Archive: 2005

Blending acoustic slide guitar with woodsy tales of the everyday, Furtado

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Indie rock outfit the Shins have begun confirming dates for a spring North American tour, beginning with an April 11-12 stand in Minneapolis. Shows are on tap through April 29-30 in Asheville, N.C., but additional gigs will be added.

The group is not expected to hit the studio to begin work on its third album until later this year, with an eye on a 2006 release via Sub Pop. “It seems to be not very effective for me to try and write new songs out on tour,” frontman James Mercer told Billboard.com last November. “I’m so out of sorts, just being in a hotel. We never have time, either. You’re either recovering or you’re in a van driving.”

The Shins’ sophomore album, “Chutes Too Narrow,” peaked at No. 5 on Billboard’s Top Independent Albums chart and has shifted 293,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Here are the Shins’ tour dates:

April 11-12: Minneapolis (First Avenue)
April 13: Milwaukee (Eagles Ballroom)
April 14: Chicago (Congress Theater)
April 17: Toronto (Kool Haus)
April 21: Providence, R.I. (Meehan Auditorium)
April 23-24: New York (Webster Hall)
April 27: Philadelphia (Electric Factory)
April 28: Norfolk, Va. (NorVa)
April 29-30: Asheville, N.C. (Orange Peel)

Source billboard.com.

Chicago has long been recognized as fertile grounds for hard work and liberal, free thinking. From Wicker Park

Guided by inspiration from his journey to Iraq, Palestine and Israel this past summer, musician/poet/activist Michael Franti heads to Kingston, Jamaica to team up with legendary godfathers of riddim Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records and long-time Beastie Boys collaborator, Jack Johnson producer, Mario Caldato, Jr.

This dream team of riddim, beats and progressive innovators can only take the soul-inflicted and politically conscious music of Michael Franti to the next level. Sly and Robbie have produced and performed on countless records over the past 30 years from Peter Tosh to Grace Jones, Simply Red, Mick Jagger to No Doubt. For Franti, the duo will perform and produce live drum and bass parts lending their distinct sound to the record. Kingston based percussion players, Uzziah “Sticky” Thompson, drummer “Bongo” Herman, keyboardist Robert Lynn and Spearhead band members, Carl Young and Dave Shul are featured as well.

Moved by Franti’s music, message and live performances over the past several years, Chris Blackwell steps into the studio with Sly & Robbie for the first time in over 30 years, since his work on the Grace Jones albums, taking on a creative role as executive producer.

Chris Blackwell signed performers ranging from U2, Bob Marley, Black Uhuru, Cat Stevens, Tom Waits to Franti’s own Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy on Island which emerged as one of the most progressive labels in the industry. In addition, Blackwell produced many albums for Bob Marley and the Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, Grace Jones, Joe Cocker and Steve Winwood. Perhaps more importantly, Blackwell’s long affiliation with Bob Marley proved him to be a primary force in introducing reggae into the global pop mainstream. Continuing his innovative instinct, Blackwell launched his Palm Pictures audio-visual label that broke ground by focusing on the DVD format–once again being ahead of the game.

Filling out the team is Brazilian-born producer Mario Caldato, Jr, producer and mixer for such artists as Bebel Gilberto, Beck, Tone Loc, but best known for his work on the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication and Hello Nasty. Mario C brings his history of hip hop and love of Jamaican music into the project, but most recently and what interested Franti was his nurturing, organic production of Jack Johnson’s On and On and the newly released In Between Dreams.

At the engineering helm is Robert Carranza whose wide array of projects includes Bjork, Jack Johnson, Los Lobos, Eels, Supergrass and Luscious Jackson.

Franti and Blackwell chose to record the album in Jamaica to tap into Kingston’s raw heartbeat. Many of the songs for the still-untitled record were written shortly after Franti’s journey into the war zones of Iraq, Palestine and Israel this past summer. This trip not only inspired a new album, but Franti’s directorial debut and first feature-length film titled, I Know I’m Not Alone, which closed the independent film festival, Slamdance, to a sold out audience and rave reviews and is due for a release along side the new album. The album is scheduled for a fall 2005 release via Palm.

HIM’s emergence in America seems to be penned firmly to the back of skater- turned-reality show deviant Bam Margera, who immortalized the band’s heart-a-gram logo on skateboards, clothing, and even in ink on his uncle Don Vito’s back.

For the next month or so, many artists are playing benefit shows to allow New York City’s Tonic to continue operating. On March 7 and 8th, Medeski Martin & Wood offered their services and gave fans the opportunity to see them perform in one of the clubs where they got their start.

Xavier Rudd has been known to dabble around with a few instruments. Well, maybe a few is an understatement, as he keeps himself so encircled on stage, he resembles a coin-dropping carnival act. But after hearing this multi-instrumentalist, it’s tough not to take him quite seriously.

George Scott, founding baritone of gospel vocal group the Blind Boys Of Alabama, died yesterday (March 9) at his home in Durham, N.C., according to a statement. He was 75.

“We’re grateful to the Lord for letting us have George for as long as we did,” says Blind Boys leader Clarence Fountain, who was one of the last people Scott spoke to before his death. “He and I grew up together and sang together from little boys to old men. George was a great singer, he could sing any part in a song. We loved him and he was one of the ‘Boys.’ He lived a life of service and now he’s gone on to his reward.”

Born George Lewis Scott in Notasulga, Ala., the artist met Fountain and Jimmy Carter in 1936 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind. Three years later they formed the traditional gospel singing group, which Scott also accompanied on guitar.

In recent years, the group enjoyed a resurgence in popularity and recently won the best traditional soul gospel album Grammy for “There Will Be a Light” (Virgin), recorded with singer/songwriter Ben Harper. The set featured Scott singing lead on the album’s opening track, “Take My Hand.”

Though Scott retired from touring last year, he continued to record with the group and will be heard on its new album, “Atom Bomb,” due Tuesday (March 15) from Real World Records. No changes are planned in the Blind Boys touring schedule, which picks up again with a March 18 showcase at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

Funeral services will be held March 15 at Monumental Faith Church in Durham. His family has asked that mourners make donations to the American Diabetes Association or send flowers to the city’s Holloway Funeral Home.

Scott is survived by his wife Ludie Lewis Mann Scott, his mother Hassie Lou Scott and his sister Benzie Jackson.

Source billboard.com.

For sale: perhaps the world’s finest and biggest pictorial history of jazz and American music. Must be kept together.

Frank Driggs, a former jazz journalist and record producer, started buying jazz photos from collectors more than half a century ago. After word got out he was a top collector, musicians often gave him pictures.

“For filmmakers who often visit hundreds of tiny archives to make a documentary you can’t appreciate enough the value of a collection that contains so many photos,” documentary filmmaker Ken Burns told Reuters.

Driggs was the single biggest supplier of pictures for “Jazz,” the 17-hour television series by Burns.

Driggs’ nearly 80,000 photos range from 1898 shots of ragtime’s Scott Joplin and Tom Turpin to portraits of big bands at since-closed Harlem and East Village haunts of the 1950s.

To read more, please visit yahoo.com.

Cartoon quartet Gorillaz will on May 24 release its sophomore Virgin album, “Demon Days.” A video is in production for first single “Feel Good Inc.,” featuring De La Soul. Album track “Dirty Harry,” which features what sounds like a children’s choir, has been making the rounds on the Internet for several weeks.

The brainchild of Blur frontman Damon Albarn and “Tank Girl” creator Jamie Hewlett, Gorillaz comprises the characters Noodle, Murdoc, 2-D, and Russell who inhabit a virtual world on Gorillaz.com.

The 15-track “Demon Days” is the follow-up to Gorillaz’s worldwide smash self-titled debut, which has sold more than 1.54 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and six million worldwide, according to Virgin.

Accurately described as “darker” and “more intense” than its predecessor, but no less eclectic, the album was co-produced by Albarn and Danger Mouse. “Last Living Souls” is marked by acoustic strumming and piano melodies, while “Kids With Guns” threads a sample of Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” through a multi-faceted musical backdrop.

The collective puts a weird spin on seductive soul with “Every Planet We Reach Is Dead,” while “White Light” starts off in similar territory as Blur’s raucous “Song 2” before being interrupted by an angelic interlude. For an extra dash of oddness, actor Dennis Hopper offers spoken-word intonations atop “Fire Coming Out of a Monkey’s Head.”

The London Community Gospel Choir can be heard on the title track, while guest spots by Blondie’s Deborah Harry, rock legend Ike Turner, the Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder and underground rapper MF Doom are sprinkled throughout other cuts.

Here is the track list for “Demon Days”:

“Intro”
“Last Living Souls”
“Kids With Guns”
“O Green World”
“Dirty Harry”
“Feel Good Inc.”
“El Manana”
“Every Planet We Reach Is Dead”
“November Has Come”
“All Alone”
“White Light”
“DARE”
“Fire Coming Out of a Monkey’s Head”
“Don’t Get Lost in Heaven”
“Demon Days”

Source billboard.com.

Rock the Earth is proud to present the Inaugural Snow Ball, a concert to benefit Rock the Earth at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday, March 23, 2005. The concert will feature Colorado’s own jamgrass sensation Shanti Groove and Pete Wernick’s Live Five, the innovative newgrass combo lead by Dr. Banjo, Pete Wernick. The night will also include some very special surprise guests. “Rock the Earth provides a special opportunity for musicians and fans to make waves together. With so much pollution, of everything from the environment to our minds, it’s a way to fight back,” says Wernick.

“These events really demonstrate the special connection that exists between music and the environment and music’s power to inspire change on a wide scale,” says Rock the Earth President and Executive Director Marc Ross. He continues, “We are very excited to be holding our first benefit concert in our new home town of Denver and to have environmentally-conscious artists like Shanti Groove and Pete Wernick’s Live Five playing it, makes the event all the more special.” By collaborating with bands such as Shanti Groove and Pete Wernick’s Live Five, Rock the Earth is able to build nationwide support for local campaigns.

Rock the Earth continues to work with a number of partners to ensure that the Roan Plateau’s wilderness areas will not be adversely impacted by drilling. These important benefit shows will help Rock the Earth draw additional attention to the need for Colorado and Utah citizens to voice their opposition to detrimental drilling in wilderness areas and will also help Rock the Earth secure additional funding to tackle issues like these from the legal and technical standpoints. For more information on the Roan Plateau and how you can help, visit rocktheearth.net/projects.ws.

In addition to the music at Cervantes’, Rock the Earth will hold a silent auction and raffle. Doors open at 8:00pm and the show starts at 9:00pm. All proceeds will benefit Rock the Earth and to further our mission to “Defend the Planet One Beat at a Time.” Tickets are available through Baseline Ticketing at baselineticketing.com. $12 in advance and $15 day of show. For more information, call Rock the Earth at (303) 454-3304.

Other upcoming events to benefit Rock the Earth include two concerts by The String Cheese Incident set to take place April 2nd and 3rd at Suede in Park City, Utah. Tickets are now available from Baseline Ticketing. Hotel/condo accommodations and travel plans may be made through Madison House Travel. String Cheese bassist Keith Moseley says, “SCI is always looking for ways to get involved in good causes; Rock the Earth holds close two of our priorities: the environment and music. We’re glad to help the organization.”

Rock the Earth, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, national public interest environmental advocacy organization, is committed to protecting and defending America’s natural resources through partnerships with the music industry and the environmental community.

A mix of new originals and SCI classics that Hollingsworth has reinterpreted, with some special guests assisting along the way.

Your girlfriend

Harmonized Records is proud to announce the signing of DJ Williams Projekt., the label which includes such artists as Lotus, Perpetual Groove, The Motet, and Garaj Mahal is looking forward to a great year, and many more announcements in the weeks to come. A ground breaking instrumentalist and self-taught guitarist, DJ Williams has established a unique sound in acoustic & electric guitar. The Richmond, VA-based performer is amazing crowds everywhere with his guitar wizardry backed up by his 6-piece “Projekt,” the roots of which can be heard on the first self-released Projekt album, Wrong Notes Write.

The newest album, Projekt Management, is a thoroughly funky exploration of jazz, fusion, and soul grooves with inherent heaps of experience and diversity among the performers. Williams’ smooth, innovative songwriting and playing is the centerpiece around which orbits a fiery formation of brass, drums, bass, and keys. With the energetic Gordon Jones on sax, the infinitely capable drumming of Dusty Simmons, huge swells and thumps of bass from Todd Herrington, colorful trumpet excursions from Mark Ingraham, and masterful keyboard additions from Brian Mahne, the Projekt has truly come to fruition.

“I just hope to keep expanding and sharing what I believe is a new kind of sound that is progressive and always full of surprises,” says Williams. Although they are new to the hard-touring scene, The Projekt will be presenting their sound at festivals such as California’s High Sierra Music Festival, Florida’s hot Langerado Music Festival, the eclectic Haymaker Festival in Virginia, and North Carolina’s long-running Smilefest. With Projekt Management ready to be heard by the masses on June 28, 2005, DJ Williams Projekt will soon find success behind their careful planning.

On the heels of last year’s deluxe reissue of its debut album, the Cure will give similar treatment given to the subsequent three releases that put the band at the center of the 1980s modern rock movement. Due April 26 via Rhino, remastered versions of 1980’s “Seventeen Seconds,” 1981’s “Faith” and 1982’s “Pornography” will each emerge with an extra disc of rarities.

In the case of “Seventeen Seconds,” the second disc comprises 15 songs, including studio and live renditions of “I’m a Cult Hero” and “I Dig You” released under the pseudonym Cult Hero. Other goodies include demos and live versions of songs that appear on the original album.

The “Faith” reissue adds the cassette-only B-side “Carnage Visors” to the first disc’s original eight tracks. The second disc boasts 15 tracks, such as demos of “Faith” and “Doubt,” outtakes of “Primary” and “A Normal Story” and live versions of “The Drowning Man” and “Forever.”

“Pornography” gains 14 tracks on its bonus disc, including instrumental demos of “Demise” and “The Figurehead” and live versions of “A Short Term Effect,” “Cold” and “Siamese Twins.”

Each package will be bolstered by booklets with lyrics, photos from singer Robert Smith’s personal collection and track-by-track commentary by U.K. music journalist Johnny Black.

The full track list for each reissue can be found on the band’s official Web site.

Source billboard.com.

The 10,000 Lakes Festival is proud to announce Widespread Panic and Trey Anastasio have confirmed a weekend of headlining performances for the 2005 event. Widespread Panic returns to the 10,000 Lakes Festival for the second time with two special headlining performances on the Main Stage Friday, Saturday, July 22, 23. Closing this year’s festival Sunday, July 24 is Trey Anastasio, the guitarist and founder of the seminal band Phish.

The third annual 10,000 Lakes Festival is scheduled for July 22-24 at the scenic Soo Pass Ranch in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. The 10,000 Lakes Festival showcases over thirty artists and bands on four stages, including the Barn Stage on a shady hill overlooking the concert bowl, the Field Stage where the audience can spread out and soak up some sun, the Saloon Stage for intimate concerts and late night jams, and the Main Stage where everyone gathers in the evening for the major concerts featuring Widespread Panic and Trey Anastasio.

Multi-Day Tickets starting at $110 are available now through the festival website: 10klf.com

The event ticket price includes all band performances and camping under the stars adjacent to the most beautiful outdoor concert venue in the nation. The 10,000 Lakes Festival held at the 600-acre Soo Pass Ranch in beautiful Northern Minnesota contains numerous campgrounds, built specifically for people to enjoy their camping experience in a spacious, friendly and comfortable setting.

Festival-goers can relax in beautiful Lake Sallie Campground with over 3,000 feet of shoreline or settle into the magnificent forest of the Northwoods campground. VIP Camping is located directly behind the Main Stage. The campgrounds are well groomed with permanent roads and real showers and are suitable for virtually any kind of camping vehicle. Every campground is within easy walking distance of the concert site.

Modern amenities on site include clean, permanent restrooms facilities with running water; additionally, internet access and a wide variety of high quality food and beverages will be available.

Additional bands playing the event will be announced in the coming weeks.

With Spring just around the corner, I brewed up a new batch of IPA. It

Although Transistor Radio may be a come-down from Ward’s prior release, the full sounding Transfiguration of Vincent, M.Ward

The Keller Williams experience for the casual fan is a bit of an odd experience. If you aren