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3/10/2010
A Detroit area stop is on the itinerary for Simon & Garfunkel's upcoming tour. The duo is playing primarily in Canada, with a handful of U.S. dates that include May 11th in these parts, although a venue has not been announced. The tour begins April 24th at the Jazz & Heritage Festival in New Orleans before moving to the Great White North on April 29th in Vancouver. Other U.S. stops include Fargo, N.D., St. Paul, Minn., and Madison, Wisc. A ticket sale announcement is expected soon. The tour follows a 2009 Simon & Garfunkel jaunt through Australia, New Zealand and Japan and will mark the duo's first area appearance since a pair of shows in 2003 at the Palace that kicked off its Old Friends Tour.
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3/10/2010
Kinks frontman Ray Davies is "not lacking for things to do" these days -- and most of them revolve around the Kinks. In November he released "The Kinks Choral Collection," a set of the band's songs arranged for and performed with a choir. He's now in the midst of working with other artists -- including Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, the Killers Lucinda Williams and Metallica -- on a Kinks covers album. And, Davies tells The Insider, there may be more Kinks music in the future -- with the Kinks themselves. Though his brother, guitarist Dave Davies, is still recovering from a 2004 stroke, Ray Davies has been in the studio with original drummer Mick Avory and some latter-day Kinks members, which may possibly bring a long-awaited follow-up to 1993's "Phobia." "We've got four, five new songs," Davies says, "and I'm just sort of getting them motivated and seeing what they're playing like, because I haven't played with the Kinks for eight or nine years. I've discovered there is definitely an interplay between the way Mick plays drums and my vocals...so it'll be interesting. We'll have to see how (Dave Davies) he reacts to it. "If he's physically able to ...
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3/10/2010
Kiss wants to create a youth corps for the Kiss Army. Group founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have signed on with Canada's E1 Entertainment to develop a half-hour TV comedy series for children. In a statement, Stanley said that "coupling E1's successes and ingenuity with the global force of Kiss guarantees an express pass into the homes of our youngest Kiss Army members with a show of superior quality." There's no word yet on what the show will be called or when it will debut. In 1978, Kiss produced a TV movie, "Kiss Meets The Phantom of the Park," that was widely lambasted -- by critics and band members alike
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3/10/2010
Pink Floyd thinks its old record company needs some education -- about royalties. The iconic and, for all intents and purposes, defunct prog rock group is suing EMI Group Ltd. over royalties for online sales of its catalog. Pink Floyd claims that EMI has violated a 1999 agreement to make downloads of its music available only as full albums and not as single songs. The group's lawyer Rupert Howe, told Britain's High Court in a hearing on Tuesday (March 9th) that "it's a matter of fact that the defendant has been permitting individual tracks to be downloaded online and that therefore they have been allowing albums not to be sold in their original configuration." EMI's attorney Elizabeth Jones counters that the contract did not cover online sales of the band's music. Pink Floyd signed with EMI in 1967 and was with the label through its blockbuster "The Dark Side of the Moon" album.
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3/9/2010
Keith Richards is still drinking -- and ready to make some new Rolling Stones music. The guitarist tells Rolling Stone magazine that "the rumors of my sobriety are greatly exaggerated. And we'll leave it at that," following reports that he's cleaned up after bandmate Ron Wood's drunken travails of 2009. Richards was more keen to talk about the Stones' future, and even though he said there are "no definite plans," he added that "I wouldn't be surprised if we did some recording later this year...I don't know how the rest of them feel about roadwork at the moment. Maybe we'll search for a different way for the Stones to go back on the road. Maybe not the football stadiums anymore. Maybe something different. You can't go around there in lemon-yellow tights forever." The Stones' next release comes from the archives, however -- a May 18 remastered re-release of the 1972 classic "Exile on Main Street" in a variety of different packages, some of which include previously unreleased tracks and alternate versions of "Exile..." songs, plus a documentary film that uses footage from the infamous "C***sucker's Blues" and from the 1974 concert film "Ladies and Gentlemen...The Rolling Stones." The "Exile..." reissue ...
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3/9/2010
Elton John's lyricist Bernie Taupin has posted an update on his personal web site about the progress John and Leon Russell are making on their collaborative album, which The Insider first tipped in the fall. According to Taupin, the piano-playing duo have finished about 15 basic tracks so far and describes them as a mix of "(Rolling) Stones-like rockers, country tinged-ballads, gospel and even a (Frank) Sinatra-like weepy (song) similar to something torn from the grooves of 'In The Wee Small Hours.'...Don't expect to hear the old Elton John/Bernie Taupin sound." Taupin also writes that even though Russell underwent brain surgery in January, "his playing is masterful as ever and his contribution to the project grows more exciting with the passing of everyday." No title or release date has been set for the project, but guests will include Neil Young, Booker T. Jones, guitarist Marc Ribot and drummer Jim Keltner.
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3/5/2010
BOWIE TURNS DOWN GABRIEL SONG SWAP
Peter Gabriel has been snubbed by one of the major players in his new quid pro quo album project. Though Gabriel kicks off his new album, "Scratch My Back, with David Bowie's "Heroes," Bowie has declined to record a Gabriel song in return for the companion set "I'll Scratch Yours;" former Roxy Music member and producer Brian Eno will cover the song instead. Gabriel told the Associated Press that Bowie "is the only artist that said he clearly didn't want to play with the song swap. I don't think he's doing much music at the moment. But (producer) Brian Eno was a co-writer on the song so it gets around that problem and he's going to do a version of this song, 'Don't Break This Rhythm.' But 'Heroes' is one of those classic songs...it's one of my favorite Bowie songs and I was a Bowie fan right from the beginning." Paul Simon -- whose "Graceland" is featured on "Scratch My Back" -- has already recorded a version of Gabriel's "Biko." Gabriel's album also features songs by Randy Newman and Neil Young, among others. No release date for "I'll Scratch Yours" has been announced. Gabriel ...
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3/5/2010
Stephen Stills' past is very much his present these days. In September he released "Pieces," a collection of outtakes from his short-lived band Manassas, along with "Live at Shepherd's Bush," a CD/CVD set from his 2008 solo tour. He, Crosby and Nash are also working with producer Rick Rubin on an album of covers, and he's also been planning a more extensive box set of his own music and working on a memoir. Meanwhile, Stills promises that he's "gonna write another album," a follow-up to 2005's "Man Alive!" "I'm finally feeling some songs and some things to say," he says. "I want to work with my quartet and get it down to where there's lots of air and get pretty live performances and not all over-the-top layered parts and doubled vocals." Stills hopes to road-test some of the solo material as well before hitting the studio. Stills performs at 8 p.m. Saturday (March 6th) at the Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St. Tickets are $35-$99.50. Call 734-668-8463 or visit www.michtheater.org.
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3/5/2010
Peter Wolf and Eric Burdon will lead a corps of artists stepping in for this year's mostly non-performing class of Rock and Roll Hall of fame inductees at the March 15th ceremony in New York City. With only the Stooges and Jimmy Cliff slated to play, Wolf and Burdon will join Ronnie Spector in paying tribute to the Brill Building, the Manhattan song factory that was populated by inductees Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry, Jesse Stone, Mort Shuman and Otis Blackwell. Graham Nash, meanwhile, will perform Hollies songs with Chris Isaak, Pat Monahan of Train and Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael of Maroon5, while Faith Hill will sing the songs of ABBA. Jam rockers Phish, meanwhile, are slated to play Genesis material; Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio will also make the British group's induction speech. Other previously announced inductors include Steven Van Zandt for the Hollies, Billy Joe Armstrong for the Stooges, Wyclef Jean for Cliff, surviving Bee Gees Barry and Robin Gibb for induct ABBA, Carole King for the songwriters en masse and Jackson Browne for music mogul David Geffen. The ceremony will air live at 8:30 p.m. on Fuse TV.
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3/5/2010
Santana's next album is another collaborative venture, but one that will no doubt thrill the band's oldest fans. Carlos Santana tells The Insider that the group is working on a set of classic rock cover songs with guest singers. Among the tracks so far are Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" with "Smooth" collaborator Rob Thomas, the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with India.Arie and Yo-Yo Ma, Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" with Joe Cocker, the Rolling Stones' "Can't You Hear Me Knocking " with Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland, Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son." "We're not comparing or competing with those artists -- we're complementing them," Santana says. "But when you hear this, you're gonna do 'Damn!' because it sounds so powerful, with vitality and vibrancy. Like Wayne Shorter says, it's completely new, tottally familiar." No title or release date have been set for the album. Santana -- who's also celebrating the 10th anniversary of the multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning "Supernatural" album -- is expected to tour in North America and Europe during the late spring and summer.
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