Archive: 2006

In agreeing to acquire YouTube for $1.65 billion on Monday, Google is making a big bet that it can harness its considerable advertising expertise to turn YouTube’s vast collection of video content into a media gold mine.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt went further, saying that the deal marked “the next step in the revolution of the Internet.”

Top executives at both Google and YouTube likewise offered few details on what types of advertising they plan to jointly develop. In response to a question about whether YouTube will adopt pre-roll ads, the company’s founder and CEO Chad Hurley said they “will explore a lot of options,” without giving specifics.

In its deal with CBS, Hurley also pointed out that YouTube is introducing a new automated system for protecting intellectual property rights. It will allow media partners to identify and remove copyright-infringing material from the site. The system is also intended to assure marketers that their ads won’t be linked to pirated or otherwise inappropriate content.

See MediaPost for more details

Photos by Brian Diescher of Aerosmith at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, MA on September 26, 2006.

While some in the audience soaked it up as simple giddy fun, others were clearly annoyed by Jet's lack of showmanship and overall mediocre playing. All classic rock clichés came out, as did a few lighters during “Look What You’ve Done.”

After a lengthy auction stretching over two days, a federal bankruptcy judge on Friday approved the sale of California-based Tower Records to Great American Group, which plans to liquidate the music retailer.
After almost 30 hours of what attorneys described as “robust” and “vigorous” bidding, Great American won with a bid of $134.3 million, beating Trans World Entertainment, which had hoped to continue operating at least some Tower stores, by a single bid increment of $500,000.
Peter Gurfein, an attorney representing Tower Records, said the company will be sold for an aggregate of $150 million, including the sale of various leases and properties.
Gurfein said Great American plans to begin the liquidation process and going out of business sales on Saturday, which eventually will result in the elimination of the jobs of some 3,000 Tower employees.
“This is not an easy decision,” said bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon, who nevertheless noted that the Tower debtors and other parties had agreed the bidding process was conducted fairly and in good faith, resulting in a substantial premium for the debtors over Great American’s stalking horse bid of about $90 million.

For full story see pollstar

Nils Lofgren, guitarist of Bruce

Tool’s sold out performance at the Tweeter Center was an apocalyptic sing-along that had to be seen to be believed. Maynard James Keenan and Co. started off the night’s first act with “Stinkfist,” the opener off 1996's Aenima. Early on, Maynard was lacking the explosion of energy he’s known for, and stood still. In keeping with his reclusive tendencies, as soon as the photographers ceased shooting, Maynard kicked it up a notch and exhibited the fierce stage presence fans were used to expecting from their favorite messianic front-man.

In support of Badly Drawn Boy

Snoe.down ’07, the all ages, weekend winter music festival hosted by indie-jam rockers moe., returns to beautiful Lake Placid, N.Y., March 23-25, 2007. Snoe.down kicks off the week-long Adirondack Almost Springfest celebration, which will take place at all the 1980 Olympic venues in Lake Placid, N.Y., including the Olympic Center, home of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics, and at nearby Whiteface.

Friday and Saturday nights will feature moe. at the Olympic Center’s 1980 Rink Herb Brooks Arena. Additional bands will perform with moe. as well as at other venues throughout the weekend, including afternoons in the base lodge at Whiteface.

Fans will be able to take advantage of a myriad of Lake Placid winter activities. During the concerts fans will even have the option of ice skating while listening to the show! Other area activities include: Public bobsled and luge rocket rides (weather permitting), outdoor public speed skating (weather permitting), gondola rides to the top of Whiteface, toboggan rides and dog sled rides on Mirror Lake, ice climbing and winter mountaineering, tubing on Saranac Lake, visiting the Olympic ski jump towers and touring the 1932 & 1980 Winter Olympic Museum.

Performers for Snoe.down ’07 will be announced over the coming months.

For more detailed and continually updated Snoe.down information, please visit moe.org or greatnortheast.com . For detailed area information please visit whitefacelakeplacid.com

After a busy year of touring the States and Europe, Calexico has
announced several new tour dates in December to round out the year!
Dec 2 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre (w/ Annuals)
Dec 3 – Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad (w/ Annuals)
Dec 4 – Flagstaff, AZ @ Orpheum Theatre (w/ Annuals)
Dec 5 – Tempe, AZ @ The Clubhouse (w/ Annuals)
Dec 8 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore (supporting Los Lobos)
Dec 9 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore (supporting Los Lobos)

The Tucson show on December 2nd continues Calexico’s annual tradition of throwing a year-end hometown benefit concert. A portion of the proceeds will go to KXCI, a local community sponsored radio station.
Proceeds will also go to Humane Borders, who along with other organizations like No More Deaths and Border Angels, offers humanitarian assistance to those in need through more than 70 emergency water stations on and near the U.S.- Mexican border, ultimately trying to quell the hundreds of deaths every year in the Arizona desert due to dehydration.

Legendary live performers Widespread Panic have announced the release of Earth to Atlanta November 14, 2006 on Sanctuary/ Widespread Records. The two DVD set was filmed at the kick off of this year’s Widespread Panic tour, set at the historical Fox Theatre in Atlanta. In a groundbreaking move, Widespread Panic simulcast the concert live to 115 Regal/Edwards/United Artists cinemas nationwide. For the first time ever, over 60,000 ticket holding fans across the country were given the ability to experience the evening live with Panic without actually having to travel to Atlanta.

A companion piece to Widespread Panic’s critically acclaimed 2006 CD release Earth to America, the set offers a unique visual counterpart to the recent studio album. Known for their prodigious live shows, the DVD’s were filmed in stunning High Definition/ 5.1 surround sound in order to capture every nuance of the Widespread Panic live performance. Overall the collection features 26 songs, including classic live versions of “Tall Boy,” “Travelin’ Man,” “Pigeons,” “Time Zones” and “Second Skin.”

Ten White Stripes tracks have been given new orchestralral readings for an album dubbed “Aluminium,” due Nov. 6 internationally via XL Recordings. A North American release date has yet to be announced.

White was not involved in the project, which was spearheaded by XL head Richard Russell. “I’ve grown up on popular music, but in the last couple of years I’ve begun to appreciate classical music, and for some reason I’ve often thought of the White Stripes when I’ve heard it: the hypnotic, repetitious, enigmatic nature of it,” he says.

Working with composer Jody Talbot, Russell drafted a “specially assembled orchestra comprising many of the U.K.’s finest young classical musicians” to perform tracks like “The Hardest Button to Button,” “I’m Bound To Pack It Up,” “Let’s Build a Home” and “Forever for Her (Is Over for Me).” Four Tet has remixed the latter cut but it has not yet been revealed how that version will be released.

“Aluminium” will only be available through the project’s Web site in a limited run of 3,333 CDs and 999 vinyl albums, the latter edition of which will include a silkscreen print by artist Rob Jones. The album will also be sold in digital form.

Here is the track list for “Aluminium”:

“Aluminum”
“I’m Bound To Pack It Up”
“Why Cant You Be Nicer To Me?”
“Astro”
“Never Far Away”
“Little Bird”
“Let’s Build a Home”
“Who’s a Big Baby?”
“The Hardest Button to Button”
“Forever for Her (Is Over for Me)”

Source billboard.com.

The multimedia madness of The Mutaytor will be lighting up stages across the Western U.S. over the next month and a half.
The experimental troupe recently performed at the Download Festival in Mountain View, Calif., and has dates planned in the Pacific Northwest for early October. A seven-night residency at Universal Studios Hollywood will follow, with the group promising one of its largest productions yet.
After gigs in Las Vegas and San Francisco, The Mutaytor will perform at Music Box @ Fonda in Los Angeles, taping the November 17 performance for its debut DVD.
The group numbers more than 30 members, including bassist John Avila, percussionist Steve Reid, the Dub Psi Lab, a three-piece horn section and teams of acrobats and fire dancers on a stage set that includes more than 100 drums.

Source pollstar.com.

With ‘Thirteen,’ Tony Furtado fulfills the immense promise of his 2004 breakthrough ‘These Chains,’ his initial foray into songwriting and singing.

‘Thirteen,’ set for January 23, 2007 release on Funzalo Records, reveals Furtado as an artist with a great deal on his mind and a full arsenal of skills with which to express his thoughts and feelings.
Recorded to 16-track, two-inch analog tape during the summer of 2005 at Tucson’s Wavelab Studios (a favorite venue for Calexico, Neko Case, M. Ward, Iron & Wine and other cult heroes), the album features an all-star cast including keyboardists Sean Slade (whose production credits include Uncle Tupelo and Radiohead) and Jim Dickinson (producer of the seminal Ry Cooder albums that inspired Furtado to take up the slide guitar, plus Big Star and the Replacements), bassist Dusty Wakeman (whose resume includes three previous Furtado LPs, Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams and Anne McCue), drummer Winston Watson (who has played with Dylan and Giant Sand) and Wavelab’s own Craig Schumacher (Calexico, Case, Iron & Wine), who produced and engineered.

New York, a burgeoning blend of cultural arts, opens its eyes, ears and dance-club doors to Open Door

This Chicago quartet annihilates today

Last fall a group of musicians came together for a benefit for the Rex Foundation. The black tie event held at the concert hall for the New York Society for Ethical Culture featured an artist collective comprised of Grateful Dead members and mercenaries, but was primarily based around the foundation of the Zen Tricksters.

The Nirvana concert film “Live! Tonight! Sold Out!” will make its DVD debut Nov. 7 via Geffen. Originally issued on VHS in 1994, the release was conceived by Kurt Cobain as a way to anthologize Nirvana’s quick ascent to rock superstardom but was not completed until after his 1994 suicide.

The bulk of the DVD features live footage from the band’s 1991-92 tour in support of “Nevermind,” highlighted by versions of “Breed,” “Drain You,” “Dive” and “Aneurysm.” According to the label, the footage has been color-corrected and digitally remastered; previously unreleased bonus performances will be included but details have yet to be announced.

Source: billboard

Virgin/EMI Music Catalog Marketing will release Five Men In A Hut (A’s, B’s & Rarities: 1998-2004), a career-spanning 2-CD set chronicling internationally acclaimed British rock band Gomez

Photos by Buddy Fulginiti of Farm Aid 2006, held September 30, at the Tweeter Center in Camden, NJ. Artists included Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Gov’t Mule and more.

Apple Corps Ltd/Capitol Records proudly announces the release of “Love,” the new CD from The Beatles, due November 2006.

After being asked by the remaining Beatles, Ringo and Paul along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, to make experimental mixes from the original master tapes for a collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, Sir George Martin, The Beatles legendary producer, and his son Giles Martin have been working with the entire archive of Beatles recordings to create “Love.” The result is an unprecedented approach to the music. Using the master tapes at EMI