2005

Rock was resplendent at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night, as the veteran punk group Green Day took home seven moonmen and newcomers The Killers and Fall Out Boy won one each.

Green Day, who arrived at the venue in the vintage green convertible from their gritty “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” video, won best rock video and video of the year for the clip — two of their leading eight nominations. They also won the viewer’s choice award, best group and several technical categories, losing only to Gwen Stefani’s “What You Waiting For?” for art direction.

In recent years, hip-hop and pop have dominated the show, especially in the major categories. Not this year: My Chemical Romance and Coldplay were among the showcase performances, and Kanye West was the only rapper to win an “all-genre” award, with his “Jesus Walks” taking best male video.

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After recently releasing her first concert album, “Live @ The Fillmore,” Lucinda Williams says the double-disc set opens more doors than it closes.

“There’s a pretty good selection of stuff but I would have had to put out a box set in order to really get everything,” Williams tells Billboard.com. “So, we we’re talking [about how] we’ll just have to put out another live album at some point and try to keep it going, like have Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.” One of the songs she feels is egregiously missing from the release is the title track to her 1998 disc “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.”‘

As far as the decision to release the live Lost Highway record, which was recorded in San Francisco over three nights in early 2004, the singer/songwriter says her current backing band — Doug Pettibone (guitars), Taras Prodaniuk (bass), Jim Christie (drums) — was just too good not to capture on tape.

Oddly enough, Williams didn’t want the pressure associated with making a live album so she asked her management not to tell her which shows were being recorded with a mobile unit. While this means there won’t be any video accompanying “Fillmore,” Williams’ 1998 Austin City Limits performance was recently released as a DVD by New West Records.

Notorious for taking her time between album releases, Williams says she has two dozen songs already written and recorded in a rough mix state for her next studio project, which is tentatively titled “Knowing” and may be released in early 2006.

Source billboard.com.

Spoon is going worldwide this fall with shows on three continents, including a recently announced North American tour.

Starting October 27 in Louisville, Ky., Britt Daniel & Co. will travel the continent for three weeks, making room for the Vegoose Music Festival in Las Vegas October 30 and a date with Bright Eyes in the latter’s hometown of Omaha, Neb., November 11.

The tour closes in San Diego at Canes November 18.

Spoon has been touring steadily since Gimme Fiction was released in May. Their June tour with The Clientele opening was almost completely sold out.

In September, Spoon plays Arthur magazine’s ArthurFest in Los Angeles before heading downunder for an eight-date Australian run.

They’ll head home to Texas for the Austin City Limits Music Festival September 23 before their three-week tour of Europe. Shows in the U.K., Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France and Spain are included on the Euro run, which wraps less than two weeks before the U.S. trek begins.

Source pollstar.com.

Rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight was shot in the leg early Sunday during a party hosted by Grammy-winning hip hop artist Kanye West. Knight, 40, was hospitalized in good condition, police said. He was shot during a celebrity-studded party at the Shore Club, one of the many celebrations in Miami Beach ahead of the MTV Video Music Awards scheduled Sunday night, said Miami Beach Police Officer Bobby Hernandez.

Sonja Mauro, a guest at the club, said a shot in the party’s VIP section rang out shortly before 1 a.m.

“I was in there and I heard a pop and I ran out and got trampled,” she said. People attending the party began screaming and running for the doors.

Celebrities who attended included West, actress Jessica Alba and comedian Eddie Murphy, but it was unclear whether they were still there when the shooting took place.

Knight co-founded the pioneering rap label Death Row Records and hit the charts in the 1990s with West Coast stars including Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur.

Source: pollstar

On the heels of a live solo disc last year, pianist Brad Mehldau returns to a group setting on “Day Is Done,” due Sept. 27 via Nonesuch. The 10-track set finds the artist backed by bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard and features interpretations of Radiohead’s “Knives Out,” Nick Drake’s “Day Is Done” and the Beatles chestnuts “She’s Leaving Home” and “Martha My Dear.”

Rounding out the album is the Nat King Cole-popularized “No Moon at All,” a cover of Paul Simon’s “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” and the Mehldau originals “Turtle Town” and “Artis.”

“Day Is Done” follows the pianist’s Nonesuch debut, “Live in Tokyo,” which debuted at No. 11 on Billboard’s Top Jazz Albums chart. Look for the trio on tour this fall, highlighted by a Nov. 22-27 stand at New York’s Village Vanguard.

Source billboard.com.

Kicking off Aug 23rd, mtvU ‘s “The Leak” will be streaming the new Death Cab For Cutie album online for a full week prior to album release! Be first to hear “Plans” in it’s entirety before it hits stores on Aug 30th on Atlantic Records – only on mtvU.com.

Also every day this week you can watch a special sneak preview of the band’s “Unveil” session – an intimate in-studio live performance of six of their new songs, plus “A Movie Script Ending” and “Lightness” – filmed in LA exclusively for mtvU. Just what the Death Cab doctor ordered – a video a day, every day until release!

Then on Aug 29th we’ll all be tuning into mtvU.com for the feature premiere of “mtvU Unveil” Death Cab For Cutie’s live performance, starting noon (EDT). So set the dates in your calendar and be first to catch DCFC and their new album “Plans”, exclusively on mtvU.com

plus… Virgin Mobile Phone users can also access the wireless “The Leak” audio clips via “MTV on your Virgin Mobile”.

www.mtvu.com
www.deathcabforcutie.com

The Black Crowes have often seemed more comfortable on stage than anywhere else, so it makes sense that the first fruit of the band’s successful reunion tour will be four concert albums via Instant Live.

All the shows were taped during a stint earlier this month at San Francisco’s Fillmore and feature a total of 85 songs. They are expected to begin shipping early next week and can be ordered via Instant Live’s Web site.

Beyond nuggets from their sizable back catalog, the Crowes have been sprinkling in such covers as the Otis Redding-popularized “You Don’t Miss You Water,” the Beatles’ “Yer Blues,” Ry Cooder’s “Boomer’s Story” and Neil Young’s “Pardon My Heart” into their sets.

The group is winding down its stint of support dates with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and will begin a fall headlining tour Sept. 4 in George, Wash. Dates are on tap through an Oct. 30-31 stint at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre.

And although Kate Hudson (wife of Crowes vocalist Chris Robinson) recently told a Dutch magazine that the band is planning to return to the studio in the near future, no details have been confirmed. The Crowes have been absent from the studio since 2001’s “Lions,” their lone set for V2.

Source billboard.com.