Yearly Archives: 2004

Continuing the tradition of great rock operas transformed into bloated Broadway beasts we go from The Who?s current “hit” Tommy to the announcement that Pink Floyd?s The Wall is headed into (please pronounce dramatically) the THE-a-TAH:

Roger Waters, who co-founded Pink Floyd in 1965 and conceived the semi-autobiographical 1979 concept double album, will write the Broadway show’s book and arrange and orchestrate music for the stage production. (full story)

That doesn?t sound too bad, eh? Waters (in my mind) is Pink Floyd and is probably best suited to adapting his own work, right? Wrong.

Said Waters of the planned Broadway show, “Now I can write in some laughs, notable by their absence in the movie.”

Oh dear.

Danica has a great review of the Thrills and Gomez concert in Indianapolis, complete with photos! Read her review here. I’m glad Danica is back in Indianapolis, and that Donewaiting.com/Indianapolis is returning to it’s former glories.

Awesome interview from Backstreets Magazine with Bruce Springsteen and why he’s chosen to be a part of the Vote for Change Tour. A highlight:

Basically, this is probably the most important election of my lifetime. I think that the government has drifted too far from American values. After 9/11, I was like everybody else — I supported going into Afghanistan, and I felt tremendous unity in the country that I don?t think I?ve ever felt exactly like that before. It was a moment of great sadness, but also tremendous possibility. And I think that was dashed when we jumped headlong into the Iraq war, which I never understood, and I talked about that on the road. I never understood how or why we really ended up there. We offered up the lives of the best of our young people under circumstances that have been discredited. I had to live through that when I was young myself, and for any of us that lived through the Vietnam War, it was just very devastating. (full interview)

Gawker reports that, due to a little mix-up at the pressing plant, members of the Strokes’ fan club accidentally received a gay porn DVD instead of the expected promotional band DVD. Whutchoo talkin’ bout Willis? (Oh, and that limited edition 7″? Keep it in your pants cowboy.)

Chip interviews the Music Stack founder in his latest Atomic Ned transmission.

Oh look, it’s official –

From Springsteen (courtesy of Backstreets) – “The stakes in this one are just too high. I felt like, given what I’ve written about, the things that I’ve wanted our band to stand for over the years, it’s just too big a battle to lay out of.”

From Mikey Mills (courtesy of REMHQ) – “It feels right to use some of the freedoms granted to us in a democracy to try and effect that change.?

And from Stone Gossard (courtesy of pearljam.com) – “The upcoming election provides everyone an opportunity to change the direction our country is headed and to elect a government that is just, rational and respectful of the views and rights of the people it serves.”

As of writing, there’s been no comment from Tom Ridge.

UPDATE ONE: REM/Bruce Springsteen/Bright Eyes dates:

October 1 Philadelphia
October 2 Cleveland
October 3 Ann Arbor
October 5 Minneapolis
October 8 Orlando

For more information about the tour, ticket information, and the cause, please visit remhq.com as well as the websites of the two organizations instrumental in bringing these concerts to life–ACT (http://www.act04.com) and MoveOn Pac (http://www.moveonpac.org).

UPDATE TWO: Schedule for all the bands found here.

Billboard is reporting that the official announcement for all those swing state concerts will be announced tomorrow. We previously wrote about this last week.

Looks like there will be 40 shows with several shows happening at the same state with different venues.

UPDATE ONE: Springsteen fan site Greasy Lakes says: “According to the information, which comes from a usually reliable source, the tour will kick off on October 1 in Philadelphia. Then in the following week and a half it moves on to Cleveland, Ann Arbor, St. Paul, Orlando, and Miami where it ends on October 10. At least, that’s what it looks like now.” Now, those might be the Springsteen shows, no word about other cities/dates/venues. We’ll keep you posted.

If you have any info, please post it in the message board.

Drowned in Sound is reporting that all four original members of indie godhead band Slint have agreed to reunite and perform for the recently announced All Tomorrow’s Parties installment in December of this year. Despite the speculation that’s almost certain to start right…about…NOW, no news of additional shows or new recordings has been confirmed.

[UPDATE: This was FAULTY information. Slint is not playing ATP, nor are they even reforming. Way to go, Drowned in Sound!]

In celebration of Cake’s upcoming “Pressure Chief”, they will be releasing a new track every week up until the October 5th release date. Stream them here.

[plagiarized entirely from slatch.com]

From their official site:

Sadly, eight years of hard work and critical acclaim but little return in terms of commercial success inevitably takes its toll and a group decision was made to finally lay the band to rest.

I remember once NOT seeing the Beta Band. It was when they were opening up for Radiohead a few years back in Mountain View, CA. The traffic was so bad we missed them.