Billboard 200 Update
The soundtrack to Hannah Montana: The Movie made its way to #1 for the first time last week, bouncing to the top of the chart with 133,000 unites shipped, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's a decline of 32% compared to last week's movement of 196,000.
Rascal Flatts' Unstoppable lands at #3 with 107,000, a drop of 69% and the debut of Day26's Bad Boy set "Forever In a Day" (No. 2 with 113,000). The former Lyric Street album arrived at No. 1 last week with 351,000. lsewhere in the top 10, the "Twilight" soundtrack (Summit/Chop Shop/Atlantic) jumps four slots to No. 4 with 49,000 despite a 27% decline in sales, the "Now 30" compilation (UMe) holds at No. 5 (45,000; down 54%),
Hot 100 Update
The Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" holds down the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for a third week, while Lady GaGa's "Poker Face" stays strong at #2 while Flo Rida's "Right Round" does likewise at #3. Miley Cyrus' "The Climb" rises to #4, while "Kiss Me Thru the Phone" by Soulja Boy Tell'em (featuring Sammie) slips a notch to #5.
Sure, we're on the brink of all-out economic collapse, but this year's Coachella festival sure wasn't feeling the strain last weekend. A collection of review headlines from the event: AP headline: "Crowds fill seemingly recession-proof Coachella." Lead from the New York Times report: "What does it look like when the concert industry exhales in relief? Tens of thousands of illuminated cellphones, swaying in the night." Gawker's impression: "No Recession for Hipsters." Nice. ...
If I didn't know better, I'd say that live music is kicking more ass now than ever before.
Peter Althin, the lawyer representing Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde, plans to demand a retrial following Swedish reports that the judge presiding over the recent trial of four men behind the BitTorrent tracker is a member of multiple copyright protection organizations. Sveriges Radio's P3 first broke the news, which you can read more about here.
"I will point that out in my appeal, then the Court of Appeal will decide if the district court decision should be set aside and the case revisited," Sunde's lawyer Peter Althin is quoted by Swedish Web site the Local.
The four defendants were sentenced to a year in prison and damages of 30 million kronor ($3.58 million). Naturally, this has "mistrial" written all over it.
"In the autumn I received information that a lay judge could have similar connections," Althin added. "I sent these to the court and the judge was excluded in order to prevent a conflict of interest. It would have been reasonable to then review this situation as well."
Norström is a member is Svenska Föreningen för Upphovsrätt (the Swedish Copyright Association), along with Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadsted, lawyers who represented the entertainment industry in the case. The judge is also on the board of Svenska Föreningen för Industriellt Rättsskydd (Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property).
Are we supposed to care? KoRn singer Jonathan Davis, bassist Fieldy, guitarist Munky and drummer Ray Luzier have been working together in Fieldy's basement studio in Laguna Hills, CA coming up with material for a new album, as well as a full album of cover songs.
The group is working with original KoRn producer Ross Robinson, who is reportedly "bringing them back to their roots."
Fieldy told Billboard.com that working with Robinson "really brings out old school Korn. It's heavy riffs and we're trying to strip it down raw and get those heavy groove riffs that make you want to hop around or jump around or just go crazy."
What the hell is "old school" Korn? Korn has put out the same goddamned album for 15 years straight.
Gregg Gillis, better known as mash-up master Girl Talk is headed in a new direction for the follow-up to 2008's lauded "Feed the Animals."
"I'm experimenting with different structures and different ideas," Gillis told Billboard.com during a conference call. "I'm interested in working on individual songs - kind of in the style I've been doing, but with actual repetition as opposed to linear structure and stuff like that, some elements with a verse-and-chorus sort of structure as opposed to going through 50 minutes of change-ups the entire time. I want to evolve and keep refining."
Don't hold your breath for the new material, though - Gillis isn't pushing any sort of timetable for the next album.
"I'm constantly working on material," he said. "Every day I cut up music. I try not to be concerned with what will be on an album. I just try to come up with small ideas I introduce into the (live) set, and I'll eventually get to the point where I say, 'OK, here's this slightly new sound. I feel like there's some evolution.' I'm interested in putting out music, and it's always nice to give people music."
Although he's been courted by other labels in the wake of his "Feed the Animals" success, Gillis said he's planning to stay with Illegal Art. "I feel like we're a team, like they're a member of the band," he explained. "It would feel insane for me to go anywhere else." But he's not sure yet if he'll repeat the pay-what-you-want program he used for "Feed the Animals," saying that while it's a good interim step "it doesn't work for a long-term solution."
Tom Morello and Boots Riley have joined forces to form Street Sweeper Social Club. The group's self-titled debut album will be released June 16th through Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group. Yep, you heard that right: The Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group. How's that for an oxymoron?
The 11-song album was produced by Tom Morello and features Boots Riley on vocals, Morello on guitar and bass, and Stanton Moore of Galactic on drums.
"It's revolutionary party jams," said Morello of Street Sweeper Social Club. "It's got huge steamroller riffs combined with depth, charge, funk, while Boots unloads clip after clip of incendiary rhymes rich with satire and venom." Riley added, "This is a time when the working class is being fleeced left and right. More families will be homeless and more people will be jobless. They'll need something to listen to on their ipods while storming Wall Street."
Street Sweeper Social Club's debut tour will be opening all dates in North America on the Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction May-June Tour. The tour will find Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction sharing a stage for the first time since the debut of the Lollapalooza festival in 1991, provided that Jane's can keep from imploding for that long.
Rihanna has apparently come to her senses and decided not to give Chris Brown another chance to go all Chris Brown on her. She's ditched her one-time vacation partner for new, more prettier friend: Katy Perry.
Photos recently surfaced showing Rihanna and Katy Pery on a boat in Barbados, where the two are vacationing together. Perry recently talked about her friendship with Rihanna saying that the two talked after the alleged incident with Chris Brown. "I don't think I really, like, reached out to her. We're friends and we're both kind of on this crazy roller coaster, and ... it's nice to have good girlfriends. I pride myself on having cool chicks in my life, and she's a cool chick," Perry said. "We've hung out a couple times."
Who's up for a trip to Chicago? Depeche Mode, Tool, the Killers, Jane’s Addiction, Beastie Boys, and Kings of Leon will headline the 2009 Lollapalooza Festival. Lou Reed, Ben Harper and Relentless7, Thievery Corporation, Snoop Dogg, and Rise Against are among the more than 100 performers now confirmed for the event, to be held Aug. 7-9 at Chicago's Grant Park.
Andrew Bird, TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, the Decemberists, Neko Case, STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector Nine), Animal Collective, Band of Horses, Of Montreal, Arctic Monkeys, Coheed and Cambria, Ben Folds, Fleet Foxes, Silversun Pickups, Kaiser Chiefs, Bon Iver, Crystal Castles, Santigold, and many more bands and artists are also on on the bill.
The 2009 edition of Lollapalooza will also provide an improved cache of dance and electronic music on a nightclub-style stage called "Perry's." Bassnectar, MSTRKRFT, Simian Mobile Disco, KiD CuDi and A-Trak are among the DJs booked to spin.
"Early bird" discount tickets went on sale at the end of March, and a limited number of passes are still available for $195. Regular priced passes are $205, and a variety of V.I.P. options are also available at lollapalooza.com. The prices, which include service fees, remain the same as last year.
Stephen Marley is teaming up with Snoop Dogg and punk-reggae veterans Slightly Stoopid for the Blazed and Confused tour of North America, launching July 10th in Nevada. We were invited down to a Q&A with Snoop and Stoopid in the parking lot of a bar in downtown LA earlier this week, and though we didn't get much video (we were only allowed to ask two questions because Snoop needed a 15 minute "smoke break" in the 30 min. session), we did get the general gist that Snoop has no idea what the hell the Blazed and Confused tour is, or who Slightly Stoopid even are for that matter. They just point him in a smoky direction and off he goes.
A TV show about breaking stuff? Yeah, we're in, even if it means we have to deal with Andrew W.K. for a half hour every week. "Destroy Build Destroy," which debuts on Cartoon Network soon, will allow two teams to destroy big things, then create new exciting structures from the rubble. Andrew will then preside over a judging of the reconfigured items. As a bonus, the winning team gets to then destroy the losers’ hard work. Is this music news? I'm on the fence.
Canadian rapper K-os is about to embark on a 10-date Canadian tour (kicking off April 30), with a new kind of twist: fans will be able to pay what they want after witnessing the show.
Telecommunications giant Rogers Wireless will also have 100 promotional tickets and are underwriting 60% of the costs. The artist, who released his latest album, YES! on Tuesday, said it didn't take much sweet-talking to convince him to make the "pay what you can" concert idea a reality.
"I love risk," he says. "If I wanted no risk, I'd work some other job. I'm excited to see what will happen."
K-Os' manager says he doesn't view the concept as risky. "I don't view it as an experiment," he says. "It seems intuitive to me. I think the more chances people have to see K-os, the stronger his fan base will be."
Live Nation is involved as a promoter for the tour, and McBride says the company was, surprisingly, extremely accepting of the "pay as you can" idea.
K-os will be asking fans to make a "karma" donation inside the venue. Not all the proceeds will be going to him; fans can also donate to the David Suzuki Foundation and will get a "fan-mixed" version of the new album called Yes! It's Yours with donations.
You didn't actually think that Velvet Revolver has picked yet another singer yet, did you? Bassist Duff McKagan recently told RollingStone.com that the band hadn't yet settled on a new frontman, but all those recent reports that the group was close to naming their guy also were true.
"We thought we landed on the singer. We all did," McKagan said. "We played with him and we said, 'OK, we got our guy. He's great.'" However, the group had second thoughts. "Maybe if we would've got there and had gigs booked right then and there it would've been a different story," McKagan said. "But we didn't have gigs booked. We were given too much time and we were able to go, 'Ah, fuck, I don't like that about the guy.'"
