Share
Email
Stumble
AIM
Del.icio.us
DiggThis
Fark It!
Canadian rockers the TRAGICALLY HIP have finished
recording, mixing and mastering their seventh studio album,
Music @ Work. The Sire/London album, which is scheduled
for worldwide release on June 8, was produced by Los Lobos member
STEVE BERLIN (who also produced the Hip's 1998
effort, Phantom Power). There are no North American tour
dates yet, but the band will perform four shows in Europe beginning
June 3 in Hamburg, Germany, at Grunspan and ending June 8 in London
at Shepherds Bush Empire. Full tour and album updates can be found
at www.thehip.com . . .
Former BAY CITY ROLLERS drummer DEREK
LONGMUIR was given a slap on the wrist by a British court
after he confessed to child pornography possession. Longmuir,
forty-eight, was ordered to perform 300 hours of community service
by the court, which spared him a prison sentence. He claimed that
the indecent films and photography in his home was left there by an
American friend . . .
DAVID BOWIE may not be touring this year, but that
doesn't mean he's sitting around knitting booties as he and Iman
wait for the stork. The Thin White Web Entrepreneur has just added
teen sensations HANSON to his list of web clients,
which includes the New York Yankees (YankeesXtreme.com) and
Baltimore Orioles (OriolesWorld.com). Bowie's UltraStar Internet
Services has been working on a site to bring a new and improved
Hanson to the unsuspecting world in anticipation of their new
album, This Time Around, due May 9. At midnight on March
29, Hanson.net will go live, giving fans a peak at the new album
which features guest appearances from Beck, John Popper and Jonny
Lang. . .
WILCO and BILLY BRAGG have put
the finishing touches on their second collaboration built around
WOODY GUTHRIE lyrics, according to Wilco's
management. Elektra is tentatively planning to release the album in
June, and the working title "Mermaid Avenue Vol. II." The album is
culled from a variety of sources, including the original sessions
for the first album, and new takes recorded in Ireland and Chicago.
The original Mermaid Avenue, in which Wilco and Bragg put
unreleased Guthrie lyrics to new music, was released in 1998. .
.
Cleopatra Records, the same folks who brought you tributes to Alice
Cooper, Prince and Aerosmith, have cooked up a new cover project.
The label will release a VAN HALEN tribute album
later this year. So far organizers have snared a virtual guitar
army led by fretmaster YNGWIE MALMSTEEN.
GUNNAR NELSON, the TUBES and
MARK SLAUGHTER are among those who will offer
their personal stamps to the bombastic hits from the Van Halen
catalog. . .
METHODS OF MAYHEM have just signed on to play this
year's Ozzfest. TOMMY LEE's new outfit will join
PANTERA, KITTIE and OZZY
OSBOURNE for the fifth annual hard rock festival.
FLASHPOINT was forced to drop out of the lineup
after singer OLLIE LUTTGENAU was injured in a
snowboarding accident. Ozzfest 2000 kicks off on July 2 in West
Palm Beach, Fla., and despite rumors, reps for the festival claim
this year is far from being the festival's last. . .
The JVC Jazz Festival has announced its schedule of performers for
this summer. RAY CHARLES, ARETHA
FRANKLIN, CASSANDRA WILSON,
CESARIA EVORA and DIANA KRALL are
among those tapped to play the two-week festival, which runs June
12-24 at a variety of venues throughout New York City. Tickets for
the festival go on sale May 7. For more details check out
www.festivalproductions.net/jvc/ny. . .
JOSEPHINE WIGGS, former bass player for the
BREEDERS, and ex-LUSCIOUS JACKSON
keyboardist VIVIAN TRIMBLE have recorded an album
together under the name DUSTRY TRAILS. Their debut
is slated for release in May and features appearances by
EMMYLOU HARRIS and Trimble's former Luscious
Jackson cohorts, JILL CUNNIFF and KATE
SCHNELLENBACH. . .
His Behind the Music made you cry, and now former teen
idol LEIF GARRETT is trying to thrill you again.
Garrett and his band GODSPEED will head out on a
tour opening for veteran noise-makers the MELVINS.
The two-month trek kicks off March 29 in Las Vegas. . .
TRENT REZNOR has taken a page out of Smashing
Pumpkins' tour journal and is stingily doling out NINE INCH
NAILS North American tour dates a few at a time. NIN will
descend on the eastern seaboard early in May. Tickets go on sale
March 25 for the following shows: the Centrum in Worcester, Mass.,
on May 2; the Civic Center in Providence, R.I., on May 3; the Civic
Center in Hartford, Conn., on May 4; the Spectrum in Philadelphia,
Pa., on May 6; and the Star Lake Amphitheater in Pittsburgh, Pa.,
on May 7. . .
The NBA has nabbed JAMES BROWN to star in their $5
million playoff ad campaign, airing on TNT and TBS next month. The
flashy spots feature the Godfather of Soul singing "The Boss," with
some of the league's big-name players like Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe
Bryant, Allen Iverson and Glen Rice. Brown filmed his first ad with
the Iverson in Philadelphia on Tuesday. . .
To very, very loosely quote one of their songs, summer's coming up
fast, and DONALD FAGEN and WALTER
BECKER of STEELY DAN are about to get
busy promoting their new album Two Against Nature on the
road. Although full U.S. dates will not be announced until April 9,
the official Steely Dan site confirms two dates -- June 13 and 14
-- at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. By then Fagen,
Becker and their assembled road mercenaries should be good and
limbered up after five dates in Japan (beginning May 14 in Tokyo)
and a May 5 appearance on the Today show. An episode of
VH1's Storytellers featuring the duo is also scheduled to
air sometime in early May . . .
PHISH lyricist TOM MARSHALL has
recorded a solo project that is set for release next month.
Amfibian Tales will feature fourteen new tracks penned by
Marshall and performed by him and his new band, Amfibian. The album
should be available in early April. More information will be made
available at www.amfibian.com. . .
TOM WAITS, ELVIS COSTELLO,
RICKIE LEE JONES, BRIAN SETZER
and BETTE MIDLER are among guests on Beatin'
the Heat, the first release by the Seventies genre-defying
cult-band DAN HICKS AND THE HOT LICKS in more than
two decades. Beatin' the Heat is scheduled for release on
July 18 on Surfdog Records. . .
LINDA McCARTNEY's former husband JOSEPH
MELVILLE SEE JR. died Tuesday at his home in Arizona, of
an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The sixty-two-year-old
geologist and cultural anthropologist married Linda Eastman in the
Sixties and the two had one daughter before their divorce. See was
the subject of rumors during his life as the possible "Jo Jo" from
Tuscon, Ariz. in the Beatles tune "Get Back". . .
In a collaboration that accentuates the stylistic enigma that is
Texas music, PANTERA drummer VINNIE
PAUL and guitarist DIMEBAG DARRELL are
collaborating with country outlaw DAVID ALLEN COE.
The collaboration has apparently yielded several songs, but is
still considered "pretty unofficial stuff," according to a source
for the band. No word yet about any plans for release. . .
"Fasten thine seatbelts, Fellow Minions... for the Tattooed shall
inherit the earth, and the trumpets will sound, and the Ears will
bleed..." So reads one fan's posting on www.tattootheearth.com, the
official Web site for the inaugural Tattoo the Earth Festival.
SLIPKNOT, SEVENDUST and
COAL CHAMBER will be joined by tattoo artists
Hanky Panky and Sean Vasquez, who have inked the likes of the Red
Hot Chili Peppers and the Sex Pistols respectively, for a
tentatively scheduled thirty date tour to begin in mid-summer. The
festival village promises to include body piercers and painters,
henna artists and temporary tattoos (for those who don't like to
say, "Ouch"). But make no mistake about the tour's intent. "Our
goal is to tattoo the Earth," according to festival producer Paul
Zukoski, "the whole Earth." Official dates and an extended lineup
are expected to be announced shortly . . .
GARTH BROOKS' visit to the New York Mets spring
training was a success despite the continuation of a hitting slump.
The country music star pulled an ohfer, going hitless in seventeen
at-bats. Following last year's one for twenty-two stint with the
San Diego Padres, don't look for Brooks in a uniform anytime after
April. But Brooks managed to round up more than 100 commitments
from Major League Baseball players for his Touch 'em All
Foundation, a children's charity. The exact amount Brooks raised
will be determined as the season progresses, as many players make a
pledge based on specific statistics. Last year Brooks pulled in
nearly $2 million for the foundation . . .
It was only a matter of time before KISS got their
own Pepsi commercial, but fans may be surprised that the band will
play second fiddle to the soft drink's ringlet-wearing,
tough-talking eleven-year-old mascot Hallie Eisenberg. This time
the little tyke will dress up like a member of
KISS and perform a song with band, with her own
miniature, rhinestone-studded, Paul Stanley Signature Series
Washburn guitar. The commercial will debut on Sunday during the
Academy Awards show on ABC. Those who have seen it say that it
sizzles more than Michael Jackson's hair . . .
Former Blake Babies bassist and indie-rock princess JULIANA
HATFIELD will return on May 16 with not one, but two
albums to follow-up 1998's Bed. Beautiful
Creature features producer SCOTT LITT
(R.E.M., Indigo Girls, Nirvana) on several tracks and is described
as more mellow than its counterpart, Total System Failure.
The second album, which features MIKEY WELSH of
WEEZER on bass and ZEPHAN
COURTNEY of MILLIGRAM on drums, was
recorded under the moniker JULIANA'S PONY. A
special limited-edition package -- containing both albums, an
additional track and a letter from Hatfield -- will be released the
same day . . .
While SILVERCHAIR frontman DANIEL
JOHNS has been taking advantage of his band's twelve-month
hiatus to work on a solo album and bassist CHRIS
JOANNOU has been tinkering with vintage cars, drummer
BEN GILLES went out of his way to find out how the
other half lives. Specifically, he's been working for $12-an-hour
behind the counter at Sound World record store in a shopping center
in Newcastle, Australia. Although the drummer only punches in for
one or two days a week, fans have already gotten wind of his new
gig -- but one condition of Gilles employment is that he's not
allowed to sign autographs on the job. Australia's Sunday
Telegraph went into the shop and asked workers if Gillies'
presence has boosted sales any; lo and behold, one co-worker fessed
up that "people are actually buying more Silverchair singles."
Meanwhile, according to Epic Records, Silverchair are still signed
to the label and plan to release another album, but there is
currently nothing on the schedule . . .
An estimated 11,000 Dubliners were treated to a free
U2 mini-concert Saturday when the band performed
"All I Want Is You," "Desire," "The Sweetest Thing" and "One" at
the city's Smithfield Civic Plaza. Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and
Larry Mullen, Jr. were celebrating their newly anointed status as
"Freemen of the city of Dublin," an honor they now share with the
likes of Mother Theresa, the Pope, Nelson Mandela and John F.
Kennedy. The band members were given the award because of their
role in changing the image of Dublin abroad and for their support
of such causes as the Third World debt-busting Jubilee 2000 as well
as Live Aid and Amnesty International. "If there is one idea that
this city treasures above all others," Bono told the crowd gathered
to see them receive the award in Smithfield market, "it is freedom"
. . .
MARC ANTHONY spent Saturday night in a St. Louis
hospital, apparently after taking sore throat medication on an
empty stomach. Anthony's condition meant two missed performances,
Saturday in St. Louis and Sunday in Atlanta, but the Salsa star
will reschedule both gigs. "Marc would like to thank all his fans
for their expressions of love and concern and apologizes for any
inconvenience the concert postponements may have caused," a
statement on his official site read . . .
Throat problems also felled D'ANGELO. The R&B
singer was forced to postpone a Radio City Music Hall gig Friday in
New York City. The previous night, D'Angelo thrilled a Big Apple
crowd, but on Friday swollen vocal cords, laryngitis and an
admonishment from his doctor caused him to bump the show to Monday,
March 20. The postponed performance is taking the place of a Boston
show that will be rescheduled for a later time. New York fans who
are unable to attend Monday night can return their tickets to Radio
City for a full refund . . .
COUNTING CROWS are the latest act to bail on an
Austrian appearance. The band won't be bumming around Vienna's
Libro Hall on March 23 in reaction to the inauguration of the
recently elected, far-right freedom party. LOU
REED and STING had previously cancelled
gigs in the country . . .
The BLOODHOUND GANG will kick off a U.S. club tour
in support of their recently released Hooray for Boobies
on April 13 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The funk-metal act's current
single, "The Bad Touch," is at No. 11 on Billboard's Modern Rock
chart. For the full list of tour dates go to
www.bloodhoundgang.com.
BILL CRANDALL, ANDREW DANSBY, RICHARD SKANSE, CHRISTINA SARACENO,
JAAN UHELSZKI
(March 25, 2000)
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC.
Get RS Mobile
RSS