Dave Matthews Band has announced four new european tour dates for late May, 2007. This represents the first full band european tour since 1998. A tour was planned for 2001 but was cancelled do to 9/11. The new shows are as follows:

5/23/07 - The Point - Dublin, Ireland
5/25/07 - Pavilion Atlantico - Lisbon, Portugal
5/27/07 - Forest National - Brussels, Belgium
5/30/07 - Wembley Arena - London, England

According To Our Records (ATO Records) became one of five new labels to sign with the Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA). ATO Records was co-founded by Dave Matthews, DMB manager Coran Capshaw and Michael McDonald and Chris Tetzeli.  The news was released in an IODA press release.

It has been one month since Dave Matthews Band re-entered the studio at Haunted Hollow and not much news has hit the floor regarding the status. We do know that they are in there with Mark Batson, and that they are presumably working on new material for an album to be released later 2007 or possbily early 2008.

Earlier this year we got news from Stefan Lessard via his MySpace blog as new songs were written. Idea of You, Shotgun, Kill the King are believed to have all come out of that time in the studio.

After it was announced that the next DMB Live Trax album would be the 12/31/96 show at Hampton Coliseum we got in touch with Joel Johnson. Joel attended both the new years eve show and the 12/28/96 Winston-Salem, NC show three days prior. Joel gives his account of the evening with detail regarding all the pushing going on in the "festival-style" general admission at the venue.

Dave Matthews has been added to the cast of The Other Side, a new independent film from London-based Intandem Films.

David Michaels makes his directorial debut, having previously worked in production and creative roles on shows such as "Reading Rainbow" and "ALF."

The film's plot is apparently as weird as Michaels' history in the entertainment history:

DMB will return to Australia next spring for the first time since March 2005. This time, they'll play two blues festivals: the West Coast Blues & Roots Festival on March 31 in Fremantle (Perth, Western Australia) and the East Coast Blues & Roots Festival on April 6 in Byron Bay, Queensland.

This is the band's second tour run through Australia. The last tour was announced in January of 2005 and included seven tour dates.

The additional Australian tour dates for 2007 are as follows:

Mar. 31 - West Coast Blues & Roots Festival, Fremantle (Perth)*
Apr. 2 - Festival Theatre, Adelaide
Apr. 4 - Brisbane Convention Centre
Apr. 6 - East Coast Blues & Roots Festival
Apr. 10 - Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Apr. 11 - Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Apr. 13 - Vodaphone Arena, Melbourne

Ben Pezzner came through with a brand new piano cover of #41 recently. He said he did this one in the vein of Jay Wood's #41 cover which usually comes up when a request for "that one version of 41 on the piano" comes up in the forums.

If you haven't checked out Ben's other work, be sure to check out his DMB cello medley which lasts nearly two hours.

We have a lot of catching up to do with fan art that has been submitted over the past year or two. Let's start things out with this supremly cool pen drawing by Meranda Keller. If you look closely at the work, you'll see there are no lines, only song titles. Very Cool.

Here are links to download the image in high resolution and for your desktop wallpaper. You must be registered in the forums to download.

Trusted Stuff from Fan#41

With the fifth installment in the “Live Trax” series, fans find themselves enjoying a solid show which took place in the midst of a fabulous month. Just a few months ago, the crew released 8.23.95. Interestingly enough, after nine years and over 10 live releases, we come full circle to another Aug. 1995 performance.

As you sit there listening to the newest Live Trax (8.23.95) and soak up a Proudest Monkey opener, or a classic Pay For What You Get performance, let’s go back and take a look at the history of live releases from DMB.

A pre-order for Live Trax Vol. 7 was announced today via an email from MusicToday. The release is from the 1996 New Years Eve show in Hampton, Virginia. The show is special in part due to a lot of guest work from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.

This particular show was all general admission, which meant people were getting pushed around enough for Dave to comment on it early in the set. Dave was apparently wearing a tuxedo for the show. Another fan claims that Monk Montgomery was hoisted up on wires dressed as a baby for the new years countdown.