New Dave Matthews song "The Fly" now online

Dave Matthews' "The Fly," a new song he wrote for the film "Joshua" but never commercially released, is now available on the Internet.

"The Fly" appears during the end credits of "Joshua," a movie produced by Dave's ATO Pictures. In an interview today with South African entertainment guide Tonight, Dave said he wrote the song with the expectation that someone else would record it for the film. But the scriptwriters asked him to do it, and they were "elated that it didn't sound like the Dave Matthews Band."

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Dave Matthews talks new songs, South Africa tour

Dave Matthews has written "a handful" of songs for his next film project, "The Other Side," according to an interview today in a South African entertainment guide.

Dave told Tonight that writing songs for movies has helped his overall songwriting process: "In a strange way, it is nice to have parameters I have to write inside of. It made me think that maybe I should definitely start doing that with my writing -- give myself a goal and try to stick to it."

"The Other Side" is a science-fiction comedy scheduled to begin filming next month in Nova Scotia. Woody Harrleson, Jason Lee, Giovanni Ribisi and Alanis Morissette will star alongside Dave.

Dave also said in the interview that Dave Matthews Band will play in his native South Africa by the time it hosts the soccer World Cup in 2010. DMB has never played a concert in South Africa, although Dave performed "Gravedigger" at a Johannesburg radio station earlier this month and may have also played a 1996 solo show in Melville.

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Dave Matthews Band tour makes $41.1 million

Dave Matthews Band earned $41.1 million on its 2007 tour, making it the 11th-highest-grossing tour of the year, according to Pollstar.

DMB also had Pollstar's lowest average ticket price, at $47.80. The top tour of 2007 belonged to The Police, who reunited after more than two decades apart and earned $131.9 million.

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Dave Matthews visits South African radio station

Dave Matthews recently stopped by a radio station in his home country, South Africa, and played an impromptu version of "Gravedigger."

It's unclear when exactly Dave's visit to the Jacaranda 94.2 studios took place, but this video of the performance surfaced online yesterday:



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Dave Matthews Band: Today in History

Dave Matthews Band played one of its most famous concerts in history five years ago today.

The Dec. 21, 2002 show at Madison Square Garden in New York featured a surprise guest appearance by the late James Brown. The Godfather of Soul and his band joined DMB and opening act Karl Denson's Tiny Universe on stage for an 11-minute version of his classic, "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine." The crowd screamed and danced throughout the performance, which featured confetti flying through the air as Dave danced the Running Man across the stage.

For the encore, Dave Matthews came out wearing a Santa Claus hat, then tossed it aside as the band launched into "Halloween" before finishing off the night with "Ants Marching." As an early Christmas gift from Blog-Eyed Fish, here's a video clip of the historic performance with James Brown:

Live at Piedmont Park debuts at No. 68 on charts

Dave Matthews Band's Live at Piedmont Park album debuts at No. 68 on this week's Billboard 200 album chart -- one spot below the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" Soundtrack and the worst chart performance by a DMB album, by far, since 1994.

Live at Piedmont Park, a 3-CD set, sold 27,400 copies in its first week, according to MTV News. By comparison, the last DMB-related release, Live at Radio City by Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, debuted at No. 3 and sold 70,000 during its first week in August.

Dave Matthews Band's last live album, Weekend on the Rocks, debuted at No. 37 in 2005, and no other DMB live album has debuted lower than No. 15.

The only two DMB albums to fare worse on the charts than Live at Piedmont Park are Remember Two Things and the Recently EP, which were both released before DMB hit the mainstream. Remember Two Things did not chart when it was released in 1993, and Recently debuted at No. 163 in 1994.

Every DMB studio album since 1998's Before These Crowded Streets has debuted at No. 1.

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Dave Matthews Band New Album Preview: 'Kill the King'

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 Three of the Dave Matthews Band New Album Preview, we focus on "Kill the King."

Dave Matthews Band debuted "Kill the King" on June 6, 2006, early during that summer tour. The DMB Road Page after that show said "Kill the King" was one of the first songs the band members wrote during their studio sessions that spring and they were looking forward to playing it live. Something happened between then and the tour, because DMB only played the song seven times before abandoning it after the July 1 show.

Why "Kill the King" will end up on the new Dave Matthews Band album: The new song "Round and Round," which Dave Matthews debuted Nov. 13, 2007, includes the lyrics, "kill the king." That could mean "Kill the King" is still in Dave's mind.

Why it won't: DMB gave up on the song really quickly in 2006.



If you haven't voted on previous songs yet, you can here:
Dave Matthews Band New Album Preview Part Two: "Sister"
Dave Matthews Band New Album Preview Part One: "The Idea of You"

Willie Nelson covers Dave Matthews' 'Gravedigger'

Willie Nelson's next studio album will include a cover of the Dave Matthews song "Gravedigger."

It's been known for a year that Willie has been planning to record a Dave song, but confirmation finally came this week when he announced the track list for his new album, Moment of Forever. The CD's release date is Jan. 29.

Willie and Dave are both on the Farm Aid board of directors, and Dave has played Willie's "Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away" in concert before.

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'Grey's Anatomy' names episodes 'Crash Into Me'

Dave Matthews Band's influence has shown up on the TV show "Grey's Anatomy."

The last two episodes of the ABC hospital drama were titled "Crash Into Me, Part 1" and "Crash Into Me, Part 2," in reference to the hit Dave Matthews Band song. The episodes have nothing to do with the song, though; they're about paramedics injured in an ambulance that has crashed. Get it?

Apparently "Grey's Anatomy" regularly names its episodes after songs. Other titles this season include "Forever Young," "The Heart of the Matter" and "Kung Fu Fighting."

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Dave Matthews Band live albums now on iTunes

Dave Matthews Band has put all of its live albums up for sale on iTunes.

Previously, only Dave Matthews Band's studio recordings were available on iTunes. But when DMB released Live at Piedmont Park on iTunes yesterday, the band also put up all of its other commercially available live albums: Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95, Listener Supported, Live in Chicago 12.19.98 at the United Center, Live at Folsom Field, Boulder Colorado, The Gorge, The Central Park Concert, Weekend on the Rocks and Live Trax Vol. 6.

The prices vary between $10.99 and $14.99. Peculiarly, the four-disc Live Trax Vol. 6 is $10.99 and the three-disc Central Park Concert is $11.99, but the two-disc Weekend on the Rocks is $14.99.

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Dave Matthews Band to receive charity award

Dave Matthews Band will receive the Silver Hope award from the local chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in Charlottesville, Va. tonight, according to The Daily Progress.

Carter Beauford, Boyd Tinsley and LeRoi Moore will be on hand to accept the award during the Dinner of Champions, honoring Dave Matthews Band's charitable work in and around its hometown. DMB's Bama Works Fund has given $7 million to all sorts of area causes, including a free clinic, a skateboard park and arts groups.

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Dave Matthews Band New Album Preview: 'Sister'

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 Two of the Dave Matthews Band New Album Preview, we focus on "Sister."

Dave Matthews began playing "Sister" during a brief solo tour of England before Dave Matthews Band's 2006 summer tour. He made the solo performance part of the full band concerts in 2006, but Carter Beauford, Butch Taylor and Rashawn Ross began to sing backup vocals on the song during the 2007 tour. "Sister" is about Dave's relationship with his sister, Jane.

Why "Sister" will end up on the new Dave Matthews Band album: It has special meaning for Dave.

Why it won't: After two years, DMB hasn't added much to the song -- unlike "Cornbread" and "Eh Hee," two other new songs that began as Dave solo songs but now feature the full band.

Video: Dave Matthews "Sister"

Dave Matthews Band makes StubHub's top 10

Dave Matthews Band had the eighth highest-selling tour on StubHub in 2007, according to the online ticket reseller's annual report.

The average DMB concert ticket sold for $138 on StubHub, which is roughly double face value. Compared to 2006, the band saw a 62% increase in the number of tickets sold on StubHub and a 77% increase in its total gross sales on StubHub -- even though its number of concerts decreased from 57 to 38.

This year's highest-selling tour on StubHub was Hannah Montana, and Celene Dion had the highest average ticket price on StubHub with $347.

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Rolling Stone pans Live at Piedmont Park album

Dave Matthews Band's Live at Piedmont Park album gets a two-star review (out of five) in the new issue of Rolling Stone.

Reviewer Kevin O'Donnell writes that DMB sounds "a little bored" and that the several new songs on the live CD are "in need of more road-testing." But he does give kudos to the three songs that end the regular set, "Too Much," "Warehouse" and "Stay."

Meanwhile, The Daily Campus, the student newspaper at Southern Methodist University, has a glowing review of the album. Live at Piedmont Park captures Dave Matthews Band's Sept. 8, 2007 show in Atlanta, and it hits stores next week. A DVD is also available.

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Stefan Lessard to play benefit concert in Vermont

Dave Matthews Band bassist Stefan Lessard will play a benefit show Jan. 9 in Killington, Vt. with Adam Gardner from Guster and Ed Robertson from Barenaked Ladies.

The band members are calling themselves Yukon Kornelius, an ode to the "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" character Yukon Cornelius. Their concert will raise money for the Vermont and New Hampshire food banks, as well as Adam's environmental organization, Reverb. Eric Fawcett from N.E.R.D. and other special guests are also promised to appear at the event, which actor Jason Biggs will host.

Stefan, Adam, Ed and Jason are spending the winter filming a new Warren Miller snowboarding movie, and that's apparently why they're playing in Killington. The show will take place at the Pickle Barrel Night Club, and members of the Dave Matthews Band Warehouse can access a ticket presale from Friday at 9 a.m. through Monday at 9 a.m.

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Stefan Lessard thanks fans for house fire support

Dave Matthews Band bassist Stefan Lessard is saying thank you to fans who have reached out to him in the aftermath of a house fire that destroyed his Ivy, Va. home.

In his first comments since the Nov. 29 fire, Stefan posted on his MySpace blog:

"I want to thank everyone for their love and support that my family has received during this difficult time.

My son saved my life, if he had not came in my room and woke me up, I might have not made it out alive.

We are all doing good, and trying our best to move forward.

love to everyone
Stefan"

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