Tingly's News Archive May '06- May '07

[Tingly]

Tucson-based artist Vicki Brown coaxes textures and tones from her violin that sound like anything but a violin. Discovery of loops and effects pedals recently pushed her into the world of improvisational and experimental music with a nod to her classical roots.

Brown has always been fascinated by the ways people can see with their ears, and loves finding ways to conjure up images with music. She creates what she calls "psychosonic visualizations." Brown draws on the collective influences of Andrew Bird, John Cale, Paul Horn, Warren Ellis, John Zorn and Carla Kihlstedt. She also earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of Arizona.

The self-produced Winter Garden is Brown's debut solo project, recorded during the cooler months of 2005 in her 1880s desert adobe home. The eight instrumental pieces were sculpted using horsehair, strings, strokes of Casio keys and deft slides on the pedal steel by Paul Niehaus of Calexico. Some were captured on the fly while others took longer to finesse.

Besides her solo project, Brown also collaborates with Campo Bravo, The Splitters, and loves her status as hired gun for recording and performing with many other fine artists.

-NPR

[Tingly]

After a bout with bronchitis, Tim McGraw was ready to take the stage Wednesday with wife Faith Hill as they prepared to resume their summer concert tour in the Big Easy and give all proceeds to Hurricane Katrina victims.

Country music's foremost couple canceled two tour appearances last week after McGraw, who was raised in Start, La., got sick.

Both McGraw and Hill, who's from Star, Miss., have been vocal critics of the government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people along the Gulf Coast and flooded 80% of New Orleans. In interviews, Hill described the post-Katrina progress as "embarrassing" and "humiliating" to the country.

-USA Today

[Tingly]

Drawing from their training in the classics, jazz, pop and funk, the four members of Animal Liberation Orchestra strive to make creative, upbeat, ever-evolving music. Their feel-good California vibe and their quirky, engaging live shows have made ALO a rising star in jam-band circles.

ALO was born from a string of mostly unsuccessful bands playing in the San Francisco Bay Area throughout the '90s. It wasn't until 2002 -- when college friends and bandmates Zach Gills, Dan Lebowitz, Steve Adams and David Brogan pared the band down from a nine-piece to a quartet -- that ALO began to attract national attention. In 2005, the band released a well-received EP and joined Jack Johnson on tour. Johnson signed the group to his own Brushfire Records, and ALO released its first full-length, Fly Between Falls, in April 2006. The disc experiments with the band's unique sound, incorporating jazz, reggae, soul and even a little bit of Latin music.

-NPR

[Tingly]

During the week of July 9-July 15:

1939: Frank Sinatra made his first record, singing "From the Bottom of My Heart" and "Melancholy Mood" with the Harry James Orchestra.

1955: Pat Boone released his version of "Ain't That A Shame," which became his first No. 1 hit.

1971: Jim Morrison of The Doors was buried in Paris, six days after he was found dead in a bathtub.

1972: Paul McCartney began a European tour in France with his band Wings. It was his first tour since the last Beatles tour in 1966.

1975: Cher filed court papers to dissolve her marriage to Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers. They had been married just nine days.

1979: A Chicago disc jockey held a "disco demolition" between a baseball doubleheader at Comiskey Park. The second game was called off because so much damage had been done to the field.

1986: Columbia Records dropped Johnny Cash after 28 years. Cash signed a new recording contract with Polygram later the next year.

1995: The Grateful Dead gave their last concert with Jerry Garcia, at Chicago's Soldier Field.

-AP

[Tingly]

Microsoft is believed to be planning the launch of a new portable digital music and video player that will go head-to-head with Apple's ubiquitous iPod.

According to a Bloomberg News report, the as-yet-unnamed device is expected to include a wireless internet connection which will allow users to download music files without having to link the player to a PC. Moreover, the player is said to boast a better quality picture than Apple's player.

The Redmond-based behemoth is reported to have met with a number of leading television broadcasters and music firms recently in a bid to gain content for an online store which would compete with iTunes. Some of the companies that the software giant has allegedly been in talks with include CBS, NBC, Fox, EMI and Universal Music.

Earlier media reports from June suggested that Microsoft has also held talks with a number of consumer electronics manufacturers and mobile communications operators such as Toshiba and NTT DoCoMo about developing a new portable player based on Windows Media technology.

It is now believed that the company is aiming to have its own 'iPod Killer' on the market in time for Christmas with Robbie Bach, Microsoft's president of the Entertainment and Devices Division and the man in charge of the unit that produced the firm's Xbox games console overseeing development of the device.

Although Microsoft may be the world's leading software developer, it's failed to capitalise on the popularity of digital music players. Since the iPod was first launched back in October 2001, Apple has sold almost 60 million devices worldwide and its iTunes music store is estimated to account for 72 percent of legal music downloads.

Microsoft by contrast has relied on consumer electronics firms to produce digital music players which use its software. Moreover, the firm's MSN Music store represents a fraction of total music downloads, although the company is looking to rectify this through Urge, its new digital music service which is backed by MTV.

-electricnews.net

[Tingly]

It’s apparently a secret known in the world of Michael Jackson to only a select group of former advisers. In court in Santa Monica, however, where Jackson is being sued by a former associate, it’s a story coming out into the open bit by excruciating bit.

Sometime after he was arrested in November 2003, Jackson sent $300,000 to a family living in South America. What he got for his money is unclear, but my sources say it was part of a continuing payout to a family who felt their child was abused by the pop star.

The jury in the Jackson case has heard several allusions to the payoff, although direct parties to the trial are not allowed by Judge Jacqueline Connor to address the subject as anything other than “a personal matter.”

The reason is that this is a financial lawsuit, and at least two of the sitting jurors stated during their interviews that they believe Jackson is a child molester.

-Fox News

[Tingly]

Franz Ferdinand highlighted the 6th Exit music festival, which opened Thursday in northern Serbia.

Joining Franz Ferdinand on 20 stages in an ancient fortress overlooking the Danube River at Novi Sad are such headliners as the Cult and the Cardigans, organizers said.

About 600 performers are scheduled to perform during the four-day festival, including Morrissey, Billy Idol, Pet Shop Boys, Suzanne Vega and many internationally less known singers and groups from Europe.

The Exit festival in the Petrovaradin fortress at Novi Sad is considered one of the biggest events of its kind in southeastern Europe.

The organizers said they expect about 20,000 to 40,000 fans will attend the festival each night.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

The seeds of Farm Aid were planted here in 1985 when Bob Dylan, performing in the Live Aid benefit for Africa, said something should be done to help American farmers. Twenty-one years later, Farm Aid is returning to the region to hold its 19th fundraising concert on Sept. 30 at the Tweeter Center in Camden, N.J.

Musician Neil Young, one of the organization's founders, announced the date Thursday at Reading Terminal Market, a downtown Philadelphia landmark known for its fresh produce.

Young, who grew up in small town in Canada surrounded by farms, said it seems like the problems faced by family farms get "swept under the rug."

"It is unfortunate that we have to continue doing this," Young said. "I really hope that we don't have to do Farm Aid forever."

Farm Aid's goals include supporting family farms, fighting corporate agriculture, advocating fair prices and encouraging people to buy food grown locally. The organization has raised more than $29 million over two decades, officials said.

Half the land in Pennsylvania and New Jersey is used for agriculture, and the area boasts more than 200 farmers' markets.

The Farm Aid 2006 lineup includes Young and his Farm Aid co-founders, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp. Dave Matthews, who joined the Boston-based organization's board of directors in 2001, will also perform.

Other acts will be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets go on sale July 22.

TBO.com

[Tingly]

Digital music sales may finally have enough impetus to boost the industry, according to data released Thursday by Nielsen SoundScan. While physical album sales declined some 4.2 percent, sales of digital albums soared by 126 percent in the first half of 2006. Overall, the music industry grew slightly by about a tenth of a percent. By the numbers, 270.6 million physical albums and 14.7 million digital albums were sold so far this year, versus 282.6 million and 6.4 million in the first half of 2005.

According to Nielsen, the top selling album is the soundtrack to the Disney Movie "High School Musical," which sold 2.6 million copies. Rascal Flatts' "Me and My Gang" follows in second, with about 2 million copies sold; third is James Blunt's "Back to Bedlam" with 1.7 million; Mary J. Blige's "The Breakthrough" is fourth with 1.5 million; and Carrie Underwood's "Some Hearts" rounds out the top five at 1.4 million.

-Beta News

[Tingly]

The average gym rat may not wonder what cascades of sweat will do to a pair of earbuds, but the headphone maker Sennheiser has. (It can make them corrode or short out.) So Sennheiser has introduced a series of water- and sweat-resistant headphones specifically for the sports-minded.

The Series 3 Sport line of headphones comprises six styles of phones that can be spotted by their neon green accents. The headphones, currently available through Amazon.com, range in price from $35 to $55 (the OMX-70, shown here, is $40). They adjust to the ear by lengthening and turning the phones for optimum sound and have soft rubber earpieces for comfort.

The phones are made with rubberized speaker parts and are sealed at seams where moisture might infiltrate.

A test of the MX70 showed that no one would confuse them for high-fidelity headphones, but less-than-perfect sound quality is still better than the drone of an elliptical machine.

The package warns not to use the headphones in saltwater. But because they require occasional cleaning with mild detergent, you could always use them to sing in the shower.

-Herald Tribune

[Tingly]

Tom Waits has announced a tour of the US, his first major gigs for seven years.

The cult legend will perform in some cities for the first time in thirty years this August.

The dates are as follows:

Atlanta Tabernacle (August 1)
Asheville Thomas Wolfe Auditorium (2)
Memphis Orpheum Theatre (4)
Nashville Ryman Auditorium (5)
Louisville Palace Theatre (7)
Chicago Auditorium Theatre (9)
Detroit Opera House (11)
Akron Civic Theatre (13)

Waits has also revealed he is to feature in two films released in 2007. He stars alongside Ryan Gosling in 'The Good Heart', and performs with Josh Malkovich and Josh Hartnett in 'Texas Lullaby'.

-IPC MEDIA

[Tingly]

An unprecedented number of new bands have signed up for the WALKMAN NME Breaking Bands competition - but you've still got a shot at the big prize.

Some of the best bands have been getting serious industry attention since they signed up.

Since their inclusion in NME.com's Pick Of The Week, the blissed out Sigur Ros-esque Greenspace have had a nine-minute song played on Huw Stephens' Radio 1 show and have supported Howling Bells.

Similarly, indie-pop boys The Michelles have been featured in NME's Pick Of The Week and they've managed to secure a single deal and have toured Germany.

A & R agents have flocked to see eccentric indie band A Woman Of No Importance after NME selected them for a feature column.

Entering the competition is a great way to get new fans to hear your music and, if you get picked out by NME, you could see your band getting a lot more exposure than you ever imagined.

Get along to NME.COM/NEWMUSIC to find out more, now.

-NME.com

[Tingly]

Frank Black has revealed Pixies will never make another record.

However, they will continue to tour, following the success of their reunion gigs.

Black said: "I wish it could go a bit further again and we could make a record. Not all of the band-members are willing to do that. Rather than make a big deal out of it, we've agreed to just continue to play live."

The singer reassured fans over their commitment to touring, however.

He said: "We definitely enjoy ourselves. There is a little camaraderie, a gang mentality that takes over when we're about to take the stage."

He also revealed that the relationship between bassist Kim Deal and himself is much improved since the Pixies' first split in 1991.

Black said: "Now, if we're on tour together, we hang out, we hug. We have some good conversations, I suppose."

-NME.com

[Tingly]

Iceland's finest will treat London to their final tour show.

Sigur Ros' final gig of their world tour in Reykjavik is to be streamed and shown at the National Film Theatre on London's South Bank.

More than two hundred tickets have already been sold for the event on July 30, which will also feature a streamed performance by Amiina, Sigur Ros' support band, and a selection of videos by the Icelandic group.

The streamed performance is part of the National Film Theatre's 'Access All Areas' season of music documentaries and premieres.

-NME.com

[Tingly]

Massive Attack are to tour North America later this year.

Although the Bristol group made an isolated appearance in America earlier this year, playing at the Coachella Festival, they have not toured extensively in the US and Canada since the release of 1998's 'Mezzanine'.

It is believed that long-time collaborators Elizabeth Fraser and Horace Andy will join Massive Attack for the new dates, but they have yet to confirm their involvement.

The tour calls at the following venues:

Toronto V Festival (September 10)
Montreal Metropolis (11)
Detroit State Theatre (12)
Chicago Riviera Theatre (13)
Houston Verizon Wireless Theatre (15)
Austin City Limits (16)
Dallas Nokia Theatre (17)
Phoenix Celebrity Theatre (19)
San Diego SDSU Open Air Theatre (20)
Berkeley Greek Theatre (22)
Las Vegas The Joint (23)
Hollywood Bowl (24)
Washington 9:30 Club (28-29)
Philadelphia Tower Theatre (30)
Boston Orpheum Theatre (October 1)
New York Roseland Ballroom (3-5)

The band, now comprising Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall, are expected to release 'Weather Underground', the follow-up to 2003's '100th Window', in early 2007.

-IPC MEDIA

[Tingly]

Arctic Monkeys will release their first ever cover versions in August.

Their new single, 'Leave Before The Lights Come On', will feature the two covers, one of which will be their version of an old song and the other a cover of a track by one of their favourite groups.

Arctic Monkeys release 'Leave Before The Lights Come On' on three track CD and two track 7" through Domino Records on August 14.

The Sheffield band are currently touring European festivals. They play T In The Park on July 9 before embarking on an Australia-Asian tour in late July.

-IPC MEDIA

[Tingly]

Sir Elton John will headline the third annual Fashion Rocks concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall, to benefit the AIDS foundation that bears his name.

John will be joined by a star-studded lineup for the Sept. 7 show -- including Beyoncé, Christina Aguilera, Kanye West, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Nelly Furtado, Jamie Foxx, the Black Eyed Peas, Bon Jovi, Scissor Sisters, Rihanna, the Pussycat Dolls and Daddy Yankee, Billboard.com reported.

The show's fashions are being managed by KCD, which works with Versace and Calvin Klein.

John is working on a new album, The Captain and the Kid, which was previewed at his White Tie & Tiara Ball last week in Britain.

The entertainer resumes his Red Piano show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on July 11.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

Punk rockers Rancid, who back in the spring unveiled a short round of July tour dates that kicked off yesterday, have since expanded the outing to run through the end of the summer, according to liveDaily.

The group's itinerary gets underway in the Phoenix area, and now comprises stops in about 30 cities, including two-night stands in nine cities, three-night stands in Montreal and Washington, DC, and a four-night run in New York City.

"With over 150 songs to choose from every night, each set will be unique to itself," the group wrote in a message posted Tuesday, July 5th at its website. "In other words, you will not hear the same set twice."

The message goes on to say that some shows will include songs that the group has never before performed live.

Rancid's most recent studio album was 2003's "Indestructible," the sixth release by the Berkeley, CA-based quartet, and their first for the Hellcat label. The group plans to issue a new disc in the spring of next year, and to release a new DVD that includes all of the band's music videos "soon."

In addition to his work with Rancid, Frederiksen also hosts an XM Satellite Radio show dubbed "Rancid Radio," which airs five times a week on the "Fungus 53" channel. The show includes a segment during which Frederiksen plays fan-submitted music mailed to the program.

-Ultimate-Guitar.com

[Tingly]

Embrace are to play a second date in Manchester as part of their current tour, due to high demand for tickets, reports NME.com.

The Yorkshire boys will now play Manchester Apollo on October 14, in addition to their first show at the venue on October 13.

The band will now call at the following venues:

09/21 - Hull City Hall
09/22 - Norwich WEA
09/23 - Cambridge Corn Exchange
09/24 - Cardiff University Great Hall
09/26 - Exeter Great Hall
09/27 - Bristol Colston Hall
09/29 - London Hammersmith Apollo
10/08 - Derby Assembly Rooms
10/09 - Carlisle Sands Centre
10/10 - Glasgow Academy
10/13 - Manchester Apollo
10/14 - Manchester Apollo
10/16 - Leicester De Montford Hall
10/18 - Birmingham Academy
10/19 - Newcastel Academy
10/20 - Middlesbrough Town Hall
10/22 - Liverpool University
10/23 - Doncaster Dome

-Ultimate-Guitar.com

[Tingly]

Hatebreed, The Black Dahlia Murder, Napalm Death, Exodus, First Blood and Despised Icon will reportedly be teaming up for a North American tour this fall. Exact cities and dates will be announced soon.

Hatebreed's new album, "Supremacy", is scheduled for release on August 29 via Roadrunner Records.

In a recent interview with Decibel magazine, Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta had the following to say about the band's new music: "If I don't get a surge of adrenaline or my hair doesn't stand up from a song, we simply won't use it. I listened to 10 new songs on the way here today and I was smashing my steering wheel the whole way. The music has to do that — it has to speak to me like the records I love."

Added guitarist Sean Martin, "I get insulted by artists who say, 'We need to grow up now,' and then change their formula. Hatebreed should be Hatebreed. I don't feel stifled by it. I reach outside of the box with other projects [Martin is actually very interested in electronic-based music] and stay inside with Hatebreed. It's good because it keeps me fresh for these guys."

-Ultimate-Guitar.com

[Tingly]

Fire-fighters bravely battled a fierce early morning blaze at Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne's £5 million mansion yesterday (06.07.06).

The couple's 21-year-old daughter Kelly was reportedly the only member of the family at home when the fire - thought to be started by a faulty lamp - ripped through the family's Buckinghamshire home.

Luckily, Ozzy had recently fitted the house with a state-of-the-art £2,000 fire alarm, which automatically alerted the emergency services.

A Buckinghamshire Fire Service spokesman said: "The blaze was caught in the nick of time.

"If we hadn't been alerted so quickly it could have been a lot worse."

Kelly was woken by firemen and escaped unhurt, however, a female employee was treated for smoke inhalation.

The fire follows a series of unlucky incidents at the property.

In 2003, Ozzy spent eight days in a coma after a near-fatal quad biking accident in the grounds of the mansion, while the following year the rocker tackled a cat burglar, before the thief escaped with close to £2 million of jewellery.

In March 2005, a fire broke out in the living room of the manor as the family slept.

A friend of Ozzy's said: "He thinks the place is bloody cursed. He is wondering if a plague of locusts will be next."

-BANG Media International.

[Tingly]

Sheryl Crow's breakup with fiancé Lance Armstrong was "devastating," the singer says in a new interview, adding, "I definitely still love him and always will love him."

Crow tells Vanity Fair in its August issue, "I do think about Lance every day. And I think about his kids every day." Armstrong is dad to Luke, 6, and twins Isabella and Grace, 4.

Crow, 44, and Armstrong, 34, announced their split in February after two years of dating and an engagement that lasted a little over five months. Just 17 days later, Crow was diagnosed with Stage I breast cancer.

After getting the news, she first called her parents, she tells Vanity Fair, and then sent a Blackberry message to Armstrong, who was on a solo road trip from Lake Tahoe to Oregon. "I actually turned around to make the drive to L.A.," Armstrong, himself a cancer survivor, tells the magazine. "We talked along the way and she said, 'You know, I just don't think that's a great idea.' "

"It was difficult," says Crow. "I know he wanted to be there. I would have loved for him to have swept in and carried me through." But ultimately, she says, she realized she had to rely on people who could "really just be there for me all the way through this – emotionally, unconditionally": her family.

These days, Crow is back to work, performing and writing music – and that's part of her healing process. "I still feel bruised," she tells the magazine. "I still feel really raw and vulnerable – not just from the breakup but the whole experience. … But the nice thing about my job is that there is a catharsis that I get to experience when I play some of this stuff."

-people.aol.com

[Tingly]

Katharine McPhee missed Wednesday's Manchester, N.H., kick-off of the 51-city "American Idols Live" tour, blaming severe bronchitis and laryngitis.

It was announced at Manchester's Verizon Wireless Arena that McPhee, the runner-up to winner Taylor Hicks on this year's American Idol, would be missing both Wednesday's and Thursday's performances.

Her doctor, Sean Nassari, ordered "total voice rest," the Associated Press reports.

In a statement, McPhee, 22, said that, while she was disappointed not to perform, "I need to follow my doctor's orders to recuperate and reunite with the rest of the idols."

Adding that her doctor had told her she needed to remain silent, she said, "That's the most difficult part, not talking!"

McPhee, who has been singing since she was 2, lives in Sherman Oaks, Calif., and has said she hopes eventually to act in movies as well as musical theater. Her versions of "Over the Rainbow" and "My Destiny" were released on June 27. [Both of which "went nowhere"-Tingly]

-people.aol.com

[hellzbellz]

^
God she is SO hot.

Perfection ^.^

[Tingly]

Yeah, I think she IS lovely, too!

[shredding]

I feel sad for Sheryl.

[Arc]

Man, she is a BOMBSHELL

[Tingly]

Yes, Ms. Crow is also quite physically beautiful, and her incredible talent makes you want to just give her such a hug! <sigh>

She would seem to be very easy to love. It's wonderful that she exists!

[Tingly]

Opera singer Luciano Pavarotti has had surgery for pancreatic cancer in New York, his manager has revealed.

The 70-year-old Italian tenor is "recovering well", she said - but all remaining 2006 dates of his farewell tour have been cancelled.

Pavarotti was preparing to leave the US last week when doctors discovered a malignant pancreatic mass, Terri Robson said in a statement.

"Fortunately the mass was able to be completely removed," she said.

The tenor's website said he was "recovering well and his physicians are encouraged by the physical and emotional resilience of their patient".

-BBC

[Tingly]

Microsoft has said reports that the company is planning an MP3 player to rival the iPod are based on "speculation and rumours".

The software giant and games console firm said it did not "have anything to announce at this time".

Unnamed music industry executives have told the New York Times that they have received briefings about the product.

The iPod rival would have wireless internet capabilities to download music without a PC, said the report.

-BBC

[Tingly]

As he prepares to release his debut solo album, the Manic Street Preachers' lead singer James Dean Bradfield has denied the Welsh rockers are splitting.

Speaking from the studio in which he part-recorded the album, Bradfield said the Manics were on a "brief hiatus," but already working on new material.

Describing being in the three-piece as "mafia-esque", he said it would take "a hell of a lot" for them to split.

He says he feels no rivalry with Nicky Wire, who has also gone solo.

-BBC

[Tingly]

A stage show billed as the first "genuine" Bollywood musical is to tour the UK and Europe in the autumn.

The Merchants of Bollywood features songs from India's hit films and has a cast of performers who work in Mumbai's prolific movie industry.

The show, based on the story of Indian film choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant, has been a success in Australia.

Its makers have called it "authentic" compared to Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End musical Bombay Dreams.

The show, originally produced in Mumbai, has been developed for its European run, and will feature a 40-strong cast including musicians, singers, actors and dancers.

The performers will each have to change costume 12 times during the show, as musical sequences from Bollywood films spanning several decades are revived.

[Tingly]

Gay rights groups are to resume their campaign against three allegedly homophobic reggae stars.

The move follows the cancellation of concerts by Buju Banton in Brighton and Beenie Man in Bournemouth following lobbying by local gay activists.

Last year the reggae industry pledged not to let their stars play or release songs advocating anti-gay violence.

But Peter Tatchell of OutRage! said Buju Banton, Beenie Man and Bounty Killer had broken that agreement.

"As far as they are concerned, the truce is over," he said.

"The campaign against them has resumed. We will maintain the truce with the other singers who have stuck by the agreement."

-BBC

[Tingly]

Independent Music Company Sanctuary Group and Mathew Knowles have officially ended their relationship.

Knowles is paying $5 million to regain control of his company MW Entertainment, the Daily Variety reported Friday.

Sanctuary had bought Knowles' company in 2003 for $10 million, but they say that the late delivery of albums and the lack of tours from MW Entertainment acts was a factor in their near financial collapse earlier this year.

The sale will also strip Sanctuary of high-profile clients such as Knowles' daughter Beyonce and Destiny's Child.

-bignewsnetwork.com

[Tingly]

Collaborations happen all the time in pop music. They do not generally involve R&B hitmakers and Sen. Orrin Hatch.

But the release of a music producer from a Dubai jail this week, quick on the heels of his conviction for drug possession, turns out to be a story of high-level string-pulling on the part of Hatch, the conservative Utah Republican and songwriter; along with Lionel Richie, the singer; Quincy Jones, the music entrepreneur; and an array of well-connected lawyers, businesspeople and others, spanning cities and continents.

Dallas Austin, who has produced hits for Madonna, Janet Jackson and others, flew home to Atlanta on Wednesday, after being released after midnight on Tuesday from a holding cell in a Dubai jail. Hours earlier, Austin, who is in his 30s, had been sentenced to four years in prison for carrying just over a gram of cocaine with him when he entered the country on May 19 to attend a birthday celebration for Naomi Campbell.

Hatch made numerous phone calls on Austin's behalf to the ambassador and consul of the United Arab Emirates Embassy in Washington -- Dubai is one of the seven emirates -- and served as an intermediary to Austin's representatives, the producer's lawyers said.

"The senator was one of a number of people who was very actively involved," said Joe Reeder, the Washington lawyer who, with an Atlanta colleague, Joel Katz, spent 10 days in Dubai working to secure Austin's reprieve.

Katz, an entertainment lawyer, represents both Austin and the musically somewhat less successful Hatch, a singer and songwriter who has recorded religious-oriented albums. After hiring Katz's firm, the senator last year took in $39,092 in income from music publishing, according to financial documents filed in May under the Ethics in Government Act.

The senator declined to be interviewed or to confirm details of his efforts on Austin's behalf, but he issued a statement acknowledging his involvement and said he was asked by Austin's attorneys to help.

-sfgate.com

[Tingly]

If the record business is suffering in the rip-and-burn revolution, musical instrument sales are raging to historic highs. So it's no surprise that famous guitar shapes and amp sounds are on their way to becoming as valuable as multiplatinum records, and the lawyers are already scrambling to get in a few licks.

Fabled electric guitar inventor Les Paul turned 91 last month, even as his creation fuels the fires of infectious pubescent love like never before. From baby boomers like Bill Clinton to high school wannabes, every guitar junkie knows a Gibson Les Paul hanging off your hip is hipness itself.

It's only natural, then, that Gibson Guitar would go to court to try and prevent competitor PRS Guitars from marketing a similar looking axe. In 2004, a Nashville judge agreed with the company that the look and feel of the PRS guitar violated Gibson's copyright, and ordered PRS to stop making the knockoffs.

But Gibson's corner on the single cutaway guitar market was cut short when the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision last September, finding no public confusion between the Gibson and PRS models. It didn't help that one of Gibson's own attorneys admitted during oral arguments: "You'd have to be an idiot not to know which guitar you're buying."

Last month the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up the matter, effectively slamming the guitar case shut for good. The Guitar Center retail chain now reports a large backlog of orders for the PRS "singlecut," preferred by some aficionados over the Gibson.

The outcome is a good one for an instrument industry that thrives on the adolescent desire to sound exactly like a favorite rock idol.

-Wired News.Com

[Tingly]

The urge to play helped drive a record $7.8 billion in instrument sales in the United States alone last year, up 6.9 percent from 2004, says Scott Robertson, spokesman for the National Association of Music Merchants, or NAMM. Worldwide sales topped $17 billion, according to a soon-to-be-released NAMM report.

Leading the way is the fretted phallic symbol of American rock 'n' roll freedom, the six-string electric axe, which cranked up a 13.3 percent gain in retail value in 2005, to more than 3.3 million units sold in the United States, for $1.1 billion in sales.

"What we're witnessing is a shift from passive listening to active playing," Robertson says. "Siblings are inspired by music-themed TV shows to come out and play instruments."

Perhaps they want to sound like an American Idol hopeful, who, in turn, wanted to sound like their idol, who in turn.... You get the idea.

Manufacturers follow a similar pattern and they aren't limited to reproducing instruments. Agoura, California, company Line 6 sells a variety of "amp modeling" gadgets, boasting knob settings like "Bohemian Rhapsody" if you want to sound like Queen's Brian May and the fuzzed out "Purple Haze" if you want to excuse yourself while you kiss the sky. Even the most famous classic amplifier sounds from the '60s and '70s, like the "blackface" Fender Deluxe Reverb or the '68 Marshall piggyback stack are accessible with a tweak of a setting.

Not everyone is a fan of such electronic homage. "They claim it's more convenient having a small box than investing in the actual equipment," says Paul Flynn, co-owner of Truetone Music in Santa Monica, California. "But … you can tell the difference. It's like the difference between real sex and virtual sex."

Over Flynn's shoulder, a rare '59 Les Paul Standard shines from the wall of his shop, marked at $200,000. It's a sight that would make its sexy nonagenarian creator proud.

-Wired News.Com

[Tingly]

China will transmit 30 pieces of Chinese music to Earth next year aboard its first lunar-probing satellite, state media said.

The Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, which is in charge of the lunar project, is seeking recommendations from the public on which tunes to play, Xinhua news agency reported.

The public will be able to choose from a list of 150 songs put forward by the commission, including music from the country's 56 ethnic groups, pop songs from the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as opera soundtracks.

Unlike the single transmission of the popular patriotic hymn "The East is Red" in 1970 from the country's first man-made terrestrial satellite, the music from space next year will be "very different," Xinhua said without elaborating.

The hymn "The East is Red" was selected by satellite experts and space officials to pay tribute to Mao Zedong, then leader of the newly founded People's Republic of China, who enjoyed cult worship during that period.

The final selection will be made public in October, said the commission.

The satellite, which has a budget of 1.4 billion yuan (about 170 million dollars), is part of the country's three-phase lunar project.

It is designed to obtain three-dimensional images of the moon's surface, analyze the content of useful elements and materials, and probe the depth of the lunar soil and the space environment between the earth and the moon.

The satellite will weigh 2,350 kilograms, with 130 kilograms of extra equipment, and will orbit the moon for one year.

In addition to next year's project, China has already announced it hopes to have a satellite land on the moon by 2012.

By 2017, it aims to land an unmanned lunar probe on the moon, have it collect samples and return to Earth.

-keralanext.com

[Tingly]

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, seriously injured in a motorcycle accident last month, will play in a celebrity golf tournament next week and appear in a music video.

Officials with American Century Championship, a tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nev., said Friday that Roethlisberger has committed to play there July 14-16.

Also, a spokeswoman for The PovertyNeck Hillbillies, a country music group in Pittsburgh, announced Friday that Roethlisberger will be shooting a music video with the group Tuesday at Heinz Field.

Roethlisberger underwent seven hours of facial reconstruction surgery June 12 after ramming his motorcycle into a car that turned left in front of him on a Pittsburgh street. Roethlisberger broke his jaw and nose when his head smashed into the car's windshield, and he was thrown over the car onto the pavement. He was cited for riding without a license and not wearing a helmet.

-enquirer.com

[Tingly]

It's been said that every professional athlete wants to be a rock star and every rock star wants to be a professional athlete.

Peter Gammons straddles both worlds, putting down the cell phone he uses to speed-dial baseball bigwigs and picking up a guitar for his first CD, "Never Slow Down, Never Grow Old." Backed by an all-star cast - including two actual baseball All-Stars - Gammons provides a bluesy collection of covers and the original "She Fell From Heaven," which keeps pace with the pros.

The CD's release comes as Gammons, an inductee in the writers' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame, recovers from a June 27 brain aneurysm. He remains at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

-enquirer.com

[Tingly]

Sumsung Electronic Corporation of South Korea recently unveiled their new NV line of digital cameras. The NV digital cameras can not only take pictures, but play music and videos.

According to a report from Newsfactor.com, there are three models in Sumsung's NV lineup including the NV3, NV7 and NV10. The smallest of them is about the height and width of a credit card and less than 2 centimeters thick.

The NV3 is a 7.2-megapixel digital camera with a 3x optical zoom lens and a built-in MP3 player. It also has voice recorder and camcorder capacities. It retails for US$350.

The 7-megapixel NV7 digital camera, with a powerful 7x optical zoom lens, takes clearer pictures. It also comes with picture-stabilization technology and a movement-reduction system. The NV7 also feature a Smart Touch interface screen. Its retail price is US$450.

The 10-megapixel NV10 features 3x optical zoom lens and a 2.5-inch LCD screen. It also has a S mart Touch interface screen. It costs US$400.

-keralanext.com

[Tingly]

"The Wizard of Oz" had its world premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood on August 15, 1939. Exactly 65 years and 11 months later, one of the songs from that film reaches its highest position ever on a Billboard pop singles chart.

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (RCA) by fifth-season "American Idol" runner-up Katharine McPhee has entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 12.

The song, written by Harold Arlen and E. Y. "Yip" Harburg (and usually titled "Over the Rainbow") was performed by McPhee on "Idol" when there were three contestants left, and again on the show's live finale, which originated at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, just steps away from the still-standing Grauman's Chinese.

-Reuters

[Tingly]

Hilary Duff does Pilates three times a week, she's a fan of the elliptical trainer and while she believes "eating should be fun," she's cut French fries out of her diet. Still, the singer/actress isn't eager to show off her new shape in revealing clothing. "When I wear something that's a little more skimpy, there have been cases where I feel insecure about myself," Duff told Self in the magazine's August cover story. (Check out photos from the Self spread right here.) "I'd rather wear a pencil skirt, something I'd feel sexy in." Duff explained that she feels more comfortable "leaving sex to the imagination," and also told the magazine that she has a clothing line on the way designed for girls 15-20 — "stuff I'd wear." ...

"American Idol" runner-up Katharine McPhee has signed on as a guest host for "The View" on July 19. Brandy took on those duties this week. ...

Shakira and Wyclef Jean are hooking up in Berlin on Sunday to bring a special version of "Hips Don't Lie" to soccer fans. The duo will perform a mash-up of the track — mixed with the World Cup theme "Bamboo," by RedOne — as part of the 2006 FIFA World Cup closing ceremony, 15 minutes before the final kickoff. ...

-MTV

[Tingly]

Hilly Kristal's got an awful lot of packing ahead of him.

The owner and operator of New York's legendary CBGB club says by mid-October, the last drinks will have been poured and the last unsigned band will have taken the stage inside the punk-rock landmark. In compliance with an agreement Kristal reached with the club's landlord last December, CBGB will no longer exist on the Bowery.

Still, Kristal says he's not about to let the mythical club go the way of the dodo.

"We want to take a lot of this stuff with us, and I think we're going to move to Las Vegas," Kristal said, adding that he'll start disassembling parts of the club as early as September. "I have some developers who have some really great space in the downtown area. So, I'd say sometime in spring we'll be in Las Vegas. It's a big undertaking, and these developers are putting the money into it, and I want to make sure that, for my benefit and theirs, we make this work."

Of course, Kristal, who wouldn't name the developers he's working with, knows it won't be the same in Vegas. "I don't have any choice," he explained. "I have been looking for space in New York and the rent's $125,000 a month on Broadway." He said he came close to securing a space downtown on Essex Street, but the deal didn't make it past the negotiations phase. So, it's "Viva Las Vegas" for one of New York's most revered rock and roll attractions.

-MTV

[Tingly]

CNN just reported here in NY that a kid had his iPod STRUCK BY LIGHTNING! It caused his ear buds to melt, ripped a hole in his pants, and injured him. He may have permanent hearing loss, but is lucky to be alive.

[Tingly]

Veteran musician Gil Scott-Heron has been jailed for violating a plea deal on a drug charge.

The 57-year-old was sentenced to two to four years at New York's Queens Supreme Court after leaving the rehab clinic where he was being treated, reports the New York Post.

Scott-Heron, who had a series of hits in the 70s including 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' and 'The Bottle', told the court the drug treatment centre stopped giving him his HIV medication and since Scott-Heron is HIV positive, he left.

But the court ruled that he violated his plea deal by leaving the centre he was placed in and he must now serve time in prison.

-IPC MEDIA

[mk-ultra]

CNN just reported here in NY that a kid had his iPod STRUCK BY LIGHTNING! It caused his ear buds to melt, ripped a hole in his pants, and injured him. He may have permanent hearing loss, but is lucky to be alive.


ya i saw pics of him and he had blood on is face and stuff

[Tingly]

The Islamic militiamen controlling the Somali capital broke up a wedding celebration because a band was playing and women and men were socializing together, witnesses said Saturday, describing the latest crackdown by a group feared to be installing Taliban-style rule in this African nation.

The Islamic fighters beat band members with electric cables and confiscated their equipment, said Asha Ilmi Hashi, a singer with the group Mogadishu Stars.

"We had warned the family not to include in their ceremony what is not allowed by the sharia law. This includes the mixing of men and women and playing music," Sheik Iise Salad, who heads an Islamic court in the northeastern Huriwaa District, told The Associated Press. "That is why we raided and took their equipment."

"What was going there was un-Islamic," Salad said.

The late Friday attack came three days after militiamen in central Somalia shot and killed two people at the screening of a World Cup soccer broadcast banned because it violated the fighters' strict interpretation of Islamic law.

-CNN

[Tingly]

Twenty four people were injured in Turkey yesterday when their bus overturned after the driver sprang from his seat and began dancing to sounds of radio music, Anatolia news agency reported.

The accident happened during a student trip in southern Turkey. Witnesses said the driver caught his foot in the wheel when he got up and tried to show off in front of the passengers.

The driver and an eight year-old boy were among those seriously injured.

-The Peninsula

[Tingly]

Parents of children injured in a Maryland bus crash want to know why a teenage driver was behind the wheel.

Maryland State Police say nearly 60 people were hurt in the accident, including an eight-year-old girl whose hand was severed. The Interstate-95 crash is being blamed on a truck that left its lane and smashed into the bus.

An injured passenger tells The Philadelphia Daily News the 18-year-old was driving with one hand, while fiddling with a cell phone and listening to music.

The bus was one of six returning to Philadelphia from a day-camp trip to Baltimore's National Aquarium. The paper says dozens of parents and relatives have met with day-camp representatives to demand answers about the crash.

Authorities have not identified the 41-year-old truck driver or the teenage bus driver. Federal law requires that those who drive commercial vehicles interstate must be at least 21.

-WBAL

[Tingly]

Pop idol Justin Timberlake has vowed to bring the style back into pop music with his new album, "FutureSex/LoveSounds," which is due to be released on September 11.

"I realize that I have a platform to push the sound of pop music. That's the only responsibility that I put on myself in recording the album," Timberlake told reporters at Paris. "If I'm not going to push it, then who's going to push it?" The first single of the album is titled "SexyBack."

-EarthTimes.org

[Tingly]

The death has taken place of Micheal Ó Domhnaill, one of the foremost figures in folk and traditional music.

He died suddenly at his Dublin home. He was 54.

A native of Co Meath, he was a former member of the Bothy Band. He also performed regularly with his sisters Triona and Maighread.

-RTE News

[Tingly]

Friday, Dewey Beach police shut the main drag as hundreds of people surged through this two-block-wide beach town and stormed the beach. Weekend visitors jumped out of the way as throngs appeared over the dunes, yelling "Toro, toro!" then chargeed along the surf with a bull chasing them.

Well, two people in a bull suit, actually. And maybe not chasing so much as stumbling inside the fleecy costume.

This is the 10th year of a tradition created on a whim that inexplicably ignited: the Running of the Bull, apologies to Pamplona.

The instigators were a Washington corporate lawyer, Michael McDonnell, and his beach house buddies who weekend in this laid-back town.

They'll gather with celebrants at the Starboard bar. When the DJ plays Wooly Bully, the crowd will go nuts.

Garrett Walsh, software developer and longtime head of the bull, and Jamie Fargus, research coordinator and tail, will shimmy in, suited up. Some guy will play Spanish songs on a little guitar as the crowd weaves out, whacking the bull with rolled-up newspapers.

Then, after the run, they'll head back to the bar for a ridiculous semblance of a bullfight. People plan summer vacations around this.

"The whole town's abuzz," Walsh said.

-chron.com

[Tingly]

Twyla Tharp took on the music of Billy Joel and created "Movin' Out," which ran for more than three years on Broadway. Now the director-choreographer has turned to another pop superstar, Bob Dylan, for her next project - "The Times They Are A-Changin'." The musical, a coming-of-age story set in a circus, opens Oct. 26 at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Preview performances begin Sept. 25.

"The Times They Are A-Changin'" concerns a young man, played by Michael Arden; his tyrannical father, portrayed by Thom Sesma, and a beautiful circus performer (Caren Lyn Manuel).

The musical received mostly encouraging reviews when it premiered last February at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. The San Diego Union-Tribune called it an "exciting, flawed, phantasmagoric fable," while the San Francisco Chronicle said it "looks like a success," praising the production's "dynamic performances and imaginatively acrobatic choreography."

Among the Dylan hits in the show - besides the title song - are "Blowin' in the Wind," "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Lay Lady Lay," "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right."

-AP

[Tingly]

Kasabian have closed this year's T In The Park tonight (July 9).

The band, who were the last group to join the festival, played a packed-out headlining set at the Pet Sounds Arena.

With guitarist Sergio Pizzorno in jubilant mood after Italy's World Cup win, Kasabian took the opportunity to premiere a host of tracks from their forthcoming second album 'Empire', including the likes of the title track and 'Shoot The Runner'.

The band also dedicated 'The Last Trip' to the Arctic Monkeys, who watched the set from the side of the stage.

"It was great," frontman Tom Meighan told NME.COM after coming off stage. "We just turn up and play, it's what we do. If people are there to ...enjoy it then we're there. It was great."

The singer added the set had been especially tough for Italian descendent Pizzorno who was forced to missed the penalty shoot out at the world cup due to an early stage time.

"Sergio nearly had a heart attack," he said. "I had to drag him by his pants to get him on stage!"

The guitarist however learned of Italy's victory midway through the set, and emerged during the encore draped in the country's flag.

-NME.com

[Tingly]

Razorlight have reached number one in the NME Chart tonight (July 9).

'In The Morning', the first single from the band's eponymous second album, pushed The Strokes' 'You Only Live Once' into second place. Last week's number one, Dirty Pretty Things' 'Deadwood', fell to fifth.

The NME Chart also saw new entries from Metric, who go straight in at number seven with 'Monster Hospital', The View, at nine with 'Wasted Little DJs', and Mumm-ra, with 'Song B' at number ten.

1. Razorlight - 'In The Morning'
2. The Strokes - 'You Only Live Once'
3. Wolfmother - 'Woman'
4. Plan B - 'Mama'
5. Dirty Pretty Things - 'Deadwood'
6. The Flaming Lips - 'The W.A.N.D'
7. Metric - 'Monster Hospital'
8. Justice Vs Simian - 'We Are Your Friends'
9. The View - 'Wasted Little DJs'
10. Mumm-Ra - 'Song B'

-IPC MEDIA

[Tingly]

Lily Allen has gone to the top of the UK chart today with her first single 'Smile'.

The newcomer knocks Wyclef Jean and Shakira from the summit after just a week. Razorlight are at number three with comeback single 'In The Morning', while newcomer Paolo Nutini enters at five with 'Last Request'.

NME.com

[Tingly]

A US judge has ordered trustees to take over Suge Knight's Death Row Records in the wake of the mogul filing for bankruptcy earlier this year.

Judge Ellen Carroll said the rap label's accounting practices were in disarray and that there had been gross mismanagement. "It seems apparent there is no-one at the helm," she said.

Knight filed for bankruptcy in April after he was ordered to pay more than $100m (£57m) to a former associate who said she had helped start the record label in 1989.

At the time, his lawyer, Laurence Strick, said his client was attempting to reorganise his financial affairs and that Mr Knight remained "optimistic" and "focused".

-NME.com

[roger24]

hows the podcast interview going tingly?

[Tingly]

Still working on the technology, unfortunately, Roger. MSN Messenger woeks pretty good until you start recording and then there's feedback and echoes. So...still working on it.

[Tingly]

Early Monday morning (July 10), the Killers announced that they'd be premiering a snippet of "When You Were Young" — the first single from their hotly anticipated new album — via the Internet, weeks before the song goes to radio and a full three months before their album hits stores.

Starting at 5 p.m. ET Monday, fans can get a taste — and only a taste — of "When You Were Young" at MTVNews.com and IslandRecords.com. It's the first chance to hear music from the Killers' still-untitled — and decidedly more "American" sounding — new album.

-VH1.com

[Tingly]

Partying at the swankiest venues with big time celebs, enjoying ever-flowing champers and canopes - well, it sounds like a lot of fun to us.

But according to Paris Hilton, it's not all it's cracked up be.

In fact, the only reason we see her pictured at party after party (after party) is for the cash.

She told The Sun: "If you see pictures of me out, I'm being paid.

"When I turn up at an event it is work. People don't think I am shy - but I am. When the cameras are on and they're taking pictures it is work."

And it also seems that the Paris we know from The Simple Life is quite different from the real deal.

"The Simple Life is a reality show," she said, "and people might assume it's real. But it's fake. All reality shows are fake basically. When you have a camera on you, you are not going to act yourself.

-ananova.com

[Tingly]

The UK music industry has stepped up its campaign against illegal file-sharing by demanding that two internet service providers suspend 59 accounts it believes are being used to swap copyrighted songs.

The British Phonographic Industry trade group has called on Cable & Wireless and Tiscali to join its crusade.

It says such consumer practices have undermined music companies in recent years.

BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson said: "We have said for months that it is unacceptable for ISPs to turn a blind eye to industrial-scale copyright infringement.

"We are providing Tiscali and Cable & Wireless with unequivocal evidence of copyright infringement via their services.

"It is now up to them to put their house in order and pull the plug on these people."

A C&W spokeswoman said policies for its ISP Bulldog covered such matters and "would normally mean that any accounts used for illegal file-sharing are closed", though she declined to comment specifically about the evidence or customers cited by BPI.

Tiscali had no immediate comment.

The BPI, which has won court verdicts against consumers illegally uploading songs and settled with others in the past, said it gathered evidence against the accounts by using the file-sharing networks themselves.

It added that it had identified 42 C&W IP addresses and 17 from Tiscali that have been used to upload significant amounts of music under copyright.

-aranova.com

[Tingly]

Amateur film-makers are being offered a soundtrack creation service by a website that sells music on behalf of independent artists.

Pump Audio already licenses tracks from its 65,000-song catalogue to companies like MTV and CBS.

Now it is targeting directors who want to use original music in their films without having to pay large fees for music by popular chart acts.

The company says its music can be used for as little as $0.99 (£0.53).

Film-makers can upload their videos to the company's website and audition songs from a wide variety of genres before making a final cut.

The music comes with the permission of the copyright holders, which means budding Spielbergs can avoid falling foul of copyright laws.

The service is aimed at those who put their videos on the internet and is a new venture for Pump Audio, which currently provides music to advertisers and broadcasters.

Unsigned artists registered with the website have already had their songs used on programmes such as Ozzy Osbourne's MTV reality show.

-BBC

[Tingly]

Sir Paul McCartney's first guitar is going up for sale later this month.

The Rex acoustic guitar is expected to fetch more than £100,000 at Cooper Owen's Music Legends auction at Abbey Road Studios in London on 28 July.

Sir Paul learned his first chords on the instrument, which was owned by his best school friend in Liverpool, Ian James.

Mr James, 64, who lives in Ormskirk, Lancashire, is selling the guitar to help fund his retirement.

The instrument is accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the former Beatle which says: "The above guitar belonging to my old school pal Ian James was the first guitar I ever held.

"It was also the guitar on which I learned my first chords in his house at 43 Elswich Street, Liverpool 8."

Sir Paul mentioned Mr James in "The Beatles", a biography by Hunter Davies.

In the book, he described playing the guitar for a 16-year-old John Lennon at a fete in St Peter's Church Hall in Woolton, Liverpool, in July 1957.

Lennon was playing there with his band, The Quarrymen, and McCartney played some songs for them - convincing Lennon to let him join the band.

McCartney said: "I showed him a few more chords he didn't know.

"Ian James had taught me them, really. Then I left. I felt I'd made a good impression, shown them how good I was."

Mr James, 64, is a retired father-of-three living in Ormskirk, Lancashire.

-BBC

[roger24]

like he realy needs to fund his retierment. what do you think he got for playing the supperbowl two years ago?

[Tingly]

The guy who owns the guitar, Ian James, is selling it to fund HIS retirement, not Paul. Ian James did not play at the Superbowl.

[Tingly]

He wasn't wearing blue suede fins, but an Elvis impersonator was among the snorkelers and divers who swam in the Underwater Music Festival.

Neil Goldberg, of Key West, costumed in a white-caped jumpsuit and flashy gold chains, joined several hundred visitors and residents who took the plunge for the six-hour weekend radio broadcast piped underwater at Looe Key Reef.

"We even had a Chihuahua in goggles and a swim vest on one of the dive boats," said festival founder Bill Becker.

Other participants dressed as a mermaid with a blue and purple tail and a hot-pink angelfish with gauzy fins, while an underwater band pretended to play instruments sculpted to resemble deep-sea creatures.

The broadcast featured melodies ranging from Jimmy Buffett's "Fins" and the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" to classic Presley hits. The songs were mixed with public service announcements promoting reef preservation and warning the divers to avoid touching the coral.

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c391/jimcirin/elvisudnerwater.jpg

[iam2phat]

What an awesome-looking guitar!

[Tingly]

Arctic Monkeys have finally spoken out about ex-bass player Andy Nicholson's departure.

The band found themselves one short for an American tour earlier this year when Nicholson pulled out, to be replaced by Nick O' Malley. He was sacked when the band returned from the US.

Speaking backstage at the Oxegen festival to Gonzo's Zane Lowe in Ireland at the weekend, frontman Alex Turner put it down to touring - but revealed the band are all still good pals with him.

He said: "I sent him a message yesterday actually, telling him to have a good one and that.

"To start with we were in Lisbon at the end of the European thing and he decided he didn't want to come to America. And that was cool, and then, I don't know, I guess we found ourselves in this situation by the end of the American tour."

-NME.com

[Tingly]

Paul Weller is to follow his summer festival appearances with an 'intimate' winter tour of the UK and Ireland.

The star, who has just headlined the NME/Radio 1 stage at T In The Park and will play the V Festival next month, will play 15 dates, starting in Dublin on November 17.

The full list of dates is as follows:

Dublin Olympia (November 17/18)
Newcastle City Hall (20/21)
Sheffield Octagon (23)
Glasgow Barrowlands (24/25)
Manchester Apollo (27/28)
Wolverhampton Civic Hall (30)
Brighton Centre (December 2)
Poole Lighthouse (3)
Gloucester Leisure Centre (4)
London Forum (6/7)

-NME.com

[Tingly]

American Idol fourth runner-up Chris Daughtry, whose elimination from the talent search was perhaps the most controversial event of the fifth season, has signed a record deal with 19 Recordings/RCA Records, the label announced Monday.

Last month, Daughtry turned down an offer to join multi-platinum rock band Fuel, claiming he was "going to be doing my own thing."

Apparently, he knew what he was talking about.

Daughtry's deal is similar to those previously inked by Idol winner Taylor Hicks and runner-up Katharine McPhee.

According to RCA, the North Carolina native will form a band and work with high-profile collaborators to record self- and co-written songs. His first album is expected to be released later this year.

-E! Online

[Tingly]

Just two weeks after the courts officially uncoupled him from Jessica Simpson, Nick Lachey is ready to hit the road.

The former boy bander on Monday announced plans to embark on his first solo tour, kicking off Sept. 20 in Albany, New York, and will make stops in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

The trek, in support of Lachey's second solo album, What's Left of Me, will hit 26 cities in North America, according to Jive Records. The road show will play smaller theaters to keep the performances intimate and, presumably, the throngs of teenage girls satisfied.

-E! Online

[Tingly]

A new scientific breakthrough may lead to women in future being able to produce sperm.

Scientists in England have turned stem cells from am embryo into sperm which are capable of producing offspring.

The breakthrough is likely to lead to new advances in treating male infertility and even the possibility that women could manufacture sperm.

-Irish Health.com

[This has nothing to do with music, but I felt it was vitally important for the Men Of Jam Session to be aware of this Public Service Announcement.-Tingly]

:p

[Tingly]

Companies will no longer be able to "sanitize" movies in order to make them appropriate for specific audiences thanks to a federal court ruling over the weekend. Calling their businesses "illegitimate," Senior U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch said movie studios had the right to control the content of their work.

CleanFlicks of Colorado along with other companies were targets of a lawsuit filed by the Directors Guild of America in September 2002. Eight Hollywood studios later joined the case three months later. While CleanFlicks and others tried to defend their actions on First Amendment grounds, the DGA said it was copyright infringement.

In an attempt to claim "fair use," the movie sanitizers would offer the official copy along with the edited copy with each transaction. Mastch said such actions did not constitute fair use under current law. Instead, he said the copyright owner is the one that can make the choice of what audience it wants for a particular piece.

-Ed Oswald for Beta News

[Tingly]

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has said he injured his head after falling out of a "little tree", not a coconut tree as previously reported.

"If you saw the tree, you'd realise the joke," said Richards, 62, who required head surgery after the fall in April but has now made a full recovery.

The rock group were speaking at a press conference before the start of the European leg of their world tour.

Several dates were postponed or cancelled after Richards' accident.

"It was all a bit panicky at the time," singer Mick Jagger admitted.

But he joked with reporters that the tree was less than half the guitarist's height.

-BBC

[Tingly]

Syd Barrett, the former lead singer of Pink Floyd and one of the key figures of the 60s, has died at the Cambridgeshire home to which he retreated as a recluse more than 30 years ago.

The Guardian has learned that the singer, 60, who suffered from a psychedelic-drug induced breakdown while at the peak of his career, died last Friday from complications related to diabetes.

His brother Alan confirmed his death, saying only: "He died peacefully at home. There will be a private family funeral in the next few days."

Born Roger Keith Barrett in Cambridge in 1946, he acquired the nickname Syd aged 15. He left Pink Floyd in 1968, just as the band was about to achieve worldwide recognition, and lived in the basement of his mother Winfred's semi-detached house, where he boarded up the windows to keep out the eyes of both the press and fans. He recorded two solo albums.

Pink Floyd's Shine on You Crazy Diamond, from the 1975 album Wish You Were Here, was said by many to be a salute to him. Barrett's use of drugs, particularly LSD, in the 60s, was well-documented and he was often described as the original acid casualty.

-Guardian Unlimited

-Thanks to Grim Riffer for pointing out this important story-Tingly

[mishmannah]

women could manufacture sperm.



Bleeeee!!!!!! :eek:

[shredding]

Mishmannah, pretty soon us men will be eliminated from this earth.

[mishmannah]

Mishmannah, pretty soon us men will be eliminated from this earth.

That my friend, would be the greatest travesty since the first photograph of Sylvester Stallone's mother graced the media.... I would certainly want to get off at the next stop if all there was on earth were females....*shivers*

Don't you agree, Daisy..?

[Tingly]

I think we will still be needed for awhile.

But it will be a great day when women make sperm, and us men are finally set into our TRUE, final role: as pets!

[shredding]

I think we will still be needed for awhile.

But it will be a great day when women make sperm, and us men are finally set into our TRUE, final role: as pets!

you mean those with a collar and leash?

[Tingly]

John Coletta, former manager of the U.S. rock bands Whitesnake and Deep Purple, has died from an unspecified illness, a report says.

Coletta, who has been living with his wife in Spain for the last few years, died on Sunday, Deep-Purple.net said.

Coletta was approached by businessman Tony Edwards in late 1967 and together the two helped form Deep Purple.

After the band's breakup in 1976, Coletta joined David Coverdale in creating the band Whitesnake, who he managed for most of its career, the Web site said.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

MTV's satellite music channel has applied for permission to stage a one-off "unplugged" concert in the famous Cango Caves - starring Coldplay.

The Oudtshoorn municipality has been approached by a company called Hunta Entertainment.

According to council documents, there is a moratorium on events in the caves after damage caused by a succession of Passion plays and concerts in the past.

Council officials at first recommended that the application be turned down "to keep the conservation integrity of the caves intact and ... focus on long-term conservation for generations to come".

Another council official said: "The opportunity is on a very grand scale and undoubtedly a tempting one. Does one forfeit a conservation integrity that took years to restore for a once-offâ quick marketing fix?"

But Hunta has persuaded the municipality to allow it to appoint a scientist to determine how a concert could be held without doing the caves any harm.
It will hire "cave specialists" and promises to "revere the cave as an exquisite, very special venue".

Several councillors, including the deputy mayor, James Swigelaar, support the proposal because of its marketing value to the caves and the region.

"The exposure from this event is unsurpassed, reaching an audience of 900 million viewers. In conservative monetary terms such a venture is worth $2 million (R14m)," he wrote to the Cape Argus yesterday.

-Cape Argus

[Tingly]

Sure, tie-dye T-shirts and Birkenstocks are perennial fashion staples at any warm-weather music festival. But recently, a bizarre trend has begun to take hold: men in kilts. And it's not just spreading on the feel-good fields of summer festivals — it's becoming a symbol of rebellion.

Kilt-rocking males were definitely out in force at this year's Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, with bare-chested biker types bopping to Blues Traveler and jovial frat boys grooving in the grass to moe.

"We sold 150 kilts," says Joe Hunt, 35, a vendor for Seattle-based Utilikilts, which set up shop at the festival. "The response was great."

Utilikilts, a twist on the traditional Scottish kilt, come with detachable pockets and are made from a lighter, machine-washable fabric than a wool kilt. They also come in an array of contemporary colors like charcoal, red, and camouflage, and are sold exclusively online at Utilikilts.com, and at large events like the upcoming Dragon*Con Sci-Fi convention in Atlanta.

-VH1

[FndrNO]

A friend of mine used a kilt at the schools grand prix :p

[Tingly]

LeAnn Rimes underwent surgery for a leg infection at an undisclosed Los Angeles hospital yesterday.

She will spend the next few days in recovery, forcing her to cancel concerts scheduled for this weekend in Hampton Beach, N.H., and Niagara Falls, Ontario. "The surgery went well, and she's absolutely fine," said spokesperson Diana Baron, explaining that LeAnn suffered a “tear in the tissue” of one of her legs, which became infected. LeAnn returns to the road on July 19 and 20 with performances at the Country Thunder USA and Country Jam USA festivals in Wisconsin.

-countryweekly.com

[Tingly]

Rock group Pearl Jam has promised to donate $133,000 to several groups that focus on climate change, renewable energy and other environmental causes as part of an effort to offset carbon emissions the band churns out on tour.

"Our Carbon Portfolio Strategy is the newest component of our ongoing efforts to advance clean renewable energy and carbon mitigation,'' the Seattle-based band said in a statement posted on its website today.

Guitarist Stone Gossard said the group has been tracking its carbon emissions from vehicles used on tour and energy used in concert venues and hotels to estimate the band's contribution to global warming.

"We can get a really relatively accurate picture of what that looks like over a year, and it's a considerable amount of carbon,'' Gossard told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper in a backstage interview at a concert in Los Angeles.

"We emitted about 5000 tonnes of carbon on our last tour.''

Cascade Land Conservancy and EarthCorps, which work to protect and replenish Puget Sound-area forests, are among nine organisations Pearl Jam picked to receive donations.

news.com.au

[Tingly]

Keith Richards was back on stage in Milan last night (11.07.06) and received a rapturous welcome from his adoring fans.

The 62-year-old guitarist played his first live show with The Rolling Stones since undergoing major brain surgery ten weeks ago.

Keith marched onto the stage and played the opening chords to the band's classic hit 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' to deafening cheers from the crowd at Milan's San Siro football stadium.

The audience were even more pleased when singer Sir Mick Jagger announced that two members of the winning Italian World Cup team, Alessandro Del Piero and Marco Materazzi, were present.

Jagger, 59, joked: "Keith and Materazzi have something in common. They've both had head problems."

Meterazzi was head-butted in the chest during the World Cup Final, by French player Zinedine Zidane on Sunday (10.07.06).

Keith had to have his head drilled o fluid could be drained from his brain after he hit his head when he fell out of a tree in Fiji.

Earlier this week, the legendary rocker revealed that the tree had been no bigger than a knee high shrub, rather than a huge coconut tree as was first reported.

-Life Style Extra

[Tingly]

What's left of the the Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey marriage could have been a reconciliation if Jessica had her way reports Star Magazine in its upcoming issue. But as it was Jessica's decision to dump Lachey - the last ditch effort failed.

Citing the forthcoming issue of The Star it is being reported that the former “Newlyweds” star wanted to make one last attempt at reconciliation from Nick Lachey before their divorce was final, according to the forthcoming issue of Star magazine.

Perhaps she should have thought that whole Thanksgiving bombshell break up through a bit more if this report is accurate.

Jeannette Walls delivers an item that notes that “Nick reminded her that it was she — not him — who initiated the divorce,” a source told the tab. “It wasn’t an easy conversation — Jess was very emotional. But Nick was relieved when he got word the divorce had been finalized. It’s easy to see why.”

-The National ledger

[Tingly]

Former supermodel Christie Brinkley is separating from her husband, architect Peter Cook after nearly 10 years of marriage.

Brinkley and Cook's separation was first reported by the syndicated entertainment show "The Insider." Brinkley's publicist, Elliot Mintz, confirmed the separation in a statement Tuesday.

"Her immediate concern is for her children, and she's hoping during this obviously difficult time that people will be kind enough to respect her privacy," Mintz said.

Brinkley, 52, has been married three other times, most notably to rock legend Billy Joel, from 1985 to 1994.

-channeloklahoma.com

[Tingly]

Eight years after his solo debut, Sean Lennon will return September 26 with the Capitol album "Friendly Fire," which features contributions from Jon Brion, session drummer Matt Chamberlain, Cibo Matto's Yuka Honda, Paul Simon's son Harper and actress Bijou Phillips.

Lennon describes "Friendly Fire" as "an experiment to see what it might be like to do music more publicly again" after limiting his recent recorded output to collaborations with artists such as Handsome Boy Modeling School, Money Mark, Ben Lee and Ryan Adams.

The 10-track "Friendly Fire," which includes a cover of Marc Bolan's "Would I Be the One," is the follow-up to 1998's "Into the Sun." That album, issued by the Beastie Boys' now-defunct Grand Royal label, debuted at No. 4 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart.

In conjunction with the new album, Lennon and director Michelle Civetta have created short films for each song. They feature appearances by Phillips, Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Fisher, Asia Argento and Jordana Brewster, among others. A trailer is available from Lennon's Web site (http://www.capitolrecords.net/seanlennon/).

-Reuters/Billboard

[I watched the trailer -Bloody awful!-Tingly]

[roger24]

when is the next podcast going to be tingly? ive been waiting for more then a week, lol

[Tingly]

^^^ 'Working on it, Roger!

If you want it right away, please forward your check for $300, and I will drop everything and do it tonight -- I'll even make it all about YOU, if ya want! Thanks.

:smile:

[Tingly]

Fox TV's first American Idol, Kelly Clarkson, has been tapped by HBO for a live concert to be broadcast over the premium cable network.

HBO announced Wednesday it will broadcast Clarkson's Feb. 3 show at London's Wembley Arena, Entertainment Tonight reported.

Clarkson, 24, has two Grammy Awards under her belt and is currently touring the United States.

Her third album is due out around the time of the Wembley date.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

An EU court in Brussels today overturned the European Commission’s approval of a merger between the music units of media giants Sony and Bertelsmann AG that created the world’s second-largest record label.

The Court of First Instance – the EU’s second-highest court – backed a challenge by the independent record label group Impala, saying regulators did not properly show in 2004 that the new company would not have a monopoly position in two ways.

“The Commission did not demonstrate to the requisite legal standard either the non-existence of a collective dominant position before the concentration or the absence of a risk that such a position would be created as a result of the concentration,” a court statement said.

Regulators had assumed that there was no record industry monopoly because there was a wide variety of products on the market and the absence of open disputes between the five largest companies.

But the court found they did not properly support a theory that promotional discounts ultimately prevented a monopoly occurring.

“The elements on which that argument was founded were incomplete and did not include all the relevant data that ought to have been taken into account,” it said. “They were therefore not capable of supporting the conclusions drawn from them.”

It also said regulators were wrong to rely on the absence of evidence that record companies had used retaliatory measures in the past. The court said that it found proof of “effective deterrent mechanisms” such as the possibility of hurting an errant record company by excluding it from compilations.

It also criticised both the Commission and Impala for their conduct during the court case. Impala’s actions had slowed down the case, it said, ordering it to bear one quarter of its own costs.

[Tingly]

After five years, Prince's NPG Music Club online site is being shut down. According to a statement released to NPG members, the music club has maximised its potential.

"In its current form, there is a feeling that the NPGMC has gone as far as it can go," read the statement. "Has the time come to once again make a leap of faith and begin anew? These are questions we in the NPG need to answer. In doing so, we have decided to put the club on hiatus until further notice."

Named after Prince's New Power Generation backing band, the site debuted on Valentine's Day 2001. Envisioned as a thriving online community of Prince devotees, the site provided a conduit for fans to obtain new releases and non-album music, secure choice concert seats and receive passes to sound checks and after-parties.

Membership came in two options: $7.75 for basic monthly access or $100 for a premium annual membership. Amid complaints about its traffic-heavy ticket section, Prince lowered the membership price to $2.50 a month or $25 for a lifetime membership.

-Scotsman.com

[Translation: "I ain't making enough money from it, so I'm pulling the plug"-Tingly]

[Tingly]

We love a man who isn't afraid to show his emotions.

And that includes those who aren't too macho to shed a tear once in a while.

Singer Nick Lachey has revealed that he actually cries rather a lot - particularly at the movies.

He told Glamour magazine: "If a movie makes me cry, I love that. Love Actually wrecks me every time.

"My dad was a very emotional guy and he taught my brother and I not to be afraid of our emotions."

And it doesn't stop there.

The former Newlyweds star also wells up watching sport.

He said: "I cry at sports if something really positive or really negative happens. A horse broke down in a race a couple of weeks ago and I got emotional about that.

But one thing Nick won't do is blubber in front of his male pals.

He added: "I wouldn't go and see Love Actually with my friends, I can't imagine breaking down crying in front of the guys. There is a limit."

-Ananova.com

[Tingly]

The annual Island Hearing Victoria Symphony Splash will be held in Victoria, Aug. 6. The free summer event typically draws a crowd of 40,000 to hear the Victoria Symphony play from a barge moored in the middle of Victoria's Inner Harbour. The orchestra will perform classics and popular favorites, closing with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture accompanied by fireworks. Other musical entertainment starts at 4 p.m., with the symphony performing at 7:30 p.m. For more information, see www.victoriasymphony.bc.ca.

The Seattle Times

[Tingly]

Internet con artists are turning to an old tool -- the phone -- to keep tricking Web users who have learned not to click on links in unsolicited e-mails.

A batch of e-mails recently making the rounds were crafted to appear as if they came from PayPal, eBay Inc.'s online payment service. Like traditional phony "phishing" e-mails, these said there was some problem with the recipients' accounts.

Phishing e-mails generally instruct recipients to click a link in the e-mail to confirm their personal information; the link actually connects to a bogus site where the data are stolen.

But with Internet users wiser about phishing, the new fake PayPal e-mail included no such link. Instead it told users to call a number, where an automated answering service asked for account information.

Security experts tracking this scam and other instances of "vishing" -- short for "voice phishing" -- say the frauds are particularly nefarious because they mimic the legitimate ways people interact with financial institutions.

In fact, some vishing attacks don't begin with an e-mail. Some come as calls out of the blue in which the caller already knows the recipient's credit card number -- increasing the perception of legitimacy -- and asks just for the valuable three-digit security code on the back of the card.

"It is becoming more difficult to distinguish phishing attempts from actual attempts to contact customers," said Ron O'Brien, a security analyst with Sophos PLC.

Vishing appears to be flourishing with the help of Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, the technology that enables cheap and anonymous Internet calling, as well as the ease with which caller ID boxes can be tricked into displaying erroneous information.

The upshot: "If you get a telephone call where someone is asking you to provide or confirm any of your personal information, immediately hang up and call your financial institution with the number on the back of the card," said Paul Henry, a vice president with Secure Computing Corp. "If it was a real issue, they can address the issue."

-heraldsun.com

[Tingly]

Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis has been caught up in a row with local businesses.

Eavis and Glastonbury Festivals Limited have applied to licence the three names with the Office of Harmonization at the EU - Glastonbury Festival", "Glastonbury & Avalon" and "Glastonbury".

Eavis has said that the event is so well-known that the name Glastonbury should be trademarked to protect its use.

However, local businesses have disagreed with this decision.

Mayor John Coles told BBC News there has been some misunderstanding with the situation: "There are people objecting to Michael using the name Glastonbury because if he does get the monopoly - which I don't believe he is trying to do - then no one will be able to trade under the name of Glastonbury."

Under the trademark, products that would be protected include DVDs, computer games, clothing, TV radio and internet rights.

Eavis is expected to meet with the council today (July 13).

-IPC MEDIA

[Tingly]

Lily Allen has criticised Libertines fans for their obsession with the band.

The chart-topping singer, speaking in this week's NME, was discussing the reaction she got after she criticised Carl Barat and The Kooks.

"Libertines fans gave me a lot of ****, but I think they're all obsessed with that band in a really dangerous way," she said. "I get hate mail all the time! I like it. I feel bad for my fans who send me nice messages because I tend to only reply to the really horrible ones. People are constantly being rude about me, especially after The Kooks and the Carl Barat thing."

She also addressed her so-called war against indie by stating: "I like lots of indie bands. I'm a fan of good guitar music. I think it's just that at the moment everyone's like, 'Music's so great, we've got these great indie rock bands' but in reality they all sound the same. They're just doing what S Club 7 and Steps did - regurgitating the same songs because that's what people are buying at the moment."

-NME.com

[Tingly]

Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz has put together the soundtrack for the film 'Snakes On A Plane' - which stars 'Pulp Fiction' actor Samuel L Jackson.

Wentz has assembled many of the artists on his Decaydance Records label to contribute to the soundtrack, including Panic! At The Disco and The All American Rejects.

The film is about an assassin who is on a plane with a witness. He is so determined to kill the witness that he lets loose a crate of deadly snakes while on the flight.

Wentz said: "I think the whole concept behind the film is hilarious, and it's something that just kept growing and growing, so I had to be a part of it.

"I called my friends and we got some remixes and here it is. To be honest, part of the reason I did this was to meet Samuel L Jackson."

Fall Out Boy contribute 'Of All The Gin Joints In All World' (Tommie Sunshine's Brooklyn Fire Retouch) and Panic! At the Disco contribute 'The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage' (Tommie Sunshine's Brooklyn Fire Remix).

-NME.com

[Tingly]

Milan B Williams, one of the founding members of The Commodores, has died following a battle with cancer.

The 58 year-old passed away on Sunday (July 9) in Texas.

The Commodores were one of the biggest bands on the Motown label during the 70s and 80s.

Keyboardist Williams played on such hits as 'Easy' and 1978 UK Number One 'Three Times A Lady'.

Band member Walter Orange said: "He was once, twice, three times a brother and we love him."

Williams quit the band in 1989.

-IPC MEDIA

[Tingly]

Jack White has spoken about Italian football fans' adoption of 'Seven Nation Army'.

The White Stripes song has become like a second national anthem, following the country's World Cup victory on Sunday night (July 9), when the squad, led by Francesco Totti, started singing the guitar refrain from the song.

Jack White said: "I am honoured that the Italians have adopted this song as their own. Nothing is more beautiful in music than when people embrace a melody and allow it to enter the pantheon of folk music.

"As a songwriter it is something impossible to plan. Especially in modern times. I love that most people who are chanting it have no idea where it came from. That's folk music."

As previously reported, the song is yet to be re- released, and there are no plans to do so.

-NME.com

[roger24]

^^^ 'Working on it, Roger!

If you want it right away, please forward your check for $300, and I will drop everything and do it tonight -- I'll even make it all about YOU, if ya want! Thanks.

:smile:

i would if i had the money. sorry for asking so much, lol i forget not everyone is on summer vacation and unimployed like me :o

[Tingly]

Hi Roger!

Hey, thanks so much for your enthusiasm and interest! Well, you guessed it: I have hit a week of "extreme busy-ness" here, and am trying to keep my head above water! I wish I could get back to my pod work, immediately, but, the truth is, RL is making a real pain-in-the-*** of itself!

I love being busy, but these last few days have been a little more hectic than I like, and full of stupid, immature "band drama" issues, besides.

I'll get back to work ASAP, hopefully with an interview with a talented, fascinating, well known JS member!

-The T Man

[Tingly]

A former American Idol contestant is accused of producing a sexually explicit video of two underage girls and possessing images of child pornography.

Daniel James D.J. Boyd, who went to Los Angeles in 2004 to audition for American Idol pleaded not guilty to the federal child pornography charges, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday.

The charges stem from a West Valley City police investigation of an alleged sexual assault of two minors.

If convicted on both counts, Boyd could face up to 40 years in prison. The production of child pornography charge carries a 15-year mandatory minimum.

A four-day jury trial was scheduled for Sept. 18 before U.S. District Judge Dee Benson.

Boyd has also been charged in Utah's 3rd District Court with sexual exploitation of a minor, 11 counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, and two counts of unlawful sale or supply of alcohol to minors.

A preliminary hearing on the state charges is scheduled for July 25.

-Big News network

[Tingly]

USA Today: Rivers Cuomo says that, for now, Weezer is "done." Cuomo, the band's bespectacled songwriter and frontman, told MTV that while he remains in touch with his bandmates, "we've never mentioned getting together."

"Really, for the moment, we are done," he said. "And I'm not certain we'll ever make a record again, unless it becomes really obvious to me that we need to do one."

Weezer has released five albums since forming in 1993. The group took a considerable break between 1996's Pinkerton and 2001's self-titled disc (typically called The Green Album ). The band's last release was Make Believe, in 2005.

The liner notes of that album led to conjecture that it was Weezer's last. They included a quote from a parting soliloquy in Shakespeare's Tempest, the playwright's last play.

Cuomo, 36, said he has been writing songs, but said, "I don't know what'll happen with these songs — if anything. ... I certainly don't see them becoming Weezer songs, and I don't really see the point of a solo career. So we'll just have to see."

Jim Merlis, a spokesman for Geffen said that the label had no official response, but did add Cuomo has made similar statements in the past.

Cuomo recently graduated from Harvard and married his longtime girlfriend, Kyoko Ito.

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c391/jimcirin/cuomoofweezer.jpg
Rivers Cuomo - Photo By Mark J. Terrill, AP

[Tingly]

INDIANAPOLIS. City planning staff on Thursday recommended that the city deny a restaurant's request for a zoning variance that would allow it to keep its live entertainment -- a victory for neighbors who complained about the business.

Several people have been fighting to close or scale back the operations of the Savoy restaurant, located on West 86th Street near Township Line Road. Neighbors, including operators of a nearby nursing home, have complained about noise coming from the restaurant, which offers live music after 5 p.m.

Savoy, which sits near St. Vincent Hospital and is in a hospital district, learned it needed a zoning variance to continue offering live music. At Thursday's hearing, an attorney for the business's co-owners argued that noise concerns were being addressed.

"The landlord has been working to control loud music in the afternoon by putting a lock on the DJ booth," attorney Steve Mears said. "They don't allow any live music before 5 p.m. and they make all employees aware of the rules."

Eric Wiedeman, director of the nursing home, said at the hearing that the restaurant hindered the home's ability to attract clients.

"The seniors, as you are all aware, sometimes turn out the lights at 7, 8 or 9 o'clock in the evening. They need rest, rehabilitation (and) oversight with their nursing medication," Wiedeman said. "I have had concerns from ... customers that we currently seek."

Susan Blair of the Pike Township Residents Association said the restaurant's live entertainment "is a disturbance to the residents that surround the property as well as to the nursing home."

-TheIndyChannel

[Tingly]

BRUSSELS -- Plans to overhaul the European Union's complex rules on collective licensing for online music were confirmed by a key European Parliament committee Thursday. MEPs in the Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education voted to back plans to give rightsholders and commercial users of copyright-protected material a choice of their preferred means of licensing. The plans -- proposed by the European Commission -- aim to create a system ensuring musical rights can be cleared efficiently on an EU-wide basis, so that the European online market can catch up with that in the U.S.

-Hollywood Reporter

[Tingly]

LONDON -- A British police force on Thursday defended a magazine article advising women intent on getting drunk to make sure they are wearing nice underpants.

Suffolk Police in eastern England said the "tongue-in-cheek" advice in the police-backed magazine Safe was intended to curb binge-drinking by young women.

An article in the debut issue advises women "intent on getting ratted" to ensure they are "wearing nice pants" in case they pass out.

It also tells young women that too much alcohol can leave them looking like "wrinkly old prunes."

The force said the publication - designed as an eye-catching spoof gossip magazine and distributed free through shops, clubs and colleges - offered safety advice to young women.

-AP

[Tingly]

Pete Doherty told a judge Thursday he plans to have a chemical implant put into his abdomen to help him kick drugs.

Doherty, the 27-year-old frontman of Babyshambles, appeared for a progress review of his drug rehabilitation program that was ordered after he was arrested several times on drug charges.

He said he hoped to have the fingertip-sized implant, which releases a drug to prevent highs from opiates, fitted within two weeks.

Judge Jane McIvor told Doherty she was pleased with his progress but was still waiting for his first negative test result.

"You are going in the right direction. It's not easy, especially in your circumstances. I appreciate that entirely," McIvor said. "I think your concentration should be, within six months of the order, to get a negative test."

Doherty was two hours late for the court appearance in east London. The former lead singer of the Libertines wore his signature suit and trilby hat.

The singer said he was disappointed that his last test was not negative: "Maybe next time 'round," he said.

His case was adjourned until September, when another review of his treatment will take place.

-Yahoo! Music

[Tingly]

Britney Spears, who is pregnant with her second child, says she's not ready to retire from performing.

"I can't wait to do that again," Spears, 24, tells Harper's Bazaar in its August issue, on newsstands July 25. "But I really have to take my time and do it right and be safe. Actually ... not that safe. When you perform, you have to be dangerous."

The pregnant pop princess also says she would "definitely" consider a musical collaboration with her husband, Kevin Federline, 28. His debut hip-hop album, "Playing With Fire," is expected to be released next month.

"I'm so proud of Kevin," Spears says. "He's been working so hard on his own album since I got pregnant with Preston," the couple's first child, who was born last September.

"Preston's just like a rocker kid," she says of her 10-month-old son. "He is a beautiful baby. We're very close, and attached."

Spears, who darkened her hair and posed naked for the camera of lensman Alexi Lubomirski for the Bazaar photos, says her first pregnancy made her feel "paranoid" because she was new at everything.

"This one, I was like, I just gotta wing it. It was weird for me at first because of who I am; wherever you go they expect you to look a certain way. I'm not supposed to be this huge pregnant superstar."

Spears plans to get back into fighting shape after Baby No. 2 — due this fall — is born.

"After this baby, I'm going to get really intense with it."

-AP

[Tingly]

Nick is in. So is Adam. Joe for sure. Dane may take a little longer.

Jessica Simpson has announced plans to personalize her new single, "A Public Affair," offering fans the chance to purchase customized versions of the track with their names inserted into the lyrics of the song.

All it takes for fans to be able to pretend that Simpson is really singing to them is a valid credit card number and an Internet connection--the single is available for purchase through JessicaSimpson.com or Yahoo! Music. Having a common name also helps: After submitting the credit card, buyers can comb through a list of 500 different monikers that can be inserted into the song.

Those with particularly "unique" names--or for those who simply want to try and slip a profanity through the system--recording (and vetting) could take between one and three weeks.

Which means Nick can download his copy immediately. Moxie-Crimefighter, on the other hand, may have to wait a bit.

What, exactly does the so-called Custom Cut include? Simpson's label, Epic Records, promises buyers will get three in-song shout-outs, with the name-checks inserted between verses. The track will be compatible with all portable music players.

The personalized song will be made available next Tuesday, the day before its star-studded music video debuts. Simpson's fifth solo album, A Public Affair, drops Aug. 29.

Perhaps Epic is hoping the gimmick will boost the profile of the single "A Public Affair," which has languished in the lower depths of the Billboard Top 40 since its release two weeks ago (it currently sits at 39, down a slot from the previous week). So far, the song has been making noise for the wrong reasons online, taking heat on blogs and in message boards for its purported resemblance Madonna's '80s-era smash "Holiday,"

E! Online

[Tingly]

Filming on the new movie about Joy Division singer Ian Curtis began this week, with the film expected to hit theaters next year, according to reports.

The movie, entitled Control, is based on the 1995 novel Touching From A Distance, which was written by Curtis's widow, Deborah.

Deborahis understood to be co-producer of the film--which is being shot in Nottingham and Macclesfield, where Curtis is buried--alongside Factory Records boss Tony Wilson.

The movie is directed by the acclaimed music video director and photographer Anton Corbijn, who shot some of the most iconic pictures of Curtis and the band.

Speaking recently about the movie, Corbijn commented: "If I only ever make one movie, Control would have to be that. I simply feel that as Joy Division and Ian Curtis played a big part in my life, I cannot think of a better combination of subject and director."

Control is understood to detail the last few years of Ian Curtis's life as he began an affair with Annik Honore--who is contributing to the movie--and his health and mental stability began to disintegrate.

According to Pitchfork, Sam Riley plays Ian Curtis, Samantha Morton plays Deborah Curtis, Alexandra Maria Lara plays Annik Honore, and Craig Parkinson is Wilson.

James Anthony Pearson plays Joy Division/New Order guitarist Bernard Sumner, Joe Anderson is bassist Peter Hook ,and Harry Treadaway plays drummer Stephen Morris.

The film is expected to be released by Momentum Pictures in 2007.

-Yahoo! Music

[Tingly]

Tim Burton will apparently direct a video for a forthcoming single by The Killers, it has been claimed.

The acclaimed film-maker, who's movie credits include Edward Scissorhands, Batman, and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, is understood to be a huge fan of the Las Vegas rockers.

Apparently Burton visited the group in a London studio as they worked on their currently untitled second album, and suggested shooting the promo film.

According to varying reports online today, Burton is expected to work on a video for either "Bones" or "Read My Mind," both of which feature on the forthcoming LP.

The Killers are scheduled to release their new single, "When You Were Young," on September 18.

-Yahoo! Music

[Tingly]

Legendary British rock band The Who will launch its first worldwide tour in more than 20 years in September and is set to release its first studio album since 1982, the group announced on Thursday.

Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend, the surviving members of the hard-driving British foursome that burst onto the music scene in 1965, will open the tour on September 12 in Philadelphia and perform across the United States and Canada into December.

Early next year, the group will tour South America for the first time before heading for East Asia and Europe.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members will be joined by John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboards, Pino Palladino on bass, Zak Starkey, son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, on drums and Townshend's younger brother, Simon, on guitar and backing vocals.

At a press conference in New York via satellite from Berlin, Daltrey, 62, and Townshend, 61, said they had tried to record and possibly tour in recent years. But plans were derailed in large part by the drug-related death of bass player and original member John Entwistle in 2002.

"When The Who stopped making records in 1982, I felt I just couldn't do it anymore. ... It almost destroyed me. It destroyed one of the members of our band," Townshend said, referring to the 1978 drug- and alcohol-related death of original drummer Keith Moon.

Daltrey said Entwistle's death had altered the band's balance.

-Reuters

Full article:

http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=musicNews&storyID=2006-07-13T215713Z_01_N1384310_RTRIDST_0_MUSIC-LEISURE-WHO-DC.XML

[Tingly]

A Santa Monica jury on Friday awarded $900,000 to the former gay porn producer who sued Jackson in 2004 for unpaid royalties, loans and expenses he claimed were owed him from various projects the two collaborated on several years ago.

But the six men and six women who, over the course of several weeks, heard all sorts of kooky stuff--from Jackson's phone messages telling the plaintiff, F. Marc Schaffel, that he loved him, to Schaffel testifying that he traveled to South Africa on Jackson's behalf because the onetime King of Pop was interested in adopting some boys--also awarded Jackson a $200,000 judgment in a countersuit he brought against his ex-associate last year.

The jury deliberated for most of the day Thursday after closing arguments concluded and for about six hours today. This morning the panel asked that some testimony be read back to them, and then asked the judge whether they all had to render a vote or if some could abstain. Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor instructed them that some could abstain, but at least nine people had to agree on the final verdict.

-E! Online

[Tingly]

Eminem, whose days of pill-popping and double-takes at the alter seemed to be over, still can't shake his "The Way I Am" tendencies.

Detroit Police have confirmed that they are investigating a fight at a strip club on Detroit's west side that allegedly involved the rapper, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III.

According to the Detroit Free Press, police said an assault occurred around 1:15 a.m. Thursday at Cheetah on 19245 W. Eight Mile Road.

The alleged victim, a 48-year-old man identified as Miad J. by WXYZ, Detroit's ABC affiliate, says he was punched in the face four or five times by Mathers, while using the men's room at the strip club.

In an interview with WXYZ, Miad says he was using a urinal next to Mathers, when another man, an overzealous fan, entered the men's room and started to talk to the rapper.

Mathers bodyguard, who was also in the restroom, took umbrage with the fan and told him to be quiet. Miad says he then asked the bodyguard to relax and ease up on the awestruck man.

"Eminem got done and boom," Miad, who lives in Royal Oak, Mich., told WXYZ. "He started swinging. I wasn't even expecting it."

The Detroit Free Press also said Cheetah's representatives confirmed a fight occurred at the club and that Mathers was involved in the incident, but they refused to elaborate.

-CBS

[Tingly]

Brook Mays Music Co., a 105-year-old seller of musical instruments, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, hurt by disappointing holiday sales last year.

The company, founded in Dallas in 1901, has annual sales of about $150 million. The privately held concern owes its lending group, led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., about $41 million.

Brook Mays, which operates 62 stores in eight states under 10 different brands, blamed the bankruptcy filing on lower-than-expected 2005 holiday sales, which caused it to default on a $60 million loan, according to its Tuesday filing in a Dallas bankruptcy court.

JPMorgan has agreed to lend Brook Mays $10.6 million to keep the company in business during its Chapter 11 case, the filing said.

Corpus Christi Caller-Times

[Tingly]

Internet companies have slammed calls for a tariff that would mean they have to pay music companies for money lost due to illegal downloads.

Proposals to introduce charges for ISPs were handed to a government think tank on intellectual property last week.

But the Internet Service Providers' Association today issued a statement rebutting the idea. It said: "[We do] not support abuses of copyright and intellectual property theft.

"ISPs bear no liability for illegal file-sharing as the content is not hosted on their servers. Although such files may be transmitted across an ISP's network, ISPs are 'mere conduits' of information, as per the E-Commerce Regulations 2002.

"ISPs are no more able to inspect and filter every single packet passing across their network than the Post Office is able to open every envelope."

But the Association of Independent Music (AIM) argues it is unfair that musicians are left unpaid when their material is downloaded over unauthorised file-sharing networks.

It says while some consumers are being sued for infringing copyright, ISPs, mobile operators and hardware device manufacturers "profit extensively".

The AIM has proposed a Value Recognition Right, which if passed would allow the music industry to take money from "any company deriving value from either the sharing or storage of music". The goal is to make unlicensed intermediaries - rather than consumers - the target of copyright enforcement actions.

-Silicon.com

[Tingly]

Pop music is a high-stakes blood sport, and nowhere is the competition fiercer than among the women who crowd the upper reaches of the Top 40. In the first half of 2006, we've already seen a sold-out tour by Madonna; continued chart dominance by last year's comeback queen, Mariah Carey (whose own world tour launches later this month); fine albums by established stars Pink, Mary J. Blige, and Shakira; and strong showings by young up-and-comers—Rihanna, Ciara, Cassie—who, like all aspiring divas worth their salt, have conveniently disposed of their surnames. Two weeks ago, the No. 1 album belonged to Nelly Furtado, erstwhile earthy bohemian, who has refashioned her image in a bid for a place on the A-list. A week later, the top spot was claimed by Indie.Arie, who now has the earthy-boho space all to herself. Seemingly the only major female stars sitting out the season are Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani, both on maternity leave, and Jennifer Lopez, who presumably is prowling the darkened corridors of a South Beach mansion, raving like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard.

Things will really heat up over the next several weeks with the release of long-awaited albums by Janet Jackson, Beyoncé, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, and a couple of the second-tier stars, including the R&B singer Kelis. It's a veritable perfect storm of pop—never before has the public faced so concentrated an assault of melisma and décolletage—and it's bound to be bloody: In a market this glutted, someone's record is going to flop. But based on the slew of new songs already in heavy rotation on radio and MTV, we're in for some awfully good music, and all kinds of clever stratagems for besting the competition

-slate.com

[Tingly]

Gracenote, which provides an index of album and song information to music services and software makers, has signed an agreement with numerous record companies that gives it the license to distribute lyrics for over 1 million songs in North America.

The deal is the first effort by the music industry to offer lyrics legally; currently, hundreds of Web sites on the Internet provide song lyrics, but do so without authorization. The news comes as record labels are planning a crackdown on such sites, mulling lawsuits over copyright infringement.

Gracenote says it has begun to talk with its technology partners about offering lyrics to their customers. For example, Apple's iTunes and Yahoo's Music Unlimited services could bundle lyrics with digital album purchases, much in the same way digital booklets are currently provided.

Bertelsmann AG's BMG Music Publishing, Vivendi's Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Peermusic and numerous other smaller record labels are among those companies that will work with Gracenote's new lyrics service.

-Betanews

[Tingly]

BMG Music Club, a national distributor of music CDs and cassettes, has agreed to an $8 million settlement of a class action lawsuit.

BMG is owned by Bertelsmann Inc., a German media company.

The suit was over alleged deceptive, misleading, and unfair marketing and sales practices in regard to BMG's shipping and handling charges and its advertised cost to consumers of its CDs and cassettes. BMG denied all charges, but agreed to the settlement that will give current and past members vouchers for additional CDs and cassettes at 80 percent off the advertised prices and free shipping.

The settlement is available to anyone that purchased music between June 14, 1998, through and May 15, 2006. The number of vouchers available to each claimant is based on the length of membership and how many CDs or cassettes were previously purchased, the court order said.

-Tamps Bay Business Journal

[roger24]

Brook Mays Music Co., a 105-year-old seller of musical instruments, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, hurt by disappointing holiday sales last year.

The company, founded in Dallas in 1901, has annual sales of about $150 million. The privately held concern owes its lending group, led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., about $41 million.

Brook Mays, which operates 62 stores in eight states under 10 different brands, blamed the bankruptcy filing on lower-than-expected 2005 holiday sales, which caused it to default on a $60 million loan, according to its Tuesday filing in a Dallas bankruptcy court.

JPMorgan has agreed to lend Brook Mays $10.6 million to keep the company in business during its Chapter 11 case, the filing said.

Corpus Christi Caller-Times

that sucks

[Tingly]

Dan Oestreicher is a 23-year-old saxophone player, not long out of college, who has lived with friends since Hurricane Katrina's floodwater drove him from his apartment. A new housing program aims to turn him into a homeowner.

Oestreicher is one of dozens of New Orleans residents who have signed up to help build the so-called Musicians' Village, a collection of houses in a section of the Ninth Ward flooded after the storm, in exchange for a bargain price on a brand new house.

He said he liked the idea of living near fellow musicians. He also likes the idea of paying $500 a month to own a brand new, three-bedroom house worth about $90,000.

"It's a great deal," Oestreicher said. "When I tell people, they're like, 'What's the catch?'"

There might be a catch: resentment among longtime residents of the neighborhood - most of them homeowners themselves - who aren't sure that musicians and new houses are what the area needs. Some sneer at the brightly painted new homes that don't quite match the older houses, built mainly from the 1940s through the '60s.

Antoinette Thornton, a nurse who lives around the corner from the development, called the new homes "little huts."

"Look at those funny little houses they're putting in there," said Thornton, who recently returned to New Orleans after staying in Irvine, Calif., since Katrina struck last August. "If we're talking about bettering New Orleans, why put those there? It's not a step in the right direction."

The housing program is run by Habitat for Humanity. Saxophone player Branford Marsalis and singer Harry Connick Jr., honorary chairmen of the charity's Gulf Coast rebuilding program, dreamed up the idea to encourage musicians to move into one area.

-TBO.com

[Tingly]

THE world's largest independent rock and pop music archive, featuring stars from Jimi Hendrix to Elvis Costello and from Janis Joplin to Madonna, is to be opened for the first time.

Up to 100,000 songs recorded and filmed between 1966 and 1991 by Bill Graham, the US concert promoter, languished in a San Francisco basement for more than 10 years after his death.

Then the collection was bought by Bill Sagan, a health company executive turned rock entrepreneur, who is negotiating to secure the stars' permission to release their music. He was in London at the weekend to meet lawyers for British rockers such as Led Zeppelin and The Who.

The archive has unseen footage of a legendary show by The Who in 1973, when drummer Keith Moon collapsed and a student was picked from the audience to finish the show, and the final concert by the Sex Pistols in 1978.

It includes unknown performances by Led Zeppelin such as a version of Howlin' Wolf's Killing Floor, which they later rewrote as The Lemon Song, and a tousle-headed Elton John singing his 1970 ballad Your Song.

Luminaries may prefer to forget some of the footage, such as Joe Cocker vomiting on stage and Madonna hitting herself in the face with her chunky necklaces. All were pitilessly captured by Graham's photographers or, in later years, four cameramen.

Graham, born Wolfgang Grajonca in Nazi Berlin, was described by Joplin as the first concert promoter to respect the artists and give them what they wanted -- on and off stage.

Normally wary performers such as Frank Zappa and Bob Dylan signed contracts that allowed him to record their concerts at venues he managed in New York and California.

Graham hoarded everything, from ticket stubs and backstage passes to psychedelic Jefferson Airplane posters and surplus Duran Duran T-shirts.

When Graham died in a helicopter crash in 1991, he had packed an air-conditioned cellar with 30 million artefacts. Three years ago his corporate heirs sold the collection for $7million to Sagan, a Led Zeppelin fan, who joked he had only snapped it up for the garish Zeppelin tour ties.

He beat Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen to the deal.

Now, having spent months going through enough boxes to fill 25 14m-long trucks when he moved the archive to a more secure warehouse, Sagan estimates his trove could be worth more than $122million.

Sagan, 56, has already started recouping his investment by selling posters and tickets through the Wolfgang's Vault website. But he believes the 7000-plus concerts captured on audio tape and film are his prize asset.

In February, Sagan started gauging reactions by broadcasting live recordings by Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen and Chuck Berry over the internet. He was inundated with requests for more.

Some of the shows, such as Aretha Franklin at the Fillmore West in 1971, have been officially released, in truncated form, and others are on bootlegs. But most of the music has been heard only by those who were lucky enough to be there at the time.

Jimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin, who spent years begging from bootleggers so he could compile a history of the band in 2003, is keen to dive into the archive.

"Bill recorded a San Francisco show that Jimmy remembers as momentous -- which Zep fan would not want to hear that?" said an Atlantic Records source last week.

-The Australian

[Tingly]

Wilco, Al Green, Buddy Guy, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder and Loudon Wainwright III will be among the 41 national headliners for Cincinnati's 2006 Tall Stacks Music, Arts & Heritage Festival.

The Oct. 4-8 event will also bring 17 riverboats from 11 cities and more than 1 million visitors to the Queen City. Musical acts will perform on three main stages nightly. A new stage, dubbed the "Starbucks Emerging Artists Stage," will feature up-and-coming local acts.

Five-day general admission tickets are on sale now for $22 each (kids 12 and under are admitted free).

-Courier-Journal

[Tingly]

Singer Avril Lavigne and Deryck Whibley of the band Sum 41 tied the knot Saturday in an outdoor ceremony on a private estate in California.

The bride wore a flowing white gown, and vows were exchanged beneath a crystal chandelier and four-post gazebo covered in white roses, said a person who attended the wedding, but who wished to remain unidentified.

"It was a short, classy ceremony with the sound of helicopters droning overhead carrying photographers trying to get a shot of the newlyweds, and most of the people there were friends and family," the source told The Canadian Press.

"They both seemed really happy."

-Canadian Press

[Tingly]

FRANZ Ferdinand's lead singer Alex Kapranos has revealed that the band's Scottish homecoming almost turned to tragedy at the T in the Park music festival when he accidentally ate a tuna dish containing allergy-triggering nuts just minutes before going on stage.

The incident happened in the catering tent at the festival in Balado, Kinross, last weekend. Hungry after a journey from Gdansk in Poland, the singer picked up a piece of tuna, unaware of its nut content.

Kapranos said disaster was diverted when he spat out the offending item after recognising the signs from previous allergic reactions. He wrote in a newspaper diary this week that when he ate the fish he felt a "faint itchy tingle" on the roof of his mouth and spat it out.

The band went on to perform one of the sets of the festival to a crowd of 75,000.

The now famous singer also admitted that when the band played T in the Park in 2003, a security guard doubted who they were, telling Kapranos: "Sorry son, I don't think you're playing - you shouldn't be in this area."

-Scostman.com

[Tingly]

KYLIE Minogue reveals intimate details tonight about her battle against cancer and how she used the experience to help her write songs.

A year after she stepped down from public life to battle breast cancer, the singer disclosed how "differently" she sees her life following her illness and revealed plans to take things more "slowly".

Minogue, 38, told Sky One that she has written about it in songs for her new album: "It's not depressing. It's not, you know, woe is me, nothing like that. But, just in my way, I've said what I wanted to say."

The singer discovered she had cancer in May 2005 and underwent surgery in Australia two days later, forcing

her to abandon her Showgirl world tour and an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival.

She finished chemotherapy in December 2005 and is set to resume her tour in November.

Minogue said: "I'm not sure that I'll be able to do everything that I did before - not that I do an enormous amount of jumping all over the stage, but quick changes are really stressful."

She is determined to live life to the full, despite her ongoing battle with the disease, saying: "I just want to do everything."

The singer is still under the care of doctors, but is recovering with the support of French boyfriend Olivier Martinez. Kylie: The Interview is being broadcast tonight at 9pm on Sky One.

-Scotsman.com

[Tingly]

You don't expect to find a totally instrumental, violin-dominated single in the Top Twenty on Billboard's Hot Singles chart. But "Symphony of Brotherhood," the new single from Miri Ben-Ari (a.k.a. the Hip-Hop Violinist), is just that. Featuring Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech weaving in and out of an extended string solo, the track sailed to Number Nineteen just weeks after its radio release.

For Israeli Ben-Ari, a former child prodigy who was discovered by Wynton Marsalis and Kanye West over the course of her many early gigs as a music student in New York, playing her new hit single live has brought a range of emotional crowd reactions. "I played it on my tour with the Roots," she says. "I played it in Memphis, where MLK got assassinated. I played it for people putting their fists on their hearts and crying." In a recent event for the Boys and Girls Club of America in honor of Queen Latifah, Ben-Ari even moved the hip-hop pioneer. "Queen Latifah said she never heard an instrumentalist like me before," Ben-Ari brags.

Now her mash-up of hip-hop and classical music has led to collaborations with pop divas Mariah Carey and Britney Spears, a Grammy for her strings on Kanye West's runaway single "Jesus Walks," and the release of her own debut, 2005's The Hip-Hop Violinist.

But now that Ben-Ari has established the violin as viable hip-hop and pop accompaniment, she's determined to take it to the next level and prove that the instrument can stand on its own. "I'm not just someone who put an instrumental song out," she says, convinced she's now being taken seriously as an artist who can stand on her own. "I'm a Grammy Award winner everyone knows, from Kanye West to Jay-Z."

-Rolling Stone

[Tingly]

A New Jersey man who took money from jazz musician Wynton Marsalis and his manager as part of an investment plan, then spent the cash on himself, is going to jail.

During a hearing Friday in a federal court in Newark, Jay Bailey, 40, was sentenced to 35 months in prison for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wynton Marsalis Enterprises and Ed Arrendell, the musician's business manager.

Bailey portrayed himself as a real estate developer, and he took money from investors with the idea that he would use it to buy and renovate homes in poor neighborhoods and then sell the properties at a profit.

But prosecutors, who described Bailey as "a classic con," said he spent the cash on such things as a 2004 Porsche that cost $160,000 and luxury vacations.

Marsalis' Bethesda, Md.-based company gave Bailey nearly $500,000, and Arrendell lost $42,000 of his own money.

"He was just a con man," Arrendell said in comments reported by The Star-Ledger of Newark for Saturday's newspapers. "Just a big liar."

Bailey would give his clients money and detailed reports so they wouldn't become suspicious, but eventually the returns slowed and clients sensed something was wrong, said Arrendell.

-AP

[Tingly]

Hey, my podcast Episode 8 is up at http://www.switchpod.com/cats.php?a=2859

Just scroll down to "3615 Episode 8, Sunday, July 16" and click on "Listen"

If you don't have the right Flash Player, select "Click Here," above the blank plug in box, and either save the file, or have your media player play it, after it downloads.

This show covers music news, some Jam Session tidbits, and the music of Jam Session member shredding!

Enjoy!

[Tingly]

The film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, Hairspray, is in final negotiations to land Oscar-nominated star Michelle Pfeiffer, as Velma von Tussell. Michelle Pfeiffer is no stranger to film musicals, breaking through in Grease 2 and singing in The Fabulous Baker Boys. If cast, Michelle Pfeiffer would join the already signed John Travolta as Edna Turnblad, Amanda Bynes as Penny Pingleton, Brittany Snow as Amber von Tussel, Queen Latifah as Motormouth Maybelle, Elijah Kelley as Seaweed, Zac Efron as Link Larkin, and Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad.

The movie itself is having a coming home of sorts with Hairspray having originally been adapted to Broadway from a 1988 film by John Waters that starred Ricki Lake and Divine. That film, about a Baltimore variety show, wasn't a musical, but music played a major role and, as the cult audience for the John Waters film grew, Broadway seemed like a natural fit. Hairspray the play went on to win eight Tony awards including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book, and Best Director. Now it's back to film, for which Leslie Dixon has written the screenplay and Adam Shankman (Bringing Down the House) will direct.

-The Deadbolt.com

[Tingly]

It could be magic for some, but the use of loud Barry Manilow music to drive away late-night revelers from a suburban Sydney park is getting on the nerves of nearby residents.

In a move reminiscent of U.S. efforts to drive former Panama strongman Manuel Noriega from the Vatican Embassy where he took refuge in 1989, the local council in Rockdale, in Sydney's southern suburbs, started a six-month trial of high-volume hits by Manilow and Doris Day to chase away car enthusiasts who were gathering on weekend nights at Cook Park Reserve.

"Barry's our secret weapon," Rockdale Deputy Mayor Bill Saravinovski told The Daily Telegraph newspaper, four weeks after the start of the effort. "It seems to be working."

But some people living near the park are less than enthralled. They say the barrage of "Copacabana," "Could It Be Magic" and "Que Sera Sera," blasting from 9 p.m. to midnight every Friday, Saturday and Sunday is driving them crazy.

"I don't know how I will cope," said Moya Dunn, describing how the songs have invaded her house. "I just can't sleep when it's on, and to think there's going to be another six months of this."

"The initial reaction was that they found it irritating," Saravinovski said. "I'm not disputing what the residents are saying. I can't swallow some of the tracks like `Mandy.'

"We have tried to reduce the sound and we are reviewing the songs. I don't mind Barry Manilow, but I'm more of an ABBA and Celine Dion fan."

In 1989, U.S. soldiers blasted hard rock music and news bulletins about Panama at the Vatican Embassy in Panama City in attempt to drive Gen. Noriega from refuge there. The Vatican complained, and U.S. troops stopped the noise. Noriega later surrendered.

-AP

[Tingly]

Every year, folks gather at the Chatham Jaycees Sweet Corn Festival to enjoy good food, music, arts and crafts, and games for the kids. And toss some cow dung around.

That's right. Come Saturday the skies will be filled with something they're just not usually filled with as the Corn Festival once again hosts the Illinois Championship Cow Chip Throw.

In Chatham, organizers - not to mention the cows - have been busy making sure that competitors have enough, shall we say, equipment on hand.

The cows have been doing their part, of course, with folks like part-time farmer Shane Workman and his buddy Adam Bursott following close behind. When they see a cow patty, also known as a meadow muffin, that a competitor might like, they toss it into a flat wagon. There, the patties bake and bake long enough to turn into chips, the kind that expert cow chip throwers can launch more than 200 feet.

"I think we're all pooped out here," said Bursott, 27, before heading over to another field in the hopes of finding more patties.

Workman, 28, has been at it since he was a boy when he took to the fields with his dad in search of cow patties.

"I can remember I wasn't strong enough to get them hoisted up," he said.

When competitors show up Saturday, all they have to do is plop down five dollars to get two chips. All the money goes a scholarship fund at Glenwood High School called the Mark Workman Service to Humanity Award, named after Shane Workman's father, who died two years ago.

Unlike the Olympic Games, where in throwing events like the discuss and the shot put competitors are only allowed a certain number of turns, the only thing cow chip tossers have to worry about his how deep they're willing to dig into their wallets for something, it's safe to say, they wouldn't buy at any other time.

"If they have a pocket full of money, we let them throw poop," said John Moore, a Chatham Jaycee. "They can throw to their heart's content."

-AP

[Tingly]

A man who tried to sell stolen tapes of the Beatles' recording sessions for their Let It Be album has been placed under a two-year supervision order.

Nigel Oliver, from Slough, was charged with two counts of handling stolen goods. He was found unfit to plead.

Judge Jeremy McMullen said he would have considered a sentence of four years had Oliver, 55, stood trial at Southwark Crown Court, London.

He was caught trying to sell the tapes for about £250,000 in 2003.

During the court case, original Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall told the court: "These tapes have huge commercial value."

-BBC

[Tingly]

KYLIE MINOGUE will play two special shows at Wembley Arena on January 2 and 3.

The Showgirl Homecoming gigs will be Kylie’s first UK concerts since she was diagnosed with cancer last year.

Tickets priced at £49.

Kylie, 38, will appear in concert in Australia in November and December.

The dates were postponed last year because of her illness.

Kylie has confessed that her cancer battle is not over and she will be careful not to overdo things when she performs.

-The Sun

[Tingly]

ROCKER Bobby Gillespie is sporting a broken nose and two black eyes after he was beaten up in a hotel brawl.

The Primal Scream singer, 42, said he was punched in the face for no reason as he sat in the bar after a gig in Madrid.

A band spokesman said: “There was an incident in Madrid on Friday.

“Bobby was in the hotel bar when a guy lunged at him in an unprovoked attack that left him with facial injuries.

“The band were late for the show because doctors advised him not to fly until Sunday afternoon.

“Top Of The Pops were very understanding and they performed as expected that evening.” Primal Scream had a No 5 hit in May with Country Girl.

-The Sun

[Tingly]

Highlights of the 2006 CMA Music Festival will air on ABC, featuring two hours of performances during Nashville's June four-day Biggest Party.

The festival was the largest ever this year with more than 161,000 attendees from every state and 27 countries, a press release said.

The stars included Trace Adkins, Jason Aldean, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, Miranda Lambert, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Martina McBride, Montgomery Gentry, Brad Paisley, Sugarland, Carrie Underwood and Hank Williams, Jr.

In addition to the performances, many fans were allowed to meet their favorite stars.

Sean Marks of Buffalo, N.Y., hoped to propose to his girlfriend, Kristen Wright, during Sara Evans' performance at the festival and got down on his knees onstage as the crowds erupted in cheers.

The special airs July 24 on ABC.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

Scientists want to create the first three-dimensional model of the sun in an effort to protect the Earth from its most violent eruptions, which can affect everything from global positioning systems to mobile phone networks. The Stereo mission, due to be launched next month, will map the sun's mood swings and the dangers they pose to the solar system.

The $500m (£275m) space mission is funded by Nasa and the European Space Agency. It will consist of a pair of satellites - each more than half a tonne in mass and the size of a large deep freezer - which will monitor activity on the sun's surface for the first time.

"While the sun may appear to be one of the most familiar objects in the sky, it is constantly changing," said John Zarnecki of the Open University.

"We need to understand its mood swings more fully in order to predict and, more importantly, protect [the Earth from] the potentially devastating effects - particularly of the coronal mass ejections."

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are events in which more than 1,000m tonnes of charged particles are hurled into space at an average speed of a million miles an hour. If the particles reach Earth, they can damage orbiting satellites and disrupt electronics and power grids at the surface.

In 1989 a CME caused magnetic disruptions which played havoc with the power network in Quebec. A series of transformers tripped and 6 million people were left without power.

"At the moment, we cannot recognise the telltale signals that precede an outburst, but we expect Stereo will change that," Professor Harrison said.

Via satellites such as the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (Soho), launched in 1995 to study the sun, scientists receive an hour's notice of a stream of plasma caused by a CME heading for Earth. Stereo will increase that warning to about two and a half days, which could give enough time to prepare.

Once launched into space, Stereo's probes will eventually separate and move apart at a few hundred thousand kilometres a year. "One spacecraft will slowly move ahead of the Earth, the other lag behind - the resulting offset will allow the two spacecraft to have depth perception and give them stereo vision such as humans have," said Chris Eyles of the University of Birmingham.

Scientists hope the first measurements from the mission will emerge by November.

-Guardian Unlimited

[Tingly]

XM Satellite Radio asked a federal judge Monday to throw out a copyright lawsuit by the recording industry over the company's new iPod-like device that can store up to 50 hours of music.

XM Satellite said the 1992 Home Recording Audio act protects it from being sued over its $400 handheld "Inno" device. The law bans some copyright claims against equipment makers and consumers who make digital music recordings for private use.

In a court filing, XM Satellite said the 1992 protections represent "Congress' efforts to insure that the powerful recording industry would not be able to restrict the right of consumers to record songs that are broadcast over the radio or stifle innovation by chilling the development and use of the latest recording technologies."

The lawsuit, filed in May in New York by the largest record labels, accuses XM Satellite of "massive wholesale infringement" because the new gadget can record hours of music and automatically organize recordings by song and artist. The device is sold under the slogan, "Hear it, click it, save it."

XM Satellite noted that the trade group for the largest labels, the Washington-based Recording Industry Association of America, supported passage of the 1992 law.

A spokesman for the recording association, Jonathan Lamy, said XM Satellite's legal arguments were "arcane."

"If XM wants to compete with iTunes, Rhapsody and similar music distribution services, it needs to obtain the appropriate authorization," Lamy said.

The music industry's lawsuit sought $150,000 in damages for every song copied by XM Satellite customers using the devices, which went on sale in April. The company said it plays 160,000 different songs every month.

XM subscribers pay $12.95 per month to listen to more than 170 channels of entertainment, sports and news programs. Music recorded on XM's Inno sometimes includes disc-jockey chatter at the start and end of some songs and includes static if reception fades while a song is recording.

-USA Today

[Tingly]

She may have been on the receiving end of countless dumb-blonde jokes, but "American Idol" finalist Kellie Pickler is having the last laugh.

A little more than a week after fourth-place finisher Chris Daughtry inked a record deal with 19 Recordings/ RCA Records (see " 'American Idol' Rocker Chris Daughtry Signs Record Deal"), sixth-place finalist Pickler has signed her own contract with 19 Recordings/ BNA Records (the latter of which is part of the RCA label group). Founded by the show's creator, Simon Fuller, 19 Recordings is also home to fellow Idols Kelly Clarkson, Fantasia and Ruben Studdard.

"I've always dreamed of getting a record deal so now my dream has come true!" Pickler said in a statement released Monday (July 17).

The 20-year-old Southern songstress announced her good fortune on Monday while guest co-hosting "The View."

-MTV

[Tingly]

Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra are separating, Electra's rep confirmed Monday (July 17).

The couple, who got married November 22, 2003, documented their courtship on "Carmen & Dave: An MTV Love Story" and then their wedding on "Til Death
Do Us Part: Carmen + Dave," which aired for seven episodes in early 2004.

The couple didn't have any children before deciding to call it quits. Electra's rep described the split as "amicable."

Navarro and Electra spent long periods of time apart, as she shot movies and performed occasionally with the Pussycat Dolls and he played with the Panic Channel and Camp Freddy and hosted "Rock Star." Their time apart often sparked rumors that a split was imminent, but Navarro disputed those rumors on his Web site, writing April 16, "So regarding all the gossip ... Are we getting a divorce? Are we having a baby? Are we doing sex aerobatics? Well, none of these things are true. However, I wouldn't mind trying the sex aerobatics thing!"

As for Electra, she seemed happy with the union during a recent interview in the August issue of Self magazine, which hits newsstands next week. She discusses jamming with Navarro to Led Zeppelin songs and taking a trip to the paint store, where they bought canvases, paints and brushes so they could create art together.

Navarro and Electra started dating after being set up on a blind date through a mutual friend. For their wedding invitations, David LaChapelle shot them naked as if they were dead in the morgue.

If Navarro and Electra divorce, this would be her second failed marriage. She previously married former Chicago Bulls forward Dennis Rodman in a Las Vegas ceremony after briefly dating in November 1998, but the union was annulled after nine days, with Rodman claiming he had been too drunk at the time for the marriage to be valid. Electra attributes the impulsive marriage to the deaths of her sister and mother just three months prior.

-VH1.com

[Tingly]

Jackie Chan has apologized for disrupting a recent concert by Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jonathan Lee.

Chan climbed on the stage and then exchanged insults with the audience during Lee's July 10 concert. The Ming Pao Daily News quoted Chan, star of the "Rush Hour" movies, as saying onstage that he was drunk.

The 52-year-old action star was filmed by an audience member, apparently by a cell phone. The footage was posted on the video-sharing Youtube.com Web site.

The video showed a surprised Lee asking Chan, "How come you came up?"

When audience members began yelling for Chan to get off the stage, Chan responded with a Cantonese insult. As he prepared to sing, Chan motioned Lee's band to start playing, then abruptly stopped the music. The crowd eventually applauded after Lee and Chan began singing a duet.

Chan had been an invited performing guest at Lee's July 9 concert.

Meeting with reporters after a promotional event Sunday for his new film, "Rob-B-Hood," Chan was initially reluctant to address the incident, but later apologized.

"I was wrong. I shouldn't play with my friendship with Jonathan Lee in public," he said. "I apologize to Jonathan Lee and I apologize to the audience that night."

Asked about the video footage of his disruption, Chan said: "I don't care. I'm not a saint. I'm an ordinary person."

-Kansas City Channel.com

[Tingly]

In an effort to strengthen the connection between the digital and physical worlds, HP today said that its researchers have created a tiny wireless microchip called the Memory Spot that can be used to affix digital content to tangible objects.

The chip—about the size of half a grain of rice—might be attached to a photo print, where it could provide access to the original digital photo file to anyone who wanted to make a copy. Howard Taub, VP and Associate Director of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, said he hopes to see chip reading electronics, costing perhaps a few dollars, built into cell phones, PDAs, Flash drives, and other devices, including printers.

Taub said HP's aim was to make potential partners aware of the technology so they can begin discussing how it might be developed and deployed. He estimated it could take several years before it's commercially useful, with an eco-system of readers and product uses that make the chips practical.

Taub also showed how the chip might be used to attach an audio file of a physician reading a prescription to a pill bottle. Another demonstration included a postcard that contained a version of the classic arcade game PacMan that Taub scanned with a reader device into a PC and played. While such digital files can easily be stored and made accessible online, the Memory Spot allows computer files to be associated with actual objects, where they remain accessible whether or not there's Internet connectivity.

Current versions of the Memory Spot can hold from 256 kilobits to 4 megabits, enough for dozens of pages of text, a few photos, several minutes of audio, or a very short video clips, depending on the quality of the video encoding.

The HP Memory Spot is similar to an RFID chip in many respects. The primary difference is that RFID chips store a pointer or reference to a database entry. The HP Memory Spot stores the data itself.

-Information Weekly

[Tingly]

The Arctic Monkeys are favourites to win the 2006 Mercury Music Prize after the shortlist was revealed in London.

Albums by Radiohead singer Thom Yorke and rock bands Muse and Editors are also up for the award for the best UK or Irish album of the past year.

The other nominated albums are by Guillemots, Sway, Richard Hawley, Hot Chip, Isobel Campbell, Scritti Politti, Zoe Rahman and Lou Rhodes.

The winner will receive a £20,000 cheque at a ceremony on 5 September.

-BBC

[Tingly]

The UK recording industry has welcomed the G8 nations' commitment to protect intellectual property and tackle piracy and counterfeiting.

The British Phonographic Industry trade group said international enforcement was necessary in a global marketplace and with the rise of the internet.

Each country is to set up a website explaining their intellectual property laws, the G8 agreed in St Petersburg.

A study is to be carried out into the costs of piracy and counterfeiting.

The G8 also announced plans to examine the possibility of strengthening the international legal framework on intellectual property rights.

Ahead of the summit, the BPI urged Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett to discuss bargain music download website allofmp3.com with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The BPI is suing the Russian site, claiming it is breaking UK law by selling music there without the necessary licence.

-BBC

[Tingly]

Internet video site YouTube has said its users are now watching more than 100 million videos per day.

YouTube is the leading net video download site in the US, with 29% of the country's multimedia market, according to traffic monitor Hitwise.

The site specialises in short, home-made, comic videos but a growing number of pirated clips from mainstream broadcasters can be found also.

Last month 2.5 billion videos were watched on YouTube, the company said.

YouTube said that its videos account for 60% of all videos watched online in the US. It has almost 20 million visitors to the site each month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

Videos are watched free on the site and the company is still working on developing advertising and other means of generating revenue to support the business.

-BBC

[Tingly]

A man who accused rapper Eminem of attacking him in a club has dropped the charges, police have said.

The man claimed Eminem punched him in a Detroit strip club in the early hours of Thursday.

"He said that the suspect had struck him several times," said Detroit Police Department spokeswoman Sergeant Eren Stephens Bell.

A spokesman for Eminem, real name Marshall Bruce Mathers III, was not immediately available for comment.

-BBC

[Tingly]

A US magazine's decision to publish an apology to singer Britney Spears was "a rare if not unprecedented gesture," her libel lawyer has claimed.

Belfast man Paul Tweed was hired by Ms Spears after the National Enquirer ran several articles questioning the state of her marriage to Kevin Federline.

The magazine said it accepted its allegations were untrue and apologised for any distress caused to the couple.

The settlement requires a published apology, but no cash damages.

Mr Tweed was hired by Ms Spears because of his record in other celebrity libel actions, including actions for Liam Neeson, Patrick Kielty, the Corrs and George Best's family.

He said: "The couple are very satisfied with the Enquirer's prompt and good faith response, which follows a similar apology by the Sunday Times."

Mr Tweed added that legal proceedings were going ahead against a number of other newspapers and magazines which followed up the National Enquirer's story.

-BBC

[Tingly]

New Zealand rock band the Mint Chicks won't soon forget the night they brought the house down - or at least part of it.

The four-member group was playing at the historic St. James Theater in the northern city of Auckland last week when chunks of plaster fell onto the heads of two audience members, the New Zealand Herald newspaper reported Tuesday.

One 17-year-old youth required stitches in a head wound and the other, a young woman, was brought to a hospital with a concussion, the report said.

St. James manager John Griffiths said vibrations and sound waves from the music had dislodged plaster in the building, according to the report.

Lumps of plaster had fallen from one of the decorative portals, ricocheted off another fixture and hit the two concertgoers on their heads, he said.

"It's an old, old theater, built in 1936, and there is a lot of ornate plaster work," the New Zealand Herald quoted him as saying.

"It was an exceptionally loud concert, the loudest there has been at St. James for a long time," Griffiths said.

He said the concert continued after the incident, but that workers had since checked the ceiling for safety.

The Mint Chicks were playing as a support act for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at a concert billed as one that would "rattle the foundations" of the historic complex.

-AP

[Tingly]

Next week, Pamela Anderson will make an honest man out of Kid Rock. The couple, now vacationing in St. Tropez, France, will marry July 29 on a yacht near the glamorous hotspot, Us Weekly magazine reported Tuesday on its Web site.

Anderson confirmed the good news in an entry in her online diary: "It's been a whirlwind ... spontaneous but well thought through."

When contacted by The Associated Press, Marleah Leslie, Anderson's spokeswoman, declined to comment on the report.

The actress and the rock star, whose real name is Bob Ritchie, became engaged in the Las Vegas desert in April 2002, but never set a wedding date. They broke up the following year.

Anderson and her first husband, Tommy Lee, divorced in 1998 after three years of marriage. They have two sons, Brandon, 10, and Dylan, 8.

Kid Rock has a 13-year-old son, Bob Jr.

-1010 WINS

[roger24]

yes, i just heard eppisode 8. and it was great. i love these things. but now the song staycys mom is stuck in my head and i cant get it out. anyway, sweet job tingly, keep the podcasts going.

as far as the messenger thing, let me know if you have any questions with it, i used to always be on messenger, and use a mic with it. everything is saved, so you could just do the interview, then play them back while recording. im not sure if you know what i mean, but you could do that. btw, kid rock and PA. that should be crazy, lol

[Tingly]

Hi Roger! Thanks for your comments. Yeah, that "Stacy's Mom" is one hooky tune. It's downright dangerous!

I think we got the podcast thing solved. Time will tell. We are trying to schedule the first interview so that I can try to put something together this weekend.

Yeah, Kid Rock and Pammy. We should be seeing some very sexy music videos soon!

[Tingly]

The take for the top 100 U.S. concert tours in the first half of 2006 was up 38.5 percent, totaling $1.012 billion, but the biggest stars are aging.

The concert industry has been dominated by performers who have been popular for decades, Pollstar reported. Rock stars in their 50s and even 60s draw the biggest crowds, but they can't continue to perform indefinitely.

In the country music arena, younger performers are more common, the report said. Of the 12 acts in the Top 100, almost all are relative newcomers.

Fall Out Boy is the one new rock band that grossed $11 million and finished at No. 29 on the concert tour chart. It sold almost 400,000 tickets -- more than all but eight acts on the list.

Pollstar said the top 20 midyear tours included Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, Tim McGraw/Faith Hill, Cirque du Soleil, Celine Dion, Bon Jovi, Kenny Chesney, Coldplay, George Strait, Luis Miguel, Aerosmith, Rascal Flatts, Pearl Jam, RBD, Dave Matthews Band, Nickelback, Elton John, U2 and Jimmy Buffet.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

British music mogul Alan McGee says increased reliance on Internet downloads has likely signaled the end of the singles era of music.

The Creation records founder added that the increasingly technologically based world of music has grown beyond the control of major labels and will likely make the once popular musical format obsolete, The Guardian reported.

Downloads will be king within the next couple of years, McGee said on his Web site. The majors have lost the football.

While McGee believes the decline in singles' popularity to be inevitable and indicative of a change in power in favor of musicians and smaller labels, the British Phonographic Industry rejects that view.

It depends how you define the single, a BPI spokesman told the paper. In terms of the volume of single tracks that have been sold, the market has doubled in just over a year. What has happened is that the singles market has accommodated a new format, the download.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

Former Busted star Matt Willis has admitted himself to the Priory for the second time.

The singer - tipped to be the next Robbie Williams - is thought to have been encouraged to seek help by his girlfriend, MTV presenter Emma Griffiths.

According to the Daily Mirror, Matt is seeking support for drinking-related problems, but will only stay at the south-west London rehab clinic for a short time.

Talking about his brother's wedding earlier this month, he said: "I hit the champagne and beer and had one too many.

"I fell over and cut my face open. I had to read my speech with this huge cut and had to pose for photographs hiding it."

Matt previously sought help with counselling sessions in 2005.

He told the paper: "It was awful. I was very unhappy and probably at the lowest point of my life. I hit self-destruct mode.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

Darren Hayes, one-half of defunct Australian pop duo Savage Garden, said he married his boyfriend in a recent civil ceremony in London.

The announcement, made to fans Monday on Hayes' web site, offered a rare insight into his private life, which he has long kept under wraps.

"On June 19th 2006 I married my boyfriend of two years, Richard (Cullen), in a civil partnership ceremony in London. I can honestly say it was the happiest day of my life," Hayes wrote.

He was briefly married in the late 1990s to a longtime female friend.

On the professional side, the 34-year-old is about to spend six months in London recording his third solo album for an unspecified new label. He announced earlier this month that he had split with his home of 10 years, Columbia Records.

-Reuters

[Tingly]

Latin music label Disa Records said on Tuesday it has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against the music unit of Hispanic media company Univision Communications Inc.

Mexico's Disa Records said it filed suit in U.S. District Court, Central District of California.

Disa's lawsuit claims Univision has employed "heavy-handed legal tactics" to obstruct a 5-year-old agreement under which it said Univision is obliged to purchase the half of Disa Records that it doesn't already own.

A Univision spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment.

Univision bought 50 percent of Disa from its founders, the Chavez family of Monterey, Mexico in 2001. Together with its Univision Records and Fonovisa Records labels, Univision controls the largest Latin music company in the United States.

The Chavez family continues to manage the label and said in its lawsuit that it seeks the value of the transaction that Univision pledged to complete.

It claimed that Univision sought to change a non-compete provision of their agreement as a condition for moving forward on the Disa purchase.

Univision last month agreed to a $12.3 billion buyout by a group of private equity firms and media investor Haim Saban.

-Reuters

[Tingly]

Ben Roethlisberger helped the PovertyNeck Hillbillies, a local country band, shoot a music video for their new single "Mr. Right Now."

Hillbillies lead singer Chris Abbondanza and fiddle player Chris Higbee competed for the charms of a young woman during the video shoot on Tuesday.

"I wanted to be involved with the band because of their Pittsburgh roots," Roethlisberger said.

Roethlisberger repeatedly foils the musicians' attempts to catch the woman's attention at a barbecue they've thrown, said Brian Hutchinson, vice president of Rust Records, the Hillbillies' label.

"Good show, guys — great party," Roethlisberger said to the mock-distraught Hillbillies as he walked away with the woman during filming of the video's final scene.

-AP

[Tingly]

What is it with Chicago?

More than any other show, there seems to be a never ending supply of celebs waiting to sing and dance their hearts out in the famous musical.

The latest big names preparing to step into the dancing shoes of the leading characters are Tori Spelling and R 'n' B star Usher.

Yes, we said Tori Spelling and Usher.

Now, don't get too excited, we're not talking London's West End, we're talking about treading the boards of New York's Broadway.

Usher has already signed on the sparkly line to play slick lawyer Billy Flynn - which we think will definitely be worth seeing.

And Tori is in talks with producers to play Roxie Hart.

We're not sure that we've heard Tori sing or dance before, so we're very curious.

Other stars who have appeared in the musical include Brooke Shields, Melanie Griffith, Huey Lewis and Billy Zane.

-Ananova

[roger24]

good ol, ben

[mk-ultra]

What is it with Chicago?

More than any other show, there seems to be a never ending supply of celebs waiting to sing and dance their hearts out in the famous musical.

The latest big names preparing to step into the dancing shoes of the leading characters are Tori Spelling and R 'n' B star Usher.

Yes, we said Tori Spelling and Usher.

Now, don't get too excited, we're not talking London's West End, we're talking about treading the boards of New York's Broadway.

Usher has already signed on the sparkly line to play slick lawyer Billy Flynn - which we think will definitely be worth seeing.

And Tori is in talks with producers to play Roxie Hart.

We're not sure that we've heard Tori sing or dance before, so we're very curious.


Other stars who have appeared in the musical include Brooke Shields, Melanie Griffith, Huey Lewis and Billy Zane.

-Ananova


I saw Chigaco on Broadway last year, i even had front row seats and it was awsome. Everyone should go see it

[Tingly]

EMI is restructuring its adult pop music, jazz and classics, grouping them as multigenre music for over age 25 under the Blue Note Label Group in New York.

Longtime Blue Note jazz label chief Bruce Lundvall will be president and chief operating officer of the new group.

"My vision is to create and sustain the leading position in the sophisticated 25-plus music market," Lundvall said. This move will streamline and organize our staffing to maximize our penetration of these key markets.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz says the U.S. band is getting ready to record, but their album probably won't hit stores in 2006.

"We're still definitely pushing for it, but I don't know if we're going to be able to get the album out by the end of the year," he said. "We'd really love to do it, but in order for us to, things would be absolutely insane. The turnaround time would be insane. There will definitely be a single out by year's end though."

The delay of the album, which was supposed to be released this year, has to do with problems and changes at Island/Def Jam, MTV.com reported Wednesday.

"We've been ready to record for about the last three weeks, but there's been, um, if I go into specifics, I'll get into trouble," Wentz said. "There have been some changes at our label, a little bit of strangeness there.

"Half the phone numbers I have for people at the label don't have people on the other end of them anymore. It slowed us slightly, but we're getting back up to speed."

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

Buoyed by typically robust sales of iPods, Apple Computer Inc. reported quarterly earnings Wednesday that bested Wall Street estimates and sent its stock higher in after-hours trading. Apple reported that it earned $472 million in its fiscal third quarter, up from $320 million in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue climbed from $3.5 billion a year ago to $4.4 billion. The company said it sold 8.1 million iPods during the quarter, 32% more than it sold in the same frame last year, and 1.3 million Macintosh computers, 12% more than a year ago. On a per-share basis, Apple earned 44 cents, about a dime more than analysts forecast. Shares of Apple closed at $54.10 on Wednesday.

-Hollywood Reporter

[Tingly]

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c391/jimcirin/McCready.gif
MINDY McCREADY
(1996 publicity photo)

Mindy McCready was found not guilty Wednesday of driving under the influence in May 2005. But a jury found her guilty on the charge of driving on a suspended license.

The DUI case centered on a video of the field sobriety tests the country singer took after she was stopped for speeding.

McCready, 30, refused to take a breath test, but the arresting officers said she smelled of alcohol, had watery, bloodshot eyes and was unsteady on her feet.

They said she acknowledged she had been at a nightclub where she had several drinks.

Her attorney, Lee Dryer, said McCready wasn't impaired and that the field sobriety tests weren't performed properly. He also said she removed her shoes for the roadside test, but then found it hard to complete because her pant legs were too long.

McCready testified that she thought police stopped her to give her "a hard time," not because they thought she was under the influence.

The singer was stopped while driving a friend's car. The friend had asked her to drive him home because he was too intoxicated, Dryer said.

The trial judge dropped a contempt of court charge against McCready for arriving 10 minutes late Monday for the first day of court.

McCready, who had a No. 1 hit in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time," faces a hearing later this year on charges of violating her probation on a drug charge by failing to check in with her probation officer and leaving the state without permission to go to Florida.

-CNN

[Tingly]

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c391/jimcirin/who.jpg
Roger Daltrey, left, and Pete Townshend
[Photo By Max Nash, AP]

How many fans would pay to watch The Who "uncut, uncensored and unrepentant"? Plenty, it seems.

Ticket sales for the band's upcoming world tour, which is being advertised with those three adjectives, are off to a brisk start. The kickoff concert Sept. 12 in Philadelphia sold out, as did a gig Sept. 18 in New York, where a date Sept. 19 was added.

If you're curious about what exactly the band's surviving members, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, are "unrepentant" about, Townshend said at a news conference last week that the words, though "very, very brave," were "not my idea. A lot of this stuff is dreamed up by people who want to sell concert tickets."

But, he added, "there has been some terrible, terrible stuff happening around this band for a long, long time," since drummer Keith Moon's death in 1978. Bassist John Entwistle died a day before the band's 2002 tour was to begin.

One episode that "unrepentant" isn't intended to evoke is Townshend's arrest in 2003 on suspicion of possessing child pornography after using a credit card to access an Internet child porn site. Townshend, who in his work has addressed the plight of abused young people, later acknowledged purchasing access for research. He was later cleared, but his name was placed on a UK registry of sex offenders for five years as a routine cautionary measure.

-USA Today

[Tingly]

Police in Tinley Park, Illinois, are searching for a man who sexually assaulted a 20-year-old Ozzfest attendee in a parking lot outside the festival on Sunday. The attack occurred as the woman was leaving the show at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre at approximately 8 p.m.

According to a report on the incident from the Tinley Park Police Department, the assault happened as the woman was walking through one of the venue's parking lots. She encountered the shirtless man and they began talking. "After they engaged in conversation, he forced her to a secluded grassy area of the parking lot where the assault took place," according to the report. "The subject then released the victim and left the area in an unknown direction."

Tinley Park Police Commander Phil Valois told the Chicago Tribune that the victim — who came to the concert from neighboring Indiana — said she initially had no reason to be scared of the attacker.

The woman described her attacker as white, muscular, 5-foot-9, about 30 years old with short brown hair and possibly pierced nipples. There have been no witness reports of the attack, and Valois said it was unlikely anyone saw or heard it.

The victim reported the incident to the amphitheatre's staff 10 minutes after she was assaulted.

Police had no additional information at press time, according to a Tinley Park Police Department spokesperson.

An Ozzfest spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

-VH1

[Tingly]

Singer Charlotte Church will play public pranks as part of the upcoming British TV series The All New Charlotte Church Show.

The show -- set to premiere next month -- will not only feature the singer taking part in practical jokes, but also interviewing celebrity guests and appearing in comedy sketches, The Daily Mail reported.

"I'm so excited to have my own TV show," the 20-year-old star said. "I have a brilliant team around me and it's great to be given the opportunity to act in sketches, have fun with members of the public and meet some fabulous people."

Channel 4 executives signed the singer on to head the series after being impressed with the pilot episode of the controversial series, the newspaper said.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

Do you obsessively check your favorite bands' tour schedules, just to be crushed to learn they'll be hitting seemingly every corner of the nation except yours?

One Web site's latest feature can fill you in on when your favorite acts will be where — and even help make them come rock your town. Eventful.com began as an event listing service in September 2005, but the recent addition of its "Eventful Demand" function is helping the masses have a hand in event booking.

The idea for Eventful Demand originated in 1999 when Dear worked for online music resource MP3.com. Jokingly referring to it as "battle of the fans," Dear aspired to pit cities against each other as they vied for a band's attention, with the ultimate goal being that the performer would agree to a show in whichever city sparked the most support.

Although it's only a few months old and still in its beta phase, Demand has already accumulated 4,000 requests. It works like this: A user can create a demand for a band, author or any type of event in a particular locality. Once support for the demand reaches a specific "critical mass" number, Eventful will act as an online agent and approach the performer with the request. The site keeps users updated as to whether or not the artist has agreed to the gig, as well as the details of the scheduled event if all goes according to plan.

-MTV

[Tingly]

Now that a few MP3s and a MySpace page can turn an aspiring rock-n'-roller into a pop icon, enthusiasm for amateur music has soared. And as the number of would-be rock stars has increased, the market for musical equipment has taken off. It's currently a $16 billion industry, and expanding 5% to 7% annually. At the center of that growth is Guitar Center, the U.S.'s largest retailer of rock-n'-roll instruments and recording tools.

With dominant market share (most of its competitors are mom-and-pop stores and small regional chains) combined with plenty of room to grow, Guitar Center (Charts) is an investment that rocks. And with Guitar Center trading at about $43, near its 52-week low, and at a multiple of 15, below its historical average of 19, the stock is a bargain.

Guitar Center is a $1.8 billion company with a national fleet of about 170 guitar shops that cater to both ambitious beginners and experienced professionals. It also owns 129 stores that sell band and orchestral instruments, has a substantial catalog business and runs a website that offers the broadest inventory in the industry.

The company plans to expand to at least 420 Guitar Center stores over the next few years, and new international retail locations in Canada and the U.K. are planned for 2007.

-CNN Money.com

[Tingly]

Internet company Yahoo has released its first music download from a major record label without copy protection.

A Public Affair by Jessica Simpson does not have any digital rights management (DRM) restrictions often found on tracks from other sites.

The MP3 is compatible with any digital music player, including Apple's popular iPod player and others.

The major record labels and technology firms have long argued that DRM is necessary to prevent music piracy.

Files without copy protection, they argue, can be freely shared or traded over peer-to-peer networks.

The record industry says that file sharing is a key factor in the decline in record sales in recent years.

Most major labels insist on some form of DRM on music offered through download services.

DRM systems can include special formats for media files or proprietary media players.

For instance, people buying tracks from the iTunes store cannot move tracks on to non-Apple portable music devices. Others restrict the number of times a user can copy a file.

-BBC

[Tingly]

TO CRAFT a violin that will last for centuries, you need red maple, a month of painstaking work and the craftsman's touch that turns wood into the instrument that most resembles the human voice.

Antonio Stradivari followed this recipe 300 years ago, and this is still how violins are made in his hometown of Cremona in northern Italy.

But violin makers there are under pressure from counterfeits and cheap Asian imports.

"Cremona is still the world's capital of violin making. You can sense it by wandering through its old, cobbled streets and by peeping into its many workshops," said Gian Domenico Auricchio, head of Cremona's consortium of violin makers.

"But counterfeiting has now reached the violin making sector and the damage to our image is big," he said.

-The Scotsman.com

[Tingly]

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c391/jimcirin/Madonna.jpg
Madonna performs during her
concert in New York
[AP Photo/Stephen Chernin]

Madonna is bringing her "Confessions" tour to network television. A two-hour special will be taped this summer at Wembley Stadium in London and shown in November on NBC.

"Madonna is one of the greatest artists of our time and never fails to generate excitement," NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said Friday. "We think this is going to be a big event for television."

The network is billing Madonna's special as the first-ever broadcast network performance by the Grammy-winning singer.

The special will feature songs from Madonna's latest album, "Confessions on a Dance Floor," along with some of her greatest hits.

-seattlepi.com

[Tingly]

Pete Doherty has canceled a concert and is returning to treatment in a drug rehabilitation clinic, his tour's concert promoter said Friday.

Doherty, 27, the front man for the band Babyshambles, has been publicly battling addiction to heroin, cocaine and other drugs for months.

His band was booked to perform Wednesday on the Spanish party island of Ibiza, but concert promoter Andy McKay said Doherty instead would be booking into an undisclosed clinic Monday.

-keralanext.com

[Tingly]

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Frank Black of The Pixies; Picture: Phil Wallis

Pixies were forced to halt their set at the Benicàssim Festival last night, after a barrier broke in front of the stage.

The band were seven songs in when their performance was abruptly stopped during 'Monkey Gone To Heaven'. It took festival organisers a further half-an-hour before the problem was eventually fixed and the show could go on, much to the delight of one of the biggest crowds the Escenario Verde has ever witnessed.

Frontman Charles 'Black' Francis later told NME.COM that a barrier had been the problem, and they could not continue their set until the safety of the crowd was guaranteed.

-NME

[Tingly]

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Band members: The Automatic

[GMTV (Good Morning Television) is a British "breakfast TV" station-Tingly]

The Automatic showed their rock and roll roots by trashing the set during their GMTV appearence yesterday morning.

Performing single 'Monster', the band ran amok in the show's outside garden knocking over furniture, instruments and the odd cameraman while miming their song.

However keyboardist Alex Pennie explained their preparations for the programme didn't make for a smooth show.

"We decided to stay up all night after the gig in Bristol rather than have to get up early for GMTV - we've never been very good in the mornings!" he said.

"(Guitarist) (James) Frost was pretty drunk when we started 'Monster' and I'm easily led," Pennie added. "Before we knew it, I was standing in my boxer shorts in the GMTV garden and Frost has trashed all the equipment."

The band now doubt they'll be asked back onto GMTV.

"Wonder if we'll get asked back?" mused the keyboard player. "Maybe we won't have to worry about early starts any more."

Footage from this morning's show can now be seen at Youtube.com.

-NME

[Tingly]

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Kylie Minogue

Tickets for Kylie Minogue's 'Showgirl - Homecoming' dates in January 2007 at Wembley Arena have sold out in less than an hour.

Dates on January 2 and 3 have sold out and additional dates on January 5 and 6 have also sold out.

However, tickets for the extra January 8 and 9 shows are still available.

-NME

[Tingly]

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Adam Green

New York indie kingpin Adam Green was forced to hitchhike across Europe in pyjamas this week.

The Strokes' best mate had to make his way Belgium to France by his own means after being left behind by his own tourbus.

Having played Belgium's Dour Festival, Green was on his way to a gig in Lyon, France, when he got out of the bus at a motorway service station in at 3am.

"There was no air conditioning on this bus and my band was sick with pneumonia," Green said. "To get to sleep on the tourbus, I was taking a prescribed sleeping medication and you're not supposed to drink while taking this stuff, but I was drinking heavily each night. Because of the medication I started to forget entire days of the tour. I had blackouts through the Spanish dates which led up to a festival in Belgium."

During one of these "blackouts" Green wondered off the bus at a French service station and it left without him.

"Apparently I sleepwalked off the bus at a service station somewhere in France," explained Green. "The bus drove off without me and I didn't notice. I was in my pyjamas and flip-flops with an army top. I had no money, ID or anything but a flask of Jagermeister and some Cuban cigars."

Undeterred, the singer then attempted to make his way to the show. Eventually Green managed to hitchhike his way to Lyon.

"It turns out that in my sleep I convinced these kids to drive me seven hours to the Strokes show in Lyon," he recalled. "They were 17 year old Belgian students, I guess they understood that I was lost and needed help. They were both very kind and concerned that I was ok. They fed me and made sure that I drank lots of water."

-NME

[Tingly]

It’s now finally official: Microsoft is going to kill the iPod this Christmas! Although this is not breaking news, since everyone has been speculating about it for quite some time, the announcement is surely meant to scare Apple and other competitors.

Microsoft confirmed the rumors about the iPod killer on Friday, stating that the future MP3 player is just one of a series of software and hardware products that are in production at Redmond.

Microsoft delegated Chris Stephenson, a general manager of marketing for Microsoft, to release the news to the press on Friday. He also mentioned the fact that the iPod killer from Microsoft is scheduled for Christmas (well, actually he said that the MP3 player and the other products will be available “by the end of 2006”…but hey! Isn’t the Christmas shopping season the most “hunted” by all manufacturers?).

Just as previously speculated, Microsoft confirmed to the delight of music fans that its iPod killer will feature wireless fidelity capabilities and a hard-drive (probably Flash-NAND based) for storing tunes. Since an MP3 player with Wi-Fi is nothing without a music download service, we should expect Microsoft to release an iTunes rival as well, although the company did not make official declarations about this in their press release.

-playfuls.com

[Tingly]

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Henry, Ringo and Jojo Garza
AP Photo/Jakub Mosur

The bassist for the Los Lonely Boys was arrested Saturday on charges of marijuana possession and assault, authorities said.

Joey "JoJo" Sacarais Garza, 26, was in town with fellow sibling-bandmates, who were preparing for a concert.

Police responding to a report of a disturbance at the Omni Hotel in downtown Austin found Garza and a woman in his room, police spokeswoman Laura Albrecht said. The woman was assaulted, Albrecht said.

Garza was charged with assault causing bodily injury and possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana. He was released from Travis County Jail hours later.

-AP

[Tingly]

Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was a big fan, while Beck and David Byrne have paid homage. Nearly 30 years after it broke up, Brazilian psychedelic rock band Os Mutantes launched its first U.S. tour on Friday in New York.

An offshoot of Brazil's Tropicalia movement of the late 1960s that emerged in reaction to a U.S.-backed military dictatorship and led by artists such as Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Tom Ze, Os Mutantes (The Mutants) combined various unlikely influences.

The group won an offbeat reputation by synthesizing the Beatles' "Sergeant Pepper" style with traditional Brazilian folk rhythms and classical music. It even used insecticide sprayers as instruments to create a "ffffft" sound.

Formed by a trio of Sao Paulo teenagers, Os Mutantes' irreverence "shocked and irritated the leftist university crowd," Brazilian music critic Carlos Calado wrote.

-Reuters

[Tingly]

It's 9 p.m. at The Gig in Hollywood and a crowd of L.A. hipsters is trickling in to catch the evening's act.

The bar itself is just one of several live music venues scattered throughout the city that caters to emerging artists hungry for a stage -- however small -- to hone their skills and attract a following. Attendance tonight is sparse, maybe 30 patrons hang on the bar or linger on the beer-stained dancefloor.

But the band on the dinner-table-sized stage plays to a much larger audience. Practically unnoticed to all but the performers are four domed, Vegas-style security cameras hanging from different areas of the ceiling capturing their every move. The Gig films all performances -- three a night, seven nights a week -- and broadcasts them the next day from its Web site, http://www.liveatthegig.com.

The Gig is riding a tide of revolution in the concert business. The ongoing explosion of high-speed, broadband Internet penetration in the United States has sparked a growing need for quality, exclusive multimedia content. Live performances fit this bill perfectly, and everyone from small clubs to major media companies are getting hip to this fact.

The huge success of AOL's delivery of the Live 8 concerts last summer made it clear that both consumer demand and the potential to offer compelling product exist. For Gig owner Peter O'Fallon -- a film and TV director -- recording and broadcasting shows is a way to not only marry his twin passions of video and music, but also an attempt to develop new revenue streams made possible by the Internet.

For the acts that pass through his doors, it's free online exposure that rivals any multicity tour, allowing them to post links to their performances on MySpace or send to friends, fans and promoters.

For the industry, it's a rapidly growing business model that is changing the dynamics among artist, label, venue and digital music services.

-Reuters

[Tingly]

Lebanese-Colombian rock superstar Shakira called for diplomatic intervention and an immediate ceasefire to end the escalating crisis in the Middle East, according to a statement released here by her record label Sony.

"It's urgent that there is an international diplomatic intervention," Shakira said Friday in Greece, where she is currently on tour. "War is not the answer. War is not the solution to any conflict --not today, not in this century.

"I am sad, I guess like the rest of the world is, to know that because of this conflict so many innocent mothers and children are dying," she said.

-channelnewsasia.com

[Tingly]

Don't expect Dan Quayle to attend another John Mellencamp concert.

The former vice president, miffed about a comment made by Mellencamp about President Bush's administration, walked out of the singer's July 14 show at Harvey's Lake Tahoe Casino in Stateline, Nev.

Mellencamp, unaware that Quayle was in the audience, introduced the song "Walk Tall" by saying, "This next one is for all the poor people who've been ignored by the current administration."

Quayle, who was in town for a celebrity golf tournament, then made his exit, deciding "enough was enough," his spokesman, Craig Whitney, told the Los Angeles Times for Friday's edition. "He wasn't going to sit there and listen to this."

Mellencamp, however, said he had no regrets.

"I still feel there are many people left behind by this administration," he said in a statement to the Times. "Not talking about problems doesn't make them go away. It's kind of telling that he chose to walk out as I was doing a song about tolerance."

On Friday, Mellencamp's spokesman, Bob Merlis, said the singer did not want to exploit the incident by speaking further about it.

-newsnet5

[Tingly]

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Morrissey At The Benicassim Festival
Picture: Phil Wallis

Morrissey paid tribute to the legendary Syd Barrett at the Benicàssim Festival in Spain tonight (July 22).

The star dedicated 'I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now' to the former Pink Floyd singer, who died earlier this month (July 7).

Morrissey also wrapped himself in the Spanish flag, changed his shirt three times, and made a wry reference to pulling out of the bash at the last minute in 2004.

He said: "Thank you for turning up this year. Very good of you."

The set was taken mainly from new album 'Ringleader Of The Tormentors' , but the crowd on the Escenario Verde were also treated to four Smiths classics - set opener 'Panic', 'Still Ill', 'Girlfriend In A Coma' and 'How Soon Is Now?' .

-NME

[Tingly]

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Sir Jimmy Savile

Sir Jimmy Savile will co-host the final edition of Top Of The Pops on 30 July.

The veteran DJ, 79, said he immediately agreed to take part in the show, telling producers: "I did the first one, and I'll do the last."

According to Broadcast magazine, Sir Jimmy will be joined by other former Top Of The Pops presenters such as Pat Sharp, Tony Blackburn and Mike Read.

The BBC announced last month it was cancelling the long-running music show because of falling audiences.

In its 1970s heyday Top Of The Pops was regularly seen by 15 million viewers, but recent programmes on BBC Two have struggled to find an audience of more than one million.

Sir Jimmy presented the first ever edition of the show from a converted church in Manchester on New Year's Day 1964.

The programme included music from The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Dusty Springfield.

-BBC

[Tingly]

The Tingly News Thread passed 5,000 views today on the Jam Session site.

In two months, the thread has joined eight or so other Open Mic threads that have over 5,000 views.

Tingly is stunned. Thank you everyone, for reading my posts!

[Tingly]

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Franz Ferdinand At Benicassim

Franz Ferdinand got a little help from Sons & Daughters guitarist Scott Paterson during a storming set at the Benicàssim Festival in Spain last night.

The band, who were without regular drummer Paul Thomson following his wife's recent birth, teamed up with Paterson, who took up guitar duties while Franz's sometime fifth member Andy Knowles, got behind the sticks.

The massive crowd on the Escenario Verde were treated to a set that included tracks from the band's two albums, as well as recent double A-side single 'L Wells'.

Frontman Alex Kapranos also dedicated 'Walk Away' to his sister, who was watching the band from the sidelines.

-NME

[Tingly]

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Steely Dan in the 1970's

Something "kind of uncool" has come to Steely Dan's attention.

Band members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen are requesting an in-person apology from Owen Wilson for playing the annoying titular character in You, Me and Dupree, which, the musicians point out, happens to share the name found in the Steely Dan song "Cousin Dupree." The duo won a Grammy with that tune in 2001 for Best Pop Performance.

In a profanity-laced mock-angry letter posted on the band's Website, Becker and Fagen suggest that the film character of Dupree rips off their song, which tells the tale of a slacker--named Dupree, of course--who is staying on his aunt's couch and starts lusting after his cousin.

"When it came time to change the character's name or whatever so people wouldn't know what a rip the whole thing was, THEY DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO THINK UP A NEW ******* NAME FOR THE GUY!" the rockers wrote.

The pair offered Wilson a chance to redeem himself--show up at their July 19 concert in Irvine, California, and "apologize to our fans for this travesty." (Apparently no such thing went down Wednesday night.)

The letter, dated July 17, was typed on hotel stationery from the Residential Suites at Longworth in Corpus Christi, Texas--where they were obviously extremely bored on their day off between shows--and addressed to Wilson's brother, Luke, whose new film My Super Ex-Girlfriend opened Friday.

Becker and Fagen at first gave kudos to Luke for his work with his older brother in Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket, but then proceeded to get down to business, which for the most part consisted of bashing You, Me and Dupree and warning Owen Wilson that he's thisclose to losing his coolness factor for appearing in such tripe.

The film, starring Wilson as a slacker who shacks up with his best buddy, played by Matt Dillon, and his buddy's new bride (Kate Hudson, looking pretty disgusted), made a respectable $21.5 million at the box office last weekend to come in at number three (behind the juggernaut that is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and the Wayans brothers comedy Little Man).
"steelydan"

But we'll see how the film that the Washington Post called a "formulaic, shockingly sloppy and virtually laugh-free star vehicle for Wilson" does in its second week out.

Anyway, the Steely ones went on to say that while they meant Wilson no harm, "there are some pretty heavy people who are upset about this whole thing and we can't guarantee what kind of heat little Owen may be bringing down on himself."

-E! Online

[Tingly]

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Beyonce Knowles


A former pal has designs on Beyoncé Knowles' bank account.

The R&B star and her mother, Tina Knowles, are on the receiving end of a $1.5 million lawsuit brought by an ex-business associate who claims they owe him money for a deal he brokered on their behalf that led to the creation of their House of Dereon clothing line.

The suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court by Greg Walker, CEO of Icon Entertainment, alleges the Knowles hired him in Augugst 2003 to broker a slew of endorsement and marketing agreements, including a $15 million contract with clothing maker Wear Me Apparel Corp. The latter deal resulted in the formation of House of Dereon, the Knowles-branded hip-haute fashion label tailored toward young contemporary women.

Per court papers, Walker claims that the mother-daughter tandem stiffed him out of his fee, purportedly paying him a meager $25,000 for his services instead of the 10 percent, or $1.5 million, he believes he's due.

-E! Online

[Tingly]

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Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton has announced a new release date for her debut album, pushing it back from Aug. 8 to Aug. 22.

There's no official word on why the album is being delayed, especially with her debut single, "Stars Are Blind," doing well on the pop charts. The track currently ranks 16th on the Billboard Hot 100 and its video is in rotation on the major music channels.

Paris is being released on Hilton's own Heiress Records, a sub-label she created at Warner Bros. Records in 2004. The album was recorded in Miami and Los Angeles over the past year.

-E! Online

[Tingly]

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Victor Willis, the first man to don the cop's uniform for '70's-era hit-makers The Village People, pleaded no contest Wednesday in San Mateo County Superior Court to a drug charge resulting from a Mar. 26 arrest for cocaine possession. He could face either time in a drug-treatment program and six months in county jail (including time already served), or, two years in state prison.

When Willis and the female companion he was riding with were pulled over in San Francisco during a routine traffic stop, police found bags of coke in the car. The duo didn't make matters any easier when they tried to give fake names to the arresting office.

Per the plea agreement, however, two of the counts against Willis were dropped.

The former disco titan is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 1.

-E! Online

[mk-ultra]

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c391/jimcirin/dan.jpg
Steely Dan in the 1970's

Something "kind of uncool" has come to Steely Dan's attention.

Band members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen are requesting an in-person apology from Owen Wilson for playing the annoying titular character in You, Me and Dupree, which, the musicians point out, happens to share the name found in the Steely Dan song "Cousin Dupree." The duo won a Grammy with that tune in 2001 for Best Pop Performance.

In a profanity-laced mock-angry letter posted on the band's Website, Becker and Fagen suggest that the film character of Dupree rips off their song, which tells the tale of a slacker--named Dupree, of course--who is staying on his aunt's couch and starts lusting after his cousin.

"When it came time to change the character's name or whatever so people wouldn't know what a rip the whole thing was, THEY DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO THINK UP A NEW ******* NAME FOR THE GUY!" the rockers wrote.

The pair offered Wilson a chance to redeem himself--show up at their July 19 concert in Irvine, California, and "apologize to our fans for this travesty." (Apparently no such thing went down Wednesday night.)

The letter, dated July 17, was typed on hotel stationery from the Residential Suites at Longworth in Corpus Christi, Texas--where they were obviously extremely bored on their day off between shows--and addressed to Wilson's brother, Luke, whose new film My Super Ex-Girlfriend opened Friday.

Becker and Fagen at first gave kudos to Luke for his work with his older brother in Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket, but then proceeded to get down to business, which for the most part consisted of bashing You, Me and Dupree and warning Owen Wilson that he's thisclose to losing his coolness factor for appearing in such tripe.

The film, starring Wilson as a slacker who shacks up with his best buddy, played by Matt Dillon, and his buddy's new bride (Kate Hudson, looking pretty disgusted), made a respectable $21.5 million at the box office last weekend to come in at number three (behind the juggernaut that is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and the Wayans brothers comedy Little Man).
"steelydan"

But we'll see how the film that the Washington Post called a "formulaic, shockingly sloppy and virtually laugh-free star vehicle for Wilson" does in its second week out.

Anyway, the Steely ones went on to say that while they meant Wilson no harm, "there are some pretty heavy people who are upset about this whole thing and we can't guarantee what kind of heat little Owen may be bringing down on himself."

-E! Online


HAHAHAHAHA, greedy rockstars

[Tingly]

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Dinner in the Sky is perhaps the world's most unique dining experience. The way it works is this: You are seated at a round table with up to 22 other people and in the center of the table, there is a workspace where a chef, a waiter and an entertainer work. Once you are strapped in, the entire table is suspended 50 meters in the air with a giant crane.

You can also order a second crane that will bring up a band [BUT NOT TINGLY'S BAND!]. The whole thing can be set up just about anywhere (it is based in Europe) that there is room for it.

The basic package is €7,900, or about $10,000, but there are many additional options, including photographers, which can be secured for an additional fee.

See: www.dinnerinthesky.com

-Special to The Tingly News Network

[Tingly]

To the crowd's cheers, the group launches into its first song of the night - a musical eulogy to Colombia's most infamous right-wing warlord.

The audience sings along as the crooner merrily recounts Carlos Castano's rise to head the far-right paramilitaries responsible for exporting hundreds of tons of cocaine and for dozens of massacres. As the song goes, Castano even beheaded the man who helped kidnap his father.

Britney Spears it ain't.

This is a concert of narco-ballads, the soundtrack to Colombia's underworld. Songs pay lyrical homage to the lifestyles of the rich and dangerous: drug-lords, assassins, leftist rebels and far-right warlords.

"These songs are about what's happening in our country, we sing about the paramilitaries, the rebels and the drug-traffickers and they all love it," said Uriel Hennao, the king of the genre, responsible for such anthems as Child of the Coca, I Prefer a Tomb in Colombia (to a jail cell in the U.S) and The Mafia Keeps Going.

The music, which typically has a quick rhythm and is heavy on the guitars, is gaining new fans across Colombia and abroad. Still, it remains shunned by polite society here. Major radio stations refuse to play the songs, considering them coarse glamorizations of all that has kept this country synonymous with cocaine and violence.

-AP

[Tingly]

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Dupri and Jackson

Janet Jackson says finding love with longtime boyfriend and producer Jermaine Dupri gave her a new perspective on life while recording her new album.

"I always wanted to find love," she said. "Now, that I found love, I'm in a different space now.

"Jermaine is drama-free," the 40-year-old singer said at news conference Friday to promote the upcoming album, 20 Years Old. "He's a very giving person. The challenges have been all joy working with Jermaine."

Dupri produced a few tracks on the album, which is set for release on Sept. 26. Longtime collaborators Jimmy "Jam" Harris and Terry Lewis pitched in as well.

When asked about having a family, Jackson said: "I would love to have kids. I never thought I would ever want any. But being with Jermaine really changed my mind on all that. I don't mind adopting."

Jackson lost 60 pounds after passing on a role in the upcoming movie Tennessee to finish the album. The pop star won't be slowing down anytime soon, saying she currently is weighing five movie scripts.

-USA Today

[Tingly]

Mike Skinner of The Streets is set to enter the Guinness World Records book for creating the longest music video.

Skinner and MTV are to make a 20-minute promo to beat the current record, set in 1983 by Michael Jackson's Thriller.

-Scotsman

[Tingly]

A dozen of the nation's most powerful radio industry CEOs are urging leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee to postpone consideration of legislation that requires satellite, cable and Internet broadcasters to pay fair market value for digitally transmitting music. The leadership of the Senate Judiciary Committee has been considering a committee vote Thursday on the bill known as the Perform Act. While committee aides said Friday that a decision on exactly what would come up during Thursday's bill-writing session had yet to be decided, broadcast and record label executives said the committee's leadership was considering bringing the bill up. The legislation sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Senate Republican leader Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is being pushed by the RIAA, music publishers and musicians groups.

-Hollywood Reporter

[Tingly]

Allen Pfenninger of Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, wrote: "Music is a wonderful balm for Alzheimer's patients. My mother-in-law (who just passed away) ... didn't remember my wife or myself, but she could recognize music from her past. We took an iPod into the nursing home, split it with three sets of earphones and listened to songs we knew she liked. She would hum along. She would laugh at the funny ones (Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah by Allan Sherman, Tiptoe Through the Tulips by Tiny Tim). She would cry at the sad ones, and we learned to try to keep those to a minimum. I would throw her a curve every once in a while just to see what she might know: When she hummed along to the Notre Dame Victory March, I was amazed. When she stopped humming along about a month ago, we knew the end might be near."

Amy Losak of Teaneck, N.J., remembered her late father, Sam Rosenberg, a lifelong music lover who spent his last days in a nursing home struggling with dementia, anxiety and depression. She wrote: "A volunteer would come to Dad's nursing home, attired in a straw hat and suspenders, with a banjo, to engage the residents in a sing-along session. My dad always sang the loudest, with great gusto, and despite his memory deficits, he knew the lyrics almost perfectly to the old-time popular songs of the '30s and '40s. ... My dad was happy then. ... It was as if this music brought him back to a realm of cognitive lucidity and anchored him in a firm time and place. It was a bittersweet pleasure to see — and hear."

-Kim Painter for USA Today

[Tingly]

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Eddie Vedder

Pearl Jam delivered a set as sweltering as the triple-digit temperatures at the Gorge Amphitheatre Saturday during the first show of the band's two-night stint in Eastern Washington that closed the U.S. summer tour.

The band -- singer Eddie Vedder, guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard, drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Jeff Ament -- surprisingly started the show with "Wash," a B-side from the 1990s. Vedder was in top form as he jumped and danced around the stage, taking several chugs from multiple bottles of wine throughout the show.

The more bottles of his alcoholic elixir Vedder polished off, the more fuel Pearl Jam had for its fire as the gruffly-haired singer became increasingly feisty with each progressive draw.

-Seattlepi.com

[Tingly]

It growls. It purrs. To many ears, the Hammond B3 organ seems alive, like some sort of rare animal.

Nashville-based session musician Moe Denham has tamed the beast over decades as a sideman to some of the biggest names in jazz and blues: Count Basie and Clarence Gatemouth Brown, for example. He's opened for Ray Charles, B.B. King and The Platters. And he's performed with such diverse talents as Neil Young, Bela Fleck and Ernest Tubb.

Now he's making his own music, with just a little help from the Hammond B3. His new CD is called The Soul Jazz Sessions. (Available, for now, at Denham's Web site.)

The B3 dates to the 1950s, and it has become an object of fascination for a select group of music lovers. Only about 100,000 Hammond B3 organs were built (in 2002, the company rolled out a replica). But the original has been a fixture at churches, rock concerts and nightclubs for half a century.

The B3's contributions to rock 'n' roll are surely familiar to anyone who has ever heard "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum or "Gimme Some Lovin'" from the Spencer Davis Group.

-NPR

[Tingly]

Pop act McFly have topped the UK singles chart with their new entry Don't Stop Me Now.

The Sport Relief cover version of Queen's 1979 hit toppled Lily Allen's Smile, which fell to fourth place after two weeks at number one.

Rising from last week's 16 to number two was Unfaithful by Rihanna. She nudged Shakira's Hips Don't Lie into third spot.

You Give Me Something by James Morrison climbed 22 places to fifth.

UK Top 5 Singles:
1. McFly - Don't Stop Me Now
2. Rihanna - Unfaithful
3. Shakira - Hips Don't Lie
4. Lily Allen - Smile
5. James Morrison - You Give Me Something
Source: Official UK Charts Company

-BBC

[Tingly]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has taken a musician-turned-secretary as his new wife after his former spouse died of cancer two years ago, it was revealed yesterday.

Kim Ok, 42, lived with the reclusive North Korean leader, who turned 64 in February, after serving as his private secretary, Seoul's Yonhap news agency said, quoting an unnamed source.

"She is virtually North Korea's first lady," said the source, whom Yonhap called a Seoul government source privy to information on the leader's family.

Kim Ok, a piano major at Pyongyang University of Music and Dance before becoming Kim Jong-il's secretary in the early 1980s, has since accompanied the North's leader on trips at home and abroad, the source said.

-The Australian

[Tingly]

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Madonna in her Like a Prayer video

Madonna's Like a Prayer, condemned by Christian organisations as blasphemous upon its release in 1989, has topped a poll of videos which "broke the rules".

The clip showed the singer dancing around burning crosses and kissing a black Christ-like figure in a church.

It came first in a survey of 10,000 MTV viewers, with Madonna's songs Ray of Light and Vogue also in the top five.

Baby One More Time by Britney Spears was number two, with Michael Jackson's 13-minute epic Thriller in third place.

Madonna - one of the icons of the MTV age - has been excluded from the network's playlist on more than one occasion because of the content of her videos.

VIDEOS WHICH BROKE THE RULES
1. Madonna, Like a Prayer
2. Britney Spears, Baby One More Time (pictured)
3. Michael Jackson, Thriller
4. Madonna, Ray of Light
5. Madonna, Vogue
6. Michael and Janet Jackson, Scream
7. Robbie Williams, Rock DJ
8. Eric Prydz, Call on Me
9. Jamiroquai, Virtual Insanity
10. Spice Girls, Wannabe
Source: MTV survey

-BBC

[Tingly]

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Christina Aguilera

Christina Aguilera says she's toned down the sexuality on her new double-disc album, "Back to Basics," but has no regrets about the sultry image she's projected in the past.

"The sexuality coming forward on this record is more softened," she says in the July 24 issue of Newsweek. "It's more pin-up, tongue-in-cheek. It's playful. People take sex far too seriously."

Aguilera said she was proud of the image she projected on her last album, "Stripped," in part because it elicited strong opinions.

"If you liked it, you wanted to root for me - 'Look, she's empowered.' If not, well, you'd stick all those labels on me."

Aguilera also told the magazine there was never a feud between her and a fellow ex-Mousketeer, Britney Spears.

"We were like best friends, but the media saw a navel and blond hair and had to create some drama," she said.

-AP

[Tingly]

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Lynyrd Skynyrd

Back in the '70s, Lynyrd Skynyrd cranked up their arsenal of guitars for shows with the Who and the Rolling Stones. These days, the band is more likely to unleash their wall of sound for country crowds alongside Tim McGraw and Gretchen Wilson.

The Southern rock icons will perform on "CMA Music Festival: Country Music's Biggest Party," an ABC-TV special that airs tonight (9 p.m. Eastern).

The show also features Trace Adkins, Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Montgomery Gentry, Brad Paisley, Sugarland, Carrie Underwood, Hank Williams Jr., Wynonna Judd and others.

The taped performances were culled from this year's Country Music Association festival in June, which drew 161,000 fans over four days.

-AP

[Tingly]

The arrest of the bassist for Los Lonely Boys on allegations he assaulted his fiancee was all a misunderstanding, the band's publicist said Sunday.

Police arrested Joey "JoJo" Sacarais Garza, 26, at an Austin hotel Saturday on charges of assault causing bodily injury and possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana, authorities said. Garza was released on bond from Travis County Jail hours later.

"This is simply a misunderstanding. We were being too loud," Carina Lyn, Garza's fiancee, said through the publicist. "We apologize to the hotel guests. JoJo and I are very much in love and we are planning to be married."

Garza, Lyn and Garza's sibling-bandmates were celebrating last week's release of the band's new album, Sacred, when another hotel guest reported a disturbance, publicist Diana Baron said.

Police arrived to find a woman who had been assaulted and marijuana, Austin police spokeswoman Laura Albrecht said.

Baron declined to comment on the marijuana charge but said Lyn was unharmed and had protested the arrest.

The Austin police erred on the side of caution, but their actions were "completely unnecessary," Garza's attorney Charlie Roadman said in the release.

Austin police spokeswoman Ruth Bullock said investigators will give a report to the Travis County District Attorney's Office, which will decide whether to press formal charges. In cases of family violence, alleged victims cannot drop charges.

-AP

[Tingly]

Carol Burnett, whose long-running variety show became a TV classic, has received a career achievement award from the Television Critics Association.

"Does this mean I'll never get another bad review?" the 73-year-old actress-comedian joked Sunday as she accepted the honor.

The variety show represented "the greatest years of my professional life" and the TV critics' honor rightly belongs to the show's cast and crew, she said.

Burnett, also a singer, starred in a series of musical specials with guests including Julie Andrews, Beverly Sills and Dolly Parton and in three TV adaptations of the Broadway musical "Once Upon a Mattress," most recently in 2005. Earlier this year she was a guest star on "Desperate Housewives."

-AP

[Tingly]

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Bob Geldof
AP Photo/LEFTERIS PITARAKIS

Bob Geldof canceled two concerts in Italy this weekend after too few people bought tickets, Italian news reports said. The 51-year-old Irish rocker, known for his anti-poverty efforts, had been set to perform in Milan on Friday night and in Rome on Saturday. Fewer than 50 people turned up in Milan and the show was canceled, La Stampa daily reported.

The Rome concert was subsequently canceled, said La Stampa and other reports. La Stampa said Geldof promised to give a free concert for Italian fans in September.

Geldof's Web site only said the Rome show was canceled and added: "Complimentary show to be announced later."

"I feel we have been boycotted," Francesco Iacovone, organizer of Geldof's Italian concerts, told the ANSA news agency. Iacovone added he couldn't understand how an artist such as Geldof failed to raise interest among Italian fans.

No one could be reached at the Milan offices of Iacovone's company Saturday. Geldof's management company also could not be contacted.

Geldof, former frontman of The Boomtown Rats, organized the Live Aid concert in 1985 and last year's Live 8 benefit concerts held in cities around the world, including Rome.

-AP

[iam2phat]

I wouldn't go to his concert either. He doesn't look like much of a rocker.

[shredding]

that's just an aritist's worst nightmare!

[Tingly]

Yeah, I know. That is a nightmare.

It's sad, becasue his public persona is that of a "great guy."

I think that his reputation, as an exponent of social causes, had grown so huge that it is totally overshadowing his music, in some venues.

We'll have to see if he can overcome this career setback, go in another direction, or what....

[Tingly]

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c391/jimcirin/concretes2.jpg
The Concretes

The Concretes' lead singer Victoria Bergsman has quit the band.

The singer has split from the Swedish pop outfit to pursue a solo career.

Despite her decision, the band, who recently performed without Bergsman at the Summercase Festival in Spain, have vowed to carry on performing and are currently writing songs for a new album.

A statement on the Swedish outfit's official website reads: "The Concretes have announced that lead singer Victoria Bergsman is departing the band to pursue a solo career. The Concretes' performance of recent single 'On The Radio' on the last series of the Jonathan Ross TV Show is the last time the band will have played together prior to Bergsman's departure.

-NME

[Tingly]

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Axl Rose

Guns n' Roses have spoken out amid reports that their gig at Newcastle's Metro Radio Arena last Wednesday (July 19) ended with the band being bottled off the stage by a booing crowd.

The band, plus former member Izzy Stradlin, finished their set early after being overwhelmed by the volume of bottles that hit the stage.

In an statement, Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose explained: "Getting hit wasn't a big deal. We stopped the song and gave a warning. We came back and started the song over and completed it. We then said goodnight. The house lights went down and I got hit a second time, in the mouth, by a solid object thrown by someone in the audience"

"After having warned the crowd that we would leave, and having played more than two hours, we left the stage and called it a night with the full support of everyone in the band, out guests and Management."

He added that his bandmates had supported the decision.

"Izzy (Stradlin) was the first to immediately support the decision verbally to me personally before I had physically left the stage are," he explained. "Tommy (Stinson-bass) and Frank (Ferrer- drums) came to my dressing room to say how much they appreciated the decision to not continue under those conditions, and express their support for not tolerating anyone throwing items at the stage with a negative intent. This has been G N' R's policy since playing Donnington in 1998."

-NME

[Tingly]

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The Klaxons have played at free "raves"

Police have reported that free "rave" parties in are on the rise again in the UK.

Officers have explained that they have policed several events in recent weeks and are now attempting to find out the details of one massive, illegal party in particular, which is due to take place in the coming weeks.

Intelligence specialists are monitoring websites and party phonelines attempting to pick up word of further free parties and festivals.

An event, featuring the likes of The Klaxons, in a disused office block in London on July 21 was broken up after just one hour

Meanwhile Devon And Cornwall police are concerned that ravers will attempt a party in the West Country following a recent event in Newquay that saw partygoers used a car rally as cover for a rave.

Meanwhile, officers in Davidstow near Camelford, watched as 5,000 people hold a party on a disused airfield, while Thames Valley police are using ASBO legislation to crack down on raves, The Guardian reports.

The Conservative government passed The Criminal Justice and Public Act Order in 1994 attempting to thwart the spread of dance culture parties. It gave police the power to tackle "A gathering on land in the open air...at which amplified music is played during the night."

However with the current rise of the new rave scene, it's believed fans are now also resurrecting free party culture.

-NME

[Tingly]

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Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode have called off a massive show in Portugal after a dispute with promoters.

The electronica veterans' world tour was due to call at the Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon on Friday (July 28).

But the band have now pulled the show amid claims that the promoter, Brand New Day did not pay supplier's bills, making it impossible for them to play.

Their spokesperson told BBC News that companies involved in the production "had not received any money and logistically the show couldn't happen".

Rebuffing rumours of poor tickets sales, she added that 75 percent of tickets for the show had been sold, adding: "I don't know where all the ticket money went."

Depeche Mode themselves have issued a statement apologising to disappointed fans, and advising them to seek a refund from the point of purchase.

-IPC MEDIA

[Tingly]

The guitar played by Mississippi blues legend Robert Johnson -- the father of rock 'n' roll -- is for sale on the Moments In Time Web site for $6.4 million.

Johnson, who inspired future guitar players including Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, was said to have sold his soul to the devil for his musical skills, the Mirror said.

He used the Gibson L1 acoustic guitar in his only two recording sessions n 1936 and 1937, the Mirror reported. Gibson L1s were handmade from 1926 to 1930. Experts who have examined a photograph of Johnson with the guitar and the actual instrument say they are the same.

The current owner did not know it had been Johnson's until a boxed set of the musician's work was re-released in 1990 with a photograph of him playing the battered guitar.

Little is known about Johnson except that he died in 1938 at age 27.

Clapton, who released an album called Me and Mr Johnson in 2004, said he was the most important blues musician who ever lived.

-NME

[Tingly]

Hewlett-Packard, hoping to reach the trendy youth market, paid for a starring role in a new Jessica Simpson music video that pushes product placement for the MTV audience.

H-P computers and other gadgets appear at least three times during the four-minute video for her song, "A Public Affair."

Simpson - flanked by starlets Christina Applegate and Eva Longoria and hip-hop singer Christina Milian - goes for a roller-skating romp in the Brett Ratner-directed video.

One scene shows the ladies looking apprehensive as comedian Andy ****, who has a cameo as a nerdy bowling alley clerk, rummages around in his pocket for they don't know what.

He eventually pulls out an H-P Ipaq handheld gadget and holds it up for them to see. When he turns it around to take a picture of the girls, he also flashes H-P's new hand-shaped logo on the back.

The product-placement deal, which sources said cost the computer maker $200,000, stands out for a couple of other reasons.

Weaving companies and their brands into music videos is often trickier than for film or television shows because they are short on plot and often consist of quick cutaways and a montage of shots.

Advertisers have also run into trouble with Viacom-owned MTV, which has blurred logos in videos or outright banned those that it deemed too commercial for its youth audience.

-NY Post

[Tingly]

Seventeen-year-old Tony Bacon sat at the parlor window seat, his eyes glued to the driveway. He settles into the same spot every Wednesday afternoon.

"What are you waiting for?" asked his mother, Susan Williams.

"Music therapy," he said, his words fast and slurred.

For the next 45 minutes, Tony, who has autism, and Krystal Demaine sit face-to-face in the sunroom. She plays guitar as he beats on a drum.

Demaine, a graduate of the music therapy program at Boston's Berklee College of Music, has been going to Tony's house for four years, using the Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" for exercises in enunciation, volume and breath control. Beating along to "Blackbird" tests the teen's coordination and motor control.

It's part of a session known as music therapy, which is used to help people with various medical conditions develop everything from language skills to motor coordination. It can provide a drug-free way to regulate moods in people with depression or foster socialization in those with limited means of communication.

The first music therapy program in the country started at Michigan State University in 1944, according to Alan Solomon, former historian for the American Music Therapy Association and current dean at the Potsdam State University of New York's Crane School of Music.

He said it gained popularity in veterans' hospitals in World War II as doctors became interested in music's ability to heal soldiers with both physical and mental problems.

These days, Berklee's program is one of the largest among the 70 that have sprouted up around the country. In the upcoming school year, Berklee will have 100 students in the program.

Music therapists take advantage of the ways mind and body are stimulated when people listen to and make music to hone motor and brain functions, said Al Bumanis, spokesman for the American Music Therapy Association.

-AP

[Tingly]

While chasing a U-Haul driven by reported thieves, police slammed into a white Ford Taurus carrying three boys who are members of the Buffalo Grove Show Choir group, Expressions.

The boys were on their way to Walgreens to buy some snacks. One of them did not survive, while one was sent to a hospital in critical condition, and the other walked away unscathed.

It's one of two fatal traffic accidents in Wheeling over the weekend and claimed the life of trumpet player Cory Diamond.

A woman in the U-Haul truck made a cell phone call stating that she was being held against her will, NBC5's Amy Jacobson reported. The woman, who had previously dated the U-Haul driver, was questioned by police and released. She is being treated as a witness.

The accident happened at about 9 p.m. near the intersection of Schoenbeck and Dundee roads, according to a chief at the Wheeling Fire Department.

-NBC5 Indiana

[Tingly]

The Rolling Stones, the world's top-grossing band in the first half of 2006, are staying on the road with a North American tour that will bring them to Qwest Field in Seattle on Oct. 17.

The "A Bigger Bang" tour took in $150 million and was seen by 1.1 million fans in the first six months of this year and ultimately is expected to gross more than $400 million. The aging rockers, currently touring Europe, returned to the road after guitarist Keith Richards recovered from head injuries suffered in a fall.

-seattlepi

[Tingly]

The creators of the new James Bond film Casino Royale have chosen singer Chris Cornell to perform the main musical theme for the British spy thriller.

The former frontman of bands such as Audioslave and Soundgarden was chosen by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Sony Pictures Entertainment, along with producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, to create the new sound for the new Bond, Columbia Pictures said in a news release.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

U.K. music publisher EMI Group UK:EMI said Thursday it is abandoning its $4.6 billion bid for Warner Music Group Corp. WMG . EMI cited the decision by the European Court of First Instance's decision to annul the planned Sony BMG joint venture on anti-trust concerns. EMI said its focus will remain on driving sales and added it believes the industry has excellent long term prospects due to the expanding demand for digital music. Shares in EMI fell 3.7% in London.

-CBS

[Tingly]

The owner of a now-closed music store was sentenced Wednesday to five-years probation and ordered to pay $78,000 in restitution for distribution of hundreds of illegal bootleg recordings of music concerts.

David L. Hubbell, 45, pleaded guilty in July 2005 to selling illegal bootlegs from Toys Music Center, which was located on Stewart Street but now operates as a teen-friendly music venue in another location.

Prosecutors said Hubbell allegedly bought most of the bootlegs from William F. Pritchard Jr., a former University of Louisiana at Lafayette student set to go to trial in January.

Pritchard allegedly copied the bootlegs and provided them to Hubbell, court records said.

Sales ledgers and UPS shipping invoices from 1999-2000 also showed that Hubbell sold $87,579 worth of illegal bootlegs to Jim Brush, owner of Florida music wholesaler Terry’s Novelties.

Pritchard allegedly received more than $50,000 from Hubbell for those sales, court records said.

Hubbell’s attorney, Edward Marquet, said Hubbell made only about $9,000 from his dealings with Brush.

theadvocate.com

[Tingly]

Veteran funk rocker Prince and his second wife are ending their marriage, People magazine reported Wednesday.

The celebrity magazine cited Prince's lawyer, Alan Eidsness, as saying a sealed divorce action was filed on May 24 at Hennepin County District Court in the Prince's home state of Minnesota.

The 48-year-old singer (born Prince Rogers Nelson) and 29-year-old Manuela Testolini were married in a Jehovah's Witness ceremony in Hawaii on December 31, 2001.

The Toronto native used to work at Prince's charitable foundation. The couple had no children together.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, famed for such genre-bending tunes as "Let's Go Crazy" and "1999," was briefly married to backup singer and dancer Mayte Garcia in the mid-1990s.

-CNN

[Tingly]

A Texas DJ has denied playing a rap song police say helped incite a fight in a downtown Dallas nightclub, resulting in the deaths of two people.

Police, quoting some witnesses, said the incident at the club earlier this month resulted from playing the song that exhorts listeners to confront rival gang members, reports The Dallas Morning News.

After the brawlers were thrown out, the report said shots began outside and two men were later found dead.

"That song wasn't even in my record crate or my CD case," DJ Drop, a veteran of the local hip-hop music scene, was quoted as saying.

Police said several witnesses had blamed the song for starting the fight. But the newspaper said others who were at the club said they couldn't remember the particular song being played that night.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

The soundtrack for Hollywood's newest collegiate comedy film, Accepted, will provide listeners with a sampling of current and past independent music.

With tracks from popular bands such as the Pixies, Modest Mouse, Weezer, and the Hives, the new soundtrack offers a variety of music interspersed with a mash-up of lines taken from the film comedy, IGN Film Force reported.

The soundtrack will also offer three previously unreleased songs from David Schommer of the band Bole 2 Harlem, including a cover of the Beatles' classic Eleanor Rigby.

The cast band the Ringers also recorded the original track, Keepin' Your Head Up, for the soundtrack, which is due out on Aug. 8. The Steve Pink-directed film will be released three days later, Film Force said.

-Big News Network

[Tingly]

Canadian singer Nelly Furtado's new album Promiscuous held onto the top spots of both the Billboard Hot 100 and Pop 100 for a fifth consecutive week.

Billboard reported that the 27-year-old singer's album maintained its impressive position at the top of each musical chart.

While Gnarls Barkley's Crazy and Cassie's Me & U again rounded out the top three spots respectively on the Hot 100, the fourth spot was taken over by the Snoop Dogg-supported album Buttons from the Pussycat Dolls, who leapt from seventh to the fourth spot in the top five.

-Billboard

[Tingly]

Mariah, Shakira and Marc Anthony Headline at the Taj Mahal in the Coming Month ATLANTIC CITY, N.J., July 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/-- Friday night's sold out show featuring teen sensation actress and singer Hilary Duff at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort leads into the most exciting month-long entertainment schedule the Taj has ever posted, including a newly-added second show featuring Mariah Carey.

The top-selling female performer of all time, Mariah Carey will perform on August 17th and August 19th at the Taj Mahal. The Saturday, August 19th show has recently been added due to high demand for what promises to be a unique performance by the platinum-selling artist currently leading radio and television hit-lists with her #1 adult R&B single "Fly Like a Bird." The Taj Mahal's Mark G. Etess Arena is the smallest and most intimate venue that Mariah is scheduled to play during the United States stops on her current tour.

-Forbes

[Tingly]

Kazaa, whose technology was used by millions to illegally swap music and movies, agreed Thursday to pay $115 million to settle lawsuits with the record industry and to launch a ``legitimate'' service.

The Australian peer-to-peer file-sharing company also reached a settlement with the Motion Picture Association of America, and agreed to pay an undisclosed sum.

The settlements come a little more than a year after the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in the landmark Grokster case, which determined Internet file-sharing services can be sued if they encourage people to use their sophisticated software to steal copyrighted material.

``It's a step forward,'' said Mitch Bainwol, chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, whose members saw CD sales plummet 30 percent after Napster's 1999 launch. ``Every time a domino like this falls, the legal market gets a shot in the arm. It sends a message: If you want to distribute music, you've got to be paying for it.''

Before the settlement, Kazaa, a co-defendant in the Grokster case, was embroiled in lawsuits filed by several labels in Los Angeles and Australia. At one time, Kazaa had 4.2 million users worldwide.

``Kazaa was an international engine of copyright theft,'' said John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in London.

Kazaa, created by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, agreed to employ filtering software to stop the illegal distribution of copyrighted files by its users.

-MercuryNews.com

[Tingly]

Oscar-winning director and actor Mel Gibson has been arrested on suspicion of drink-driving.

The 50-year-old was stopped for speeding on the Pacific Coast highway in Malibu in the early hours of Friday morning and police officers smelled alcohol on his breath.

-ITV

[Tingly]

CBS has once again asked a federal appeal's court to look the other way with regard to the $550,000 fine it incurred from the Federal Communications Commission for that inauspicious split-second airing of Janet Jackson's bare breast during Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004.

Before notifying the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia of its intent to appeal, however, the network also made good on its debt Friday and paid the fine.

-E! Online

[Tingly]

The Who guitarist Pete Townshend today denied he was “at war” with the band’s singer, Roger Daltrey.

Just a month into a new world tour, Townshend has been posting details about a spat between the ageing stars on his website.

But rather than a dispute about sex, drugs or rock and roll, the music legends, according to Townshend, have been feuding about free webcasts of their shows.

However, in his latest diary posting today, Townshend expressed his surprise about coverage of the row in the music press.

“It’s Lebanon and Israel who are ‘at war’ – not Roger and Pete,” he wrote on his website. “Roger and I are in full accord about our lack of accord. Always have been,” Townshend said.

Just a few days earlier he had been complaining to fans that there would be no more free webcasting of any more Who shows.

-Irish Examiner

[Tingly]

The One: Making a Music Star -- the American reality show that grabbed headlines last month for bumping CBC's The National from its usual time-slot -- has been cancelled less than two weeks after its debut.

U.S. broadcaster ABC announced the decision in a note posted yesterday on its website: "There are no plans for additional episodes. Thanks to all who participated in and supported The One."

CBC created a ruckus earlier this summer when it announced plans to move The National from its 10 p.m. slot on some Tuesdays and Wednesdays to air The One. Critics were vicious, arguing the public broadcaster has a mission to explain Canada to Canadians -- not to import reality TV shows from the U.S.

CBC, in turn, said it was simply trying to lay the groundwork for a Canadian version of The One, which followed a format similar to Canadian Idol and Rock Star: Supernova.

But the show floundered from the start and critics were quick to seize on its cancellation as proof of poor decision-making at CBC.

-London Free Press

[Tingly]

Rolling Stones fans can listen to their European tour by phone.

The British rockers are the first act to use a new technology called 'Listen Live Now' - allowing US fans to dial a number and listen to them perform in real time.

The technology will debuted Friday when the veteran musicians play at Paris' Stade de France.

Artist manager Marty Erlichman said: "It's a great thing for the artists. Its passive income and they're helping fans enjoy the experience without affecting ticket sales."

The band signed the deal after several months of negotiations with their tour manager Michael Cohl.

Fans can listen to the concerts for $1.99 per seven minutes.

No other artists have signed up to use the technology - but Erlichman, Barbara Streisand's manager, may agree a similar deal if she goes ahead with a tour later this year.

Meanwhile, The Rolling Stones have made more money from touring this year than any other band.

Despite postponing 15 concerts while Keith Richards needed emergency brain surgery, the veteran rockers have made £79.7 million from their 'A Bigger Bang' world tour.

-BANG Media International

[Tingly]

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c391/jimcirin/scar.jpg
Scarlett Johansson

A spokesman has denied claims that plans to cast Scarlett Johansson in The Sound of Music fell through because of "ridiculous" demands by her management.

The Lost in Translation star reportedly agreed to play the lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber's London stage revival.

But the composer told the Times: "Her people were not pro the idea. It became clear it wasn't going to work because the demands became so ridiculous."

A spokesman called Lord Lloyd Webber's comments "extremely exaggerated".

-BBC

[Tingly]

Killers frontman Brandon Flowers can talk trash with the best of them and has done so consistently over the last year about emo bands like Fall Out Boy and, most recently, Panic! at the Disco. But on the verge of a new album, Sam's Town, it seems Flowers has had a change of heart. "I'd like to take it all back," Flowers recanted to AOL Music. "These people are just doing what they want to do, just like I am. I'm actually a nice person and I love people. I just am opinionated and sometimes jealous. It's not something I'm proud of." A devout Mormon, Flowers said he was particularly ashamed of his comments about Panic! at the Disco — a band he dissed without ever having heard them. "I don't even know what their music's like or if I would even like it," he said. "That made me feel even worse, to think they could have been fans of ours and I hurt their feelings. That's just stupid." ... On a related note, Panic! have been forced to cancel their show Friday night at the Premier in Seattle due to a death in the family. No other information was available, but a Panic! spokesperson said they promise to keep fans updated on the situation. ...

-MTV

[Tingly]

Tool have added eight stops to their forthcoming North American run with Isis, which will kick off August 6 in Fresno, California. Those new dates are: September 9 (Phoenix); September 26 (Pittsburgh); September 30 (Washington, D.C.); October 2 (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania); October 3 (Manchester, Connecticut); October 5 (Hartford, Connecticut); October 6 (East Rutherford, New Jersey); and October 7 (Wantagh, New York).

-MTV

[Tingly]

Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Buckethead will be out on the road starting September 13 in Lawrence, Kansas, for a 28-date U.S. trek. The guitarist will pass through Detroit, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New Orleans and Houston before wrapping things up in Anaheim, California, October 29.

-MTV

[Tingly]

"American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks has obtained a temporary injunction preventing his former producer from releasing a song Hicks wrote and recorded nearly 10 years ago, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The order will delay the release of "The Fall" by William Smith Productions for at least 10 days. Hicks claims the song proposed for release is an unfinished version.

-MTV

[Tingly]

The New York Post reported Thursday that Eddie Van Halen is teaming up with porn director Michael Ninn to write and perform two songs for a film called "Sacred Sin." Van Halen told the Post he's not concerned about the implications. "I'm working with a friend — very simple. I like his work. Michael Ninn is like Spielberg to me: the imagery, the way he makes things look just sensual," he said. Van Halen's publicist had no comment on the matter.

-MTV

[Tingly]

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c391/jimcirin/idol.jpg
American Idol finalists pose in the
Oval Office with President Bush

After discussing war and peace in the Middle East, President Bush squeezed in a 10-minute photo-op Friday with finalists in the hit television show "American Idol."

They got the photos. Bush got a harmonica engraved with "American Idol 2006."

The 10 finalists dropped into the Oval Office to see Bush in between his meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and another photo session with top high school students in the nation.

The president gave the performers a quick tour of the Oval Office and talked about his job. Bush posed for a group photo in front of his desk, and then individual photos with each finalist. He urged them to stick to their beliefs, even if their celebrity status grows.

-CNN

[Tingly]

Floyd Dixon, a singer and jump-blues pianist who became an influential figure in the R&B scene of 1950s Southern California and who is credited with influencing Ray Charles, has died of cancer. He was 77.

Dixon, an entertainer who dubbed himself "Mr. Magnificent" and whose best-known song was "Hey Bartender," which was made popular by the Blues Brothers, died Wednesday at Chapman Hospital in Orange, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Other notable recordings by Dixon included "Wine, Wine, Wine," "Call Operator 210," "Telephone Blues" and the early Jerry Lieber-Mike Stoller song, "Too Much Jelly Roll," according to The Times.

-NBC4

[Tingly]

EMI Music, part of the world's third-largest music company, has signed a deal to licence its entire U.S. catalogue of digital recordings to Mashboxx, a legal file-sharing network currently in development.

Mashboxx has already signed a deal with Sony BMG, the world's second largest record company. Its software is designed to let users purchase music from within existing peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

"Legal peer-to-peer services which offer consumers a great user experience and which compensate creators appropriately are good for music fans, good for artists, and good for the digital music market as a whole," said David Munns, Chairman and CEO of EMI Music North America in a statement on Friday.

-Scotsman

[Lazy Bee]

"American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks has obtained a temporary injunction preventing his former producer from releasing a song Hicks wrote and recorded nearly 10 years ago, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The order will delay the release of "The Fall" by William Smith Productions for at least 10 days. Hicks claims the song proposed for release is an unfinished version.

-MTV

Speaking of Taylor Hicks. A friend of mine submitted an R&B song to Clive Davis's office for Hicks upcoming album. He did solicit it with a phone call, and attached an aggresive letter as to why he felt it was the perfect song for him.

My friend actually got a return phone call from an assistant to Clive to let him know hey got the song, liked it, and are going to play it for Taylor at their next pre-production meeting. :eek:

Now that's a loooooong way from a decision to cut it, but we're just blown away that it got through not to mention chosen for consideration.