C103 Rock Report Wednesday March 5, 2008

• The first 6 of a scheduled 18 Grateful Dead master recordings have been released for the video game “Rock Band”…so you can rock out to the Dead for hours…

• The 26^th Annual Canadian Music Week has begun in Toronto…includes performances by over 500 Canadian & international artists at 41 downtown venues. The festivities continue through Saturday.

• Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is the new face of Louis Vuitton. Richards will donate his fee from the photo shoot to Al Gore’s Climate Project.

• The Rock-la-homa Festival announced their roster today at a press conference in Los Angeles. The festival, which will take place July 10-13 in Pryor, Oklahoma, will boast performances by Bret Michaels, Cinderella, Warrant, Tesla and reunions of Armored Saint and Kix among others.

• The Foo Fighters have announced the first leg of their 2008 summer tour, while the band Boston revealed the first date of their first tour since 2004: August 4th at Bethlehem, PA’s Musikfest Riverplace.

• A judge has rejected the accusation that police illegally searched Nickelback's Chad Kroeger’s vehicle during a traffic stop in June of 2006. Kroeger will still face charges of impaired driving.

• And finally…to help boost struggling sales, EMI may re-release albums by many of their veteran artists, including David Bowie and Pink Floyd. I guess they figure if you don't like the new stuff you'll buy another copy of the old stuff...