Daily Variety
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Sly Stone continues to mess with us: On Coachella weekend, Sly & the Family Stone will be performing at the House of Blues in West Hollywood and Anaheim. Tickets go on sale Saturday for an April 25 shows in Orange County and an April 26 show in L.A. No news on other gigs and, of course, no guarantee that he will show up or even be prepared to perform.
For anyone who is unaware, all music journalists conspire with each other to not only ask the same questions of each recording artist, but ask them in the same order. It has been a big secret for years, but nobody could pull the wool over the eyes of Kid Rock. Not even Entertainment Weekly's Chris Willman, one of the best rock scribes going. As part of a collection of rambling tirades, Willman was subjected to this swell theory from Mr. Bob Ritchie, who may or may not be "Rock and Roll Jesus":
It's funny. Every interview I do, I can tell you what the people are gonna say. They're gonna talk about the record; about five questions down, they're gonna ask something silly; about eight questions down, they're gonna try to ask me about Pamela. It's so f---in' cookie cutter, it's almost hilarious. Because everyone is supposed to be so creative and have these innovative magazines and want to be great writers and do things in their own way, yet they're all the same — on down the line, every single one of 'em. And I know the editors tell 'em all to do it. [Breaking into an imitation of a journalist.] ''I didn't come up with the questions, dude. I gotta ask you about it, though.'' Do you really? Well, that's fun. You sound like a disc jockey nowadays: ''I don't play what I want, I'm told what to do.'' It doesn't sound like something you go to school for and be creative. Anyway, go ahead.
British boogie rockers Status Quo are doing what any band would do after playing the same riff for for 30 years: Head to Thailand and make a movie. Band, which has no credits on imdb beyond a few TV appearances, will star in Thai-set comedy caper “Care Factor Zero.”
The Mark-Almond Band, led by a couple of guys who played in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers on the landmark "Turning Point" album, had one of those underground FM single hits, "The City." It was one of those wild fusiony blends of jazz and folk and prog-rock that some of us couldn't get enough of, back in the early '70s. In a 1978 Philly concert, they fused it with a snippet of Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind" - and then played the song for half an hour. 30 minutes. One song. Lotsa flute. Wolfgang's Vault has the evidence.
Darius Rucker has undergone three surgeries to clear a staph infection in his left knee which has further delayed Hootie & the Blowfish's summer tour.
Shows booked for July and early August have been rescheduled.
Not being rescheduled are shows in Roslyn, Wash., Jacksonville, Oregon, Ventura and Turlock, Calif.
Hootie & the Blowfish will still perform three songs Friday on CBS’s "The Early Show."
Tom Jones is one of two artists signed to the restarted S-Curve Records, the label that launched "Who Let the Dogs Out" and Joss Stone in its first incarnation (2000-2005). Over the years, Jones has generated hits for several labels. In his initial hitmaking run, 1964-1975, he recorded for Parrot, then made two albums for Epic, and spent the 1980s recording for several Polygram owned and distributed labels. His lone album for Jive, 1988's "Move Closer," was his biggest seller. Interscope released his 1994 effort "The Lead and How to Swing It," the Welsh singer's last high-profile release.BMG issued his 2000 disc "Reunited." But beyond the hotel keys tossed onstage during his concerts, Jones may be best remembered for his early '70s TV show, "This is Tom Jones." The first episode, which aired Jan. 9, 1969, saw Jones performing "It’s Not Unusual", "Delilah", "Land Of A Thousand Dances", "Hard To Handle", "My Elusive Dreams", "Bright Lights And You, Girl", "Good News," "I Can’t Stop Loving You" and dueting with Mireille Mathieu on "I’m Coming Home To You."
It was the best show at SXSW and here's to hoping it is the best show of the summer at the Hollywood Bowl. Stax Records, the label that gave Memphis its musical identity in the 1960s and remains a standard-bearer for Southern soul, 
is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with concerts celebrations, reissues, a PBS documentary and a revival of the label by its new owners, Concord Records.
The Hollywood Bowl will be home Wednesday to the show that was previewed at Antone's during SXSW and put Booker T. and the MG's behind two underrated legends, William Bell and Eddie Floyd.Isaac Hayes emceed that show - he continues to recover from a stroke - and he is expected to perform at the Bowl. Naturally, they will be performing songs by the label's greatest artist, Otis Redding, and it is highly likely that some Sam and Dave material will be thrown in as well.
For all the giddiness that surrounds the celebration of Stax and its sister label Volt, there is still a scar that dates back to Warner-owned Atlantic - and then CBS Records - driving the label into the ground in the early 1970s and the city of Memphis refusing to do anything to save the label's old HQ, a shuttered movie theater dubbed Soulsville U.S.A. Memphis spent the last 30 years of the 20th century attempting to recover from its place as the city where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and the Stax legacy paid a price; the city seemingly wanted to wash away its black history, attracting the tourists with Graceland and Sun Studios. In the last few years, with the revival of Beale Street as blues-driven tourist outlet, Memphis has come to embrace its place in soul music history and even launched a Stax museum.
Some of the blame for the vanishing of Stax, too, lies with the former catalog owner, Saul Zaentz and Fantasy Records, which provided little followup to the label's brilliant three box sets that brought together every A and B side ever issued on 45 by the label. Those three spectacular box sets, buoyed by Rob Bowman's expert liner notes, are a model for any label attempting a completist approach to an era - and for a few years in the early 1990s, there were soul music fans wondering where they would find the Mad-Lads, the Soul Children or Barbara Lewis. (Rufus Thomas did actually enjoy a bit of a revival at the time.)
Best part of the 50th is getting Bell centerstage with a band equal to his talent. He continues to record, but the lack of financing is always apparent in the sound of his efforts. If there is one musician from Stax's past that should be ushered back to the label, it is he. And Wednesday, not only will we get Hayes, Bell and Floyd, Mable John, the former Raelette and sister of Little Willie John, will sing as well.
Wolfgang's Vault, the somewhat dubious company formed by the owner of Bill Graham's estate, has some offerings in which ownership is up for debate. That doesn't mean some of the items on the Website - specifically the posters - are not bona fide gems.
Company has just unveiled an assortment of Fillmore East posters, including ones for a bill of the Byrds, Tim Buckley and the Foundations and other for the Who, Buddy Guy and Free Spirit. The first printing of a rather cool Kinks poster for an October 1969 gig is among the items being auctioned.
The reclusive soul icon says he has about 200 songs in various stages that he is ready to record. Stone has given his first interview in abotu 25 years to Vanity Fair for the mag's August issue.
While his appearances on the Mike Douglas and Dick Cavett shows in the 1970s were notorious for Sly appearing to have self-medicated, a Bay Area TV interview actually captured him in a coherent state
In the good Ol' U.K., it is quite common to find CDs - often compilations - glued to the front of magazines or placed inside the publication, as Prince's new album will be on Sunday. They're called "covermounts" and can be as annoyingly bad as Mojo's recent all-covers version of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" or as collectible as the seven-inch single of the White Stripes' "Rag & Bone" on the cover of a June NME.
NME has had 120,000 copies of the vinyl, featuring an etching by Jack White, pressed in France and the Czech Republic. Disc is fetching $10-$20 on eBay.
Eugene Chadbourne, the eclectic experimental instrumentalist known in some circles for playing the electric rake, will deliver two weeks worth of performances at the Stone in New York City in the second half of August.
Tagged as Chadfest 2007 - in 2004 there was one in Kansas City - the John Zorn-overseen performance space refers to it as "
Feeling the McCartney Mania brought on in anticipation of tonight's show at Amoeba Records in Hollywood, it seemed like the right time to splurge on soemthing from Paul's past. Figuring a spin on eBay would generate some inetresting tidbits, I never thought I'd find this - a pop performances by a duo or group Grammy for "Band on the Run," arguably McCartney's finest solo album.
Listing figures the Grammy Award will fetch between $50,000 and $75,000 six days from now when the auction ends. Trophy was originally given to Denny Laine, the former Moody Blues front man who became guitarist-bassist-singer for Wings. he is spending the summer singing "Go Now" in Hippiefest, sharing the bill with balding longhairs the Turtles, Felix Cavaliere and the Zombies.
June 21, 1969: Dad takes my brother and me all the way to Anaheim from Chatsworth to see an Angels game. We come home, via the 5, and exit at Devonshire and as we head west, the street is suddenly strewn with trash and there are people milling about everywhere. As a 10-year-old kid, I was a bit in awe and when I later learned that there had been a rock festival featuring Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, Byrds and a gazillion other bands. Kevin Roderick recounts the fest on its 38th anniversary.
Here's part of what I missed. By the way, Angels beat the White Sox, 4-1.
The number of Internet radio stations participating in a Day of Silence on Tuesday continues to grow. Will this reach critical mass? And if it does, how will the number of people not doing somethign be counted?
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