Capitol Records has confirmed that the US release of Jonny Greenwood’s album Bodysong (to be released on February 24th) will include a limited edition 7″ containing two new b-sides with purchase of Bodysong at select stores. A list of shops is coming soon, and the 7″ pressing will be limited to only 2,000 copies.
(Thanks to a newly-rejuvenated Climbing Up the Walls.)
At Ease reports that on March 6th Jonny Greenwood will be at the ‘Concertgebouw’ in Bruges (Belgium), together with the London Sinfonietta and Django Bates for an ode to sax player Evan Parker, who turns 60 this year. The concert consists of 60 bars of music, written by 60 different friends of Parker.
Jonny Greenwood also wrote a piece for the Ondes Martenot (note- this may be Smear, which appears at FUSELeeds2004, or it may be a new one). Greenwood, Bates and Parker will also perform new work from Markus Stockhasen and a version of Frank Zappa’s “Jazz From Hell”.
Head here for tickets, but brush up on your Dutch first.
(Thanks to At Ease.)
We spoke briefly with the fine folks at the w.a.s.t.e. Ticket Emporium, and it looks like they will have a limited quantity of Coachella tickets available through their website.
As reported earlier, tickets go onsale nationwide via TicketMaster at noon (PST) on February 14th. More information is available at the Coachella Official Website.
UPDATE: The announcement went out this morning. Tickets go on sale through w.a.s.t.e. on February 7th. Tickets for Saturday only are $76.00, and tickets for both days are $142.00.
Still no word on the final lineup, but it appears that the Flaming Lips have been confirmed (likely for day two). It’s also being reported by several various sources that PJ Harvey, Belle and Sebastian, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Paul Van Dyk, Stereolab, My Morning Jacket, !!!, The Stills, Basement Jaxx, Death Cab for Cutie, The Black Keys, Cursive, and Wilco are pretty much confirmed, but until an an official announcement is made, it should be treated as wishful thinking.
As always, we’ll keep you posted.
At long last, when one goes to visit the official Coachella website, one will no longer be greeted by an empty black screen. Although the website is officially up and running, the information most of us are looking for- the official lineup- will not be posted for a few more days.
What is online now is the complete ticket sale information (which we reported earlier), as well as some FAQ and rules for the concert and camping grounds. We’ll let you know when the lineup arrives.
The London Times is reporting that a little-known independent British music business has beaten the world?s major record companies in securing the rights to thousands of hours of footage of artists at the Montreux Jazz Festivals, including a perfomance by Radiohead this past July.
Terry Shand, the executive chairman of Eagle Rock, said the company planned to spend ?tens of millions of pounds? over the coming decade producing more than 100 DVDs of the concerts that have played at the festival over the past 37 years.
Sounds great- but before you break out the MasterCard, keep in mind that any DVDs have to be approved by the artist’s record labels before they are released. You can read the entire article here.
Thom has written a guest article for British newspaper The Guardian regarding the Hutton report, which (shockingly) cleared Tony Blair of any wrongdoing whatsoever, while lambasting the BBC for claiming that Blair wanted intelligence reports “sexed up”. It’s a good one, and it is posted in its entirety below.
This theatre of the absurd
Campbell hounded the BBC for simply doing its job.
When the Hutton report arrived this week, I expected Geoff Hoon to have to resign. I expected, at the very least, a grovelling apology from Tony Blair. I had been looking forward to this for months.
Instead, I have had to stomach the gloating and moralising of Blair, Hoon and Alastair Campbell as the establishment of this godforsaken country closes ranks to protect itself, its intelligence services and the oh so wonderful MoD.
Lord Hutton’s damning report of the BBC is a whitewash. The result will create fear at the Today programme, where there should be pride. As so many times before, they were there with a story that nobody else would touch. And I still cannot see why Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke have had to resign. It flies in the face of reality, ripping all evidence to shreds.
This is a theatre of the absurd. It has left everybody I know shaking their heads in disbelief and anger. Such a performance should make us all deeply nervous about the future of Britain. While Blair wishes to draw a line under the whole episode, I hope this doesn’t happen. Sometimes a story will end up being told, no matter how many times they try to close the book.
I am staring at a photo of Campbell at the foot of some grand stairs, mewing and preaching about truth. An unelected, unanswerable force who was willing to destroy the integrity of others and make their lives unbearable to save his skin and that of his masters.
As Andrew Gilligan submitted to Hutton, why was the BBC singled out when other media reports questioned the intelligence as well? Why did Campbell suddenly give disproportionate attention to the Today programme’s story, after weeks of hoping it would go away?
Campbell needed to deflect attention from an issue that stood to bring down the government. He had been told to construct a truth that would justify a “pre-emptive” war against international law, while voices in the wings were whispering “lies”. His response was unforgivable. He deliberately went on the offensive, choosing his favourite soft target, one that had dared to go beyond the embedded reporting of the war to show it in a less than flattering light.
Campbell himself chose to become the story, using his indignation at such a slur on the government’s “integrity”, and so avoiding the substance of the accusation itself.
He now claims the BBC, from the top down, did not tell the truth. In what way? It didn’t check out the story? It seems, sir, your little story about WMD didn’t check out either. Are we supposed to feel sorry for him after this sustained attack on his integrity? Nobody cares about his integrity; they just want to know why we went to war against international law on weak single-source intelligence.
And are we supposed to feel sorry for Blair? He has made a very dangerous political mistake which endangers global stability and has sent thousands to their deaths. He tells us that he will be judged by his maker. Well, he certainly wasn’t judged by Hutton, was he?
It was entirely in the public interest to question the construction of this intelligence report, even if done rather shakily at 6.07am. That is what public service broadcasting should be about, serving no proprietor, not controlled by the state, and addressing the concerns of those who pay for its existence. This is exactly what the Today programme did in this instance. So where was the mistake?
You can read the entire article, and a lot more about this mess (for our U.S. readers, don’t forget that Bush isn’t the only one with egg on his face regarding the Iraq thing…Blair was standing right there with him) over at the Guardian’s website.
(Thanks to Mike.)