Music Notes: Lucinda Williams Headlines WFUV Concert; Civil Wars Cancel Tour, Hear Prince Demos & New "Twilight" Soundtrack

A couple of musical items today, and a couple of sets of music for streaming.

* Lucinda Williams will headline this year's WFUV Holiday Cheer concert. The annual benefit for the Fordham University radio station will be held December 5th at the Beacon Theatre.

Other guests will be announced later, but this concert usually gets a good lineup of acts that the station's listeners will be familiar with. Tickets are priced at $40 to $120 and will go on sale Friday at 11 a.m. Or you can try the presale that started today (see the code to use at the WFUV announcement).



* What's going on with the Civil Wars? The Grammy-winning folk duo abruptly cancelled its world tour and then posted a cryptic note on its website and Facebook page, using terminology that made the development sound like a divorce:

"We sincerely apologize for the canceling of all of our tour dates. It is something we deeply regret. However, due to internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition we are unable to continue as a touring entity at this time. We thank each and every one of you for your amazing love & support. Our sincere hope is to have new music for you in 2013.  —Joy Williams & John Paul White"

People are scratching their heads over what's going on. Maybe a disagreement over how much commercial success to reach for, or venues to play, or how much touring to undertake? One factor may be the fact that Williams is a new mother—and that her husband is the duo's manager.

* Want to hear some demos and rarities from Prince? Check out Duane Harriott's show yesterday on WFMU. See the playlist and stream the show using several different options.

* Speaking of streaming, you can listen to the entire soundtrack for the forthcoming "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2" at Pandora. The soundtrack—which features contributions from Feist, Green Day, Passion Pit, St. Vincent, Skrillex, and more—will be released Nov. 13th, three days before the movie. (via Consequence of Sound)

Music Notes: Go-Go's & The Cars Playing NYC, Google's Music Cloud, Prince's 21 Nights in L.A., Bob Mould Memoir

Video for "Blue Tip," a song from "Move Like This," the forthcoming album from The Cars.

There's music news from the cutting edge of technology and the punk and new-wave days of the 1980s this week:

* The Go-Go's have rescheduled their reunion tour, which was cancelled last year when guitarist Jane Wiedlin suffered a knee injury while hiking. The Go-Go's and their "Ladies Gone Wild" tour hits New York's Irving Plaza on June 3rd; tickets are available here. Their planned tour last year was billed as a farewell tour, but this one isn't—I'm hoping that means that the band isn't planning on this run of shows to be its last. The tour coincides with the 30th anniversary of their blockbuster debut album, "Beauty and the Beat."

* The Cars on tour: I mentioned a couple of months ago that The Cars were coming out with a new album, "Move Like This," in May, and now they've got some tour dates planned. They're playing New York's Roseland Ballroom on May 25th, and you can look for tickets here.

* Google's cloud music player being tested: Amazon.com launched its cloud media player last week, and apparently Google's entry into the market is undergoing testing by the company's employees. Although Amazon's service seems to have run afoul of the music companies by not getting licensing rights, CNet wrote a few weeks ago that Google is in negotiations with the companies for rights to stream music from the cloud.

* Prince will play a 21-night residency in Los Angeles, starting this Thursday, April 14th at the Forum in Inglewood (where the Lakers used to play). The next shows will be April 21st and 22nd; the rest have yet to be announced. Tickets for the shows went on sale this morning. It's unclear where the rest of the Prince concerts will be; info on dates and locations are being made public on short notice. But here's a nice, fan-friendly twist to Prince's "21 Nite Stand": supposedly close to 85% of the tickets will go for $25, including fees.

* Bob Mould autobiography coming: I didn't know that the Minneapolis rock icon was working on a memoir, but someone mentioned it on Twitter today and there it was on Amazon.com: "See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody"comes out on June 15th and is available for pre-order. From the description (which I'm guessing comes from the publisher):

For the first time, Mould tells his dramatic story, opening up to describe life inside that furnace and beyond. Revealing the struggles with his own homosexuality, the complexities of his intimate relationships, as well as his own drug and alcohol addiction, Mould takes us on a whirlwind ride through achieving sobriety, his acclaimed solo career, creating the hit band Sugar, a surprising detour into the world of pro wrestling, and most of all, finally finding his place in the world.

That's definitely a book I'll want to read.

Prince Adds 4th Garden Show; Tickets on Sale Sat., Jan 15th

Prince at NJ's Izod Center last month.

Prince is bringing his "Welcome 2 America" show to Madison Square Garden one more time, on Monday, Feb. 7th. Tickets go on sale here Saturday, Jan. 15th at 10 a.m.

Prince played two shows at New Jersey's Izod Center and two at the Garden, and has another Garden appearance on Jan. 18th (said to be sold out).

His "Welcome 2 America" concerts have been getting wide acclaim (including from this reviewer). The shows feature a selection of hits and lesser-known songs from throughout his career, and Prince has been including opening acts who have been inspirations to or influences on him, including Cassandra Wilson, Maceo Parker, and Larry Graham of Graham Central Station, as well as the comedian Sinbad.

It's a fun, funky show, and you never know when Prince will tour again. So if you're interested in seeing him in concert, get your tickets when they go on sale Saturday.

Prince Takes Manhattan (and New Jersey) to Kick Off East Coast Tour

Prince emerges from his glyph-shaped stage at the Izod Center Friday.

For a 52-year-old performer who hasn't been touring much lately and has had hip problems, Prince sure hasn't missed a beat so far on his" Welcome 2 America" tour. I got to see him twice last week, on Friday at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ and the next night at Madison Square Garden. Both were very entertaining, high-energy shows with plenty of great tunes and a lot of funk.

The multitalented Prince displayed a wide assortment of musical styles, dance moves, and costumes while performing on a stage shaped like the glyph/symbol that he used to call himself. The Purple One ripped through songs from throughout his career, with a heavy emphasis on the hits.

On Friday, Prince started off his own set with an extended version of "Let's Go Crazy," then followed that up with three of his other best-known tunes: "Delirious," "1999," and "Little Red Corvette." Though the setlists for Friday and Saturday were similar, there were some differences: no "Little Red Corvette" on Saturday, though the MSG show did include couple of my Prince favs: "U Got the Look" and "Raspberry Beret," as well as "Nothing Compares 2 U."

I had hoped to here "When Doves Cry" at at least one of the shows, but it was not to be.

Prince making his guitar wail at the Izod Center.

"So many hits," Prince said during both shows, as if to recognize that there wasn't enough time in any one show to play them all. So in some cases he played medleys that combined two or more songs, similar to his Super Bowl halftime performance a few years back. It was good to hear so many tunes, but having some of them shortened and squeezed into medleys wasn't always satisfying.

Prince's protege Sheila E. was a guest at the Friday and Saturday shows. She came on stage and performed an energetic version of her hit "The Glamorous Life," to the delight of the fans, most of whom knew the words. She looked great and still had her chops on the drums, and she played along on a couple more songs with Prince and the band.

Prince as seen on an Izod Center video screen.

During both shows Prince had audience members come on stage to dance, but at the Madison Square Garden show the guests weren't just any fans. Prince called out a number of A-listers to join him on stage: Jamie Foxx, Spike Lee, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Sheppard, and even professor/philosopher/author Cornell West.

Prince was in fine form, as was his band (New Power Generation, from what I've read) and his three female backup singers, Elisa Dease, Liv Warfield and Shelby J. All told, Prince played for nearly two hours, which included several encores. (This included a few brief sessions of downtime for Prince to change costumes.) And yes, he did briefly play that gold-plated Stratocaster than he will later auction off for charity.

Prince's own sets were preceded by those of several veteran performers as opening acts (and sometimes performing with Prince). Cassandra Wilson opened the show on Friday night, followed by a set by legendary soul and funk saxophonist Maceo Parker. I missed Saturday's opening act by Sinbad, but caught the tail end of the set by the other opener, Larry Graham of Graham Central Station.

Prince plays Madison Square Garden again on December 29th and on January 18th. You can check for tickets at the Garden's official Prince ticket page here, or try StubHub if the shows are sold out. (There were several hundred tickets for both the Dec. 17th and 18th shows on StubHub, some listed for below face value.)

Prince hasn't toured the East Coast for six years, so if you've ever liked him music, my advice would be to get to one of his shows. They are fun and funky, and you'll definitely get your money's worth.

Prince Plays the Meadowlands Friday, the Garden Saturday

Prince is associated with the color purple, but he'll be playing this custom-made, gold-plated Stratocaster at his NYC/NJ shows.

Prince has begun his multi-night stand of concerts in the New York area, and it sounds like a great event judging by the New York Times' review of one of his shows at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Prince will play at IZOD again on Friday night the 17th, then at Madison Square Garden on Saturday (where I'll be in attendance, way up in the nosebleed section).  He'll come back to the Garden on December 29th and January 18th.

Tickets are still available for the Prince shows on Friday and Saturday on StubHub, and possibly at the box office as well.

Prince apparently wanted to do something special for his first New York-area concerts in six years, so he's auctioning off for charity a one-of-a-kind, all-gold-plated Stratocaster that he'll be playing at the shows (see photo above). If you're looking for that special gift for the musician who has everything, this might be just the thing. (Read more about Prince's gold-plated Strat at the L.A. Times.)

Prince to Perform First NYC Shows in Six Years - Tickets on Sale Sat.

Prince has been making catchy pop tunes for several decades now, but he doesn't tour very often. And I've heard that he hasn't toured on the East Coast since 2004.

But Prince is rectifying that in December with five shows in the New York area, two at Madison Square Garden and three at the Izod Center, across the river in East Rutherford, NJ (where the Nets and Devils used to play).

Prince is calling this his "Welcome 2 America" tour, which is to support his latest album "20Ten," which came out over the summer. Tickets for all five New York area Prince shows go on sales Saturday, October 30th at 10 a.m.

On Saturday you can buy Prince tickets for the New York area concerts:

* IZOD Center, Dec. 14
* IZOD Center, Dec. 15
* IZOD Center, Dec. 17
* Madison Square Garden, Dec. 18
* Madison Square Garden, Dec. 29

Prince, Metallica, Free Coldplay Single in Monday Music News

Lots of music news to start off the week. Prince is apparently back in fine form as a live act, and the he L.A. Times has praise for his set at Coachella. "The musician's dazzling performance Saturday night uses hits, guest stars and killer covers to cement his status as perhaps the top live act around," the article gushes. One cover tune he did: Radiohead's oldie-but-goodie, "Creep."

Speaking of Radiohead, Wired reports that Metallica is considering doing a pay-what-you-want release as Radiohead did for its "In Rainbows" album. Although Metallica has long been a critic of filesharing, Wired notes that "...With only one record left on its Warner Music Group contract, [Lars] Ulrich says Metallica could be planning a digital release along the lines of what Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have done, as ironic as that might seem."

Continuing with the theme of digital downloads, Coldplay is going to give away its new single free online. A notice on the Coldplay Web site says that "Violet Hill," from the band's new album "Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends," will be available free online for one week starting on Tuesday.

Perhaps more interesting, Coldplay has announced it will do two free shows: London's Brixton Academy (June 16th) and New York's Madison Square Garden (June 23rd).