2005

The Pixies will unplug for the first time in their career later this summer at Rhode Island’s Newport Folk Festival. The group will anchor the Aug. 6 bill for the long-running event, which famously saw Bob Dylan abandon acoustic performances in favor of a set that featured electric guitar in 1965.

Also on the Aug. 6 bill are Richard Thompson (performing solo acoustic), the Bela Fleck Acoustic Trio, Patty Griffin, the Del McCoury Band, the Holmes Brothers and Ray LaMontagne.

The following night, Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, M. Ward, Kasey Chambers, Buddy Miller, Old Crow Medicine Show and Jim Lauderdale will take the Dunkin Donuts-sponsored main stage.

Among the acts set to perform on the Borders-sponsored second stage throughout the festival are Kaki King, Odetta, Teddy Thompson, Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell, and Jane Siberry. On Aug. 5, Arlo Guthrie and Nanci Griffith will play an affiliated show at the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Source billboard.com.

Three more pop concerts around the world are being arranged for next month’s Live8 charity event, according to Irish organiser Bob Geldof.

The pop star-turned aid activist, who was receiving an honorary degree in Dublin, said concerts in Tokyo, Toronto and Johannesburg on July 2 would be formally announced on Friday.

While the South African concert had long been planned, the others were hastily arranged to put pressure on the Japanese and Canadian governments to increase assistance to Africa, Geldof was quoted as saying by Britain’s Press Association newswire.

“Three weeks ago Europe agreed, unbelievably, to double aid, throwing the ball back to the Yanks (Americans), the Japanese and the Canadians.,” he said.

“So that forced me now to do, which I didn’t want to do, a concert in Tokyo, Toronto, which we are announcing tomorrow.”

The Johannesburg concert would be officially introduced by ex-South African president Nelson Mandela, if he was healthy enough, Geldof added.

Other concerts have already been announced for the same day: in London — at which Paul McCartney, Elton John and REM, among others, will appear — Philadelphia in the United States, Paris, Rome and Berlin.

Geldof, who organised the massive Live Aid fund-raising charity concerts in 1985, hopes the latest event will raise awareness of African aid issues ahead of the G8 leaders’ summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, starting four days later.

Source yahoo.com.

Lollapalooza has announced their 2 day schedule that will feature 60 bands to perform on five stages over the course of July 23 and 24 in Chicago

The opening act for the Rolling Stones

Canadian journalist and author Scott Young has died at the age of 87.

Mr. Young

Making music so ethereal, it could come down from the sky, Sigur Ros are easily Iceland’s most popular group (Bj

Thrill Jockey has signed Television singer/guitarist Tom Verlaine, whose label debut is expected in early 2006. In the meantime, Thrill Jockey is planning a fall reissue of Verlaine’s 1992 instrumental album, “Warm and Cool,” originally released by Rykodisc.

“Warm and Cool” finds the artist backed by Television bassist Fred Smith and drummer Billy Ficca, as well as Patti Smith Band drummer Jay Dee Daugherty and bassist Patrick A. Derivaz. It was released a few months before Television’s self-titled comeback album for Capitol.

The original 14-track album will be expanded with eight bonus tracks that comprise improvised “pieces that could have been much longer but for me had a charm being brief,” Verlaine says in the liner notes.

Television has a handful of European dates on calendar this summer, including appearances next week at the Patti Smith-curated Meltdown Festival in London.

Here are Television’s tour dates:

June 20-21: London (Meltdown Festival)
June 22: Bristol, England (Academy)
June 23: Manchester, England (Academy 2)
July 15: Utrecht, Holland (Tivoli)
July 16: Mons, Belgium (Dour Festival)
July 17: Paris (Bataclan)

Source billboard.com.