News Round Up: Week Ending 8th December 2005

[Revan]

Wedding bells for Jay-Z and Beyonce?
R&B queen Beyonce and hip hop legend Jay Z are planning to get married in the Carribean in the US summer. The report quotes a source close to the couple who says, "It will be a small, intimate wedding with just close friends and family. Preparations are under way, but the exact date and location have yet to be decided. Both Beyonce and Jay are determined to avoid turning the day into a media circus. So only they and their parents will know the full details until the very last minute."


Cat Power to return with new album in early 2006
[source: NME.com] The singer/songwriter releases 'The Greatest' in January next year. It's the follow-up to 2003's 'You Are Free'. There is an MP3 of the title track from the album at matadorrecords.com/news. Tracklisting is:

'The Greatest'
'Could We'
'Lived In Bars'
'Islands'
'After It All'
'The Moon'
'Living Proof'
'Empty Shell'
'Willie'
'Where Is My Love'
'Hate'
'Love & Communication'


Evanescence singer sues manager
Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee has filed a lawsuit in LA against the band’s former manager Dennis Rider for "breach of fiduciary duty" "overt and unwelcome sexual advances", battery and professional negligence. Rider, who has already lodged a $13 million suit against the band for breach of contract, responded to Lee’s claims through his lawyer, saying “"Ms. Lee is very creative in writing lyrics to a songs but now she is creating a version of reality that simply has no basis in fact”. The lawsuits cap a tumultuous period for the band, which saw guitarist Ben Moody depart the band acrimoniously in 2003. Evanescence are working on a new album, due for release in March next year.


Kanye West, Grammy digger!
Looks like yesterday’s trash talking worked, with Kanye West heading up the Grammy nominations list with eight nods, including Record Of The Year for his ARIA No. 1 single, “Gold Digger”. Mariah Carey and John Legend also picked up eight nominations. West continued to talk up his chances, telling reporters “No disrespect, but I feel that I should win. The hardest part is that me and Mariah are up there together because our votes could cancel each other out," he said. "I need to use the Jedi mind trick, you know, when you're eating a sandwich and someone says, 'Yo, I'm hungry,' and you say, 'Well, I would give you the other half, but then I would still be hungry, so why not just let me eat?' So Mariah, let me get some and we can celebrate together”.


Franz Ferdinand start work on third album
[source: NME.com] Franz Ferdinand are already working on their third album. The band have just completed a UK tour in support of their second album You Could Have It So Much Better, which was released in October - just over a year after their eponymous debut came out - but the band are already soldiering on with new material. "We're already writing some new tunes," explained frontman Alex Kapranos. "We've got a practice room set-up and we're writing some new tunes. We've got two or three." He added: "Then we'll see how many songs we've got together but we're talking about going into the studio at the end of January. We're popping over to Australia and New Zealand at the end of January as well, as you do. It's brilliant, I'm looking forward to that. We get to miss the Scottish winter, which is not a bad thing at all." Speaking about the pressures of following up hit albums, Kapranos also explained his theory about avoiding failure. "I think if you just continue songwriting, that's when it doesn't strike you as pressure," he told XFM. "That's the reason you get a band together, because you want to write tunes. You want to hang around each other's flats and write songs, and when you don't think about it as being a big deal, that's when you write the best songs."


U2 pay tribute to John Lennon
[source: NME.com] U2 paid tribute to John Lennon by covering his Beatles classic “Norwegian Wood” onstage in Hartford, Conneticut the night before the 25th anniversary of his death. The group also played Lennon solo track “Instant Karma!” in the encore, though this has been a regular in their set since they performed it with Patti Smith at New York's Madison Square Garden on November 21. Bono also sang a snippet of The Beatles' “Help!”, also written by Lennon, during set closer “One”.


CBGB's to close on Halloween 2006
[source: NME.com] CBGB is set to close its doors for the final time on Halloween 2006. The legendary New York music venue, the cradle for the '70s punk scene and launch pad for bands such as The Ramones and Talking Heads, announced the agreement with its landlord on December 7. Other sites in lower Manhattan are being visited with a view to reopen CBGB once the new deal expires, and a month of closing celebrations are expected at the old space. Kristal has also revealed that he is considering opening a branch in Las Vegas and is unconcerned about creating the ambience of the original CBGB. "Things are different all the time - look at the 70s, the 80s, the 90s," he said. "The most important thing is we're keeping the integrity of CBGB. It won't be exactly the same, but it will have the same ingredients."


50 Cent, Green Day scoop Billboard Music Awards
50 Cent and Green Day dominated last night’s Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, taking home six awards each. Fiddy was named Arist Of The Year and won Album Of The Year for The Massacre, while Green Day were named Rock Artist of the Year. Tom Petty was presented with the evening’s most cherished award, the Century Award, for his contribution to music. Presenting the award, Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong said “I love music, I love rock and roll, therefore I love Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers [so] if you're going to come up [onto the stage] and thank God, thank God for Tom Petty."


King is dead but not forgotten
January 2006 will mark 50 years since Elvis Presley released “Heartbreak Hotel”, the single that changed the face of popular music forever. To celebrate, Sony BMG is reissuing “Heartbreak Hotel” as a single as well as releasing a 20-disc box set containing each of his US No. 1 singles as well as their b-sides. The packaging will replicate the look of the original releases.


McCartney Planned To Reform The Beatles
A recently surfaced 1979 solo recording contract between Paul McCartney and CBS Records reportedly contained details that reveal McCartney planned to reunite The Beatles just a year before John Lennon died. The contract was for £6 million. A small price to pay for a Beatles reunion...and to spare us “Ebony & Ivory”.


J Mascis kits up
Dinosaur Jr maestro J. Mascis is on stick duties for stoner rockers Witch's debut album. Mascis is no stranger to the drum kit, having drummed on his Dinosaur Jr and solo releases as well as hitting the skins for Mike Watt and Velvet Monkeys. The band’s self-titled debut certainly stays true to stoner rock’s ponderous, jam-heavy nature with the album containing just six songs:


1. “Changing”
2. “Seer”
3. “Rip Van Winkle”
4. “Hex”
5. “Hand of Glory”
6. “Black Saint”


The Living End album details, BDO
The Living End will release their long awaited fourth album State Of Emergency in February next year. The band previewed tracks from the album in a series of shows last week under the non de plume The Longnecks, and on the stage at Homebake. The lads are already busy working on promotion for ‘State of Emergency’ and will be performing at Federation Square in Melbourne on Thursday December 15 at 4.30pm as part of Channel V’s What You Want. In addition to touring as part of the Big Day Out the band have announced the following shows:

December 10 Blackjack Festival, Perth, WA
December 12 Federation Square – Channel V @ 4.30pm, VIC
December 12 Rollercoaster Festival, Mandurah Foreshore, WA
December 12 The Carpark – Queens Wharf Brewery, Newcastle, NSW


Stereophonics plan live album
[source: NME.com] Stereophonics plan to release a live album in 2006 featuring tracks recorded on their current tour. The band has been on the road all year promoting fifth studio album to Language. Sex. Violence. Other?' Speaking on the bands official website frontman Kelly Jones revealed: "Last week we mixed a load of live tracks for a potential record next year. We wanna bring out a live album with the similar angle to LSVO, very much in ya face and to the point and not overstay its welcome. So its not gonna be the whole gig at all, probably between 10 or 12 songs, no longer than 60 minutes." He added: "It's in no way a greatest hits, and the songs picked are picked from how good the energy is, no overdubs, keeping it a very raw live record, mainly to show how much the band were loving playing live this year." Jones also wrote in the diary that the band have started writing new material for their next record. He confirmed: "We have been demoing new material - I finished three completely - which I'm really into, and lots of other sketches too, so new material will come soon too."


Franz Ferdinand release new tracks
[source: NME.com] Franz Ferdinand have made versions of the track "Walk Away" available to download. Recorded at their recent sold out shows in Glasgow and London, the songs have been released through the bands website www.franzferdinand.co.uk. Franz Ferdinand recently completed their sold-out UK tour, playing to over 130,000 people in just over two weeks. The dates culminated in a record-breaking four night sold-out run at Alexandra Palace.


REM and Wilco team up on new album
Members of REM and Wilco are to star on the next album by The Minus 5 collective. The Gun Album is out on February 7, and features core members Scott McCaughey, guitarist John Ramberg and REM stars Peter Buck and drummer Bill Rieflin, with guests like John Wesley Harding, Kelly Hogan and The Decemberists' Colin Meloy and John Moen. Also featured on two tracks are the members of Wilco, who previously teamed with The Minus 5 for the 2003 album Down With Wilco. Having recently got together for a five-show tour of Spain, The Minus 5 will play a handful of spring North American gigs with Yep Roc label mate Robyn Hitch**** reports Billboard.


Eminem to wed ex-wife
[source: NME.com] Eminem has revealed that he is back together with his ex-wife Kimberley Mathers and is considering remarrying her. The pair married in 1999 but their divorce in 2001 followed a dispute over child support for their daughter Hailie. However the rapper has now told Detroit radio station WKQI-FM, "We have reconciled and are probably going to remarry". Eminem has also said that he is still considering retiring from music, following his time in hospital for drug dependency. He pulled out of his European tour during the summer citing exhaustion. Days later, the star checked into a hospital where he was treated for addiction to sleep medication. According to BBC News, the rapper said: "When I went into rehab, I kind of went into it with the notion of 'I'm gonna get clean, I'm gonna get off this stuff before it gets too out of hand." Despite playing down rumours of retirement at the time, saying instead he might take an extended break, Eminem has now revealed: "I'm at a point in my life right now where I feel like I don't know where my career is going." Speaking about his current greatest hits package Curtain Call, he said: "This is the reason that we called it Curtain Call, because this could be the final thing. We don't know."


Beck Makes New Tracks Available On Website
[source: NME.com] Beck has made four exclusive tracks available on his website. The songs “Sorrow”, “Day For Night”, “Premonition” and “Untitled 2” can be heard on his official site. Beck has released Guerolito: the Remix Album which features the likes of Air, Boards Of Canada and Diplo reinterpreting tracks from his Guero album.


New Order go back to school
[source: NME.com] New Order finished their recent UK mini-tour with a special performance at a London high school. Playing in front of 200 children who weren't even born when the band began, the gig came about after an associate of the group mistakenly rang up the school and got talking to the Deputy Head. Frontman Bernard Sumner then visited the school, which specialises in art and technology for children with complex learning difficulties, and promptly promised to play a gig in the assembly hall for a special art class. "I had a bad experience at school," Sumner told NME.COM, "and it's nice to see that the education authorities have changed their attitude towards creativity. We don't make things in Manchester anymore since the big industries closed down, but it's a very creative place. Just look at the bands. It's just really nice to see the education authorities, after what I was told, investing in creativity instead of putting it on the back burner." Playing for little under an hour before the 3 o'clock bell, the band tore through hits old and new, with Sumner quipping; "I'd heard our audiences were getting younger! Where's the music teacher? We can't read music you know, it's all up here." But the show was not without its share of rock'n'roll behaviour. Before dedicating “Love Will Tear Us Apart” to head teacher Janis Triska, bassist Peter Hook said: "I promised I wouldn't swear... but F### OFF!" and promptly brought the pre-pubescent house down. New Order played:

'Crystal'
'Regret'
'Krafty'
'Turn'
'Transmission'
'Your Silent Face'
'Waiting For The Sirens' Call'
'True Faith'
'Bizarre Love Triangle'
'Love Will Tear Up Apart'
'Blue Monday'
'Temptation'


Doves back wew Samaritans campaign
[source: NME.com] Doves are pledging their support for UK charity The Samaritans' new winter campaign. The charity are encouraging young people to discuss their emotional problems before they reach a more serious stage, something the band are backing. "Personally and as a band we went through a hard time about 10 years ago," the band explained, adding “Being male and northern we never really talked about what was happening around us. Depression can be a taboo subject, but I know we were all affected by it at the time. Samaritans provide an essential lifeline for a lot of people who are going through hard times, especially at this time of year."


The Arcade Fire Go To Church
[source: NME.com] The Arcade Fire have spoken about their plans to record their second album in a converted church in Canada. Instead of going into a 'traditional' studio, the group have splashed out their own money and bought a church near to their home city of Montreal. Recording was due to start this month, with the band hoping to release the record in 2006. Guitarist Tim Kingsbury told NME.COM: "We're going to start recording. We just bought an old church just south of Montreal and we're turning it into a recording studio. Win (Butler) and Regine (Chassagne) they both sort of had a fantasy of buying a church. "In Quebec there's a lot of old churches and over the last 30 years, church attendance has gone down significantly. Especially Catholic churches. We're so they found it on the internet and we all went and looked at it and it's amazing. It's just a little country church. Maybe at most 150 people [could fit in there]." The band say that the church dates back to around 1900, and has an interesting history. "It's an old Presbyterian church from maybe around 1900 or so and then it was a Masonic lodge for some time so there's a mason's logo in stained glass in the window," he laughed. "We're pretty sure Mary Magdalane is buried under the cellar!" The band say they still have "a lot of work" to do on the songs for the follow-up to 'Funeral', which means it might not be out until next autumn. Kingsbury added: "We have a few (songs) that we've sort of started working on. We have a lot of work to do. I think a lot of this record, we'll just start working on something and take it from there. I think our goal is to have a record out in about a year."


Strokes director rails against video cuts
[source: NME.com] The director of The Strokes’ video for new single “Juicebox” has said the promo currently being shown is a "severly censored" version. Posting on his official site the director - Michael Palmieri - has railed against the edited clip. He said: "What MTV eventually forced me to take out caused the video's narrative to fall apart. It got so bad in fact that I took my name off the video." He added: "The censorship on this video has so many levels it's staggering... it began before we even started filming it, fuelled by a statement made by Julian (Casablancas) in all good humour about the possibility of 'full frontal nudity' being in their next video and that 'MTV will never air it'. That comment created a buzz storm on the internet and started the narrowing-down process of what the video was going to be allowed to be in everyone's heads." You can see the censored director's cut by following this link http://www.michaelpalmieri.com/


Gwen Stefani delays new solo release
Gwen Stefani has taken a break from finishing the recording of her second solo album to take some time out. In an interview with The Chronicle, Stefani claims she is “burnt”. "I have a really good record that I could put out," she said. "I had a fantasy about it, but I'm not doing it. I decided it's more important that I take a nap." Stefani’s second album is expected to include tracks left over from the Love, Angel, Music, Baby sessions, as well as more recent work with Pharrel Williams and No Doubt’s Tony Kanal.


The Veronicas and Archie: Friends 4Ever!
Archie Comics and US-based Brisbane-bred pop act The Veronicas have reached an agreement regarding the use of the band’s name. Archie Comic Publications Inc. holds a trademark in the name Veronica and the singers sought to use The Veronicas as their stage name. A meeting between the parties resolved the dispute and has paved the way for a range of upcoming cross-marketing, promotional and merchandising opportunities. Michael Silberkleit and Richard Goldwater, co-publishers of Archie Comic Publications Inc, said of the Origliasso sisters: “Jessica and Lisa [are] highly talented singers and performers, they are very much like Riverdale’s own Veronica Lodge – smart, savvy and very classy! We are delighted to forge an association that will allow for exciting joint promotional activities that will enhance the continued growth of The Veronicas and further underscore the pivotal role Veronica Lodge plays in the world-renowned Archie brand”.


U2 announce new shows!
It’s been eight years since they visited our shores, but U2’s fanbase is as fanatical and loyal as ever, with more than 120 000 tickets sold in Australia and New Zealand in just six hours. Both the 70 000 seat Teltra stadium in Sydney have sold out, as has the 55,000 capacity Telstra Dome In Melbourne. Fortunately, promoters have added a second show in Melbourne on Saturday, March 25 and in Sydney on Saturday, April 1. Tickets are still available for shows in Auckland, Brisbane and Adelaide, while the tickets for the additional Sydney and Melbourne show are on sale next Monday.


Kylie To Publish Cancer Diary
A report in the UK suggests Kylie Minogue is planning to publish a diary she has written during her cancer treatment as inspiration for other cancer sufferers. It states the book will be published next year and all proceeds will be donated to charity. In Australia, Minogue’s breast cancer diagnosis in May last year resulted in a surge in breast cancer screenings.


Dave Grohl’s No Satan
Actor and musician Jack Black has revealed he attempted to convince rock buddy Dave Grohl to join him on the set of director Peter Jackson forthcoming blockbuster, King Kong. "I asked him to be in King Kong. We wanted him to play the devil but he was too busy”, said Black. Black’s next role on the big screen is as himself in the Tenacious D flick, Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny. The film is directed by Liam Lynch, who had a novelty hit here a few years back with “Whatever”.


Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Bliss
Scary rocker Marilyn Manson married his long-term girlfriend, dancer Dita Von Teese in a castle in Ireland over the weekend. The rocker didn’t, however, presage his wedding with a bucks party. In an interview with MTV, Manson recounts his wife telling him “Why should you have a bachelor party? That's your whole life”.


Gotti Brothers Not Guilty
In a blow to US Federal prosecutors, a jury has exonerated Irv and Christopher Gotti of charges that they used laundered drug money as seed funding to establish their hip-hop label, Murder Inc. Murder Inc is home to rapper Ja Rule and R&B diva Ashanti. Following his discharge, Irv Gotti told reporters "I'm overjoyed. I am not getting in any more trouble, you can bet your bottom dollar on that one. Not even jaywalking. We never did anything. We were guilty of knowing someone from our neighbourhood."