The Roundup

A lot of blogs gather news bits and random notes for easy consumption. I've avoided that approach to this point, but thought I'd offer up some recent items that may interest you. We'll call it the Roundup:

Pete Opens Lifehouse (from Billboard)

Pete Townshend's decades-old vision of creating musical portraits through technology has come to fruition. On April 25th Pete unveiled his music creation, now dubbed the Lifehouse Method, to a small gathering of journalists in London.

The Method is an Internet-based software program that enables the user -- or "sitter" -- to generate music from unique, inputted data. The sitter can upload four strands of personal information into the system, consisting of a digital photo, a rhythm, a sound and a voice.

Townhend explained that the project was the culmination of an idea which had percolated since his art school days in the 1960s. The concept was first introduced in the early 1970s via music intended for the Townshend-penned "Lifehouse" song cycle and planned concept album, which eventually morphed into the Who's "Who's Next" album. More here

Raconteurs Recording Again (from Billboard)

Jack White is a busy man. The Raconteurs are in Nashville working on the follow-up to their 2006 debut "Broken Boy Soldiers" and hope to have a new album out sometime next year.

The group, which features White, Brendan Benson, and Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler of The Greenhornes, has been recording at Blackbird Studio in Nashville and currently has 12 songs written.

The group is attempting to get as much of the as yet unnamed sophomore album done before the White Stripes start touring in support of their next album, "Icky Thump," due June 19 on Third Man Records/Warner Bros. Records. That outing also is slated to begin in June.

Dylan is Tireless

Now that James Brown is gone, Bob Dylan maybe the the hardest working man in the business. Dylan is in the midst of a European tour, and will hit the road in the States beginning with a June 22-23 stand at the Borgata in Atlantic City, and running through July 28, including festival appearances in Canada. He also has a new song, "Huck's Tune," on the just-released "Lucky You" soundtrack (Columbia) and will return to his excellent XM Satellite Radio show, "Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour," in September.

Here are Dylan's Summer North American tour dates. The bad news for me, nothing really near Chicago. The good news is that Bob has been playing the guitar on stage again for the first time in a few years. Hmmm. Maybe a trip to the Toledo Zoo is in order....

June 22-23: Atlantic City, N.J. (Borgata)
June 24: Hershey, Pa. (Hersheypark Stadium)
June 26: Northampton, Mass. (Pines Theater)
June 27: Uncasville, Conn. (Mohegan Sun)
June 29: Wantagh, N.Y. (Jones Beach)
June 30: Bethel, N.Y. (Bethel Woods Center)
July 1: Essex Junction, Vt. (Champlain Valley Expo)
July 3: Quebec City, Quebec (Colisee Pepsi)
July 4: Montreal (Festival Intn'l de Jazz)
July 5: Ottawa, Ontario (Cisco Systems Bluesfest)
July 7-8: Rama, Ontario (Casino Rama)
July 10: Interlochen, Mich. (Kresge Auditorium)
July 11: Sterling Heights, Mich. (Freedom Hill Amphitheatre)
July 12: Toledo, Ohio (Toledo Zoo)
July 14: Cleveland (Plain Dealer Pavilion)
July 15: Indianapolis (The Lawn at White River)
July 16: Kansas City, Mo. (Starlight Theatre)
July 26: Costa Mesa, Calif. (Pacific Amphitheatre)
July 27: Paso Robles, Calif. (Mid-State Fair Grandstand)
July 28: Kelseyville, Calif. (Konocti Field Amphitheatre)

U2 and Marvel Team-Up

Marvel Studios is working on a Broadway musical starring the Spider-Man, which will be directed by Tony winner Julie Taymor, with U2's Bono and the Edge creating new music and lyrics for the project. Maybe Bono will reprise his role as Mephisto or the muscle dude from the ill-fated Popmart Tour.

mp3: Mofo, a U2 song you may have overlooked

Wilco Weebles

We've got action figures of Hendrix and Cobain, but I never would have expected little toy figurines of my favorite alt-country/impressionist rock band. Thanks to Portland based company UNKL, these little guys will be available soon. I must admit in browsing this site some of this stuff is kind of fun.

Signs of the Apocalypse

And finally, the Chicago Tribune recently reported that a 13-year old girl in Pennsylvania claims to send nearly 8,000 text messages a month on her cell phone, and in a contest was able to text "supercalifragilisticexpealadocious" (from Mary Poppins) in 15 seconds. For her efforts, she won $15,000. Oh my gawd......