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IN THE NEWS:
Did AT&T censor Pearl Jam?
August 10, 2007:
AT&T has Pearl Jam hopping mad following the communincation giant's webcast of the band's recent Lollapalooza set.
Pearl Jam, who headlined the three-day Chicago festival, contend that event sponsor AT&T's Blueroom, who had the webcast rights, edited out a siginifcant portion of the song "Daughter," which criticized President George W. Bush.
"What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band," said Pearl Jam through an official statement on their web site.
"AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media."
AT&T has stated that the incident was a "major mistake" made by a content monitor who typically edits out nudity or vulgar language.
The offending lines in the song, which were part of a brief cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall," were "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush, find yourself another home."
The incident, according to the band, is another example of why NetNeutrality is such an important issue these days.
"This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media," said Pearl Jam.
A side-by-side comparison of the original and censored moments can be viewed here, while the entire, unedited song is available here. Both songs were posted by Pearl Jam following the incident.
July 29, 2007:
As signaled cryptically on their official Web site, Led Zeppelin are planning new releases for the fall, spearheaded by The Mothership, a new two-disc, 24-track best-of release to arrive Nov. 13.
The Mothership, with songs selected by surviving members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, will be released as a two-CD set, a two-CD-DVD set, and a 4-LP high-end vinyl box set.
A week later, the band will also re-release The Song Remains The Same, their 1976 concert film, along with an updated soundtrack with remastered sound and bonus tracks. The film will contain all 14 songs from the original 1973 concert at Madison Square Garden for the first time, in 5.1 digital surround sound and with plenty of extras. The film will be released on standard DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats.
The updated soundtrack will featured 6 songs not included on the original set — "Black Dog," "Over The Hills And Far Away," "Misty Mountain Hop," "Since I've Been Loving You," "The Ocean," and "Heartbreaker." The soundtrack and DVD will also be available together, bundled with a T-shirt and other memorabilia in a special collector's edition.
These new releases add fuel to the fire that Led Zeppelin plans on re-uniting — with John Bonham's son Jason on drums — for a memorial concert for Atlantic Records icon Ahmet Ertegun this winter, with a full-scale world tour to follow in 2008. The band has denied all rumors thus far.
The tracklist for the new albums are as follows:
The Mothership:
Disc One
1. Good Times Bad Times
2. Communication Breakdown
3. Dazed And Confused
4. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
5. Whole Lotta Love
6. Ramble On
7. Heartbreaker
8. Immigrant Song
9. Since I've Been Loving You
10. Rock And Roll
11. Black Dog
12. When The Levee Breaks
13. Stairway To Heaven
Disc Two
1. The Song Remains The Same
2. Over The Hills And Far Away
3. D'Yer Maker
4. No Quarter
5. Trampled Under Foot
6. Houses Of The Holy
7. Kashmir
8. Nobody's Fault But Mine
9. Achilles Last Stand
10. In The Evening
11. All My Love
The Song Remains The Same:
Disc One
1. Rock And Roll
2. Celebration Day
3. Black Dog
4. Over The Hills
5. Misty Mountain Hop
6. Since I've Been Loving You
7. No Quarter
8. The Song Remains The Same
9. Rain Song
10. The Ocean
Disc Two
1. Dazed And Confused
2. Stairway To Heaven
3. Moby Dick
4. Heartbreaker
5. Whole Lotta Love
July 3, 2007:
Smashing Pumpkins, who are gearing up for a two-week stay at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium in advance of their first album in seven years, Zeitgeist, have announced a full-scale tour of North America.
The tour will take the band through most major cities on the continent, including a gig at Red Rocks in Morrison, Colo., two dates in Boston's Orpheum Theatre and festivals in Montreal and Toronto.
For all Smashing Pumpkins tour dates, visit their tour page.
Zeigeist will be released on July 10.
June 13, 2007:
Spoon is streaming a new song every day from their upcoming album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, on their sub site, gagagagaga.net. By June 15, all 10 tracks will be available.
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, the Austin band’s sixth full-length record, will be released on July 10.
The tracklist is:
1. Don't Make Me a Target
2. The Ghost of You Lingers
3. You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
4. Don't You Evah
5. Rhythm And Soul
6. Eddie's Raga
7. The Underdog
8. My Little Japanese Cigarette Case
9. Finer Feelings
10. Black Like Me
Spoon will spend their summer touring the United States, with stops at the Lollapalooza, Virgin and Red Rocks festivals, as well as the Bonnaroo festival this coming weekend in Manchester, Tenn. The band will also hit the festival circuit in Europe in August.
April 13, 2007:
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE RETURN WITH 'ERA VULGARIS'
Queens of the Stone Age have announced that their new album, Era Vulgaris, will be released on June 12 on Rekord Rekords. It will be their first studio album since 2005's Lullabies to Paralyze.
The tracklist will be as follows:
1. Turnin on the Screw
2. Sick, Sick, Sick
3. I'm Designer
4. Into the Hollows
5. Misfit Love
6. Battery Acid
7. Make It Wit Chu
8. 3's & 7's
9. Suture Up Your Future
10. River in the Road
11. Run Pig Run
Queens of the Stone Age will play a series of European dates throughout June
and July, including T in the Park in Glasgow.
April 3, 2007:
PEARL JAM TAPPED TO HEADLINE LOLLAPALOOZA
Pearl Jam will headline the 2007 Lollapalooza festival in Chicago's Grant Park on
Sunday, August 5.
Tickets for the three-day event are now on sale at the Lollapalooza Web site.
Pearl Jam played the travelling Lollapalooza festival in 1992 alongside peers
Soundgarden and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It is the band's only scheduled U.S.
appearance this year. The band will tour Europe this June.