To fill the gap until its new studio album emerges in the fall, hard rock act Sevendust will on Aug. 14 release its first DVD. Titled “Retrospect,” the TVT set will feature the band’s entire “Live & Loud” concert (released on VHS in 1999), as well as the group’s full catalog of videos (including the clip for “Licking Cream,” previously unreleased in the U.S.), several television appearance performances, as well as new interviews with the band.
Sevendust is currently mixing its upcoming album in Los Angeles with producer Ben Grosse (Filter, DJ Skribble). Pegged for a late-October release, the set has the working title of “Animosity.” The band will foreshadow the album’s release with a U.S. tour set to kick off at the end of August.
— Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.
“Tools In the Dryer,” collecting singles and compilation appearances from Nashville country rock collective Lambchop, is due Sept. 18 on Merge. The 16 hard-to-find tracks, which span the band’s career, should hold fans waiting for the true follow-up to 2000’s acclaimed “Nixon” (which should be ready by next March, according to a Merge spokesperson). “Tools” will include 7″ singles dating from the early ’90s as well as remixes of songs from “Nixon” and 1998’s “What Another Man Spills” that have previously appeared on 12″ U.K.-only releases. The album will also feature a previously unreleased live cover of Teddy Pendergrass’ 1980 soul classic “Love T.K.O.” The first 2000 copies of the compilation will be packaged with a limited-edition second CD with five additional tracks said to represent the band’s “noisier, more experimental” side.
Lambchop is led by guitarist/singer/songwriter Kurt Wagner but has alternately featured between 10 and 17 other musicians. The group’s five Merge albums blend “classic” country sounds with soul influences, a skewed modern lyrical outlook, and a large complement of instruments that approach orchestral fullness.
— Troy Carpenter, N.Y.
At a time when Napster is preparing to charge users to download music, one group has already been paid by its Internet community. Former A&M-signed U.K. rock act Dodgy, whose successes include the 1994 top-30 hit “Homegrown,” will release its fourth album, “Real Estate,” July 23 on its own Bostin label after asking fans and visitors to its official Web site fund its recording. The bigger investors will share in any profits made from the album’s sales. Healthy e-sales are expected through Bostin’s partnership with U.K. online search engine Just35.com. “Dodgy were one of the first-ever bands to perform live online, and Dodgy and Just35.com’s maverick partnership will hopefully inspire others to break the barriers of normality and explore alternative avenues,” says Just35.com founder Roger Fenton. The album features the group’s new vocalist, David Bassey.
— Kwaku, London