Boston musician Bart Steele filed a federal
lawsuit on
Thursday in Massachusetts District Court against Bon Jovi over the song
"I Love This Town" which he contends is an "unauthorized derivative
version" of his song "(Man I Really) Love This Team." Steele
is reportedly seeking $400 billion. The song appears on the
band's 2007 album, Lost Highway, and has been used as a promotional
track for Major League Baseball.
Glen Phillips has been forced to cancel some recent shows due to an arm
injury. He hopes to be cleared by his doctor soon to return
to the road.
Janet Jackson, who was forced to cancel 6 shows on her Rock Witchu tour
due to an undisclosed illness, is expected to return to the stage
tonight according to her promoter. "Janet, who has been under
her doctor's care and recuperating over the last week, is excited about
getting back on the road and again being able to share with her fans
what she feels is one of her best stage shows ever."
Meat Loaf [a.k.a. Marvin Lee Aday], 57, was hospitalized for an
undisclosed illness at a central London private hospital on
Monday. As of Friday, he was cleared to travel back to the
U.S.
Reba McEntire has been named as this year's recipient of the ASCAP
Golden Note Award to take place during a ceremony in Nashville on Oct.
13th.
John Mellencamp has been awarded Q Magazine's prestigious "Classic
Songwriter" title at 2008 Q Awards. Other award winners were
Adam Ant (for Q Icon), Glen Campbell (for Q Legend), The Cocteau Twins
(for Q Inspiration) and Grace Jones (for Q Idol.)
The MTV Europe Music Awards have been announced with U2 and Rick Astley
up for the Best Act Ever award.
James Taylor's Covers debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 album chart on
sales of 95,000 copies. Metallica's 3-week reign ended by
dropping 4 places to #5 on sales of 86,000 copies. The Mamma
Mia! soundtrack fell 8 places to #24. New Kids On The Block's
The Block climbed 10 spots to #28.
Bette Midler's The Best Bette fell two places to #8 on the U.K. Albums
chart. Metallica's Death Magnetic dropped 4 spots to
#11. David Gilmour's Live In Gdansk fell 3 places to
#13. Stevie Wonder's The Definitive Collection dropped 8
spots to #23. ABBA's 18 Hits fell 7 places to #24.
ABBA's Gold: Greatest Hits dropped 5 spots to #25. The Mamma
Mia! soundtrack fell 8 places to #34. Michael Jackson's King
Of Pop dropped 14 spots to #39. Queen + Paul Rodgers' The
Cosmos Rocks fell 22 places to #40.
Depeche Mode have renewed their long-term deal with Mute/EMI for the
release of their 12th studio album due out on Apr. 20th.
Previous releases were licensed by Mute to Warner Bros. for the
U.S. During a press conference announcing the release, Dave
Gahan said that he has written two songs that will appear on the disc.
Living Color will see the release of The Paris Concert on DVD in online
stores and retail outlets on Nov. 11th. The concert was
filmed at New Morning in Paris, France, in July 2007.
According to a BBC 1Xtra interview of will.i.am, do not expect a new
album by Michael Jackson any time soon. The Black Eyed Peas
singer has been working on the album with Jackson for over two
years. He stated, "There's all these artists in the world
like Neo [possibly intending Ne-Yo], Chris Brown, and Usher, Justin
Timberlake, Fergies and Rhiannas and then there's Michael
Jackson. Michael Jackson has a different pace and you can not
put Michael Jackson in that category especially when a lot of those
artists have been inspired by Michael Jackson. So Michael
Jackson is gonna release his record when he releases his record."
Yes bassist Chris Squire has told Billboard that vocalist Jon Anderson
isn't out of the band. "Unfortunately Jon has had these
health problems for the last few years, which is why it's taken such a
long time (since 2004) to have any Yes shows out there. We've
had to be very respectful of the fact he's not been well and he's been
in and out of the hospital having quite a few major
procedures. If Jon is well again next year, he'll be
back." Squire also said that some of the shows on the
upcoming tour will be recorded and offered for sale or
download. He also mentioned a new project that he has been
working on with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett to be released
early next year.
According to an MTV News interview with Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, the
band have recorded several songs with guest artists including one with
Blondie's Debbie Harry.
Weird Al Yankovic has released his new single, "Whatever You Like," via
iTunes. The song is a parody of T.I.'s song of the same name.
According to People.com, Eddie Van Halen is engaged to his
publicist/girlfriend Janie Liszewski. He reportedly proposed
to her on Aug. 4th while on vacation in Hawaii. The wedding
is expected to take place next June.
The Bio Channel will premiere the 2-hour documentary special, Johnny
Cash's America, on Oct. 23rd. A recently uncovered
previously-unreleased spoken word track by Cash called "I Am A Nation"
will surface on the Johnny Cash's America DVD/CD due out Oct. 28th.
Simply Red: Greatest Hits 25 will be released in the U.K. on Nov. 17th
preceded by their new single, a cover of The Moody Blues' 1964 #1 U.K.
hit "Go Now."
A CD/DVD collection, The Best Of Bond...James Bond, featuring 24 tracks
originally featured as 'James Bond themes' will be released on Oct.
28th. The DVD will include videos and the documentary The
Music Of James Bond. The CD includes songs from Chris
Cornell, Madonna, k.d. lang, Tina Turner, Gladys Knight, A-ha, Duran
Duran, Rita Coolidge, Sheena Easton and many others.
Einstürzende Neubauten singer Blixa Bargeld's 1995 solo debut
album, Commissioned Music, has been reissued with two additional songs
and two videos.
Come Together: A Night For John Lennon's Words & Music will be
released on DVD via Eagle Rock Entertainment on Nov. 4th. The
90-minute star-studded event was filmed at Radio City Music Hall in
2001 just 3 weeks after Sept. 11th. The event features
performances by Cyndi Lauper, Shelby Lynne, Lou Reed, Natalie Merchant,
Dave Stewart and many others.
Naughty By Nature have reunited to record a new album with plans for
release early next year. The album is tentatively-titled
Anthem Inc. and they expect to release it independently while currently
shopping for distribution. Despite being well known for their
massive 1991 hit, "O.P.P.", Naughty By Nature began under the name The
New Style and released the 1989 album The Independent Leaders (which
contained the minor hit "Scuffin' Those Knees".)
Carlos Santana, 61, recently told Rolling Stone magazine that when he
retires from music he would eventually like to start a church in Maui,
Hawaii. "I'm not sick of what I do, but I find that God gave
me the gift of communication even without my guitar and with the
ability to get people unstuck with certain sections of the Bible having
to do with guilt, shame, judgment and fear."
The title track to Robert Marlow's upcoming album, Inside/Out, has been
arranged and produced by Erasure's Vince Clarke. He has also
remixed the track, "Home." Clarke first worked with Marlow in
1983 on album, The Peter Pan Effect, which would be released in 1999.
Tony Mills has co-written and recorded, "Keep The Dream Alive," for the
Foundation for Autistic Children in Norway. The song is
expected to be the title track from the charity album due out later
this month in that country. Meanwhile, Mills will release his
first album, Atlantis, with TNT later this month in Europe (out now in
Norway.)
Former Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell has contributed a new
original song to the Twilight original motion picture soundtrack due
out on Nov. 4th.
Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash have announced they will
release their Labelle reunion album, Back To Now, on Oct.
21st. This would be their first album since disbanding in
1976.
The Eagle Vision Classic Albums DVD documentary series has announced
they will be releasing an installment focused on Duran Duran's 1982
album, Rio, due out Oct. 15th. The disc tells the story of
the writing, recording and reaction to the album told via new
interviews, vintage clips, new and archival performances,
demonstrations and audio excerpts from the album.
Former Swervedriver/Shake Appeal singer/guitarist Adam Franklin has a
new project called Magnetic Morning with Interpol's Sam
Fogarino. Their debut album, A.M., is due out Oct. 21st.
VH1 Classic will give up the network for 24 hours on Oct. 19th to
celebrate the release the following day of AC/DC's new album, Black
Ice. The channel will show archival footage, concerts, videos
and much more during what they call Total AC/DC.
Boz Scaggs will release, Speak Low, his second volume of standards and
ballads on Oct. 28th. His first volume of standards, But
Beautiful, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Jazz chart.
Metallica drummer, Lars Ulrich, is selling Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1982
painting "Untitled (Boxer)" via Christie's. The work could
surpass the $14.6 million record for the graffiti artist's
work. A pre-sale estimate of the piece was established at
over $12 million. In 2002, Ulrich sold off a Basquiat work,
"Profit I," for $5.5 million.
A new film, Memory And Desire: Thirty Years In The Wilderness With
Stephen Duffy And The Lilac Time, is nearing completion with hopes to
have it ready for festivals next year. They are also working
on a companion piece compilation, Memory And Desire, containing two new
tracks (including the title track.) Meanwhile, Cherry Red
have announced they will re-issue Duffy's 1984 debut, The Ups And
Downs, which will be expanded with 9 bonus tracks (including 4
previously-unreleased tracks.)
MTV2's Headbangers Ball will celebrate their 20th anniversary on Oct.
20th. The show plans to hold a roundtable discussion from
former VJ hosts, show archive footage and re-air noteworthy interviews
. The show replaced MTV's Heavy Metal Mania (hosted by Dee
Snider) and was hosted my Adam Curry until 1990.
Biographer Jake Brown has been working with Meat Puppets members Curt
and Cris Kirkwood to author a chronicle of their writing/recording
career in the upcoming book, Meat Puppets: In The Studio due out in
late spring.
Paul Weller plans to release a 4-CD box set, Weller At The BBC, on Nov.
3rd in the U.K. featuring rare live and session tracks from various
stages of his solo career.
Billboard reports sources close to the deal have confirmed the Best Buy
exclusive release of Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy on Nov.
23rd. If true, Dr Pepper did announce in the spring that they
will send a free can of their drink to "everyone in America" if the
album arrives any time during 2008.
Several U.K. musicians have joined the Featured Artists' Coalition
which campaigns for the protection of performers' and musicians'
rights. "We want all artists to have more control of their
music and a much fairer share of the profits it generates in the
digital age." Several artists that have joined the campaign
include Billy Bragg, Bryan Ferry, Chrissie Hynde, David Gilmour, Gang
Of Four, Howard Jones, Hue & Cry, Iron Maiden, Soul II Soul,
Jools Holland, Judy Tzuke, Mike Edwards, Nick Beggs, Nick Heywood,
Peter Hammill, Stephen Duffy and Wet Wet Wet.