Archive: 2005

Out of print since 1997, Gang Of Four’s seminal 1979 debut album “Entertainment!” will be reissued on May 17 via Rhino. The original 12-song track list has been bolstered with the four-track “Yellow” EP and four additional previously unreleased recordings. “Entertainment!” has also been re-pressed on 180 gram vinyl for a May 10 release.

Among the new additions, perhaps of most interest are alternate versions of album tracks “Contract” and “Guns Before Butter” and live versions of the unrecorded “Blood Free” and a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane.”

Originally released in 1980, the “Yellow” EP is highlighted by the angry, brittle “Outside the Trains Don’t Run on Time” and “He’d Send in the Army.” The release also features the songs “It’s Her Factory” and “Armalite Rifle.”

Although never a commercial success, “Entertainment!” has influenced scores of bands in the past 25 years, particularly the current crop of up-and-coming British rock acts like Franz Ferdinand and the Futureheads.

Since 1995, the album has sold 12,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, but since 2000, an import edition has shifted an additional 14,000 units.

As previously reported, Gang Of Four’s original lineup reunited earlier this year for the first time in more than 20 years. The group will begin a three-week North American tour May 1 at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif.

Guitarist Andy Gill recently told the BBC that Gang Of Four was working on an album featuring a disc with new recordings of old songs plus a collection of remixes, but a spokesperson could not confirm details of the project at deadline.

Source billboard.com.

Former Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan will release his debut solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, on June 21st.
“It’s guitar-driven and loud, but not aggressive,” Corgan tells Rolling Stone. “The videos, music and tour will be really new and different. No one will accuse me of sitting on my past.”

Recorded in Chicago, Future was co-produced by Corgan and features eleven new songs, including the first single, “Walking Shade,” as well as an unlikely cover of the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” with the Cure’s Robert Smith on backing vocals.

“The Cure is one of my favorite bands of all time,” Corgan says. “Robert is a good friend of mine, so it’s a dream come true. That song’s sort of a gem that not everyone will know.”

As for Corgan’s aforementioned past, more than 200 Pumpkins’ songs will be made available digitally through online music stores on April 5th, including their six studio albums and dozens of B-sides. “The band was really aggressive about recording B-sides,” Corgan says. “There’s a song called ‘Set the Ray to Jerry’ that Flood, our producer, didn’t think much of, but many Pumpkins fans think it’s one of the best things we ever did.”

Corgan just finished shooting the video for “Walking Shade” in Los Angeles and he plans to launch a world tour in July.

Source rollingstone.com.

The Mix, is brand new musical collaboration that combines Hammond B-3 specialist Melvin Seals from Jerry Garcia Band fame on the Keyboards and Vocals, John Kadlecik and Kevin Rosen who use their guitar, bass, and vocal abilities to recreate classic Grateful Dead performances in their other band the Dark Star Orchestra, and the highly skilled drummer Greg Anton from legendary Bay area rock band Zero, to create an innovative and original debut album called American Spring.

Having just returned from a swing through Australia and New Zealand, Akron, Ohio-based rock duo the Black Keys have confirmed a spring North American run that will begin April 19 in Louisville and wrap May 14 in Carrboro, N.C. The Henchmen will support, augmented by appearances by Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and the Legendary JC’s in select markets.

Before the spring dates, the Keys will play two one-offs in the Buckeye state. On April 8 at Akron’s Lime Spider, they will join Carney’s uncle Ralph, the Numbers Band, Half Cleveland, the Bizarros, Houseguest and C.D. Truth at a benefit for two cancer-stricken members of veteran Akron rock act Tin Huey.

The next day at Columbus’ PromoWest Pavilion, the group will play local radio station WWCD (CD101)’s CD101 Day show alongside the Bravery, Ash, Ben Lee and Dresden Dolls.

Here are the Black Keys’ tour dates:

April 8: Akron, Ohio (Lime Spider)
April 9: Columbus, Ohio (PromoWest Pavilion / CD101 Day)
April 19: Louisville (Headliners)
April 20: Lexington, Ky. (the Dame)
April 21: Detroit (St. Andrew’s Hall)
April 22: Nashville (Mercy Lounge)
April 23: Oxford, Miss. (Proud Larry’s)
April 24: Little Rock, Ark. (Juanita’s)
April 27: Oklahoma City (Green Door)
April 28: Dallas (Trees)
April 29: Austin, Texas (Emo’s)
April 30: Houston (Mary Jane’s Fat Cat)
May 3: New Orleans (Twiropa)
May 4: Pensacola, Fla. (Sluggo’s)
May 6: Tampa, Fla. (Skipper’s Smokehouse)
May 7: Orlando, Fla. (the Social)
May 8: Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (Culture Room)
May 10: Gainesville, Fla. (Common Grounds)
May 11: Athens, Ga. (40 Watt Club)
May 12: Atlanta (Variety Playhouse)
May 14: Carrboro, N.C. (Cat’s Cradle)
June 4: Toledo (Bijou)

Source billboard.com.

After a disastrous 2004 when the entire tour was canceled due to sluggish ticket sales, Lollapalooza will return this summer as a one-off festival in Chicago’s Grant Park. The event will be held July 23-24 and Billboard.com has learned that Beck, the Killers, Kings Of Leon and Widespread Panic are among the bands being eyed to appear.

The Lollapalooza Web site will re-launch on Friday (April 1), while the full lineup is expected to be announced three weeks later.

Last year’s festival was to be a two-day traveling affair featuring Morrissey, String Cheese Incident, Wilco, the Pixies, Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth, among others, but was pulled in late June, less than a month before its planned start date.

How bad were advance ticket sales? “The worst I’ve ever seen,” one promoter who asked not to be identified told Billboard at the time. “I know a market in the Northeast doing two nights that [sold] 450 tickets for the second night and 1,100 for the first. Other counts were less than 1,000 for both nights.”

The William Morris Agency and Jane’s Addiction leader/Lollapalooza co-founder Perry Farrell are back on board with the 2005 edition and are joined this year by Capitol Sports and Entertainment, which also books Texas’ Austin City Limits festival.

Source billboard.com.

Natalie Merchant, Widespread Panic, Juliana Hatfield and Jorma Kaukonen and are among the artists contributing songs to the benefit CD Too Many Years: A Benefit for Clear Path International.

Formed five years ago, Clear Path is dedicated to aiding landmine and bomb victims in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Released in recognition of the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, Too Many Years — which takes its title from a Kaukonen song — will fund the organization’s mission to provide “direct medical and social services to the survivors and their families as well as equipment support to hospitals.”

The CD will be available for sale at cpi.org in early May, to follow the April 30th anniversary. Among the other artists contributing tracks are Philip Glass, the String Cheese Incident and the Samples.

Source rollingstone.com.

Rilo Kiley has confirmed a two-month of tour, beginning April 28 in San Diego. The trek will take the band across the country and back — including an April 30 appearance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and a June 11 stop at Tennessee’s Bonnaroo festival — before ending with a June 19 homecoming show in Los Angeles.

On the night between the tour opener and Coachella, Rilo Kiley will open for Coldplay at a previously announced show in Las Vegas. Inside Entertainment magazine recently reported that Rilo Kiley and Franz Ferdinand had been tapped as support acts for Coldplay’s summer North American tour, but a routing has yet to be announced.

Source billboard.com.

Introducing a brand-new songwriting and performance ensemble: the Tempting Fate Revue. The group’s aims are threefold: to provide a showcase for unsigned, emerging singers; to raise money for charity; and above all, to develop new original music.

The group includes several accomplished musicians (such as Grammy winner Eguie Castrillo on percussion and John Lennon Songwriting Contest award winner Leo Mellace on guitar). Two are also Berklee professors (Castrillo and drummer Dave DiCenso). Five songs from their debut album, Tempting Fate, have won honorable mentions in the 2004 Billboard Song Contest. With five songwriters in all, the music spans the genres of Rock, R&B, and Latin.

Inaugural gig: Thursday, March 31, 2005
Axis, 13 Landsdowne St., Boston 617 262 2437
Doors at 8, music at 9. 18+
Tickets available at teapartyconcerts.com.

This upcoming gig will be the first in a series of dates, each showcasing a different group of hot young local singers with the band. Each one will also donate 100% of ticket sales and 100% of album sales to a worthy charity. Proceeds from the inaugural gig will be donated to Religions for Peace, the world’s largest interreligious organization. Dedicated to promoting peace, disarmament, small arms elimination, and women and children’s advocacy in more than 100 countries, the group has been given a oveted top four-star rating by the Charity Navigator rating service. (See rfpusa.org for more information.)

The group’s second gig will be held on May 5, with 100% of ticket and album sales going to benefit the AIDS Action Committee of Boston, a nonprofit community-based health organization that has garnered consistent national praise for its efficiency and effectiveness as an organization. (See www.aac.org for more information.)

Tempting Fate Revue founder and guitarist Frank Ingari is no stranger to raising money for charity

The John Byrd EP is a nice live portrait of a band in a transitional period from the clubs to bigger venues in the near future. Catch them while you can.

Langerado came at just the right time this year. As the east coast was experiencing one of many late season snowstorms, the sun was shining bright in the cloudless skies of South Florida.

Keyboard player and musical arranger for The Jerry Garcia Band, Melvin Seals evoked a sound from Garcia that rivaled his work in the Grateful Dead. Now he creates that emotion on his own, releasing his first official solo album, Melting Pot.

The reunited original lineup of influential modern rock act Dinosaur Jr. will perform on television for the first time April 15 on CBS’ “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson.” The following day, guitarist J Mascis will play at Los Angeles’ Spaceland club with his band the Fog, as well as guests described only as “very special.”

As previously reported, Dinosaur Jr. will this summer play its first shows with the lineup of Mascis, bassist/future Sebadoh leader Lou Barlow and drummer Murph since 1989. The only confirmed dates at deadline are June 8 in London, June 10 at the U.K.’s Download Festival and July 29-31 at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival.

Last week, Merge reissued the band’s first three albums, “Dinosaur,” “You’re Living All Over Me” and “Bug,” with remastered audio and smattering of bonus tracks and rare photos. Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Mike Watt and Guided By Voices’ Robert Pollard contributed to new liner notes.

In related news, Barlow, who just finished a run of dates in support of his new Merge album “Emoh,” reports on his official Web site that he recently spent time with Sebadoh drummer Eric Gaffney. The experience “bodes well for some comprehensive Sebadoh reissues in the future,” he said.

Source billboard.com.

Rock duo the White Stripes will release their next studio album on June 14 via Third Man/V2. The as-yet-untitled set was recently recorded in the group’s Detroit home base. It will be the follow-up to 2003’s “Elephant,” which debuted at a career-best No. 6 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 1.7 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

A handful of live dates have already been announced ahead of the album, including a three-night run in Mexico that begins May 11 in Monterrey. As previously reported, the group will also play June 10 at Atlanta’s Music Midtown festival.

Beyond the White Stripes disc, singer/guitarist Jack White has also been working on an album with fellow Detroit native Brendan Benson. The project, which also features Greenhornes bassist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler, will most likely not see the light of day until the end of the year or early 2006, according to a V2 spokesperson.

Source billboard.com.

In a move that might be the equivilent of Bob Weir playing guitar for Motorhead, funk minded Galactic drummer Stanton Moore mans the kit for metal band Corrosion of Conformity and their latest release

Basement Jaxx, Royksopp, David Byrne, the Arcade Fire, Yo-Yo Ma, Femi Kuti and Mos Def have signed on for Los Angeles radio station KCRW’s World Music Festival, to be held throughout the summer at the Hollywood Bowl. Byrne, the Arcade Fire, Si*Se and the Extra Action Marching Band will kick things off on June 26; KCRW music director Nic Harcourt will host.

Basement Jaxx, Royksopp and Bossacucanova will headline the Planet Electronica event on July 17, followed by a bill featuring Femi Kuti and Mos Def on July 24. Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble are confirmed for Aug. 7, while Desmond Dekker, Maxi Priest and Black Uhuru will lead Reggae Night IV on Aug. 28. The event will close Sept. 11 with Destination Hawaii, featuring a host of performers from the island.

Source billboard.com.

Legends cast large shadows, but such observations bare little weight when speaking of Sarah Lee Guthrie, daughter of Arlo and granddaughter of Woody. With the help of songwriter and husband Johnny Irion, Guthrie has released Exploration, the duo’s debut studio recording; an acoustic, rock-and-hum album enlivened by honey-sweet harmonies and modest hooks.

At Orchestra Baobab

Saddle Creek fans are in for a treat this spring: Two of the label’s star acts are sharing the bill on a six-week North American tour.

Bright Eyes and The Faint will hit the road April 28 in Lawrence, Kan., and will gig relentlessly through the June 10 finale in San Diego. So fervent are the bands’ fans that two-night stands have been booked in Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Tempe, Ariz. In New York City, they’ll play a whopping five nights in a row at Webster Hall.

Both bands will appear at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., May 1.

Before heading out with their labelmates, Bright Eyes will open for R.E.M. on a two-week tour of Australia and New Zealand. Ever the workaholics, Conor Oberst et al will play extra shows on their own in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth on the tour’s off-days.

Bright Eyes is currently riding high on its two January releases, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. The Faint is supporting Wet From Birth.

Source pollstar.com.

Paul Hester, the drummer from popular 1980s Australian rock band Crowded House, hanged himself in a park in southern Australia, an emergency services spokeswoman said Monday.

Hester, 46, had failed to return home after taking his two dogs for a walk on Friday night. The drummer’s body was later found in a park near his home in the southern city of Melbourne.

Ambulance officers arrived on the scene shortly after midday Saturday and tried to resuscitate him, but “he was dead when they arrived,” Metropolitan Ambulance Service spokeswoman Liraje Memishi said.

Source CNN.com.

Scotland’s Snow Patrol is one of those bands that’s been known in the U.K. a lot longer than they’ve been known in the U.S. The gushing reviews for the first album released in the U.S., Final Straw, is actually their third album if you live across the Pond.

But their first U.S. tour last year did great and after a hard-earned rest, they’ll be back in April, kicking things off at Stubb’s in Austin, Texas on the 24th. Traveling through Dallas, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Calgary, Winnipeg and other cities before winding things down in Minneapolis May 11th.

The band just changed its founding bass player, and this time they’re bringing a band called Embrace, a Leeds-based unit that has built a following overseas. They’ve only done a few showcase dates here and SxSW, but the response has been overwhelming. According to Embrace’s label, Lava Records, fans lined up for hours to get into their L.A. show.

Source pollstar.com.