Welcome to CraveOnline's weekly music news roundup! Covering all the latest in the hits, the bombs and the trainwrecks, we sift through the headlines and bring you just what you need to know about musical current events. Whether it's Trent Reznor's latest flash of awesome, a free new album by Del The Funky Homosapien or a rundown of the chart-toppers, we've got you covered.
Top 5 Billboard Albums
This week's rundown of the top 5 Billboard albums has been called off due to a stomach-turning infestation by inferior commercial soullessness, including the soundtracks to both Twilight and the Hannah Montana movie, Kelly Clarkson's new cd and - at the #1 spot, incredibly - is the new NOW! compilation, featuring various artists such as...
Billboard Hot 100 Update
Lady GaGa tops Flo Rida for the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, becoming the first artist in nearly a decade to reach the top of the chart with her first two offerings. Does that mean she's going to be around for a while? Cause I didn't sign up for that.
The butterfaced New York native, born Stefani Germanotta, previously held the #1 spot for three weeks with "Just Dance" in January. "Just Dance" is #9 on this week's chart.
The last performer to launch with a pair of Hot 100 chart-toppers was skankalicious Christina Aguilera, who reigned with "Genie in a Bottle" (1999) and "What a Girl Wants" (2000).
Flo Rida's still going strong, however, with "Right Round" sitting pretty at No. 2. "Kiss Me Thru The Phone" by Soulja Boy Tell 'em featuring Sammie lands at #3, while "Dead and Gone," by T.I. featuring Justin Timberlake lands at #4 and "Blame It," by Jamie Foxx featuring T-Pain, rounds out the top spots at #5.
While the rest of us rage against the recession and argue over the value of file sharing, legendary Oakland MC and core Hieroglyphics member Del The Funky Homosapien has been prepping his answer to all our problems- it’s called Funk Man (The Stimulus Package), and he’s giving it away. For free.
Don’t call it a mixtape- Funk Man is a polished, 13-track burst of genuine Del goodness that features an evolved style and production method.
For “audiophiles and nerds,” the album’s offered in 8 different download format options, including FLAC and Apple Lossless. That’s right- no half-steppin’ here. The same can be applied to the tracks, which after first listen strike me as a beat-heavy logical next step for the notoriously creative MC.
It takes time to peel apart a Del CD. I’ll give it a couple days to sink in before a proper breakdown, but so far my ears are happy.
Trent Reznor took to his Twitter account just before 10 AM on Tuesday, April 1, blowing minds once again with an announcement: “I’ve been busy. Brand new FULL LENGTH NIN record available now,” with a link to his website. Strangely, the word “free” was not included, but no alarms were set off in my head until I clicked the link. Thankfully, I remembered what day it is before the page fully loaded.
The link destination is a dummy buy page for Strobe Light, the “new NIN record,” which includes the following message:
To download NIN’s new full-length album Strobe Light, PRODUCED BY TIMBALAND, enter a valid email address in the fields below. A download link will be sent to you immediately. Your credit card will be charged $18.98 plus a $10 digital delivery convenience fee. Your files will arrive as windows media files playable on quite a few players with your name embedded all over them just in case you lose them. You will also receive an exclusive photo and a free email account with our partner Google’s Gmail service.
Your email will be kept confidential and will not be used for spam, unless we can make some money selling it.
It’s no secret that Trent’s no fan of Chris Cornell’s recent self-blaspheming trade of dignity for R&B “artistry,” but this latest dig takes ball-breaking hilarity to a whole new level, and t-bones Marilyn Manson’s ridiculous attempt at copping his style in the process.
With song titles like Everybody’s Doing It (featuring Chris Martin, Jay-Z AND Bono), On The List (She’s Not) and Even Closer (featuring Justin Timberlake and Maynard James Keenan), one kinda wishes he actually had recorded Strobe Light, if only to show Mr. Spoonman how to “experiment” without cutting off your balls and pandering to aliens. But unfortunately, entering your email address gives you something entirely different. I won’t ruin the surprise.
Metallica will mesh the past with the present and rock two bassists at this weekend's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony in Cleveland.
Jason Newsted had told Billboard.com that his replacement, Robert Trujillo, would not take part in the performance part of Saturday night's induction, but a spokesman for the group's label, Warner Bros. Records, was quick to correct him. "Jason and Robert will both be playing Metallica's induction songs."
Earlier this week, Newsted, who was Metallica's bassist from 1986-2001, said that when Lars Ulrich called to invite him to play at the ceremony, the drummer told him that "Robert's not gonna play at all...He wants to be there as a fan, too, and wants to see the Black album band." Newsted added that he never expected to play in the first place and was "totally on board" with the idea of the current version of Metallica performing without him.
"I felt strongly they should go as that band and represent because...they're strong right now together," Newsted said. "There was no negativity, no hubbub or jealousy or silly, childish...It was years ago, man. We're just gonna have a...great celebration."
Ah, the sweet sound of millionaires trying not to offend each other.
Fans in the Chicago area can get in on the "Early bird" $175 three-day passes for this summer's Lollapalooza festival, which went on sale Monday. The annual festival will take place August 7-9 in Chicago's Grant Park.
The full line-up for this year's festival won't be announced until April 21, but headliners include Beastie Boys, Jane's Addiction, Depeche Mode, Tool, Kings of Leon and the Killers. Fleet Foxes, Andrew Bird, Lou Reed, Neko Case, the Decemberists, and Peter, Bjorn and John are among the more than 100 additional acts that will appear at the festival.
The 2008 edition of Lollapalooza sold out all three days for the first time since the festival was reborn as a weekend-long stand-alone event in Chicago.
Next week's chart toppers will be Prince and Keith Urban, but who's taking #1? Actually, who cares? Both artists are locked in a close race for #1. According to Reuters, “industry prognosticators” anticipate Urban’s Defying Gravity will edge out Prince’s triple attack of LOtUSFLOW3R, MPLSoUND and Bria Valente’s Elixer. Both albums are expected to sell about 150,000 copies.
Prince's LOtUSFLOW3R package album was released on Sunday, March 29th, giving Prince an additional two days of sales and a nine-day debut week.
Beck will reissue his 1994 folk album One Foot in the Grave on April 14th, with a whopping 16 unreleased songs added to the original track list. The album was originally distributed by K Records and recorded before — but released after — Beck’s breakthrough major debut Mellow Gold.
“Well, it’s been out of print for a few years, so it’s something we’ve been planning, but I knew that we had these extra tracks," Beck told an interviewer recently. "I’ve actually been working on this for the past two or three years,” Beck told the newspaper. “[On] the original tapes there were an extra maybe 30 songs that weren’t on the record and I picked the best… and added them on there, so it’s got about a little over a dozen extra tracks that no one’s heard before.”
The childhood home of the legendary Jimi Hendrix has been dismantled after eight years of preservation efforts failed. Little of the house originally in Seattle's Central Area neighbourhood remains on a lot across the street from where Hendrix was buried.
Owner Pete Sikov told the Seattle Times for a story Tuesday that parts have been saved and may be sold later.
Teenagers are buying fewer downloads, using P2P less frequently and listening to more music streams, according to a new report by NPD Groupmore. But that doesn't mean you should go dive into that ill-conceived mixtape podcast idea. Nobody likes podcasts anymore. Stations like twt.fm and Blip.fm are where it's at now, especially among the Twitter elite. Get on board, kids. It's the future.
Tell me if you've heard this one before (or thirty times): Velvet Revolver guitarist and former Guns N' Roses member Slash has posted the following update regarding his upcoming solo album and the search for a new Velvet Revolver vocalist:
"Hey gang, what's happening? Things are going fantastic in the studio, Josh Freese and Chris Chaney are one hell of a rhythm machine and the guitar sound is FAT! Fucking awesome tone! All is going perfect so far. We start recording vocals today and I'm really excited about working with this particular individual, its going to be quite an event.
In reading your mail I find that I've been receiving a lot of questions about Velvet Revolver. Mostly about if we have found a new singer and if we're going to tour again. In response to the former, no we haven't found a singer yet. There was a lot of talk about our announcing a new singer in March but it obviously didn't happen. We had somebody that we thought was a really good candidate, but it just wasn't meant to be. So, we're still looking. In response to the latter question, of course Velvet Revolver is going to tour again, we just have to find the right person to front the band. We have a bunch of new material and we're all anxious to get going, but the key ingredient for a rock & roll band such as VR is an amazing frontman, and we haven't found the right man for the job, yet.
Does anybody give a rat's ass about this band anymore? Did they ever? Why?
File sharing is good for the music industry. Anyone with a basic understanding of modern technology and buying trends in the industry knows it, but finally someone is walking into a courtroom and testifying: Radiohead’s manager, Brian Message. Message will be testifying on behalf of a grad student named Joel Tenenbaum, who is currently being sued by the RIAA for sharing seven songs in 2003. He’s actually done a pretty good job of sharing his side of the story and rallying support, through the website joelfightsback.com.
Tenenbaum’s lawyer, Charles Nesson, asserts correctly: ”It’s clear that one of the issues that’s at play in the case is this idea that there’s been tremendous damage done to the music business,” Nesson added. “While there may have been some damage done to the CD business, the music business is going to be saved by readjusting and developing these exciting new business models that are consistent with a digital environment.”
“He is leading a wonderful group of UK artists who are coming out in favor of the idea of non-commercial sharing among music fans,” Nesson said of Message, who intends to come into court and testify that it’s good for the music industry.
You know, with all these people being sued and prosecuted by the RIAA for sharing music, it’d be pretty sad to someday look back on all of it and say that maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing.
It’s downright criminal if we’re going to look back on all of it and say that it was a good thing.
