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Sonic Youth signs on with Matador
Sept. 10, 2008
Sonic Youth is going independent — again.
Two years after letting their contract with Geffen Records lapse, Sonic Youth have hooked on with Matador Records on a one-album deal.
"Matador is a super strong, high-profile label with an indie distribution system that is exactly what a band like us in this current climate needs more than anything," guitarist Thurston Moore told Billboard.com.
The band hopes to record their next album sometime this fall, with an eye on a 2009 release date.
Their last record for Geffen, Rather Ripped, was released in 2006, with the rareties compilation The Destroyed Room following later that year.
Sonic Youth originally signed with Geffen prior to releasing their 1990 album, Goo. Their signing marked a sea change in the alternative music scene, with independent bands like the Butthole Surfers, the Flaming Lips, Mudhoney and Nirvana soon jumping from small independent labels to bigger companies.
Matador is one of the stronger independent labels in the country, with the likes of Stephen Malkmus, the New Pornographers and Yo La Tengo on their roster.
Sept. 1, 2008
LED ZEPPELIN BACK IN THE STUDIO
Jason Bonham has informed the BBC that he, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were back in the studio jamming and sketching out material for a possible new Led Zeppelin album.
"At the moment, all I know is I have the great pleasure to go and jam with the two guys and start work on some material," said the drummer and son of original Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.
Singer Robert Plant is currently on the road with Allison Kraus through October and was not present at the sessions. Addtionally, the band has made no official announcement regarding a new record.
"Lots of politics [would need to] get ironed out [before an album could be made]," Bonham clarified.
"Whatever it ends up as, to ever get a chance to jam with two people like that, it is a phenomenal thing for me. It's my life. It's what I've dreamed about doing."
August 20, 2008
DMB's LEROI MOORE DIES AT 46
Dave Matthews Band saxophonist LeRoi Moore died yesterday, a few weeks after an ATV accident had forced him to miss a summer tour. He was 46 years old.
Moore had initially been released from the hospital following the accident, but complications forced him to check into Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles on July 17.
The Dave Matthews Band continued on with a scheduled show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, dedicating the show to their fallen bandmate.
"We got some bad news today,” Matthews said after the band opened with "Bartender." "(He) gave up his ghost today and we will miss him forever." The band went on to play a full show, reportedly choking back tears through much of the night.
Moore was a founding member of the Dave Matthews Band, recruiting drummer Carter Beauford after meeting Matthews in a bar in Virginia.
August 10, 2008
The Clash are ready to release a live album documenting their opening gig for the Who at Shea Stadium in 1982, nearly 26 years after the initial performance.
The October 13 performance Live at Shea Stadium (they also opened for the Who on the 12th) will find its way to stores on CD on Oct. 7, 2008 on Sony's Legacy label. The tour was the highest-grossing of '82, with the Who bidding an early farewell to touring.
Coincidentally, Shea Stadium, home of the National League's New York Mets, will close its doors following this season.
Tracklist:
1. Introduction
2. London Calling
3. Police on My Back
4. Guns of Brixton
5. Tommy Gun
6. The Magnificent Seven
7. Armagideon Time
8. The Magnificent Seven (return)
9. Rock the Casbah
10. Train in Vain
11. Career Opportunities
12. Spanish Bombs
13. Clampdown
14. English Civil War
15. Should I Stay Or Should I Go
16. I Fought the Law
April 16, 2008
British shoegazers Swervedriver will reunite this summer, and the first stop on their tour will be the Coachella festival the weekend of April 25-27.
The band, led by Adam Franklin, has not played live since a world tour in 1999. They were recently added to the bill at Coachella and will play a club tour this summer.
The band also reports that they hope to add more dates to the tour so far.
Tour dates so far include:
April 27: Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
May 26: Seattle
May 27: Portland, Ore.
May 29: San Francisco
May 30: San Diego
May 31: Los Angeles
June 3: Austin, Texas
June 5: Atlanta
June 6: Carrboro, N.C.
June 7: Philadelphia
June 8: Washington, D.C.
June 10: Boston
June 11: New York
June 12: Brooklyn, N.Y.
June 13: Toronto
June 14: Chicago
February 27, 2008
BUDDY MILES, 1947-2008
Buddy Miles, best known as the drummer in Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys, died yesterday in his Austin, Texas, home. He was 60 years old.
Miles spun his success with Hendrix into a successful solo career, scoring a hit with "Them Changes," originally released on the Band of Gypsys album as "Changes," in the 1970s, and had gone on to work with several artists.
Miles had recently been working with a blues band called "The Blues Berries," and had released a studio album with them on the Ruf label in 2002.
February 6, 2008
METALLICA, PEARL JAM TO HEADLINE BONNAROO 2008
Pearl Jam and Metallica will headline this summer's annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts festival, to be held June 12-15 in Manchester, Tenn.
Other notable artists playing the the festival include Jack Johnson, the Raconteurs, Kanye West, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, My Morning Jacket, the Allman Brothers Band, Sigur Ros, B.B. King and Death Cab for Cutie, among others.
For the complete lineup and ticket information, visit bonnaroo.com.
January 29, 2008:
NEIL YOUNG SAYS 'NO' TO CDS
Neil Young's Archives project — a career spanning set in the works since the early 90s — is set to hit stores sometime in October. But don't except to buy the box set on CD.
Billboard is reporting that Young will need the extra few months now to finalize the technological aspects of the set, which will now only be released on DVD and Blu-Ray discs.
"There won't be CDs," Young said at the Sundance Film Festival at the premier of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Deja Vu documentary. "Technology has caught up to what the concept was in the first place [and] how we're able to actually present it. But there's no doubt it will come out this year."
Young has long stood out against CDs, refusing for years to release some of his back catalogue, including On the Beach and American Stars N' Bars, on the format due to its limitiations in sound quality. DVDs offer a much higher sampling rate, which offers more to the listener in terms of sound.
The new Archives format will also allow Young to present the songs in a timeline format, with lyric sheets, film clips and photos accompanying the songs.
December 15, 2007:
Led Zeppelin officially stormed the stage in a full-scale concert for the first time on Monday night, 27 years after the death of drummer John Bonham and their official break-up.
The band —Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, with Jason Bonham filling in on drums — played for roughly two hours in London's O2 Arena before 20,000 screaming fans.
The show kicked off with "Good Times, Bad Times" from the band's self-titled debut album, and included such highlights as "Kashmir," "Since I've Been Loving You," "In My Time of Dying" and the first-ever live performance of "For Your Life."
Fan reaction has been favorable, and tickets — going for more than $250US — were highly sought after. More than 1 million fans applied for the chance to buy tickets in an on-line lottery, and some paid several thousand dollars for the chance to be present. Rumors of a DVD release of the show are now floating, as are those of a world tour for 2008.
Below is a BBC report, which includes a clip of "Black Dog:"
The setlist:
Shows in gray link to footage from youtube.com.
Good Times, Bad Times
Ramble On
Black Dog
In My Time of Dying
For Your Life
Trampled Under Foot
Nobody's Fault but Mine
No Quarter
Since I've Been Loving You
Dazed and Confused
Stairway to Heaven
The Song Remains the Same
Misty Mountain Hop
Kashmir
Encore:
Whole Lotta Love
Rock and Roll
September 29, 2007:
Several sets from the Lollapalooza 2007 festival are now available for purchase online at iTunes. The full albums range in price from $2.97 to $11.99.
Select tracks are available from a number of artists, including:
The Black Keys
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Ghostland Observatory
Pearl Jam
The Polyphonic Spree
Dax Riggs
Slightly Stoopid
Sparklehorse
Son Volt
Soullive
Tokyo Police Club
White Rabbits
Track sets are also still available from the 2006 edition of the festival, including the Hold Steady, Sleater-Kinney and Be Your Own Pet. Visit itunes.com for more information.
August 22, 2007:
Fans of the Rolling Stones can rest easy tonight.
In response to rumors that rock giants the Rolling Stones would call it a day on their touring career, Ronnie Wood has told The Sun that "We need a rest, but of course we will tour again. We’ll never stop!”
The band is also gearing up for the release of Shine A Light, a documentary of the band's live show directed by Martin Scorsese. The trailer is available below:
Speculation had run rampant that, when the final curtain came down on their closing show in London, the Rolling Stones would walk away from the stage for good.
According to this report, a source claimed that following the finale of the now-three-year A Bigger Bang tour in London at O2 Arena, the band will retire from live performance.
The source said, “We've been told this will be the last tour. Embarking on a Stones world tour takes years to plan. Mick and Keith would be in their late 60s by the time they would be ready to rock once more."
The band was formed in 1962 by original guitarist Brian Jones and pianist Ian Stewart. Stewart was forced into the role of road manager by the band’s manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, and later in the decade, Jones was fired and replaced by Mick Taylor. Jones died shortly thereafter when he drowned in his pool.
Bassist Bill Wyman retired from the group in 1992, and Darryl Jones stepped in as his replacement, though he was never named an “official” Stone. The current line-up, with Wood replacing Taylor in 1975, has played some of the highest-grossing tours in history, with 1994-95’s Voodoo Lounge pulling in $320 million and the current A Bigger Bang tour raking $437 million as of November 2006.
The Stones have recorded 24 studio albums, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.