According to a post at their MySpace page, U.S.
Customs & Immigrations has refused admittance to the country to
UB40's toaster/trumpet player Astro three days prior to the band
leaving for their North American tour. How this will affect
their tour has not been clarified.
The Mayor of Los Angeles declared July 31st as Motley Crue Saints Of
Los Angeles Day. The group marked the occasion by joining a
partnership with the Sunset Blvd. Guitar Center to give back to local
artists.
The soundtrack to Mamma Mia! has retained the #3 spot on the Billboard
200 album chart selling 168,000 copies. Nine Inch Nails' The
Slip debuted at #13 selling 29,000 copies. John Mellencamp's
Life, Death, Love And Freedom fell 9 spots to #16. Journey's
Revelation dropped 3 places to #21. Alan Jackson's Good Time
fell 5 spots to #38.
Poison's new DVD, Poison: Live, Raw & Uncut, has been released
exclusively at Best Buy and last week debuted at #8 on the Billboard
Top Music Video Chart.
ABBA's Gold: Greatest Hits climbed 3 places to #2 on the U.K. Albums
chart. Primal Scream's Beautiful Future debuted at
#9. Billy Joel's Piano Man: The Very Best Of Billy Joel fell
4 spots to #13. Madonna's Hard Candy dropped 5 places to
#15. The Mamma Mia! soundtrack fell 1 spot to #20.
Eddy Grant's The Very Best Of Eddy Grant: Road To Reparation dropped 4
places to #22. Neil Diamond's The Best Of Neil Diamond
retained the #24 spot. Diamond's Home Before Dark fell 8
places to #25. Paul Weller's 22 Dreams dropped 10 spots to
#36. Billy Idol's The Very Best Of Billy Idol: Idolize
Yourself debuted at #37.
Madonna's "Give It 2 Me" fell 3 places to #10 on the U.K. Singles
chart. Her "4 Minutes" featuring Justin Timberlake dropped 7
spots to #29. Fall Out Boy's cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat
It" featuring John Mayer fell 11 places to #40.
Mission U.K. guitarist Mark Gemini Thwaite will see his latest
collaborations with Tricky released on the new Tricky studio album,
Knowle West Boy, in the U.S. in September. Thwaite has
recorded two previous albums with Tricky.
Huey Lewis And The News have resurfaced on the soundtrack to the comedy
film Pineapple Express for which they wrote the title track.
To hear a the new song, you can stop in at the Pineapple Express
MySpace page (www.myspace.com/pineappleexpressssoundtrack) and it can
be purchased at iTunes. Also on the soundtrack are songs by
Eddy Grant, Public Enemy and Bell Biv Devoe. Meanwhile, a
Huey Lewis tribute album is on the way under the title Are You Still
With Me?!
David Byrne and Brian Eno's new studio album, Everything That Happens
Will Happen Today, will be released exclusively via
EverythingThatHappens.com on Aug. 18th. On Aug. 4th, a free
download of a track from the album will be available on the site.
Marillion's new studio effort, Happiness Is The Road Volumes 1
& 2, will be released on Oct. 20th via their official Web site
and digital outlets. A limited retail release is planned for
spring 2009 in the U.S., Canada and Poland. Meanwhile, the
band are holding a contest at WhateverIs WrongWithYou.com asking fans
to create a video for their new single, "Whatever Is Wrong With You,"
with a £5000 prize for the winner.
Queen + Paul Rodgers have announced that, The Cosmos Rocks, the first
new studio album from the group since 1995's Made In Heaven will be
released on Oct. 14th.
People.com have featured the new New Kids On The Block song, "Single,"
which features Ne-Yo at their site (as of July 30th.) The
song becomes available digitally on iTunes on Aug. 12th and will appear
on their upcoming album, The Block, due out Sept. 2nd. Other
collaborations reportedly on the album are with New Edition and
Pussycat Dolls.
The Clash's 1982 Shea Stadium concert will be released on CD in October
as well as a DVD, The Clash Live: Revolution Rock, which collects their
best performances.
Tesla will see the release of a Gold collection on Aug. 26th.
The double-CD set will include 33-tracks from their career as well as a
previously-unreleased track ("Love In Vain") and several
B-sides. The new DVD by the group, Cumin' Atcha Live 2008, is
out now. A new CD is also in the works.
Chris Cornell's third solo studio album will be titled Scream when
released in September. The former Soundgarden/Audioslave
frontman has been working with Timbaland on the project.
Bob Dylan will release, Tell Tale Signs, the 8th installment of his
Bootleg Series on Oct. 7th. The set will contain 27 tracks
from 1989 to 2006 that include alternate versions,
previously-unreleased songs and live material. Fans
registering at BobDylan.com, for a limited time, will be able to
download a free, never-before-released song, "Dreamin' Of You."
Former Quiet Riot guitarist Carlos Cavazo is rumored to be replacing
guitarist/vocalist John Corabi in Ratt as Corabi has reportedly quit
the band. Cavazo had recently been working with former Ratt
bassist Juan Croucier in Dirty Rats.
Chris de Burgh has scheduled a performance in late November in Tehran
with Iranian band Arian. This will be the first such concert
where an Iranian pop act played with a Western singer inside the
Islamic Republic in nearly 3 decades. Western pop songs with
lyrics are banned by Iran's authorities. Arian and de Burgh
did record a song called "A Light For Eternity" together and it was
played during a news conference in Tehran in May.
Blancmange have announced that their 3 studio albums (1982's Happy
Families, 1984's Mange Tout and 1985's Believe You Me) will be released
in remastered and expanded editions on Sept. 1st. Meanwhile,
they are still working new material for what will be their fourth
studio album.
Dolly Parton's third single, "Shinola," from Backwoods Barbie has been
released. She will release the title track as a single in
2009 to coincide with the Broadway opening of the new musical 9 To 5
(in which the song also appears.)
Heaven And Hell are reportedly 6 or 7 new songs into their new studio
album. They've taken a little time off to take part in the
Metal Masters tour before returning to work on the album which is
expected out next year.
Entertainment Tonight has confirmed that Cher has listed her
14,000-sq.ft., 1.7 acre, 3-story Malibu mansion for sale for $45
million.
A full-length documentary about the life and work of BJ Thomas is in
the works by independent film makers Kevin Heard and Jeff Santo.
Original Meliah Rage frontman Mike Munro has returned to the
band. The group had been searching for a suitable replacement
after Paul Souza left the metal act 6 months ago.
A new song, "Like I Never Left," by Whitney Houston featuring Akon was
leaked online during the weekend. The track is the first
studio track from her to surface since 2003. Her new album is
due out in the fall.
Killing Joke will release a 17-track disc of their radio session
recordings, The Peel Sessions '79-'81, on Sept. 8th.
Meanwhile, the group have been working on their new studio effort.
Q-Tip plans to release his long-awaited sophomore album, The
Renaissance, on Oct. 14th via Universal Motown. The lead
single from the album will be "Getting Up."
A video has been filmed outside Los Angeles for, "The Day That Never
Comes," the first featured track from Metallica's Death Magnetic.
Jon Bon Jovi's arena football team the Philadelphia Soul has won the
Arena Football League Championship.
Bjork will release, "The Dull Flame Of Desire," the latest single from
her Volta album on Sept. 29th via One Little Indian Records.
A new documentary, Kraftwerk And The Electronic Revolution, will be
released on Sept. 2nd and charts the history and influence of the band
via interviews, rare live footage and previously-unreleased photographs.
Asia featuring John Payne have contributed the song "Long Way Home" to
A Musical Tribute To The Olympics 2008 Summer Games: A Commemorative
Compact Disc available at Wal-Mart and Amazon.com.
Blackhawk plan to release their new CD Greatest Hits: Live exclusively
to fan club members with the live album heading later to traditional
retail outlets in September. "Love Like This" will be
released as a radio single from the disc.
Loretta Lynn has two albums in the works. She has been
re-recording her hits with John Carter Cash. She also has
been working with her sisters Crystal Gayle and Peggy Sue on an album
together.
More rumors have surfaced over the upcoming AC/DC album including a
possible release date change (1 week earlier), new titles, new
spellings of titles and videos being filmed. We are holding
off on anything until it's set in stone.
Gazebo have announced that they will release their latest single from
The Syndrone, "Virtual Love," on Aug. 1st.
A new Simply Red retrospective is expected out in the U.K. in November.
Jazz guitarist Joe Beck died on July 22nd in Woodbury, Connecticut,
from complications from lung cancer. Beck released his 4th
solo album, Relaxin', in 1983 but recorded with many artists including
David Sanborn, James Brown, Paul Simon, Sergio Mendez, Stan Getz,
Herbie Hancock and many others.