Music news, notes and media articles 2/7/07

By Art Shimko
shimko_7@hotmail.com

-- Tons of news from the last week, a week-in-review type of deal...

-- 2007 gears up to be one for a few big reunions, from a one-off Rage Against The Machine reunion at this year's Coachella to bands like Smashing Pumpkins and the Eagles back in the studio recording new albums, to veterans like The Police and Van Halen with David Lee Roth heading out on the road for huge summer tours.
* The Police announced last Tuesday that they would open the Grammys on 2/11, their first time onstage together since 2003 when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Still no official word at press time on actual tour dates.
* Van Halen's publicist confirmed last week that David Lee Roth will be touring with the group this summer, Wolfgang Van Halen will be playing bass replacing longtime member Michael Anthony. Yeah, you cross them VH brothers by touring with Sammy Hagar and you're BANISHED~!
* Don Henley told a concert crowd last weekend in Las Vegas that the new Eagles album that's been worked on for almost four years will be out in 60 to 90 days, if we don't kill each other first as Henley put it. However Eagles and Henley spokesman Larry Solters wouldn't confirm or deny Henley's statement.

-- Other artists are planning upcoming treks on the road:
* Guns N' Roses are playing their first ever African concert dates on 4/27 at the New Market Racecourse in Johannesburg to headline My Coke Fest 2007 and on 5/1 at the Kenilworth Racecourse in Cape Town. The group's Chinese Democracy is due out on Interscope on 3/6.
* This year's Ozzfest will be FREE. You read that right. The 25-city tour, which begins in L.A. on 7/7, will be coasting by through sponsorship deals. "For the last few years, ticket prices have steadily climbed as artists demand more and more money for summer tours," says tour creator Sharon Osbourne. "We certainly want everybody to make money; however, we also want the kids to be able to afford to come out and have an incredible experience. If we continued with the traditional touring festival model, we would have no choice but to raise ticket prices again this year."
* Hank Williams Jr. and Lynyrd Skynyrd will be touring together this spring beginning 4/11 at the VBCC Arena in Huntsville, AL. Other cities on the itinerary include Tampa, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Nashville, Detroit, Minneapolis, New Orleans and Atlanta, tickets go on sale 2/10.
* Bob Marley's sons Stephen, Ky-Mani, Damian and Julian will be holding a concert on 2/10 to commerorate their father's 62nd birthday at his birthplace of Nine Miles in St. Ann parish in Kingston, Jamaica.
* Nora Jones begins a spring tour on 4/13 at the Chevy Theater in Wallingford, CT and concludes in Montreal at the St. Denis Theater on 5/12.

-- The Strokes are taking a permanent vacation. Hear that? That's PW's Brian McAnus crying in a corner.

-- Famed Artist and Musician Eric von Schmidt Dies at 75

-- 1950s singer Frankie Laine dies at 93

-- 'Funk Brother' Joe Hunter, 79, Dies

-- Spinners Singer Billy Henderson Dies

-- Rick Rubin may be headed to Columbia Records as co-chairman, but seeing that he moved his American label to Warner last year there's a chance Warner may block the deal as Rubin has three more years left on his agreement with the label.

-- There's a video interview with Slayer here.

-- iPod creator Apple Inc. and the Bealtes' Apple Corps Ltd settled an ongoing trademark dispute early this week that gave Apple the rights to the trademarks for "Apple" and the Apple logos with Apple licensing certain trademarks back to Apple Corps. This settlement can now pave the way for Apple to distribute The Beatles' catalogue in its iTunes store.

-- Once again the RIAA nazis are total assholes chasing people down and suing them for tons of money for downloading music illegally online. Well 16-year-old Robert Santangelo denied ever doing such a thing yet FIVE record companies are suing this kid and his sister. Santangelo accused the record companies for violating antitrust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats as stated in papers from him and his lawyer Jordan Glass last Tuesday. Best of luck to this kid, I hope he fucks the RIAA hard.

-- Nine Inch Nails new album Year Zero comes out 4/17 with an accompanying site launched to reveal its tracklisting. So far two track titles are "The Beginning Of The End" and "God Given".

-- From CMJ.com: Clear Channel Communications Inc. will hold a shareholders' meeting on March 21 to vote on an $18.7 billion private buyout. After announcing its plans to sell close to 40 percent of its radio stations (and its 42 TV stations) in November, the media giant is now considering transferring its ownership to the family of L. Lowry Mays, who co-founded the company in 1972, and two private equity firms. The company’s board of directors, excluding the interested Mays family members and fellow co-founder B.J. McCombs, has unanimously agreed the proposition was fair to shareholders. The company is expecting opposition from shareholders who have watched its billboard and other non-broadcast holdings rise in value recently.

-- James Brown Partner Takes Case to Court

-- Cowell doesn't like music

-- Metheny, Mehldau Expand For New Album

-- Bogus Lawsuit Against Brandy?

-- Thoughts on Music by Steve Jobs

-- Spector Wins Settlment Against Ex-Assistant
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