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Week of 5/29

Athlete (Astralwerks) has won the Ivor Norvello songwriting award this year for Best Contemporary Song for their "Wires". FYI, James Blunt received the Most Overplayed Song award for "You're Beautiful".

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'Make money money, make money money make' - Death Row Records has put their material up on iTunes, likely to help Suge Knight out of his predictament.

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The Yeah Yeah Yeahs want you to be in their video for "Cheated Hearts." Get all the details here.

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I think I would like the Dixie Chicks if Natalie Maines wouldn't do that absurd bouffant with her hair.

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Mike Skinner, aka the Streets, has announced that he will be running the NYC marathon in November via his endorsement deal with Reebok.

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In the 'this is b.s.' news item of the week, J'aime Tambeur has quite the Islands, the band formed with fellow ex-Unicorns' member Nick Diamonds. Even though they offered up the stellar Return to the Sea, Tambeur basically doesn't want to rock anymore. Not cool.

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Out of the ashes of Breather Resist comes Young Widows, a post-punk almagam not be confused with Black Widows and the like, who will release their debut Settle Down City on September 12th.

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Punk-metal, math mixers legends Helmet will be releasing their latest record Monochrome on Warcon Records on July 18th. Further, they will be a headliner at this summer's Warped Tour.

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Reggae-punk-ska legend Desmond Dekker died last week in England. Younger Americans are probably more familiar with contemporary bands like Rancid citing his influences.

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After touring with the Sounds, the uber-entertaining Morningwood will be headlining their own tour, Tour Off Your Clothes, for twenty-one shows starting in June. Even if you aren't big on their music, their live show is amazing as we will attest to.

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According to Al Jourgensen, Ministry will release one more record The Last Sucker and then that's it. The record will flow the past two, Houses of the Mole and Rio Grande Blood.

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Beanie Sigel was shot last week in Philly by a bunch of dudes in a robbery attempt.


Week of 5/22

Almost unbelievably, guitarist Chris Cohen has left Deerhoof to concentrate on his band the Curtains. It is amazing because all of the Deerhoof members have a million sideprojects and Deerhoof has really begun to make mainstream headway with the Runner's Four - including opening for Radiohead. The band has 'celebrated' Chris's days with a free EP on their website.

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Baltimore's Page Francis has signed with Suicide Squeeze Records.

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As you might expect, the handful of acoustic Foo Fighters shows sold out in minutes, and the band has added a second Berkeley show...but that's it?

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Apparently everyone who is opening for the Gorilla Biscuits are crazy excited as we got two emails within minutes saying that Set Your Goals (Eulogy Recordings) and Comeback Kid (Victory Records) are opening. The former for only a couple of dates and the later for a whole month in August and September. I guess I'd be uber-pumped as well.

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SideCho Records has signed 1090 Club - who really needs to leave Billings, MT.

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Guns N' Roses are slated for their first LA show in 15 years with KROQ's Inland Invasion on September 23rd.

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The Artic Monkeys North American tour starting on May 27th will be sans their normal bass player. Andy Nicholson will be recovering from exhaustion in the UK with some frothy pints instead. Nick O'Malley will be filling in for Nicholson.

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Another in a long string of accidents and incidents, Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson was hit by a car in Leeds, the car drove off, but he was fine. I'd keep clear of Wilson during any thunderstorms.

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Rough Trade has let its contract with Babyshambles expire, but the label has denied the band was dropped. This is in light of all of Pete Doherty incredible lengthy run-ins with the law, so speculation abounds.

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The Black Keys have signed with Nonesuch.

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The Forecast's (Victory Records) summer tour dates in support of In the Shadow of Two Gunmen:

6/2/2006 - E. Peoria, IL @ E. PEORIA LEGION HALL  CD Release Show 

  6/3/2006 - Chicago, IL @ BEAT KITCHEN  w/ RECORD RELEASE SHOW

  6/4/2006 - Minneapolis, MN @ TRIPLE ROCK    

  6/5/2006 - Mankato, MN @ Whats’ Up Lounge    

  6/6/2006 - Kearney, NE @ PARADISE COVE    

  6/7/2006 - Colorado Springs, CO @ THE BLACK SHEEP    

  6/8/2006 - Salt Lake City, UT @ CAPTAINS QUARTERS    

  6/9/2006 - Boise, ID @ THE VENUE    

  6/11/2006 - Seattle, WA @ STUDIO SEVEN    

  6/12/2006 - Portland, OR @ ROCK N ROLL PIZZA    

  6/15/2006 - Roseville, CA @ THE UNDERGROUND    

  6/17/2006 - Bakersfield, CA @ CURRENT COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS    

  6/18/2006 - Fullerton, CA @ THE ALLEY    

  6/19/2006 - Hollywood, CA @ KNITTING FACTORY - CA    

  6/20/2006 - Las Vegas, NV @ CELEBRITY SHOWROOM    

  6/21/2006 - Victorville, CA @ TRILOGY THEATRE   

  6/22/2006 - Phoenix, AZ @ MODIFIED   

  6/24/2006 - San Antonio, TX @ SANCTUARY   

  6/25/2006 - Old Town Spring, TX @ JAVA JAZZ COFFEE HOUSE   

  6/26/2006 - Dallas, TX @ THE DOOR   

  6/27/2006 - Little Rock, AR @ JUANITA’S CANTINA BALLROOM   

  6/28/2006 - Saint Louis, MO @ CREEPY CRAWL

 

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Avenged Sevenfold have been added as the 'mystery' band to this summer's Ozzfest main stage.

 

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Adding to famous LA rockers in new projects is Panic Room featuring Dave Navarro, Stephen Perkins, Chris Chaney, and Steve Isaacs. The band is currently on tour and will release a record in September titled (ONe).

 

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British-Sri Lankan M.I.A. has been denied entry to the US - preassumably because her father is Tamil Tiger in Sri Lankan, and also that the government can't handle her beats.

 

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Cursive have announced some limited tour dates this summer in support of their August record Happy Hollow:

 

July 5 Champaign, IL Canopy Club
July 6 Lansing, MI  Temple Club
July 7 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop
July 8 Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Smalls
July 10 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
July 11 Norfolk, VA NorVA
July 13 Newport, KY Southgate House
July 14 Des Moines, IA  Vaudeville Mews

 


Week of 5/15

The reunited Dead Kennedys are tackling two European festivals this summer - Hellfest 2006 in Nantes, France and Furia Sound Festival in Paris.

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Young Jeezy was acquitted of gun charges in Miami due to lack of evidence.

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The Foo Fighters have announced their short acoustic-only tour. The few announced dates are below (hope your lucky):

July 11th Seattle Paramount Theater
July 13th Berkeley Berkeley Community Theater
July 17th San Diego Civic Theater
August 16th Philadelphia Tower Theater
August 21st New York Beacon Theater
August 22nd Boston Wang Theater
August 25th Chicago Auditorium Theater

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The both brilliant and frustrating Joan of Arc is marking their 10 year anniversary with two release on July 25th. The Intelligent Design of Joan of Arc features odds and ends and rarities and will be released on Polyvinyl. The second record is Eventually, All at Once, and is all new material and will be released on Record Label.

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Daft Punk is premiering their film Daft Punk's Electroma at this week's Cannes Festival.

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Epitaph has changed their long-standing Punk-O-Rama compilation name to Unwound (vol. 1), but the idea is the same: cheap comp of songs of current Epitaph outfits. As always these are a good way to get exposed to bands.

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The renewed GnR are blasting NYC this week, gearing up for their European tour. No problems reported so far.

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Ozzy has said that he'll only do a few main stage shows at this year's Ozzfest, in order to rock the second stage and get closer to the audience.

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Continuing the string of signings, The Red Baron has signed to Hand of Hope Records. There has to be trademark and copyright issues with a band name like The Red Baron.

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Universal Music Group will pay $12 million to settle the payola scandal with NY AG Eloit Spitzer - all of which goes towards charity.

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Apples in Stereo have split with longtime label SpinArt Records - a new label has yet to be announced.

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Perry Farrell is finishing up his first record with new group Satellite Party that boasts a slew of guests from his past and present.

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Sum41 guitarist Dave Baksh has left to work solely on this metal band Brown Brigade.


Week of 5/8

The Mars Volta will be supporting the Red Hot Chili Peppers this summer.

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Against Me! will be releasing a live record this summer.

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Got your tickets for Jam Cruise 5 or what? Last year a bunch of people were busted for drugs - what a bummer man.

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The Cartoon Network's Adult Swim is teaming up with Danger Mouse for a free EP that will slowly become available on the Network's website.

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The Paper Chase is throwing their hat into the 6/6/06 release date fury with their Now You Are One of Us.

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Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin will release a solo record entitled Cold as the Clay on Anti/Epitaph on 7/11. The record will be folk and country based and Graffin will be supported by Jolie Holland and the Weakerthans.

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Apple Computers and iTunes has won a lawsuit that Apple Records (of the Beatles) filed in a UK court, where Apple Records said Apple Co. violated an agreement not to enter the music industry. The judge said use of the logo was fair, probably because Apple Co. isn't acting as a record label.

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This year's Sub City Take Action! Tour raised over $100,000 for the Kristen Brooks Hope Center dealing with depression and suicide among young people.

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Guns N' Roses have named Bullet For My Valentine as openers for their 4 NYC shows.

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American Recordings will release Johnny Cash's American V: A Hundred Highways on July 4th. V is part of the train of records produced by Rick Rubin.

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Snow Patrol's Eyes Open debuted at No. 1 on the UK record charts, pushing Gnarls Barkley to No. 2.


Week of 5/1

Birmingham's All In have signed to Hand of Hope Records.

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Australia's the Living End have signed to Adeline Records/East West and are plotting a summer release for State of Emergency.

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Taking Back Sunday latest record Louder Now - their first on WB - reach #2 on the charts this week. What?

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The Black Keys and Deerhoof will be opening for Radiohead's US tour. Deerhoof better get their prescence down.

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Fearless Records have signed LA's The Outline.

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Sunset Rubdown dates:

5/6/06 Logans Victoria, BC
5/7/06 Richards VANCOUVER , BC
5/9/06 Broken City Calgary, AB
5/10/06 Starlite Room Edmonton, AB
5/12/06 The Collective Cabaret Winnipeg, MB
5/13/06 The Aquarium Fargo, ND
5/14/06 The Orange Carpet in the Commons building Mount Vernon, IA
5/16/06 First Avenue Minneapolis, MN
5/17/06 The Cave Northfield, MN
5/18/06 Schubas Tavern Chicago, IL
5/19/06 Opera House Toronto,
5/20/06 Main Hall Montreal, Quebec
5/22/06 Mercury Lounge New York, NY
5/23/06 The First Unitarian Church Philadelphia, PA
5/24/06 Mercury Lounge New York, NY
5/25/06 T.T. The Bear's Place Cambridge, MA
5/26/06 Fuel Rocket Club Hanover, NH

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Babyshambles' Pete Doherty was arrested again, for the billionth time, this past weekend after pictures were published in the tabloid The Sun of Doherty injecting drugs into a passed-out female fan.

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Members of Cheap Trick and the Allman Brothers have filed a class-action lawsuit against SonyBMG over the royalties they receive for digital downloads of songs off sites like iTunes. Currently, they receive 4.5cents/song, while they argue it should be 30cents/song. I need to get some songs up on iTunes.

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Starbucks has signed with the William Morris Agency to start scouting music, film, and books for the company to market and distribute.

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So They Say have posted an unreleased song on Purevolume entitled "To Break the Silence!" off of their recent record Antidote for Irony.

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Uber-stars Radiohead have announced some summer US dates:

June 1 & 2 - Philadelphia - Tower Theatre * ON SALE MAY 6
June 4 & 5 - Boston - Bank of America Pavilion * ON SALE MAY 6
June 7 & 8 - Toronto - Hummingbird Center * ON SALE MAY 6
June 10 & 11 - Montreal - Salle Wilred Pelletier at Places des Arts * ON SALE MAY 5
June 13 & 14 - New York - The Theatre at Madison Square Garden * ON SALE MAY 5
June 17 - BONNAROO
June 19 & 20 - Chicago - Auditorium Theatre * ON SALE MAY 6
June 23 & 24 - Berkeley - Greek Theater * ON SALE MAY 14
June 26 & 27 - San Diego - Bayside * ON SALE MAY 6
June 29 & 30 - Los Angeles - Greek Theater * ON SALE MAY 25

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Ambulette had all their gear stollen outside of Philly last week, and the list is long, but will continue touring with Dredg and then Rainer Maria.

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More love to Eulogy as they've just recently signed Houston's Will to Live.

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Snoop Dogg and a set of large members of his group were arrested at London's airport last week for disorderly conduct.

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Alice in Chains are reuniting for a summer tour with bassist Duff McKagan and vocalist William DuVall filling in for Layne Staley.

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Sonic Youth have released their latest summer tour dates:

06/13 - New York, NY - CBGB
06/14 - Philadelphia, PA - Starlight Ballroom
06/15 - Washington, D.C. - 9:30 Club
06/17 - Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
06/18 - Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo
06/19 - Atlanta, GA - Earthlink Live
06/21 - Tulsa, OK - Cain's Ballroom
06/23 - Austin, TX - Stubb's BBQ
06/24 - Dallas, TX - Gypsy Ballroom
06/26 - Lawrence, KS - Liberty Hall
06/27 - Denver, CO - Gothic Theatre
06/29 - Missoula, MT - UM Theatre
06/30 - Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre
07/03 - Sacramento, CA - Empire
07/04 - Reno, NV - Reno Hilton
07/06 - Las Vegas, NV - MGM Grand*
07/07 - San Diego, CA - Cox Arena*
07/09 - Los Angeles, CA - Forum*
07/10 - Los Angeles, CA - Forum*
07/13 - Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl*
07/16 - San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium*
06/18 - San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium*
08/03 - Cuyahoga Falls, OH - Blossom Music Center
08/05 - Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza

*With Pearl Jam

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Looking for a 'rock' van:

North Carolina band Codeseven, who released "Dancing Echoes/Dead Sounds" on Equal Vision Records in 2004 split late last year. Now they're looking to sell their van to a touring band, or anyone who is interested. Codeseven took great care of the van and are certain that there are many more tours left in her.

Info and photos are below. If interested, please contact Matt Tuttle at mattdrumnc7@aol.com

1998 Ford Triton v8 - 15 passenger approx 115,000 miles


Week of 4/24

Alternative Press has 'leaked' Nick Zinner's remix of INRI from Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower on their website. As part of forthcoming 12" on Art Fag Records, the remix will be joined by Plot's original version and a cover of Bowie's Boys Keep Swining.

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Indeed, Jay-Z's manager and VP at Def Jam Tryan 'Ty Ty' Smith has pleaded guilty to macing R.Kelly two years ago at MSG. The whole money suit thing between artistis is ongoing.

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I had no idea that FX's Rescue Me with Dennis Leary had such cool music on it - as demonstrated by the forthcoming soundtrack featuring Wolf Parade, the Subways, and the Von Bondies.

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Negative Progression artists' Aberdien are looking for a new guitarist after they offered their former to the Aztec gods.

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The Blood Brothers are releasing the Love Rhymes with Hideous Carwreck EP in late May - an EP with mostly reworkings of previous material. Meanwhile, BB are heading into the studio to punch out a follow-up LP to Crimes.

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Want weird? 50 Cent is going on the View to talk about nutrition and kids. What? It's like when they had George stephanopoulos on to talk about politics and everyone except Ba-Ba Wa-Wa had a blank look on their face thinking 'I just want to talk about shoes.'

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Among the billion of punk, hardcore, and metal records coming out on 6/6/06, you can one more: AFI's Decemberunderground.

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The Subways have cancelled their US tour because lead singer Billy Lunn has found out that he has nodules on his chords = not good.

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The Lemonheads, headed by 90s hearthrob Evan Dando, have signed to Vagrant Records in their quest for renewed glory.

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David Lee Roth has been fired from his radio host spot, the spot he filled after Howard Stern left for satellite radio.

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Eulogy has signed VA's Fjord; you'd think they would be from Norway.

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Lookout! Records co-founder Molly Neuman has started a new label Simple Social Graces Disco and the first release will be Spain's Les Aus.

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Cursive will be releasing their newest record in this August on Saddle Creek titled Happy Hollow. The question is whether the band can improve or even maintain the gorgeous turn on the Ugly Organ? The problem is the cellist Gretta Cohn left Cursive last year and she made the Ugly Organ rather awesome. Will the love still be there, or will the record be more like the early stuff?

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Somehow Nightmare of You has gotten a choice spot of opening for Dillinger Escape Plan and AFI for a spell of dates this summer.

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Continuing with some non-music related news, below are the bonuses in the contract of Jeff Capel, the new University of Oklahoma basketball coach as reported and broken down by ESPN.com. I think I'll try to come up with a similar contract for my next job.

Capel's Bonuses

• $20,000 for winning the Big 12 regular-season title or the Big 12 tournament, plus an additional $10,000 for winning both
• $10,000 for reaching the NCAA Tournament; $20,000 for reaching the second round; $35,000 for reaching the third round; $45,000 for reaching the fourth round; $60,000 for reaching the Final Four; $75,000 for reaching the national title game; $100,000 for winning the national championship
• $25,000 for being named The Associated Press or Naismith national coach of the year
• $15,000 if Oklahoma finishes in either The Associated Press' or the coaches' top 25 poll
• $10,000 for being selected the Big 12 coach of the year
• $5,000 if the basketball team has a graduation rate of 70 percent
• $5,000 if the basketball team has a team grade-point average of 3.0 or higher


Week of 4/17

Nightmare of You has been voted the latest Yahoo's "Who's Next?" competition winners. For their award, they will be provided showers and a six-foot line of cocaine.

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Acccording to Axl Rose, Guns N' Roses will be playing two dates at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC in May. This of course will be GnR's new lineup and may not actually occur - given past history.

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Armor for Sleep has signed with Sire Records (an imprint of Warner Bros.) and left Equal Vision Records. That is fairly stupid move, but Armor does have commercial pop appeal. Like with Coheed and Columbia Records, EVR might be getting some nice bank from this. But, the question is whether EVR will pick up Armor when they don't sell 2 million records and are dropped from Sire.

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Check out this press announcement about Thursday and their stranger promotion:

THURSDAY LAUNCHES ONLINE SCAVENGER HUNT VIA GOOGLE EARTH

 

TO COINCIDE WITH THE RELEASE OF SECOND ISLAND ALBUM, A CITY BY THE LIGHT DIVIDED, FOLLOW-UP TO WAR ALL THE TIME

(April 14, 2006 – New York, NY) As Sherlock Holmes said, “The game is afoot,” with Island recording group Thursday hosting the first major on and offline scavenger hunt that utilizes the Google Earth application.  Fans will be led – clue by clue, location by location, complete with longitude and latitude positioning – to the contest’s exciting conclusion on May 4th, when Thursday will announce the winners live on FUSE. 

Beginning April 11th, Thursday fans can dive into a unique mash-up of the Google Earth application located at http://earth.thursday.net.  There, fans can travel a graphical representation of the earth, zoom in to particular cities and find any past or future tour dates.  They can not only see which fans are attending a future show (or went to a past show), but can also upload show photos, write show reviews and more.  Fans from around the world will be able to network and interact with each other in a way that's never previously existed.  As the contest progresses this month, fans will interact online and off with web sites, music retailers, venues and so on, to help each other reach the end goal and win some amazing prizes. 

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Michael Jackson is reportedly going to sell half of his half of his Sony/ATV catalog back to Sony in order to save his finances. Valued at $1 billion, Jackson's half includes a lion's share of Beatles material as well as songs from Dylan and Neil Diamond.

In related news, the Beatles catalog is being digitally remastered so it can be sold online at some point in the future. This may be another way for Apple Records to win the suit against Apple computers.


Week of 4/10

D12 member Proof was shot dead at a club in Detroit early Tuesday morning.

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Lobster Records have signed New Jersey's Anchors For Arms.

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Sub Pop has signed Brazil's Cansei De Ser Sexy to their brilliant roster.

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The Bouncing Souls are planning to release their next record "The Gold Record" this June.

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Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation will be added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry, where records are placed that have a significant impact on U.S. society and culture. All records need to be a least ten years old.

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Columbia/Legacy will be releasing a Johnny Cash record next month called "Personal File," a two-disc set from a bunch of recordings that Cash did, mostly in the 70s, that haven't seen the light of day.

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Oddly, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth) - along with their daughter Coco - will be appearing on an episode of the Gilmore Girls performing "What a Waste."

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Surjan Stevens will release "The Avalanche: Outtake and Extras from the Illinois Album" this summer. Doesn't doing that take away from his ability to release a record with the name of each state? Just call it like Indiana or some other lame state.

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Joining the list of other celebrities with stupidly-named perfume/cologne lines comes Maria Carey's own line (probably called 'busty' or something like that). A lot of indie rockers and punkers have their own individual lines as well - usually under the monikers 'b.o.', 'underarm', 'ass', 'with the ability to kill squirrels', etc.

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Reportedly, Bright Eyes are fixing on a spring 2007 release for their next. As the norm, the core has enlisted numerous outside help including M.Ward and Janet Weiss.


Week of 4/3

Aiden will be saddling up behind HIM for a spring US tour.

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The Drama Summer have signed to Eulogy Recordings, while On a Warpath has signed to Eulogy imprint Hand of Hope.

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The Beatles - through their Apple label - have taken Apple computers to court for using its logo. Part of the disagreement revolves around an old deal that Apple computers could use the logo if they didn't get invovled in the music industry - so then things wouldn't get mixed up. Obviously, with iTunes Apple is now in the music business. But they argue that aren't a label putting out records, so it doesn't matter.

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Toronto's Fucked Up has signed with Jade Tree. Clearly, the band isn't interested in commericial success.

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Courtney Love has sold 25% of her stake in Nirvana's catalog to Larry Mestel of Primary Wave for a rumored sum of 50 million.

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Amongst our stealing from RS, this is great quote from Ryan Adams:

"My records don't go platinum. My records barely go balsa wood in some countries."

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It appears that Death Row Records has closed after Suge Knight defaulted on a $100 million to Lydia Harris.

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Amazingly Atreyu's latest record A Death Grip on Yesterday debuted this past week at #9 on Billboard. Amazing in its own rights, it's more amazing after you actually hear it - ugh.

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Massive Attack has announced they will be rocking the desert at Coachella, as well as releasing a double-disc 'best of' called Collected.

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Mildly related to the above, Fatboy Slim will release a best of called Why Try Harder this summer on Astrawerks.


Week of 3/27

The Perpetual Motion Machine will release a discography by Italy's La Quiete.

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A new book about Indian Larry will be hitting the shelves with proceeds donating to Harvest City.

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An LA judge has threatened to take control of Suge Knights' assets - Death Row Records - if Knight doesn't show up in court with detailed info on finances.

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PJ Harvey is fixing on releasing a new live album on May 2nd called "PJ Harvey on Tour - Please Live Quietly."

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Morrissey has boycotted touring Canada in protest of the annual seal beat down up north.

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Mr. T. Experience's Dr. Frank will release a book called King Dork on April 11th on Delacorte/Random House. It is a novel, but will certain around all type of MTX references.


Week of 3/20

Angels and Airwaves, the nth different band featuring a member (or ex-member as it may be) of Blink 182 will be offering their debut record for Geffen on May 23rd and are plotting a short tour before that. AA features Tom DeLonge, David Kennedy, Atom Willard, and Ryan Sinn.

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In a rather odd story, NBA'r Carlos Boozer, once of Satan's Army (Duke), has sued Prince for messing up his home in LA. Boozer, now of Utah, has been renting his house to Prince. In honor of his new record, Prince had giant purple ribbons painted on the house along with '3121' - the name of Prince's new record. The obvious question is why the hell is Prince renting a house? Even if he just wants to be odd in Minnesota, it's not like he can't afford a new home.

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Part of the ever-growing weird collection of sponsors and events associated with this year's Warped Tour - Cingular Wireless is now the top name sponsor. So, it's the Warped Tour 2006 presented by Cingular Wireless. What is this a bowl game? There is a pre-tour party on April 20th in LA featuring Underoath. Given that the tour starts 2 months later, this makes about as much sense as having MLB on board.

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The word is that Dashboard Confessional's new record is geared to rock stadium's and not hushed scenesters. Let's see the jazz hands.

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The Pixies are plotting a short European tour - that may be their last for(ever/awhile).

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Did you here Explosions in the Sky as background music during CBS pre-game on Sunday with Villanova's Allan Ray.

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Coach K doing Chevy commercials makes me wish Chevy a quick death; along with American Express.

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After playing his father in Walk the Line, Shooter Jennings is working on putting together tracks that he recorded with Waylon in the mid-90s and fill out with his own band.

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Apparently Weezer's Rivers Cuomo will finally finish his degree at Harvard after almost a decade of back-and-forth from the school.

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50 Cent has pushed back the release on his next record on the advice of Eminem.

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For a very strange unknown reason, Major League Baseball is teaming up with the Warped Tour to help sponsor the Vagrant Records stage. This makes little sense.

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The American Association of Independent Music has petitioned the FCC for fair play on commericial radio. Part of this related to the Payola scam. Why the FCC? The FCC/federal government owns the radio space and licenses out from that, and controls the market. The Association includes such known indies as Epitaph, Sub Pop, and Matador.


Week of 3/13

Bauhaus is opening for NIN on their spring tour - disregarding popularity, shouldn't it be the other way around.

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The Hold Steady have signed to Vagrant Records.

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The latest edition of the redux Lollapoolza - to be held in Chicago from August 2-4 - will feature everyone. This includes RHCP, Sonic Youth, the Shins, Queens, Kanye, Death Cab....

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In a Q&A at SXSW, RS journalist David Fricke asked about all the offers that Morrissey gets to reunite the Smiths. Morrissey related that Coachella offered $5 million to reunite - which of course they turned down.

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Is Jager getting lame? Why would they have Staind, Three Days Grace, and Hurt leading their Music Tour. Where's Slayer?

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As RS reported today, big name artists like the Rolling Stones and U2 can make 150k/show on merch - mostly t-shirts. Many of the bigger names sign contracts with companies who handle all the production and set up - and who provide the bands advances. Yet, for smaller bands this is not a good idea. It is much better for these bands to keep the merch sales to themselves, as it is one of the best sources of revenue for them. At minimum, small bands make at least as much as they get paid to play and usually more.

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Right, so Tony Soprano is not dead.

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After some stagnation, Lobster Records has recently signed First to Leave from SF.

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Rapper Young Jeezy - 28 (not really young) - was arrested in South Beach for a concealed weapon after a group he was with was involved in a fight.

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Isaac Hayes has requested leave from his contract with South Park - where he has played Chef since 1997 - because of the show's increasing slights against religious communities.

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I was going to tell you that the tabulature for Avenged Sevenfold's latest record City of Evil was available but then I saw you had to pay for a book of it instead of just being up on the web somewhere. Do they think there Guns N' Roses or something?

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Maria Taylor is will be heading out in May for a tour with Mates of State in further support of here 11:11 record.

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Blink 182's Mark Hoppus has been scheduled to produce We Are Fury's latest record this month.

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Check out this year's Superbowl of Hardcore in NYC on April 23rd - though you must be a tough guy given the bands. These include Madball, SOIA, VOD, Crown of Thornz, Indecision, Shutdown, Murphy's Law. This is like an old guy's NYHC wet dream.


Week of 3/6

Although 2006 Ozzfest will feature some bands on the second stage, they really need to vary the mainstage as its almost always the same or at least a short revolving door. This year's mainstage include Ozzy (for a bit), Hatebreed, Lacuna Coil, System of a Down, Disturbed, and someone else. You should get more excited about the second stage acts - Atreyu, Black Label Society, Unearth, Between the Buried and Me, Bleeding Through....

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Thanks for its Full Circle treatment, last weekend's Duke-UNC basketball game was the most watched college basketball game ever on ESPN - roughly 4 million households.

In related news, Tyler Hansbrough was named 1st team All-ACC and Freshman of the Year, while David Noel was named 2nd team and Reyshawn Terry was named 3rd team. Roy Williams won Coach of the Year in the ACC.

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Oxford Collapse from NY has signed with Sub Pop.

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Thursday have trinkled out the song "Counting 5-4-3-2-1" off their latest record out in May on their website.

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Amazingly, Hawthorne Heights' latest record, If Only You Were Lonely, debuted at number 3 on the Billboard charts after selling 114,000 records in the first week.

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U2 has postponed the rest of their mammoth world tour due to a death in the family.

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Similarily, UK's Go! Team has cancelled a bunch of dates in Europe when MJ Ninja lost her voice.

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As part of the Take Action! tour, Paul Koehler, drummer of Silverstein, joined other folks on Capitol Hill to push for more funding of mental health treatment, etc.

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Rick Rubin has signed on to produce Slayer's next record, adding to his work with the Chili Peppers and Metallica. Slayer will also be kicking off their latest tour on, ta-da, 6/6/06 - and will be joined of Lamb of God, Mastodon, and Children of Bodom.

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Again reaching from beyond the grave, Jerry Garcia is going to have a line of teas from the Republic of Tea Company. This includes Morning Brew, Jerry Cherry, Shady Grown, Magic Herb Blend, and Spirit of Sage.

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Thurston Moore's label Ecstatic Peace has signed a distribution deal with Universal Records. Started in 1981 to help Sonic Youth out, Ecstatic Peace has released a crap load of avant-garde record that you have probably never heard of.

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LCD Soundsystem is releasing a remix and rarities record next week titled Introns.

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Mike Patton's project Peeping Tom will see the light of day in May through his label Ipecac. Collaborations include Norah Jones (what?), Massive Attack, Kool Keith, and the usual cadre of guests.

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Believe it or not, but Yanni was arrested for domestic battery in Florida. The sunshine has turned to darkness.

 

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