2006

David Bowie will curate the inaugural High Line Festival, to be held in May 2007 in neighborhoods underneath the High Line, a public park being created atop a long-abandoned elevated railway line on the west side of Manhattan.

As part of the programming, Bowie will play a large outdoor concert, his first show in New York since 2003. He will also select musicians and artists to appear throughout the festival. “I’ve been particularly excited about seeking out emerging artists and giving them a place in a festival that will also feature some very well-known names,” Bowie says.

As Bowie recently told New York magazine, he is planning to take 2006 off from touring and recording. “I’m fed up with the industry,” he said. “And I’ve been fed up for quite some time. I’m taking a year off — no touring, no albums. I go for a walk every morning and I watch a ton of movies. One day, I watched three Woody Allen movies in a row.”

Source billboard.com.

The Long Winters will be releasing their third full length on July 25th on Barsuk Records, entitled Putting The Days To Bed.

Putting The Days To Bed, the third LP from Seattle

As posted on his myspace blog, Tom Marshall noted today that he has launched a new lyric and poster site.

“Stina [Marshall] in San Francisco, and I have teamed up to make some art around my lyrics. Check out MarshallLyrics.com for some cool musical (and yes) Phishy art. The current 4 songs we are featuring are: Theme from the Bottom, Grind, Rift and Farmhouse.

After that we have Lawn Boy, Cavern, Squirming Coil and Bouncing ‘Round the Room coming up.”

In addition, Marshall also announced that “at least two songs from [an Anastasio/Marshall] recent writing session”…’Let Me Lie’ and ‘Obstacle of Course’ will appear on an upcoming Trey Anastasio record.

Rock recluse Axl Rose made a surprise radio appearance to proclaim that Guns N’ Roses’ 10-years-in-the-making albue to proclaim that Guns N’ Roses’ 10-years-in-the-making album, “Chinese Democracy,” album will finally hit stores this fall.

The comments Saturday on Eddie Trunk’s syndicated radio show marked one of the first interviews Rose has given since his failed 2002 comeback tour, which was abruptly scrapped midway amid riots and canceled shows.

Rose’s impromptu appearance came when former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, who was co-hosting the show, called Rose’s cell phone and patched the call through the studio.

Quizzed on when the near-mythical album would come out, Rose said, “Sometime this fall or late fall.” His band could be heard rehearsing in the background. “It will be out this year.”

Trunk invited Rose to drop by the New York studio, and about an hour later he did. Asked about the aborted 2002 comeback tour, which ended when Rose failed to appear for a gig in Philadelphia, Rose told Trunk he felt pressured into doing it before he was ready. But he insisted he has no regrets, since the short-lived tour helped the new band members to gel.

Source billboard.com.

Go-Betweens’ principal Grant McLennan died yesterday (May 6) in his sleep at his home in Brisbane, Australia, according to the influential Australian rock act’s official Web site. He was 48. No cause of death has been announced.

With longtime partner Robert Forster, McLennan led the Go-Betweens to critical, if not commercial, success with such albums as 1983’s “Before Hollywood” and 1988’s “Sixteen Lovers Lane.” After the band split in 1989, McLennan recorded with the band Jack Frost and released four solo albums.

The Go-Betweens reunited in 2000 for the album “The Friends of Rachel Worth,” which featured backing from members of Sleater-Kinney. Ever since, the group has enjoyed a productive period of recording and touring, as its influence became more apparent on such groups as Luna, the Clientele and Belle & Sebastian.

The band’s most recent release was the CD/DVD “That Striped Sunlight Sound,” released in January via Yep Roc Records. Its last show was Jan. 16 at the Sydney Festival.

Source billboard.com.

On March 17, 1973, a band in musical transition named Pink Floyd hit the Top 200 chart with the release of its new album, “Dark Side of the Moon.” It entered the chart at No. 95, the top debut that week. And then a funny thing happened: It never left. Or almost never, anyway.

More than 14 years later — 736 weeks to be precise — in July 1988, it finally fell off The Billboard 200. Add in a later run on that chart and another 759 weeks on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart, and Pink Floyd, with this issue, reaches the staggering plane of 1,500 weeks on the charts.

It’s difficult to contextualize just how singularly dominant a chart — and cultural — force the album has been. The runner-up for time served on The Billboard 200, Bob Marley and the Wailers’ “Legend,” is several years behind, and Floyd’s lead in total chart weeks is greater Marley’s by an almost 2-1 margin.

Label sources say “Dark Side” has sold roughly 40 million copies worldwide and still routinely moves 8,000-9,000 copies on a slow week. In fact, the album still often outpaces the low end of The Billboard 200, and every song on the more than 30-year-old record still gets radio play, with some among the most-played songs at classic rock stations monitored by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems.

Source billboard.com.

Fats Domino, the headliner for Jazz Fest’s final day, canceled his performance several hours before he was to take the stage Sunday, organizers said. Festival organizers declined to say why the 78-year-old Hall of Fame performer would not play. Last week, he had canceled an autograph session for his latest album “Alive and Kickin’,” saying he was fatigued and wanted to rest up for the Jazz Fest performance.

Source yahoo.com.

moe. has announced the initial lineup for their 7th annual moe.down festival held in Turin, NY labor day weekend each year. Among the artists scheduled to perform are:

Umphrey’s Mcgee
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
The Avett Brothers
Apollo Sunshine
Toubab Krewe
Before Cowboys
Mike Rocklin

Early Bird Tickets ON SALE NOW for $80 at moeticketing.musictoday.com