The 'Collapse' of R.E.M. - New Album Due Spring 2001

The 15th studio album from R.E.M. will be called Collapse Into Now., due Spring 2011 on Warner Bros. Records. The news comes from BBC Radio 6 on its Twitter feed after band manager Bertis Downs revealed the title at the In the City conference.

The upcoming release finds singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, and bassist Mike Mills, re-teamed with Grammy Award-winning producer Jacknife Lee, who produced the group's previous studio album Accelerate, and has also worked with U2, Snow Patrol, The Hives, Kasabian, Editors, Aqualung, and Bloc Party.

R.E.M. and Lee recorded Collapse in New Orleans at the Music Shed and also in Berlin's Hansa Studios, the home of legendary albums such David Bowie’s Heroes,U2’s Achtung Baby, and Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life,. Additional recording and mixing took place Blackbird Studio in Nashville.

2008’s  Accelerate, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, topped the Alternative, Rock, Digital, and Internet charts in the U.S., and debuted at No. 1 in Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. It featured  three hit singles “Supernatural Superserious,” “Hollow Man,” and “Man-Sized Wreath.” The band followed with the two-CD live set R.E.M. Live At The Olympia.

October 26, New West Records will release R.E.M. Live From Austin, TX — a DVD a full live performance for PBS’ Austin City Limits television series, plus three songs that didn’t air on the original broadcast. The 17 songs include several from Accelerate and R.E.M. classics such as “Losing My Religion” and “Man On The Moon,” re-mixed and re-mastered in LPCM stereo and DTS-HD 5.1 Surround Sound.

'Definitive Dave Brubeck' Coming Nov. 16 from Concord

Concord Music Group will release The Definitive Dave Brubeck November 16 on Fantasy, Concord Jazz and Telarc

The two-CD collection is being issued in celebration of what would have been the 90th birthday of the legendary pianist/composer/bandleader on December 6. While based in jazz, Brubeck's work touched on classical, Latin, pop and other styles and genres of music. 
The upcoming release - the latest in CMG’s ongoing Definitive series — includes some of Brubeck’s earliest session work from the 1940s as well as several of his more recent recordings from the past few decades. The Definitive Dave Brubeck is set for release on November 16, 2010, in celebration of the music icon’s 90th birthday on December 6.
The 26-track retrospective features liner notes written by music journalist and historian Ashley Kahn, based on a recent interview with Russell Gloyd, Brubeck’s manager/producer/conductor of more than 30 years.
Disc 1 spansthe Fantasy years, from the very beginning of Fantasy Records in the 1940s to the end of 1953.  Disc 2 follows the artist from the 1980s to the early y21st century. 
“The link between these two discs is one of consistency,” said Gloyd, producer of The Definitive Dave Brubeck. “Most of the elements of Disc 2 — melodic ideas and musical innovations, the choice of songs and sidemen — can be traced back to Disc 1, especially with the early Trio recordings.”
Among the tracks on the set are versions of standards such as "The Way You Look Tonight" and "That Old Black Magic," along with a rendition of Brubeck's legendary piece, "Take Five." 
In December, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will also celebrate Brubeck’s birthday with the premiere of Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way, a new documentary executive-produced by Clint Eastwood and narrated by TCM Essentials co-host Alec Baldwin. Directed by Bruce Ricker, the film features interviews with George Lucas, Sting, Wynton Marsalis and Bill Cosby and performances by Keith Emerson, Yo-Yo Ma and David Benoit.


The Definitive Dave Brubeck Track List:


Disc 1
I Found a New Baby
The Way You Look Tonight
(Back Home Again In) Indiana
Laura
Singin’ in the Rain
That Old Black Magic
Sweet Georgia Brown
Perfidia
Avalon
How High the Moon
Look for the Silver Lining
This Can’t Be Love
My Romance
Lulu’s Back in Town
Over the Rainbow
How High the Moon
All the Things You Are


Disc 2
Koto Song
Black and Blue
St. Louis Blues
Take Five
(Variations On) Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Here Comes McBride
Waltzing
Day After Day
Forty Days

Brad Paisley Releasing 'Hits Alive' Studio-and-Concert Double CD Set in November

One of country's biggest hit-makers, humorists and all around nice guy Brad Paisley will release a two-Cd set Hits Alive November 2
A combination of live and studio recordings, the collection includes 15 of Paisley’s #1 songs and four Top 5, hits plus the instrumental "Time Warp" and his current single, "Anything Like Me."
The release features 21 songs and 24 tracks in total. Disc one features 13 studio hits plus a new version of “Online” that mashes studio and live renditions. while disc two includes previously unreleased live versions of 10 numbers, plus the closing “Online (Reprise).”
Paisley is currently his H2O World Tour.  For concert dates and more, visit his official site, www.bradpaisley.com.

Brad Paisley Hits Alive track list:

Disc 1:
1. Mud on the Tires
2. Ticks
3. Anything Like Me
4. The World
5. Little Moments
6. When I Get Where I’m Going (Featuring Dolly Parton)
7. Celebrity
8. Then (Piano Mix)
9. I’m Still a Guy
10. He Didn’t Have to Be
11. Alcohol
12. Whiskey Lullaby (Featuring Alison Krauss)
13. We Danced
14. Online

Disc 2:
1. Water
2. American Saturday Night
3. Waitin’ on a Woman
4. I’m Gonna Miss Her
5. Mud on the Tires
6. She’s Everything
7. Time Warp
8. Letter to Me
9. Then
10. Alcohol
11. Online (Reprise)

'Decembersongs' Holiday Concerts with Amy Speace, Jon Vezner, Dan Navarro and Sally Barris

"Decembersongs," a holiday-themed tour featuring singer-songwriters Amy Speace, Sally Barris, Jon Vezner and Dan Navarro, is set for December. 

The quartet - with Grammy nominations and awards among them - will visit the Northeast, Midwest, South, and Mid-Atlantic regions with 11 stops. Speace conceived "Decembersongs" following separate showcases last February at the Folk Alliance International Conference in Memphis with Barris, Vezner and Navarro (of the L.A.-based duo Lowen and Navarro, now solo following Eric Lowen's ongoing battle with ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's Disease).  

“The showcases were just magical,”  Speace said. “Imagining all of us together was simply extraordinary. I envisioned it like a [Nashville's] Bluebird Café-style show, with four high-level songwriters playing on each others' stuff.  We all bring something different to the table.”  

The group plans to play in-the-round, spotlighting mostly original holiday songs, which appear on an album Decembersongs by the quartet,  available for sale at all of the shows, as well as online at iTunes and Amazon.com.  

The set list will also include traditional holiday favorites and some of the artists’ non-holiday material.   “I thought putting together a show that didn't just rework old classics but one that featured really great songwriters who could mostly present new original songs for the holidays – and selling a CD of those new songs at the shows – would really play well in December in great listening rooms," Speace said.

DECEMBERSONGS 2010 TOUR DATES:

Wednesday, December 8        Nashville, TN / Bluebird Cafe

Friday, December 10              Zumbrota, MN / Crossings At Carnegie

Saturday, December 11          Mequon, WI / Wisconsin Singer-Songwriter Series

Sunday, December 12            Chicago, IL / Old Town School of Folk Music

Monday, December 13           E. Lansing, MI / Pump House

Tuesday, December 14           Ann Arbor, MI / The Ark

Wednesday, December 15      Pittsburgh, PA / Calliope Folk Music Society at    Pittsburgh Center for the Arts

Thursday, December 16          Vienna, VA / Jammin' Java

Friday, December 17              Phoenixville, PA / Steel City Coffeehouse

Saturday, December 18          New York, NY / The Living Room

Sunday, December 19            Cambridge, MA / Club Passim

Decembersongs links

www.amyspeace.com

www.myspace.com/amyspeace

www.dannavarro.com

www.myspace.com/jodadamusic 

www.sallybarris.com

www.myspace.com/sallybarris

www.jonvezner.com

www.myspace.com/jonvezner

U2 Will Release New Album in 2011

U2 will release a new album, likely to be titled Songs of Ascent, in early 2011. The band has played a few of the songs slated for the album during its "360" Tour, including "Mercy" "Every Breaking Wave" and "Boy Falls from the Sky."
“I would expect a new U2 album sooner than anybody thinks," U2 manager Paul McGuinness told The Irish Times. "I would guess early 2011 before the next leg of the American tour which starts in May." 
U2's album No Line on the Horizon received mixed reviews and even fans consider it a hit-and-miss collection.  While some songs have fared well in concert, such as "Magnificent" and "Unknown Caller," the dance-club approach to "If I Don't Go Crazy," based on the dance remix version, sucked the real life out of the pop tune on stage. which he said had held up “remarkably well” McGuiness said Horizon has sold “roughly” five million copies; that's about half of  2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb had sold twice that number. McGuinness blamed sagging record industry sales on illegal downloads, rather than the fact there may be a lot of overpriced and crappy music out there. 
U2's Rose Bowl performance in Pasadena, Calif. last year was released as a DVD.  Read one view of that show as a disappointing experience.
U2 cancelled a run of 2010 North American stadium shows when Bono suffered a back injury and then underwent surgery.  The band has since add more dates to the upcoming tour next year, including Pittsburgh, with rumors of shows in Winnipeg and Baltimore.