We recommend, if you're new here, that you read our FAQ.

The boys will be playing six shows in Germany in November as a part of the fifth annual Rolling Stone Roadshow. The shows are on the 13th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 19th, and 20th of November, hitting Hamburg, Leipzig, Cologne, Berlin, Offenbach and Munich. Rolling Stone's German edition confirms all of the dates. This may just be the beginning of the rumored world tour dates, shows that were teased by the band in an MTV interview on June 2nd that include stops in Australia, Italy, and South America. Thanks to Alex Coluzzi for the tip.

DMB's next radio single, "When The World Ends," will not be released on September 25th as was scheduled. Launch reports that industry executives are unwilling to promote the song right now, given the apocalyptic theme of the song and last Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York City and the nation's capitol. There's no word on when the single will end up hitting the airwaves. WTWE will be the third radio single released from February's Everyday, following "I Did It" and "The Space Between."

As if the Mark Dziak's Dave Matthews action figure wasn't sufficiently weird, DMB fan Brian Amos brings us Dave in Legos. Using 9,216 of the five basic Lego colors, Brian has rendered an image of Dave superimposed on the Crash cover. Lego fans have long reveled in the creation of involved creations, such as a stegosaurus, the New York City skyline, Tux the penguin, The Beatles, and Bart Simpson, but this is the first known major Lego rendering of Dave.

We at nancies.org are shocked and saddened by the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Tuesday, and we apologize to anyone who perceived our lack of a story as an anti-American sentiment or a lack of caring. I returned home from New York to Washington DC last night. We are all personally affected by this tragedy. Dan's parents live right down the street. Ron's brother lives two blocks away. One of my friends was in Tower 2 and got out. I have not been able to establish contact with some of my friends in Mahattan. Most of us have been more preoccupied with watching the news and trying to contact friends and families and cope withthis tragedy. If you want a news feed go to cnn.com or washingtonpost.com. If you want to donate money to the Red Cross for their relief funds go to worldtradecenter.com. If you want to do your American Duty, make sure you are registered for selective service at www.sss.gov. Donate Blood. Call your family. Fly the flag. Pray. We also want to extend condolences to the Nancies whose friends and family have died. Our hearts and thoughts are with you.

We're pleased to announce the winners of the nancies.org sticker contest. The four copies of the ultra-rare RCA promotional "DMBDVD" go to Andrea Almond of Hilton Head Island, SC; Ryan Donnelly of Springfield, PA; April Huffman of Grottoes, VA; and Michelle Santiago of Charlottesville, VA. And the grand prize, a 4'-high cardboard cutout of the band / CD display and a copy of "DMBDVD," goes to Melanie Schneider of Cuyahoga Falls, OH. Congratulations to all the winners: your prizes are on the way! Thanks to the hundreds and hundreds of you that ordered nancies.org window stickers. We will start mailing out your stickers immediately. If you have not yet ordered your own bargain-basement $1 nancies.org window sticker, it's not too late to make your window look cool!

The boys have been nominated for a dubious honor by the magazine High Times: the second annual Doobie Awards, in the "Band of the Year" category. They're going up against Black Crowes, Staind and Weezer to determine who best reflects the power of marijuana in music. The award ceremony will be held at The Wetlands on September 12th, and there's no word as to whether DMB will be putting in an appearance. "Jimi Thing," anyone?

During last night's Charlottesville City Council meeting, DMB had a surprise waiting. Council was set to vote on $4,500 in funding for a free bicycle program, akin to Portland's Yellow Bike Project and Copenhagen Free City Cycle. It would put 30 bright yellow bicycles along the Main Street corridor, intended for anybody to pick up and use as they see fit. Before Council could debate the merits of the project, a city official stood up and announced that Dave Matthews Band would be providing the money to get the program started, making city funds unnecessary. It's stuff like this that shows what swell guys that DMB are.

Tim Reynolds is heading off on his latest solo acoustic tour, and the dates have just been announced. He's playing a lot of western states like Colorado, Utah, California, Washington and Texas, and also heading east briefly to play Florida, George and South Carolina. More tour dates are coming, so keep checking back to see if he's coming to your area. And if you really want to get your fix, you can see Tim at The Knitting Factory in LA on 09/27, and then head over a few blocks and catch Peter Griesar at The Viper Room later in the evening.

Over the Labor Day weekend, stations around the country will be broadcasting a Dave Matthews Band concert. You can find out when to listen in your area by looking at DMB's station listing. Stories vary as to what concert to expect, but the Program Director of 97X (WSUN) in Tampa Bay tells us that it's a "special 'best of' from this tour that [they] received from the band's management." Tune in and find out!

Salon.com has an article about a record company coordinating the stuffing of Total Request Live's ballot boxes, using the volunteer labor of fans to do so. Interscope Records promised that whoever voted for relative musical unknowns "Puddle of Mudd" the most times would be flown out to LA to meet Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst. This stands in sharp contrast to Guster's "Bug Carson Daly" day, when they found out that Total Request Live isn't always live: the show is pre-taped on some days, rendering votes irrelevant.

We're pleased as punch to announce that we've teamed up with Flood Zone Entertainment to sell nancies.org t-shirts. These high-quality 100% cotton beauties are printed on nancies.org blue with white text -- "nancies.org: this is the best stop" on the front and the nancies.org "n" and our URL on the back. John Athayde designed these uber-sexy shirts, and they're being printed by Blue Ridge Graphics, the same fine folks that printed our brand-new window stickers and create all of DMB's merchandise. At $15 a pop, the price is right, too. For the curious, yes, Flood Zone Entertainment is owned by Mason Wyatt, the same guy that owned and operated the Richmond club where DMB got their start, but you can read more about that on their site. If you want to stand out in a crowd of DMB fans, go get yourself a nancies.org t-shirt, and help support nancies.org.

[more]

Mark Dziak e-mailed us about something truly bizarre -- his guide to making a Dave Matthews Action figure. It involves an Obi-Wan Kenobi action figure, a toaster oven, some Sculpey and a wee bit too much time on your hands. But the results sure do look sharp!

It's quite a day here at nancies.org. Firstly, we are now selling nancies.org window-cling static stickers. These 2"x8" beauties can sit on your car or office window so you can tell the world that you're not just any DMB fan, you're among the world's finest. Best of all, they cost just $1. No foolin'. Secondly, we've got a fantastic contest to go along with this. All orders postmarked by September 1st will be entered in a contest to win one of four copies of the uber-rare promo-only "DMBDVD," and the grand prize winner will receive, in addition to the DVD, a brand-new 4' tall cardboard cutout of the band / CD display stand. Help support nancies.org and win great prizes. It just doesn't get any better than that, folks.

Eight months after we predicted it, DMB has officially announced the release of their December 19th, 1998 show as a double-disc CD, entitled "Live In Chicago." Reader Adam Palmer tells us that "DMB: The Videos," which will be released tomorrow, comes with a card that promotes "Live In Chicago," giving October 23rd as the release date. And Matt Powers pointed out that the CD can be pre-ordered from DMB's site. The show included Vic Wooten, Maceo Parker and Tim Reynolds, and was very well-reviewed at the time. This will be the band's third live release, the first two being 1997's "Live at Red Rocks" and 1999's "Listener Supported."

Update 6:04pm: The official site has changed the spelling to "Busina" instead of "Boucina."

The official site has been updated with new tour dates. Mexico City has been added, as well as the two solo shows that Dave will be performing at Farm Aid and Groundwork 2001. The schedule appears to be empty beyond that at the moment. More to follow regarding any winter or spring tour information as it develops.

This story has been edited from its original version

Rumor has it Dave and Ashley had twins. Rumor has it they were named Grace and Stella. More to follow as the story is verified by the DMB press agent.

There's been much talk about the band not playing this fall due to the impending birth of Dave's twins. However, the band is slated to play Mexico City's National Auditorium on November 6th. This obviously gives some merit to the possibility of a winter tour, since general speculation seemed to be (until now) that the DMB wouldn't be playing until well into 2002. Thanks to John Downerd for the info.

Charlottesville writer Scott Herman has a brief, amusing, tongue-in-cheek essay about the state of MTV, entitled "The Revolution Will Be In Heavy Rotation." It's well worth reading. Scott analyzes (and pokes fun at) MTV's decreasing number of videos and increasing number of shows about themselves. DMB and the nature of their MTV appearances is one of the most debated aspects of the band's publicity, largely due to mixed feelings about the music network. It seems likely that DMB's new DVD release, "The Videos 1994-2001," is an effort to make up for the lack of exposure that the videos have gotten on MTV.

On November 30th, John Athayde and myself flew to Los Angeles to represent nancies.org at the My VH1 Music Awards. I got to fly first class, which was the best part. ("How would you like your omelet cooked, sir?") So we got the award for "Coolest Fan Web Site" live on VH1, watched a bunch of bands perform, hung out with lots of famous (though not necessarily interesting) people, shared a hotel with Three Doors Down and some other supposedly-famous people, and did the tourist thing. Mann's Chinese Theatre, Rodeo Drive, the walk of fame, the Pacific Ocean...the whole nine yards. This year, I think we'll invite L.A. to visit us in Charlottesville. It seems easier. Anyhow, John has put up a photojournal of our trip containing 36 of our photos from the adventure. We hope you'll like it.

After the 07/11/01 Boulder show, we couldn't help but be curious when several reviewers reported that the show was being filmed with some serious-looking recording equipment, and that Dave had mentioned that the show was being taped. After some digging around and calling-in-of-favors, we can finally confirm that the July Folsom Field show will be released on DVD sometime late this year or early next year. Of the 21 songs performed that night, 8 were from "Everyday," 4 from the Lillywhite Sessions and the remaining 9 distributed between the remaining albums. Despite the heavy "Everyday" presence, the encore of "Two Step" and "Ants Marching" should be enough to soften even the most jaded fan's heart. This will be the band's third DVD; their first being "Listener Supported," and the second their upcoming August 21st release, "The Videos 1994-2001."

Dave will be doing yet another solo performance, this time at the Groundwork 2001 benefit concert in Seattle. The October 14th show also features Emmylou Harris (whose "Red Dirt Girl" featured Dave) and Daniel Lanois (whose "The Maker" and "The Beauty of Wynona" have often been covered by DMB.) Groundwork is a week of concerts that raises money for small farmers in developing countries. Also performing during the week are ATO's Chris Whitley, Afro-Celt Sound System (who opened for DMB during this tour), Alanis Morissette (who performed with DMB on "Crowded Streets") and Pearl Jam. Thanks to Susan and Jeff who got us the news simultaneously.

Some of you might recall that we put 2+2 together in December of last year to figure out that the next live CD was scheduled to be from December 19th, 1998 and entitled "Live in Chicago." We're now hearing from a variety of sources that we can expect a live release as early as this October. Several folks have told us that this CD will be the Chicago show, but it's possible that they're just repeating our own information back to us. A couple of people that work in record stores tell us that it will be one of the two [1,2] Chicago shows from June of last year, which makes sense, given the reports that the show was being recorded for an album. Chalk this one up as a rumor, but one grounded in reality. We'll keep you updated as we find out more, of course.

Farm Aid has issued a press release that reports that Dave Matthews will be performing solo at this year's event. Farm Aid 2001 will take place in Indianapolis on September 29th, the first time that it's been hosted there in eleven years. Also performing are Farm Aid's 1985 founders, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young. Thanks to my old friend Kurt Russell for the tip.

Dave Matthews Band has finally addressed the issue of recording concerts via In-Ear Monitors (IEMs.) Their long-standing taping policy has been altered, adding the following clause: "Taping is limited to audio-only, using only microphones. Wireless receivers are strictly prohibited." Following last month's reports of crackdowns on people recording via IEM (see our July 6th story, "IEM Recordings Halted"), it was inevitable that DMB would update their taping policy to notify tapers that recording IEM broadcasts is against their wishes.

TriBeCa club Wetlands Preserve is closing in September. Wetlands housed a number of DMB and Dave & Tim shows in 1993, and served as a similar starting point for Disco Biscuits, Phish, Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors, Soulive, Karl Denson, Lake Trout, Warren Haynes...the list goes on and on. The widely-known and much-loved club, which opened in 1989, is closing because the building that houses it is being sold, and the new owner is not interested in continuing to house Wetlands Preserve. Wetlands owner Peter Shapiro is not giving up, and is seeking a new location for his club.

There are two things to keep in mind about Tim Reynolds: #1, he's a crazy man; #2, the surprises never end. Along these lines, he has released, under the pseudonym of "No One," a double-disc set named "Id." Well, it would be double-disc if it were on discs. But it's only available on-line, and it's free. Reynolds recorded it live, with "no production, unplanned, unmanned, mindless, headless." "Basically," Reynolds explains on his site, "it's wank wank wank." Anybody expecting a "Live at Luther College" sound will end up sorely disappointed. All audio is available as MP3s and SHNs, and art is available as JPEGs, PSDs and PDFs.

[more]

DMB has removed ATO Records artist Chris Whitley from their openers line-up, presumably as a result of last week's debacle in Oregon. The Oregonian recently reported that his Thursday, July 19th performance at the Aladdin Theater ended after just four songs. Whitley came on stage and "behaved erratically, missing vocal cues, singing almost inaudibly and playing haphazardly." After Whitley asked the audience if anybody had any marijuana to spare, many people began to leave the performance. Whitley was escorted off stage and the show ended abruptly. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is now opening in Saratoga Springs on 07/29 and 07/30, Charlottesville bluesman Corey Harris is opening in Hershey on 08/01, and Soulive is opening on 08/03 and 08/04. Thanks to Jonathan for the tip.

According to Gov't Mule's website, there will be a new release in September, entitled "The Deep End." The disc includes 18 tracks and 25 of "the world's greatest bass players," notably Stefan Lessard playing on "Beautifully Broken." Other performers on the album include Les Claypool, Phil Lesh, Bootsy Collins and Tony Levin, along with lots and lots of other famous and talented musicians.

Dave Matthews Band's "I Did It" video has been nominated for an MTV Video Music Award in the "Best Group Video" category. ATO Records artist David Gray has also been nominated in the "Best New Artist In a Video" category for his "Babylon" video. The MTV Video Music Awards will air on the evening of Thursday, September 6th.

It's official: the August movie release will not be concert footage, but a collection of videos. It's entitled "The Videos: 1994-2001," and is described by CDNow as including "10 clips from the band's four first RCA albums." Presumably, what they mean is that it will have 10 music videos, though that's conjecture. It also includes short documentaries of the making of the "Don't Drink The Water," "Stay" and "I Did It" videos. "The Videos" will be available in both DVD and VHS formats. Thanks to James Voigt for the tip.

Web 'zine "The Mayday Orbit" has a brief interview with Steve Lillywhite, regarding his year-old label, Gobstopper, and his recent work with Counting Crows, Elwood, rearview mirror and Ours. Give 'er a read.

As we reported in early May, Dave Matthews is appearing on an upcoming all-star tribute to Phish. "Sharin' in the Groove," conceived and produced by the Mockingbird Foundation, is slated for release July 17th. All proceeds from the album's sales will go to support youth music programs. The non-profit organization founded by fans of Phish has placed a sound clip of Dave's contribution to the album, a solo acoustic cover of "Waste," on their site. Other contributors to the album include Arlo Guthrie, Little Feat, Jimmy Buffett, Merl Saunders and Project Logic. More information, including bonus tracks and pre-order details, can be found on the Mockingbird Foundation's site.

The Colorado Daily News is reporting that the band was fined $15,000 for exceeding the curfew at CU's Folsom Field show on the 12th. The rule is apparently $1,000 per minute over the curfew until the 16th minute, which then costs $10,000 a minute. The band was aware of the fine and played on, including a two-song encore. Said the band's publicist, "If they were having fun, they wouldn't stop because of the curfew. Obviously, they were having fun and wanted to keep playing." All told, the band and the promoter will still split nearly $2 million dollars from the show's proceeds. Thanks to Matt Casey for the news.

A documentary entitled "My Generation" will be airing on the Bravo network in August, according to the production company's press release. The documentary compares the spontaneity and open nature of the original Woodstock with the commerce-driven sequels of recent years. It will feature concert footage, of course, from acts like Jimi Hendrix, Cypress Hill, The Who, Santana (circa 1969), and, of course, DMB. Dave Matthews Band performed at Woodstock '99 on 07/24/99.

We've got it on good authority that no less than three shows have been or will be recorded for a DVD. At least one of these DVDs is for VH1, though another will simply be sold in record stores. But they're all for real, as confirmed by siblings' coworkers, former roommates' ex-boyfriends, parents' famous friends or, more commonly, DMB roadies. But one thing is for certain: Borders' website reports that a DVD, released by RCA, will be released in August of 2001. So which of these stories is true? We have no idea.

The Charlottesville music hall where DMB got their start, Trax, will be closing for the summer. Charlottesville's Daily Progress reports today that Trax will reopen in the fall with a new name, possibly "Tahiti Joe's" or "Frankie's Patio." New owner Michael Duchesneau looks forward to featuring top 40 dance nights, and is quick to point out that there will be "no hip-hop, no rap." It was confusing enough for DMB fans when Trax was renamed "Crossroads" briefly in the mid-90s; perhaps a future generation of listeners will fondly recall the days when the band played at Tahiti Joe's every week.

The press surrounding The Lillywhite Sessions continues to flow. Most recently, Greg Kot (a dyed-in-the-wool DMB-hater) of the Chicago Tribune reviewed them quite positively as "the best Matthews album ever." VH1 columnist Bob Lefsetz raves about the album, complaining about DMB's standard excuse for what went wrong with the Lillywhites. "The record was too depressing so Dave made a sunny one instead. HOW IN THE HELL DID HE DO THIS? Whatever allowed him to turn on a dime, can Eli Lilly bottle it and sell it as a better PROZAC?" Finally, the crown jewel for Lillywhite coverage thus far, Rolling Stone's "Lost & Found," which offers truly some truly impressive information on the origins of the Lillywhites. (Or, as RS pedantically insists on referring to them, "The Summer Sessions.") Bravely, they even offer sound clips of every song. Oh, and don't miss their article that's wholly about the DMBML. How will this story end?

Some tapers have been complaining about DMB's recent crackdown on folks recording concerts via IEM (In-Ear Monitor), though others feel that this type of recording invades the band's privacy. Douglas Granzow, who operates Minarets.net, has written an article on this topic, entitled "Have we taken taping too far?" Give it a read to learn more about taper culture, and how we ended up with the IEM controversy.

You can catch the band on VH1's "Rock Across America" Saturday. It airs from 12pm EST to - 4pm EST (check local listings), and features interviews and footage from the recent Las Vegas shows [1,2]. If you miss it, don't worry: it airs pretty much every day next week.

[more]

We got some interesting news from DMB fan Jeremy Bingaman this morning. He's in the radio business, and one of the stations that he works for received a promotional DVD from RCA. It's entitled DMBDVD, and contains the videos for "The Space Between," "I Did It," and the recent 60 Minutes II interview with the band. It is a promotional item, so don't bother looking for it in stores. You can see Jeremy's scan of the DVD case on his site.

Bluesman Buddy Guy is now listed as opening for the 07/06 and 07/07 Chicago shows, and The Iguanas for the 08/24, 08/25, and 08/26 Gorge shows. Buddy Guy is, of course, the legendary electric blues player. The Iguanas are an indy southern rock band, long time favorites in their hometown of New Orleans. Thanks to Jeff and Craig for the news.

Tomorrow at 3pm EST, there will be a live chat with the band on MSN. Sometime shortly before 3, head on over to their chat site and join in.

Entertainment Weekly has written yet another bang-up article about the band. This time it's about the Lillywhite Sessions, and they've talked to Dave, Stefan, Boyd and Carter to get their opinions about the creation, release, and future of the album that never was. This is by far the most revealing interview yet on the topic.

[more]

[more]

[more]

For those keeping track, recent issues of the New York Post and Entertainment Weekly have varied quotes from the members of the DMB on the release of the Lillywhite Sessions. In the May 18th issue of EW, Stefan states, "If people hear it, it's cool." Carter offers a different viewpoint, saying "I feel like we've been violated." An article dated June 10th from the New York Post quotes Dave as saying, "I figure I was one of the painters, so I don't mind people hearing that album." "We love that album as much as the one that was released. It was just...different. We could only release one, so we released the one that was finished." The Lillywhite Sessions (or "the Lillywhites") were recently reviewed in Entertainment Weekly and given an A-, in comparison to "Everyday's" C.

The official site is now listing Chris Whitley and DJ Logic as opening acts at Saratoga on 07/30. Chris Whitley was recently signed to ATO Records, and has just released "Rocket House," his first disc with ATO. The album includes Dave Matthews, who makes a brief vocal appearance on "Radar." Thanks to Brian for the tip. [06/11/01 Update: Whitley is also opening on 08/03 and 08/04 at Hartford.]

DMB's site now lists Afro-Celt Sound System as the opening act for the 08/07, 08/08 and 08/10 Canadian dates. They should make for an unusual opening act; their sound is pretty much what their name implies, with jungle, ambient, trance and trip-hop leanings. Thanks to Matthew for the news.

According to Howie Day's website, he'll be opening for DMB on 07/17 and 07/21 at the Selma, TX and the West Palm Beach, FL shows, respectively. Junior Brown was originally slated to be opening at the latter show, though no opener had been announced for Selma. The twenty-year old independent artist is known for his unusual guitar-and-loops style, and has gained a large following of DMB fans in recent months. Thanks to Valerie for the tip. [6:20pm Update: Shawn Radley, Howie Day's manager, just e-mailed us about this. Despite that Howie Day's site says that he's opening for DMB, it's not true. He's just playing a sidestage.]

Dave will be appearing on the 1,000th episode of Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect." With a lineup including actress Florence Henderson, conservative columnist Ann Coulter and actor Craig Ferguson, it looks like this episode will essentially be a "best of" kind of deal. It airs on the night of Friday, June 1st, at 12:05am in most locations. (Technically Saturday morning.) Dave has appeared twice previously on the show, first April 16th, 1997 and again on March 8th, 1999, speaking extensively regarding the legalization of marijuana. [06/03/01 Update: Several people have pointed out that Dave also appeared on P.I. on September 9th, 1998.]

Luaka Bop artist Jim White will be opening for DMB at all three Camden shows, according to both DMB and Luaka Bop's sites. White is perhaps best defined as alternative country, though some of his songs have been produced by folks like Q-Burns Abstract Message and Morcheeba, which places him firmly in the "weird" category. For those of you not going to Camden, you can catch White on Letterman on June 12th. Thanks to Valerie for the news.

The official site is now listing the Fugees' Wyclef Jean as opening in Boulder, CO and Irving, TX in July. The Haitian rapper is known for mixing soul, rap, and traditional Haitian music, and is generally regarded as the musical mastermind behind the Fugees.

[more]