R.E.M. have announced that Warner Bros. Records will release their upcoming new album, "Collapse Into Now," on March 8th, 2011.
Last week a free download of “Discoverer” was made available to fans that signed up for R.E.M.’s email list via www.remhq.com. Those who preorder "Collapse Into Now" on iTunes the week of December 20 will receive an instant download of “It Happened Today.”
From a press release:
For Collapse Into Now, R.E.M., which is singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, and bassist Mike Mills, re-teamed with Grammy Award-winning producer Jacknife Lee, who produced the band’s acclaimed previous album Accelerate. Lee is also noted for his work on albums by U2, Snow Patrol, The Hives, and indie stalwarts Kasabian, Editors, Aqualung, and Bloc Party. R.E.M. and Lee recorded the album in New Orleans at the Music Shed and in Berlin at the famed Hansa Studios, where several legendary albums, including David Bowie’s Heroes, U2’s Achtung Baby, and Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, were made. Additional recording and mixing was done at the venerable Blackbird Studio in Nashville.
The band has also revealed that Collapse Into Now features some very special guests: Patti Smith, guitarist Lenny Kaye, Peaches, Eddie Vedder, and The Hidden Cameras frontman Joel Gibb.
The track-listing for "Collapse Into Now" is as follows:
Captain Beefheart passed away this last week and it occurred to me that there is an entire generation who is not aware of his music. The New York Times posted this article about Don Van Vliet, aka, Captain Beefheart and I thought I would repost it.
Don Van Vliet, an artist of protean creativity who was known as Captain Beefheart during his days as an influential rock musician and who later led a reclusive life as a painter, died Friday. He was 69 and lived in Trinidad, Calif.
The cause was complications of multiple sclerosis, said Gordon VeneKlasen, a partner at the Michael Werner gallery in New York, where Mr. Van Vliet had shown his art, many of them abstract, colorful oils, since 1985. The gallery said he died in a hospital in Northern California.
Captain Beefheart’s music career stretched from 1966 to 1982, and from straight rhythm and blues by way of the early Rolling Stones to music that sounded like a strange uncle of post-punk. He is probably best known for “Trout Mask Replica,” a double album from 1969 with his Magic Band.
A bolt-from-the-blue collection of precise, careening, surrealist songs with clashing meters, brightly imagistic poetry and raw blues shouting, “Trout Mask Replica” had particular resonance with the punk and new wave generation to come a decade later, influencing bands like Devo, the Residents, Pere Ubu and the Fall.
Mr. Van Vliet’s life story is caked with half-believable tales, some of which he himself spread in Dadaist, elliptical interviews. He claimed he had never read a book and had never been to school, and answered questions with riddles. “We see the moon, don’t we?” he asked in a 1969 interview. “So it’s our eye. Animals see us, don’t they? So we’re their animals.”
The facts, or those most often stated, are that he was born on Jan. 15, 1941, in Glendale, Calif., as Don Vliet. (He added the “Van” in 1965.) His father, Glen, drove a bakery truck.
Don demonstrated artistic talent before the age of 10, especially in sculpture, and at 13 was offered a scholarship to study sculpture in Europe, but his parents forbade him. Concurrently, they moved to the Mojave Desert town of Lancaster, where one of Don’s high school friends was Frank Zappa.
His adopted vocal style came partly from Howlin’ Wolf: a deep, rough-riding moan turned up into swooped falsettos at the end of lines, pinched and bellowing and sounding as if it caused pain.
“When it comes to capturing the feeling of archaic, Delta-style blues,” Robert Palmer of The New York Times wrote in 1982, “he is the only white performer who really gets it right.”
He enrolled at Antelope Valley Junior College to study art in 1959 but dropped out after one semester. By the early 1960s he had started spending time in Cucamonga, Calif., in Zappa’s studio. The two men worked on what was perhaps the first rock opera (still unperformed and unpublished), “I Was a Teenage Maltshop,” and built sets and wrote some of the script for a film to be titled “Captain Beefheart vs. the Grunt People.”
The origins of Mr. Van Vliet’s stage name are unclear, but he told interviewers later in life that he used it because he had “a beef in my heart against this society.”
By 1965 a quintet called Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band (the “his” was later changed to “the”) was born. By the end of the year the band was playing at teenage fairs and car-club dances around Lancaster and signed by A&M Records to record two singles.
The guitarist Ry Cooder, then a young blues fanatic whose skill was much admired by Mr. Van Vliet, served as pro forma musical director for the next record, “Safe as Milk” (1967), which showed the band working on something different: a rhythmically jerky style, with stuttering melodies. The next album, “Strictly Personal” (1968), went even further in the direction of rhythmic originality.
But it was “Trout Mask Replica” that earned Mr. Van Vliet his biggest mark. And it was the making of that album that provided some of the most durable myths about Mr. Van Vliet as an imperious, uncompromising artist.
The musicians lived together in a house in Woodland Hills, in the San Fernando Valley; what money there was for food and rent was supplied by Mr. Van Vliet’s mother, Sue, and the parents of Bill Harkleroad, the band’s guitarist (whom Mr. Van Vliet renamed Zoot Horn Rollo). One persistent myth has it that Mr. Van Vliet, who had no formal ability at any instrument, sat at the piano, turned on tapes and spontaneously composed most of the record in a single marathon eight-and-a-half-hour session.
What really happened, according to later accounts, was that his drummer, John French (whose stage name was Drumbo), transcribed and arranged music as Mr. Van Vliet whistled, sang or played it on the piano, and the band learned the wobbly, intricately arranged songs through Mr. French’s transcriptions.
“Trout Mask” offers solo vocal turns that sound like sea shanties; intricately ordered pieces with two guitars playing dissonant lines; and conversations with Zappa, the record’s producer. But its most recognizable feature is its staccato, perpetually disorienting melodic lines.
Band members’ accounts have described Mr. Van Vliet as tyrannical. (Both Mr. French and Mr. Harkleroad have written memoirs with dark details about this period.)
Mr. Van Vliet’s eccentricity and his skepticism about the music industry had much to do with why his music remained mostly a cult obsession. His band was offered a slot at the Monterey International Pop Music Festival in 1967, but Mr. Cooder had quit a week before, and Mr. Van Vliet was too spooked to perform. In the following years, when the band was at its creative peak, it played relatively few concerts.
The Magic Band’s first records after “Trout Mask Replica,” starting with “Lick My Decals Off, Baby,” had a more mature sound, but by “Clear Spot,” in 1973, the band had turned toward blues-rock. It later made a few ill-conceived concessions to commercialism, and in 1974 the band quit en masse after the critically panned “Unconditionally Guaranteed.”
After a long falling-out, Mr. Van Vliet reunited with his old friend Zappa to tour and make the album “Bongo Fury” in 1975, then assembled a new band to record “Bat Chain Puller,” which was never released because of contractual tie-ups. Parts of it were rerecorded in 1978 for an album released by Warner Brothers, “Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller).”
When his business affairs cleared in the early 1980s, Mr. Van Vliet made two albums for Virgin, “Doc at the Radar Station” and “Ice Cream for Crow,” with a crew of musicians who had idolized him while growing up. The albums were enthusiastically received.
But “Ice Cream for Crow” was his last record; in 1982 he quit music to focus on his painting and moved to Trinidad, near the Oregon border, with his wife, Jan, who is his only survivor.
In the exhibition catalog to a show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the museum director, John Lane, wrote of Mr. Van Vliet’s work, “His paintings — most frequently indeterminate landscapes populated by forms of abstracted animals — are intended to effect psychological, spiritual and magical force.”
Some of the images were a continuation of his songwriting concerns, especially those involving animals. A lot of his work dwells on the beauty of animals, on animals acting like humans and even on humans turning into animals. In “Wild Life,” he sang, “I’m gonna go up on the mountain and look for bears,” and in “Grow Fins,” an extraordinary blues from the album “The Spotlight Kid” (1972), he threatened a girlfriend that if she didn’t love him better he would turn into a sea creature.
Mr. Van Vliet had rarely been seen since the early 1990s and seldom at his gallery openings.
“I don’t like getting out when I could be painting,” he told The Associated Press in 1991. “And when I’m painting, I don’t want anybody else around.”
Part 34 in a series on “The 27’s” – notable musicians who have passed away in their 27th year.
Born in 1973, Maria Serrano-Serrano was a trained nurse, dancer, model and singer in the band Passion Fruit.Established in 1999, Passion Fruit originally consisted of three women and a male who performed the rapping parts. It was this group that performed "The Rigga Ding Dong Song", which was the group’s most successful single.
Following the departure of one of the band members in October 1999 and tensions within the group, record company X-Cell Records decided not to continue with the project. Subsequently, the management team that created the group found a new line-up and a new record company and kept the name Passion Fruit to capitalize on the success of the first single.
The re-formed group consisted of only 3 members; Nathalie van het Ende, a background singer, dancer and model who was the second runner up in the 1995 Miss Holland pageant, Debby St. Marten, a dancer and model who had appeared in many music videos for Dutch and Belgian artists as well as Maria Serrano-Serrano.Over the course of 2000 and 2001, Passion Fruit released a trio of high charting singles and the album Spanglish Love Affairs.
On November 24, 2001, after a performance in Berlin they boarded Crossair flight 3597 to Zurich. On its way to landing, the pilot descended below the minimum descent altitude and crashed into a hill, killing twenty-four of the thirty-three on board.While Debby St. Marteen survived, Passion Fruit members Nathalie van het Ende and Maria Serrano-Serrano both passed away in the crash.
Passion Fruit was working on their second studio album in 2001 shortly before the crash. Only two singles were recorded during the period: "Bongo Man" and “I'm Dreaming Of...A White Christmas.” Both singles were released on separate singles albums in December 2001.
"I'm Dreaming Of...A White Christmas" was released on a singles CD called "I'm Dreaming Of...A Winter Wonderland” and in December 2001, Passion Fruit’s management decided to donate all the proceeds from the CD to the victims and survivors of the crash.
Part 33 in a series on “The 27’s” – notable musicians who have passed away in their 27th year.
In true Rock and Roll style, Sean Patrick McCabe choked to death on his own vomit while swilling alcohol on August 28, 2000. McCabe was the lead singer/song writer for the band Ink and Dagger.
Ink & Dagger was a punk band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who were active in the late 1990’s. The two permanent members throughout the band's career were guitarist Don Devore and vocalist Sean Patrick McCabe. Band members frequently incorporated references to vampires in their music, painted their faces, and played with fake blood. “Think of a vampire as a metaphor for the world,” says Robby Redcheeks, Ink & Dagger’s former roommate and road manager. “Blood is a person’s energy and vampires feed off of it. It had nothing to do with vampires per se, but was more a metaphor for punk rock and the society.”
“It was very discouraging to have people only see us as ‘that emo-goth-core band that wears makeup’ when there was much, much more to the puzzle,” singer Sean Patrick McCabe said in an interview with Ink19, a fanzine. “I can understand that some people never really took this band seriously.”
In 2000, shortly after finishing Ink & Dagger’s third and final album McCabe asphyxiated in an Indiana motel room.
After his death Michael Jackson became the best-selling artist of 2009 in the United States and sold over 35 million albums worldwide. Based on the staggering sales numbers, Sony, earlier this year, announced that they had signed a new deal with the Jackson estate to extend their distribution rights to his catalog until at least 2017, as well as to obtain permission to release ten new albums with previously unreleased material and new collections of released work.
Michael Jackson is back in stores with “Michael” a new album of material released by his record label against the wishes of his estate.
Criticisms by his mother, Katherine, and brother, Randy, claim that one of the songs features a lead vocal track that is not Michael's. In a statement, Sony Music Group countered that it had "complete confidence in the results of our extensive research, as well as the accounts of those who were in the studio with Michael, that the vocals on the new album are his own."
Ahead of the album's release, a lawyer for Michael's father Joe said that Michael "would never have wanted his unfinished material to be released." Will.i.am, who collaborated with Jackson for the album prior to his death, also criticized the release, saying it was "disrespectful" to release the unfinished material because Jackson was not able to give it his blessing.
It will be argued that the record should not have come out, that Jackson himself would not have authorized its release - were he alive - until all aspects met his approval.The album is in stores now, or you can listen to it for a short time by clicking here, or cutting and pasting the following link into your web browser: http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/#/1
It’s difficult to call this new music as it’s been in release for over a year in the UK and almost a year in the U.S. The band is Mumford & Sons and the album is “Sigh No More.” Chances are that if you listen to the radio you have probably heard the debut track, “Little Lion Man.” The album entered the UK Albums Chart at #11 on 11 October and has so far peaked at #3 on October 10, 2010, a year after it first entered the chart. The album also reached #1 in Australia, after spending 17 weeks in the charts, and has been certified double platinum.
The band is made up of Marcus Mumford (vocals, guitar, drums, mandolin), Ben Lovett (vocals, keyboards, accordion), "Country" Winston Marshall (vocals, banjo, dobro), and Ted Dwane (vocals, string bass). The band formed in late 2007, rising out of London's folk scene and is self described as new folk rock.
Mumford & Sons are nominated for a Grammy this year for Best New Artist and Spinner has the album up to stream. You can find it by clicking here – or copy and paste the following into your web browser: http://www.spinner.com/new-releases#/14
Track Listing:
1. "Sigh No More"
2. "The Cave"
3. "Winter Winds"
4. "Roll Away Your Stone"
5. "White Blank Page"
6. "I Gave You All"
7. "Little Lion Man"
8. "Timshel"
9. "Thistle & Weeds"
10. "Awake My Soul"
11. "Dust Bowl Dance"
12. "After the Storm"
Part 32 in a series on “The 27’s” – notable musicians who have passed away in their 27th year.
Raymond Rogers, better known as Freaky Tah, together with Mr. Cheeks, DJ Spigg Nice and Pretty Lou formed the hip-hop group called the Lost Boyz.The four Lost Boyz grew up together, earning money in their youth as drug dealers. The title of their 1996 debut album “Legal Drug Money” refers to going straight after seeing a drug dealer die in a shooting. Their second album, “Love Peace & Nappiness,” was released in 1997.
On the night of March 28, 1999, at Mr. Cheeks' 28th birthday party, Freaky Tah was shot in the back of his head by Kelvin Jones while he was going towards the exit of Sheraton Hotel. He was pronounced dead at about 4:20 AM.
The feud that resulted in the death of Freaky Tah can be traced back at least to November of 1998, when a member of the Lost Boyz was robbed.After the robbery someone police believe was a "hanger-on" in the Lost Boyz camp attempted to retaliate by shooting a man named Michael Saunders who was a member of the Hellraisers.The Hellraisers were described at the time not as a rap group, but more as a group of guys who were trying to put a rap group together.
Saunders, who actually had no involvement in the robbery, was the half-brother of Kelvin Jones.After Saunders was shot Jones went looking for the killer and when he heard that the Lost Boyz and their friends would be attending a party at a Sheraton Hotel, he recruited two friends to help him observe the party from a van outside the hotel.
The party cleared out as the evening stretched into the early morning of the28th and Jones, wearing a ski mask, left the van and walked into a crowd outside the hotel.In his confession to police, Jones said he chose Freaky Tah as his target because he believed the rapper was a cousin of the man who shot Saunders.
Three days after Freaky Tah's death, a man named Roger Paggent, who also was affiliated with the Hellraisers, was shot dead in Ozone Park, Queens.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Jim Morrison was posthumously pardoned Thursday for a 1970 indecent exposure conviction in Florida, a move a woman who said she was married to The Doors lead singer called a cheap political ploy.
Morrison, a Florida native, was appealing the conviction when he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 1971 at age 27. The pardon came a day after the singer would have turned 67.
Outgoing Gov. Charlie Crist asked for the pardon, which the Clemency Board granted unanimously. Crist said he doubts Morrison actually exposed his penis during a rowdy March 1, 1969 concert at Miami's Dinner Key Auditorium. He and a three-member Cabinet serve as the Clemency Board. The surviving members of The Doors supported the pardon.
Crist at the hearing called the conviction a "blot" on the record of an accomplished artist for "something he may or may not have done." He said Morrison died before he was afforded the chance to present his appeal, so Crist was doing that for him. Board members pointed out several times that they couldn't retry the case but that the pardon forgave Morrison, as others were absolved of their convictions on Thursday.
"In this case the guilt or innocence is in God's hands, not ours," Crist said.
Patricia Kennealy Morrison told The Associated Press before the board's action that she's not pleased with the pardon and doesn't think the late singer would be either because he didn't expose himself on stage. The conviction should be expunged or the verdict overturned rather than just pardoned, she said.
"The pardon says that all his suffering and all that he went through during the trial, everything both of us went through, was negated," she said.
Earlier, when asked about expunging Morrison's record or overturning the conviction, Crist said, "The option before us is the pardon or not."
Still, it's not enough, Kennealy Morrison said.
"He felt and he expressed to me on numerous occasions that he had been made a scapegoat of the counterculture movement," Kennealy Morrison said. "He was out there doing what he did, making himself a really easy target because he felt very strongly about it. Unfortunately they decided to go after him for it. It was a complete cheap, cynical, political ploy. That's the way I feel about the pardon."
Kennealy Morrison exchanged vows with Morrison in a Celtic pagan ceremony overseen by a licensed minister, she said. The marriage was valid, though she says she never filed the paperwork to put it in the books. Morrison left his entire estate to another woman, Pamela Courson, a longtime girlfriend who was with him in Paris when he died. Courson died in 1974.
Surviving band members say a drunken Morrison teased the crowd, but never exposed himself.
"It never actually happened. It was mass hypnosis," Ray Manzarek, The Doors' keyboard player, said in an interview before the vote.
It was common for fans to wait outside the Dakota to meet John Lennon and get his autograph and around 5:00 pm on December 8, 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono left their apartment. As Lennon and Ono walked to their limousine, several people seeking autographs, among them, Mark David Chapman, approached them. Chapman silently handed Lennon a copy of Double Fantasy, and Lennon obliged with an autograph. After signing the album, Lennon politely asked him, "Is this all you want?" Chapman smiled and nodded in agreement. Photographer and Lennon fan Paul Goresh snapped a photo of the encounter.
John and Yoko spent several hours at the Record Plant, a recording studio, before returning to the Dakota at approximately 10:50 pm. John had decided against dining out that night so he could be home in time to say goodnight to five-year-old son Sean before he went to sleep. John and Yoko exited their limousine on 72nd Street instead of driving into the more secure courtyard of the Dakota, where they would have avoided Chapman.
Yoko walked ahead of John and into the reception area, as Lennon passed by, he looked at Chapman briefly and continued on his way. After he had passed, Chapman fired five hollow-point bullets at John from a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver. The first bullet missed, passing over Lennon's head and hitting a window of the Dakota building. Of the remaining bullets, two struck Lennon in the left side of his back and two penetrated his left shoulder. Three of the four bullets passed completely through and exited the front of Lennon's body, resulting in a total of seven gunshot wounds.
The two fatal wounds were to his left lung and the left subclavian artery, near where it branches off of the aorta. Lennon, bleeding profusely from his external wounds and also from the mouth, staggered up five steps to the security/reception area and fell to the floor, scattering the arm-full of cassettes he had been carrying. Concierge Jay Hastings first started to attempt to make a tourniquet, but upon realizing the severity of his injuries, simply covered Lennon with his uniform’s jacket, removed his blood-covered glasses; and summoned the police.
Outside, doorman Jose Perdomo shook the gun out of Chapman's hand then kicked it across the sidewalk. Chapman then removed his coat and hat in preparation for the police arrival to show he was not carrying any concealed weapons and sat down on the sidewalk. Doorman Perdomo shouted at Chapman, "Do you know what you've done?" to which Chapman calmly replied, "Yes, I just shot John Lennon."
The first policemen to arrive were Steve Spiro and Peter Cullen, who were at 72nd Street and Broadway when they heard a report of shots fired at the Dakota. The officers found Chapman sitting calmly on the sidewalk. They reported that Chapman was holding a paperback book, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Chapman had scribbled a message on the book's inside front cover: "To Holden Caulfield. From Holden Caulfield. This is my statement." He would later claim that his life mirrored that of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the book.
Police officers Bill Gamble and James Moran, arrived a few minutes later. They immediately carried Lennon into their squad car and rushed him to Roosevelt Hospital. Officer Moran said they placed Lennon on the back seat. Moran asked, "Do you know who you are?" Lennon nodded slightly and tried to speak, but could only manage to make a gurgling sound, and lost consciousness shortly thereafter.
Dr. Stephan Lynn received Lennon in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital. When Lennon arrived, he had no pulse and was not breathing. Dr Lynn and two other doctors worked for 20 minutes, but the damage to the blood vessels around the heart was too great. Dr Lynn pronounced Lennon dead on arrival in the emergency room at the Roosevelt Hospital at 11:15 pm. The cause of death was reported as shock, caused by the loss of more than 80% of blood volume. Dr Elliott M. Gross, the Chief Medical Examiner, said that no one could have lived more than a few minutes with such multiple bullet injuries.
Yoko begged the hospital not to report that Lennon was dead until she had informed their son, Sean, who was at home at the time. Not knowing of this request, it so happened that a reporter from ABC's New York affiliate was in Roosevelt Hospital following a motorcycle accident, and confirmed that Lennon was dead. He called ABC News, who relayed the news to Roone Arledge, the executive producer of ABC's nationally televised Monday Night Football. Howard Cosell, Fran Tarkenton, and Frank Gifford, who were calling a game between the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots, overheard the confirmation. Cosell expressed apprehension over reporting Lennon's death on-air, but Gifford convinced him it was the right thing to do. Coming out of the commercial, after a brief set-up by Gifford, Cosell made the announcement:
“Yes, we have to say it. Remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all of The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash, which in duty bound, we have to take. ”
Chapman was sentenced to a 20-years-to-life term after rejecting an insanity defense and pleading guilty to the murder. At the time, psychiatrists who examined Chapman considered him delusional but not necessarily psychotic or unfit for trial. He's given sometimes conflicting interviews over the years, sometimes talking of hearing voices and arguing with imaginary figures, other times offering prosaic explanations having to do with envy or fame. At his 2000 parole hearing, he said he had "felt like nothing, and I felt if I shot him, I would become something." Chapman is still married to his longtime wife, Gloria, and gets conjugal visits at Attica.
Part 31 in a series on “The 27’s” – notable musicians who have passed away in their 27th year.
Patrick Lamont Hawkins, aka Fat Pat, was a rapper from Houston, Texas, and an original member of DJ Screw's Screwed Up Click. Also known as Mr. Fat Pat and Sugar Daddy, he was most prolific in the mid-1990s alongside his late brother Big Hawk and longtime friend Lil' Keke.
On February 3rd, 1998, Fat Pat was gunned down after he stopped by a promoter's apartment to collect an appearance fee. An apparent argument followed after Fat Pat told the promoter he would no longer be doing shows with him because of unpaid fees. The promoter left to get the money to pay the rapper. Sometime later Fat Pat was shot and left for dead.
Two weeks later, his debut album, Ghetto Dreams, dropped, featuring the underground hit single "Tops Drop." Four months later, Wreckshop Records released his second album, Throwed In Tha Game, which featured the single Holla At 'Cha Later. Weeks later, DJ Screw and the Screwed Up Click released their group's debut album, Screwed Up For Life.
The sixth studio album from The Plain White T's is “Wonders of the Younger.” Lead singer Tom Higgenson says of the album: "It's still very much a Plain White T's album. The songs are sincere and melodic, no matter what the subject matter. We want to create an experience that takes our fans to an unexpected place while still giving them songs to sing along to."
The album drops tomorrow, but you can listen to it today on AOL by clicking here or by cutting and pasting the link: http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/#/6 into your web browser.
American Idol runner up Crystal Bowersox's new album "Farmer's Daughter" doesn't release until Dec. 14, but you can listen to the album now on AOL by clicking here or cutting and pasting the link: http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/#/3 into your web browser.
Here's a look at the track listings.
1. "Ridin With The Radio" - written by Bowersox with background vocals by her husband, Brian Walker
2. "For What It's Worth" - The cover of the Buffalo Springfield song
3. "Farmer's Daughter" - written by Bowersox; a pre-"Idol" composition
4. "Holy Toledo" - written by Bowersox; you might remember it from before "Idol"
5. "Lonely Won't Come Around" - co-written by Bowersox, David Ryan Harris and Alexandra Tamposi
6. "Hold On" - written by former "Idol" judge Kara DioGuardi and Nickelback's Chad Kroeger
7. "On The Run" - written by Bowersox
8. "Kiss Ya" - written by Bowersox
9. "Speak Now" - written by Bowersox; presumably it's nothing like Taylor Swift's song of the same name
10. "Mine All Mine" - written by Bowersox
11. "Mason" - co-written by Bowersox and husband Walker, who also provides background vocals
Part 30 in a series on “The 27’s” – notable musicians who have passed away in their 27th year.
Richard James Edwards was a rhythm guitarist and lyricist of the alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers.Edwards vanished on 1 February 1995 and was declared presumed deceased in November 2008.
Edwards was initially a driver and roadie for Manic Street Preachers, but he soon became accepted as the band's main spokesman and fourth member. Edwards showed little musical talent - his real contribution to the Manic Street Preachers was in the words and design. Despite Edwards' lack of musical input, he nevertheless contributed to their overall musical direction and according to the rest of the band he played a leading role in deciding the approach of the band's sound.
Edwards suffered severe bouts of depression in his adult life, and was open about it in interviews: "If you're hopelessly depressed like I was, then dressing up is just the ultimate escape. When I was young I just wanted to be noticed. Nothing could excite me except attention so I'd dress up as much as I could. Outrage and boredom just go hand in hand.Gets to a point where you really can’t operate any more as a human being – you can’t get out of bed, you can’t...make yourself a cup of coffee without something going badly wrong or your body’s too weak to walk."
He also self-harmed, mainly through stubbing cigarettes on his body, and cutting himself and his problems with drugs and alcohol were well documented. After the release of the band's third album The Holy Bible, he checked into The Priory psychiatric hospital. On 15 May 1991, he gained notoriety following an argument with NME journalist Steve Lamacq, who questioned the band's authenticity and values.Lamacq asked of Edwards' seriousness towards his art, and Edwards responded by carving the words "4 Real" into his forearm with a razor blade he was carrying.The injury required hospitalization and eighteen stitches.
Edwards disappeared on 1 February 1995, on the day when he was scheduled to fly to the U.S. on a promotional tour.In the two weeks before his disappearance, Edwards withdrew £200 a day from his bank account, which totaled £2800 by the day of the scheduled flight.He checked out of his hotel at seven in the morning, and then drove to his apartment in Cardiff, Wales.In the two weeks that followed he was spotted several times in the area.On February 7th a taxi driver supposedly picked up Edwards from the King's Hotel in Newport, and drove him around the valleys, including Blackwood (Edwards’ home as a child). The passenger got off at the Severn View service station near Aust and paid the £68 fare in cash.
On 14 February, Edwards' car received a parking ticket at the Severn View service station and on 17 February, the vehicle was reported as abandoned. Police discovered the battery to be dead and that the car had been lived in. Since then he has reportedly been spotted in a hippie market in Goa, India and on the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. There have been other alleged sightings of Edwards, especially in the years immediately following his disappearance.However, none of these has proved conclusive and none has been confirmed by investigators.
While his family had the option of declaring him legally dead from 2002, they had chosen not to for many years, and his status remained open as a missing person, until November, 23 2008, when he became officially "presumed dead.”
The nominations are in for the 53rd Grammy Awards and this year Eminem tops the nominations with 10; Bruno Mars garners seven; and Jay-Z, Lady Antebellum, and Lady Gaga each earn six nods. Jeff Beck, B.o.B, David Frost, Philip Lawrence, and John Legend receive five each; and Alex Da Kid, the Black Keys, Drake, Cee Lo Green, Ari Levine, Katy Perry, Rihanna, the Roots, Dirk Sobotka, and Zac Brown each have four nominations.
The 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards will take place in Los Angeles at Staples Center on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011, and will air live on the CBS Television Network from 8–11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).
Below is a list of the nominees in the the major categories.
Song of the Year
'Beg, Steal or Borrow' -- Ray LaMontagne
'Forget You' -- Cee-Lo
'The House That Built Me' -- Miranda Lambert
'Love the Way You Lie' -- Eminem Feat. Rihanna
'Need You Now' -- Lady Antebellum
Album of the Year
'The Suburbs' -- Arcade Fire
'Recovery' -- Eminem
'Need You Now' -- Lady Antebellum
'The Fame Monster' -- Lady Gaga
'Teenage Dream' -- Katy Perry
Best New Artist
Justin Bieber
Drake
Florence and the Machine
Mumford and Sons
Esperanza Spalding
Record of the Year
'Nothing on You' -- B.o.B. Feat. Bruno Mars
'Love the Way You Lie' -- Eminem Feat. Rihanna
'Forget You' -- Cee-Lo
'Empire State of Mind -- Jay-Z Feat. Alicia Keys
'Need You Now' -- Lady Antebellum
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
'King of Anything' -- Sara Bareilles
'Halo (Live)' -- Beyoncé
'Chasing Pirates' -- Norah Jones
'Bad Romance' -- Lady Gaga
'Teenage Dream' -- Katy Perry
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
'Haven't Met You Yet' -- Michael Bublé
'This is It' -- Michael Jackson
'Whataya Want from Me' -- Adam Lambert
'Just the Way You Are' -- Bruno Mars
'Half of My Heart' -- John Mayer
Best Female Country Vocal Performance
'Satisfied' -- Jewel
'The House That Built Me' -- Miranda Lambert
'Swingin'' -- LeAnn Rimes
'Temporary Home' -- Carrie Underwood
'I'd Love to Be Your Last' -- Gretchen Wilson
Best Pop Performance By a Group or Duo with Vocals
'Don't Stop Believin' (Regionals Version)' -- 'Glee' cast
'The Only Exception' -- Paramore
'Babyfather' -- Sade
'Hey, Soul Sister (Live)' -- Train
Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals
'Airplanes, Part II' -- B.o.B., Eminem & Hayley Williams
'Imagine' -- Herbie Hancock, Pink, India.Arie, Seal, Konono No 1, Jeff Beck & Oumou Sangare
'If it Wasn't for Bad' -- Elton John & Leon Russell
'Telephone' -- Lady Gaga & Beyoncé
'California Gurls' -- Katy Perry & Snoop Dogg
Best Pop Vocal Album
'My World 2.0' -- Justin Bieber
'I Dreamed a Dream' -- Susan Boyle
'The Fame Monster' -- Lady Gaga
'Battle Studies' -- John Mayer
'Teenage Dream' -- Katy Perry
Best Country Song
'The Breath You Take' -- George Strait
'Free' -- Zac Brown Band
'The House That Built Me' -- Miranda Lambert
'I'd Love to Be Your Last' -- Gretchen Wilson
'If I Die Young' -- The Band Perry
'Need You Now' -- Lady Antebellum
Best Country Album
'Up on the Ridge' -- Dierks Bentley
'You Get What You Give' -- Zac Brown Band
'The Guitar Song' -- Jamey Johnson
'Need You Now' -- Lady Antebellum
'Revolution' -- Miranda Lambert
Best Rock Song
'Angry World' -- Neil Young
'Little Lion Man' -- Mumford & Sons
'Radioactive' -- Kings Of Leon
'Resistance' -- Muse
'Tighten Up' -- The Black Keys
Best Rock Album
'Emotion & Commotion' -- Jeff Beck
'The Resistance' -- Muse
'Backspacer' -- Pearl Jam
'Mojo' -- Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
'Le Noise' -- Neil Young
Best R&B Song
'Bittersweet' -- Fantasia
'Finding My Way Back' -- Jaheim
'Second Chance' -- El DeBarge
'Shine' -- John Legend & The Roots
'Why Would You Stay' -- Kem
Best R&B Album
'The Love & War Masterpeace' -- Raheem DeVaughn
'Back To Me' -- Fantasia
'Another Round' -- Jaheim
'Wake Up!' -- John Legend & The Roots
'Still Standing' -- Monica
Best Contemporary R&B Album
'Graffiti' -- Chris Brown
'Untitled' -- R. Kelly
'Transition' -- Ryan Leslie
'The ArchAndroid' -- Janelle Monáe
'Raymond V Raymond' -- Usher
Best Rap Song
'Empire State Of Mind -- Jay-Z & Alicia Keys
'Love the Way You Lie' -- Eminem & Rihanna
'Not Afraid -- Eminem
'Nothin' On You' -- B.o.B & Bruno Mars
'On To The Next One' --Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz
Best Rap Album
'The Adventures of Bobby Ray' -- B.o.B
'Thank Me Later' -- Drake
'Recovery' -- Eminem
'The Blueprint 3' -- Jay-Z
'How I Got Over' -- The Roots
Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television
'Crazy Heart' -- Various Artists
'Glee: The Music, Volume 1' -- 'Glee' Cast
'Treme' -- Various Artists
'True Blood-Volume 2' -- Various Artists
'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse' -- Various Artists.
Part 29 in a series on “The 27’s” – notable musicians who have passed away in their 27th year.
Kristen Pfaff was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, and attended Boston College and the University of Minnesota where she studied classical piano and cello. Following her graduation, Kristen taught herself to play bass guitar. With guitarist/vocalist Joachim Breuer and drummer Matt Entsminger she formed the band Janitor Joe.
Pfaff's playing style was relentless and central to Janitor Joe's sound, both live and recorded. The band was influenced by early grunge and the sharper, faster post-hardcore east coast punk sound. Their first single was released on OXO records imprint in 1992 and they followed with an album, Big Metal Birds, in 1993.
While on tour with Janitor Joe, Pfaff was scouted by Eric Erlandson and Courtney Love of Hole, who were at the time looking for a new bassist. Love invited Pfaff to play with Hole. Pfaff was initially reluctant to leave Minneapolis and join Hole but Erlandson and Love continued to pursue her. Eventually Pfaff relented as Hole was already signed to Geffen Records and from a career perspective joining an established band seemed to be a good move.
Kristen’s time with Hole was seemingly a good time for her, she formed a close relationship Kurt Cobain and began dating Eric Erlandson, they stayed together for most of 1993 and remained close even after splitting up. But during this period Pfaff developed a heroin addiction. She entered rehab in the winter of 1993, and took a sabbatical from Hole in spring 1994 to tour with Janitor Joe. Soon after the tour ended Kurt Cobain committed suicide and in the wake of his death Pfaff decided to leave Hole and return to Minneapolis to rejoin Janitor Joe permanently.
On June 15th 1994, Kristen was packed and ready to leave Seattle. A friend, Paul Erickson, was planning to drive her back to Minneapolis the next day. That evening around 8:00 pm Eric Erlandson stopped in to see Kristen, he is the last known person to see her alive. At 9:00 am the following morning Paul Erickson let himself into Kristen’s apartment, when he called for her, there was no reply. Searching the apartment he realized the bathroom door was locked, he called her again, and broke the bathroom door down finding Kristen dead having died from a heroin overdose sometime during the previous evening.
Her father, Norman Pfaff, described her as “bright, personable, wonderful...very, very talented, smart, and she always seemed to be in control of her circumstances.” In the book “Love & Death,” Kristen’s mother, Janet Pfaff, says that she has never accepted the official story regarding her daughter's death.
Back before Black Friday Lee DeWyze, the winner of last season’s American Idol, debuted his first album, “Live It Up.” If you missed buying a copy of the CD then you weren’t alone because according to Neilsen Soundscan DeWyze had the absolute worst sales numbers ever for an American Idol winner.
“Live It Up” only sold 39,000 units in its first week making it the worst debut by an Idol winner - ever. By comparison, Kris Allen sold 80,000 copies the year before and David Cook sold 280,000 the year before that. To find the best sales record you’d have to go all the way back to 2003 when Clay Aiken sold 613,000 as the runner-up.
Lee isn't only the lowest-selling winner, but he's also lower than any runner-up, beating Diana DeGarmo by 8,000 less albums sold. In any typical week DeWyze may have made the Billboard top 10, but considering the competitive debuts; Susan Boyle, Rihanna, Josh Groban, Kid Rock, Rascal Flats, Keith Urban and Nelly, I suppose ending the week at #19 isn’t all that bad.
Next up on the block, Crystal Bowersox – the runner up to Lee DeWyze debuts her first album, "Farmer's Daughter" on December 14. "Farmer's Daughter" will feature eight songs written by Crystal as well as a track written by Kara DioGuardi and Nickelback's Chad Kroeger, a Buffalo Springfield cover, and "Mason", a song written by Crystal and her husband Brian.
It has become evident that Axl Rose still has a chip on his shoulder. The animosity that he holds against his former bandmate, Slash, is the basis behind a lawsuit brought against the video game company Activition.
Rose is suing the company for $20 million over the game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and it's depictions of Slash as well as his inclusion as a playable character. The lawsuit claims that Axl Rose and his publishing company, Black Frog, were duped into an agreement to license the song "Welcome to the Jungle" for the game on the condition that it would not feature Slash or even his band Velvet Revolver in any way.
Rose also claims that the GNR song "Sweet Child O' Mine" was used in an online promotion for GH III despite being licensed only for GH II. He wants $20 million in damages from sales of the popular game.
"This lawsuit is about protecting Guns N' Roses and 'Welcome to the Jungle' and is about holding Activision accountable for its misuse of these incredibly valuable assets," Rose lawyer Skip Miller says. "The relief we are seeking is disgorgement of profits and compensatory and punitive damages."
"There's zero possibility of me having anything to do with Slash other than by ambush, and that wouldn't be pretty," Rose said in 2009. "In a nutshell, personally I consider him a cancer and better removed, avoided." Rose also sued his former manager Irving Azoff, the CEO of Live Nation Ticketmaster, accusing Azoff of conspiring to assemble a Guns N' Roses reunion tour that included Slash. That legal tiff is likely the reason why Axl's GNR hasn't toured the U.S. on its "Chinese Democracy" trek.
Slash, on the other hand, is not bitter about the breakup and would rather move on.
Five hours before Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon he had autographed a copy of “Double Fantasy” for his killer. After Chapman murdered Lennon, the autographed album was found at the entrance to the Dakota by Phillip Michael, a maintenance man at the Dakota.
Michael had been at a wrestling match at Madison Square Garden that night when his friend who said he would give him a lift home failed to turn up. As he walked back home he came across Lennon’s house moments after the shooting and just as the crowd was beginning to form.
Chapman had stored the album in a planter next to the Dakota building where it fell on to Michael’s head. He put it back, it fell out once more, then a third time at which point he decided to keep it. Later that night when he later shared a taxi with a reporter Michael finally learned what had happened, and the importance of the album that had landed on his head.
Michael gave the album to police, who later returned it to him after the investigation into Lennon's death. Nearly 20 years later Michael sold the album, complete with police evidence tags and Chapman’s fingerprints, to an anonymous collector for $165,000. Chapman has over the years tried to get the album back but his attempts have failed.
Now, as we near the 30th anniversary of Lennon’s death, the album is again up for sale. Autograph dealer Gary Zimet, who first sold the album to an anonymous buyer is offering the album for $850,000.
Says Zimet, "The current owner doesn't want to be named because he received death threats."
Part 28 in a series on “The 27’s” – notable musicians who have passed away in their 27th year.
Kurt Cobain was best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana which he formed with Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1985. Cobain has been remembered as one of the most iconic rock musicians in the history of alternative music. He was often uncomfortable and frustrated, believing his message and artistic vision to have been misinterpreted by the public and his personal issues often subject to media attention.
During the last years of his life, Cobain struggled with heroin addiction, illness and depression, his fame and public image, as well as the professional and lifelong personal pressures surrounding himself and his wife, Courtney Love. On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle, the victim of what was officially ruled a suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.
Cobain had been disillusioned and frustrated for some time and the months leading up to his suicide had seen an increase in his drug use and depression. In early March 1994, while on tour in Germany, Cobain was diagnosed with bronchitis and severe laryngitis. He flew to Rome the next day for medical treatment, and was later joined there by his wife. The next morning, Love awoke to find that Cobain had overdosed on a combination of champagne and Rohypnol. Cobain was immediately rushed to the hospital, and spent the rest of the day unconscious. After five days in the hospital, Cobain was released and returned to Seattle. Love later said that this was Kurt’s first attempt at suicide.
A few weeks later, Love phoned Seattle police informing them that Cobain was suicidal and had locked himself in a room with a gun. Police arrived and confiscated several guns and a bottle of pills from Cobain, who insisted that he was not suicidal and had locked himself in the room to hide from Love. When questioned by police, Love said that Cobain had never mentioned that he was suicidal and that she had not seen him with a gun.
Love arranged an intervention shortly thereafter. The intervention was initially unsuccessful, with an angry Cobain locking himself in the upstairs bedroom, but by the end of the day Cobain had agreed to undergo a detox program. At the end of March Cobain arrived at the Exodus Recovery Center in Los Angeles. He spent that first day talking to counselors about his drug abuse and playing with his daughter Frances. This was the last time she would see her father. The following night, Cobain walked outside to have a cigarette and climbed over a six-foot-high fence to leave the facility.
On 2 April and 3 April 1994, Cobain was spotted in various locations around Seattle. Love contacted a private investigator and hired him to find Cobain. On 8 April 1994, Cobain's body was discovered at his Lake Washington home by an electrician who had arrived to install a security system. Apart from a minor amount of blood coming out of Cobain's ear, the electrician reported seeing no visible signs of trauma, and initially believed that Cobain was asleep until he saw the shotgun pointing at his chin.
A suicide note was found, addressed to Cobain's childhood imaginary friend "Boddah", that said, paraphrasing, "I haven't felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music, along with really writing . . . for too many years now.” A high concentration of heroin and traces of Valium were also found in his body. Cobain's body had been lying there for days, the coroner's report estimated Cobain to have died on 5 April 1994.
Dave Grohl would say that the news of Cobain's death was "probably the worst thing that has happened to me in my life. I remember the day after that I woke up and I was heartbroken that he was gone. I just felt like, 'Okay, so I get to wake up today and have another day and he doesn't.'"
A final ceremony was arranged for Cobain by his mother on 31 May 1999. As a Buddhist monk chanted, his daughter Frances Bean scattered his ashes into McLane Creek in Olympia, the city where he "had found his true artistic muse."
It was just last month that Idol contestant Chris Sligh announced the birth of his new daughter, now Daughtry has one-upped him.
Chris Daughtry and his wife, Deanna, welcomed twins Wednesday, the rocker announced on his website.
Adalynn Rose was born at 11:06 a.m., weighing 6 pounds, 5 ounces. Noah James followed at 11:25, weighing 5 pounds, 5 ounces. The news is extra special for the couple, after Deanna underwent a hysterectomy in 2006. The babies were carried to term via a surrogate.
"Our family is overwhelmed with joy by these two precious gifts from God," Daughtry wrote." The babies are both healthy and resting. Thanks to everyone for their love and prayers."
The 30-year-old former American Idol contestant already has a 12-year-old adopted son, Griffin, and a 14-year-old stepdaughter, Hannah, from his wife's previous marriage. Chris and Deanna have been married since 2000.
Daughtry and his rock band of the same name just wrapped a European tour last month.
