April Wine vocalist Myles Goodwin is being held
for
observation at the hospital after he collapsed on Nov. 28th at a
Montreal airport. His fall resulted in 6 stitches to his
head. Sadly, this kept him from joining his original
bandmates for induction into Q104's Rock of the Atlantic Wall of Fame.
Guitarist Joe Satriani has filed a copyright infringement suit against
Coldplay in Los Angeles federal court claiming their song "Viva La
Vida" incorporates "substantial original portions" of his 2004 song "If
I Could Fly." Satriani is seeking a jury trial, damages and
"any and all profits" attributable to the alleged copyright
infringement. "Viva La Vida" has been nominated for Record Of
The Year and Song Of The Year for the upcoming Grammy Awards.
Dr Pepper's lawyers have told Rolling Stone, "We are disappointed that
GN'R's lawyers are turning a fun giveaway into a legal dispute... We
simply commented on the delayed release of Chinese Democracy and openly
encouraged the band to release it before the end of the year.
Axl even expressed support for our efforts earlier in the
year." Meanwhile, record label bosses at Geffen are
reportedly blaming Axl Rose for disappointing sales as he was unable to
be contacted by their staff to promote the album for two months prior
to the release date.
Former Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore has been ordered by a German
court to pay damages after ruling that the guitar solo in his 1990 hit,
"Still Got The Blues," had been plagiarized from a German song written
in 1974.
The jury in the case against Boy George [George O'Dowd] has found the
singer guilty of falsely imprisoning male escort Audun Carlsen in
November 2007. George did not give evidence himself during
the trial but a recording was played in court where he admitted to
restraining Carlsen with handcuffs. He was released on bail
following the verdict and will be sentenced on Jan. 16th.
Sir Bob Geldof was honored by Mayor Bob Katz with the Key to the City
in Winnipeg this week to symbolize freedom. The former
Boomtown Rats frontman was in town to receive the St. Boniface Hospital
and Research Foundation's 2008 International Award.
The nominees for the 51st annual Grammy Awards have been
announced. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' "Please Read
The Letter" is up for Record Of The Year. Robert Plant
& Alison Krauss' Raising Sand is up for Album Of The
Year. Paul McCartney's "That Was Me" and James Taylor's
"Wichita Lineman" are up for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
The Eagles' "Waiting In The Weeds" is up for Best Pop Performance By A
Duo Or Group With Vocals. Madonna, Justin Timberlake
& Timbaland's "4 Minutes" and Robert Plant & Alison
Krauss' "Rich Woman" are up for Best Pop Collaboration With
Vocals. The Eagles' "I Dreamed There Was No War," Stanley
Jordan's "Steppin' Out," Marcus Miller's "Blast!" and Steve Cropper
& Felix Cavaliere's "Love Appetite" are up for Best Pop
Instrumental Performance. Spyro Gyra's A Night Before
Christmas, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones' Jingle All The Way,
Gerald Albright's Sax For Stax, Larry Carlton's Greatest Hits
Rerecorded Volume One and Earl Klugh's The Spice Of Life are up for
Best Pop Instrumental Album. The Eagles' Long Road Out Of
Eden and James Taylor's Covers are up for Best Pop Vocal
Album. Madonna's "Give It 2 Me" is up for Best Dance
Recording. Cyndi Lauper's Bring Ya To The Brink and Kylie
Minogue's X are up for Best Electronic/Dance Album. Natalie
Cole's Still Unforgettable, Barry Manilow's In The Swing Of Christmas
and Michael Feinstein's The Sinatra Project are up for Best Traditional
Pop Vocal Album. Paul McCartney's "I Saw Her Standing There,"
Bruce Springsteen's "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," Neil Young's "No
Hidden Path" and Eddie Vedder's "Rise" are up for Best Solo Rock Vocal
Performance. AC/DC's "Rock N Roll Train" and The Eagles'
"Long Road Out Of Eden" are up for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or
Group With Vocals. Judas Priest's "Visions," Motley Crue's
"Saints Of Los Angeles" and Rob Zombie's "Lords Of Salem" are up for
Best Hard Rock Performance. Judas Priest's "Nostradamus,"
Metallica's "My Apocalypse" and Ministry's "Under My Thumb" are up for
Best Metal Performance. David Gilmour's "Castellorizon,"
Metallica's "Suicide & Redemption," Nine Inch Nails' "34 Ghosts
I-IV," Rush's "Hope (Live For The Art Of Peace)" and Zappa Plays
Zappa's "Peaches En Regalia" are up for Best Rock Instrumental
Performance. Bruce Springsteen's "Girls In Their Summer
Clothes" is up for Best Rock Song. Metallica's Death Magnetic
is up for Best Rock Album. Al Green and John Legend's "Stay
With Me (By The Sea)" and Raphael Saadiq, Stevie Wonder & CJ
Hilton's "Never Give You Up" are up for Best R&B Performance By
A Duo Or Group With Vocals. Al Green and Anthony Hamilton's
"You've Got The Love I Need" is up for Best Traditional R&B
Vocal Performance. Al Green's Lay It Down is up for Best
R&B Album. George Strait's "Troubadour" is up for
Best Male Country Vocal Performance. Kenny Chesney &
George Strait's "Shiftwork," Robert Plant & Alison Krauss'
"Killing The Blues" and George Strait & Patty Loveless' "House
Of Cash" are up for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals.
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones' "Sleigh Ride," Charlie Haden, Pat
Metheny, Jerry Douglas & Bruce Hornsby's "Is This America?
(Katrina 2005)" and Brad Paisley, James Burton, Vince Gill, John
Jorgenson, Albert Lee, Brent Mason, Redd Vokaert & Steve
Wariner's "Cluster Pluck" are up for Best Country Instrumental
Performance. The songwriters for Randy Travis' "Dig Two
Graves" and George Strait's "I Saw God Today" are up for Best Country
Song. Randy Travis' Around The Bend, George Strait's
Troubadour and Patty Loveless' Sleepless Nights are up for Best Country
Album. Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder's Honoring The
Fathers Of Bluegrass: Tribute To 1946 And 1947, Del McCoury Band's Live
At The 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Earl
Scruggs with Family & Friends' The Ultimate Collection/Live At
The Ryman are up for Best Bluegrass Album. Ottmar Liebert
& Luna Negra's The Scent Of Light and William Ackerman's
Meditations are up for Best New Age Album. Randy Brecker's
Randy In Brasil and Yellowjackets featuring Mike Stern's Lifecycle are
up for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. Pat Metheny's
performance on "Son Of Thirteen" and Gary Burton & Chick
Corea's performances on "Waltz For Debby" are up for Best Jazz
Instrumental Solo. Chick Corea & Gary Burton's The
New Crystal Silence, Bill Frisell's History, Mystery and Pat Metheny
with Christian McBride & Antonio Sanchez's Day Trip are up for
Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual Or Group. Take 6's
"Shall We Gather At The River," Kim Burrell, Rance Allen, Bebe Winans,
Mariah Carey & Hezekiah Walker's Love Fellowship Tabernacle
Church Choir's "I Understand" and CeCe Winans' "Waging War" are up for
Best Gospel Performance. CeCe Winans' Thy Kingdom Come is up
for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. Charlie Louvin's
Steps To Heaven and the Gaither Vocal Band's Lovin' Life are up for
Best Southern, Country Or Bluegrass Gospel Album. The Blind
Boys Of Alabama's Down In New Orleans is up for Best Traditional Gospel
Album. Luis Miguel's Complices is up for Best Latin Pop
Album. Jose Feliciano's Señor Bachata is up for
Best Tropical Latin Album. Elvin Bishop's The Blues Rolls On,
Buddy Guy's Skin Deep and B.B. King's One Kind Favor are up for Best
Traditional Blues Album. Pete Seeger's At 89 is up for Best
Traditional Folk Album. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss'
Raising Sand, Rodney Crowell's Sex & Gasoline, Emmylou Harris'
All I Intended To Be, Ry Cooder's I, Flathead and Joan Baez's Day After
Tomorrow are up for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album.
Sly & Robbie's Amazing, Burning Spear's Jah Is Real, Lee
"Scratch" Perry's Repentance and Heavy D's Vibes are up for Best Reggae
Album. Youssou N'Dour's Rokku Mi Rokka is up for Best
Contemporary World Music Album. They Might Be Giants' Here
Come The 123s is up for Best Musical Album For Children.
Steve Martin's Born Standing Up is up for Best Spoken Word
Album. George Carlin's It's Bad For Ya is up for Best Comedy
Album. Mamma Mia! is up for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album
For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media. Peter
Gabriel & Thomas Newman's "Down To Earth" (from Wall-E) and
Judd Apatow, Marshall Crenshaw, Jake Kasdan & John C. Reilly's
"Walk Hard" (from Walk Hard -- The Dewey Cox Story) are up for Best
Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual
Media. Chick Corea & Gary Burton's "Algeria," Lee
Ritenour & Dave Grusin's "Danzón De Etiqueta" and
Yellowjackets featuring Mike Stern's "Claire's Closet" are up for Best
Instrumental Composition. Peter Gabriel & Thomas
Newman's "Define Dancing" (from Wall-E) is up for Best Instrumental
Arrangement. Cedric Dent (for Take 6's "Grace") and Nan
Schwartz (for Natalie Cole's "Here's That Rainy Day") are up for Best
Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s).
Metallica's Death Magnetic is up for Best Recording Package.
Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV and Aimee Mann's @#%&*! Smilers
are up for Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package.
Shelby Lynne's Just A Little Lovin', Al Green's Lay It Down and Natalie
Cole's Still Unforgettable are up for Best Engineered Album,
Non-Classical. Rick Rubin is up for Producer Of The Year,
Non-Classical. Junkie XL (for Madonna Featuring Justin
Timberlake and Timbaland's "4 Minutes (Junkie XL Remix)") is up for
Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical. Tom Petty &
The Heartbreakers' "Runnin' Down A Dream" and The Who's Amazing
Journey: The Story Of The Who are up for Best Long Form Music
Video. The ceremony will be held on Feb. 8th at Staples
Center in Los Angeles.
The Police's 1983 album, Synchronicity, is one of 28 new additions to
the Grammy Hall Of Fame inductions.
Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200
albums chart on sales of 261,000 copies. The Twilight
soundtrack fell two places to #8 on sales of 162,000 copies.
AC/DC's Black Ice dropped 2 spots to #12. Barry Manilow's The
Greatest Songs Of The Eighties debuted at #14. Enya's And
Winter Came... fell 9 places to #18. Elvis Presley's
Christmas Duets dropped 3 spots to #28. Tony Bennet featuring
The Count Basie Big Band's A Swingin' Christmas climbed 18 places to
#31. Harry Connick, Jr.'s What A Night! A Christmas Album
climbed 13 spots to #33. Metallica's Death Magnetic fell 2
places to #35.
Rush's long-awaited Snakes & Arrows DVD (released on Nov. 24th)
went straight to the top of Billboard's Top Music Video Chart in it's
first week.
Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy debuted at #2 on the U.K. Albums
chart. Celine Dion's My Love: The Essential Collection fell a
spot to #14. Simply Red's 25: The Greatest Hits dropped 6
places to #15. Enya's And Winter Came... fell 9 spots to
#23. AC/DC's Black Ice dropped 6 places to #24. Rod
Stewart's Some Guys Have All The Luck fell 13 spots to #32.
Status Quo's Pictures: 40 Years Of Hits dropped 12 places to #34.
The Bellamy Brothers' "Let Your Love Flow" fell 15 places to #36 on the
U.K. Singles chart. Madonna's "Miles Away" entered the top 40
at #39.
The Simple Minds plan to perform their a very special out-door show at
Edinburgh Castle on July 18th in part of their celebration of their
30th year anniversary and marking vocalist Jim Kerr's 50th
birthday. The performance will be their first Scottish date
to be filmed for a DVD release.
Madonna reportedly grossed about $91.5 million during the 28 dates of
her North American tour, selling about 550,000 tickets according to
Live Nation chairman/tour producer Arthur Fogel.
Morrissey's new studio album, Years Of Refusal, heads to stores on Feb.
16th preceded by the new single, "I'm Throwing My Arms Around
Paris." The single will come with two bonus tracks ("Because
Of My Poor Education" and "Shame Is The Name" featuring Chrissie Hynde)
when released.
Mandy Lion will release his new single, "The Ride," during the
week. The track will be first of his new studio album which
Lion calls, "...a major step away from my last full length CD, When God
Turned Away."
Former Cure keyboardist Roger O'Donnell has made the first song,"In
Your Hands Now," off his new album, Songs From The Silver Box, with
Lenka available online at: http://www.worlds-fair.net/roger_odonnell/
Work on the Hollywood bio-pic about Thin Lizzy frontman/bassist Phil
Lynott has come to a screeching halt after surviving band members
expressed their concerns over sensationalizing his drug abuse.
Sananda Maitreya has made the next set of songs from Nigor Mortis: A
Critical Mass available at his online store. Chapter 4: Suck
My Contradiction includes 5 new songs (one is available as a free
download currently.)
Queen guitarist Brian May has posted a response to rumors that Queen +
Paul Rodgers has ended their run to his official Web site, "Well, I
don't know where anyone got that idea -- Roger and Paul and myself
haven't made any decisions whatsoever about the future. We
just need a rest."
Grandmaster Flash plans to release, The Bridge: Concept Of A Culture,
his first album of new material in two decades on Feb. 23rd.
KRS-One and Q-Tip are among the many collaborators on the 19-track disc.
The biopic about female rockers The Runaways is moving ahead with the
casting of Twilight star Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett.
Bruce Springsteen's new single, "My Lucky Day," from the album Working
On A Dream (due out Jan. 27th) has been released to AmazonMP3 and
MySpace Music for one week ending after Dec. 7th.
Wynonna will release her 7th solo studio album, Sing, on Feb. 3rd which
will be a 12-track eclectic assortment of standards paying homage to
all the different genres and songs that have formed the soundtrack to
her own life.
A double-disc Laid Back collection, Good Vibes: The Very Best Of Laid
Back, is scheduled for release in Germany and Scandinavia (and other
countries to be announced.) The set includes 20 'hits' and a
second disc containing 12 rare remixes.
Exene Cervenka has posted a message to her MySpace page that she and X
bandmate John Doe have started writing songs together again.
Motley Crue's Vince Neil has released a statement about the
cancellation of his European solo tour blaming it on "the promoter's
breach of contract." "I regret not being able to come over to
Europe at this time due to circumstances beyond my control. I
hope to be able to visit next year for a more extensive tour."
Cherry Red Records/Goth Collector's Series have released, R.I.P. - A
12" Collection, a 28-track double-CD containing rare mixes, remixes and
B-sides featured on Alien Sex Fiend 12" singles from 1983 to 1995.
It seems 'rick-rolling' got out of hand during this year's Thanksgiving
Day Parade as evidenced by this video:
http://www.youtube.com/v/iXJnOjAGR24 It seems that he jumped
in to sing his hit "Never Gonna Give You Up" on the float for Cartoon
Network's Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends.
Tori Amos has reportedly signed with Universal Republic for her 10th
album, expected out in the spring or summer. Amos
has also been writing a musical, The Light Princess, for the British
National Theater.
Rolling Stones/Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood recently confirmed that Red
Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has been rehearsing with the Faces for
their reunion tour. Wood told Rolling Stone magazine, "We had
a few fantastic rehearsals last week and we're ready to go.
It's like no time has passed by."
Testament will see the video for "More Than Meets The Eye" debut online
at MTV2's Headbangers Blog today. The song will air on
Headbangers Ball on Dec. 6th. The song comes from their
latest album, The Formation Of Damnation.
Dec. 4th marked the 20th anniversary of Roy Orbison's 'Last Concert'
performance. iTunes has now made this concert event available
to his fans to enjoy.
An untitled film about AC/DC legend Bon Scott is in the works by
filmmaker Eddie Martin. Martin told Undercover News, "We've
been working heavily on it for a couple of months. It's early
days." He also said, "We have been considering casting and we
are not going to contain this to Australia."
Will Smith recently told JoBlo.com that a sequel to Hancock is
definitely planned in a few years as there were a lot of unexplored
characters in the 'Hancock' universe.
Elton John is reportedly considering the producer for his next studio
album. Word is that he has been thinking about Mark Ronson
for the disc due out in late 2009 via Universal.
Sonic Youth, John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin) and Takehisa Kosugi have
created a piece of music, "Merce Cunningham At 90," for the Merce
Cunningham Dance Company celebrating the birthday of its founder and
namesake.
Trent Reznor posted a message to the Nine Inch Nails Web site that he
plans to take a break from touring after 2009. It also seems
that the concert film from this year's Lights In The Sky tour have
fallen through as he could not get the funding together for the 3-D
project in time.
Biohazard bassist/vocalist Evan Seinfeld and his wife, Tera Patrick,
are currently working on their joint autobiography, Rockstar/Pornstar:
An American Love Story, with journalist Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna.
Check out Twisted Sister's new video for "I'll Be Home For Christmas"
on which Dee Snider duets with Lita Ford. It can be seen at
Ford's MySpace page (www.myspace.com/litaford).
The Love Hope Strength Foundation have plans for September and early
October for a 12-day journey dubbed Kilimanjaro Rocks. The
trek to the summit of Africa's highest mountain and visits with local
cancer patients are part of the international foundation's mission to
fight cancer with existing resources in countries around the world.
Loudness drummer Munetaka Higuchi, 49, lost his year-long battle with
liver cancer on Nov. 30th in an Osaka hospital.
Grammy-nominated folk singer Odetta, 77, died of heart disease on Dec.
2nd at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital. She began receiving
treatment at the hospital in November after her health began to
decline. Her first album was released in 1954 but she
continued recording through the 1980s (with 1987's Movin' It On and
1988's Christmas Spirituals) until 2005's Gonna Let It Shine.