Monday, June 02, 2003
CD Review: Powerman 5000 - “Transform”
In keeping with the old cliché that “the third time’s a charm,” PM5K hits the mark with its aptly titled third major-label release.
In keeping with the old cliche that “the third time’s a charm,” PM5K hits the mark with its aptly titled third major-label release.
The group’s 1997 debut reflected its once-unique hip-hop/rock sound, but Limp Bizkit blew up first, leaving PM5K with the choice of either looking like a copy-cat, or reinventing itself. The group chose the latter, but its first attempt, 1999’s “Tonight the Stars Revolt"--complete with a comic-book-ish image makeover--came off as contrived.
This time, a more mature PM5K, headed by frontman Spider One--one of only two remaining original members--delivers a solid, hard-rocking set that has a fresh feel. Spider spends more time singing than screaming or rapping, and sounds perfectly comfortable and confident doing so (and also sounds a lot like Marilyn Manson, incidentally), while the guitar-heavy band tears off jagged riffs that successfully fuse punk, pop and industrial. All of it is seasoned with enough hooks to make just about any song radio-friendly, particularly the first single, “Free.”
The group has found its niche. Now let’s see if a sizeable audience finds the group.
Sunday, June 01, 2003
Metallica - “St. Anger” (Elektra)
Originally due in stores on June 10, Metallica’s first new studio album in six years instead will hit the shelves on Thursday (6/5). Elektra says that it pushed the release date up five days because “sub-standard” bootlegs of the album have already been widely circulated via the Internet ... which you know just has to piss off Metallica drummer and former Napster hunter Lars Ulrich.
Originally due in stores on June 10, Metallica’s first new studio album in six years instead will hit the shelves on Thursday (6/5). Elektra says that it pushed the release date up five days because “sub-standard” bootlegs of the album have already been widely circulated via the Internet ... which you know just has to piss off Metallica drummer and former Napster hunter Lars Ulrich.
“St. Anger” is Metallica’s follow-up to 1997’s “Reload.” The video for the title track is streaming at the group’s website.
To prime fans for Thursday’s release, Metallica has set up a “St. Anger” Treasure Hunt that works like this: Starting Tuesday (6/3), 11 various non-Metallica websites will each be streaming one of the new album’s 11 tracks. Fans have to figure out the clues posted at Metallica’s site in order to find the 11 sites.
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Jewel - “0304” (Atlantic)
Jewel--looking more like Britney Spears than her former, crunchy-granola self--returns with the follow-up to 2001’s “This Way.” The 14-track set features the single “Intuition,” the audio and video versions of which are streaming at Jewel’s website. The site also features a full-length version of album track “Stand,” and a clip of the cut “Sweet Temptation.”
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John Mellencamp - “Trouble No More” (Columbia)
This set from Indiana’s homespun hero features 11 cover songs and one original. Among the acts whose material Mellencamp covers are Robert Johnson, Woody Guthrie, Willie Dixon, Hoagy Carmichael and Lucinda Williams. The original Mellencamp composition, “To Washington,” is an anti-war anthem that he first issued earlier this year via his website.
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Train - “My Private Nation” (Aware/Columbia)
These slick pop-rockers recorded “My Private Nation"--their third album--in Atlanta with producer Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam), who also mixed the album. The music video for the first single, “Calling All Angels,” is streaming at Train’s official website.
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Dave Gahan - “Paper Monsters” (Reprise)
Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan breaks out with this solo debut. Gahan wrote and recorded the album’s 10 tracks with Knox Chandler, whom Gahan’s bio refers to as “a multi-instrumentalist friend from New York.” Gahan’s website is streaming the whole album.
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Gord Downie - “Battle of the Nudes” (Zoe/Rounder)
The second solo recording from The Tragically Hip’s frontman was recorded in two different stints, the first of which took place over five days in May of 2001, followed by five more days in May of 2002. Downie produced the set with Dale Morningstar, Dave Clark and Josh Finlayson.
The lineup for “Nudes” is the same as on Downie’s first solo album, 2001’s “Coke Machine Glow”: Morningstar (primarily on guitar and pump organ), Clark (drums, percussion, tuba, etc.), and Dr. Pee (keyboards) from Canadian band the Dinner is Ruined; Josh Finlayson (bass, acoustic and electric guitars, background vocals) of the Skydiggers; and Julie Doiron (bass and background vocals), formerly of Eric’s Trip and Wooden Stars.
Monday, May 26, 2003
Led Zeppelin - “How the West Was Won” (Atlantic)
The material featured on this three-disc live set was culled from Led Zeppelin’s June 25, 1972 concert at the Los Angeles Forum and June 27, 1972 performance at the Long Beach Arena. The tracks were “melded together and sequenced to replicate a single concert from beginning to end,” according to Atlantic. Highlights include a 25-plus minute version of “Dazed and Confused,” and a 23-minute medley anchored around the hit “Whole Lotta Love.”
The material featured on this three-disc live set was culled from Led Zeppelin’s June 25, 1972 concert at the Los Angeles Forum and June 27, 1972 performance at the Long Beach Arena. The tracks were “melded together and sequenced to replicate a single concert from beginning to end,” according to Atlantic. Highlights include a 25-plus minute version of “Dazed and Confused,” and a 23-minute medley anchored around the hit “Whole Lotta Love.”
Atlantic is also simultaneously issuing a five-hour-long Zeppelin DVD that features footage culled from “just a handful of performances which were ever filmed during the band’s extraordinary lifetime,” according to the label.
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O.A.R. - “In Between Now and Then” (Everfine/Lava)
After selling nearly 300,000 albums via its own Everfine label, this grassroots success story goes major on its third studio set. The quintet was founded in 1996 in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, when its members were still in high school, and built its following while attending Ohio State University. The CD’s first pressing includes a limited-edition bonus DVD featuring live concert footage filmed in February at New York’s Irving Plaza, along with “behind-the-scenes studio tidbits and interview vignettes,” according to a press release.
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Local H - “No Fun EP” (Thick)
The guitar-drums duo of Scott Lucas and Brian St. Clair return with this 30 30-minute, six-track effort. The EP--Local H’s first recording for Chicago indie Thick Records--features six tracks, three of which are originals. Covers include the Godfathers’ “Birth, School, Work, Death,” the Ramones’ “I Just Want Something to Do” and Primal Scream’s “Fuck Yeah, That Wide.” An mp3 download of the track “Cooler Heads” is available via the Thick Records website.
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Pat Metheny - “One Quiet Night”
Guitar virtuoso Metheny recorded his new 12-track collection alone, at home, with an acoustic guitar. The do-it-yourself-er said in a statement that the stripped-down set comes complete with whatever mistakes he made during the recording process.”
“I ... feel obliged to [say] that the results here are ... technically somewhat homemade; there are occasional flaws in the tuning and the recording itself--it was intended for nothing more than my own research and the pleasure of playing at home one night.”
A streaming version of the new track “Ferry Across the Mersey” is posted at the “One Quiet Night” website as is a download of the cut “Song for the Boys.”
Sunday, May 18, 2003
Staind - “14 Shades of Grey” (Elektra)
Staind follows 2001’s multi-platinum “Break the Cycle” with a new 14-track set, the first pressing of which will include a limited-edition, bonus DVD. The new set includes the Top 10 single “Price to Play,” and “Layne,” a tribute to late Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley, who last year died of a drug overdose.
Staind follows 2001’s multi-platinum “Break the Cycle” with a new 14-track set, the first pressing of which will include a limited-edition, bonus DVD. The new set includes the Top 10 single “Price to Play,” and “Layne,” a tribute to late Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley, who last year died of a drug overdose.
Staind’s website features streaming samples of all of the album’s cuts, as well as a streaming version of the “Price to Play” music video.
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Deftones - “Deftones” (Maverick)
The Deftones’ fourth full-length features the group’s new single, “Minerva.” That track and its companion music video are streaming at the band’s website. The group is in the midst of a promotional club tour that wraps up in Sacramento on Tuesday night (5/20), and will return to the road in July as part of Metallica’s Summer Sanitarium Tour.
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Weird Al Yankovic - “Poodle Hat” (Volcano/Jive)
The musical satirist sticks to the formula that made him rich: goofy takes on popular songs. The lead track is titled “Couch Potato,” and is performed to the tune of the Eminem hit “Lose Yourself.” Backstreet Boys and Billy Joel songs are also targeted, and the obligatory accordion medley “Angry White Boy Polka” tackles The White Stripes and Rage Against the Machine, among others.
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Live - “Birds of Pray” (MCA)
For Live’s sixth album, the group turned to producer Jim Wirt (Hoobastank, Incubus). The lead single, “Heaven,” was inspired by the birth last year of frontman Ed Kowalczyk’s daughter. A limited-edition DVD packaged with the CD includes Live’s set at the 2002 Pinkpop Festival in Holland. A North American tour in support of the album is expected to get underway this summer.
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The Thorns - “The Thorns” (Aware/Columbia)
This trio features successful-in-their-own-right singer-songwriters Matthew Sweet, Pete Droge and Shawn Mullins. The group got together as an experiment in the spring of 2002, and came up with a batch of acoustic-guitar and harmony-driven songs that owe more than a little to Crosby, Stills & Nash. Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Nirvana) produced.
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Sammy Hagar - “Sammy & the Wabo’s Live Hallelujah” (Sanctuary)
Things that Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth’s 2002 co-headlining summer tour didn’t result in: the two historically incompatible singers becoming close friends (in fact, they found out that they really don’t like each other after all). Things that the tour did result in: this live album that features material from Hagar’s pre- and post-Van Halen solo catalog, as well as several of his Montrose-era and Van Halen-era hits. The Van Halen cut “When It’s Love"--from 1988’s “OU812"--was recorded during Hagar’s Boston-area performance last August, and features Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, ex-Van Halen singer Gary Cherone, and Cherone’s former Extreme--and current Tribe of Judah--bandmate Pat Badger.
Thursday, May 15, 2003
Live Review: Tim McGraw in Phoenix
"This is your entertainment for the rest of the evening,” Tim McGraw told the crowd about he and his band. “If you’ve seen us before, you know we don’t bullshit too much.”
Before Tim McGraw hit the America West Arena stage in Phoenix on Monday (5/12), an emcee stood on stage and told the nearly sold-out crowd of upcoming concerts. He poked fun of “Ozzfest,” saying McGraw’s fans most certainly looking forward to seeing Ozzy Osbourne and Marilyn Manson. The crowd laughed; some booed.
So, it’s ironic that soon afterward, Osbourne’s “Over the Mountain” blared over the speakers--serving as McGraw’s introduction--and the crowd sang along.
Once McGraw arrived on stage with a flash of light, the music (starting with “Comfort Me,” the opening track of his latest album “Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors) didn’t stop for two-and-a-half hours.
“You’re looking at it. This is your entertainment for the rest of the evening,” he told the crowd about he and his band. “If you’ve seen us before, you know we don’t bullshit too much.”
Dubbed “One Band Show,” the tour serves as a celebration of McGraw’s 15 years in music. He recently scored his 20th No. 1 single, “She’s My Kind Of Rain.” Since his first No. 1 hit--1994’s Don’t Take the Girl--McGraw has sold nearly 27 million albums and has also seen seven singles hit the top 10.
McGraw ripped through songs from his early catalogue ("Don’t Take the Girl") to the controversial “Red Rag Top,” which tackles the issue of abortion.
“When we were writing this one, we all looked at each other and said this is a song that needs to be heard, McGraw said of Red Rag Top, which some country radio stations have banned from their playlists. “A lot of people have a problem with it.”
McGraw sat on the edge of the stage, swinging his feet, as he sang “Grown Men Don’t Cry.” The song seems to carry new meaning for McGraw, whose father--former baseball star Tug McGraw--has been diagnosed with brain cancer. It was clear that the lyric referring to a father who had died, “So many things I wanna say to him/But I just placed a rose on his grave, and I talk to the wind” had a profound effect, as he looked down to sing it.
Midway through the show, he did a solo acoustic set at the end of a catwalk, debuting a new song that may be included on his next album. Playing guitar, he admitted, was tough.
“This makes me really nervous,” he said with a laugh. The Dancehall Doctors slowly returned to the stage during “Angry All the Time.”
McGraw peppered his set with covers of songs from the ‘70s and ‘80s, including Dr. Hook’s “Sharing the Night Together,” the Commodores’ “Easy,” and Laura Branigan’s “How am I Supposed to Live Without You.”
“You’re listening to the smooth sounds of the ‘70s,” he said at one point.
For the rambunctious “I Like It, I Love It,” McGraw brought out television star Rick Schroeder, who slapped hands with fans as the singer and his band grabbed beer from a refrigerator that popped out from under the stage.
During the first encore, video screens lowered to show home videos of McGraw, his wife Faith Hill and their daughters at home.
McGraw ended the concert the same way he kicked-off shows on his last tour--by popping out of an equipment crate to sing a cover of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” at the back of the arena, pounding on his chest as he sang “she married a music man.”
Not only was the show a celebration of his music, but McGraw honored his family as well.
Sunday, May 11, 2003
Various artists - “Matrix Reloaded” (Maverick)
Maverick Records was tasked with putting together this two-disc soundtrack for one of the most highly anticipated sequels of all time. Disc one houses new cuts from Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and Deftones, and features the first single, P.O.D.’s “Sleeping Awake”; the song and its music video are both streaming at the soundtrack’s official website. Disc two holds the film’s instrumental score.
Maverick Records was tasked with putting together this two-disc soundtrack for one of the most highly anticipated sequels of all time. Disc one houses new cuts from Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and Deftones, and features the first single, P.O.D.’s “Sleeping Awake”; the song and its music video are both streaming at the soundtrack’s official website. Disc two holds the film’s instrumental score.
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Jack Johnson - “On and On” (Universal)
This native of Hawaii made surf films before quietly selling more than a million copies of his 2001 debut album, “Brushfire Fairytales,” which indie label Enjoy first issued before Universal picked it up in 2002. His sophomore effort features more of the acoustic guitar-driven rock that fans flocked to on the first album. A streaming video of the lead single, “The Horizon Has Been Defeated,” is streaming at Johnson’s website. Johnson is scheduled to perform on “The Late Show with David Letterman” on May 15 and on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” on June 3. He’ll be on the road this summer with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals.
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Andrea Bocelli - “Puccini: Tosca” (Decca)
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and Italian soprano Fiorenza Cedolins tackle Puccini’s opera “Tosca” on this double album, which features all three acts and holds a total of 29 tracks. Three of the album’s cuts and a video documentary that captures the recording process are streaming at Decca’s website.
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Anthrax - “We’ve Come for You All” (Sanctuary)
The latest album from this New York-based veteran metal act is the follow-up to 1998’s “Volume 8: The Threat Is Real.” The new set features guest appearances from The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell. Its first single, “Safe Home,” is streaming at the band’s website.
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Ozma - “Spending Time on the Borderline” (Kung Fu)
On its latest effort--produced by Chris Fudurich (Finch, Matthew Sweet)--this power-pop quintet incorporates a small orchestra and horn section, as well as piano collaborations with Shedley, bassist for the Sub Pop band Arlo. The video for the album track “Bad Dogs” is available for download via the group’s website. The Pasadena, Calif.-based group, which has supported Weezer on two tours, will be on this summer’s Vans Warped Tour.
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John Hiatt - “Beneath This Gruff Exterior” (New West)
Hiatt’s 18th album was recorded live in the studio, and is his first to be credited to “John Hiatt and the Goners,” which refers to his longtime band. Guitarist Sonny Landreth, bassist Dave Ranson and drummer Kenneth Blevins reunited with singer-guitarist Hiatt for the first time in almost a decade on Hiatt’s previous album, “The Tiki Bar is Open,” which hit stores in 2001. Hiatt tours with the Robert Cray Band this summer.
Marilyn Manson - “The Golden Age of Grotesque” (Nothing)
Shock-rock devotee Marilyn Manson follows 2000’s “Holy Wood” with a new 14-track set that features his latest single, “Mobscene.” The track’s music video is streaming at Interscope Records’ website.
Shock-rock devotee Marilyn Manson follows 2000’s “Holy Wood” with a new 14-track set that features his latest single, “Mobscene.” The track’s music video is streaming at Interscope Records’ website.
Manson will launch the album with a release-day record signing at the Sam Goody record store on Universal CityWalk in Universal City, Calif., followed by a performance on Friday (5/16) night’s edition of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” according to Manson’s website.
A limited number of copies of the album will include a bonus DVD.
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Third Eye Blind - “Out of the Vein” (Elektra)
Stephan Jenkins and company return after a four-year respite between albums. The set, which is led by the single “Blinded (When I See You),” includes 14 new tracks produced by Jenkins and bassist Arion Salazar. A limited-edition DVD packaged with the first pressing explains what the band has been up to all these years. Third Eye Blind performs on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” on Wednesday (5/14).
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Cold - “Year of the Spider” (Intercope)
Cold’s new album features the track “Stupid Girl,” the music video for which is streaming at the band’s website.
The group gets the ball rolling by hosting MTV2’s “The Rock Show” from Monday through Thursday (5/12-15); giving a release-day, in-store performance at Tower Records in Sherman Oaks, Calif.; and making a Thursday-night (5/15) appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
MTV.com is streaming all 14 of the album’s tracks at its new “The Leak” webpage.
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Alkaline Trio - “Good Mourning” (Vagrant)
This Chicago emo trio opened for business in 1997, and “Good Mourning” marks its fourth full-length album, on which Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks contributes some guest vocals to augment those of Matt Skiba and Daniel Andriano. The group is now on its third drummer; Mike Felumlee departed after the release of the band’s 2001 album, “From Here to Infirmary,” and has been replaced by Derek Grant. An mp3 of the track “We’ve Had Enough” is available for download at the band’s Vagrant Records website.
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Suffrajett - “Suffrajett” (In Music We Trust)
This New York-based trio delivers a debut that its label describes as “an explosive, guitar-driven display of [the group’s] garage rock prowess.” Mono-monikered frontwoman Simi’s lyrics deal with “failed relationships, boyfriends that just didn’t care about her and unmet expectations"--life, in other words. Free mp3 downloads of three tracks from “Suffrajett” are posted at the label’s website.
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Blue Epic - “Love & Hate EP” (Empathic/TVT)
These Birmingham, Ala.-based rockers get initiated into the record industry with a five-song debut that Chad Blinman (Get Up Kids, Face to Face) produced. Four of the songs are originals, and the fifth is a cover of Neil Young’s “A Man Needs a Maid.” The group is putting the finishing touches on its first full-length album, which is expected to hit stores late this year, according to the group’s publicist.
Q&A: Nick Carter
The Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter released his solo debut a week before labelmate and rival boy-band hearthrob Justin Timberlake. While Timberlake’s album, “Justified,” has become a smash, Carter’s “Now or Never” has struggled for notice.
The Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter released his solo debut a week before labelmate and rival boy-band hearthrob Justin Timberlake. While Timberlake’s album, “Justified,” has become a smash, Carter’s “Now or Never” has struggled for notice.
The two CDs are strikingly different: Timberlake focused on R&B and pop, a sound that ‘NSync’s fans were quick to grasp. Carter’s album, meanwhile, explored his rock side with a new band--and a lot less dancing.
Sticking with the behind-the-scenes formula that he used with the Backstreet Boys, Carter hired a team of producers and writers for “Now or Never"--Max Martin (Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion), as well as The Matrix (Avril Lavigne), Steve Mac, Matthew Gerrard and Teddy Riley.
The first single from “Now or Never,” the very un-Backstreet Boys-like “Help Me,” was written by Gerrard and Michele Vice-Maslin. Meanwhile, Carter channels Def Leppard and Bon Jovi on songs like “Girls in the U.S.A.”
Carter was on the road to support the album earlier this year, and said that his solo debut has been an educational experience.
“I’ve been able to open up my doors and learn new things and experience new horizons,” he said. “Vocally, I’ve been able to become better. I have to carry a whole entire show now, one-and-a-half hours.”
Carter recently took the time to talk to SoundSpike about his solo album and briefly hinted at the potential for a new Backstreet Boys album.
SoundSpike: What was your mindset when you were writing the songs for “Now or Never”? Did you find it difficult to write them by yourself?
I pretty much stayed true to who I am. I wrote a little bit on the road, a little in the studio. [Song writing is] not too hard. It’s one of those things where I just gotta be in the mood and really just feel it. But there were some things that I needed to get off my chest and really experience. It’s kind of like therapy.
Do you find it difficult to share your personal experiences with the public?
“I Stand for You” is a very personal song. I was just in this mode. I had a feeling where I just really wanted to let everything out. I’m not necessarily mad at certain things. I don’t want to get too deep.
“Girls in the U.S.A.” has a real ‘80s feel to it.
The thing about it was I wanted to write a song like Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” I can go through genres--’70s, ‘80s, ‘60s, ‘50s. I love music. I’m a music connoisseur. People ask me, “How do you know all these songs? Singing different songs with different eras?” I’m like, “I just grew up listening to music.” I just felt like I wanted to put different types of music [on the album]. Certain people like to stick to their genres [and say], “Let’s just do pop, R&B or rock.” It’s a very segmented world of music. That’s not the era that I’m from. I loved all sorts of music. I feel like gelling those music genres together and trying to create something new. That’s what America’s all about. That’s the melting pot.
Who are some of your influences?
First of all, I’ve always been very influenced by rock ballads and those big, early-’90s rock songs and the ‘70s big choruses that are just so memorable. Like Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer"--those things that everyone sings along to and they felt good singing it. Those songs aren’t so complex. I think music is too complex these days. One thing I learned with the Backstreet Boys is to keep it very simplistic. Good hooks are very good. Sometimes, I hear those songs and, yeah, they’re very creative, but they forget about the reason the whole pop era did so well. The Britneys, the Backstreet Boys, they did it. Simple hooks and very simplistic songs are easy for the audience to sing along to. That’s where the comparisons to Bon Jovi and Def Leppard come from.
You made a guest appearance on “American Dreams” as the lead singer of the fictional group Jay and the Americans, and another TV appearance on “8 Simple Rules to Date My Teenage Daughter.” What else do you have planned?
I definitely want to get into more acting. I’m really a singer, but I started off acting, too. I love to be able to experience new things and challenge myself. Then there’s a new Backstreet Boys’ album maybe, very possibly. I?m 90 percent sure.
Sunday, May 04, 2003
The White Stripes, “Elephant” (V2)
In the age of google-track studios and digital sampling, The White Stripes--from their trademark red, white and black color scheme to their instrumentation to their live-to-eight-track recording--stress simplicity.
In the age of google-track studios and digital sampling, The White Stripes--from their trademark red, white and black color scheme to their instrumentation to their live-to-eight-track recording--stress simplicity.
It’s not just a gimmick; it wouldn’t work any other way. The White Stripes build their songs by stripping away the unnecessary elements.
Jack White delivers distorted, sloppy blues chords every bit as effectively as fellow boogie-woogie-channeling Anglo-Saxons Link Wray or Keith Richards. Meanwhile, Meg White’s rudimentary drumming holds the bottom together; she never succumbs to the temptation to add a fill to a spot where a simple smack of the snare will suffice.
What pushes The White Stripes over the top is Jack White’s voice--which is just as effective when he’s whispering as when he’s howling--and the songs, which are clever, succinct and memorable.
There isn’t a single a la “Fell in Love with a Girl” here, but “Elephant” holds together as an album better than its predecessor. And that’s no small feat.
Sunday, April 13, 2003
Lineup takes shape for Willie Nelson’s picnic
Willie Nelson will be joined by Toby Keith, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Pat Green, Billy Bob Thornton, and the Dead at his annual Fourth of July Picnic, Billboard.com reports. The event takes place at Two River Canyon Amphitheatre in Spicewood, Texas.
Willie Nelson will be joined by Toby Keith, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Pat Green, Billy Bob Thornton, and the Dead at his annual Fourth of July Picnic, Billboard.com reports. The event takes place at Two River Canyon Amphitheatre in Spicewood, Texas.
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Queen of Soul announces final tour
Aretha Franklin, who later this year plans to release her first new studio album since 1998, is planning to mount a spring, summer and fall outing this year that she says will mark her retirement from touring, according to Arista Records. The label said that she will “continue to perform select dates in the future, but the [2003] tour ... will be the last major full-scale tour schedule of her career.
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New Ween album finished, but in limbo
Quirky alt-rock duo Ween has finished recording its latest studio album, according to the pair’s official website. No telling when the set will see the light of day, however, as the duo--who go by the fictitious names Gene and Dean Ween--are without a label.
“The album is called ‘quebec’ (please note the lowercase ‘q’
and it contains 16 songs,” reads a message posted at Ween’s website. “The bad news is that I can’t give you a definitive release date right now. We were in negotiations with a record label and things fell apart, setting us back even further.”
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Sharon Osbourne and necklace winner come to blows
Sparks flew last Thursday (4/10) when Sharon Osbourne and International Creative Management agent Renee Tab ended up at the same West Hollywood restaurant. Tab--with whom the Osbournes had a public feud earlier this year after they claimed that Tab illegitimately claimed a $15,000 diamond necklace that the family gave away during a party--allegedly hit Osbourne in the face; Osbourne was taken to an area hospital where she was treated for a dislocated jaw, chipped tooth and sprained neck, according to a statement her publicist released on Friday (4/11).
Tab claims Osbourne spit on her, according to VH1.com. So far, no criminal charges have been filed.
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Radiohead, Beastie Boys to headline inaugural Field Day Fest
Radiohead and the Beastie Boys top the bill of the first Field Day Festival, which is set to take place June 7 and 8 at Enterprise Park in Calverton, Long Island, 70 miles east of New York City. Other scheduled performers include Beck, Sigur Ros, The Roots, Ellitot Smith and Blur. More information is available at the event’s official website.
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Sigur Ros quietly issues new album
Icelandic experimental rockers Sigur Ros have released a new album titled “Hlemmur,” “the soundtrack to a documentary by Icelandic director Olafur Sveinsson about a Reykjavik bus station and the homeless people who gather there,” according to RollingStone.com. The album was reportedly sold on the band’s recent tour, and a formal release is planned for some as-yet-unnamed date in the future.