Radiohead's stage @ Prudential Center (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Radiohead says:

Hello everyone,

As you will probably have heard the roof over the stage collapsed at our show in Toronto killing crew member Scott Johnson and injuring three other crew members. The collapse also destroyed the light show - this show was unique and will take many weeks to replace. The collapse also caused serious damage to our backline, some elements of which are decades old and therefore hard to replace.

Whilst we all are dealing with the grief and shock ensuing from this terrible accident there are also many practical considerations to deal with & consequently we have to try and reschedule the following shows:

June
30 Roma Hippodrome Capanelle

July
1 Firenze Parco delle Cascine
3 Bologna Arena Parco Nord
4 Codroipo Villa Manin
6 Berlin Wuhlheide
7 Berlin Wuhlhedie
9 St Triphon Carriere des Andonces

We aim to announce the new dates for these shows on Wednesday 27th of June and will also supply information on how to obtain refunds on tickets if you cannot come to the show on the new date.

We will start playing live again at Les Arenes Nimes, Bilbao BBK festival and Lisbon Optimus Alive festival.

We will make every effort to offer the fans the very best show possible under the circumstances - thanks for your understanding and support.

Stay tuned for more info.

Willie Nelson's mugshot

Forget the Tea Party -- country music legend Willie Nelson has a different kind of movement he wants you to join.

"There's the Tea Party...How about the Teapot Party? Our motto: We lean a little to the left."

Nelson, 77, was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol for possession of marijuana last week, despite the fact that he was roughly 100 miles [from] the U.S. border at the time.

"It's supposed to be a checkpoint only for aliens, and [agents] overstep their authority all the time," Texas attorney Dick DeGuerin told Rolling Stone. "I've had several cases from that checkpoint and they just use the opportunity to check out anybody they want to."

...If Nelson's new party succeeds, he won't be a lawbreaker anymore.

"Tax it, regulate it and legalize it," Nelson wrote. "And stop the border wars over drugs. Why should the drug lords make all the money? Thousands of lives will be saved." -[About]

Support Willie Nelson in his trek for decriminalization by joining the Teapot party, or just support him when he hits the road for a string of dates in December and in the new year. Full tour sked is below, and quite a few (non-NYC) dates are on sale and/or pre-sale.

Two of those dates (2/13 & 2/14) will go down at Austin City Limits - Live, the studio that houses the famed series which recently relocated. The show's new home, Moody Theater, will begin taping shows there in early 2011. The new location is now walking distance from the main drag that is 6th Street.

I'm not sure of Wavves' political affiliation, but I am guessing he's all for switching to the Teapot party. He just got arrested for pot in Germany. Hopefully he's more careful on his upcoming tour with Best Coast. There won't be a smoke-filled tour bus that asking to be pulled over since, well since Willie Nelson.

In other news, Smokey Robinson is scheduled to play the St. George Theatre in Staten Island (on sale), on 1/22/11 and the Apollo Theater on 2/15/11 (on sale).

Willie Nelson tour dates and some videos below..

Continue reading "Willie Nelson starts 'Teapot Party' after US pot arrest, Wavves busted in Germany ++ Smokey Robinson playing shows"

by Black Bubblegum

DOWNLOAD: John Wiese & C. Spencer Yeh - "Swedish Couch" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Paul Flaherty, C. Spencer Yeh & Greg Kelley - "Track One" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Paul Flaherty, C. Spencer Yeh & Greg Kelley - "Track Two" (MP3)

Tony Conrad & Keiji Haino

Experimentalists collide when Keiji Haino and Tony Conrad team up for a show at The Studio At Webster Hall on April 25th (tonight), one of only three US shows for the duo. Tickets for the NYC show are still available. Full tour dates are below.

Although the duo has not recorded anything, Keiji Haino recently dropped a new record under the moniker The Haino/Masataka Fujikake Duo, on the Japanese label Full Design Records on February 11. A collection of live material from a batch of 2005 shows in Yokohama, the record is currently available to us yankees here.

Opening The Studio show will be another violinist of the avant-garde persuasion, C Spencer Yeh, who recently dropped two collaborative LPs: Cincinatti with noise technician John Wiese (available on CSY's label, DroneDisco) and New York Nuts and Boston Beans with Paul Flaherty and Greg Kelley (available here). April 25th will be the only solo show for CSY over the next few weeks, but he does have dates as part of a duo (with Michael Johnsen) and a trio (with Rafael Toral & Trevor Tremaine). One of those trio dates will take place in NYC in the next few weeks, as part of the No Fun Fest featuring headliner Sonic Youth.

Hopefully SY's Lee Ranaldo gets his long lost Fender Mustang back by then.

The guitar (pictured above) was stolen from Lee in July 1999. Then, last week, someone unknowingly bought it on eBay, and before even receiving it (he still hasn't received it as of this post), the buyer coincidentally was "just looking at Sonic Youth´s guitars", and recognized the guitar that he had just bought as Lee's stolen guitar.

He posted his story in a thread (that is currently 35 pages long) on Offsetguitars.com. Lee was then contacted, offered the guitar back (at the eBay auction cost) and accepted. In another coincidence, the buyer lives in the Netherlands and Sonic Youth is in Europe this week. Unfortunately the guitar didn't arrive from seller to buyer in time for the buyer to hand it to Lee in person, but...

"So my brother, a friend and me went to Dusseldorf yesterday to see Sonic Youth. We spent the whole afternoon in museums to see the Sonic Youth exhibition, which was really great. I can recommend it to anyone with the possibility of going there. It made me want to start reading William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg immediately.

The concert was supposed to start at 20:30 and we arrived at that time, we figured it probably wouldn´t start until 22:00 or so as that´s what we´re used to. Surprisingly, they started exactly on time so I missed a chance to get onto the balcony for special guests. So we watched the gig among the ´common´ people , which wasn't so bad, though it´s sometimes hard to stand the smell of those puny creatures. Tongue The concert was amazing, as usual with these guys, they played a normal set but when it was over it felt like they had only played for 15 minutes. The highlight for me was Kim´s singing, her voice sounds better than ever. The new songs (I think they played 4) sounded good too, but I can´t comment on the specific songs as I don´t know the titles.

After the gig was over I pushed my way up to the front row and called the guitar tech, Eric Baecht, he came up to us, gave me a mastery bridge (from one of Lee´s guitars, he even included the allen wrench keys!) on which Lee had written a thank you note, along with a couple of picks with Sonic Youth prints on them. Can´t wait to try it on my Jazzmaster! Eric then told me to wait for him to finish clearing the stage and took us to the backstage where I met Lee. We had a little chat about the guitar, Mark Ibold also showed up briefly. I met Eric again who told us we can get on the guest list for any SY gig in the future (!!!). I also spotted Thurston but he left quite early , Kim was there the whole time, didn´t see Steve.

So my friends and me hung out at the bar for a while feeling quite awkward and trying to think of something to talk to Lee about without sounding cliché but it seemed impossible so we left soon after. It was a bit of shame because they´re really kind and approachable people, but I just didn´t know what to talk about.

After all we had a great day and I´m looking forward to going to their gigs in the future. For free! HA! Plus I won´t have to worry about the show being sold out or anything." [Sauerkraut the guitar finder]

Awesome story. (thx Raymond)

Speaking of Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore will perform as part of a trio with saxophonist Daniel Carter and Ryan Sawyer (Tall Firs, Stars Like Fleas) at Union Pool on May 2nd, with Trevor Dunn's Madlove, and Pink Noise. Madlove recently announced the release of their new album, White With Foam on Ipecac Records.

Sonic Youth's new album, The Eternal, drops on June 9th. Check out "Sacred Trickster" here.

Trevor Dunn will play bass with the Melvins when they play all of Houdini at Webster Hall.

Tour dates, and some videos from Sonic Youth's exhibition in Germany, below...

Continue reading "Lee Ranaldo's stolen guitar recovered, Tony Conrad playing w/ Keiji Haino, a Thurston show & stuff"