Just as its summer tour is set to begin, Dave Matthews Band has announced that keyboardist Butch Taylor has left the group for unknown reasons. “We are saddened by this sudden news but he has our full support. He’s given so much to us and our audience through the years and he will be missed,” reads a post on DMB’s Web site.
According to the band’s publicist, Taylor will not be replaced on the tour, which starts tonight (May 29) outside Pittsburgh. The artist played with DMB for a decade.
— Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Following the buzz created by the pro-Barack Obama “Yes We Can” viral video and song produced by the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am, producer Andres Levin has made a similar video in Spanish on will.i.am’s Dipdive site.
“Podemos Con Obama”, which can be accessed via Podemosconobama.com, features Paulina Rubio, Don Omar, Alejandro Sanz, Yerba Buena, Brazilian Girls, Lin Manuel Miranda (of the Broadway musical “In the Heights”) and many other artists and actors including George Lopez and Jessica Alba. The video was released in advance of Puerto Rico’s Sunday presidential primary.
The song’s chorus is a chant of the presidential candidate’s last name, interspersed with the talent saying things like “Obama is our future,” “Obama is education, youth,” “Obama is the end of this war in Iraq,” and “I identify with him.” Levin previously collaborated with will.i.am on a bilingual pro-Obama video, “We Are the Ones.”
— Ayala Ben-Yehuda, L.A.
Liz Phair has added San Francisco and Chicago shows to her schedule next month, during which she will perform her 1992 album “Exile in Guyville” acoustically. They join previously announced gigs at New York’s Highline Ballroom on June 25-26.
Tickets for the San Francisco show at the Fillmore go on sale Saturday, while tickets for the Chicago gig at the Vic Theatre go up the following day.
As previously reported, Phair will reissue the album in expanded form June 24 via ATO Records.
— Cortney Harding, N.Y.