The Rib Rock Festivals scheduled for this Saturday, August 27th at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater and this Sunday, August 28th at the PNC Bank Arts Center have been cancelled due to safety reasons concerning Hurricane Irene.

Refunds are available at the point of purchase.

Catch Peter Wolf instead at two NYC shows in October.

Peter Wolf will play a Brooklyn show at The Bell House on October 28 in addition to the the previosuly mentioned Manhattan and CT shows he has scheduled. According to The Bell House's website, the show will be a special seated show. Tickets are on sale now for that, and for his Bowery Ballroom show happening two days earlier (10/26).

Still no full Peter Wolf tour to announce, but as mentioned, his band the J. Geils Band also play August 27 at Jones Beach and August 28 at PNC Bank Arts Center as part of Rib Rock Fest. Both shows are with blues legend B.B. King The 8/27 show also includes Buddy Guy and others. The 8/28 PNC Bank Arts Center includes Gary Clarke Jr. and others. Tickets are on sale for both shows.

Continue reading "Peter Wolf playing Brooklyn, BB King playing w/ J. Geils Band"

by BBG

National Christmas Tree

The countdown is on until the lighting of the National Christmas tree!

My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James will have the honor of performing at the 2010 National Christmas Tree Lighting. The event will be held [today] December 9th at 5pm EST on the Ellipse at President's Park in Washington DC. He will be joined by fellow performers B.B. King, Sara Bareilles, Maroon 5, and Jackie Evancho, and the evening will be hosted by rapper/actor Common. You can watch the ceremony live at www.thenationaltree.org or on public television throughout December. My Morning Jacket is currently recording a new full-length album, which will be released in 2011.

Aside from the news on the tree-lighting, there's a few interesting things in the above statement: Jim James is playing for the President and is recording a new LP with MMJ, former battle-rhymer Common is non-threatening enough to be a TV show host on PBS, and BB King, despite numerous facebook and twitter hoaxes, is alive.

As a matter of fact, BB King, who did not have a stroke, will begin another tour of the United States on New Years Eve in Atlantic City. The tour stretches into the end of April, and he tags Wellmont Theater on 1/6 along the way. Full tour dates for (not zombified) BB King are below, along with some videos...

Continue reading "Jim James singing @ the National Christmas Tree lighting (today online), B.B. King is touring (and alive) (dates)"

B.B. King is playing United Palace Theatre in NYC on February 12th. Tickets are now on Live Nation Presale (password = record) and Citi Cardmember presale. General sale starts Saturday at 10am.

United Palace is also the location of this Friday's Monsters of Folk show for which tickets are still on sale.

Twisted Sister holiday shows are now a yearly tradition. They return to Nokia Theatre in Times Square on December 6th. Tickets are on sale.

Nokia Theatre is also where DOOM and Mos Def are playing on January 30th. Tickets are on AmEx Presale (@ 10am).

Some tickets went back on sale for the upcoming Pixies shows at Hammerstein Ballroom.

Hammerstein Ballroom is where Phoenix and Passion Pit are playing on December 2nd. Tickets are on Internet Presale (password = 1019RXP) (@ 10am).

Tickets are now on U2.com presale for the U2 show at "New Meadowlands Stadium" in July. General sale starts Monday at 10am.

Tickets are on AmEx presale (@ 11am) for the Levon Helm / Okkervil River show coming up at Terminal 5.

The Mary Onettes kicked off a tour of the USA last night (10/3) in Boston. Tonight (10/4) they play their first of three NYC shows. It's at Union Hall. Blacklist opens. Tickets probably available at the door.

Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello @ MSG (BMoreSweet)

U2 closed the second night of the MSG Rock & Roll Hall of Fame shows on October 30th. At the first (10/29), it was Bruce Springsteen & Billy Joel (before one big group sing on Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher")...

After "Badlands" much of the drained audience began leaving and then rushed back to their seats when Billy Joel sat down at the piano and launched into "You May Be Right," "Only The Good Die Young" and "New York State Of Mind." (The pair were uniting the kindred spirits of New Jersey and Long Island, Springsteen explained.) "Higher and Higher" wrapped up the night. The official set list had the show ending at 11:36:55 (yes, they thought they had it down to the exact second), but the final notes rang out at 1:31 a.m. Six straight hours of music, and that was just the first of two nights. [Rolling Stone]

Bruce was actually there both nights (one of many possibly "filling in" for Eric Clapton, who canceled last minute on the second). Those in attendence on the 30th got to see U2, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith sing together on "Because the Night." (And U2 + Mick Jagger (another unannounced guest) + Fergie + Will.i.am sing "Gimme Shelter"...). Ray Davies, Lou Reed, and Ozzy Osbourne all performed with Metallica. Many played with Stevie Wonder. Full setlists below.

HBO will be airing four hours of highlights on Thanksgiving weekend.
(November 29th at 8PM ET).

Bruce's current tour wraps up November 22nd in Buffalo. He was at Giants Stadium earlier this fall, playing the last concerts ever there. U2 also played the venue for two nights in September, and will be back in Jersey in 2010 as part of their just-announced tour.

Set lists for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame shows are below...

Continue reading "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame hosted 2 very long shows @ MSG (setlists), will air on HBO Thanksgiving weekend"

photos by Tim Griffin

"I had the pleasure to see B.B. King at the Welmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ last week. B.B. was awesome as usual, but what impressed me more, was the restoration of this theatre. The Wellmont was one of my mainstays growing up as kid in the area in the 70's and 80's. With such theatres as the Bellevue, the ClairRidge and the Royal Theatre in Bloomfield, the Wellmont was considered the "dirty theatre", and usually a last choice between the other theatres. However, it had some mystique to it, and as kids we were some times able to sneak in the side exit." [Pete the Mac]

B.B. King, forever on tour, played a show at the new Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ on Thursday night (12/4). Coming out throwing guitar picks to the audience, the living legend, and eight-piece band, proceeded to perform for two hours. His set consisted of as many stories as it did songs. That included one story about not liking how modern R&B and rap singers disrespect women, and there was one sing along version of "You Are My Sunshine", dedicated to all of the ladies. After the show ended with a version of "The Thrill is Gone", B.B. stayed around on stage signing posters and handing out more guitar picks and other trinkets to audience members.

Guitarist Joel Zoss opened the show with a set of mostly old blues songs, including one by Leadbelly. More pictures below...

Continue reading "B.B. King @ the Wellmont Theatre, Montclair, NJ - pics"

Living legend B.B. King turned 83 in September. You wouldn't know it by his touring schedule. Catch B.B. tonight/Thursday, December 4th, at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, Friday at the club with his own name in it, Saturday in Trenton, February 21st @ the Beacon Theatre with Buddy Guy, or at any of the shows listed below...

Continue reading "B.B. King - 2008/09 Tour Dates (with & without Buddy Guy)"

Love it or hate it, licensing songs seems to be the new reality for "indie" bands (or any bands) looking to make money and gain exposure. As an avid music fan and Senior Director of Advertising & Video Games at Primary Wave Music Publishing, Ryan Barkan makes sure to stay on top of news related to artists getting their songs in ads, on TV, in movies, in video games and just about anywhere else a band would get paid to put a song. As someone who never pays attention to any of that, I thought the site could use a weekly column to identify who sold out this week help fill in what I'm missing (think M.I.A. in the Pineapple Express commercial, Nick & Norah, Santogold shilling Bud Light, Chairlift & CSS for Apple, etc..). For that...please welcome Ryan (who also goes by the blog and photographer name "Fresh Bread")....

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by Ryan Barkan

Microsoft's Halo 3 video game commercial was so amazing that it won the Grand Prix (i.e. best of show) at this past year's Cannes Advertising Awards, in June, in the "Film" ad category. The spot, titled "Believe", was created by San Francisco advertising agency T.A.G. and featured the dramatically delicate "Raindrop Prelude No 15" by Chopin against a violent and disturbing war scene.

Another huge 2008 release for Microsoft is the upcoming sequel to the game Gears of War, creatively called....wait for it...Gears Of War 2 (available November 7th exclusively on Xbox360). What works once should work again right? T.A.G. thought so and took the same approach with the music as they did with the "Believe" spot, juxtaposing the hard war visuals against a beautiful song, but this time with a more contemporary artist, Devotchka. The beautiful song they used by the Colorado band is called "How It Ends" and the trailer will debut on network television this Sunday, November 2, during NFL Sunday Night Football. You can also watch it right now. The video for that, and of the full version of "Believe", are below.

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Other Notable Licensing News:

The Walmart-exclusive AC/DC edition of Rock Band is out November 2nd and now MTV/Harmonix have announced a Beatles video game that will be based on the "Rock Band" engine, but not branded "Rock Band". "The Best Of The Who" edition of Rock Band was released in July as DLC (downloadable content).

Hypebeast has the info on a new line of Miles Davis-inspired T-shirts by urban boutique and shoe company, Supreme.

Flaming Lips, the B-52's, BB King and others were commissioned by NBC to create their own interpretation of the network's classic "Chime In"...

You may not know that the notes to NBC's famous chimes are G, E, and C, but chances are you'd recognize the Peacock jingle in an instant. With that in mind, executives at the network decided to have some fun with their famous chimes and launched a national campaign calling for a 21st century reinvention of the 75-year-old television staple. [Hollywood Insider]

Wayne Coyne talks about it in an interview to EW you can watch HERE.

What do Friendly Fires, The Duke Spirit, The Submarines, The Black Keys, Black Kids, The Virgins, and Robyn have in common? They've all had songs featured in an episode of Gossip Girl this month.

What about Lykke Li, Passion Pit and The Kooks? Well, as you may have read earlier, they'll all be appearing in future episodes of Gossip Girl/OC-creator Josh Schwartz's new "music-themed scripted web series" Rockville, CA.

I really dig the new spot for the Google Android Phone. The commercial features a song by The Black Angels called "Black Grease" - not sure if it'll convince me to switch from the iPhone but it's a nice placement nonetheless. Video below...

Continue reading "It's Not Selling Out Anymore -- This Week in Music Licensing"

Controversial as it may be - "due to overwhelming demand", Sly & The Family Stone have added a 2nd night of performances at BB King Blues Club & Grill in NYC. The first date is December 7th. The new date is much earlier - November 20th - also 2 shows (early & late), and tickets will also be $86.00.

Also coming up @ BB King's: A Radiohead tribute band, Ronnie Spector's Christmas Party, Ja Rule, Chuck Berry, two shows by BB King himself, and two shows by Isaac Hayes.