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Monday, 12 February 2007 |
 Colombian superstar Juanes will sit for an exclusive Q&A at
Billboard's Latin Music Conference, to be held April 23-26 in Miami.
This will be the artist's first public interview since the end of his
world tour in the fall of 2006.
During the past several years, Juanes has made
unparalleled strides in a multiplicity of arenas, from record sales and
sold-out concert tours to chart-topping success in dozens of countries,
both Spanish and non-Spanish-speaking.
Juanes comes to the Billboard Q&A just a few
months shy of releasing his new album, the much-anticipated follow-up
to "Mi Sangre," which has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide.
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Monday, 12 February 2007 |
 Lebanese-born singer/songwriter Mika's triumphant U.K. launch by
Casablanca/Universal Island became complete yesterday (Feb. 11) as his
debut album "Life in Cartoon Motion" debuted at No. 1 and the single
"Grace Kelly" started a fourth week at the summit.
The entire top three of the album chart comprised new
entries, with Bloc Party's "A Weekend in the City" (Wichita) in at No.
2, beating the No. 3 peak of its "Silent Alarm" debut in February 2005.
The opening single from the new album, "The Prayer," fell 4-11. Fall
Out Boy's "Infinity on High" (Mercury) entered at No. 3, as the single
"This Ain't a Scene, It's An Arms Race" dipped 2-4.
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Sunday, 11 February 2007 |
 Music greats such as Joan Baez, the Doors and the Grateful Dead won
lifetime Grammy achievement awards yesterday (Feb. 10), although many
of those honored did not live long enough to receive them.
"The thing about a lifetime achievement award is being
here. We made it and we're alive," said the Grateful Dead's Mickey
Hart, who stood with co-drummer Bill Kreutzmann to receive the honor on
behalf of the group. "I wish the rest of my brothers in the band could
be here," said Kreutzmann.
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Sunday, 11 February 2007 |
 R&B singer Gerald Levert's death last fall was an accident caused
by a fatal combination of prescription narcotics and over-the-counter
drugs, a coroner said.
The drugs in his bloodstream included the narcotic
pain relievers Vicodin, Percocet and Darvocet, along with anxiety
medication Xanax and two over-the-counter antihistamines, Geauga County
Coroner Kevin Chartrand said. The official cause of death was acute
intoxication, and the death was ruled accidental.
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Friday, 09 February 2007 |
 Hip-hop diva Mary J Blige is expected to dominate when pop music's most
prestigious awards show, the Grammys, takes place here on Sunday.
The 38-year-old rhythm-and-blues star is up for prizes in eight
categories, including both record and song of the year, where Be
Without You is up against entries from James Blunt, Gnarls Barkley, The
Dixie Chicks and Corinne Bailey Rae.
Blige's platinum-selling The Breakthrough is also expected to snag the
best R and B album award. To date, the album has sold more than 2,7
million copies in the United States alone since its release at the end
of 2005.
Hip-hop and R and B icon Blige attributes the success of The
Breakthrough to a softer, more upbeat approach compared with the
angrier, more introspective mood of her earlier works.
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Friday, 09 February 2007 |
 Hilary Duff explores a more dance-driven sound on her upcoming album,
"Dignity," due April 3 via Hollywood. Among the contributors to the
project were Kara DioGuardi, Tim & Bob, the Black Eyed Peas'
will.i.am, Chico Bennett & Richard Vission, Vada Nobles and Fred
Wreck.
Five songs previewed by Billboard ("With Love," "Play
With Fire," "Stranger," "Danger" and "Burn") find the singer/actress
reveling in the beats and rhythms of clubland, with shades of Depeche
Mode, Gwen Stefani and Madonna.
"With Love" serves not only as the
album's first single/video but the name of Duff's new Elizabeth Arden
fragrance.
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Friday, 09 February 2007 |
 Jadakiss, the rapper who wrote controversial lyrics about U.S.
President George W. Bush and the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on New York,
has been indicted on gun and drug charges.
Using his real name of Jason
Phillips, Jadakiss entered a not guilty plea yesterday (Feb. 8) to
charges of possessing a loaded handgun and marijuana in White Plains,
N.Y.
He was arrested Oct. 7 with three other men in his
native Yonkers, N.Y. Police said they stopped the car he was in after
smelling marijuana and then found the gun.
The rapper's lawyer, Clement Patti, said, "I have yet
to see or hear of any evidence connecting my client to possessing this
weapon." He said Jadakiss was in the back seat and did not know there
was a gun in the front console.
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Friday, 09 February 2007 |
 Nick Cave will be a busy man in the coming months, as he prepares to
release the self-titled debut from his band Grinderman and gets to work
on the next release from his long-running outfit the Bad Seeds.
First
up is the Grinderman disc, due April 10 via Anti-, which finds Cave
backed by Bad Seeds members Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim
Sclavunos.
"Grinderman is low on personnel, the songs are short,
the album is short," Cave tells Billboard.com. "And, I play guitar."
The group will make its live debut in late April at the All Tomorrow's
Parties festival in England, but has yet to commit to additional
performances.
"If we can do [that show] with a minimum of fuss, then
there's no reason we couldn't book dates," Cave says. "But to go on
some huge tour would probably defeat the purpose of it in some way."
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Friday, 09 February 2007 |
 After years of parallel success in the metal world, Dream Theater and
Roadrunner Records have joined forces on a new deal. The prog-leaning
group's label debut, "Systematic Chaos," will crown the deal in June.
Dream Theater had spent its entire career on Elektra
and Atlantic, an arrangement that ended with the 2005 studio album
"Octavarium." The group has sold 2.1 million CDs in the United States
since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.
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Thursday, 08 February 2007 |
 Jeordie White (better known to Marilyn Manson fans as Twiggy Ramirez)
has united once more with Masters Of Reality singer/guitarist Chris
Goss and Hella drummer Zach Hill for the second release by Goon Moon,
"Licker's Last Leg."
Due April 28 via Ipecac, the disc isn't quite as
strange as 2005's "I Got a Brand New Egg Layin' Machine," but is
certainly still quirky enough to be unmistakably Goon Moon.
Most of the tracks from the new effort came from the
same session as the debut. "Some of the music that was recorded on
'Licker's Last Legs' was recorded before the debut, but then the vocals
were just put on a few months ago," White tells Billboard.com.
"We'd
revisit it over a period of time, which was cool, because then it
changes with the styles. If you record something years ago, you're
influenced by a lot of stuff that's going on, then you revisit it."
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In what is destined to be an historic run, the Police will embark on
their first tour in 23 years, beginning May 28 at the GM Arena in
Vancouver. 