Dave Matthews Band News

DMB at # 1

Monday: 12.4.2000-- Dave Matthews Band won Best Live Act at the My VH1 Music Awards on November 30. Sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to vote.

DMB's "Everyday" due in February
Feeling particularly revelatory at last evening's My VH1 MusicAwards, Dave Matthews spilled some beans about his band's forthcoming record. The singer revealed that the new album is to be called Everyday, and the first single is titled "I Did It." The record will find its ways to stores on Feb. 27. Matthews said to expect a video for "I Did It" and that the song's visual nature should lend itself well to the small screen. "We don't know exactly what we'll do for the video yet," he told RollingStone.com, "but the song is pretty clear. It's got some good images." Images of what? "Making a bomb of love and blowing up the world." Asked if fans should expect to hear any radical sonic departures or superstar duets on the forthcoming collection, Matthews said, "I played a baritone electric guitar on the new album which was fun and adds some interesting textures. We do have a couple of guests on the record but we're gonna keep it on the lowdown, at least 'til someone blows the news." Among those rumored to appear on the album is singer Alanis Morissette. Longtime Morissette collaborator Glen Ballard after the band scrapped sessions with boardman Steve Lillywhite back in August produced "Everyday". Matthews is a professed fan of the "Ironic" chanteuse and invited her to open for him for a Denver show in 1999.

<--Ex-Producer steve Lillywhite

When the Dave Matthews Band launches its brief arena tour next month, the group will once again boast a diverse array of opening acts. West African vocalist Angelique Kidjo will be the first to take the support slot, performing at the December 3 tour opener in Minneapolis and on December 4 and 5 in Chicago, a spokesperson for the group said. Veteran New Orleans funk outfit the Funky Meters will open in Cleveland on December 7; University Park, Pennsylvania, on December 8; Albany, New York, on December 9; and Boston on December 11. The rest of the tour will then take on an outlaw country flair as Steve Earle and the Dukes will come aboard to open shows on December 12 and 13 in New York; December 16 in Providence, Rhode Island; and December 17 in Philadelphia. For past tours, the Dave Matthews Band had reached out to such eclectic opening acts as Native American blues-rock band Indigenous, banjo wizard Bela Fleck, Norwegian experimentalists Getaway People, rock radio faves Vertical Horizon and Southern rockers Gov't Mule. The Dave Matthews Band is expected to finish work on the follow-up to 1998's Before These Crowded Streets shortly before the tour starts. The album is due in February

Just in time for the Holidays, Dave Matthews Band will be making an appearance on the new Jive Records compilation Platinum Christmas. Contributed to the diversified release is a new studio recording of "Christmas Song," put together by the band and producer Glen Ballard during their recent studio work in Los Angeles. On the Christmas compilation the band finds itself alongside friends such as Santana, but for the most part DMB sticks out strangely among the other artists (Jive Records is the home of Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys and N*Sync, just to name a few, as well as other music groups found on Platinum Christmas). The recent version of "Christmas Song" found on the compilation doesn't stray too far from its roots, but the new track provides a fresh perspective of what fans will hear on the new studio album in February 2001. Clips from Platinum Christmas can be found here (PLATINUMCHRISTMAS.COM). Lending "Christmas Song" to the holiday album should hopefully help tide fans over until the release of the new DMB album early next year. Back in 1997, similarly, Dave Matthews Band catalogued its classic tune "Help Myself" during the recording of Before These Crowded Streets, sending the song for inclusion on the relatively unsuccessful Scream 2 Soundtrack.

Entertainment Weekly Article On The New Album

This article is from Entertainment Weekly #567 (November 3, 2000). Hear And Now: This week on the music beat by Rob Brunner Making the new Dave Matthews Band album is proving to be more complicated than a 15-minute violin solo. The band recorded an album's worth of material earlier this year in Charlottesville, Va., with longtime collaborator Steve Lillywhite. It was supposed to hit stores just before their summer tour, on which they previewed much of the new material. Instead, they've scrapped the 13 Lillywhite tracks and are in L.A. working on entirely new songs with pop producer Glen Ballard. "The record they decided not to continue was very good, but they wanted to go to the next level as songwriters and musicians," says Bruce Flohr, the band's RCA A&R exec. "Plus, even the hardcore fans have never heard these songs, and it's hard to keep anything this band does a secret. Glen is giving the band a focus and tightening every song." Lillywhite says Matthews himself called with the news that his work was being shelved, but he won't comment about the group's decision. The new album, still untitled, will probably include the tunes "Angel," "When the World Ends," and "I Did It," and is now set for a February release.

Fall Tour Has Been Announced

• Sun. December 3, Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
• Mon. December 4, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, IL
• Tues. December 5, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, IL
• Thurs. December 7, Gund Arena, Cleveland, OH
• Fri. December 8, Bryce Jordan Center, University Park, PA
• Sat., December 9, Pepsi Arena, Albany, NY
• Mon., December 11, FleetCenter, Boston, MA
• Tues. December 12, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
• Wed. December 13, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
• Sat., December 16, Providence Civic Center, Providence, RI
• Sun. December 17, First Union Center, Philadelphia, PA

DMB Confirmed Rock In Rio Benefit Concert

DMB has been confirmed to perform at next year's Rock in Rio for a Better World, a 10-day Brazilian music festival in Rio de Janeiro from Jan. 12-21, 2001. DMB joins previously announced artists Neil Young, Sheryl Crow, Beck, R.E.M., the Deftones, Foo Fighters, 'NSync, Britney Spears, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Silverchair, Iron Maiden, James Taylor, Queens of the Stone Age, and Rob Halford (allstar, Oct. 11) on the international menu for the festival. Rock in Rio will take place in the Barra da Tijuca area of Rio. Tickets for the event will go on sale in October. Check out the event's Web site for more information on ticket sales.

DMB May Perform On VH1's My Music Awards Show

It has been said that VH1 intends to book at least nine major acts to perform on the "My VH1 Awards" show. Wayne Isaak, VH1 executive vice president of music and talent, notes that among these major acts being considered are Madonna, U2, and the Dave Matthews Band. All these artists have new releases coming out near the Nov. 30 date of the award show and plan on using this opportunity to promote their new album.

Live Concert Footage Available

MusicToday.com is providing fans with a unique live DMB online experience. You can be your very own camera man in a 360 degree live performance of Too Much and Satellite. The footage is from the August 2nd, 2000 show. You can rotate all around the stage and even zoom in and out to create your very own DMB concert experience. Head over to musictoday.com to check it out.

The LA Times is reporting that after taking new material they'd been working on with producer Steve Lillywhite on the road this summer, the Dave Matthews Band has decided to take the songs in new directions and will start over on its next album, this time with Glen Ballard, who produced Alanis Morissette's albums and No Doubt's latest. Sessions will start in early October in Los Angeles, with plans to release a single around Christmas and the album in January. To be exact, BMG Entertainment is telling record stores that the new release date for the new album is set for January 9th. DMB is expected to hit the east coast for a small winter tour in December which will last through January.

This article is from MTV.com. Dave Matthews Books Brief Tour, Slots LP For February After switching producers, the Dave Matthews Band now plans to release its next album in February 2001, and the group will break from the studio in December for a brief run of U.S. tour dates. The DMB entered a Los Angeles studio last week with Glen Ballard to continue working on the as-yet-untitled LP after earlier sessions with Steve Lillywhite in Charlotte, Virginia were abandoned (see "Dave Matthews Band Taps New Producer, Pushes Back LP"). Matthews and bandmates expect to complete the bulk of the record by mid-November, so fans may get a preview of some of the new tracks when the group launches its holiday season trek on December 3 in Minneapolis.

Bridge School Concert Set For Webcast

Neil Young's annual acoustic Bridge School Benefit concert is set to go this weekend, and once again the veteran rocker has assembled an eclectic and impressive mix of artists eager to unplug for Young's favorite charity. This year's concert, the 14th, sports scads of returning artists to the stage at Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View, California. In addition to a solo set by Young and a reunion with his cronies Crosby, Stills and Nash (who played together at the first benefit in 1986), the show will feature encore visits by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (their fifth appearance), Dave Matthews Band (second).
, and Beck (also his second). The show will also feature first-time appearances by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Foo Fighters and recent Young opening act Tegan and Sara. The show's proceeds benefit the Bridge School, whose mission is to "help children with severe speech and physical impairments achieve full participation in their communities through the use of assistive technology and the development, implementation and dissemination of innovative educational strategies." The children who attend the Bay Area facility, along with their teachers, sit on stage behind the artists during the show, which is a family affair for Young. Two of his children attend the school and his wife, Pegi, organizes the nonmusical aspects of the show. Part of the fun of the annual concert are the frequent unannounced acts that grace the stage over the course of the weekend; in recent years artists like Pete Townshend and Bonnie Raitt have turned up, sometimes stretching the length of the concert to close to eight hours. This year, Rage Against the Machine was rumored to appear (at least until Zack de la Rocha announced his departure from the group last week). There's been speculation that Carlos Santana, Phish's Trey Anastasio (whose band is in semi-retirement) and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder (his band is in town and has Sunday off) could put in cameos. The normally plugged-in rock acts have handled the challenge of playing acoustically with varying degrees of success. This year's bands can take comfort in Green Day's outstanding set from last year's show, but should live in fear of recreating the lethargy inspired by Billy Corgan and James Iha's embarrassing and somnambulistic set. The show, which begins Saturday at 5 p.m. (PT) and Sunday at 2 p.m., is a complete sellout, with all 50,000 tickets disappearing in two days. However, it will be Webcast at the official Bridge School site.