Rock Encyclopedia

a_CROSS//the_EARTH: Tear Down The Walls ROCKETS TO #2 ON U.S. iTUNES TOP ALBUMS CHART

Contemporary Christian Rock Band Sells Out Atlanta-Area 12,000-Seat Verizon Amphitheatre on Current North American Tour

American fans of Hillsong United, the Australian rock band, are building a grassroots bonfire under the group as a_CROSS//the_EARTH: Tear Down The Walls, the band’s newly released live album, rockets its way to the #2 position on the U.S. iTunes Top Albums chart.

A musical dark horse on the iTunes chart, a_CROSS//the_EARTH: Tear Down The Walls catapulted over mainstream competition last week from Adam Lambert, Keith Urban, Green Day and Lady GaGa.

Fans have been generating standing-room-only ticket sales for Hillsong United on the North American leg of the group’s a_CROSS//the_EARTH Spring Tour 2009 (please see itinerary following). On Wednesday night (May 27), Hillsong United sold-out the 12,000 seat Verizon Amphitheatre in Alpharetta, Georgia, just outside Atlanta, delighting their ecstatic fans with an evening’s worth of electrifying spirit-filled rock presented in an astounding concert environment of state-of-the-art light and sound.

Hillsong United is the music-making world-touring youth ministry of the Hillsong Church, a pentecostal congregation located in Sydney, Australia. Featuring Brooke Ligertwood and other charismatic worship leaders and performers, Hillsong United host Encounter, an annual youth conference, in the U.S. each summer, drawing thousands of fans from across the country. This year’s Encounter conferences will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center (August 21-22) and the University of Miami (August 28-29). For more details, please visit www2.hillsong.com/united/#/encounter.

The Hillsong Church produced its first praise and worship CD, The Power of Your Love, in 1992. The first Hillsong United release, the four-song EP One, was released in 1998 and bundled with the annual Hillsong live album. Since those humble beginnings, more than 6 million Hillsong CDs, DVDs and other branded units have sold in the United States, with Hillsong United selling more than 560,000 pieces in the U.S.

a_CROSS//the_EARTH: Tear Down The Walls, the latest in a line of live Hillsong United albums beginning with 1999′s Everyday, has been drawing rave reviews:

Kevin Davis, writing for the Christian Music Review, called the album “…a must have for your praise and worship collection.”

Andree Farias, in Christian Music Today, found “…a combination of stadium-sized praise rockers and ballads…” in the album while noting that “Hillsong United goes back to their old ways with energy and passion….In case you’ve been living under a rock, take heed: Hillsong United is the biggest youth worship band on the planet.”

“Hillsong United return with their first live CD recording since 2006,” wrote Leigh DeVore in Charisma magazine. “a_CROSS//the_EARTH: Tear Down The Walls features 12 songs, including 11 new tracks, in Hillsong United’s signature power, pop-rock worship melodies. The crowd stays involved on this rousing CD, with its good mix of feet-stomping tracks and heart-moving ballads….Hillsong United continue to usher crowds into the presence of God with energetic, faith-building songs. Fans will be so glad to hear them again….”

Hillsong United – U.S. Tour dates
Fri 5/29 Birmingham, AL The Basement at Cathedral of the Cross
Sat 5/30 Nashville, TN Curb Event Center
Mon 6/1 Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavillion
Tue 6/2 Ocean Grove, NJ Great Auditorium
Wed 6/3 Virginia Beach, VA Wave Church
Fri 6/5 New York, NY Roseland Ballroom (sold-out)
Sat 6/6 Toronto, Ont. Christian Heritage Day
Tue-Wed 6/9-10 Chicago, IL Willow Creek Conference
Fri-Sat 8/21-22 Los Angeles, CA Hillsong United Encounter – LA
Fri-Sat 8/28-29 Miami, FL Hillsong United Encounter – Miami

www.hillsongunited.com
www.IntegrityLive.com
www.columbiarecords.com

Source: Integrity/Columbia Records

ALBUM MARKS SECOND U.S. #1 IN A ROW

“Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”

First Single & Lead-Off Track From Together Through Life

Featured In HBO True Blood Promotional Campaign

Bob Dylan’s new album, Together Through Life, has entered both the U.S. and UK album charts at #1, marking the artist’s second consecutive U.S. #1 debut and his first chart-topping release in the UK since New Morning in 1970. Together Through Life is a true international hit, as well, achieving #1 debuts in Austria and Denmark, Top 5 entries in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Holland, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and New Zealand, and Top 10 rankings in Italy, France and Belgium.

“Beyond Here Lies Nothin’,” the first track on Together Through Life, is serving as the soundtrack for a series of on-air and online promotional spots for the highly anticipated second season of True Blood, the smash hit HBO vampire series. The eagerly awaited second season of True Blood launches on HBO on Sunday, June 14.

The True Blood promos debuted on HBO on Saturday, May 2, and are airing in heavy rotation on HBO and HBO’s multiplex channels. The True Blood/”Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” promos premiered online on both HBO.com and BobDylan.com May 4. The promotional spots can be viewed by clicking on the following link: www.hbo.com/trueblood/video.html

“When I heard the song, I knew it would be a perfect fit for our characters and storylines,” said True Blood creator Alan Ball.

A short film for “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” has been lensed by AFI and Sundance Film Festival award winning director Nash Edgerton, and will be seen on the IFC Channel and on IFC.com, beginning Tuesday, May 12.

Released on Tuesday, April 28, Bob Dylan’s Together Through Life is the artist’s first full-length studio album since 2006′s platinum-certified Modern Times, which also debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200. Produced by Jack Frost, Together Through Life, was recorded late last year, prompted by the composition of a new song, “Life Is Hard,” which was written for a forthcoming film by French director Oliver Dahan (La Vie En Rose).

Together Through Life is already receiving worldwide raves:

“Critics Choice! A vibrant new album.”
People Magazine

* * * (out of four)”Dylan’s 33rd solo album lives up to the artistic standards established by a trilogy of career-recharging gems that started with 1997′s Time Out Of Mind. But he deviates from their apocalyptic burdens to spin yarns, wry and real of ordinary folks in the grip of lust, longing and heartache,”

Edna Gundersen — USA Today

“Latter period Dylan is turning out to be some of his deepest, richest work. Together Through Life is another brilliant, sure-handed outing by one of the few certified greats still living up to his legend.”

Joel Selvin — San Francisco Chronicle

* * * (out of four)”His greatest achievement on this, his 33rd studio album, is his ability to shut out the expectations of a world that in recent years has sent his stock skyrocketing, and to assemble his warmest, most unforced, set of songs in recent memory.”

Pete Paphides — London Times

“Dylan has found his 21st century feet in musical touchstones almost 100 years old. And yet, through his growling, puckish delivery and crack band, it comes across fresh and vibrant. Here’s to Dylan finding more of his future in the sounds of the past.”

Jed Gottleib — Boston Herald

* * * (out of four)

Together Through Life is an album that gets its hooks in early and refuses to let go. It’s dark yet comforting, with a big tough sound, booming slightly like a band grooving at a soundcheck in an empty theatre. And at its heart there is a haunting refrain. Because above everything this is a record about love, its absence and its remembrance.

Danny Eccleston – Mojo

“Another genius Dylan disc….Together Through Life continues Dylan’s Indian summer string of masterpieces, and it’s a cut above 2006′s Modern Times.”

Brad Bamberger in the Newark Star-Ledger

“As crafty and moving as anything in Dylan’s catalog”
Corey duBrowa — Paste Magazine

“Together Through Life is the perfect soundtrack for down-but-not-out America, a clear-eyed, often elegant-sounding, road map that notes the struggles, but keeps its focus on making it through – with your sense of humor intact, no less.”

Glen Gamboa — Newsday

www.bobdylan.com

Source: Columbia Records

Multi-Dimensional Campaign Celebrates Return of Pearl Jam’s Groundbreaking Musical Masterpiece

With “Brother,” a previously unreleased track from the album’s recording sessions, reaching #1 on the nation’s Modern Rock radio charts, Legacy Recordings/Epic Records’ avidly-anticipated reissue of “Ten,” Pearl Jam’s 1991 game-changing debut album, has rocketed to #1 on the Billboard Top Pop Catalog albums chart, with first week’s domestic sales topping out at more than 60K pieces. Pearl Jam’s “Ten” has also hit #1 this week on the Top Hard Music Albums chart and the Top Internet Albums chart.

Thanks to first week’s sales on the “Ten” reissue, the album has just been certified 13x platinum (up from 12x) by the RIAA. (The original “Ten” was certified RIAA gold in February 1992 and received its first platinum certification on May 5, 1992). Early international chart figures show the album hitting Top 40 or better in Portugal (#2), Canada, the Netherlands (#9), the UK (#29) and Italy (#29).

In mid-March, Pearl Jam made American radio history when “Brother,” a previously unreleased track recorded more than 18 years ago and now available for the first time as a bonus track on the “Ten” reissue, rocketed into the #1 slot on the BDS/R&R Modern Rock Chart four weeks after entering the chart. With the #1 success of “Brother,” Pearl Jam joined the Beatles (“Free As A Bird”) and Elvis Presley (“A Little Less Conversation”) as one of the rare bands or artists to ever hit #1 with a track recorded decades prior.

One of the year’s most eagerly-awaited catalog releases, the new Legacy/Epic edition of “Ten” arrives in the midst of a groundbreaking multi-tiered campaign celebrating a historic masterpiece of rock.

Cold Case

As the newly remastered version of “Ten” hits the stores, the music of Pearl Jam has been slated to be featured exclusively during the two-part sixth season finale of the hit CBS television series “Cold Case,” to be broadcast on Sunday, May 3 and Sunday, May 10 (check your local listings). A total of 16 Pearl Jam tracks will be woven throughout the two consecutive “Cold Case” finale episodes, marking the first time in the show’s history that the music of a single artist/group will be showcased in more than one episode. A number of the songs featured on the “Cold Case” finale episodes are being drawn specifically from “Ten.”

VH1 Classic

On Saturday, March 21, VH1 Classic premiered “Pearl Jam Ten Revisited,” a half-hour look back at the seminal album that brought the sound of the Pacific Northwest underground to the American mainstream. The program showcases videos for “Even Flow,” “Alive,” “Porch” (from the band’s Unplugged performance), and a never-before-seen version of “Jeremy” as well as archival footage and interviews from the band. If you missed the first round of airings, VH1 Classic will re-broadcast “Pearl Jam Ten Revisited” on April 7 (please check your local listings).

In addition, MTV, VH1 and VH1 Classic celebrated Pearl Jam throughout March 2009 airing blocks of Pearl Jam music videos, feature videos and editorial content on MTV.com, MTV2.com and VH1.com, as well as VH1 Classic. VH1.com and VH1Classic.com streamed the full album the week of release.

Rock Band

On December 15, 2008, Harmonix, the world’s premier music video game development company, and MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks, confirmed that “Ten” would be offered for download in the Rock Band Music Store day-and-date with the re-issue of the album in stores on March 24, 2009.

In addition to the track “Alive” which is already available on the Rock Band 2 game disc, the Pearl Jam Ten download pack includes an additional 11 songs from the album: “Once,” “Even Flow,” “Why Go,” “Black,” “Jeremy,” “Oceans,” “Porch,” “Garden,” “Deep,” “Release,” and “Master/Slave.”

Fan response has been fantastic. On the album’s launch date, five of the Top 10 songs on Xbox LIVE were from Pearl Jam’s re-mastered “Ten” album for Rock Band. Moreover, the Pearl Jam album for Rock Band remained in the Top 3 most popular selling offers on Xbox LIVE throughout its launch week.

With Pearl Jam becoming an Xbox Artist of the Month, the group’s drummer Matt Cameron drew more than 18 million online viewers to the Xbox site when he played Rock Band 2 on Game With Fame with Xbox LIVE(R) Gold members on March 27. The Pearl Jam Game With Fame session took place inside the band’s secret Seattle headquarters where Rock Band 2 was set-up on a 50″ LCD TV inside the conference room of the building. The session was attended by gamers from around the world including the United States, Italy and Canada. Matt received hundreds of voice messages, text messages, game invites, and Xbox Live Party invites throughout the session.

The Legacy Editions

On Tuesday, March 24, Legacy released four special edition packages of “Ten,” each of them featuring two versions of the album: the remastered version of the original album PLUS an accompanying remixed version done by the band’s long-time producer, Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC, Audioslave).

The new editions include:

Legacy Edition (a 2-disc set in a mini-LP style slipcase featuring six bonus tracks: “Brother,” “Just a Girl,” “State of Love and Trust,” “Breath and a Scream,” “2,000 Mile Blues” and “Evil Little Goat”);

Deluxe Edition (a 2-disc set plus the long-awaited first-ever release of Pearl Jam’s mythic 1992 MTV Unplugged concert including never-before-seen bonus performance of “Oceans” with a 5.1 Surround Sound audio remix);

Vinyl Collection (two 12″ LPs of the original Ten tracklisting remastered for vinyl including the new Brendan O’Brien remix);

Super Deluxe Edition (a 2-disc set plus DVD, 4 LPs including 1992′s “Live at Magnuson Park” mixed by Brendan O’Brien, a cassette replica of the legendary “Momma-Son” demos of “Alive,” “Once” and “Footsteps” and an Eddie Vedder-style composition notebook filled with replica personal notes, images and mementos from the collections of Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament, a vellum envelope with replicated era specific ephemera from Pearl Jam’s early work and a two-sided print commemorating the Drop in the Park concert).

Press Response

The newly remastered edition of “Ten” has been drawing critical raves from all over the world:

“… [Ten] one of the great rock albums, period, of the last 20 years” – People magazine

“…the freshened-up album sounds to us today even more like it did back in 1991: classic.” – LA Times

“The guitars snap and bite, Vedder’s vocals are rawer and more textured, and Krusen’s crisp, syncopated parts stand out” – Rolling Stone (US)

“‘Ten’ is a classic of the grunge era, its super-sized anthems and introspective mood pieces powerfully voiced by Eddie Vedder, a Jim Morrison for the plaid shirt brigade.” – Mojo

“There is no shortage of choice for the avid collector…. It sounds great, actually from the inflammatory guitar intro to the momentous ‘Once’ to the final handsome drift of ‘Release’ it’s a resplendent thing.” – Uncut

“Pearl Jam has solidified its place as an indomitable cultural force.” – Seattle Sound

“It’s a relic and a shrine commemorating a bygone time when music was something you caressed.” – Blender

“It’s the extra features, spread over four different lavish editions, that truly impress…” – Q

“…fans will be particularly impressed with the difference in singer Eddie Vedder’s voice on the ‘new’ version of the album.” – NME

About “Ten”

Pearl Jam first released “Ten” on August 27, 1991. The album reached #2 on the Billboard 200 chart, sold over 12 million copies and became one of the cultural touchstones of the 1990s. Songs such as “Alive,” “Black,” “Even Flow” and “Jeremy” became staples of rock radio, and still make frequent appearances on the band’s ever-changing concert setlists. The album was produced by Rick Parasher. Pearl Jam’s 1991 lineup was Jeff Ament (bass), Stone Gossard (guitar), Dave Krusen (drums), Mike McCready (guitar) and Eddie Vedder (vocals/guitar).

Source: Legacy Recordings