Music Shuffle: February 13
Nas with Damian Marley, The Fray unseats The Boss and Pearl Jam's back.
Top 5 Billboard Albums
Who's the Boss now? The Fray landed their first #1 on The Billboard 200 with their self-titled sophomore effort, selling 179,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Bruce Springsteen's Working on a Dream drops a notch to #2 in its second week on the charts, having sold 102,000 - a 55% drop in sales.
Do you know who Dierks Bentley is? I sure as hell don't, but 71,000 country fans sure do, because his album Feel That Fire debuts at #3 this week on The Billboard 200, and #1 on Top Country Albums charts. Believe it or not, this marks the singer's fourth straight top 10 on The Billboard 200. Hell, if Miley can do it...
Taylor Swift's Fearless drops to #4, despite a 16% sales increase with 64,000 units moved, while Beyonce's I Am ... Sasha Fierce dropped to #5 with 51,000 sold.
Billboard Hot 100 Update
Eminem returns to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with "Crack a Bottle," featuring Dr. Dre and 50 "beef" Cent, jumping from #78-1while setting a Nielsen SoundScan record for opening week download sales with 418,000.
It's Eminem's second Hot 100 hit, after 2002's "Lose Yourself," which spent 12 weeks at the top. He leads Kanye West's "Heartless," which inches up a spot to #2 this week, trading places with Lady GaGa's "Just Dance" featuring Colby O'Donis. Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You," drops three spots to #4, while Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" drops to #5.
Janet Jackson has denied rumors that she recently signed a 360 deal with Live Nation. The star parted ways with Island Def Jam in September 2008, and hasn't found a label home since then. Live Nation is a little busy taking over the world with their planned merger with Ticketmaster, so it was an unlikely story in the first place (not to mention that Jackson hasn't had anything resembling a real hit in years).
After eight wonderful years without them, the world has once again been infected with the sonic STD known as Limp Bizkit. The original lineup is reuniting for a tour and new album, according to a statement from Interscope Records. Fred Durst, Wes Borland, Sam Rivers, John Otto and DJ Lethal were last collectively heard from in the fall of 2001, after which Borland left the band to "focus on his own music," aka "get the fuck away and deny any association". Borland had rejoined the flaccid crumpet collective for the 2004 EP The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1), but left again shortly thereafter.
The band is scheduled to play international festivals this spring, including shows in Eastern Europe, as well as Germany's Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park festivals. In case you forgot, their first three albums have sold in excess of 20 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Much like George Bush and Creed, if you bring this on yourself, America, don't expect any sympathy.
Prosecutors don't expect charges will be filed against singer Chris Brown this week in the alleged domestic violence case involving singer Rihanna. The Los Angeles County DA's Office has requested that police provide more information about the incident, in which Brown reportedly smacked the shit out of the pop princess, effectively ending his career in the blink of an eye and earning himself instant Dead Man Walking status.
The 19-year-old R&B singer has yet to be charged with a crime, but the music world has already condemned the man that many believe bloodied and bruised the starlet on the way to the Grammys last Sunday. Rihanna, whose close supporters include Kanye and Jay-Z, pulled out of all scheduled appearances in light of the incident, as did Brown.
The embarrassing spectacle that opened the Grammys last Sunday was actually U2, performing their latest single, "Get On Your Boots." It was a complete goddamned nightmare, but that hasn't stopped the powers that be from lining up an unprecedented five-night stint as musical guests on the "Late Show with David Letterman" from March 2-6. The aging rockers will be supporting the release week of its next Interscope album, No Line on The Horizon, due March 3.
Nas has spent the past several weeks holed up in a Los Angeles recording studio, piecing together an as-yet-untitled collaboration with reggae star Damian Marley. Nas' manager, Anthony Saleh, recently told Billboard that the project will most likely be released in the spring. It's not clear which label will release it; Nas is signed to Def Jam, while Marley records for Universal.
"We've been recording in a studio, where people like Mick Jagger are recording. No one knew who we were," Saleh says. "We're going to Miami this week to finish it up and we're aiming to tour for the album this summer."
The album may be released in a special edition exclusively through Best Buy or Target. A portion of the proceeds will go toward building a school in Africa, though details are still being solidified.
Former Blind Faith bandmates Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton will embark on an arena tour this June, beginning June 10 in East Rutherford, N.J., and ending June 30 in Los Angeles.
After playing together at Clapton's 2007 Crossroads Festival outside Chicago,the two were inspired to team up for a set of Madison Square Garden shows last year, which went so well that the duo plan to not only release a CD/DVD of the shows, but try to recreate the magic this summer on the road.
Rapper/actor and former Interscope artist Snoop Dogg has signed a multi-rights deal with MTV to distribute, market and promote his next album, Malice in Wonderland, which is due to drop later this year.
An MTV spokesperson said details will be released soon on the business plan for the album, as well as more info about Malice itself. The album will feature tracks by Pharrell and composer Lalo Schifrin, as well as longtime collaborator Dr. Dre.
Snoop's music will also be made available through the Rock Band video game at a future date, and he's about to begin hosting a new variety show, "Dogg After Dark," on MTV. It premieres Monday, February 17.
Pearl Jam is headed to a Los Angeles studio for a two-week recording session with producer Brendan O'Brien, prepping for its ninth studio album, which the band plans to release on its own.
According to Billboard:
After laying down some instrumental beds last summer, additional demos were put to tape in December, and the band's non-singing members formulated another batch of material during a recent trip to Montana.
Frontman Eddie Vedder "put rough vocals on about half the stuff we worked on in December," bassist Jeff Ament tells Billboard.com. "There's a handful of really great lyrics. Lyrically, that stuff is in the embryonic stage, but there's a handful of lines and a couple of choruses that are just really great. He keeps getting better."
"I saw [guitarist] Mike [McCready] last night and we were both talking about this song and that song," he continues. "One of the songs we decided would go down a whole step and he was asking me about a chord progression."
This will be the first time Pearl Jam has spent significant time recording outside Seattle since 1996's "No Code," some of which was tracked with O'Brien in Chicago and New Orleans between touring. The band is confident the new album will be out in 2009.
"There's certainly been groups of songs that we've recorded very quickly," Ament says. "When we went to Atlanta and New Orleans, we could knock out two, three, four songs in the same amount of days. We did the same thing in Chicago. I'm kind of approaching it with the idea that it'll work out like those sessions did."
Ament says the band is very excited about the return of O'Brien, who hasn't worked on a full Pearl Jam album since 1998's Yield but has recently overseen a complete remixing of the band's 1991 debut, Ten, which will be reissued March 24 on Epic/Legacy.
"He brings a brutally honest approach to what he thinks is working and what isn't, and it really moves things along," he says. We don't get waded down with ideas that maybe aren't even that good. He's one of the few people outside of the band that we trust with our music, and we're really, really looking forward to making this record."
The new album will be the follow-up to Pearl Jam's self-titled 2006 release for J Records, which has sold 704,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The White Stripes will take the stage for the first time since Summer 2007 when they appear as the musical guests on the final episode of "Late Night With Conan O’Brien" on February 20th. They've long been favorites on the show, having played five straight nights in 2003. After Conan moves to L.A. to take over for Jay Leno as the "Tonight Show" host, Jimmy Fallon and the Roots will move into his time slot.
Trent Reznor appears to be producing the new Jane’s Addiction album - at least that's what people are saying after a picture of Rez and guitarist Dave Navarro in the studio popped up on the Nine Inch Nails website with the word “clue” in the photo title. “A look at something else that’s been going on, pt 4,” Reznor titled the post.
Jane's Addiction will also play an invite-only show this Monday at the Echoplex in Los Angeles - so if you've got any rock n' roll magic, now's the time to work it. A Jane's show is not to be missed - especially at a 500-capacity club.
Ozzy Osbourne's heading to the studio to record a new album instead of taking the famed Ozzfest summer festival out on tour. The postponement is likely more rooted in the dismal festival market this year, and the various problems that have plagued the metal festival over the past two years. Either way, I can't bring myself to care; the man is as relevant as Tila Tequila now.
Sirius XM radio is looking to filebankruptcy, the New York Times reports. Despite a merger that brought together the two major satellite-radio businesses in July 2008, company remains in debt the tune of $3.25 billion. The current credit squeeze, high-price talent (Howard Stern Howard Stern Howard Stern) and satellite launch expenses combined to make a hostile financial climate for the company. Bankruptcy won’t likely cause any service interruptions, but the NYT reports that the company could be forced to terminate the contracts of their marquee talent, namely Howard Stern, Martha Stewart and others, especially if they can't come up with the $175 million payment necessary to lenders by the end of this month.
Despite a bitter divorce and being artistically bankrupt, Madonna had a better year than any other musician last year, grossing more than $242 million while supporting her latest album, Hard Candy.
The top 20 artists, and their 2008 grosses:
1. Madonna: $242,176,466
2. Bon Jovi: $157,177,766
3. Bruce Springsteen: $156,327,964
4. The Police: $109,976,894
5. Celine Dion: $99,171,237
6. Kenny Chesney: $90,823,990
7. Neil Diamond: $82,174,000
8. Rascall Flatts: $63,522,160
9. Jonas Brothers: $62,638,814
10. Coldplay: $62,175,555
11. The Eagles: $61,132,213
12. Lil Wayne: $57,441,334
13. AC/DC: $56,505,296
14. Michael Buble: $50,257,364
15. Miley Cyrus: $48,920,806
16. Taylor Swift: $45,588,730
17. Journey: $44,787,328
18. Billy Joel: $44,581,010
19. Mary J. Blige: $43,472,850
20. Kanye West: $42,552,402
