Mad props need to be given to the good people at JellyNYC for providing free Sunday concerts in a quintessentially Brooklyn atmosphere, an old abandoned swimming pool.
The Letting Go maintains Bonnie Prince Billy’s trademark style while giving those simple songs the opportunity to puff and billow with passionate, dusty bravado.
Seventy-three-year-old music icon Willie Nelson collaborates with 31-year-old singer/songwriter Ryan Adams on his new album, “Songbird.” Due Oct. 31 via Lost Highway, the 11-track set was produced by Adams, whose band the Cardinals back Nelson throughout. Veteran harmonica player Mickey Raphael also appears.
The track list features covers of Gram Parson’s “$1000 Wedding,” Christine McVie’s “Songbird,” the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter favorite “Stella Blue” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
In addition, Nelson reworks his own “Rainy Day Blues” (which opens the album), “Sad Songs & Waltzes” and “We Don’t Run,” as well as tackling the traditional “Amazing Grace.”
Nelson is in the midst of a tour with John Fogerty and also has headlining dates on tap through a Sept. 15 appearance at the Austin City Limits festival. On Sept. 30 in Camden, N.J., he will join Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews and Jerry Lee Lewis for Farm Aid in Camden, N.J.
Source billboard.com.
YouTube Inc. said on Tuesday (Aug. 15) it is talking with record labels to post thousands of music videos online, aiming to move beyond being a site for sharing home videos to a provider of mainstream entertainment like Yahoo and others.
YouTube, which sprung out of nowhere a year ago to now claim over 100 millions views a day, is negotiating for rights to post current and archive music videos on its site, and said any commercial model it decides on will offer the videos free.
“What we really want to do is in six to 12 months, maybe 18 months, to have every music video ever created up on YouTube,” co-founder Steve Chen told Reuters. “We’re trying to bring in as much of this content as we can on to the site.”
He said YouTube intends to differentiate itself from pay-to-view or download services like Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL Music, or others like Yahoo Inc.’s Yahoo Music, which is supported by an advertising revenue share model with record labels.
San Mateo, California-based YouTube says its videos account for 60 percent of all videos watched online. The site specializes in short, homemade, comic clips created by users.
Read the full article at Billboard.biz
New York rock act Interpol has parted ways with indie home Matador Records and will sign a new deal with Capitol, sources say. The group is now being managed by Dave Holmes, whose clients also include Capitol flagship artist Coldplay.
Billboard.com understands the group will hit the studio in the fall to begin recording its third album, which is tentatively due in mid-2007. In July, the group wrote on its Web site that it had already spent six months crafting material but had yet to begin recording.
The quartet found immediate success with Matador thanks to its 2002 debut, “Turn on the Bright Lights,” which has sold 438,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Its 2004 follow-up, “Antics,” has shifted 435,000 units, and debuted at a career-best No. 16 on The Billboard 200.
Read more at Billboard.com
