Seven45 Studios has revealed agreements with Kid Rock, Eric Clapton and Dave Matthews Band for providing exclusive music for Power Gig, the game powered by real guitars, along with Airstrike innovative drums that will be accompanying the real guitar.

Back in March when they revealed Power Gig, I sensed they would get strong support from music artists and bands who had shunned Rock Band and Guitar Hero’s use of plastic fake instruments.  I was right, with Seven45 Studios signing three big names for providing exclusive music for the game.

An explanation was provided by the Dave Matthew Band as to why they had decided to back Power Gig instead of the other music games.

Dave Matthews Band stated, we think that Power Gig is a welcomed and much needed game.  Unlike other ones, it gives aspiring musicians a real guitar.  We hope this will inspire our fans as well as others to begin playing the guitar even when not playing a game.  We love the idea of our fans who haven’t ever played an instrument before can play our music now on real guitars and be able to experience what we love doing every day.

These sentiments were echoed by Kid Rock.

I wasn’t ever interested to press guitar buttons for entertaining myself or others, Kid Rock said.  I signed with Power Gig because the game not only is a way of having fun, but you can also play real notes using a real guitar.  Now anyone can rock out, whether they have ever shredded before or not.

Each of the artists will be providing multiple tracks for the games.  The track names haven’t been revealed yet.

There are also the Airstrike drums.  At first they appear fake.  However, they allow for a drumming experience that is much more natural than other games and without all the noise.  The pad for the Airstrike is a sensor.  It lies at your feet.  In the air over the device is where you drum.  The drum sticks contain sensors inside of them which are able to tell which is right and which is left.  This recognition gives the drumming a feel that is a lot more realistic despite the fact that it is basically glorified air drumming.

Bernard Chiu, Seven45 Studios CEO and Chairman said, we know people might be skeptical at first glance of AirStrike drums, seeing there aren’t any actual drums and won’t understand that it matches our fully functioning SixString electric guitar.  However we know as well that when people sit down and start playing, they will see how authentic and real it feels as they move the same way that true drummers do as they play and not have limits that drum kits currently on the market have.  The AirStrike drums, like our guitars, are a step towards authenticity for the genre of band games.

CMAC Performing Arts has announced that two new names have been added to its list for summer concerts.  Next month Tim Reynolds and Dave Matthews will be hitting the stage.

The announcement came from the headquarters at Constellation Brand.  The special Tim Reynolds and Dave Matthews acoustic concert will be at 7:30 pm on July 6.

Officials referred to Dave Matthews during the news conference as an icon.  He has such a widespread and diverse fan base, which has officials hoping he will bring fans into the CMAC who have not been before.

Officials from CMAC stated that the last time Dave Matthews had performed at CMAC was ten years ago.  Since January they have been in talks with Matthews about performing at Canandaigua.  It was confirmed within the last few months.

On June 11 tickets will be going on sale at 10 am at a cost of $40 each.

The Dave Matthews Band, in a message to their fans, announced they will take a road break in 2011.

The band announced on May 14, as they felt this summer’s excitement building, that after 20 consecutive years of touring that they would be taking the year 2011 off. We feel very lucky that our tours have been part of many people’s lives. We want to be able to give as much notice ahead of time as we possibly could. We are excited to make our tour this summer one of our best yet, and are looking forward in 2012 to getting back out on the road.

The news comes just two weeks prior to the band launching its 2010 trek on May 28. Maybe the announcement was made to help spark sales and give fans an opportunity to see the band before they go into hibernation.

The band’s announcement didn’t seem to indicate that it would be an indefinite break.

The Dave Matthews Band will be headlining the summer festivals of Mile High Music Fest, HullabaLOU and Bonnaroo in addition to the band’s regular touring.

Rocker Dave Matthews not to long ago ran across “Kenny.” The film was a mockumentary of a man installing portable toilets. Dave Matthews loved the movie from Australia and told his friends about it. However no one had heard of it. That’s not surprising given that the gross in domestic theaters for the 2008 film was under $70,000. In an interview Matthews said it was a real gem. It people had known about it, it would have had an audience.

Matthews has appeared in several movies and started to produce independent films like “Savage Grace” and “Choke” with his company Art Takes Over Pictures. His experience with “Kenny” helped convince him to examine and try to improve the way that non-studio movies get distributed and marketed. Matthews said, at the moment there’s a hole, in terms of smaller but commercially viable films.

ATO Pictures and Matthews announced on Wednesday that a distribution outfit was being launched that might end up releasing the next or equivalent “Kenny.” “Mao’s Last Dancer,” which will premiere on August 6, will be the new company’s first release. The drama is an Australian movie directed by Bruce Beresford.

ATO Pictures, in addition to developing and financing films, is looking to find movies to acquire as well as distribute with partner Samuel Goldwyn Films. ATO was founded in 2002. Sarah Lash, sales agent from Cinetic Media, was recently hired to head up their acquisitions arm. Currently she is searching for potential new ATO titles at the Cannes Film Festival. Industry veterans Greg Johnson, Peter Newman, Johnathan Dorfman and Temple Fennell are some of the industry veterans included on the ATO team.

Matthews said, there are lots of films with commercial potential or they might have commercial potential. However today’s distribution makes it very unlikely that these movies will get any meaningful distribution.

Instead of shooting for blockbuster art house films like “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Juno,” according to Matthews the ambitions of the company are more modest. We don’t need to have that success level. We are looking to fill the void for personal movies. With the closures off Paramount Vantage, ThinkFilm, Warner Independent and Miramax and other specialist film companies, these types of films have by in large been vacated. We think it’s possible to fill the gap that has grown within the movie business. We’re not alone.

Matthews and his band have been successful at communicating and cultivating relationships with thousands of their fans via an online community. It could be a model for showing how ATO could generate interest from moviegoers for their releases without having to spend millions of advertising dollars.

Matthews said, it’s a way of accessing an audience at a very personal level without having to change the moon’s color for the weekend, in reference to the expensive movie marketing TV saturation campaigns. I am very excited about this. It’s a chance to be more involved in something that I really love. Movies are modern times’ ultimate art form.

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that The Dave Matthews Band, Billy Joel and Elton John will be performing at Wrigley Field in Chicago this summer despite concerns from some of the residents of the neighborhood of Lake View that have been expressed in prior years.

Reportedly, Alderman Tom Tunney is planning to introduce at one of the City Council meetings an exception for the ordinance covering Chicago Cubs night games, which would allow for the concerts to take place.

According to the report in the Sun-Times, the Cubs last summer held three concerts at Wrigley field in one week, which was unprecedented. One was a Rascal Flatts concert and two from Billy Joel and Elton John. Tunney at the time promised neighbors that were concerned that if there were problems that wouldn’t be any more concerts.

Tunney this week reportedly stated that the experiment with the three concerts was very successful and that it was worth repeating them.

Reportedly, Joel and John are scheduled tentatively to perform on July 7 at Wrigley field. It is expected that the Dave Matthews Band will be headlining September night concerts on a Friday and Saturday night. No dates have been finalized yet.

Kings of Leon, riding high on their Grammy Award wins, will be performing in June at Bonnaroo Festival joining a crew of headliners including Dave Matthews Band, Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder. In addition, The Flaming Lips will be performing “Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd.

In a very clever, although time consuming stunt involving Twitter and MySpace, A.C. Entertainment and Superfly Productions, promoters of Bonnaroo, announced their lineup an act a time on Tuesday every six minutes starting at noon East Coast time. The prior week they tweeted obscure clues regarding the acts that will be performing in Manchester, TN at the festival from June 10-13.

The promoters announced around 100 performers but did not provide times or dates of the performances to be held on the 13 stages at the festival.

As it has done recently, the festival will continue to present a range of genres, stretching well beyond the jam band beginnings of the event, which it does hold onto by having acts like the Dave Matthews Band performing.

Veteran acts will include John Prine, John Fogerty and Jeff Beck. World music international acts will include Jimmy Cliff, Baaba Maal and Tinariwen. Hip hop will be represented by Jay-Z, Damian Marley & Nas, and Kid Cudi.

Alternative rock bands quite naturally were a majority of the announced acts. They include The National, The Melvins, Tori Amos, Wale, Thievery Corporation, Black Keys, Mumford & Sons, Blitzen Trapper, Gaslight Anthem, The Dead Weather, Rise Against and Phoenix.

Roots oriented acts that will be performing include Cross Canadian Ragweed, Zac Brown Band, the bluegrass project of Steven Martin, Jamey Johnson, Carolina Chocolate Drops, the Punch Brothers and Norah Jones.

The signature event for the festival will be a performance from The Flaming Lips who will not only be performing their own material but also a full rendition of “Dark Side of the Moon,” the Pink Floyd classic from 1973. They will be assisted by White Dwarfs and Stardeath.

“Dark Side” has only been performed by The Flaming Lip once live. It was in Oklahoma City, OK, their hometown, on New Year’s Eve. They released their version in late December on iTunes. No other performances for the album have been scheduled.

Kings of Leon are a special band in terms of Bonnaroo’s history. They are the first band to start out performing on one of the tent stages and then working all the way to a headlining spot.

Over the next couple of weeks, more acts are going to be announced. In addition over 20 comedians will be performing at Bonnaroo.

The Dave Matthews Band is kicking off their 2010 summer tour in Connecticut with a pair of shows over Memorial Day weekend. They will remain on the road after that through the middle of September.

The outing of three plus months will kick off in Hartford, CT on May 28-29, visiting a total of 40 cities before wrapping up the trek in St. Paul, MN on September 15. Highlights of the outing include two July performances in New York City’s Citi Field on July 16 and 17, as well as an appearance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on August 23.

A number of opening acts are joining the tour at different stages, including The Felice Brothers, Brett Dennen, Ben Harper and Gov’t Mule. On February 26, concert ticket sales for the public will start. However, Dave Matthews Band fan club members are going to be given a first shot at getting tickets starting on January 28 in a presale event. The group’s website contains additional ticket information as well as full list of all the support acts.

“Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King,” is the latest studio album from the Dave Matthews Band, released after the death last summer of the band’s saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Tim Reynolds, guitarist, returned with the band to the studio. It was his first recording with the group since “Before These Crowded Streets” in 1998.

In early June the album debuted in the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s 200. During the first week of its release 424,000 copies were sold. It marked the band’s first studio album in a row to open with a minimum of 400,000 copies sold during the first week of its release.

The album has been nominated for two Grammys this year: Best Rock Album and Album of the Year. The band will be performing during the Awards ceremony on January 31 in Los Angeles. CBS will air the awards show.

The Dave Matthews Band latest album, “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King” debuted in the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s US album chart after selling 424,000 copies in the first week out in stores.

It was this year’s third highest first week sales, behind “Relapse” by Eminem which sold 608,000 copies and ”No Line on the Horizon” by U2 which sold 484,000 copies, based on retail figures from Nielsen SoundScan reported by Billboard.

“Relapse,” after holding the No. 1 spot for two weeks, dropped down to No. 2 with sales of 141,000 copies. “Uplifter” from 311 debuted in the No. 3 spot with its first week sales of 60,000. The self-titled debut from Chickenfoot, despite having a short first week due to its release on Friday, debuted on the chart with the No. 4 spot after selling 52,000 copies.

“21st Century Breakdown” from Green Day and the soundtrack for “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” each dropped two spots into No. 4 and No. 5 with respective sales of 52,000 and 50,000 copies.

The top 10 rounds out with “New Again” from Taking Back Sunday, debuting at No. 7 with sales of 48,000 copies; “The Fame” from Lady GaGa in the No. 8 spot with 47,000 copies sold; “Greatest Hits II” from Kenny Chesney at No. 9 with sales of 39,000 copies; and “Fearless” from Taylor Swift in the No. 10 spot with sales of 36,000 copies.

The album doesn’t grab your attention immediately. The songs on a first listen for the most part pass on by, which didn’t happen too often on the band’s earlier albums.

The claws, and there are some, do take time for digging in deep. Although electric guitars have been added, something missing from a lot of the band’s work both in the studio as well as live, “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King” registers as the most subtle album for the Dave Matthews Band yet.

The album’s first half is down tempo, with a weird synthetic sound that’s slightly too slick. This band, after all is known for their live shows. Included on the album is “Funny the Way It Is,” the first single from the album. It’s a very shiny tune. It’s hard, indeed imagining that Rob Cavallo, producer, who helped to sharpen the edge for My Chemical Romance and Green Day on their releases, was even involved on the first seven songs of the album.

However, the mood changes on “Alligator Pie (Crocodile)”, a raucous tune that’s a Bayou brother for the other Louisiana flavored offerings from the band like “Corn Bread” and “Time Bomb,” a tremendously fierce song that explodes in a way that might come as a shock for those who refer to the band mockingly as the “Dave Mathews Bland.”

The thing tying the entire set together and what makes it a worthy addition for the band’s cannon, is they lyrics from Matthews. The words overall are very meditative and medicinal.

The band is still mourning losing LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and original band member, who last year died from complications following an off road car crash. In order to get this album fully, one needs to understand where the band really was coming from while making it. That place is grief, but also a point where the musicians found themselves trembling over and finally embracing their mortality.