2006

Pearl Jam will return to the road May 9 in Toronto, a week after the release of its eighth studio album. As previously reported, the self-titled set will be the band’s first for J Records. First single “World Wide Suicide” is available for free download from Pearl Jam’s official Web site.

At deadline, only the first leg of the tour has been confirmed, with dates running through a June 1 and 3 stand in East Rutherford, N.J. Acclaimed rock act My Morning Jacket will support on this portion of the outing. The rest of the band’s 2006 touring plans will be announced in the coming weeks.

“World Wide Suicide” is off to a blazing start at U.S. rock radio outlets, clocking in as the track with the largest total audience at the format in the past 24 hours, according to Broadcast Data Systems.

Here are Pearl Jam’s tour dates:

May 9-10: Toronto (Air Canada Centre)
May 12: Albany, N.Y. (Pepsi Arena)

May 13: Hartford, Conn. (New England Dodge Music Arena)
May 16: Chicago (United Center)
May 19: Grand Rapids, Mich. (Van Andel Arena)
May 20: Cleveland (Quicken Loans Arena)
May 22: Auburn Hills, Mich. (Palace of Auburn Hills)
May 24: Boston (TD Banknorth Garden)
May 27: Camden, N.J. (Tweeter Center)
May 30: Washington, D.C. (MCI Center)
June 1, 3: East Rutherford, N.J. (Continental Airlines Arena)

Source billboard.com.

Slayer has lined up a new batch of tour dates as the group’s original four members work on their first album together in more than 15 years.
The tour starts on the ominous date of 6/6/06, and is dubbed The Unholy Alliance Tour – Preaching to the Perverted.
Arenas and amphitheatres in 17 U.S. cities are booked through late July, with more dates to be added soon.
Lamb of God, Mastodon, Children of Bodom, and Thine Eyes Bleed will support.
Slayer’s Tom Araya, Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman haven’t recorded an album with drummer Dave Lombardo since 1990’s Seasons In The Abyss. Paul Bostaph, who handled drum duties through most of the ’90s, left the group after 2001’s God Hates Us All.
“Dave’s been back with us, playing live, for a couple of years now, and we’re all looking forward to recording together again,” Araya said.
“It feels really good being back with the same guys I started out with,” Lombardo added. “The chemistry is definitely there, that’s the exciting part of it, to capture that chemistry again. And that’s what is happening.”
Slayer is recording in a Los Angeles studio with longtime associate Rick Rubin in the executive producer’s chair. The band plans to have the album out this fall.
The upcoming shows will be the group’s first road trip since headlining the Jagermeister Music Tour in late 2004. That same year, they also toured with Slipknot and Ozzfest.

Source pollstar.com.

The Dresden Dolls will release their sophomore album, “Yes, Virginia,” April 18 via Roadrunner. It’s the follow-up to their 2004 self-titled debut, though some of the songs here have been waiting in the wings for close to six years.

“I’m an impressionable songwriter, I don’t set things in stone,” head Doll Amanda Palmer tells Billboard.com. “We liked to shape and polish these songs over time.” The 29-year-old pianist/vocalist says she allowed herself “more simplicity” on the album and moved away from the Dolls’ signature cabaret sound.

“As a younger songwriter, I felt the need to over-complicate things to sound more impressive,” she says. “On this one, there’s three-chord songs. And they sound f*cking great.”

Source billboard.com.

Common, Sonic Youth, Matt Costa, Tortured Soul are the latest round of additions for Bonnaroo 2006. This is the second Bonnaroo appearance for Sonic Youth, who played the music & arts festival in 2003. This will be the first appearance in Manchester, TN for Common, Costa and Tortured Soul.

For more information, visit the festival’s website.

Pearl Jam wears its emotions on its sleeve on its self-titled eighth album, which, as previously reported, will be released May 2 via J Records. Material for the 13-track set took shape in the wake of President George W. Bush’s re-election as well as the United States’ invasion of Iraq, the third anniversary of which is quickly approaching.

To read more about the new Pearl Jam release please visit billboard.com.

The New Amsterdams are a side project no more, with spring plans including a headlining tour and their first album since the dissolution of frontman Matt Pryor’s other band, the Get Up Kids.

Following a March 16 appearance at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, the New Amsterdams will kick off a round of North American dates at San Francisco’s Bottom Of The Hill.

The band – comprising Pryor, guitarist/singer Dustin Kinsey, bassist Eric McCann and drummer Bill Belzer – will head east to the legendary C.B.G.B in New York City and stay on the road through April 15, when they play Virginia Beach’s Peppermint Beach Club.

They’ll be back in California two weeks later to play the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival

Source pollstar.com.

As predicted by Glide last week, in a year when best picture nominees thrived on controversy, the Academy Awards’ top honor went to the film that attacked its issues most bluntly.

The Los Angeles social drama “Crash,” which interwove plots and characters from different racial and economic backgrounds in Los Angeles, won best picture honors despite favorite “Brokeback Mountain” winning virtually every other major award it had been up for leading up the the 78th Oscars.

The ensemble film, with a cast that included Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock and hip-hop star Ludacris, also won awards for best original screenplay and best editing.

“Brokeback Mountain” director Ang Lee won best director for his film about the homosexual relationship that grows between two sheepherders in remote Wyoming.

“Brokeback” writers Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay, and Gustavo Santaolalla took the award for best original score.

hilip Seymour Hoffman and Reese Witherspoon were awarded best actor and actress honors.

Hoffman won for his portrayal of Truman Capote in “Capote,” while Witherspoon won her Oscar for playing June Carter Cash in the Johnny Cash biography, “Walk the Line.”

Rachel Weisz won her first Academy Award for her performance as an impassioned activist who dies under mysterious circumstances in “The Constant Gardener.”

And George Clooney won best supporting actor for his performance as a CIA man who starts unraveling the truth in the political thriller “Syriana.”