Senin, 27 April 2009

Britney gets green fingers

Britney Spears is addicted to gardening.

The 'Circus' singer, who has battled drug and mental health problems in recent years, is reportedly devoted to a new self-help programme called flower therapy, which uses plant essences to "balance physical and emotional disturbances".

A source said: "Britney has tried every kind of therapy going. She's studied
yoga, seen numerous counsellors and even experimented with mysticism, but they've never been more than passing fads.

"This time seems different though. She's committed to learning as much as she can about horticulture and how it impacts your wellbeing.

Whenever she returns to her California home she's straight out in the garden working. She's very proud and knowledgeable about what she's planted and what is growing around her house."

The 27-year-old's enthusiasm for horticulture hasn't even been dampened by her gruelling tour schedule.

Britney has been spotted reading books about the spiritual aspects of gardening, including Jack Canfield's 'Chicken Soup For The Gardener's Soul', backstage.

The source said: "That book has given her a lot of solace."

Blur will perform biggest hits at reunion shows

GRAHAM COXON has confirmed that Blur will play some of their biggest hits this summer.

The newly-reformed band's guitarist revealed the set-list for the reunion shows and said the group would perform tracks from 'Think Tank', which was originally released following his departure in 2003.

Blur are due to play a host of shows this summer, including two outdoor concerts in London's Hyde Park.

Coxon told the Sun newspaper: 'We’re pretty much there now. If we needed to go on stage tomorrow we could — the show would be a mess but I quite like it like that.

'We all know the words now - we just need to learn to play the songs a bit better.

"We’ll play for about two hours and do all the old favourites like Country House and Parklife.

'I specifically told the band that we should play 'Think Tank'. I was very keen on that.'

Coxon said recently that he was hopeful the band would also record new material together.

Kamis, 23 April 2009

Santana to receive lifetime achievement award

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Carlos Santana will receive a lifetime achievement award at the 2009 Billboard Latin Music Awards.

The awards ceremony will be held Thursday night at the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables, Fla. Other special award winners include Spirit of Hope recipient Daddy Yankee and Hall of Fame inductee Pablo Raul Alarcon Sr.

The Billboard Latin Music Awards honor the most popular albums, songs and performers in Latin music. This is determined by sales and radio airplay data during a one-year period.

Juanes, Shakira, Enrique Iglesias, Gloria Estefan and Ruben Blades are among the nominees in various categories.

Franz Ferdinand gets dub infusion with "Blood"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – For its second album of 2009, Scottish rock outfit Franz Ferdinand has recorded a dub version of the group's January release.

The nine-song set, "Blood," will be released June 1 through Domino.

It makes sense that "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand," the group's previous album, would lend itself to a dub treatment. (Evolved from reggae, dub centers on instrumental remixes of existing recordings.) On that set the band worked with Dan Carey, who has produced such artists as Lee "Scratch" Perry and Mad Professor. Speaking to Billboard in November 2008, lead singer Alex Kapranos described Carey as having "a different dynamic than other producers."

"I think with anything, it has to be a collaboration and we find ourselves bouncing off one another rather well," Kapranos said of the group's work with Carey. "He's coming from that Jamaican perspective -- there's much more space; the bass guitar leads a lot more on this record than anything else."

"He was very relaxed and fit in very easily into the band dynamic," added bassist Bob Hardy. "He's very interested in the process of making a record and that kind of world. He'd spend five hours working on a particular sound that will only be on the record for like three seconds' worth."

Franz Ferdinand is on tour in the U.S. through May 8.

Green Day made themselves ill for new album

Green Day were nearly "killed" by the making their new album.

The band's frontman Billie Joe Armstrong worked so hard on the band's LP '21st Century Breakdown' he was nearly hospitalised.

Describing how determined he was to better the band's last record, Billie Joe told Britain's The Sun newspaper: "This is the album that could have killed us. We had set the bar so high with 'American Idiot'.

"We all became sick as dogs. I was close to being hospitalised but they caught me in time. I had the boogie woogie flu!"

Billie Joe also revealed he his latest weapon in his songwriting arsenal is a BlackBerry mobile smartphone.

He added: "I got a BlackBerry and started to write down every idea for a lyric on it.

"I had many a sleepless night where I'd get something and have to get up and tap it into my BlackBerry."

He also thinks the band were encouraged to experiment on the new album - released on May 15 and billed as a "punk opera" - because of the support they received for 2004's universally acclaimed 'American Idiot'.

He added: "We had the opportunity to be more creative than ever before because we have a lot more listeners out there."

The band has also announced they will tour across North America in July and August.

Noel won't record with Liam again for five years

Oasis won't make another record until 2014 - because Noel Gallagher is sick of his brother Liam.

The guitarist wants a five-year break from his singer sibling after the band complete their current world tour, to promote latest LP 'Dig Out Your Soul', because Liam isn't committed to their music.

Noel fumed: "There are two great tracks lying there not finished from the last record, because Liam f***ed off to get married. That annoys the f**k out of me. We've got a 50-piece choir on both, they're enormous.

"There's no talking to be done. Maybe that's the problem - there's no fall-out from it.
I never said to him, 'What are you doing, you ****?'

"If albums mean that little to him, I don't want to argue. He can f**k off as far as I'm concerned. By the time we make another record we'll be five years older."

The 41-year-old guitarist - who has a 19-month-old son Donovan with his publicist girlfriend Sara MacDonald - admits tensions are running high between him and Liam, 36, because of his brother's bad attitude.

Sabtu, 18 April 2009

An energized Paul McCartney opens Coachella fest

NDIO, Calif. – Energized by the desert air and memory of his late wife, a playful and passionate Paul McCartney riffed on "Foxy Lady," led an after-midnight "Hey Jude" singalong and dedicated songs to his former bandmates at the Coachella music festival that kicked off Friday.

McCartney took off his black jacket five songs in and didn't put it back on for the next 29, strutting the stage in boots, black pants, a white shirt and suspenders that he tugged at wryly.

"It's going to be a good weekend, dear," he told the crowd of thousands gathered for the three-day festival, which erupted in cheers with the first chords of Beatles tunes like "Eleanor Rigby." It was McCartney's first appearance at a U.S. festival as a solo artist.

In the 2 1/2-hour set, including two encores, McCartney dedicated "Long and Winding Road" and "My Love Does It Good" to his late wife Linda, who died at the couple's ranch at Tucson, Ariz., 11 years earlier to the day.

"It's an emotional day for me. That's good, that's OK," he said, pounding his chest. "Lot of heart, lot of emotion."

Before a moving performance of "Blackbird," he noted that it had been written in response to the 60s civil rights movement. "Now you've got President Obama. Yeah, you know we've come a long way."

Switching from serious to cheerily self-aware, he led call-and-response chants only to wave them off quickly as "messing around," and dismissed signs held by front-row fans — including one that asked for his guitar pick.

"No! It's mine!" McCartney said. "Anyway, if I make a mistake, I can blame the signs."

There were mistakes. McCartney was proficient but sometimes out-of-sync with the four-man band backing him. But he clearly enjoyed himself, plowing through songs from his "Fireman" album, "Band on the Run" from the Wings, and Fab Four favorites like "Back in the USSR," "Paperback Writer" and, for the finale, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

McCartney launched brightly into "Something" with only his voice and a ukulele he said was given to him by George Harrison, before his band mates and the crowd joined in.

The first day of the festival also featured Morrissey, Leonard Cohen, the Hold Steady, Franz Ferdinand and the Ting Tings. It drew a number of young Hollywood stars to this desert city southeast of Palm Springs.

Anne Hathaway was spotted in the VIP area wearing patterned harem pants and a cardigan, while Morrissey's set drew the attention of "Twilight" actor Robert Pattinson, wearing skinny cut-off jeans, and Kirsten Dunst in a short-sleeve mini-dress. Kate Bosworth, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Chloe Sevigny and Zoe Kravitz were also spotted in the VIP area.

Police reported 18 arrests for drug- and alcohol-related crimes, and fire officials took three patrons to hospitals.

Las Vegas-based The Killers and M.I.A., a replacement for Amy Winehouse, headline a more youthful Saturday lineup. My Bloody Valentine and The Cure cap off Sunday night.

The recession has forced music festivals nationwide to lower prices or downsize, and three-day, $269 tickets to Coachella were available on a layaway plan. Single-day tickets were $120 at the door. Organizers have not yet announced attendance or ticket sales.

Dylan was inspired by travelling performers

BOB DYLAN said the travelling performers that used to visit his hometown were his biggest career influences.

The legendary singer revealed that he learned a lot from the circus-style performers that would visit Duluth, Minnesota.

And he said they and not the mass media had the biggest effect on his work.

Dylan, 67, said: "The side show performers - bluegrass singers, the black cowboy with chaps, and a lariat doing rope tricks.

"Miss Europe, Quasimodo, the Bearded Lady, the half-man half-woman, the deformed and the bent, Atlas The Dwarf, the fire-eaters, the teachers and preachers, the blues singers. I remember it like it was yesterday.

"I got close to some of these people. I learned about dignity from them. Freedom too. Civil rights, human rights. How to stay within yourself."

Dylan's new album, Together Through Life, is released on April 28.

Ex Oasis guitarist Bonehead speaks at Authentic

A new club night called AUTHENTIC is to launch on Monday nights at the Notting Hill Arts Club with ex Oasis guitarist Bonehead being interviewed.

Unlike the usual clubnights Alan has run such as Death Disco & Queen Is Dead this one has a different twist. Each week a Alan and the infamous poet/speaker Belowsky will interview a famous celebrity starting this Monday (20th April) with ex Oasis guitarist Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs.

With loads of big names lined up for future dates and dj sets from Alan McGee, Alex Andrews, Innes Reekie and The Foxes as well as a very special guest dj the night looks to be a surefire crowd puller.

Authentic is Alan McGee & Alex Andrews' new night at the nottinghill artsclub.
Never shy to put across a new idea or two he's got something a bit different in mind:
With free entry on most Monday nights until end of May, so far. Alan invites loud mouthed poets, interesting folk to interview plus live musicians that tickle his fancy.
First of his live on-stage interviews on 20th April will be held with Bonehead aka Paul Arthurs and one of the founding members of Oasis.

Bonehead, or so goes the rumour, because of the haircut his father gave him have when he was young...

To hear more tales from Oasis' past check it out on Monday. Its free to get in and doors are 8pm – 2am.

Kamis, 16 April 2009

Jack White announces new project

Raconteurs and White Stripes frontman, Jack White, is not content to dwell on past successes. Instead, he announced recently his desire to try something different yet again. Quickly garnering a reputation as the busiest man in rock 'n’ roll, his latest project is billed as an indie-rock supergroup and features members of The Raconteurs, The Kills and Queens of the Stone Age, alongside White himself. This new ensemble, The Dead Weather, sees White in a very different role to the one he usually plays, reverting back to his very first instrument – the drums.

With White installed behind the kit, and female vocalist Alison Mosshart leading the group, it’s certainly a far cry from White’s power-duo days with The White Stripes. As he told Rolling Stone magazine this month: "I produced the record from the drummer's seat, which is a new angle for me."

Whilst the acclaimed guitarist does still contribute vocals to a few numbers on the new record, Horehound, The Dead Weather’s sound is far darker and more atmospheric than anything we’ve heard from White to date. Their sludgy brand of psychedelic rock is driven along by White’s surprisingly dynamic drumming, and saved from the inevitable Stripes comparisons by Mosshart’s vocal performance – flitting effortlessly from smoky seductress to blues-rock banshee.

Originally taking shape through a series of chance meetings and jams whilst on the road, The Dead Weather quickly matured into a serious creative unit. Recording their debut record, due for release in June, in just three weeks. Indeed Mosshart seems a little overwhelmed at the speed the project has come together. As she told Rolling Stone, 'In The Kills, it takes a long time to finish anything. This band is fun because Jack works so fast. There is never a dull moment – ever.'

Rabu, 15 April 2009

Elvis fan club's license plate is fit for a 'King'

JACKSON, Miss. – Elvis Presley always wanted a youth center in his birthplace of Tupelo. Fans hope a new specialty license plate will help pay for it, more than 50 years after the rock 'n' roll icon came up with the idea.

The Tupelo Elvis Presley Fan Club pushed the tag through the Mississippi Legislature last year.

The club needs to collect 300 applications to ensure production of the plates featuring an image of Elvis over a picture of his birth home. They hope to hit that goal by May 10.

About 120 applications have been gathered so far from supporters who will pay an additional $31 for the tag.

Club president Scott Reese said Elvis held benefit concerts in Tupelo in 1956 and 1957 to raise money for a new youth center, but it was never built.

The club hopes to form a partnership with the city and the Tupelo Aquatic Club and use proceeds from the plate to build a center that would include a pool and dressing rooms, Reese said Tuesday.

"That was his wishes: To take care of the east side of town where he grew up," said Scott Reese.

Presley moved to Memphis, Tenn., when he was 13, but never forgot where he grew up.

The Tupelo fan club was created in 1956 but was dormant for years before organizers restarted it. It has about 150 active members in the Tupelo area in northeast Mississippi, besides those who sign up while passing through for tours of Elvis' birthplace.

Only Mississippi residents will be able to buy the tags, however. Club member Wilma White came up with the idea for the tag in 2007 and did much of the work in getting it approved, Reese said.

First, the club had to persuade the Legislature to approve the specialty plate, one of dozens available in Mississippi. After a design was completed by Tupelo's Vic Armstrong, Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. had to sign off on it. Approval by the Mississippi State Tax Commission is pending.

Pearl Jam album, film, tour in the works

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Pearl Jam is lining up U.S. concert dates for the second half of the year, including the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco.

Along with Dave Matthews Band and the Beastie Boys, the group will headline the festival's second edition, scheduled for August 28-30 at Golden Gate Park.

M.I.A., Modest Mouse, the Mars Volta, Black Eyed Peas, Ween, Thievery Corporation, Incubus and Jason Mraz also are in the lineup, which was announced Monday.

Pearl Jam also has completed 14 songs for a new album and is working on a film with director Cameron Crowe, guitarist Mike McCready said in a recent radio interview.

McCready told Seattle's "Ron & Don Show" that the band is about halfway finished with its next album. McCready said the band expects to have the album out before the end of this year. Pearl Jam will self-release the album, its ninth.

As for touring, the band is doing a "little thing in the States," and aims to play South America in 2010, McCready said.

Pearl Jam is widely expected to be one of the headliners of this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas. The event's promoter, C3 Presents, declined to comment to Billboard about the lineup, but the Austin Chronicle is calling the band's involvement "the worst-kept secret since Metallica's SXSW (South by Southwest) showcase."

Dave Matthews Band, Beastie Boys and Kings of Leon also are expected to be announced as headliners on April 28.

Pearl Jam has long been courted by C3 Presents for the Austin festival, especially after the promoter convinced the band to play Lollapalooza in 2007, its first large festival show in the U.S. since the mid-1990s. Pearl Jam played the Bonnaroo festival, in Tennessee, in 2008.

Minggu, 12 April 2009

Dave Matthews Band's 'Big Whiskey' Is A Toast To LeRoi Moore

From the bluesy sax solo that opens the album, to the inspired songs and performances throughout, it's clear that this one's for LeRoi.

"Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King," the Dave Matthews Band's first album since 2005, is due June 2 on RCA. The album shows a number of inspirations: producer Rob Cavallo (Green Day, My Chemical Romance), the band's maturation and a focus on creating a studio project on a level with the band's potency as one of the most popular live acts in rock history. But it's hard to deny the impact of the loss of founding member LeRoi Moore, who last summer died of complications from injuries suffered in an all-terrain-vehicle accident after work on the album had begun.

"Everything was really hard after Roi's death," Matthews says. "But when we were all spending time together and listened to what he had already played, we really had time to think about him and be grateful for the time we had with him."

Violinist Boyd Tinsley agrees that the sessions helped pull the band members together. "You're in the studio and you look around, and there's somebody missing," he says. "I know there were some moments for me that were really tough in the studio."

Moore's work is all over the album, culled from performances he had already put in for the project. "We created a giant ProTools file that had all of his parts, even if he was just tinkering around during a demo phase off-mic," Cavallo says. "We scoured the hard drives to find all of these moments he had."

Dave Matthews Band will begin its 2009 tour April 14 at New York's Madison Square Garden. The band plans to make new material part of the set list and, as is typical, the "Groogrux" songs will find a new life onstage. "We've played them all but we're going to have some extensive rehearsals before the tour starts - get them all oiled, lubed up and ready to go," Beauford says. "By the time we step onstage for the first show these tunes are going to be ready. By the middle of the summer, it's going to be a whole other story then, because most of the new tunes that we do always develop and grow into something fresh and new by the middle of the tour."

Sabtu, 11 April 2009

Metallica forgeries hit new high

"If you didn't see them signed yourself, your Metallica autographs probably aren't real," says "Autograph" publisher Steven Cyrkin. Already one of the most forged bands of all time, with their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Metallica forgeries have hit an all-time high.

From eBay, to fan and dealer Web sites, to many of the fancy galleries in tourist spots, criminals are preying on Metallica's unsuspecting fans. You can find out if your Metallica autographs, or ones you're thinking of buying, are suspect in a 10 page feature in the May issue of "Autograph" magazine that traces the band's autographs from 1982 to today.

"The number of Metallica forgeries being offered rivals the number of forged Barack Obama autographs peddled after he was elected president," continues Cyrkin. "It's so bad that we asked the chief authenticator of the largest autograph authentication service, PSA/DNA, to write an article that shows how to identify genuine Metallica signatures."

The authenticator is Steve Grad, a rabid Metallica fan with one of the largest Metallica autograph collections in the world. There are photographs of 28 genuine Metallica-signed items in the article, including an autographed flyer from 1982 -- the earliest band-signed piece Grad and the magazine have seen.

"My favorite piece is an autographed 8x10 photo from 1983 that we show life-size in the article. The band signed only 100 of them, which they sent to the first 100 members of the Metallica fan club. Only a few have surfaced over the years," Cyrkin says.

The article gives details on the history of the band's signing habits throughout their career. And fans and collectors can compare their Metallica autographs to the ones in the article to determine if they are likely real.

"Two factors make rock attractive to forgers," Cyrkin says. "First, rock stars that have been around for decades have more fans who can afford to buy rare and expensive items. For many bands, like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, genuine signed items like albums and guitars are extremely rare or do not exist. Most are not available at any price from legitimate dealers and auction houses, but the sellers of forgeries are happy to meet the demand. Second, in the case of hot, touring bands like Metallica, members stop signing as much as they see their autographs being offered all over the Internet."

"Autograph's" May Metallica Hall of Fame issue is $8.95. It is only available through their Web site by advance order, or with a subscription ordered by April 17. The issue mails the last week of April. The magazine is a niche publication that is not available in stores. It can be ordered at http://store.autographmagazine.com .

Bono wants to look like Elvis

Bono thinks he looks "sexy" in eyeliner.

The U2 frontman has started wearing thick black eye makeup under his coloured glasses because it makes him look like Elvis.

He said: "I thought I looked very sexy in eye make-up. It's a new character I'm trying out. I was calling him Elvis's dead brother, Jesse - which maybe is in poor taste. It's still in development! I started just messing with it a few weeks ago."

The 48-year-old singer .has a knack for stealing the limelight from the band, but that doesn't mean they listen to what he says.

Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. said: "People think we've all got beepers on, and it's like, 'Bono's had a thought! Oh, f**k! Get out your beeper!' "

He claims the other members of U2 spend a lot of time talking Bono out of his hare-brained schemes.

Larry said: "I think if Bono had his way, we'd probably be recording and playing for Africa, that's how he thinks. Just take everything and give it all. It doesn't work like that.

"We spend a lot of time trying to hold Bono back from doing the maddest things possible. I just don't understand where he gets the energy."

Green Day plans rare NYC club gig

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Green Day will appear at New York's Bowery Ballroom on May 18, just three days after the release of the band's hotly anticipated eighth studio album, "21st Century Breakdown," according to MTV Germany.

The small club show is a rarity for the band, whose last album, 2004's "American Idiot," sold more than 12 million copies.

But the group has done some guerilla-style gigs in its hometown of San Francisco this past week, including a show at the 500-capacity DNA Lounge. According to the New York Times' ArtsBeat blog, the band played "21st Century Breakdown" in its entirety before running through a set of older material.

"21st Century Breakdown" has a narrative structure, telling the story of a young couple, Christian and Gloria. The album is divided into three acts -- "Heroes and Cons," "Charlatans and Saints" and "Horseshoes and Handgrenades" -- and its tracks include "21 Guns," "East Jesus Nowhere," "Before the Lobotomy," and "Restless Heart Syndrome."

The album's first single, "Know Your Enemy," is set to launch April 16. The video for "Know Your Enemy" will debut April 24 on all MTV and VH1 channels worldwide, in the first global cross-channel video premiere for MTV and VH1 networks.

Rabu, 08 April 2009

Eminem is back, firing away at celebrities

Britney, Lindsay, Sarah Palin and more targeted in first video off ‘Relapse’

Celebrities beware: Eminem is back and he's got more bite than ever.

In the first video from his upcoming album, "Relapse," the rapper fires away mercilessly at celebrity culture, targeting a list of tabloid faves including Bret Michaels, Jessica Simpson, Sarah Palin, Kim Kardashian, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Amy Winehouse.

A blond-wig wearing Eminem, in the guise of "Rock of Love's" Michaels, opens the "We Made You," video, which premiered on MTV Tuesday morning, and so begins a romp through pop culture that offers a portly Simpson look-a-like gyrating in Daisy Dukes; a Palin clone laying prone on a desk in a bustier as a polar bear and Eskimo dance nearby; and Kardashian meeting a "Fargo"-like fate in a wood chipper (which converts her to cash).

Ripping into his rap, he sings: "Back by popular demand/ Now pop a little Zantac/ Or antacid if you can/ You're ready to tackle any task that is at hand/ How does it feel? Is it fantastic, is it grand?"

"There's some celebrity bashing in it," Eminem admitted in a clip from the set, according to MTV News. "I wanna say it's not necessarily intentional bashing in it; it's not necessarily taking deliberate shots at people. ... Yes, it is. What the f--- am I talking about?"

The erstwhile Slim Shady plays a host of characters in the video (his first solo effort since 2003) including Simpson beau Tony Romo, Jailhouse Rock Elvis, a soulful John Mayer romancing Jennifer Aniston, a bare-chested lumberjack seducing Palin, Winehouse's estranged ex Blake Fielder-Civil, Dustin Hoffman's "Rainman" character (with a Dr. Dre cameo in Tom Cruise's role) and, in a series of “Star Trek”-inspired clips, a Vulcan-death-grip-wielding Mr. Spock.

"Relapse," Eminen's first studio album since 2004's "Encore," is due out May 19.

Coldplay denies copying ‘Viva La Vida’

Band: Satriani’s song ‘lacks originality,’ shouldn’t get copyright protection

LOS ANGELES - Coldplay has denied in federal court that it copied parts of Joe Satriani’s music for its hit song, “Viva La Vida.”

In a response filed in Los Angeles on Monday, attorneys for Coldplay’s band members also argued that any similarities between “Viva La Vida” and Satriani’s “If I Could Fly” weren’t enough to warrant damages.

Satriani’s song “lacks originality,” Coldplay’s response claims, and shouldn’t receive copyright protection.