2006

During the band’s 28 years, The Radiators have come tantalizingly close to making the “Great New Orleans Rock Recording.” Now, with the release of their new record, Dreaming Out Loud (Radz Records – October 3, 2006), they’ve done it. Dreaming Out Loud is the definitive studio recording by one of New Orleans’ best Rock bands.

Dreaming Out Loud is an accurate and intriguing self-portrait of these New Orleans natives; heartbroken by the devastation Hurricane Katrina brought to their beloved city, but not hopeless. Determined to record the album in their hometown, The Radiators teamed up with producer Mark Bingham at Piety St. Recording N.O.L.A. during the city’s historical 2006 Mardi Gras celebration, when the New Orleans community gathered together to remind the world that the city and its traditions would in fact survive. There and then the band laid the tracks for Dreaming Out Loud – a New Orleans-flavored “war cry” that only The Radiators could assemble. The album’s title track sets straight those who ever doubted the city’s legacy would continue; Malone sings – “Our music is all we’ve ever had.”

Look for the band on tour this fall in support of their new release. The current list of tour dates is as follows:

September 07 Science Museum of Virginia Richmond VA
September 08 8×10 Baltimore MD
September 09 State Theatre Falls Church VA
October 05-06 Slim’s San Francisco CA
October 13-14 Quixote’s Denver CO
October 15 Fox Theater Boulder CO
October 26 American Legion Hall Fargo ND
January 12 BB King’s New York NY

More dates to be announced.

The Arctic Monkeys have won the 2006 Nationwide Mercury Prize, the “album of the year” award for British and Irish acts. The act’s debut set, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” (Domino), was named the winner at a ceremony held tonight (Sept. 5) at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.

The Sheffield, England-based alternative rock quartet has arguably been the hottest British act to emerge this year. Since its release this January, the album has sold more than 1 million copies in the United Kingdom alone, where it is certified triple platinum. In the U.S., it has sold 258,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The event was hosted by Jools Holland and featured live performances from eight of the 12 shortlisted acts, including Thom Yorke, Editors, Hawley, Hot Chip, Zoe Rahman, Sway, Scritti Politti and Guillemots. All the nominees were present at the ceremony.

The shortlisted albums were chosen by 12 judges from an entry of more than 200 albums submitted by labels. To qualify, an album had to be recorded by a British or Irish artist and released between July 25, 2005 and July 17, 2006.

Source: billboard

R.E.M. will perform three songs with original drummer Bill Berry to celebrate its induction into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, to be held Sept. 16 in Atlanta. Berry has only played three times with his longtime colleagues since exiting the band in 1997, most prominently at the October 2005 wedding of R.E.M. guitar tech Dewitt Burton.

At that performance, the foursome played a seven-song set of classic early material, including “Sitting Still,” “Radio Free Europe” and “Wolves, Lower.” In April, Berry joined vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills to perform R.E.M.’s “Country Feedback” at an Athens, Ga., show by Buck’s side band, the Minus 5.

While the group rehearses for the Hall of Fame ceremony, it is “considering recording something for a yet-to-be-announced charitable project,” according to a post from manager Bertis Downs on R.E.M.’s Web site.

Following the induction, R.E.M. will end a year-long hiatus and hit the studio to begin work on the follow-up to 2004’s critically maligned “Around the Sun.”

Source billboard.com.

For the first time in 30 years, Bob Dylan tops The Billboard 200 with “Modern Times.” Not only is it the legendary songwriter’s first album to reach the throne since “Desire” in 1976, it’s also his highest debuting album and his best sales week since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991. The Columbia set moved 192,000 copies in the United States in its first week.

“Modern Times” is Dylan’s third consecutive top 10 studio set, following 1997’s “Time Out of Mind” and 2001’s “Love & Theft.” Aside from “Desire” and “Modern Times,” only two other Dylan albums assumed the plateau on the chart: 1974’s “Planet Waves” and the 1975 classic “Blood on the Tracks.”

Source billboard.com.

Barely a week after longtime keyboard player Ed Harsch left the band for “personal reasons,” today Black Crowes fans were notified via a posting on the band’s official message board that another longtime member, guitarist Marc Ford, would also be leaving.

To the fans:

Yesterday, The Black Crowes were notified by Marc Ford