Music News Net

VAN HALEN Confirms New Album and Tour

MUSIC NEWS - Van Halen, Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductees announced their return to the live concert stage with news of a 2012 North American tour.  The legendary rock band will begin their tour on February 18 with Kool & The Gang joining VH on select tour dates. 

Tickets for the Live Nation-promoted Van Halen tour go on sale beginning January 14 at Ticketmaster.com and LiveNation.com.  Also, Van Halen confirmed their new album, A Different Kind Of Truth, will be released in the USA by Interscope Records on February 7.   The first single from the album, "Tattoo", and its accompanying video will be debut simultaneously on Tuesday, January 10th, with album pre-orders starting that day.  A Different Kind Of Truth is Van Halen's first original studio album with singer David Lee Roth since the band’s classic multi-platinum album 1984.

 

Sinead O’Connor To Make NYC and L.A. Concert Stops

MUSIC NEWS - Irish singer-songwriter and performer Sinead O’Connor will bein the states this February for four select performances in Los Angeles and New York City with her brand new five piece band.  She'll be here to promote her new studio album How About I Be Me (And You Be You)? which is releasing on February 21 2012 via One Little Indian/MRI. Tickets for all dates go on sale Friday, January 13. Full tour itinerary is below.

Her ninth studio album, and the latest release in a career spanning 25 years and millions of record sales worldwide, How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?  was produced by long-term collaborator John Reynolds, its ten tracks play like an encyclopedic definition of O’Connor’s oeuvre: songs about love and loss, hope and regret, pain and redemption, anger and justice. This is an album of consistently moving, exciting, brilliant and beautiful songs built around Sinead’s voice at its very best – raw and passionate.  

ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND Announce 2012 Beacon Theater NYC Run

MUSIC NEWS - Rock legends the Allman Brothers Band has confirmed their annual residency at New York City's Beacon Theater.  For 2012 the group will perform ten shows (so far) in March. The band confirmed the Beacon dates are March 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 24 & 25 with potentila for additional dates to be added.

Tickets for the shows will go on sale Friday, January 6, 2012 (earlier for club members). The Brothers returned to the Beacon in 2011 after a year uptown at New York’s United Palace Theatre due to Beacon scheduled conflicts with a CIrque De Soleil show.

PETER FRAMPTON Files Digital Royalties Suit Against Universal Music

MUSIC NEWS -  Singer/songwriter/guitarist Peter Frampton has joined the growing list of performers filing lawsuits over digital music royalites.  Mr Frampton has filed a suit against his longtime record label, Universal Music Group for a half-million dollars in unpaid digital royalties and for unspecified damages.   Frampton's attorneys filed the suit on Friday, December 23 in a Los Angeles federal court.

The day before, on Thursday, the sister (and heir) to Bruce Gary, the drummer for The Knack, the rockers you know for their 1979 hit “My Sharona,” filed a similar suit against Capitol Records claiming the label withheld digital music royalties.

VAN HALEN Announces 2012 Concert Tour

MUSIC NEWS - Van Halen has announced a 2012 concert tour, with the first set of tickets going on sale January 10, 2012.  A post on their official Facebook page, and a mass e-mail to friends/fans directs all to four YouTube videos they put up on their official channel.

The videos feature Eddie, Alex and Wolfgang Van Halen and David Lee Roth on-stage playing their instruments and generally having fun while studio versions of ‘Jump,’ ‘Panama’ and ‘Hot for Teacher’ play in the background.

Carole King (and the Roots) Perform "Hi De Ho" on Jimmy Fallon

MUSIC NEWS- As a special web only treat for her Late Night with Jimmy Fallon performance this week, Carole King (and The Roots) performed an old song of hers that Blood Sweat & Tears made famous years ago, "Hi De Ho". We thought you'd enjoy it!

 

 

TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS Announce 2012 Tour Dates

MUSIC NEWS - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers have announced a series of North American concerts in 2012 prior to embarking on their first tour of Europe in 20 years.  The North American tour includes the band's first ever show at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival where they will headline the first weekend of the annual event on Saturday, April 28.

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers will also perform in the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia for the first time. The band will play in St. John's, NL on June 3 and in Halifax, NS on a date to be announced shortly.

MICK JAGGER & KEITH RICHARDS to Pay for HUBERT SUMLIN's Funeral

MUSIC NEWS - After the passing of electric blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin from heart failure, his manager and partner Toni Ann announced that The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have offered to pay for his funeral. In statement she said: “I just wanted to share with you, Hubert’s loving fans, that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have insisted on picking up the full expenses for Hubert’s funeral. God Bless The Rolling Stones.”

Jagger and Richards’ move to pay for Sumlin’s funeral costs is quite reasonable as the late guitar player, who worked with renowned artists such as Howlin’ Wolf and (briefly) Muddy Waters, was a key influence on The Rolling Stones, and in particular Richards’ guitar style. Richards performed on several tunes from Sumlin’s 2006 album About Them Shoes.  The Noise11 report recently said, Jagger praised the guitarist as “an incisive yet delicate blues player. … He had a really distinctive and original tone and was a wonderful foil for Howlin’ Wolf’s growling vocal style.”

Sumlin’s public service is scheduled to be held at the Festa Memorial Funeral Home in Totowa, NJ, on December 12 at 10 am (viewing on 12/11), with a private service to take place the following day in Homewood, IL.

FLAMING LIPS Announce NEW YEAR'S FREAKOUT 5

MUSIC NEWS - As Wayne Coyne tweeted earlier today, THE FLAMING LIPS have announced they will perform two shows to celebrate the New Year at the Bricktown Events Center in Oklahoma City, OK on December 31 and January 1, 2012. The band promises to pull out all the stops with MORE of everything! More confetti, more balloons, massive volume, and maximum weirdness for its NEW YEAR'S FREAKOUT 5, which also features very special guests YOKO ONO PLASTIC ONO BAND. Tickets go on sale today, Friday Nov 25th, and are priced at $100 per night or available at a special package price of $150 for both nights. 

Rolling Stone Names Best Guitarist- EVER !

MUSIC NEWS - Legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix has been named the greatest guitar player of all time today by Rolling Stone magazine and tops their list of guitarists that was compiled by music experts and top guitar players.

"Jimi Hendrix exploded our idea of what rock music could be: He manipulated the guitar, the whammy bar, the studio and the stage," said Grammy-winning guitarist Tom Morello in the magazine's upcoming issue, citing Hendrix's "Purple Haze" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" as key tracks. Hendrix tops the Top 10 listed that includes Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend (full list below).

 

The panel was recruited to vote for their favorite guitar players includes musicians like Lenny Kravitz, Eddie Van Halen (who was named #8), Brian May and Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), along with a group of Rolling Stone's senior writers and editors. The experts also weighed in on their top picks, with Pearl Jam's Mike McCready saying Eddie Van Halen is the "a master of riffs" and Joe Perry praised Jimmy Page's "vision of how to transcend the stereotypes of what the guitar can do."

The full list will be featured in a special issue of RS with four special covers of Van Halen, Clapton, Hendrix and Page, and will be on newsstands and online this Friday.

Rolling Stone's top 10 greatest guitarists follow:

1. Jimi Hendrix

2. Eric Clapton

3. Jimmy Page

4. Keith Richards

5. Jeff Beck

6. B.B. King

7. Chuck Berry

8. Eddie Van Halen

9. Duane Allman

10. Pete Townshend

As with all lists of this type there's room for discussion. So, do you agreee? Who do you feel should be on the list?

Nils Lofgren Back With "Old School"

MUSIC NEWS- With five years behind us since the release of Nils Lofgren's last studio album it's past time for his return, but we finally have it with Old School.  A projectthat's been in the works since the wrap of Springsteen's Working on a Dream Tour in November of 2009, Lofgren's Old School covers a range of topics that include desperation, self-doubt, true love, departed friends, holding on to your dreams and the world gone mad.  And, a tribute to the late, great Ray Charles.

 

"These songs reflect characters with some radical feelings and beliefs," said singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lofgren. "They're definitely thought-provoking." 

 

The CD, out Tuesday, November 1, is his eighth studio release on Vision Music, the label also responsible for 2008's The Loner - Nils Sings Neil (an homage to Neil Young, whom Nils started his career with over four decades ago) and 2006's Sacred Weapon.

  

BOB SEGER Announces Final Batch of 2011 Tour Dates

MUSIC NEWS- Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band will wrap up the second leg of their hugely successful 2011 North American Tour with a series of dates on the west coast including Los Angeles, Oakland, and Phoenix, and topping it all off with a special New Year’s show in Las Vegas, NV it was announced today. Seger originally conceived his 2011 Tour as a short spring run of 18-20 dates.  But due to the overwhelming response from fans, Seger nearly tripled the number of shows.  The Vegas performance will be Seger’s 50^th concert in 2011. 

"Beatles" Photographer Robert Whitaker Dead at 71

MUSIC NEWS - Reknowed photographer Robert Whitaker, best known for this work with The Beatles back in the 1960s, has died. He was 71.  Whitaker took many pictures of the Fab Four, including a cover for the album Yesterday and Today featuring meat and dismembered dolls.  For the USA release, the controversial image was covered up with a considerably less graphic shot.

Whitaker also worked with other major music performers, such as Cream and Mick Jagger and covered the wars in Cambodia and Vietnam.  Whitaker first photographed the Beatles during their visit to Australia in 1964 where he was emplyed bythe Melbourne Jewish News.

More @ BBC.co.uk

PETER GABRIEL Announces "New Blood" Release

MUSIC NEWS - On the heels of a limited date sold-out USA summer tour that earned Peter Gabriel some of the best reviews of his career, word comes of the release of a full-length album by the former Genesis leader, NEW BLOOD on October 11, 2011 via EMI. A continuum to his Scratch My Back release, the NEW BLOOD album will feature some of Gabriel's biggest hits from his notable solo career, all reconstructed and re-imagined with orchestral arrangements and recorded live with the New Blood Orchestra. Gabriel hand-selected the songs and enlisted the help of longtime collaborator John Metcalfe for the arrangements and Ben Foster as conductor of the 46-piece New Blood Orchestra.

The treatment was applied to songs including "Mercy Street", "Don't Give Up", "Digging In The Dirt", "San Jacinto", and the all-time classic "Solsbury Hill".  The plan was not to simply rework Gabriel's biggest songs, but rather, find songs that were enhanced by the massed strings, brass, woodwind and percussion. "Don't Give Up" now with Norwegian singer Ane Brun's vulnerable, cracking vocals replacing those of Kate Bush, rides a stirring, uplifting coda. Where the

Mick Jagger Says Stones Have No Plans For UK Olympics Opening Ceremony

MUSIC NEWS - Mick Jagger has said the Rolling Stones have no plans to perform at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympics. He recently said the band have not been officially asked to appear at the event and, if they did they were, the group woul say no.

In an interview with the BBC, Jagger commented; ''Bryan Adams said, 'Whatever you do, don't do any Olympic openings', after he did the opening of the winter games in Canada.'' He said; "It was so cold, and he had to wear this bizarre suit. That's not going to happen here - it would just rain."

The rocker also criticized the 2008 games in Beijing: ''It wasn't a brilliant piece of theatre when they left the stadium with a London bus with Jimmy Page on it. I don't want to be on that bus when it arrives in London." There's been continued rumors that the group were planning a special tour for their 50th anniversary next year.