Authorities in the Bahamas have detained an
ambulance
driver and a lawmaker in an investigation of a plot to extort money
from John Travolta after the death of his son Jett. Details
of the alleged extortion have not been released by authorities.
Slash and his wife have been told by a judge that they may pursue their
lawsuit against real estate agent Gregory Holcomb and Sotheby's
International Realty for misrepresenting the home he was sold in 2006.
Nominees for the 81st annual Academy Awards have been
announced. Danny Elfman's score for Milk is up for Music
(Score.) Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman's "Down To Earth"
from WALL-E is up for Music (Song.) The winners will be
announced live during the Oscars on Feb. 22nd on ABC.
Late guitarist Jeff Healey and the Jeff Healey Blues Band took home 7
awards at the 12th annual Maple Blues Awards on Jan. 19th.
They won for Entertainer, Electric Artist and Guitarist of the Year and
earned Recording of the Year. Individually the members of the
Healey band won awards: Dave Murphy won Piano/Keyboard Player of the
Year, Alec Fraser won Bassist of the Year and Al Webster won Drummer of
the Year.
The Twilight soundtrack fell a spot to #6 on the Billboard 200 albums
chart on sales of 36,000 copies. The Mamma Mia! soundtrack
dropped 4 places to #15. AC/DC's Black Ice fell 2 spots to
#39. Metallica's Death Magnetic dropped 4 places to #40.
Roger Whittaker's The Golden Age of Roger Whittaker: 50 Years Of
Classic Hits debuted at #16 on the U.K. Albums chart. Bette
Midler's The Best Bette fell 3 places to #28. ABBA's Gold:
Greatest Hits climbed 3 spots to #31. Simply Red's 25: The
Greatest Hits dropped 8 places to #37.
The Mary Jane Girls are working on their comeback album which will
feature their new single, "Promises." The song can currently
be heard at their official MySpace page and the album is expected soon.
U2 have released, "Get On Your Boots," as the first single from their
upcoming album, No Line On The Horizon, due out on Mar. 3rd.
The song has garnered strong airplay in Ireland, England and Germany on
its debut. Speaking of the album, American musician/label
owner Taylor Deupree has accused the band of copying the cover of his
2006 album, Specification. Fifteen, which also is based on a photograph
by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. No lawsuit is
expected. Meanwhile, Bono and several other recording artists
premiered a new patriotic song, "America's Song," on a special edition
of The Oprah Winfrey Show at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on
Jan. 18th. The song was made available as a free download at
Oprah.com for 24 hours but a video from the show is still available at
the site.
Eddie Vedder and Dave Grohl are among the acts that are confirmed for
an upcoming Nick Drake tribute album to be released via Brushfire
Records.
Norman Cook's new project Brighton Port Authority will release their
album, I Think We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat, heads to stores on Feb.
3rd. The disc will feature guest appearances by Iggy Pop and
David Byrne.
Paul McCartney and Dolly Parton have recorded guest spots on the new
Yusuf Islam single, "Boots & Sand." The song will
appear on his as-yet-untitled studio album due out in late spring via
Universal.
The Pet Shop Boys have confirmed the hiring or veteran manager Angela
Becker of Becker Brown to be their new manager effective
immediately. Their new album, Yes, comes out in March.
CMT's reality series Gone Country 3 premieres on Jan. 24th.
Contestants include former Monkees drummer/vocalist Micky Dolenz,
Parliament/Funkadelic's George Clinton, Taylor Dayne and Sheila E.
Don't expect a reunion of the Faces this year according to Rod
Stewart's spokesperson. Back awhile ago Ron Wood had told the
U.K.'s Daily Mirror that he and Rod Stewart had written an album's
worth of new material during the holidays and that Red Hot Chili
Peppers bassist Flea would participate in the upcoming tour.
The newspaper's report is no longer up at their Web site.
Flea's spokesperson recently told Billboard.com that he "knows nothing"
about a Faces tour. Meanwhile, Ian McLagan will release his
new album, Never Say Never, on Mar. 3rd via 00:02:29 Records.
A 20th Anniversary Deluxe Digital Edition of Tone Loc's 1989 album,
Loc-ed After Dark, will be released on Jan. 27th via Delicious Vinyl
and will include 6 bonus tracks. The release will be the
first of several reissues by the label that include Young MC's Stone
Cold Rhymin'.
Frame Of Mind, a detective drama centering around the J.F.K.
assassination and conspiracy theories, heads to DVD on Feb.
24th. Appearing in the film is former Kiss drummer Peter
Criss plays a New Jersey detective.
E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren is recovering well from his
October hip replacement surgery. He's been doing rehab, is no
longer using a cane and isn't limping anymore. He believes
that he'll be in shape to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show and
should be able to tour in support of Bruce Springsteen's new
album. Meanwhile, Lofgren plans to release a collection of
the music he has recorded to accompany the announcements of Madden's
all-star teams for the last decade in Tuff Stuff: The Best Of The
All-Madden Team Band. The album can be purchased at
NilsLofgren.com in the store area.
Helix are finalizing a recording deal with Germany's AOR Music for the
release of their currently-untitled follow-up to 2007's The Power Of
Rock And Roll. The band has also recorded a cover of AC/DC's
"It's A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock And Roll" for an AC/DC
tribute album to be released through Perris Records.
Prince is expected to collaborate with D'Angelo on the latter's
upcoming album, reportedly titled James River, due out in this summer
via J Records.
Multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey has released a statement, "For a
variety of personal and professional reasons I have chosen to
discontinue my ongoing involvement with Nick Cave And The Bad
Seeds. After 25 years I feel I am leaving the band as it
experiences one of its many peaks; in a very healthy condition, and
with fantastic prospects for the future." He also said, "I
shall continue working on the Bad Seeds back catalogue re-issues
project over the coming year and look forward to the new opportunities
I shall be able to accommodate as a result of my changed
circumstances." Harvey had been in various bands with Cave
since 1973 including The Birthday Party (from 1980 to 1983), The Bad
Seeds (from 1983 to 2009) and Crime & The City Solution (from
1985 to 1991.)
Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider plans to reprise his role this year
as Captain Howdy in, Strangeland: Disciple, the sequel to the 1998
horror film he wrote, co-produced and acted in.
Patrick Swayze's publicist has said the actor has been discussing plans
to write a memoir and that his wife, Lisa, will collaborate with him on
the book. Swayze, 56, is battling pancreatic cancer.
Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante will release his new
solo album, The Empyrean, via Record Collection on Jan. 27th (and is
currently available at all major digital service providers.)
Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee has announced that he has started work on
the Methods of Mayhem sophomore effort. They will jump into
the project as soon as Motley Crue finishes their tour and he hopes to
have recording finished in early June. Lee also believes that
a large gap between Motley Crue albums shouldn't happen again and that
they may write while on the road this summer to be ready to record the
following winter.
The Church have a new album on the way. The disc, Shriek,
will be the soundtrack to the James Vamdermeer book of the same title
and includes text from the book as the lyrics. The soundtrack
is available via their TheChurchBand.com Web site and it has been
released
via their Unorthodox Records. The band also have another
release planned for later this year.
Marianne Faithfull will release her new studio album, Easy Come, Easy
Go, on Mar. 17th via Decca. The disc will include guest
appearances by Nick Cave and Keith Richards as well as covers of songs
by Dolly Parton, Morrissey, Randy Newman and Merle Haggard.
Guitarist Joe Perry has explained his knee problem in a post at
Aeroforceone.com which forced the postponing of Aerosmith's Caracas
show recently. He finally had knee replacement surgery after
damaging his knee 20 years ago when he fell off the stage during a
performance in Dallas. "Recovery was going well until about 6
weeks ago. It got infected! At this point we don't
know how or why, and after a series of tests, I had to undergo
emergency knee surgery. Basically they flushed out the knee
with a lot of antibiotics. I got the call at 11:00 AM on a
Thursday that I needed surgery the next day. Recovery seems
to be going well and I plan to get back in the studio in a couple
weeks."
Assemblage 23 have announced they will release Early, Rare, &
Unreleased: 1988-1998 Volume 2 on Feb. 10th via their store at
Assemblage23.com. The collection will be limited to 1,000
copies so pre-ordering is recommended.
Cher has signed on to star in the upcoming slacker-themed comedy, The
Drop-Out, with Johnny Knoxville. Cher will play the neighbor
that takes in the college student Knoxville after he is kicked out of
his parents house at the age of 35.
Peter Frampton has been writing material for his new CD and hopes to
head into the studio in March with an eye on an early 2010 release date.
Maltese Falcon's 1984 album, Metal Rush, will be released in a
remastered digipak edition limited to 2000 copies on Mar. 10th via MVD.
Remember that episode of ABC's Samantha Who? that Duran Duran's John
Taylor filmed that seems to keep getting pushed back? Well,
the episode, The Rock Star, is now in a 'to be announced' status but
should be the first episode to air when the show comes out of
hiatus. Meanwhile, bandmate Simon Le Bon will appear on
BBC2's High Altitude on Mar. 8th. About the show:
"[Presenters] Graham [Bell] and Ed [Leigh] invite Duran Duran frontman
Simon Le Bon and his brother Jonny to a frozen lake in Sweden in a
quest for sailing supremacy -- on ice. They will fly across
the ice on catamarans at speeds of up to 100kph in an exhilarating --
and potentially very dangerous competition."
Iron Maiden will release their first feature-length film, Iron Maiden:
Flight 666, to theaters on Apr. 21st. The documentary-style
film follows the band on their Somewhere Back in Time world tour.
Scottish act H20 will see their long out-of-print 1983 album, Faith,
reissued in the U.K. in an expanded version containing 6 additional
bonus tracks. A U.S. release date has yet to be announced.
The Mission U.K. will release their 3-DVD digipak, The Final Chapter,
on Mar. 2nd which chronicles their final four shows in London.
Pixies frontman Frank Black has produced an upcoming as-yet-untitled
new studio album for Pete Yorn due out early this year.
Jazz saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman, 75, has died from
complications of pancreatic cancer. Newman released 1982's
Still Hard Times and 1988's Fire! Live At The Village Vanguard and
appeared on recordings by Dr. John, Queen Latifah, Aaron Neville,
Natalie Cole, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin and many others.