MusicsNews.com

Bob Dylan Attacks 'Hypocritical' Music Industry

Giannis Tsagarakis giannis@musicsnews.com — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

Bob Dylan has hit out at the hypocritical music industry, saying he prefers the literary and art worlds.
Speaking to The Times, the legendary singer-songwriter said: "The music world's a made-up bunch of hypocritical rubbish. I know that the book people are a whole lot saner.And the art world? From the small steps I've taken in it, I'd say, yeah, the people are honest, upfront and deliver what they say."Basically, they are who they say they are. They don't pretend. And having been in the music world most of my life I can tell you it's not that way. Let's just say it's less dignified." Source: festivalwise.com

Alicia Keys' troubled time leads to big success

Giannis Tsagarakis giannis@musicsnews.com — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

R&B singer Alicia Keys is enjoying a successful worldwide tour, a chart-topping album and will act in an upcoming movie, but it might not have happened, she said, were it not for a near breakdown two years ago.Keys, whose current hits include "No One," is in the middle of her "As I Am" tour. The new "As I Am" album debuted on record charts at No. 1 and has sold over 3 million copies.
In October, she makes her film debut in "The Secret Life of Bees," starring Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, the movie is co-produced by Will Smith and backed by indie powerhouse Fox Searchlight.While Keys seems to lead a charmed life and has the sort of career that most other 26-year-olds could barely imagine, it hasn't always been so rosy.Two years ago, the singer went through a troubled period that nearly derailed her life and career. A workaholic lifestyle and the death of a close relative from cancer pushed her "very close" to the breaking point, she admits.Instead of having a public meltdown, Keys faced her demons in private."I knew I needed time away, so I went to Egypt for a month -- on my own, which gave it a whole different perspective," she told Reuters in a recent interview."It allowed me to see things I'd never seen before -- all the temples on the Nile, the Pyramids, the history. It was so rich and beautiful and strong, and it inspired me so much, and renewed me."
TIME TO REFLECT
Keys said she felt like it was important to be alone so she could reflect on her thoughts and examine her life, away from the media spotlight. She also cut back her work schedule."I'm definitely a workaholic in some ways, although less than I was before," she said.
Ultimately, she said, the near-breakdown brought about an artistic breakthrough that helped shape the music on her third album and her edgier stage persona.
Billboard magazine, in its review of "As I Am," said Keys "takes a step closer toward the soul revival popularized by John Legend, with full band arrangements and bright horn hooks, only occasionally falling back into the piano/melisma combination that drove the singles off her first two albums."
Keys has always prided herself on being in control of her career and music, producing her records and writing songs, but ironically, she was able to push herself more on the new album by giving up some of that control, she said."I purposely didn't have such a kind of controlling approach about it and I allowed the music to flow," she said. "I've come more into my own, and really, with experience comes confidence and a little bit more of awareness of how I would like to do it, having learned from the past."
She added that she is anxious to experiment even more and wants to work with rock acts like the White Stripes, Green Day, U2 or Coldplay."Things that are not quite of the same world, or so you think," she said, "but when you put them together it's just really interesting." Source: aol.com

Nine Inch Nails give away even more music

Giannis Tsagarakis giannis@musicsnews.com — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

Nine Inch Nails are giving away another free download. This time its the Lights In The Sky tour sampler featuring a track from each of the bands supporting NIN on their North American jaunt this summer Deerhunter, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Crystal Castles and A Place To Bury Strangers.Having done a Radiohead earlier this year with albums Ghosts I-IV and, more recently, offered fans another 10 track free download called The Slip, it would appear that this has become the standard distribution model for Trent Reznor and co.You can get your DRM-free copy of Lights In The Sky (including cover art and digital extras) by signing up here. Source: musicradar.com

Pearl Jam Plan Collaboration With Jack White At Bonnaroo

Giannis Tsagarakis giannis@musicsnews.com — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready has revealed that the band would like to collaborate with Jack White.
Speaking to reporters about Pearl Jams forthcoming appearance at the Bonnaroo Festival, which will also feature Whites side-project The Raconteurs, McCready said he would love to have the guitarist join the band onstage.
I just, I think he's just a phenomenal guitar player and I'd love to see him play up close, McCready said.
I've seen The White Stripes in Europe, but it was kind of far away."But I'd love to have him up there and jam because he's got a killer voice and he's a great lead player too. So that would be exciting to me."
Other acts scheduled to appear at the festival which runs from June 12th-15th in Tennessee include Kanye West and Death Cab For Cutie.Metallica are also on the bill for the festival. Source:gigwise.com

Starsailor Snags Ron Wood For New Album

Giannis Tsagarakis giannis@musicsnews.com — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

The return of original producer Steve Osborne and a guest appearance by a Rolling Stone highlight Starsailor's upcoming fourth album.Tentatively titled "All the Plans," the album features Stones guitarist Ron Wood on the track "All The Plans We Made," Starsailor frontman James Walsh tells Billboard.com. "We kept asking him if he'd be up for playing some guitar on the record, and at the time he was busy promoting the film ('Shine a Light')," Walsh says. "So there were a couple of months there where he just wasn't available to do it.
"Then I got a call about half past six one evening from his son Jesse saying, 'My dad really wants to do this now. Can you be at the studio (at) nine o'clock?' So from having sort of given up the ghost it all came together out of the blue. It was amazing; he stood there playing the guitar, saying the song reminded him of 'Maggie May' -- quite high praise, indeed."
Walsh describes the rest of "All the Plans" as "back to our roots in a lot of ways," and a "reaction" to the "darker and heavier" tone of 2005's "On the Outside." "On this album, there's a lot more light to it, and we've reverted back to the more acoustic guitar- and piano-driven sound on a lot of the tracks," Walsh says. "It's hard to encapsulate it in one word or phrase, though."
Starsailor recorded the album in four studios around England, and other song titles include "Stars and Stripes," "Tell Me It's Not Over," and "Boy in Waiting." When it comes out remains a mystery, however; Walsh says the album has been finished since May and the band is waiting for EMI to decide on a release date."It's definitely frustrating when you've got a finished record you want to get out and promote," Walsh acknowledges, "But we're keeping ourselves as busy as we can." That includes opening for the Police on its U.K. dates this month as well as performances at the Isle of Wight Festival and Hard Rock Calling in Britain and the Cactus Festival in Belgium. Source: billboard.com

Weezer's recipe: rock, with a twist

Giannis Tsagarakis giannis@musicsnews.com — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

Weezer - those riff-loving, hook-hurling, inner-geek-embracing wags - has become the most reliable band in rock. Sixteen years in, the group continues to churn out crunchy anthems for misfits, nerds, and anyone with a soft spot for quirky, heavy power-pop. The songs are consistently vibrant, catchy, and well-built. Occasional stabs at earnestness notwithstanding, Weezer's lyrics probe frontman Rivers Cuomo's cosmic outsiderness in smart, sarcastic stanzas that come off like self-deprecating goofs but always leave you wondering: Is he laughing at us? Is he sadder than he seems? The chorus is righteous, so why should we even care?Not much has changed on the group's sixth album, a self-titled collection dubbed the Red Album. (Weezer's previous two self-titled projects were anointed the Blue Album and the Green Album.) In fact, one wishes that less had changed upon arriving at the disc's back end, which features token contributions from guitarist Brian Bell, bassist Scott Shriner, and drummer Patrick Wilson that sound like they were mistakenly grafted onto a Weezer album from some other, more forgettable, alt-rock band.Cuomo, newly mustachioed, has started playing around a bit with song structure, pushing beyond rock's usual verse-chorus-bridge pattern and into headier, linear territory. "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" is a sprawling folk-metal chorale that squashes wildly assorted references (Shakespeare, sex, and stardom) into epic musical settings (elegant harmonies, suite-like movements) and winds up sounding simply, fabulously faux.
But that seems to be what Cuomo is going for. The Red Album is filled with the sunny musings and petulant posturing of a boy, or a slacker, not a 37-year-old, Harvard-educated, multiple-platinum rocker, husband, and father. "Who needs stupid books," he sneers in the gleeful pop-rocker "Troublemaker." "Everybody get dangerous," he counsels over stiff, filthy licks in the song of the same name. "Daddy says I've got to pay some bills/ So I can learn to be responsible," he moans in "Dreamin'," a blissed-out paean to escapism.
Forget those middle-age lotharios in skin-tight leather and feathered hair; Cuomo is rock's Peter Pan, and there's enough stunted growth on the Red Album to fill a case study. A famously reluctant pop star, Cuomo is dreaming the same dreams even after they've come true. "Pork and Beans" is vintage stuff: wall of guitars, heap of hooks, tongue planted firmly in cheek. "Timbaland knows the way to reach the top of the chart/ Maybe if I work with him I can perfect the art," he cracks, going on to claim "Imma do the things that I want to do/ I ain't got a thing to prove to you."Of course, all Cuomo has ever tried to do is perfect the art. To crow about his maverick attitude in a song that was so clearly built for maximum appeal is just so . . . Weezer. Source: boston.com

Muse begin new album

Giannis Tsagarakis giannis@musicsnews.com — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

Muse have begun to make their fifth album.The boys are currently working on a follow-up to 2006's Black Holes & Revelations.Frontman Matt Bellamy told NME: "We've just started writing songs for the new album, whatever it's going to be, you know? It's going great, we just started."Having reassembled after a hefty tour, the trio are just getting into the swing of things.Matt added: "It's really about getting back together and getting the ball rolling again and seeing whether it'll roll." Source: music-news.com

Morrissey Confirms New Album Name

Giannis Tsagarakis giannis@musicsnews.com — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

Morrissey has finished his new album, according to fan site True To You.Polydor Records will release 'Years of Refusal' in the UK in September, and features 12 Jerry Finn produced tracks.
Prior to this, Sony BMG are issuing a remastered version of 'Southpaw Grammar'. Originally released in 1995, it will hit stores in July and contain 3 previously unreleased tracks, as well as new artwork.Source:rocklouder.co.uk

R.E.M. delivers during concert for band's longtime listeners

Giannis Tsagarakis giannis@musicsnews.com — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

R.E.M. - written off for dead by many critics after releasing three consecutive albums that failed to live up to commercial expectations - added yet another chapter to the year's most convincing comeback story during its thoroughly entertaining show on Saturday night.The Athens, Ga.-based group delivered a fiery, inspired two-hour performance, consisting of 27 songs, which reminded the 8,500 fans at the University of California's Greek Theatre in Berkeley exactly why they fell in love with R.E.M. in the first place.
The group - featuring founding members Michael Stipe on vocals, Peter Buck on guitar and Mike Mills on bass and keyboards, as well as touring partners Scott McCaughey on guitar and Bill Rieflin on drums - thrilled the sold-out crowd with selections from its acclaimed new album, "Accelerate," while also mining the rest of their 14-album back catalog.R.E.M., which returned to the Greek with openers Modest Mouse and the National on Sunday night, put on a show that was meant for longtime listeners, as opposed to those who might have gone to the gig primarily in hopes of hearing "Shiny Happy People" (which the band, of course, didn't play). Stipe and company went way back into its catalog - way, way back."That song is from the year 1638," Stipe said after performing "Ignoreland." "It's from our 75th album." The singer later introduced "West of the Fields" as being "from the year 1064." Besides beingfactually incorrect - "Ignoreland" actually hails from 1992's blockbuster "Automatic for the People," R.E.M.'s eighth album, while "West of the Fields" is from the 1983 debut "Murmur" - those comments showed what kind of a mood Stipe was in.Often criticized for being overly serious, the 48-year-old singer was obviously playful and ready to entertain in Berkeley. Stipe, the only Southern-born member of the group and the grandson of a South Georgia preacher, operated like he was center stage at a revival tent. He was an engaging, writhing presence, one who sold his words with equal parts passion and conviction.
Stipe was also in the mood to rock. The group came out hitting on all cylinders, with Buck rocking one Rickenbacker after another and Mills punching out some of the most melodically endearing bass solos in all of modern rock, and the first 11 offerings were all up-tempo ditties.The new album was featured prominently in this segment and produced some of the evening's finest moments, especially during raucous versions of "Horse to Water" and "Man-Sized Wreath." The band truly seemed to love playing the tunes from "Accelerate," which is R.E.M.'s most rock-oriented release since 1994's "Monster."
Yet, there was no timeline restriction for highlights on this night. The band constantly flipped through the pages of its yearbooks and delighted fans at every stop. Each of the eras produced big thrills as the quintet raced through "Little America" (from 1984's "Reckoning"), "Driver 8" (1985's "Fables of the Reconstruction"), "Orange Crush" (1988's "Green"), "Imitation of Life" (2001's "Reveal") and other winners.The only song that didn't work was, believe it or not, R.E.M.'s biggest hit, "Losing My Religion." It wasn't because Buck, an East Bay native, broke a mandolin string early in the song - it was because R.E.M. played the tune like an obligation, something owed to fans.
"Tonight's your night," Stipe said to the crowd early in the show. "I'm happy to be here to share it with you."
In that assessment, the vocalist had things backward. The musicians played this show like it was their night - which was why the music felt so passionate - and we were happy to be there to share it with them.Source:mercurynews.com

Shirley Bassey leaves hospital after emergency stomach surgery

Giannis Tsagarakis giannis@musicsnews.com — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 MDT

Dame Shirley Bassey has been discharged from the French hospital where she was recovering from an emergency operation on her stomach, her spokesman said yesterday.The singer, 71, was taken to hospital with abdominal pains in the middle of the night last week after calling out her doctor in Monaco, where she lives.But her spokesman Paul Carey said: "She is out of hospital today and back at home, resting up and on the road to a full recovery".The star, who wowed audiences at last year's Glastonbury festival in diamante-encrusted wellington boots, has enjoyed chart success since the late 1950s.
She sang the Bond theme tunes for Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker.
The Welsh-born singer now begins rehearsals for her performance at next month's Nelson Mandela 90th birthday concert in Hyde Park.The Big Spender and No Regrets star attracted a new generation of fans with History Repeating in 1997, a collaboration with the Propellerheads.The singer was made a dame in 1999. Source: guardian.co.uk