Former Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent filed a
lawsuit
earlier this month against Kiss and A&E Television Networks for
using his image without his permission and is seeking unspecified
damages. Vincent claims that his image was used in the
KISSology Volume II DVD boxed set, his image was used as part of the
"roast" episode of A&E's Gene Simmon's Family Jewels and that
Simmons defamed him on A&E's Private Sessions. The
guitarist has filed several lawsuits against the band since leaving in
1984.
District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton has struck down the lawsuit by
Samuel Bartley Steele that claimed Bon Jovi's 2007 song "I Love This
Town" infringed on the copyright he had with his 2004 Red Sox anthem,
"Man I Really Love This Team." The judge summed it up by
saying, "Applying the 'ordinary listener' standard, this court detects
no musical similarity between the Steele song and the Bon Jovi song."
Black Label Society frontman Zakk Wylde has been hospitalized in
Eugene, Oregon with several blood clots in both his lungs and leg and
tour dates have been canceled for the band to prevent him from
suffering an embolism. The current (reportedly former) Ozzy
Osbourne guitarist is doing well during his recuperation.
According to a statement from the Los Angeles County coroner about the
death of Michael Jackson: The "manner of death has been ruled
homicide. Cause of death was established as acute propofol
intoxication. Other conditions contributing to death:
benzodiazepine. The drugs propofol and Lorazepam were found
to be the primary drugs responsible for Mr. Jackson's death.
Other drugs detected were midazolam, diazepam, lidocaine and
ephedrine. The final coroner's report includes a complete
toxicology report will that remain on security hold at the request of
the Los Angeles police department and the Los Angeles County District
Attorney's Office." California Attorney General Jerry Brown
has opened an independent investigation of several doctors whose names
have come up in connection with the probe into Jackson's
death. Meanwhile, several cities plan on holding 51st
birthday party celebrations for the singer to celebrate his life on
Saturday. Also A&E has announced that the reality
special they filmed with the Jackson family in the months prior to
Michael's death will be expanded into a full series.
According to his official Web site, Steve Vai will accept a lifetime
achievement award when he appears at the Cerbul De Aur Festival in
Brasov, Romania on Sept. 6th.
Reba McEntire's Keep On Loving You debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200
albums chart on sales of 96,000 copies. The album is her
second #1 on the chart and 11th #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums
chart. George Strait's Twang dropped a spot to #2 on sales of
61,000 copies. Neil Diamond's Hot August Night/NYC fell 4
places to #6 on sales of 39,000 copies. Gwar's Lust In Space
debuted at #96 (the highest charting of their career.)
Michael Jackson's 2003 hits collection, Number Ones, retained the #2
spot on the Billboard Comprehensive Albums chart selling 68,000
copies. As of this year, the collection has sold more than
1.6 million copies making it the top-selling album of the year.
Boys Don't Cry's "Don't Call Me A Country Singer" climbed a spot on the
FMQB AC40 singles chart to #7.
Michael Jackson's The Essential fell 5 places to #6 on the U.K. Albums
chart. The Stone Roses' The Stone Roses dropped 6 spots to
#11. Jackson's Bad fell 7 places to #19. U2's No
Line On the Horizon gained a spot to #20. Jackson's Thriller
fell 7 places to #23. U2's U218 Singles climbed 2 spots to
#28. Jackson's Off The Wall fell 6 places to #31.
Michael Jackson & The Jackson Five's The Motown Years dropped
10 spots to #32. Michael Jackson & The Jackson Five's
The Very Best Of Michael Jackson & The Jackson Five re-entered
the chart at #34. ABBA's Gold: Greatest Hits climbed a place
to #35.
IsraelNationalNews.com has reported that former Pink Floyd lead singer
Roger Waters has narrated, Walled Horizons, a 15-minute film produced
by the United Nations. The Pink Floyd hit "The Wall" is used
in the film and Waters talks about walls in the narration:
"They are always expressions of a deep-seated insecurity."
Marc Almond's new studio album, Orpheus In Exile, will be released in
the U.K. on Sept. 7th. The album is a tribute to the songbook
of the Soviet era's very own Frank Sinatra -- Vadim Kozin.
Kozin had been exiled by Stalin at the height of his fame for his
insubordinate refusal to write a song for the President.
Silvertone/Legacy will re-release The Stone Roses' self-titled debut
album in the U.S. in 4 different versions on Sept. 8th celebrating the
20th anniversary of the moment they stepped on stage at the Blackpool
Empress Ballroom. (A DVD of their performance at the ballroom
is included in the collector's edition.)
"Weird Al" Yankovic has released his 5-track digital EP, Internet
Leaks, at iTunes which includes 4 of his recently released iTunes
singles as well as the new song "Ringtone." Also, The
Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic will be released on Oct. 27th.
The Eurythmics will see the deluxe re-releases of their 1983 album,
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), 1983's Touch, 1985's Be Yourself
Tonight, 1986's Revenge, 1987's Savage, 1989's We Too Are One and
1999's Peace on Sept. 28th that include previously-unreleased, live and
remixed tracks. (Their 1981 debut, In The Garden, was
reissued in 2005.)
Paula Abdul has signed on to host VH1's Divas which will air live from
Brooklyn, New York on Sept. 17th.
Jerry Lee Lewis has been working on a new country music CD that will
feature several Kris Kristofferson-penned tracks. One of
those songs, "Mean Old Man," recorded with Kristofferson has been
released as a digital download single by Shangri-La Music.
The new album is expected out later this year.
Pete Townshend has announced on The Who's official Web site that he's
working on a new musical called Floss that he describes as "an
ambitious new project for me, in the style of Tommy and
Quadrophenia." He also said, "Several of the more
conventional songs from Floss will be featured on a forthcoming Who
recording for release in 2010."
They Might Be Giants' new studio album, Here Comes Science, heads to
stores in a deluxe DVD and CD set on Sept. 1st. A video for
"Electric Car" has been posted to their official MySpace page and a
video podcast of "I Am A Paleontologist" is available at iTunes.
Eagle Eye will release the DVD, The Willie Nelson Special Featuring Ray
Charles, on Sept. 22nd. The hour-long special was captured in
1985 at the Austin Opry House.
Guitarist Charlie Sexton will return to backing Bob Dylan starting Oct.
5th in Seattle. Sexton played with Dylan from 1999 to
2002. Earlier this year, Sexton reunited his blues-rock trio
Arc Angels and is currently finishing work on a CD/DVD set with them
due out in October. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan's new album of
holiday songs, Christmas In The Heart, will be released via Columbia
Records on Oct. 13th. All royalties in the U.S. will be
donated to Feeding America.
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the film This Is Spinal Tap,
a new short film entitled Stonehenge: 'Tis A Magic Place featuring the
band has been made available for download exclusively at iTunes.
Ever wondered what Andy Bell sounded like before forming Erasure with
Vince Clarke? You can hear a 1985 demo of the song "Air Of
Mystery" from Bell's project Dinger at his official MySpace page.
Foreigner's new 3-disc set, Can't Slow Down, (which includes their new
studio album, remixes and a live bonus DVD) heads to Walmart stores on
Sept. 29th. Meanwhile, their classic single, "I Want To Know
What Love Is," has been covered by Mariah Carey.
Delerium have plans to release "Dust In Gravity" featuring Kreesha
Turner as their new single. The band have mentioned that they
are trying for a more old school Delerium sound on the album.
Al Jarreau will release his new 16-track retrospective, The Very Best
Of Al Jarreau: An Excellent Adventure, on Sept. 29th via
Rhino. The title track, "Excellent Adventure," will be
released as a new single produced by Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson.
The latest Love Hope Strength Foundation event will be dubbed 'Rocky's
Run' and have participants ascending the 'Rocky Stairs' at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art. LHS co-founder Mike Peters of The
Alarm and Cy Curnin of the Fixx will participate and the event will be
followed that night by Philly Rocks, a charity concert at The Field
House, featuring members of The Alarm, The Fixx, Squeeze and Gene Loves
Jezebel among others.
Climie Fisher's 1988 debut album, Everything, and 1989's Coming In For
The Kill have been reissued via Edsel with non-album B-sides serving as
bonus tracks.
John Farnham plans to release a 42-track 3-CD retrospective entitled
Essential 3.0 tour edition that will cover his 5 decades recording.
Chris Cornell has signed a deal with Virgin America that will feature
the singer, starting October, on all in-flight programming.
His latest album, Scream, is now in the airline's music library that
plays while boarding. Passengers will also be able to select
from several Cornell music videos and albums throughout their flight
starting November.
Dan Zanes and Friends will release their new concert DVD, The Fine
Friends Are Here!, on Sept. 22nd via Festival Five Records/Razor
& Tie Entertainment. The disc will include 3 new
music videos and come with a bonus CD of 4 new unreleased solo songs by
Zanes (and one with his daughter Anna.) A portion of the
proceeds from the DVD will benefit the Mario Batali Foundation.
Dolly Parton, Wynonna, Reba McEntire and Lee Greenwood are among the
performers that will entertain viewers of the 44th annual Muscular
Dystrophy Association Telethon this Labor Day weekend.
Peter Hook's new Freebase project has finished mixing the 13 tracks
that are expected to make up their debut album. They do plan
to reconvene in September to work on a few B-sides.
Journey have been writing new material that they plan to take into the
studio with them when they finish touring in October.
Meanwhile, their 1981 hit, "Don't Stop Believin'," has become the
top-selling catalog track in iTunes history selling over 2 million
downloads.
Singer-songwriter Brett Dennen will release a new version of his song,
"Heaven," that he re-recorded as a duet with Natalie Merchant as the
next single from his Hope From The Hopeless album. The song
is expected to be released via iTunes on Sept. 1st.
Nirvana's 1992 performance at England's Reading Festival heads to
stores as a limited-edition CD+DVD on Nov. 3rd. The reissue
of their debut album Bleach heads to stores that same day as well as a
'best of' collection for Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters.
Naked Raygun plan to release a 7" vinyl series this fall (becoming
their first new material since 1992.) The first 7" record can
be pre-ordered at RiotFest.org. The band plan to headline
Riot Fest Chicago in October before starting work on their new album
due out next year.
Alice Cooper recently told Undercover News that he just finished
writing a couple of songs for Slash's new album. The idea
behind the album is Slash working with a bunch of lead singers.
Joan Jett has been considering a new greatest hits collection for 2010
that may include some of the latest material she's been working
on. Jett has also been involved in the upcoming film, The
Runaways, coaching Kristin Stewart. Details on the soundtrack
for the film about the band are still being worked out.
Rob Halford will see his latest solo effort, Halford 3: Holidays,
released in Japan on Oct. 14th. Remastered versions of his
Resurrection, Live Insurrection and Crucible albums will be released
there on the same day.
Saguaro Road Records is asking all Tanya Tucker look-alikes to upload
their photos to TanyaContest@gmail.com before Sept. 20th along with
their name and contact information. Fans will vote on a grand
prize winner who will receive a bunch of goodies.
45 Grave and T.S.O.L. are among the bands that have contributed tracks
to the the Night Of The Demons soundtrack due out in
February. 45 Grave created the original theme song for the
film.
Grammy award-winning keyboardist/bassist Larry Knechtel, 69, died on
Thursday at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital of an apparent heart
attack. He performed live and in the studio on recordings by
The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, The Doors, Neil Diamond, Tina Turner,
Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Barbra Streisand, Sting and Ray
Charles. During the 1980s he played on albums by David Gates,
Dolly Parton, Thelma Houston, Diana Ross, Art Garfunkel, Gene Vincent
and Lou Ann Barton among others.
Songwriter Ellie Greenwich, 68, died of a heart attack at a New York
hospital on Wednesday. She wrote many memorable hits during
the 1960s, earned 25 gold and platinum records and was inducted into
the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1991. Greenwich became more
involved with production and vocal contributions on albums from the
late 60s until the mid 1980s. During the 80s she recorded
vocals and background vocals for albums by Bernadette Peters, Sorrows,
Gary "U.S." Bonds, Joe "King" Carrasco, Ellen Foley, Clarence Clemons
and Cyndi Lauper. In 1984, she was involved in a musical
based on her life entitled Leader Of The Pack.