2005

The Pharcyde will be unveiling several new projects this summer. First, they will drop their 4th studio album, Humboldt Beginnings, in July. It’s been over a decade since the young California quartet called the Pharcyde released the classic Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde album. The group has been through a lot since then: 4 studio albums, a line-up change, and the formation of their own label. Summer 2005 finds founding members Booty Brown and Imani in fine form, now music industry veterans who are firmly in control of their own destiny. Humboldt Beginnings gives their fans a trip down memory lane with the same laissez-faire vibe and fertile lyrics from the Pharcyde’s past classics while paying homage to their favorite plant. With a mischievous smile Brown explains,

Chet Helms, the revered father of the 1967 Summer of Love and a music promoter who launched the career of singer Janis Joplin, has died of complications from a stroke. He was 62.

Helms, who once stood at the center of the 1960s Bay Area music scene, died Saturday surrounded by friends and family at San Francisco’s California Pacific Medical Center.

“It was a beautiful death,” said his wife Judy Davis. “It was a goodbye party. We all sang to him and told stories. He died as he lived

Each winter, Hawaii’s notorious North Shore of Oahu draws the best surfers in the world to compete in six weeks of contests at the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, pro surfing’s longest running competition. The Vans Triple Crown is staged at the most legendary of Hawaii’s big waves, the coral reefs of Haliewa, the four-story high waves at Sunset Beach and the dangerous beach break at the Bonzai Pipeline. Now, the exciting highlights of this three-part contest, is edited down to sixty riveting minutes on DVD in the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing 04, released on July 26. The release also includes a bonus full-length CD featuring music from Epitaph’s biggest bands, from Pennywise to the Dropkick Murphys.

Surf fans will get the chance to see all the highlights from Winter ’04 from Sunny Garcia’s dramatic win at Haleiwa to kick off his quest for a 5th overall Crown to World Champion Andy Iron’s dominating performance at the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing to trial entry Jamie O’Brien winning his first ever WCT event in his own front yard at the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters. The DVD also features 30 minutes of never-before-seen bonus features that go behind the scenes of the event and get into the personalities of legendary North Shore surfers, from Kelly Slater to Gerry Lopez.

Jazz/rock trio Soulive has inked with Concord Records for the Sept. 13 release of its next album, “Young, Hungry and Groovin’.” The group was previously signed to Blue Note, which capped its tenure with the late March retrospective “Steady Groovin’.”

The 15-track new album features such guests as Robert Randolph on a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Crosstown Traffic,” Living Colour vocalist Corey Glover on “Freedom,” Chaka Khan on “Back Again” and Ivan Neville on “Take It Easy” and “Got Soul.”

“Young, Hungry and Groovin'” is Soulive’s first studio album since a 2003 self-titled effort, which debuted at No. 5 on Billboard’s Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.

The group will be on the road throughout the summer, including a show on June 24th with Antibalas as part of New York’s Celebrate Brooklyn festival. Soulive will also play at the Shakedown Campout and Music Festival in North Plains, Ore., alongside Galactic, Medeski Martin & Wood, Michael Franti and Sage Francis, among others.

Source billboard.com.

Four people were stabbed and one killed during a Corrosion of Conformity show at the Masquerade in Tampa last night. A man was pronounced dead of his wounds at Tampa General early Friday morning, while a woman remains in critical condition, according to Tampa police.

The altercation began around 11:30 last night, in the mosh pit during the North Carolina punk/metal band’s set. According to police, a disagreement between two female fans somehow resulted in one man fatally stabbing another.

The authorities are searching for the suspect, described as a white male in his late twenties to early thirties with a shaved head and red-brown goatee and moustache. The man fled the venue before police arrived, and anyone with information about the incident is urged to contact the Tampa police.

Corrosion of Conformity posted a statement on their official Web site in response to the assaults. “We are stunned, deeply saddened by the brutal stabbings of three [sic] people at the Tampa show last night,” they wrote. “We don’t have much information at this time. Unofficially we heard that one victim didn’t make it. In twenty-plus years of gigging, we’ve never seen anything like this. It’s sad that people can’t come together for a good time listening to music without something tragic happening. We feel for the families of those attacked and wish success to Tampa law enforcement in their quest to solve this pointless crime. Take care of each other and go in peace.”

Corrosion of Conformity are scheduled to continue their tour, in support of their April release In the Arms of God, tonight in Atlanta. The club venue, in an unfortunate coincidence, is also called Masquerade.

Source rollingstone.com.

In addition to previously announced headliner Nine Inch Nails, the seventh Voodoo Music Experience will feature performances by Queens Of The Stone Age, My Chemical Romance, the Flaming Lips, Billy Idol, the New York Dolls, Secret Machines, DJ Tiesto, the Bravery, Ryan Adams and Mickey Hart’s Voodoo Drum Circle. The event will be held Oct. 29-30 at New Orleans’ City Park; tickets go on sale July 8.

Other acts set to appear include LCD Soundsystem, Handsome Boy Modeling School (plus separate sets from group members Dan the Automator and Prince Paul), Brazilian Girls, Carl Cox, Louis XIV, Social Distortion, the Decemberists, VHS Or Beta and Digable Planets.

A number of eclectic acts will grace the One Basin Street Stage, such as Joss Stone, Dr. John, the Neville Brothers, Kermit Ruffins with the Rebirth Brass Band, Michael Tolcher and the Spam Allstars.

For more information, visit the festival’s official website

Source billboard.com.

My Morning Jacket takes its Southern-tinged rock’n’roll to new and exciting places on its fourth studio album, “Z.” As previously reported, the 10-track set will be released Sept. 20 via ATO/RCA and was produced by John Leckie (Radiohead, New Order).

The addition of new members Carl Broemel (guitar) and Bo Koster (keyboards) has helped broaden the band’s sound, with more keyboards and overall sonic texture in the nooks and crannies than on 2003’s “It Still Moves.”

The album opens with the vintage keyboard bounce of the aptly named “Wordless Chorus,” which immediately reintroduces frontman Jim James’ reverb-drenched voice. “We are the innovators / they are the imitators,” he sings, eventually rising to a full-on falsetto of “hoos” as the song concludes.

Here is the track list for “Z”:

“Wordless Chorus”
“It Beats for You”
“Gideon”
“What a Wonderful Man”
“Off the Record”
“Into the Woods”
“Anytime”
“Lay Low”
“Knot Comes Loose”
“Dondante”

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