer Stanton Moore have spent ten years tearing through venues across the world, leaving hordes of die-hard Galactic junkies in their wake. Weaving modern and retrospective styles into their own trademark jazz-funk-rock fusion, Galactic created a far-reaching canon–including six albums and countless live performances–informed by ongoing influence from a wide range of genres, including hip-hop, blues, pop, and electronica.

* All shows are on sale now through Galactic Ticketing
* Tickets will go on sale to the general public on September 10th

Galactic’s official web site: galacticfunk.com

New York rock act TV On The Radio has posted a new song, “Dry Drunk Emperor,” on the Web site of its label, Touch & Go Records. The track makes no bones about its frustration with President Bush and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq via such lines as: “Did you buy the bull they sold you / that the bullets and the bombs / and all the strong arms / would bring home security?”

“In the absence of a true leader, we must not forget that we are still together,” the band writes on the site. “Hearts are sick; minds must change. It is our hope that this song inspires, comforts, fosters courage and reminds us [that] this darkness cannot last if we work together.”

According to a spokesperson, TV On The Radio is putting the finishing touches on its next album, which will be released early next year. The group will also support Franz Ferdinand during its October North American tour.

Source billboard.com.

Apple Computer today introduced the iTunes Phone, a music-playing phone that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is comparing to the company’s popular iPod shuffle music player. Jobs made the announcement today (Sept. 7) at a press event in San Francisco.

The phone comes loaded with iTunes software and can hold about 100 songs as well as podcasts. Users can transfer songs form their PC or Macintosh computers via a USB cable. The phone stops playing music when a call is received.

“It’s an iPod shuffle right on your phone,” said Jobs, who noted that both the iPhone and iPod shuffle both randomly sort music, hold about the same songs and have display screens.

Jobs also introduced a pencil-thin iPod, the company’s ubiquitous digital music device. The iPod Nano will replace the iPod Mini. It is one-third the size of the Mini and holds 1,000 songs.

A 4-gigabyte Nano will retail for $249, and a 2-gigabyte model will sell for $199. Both versions will be available in stores this weekend, Jobs said.

Source: billboard

It began, fittingly enough, with jazz from New Orleans natives Harry Connick Jr. and Wynton Marsalis. But “A Concert for Hurricane Relief,” a heartfelt and dignified benefit aired on NBC and other networks last night (Sept. 2), took an unexpected turn thanks to the outspoken rapper Kanye West.

Appearing two-thirds through the program, he claimed “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” and said America is set up “to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible.”

The show, simulcast from New York on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and Pax, was aired live to the East Coast, enabling the Grammy-winning rapper’s outburst to go out uncensored. There was a several-second tape delay, but the person in charge “was instructed to listen for a curse word, and didn’t realize [West] had gone off-script,” said an NBC spokesperson.

West’s comment about the president was cut from NBC’s West Coast airing, which showed three hours later on tape.

Comedian Mike Myers was paired with West for a 90-second segment that began with Myers speaking of Katrina’s devastation. Then, to Myers’ evident surprise, West began a rant by saying, “I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they’re looting. See a white family, it says they’re looking for food.”

To read more visit billboard.

Pearl Jam will visit South America for the first time later this year. Area fans have been clamoring for the band to tour the region for years, having collected thousands of signatures on a petition that was sent to band’s representatives. At deadline, eight shows were confirmed, beginning Nov. 22 in Santiago, Chile.

The group will also visit Buenos Aires and four cities in Brazil, as well as play two Mexico shows in Monterrey and Mexico City. The only show that is already on-sale is the Nov. 25 stop in Buenos Aires. Information about fan club ticketing is available on Pearl Jam’s Web site.

Last night (Sept. 1), the veteran Seattle outfit kicked off its fall tour in George, Wash., with a 36-song show split into acoustic and electric sets. The trek continues to Vancouver tonight and will wrap Oct. 3 in Philadelphia.

As previously reported, Pearl Jam has also launched its own digital download site for authorized bootlegs of shows from the tour.

Here are Pearl Jam’s South American tour dates:

Nov. 22: Santiago, Chile (venue TBA)
Nov. 25: Buenos Aires (Boca Juniors)
Nov. 28: Porto Alegre, Brazil (venue TBA)
Nov. 30: Curitiba, Brazil (venue TBA)
Dec. 2: Sao Paulo, Brazil (venue TBA)
Dec. 4: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (venue TBA)
Dec. 7: Monterrey, Mexico (venue TBA)
Dec. 9: Mexico City (venue TBA)

Source billboard.com.

A four-disc DVD set of the nine international concerts held on July 2nd as part of Live 8, an initiative organized by Bob Geldof to pressure the G8 to address extreme poverty in Africa, will be released on November 8th. A “generous” royalty from sales of the package — which features performances from artists ranging from Paul McCartney’s duet with U2’s Bono on “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” to Pink Floyd’s reunion — will go to the Band Aid Trust for African relief.

The first three discs focus on the shows at London’s Hyde Park and at Philadelphia’s Museum of Art, with highlights from the events in Paris, Rome, Berlin, Tokyo, Moscow, Toronto and Johannesburg. In addition to the McCartney/Bono concert opener, duets include McCartney and George Michael, Stevie Wonder and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, and Coldplay and Richard Ashcroft.

The third disc closes with the entire Hyde Park lineup performing the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” The final disc features a behind-the-scenes documentary of the London show, Pink Floyd’s reunion rehearsal and other extras.

Source: RollingStone