R&B singer John Legend and The Roots band have joined for the release of “Wake Up!” available through Sony Music on September 21, 2010. The set, inspired by the Presidential election campaign of 2008, will feature soulful music from the 60s and 70s with hopes of inspiring change, awareness, consciousness and activism.

Featuring 11 songs, “Wake Up” is infused with sounds of gospel, rock, reggae and hip-hop, and includes tracks like “Wholly Holy” by Marvin Gaye, “Little Ghetto Boy” by Donny Hathaway, “Hard Times” by Baby Huey and the Babysitters and “Hang on in There,” by Mike James Kirkland.

“These songs sound so relevant now,” Legend said in a statement about the album, which originally started as a one-song idea. “On most of them, you wouldn’t change a lyric. ‘Wake Up Everybody’ (the album’s first single, featuring contributions from Melanie Fiona and Common) has four verses-the first one is a general statement, the second is about education, third is about health care, and the fourth is about making a better environment. No editing needed.”

The album features one original composition, Legend’s song “Shine,” described as a “Stevie-Wonder-meets-gospel” track, which is featured in Davis Guggenheim’s upcoming documentary film “Waiting for Superman.”

In addition to “Wake Up!” The Roots released their ninth studio album, “How I Got Over,” earlier this week (june 21).

By BILLBOARD.COM
Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha is stepping up his campaign to compel the state of Arizona to repeal its controversial immigration law. In addition to adding Ry Cooder, Nine Inch Nails, and comedian Chris Rock to the growing list of artists who are refusing to perform there as part of The Sound Strike boycott effort, de la Rocha tells Billboard.com that plans are in the works for a series of protest concerts in July.

“In the coming weeks we are going to be organizing a series of concerts that are respectful of the nature of the boycott in its attempts to isolate the Arizona government but not isolate the people, and especially the organizations that are fighting this on the ground,” de la Rocha said in a telephone interview. “Many of us have begun to plan concerts that include bands that have signed on the Sound Strike, and make tickets available so that people within Arizona can come and see these concerts as they roll out. These are things that are being set into motion right now - a series of concerts or maybe even one giant concert in late July.”

De la Rocha says that “there’s a strong chance” Rage Against the Machine will play one or more of the concerts.

The law passed by the Arizona state legislature, SB1070, requires local authorities to determine a person’s immigration status if he or she is suspected of being undocumented. The law is set to be enacted on July 29.

Maroon 5, Gogol Bordello, My Morning Jacket, Ben Harper and Pitbull are among the dozens of artists who today (June 28) announced their support for the Sound Strike effort and have pledged to boycott Arizona, refusing to perform in the state until the law is repealed. Steve Earle, Billy Bragg, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Anti-Flag, Throwing Muses, State Radio, Aztlan Underground and DJ Spooky also announced support for the effort in a posting on thesoundstrike.net today.

In addition to the dozens of artists announced today, the first in a series of video PSAs were released, featuring de la Rocha, Conor Oberst and Ozomatli. Additional PSAs will be posted to the site every Monday in the weeks leading up to the law’s scheduled enactment.

The Sound Strike was launched in late May by de la Rocha to mobilize fellow musicians to participate in the boycott effort, to educate the musicians’ fans about the law, and to gather signatures on a petition calling for its repeal. Cypress Hill, Juanes, Conor Oberst, Los Tigres del Norte, Rage Against the Machine, Cafe Tacvba, Kanye West, Calle 13 as well as Oscar winning filmmaker and activist Michael Moore were among the artists who signed on to the campaign at its launch.

“Its been a collaborative effort that started with a letter I sent out, which was passed on to all the guys in Rage Against the Machine, and to various friends I’ve made while playing in Mexico,” de la Rocha said. It spread organically that way. And I’ve definitely been pooling through everyone I know to continue to push before this law is enacted in just over a month. We’re still getting letter in and we have a lot more artists joining on that we’ll be announcing in the next few weeks.”

While many artists and musicians are supporting the boycott, some in the Arizona music community have questioned the approach, insisting that fans and promoters alike are being unjustly punished. In an open letter to the participating artists, Arizona-based concert promoter Charlie Levy of Stateside Presents urged them to reconsider. “By not performing in Arizona, artists are harming the very people and places that foster free speech and the open exchange of ideas that serve to counter the closed-mindedness recently displayed by the new law,” he wrote. “The people who will feel the negative effects of the boycott the deepest are local concert venues, including non-profit art house theatres, independent promoters, motivated fans, and the hundreds of people employed in the local music business. If the boycott continues, it is all but guaranteed that some of these venues will be forced to close their doors.”

But de la Rocha disagrees, and promises musicians will return to Arizona in force if their effort is successful.

“Governor Jan Brewer and the Arizona legislature have created an environment in Arizona where performing is no longer a neutral act,” he said. “They have created an environment where they can convert the the normal commercial interaction between artists and their fans into the means to apply this racist law. The relationship between musicians and artists and fans can best be served by standing for human rights and when we prevent this law from coming into action and continue to fight it even if it is enacted, when its removed from the books we’re going to have an unbelievable concert - it will be the celebration to end all celebrations.”

By Ray Waddell, BillBoard.com
Live Nation will roll out a massive price promotion this week, No Service Fee June, which will eliminate service fees on nearly 8 million tickets, more than 700 shows and 110 artists.

“Every show, every ticket, every artist, every amphitheater we own will have no service fees in June,” Jason Garner, CEO of Live Nation’s concert division tells Billboard.biz. Among the artists included are Dave Matthews Band, Jonas Brothers, Jimmy Buffett, Kiss, Kings Of Leon, Ozzfest, Phish, Rush, Tim McGraw, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and many others.

The June promotion follows last summer’s heavy discounting, including No Service Fee Wednesdays, which ran for 10 weeks. Garner says last summer’s promotional efforts moved 800,000 incremental tickets, addressing an industry-wide problem of unsold inventory.

“You start from the premise that 80% of shows don’t sell out and 40% of all tickets go unsold,” Garner says. “[Live Nation CEO] Michael [Rapino] has been challenging us, and we’ve been challenging ourselves, on how do we sell more tickets? How do we really fulfill our promise to artists of ‘let us promote your shows, choose us to connect you to your fans, and we’ll sell more tickets for you than anyone else.’”

Despite last year’s economic downturn, average per-show gross and attendance in North America were up 7.6% and 8%, respectively, according to Billboard Boxscore. That was the first time average attendance has outpaced gross in more than a decade.

“Last year, with No Service Fee Wednesday we achieved how to get incremental fans into the venues,” says Garner, who adds that internal customer research indicates that fans “overwhelmingly” preferred the no service fee promotion to other discounts.

Garner says overall the promotion will save fans about 20% for reserved seating and about 25% for lawn seating, about $12-$13 off the average ticket price. Given that service fees are a significant revenue stream for Live Nation as venue operator and promoter, the promotion begs the question: Will ancillary revenues from increased ticket sales will offset the lost revenue from eliminating fees?

“The goal is to fill every seat this summer. We know if we do that, we win, the industry wins, the artists win and the fan wins,” Garner says.

Last year Live Nation’s critics said such promotions encouraged fans to wait for discounts, among other criticisms. Garner expects that this year’s campaign will have its critics, as well.

“When somebody does come up with something like we did last year, waiving our own money to make sure that we could get more fans in the door, then all of a sudden all the naysayers came out,” Garner says. “While I’m sure there will be [some] negative voices in the industry who will have something to say about this, I guarantee not one fan will say ‘oh, darn, I wish I could have paid a service fee in the month of June.’”

Despite rampant industry talk that ticket sales are slumping this year and the cancellation of several tours and shows, Garner says the sales pattern this year is similar to other summers. He says no one is panicking at Live Nation and a major promotion was always planned for this summer, rather than a short-term reaction to current sales.

Garner says that Live Nation research indicated that 52% of fans that bought on No Service Fee Wednesday last year said they weren’t coming to the show without that discount. “Once you have that fact in your head, it’s hard to say ‘I’m not going to figure out something else to do to help encourage more fans to come,’” he says. “When you have unsold inventory your job is to figure out how to sell that inventory and price is one of the ways you do that.”

Tickets for No Service Fee June are available only at LiveNation.com begins today will remain in effect until 11:59 pm ET, Wednesday, June 30.

By the Associated Press
With a hit Broadway show and now their own edition of the “Rock Band” franchise, Green Day is establishing themselves as a punk rock brand.

“I just like being diverse and trying new things as far as Green Day is concerned,” says front man Billie Joe Armstrong.
The Grammy-winning, multiplatinum trio joins the Beatles as the only other act immortalized in “Rock Band”; the video game is being released next Tuesday.

“It’s like a glorified karaoke machine,” Armstrong said. “Or ‘Mortal Kombat’ with guitars.”

As players progress through the game, they gain access into the band’s media vault, where they can unlock rare collectible images, and over 40 minutes of unreleased video. These include performances, outtakes, interviews, and even a tour of their transportation.

“You see old footage of us from the Bookmobile, and weird old performances and stuff no one’s looked at in almost twenty years,” Armstrong said.

Bits from those old performances help recreate the kinetic energy of the band playing live. Developers went through many hours of footage to get it right, and even used stand-in performers to fine-tune the computer-generated version on the punk rock trio.

“As far as video games are concerned it’s pretty close,” Armstrong said. “The Beatles wrote some of the greatest songs ever, but it wasn’t challenging to get their movement down (on ‘Rock Band’) because they didn’t really move that much.”

Regarding their computer-generated likeness, the consensus was positive.

“Oh man, we’re hot on computers,” said drummer Tre Cool, while Dirnt joked: “I don’t know if they got enough pimples on me.”
In the game, players perform in three different venues, each significant to the band. There’s a punk rock club, which is an amalgamation of various places Green Day played in the early days; the Fox Theater in their hometown in Oakland, California; and the site of their first stadium show.

“The Milton Keynes (stadium) show was quite momentous for us. It actually was the concert that was filmed for ‘Bullet in a Bible,” Dirnt said, referring to the live DVD that was recorded in 2005 on the band’s “American Idiot” tour.

It was at the cast party for the Berkley, California, version of the Broadway musical “American Idiot,” now nominated for three Tony awards including best musical, where the band was introduced to “Rock Band.”

“Everybody got drunk and was playing ‘Beatles Rock Band,’” Armstrong said. “We were just having a good time with it.”
But that doesn’t always equate to success. After playing the game for the first time over a year ago, and experiencing their own edition, how good a player does Armstrong consider himself?

“I suck,” he said. “I’m not very good at it.”

Pearl Jam is taking the more-is-more approach to sharing their music this spring: the band has just announced that the shows on its current 2010 world tour will be released as official bootlegs, started a preorder audio release of a quartet of Philadelphia shows from October, and launched Pearl Jam Radio. All three of the new offerings are available via PearlJam.com.

The latest installment of the band’s now decade-long official bootleg series, the 2010 Bootleg Program offers full-concert soundboard recordings in a choice of three formats beginning in Mid-May. The series features shows from Pearl Jam’s current tour, which kicked off on May 1 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and makes a run through the U.S. before heading to Europe on June 22. The CD version will cost $16.98 per show, a FLAC download will be $14.98, and the MP3 flavor will be $9.98. Pearl Jam first began offering official recordings of its tours with the 72-show release chronicling every note of its 2000 world trek.

Meanwhile, fans can now pre-order recordings of a quartet of Pearl Jam shows that were the last four concerts played at Philadelphia’s hallowed Spectrum arena last October. The shows will be available as downloads, on CD, and also as a limited edition set that collects the whole run.

And in the spirit of instant gratification, the busy Seattle band has also launched Pearl Jam Radio today. The player, which lives on PearlJam.com, offers a constant stream of live, rare and studio tunes from throughout PJ’s two-decade career.

Pearl Jam’s most recent album, “Backspacer,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last fall. Its latest single, “Just Breathe” is No. 5 on the Rock Songs chart