Billboard Bits: Route Du Rock, Gavin DeGraw, Geoff Tate

5/15/2002

News on La Route Du Rock, Gavin DeGraw, Geoff Tate

La Route du Rock, a French pop and electronic festival now in its 12th year of existence, has announced the lineup for this year's version of the event. Sigur Ros, DJ Shadow, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Royskopp, and the Notwist are among those set to perform Aug. 9-11 in an ancient fort near Saint Malo in the Brittany region of France.

Tickets for La Route du Rock are available in the form of single-day passes and discount passes for all three days, and concertgoers may camp out at the festival site. More artist are expected to be confirmed in the coming months, but the current lineup is as follows:

Aug. 9: The Coral, Departure Lounge, Programme, Royskopp
Aug. 10: The Destroyer, Electric Soft Parade, Kid Loco, Alice & the Trash Palace
Aug. 11: The Bees, the Leaves, the Notwist, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Sigur Ros, DJ Shadow

-- Troy Carpenter, N.Y.

J Records has signed Gavin DeGraw, a 25-year-old New York native, to a multi-album deal. The pianist/vocalist/guitarist, a student at Boston's Berklee College of Music, is about to hit the studio to record his debut set, due early next year.

Last night (May 15), DeGraw played the first of a four-show residency at New York's Joe's Pub, previewing material intended for the album and reeling off covers of Marvin Gaye's "Let Get It On" and Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." The residency continues June 13, July 16, and Aug. 15. Fans eager to sample DeGraw's engaging blend of pop, soul, and R&B can visit his official Web site, which hosts three songs from his self-released album "Live at Wilson's Grill and Bar."

-- Jonathan Cohen & Troy Carpenter, N.Y.

Queensryche frontman Geoff Tate will release his self-titled solo debut June 25 via Sanctuary. The 11-track set was self-produced and recorded in Maltby, Wash., near the group's Seattle homebase. "What's nice about doing a side project with new people is that it is a whole new breed and a bunch of new ideas, musical backgrounds, emotional baggage, and whatever else it takes to create," Tate said in a statement.

Tate will celebrate the release of the CD with a June 22 performance at the Experience Music Project Sky Church in Seattle. The evening will also include a set from guitarist Michael Wilton's side project, Soulbender, and a show-closing jam session with Tate, Wilton, and others, during which a couple of new Queensryche tunes are expected to be debuted.

As previously reported, Queensryche signed with Sanctuary last August after tenures on EMI and Atlantic. The first release under the pact was the two-CD concert set "Live Evolution," which debuted in October at No. 143 on The Billboard 200.

-- Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.