Live Earth's organizers have confirmed that Istanbul will host one of this summer's massive global warming awareness concerts. The seven continent concert series will take place over a 24-hour period on July 7. Cities currently scheduled to host Live Earth events include London, East Rutherford, NJ, Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro and Hamburg. Currently there is no word whether a Live Earth concert will take place in Antarctica, though event organizers have promised on several occasions that the event will be a seven continent affair.

Live Earth Istanbul will be broadcast on local television and as part of a global feed to as many as 120 television channels worldwide. Live Earth Istanbul will feature both international and local Turkish acts on 7/7/07.

"Live Earth is thrilled to be adding a new leg of the Live Earth concert series in Istanbul," says Live Earth executive producer Kenneth Wall. "The goal of Live Earth is to engage a worldwide audience to take action against the climate crisis, and this concert in Istanbul will help to ensure that a truly global audience is reached."

Live Earth will implement new "green event" guidelines at each concert venue that will address the major areas of impact of live events, including recycling, food and beverages, packaging, transportation, energy, water usage, and the event site itself.  From power generation at the concerts to garbage generated by concert goers, Live Earth will seek to "design out" waste and bestow an eco-friendly legacy on the live events industry.

For more information, please visit www.LiveEarth.MSN.com or www.LiveEarth.org

The much-anticipated Smashing Pumpkins reunion tour will begin next week in Paris. Following the gig on May 22 at Paris’ Grand Rex, the band will tour Europe through June 22. Heretofore the Pumpkins’ only announced U.S. gig was an appearance at Live Earth on July 7. However, the group has now announced two residences for the weeks surrounding that event. From June 23 through July 5, the Smashing Pumpkins will perform nine gigs at the Orange Peel in Asheville, NC. Then between July 22 and August 1, the band will deliver eight shows at the San Francisco’s Fillmore.

In the midst of these gigs, the group will release its sixth album, entitled Zeitgeist. The personnel on this release as well as the identity of the touring band remains unannounced. Founding members Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin are a lock (the two co-produced Zeitgeist with Roy Thomas Baker and Terry Date). However, with the two other members of the original quartet, James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky, long on the outs with Corgan, rumors suggest that guitar and bass duties will fall to Jeff Schroeder (The Lassie Foundation) and Ginger Reyes (Halo Friendlies).

The String Cheese Incident’s time may be drawing to a close, but keyboardist  Kyle Hollingsworth remains as busy as ever. In addition to preparing for String Cheese Incident’s final tour with Bill Nershi, Hollingsworth has co-founded a new band, soleside, with Arrested Development’s Speech and DJ Logic. Backed by a full band, the three musicians plan to mesh jazz/funk, hiphop and turntables into a series of new original songs.
 
”I saw in the paper that Arrested Development was playing at the Pearl Street Mall,” Hollingsworth tells Relix. “I’d always been a fan of Arrested Development. I went down there late one night. After the show, I walked up to Speech and said, ‘I’ve been a big fan for a long time. Would you ever consider doing some co-writing?” He said, ‘Yeah, definitely. I’ve heard of String Cheese.’ I was surprised because it was a totally different culture. I assumed he’d never heard of String Cheese, being that it is a jamband scene. I invited him to come down and sit in with us in Atlanta when String Cheese was down there.”
 
As of press time, soleside has three Colorado gigs scheduled: May 17 at Ft. Collins’ Aggie Theatre, May 18 at Denver’s Cervante’s Masterpiece Ballroom, and May 19 at Boulder’s Fox Theatre. At the gigs, the group plans to perform a range of covers, new originals and material from the three musicians’ back canons.
 
Hollingsworth is still in a String Cheese Incident mindset until his band’s final gig in August, though he says, “there are currently no plans for the String Cheese Incident beyond summer 2007.”
 
”I think String Cheese was and is a growing organism. We can take in a lot of information, a lot of music and make it part of our sound. I don't think the side projects took away [from SCI]. In some ways, it did the opposite.”
 
The String Cheese Incident will open its final tour at Bonnaroo in June. Also, be sure to check out this recent audio clip about String Cheese Incident by Arrested Development TV star David Cross.
 
Additional reporting by Randy Ray

The latest addition to the web’s maze of music sites, social networks, and fan/band connection zones is Broadtexter. The new musician-aimed site allows North America-based musicians to create free Mobile Fan Clubs which allow hem to use regionalized text messaging to stay connected with fans. Artists currently using Broadtexter include The Cinematics, TRAPT, The Weepies, American Idol’s Constantine Maroulis, Melissa Ferrick, The Nadas, and Reel Big Fish. The service, which is similar to Relix’s own text message alerts, allows musicians to update their fans more easily on the road and spread news about tour updates and other information. Growing out of the relationship MySpace helped bands foster with their fans, Broadtexter also allows bands to alert their fans about show time changes, radio appearance announcements, and exclusive fan club discounts. For more information about the service please visit www.broadtexter.com.