CBC Radio Two scales back on classical music
CBC Radio Two is scaling down its classical music programming and serving up more contemporary artists in a bid to reach a wider audience, a move that critics say is shutting out many listeners.
The public broadcaster unveiled plans Tuesday for its Radio Two fall relaunch, which includes four new programs, new hosts and a heavier emphasis on non-classical music genres such as pop, roots, urban and jazz.
The changes, beginning Sept. 2, will see the amount of classical music played every weekday shaved to five hours from the present average of 12 hours. Julie Nesrallah, a mezzo-soprano from Ottawa, will host a classical music show, called "Tempo," from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Programming director Chris Boyce said the move follows a CBC survey on Canadian arts and culture and radio listening habits.
"At the core of all of this is what it means to be a public broadcaster," he said. "And that is to provide programming for all Canadians and to reflect the arts and culture scene in Canada and to reflect Canada back to Canadians."
But research done by the Canadian content watchdog Friends of Canadian Broadcasting indicates that what CBC Radio Two's average 1.1 million listeners per week "like best about (the station) ... is the classical music," said the group's spokesman Ian Morrison.
"So CBC is greatly compressing that kind of music, which you could call serious music, into a listening ghetto of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.," he said.
"I say ghetto just because they know – anybody who looks at the numbers knows – that the available audience between 10 and 3 is very small compared with mornings or evenings or the drive home or drive-to-work period."
Morrison also said the move "puts down" younger audiences by assuming that "young people are not interested in classical culture."
This is the third phase in CBC Radio Two's makeover. In March 2007 it launched a new evening jazz show and last October it made changes to its weekend schedule.
The most recent changes will see host Tom Allen start weekday mornings with "a mix of contemporary artists and familiar favourites" on the show "Radio Two Morning," said a release.
The afternoon classical music show will air next, followed by ``Radio Two Drive," with Canadian funk/hip-hop artist Rich Terfry (a.k.a. Buck 65) serving up 75 per cent Canadian contemporary music.
On the weekends, jazz singer Molly Johnson will helm "Radio Two Morning" while CBC Radio Two personality Jurgen Gothe will follow with "Farrago," featuring music drawn primarily from his own collection.
CBC Radio Two is also launching four new online music channels, dedicated to classical, jazz, Canadian songwriters and Canadian composers.
Neil Young maps late-year North American tour
Fresh off a three-month European tour, where he paid visits to 14 cities, Neil Young has lined up a North American trek starting this fall.
The eight-week, 19-city outing kicks off Oct. 14 in St. Paul, MN, and includes several dates in Young's Canadian homeland, as well as stops in the Los Angeles area (10/30), Montreal (12/1) and New York City (12/15). All dates are included below.
The shows will feature the same band that backed Young on his recent overseas trek: Ben Keith, Rick Rosas, Chad Cromwell, Anthony Crawford and Pegi Young. Death Cab for Cutie and Everest will provide support from the tour's launch date to the Nov. 5 show in Omaha, NE; Wilco and Everest will open the remainder of the schedule, except for the Dec. 9 date in Chicago, which will not feature Wilco.
Details are below.
Young continues to support last year's "Chrome Dreams II." Clocking in at more than an hour, the set includes among its 10 tracks two epics: one 18 minutes long and another 13 minutes. Young and his "The Volume Dealers" partner Niko Bolas produced.
The original "Chrome Dreams" album was scheduled for release in 1977, but was shelved. "Unfortunately, all original documentation and art for this album was lost in a fire that destroyed Neil's Malibu home in early 1978," according to Young's website.
Young announced earlier this year that he was hooking up with Sun Microsystems to produce a series of career music/video hybrid anthologies on Blu-ray Discs. The first set, which will cover Young's career from 1963-1972, reportedly will be available later this year.
October 2008
14 - St. Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center
16 - Winnipeg, Manitoba - MTS Centre
18 - Regina, Saskatchewan - Brandt Centre
19 - Calgary, Alberta - Pengrowth Saddledome
21 - Everett, WA - Comcast Arena at Everett
22 - Vancouver, British Columbia - GM Place
29 - San Diego, CA - Cox Arena
30 - Inglewood, CA - The Forum
November 2008
1 - Reno, NV - Events Center
4 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center
5 - Omaha, NE - Qwest Center
29 - Halifax, Nova Scotia - Metro Centre
December 2008
1 - Montreal, Quebec - Bell Centre
2 - Ottawa, Ontario - Scotia Bank Place
4 - Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre
7 - Detroit, MI - Palace of Auburn Hills
9 - Chicago, IL - Allstate Arena
12 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Spectrum
15 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
Beach Boys' Brian Wilson sunny about new album
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Brian Wilson sits on a plush couch in his living room, smiling nervously.
On the Beach Boys visionary's back porch, his family's 15 pooches yip and scramble over each other. Inside, photos of his children with wife Melinda Ledbetter — 11-year-old Daria, 10-year-old Delanie and 4-year-old Dylan — lace the walls.
The two-story house, snuggled deep into a gated hillside community in Beverly Hills, is immaculately clean, with beige carpeting and marble floors. Housekeepers tidy up downstairs. A swimming pool overlooks the sun-drenched valley below. It all resembles a postcard.
"I'm happier now than I was a year ago," Wilson says in a recent interview. "I started exercising and I started eating more of the right food and I started feeling better. I just get up in the morning and say my prayers."
Gangly and tall in a pinstriped dress shirt, his graying hair swept back into waves, the wizard songwriter and composer behind such '60s Beach Boys hits as "Good Vibrations" and "California Girls" stares with sharp blue eyes, frequently fidgeting.
A lot has changed for the historically reclusive Southern California native, who speaks with a slight slur, a result of his drug-abuse past and medicated journey through mental illness.
He is a second-round father at the age of 66 (musician daughters Wendy, 38, and Carnie, 40, from his first marriage, tour as The Wilsons). Following 2004's long-awaited rock opera "Smile," and a 2005 Christmas release, he has a new, ambitious solo album, "That Lucky Old Sun," due out Sept. 2. He is touring behind the material, pushing through years of stage fright.
"I think the new album is just as good as anything the Beach Boys ever recorded," says Wilson. "Playing these songs live, I feel proud. You know that funny feeling you get in your stomach, like, 'Oh my God, this is sounding great!'"
Two years ago, he says, he recorded 18 songs then chose 10 last year for Capitol Records/EMI. He came up with the album's lush orchestration and music, while 43-year-old bandmate Scott Bennett scribed the lyrics, with colorful narrative interludes by Wilson's longtime collaborator Van Dyke Parks.
The outcome is a blend of uptempo pop and piano-based ballads. The title track, a cover of Louis Armstrong's "That Lucky Old Sun," flows into the bouncy anthem "Morning Beat," setting the album's tone.
"Van Dyke Parks, Brian and Melinda thought this should be a love letter to Los Angeles. At this point, Brian was 65-years-old and it just felt right to embrace his legend and be a bit nostalgic," Bennett says.
Songs such as "Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl" touch on Beach Boys melodies while "Mexican Girl" adds a dash of salsa flavor. "Midnight's Another Day" and "Oxygen to the Brain" reference Wilson's dark days in the '70s and '80s, when he receded from the spotlight into isolation, drugs and weight gain.
Wilson calls "Midnight's Another Day," which skirts on a solitary piano melody, his favorite song, "kind of introspective, kind of how I feel around people."
The album's last song, "Southern California," reminisces about co-founding the Beach Boys in 1961 with his late brothers Carl and Dennis, and ends the album on an uplifting note. Wilson sings, "It's magical/ Living your dream."
"Yes, Brian had a rough time of it, with his mental health, but I would kill to have the kind of catalog he does, and tour everywhere with his brothers like he did," says Bennett, who confirms that Wilson "is on a heavy dose of antidepressants."
Regardless, Wilson has hit a creative stride in his life.
Inspiration comes at night when he sits down alone at his Yamaha synthesizer and grand piano in his purple-curtained music room.
"When I go to the keyboard, I feel holy, like an angel over my head. I feel very holy. When we did (the Beach Boys hit) 'God Only Knows,' I felt holy about that too. A godly something comes through me," Wilson says, motioning with his hands. "I'm always thinking about melodies. The melodies come from my brain, and my keyboards. I play a really pleasant keyboard. It sounds so pleasant it makes me want to write melodies."
But life as a busy dad and touring musician can be overwhelming. Wilson describes a house full of kids and dogs as "very loud" and "a madhouse." He frequently goes to a nearby park and takes walks.
"The kids make me feel a little jumpy," he says. "Sometimes I want to get out of the house to get away from my kids but I love my kids a lot. I love my kids. ... Quiet time comes around 10 at night when I go to sleep. It's peace of mind. Things run smoothly at night. During the day, things are more rough."
Later on, when Ledbetter comes home with their small son Dylan — floppy-haired, barefoot and wearing a Hawaiian shirt — Wilson brightens. He's quieter when it comes to daughters Wendy and Carnie, who both live less than 10 miles away.
"I don't talk to them very much. I used to. I recorded with them at one time, but I don't talk to them a lot," he says, explaining that the women are "really busy."
Questions about the Beach Boys' current status get lukewarm response as well. Wilson, who also formed the band with cousin Mike Love and then-school friend Al Jardine, split with most of the group's surviving members years ago amid legal squabbles. Love and later Beach Boys bandmate Bruce Johnston tour as the Beach Boys Band, while Jardine has his own Endless Summer Band. Wilson stresses the subject's touchiness.
"We don't want any publicity about me getting back with the Beach Boys, cause I don't want to. They're not my group anymore. That's Mike and Bruce's group now. I'm on my own, and I would rather do that than go back to the Beach Boys," he says.
Wilson, though, clearly loves performing Beach Boys tunes as well as his own solo work, even with nightly stage fright, which he says he works through by getting neck and shoulder rubs, and praying.
At a taping days later for Yahoo! Music's Live Sets, Wilson is joined onstage by his nine-piece band, including Bennett and members of the Wondermints, who have played with him for 10 years.
Tentatively at first, Wilson claps his hands and directs the group in rousing, harmony-filled versions of such Beach Boys classics as "Help Me Rhonda" and "I Get Around." Wilson later sings from the new album.
When asked during a Q&A session his biggest regret, he doesn't mince words.
"The drugs I took which kind of messed up my mind. The LSD, the marijuana, the cocaine," he says, to audience laughter.
Wilson isn't letting his past stop him from throwing his ambitions forward.
After "That Lucky Old Sun," Wilson says the unreleased songs he recorded, including a slow, smooth version of "Proud Mary," will form another album. He gushes that "the only person I really want to work with is Paul McCartney." He would also like to record "a rock 'n' roll album inspired by Phil Spector's type records, a really hard rock album that really rocks, with big orchestration, the whole bit."
Yet, he also views his future gingerly, as day to day.
"I look forward to today," he tells The AP. "I never look forward to the future because I think to myself, 'What if there's an earthquake, what if I die or someone I love dies?' I get those kind of thoughts all the time. It's 'oof' to my head."
Lennon's killer told parole board he's ashamed
BUFFALO, N.Y. - John Lennon's killer told parole officials during his latest unsuccessful bid for release from prison that he is ashamed and sorry for gunning down the former Beatle nearly three decades ago.
Mark David Chapman was interviewed by the parole board for a fifth time Aug. 12 and was immediately denied release. A transcript of the hearing was made public Tuesday.
The 53-year-old Chapman told the parole panel that, over the years, he has come to realize the gravity of what he did, and how it affected not only Lennon, but his wife, children and anybody who knew him.
"I recognized that that 25-year-old man, I don't think he really appreciated the life that he was taking, that this was a human being," he said. "I feel now at 53 I have grown into a deeper understanding of what a human life is. I have changed a lot."
As he has in the past, he also told the parole board that he was seeking notoriety and fame to counter feelings of failure when he decided to kill Lennon.
"I would be something other than a nobody, and that was my reasoning at the time," Chapman said.
The former maintenance man from Hawaii has been in prison for nearly 28 years. He was sentenced to 20 years to life after pleading guilty to the murder. The parole board decision means he will remain in New York's Attica Correctional Facility for at least two more years.
In its brief decision, the two-member parole panel denied release "due to concern for the public safety and welfare."
Chapman fired five shots outside Lennon's Manhattan apartment building on Dec. 8, 1980, hitting Lennon four times in front of his wife, Yoko Ono, and others.
Ono, who has previously written the parole board arguing against Chapman's release, did not offer any testimony in his latest hearing.
Fifty others did, however, and 1,100 people signed a petition opposing his release. Three people wrote urging that he be set free, Heather Groll, a state Parole Division spokeswoman, said last week.
Chapman's next appearance before the board is scheduled for August 2010.
Doomsday for The Watchmen?
Los Angeles (E! Online) - Who will watch The Watchmen? Nobody, if 20th Century Fox gets its way.
After a major court victory, the studio has announced a bid to block the release of Warner Bros.' anticipated adaptation of the seminal graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Fox originally tried to develop the project more than a decade ago, but didn't manage to get the film off the drawing board. The studio claims Warners never properly acquired the rights to The Watchmen, and, in a major twist, instead of seeking a share of the would-be blockbuster's box-office gross, Fox is seeking to kill the flick entirely before it unspools in theaters March 6.
Cue the agonized cries of fanboys everywhere.
A federal judge in Los Angeles agreed with Fox lawyers that there's enough evidence to keep the lawsuit going forward—and keep the film's release in limbo.
Directed by 300 helmer Zack Snyder, The Watchmen stars Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Billy Crudup and Jackie Earle Haley as a band of former superheroes who find themselves reclassified as criminal vigilantes in an alternate universe circa 1985. As an unknown assassin begins to hunt them down, the heroes try to unravel a conspiracy and thwart a nuclear war.
The film's trailer wowed Comic-Con attendees last month, stirring big buzz for a film that many thought would never get made.
Per its complaint, Fox traces its distribution rights through a series of complex legal agreements that began in 1991, when the studio teamed up with veteran producer Larry Gordon to develop the DC Comics graphic novel.
The project stalled and Gordon went packing, leaving Fox, not Gordon, in control of the property, per the suit.
But Gordon resurfaced in 2006 and inked a deal with Warners to try to relaunch Watchmen.
In siding with Fox, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allen Fees said Warners' legal camp failed to show that Gordon still had a stake in the project.
"Warner Bros.' production and anticipated release of The Watchmen motion picture violates 20th Century Fox's long-standing motion picture rights in the Watchmen property," Fox says in a statement.
"We will be asking the court to enforce Fox's copyright interests in The Watchmen and enjoin the release of the Warner Bros. film and any related Watchmen media that violate our copyright interests in that property."
It's not clear exactly why Fox is asking for an injunction to block The Watchmen from coming out, especially since the film's already in the can, although it could simply be a ploy to gain a large portion of ticket sales. There's also no indication why Fox waited so long to bring its case.
Warners, meanwhile, tried to spin the ruling as favorably as possible.
"It is our company's policy not to comment on pending litigation, and thus will not comment on the specifics of this case," the studio's statement reads. "That said, the court's ruling simply means that the parties will engage in discovery and proceed with the litigation.
"We respectfully disagree with Fox's position and do not believe they have any rights in and to this project."
Fees has asked the studios to expedite the pretrial wrangling. After all, the film's release is apporaching and the Doomsday Clock is ticking
A Bronze Fonz Hits Brew Town
Los Angeles (E! Online) - Finally, a Fonzie that's incapable of jumping the shark. If only he existed 30 years ago.
A statue of Arthur Fonzarelli was unveiled to a Happy Days-loving crowd on Wisconsin's Milwaukee River today, commemorating the 10-year run of the classic sitcom and its most iconic character in the city where the series was set (but, alas, never shot).
Fonzie alter ego Henry Winkler was on hand for the invite-only occasion, as were show creator-director-producer Garry Marshall, stars Anson Williams (Potsie), Don Most (Ralph), Marion Ross (Mrs. Cunningham), Tom Bosley (Mr. Cunningham) and Erin Moran (Joanie), as well as Laverne & Shirley leads Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams. Ron Howard was on location and unable to make the unveiling.
Winkler took quite a liking to his life-size leather-jacketed likeness, giving it the ultimate seal of approval: two thumbs up.
"I hope that this statue really represents in the way that this city deserves," Winkler said.
"This is one of the great cities in the United States of America and everyone should actually come here to enjoy the theater, enjoy the good food, enjoy the warmth of the people and the Fonz!"
Applegate calls double mastectomy a 'tough' choice
NEW YORK - Christina Applegate is taking the long view of her battle with breast cancer — the really long view. Speaking on ABC News' "Good Morning America" in her first interview since announcing her diagnosis earlier this month, the "Samantha Who?" star said she had a double mastectomy three weeks ago. She'll undergo reconstructive surgery over the next eight months.
"I'm going to have cute boobs 'til I'm 90, so there's that," she joked in the interview, which aired Tuesday. "I'll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I'll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table."
The 36-year-old actress elected to remove both breasts even though the disease was contained in one breast. She said she is now cancer-free.
Applegate called the operation a logical decision. Her mother battled breast cancer, and she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation linked to breast and ovarian cancer.
"I just wanted to kind of be rid of it," she said. "So this was the choice I made and it was a tough one."
The experience has been an emotional roller coaster, she said.
"Sometimes, you know, I cry and sometimes I scream and I get really angry and I get really like, you know, into wallowing in self-pity sometimes," she said. "And I think that's — it's all part of healing, and anyone who's going through it out there, it's OK to cry. It's OK to fall on the ground and just scream if you want to."
The Emmy-nominated "Samantha Who?" star has kept her sense of humor intact.
"I've laughed so much in the last three weeks," she said. "I love living, and I really love my life, and I knew that from this moment on it was only going to be good that was going to be coming. Yeah, I'll face challenges, but you can't get any darker than where I've been. So knowing that in my soul gave me the strength to just say, `I have to get out there and make this a positive.'"
Applegate's cancer was detected early through a doctor-ordered MRI. She said she's starting a program to help women at high risk for breast cancer to meet the costs of an MRI, which is not always covered by insurance.
Applegate is scheduled to appear on a one-hour TV special, "Stand Up to Cancer," to be aired on ABC, CBS and NBC on Sept. 5 to raise funds for cancer research.
She has been nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the ABC show "Samantha Who?", in which she plays a woman who wakes from a coma with no memory of who she is.
New CD Releases, August 19: Ice Cube, Staind, The Dandy Warhols
Ice Cube "Raw Footage"
The gangsta-rap pioneer returns with a follow-up to 2006's "Laugh Now, Cry Later," a work that debuted at No. 4 on The Billboard 200 chart. "Raw Footage" is Ice Cube's ninth solo effort and, according to the artist's
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Staind "The Illusion of Progress"
Staind hopes to make a mark with its new studio album. "The Illusion of Progress" is the Boston hard-rock band's first batch of all-new material since 2005's "Chapter V," and was recorded at frontman Aaron Lewis' home studio with producer Johnny K.
The group--Lewis, guitarist Mike Mushok, drummer Jon Wysocki and bassist Johnny April--is currently on the road. The trek continues through the end of this month and includes dates in Alberta, Minnesota and on the West Coast.
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The Dandy Warhols "Earth to the Dandy Warhols"
The Portland, OR-based alt-rock troupe is ready to drop its eighth studio album, "Earth to the Dandy Warhols," which follows 2005's "Odditorium or Warlords of Mars." Many of the band's fans already own "Earth," given that it was released as a digital download back in May.
"Earth to the Dandy Warhols" was produced by the band's frontman, Courtney Taylor-Taylor, and includes guest contributions from guitarists Mark Knopfler and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.
The Dandy Warhols will support the new set with a 16-city outing that kicks off Sept. 9 in Minneapolis and is capped off with a hometown Oct. 5 show in Portland.
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Joe Bonamassa "Live from Nowhere in Particular"
The acclaimed blues-rock vocalist/guitarist returns with a two-disc concert album. "Live from Nowhere in Particular" follows Bonamassa's seventh solo album, "Sloe Gin," which surfaced last fall and snagged the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart.
For those who prefer to hear their live music "live" (as opposed to on disc), Bonamassa is currently on the concert trail. He has shows scheduled throughout August, September and October, including festival dates at Seattle's Bumbershoot (Aug. 30) and Austin, TX's Austin City Limits (Sept. 28).
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Amy Macdonald "This is the Life"
The young Scottish singer/songwriter, who will celebrate her 21st birthday later this month, is looking for love from US fans as her debut disc finally gets released Stateside. "This is the Life," featuring the single "Poison Prince," is already a major hit across the Atlantic, having sold more than a million units since being released in summer 2007.
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More new releases:
The Academy Is..., "Fast Times at Barrington High" (Fueled by Ramen)
Black Stone Cherry, "Folklore & Superstition" (Roadrunner)
Glen Campbell, "Meet Glen Campbell" (Capitol)
The Cheetah Girls, "One World" (Disney)
Donavon Frankenreiter, "Pass It Around" (Lost Highway)
Family Force 5, "Dance or Die" (Tooth and Nail)
The Goo Goo Dolls, "Greatest Hits Vol. 2" (Warner Bros.)
Juliana Hatfield, "How to Walk Away" (Ye Olde Records)
George Jones, "Burn Your Playhouse Down: The Unreleased Duets" (Bandit)
Chris Knight, "Heart of Stone" (Red)
John Pizzarelli, "With a Song in My Heart" (Telarc)
Crystal Shawanda, "Dawn of a New Day" (RCA)
Shwayze, "Shwayze" (Geffen)
Todd Snider, "Peace Queer" (MRI)
Stereolab, "Chemical Chords" (4AD)
Toadies, "No Deliverance" (Kirtland)
Malaysia scraps Avril Lavigne concert; show slammed as 'too sexy'
An Avril Lavigne concert scheduled for later this month in Malaysia has been cancelled amid complaints that the show by the Canadian rock singer is "too sexy."
The Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry says it had decided not to permit Lavigne's planned Aug. 29 performance because it is unsuitable for Malaysian culture.
The decision came after complaints by the youth wing of a fundamentalist opposition party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic party.
Kamarulzaman Mohamed, a party youth official, told the Associated Press on Monday that Lavigne's show was "considered too sexy for us" and would promote the wrong values just before independence day on Aug. 31.
Lavigne, who shot to fame with her 2002 debut album Let Go, had planned to launch her month-long Asia tour in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysian officials say the show's promoter, Galaxy Group, can request a new date for the concert.
Galaxy began advertising the Grammy-nominated rock singer's concert this month even though it had yet to obtain a government permit, which is mandatory for all foreign music shows. It said Monday about half the concert tickets had been sold.
Last year, R&B singer Beyonce moved her show from Malaysia to Indonesia, and Christina Aguilera skipped the country on an Asian tour after a controversy erupted over a dress code for foreign artists.
Malaysia requires all performers to wear clothes without obscene or drug-related images and be covered from the chest to the knees. They must also refrain from jumping, shouting, hugging and kissing on stage.
Still, members of PAS and other conservative Muslims often protest against western and even Malaysian music shows that they deem to be inappropriate.
The local organizer of a Pussycat Dolls concert in 2006 was fined $2,857 after the U.S. girl group was accused of flouting decency regulations.
AC/DC to release "Black Ice" in October
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Rock band AC/DC's first studio album in eight years, "Black Ice," will be sold exclusively in the U.S. via Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and the band's Web site, beginning October 20. First single "Rock 'n' Roll Train" will hit U.S. radio on August 28.
In an unusual move, the exclusive release comes with the full cooperation of AC/DC's label home, Columbia, which says it is planning "multiple activities for fans" leading up to release date.
The 15-track "Black Ice" is the follow-up to 2000's "Stiff Upper Lip." An extensive world tour in support of the set will begin in late October.
In addition, on September 9 Columbia will release "No Bull: The Director's Cut," a newly edited DVD of AC/DC's July 1996 show at Madrid's Plaza De Toros De Las Ventas.