Five album of the year Grammys, guitars owned by Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger's banjo will be on display when the Grammy Museum opens to the general public on Friday.
Cool as those items are -- there will be nearly 500 artifacts on display in addition to historical and interactive displays - the amount of attention they receive may pale next to the another coveted item: The green dress Jennifer Lopez wore to the 2000 ceremony.
It was one of the first items executive director Bob Santelli inquired about requiring and one of the last pieces secured for the museum located in the L.A. Live complex.
"We traced it to Versace and they were kind enough to lend it to us," Santelli said during a tour of the museum while it was in the final stage of construction.
Among the other pieces of clothing: Luciano Pavarotti's tuxedo, a gown from Ella Fitzgerald and an outfit from 1956 worn by Johnny Cash.
Instruments: a bass owned by Jimi Hendrix, Yo-Yo Ma's cello and one of Earl Scruggs' early banjos, plus the typewriter used by lyricist Sammy Cahn.
A complete story on the museum can be found here.
The Grammy Hall of Fame will add 28 new recordings, among them the Police's 1983 album "Synchronicity," the soundtrack from the film "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly," "Love Theme from The Godfather," Queen's "We Are The Champions/We Will Rock You" and "Let The Good Times Roll" by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five. Full list.

  Jason Bentley has been on air at KCRW for 16 years and he started volunteering four years before that. On Dec. 1, he takes on the job of music director and host of Morning Becomes Eclectic at the Santa Monica Public Radio station; it’s one of the most influential radio jobs in America.
When the announcement was made, his email inbox quickly overflowed and the interview request piled up. “As I have been recounting this story,” he said in an interview about 48 hours after the announcement, “it’s embarrassingly clear that I’m a lifer. It’s official. This is a family to me.”
Garth Trinidad, whose Chocolate City program has been heard on Saturdays, will replace his nightly Metropolis show. Bentley was quite clear that the definition of “eclectic” in the morning would be different than it has been under the direction of Nic Harcourt, who has held the MBE/music director job for 10 years. My take on the change is here.

Q: Making the switch to daytime from nighttime obviously means creating a completely different show. How much of the Metropolis sound will carry over into Morning Becomes Eclectic?
A: No doubt dance and electronic music are my British Invasion. It will always be a part of me. I’m in competition to meet the standards of my predecessors - I see it as a challenge to grow. I’m up for it. I have never been asked to program an eclectic show — it has always been defined. I am capable of giving it a go and definitely welcome all genres. There are areas where I am admittedly weak. Latin alternative is an area I want to explore, I want to engage jazz and classical, get them off the sidelines. I subscribe to the L.A. Philharmonic and I want to shore up areas not getting enough attention. There is a balance, a thread people should be able to follow in ambitious music programming. We can really capitalize on world of music presented as a curated experience. What I think is DJ’ing is that pure instinctual move when you run into the music library with one minute to go to get that perfect record. Through programming, you’re creating your reputation through what you play, what gets repeated. It’s more of a calculation that has to be balanced with the free-form. If we strike a balance, it will make those last minute dashes real rewarding.

Jacofest runs through Sunday at Iridium in New York.
Jon Regen reports from opening night:

Jacofest, a rousing all-star tribute to the late genre-bending, electric bass phenom Jaco Pastorius, found that artful balance between legacy and longing, delicate mixing history and mystery. Expertly directed by longtime Pastorius bandmate and collaborator, drummer Kenwood Dennard, Jacofest was a spirited celebration of the life and music of a true musical innovator. 
A venerable who’s who of New York session aces brought Pastorious’ funk-infused furor back into fashion. Dennard kicked off the concert with “The Chicken,” a longtime Pastorius favorite by former James Brown saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis. “Saturday Night Live” band alum Alex Foster, (who worked with Pastorius in the early 80’s), rode Dennard’s deep-pocketed groove on his sax, prodding the rhythm section throughout his soul-infused solo.
Bassist Matt Garrison captured the frenetic funk of the honoree’s bass wizardry, walking the fine line between groove and gumption. Garrison would wow the crowd again during a full band version of Charlie Parker’s bebop classic “Donna Lee,” made famous by Pastorius on his 1976 eponymous debut recording.
Other performances of note included guitarist David Gilmore’s gritty solo on the Weather Report classic “Havona” and a chorded, polytonal tuba romp by Dave Bargeron that defied the engineering limits of the brass beast.
It’s hard to believe that Pastorius, who rose to worldwide acclaim anchoring the seminal jazz-rock collective Weather Report, died more than 20 years ago.
A bit of Pastorius' biography:
Jaco would have turned 57 on Dec. 1. He died Sept. 21, 1987.
Pastorius was “discovered” by Blood, Sweat & Tears drummer Bobby Columby, who produced Jaco’s landmark self-titled debut for Epic Records in late 1975. He joined Weather Report in April of 1976 and remained with the band for six years, appearing on a string of acclaimed recordings.Pastorius’ second recording as a leader, 1981’s "Word of Mouth" on Warner Bros., introduced such ambitious Jaco compositions as “Liberty City” and “John and Mary.” Jaco’s 1983 album, Invitation, documented his Word of Mouth Big Band on tour in Japan. He subsequently toured in a scaled-down sextet version of Word of Mouth and with the PDB trio-featuring guitarist Hiram Bullock and drummer Kenwood Dennard.

And then, of course, there's this brilliant bass line.

In the pages of Variety in addition to this blog, we have written a fair amount about Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music, one of the better-produced concert programs on the web.
On Dec. 1, the site will unveil a Coldplay concert shot at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. It will be one of the last installments for Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music for the time being.
The show’s launch follows Tuesday's  release of the Coldplay EP, “Prospekt March,” which features leftover material from “Viva la Vida.” 
The concert will be viewable in 13 countries, a first for Yahoo! Music.

Tour Dates:

21/11/08: Denver, CO
22/11/08: Salt Lake City, UT
25/11/08: Anaheim, CA
26/11/08: Phoenix, AZ
29/11/08: Sheffield
01/12/08: Birmingham
02/12/08: Birmingham
03/12/08: Birmingham
06/12/08: Glasgow
07/12/08: Liverpool
09/12/08: Glasgow
11/12/08: Manchester
12/12/08: Manchester
14/12/08: London
15/12/08: London
16/12/08: London
19/12/08: Belfast
21/12/08: Dublin
22/12/08: Dublin
23/12/08: Belfast
12/02/09: Tokyo
14/02/09: Osaka

Ute Lemper, the German-born singer whose repertoire extends from the cabarets of Berlin to tango to Tom Waits, took on the role of composer for her latest album “Between Yesterday and Tomorrow.” Of her 15 U.S. albums, it is the first to feature only her songs.
She had been writing for some time and eventually had a collection that was connected almost cinematically with stories about politics, her youth and places she has seen in her travels. A number of the songs were premiered four years ago at a small jazz bar in New York, where she figured she could get a temperature reading on the material from the crowd.
“I didn’t want it reviewed, but Stephen Holden gave me a great review (in the New York Times),” she recollects over breakfast at the Nice Matin restaurant near her Upper West Side home. “I said ‘OK, it can’t be total crap.’ Then we just started recording.”
And once the recording was finished, Lemper and her partner/producer Todd Turkisher left the music untouched for a year. She had another child and focused on motherhood, reduced the touring and focused on projects that would keep her at home, such as stints at Café Carlyle. The album has been released at various times in different countries over the last none months.
Lemper is performing two shows per night at Joe’s Pub on Nov. 22, 28, and 29, plays Paris Dec. 17-20, and will spend a fair amount of 2009 in Europe and South America.
“I like a little time off,” she says, noting she has increased the number of one nighters she plays and spends no more than two weeks away from New York at any time. “I have had the privilege to live my dream and once in awhile it becomes a job. The best part is always getting onstage, improvising with musicians.”
Lemper, 45, talked about her newly released album, why she loves interpreting the music of Tom Waits and her next record, featuring the words of Charles Bukowski, which is already in the can.

Q: Have you always written or is it something you picked up later in life?
A: I felt it was time. I had four songs on (2002’s) “But One Day…”. Most lyrics I write when I travel. I’m always looking at people. I’m interested in their fate — not faith, in fact the less faith the better. But I need to be at the piano to write music and I have to have an empty house. (“Between Yesterday and Tomorrow”) is a musical painting. It’s a conceptual album. The structures are very honest, almost like movements. Turn around and you see where you lived.

Passion and intelligence define Roy Harper, whose ambitiously skewed takes on folk music in the 1960s and ‘70s have gained in stature  as more and more young musicians look to the period for inspiration. Many of his earlier titles, never before available in the U.S., were reissued throughout 2008, most recently “The Green Man,” “The Dream Society,” “The Unknown Soldier” and “Death or Glory.”
His first album, “The Sophisticated Beggar,” was recorded in 1966 after Harper was spotted at the Les Cousins folk club and signed to Peter Richard's Strike Records. He was among the first to record lengthy songs: the 11 minute track "Circle," the 15 minute "McGooghan's Blues." His collaborators stuck with him as they became world famous, chiefly Jimmy Page David Gilmour, until about 21 years ago, decided to walk away from the music business.
The first batch included “Stormcock,” a four-song epic from 1971 that is widely considered his best album.
In September he wrote about the album in his online diary:

“I thought, when I was writing 'Stormcock', that all we would have to do would be to address our own generation with regard to the historical cynicism and general dishonesty that surrounds the politics of organized religion. We wouldn’t have to do any more than that, I thought. Just point things out. Ask people to be honest about what they were thinking. Following generations would then pick up from where we’d left off. To expose that dishonesty, I thought, would progress a lot of younger people's thinking to a point where religion would automatically and rightly be understood to be some kind of archaic mental reflex that wasn't necessarily that pertinent any longer. Particularly in its historical context, where clearly, ‘the church’ is, and always has been, a political instrument. I thought that all we had to do was to state the obvious, whereupon belief mechanisms like this would become out-moded as society became more able to put religion under a much more rigorous public scrutiny. That people would decide, by a huge consensus, that the past should be properly left in the past and that humanity should move on. I was wrong.”

That’s how Harper addresses the world. Not by remembrances of who played on what session or through anecdotes about a tour, but through philosophies, their roots and the effects of particular ways of thinking. It makes for a fascinating interview, one that required considerable editing in the transcription. In a conversation that last more than an hour, he talked about his old pals Jimmy Page and David Gilmour, the effect of British poets and how music does not have the hold on young creative people the way it once did.

Q: Earlier this year it was a thrill to be shopping and stumble across “Folkjokeopus” and realize it was neither an import nor a dubious pirated CD. What made this the right time to get your catalog (about 16 titles) reissued in the U.S.?
A: Eventually most of the records reverted to me, but I was unable to export due to the (exchange rate). I could barely break even. Then Koch figured out it would be able to get a couple of bucks back. The credit crunch is affecting even a guy like me. I think people are working through it and there are new bases for international trade and  once all of this has blown over we’ll  have a new base for trade to resume the way it was 10 years ago.

Q: Your music actually seemed to disappear from the U.S., some of it almost as quickly as it got here. Is there a marketplace here?
A: The whole ethos in music has changed. There have been a lot of revolutions over the last 50 years and the last one really has said, more or less to young people, that music is free. The digital world has cheapened what music is, particularly among the young. Music that has slightly more quality is breaking through, but music does not have the same caliber of participants that it once did. The person who would have gone into a music career is now in software or something just as full of artistic input.
As science and art have expanded , they have offered space in other occupations. We grew up in a golden age. Lots of young people, lots of over qualified people without a broad canvas to express themselves (chose music). They spoke the truth. We occurred at a point in time in which music and art had never been use to express so much.

'Chinese Democracy' (Interscope), the first album of original tracks from Guns N’ Roses since 1991, debuted tonight on the band's MySpace page.

Axl Rose-fronted band has already released two tracks off 'Chinese' to radio - the album's title track, as well as 'Better,' in the last few weeks. But last night was the first time the entire album was available for streaming - well, legally, at least. Album is due out Sunday, Nov. 23, and will be available exclusively at Best Buy.

G N' R fans have grown up - there is a lot of pressure on 'Democracy' to hold up to previous efforts. Will it exceed older fans' expectations? Will the band be able to entice new fans? Variety.com staffers Don Davis, Liz Miller and Stuart Oldham impart their wisdom in this track-by-track review:

1. Chinese Democracy

DON: Classic, infectious pop rock track, reminiscent of old school G N' R - you could call this 'Welcome to the Jungle' light. Track is perched at number 5 after three weeks on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart. Given G N' R has only had one number one hit ('Sweet Child O Mine' on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988) in their decades-spanning career, this would seem the likely candidate to be their second #1 hit - and it certainly deserves it - by far the album's high point.

LIZ: Weird intro, and are those voices actually saying "ching-chong"?  But that is one killer guitar riff to kick things off. It's like they're cramming an album's worth of rocking into just this song's bridge.

STUART: Album kicks off with some weird Chinese banter before ripping into title-track, "Chinese Democracy." You've probably heard it on the radio. Sleezy guitar riff over Axl's howls. Definitely stripclub material. Oh well, it's good to hear Axl's voice again.

2. Shackler's Revenge

DON: Slash's guitar mastery was one of the reasons the band became huge back in the late '80s - he does not disappoint in this track that begs for head-banging. [ED. NOTE: Dude, Slash and Axl haven't spoken in years. That was Buckethead.] 'Appetite for Destruction' was, hands down, my teen angst album of choice - after a fight with parents, doors were slamming, G N' R was blaring. This would be the modern 'angst' track for me.

LIZ: Initially reminds me a lot of Alice Cooper's "Feed My Frankenstein."  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But I like the key changes for the chorus. 

STUART: Opens like a rough and clubby Korn ensemble, which isn't a good thing. In fact--I'm not very fond of this song at all. Modern-rock martini, anyone?

3. Better

DON: Classic G N' R power ballad. One of the standout tracks on the album - shows a completely different side of the band. Incorporates the power rock anthemics and Axl's power vocals G N' R is known for, mixed with electro underscoring.

LIZ: I guess this is what a Guns N' Roses ballad sounds like? I'm kind of unimpressed. Sounds a little bit like it was written to play over the credits of "Spider-Man 4."

STUART: Catchy, muffled guitar riff with wammy and then more wammy. Not a bad angle although very reminiscient of Linkin Park. Axl's vocals are raspy and commanding on "Better" but it's still a clusterfuck. Likely single #2.

4. Street Of Dreams

DON: Most definitely 'Democracy's' answer to 'Sweet Child O Mine' - showcases a raw, more emotionally charged Axl Rose. While track doesn't exhibit the same sweeping melodrama of 'Child,' it most definitely has universal multi-format crossover potential.

LIZ: Oh, okay, THIS is what a Guns N' Roses ballad sounds like. I actually like this one a lot -- great mellow pace that makes the classic rock sound work. Closest song so far to the classic G N' R I'm familiar with.

STUART: Honky-tonk piano ballad. Not great. Axl delivers his first primal scream of the album, which is pretty cool even though the song's shiite. Almost sounds like Axl singing a Phish track and then trying to shoot it up with guns. Oh, I get it! Guns AND Roses! ;)

5. If The World

DON: At first listen: Wow! A whole new side to G N' R. This track could easily qualify as loungetronica - smooth, jazzy, chilled, electro-infused track underscored by rocky guitar...one of their most original sounding tracks to date. Gonna listen again right now...

LIZ: This is the first song on the album that sounds like it was written in the last five years, and the modern touch really works. Really like the finger-picking towards the end. A little too long, though -- so far the other songs have seemed tighter.   

STUART: WTF? Axl singing Motown? Sounds like Christina Aguilera with a back-up metal band. Blah. I need to put down my headphones for a minute.

6. There Was a Time

DON: Epic orchestral backdrop, sweeping violins - solid power ballad.

LIZ: There is some insane shifting between different tones and paces happening here, but the aural chaos of it is pretty interesting. Kind of a patchwork quilt of chords that goes someplace pretty sweet in the end. My favorite so far.

STUART: A choir starts singing but you know something nasty lurks around the corner. Kinda like a Lil Wayne intro. The layout is similar to "If the World": hip-hop beats under a dirty guitar. I could see a pissed off Axl walking down the street with his NFL jersey and ginger dreads to this one.

7. Catcher N' the Rye

DON: Showcases a more mature, chilled out Axl Rose in this melody-driven future hit.

LIZ: Very power-ballad-y, which is fun, but the literary name throws me off. When I think of J.D. Salinger, background singers chanting "nah nah nah" is not what comes to mind.

STUART: Classic book so I'm a little more receptive. The track's catcher, I mean catchier, too. (Har Har) A bit nostalgic in its southern roots. Not bad. I'll pour one out for ya, Axl.

8. Scraped

DON: Classic Guns N' Roses rock track here. Not bad at all, but not a stand out.

LIZ: I wish I was wearing ripped jeans while listening to this song. Definitely rocks the hardest of the tracks so far.  Ends really abruptly, though. 

STUART: Wah. Axl shrieks cause he's "scraped." Another distorted ho-hummer (good stripclub music...AGAIN)

9. Riad N' The Bedouins

DON: Kicks off with a techno-infused, hard-driving throbbing base, underscored by raging guitar and laucnhes into classic Guns rock. Somewhat reminiscent of mid-'90s Stone Temple Pilots. This song is one of the reasons G N' R will survive in the new millennium.

LIZ: The second song with a long atmospheric lead-in, but picks up the pace a lot faster than "Chinese Democracy."  A little bit more-of-the-same, though. 

STUART: The chorus, I'll admit, is poppy and warm but ENOUGH with the standard "CD" metal riffs. Where in the world is Slash when you need him? Oh yeah, he's on tour...with "Guitar Hero."

10. Sorry

DON: Axl channels Pink Floyd in this moody rock ballad written to someone who 'wants to hurt him.' Slash [ED. NOTE: ibid.] solo the star of this track without a doubt.

LIZ: Is this song about saying sorry or hoping that someone says sorry to you?  Oh, it's about FEELING sorry for someone.  Way too long and for the most part pretty dreary. But the bridge is great -- emotional and beautifully played.

STUART: Twangy guitar and echo'ing Axl noises. Sounds different... FINALLY. "I'm sorry for you. You're sorry for me" Axl sings over and over. I don't mind this song. I just wish there was a tad more variety (no pun intended).

11. I.R.S.

DON: Another solid track - but in a singles-driven medium this wouldn't be my recommendation for the next release.

LIZ: Musically, a really catchy chorus. Lyrically, it's hard to pick out exactly what we're singing about here, but my best guess is that it's not exactly in favor of bureaucratic institutions. 

STUART: Axl takes on the government. Again, a hip-hop beat, albeit more laid back with acoustics and a Santana-ish lead. "Gonna call the president. Gonna call the private eye. Gonna get the I.R.S. Gonna name myself the F.B.I."

12. Madagascar

DON: A more relaxed and introspective Axl surfaces here - this could easily show up in A&R formats soon.

LIZ: When I think "Guns N Roses," I definitely don't think "horns section."  But while the first real use of synthesizers feels a little out of step with the rest of the album, I like it a lot as a change of pace, especially as we get closer to the end. Another one with a more modern feel. Becomes a completely different song halfway through, but it's an interesting shift -- though there's something odd about hearing Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" in this context.

STUART: French Revolutionary horns open up this anthem. Sounds like 'Les Miserable' or Bjork. And again with the stringy hip-hop (I guess he's validating his baggy pants and football jerseys) Not gonna lie tho--Axl sounds good here; older, a little wiser. I just wish he had more to say. Martin Luther King samples make their way in half-way through. Overall, "Madagascar" sounds like "All Along the Watchtower" and "Civil War's" love child, albeit stillborn.

13. This I Love

DON: A reminder of how Axl Rose has one of the most unique voices in rock history - he showcases the full spectrum of his abilities in 'Love.'

LIZ: An actual love song! And a sweet one. The duet between piano and electric guitar has an offbeat but romantic feel. 

STUART: "So if you ask me why. She wouldn't say goodbye" Axl sings on the piano ballad "This I Love." Very theatrical and melodramatic. Meh.

14. Prostitute

DON: So infectious, rock radio should eat up this powerful anthem. Overall, 'Democracy' showcases a mature, more chilled out Guns N' Roses and secures their survival in the new millennium. A solid listen from start to finish. Mall rats unite!

LIZ: I would not have expected a song with this title to start off so perky and poppy. There's a note of finality that works, and having gained a greater understanding of the GNR sound over the course of the past hour I can see exactly where this fits in. Plus, the segue from big dramatic finish to sweet closing notes is actually pretty beautiful. A very mature conclusion.   

STUART: Upbeat and poppy. Again, Christina Aguilera-ish with the lamenting and the rock n' roll strings. I can't believe this is the closer. Then again, it's "Chinese Democracy."

Related News: Click here to check out Variety's Guns N' Roses photo gallery

James Hunter needs a gig between between Milwaukee and Cleveland and he's sort of willing to play your house/backyard/birthday party/bar mitzvah provided you cough up 10 grand to hear him sing for 75 minutes.His services are up for auction on eBay but there area few caveats such as the booking agent's approval of the venue and an upfront, in-full cash payment.
I caught James' show in July when he headlined the Troubadour and as enjoyable as it was, I'm not sure this man can truly command the starting bid price. Admission for that L.A. gig was $15 which would have meant a $5,925 gross. And it's 15 bucks to get in the door of Cleveland's Beachland Ballroom on Nov. 29. That hall has a capacity of 500, meaning a sell-out would gross $7,500, assuming no guest list or contest winners, well short of the $10,000 asking price.
Naturally, private gigs pay better than public ones, but is it possible he's asking double his rate to play the 216? Find out Sunday morning at 10 whether he gets an extra day wandering through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or if he has discovered an effective way to fill mepty dates on the calendar.

The 50 years of McCabe’s Guitar Shop will be celebrated with a three-hour special on KCRW airing from 9 a.m. to noon on Thanksgiving Day.
The guitar shop was founded 50 years ago and its back room has, over the last 30-plus years, become one of L.A.'s most treasured concert venues. I consider it key to my musical education.
Program was inspired by the McCabe's 50th Anniversary Reunion Concert held at UCLA’s Royce Hall in October. Show will be hosted by current concert director Lincoln Myerson, and features interviews with all five of McCabe’s concert directors, as well as current owner Robert Riskin, former owner Walter Camp and  many of the artists who have performed there, including T Bone Burnett, Dave Alvin, Loudon Wainwright III and Peter Case.
The show also features performances recorded at McCabe’s by Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, JD Crowe and the New South, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, Jesse Winchester, John Hiatt, Dave Alvin, Richard Thompson, Gillian Welch, Dan Hicks and others.

  Two of the most important jazz labels of the 1970s and '80s, Black Saint and Soul Note, are going digital via eMusic.
The complete catalogs - that's about 580 albums - are now available on the site and include an editorial guide with commentary from Kevin Whitehead, Steve Smith, Dylan Hicks and Peter Margasak. 
Jazz fan Giacomo Pelliciotti established the labels in Italy in 1975 and chronicled the emerging avant garde artists. Over the course of 30 years, with Giovanni Bonandrini at the helm, the two labels defined an era that was overlooked but eventually fed artists into the mainstream.
Sure it's an opinion, but it feels like every great David Murray album was made for the labels.
I treasured the label's packaging back in the day, the sound quality and the fact that it represented something new and vital for music that was lost.
My personal top 10 from the catalog (and yes, I realize this very heavy on Charlie Haden):

Muhal Richard Abrams Orchestra - Blu Blu Blu
Paul Bley - Memoirs
Anthony Braxton - Six Monk's Compositions
Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet - Voodoo
Charlie Haden/Paul Motian featuring Gerri Allen - Etudes
David Murray - Ming
Sun Ra - Reflections in Blue
Old and New Dreams
Old and New Dreams - Tribute to Blackwell
Don Pullen - The Sixth Sense

Andrew Bird will open his next tour at Carnegie Hall. Dates have been announced for the first leg of a North American trek in support of his album "Noble Beast," which will be released Jan. 27 on Fat Possum.
Loney Dear will open all shows except the Carnegie Hall date.
Presales with low-fee surcharges for most shows are under way.  General on sales will be this weekend.

JANUARY
28 Carnegie Hall New York
30 Orpheum Boston

FEBRUARY
3 Club 9:30  Washington, DC
4 Variety Playhouse Atlanta
6 Plaza Theatre Orlando, Fla.
7 House Of Blues  New Orleans
12 Paramount Theater Austin
13 El Rey Theatre Albuquerque, N.M.
14 Rialto Tucson, Ariz.
18 Orpheum Los Angeles
19/20 The Fillmore San Francisco
21 Roseland Portland
23 Moore Theater Seattle
24 Knitting Factory Boise, Idaho
25 Murray Theater  Murray, Utah
26 Ogden Theater Denver
27 Slowdown  Omaha, Neb.

Barney’s Beanery will celebrate the 65th birthday of the Doors' Jim Morrison on Dec. 8 with a live radio broadcast featuring bandmates Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger. KLOS DJ Jim Ladd will  discuss and sign copies of "Live at The Matrix 1967," a two-CD set recorded in San Francisco  in March 1967 that Bright Midnight/Rhino released today.
“We decided to celebrate this occasion because Barney’s is a place where Jim Morrison hung out often,” says Barney’s Beanery principal David Houston, who bought the place in 1999 from Erwin Held. He is only the third person to own the venue.
In the late ‘60s, Morrison and Janis Joplin were regulars at Barney’s Beanery, with Jim famously barred from the dining establishment for allegedly urinating on the bar. Houston will commemorate the event with a memorial plaque where Morrison might have tinkled.

Jason Bentley will take over as as KCRW music director and host of "Morning Becomes Eclectic," effective Dec. 1. The job is considered one of the most influential posts in radio.
Bentley currently DJs in the early evening and will leave those slots to handle his morning time periods. Bentley's shows lean toward electronica, dance music and remixes; no word yet on whether his edition of "Morning Becomes Eclectic" will experience a sonic change.
While still in high school, Bentley worked as a phone volunteer for the station and debuted on the air 16 years ago.
He says “It's a reinvention of myself to match the gold standards set by previous music directors. It’s no longer the hypnotic pulse of the city at night – it’s the ever-evolving optimism of weekday mornings. “This is a great opportunity for me to grow, a challenge I will take very seriously. “
Bentley was music supervisor for “The Matrix” soundtracks, co-founded the Quango Music Group and was an A&R exec at Maverick Records.
He replaces current music director Nic Harcourt.

LL Cool J and Taylor Swift will co-host “The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!” on CBS on Dec. 3. Mariah Carey has been added as a performer to the one-hour special that will take place at Nokia Theater.

  As predicted on Nov. 6, Bruce Springsteen's new album - titled "Working on a Dream" - will be released in between the inauguration of Barack Obama and the Super Bowl at which he and the E Street Band will perform.
The 14-track album will be released Jan. 27 on Columbia Records and will feature the title track for the film "The Wrestler" that is expected to get a decent Oscar push.
It is the fourth collaboration between Springsteen and Brendan O'Brien, who produced and mixed the album.
In a statement, Springsteen said, "Towards the end of recording 'Magic,' excited by the return to pop production sounds, I continued writing. When my friend producer Brendan O'Brien heard the new songs, he said, 'Let's keep going.' Over the course of the next year, that's just what we did, recording with the E Street Band during the breaks on last year's tour. I hope 'Working on a Dream' has caught the energy of the band fresh off the road from some of the most exciting shows we've ever done. All the songs were written quickly, we usually used one of our first few takes, and we all had a blast making this one from beginning to end."

'Working on a Dream' Song Titles:

1. Outlaw Pete
2. My Lucky Day
3. Working On a Dream
4. Queen of the Supermarket
5. What Love Can Do
6. This Life
7. Good Eye
8. Tomorrow Never Knows
9. Life Itself
10. Kingdom of Days
11. Surprise, Surprise
12. The Last Carnival

Bonus tracks:
The Wrestler
A Night with the Jersey Devil

The great jazz and blues reissue label Mosaic is re-entering the vinyl business after releasing only one LP title since 2000 - the 1957 Carnegie Hall concert by the Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane that was issued in 2005.
And they're already talking "Lucky Thompson Meets Oscar Pettiford," one of my absolute favorite jazz albums ever.
Label head Michael Cuscuna explains the HQ Vinyl Series that will be launched early next year.
"Vinyl has become a media story with large chains selling reasonably-priced turntables to 20-somethings and major labels judiciously releasing old and new titles. And of course, the audiophile labels are still plugging away with 'I-told-you-so' Cheshire cat smiles on their faces.
While preparing the Ahmad Jamal CD box set due next spring, it occurred to us that an eight-CD set doesn't have to give birth to a back-busting box of 12 180-gram LPs; it can also give birth to a double-album reissue of both LPs of Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing, the groundbreaking albums that generated such influential hits as 'Poinciana.'
Freed from thinking that Mosaic LPs have to mirror out large CD sets, we've engaged in a treasure hunt coming up with new title ideas like reissuing those two magnificent Lucky Thompson-Oscar Pettiford albums on ABC-Paramount or Duke Ellington's 1963 masterpiece 'Afro Bossa.' How about the complete Thelonious Monk 'Live At The It Club' on LP for the first time, beautifully remixed from the original three-track masters? We've only just begun."

Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience who had just finished a tour with a Hendrix tribute show, was found dead Wednesday morning in a hotel room in Portland, Ore. He was 61.
He apparently died of natural causes, the Multnomah County medical examiner told the Portland Oregonian. Mitchell was found dead at 3 a.m. in the Benson Hotel.
Mitchell, whose birth name was John, had been performing with the Experience Hendrix Tour, which made its 18th and final  stop Friday at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Mitchell had been taking a vacation in Portland before returning home to England.
The tour had stopped in Los Angeles on Nov. 2 and Mitchell appeared on a handful of songs as did Billy Cox, the bassist in the final edition of the Experience and Band of Gypsys.
One of the best rock drummers of the 1960s, Mitchell was able to combine power, finesse and technique in following the lead of Hendrix, considered rock’s finest guitarist at the time of his death in 1970 as well as today. The trio’s debut album contains three prime examples of Mitchell’s inventive style: "Fire," "Third Stone from the Sun" and "Manic Depression."
Hendrix and Mitchell had reunited in 1970 after the Band of Gypsys broke up and the two were plotting their next move at the time Hendrix died. After that, Mitchell rarely recorded and only over the last decade was he active in promulgating the Hendrix legacy. At one point, Mitchell sold his rights to the Experience for about $200,000.
Prior to meeting Hendrix, Mitchell had been a child actor before taking up the drums in his native England. In 1964 and ’65, he played with the Riot Squad, Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames and the Pretty Things, leaving them after about a dozen gigs to join Hendrix’s band.
His first post-Hendrix band was a jazz-rock supergroup with Jack Bruce and Larry Coryell that never recorded.
In 1972 he formed Ramatam with Mike Pinera and lead guitarist April Lawton but then limited his recording to very few sessions, most notably ones with Muddy Waters and Robert Wyatt.
And then there was the Dirty Macs

New bands have been added to the lineup for “Rockville, CA,” the music-themed scripted web series created by Josh Schwartz that will run on theWB.com starting inthe spring.
        Bands announced Wednesday aree Kaiser Chiefs, Travis, Anya Marina, Bishop Allen, the Broken West, Cass McCombs, Lights, Oppenheimer and the Republic Tigers.
Each band will play a set at Rockville (the fictional club in the show), against the backdrop of the weekly, scripted drama. Fans will be able to stream or download tracks from the show.
        Previously announced bands appearing on the series include the Duke Spirit, Eagles of Death Metal, Earlimart, Frightened Rabbit, The Kooks, The Little Ones, Lykke Li, Nico Stai, Passion Pit, Phantom Planet and White Lies.

Column writing, for better or worse, means fitting your ideas into a single established space. In my case, the limit is 700 words. Since I started this a couple of months ago there has not been a column in which I was finished after 600 words; every one has required a trim before I turn it in.
Balancing pure opinion with interview pieces seems to be working out well although this week I hit a bit of a snag. The idea behind the piece was to explore how AEG Live had invested in concert tours of TV programs. As much as I attempt to get inside the music industry I did not have the space to get as deep as possible in this one and when it came time to reduce my word count, an explanation of how the shows get to the promoter was cut out.
There is a healthy food chain in the adaptation of TV shows as live entertainment. The creators/copyright holders are entities such as the BBC and Granada; they are then represented by talent agencies who approach a promoter such as AEG with a package deal. CAA handles "American Idol," ICM covers "Dancing With the Stars" for example.
If I were writing for the Internet those facts would have made it into the column as would an anecdote about music publishers who give an employee the single task of landing songs on "Idol" or "Dancing."
TV is what sells music these days and few shows have track records to equal these two. Let the TV people worry about the ratings - these shows are where stars go to sell records, often in some of the most fallow sales periods of the year.

I have made it to three more concerts - only eight to go to hit 100 for the year - one of which had almost as many acts as an edition of "American Idol." Somehow, I still need to catch 53 performers to hit 300.

David Bowie has made it to the Museum of Modern Art.
The New York City museum will screen 15 of Bowie's videos on Dec. 1 in the Titus 1 Theater. Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore will be the host.Moore  co-organized the event with Barbara London, associate curator, department of media at MoMA.
Not that I am a bank of great ideas but I remember standing on a chilly New York City street in early December 1980 and watching, along with a half dozen other people, and watching the "Ashes to Ashes" video on a TV in store window. I said to my friend, "imagine if artists made these short films and they had a program that showed nothing but them. Judging by these people standing out here watching I bet it would be a hit."
Oh well.

The videos:
John I’m Only Dancing. (1972). Directed by Mick Rock. 2:49 min.
Jean Genie. (1972). Directed by Mick Rock. 4:02 min.
Life on Mars. (1973). Directed by Mick Rock. 3:55 min.
Heroes. (1977). Directed by Stanley Dorfman. 3:27 min.
DJ. (1979). Directed by David Mallet. 3:58 min.
Ashes to Ashes. (1980). Directed by David Mallet & David Bowie. 3:33 min.
China Girl. (1983). Directed by David Mallet & David Bowie. 4:03 min.
Blue Jean. (1984). Directed by Julien Temple. 3:17 min.
As the World Falls Down. (1986). Directed by Steve Barron. 3:41 min.
Fame 90. (1990). Directed by Gus Van Sant. Edited by Edouard Lock. 3:33 min.
Jump They Say. (1993). Directed by Mark Romanek. 4:00 min.
The Hearts Filthy Lesson. (1995). Directed by Sam Bayer. 4:58 min.
Dead Man Walking. (1997). Directed by Floria Sigismondi. 3:49 min.
I’m Afraid of Americans. (1997). Directed by Dom & Nic. 4:25 min.
Survive. (1999). Directed and produced by Walter Stern. 3:29 min.

Brett Dennen has announced a 54-date tour of large clubs and small theaters for early next year.
Named an artist to watch by Rolling Stone, Dennen’s songs have been featured in episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scrubs” and “House.” Latest single is “Make You Crazy,” which he will perform on ABC’s “Good Morning America Weekend” on Saturday. Song features the Nigerian musician Femi Kuti, who is featured in the video with Mandy Moore, a fan of Dennen's music.
His third album, “Hope for the Hopeless” (Dualtone/Downtown) was released Oct. 21 and has sold about 15,000 copies. Add Dennen’s name to the growing list of young artists who will see far greater paydays on the road and through licensing than CD or download sales.
The 2009 Hope For The Hopeless Tour dates are after the jump:

There are strange stories and then there are stranger ones, like this one about Bob Dylan wheeling up to a house in Winnipeg where Neil Young lived. Nice to know Bob's that dedicated of a fan.

Beyonce's “I am ... Sasha Fierce” will be available for streaming on MySpace Music beginning at one minute after midnight. Album will be released in seven days. She's looking for feedback.

Nic Harcourt will leave his job as KCRW music director on Nov.30, staying on air once a week on  Sundays from 6-9 p.m.
Harcourt had the job for 10 years and was the third host of Morning Becomes Eclectic, the cornerstone music program of the Santa Monica community radio station. During his tenure, the station made significant inroads as an Internet destination and as a concert sponsor in L.A., San Francisco and New York.
In his announcement Harcourt noted that he "fulfilled many of my dreams as a music lover, meeting and interviewing legends like Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Willie Nelson and Cat Stevens (Yusuf)."
He plans to wok on activities in movie, television, voiceover work, advertising and the Internet. 
The two previous music directors, Tom Schnabel and Chris Douridas, host music programs on the weekends. The position is considered one of the top tastemaking positions in music, particularly in the world of music supervision.
KCRW expects to announce a new music director in a few weeks.

Architects and developers clearly learn lessons as time passes: From a design persepctive, Club Nokia is a dream with superb sightlines, roominess and amenities to spare. It's a pleasant, if soul-less, marriage of the extended balcony of the Wiltern and wide, open ground floor of the West Hollywood House of Blues.
Divided into two levels, the first floor is all standing, the second floor permanent seats. The curved balcony extends far over the floor making its first several rows of seats prime areas for viewing. The uncovered are a of the floor was packed during Beck's opening night performance, but it left a good third of the room in the back wide open. Maneuvering around the back half of the room was quite easy.
Balcony looks more steep upon approach than once you are in the seats - which proved comfortable and with sufficient leg room. Oddly enough, the difference between a seat in the second to last row in the middle was not significantly different from a set in the eighth row on the left hand side. It helped that Beck flooded the stage with light, making it easy to see him and the band from every location. (Jenny Lewis opened the show. A full review is here)
Sound was a little tough to determine on opening night, especially in attempting to calculate what fault lies with the room, what elements owe to the P.A. and which can be attributed to the artist. It certainly did not possess the overall clarity of the Nokia Theater, but in many spots - balcony especially - the individual instruments were easy to distinguish. The electronic beeps and beats, followed by the guitar and bass were remarkably well-positioned on "Girl"; vocals, however, were buried.

Muddy or sonically overwhelmed vocals were a problem all night and the room still needs to be tuned for performers such as Beck who add heavy pre-recorded bass to a standard rock band set-up. More troubling was the reproduction of the acoustic guitar, which sounded tinny and one-dimensional. It's likely that it's the tightness of all the elements, a bit like trying to catch a baseball with a glove that was purchased an hour ago.
Entire room is heavy on TV screens and as much as one welcomes the chance to not miss the perfromance while at the bar, it seems like overkill. Standing straight back on the floor, Beck could be seen on six screens - or live. In the balcony, two screen hang from the ceiling and prove a bit distracting.
Club's public levels are on the third and fifth floors of the L.A. Live complex. The fourth is an impressively large VIP lounge from which the stage cannot be seen; two floors below are the yet-to-open Conga Room and Lucky Strike bowling alley. Both levels have outdoor patios, mostly occupied by smokers on Sunday.

Prior to performing at his girlfriend's get-together under the "In the Attic" banner, Pete Townshend told me he was pleased the Who had recently added five tunes to their repertoire for their current tour. But don't expect many more additions.
"I don't mean to blame Roger but he has to be able to sing the whole show," Townshend said, noting he was particularly pleased "Sister Disco" is back in the lineup. "He can't be straining his voice. And the more changes you make (to the set list), the more likely you are to make mistakes."
Mistakes were hardly a concern Friday night when an edition of "In the Attic" was staged at the Troubadour to promote the March 3 release of a 2-CD/1-DVD at Best Buy and raise a few funds for the Recording Academy's MusiCares organization. Townshend forgot a lyric or two which brought about chuckles all around, but his guitar playing remains stellar. The Who play Saturday and Sunday at the Nokia Theater in L.A.

Rachel Fuller, as usual, got the all-acoustic show started and various groupings came and went that included Townshend, Jakob Dylan, Mike Campbell, M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel (She & Him), E of the Eels and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service. The oddest coincidence came when E performed "Girl From North Country" immediately after Dylan and Townshend left the stage. (He was unaware Dylan would be at the show). The song, penned by Jakob's dad, was recorded by Pete in slightly altered form and titled "North Country Girl" on his "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes" album.
The set list:

Cigarettes and Housework (Fuller) / Unknown song Townshend wrote for his mother (Fuller, Townshend) / Change is Hard (She & Him) / Take it Back (She & Him) / new song (She & Him) / You Really Got a Hold on Me (She & Him) / I Put a Spell on You (She & Him) / Blue, Red and Grey (She & Him, Townshend) / Evil is Alive and Well (Dylan) / Sixth Avenue Heartache (Dylan, Campbell) / One Headlight (Dylan, Townshend) / Kids are Alright (Dylan, Townshend) / Girl From North Country (E) / Bus Stop Boxer (E) / My Love Opened the Door (E, Gibbard, Townshend) / intermission
Brand New Colony (Gibbard) / I Will Follow You Into the Dark (Gibbard) / Title and Registration (Gibbard) / She Thinks I Still Care (Gibbard, Deschannel) / Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand (Gibbard, Townshend) / Acid Queen (Townshend) / Drowned (Townshend) / Won't Get Fooled Again (Townshend) / I'm One (Townshend, Fuller, Deschanel, Gibbard, Dylan)

Madonna fans in the expensive seats were climbing over chairs, security and other fans at Dodger Stadium Thursday with the hope of snapping a pic or two or eight of a celebrity taking their seat.
The area at the end of the catwalk that formed a 'T' off the mainstage was as well-stocked with talent as any Hollywood premiere - J. Lo, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu. Management, agents and Ryan Seacrest. Slide over a section and Heidi Klum, Fergie and Nicole Ritchie were garnering attention. Poor Jillian Michael, the trainer from NBC's "Biggest Loser": She was the first to arrive and the first to be ignored.
This was a bit astonishing though in L.A. where celebs are pointed at or waved to - their presence is just a fact of life. Perhaps it was the place or the performer, but this evening felt different from others. This is not bold-faced names cavorting with the hoi polloi. These people - the ones paying $350 for a seat or higher if they use a scalper, the ones who call in favors to secure the best seat possible - are apparently starved for a connection with fame. From a few rows away, it was palpable, that difference between Barrymore's nonchalance and Jennifer Lopez' glow.
Same difference in the area that held Klum and Fergie: Both are stars, but only one has that aura of distinctiveness. (This was one of those rare instances in which reviewers had obscenely good seats: If Madonna slips when she puts the body of her guitar into her crotch during "Borderline" and the instrument falls, I'm the one getting hit on the noggin).
Hardly surprising that the rich and famous want to see Madonna, the one star who presented personal and sexual evolution as art, who beguiles and mystifies consistently and who only disappoints when she becomes a stationary object. The celebs present - Barrymore being the exception - may well look on in awe and envy: Madge is expected to have no boundaries, while the others are boxed and ready for shipping. Change is good for her and it's evident in the colorful and high energy show; the new material is dance-floor ready, the older songs amped up and pushed toward rump shaking or Guitar Hero.
As a celebrity. Madonna dwarfed those in the audience. At 50, she may well be presenting the best show of her life - the set list was the same as New Jersey but with Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake as guests and a "Dress You Up" sing-along - and it may well be the first example of an artist taking Barack Obama's lead and going the extra mile to push themseleves toward excelllence rather than the status quo.

Over the last three weeks, I have had a fair number of conversations with major and indie label executives as well as concert promoters and music publishers. Bouncing between uptown HQs in New York and the Lower East Side during CMJ certainly brought out the dichotomy that makes the music industry so confusing these days.
And then Obama won the election. It brought out some clarity about what's so desperatley missing whether you're tryign to figure out how to pay the mortgage, get to the next gig or add to your collection of copyrights: The need, no matter what walk of life you are in, to have individuals to believe in.
The music industry is struggling to find those worthy individuals. Those tiny Gotham clubs were packed during CMJ with people praying they had found an artist who could lead.
But it's not just the fans. I swear you can tell the smart executives from the guys attracted to the perks just by talking about legends. I thik back on people I have been taking about in recent weeks - Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Warren Zevon, Stax and Elektra in the '60s - subjects that bring out passion, knowledge and anecdotes among execs charged with finding a way to create new stars and new hits. It's not nostalgia on their part, just a sense that music and musicians once stood for something that has disappeared from the current landscape.
Obama arrives and I sense he will inspire a nation to take a look in the mirror. May they all realize how superficial our culture has become.

For the record, Madonna was the 89th concert I attended this year and I have now seen 238 acts this year. The goal is 100 shows/300 acts.

Live Nation's third-quarter profit more than tripled to $139.9 million on strong performances across most of its operations and the gain from selling its motor sports division. 
The world's largest concert promoter reported that the number of concerts staged in the quarter rose 17% to 4,839, and total attendance rose 5.7% to 17.5 million.
Revenue for North American music increased 10% to $864 million, and revenue from international music jumped 44% to $480.7 million.
They took a $7.7 million hit due to a decline in ticketing primarily due to higher salary costs and other expenses related to building our ticketing infrastructure.
The company split the first nine months of the year into wins and losses.
The gains included:
$185 million increase in North American Music primarily due to strong results from arena tours and an increase in events, ancillary revenue per attendee, attendance and average ticket prices at our owned and/or operated amphitheaters and third-party venues.
$61.5 million increase in International Music due to stronger promotion activity in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway driven primarily by strong stadium events and strong arena tours, as well as an overall increase in revenues related to our festival operations in the United Kingdom, Belgium and The Netherlands.
Company lost $156.5 million due to decreased volume and change in the venue mix of global tours impacting Artist Nation.

Halloween delivered a treat for Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Coast-to-coast zombie dance tributes to the album combined with a  holiday surge in sales - 31,000 - to put the album back at No. 1 on the chart of catalog items.
A specially priced Halloween digital edition of the standard Thriller album was made available on iTunes and bundled with a bonus video of "Thriller." In addition, more than 34,000 "Thriller" ringtones were sold.
Among the "Thriller" parties was a zombie fest  at Greenwich Village's annual Halloween Parade and Live in Color, an MTV dance crew, performing the "Thriller" choreography at Miami's Opium Garden featured .
The 25th anniversary version of "Thriller" has sold more than 2 million copies around the world and remains the best-selling album of all time.

The altruist in me wants to believe that the next Bruce Springsteen album - or at least a single - will be in stores and online in time for the Jan. 20 inauguration of Barack Obama. That sounds like a perfect alignment, an organic connection between an artistic leader and a political one, especially when one considers that  the Boss debuted "Workin' on a Dream" at an Obama rally on Sunday.
But business tends to weigh heavier than sentiment in these matters and it's much more likely that the Springsteen album, recorded in Atlanta with Brendan O'Brien producing again, will be released in the sales cycle that includes his appearance at the Super Bowl on Feb. 1. Besides, Jan. 20 is a Tuesday and releasing the album on the day of the swearing-in ceremony would feel like an attempt to capitalize or steal thunder; Jan. 13 lands during one of music's most fallow periods of the year.
I'm circling Jan. 27 on my calendar for the album and I won't be surprised if Feb. 3 is the release date, following the lead of other performers -  Tom Petty, Prince and Janet Jackson - who used the halftime show as a platform for a new release and/or tour announcement.
"Workin' on a Dream" sounds tailor made for Obama and a young generation inspired by the president elect. If ever a single should be rush released, this is the one. We need to hear songs of hope on the radio.

Not that anyone needs to be told that the recorded music business mightily struggling but this past week's sales report was about as dire a week as we have seen in years.
Eleven new albums — most of them by established artists — debuted in the top 20, but sales were so paltry the week was off by 25% from the same period last year. Four albums even sold more than 100,000 copies.
It appears a piece of conventional wisdom has been thrown out the window. In the days of actual record stores, whenever a product led a sales charge - AC/DC's "Black Ice" for example - sales of other releases would pick up. Now that the AC/DC disc is available in only one outlet and said outlet, Wal-Mart, is reducing shelf space for CDs, titles are not being piggybacked on the item that got the customer into the store.
What's really crazy about this week;s chart is how far behind current records are performing in their first weeks when compared with the acts' last albums.
John Legend's third album, "Evolver" (Columbia), sold 133,000 to open at No. 4, delivering only 58% of the first week sales posted in October 2006 by “Once Again.” The No. 5 album, Toby Keith's "That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy" (Show Dog Nashville), sold 91,000, a distant cry from the 204,000 that his “Big Dog Daddy” did 16 months ago.
Rascal Flatts' "Greatest Hits, Vol. 1" (Lyric Street) was a slot lower on sales of 89,000. Album includes three new Christmas tracks in addition to 13 of their hits but demand is nowhere near the 547,000 units sold by the trio’s “Still Feels Good” in September 2007.
Another hits package, Celine Dion's two-CD set "My Love: Essential Collection" (Columbia), moved 57,000 to chime in at No. 8. Nine years ago, her hits package “All the Way: A Decade of Song” sold ,more than 300,000 copies in its debut week.
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals' "Cardinology" (Lost Highway) did better than most, selling 40,000 and opening at No. 11. Adams’ 2007 release, "Easy Tiger," sold 61,000 and debuted at No. 7.
The Cure's "4:13 Dream" (Suretone/Geffen) sent off 24,000 to start at No. 16;in June 2004, “The Cure” sold 91,000.
Bloc Party's "Intimacy" (Atlantic) was released digitally in August and physically on Oct. 28 It sold with 24,000 (No. 18). That’s half the first-week sales of their release last year "A Weekend in the City."
Among those that did OK: Pink's "Funhouse" (LaFace) which sold 180,000 and registered a personal chart position record. Tally exceeded by 54,000 the debut of her April 2006 release “I’m Not Dead.”
Snow Patrol's "A Hundred Million Suns" (Fiction/Geffen) sold 48,000 to pop in at No. 9, making it the band's first trip into the top 10. More than half of the album’s sales were digital, buoyed by Amazon selling the music for less than $4.
And even with a full week of kids going to see "High School Musical 3" in theaters sales slipped 45%, selling 162,000.
One slot higher, with the same tally, was the first album from Lady GaGa, "The Fame" ( Streamline/Interscope). Michael W. Smith's live album "A New Hallelujah" (Reunion) debuts at secured 23,000 sales (No. 19).
Other debuts included Kottonmouth Kings’ “Green Album” (Suburban Noize) selling 13,000 (No. 42); Queen & Paul Rodgers moving 12,000 (No. 47); and Cradle of Filth’s “Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder” (Roadrunner) rocked 11,000 (No. 48).

Wal-Mart stores are reducing the amount of shelf space allotted for compact discs and DVDs to accommodate Blu-ray discs and consumer electronics, a move that will have considerable impact in fourth quarter album sales.
Homevideo distribs were informed that the retailer would be expanding space for Blu-Ray releases at the expense of music.   
John Fleming, chief marketing officer with Wal-Mart, told analysts last week that physical packaged media would be "coming down dramatically so that we can space the growth categories.”
The retail giant, the No. 1 seller of physical CDs, has been active in the marketplace for exclusives, the latest being AC/DC's "Black Ice," which has sold more than 1 million copies at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club outlets.
Fleming said Wal-Mart would look to expand that aspect of the business.
Richard Greenfield, an analyst with Pali Capital,  issued a report Tuesday noting "Wal-Mart is focused on acquiring exclusive rights to music content, which enables it to sell multiple products to a consumer at one time; not just an $11.99 CD.”
The shelf-space reduction comes as Circuit City announced it would close 155 stores, exiting 12 U.S. media markets.Store closing sales begin Wednesday.

Dave Alvin, the fine chronicler of people who struggle in the America west, has added a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Seeds" to his series of digital singles being released through Yep Roc's website.It is his 14th release in the last 15 months. The series has included a surf tune, some honky-tonk and a nod to viper blues.
On the site, Alvin, a great songwriter in his own right, calls Springsteen "simply a great damn songwriter."
Alvin recorded "Seeds" in 1997 for a Bruce Springsteen tribute album for Capitol Records. He writes: "I liked the lyrics that tell one side story of what was going on down in southeast Texas during the rough times of the 1980's. Back then a lot of people ventured down to Houston and similar oil towns looking for work and were often disappointed by what they found. If that isn't a good subject for a blues song I don't what is.
"We only had a couple of hours of studio time to record "Seeds" so we didn't have the luxury of fretting about our arrangement or performance too much. We just gathered in a circle in the studio, played it through once for rehearsal and then cut it live in one take. Some songwriters don't mind when someone changes one of their songs while other songwriters can get a little upset if too much liberty is taken with their material. I don't know if Bruce Springsteen ever heard our version of 'Seeds' but I hope that he'd kind of dig it. I hope that you dig it too."
His current tour includes a show Saturday at Largo at the Coronet in L.A.

The only general interest record store left in New York City will play host to a private concert by "American Idol" champ David Cook.
Beginning Nov. 18 at 8 a.m., a limited number of fans who purchase Cook’s self-titled album at the Times Square Virgin Megastore will receive a wristband to attend a concert at Hard Rock Cafe New York that evening. An album signing will follow the show.

DeVotchKa, the Denver-based gypsy punk band, made one of the best albums of the first half of the year, "A Mad an Faithful Retelling." A track of theirs from 2004, "How It Ends," is being featured in a new Microsoft ad campaign that launched Sunday night during the New England Patriots-Indianapolis Colts game on NBC.
The campaign goes international this week in Canada, France, Mexico, Australia and the U.K. The ad was created within Unreal Engine 3, the same graphics engine technology used in the "Gears of War" franchise. Microsoft and Epic Games partnered with ad agency T.A.G SF, special effects house Digital Domain and director Joseph Kosinski.
The ad:

A live performance:

The Ramones expressed a disdain for politics in one of their last hits, "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg," a commentary on Ronald Reagan's visit to the former Nazi enclave.
Joey sang:
"There's one thing that makes me sick,
Is when someone tries to hide behind politics.
Wish time would go by fast,
Somehow they manage to make it last."
Johnny Ramone, one of the rare right wing rock stars, did not necessarily share Joey's anti-Reagan sentiment and his widow Linda Cummings continues to proffer political support on behalf of her late husband. McCain's kid, it turns out, is quite the fan.
Rather than use her married name of Cummings, Linda is invoking the name Ramone, which has the president of the Ramones empire up in arms.
"As a president of Ramones Productions, and brother of Joey Ramone, I just want it to be clear that Linda Cummings does not represent the political views of the Ramones," Mickey Leigh said in a statement issued over the weekend. " Surely, as for Joey Ramone, the only Ramones song he would sing at a Republican campaign event would be ‘Glad To See You Go!’
“I should add that when Johnny stated ‘God Bless George Bush’ at the 2002 Rock&Roll Hall of Fame awards, I realize now that he was on to something. Because if it were not for George Bush and his handling of our country the past 8 years, I doubt so many Americans, including so many highly regarded Republicans, would now be getting behind Barack Obama. So, yes, God bless George Bush for paving the way to Obama.”