News
Joan Baez's Tree Protest
Posten on: 2006-05-25 06:39:22
Folk singer Joan Baez and a woman who once spent two years perched atop a giant California redwood took up residence today (May 24) in a tree in a Los Angeles community garden that is threatened with demolition.Baez, who gave voice to Vietnam War protesters, and Julia "Butterfly" Hill, whose anti-logging protest in the late 1990s drew widespread attention, said they would occupy the tree in shifts.The 14-acre garden in the middle of gritty south Los Angeles is tended by some 350 farmers, many of them immigrants, who have been growing fruits and vegetables there since 1992.The farmers are threatened with eviction after the Trust for Public Land failed in its efforts to buy the site from the owner, who plans to build a warehouse there.A small group has gathered on the site in a bid to prevent the garden from being wiped out.Hill ended her Northern California "tree sit" protest in December 1999 after Pacific Lumber Co. agreed to preserve the tree she dubbed Luna and a 200-foot buffer zone around the tree in exchange for a $50,000 payment from Hill and her supporters intended to save the tree in perpetuity.The 65-year-old Baez has a long history of political activism. Last year she joined anti-war protesters near President Bush's ranch to meet with military families who want troops pulled out of Iraq.
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Green Day have new projects in mind
Posten on: 2006-05-23 17:19:08
Green Day have got back down to work on some "cool projects" after a brief break.The band took some time off after the extensive world tour which followed their hugely successful 2004 album 'American Idiot'.But now, in a posting on their official website, the group have revealed they're in the studio again - though it's unclear if they are actually working on a new album.The post reads: "It's been a while since we filled you all in to what's going on in Green Day world. We finished touring at the beginning of the year and have all taken some much needed vacation. We have started to get together and work on a bunch of cool projects. It is a very creative time for us and we look forward to working on them for the next year or so."Everyone is doing great and we are enjoying the time at home. We will be sure to keep you all updated as to what is going on."There is currently no new release scheduled from the band.
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Beastie Boys release documentary
Posten on: 2006-05-18 17:24:45
The premiere of the Beastie Boys' new documentary 'Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That' is to feature in a series of music movies to be shown at London's National Film Theatre.'Access All Areas' runs through June and July, and among other highlights are the acclaimed 'Standing In the Shadows Of Motown', Marc Bolan's 'Born To Boogie' and Neil Young's 'Year Of The Horse'. A host of movies containing more contemporary acts will be announced shortly.The Beastie Boys movie premiere will be screened on July 7, with full details to be confirmed in the near future. Directed by the band's Adam Yauch (MCA), the band handed out 50 cameras to fans at their Madison Square Garden concert in 2004, with the instructions 'do what you want - just keep shooting'. The results were edited together.Organisers also promise more events, previews and special guests.
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A more 'fluid' recording
Posten on: 2006-05-12 00:39:31
Tool might be among rock's most revered artists, but don't think for a second that they don't care about selling albums. When 10,000 Days, their first LP in five years, debuted atop the Billboard albums chart this week, bassist Justin Chancellor said he was a bit relieved."You never quite know if anyone's going to care anymore when it's been so long, so it's nice to know people are still into it," he commented on 10,000 Days selling 564,000 copies in its first week. "With it being five years since the last one, you don't really know what's going to happen. None of us are complete experts on the industry, but we were happily surprised — I mean, we were hoping for #1."There was some doubt that the disc would sell as much as it did, Chancellor said, given the album leaked to the Internet the week before it was released. "You never quite know," he said. "We were really bummed out about the album leaking. We took a lot of precautions to stop that from happening. But you can pretty much guarantee it'll leak as soon as the finished packaging and CDs are put in the trucks to be shipped to Alaska or whatever. As soon as that happens, you can guarantee that it's going to get leaked. We sort of expected it, and we were pretty much pleased that it managed to last that long without getting out there, and even happier people wanted to go out and buy it anyway."Tool began writing for 10,000 Days 18 months ago, Chancellor said, years after the release of 2001's Lateralus. The bandmembers worked on material individually before convening in a studio setting to perfect the songs."We had a lot of ideas that were left over from the Lateralus sessions, and all of us worked on coming up with riffs and ideas," he explained. "We just made a big pile in the middle of the room of ideas, and you start playing around with them and you start jamming. It's kind of a process of exploration and discovery. And at some point, the ideas started coming together in groups and they become songs."The actual recording of the LP, Chancellor said, proved a much more "fluid" process for Tool, "because everyone was getting on much better this time, and the attention to detail was a little more involved on everyone's part. I think we worked a lot more with frontman Maynard James Keenan during much of the process, so there's a lot of interaction between the music and the vocals. It was a more positive experience on my end. The last album was a real hard road and a little like pulling teeth at times. These sessions were more enjoyable."Tool are wrapping up a brief run of U.S. clubs and will perform Thursday night (May 11) in Kansas City, Kansas. Dates are booked through May 21 in Boston. Most of the stops along the trek sold out in mere minutes, leaving several of Tool's fans out in the cold. But Chancellor said the band will be back on the road in August, and the group is mapping an eight-week arena trek that'll carry the group through the end of September. "People will be able to get tickets for that tour," he cracked. "Right now, we're basically doing a bit of a warm-up run. We haven't played in a couple of years and we need to get our chops back together."When the late-summer tour launches really depends on the weather, he said. Keenan, a wine connoisseur, plans to return to his Merkin Vineyards in Sedona, Arizona, at some point this summer so that he can overlook the harvesting of this year's grape crop. Later this year, Keenan plans to release a 2004 Nagual de la Naga, a 2004 Nagual del Sensei and a new Primer Paso."There are a few weeks where he has to be back and doing that, and we appreciate that it's his passion and he wants to be hands-on with it," Chancellor said. Now that the long wait's over for Tool fans thirsting for new material, it begs a very obvious question: Will Tool force those same loyal fans to wait another five years before there's another new LP? Sure, they're working on a live DVD and are in talks to be featured in the forthcoming "Guitar Hero 2" video game, but what about another studio effort?"If a band [puts out an album a year], how can you live any life? How can you evolve? How can you have anything new to say? Maybe you can, but I don't hear it. You win on one level and you lose on another level that way. With us, it sucks — you don't get any music for a long time, but when you do, it's something you can sink your teeth into. It lasts a little longer. Think of it like fast food — sure, it's instantly satisfying, but it doesn't really sort you out in the long run. I don't know which is better, but that's just how we roll, you could say."
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Robert Plant leads benefit concert
Posten on: 2006-05-10 04:43:20
Robert Plant leads the bill for a June 23 benefit concert for Love principal Arthur Lee, who is battling leukemia. Also set for the show at New York's Beacon Theatre are New York Dolls frontman David Johansen, the Ian Hunter Band, Love guitarist Johnny Echols, Yo La Tengo and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah vocalist Alec Ounsworth (leading what organizers describe as an "indie-rock supergroup").Tickets go on sale Friday (May 12) via Ticketmaster. Fans can also donate to a fund earmarked for Lee's medical expenses via TheLoveSociety.com.Highlighted by the 1967 masterpiece "Forever Changes," Love crafted some of the most celebrated rock'n'roll of the psychedelic rock era. But its legacy languished in the ensuing years due to Lee's unpredictable behavior and prison stint on a weapons violation.After being released from jail in late 2001, Lee assembled a new version of Love that enjoyed success touring in Europe and North America, often playing "Forever Changes" in its entirety. Of late, Lee has drafted yet another new lineup of Love in his new Memphis homebase.
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