Dave Matthews Band concert turned down by ESPN

Dave Matthews Band offered to play a concert during ESPN's Winter X Games, but ESPN said no, according to the Aspen Daily News.

Dave Matthews Band bassist and X Games aficionado Stefan Lessard made the offer, but an ESPN official said the network did not want to draw attention and staff away from the X Games themselves. Police in Aspen, Colo., home of the X Games, said there were no concerns about crowd control and that was not the reason for passing on the concerts.

The Winter X Games will take place Jan. 24-27 at Buttermilk Mountain. Dave Matthews Band is no stranger to winter sporting events, having played during the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

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Dave Matthews Band bassist Stefan Lessard loses Virginia home in early-morning fire

Dave Matthews Band bassist Stefan Lessard's house in Ivy, Va. was destroyed in a fire this morning.

Stefan and his son safely escaped before the two-story house became engulfed in flames. WVIR has video of the fire and reports that part of the house's roof collapsed. Ivy is just outside Dave Matthews Band's base in Charlottesville, Va.

Blog-Eyed Fish will post updates throughout the day as they come in.

UPDATE (6:13 p.m.): The Associated Press is reporting that Stefan and his son escaped the house after they heard "crackling" in the kitchen. Investigators now think the fire started outside the house -- previous reports said it started on the first floor -- but arson or foul play is not suspected, the AP said. In addition, WRIV reports that firefighters were able to salvage some "irreplaceable" photos and awards.

UPDATE (3:01 p.m.): Lots of fans are giving Stefan their best wishes on his Facebook and MySpace pages.

UPDATE (1:19 p.m.): WVIR also reports that Stefan's house was worth $1.1 million, and adding in the contents of the house, Stefan and his family are facing a $2 million loss overall.

UPDATE (12:26 p.m.): The fire started around 7 or 7:30 a.m. WCAV reports it took 40 firefighters to battle the flames, and the house burned quickly because its exterior was cedar. WVIR adds that Stefan called 911 after escaping, but "the home is likely a total loss."

Photo courtesy: WCAV

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Dave Matthews Band New Album Preview: 'The Idea Of You'

Dave Matthews Band is hitting the studio next year to record the follow-up to 2005's Stand Up, and Blog-Eyed Fish is taking a look at every song that could potentially appear on the new album. In Part One of the Dave Matthews Band New Album Preview, we focus on "The Idea Of You."

"The Idea Of You" was the first new song that Dave Matthews Band debuted in 2006, and it was one of the most-played songs on that summer tour. Dave Matthews has said that the song is about his babysitter when he was growing up, although early versions of the song seem to be about an older man's love for a young girl. In 2007, the band added a more rock-oriented drum beat to the chorus of the song.

Why "The Idea Of You" will end up on the new Dave Matthews Band album: It has been a concert staple for two years, and it has the pop sensibilities needed for a good single.

Why it won't: DMB has already released five versions of the song through the Live Trax series.

Video: Dave Matthews Band "The Idea of You"

Dave Matthews Band featured on Live Earth DVD

Dave Matthews Band will appear on Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis, a CD/2-DVD set due Dec. 4.

DMB's performance of "Too Much" during the July 7, 2007 Live Earth concert at Giants Stadium is included on one of the DVDs. The CD and DVDs include some unique performances, including a David Gray and Damien Rice duet on "Que Sera, Sera" and "Gimme Shelter" by Keith Urban and Alicia Keys. They also feature some classics, like "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" by Roger Waters and "Black Hole Sun" by Chris Cornell.

This year's Live Earth concerts -- at least one on each continent -- were organized by Al Gore to promote global warming awareness.

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Dave Matthews movie to start filming in January

Dave Matthews' next acting project, the science-fiction comedy "The Other Side," will begin filming in January in Nova Scotia, and he will perform the film's original music, according to The Chronicle Herald.

The film stars Woody Harrleson, Jason Lee and Giovanni Ribisi, and Katie Holmes is also in talks to join the cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Dave Matthews isn't the only musician in the cast; Alanis Morissette has also signed on. Dave and Alanis last worked together about 10 years ago, when she sang on Dave Matthews Band's Before These Crowded Streets album.

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Dave Matthews interview airing tomorrow

Dave Matthews will appear on "The Dave Fanning Interview" on the Rave HD channel tomorrow. The show will air at 10:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern, then again Friday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern. The Rave HD Web site has a few clips from the show with Dave talking about Dave Matthews Band's beginnings.

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New Dave Matthews Band album sessions to begin this winter; 'Cornbread,' '#27' likely

Dave Matthews Band will start recording its new album late this winter, according to bassist Stefan Lessard.

Stefan appeared on Sirius radio's Jam On station this week and said there are no firm plans for recording the new Dave Matthews Band album. It will likely include some of the songs that the band debuted on its summer tour -- Stefan specifically mentioned "Cornbread" and "#27" -- as well as some brand new songs.

"We're excited to get something out," Stefan said. "We've been playing a lot of new songs, and we've been getting good responses."

Dave Matthews Band has not decided on a producer for the new album or where to record it, Stefan told Sirius. He mentioned Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hawaii, Grand Cayman and the band's hometown of Charlottesville, Va. as possible locations. And there's no timetable for the new album's release, he said.

"There's really no deadline to have a record out," he said. "We just want to make something that's going to be great to release."

Stefan said he will spend most of his winter working on a new snowboarding movie with "American Pie" star Jason Biggs, Ed Robertson from Barenaked Ladies and Adam Gardner from Guster. He also said a Dave Matthews Band summer tour in 2008 is "almost a guarantee."

"It would be like a summer without, you know, backyard barbecues and beach vacations," he said.

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Dave Matthews draws heat for God comments

Dave Matthews is taking some criticism for his recent comments in Rolling Stone, where he said the concept of God is "more irritating than Santa Claus."

NewsBusters, a site devoted to "exposing and combating liberal media bias," has a blog post with Dave's comments and lots of anti-Dave feedback from readers. Here's part of one reader's rant:

"Dave Matthews obviously hates himself and is very angry like all liberals at God, because when he was screaming to his pillow in pleas like all of us do as children during our rough times.......God did not come like Dave had demanded...........and Dave never saw that God is always there not to take us out of the problem, but to help us grow through it to be better Spiritual people."

These were Dave's full comments about God:

"The idea that we’re somehow centrally important to the planet’s existence is pretty comical -- although I’d like us to be. I’d like to think that the eyes of some heavenly body are watching us and saying, ‘Oh, look at my beautiful children.’ But it’s absurd. It’s just our attempt to be more important than a tree. ...

"I use the word 'God' in my songs all the time, because I don't know what the hell is going on. So that's God -- everything I don't know. But the idea of God as a fatherly figure who looks down on us and worries about how we're doing or takes sides when we have fights -- it's more irritating than Santa Claus."

Dave seems to address this topic in the song "Eh Hee" when he sings: "Strange evolution how people have come to believe that we are its greatest achievement/When really we're just a collection of cells overrating themselves/Hello God, I'm avoiding the truth."

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Army newspaper interviews Dave Matthews

Dave Matthews recently gave an interview to the Pointer View, the student newspaper at the U.S. Military Academy. He talked about what it was like to play for the cadets during last week's World's Loudest Pep Rally concerts, and he said the experience reminded him of family trips to West Point, N.Y. when he was younger. The Army News Service picked up the story this week.

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Dave Matthews Band live album preview on Sirius

Dave Matthews Band bassist Stefan Lessard will be on Sirius satellite radio tomorrow to promote DMB's upcoming Live at Piedmont Park album and DVD. He'll be on Jam On, the jam bands station, at 5 p.m. Eastern, playing songs from the CD. Sirius will rebroadcast the program Wednesday at 9 p.m. and Thanksgiving Day at noon.

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Dave Matthews Band fills bonus CDs with rarities

Dave Matthews Band has released the track listing for the bonus CDs that fans who pre-order the Live at Piedmont Park album and DVD will receive, and they are full of rare and unreleased songs.

Fans who pre-order either the CD or DVD will receive a four-track Summer Tour Sampler bonus CD with these songs from the 2007 tour: "Sweet Up and Down" from Aug. 11, "Tripping Billies" from Aug. 22, "Grace Is Gone/Black Water" from Sept. 25 and "American Baby Intro" from Aug. 26. Those who pre-order both the CD and DVD will get an eight-track bonus disc with these additional songs: "Shotgun" from Aug. 26, "Out of My Hands" from Aug. 2, "Stand Up" from Sept. 19 and "Some Devil" from Aug. 14.

"Sweet Up and Down" and "Shotgun" are both previously unreleased, as is "Black Water," a cover of the Doobie Brothers song. "Stand Up" features Dave Matthews Band's sound engineer Joe Lawlor on electric guitar, and "Some Devil" is the first and so far only full-band performance of that song.

The pre-order deal runs until Dec. 7.

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Dave Matthews Band ringtones due from AT&T

Dave Matthews Band ringtones are now available for AT&T wireless customers.

DMB and AT&T announced the deal yesterday, the same day the band played the first of two AT&T-sponsored shows at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. A live version of "Ants Marching" is available now, and these other songs will follow Dec. 1: "Don't Drink the Water," "Say Goodbye," "Two Step" and live versions of "Everyday," "Warehouse" and "When the World Ends."

The Times Herald-Record has a review of last night's Army show, with reaction from Cadets who got to act like "any other college kids" for one night, as well as a large photo gallery from the concert. Dave Matthews Band will play another show tonight, and it will again be Webcast in the AT&T Blue Room.

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Farm Aid 2007 coming to TV

HDNet will broadcast performances from Farm Aid 2007 on Nov. 25 at 9 p.m. Eastern.

The program will likely feature songs by Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, who performed a six-song set. Dave also played the Allman Brothers Band song "Melissa" with Gregg Allman and Warren Haynes. Other artists at this year's Farm Aid, which took place Sept. 9 at Randall's Island in New York, included Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Counting Crows and Guster.

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Dave Matthews Band concert Webcast tonight

Dave Matthews Band's concerts tonight and tomorrow at the U.S. Military Academy will be broadcast live online in the AT&T Blue Room.

The shows begin at 7 p.m. Eastern with Robert Randolph and The Family Band, followed by Dave Matthews Band sometime between 8 and 8:30 p.m. Army won the two concerts through the World's Loudest Pep Rally, an AT&T contest to see which college's students could submit the most "invitations" to DMB.

The Times-Herald Record in Middletown, N.Y. has a short interview with Boyd Tinsley today, where he says he'll push for the band to play "American Baby" for the cadets. Dave Matthews Band hasn't played that song all year.

DMB played a warm-up for the two Army shows last night at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J. Highlights of that concert included "#41" with Soulive's Eric Krasno, "Louisiana Bayou" with Robert Randolph and the new song "'Round and 'Round."

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