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MTV is going to dust off the "Unplugged" series for Alicia Keys. Here's to hoping that it had some of the same redeeming features as last time (i.e. forcing musicians out of the comfort level of studio engineering and into real playing).
Green Day cleans up at the MTV Video Music Awards. I didn't watch it myself (I'd have to consult a calendar as to when the last time would be that I turned on a video channel).
Garth Brooks will only sell his music (all of it) at Wal-Mart (and their related subsidiaries).
Finally, Fiona Apple's oft postponed album Extrodinary Machine will be released by Epic. However, it appears that the album will be rather different than the leaked version. Odds are there will probably be a schism, much like with the Dave Matthew's Band Lilywight Sessions.
Christina thinks that Britney's career is over.
-- Update --
An even better thought from Simon.
Since Christina has done everything Britney does, only about three months later, does this mean that Christina will be packing her own career up around Christmas?
From your lips to God's ears, man.
Celine Dion complains about her audiences.
"People come here for four days, they eat too much, drink too many free drinks, they get sick from all that, they are jet-lagged sometimes so they just sit in the seat and sleep."
I didn't watch the show -- I had something better to do. Grout a tub, I think. If you're interested in what happened, you should check out Simon's commentary. Good as always.
More in the I-don't-care department, Britney seems to think that her chihuahuas are better than Paris Hilton's.
So why I am a writing about Britney's martial woes? Boredom, maybe.
At least for a few shows in the UK they are.
The radio station might be gone, but the concert still remains.
Debbie Gibson, squeaky-clean 80's pop artist, is trying to revive her career by posing naked in Playboy.
An online petition to try and get Ashlee Simpson to never sing again.
96936 and counting.
Nine Inch Nails will be returning, with a new album called With Teeth. No dates announced as of yet. Garbage, on the other hand, will be releasing their latest album (Bleed Like Me) on April 12.
Both of the titles have an almost desperate quality to them. "Ooh, look. We're so very edgy."
A listing of musicians now playing in the eternal show, as provided by Tim.
Personally, cutesy ringtones annoy me. I can sympathize with this conductor who stopped a concert when a cell phone went off, and then restarted the show from the begining.
Tommy Lee either failed out or decided he was done, because Motley Crue is hitting the road again.
Madonna doesn't want her daughter to "follow in her raunchy footsteps."
About Kabbalah, that is. 'Not a fad,' she says. Unlike talking with a British accent and pretending to be from anywere other than the US, I suppose.
Ashlee Simpson speaks yet again.
Ashlee Simpson spoke to MuchNews last weekend about her disastrous appearance on Saturday Night Live earlier this fall. "It was a situation that wasn't really my fault," the 20-year-old singer said...
No, actually it was your fault. You're the one who acted in a supreme unprofessional fashion, did a jig off the stage and tried to blame it on your band. But, in case you might think that there's a modicum of perspective, here's her dad:
...Did we do something wrong here? Nothing we did was dishonest.
Except expose yourself as a fraud on national TV as lip synching to a tape when you were nominally supposed to be "live." That wouldn't be at all dishonest.
Hey, moron, just go away and take your talentless spawn with you.
He's being sought in relation to a stabbing at the Vibe awards.
-- Update --
In related news, it seems that rapper 50 cent acquitted himself quite well during the fracas. I'm not sure as to how, but the articles says he's "been branded a hero," so it must be true. When was the last time an article didn't get it right?
A fight during a hip-hop function. What are the odds.
Old Dirty Bastard collapses dead in a recording studio at 35 years of age.
R. Kelly moonlights at a McDonald's.
Britney, that old fashioned gal that she is, wants to taeke her new husband's name. Britney Spears, Britney Federline -- one of these just rolls off the tongue so much easier.
CSM wakes up and notices the mp3 blog phenomenon.
Thanks to David for the tip.
Cher to celebrate her 60th birthday, sans clothing.
Mark David Chapman has been denied parole. Chapman was convicted of murdering John Lennon in 1980.
Paris Hilton is booed off the stage while she tries to launch her singing career.
A live album from Train. Having seen them play before, it should sound just like the record, only more so.
Billy Joel gets married for the third time.
I'm not a big fan of Avril, but at least she has a modicum of good taste.
But what's really disturbing about the report is this little tidbit:
...[Jackson] allegedly sent two employees to Oslo to raise the baby as their own.
Who would have taken this job?
Downbeat Magazine has named Victor Wooten as their Talent Deserving Wider Recognition.
...Wooten took to the instrument and took it to a place few thought it could go. Music awards aren't much in the way of artistic or talent litmus tests, but if they were, well, damn. Wooten's got a trophy case your junior high principal could only dream about: a couple of Grammies (admittedly the least impressive award of all time), two Nashville Music Awards for Bassist of the Year and three Bass Player of the Year awards from Bass Player magazine. Even after all these accolades, it's Down Beat magazine's Talent Most Deserving Wider Recognition award that is most telling of Wooten's aspirations.
Congradulations to Victor on yet another award! Here's to hoping that the recognition finds him beyond just bass playing circles.
Thanks to Maria for the tip.
Dolly Parton will be getting a breast size reduction. Or, more accurately, she's getting the implants taken out.
The CD includes a few videos as well. Maybe now they can shed their "guys without shirts on" image.
Phil Spector charged with murder.
As a result of Madonna expressing her desire to celebrate the Jewish New Year in Israel, the Egyptian Parliment ordered her banned from entering into the country.
There's going to be a tribue show to Elton John. Present by Elton John. Paying tribute to himself. Just a little masterbatory, perhaps?
Either she's a completely blithering idiot, or she's having fun pranking the media. In any case, our heroine Britney might not be married.
Christina Aguilera, the lady responsible for forcibly moving legions of young boys into puberty, will host an MTV show on abstinence. I can only assume that she'll be the example of what not to do..
So Britney gets married and then spends the next 48 hours in bed. Bravo.
Not be left out, Christina has to weigh in, saying "I'd never have thought that girl would have done it this way. I know she really loves Kevin, but this is like really low rent this time. ... It's surprising. The whole affair seems somewhat pathetic." She'd be one to know, I suppose.
-- Update --
As usual, Simon has the good stuff:
Lucky that Christina found time between getting her pubic bone pierced, kissing the hatchet-faced Paris Hilton and stuffing dollar bills into lapdancer's gussets long enough to accuse someone holding a quiet wedding of being low-rent and pathetic.
Or maybe not, since it seems like everyone knows about it.
This time, Johnny loses the fight with cancer.
George Michael (remember him?) had a stalker live in his house for four days, hiding under the floorboards. Now, that's dedication.
Britney and her husband-to-be are getting matching track suits. And, in the height of style, she had "Mrs. Federline" embroidered onto hers, while he got "The Pimp" on his.
It's on the way. Towards the end of the track list, I don't particularly recognize the tunes, and she's had -- what -- three, four albums? And that is a long enough career to warrant a best of?
Really, I'm not kidding. During one of his shows, a flock of moths tried to nest in his hair.
Peter Gabriel seems to think that George Lucas going back and re-editing the original Star Wars movies was a good idea. So much so that he's going to do a similar thing for his older music videos.
First, he brags out a coke binge. Now, Moby opens up regarding his toilet cleaning fetish.
Michael Jackson wants to sell his Neveland ranch.
Michael Jackson is said to be selling his Neverland ranch because he fears it has been bugged by police.
He has refused to enter the £8 million home since he was arrested there last year, claims the Daily Star.
It wouldn't have anything to do with his crushing debt load, would it?
First, he sports a Mr. T mohawk at MTV's VMAs (I'd write something about it, but frankly I was way too bored about it to muster up enough energy to care). Now, he gets a iPod with 120 diamonds embedded on it.
As an update to a previous story, DMB offers to make up for the ca-ca incident.
She has passed on at 47 from an aneurysm.
He's a hard rapper and all, but if you read his concert rider, you'd think he was a spoiled rich kid.
-- Update --
Here's the original text from The Smoking Gun.
Bob Dylan will be publishing his memoirs in three sets. The first volume will focus on the 60s and hit the stores this fall.
Dave Matthews craps on a bunch of boaters in Chicago and Phish pollutes a swath of Vermont.
Kylie Minogue wants to sing jazz. Oh my, where to start with this:
Well, jazz survived Michael Bolton, it'll survive Kylie.
Yet another musician complaining that his/her bodyguards are keeping away suitors. Um, correct me if I'm wrong, Lenny, but don't those bodyguards work for you? And couldn't you tell them to let through who you want? Just checking...
Lopez is considered by many to be the founder of Tejano music. He died of complications from both a stroke and an aneurysm at 75 years of age.
York was the bass player for Hank Williams, as well as a number of other country greats. He was eighty-five.
Van Halen has filed a 2 million dollar breach of contract suit against the Baltimore Orioles and Camden Yards. They filed after the O's cancelled VH's September 2nd concert.
Beyonce's toe has been broken after being stepped on by her bodyguard, "Shorty."
The film music world lost a good one last night. Bernstein's work was easily identifiable and always quality. In a world where the pop music du jour masquerades as film soundtracks, the ones who compose well for film are few and far between.
Phish fans kept from the final show by the mud will soon find some sort of refund coming their way.
Justin Timberlake's next album as Southern rock? Did I miss a memo somewhere?
The wedding's off? Why, Britney, why? Kevin was just so perfect for you...
-- Update --
Don't worry, good children. No need to cancel those wedding gifts just yet.
And thanks to the eagle eye of truth and justice known as Lynn for the tip.
Phil Collins is preparing to release a double album of suckage, focusing only on "sappy, trite, sacchariney love songs".
Okay, maybe he didn't quite describe the same way I did. I'm paraphrasing based on his career.
You would think that jail would be a place where a person wouldn't have the ability to continue working, wouldn't you? Not somewhere that you could make 100 phone calls, for instance?
The good news here is that at least her crappiness is being contained in one city, instead of spreading all around the world. Thank God, Ms. Dion's not touring.
A while back, I wrote about the advent of dual sided releases (CD on one side, DVD on the other side). Now, I'm seeing some new reports of problems that might prevent the debut. The problems aren't technical -- it's both legal and licensing that's causing the headaches.
In additional news, Destiny's Child will release their next CD using this format. So, either the issues aren't all that much, or they're just pushing ahead anyway.
Thanks to Glenn for the tip.
Christina Aguilera wants to project a more mature image.
According to The Sun the 23-year-old singer had eleven pieces of body jewellery in her ears, belly button, eyebrow, lip and tongue.
But Christina, who is dating record executive Jordan Bratman, 27, revealed: "I'm rebelling against myself. I've taken out all my piercings apart from one in my right nipple. That's for me."
And dating a record exec? She seems to be taking lessons from Mariah, excepting the dating the underling instead of the bass part.
With the final Phish show drawing nearer, the runup ends in a muddy mess.
With hundreds of cars stuck in the mud and more pouring in, Vermont State Police today (Aug. 14) started turning back traffic headed to the Phish farewell concert in Coventry, Vt., and told ticketholders they would get refunds but no admittance.
Police erected a roadblock on Interstate 91 and other roads and told fans headed to the two-day festival at the Newport State Airport to turn around.
"Because of the heavy rains, parking inside the festival site has basically become impossible, and they're concerned for people's safety," said Adam Lewis, a spokesman for the concert promoter, Great Northeast Productions.
Street date is October 5.
Moby's proud. He paid a woman to talk to him, got coked off his ass, shat himself and then told someone about it? I'm sorry, but if I was that foolish, the last thing I'd do is breathe a word of it to anyone.
About $500k worth of instruments and gear lost in a fire at the studio where they are recording their latest album.
Macy Gray's getting a best of. I thought they stopped making EPs.
The season kick off concert will feature Mary J. Blige, Destiny's Child, Jessica Simpson, Elton John, and Lenny Kravitz.
For some strange reason, the Olympic Games in Athens will "feature" a DJ spinning as the athletes enter the stadium. Sure, the opening ceremonies have a certain amount of cheesiness built into them (dancing children, garish costumes, etc.), but this strikes me as a bit on the wrong side. As Glenn puts it
As the small squad from Cameroon walks onto the track, some Euro-trance anthem is going to be pumping from the PA system. Should fit really well.
Maybe it's some desperate gambit to try and be relevant to those crazy youth of today's market. Look for an announcer to mention how "blinged" the gold and silver medals look.
Madonna now wants a peace room built for her while she tours.
Latoya Jackson, in what can only be described as a desperate bid to remain even vaguely newsworthy, has changed her name. Would it be Kelly? or Cheryl? or even something as respectable as Shaniqua?
Nope, it's Toy. As if she wasn't enough of a joke already.