May 31st, 2006
"What has driven our career is touring" says Matthews
Dave Matthews has long been touted as one of the hardest-working guys in the music business. With yet another extensive summer tour and the follow-up to 2005’s “Stand Up” in the works, it looks like he’s living up to that description.
It’s hard to believe that the Dave Matthews Band, which grossed $57 million in 2005 from touring North America and has consistently placed in the top 5 grossing tours annually over the last decade, still has the stamina to push on.
But when you’ve built your success on playing live, you tend to stick to a pattern that works.
“We do change the sets and let the music evolve and look for spontaneous moments in what we’re doing,” Matthews said by phone while sipping a beer at Heathrow airport, waiting for his flight back home from a week in London. “Maybe I get tired of not being in one place or not having the same pillows every night, but as long as we like playing, it sort of makes all the other [stuff] more bearable.”
May 26th, 2006
ARI BENDERSKY
Dave Matthews has long been touted as one of the hardest-working guys in the music business. With yet another extensive summer tour and the follow-up to 2005's "Stand Up" in the works, it looks like he's living up to that description.
It's hard to believe that the Dave Matthews Band, which grossed $57 million in 2005 from touring North America and has consistently placed in the top 5 grossing tours annually over the last decade, still has the stamina to push on.
But when you've built your success on playing live, you tend to stick to a pattern that works.
"We do change the sets and let the music evolve and look for spontaneous moments in what we're doing," Matthews said by phone while sipping a beer at Heathrow airport, waiting for his flight back home from a week in London. "Maybe I get tired of not being in one place or not having the same pillows every night, but as long as we like playing, it sort of makes all the other (stuff) more bearable."
May 24, 2006
By Roy Kasten, Julie Seabaugh, Andy Vihstadt
B-Sides and Judah Friedlander fondly remember the hug heard 'round the world, catches up with Bobby Bare Jr. and tells you how to download even more Robert Pollard stuff
It's been nearly five years since stand-up comic and actor Judah Friedlander (American Splendor, The Darwin Awards, Feast) incited a national hugging craze in the video for the Dave Matthews Band's hit single, "Everyday." Since that time, Friedlander has compiled a series of behind-the-scenes photos at www.judahfriedlander .com and continues to marvel at the video's long-lasting impact: "People I don't know still come up to me on the street every day and hug me."
B-Sides: How did DMB rate as huggers, both individually and as a group?
Judah Friedlander: Boyd was the only one who didn't get a boner. So I'd say his hug was the best and least awkward. Just kidding; they were all cool. Some guys were harder to hug than others because I was hugging them while they were playing their instruments and singing, and I didn't want to mess them up.
May 10th, 2006
First of all, thank you very much, it’s good of you to find the time, your schedule is probably far more busy than mine.
I just came in today, this morning, I’m very happy to be here but I am a little wacky. The sleeping pills worked on the flight over but I’m a little delirious today. I went and had a fantastic massage, in a hotel, from Marin, and it even made things worse for me. I mean I feel great but I could very easily be sleeping rather than talking to you.
May 2nd, 2006
Online Interview on ESPN.com with Boyd Tisley of the Dave Matthews Band
Buzzmaster: (3:48 PM ET ) Boyd is here and ready for your questions.
April 11th, 2006
By John Yellig
Local celebs will turn out next week to help dedicate the First Amendment Monument at the east end of the Downtown Mall.
Dave Matthews Band member Boyd Tinsley, novelist John Grisham and former Virginia Poet Laureate George Garrett will make opening remarks before Dahlia Lithwick, legal affairs reporter and commentator for Slate magazine and National Public Radio’s “Day to Day” program, delivers the keynote address.
Following the dedication, members of the public will get their first crack at writing on the Community Chalkboard, a large slab of Buckingham slate placed in front of City Hall.
The 42-foot by 7-foot chalkboard is one part of the monument, which also features a speaker’s podium and a smaller slab with an inscription of the First Amendment on one side and a quotation from Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall stressing the importance of the freedom of speech on the other.
April 7th, 2006
Daily Record UK - By John Dingwall
With sales of more than 30 million in the US, Dave Matthews is the kind of superstar who can walk the street in the UK without being recognised.
The underrated South African songsmith recently played a London gig where tickets were changing hands for more than £200 a pop on eBay yet he remains somewhat anonymous as far as British tastes are concerned.
But with the release this week of his latest single, American Baby from the Dave Matthews Band's sixth solo album Stand Up, he is hoping for recognition for his folk rock sound on a scale recently enjoyed by Jack Johnson.
He said: "There is no comparison between our status in the US compared to the UK Over there we exploited the American market on our terms.
"People see us as a really mainstream band in America. But we have never been much loved by radio or MTV."
Catch Dave live in an acoustic setting as I did in London recently, and you can't help but warm to his blend of satirical songs and hilarious anecdotes.
April 04, 2006
- By Jim Dalrymple
The entire catalog of the Dave Matthews Band is now available on the iTunes Music Store. With the announcement today, Apple becomes the first digital music store to offer individual songs for purchase from the group.
Matthews explained that he decided to make the entire catalog available to Apple after receiving feedback from fans on the release of the band’s first album on iTunes, “Stand Up.”
March 2nd, 2006
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By Gavin Martin
In the States, with sales of more than 30 million, Dave Matthews is a superstar. In the UK, however, his band's blend of jam-band folk-blues and world music barely registers. Yet, with a substantial portion of the audience comprising itinerant members of US and Australian colleges, tickets for tonight's show were fetching £200 on the black market. The chance to see him thrashing an acoustic guitar in a 700-capacity venue rather than the Stateside enormo-dromes where his multi-racial Charlottesville-bred band usually hold court doesn't come along often.
Shambling onstage with a minimum of fuss, Matthews hoists up his trousers and adjusts his belt-buckle. After the first of many rambling but humorous monologues, he plays "Bartender", blues with a tribal beat, encompassing rasping vocals and a coda of wordless wailing. Combined with the garrulous between-song tales the performance calls to mind a stoner-Springsteen without the E Street band.
March 1, 2006
Larry Wilson, general manager of the University of Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena, today announced that Dave Matthews Band will be the Grand Opening event for the 16,000 seat facility, appearing on both Friday, September 22 and Saturday, September 23, 2006.
This will be the first concert in Charlottesville for hometown favorite, Dave Matthews Band, since their appearance at Scott Stadium in April 2001.
Tickets for these events will be available for purchase in the next several months and members of the community can sign up now for special Keeping Up with the Joneses email alerts by visiting the John Paul Jones Area Web site. Keeping Up with the Joneses allows subscribers to review upcoming events and notifies them when tickets go on sale.
February 24, 2006
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Charlottesville Daily Progress -
Charlottesville's City Center for Contemporary Arts has received a $550,000 boost from a charity sponsored by the city's most famous group, the Dave Matthews Band.
Bama Works Fund, the band's charitable giving arm, announced the pledge Thursday. The pledge represents half of the $1.1 million needed to complete the C3A Building Campaign, and the band challenges the local community to join the effort so the arts center can finish the campaign by the end of the year.
"I believe strongly that everyone should have a chance to participate in the arts," said Carter Beauford, drummer for the band. "We feel that there's a role we can play to help people have access to creative opportunities - not just by funding the arts ourselves, but also by challenging everyone to continue to support the arts and nurture other artists."
February 6th, 2006
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Words & Images by Gabriela Kerson
Dave Matthews & Friends Caribbean Cruise Getaway :: 02.03 - 02.06
My favorite movie of all time is Festival Express. I love seeing all those talented people hanging out, drinking, and jamming together while they travel on a continuous loop to nowhere. I was ecstatic therefore when I found out I was going on the Dave Matthews and Friends Cruise as a production assistant with Soulive. The organizers had collected a brilliant cross-section of the best bands on the scene. There were two ships filled with a total of just under 5,000 people and 1,800 crew. The Sovereign of the Seas sailed from Port Canaveral, and The Majesty left from Miami. The fourteen bands were divided down the middle and sent onto the separate ships. Our destination was a secret island for a Dave Matthews and Friends show, but as with Festival Express, it turned out the real fun was just getting there.
Flying out of LaGuardia on an unseasonably warm February afternoon, I almost couldn't believe my luck, except I was sitting next to top music personality Reggie Watts, and he wouldn't shut up. Fortunately, he also had me laughing. We landed in Miami and were met by a tech guy who picked us out from the crying babies with no trouble at all. I guess with our shades and ragged clothes we must have looked like rock stars, or at least like New Yorkers.
January 30th, 2006
John Benson, Cleveland
There are plenty of people giving steel guitar virtuoso Robert Randolph ideas for his Family Band's next album, the highly anticipated follow-up to 2003's "Unclassified." But the Orange, N.J., native says it's a far cry from having too many cooks in the kitchen on the effort, due in May via Warner Bros.
"It's great getting ideas from other artists, whether it's somebody like Carlos Santana, Dave Matthews or Eric Clapton," Randolph tells Billboard.com. "These are all guys -- and producers too, like Rick Rubin -- who have been coming to the table saying, 'I have these ideas.' So, I like to hear people out and hear what they've got."
January 20th, 2006
He's the biggest music star in the USA, but probably couldn't get arrested here. Tim Cooper meets a man for whom success means having the cash to do good
In America, Dave Matthews is so famous that when he goes out to dinner before a gig in Las Vegas it makes front-page news the next morning. Rolling Stone calls him "the biggest rock star in America" and he's sold 30 million albums and 10 million concert tickets to back it up. He's been called "the Bono of America" for the wide range of liberal causes he supports. And, to cap it all, he has had not one but two ice-cream flavours named in his honour by Ben & Jerry.
Yet in England... would you recognise his songs if you heard them? Would you recognise him, come to that, if he came round to your house? In the words of his last UK marketing campaign: who the hell is Dave Matthews?