Among the artists scheduled to appear during the sold out event include: Cypress Hill, Juanes, Conor Oberst, Los Tigres del Norte, Rage Against the Machine, Cafe Tacvba, Micheal Moore,
Kanye West, Calle 13, Joe Satriani, Serj Tankian, Rise Against, Ozomatli, Sabertooth Tiger, Massive Attack, One Day as a Lion, Street Sweeper Social Club, Spank Rock, Sonic Youth and Tenacious D.

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).

“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.”

“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.

“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.”

APPLE VALLEY — The Sunset Concert Series presented by Target kicks off June 17 with Phat Cat Swinger back again for opening night, sponsored by the Alaska USA Federal Credit Union.  It is high quality groups like this that earned the concert series a nod as a “Best of the Desert” finalist for special events in the 2010 Daily Press reader’s survey.  The music continues from 6 to 9 p.m. every Thursday night through August 5.
The concerts feature a delicious array of food, a beer garden and live music.  Don’t forget blankets and beach chairs as the inclined lawn seats over 1,500 people. Parking and admission are free.
June 17 – Phat Cat Swinger (Swing)
June 24 – The Working Poets (Classis rock)
July 1 – Neon Nation (80s)
July 8 – Silverados (Country)
July 15 – Latin Express (Top 40s/Latin)
July 22 – Jesus Band LA (Contemporary Christian)
July 29 – Rockit Scientists (Oldies Rock)
Aug 5 – Big Fat Steve Band (Rockabilly)

If you haven’t seen Civic Center Park lately it’s time to pay a visit! Located next to Town Hall and the library at 14955 Dale Evans Parkway just east of Super Target, the 22-acre master planned park includes a junior Olympic swimming pool, walking paths and wide expanses of grass.  The centerpiece of the park is the 1000-seat grass amphitheater, home to the Sunset Concert Series presented by Target and winner of first place honors as “Best of the Desert” location for live performances!

This winter, all of the sidewalks were widened and additional lighting installed, providing a new location for your evening walks.  The wider sidewalks will also allow a new layout at the Sunset Concert Series, bringing back a wider variety of vendors and moving the food vendors in closer to the action.
For more information please visit www.applevalley.org or call (760) 240-7000 x 7071.

LOS ANGELES • Spangles, sparkles, tassels, bumping and grinding.

That’s what most people think is all it took to be in burlesque, but  “Behind the Burly Q” documents the evolution of burlesque and  strip tease in the United States by interviewing the dames, straightmen and second bananas that made the art what it was in its heyday.

Did you know the first Tinkerbell who slide from the Matterhorn into Adventureland was stripper Tiny Kline? She was discovered by Walt Disney, himself and was Tink until she turned 70. She died the same year she retired from Disney.

Director Leslie Zemeckis and producer Sheri Hellard criss-crossed the country to find artists like Tempest Storm, Dixie Evans, The Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque, White Fury, Alan Alda, whose father was a straight man and “tit signer,” and Chris Costello, the daughter of legendary vaudeville comedian, Lou Costello.

The documentary tracks the origins of the “cooch shows” to France, Great Britain and Greece, but they really took hold and transformed in the United States in the theaters.

The women are quick to point out that there was a difference between burlesque and stripping. In stripping the women took their clothes off but in burlesque, the bits and pieces remained covered, but not by a whole lot.

Alda kindly recalled his time in vaudeville and with the chorus girls saying they loved to “pat his head.” And also remembered a pig used in his father’s comedy act calling it his sibling.

“I hated that pig,” he chuckled adding that when there was no room for him in the car when his parents and his father’s partner had to travel to the next town, he was left in the care of his two “crazy aunts.”

Many of the women interviewed talked about their time as dancers as great times that afforded them the opportunity to make good money at a time when many women didn’t or couldn’t work.

Taffy O’Neill would dance at night and use the money to help get her son polio treatments.

“Behind the Burly-Q” is lovingly put together and gives people a glimpse into a seldomly talked or taught about era in American history. Those who enjoy learning the history of entertainment and film can’t miss this gem. The vintage footage alone will have history buffs salivating, and not just because of the subject matter.

It’s an all engrossing film that you can lose yourself in. It’s funny, sad, touching and completely amazing.

During the Great Depression, these shows were a haven for men and women and at only 10 cents for admission, the show complete with comedians, dancers, novelty acts and singers, was a steal.

Many of the performers interviewed have since passed away, making “Behind the Burly-Q” an wonderfully important piece of documented history having come straight from the artists’ mouths. Don’t miss it.

“Behind the Burly-Q” premiers at The Sunset 5 in Los Angeles on May 7 and will run for at least one week. Go to www.Laemle.com to purchase tickets.