DMB Gets Busy On New Studio Album

[TimmyB]

www.billboard.com on January 11, 2005

DMB Gets Busy On New Studio Album

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Dave Matthews Band has enlisted producer Mark Batson (Seal, Indie.Arie) for its as-yet-untitled sixth studio album, due later this year via RCA. "Mark met the band at their [Los Angeles] show in August of last year," reads a message on a new Web site dedicated to the project. "After a late night of musical dialogue and shared experiences, it was obvious to all the guys that they had to work with Mark."

The site features a brief video of DMB in the studio, working on a song with a major-key groove in the vein of Sting. The unnamed track features the line "everybody wake up / if you're living with your eyes closed."

"Things are unfolding in a really natural way," Matthews says. "The last thing it seems like is work." Adds violinist Boyd Tinsley, "We've never made an album like we're making this album right now."

The new set will be the follow-up to 2002's "Busted Stuff," which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 1.9 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

DMB will tour in support of the set. After five straight years among the top 10 touring acts, the group came in 12th in 2004, notching $37.5 million and drawing 881,730 fans to 43 shows reported to Billboard Boxscore. DMB has averaged nearly $55 million per year since 1999.

As previously reported, Matthews will be seen in the upcoming film "Because of Winn-Dixie," which opens Feb. 18 in U.S. theaters. A soundtrack featuring Shawn Colvin, Emmylou Harris and the Finn Brothers will be released two weeks earlier via Nettwerk.

-- Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

[Del]

I can't wait to complain about this album when it comes out!

[MarcO]

Let's just hope DMB learned some lessons from their sesions with Glen Ballard and can find a way to make commercially viable material without all the filler and poor judgments.

Viva le DMB!

[TimmyB]

DMB Brings the Boogie

Spring album packed with "dancing music"

The new, as-yet-untitled Dave Matthews Band album is coming in May -- and it apparently brings the ruckus like never before. "It's good dancing music," says bassist Stefan Lessard. "We'll have more hits going straight to the clubs."

Right now, however, it's unclear just which tracks will end up on the final record. "We've almost got enough for two albums," says Lessard, holed up at DMB's new studio complex in Charlottesville, Virginia. Songs confirmed thus far include "Dream Girl" and "Wake Up."

Meanwhile, Dave Matthews himself will make his screen debut this year in Wayne Wang's Because of Winn-Dixie, with a soundtrack by Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger and former Smashing Pumpkin James Iha. "I thought it was a really sweet story," says Matthews of Kate DiCamillo's children's book about a young girl abandoned by her mother and raised by her preacher father.

DMB hits the New Orleans Jazz Fest in April, then amphitheaters this summer.

AUSTIN SCAGGS AND ALEX MAR

(Posted Jan 11, 2005)

[Boochawan]

DMBs last studio release, "Busted Stuff," was not produced by Ballard...it was produced by Steve Harris who was Steve Lillywhite's engineer on the previous DMB records - some really great tunes on there

[boogieknight]

heard it is titled poop on my chest or was it sh!t from the bus?!!??

[MarcO]

DMBs last studio release, "Busted Stuff," was not produced by Ballard...it was produced by Steve Harris who was Steve Lillywhite's engineer on the previous DMB records - some really great tunes on there

and I was referring to "Everyday", just so we're clear.

I actually really like "Busted Stuff". Great CD.

[dave-O]

TimmyB, it's been 12 days, where's your Wilco/Flaming Lips NYE review?