Reuters reports that R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots will play at the Voodoo Music Experience festival in New Orleans' City Park this October.
New Orleans' Voodoo Music Experience festival will marks its 10th anniversary in October by hosting three of the biggest bands of the 1990s: R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots.
The three-day event kicks off on Oct. 24 at New Orleans' City Park; tickets start going on sale on Friday, priced at $100 for the three days.
Additional acts include hometown heroes the Neville Brothers, making their Voodoo debut, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Irving Mayfield’s New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and the New Orleans Bingo! Show.
The exact date for the three-day concert are October 24th, 25th and 26th. You can find more information on the website located here.
Madonna stops vacuuming long enough to deliver a message to her fans on YouTube. Below that is the music video for "4 minutes." How long will take for Madonna's YouTube channel to climb to 100,000 subscribers? Probably, not very long.
Madonna talks about her new album, "Hard Candy," and on working with Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and Timberlake. She says she would work on it in two-week stints. She said it also took much longer than past albums. She also said she had to adjust and share "diva space" with other stars in the room.
Decca Recording artist Three Graces will be one the top performers of the historic visit of Pope Benedict XVI to New York this April. Along with superstar Kelly Clarkson, as well as Third Day and Toby Mack, Three Graces will be special musical guests at The Papal Youth Rally to be held on the grounds of St. Joseph's Seminary Chapel on Saturday, April 19th. The date also marks the third anniversary of the Papacy of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. Of their participation in the event, Three Graces comment, "We are honored and thrilled to be included in Pope Benedict's visit to New York, the city which we call home. We hope to give the performance of a lifetime."
Three Graces is comprised of Sara Gettelfinger, Kelly Levesque and Joy Kabanuck. The group mixes pop, Broadway, and opera in their self-titled debut album, Three Graces, that was released today. In Greek mythology, the Three Graces represent beauty, wisdom, and charm. The three ladies are coming off of 20-city tour with British opera sensation Paul Potts.
George Michael has been on an 80-show European tour over the past year. He will be bringing his 25 LIVE tour to North American Arenas in the summer of 2008 in support of his new retrospective record. This will be Michael's first North American tour in 17 years. Twenty-Five, will be released April 1st and is a 29-song, 2-CD set featuring several new songs (including duets with superstars Paul McCartney and Mary J. Blige) in addition to many of Michael's iconic songs from both his solo and WHAM! career.
The North American leg of the 25 LIVE tour will kick off in San Diego on June 17th and will continue through San Jose, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New York and several other major cities. You can find the exact tour dates on George Michael's webste.
Most recently in the U.S. George Michael appeared on the Eli Stone tv show - it was his television acting debut.
Listening Post reports that Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is looking for videos for the new Ghosts I-IV album. They can be posted on the Ghosts YouTube group.
To expand the idea of the "Ghosts" project, we're inviting anyone and everyone to create visuals to accompany the album's music. In a few months, we'll be gathering the entries we feel are particularly exceptional and highlighting them. There are no rules to this - be as creative as you like. Create a music video, or a short film, or something completely abstract. Use only one track from the album, or use multiple tracks. Only one caveat: Incorporating copyrighted materials (clips from movies, music by other artists, etc) into your video might limit our ability to feature it in the future.
To submit your video, join the Ghosts group at http://www.youtube.com/group/ninghosts and add your video to the group. Good luck, and enjoy.
Here's a video from Trent Reznor explaining it.
Radiohead also has a YouTube contest going on. PopWatch notes that they both are pitching YouTubers. It may just be a coincidence as many bands are trying to interact with YouTube users these days.
The AP discusses some of the recently released music in the video below. Gnarls Barkley has released their followup album, "The Odd Couple." The first video from that was a wild one called " ." You can read more about that music video that MTV banned here. The Raconteurs, B-52's, and Counting Crows are also releasing new music albums.
Janet Jackson is on the cover of this month's issue of Vibe. The issue includes an interview of Jackson conducted by Vibe Editor-or-Chief Danyel Smith. In the interview Janet says being involved in the music business is still as fun as when she was younger.
Janet talks about working with a new group of producers on her latest project: "I listened to the songs and I immediately fell in love with them. This sounds like something Jimmy and I would do ... this sounds like something from a past album, so it's still me."
Janet on growing up in her household: "I remember being a kid and they'd come over ... you take so much for granted.... you're not thinking about the fact that it's Marvin Gaye over all the time, or Diane or Smokey."
Janet expresses her feelings about Jermaine Dupri: "Married or not, it's not important ... I feel like it's it .... It's been about eight years. He's just a sweetheart. Truly a good-hearted person."
Janet on being a responsible child in the entertainment business: "One of the major things was my work ethic, since I was a kid ... I never had my mother wake me up ... I'd get myself up everyday. It never struck me ... that's a lot of difficulty for a 10-year-old ... I don't know if it's something in the genes, or from watching my brothers, seeing them working hard."
Janet's answer when asked 'if everything was more fun when she was younger': "No ... It's still fun."
Jackson recently released her 10th studio album, Discipline. Discipline is currently 8th on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart and #103 on Amazon.com.
Radiohead is looking for cool animated video creators and they have partnered with Aniboom to find someone to create an animated music video for any song on In Rainbows. Storyboards of video ideas need to be uploaded to the aniboom website. You can learn more here and see a list of rules here. The contest has a $10,000 prize.
An animation blog at Calico Monkey says the contest "seems like a small amount of effort for a large reward, although there's sure to be a lot of entries." More discussion is going on here on the CGI Societ's forum. Cartoon Brew has the scoop on how the video below promoting the video design contest was made.
Miley Cyrus and Mandy Jiroux have been playing around with YouTube. They have a channel here. We aren't sure what they are doing here but it's pretty silly. This act needs some work. The lengthy channel description explains why the videos are a little raw. Here's an excerpt.
The Miley and Mandy show began when Mandy who is a professional dancer began to teach me (Miley) a routine to Janet Jackson's, Feedback. Now Mandy has gone through a lot of dancing and performing training and well me... not so much! While Mandy taught me the dance steps we recorded ourselves so we could watch it back and remember the moves. As expected I was not so good and I began to fool around and goof off. Mandy joined me shortly after and as we were joking and having fun the camera never stopped rolling. Once we watched back the video we had made we realized that when we were just being ourselves it was much more entertaining than the dance we had put together! So, we decided to make a youtube account and load the video and see what the reaction. Not expecting the success that it has brought, the next morning we had thousands of views and over one million messages requesting more of The Miley and Mandy Show!
R.E.M. has announced that it will stream Accelerate - the band's 14th studio album - in its entirety exclusively on iLike and its syndicates beginning March 24th. The iLike Worldwide Listening Party will continue through March 26th, six days before the album's North American release on April 1st, 2008. The iLike streaming deal was announced in a press release.
"Collaborating with iLike and debuting Accelerate across the Web is in keeping with the spirit and immediacy of the album," says the band's frontman Michael Stipe. "We wanted to do something superfast and super real. Music, art, and pop culture are about right now, and nothing else matters. Accelerate is our turbo-charged response to the times we live in."
"With 11 songs clocking in at just 34 minutes, Accelerate is intense and relevant, with songs inspired by the WTO riots in Seattle, the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and other topical themes," said Ali Partovi, CEO of iLike. "We are honored to play a role in helping R.E.M. introduce this album to their fans across the Web. This is our first-ever Worldwide Listening Party and R.E.M. has set a very high bar."
In many ways, Accelerate marks a break from R.E.M.'s recent albums, 1998's Up, 2001's Reveal, and 2004's Around The Sun - all finely crafted works exploring the textures and possibilities of the recording studio. Accelerate ties together the band's entire canon as part of the vision for the new album turning old dreams into a new reality.
iLike's popularity got a huge boost from being a popular application on Facebook. They've clearly been able to leverage that popularity to get a major band like R.E.M. to stream their entire album on their service before it is officially released. R.E.M. will also record a video message introducing and discussing the album that will be available via iLike for distribution across the Web.
Madonna has entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The VOA reports that she was inducted in her first year of eligibility. Selling over 200 million albums (and still counting) doesn't hurt.
There's no doubt Madonna is one of the most successful rock acts of the past 25 years. With more than 200 million albums sold, Madonna was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the very first year of her eligibility. The former dancer made her recording debut in 1982, opening the door to a career that has included acting, writing, producing and directing.
Artists become eligible for induction 25 years after their first recording. It's been more than 40 years since fans heard the first song by 1960s British band The Dave Clark Five.
The Dave Clark Five, featuring Dave Clark, Lenny Davidson, Rick Huxley, Denis Payton and lead singer Mike Smith, was at the forefront of the "British Invasion" with one of its biggest hits "Can't You See That She's Mine." The group's induction came less than two weeks after losing Smith to pneumonia at age 64.
According to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation president Joe Peresman, the 23rd annual induction ceremony paid tribute to those who offered a unique contribution to the rock era.
Justin Timberlake made the introduction. He recalled during the introduction that Madonna once injected him with a B-12 shot in his buttocks.
John Mellencamp and Dave Clark Five were also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. You can find the Rock Hall's website here.
Ashley Alexandra Dupre - the prostitute that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was busted for paying to be with - has a MySpace page reports Bloggers Blog.
The MySpace page includes a sample of one of her songs called "What We Want."
Will she be able to use the scandal to become famous? It has probably already made her famous but not in a good way. Even so her R&B song is getting a lot of online buzz today.
The New York Times even describes Dupre's song in a news story.
On the Web page is a recording of what she describes as her latest track, "What We Want," a hip-hop-inflected rhythm-and-blues tune that asks, "Can you handle me, boy?" and uses some dated slang, calling someone her "boo."
"I know what you want, you got what I want," she sings in the chorus. "I know what you need. Can you handle me?"
Her MySpace biography says she started singing professionally after a musician she was living with heard her singing the Aretha Franklin hit "Respect" in the shower and burst into the bathroom with his lead guitarist. She says she toured and recorded with them, then moved to Manhattan in 2004 and spent the first two years getting to know the music scene, networking in clubs and connecting with the industry.
"Now it's all about my music, it's all about expressing me."
A website called Amie Street that measures online song popularity has seen the song rise from $0.00 to $.98. You can see the listing for the song on Amie Street here (via Silicon Valley Insider). Valleywag blogs that the sex scandal could jump start the call girl's singing career. The Media Cynic says she's already had millions of hits to her MySpace page. The MySpace page says her song "What We Want" is approaching 1 million plays. If this does launch her career it will be unfair for to the many talented people out there who are more deserving than Dupre.
The Sun is reporting that Britney Spears is going to be animated in the music video for her upcoming single, "Break The Ice."
The audacious promo to forthcoming single Break The Ice is set in a futuristic world, and sees Brit depicted as a pretty, slim line superhero.
And the unorthodox shoot was the star's own idea. She told label bosses she wanted a cartoon version of her celebrated Toxic clip.
"Toxic" was a huge hit and a great video. Perez Hilton says this may be the way the go while Britney tries to get healthy. Too bad Britney won't be making an appearance in the video herself.
Rev Theory's Light It Up Official Wrestlemania XXIV Theme Song
The WWE needs some serious rock anthems. They have announced that Rev Theory's "Light It Up" along with the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Snow (Hey Oh)" will be this year's theme songs for Wrestlemania XXIV.
These songs were selected from thousands of recent rock anthems. The WWE says "Light It Up" has gotten wrestling fans "pumped up and raving." The song is included in Wrestlemania ads and will be played during the Wrestlemania event and on the WWE website.
You can hear "Light it Up" here on YouTube. There is also a video about the writing of the song here on YouTube. Rev Theory has an album coming out in June on Interscope Records.
Lohan Wants Album to Be Kylie Minogue Meets Rihanna
A number of young actresses are ready to release music albums. Scarlett Johansson has an album coming out in May. She was also in a Will.i.am Obama video called the Yes We Can Song. Heroes star Hayden Panettiere is also working on an album. Hayden likes rock and hip-hop. Lindsay Lohan also has an album coming out soon. Lindsay told People that she wants it to be a "kind of Kylie Minogue-meets-Rihanna."
"I want it to be dance," she tells PEOPLE. "I want it to be kind of Kylie Minogue-meets-Rihanna. I hope to tour with it and I hope to really promote it."
Asked if any of the tracks feature lyrics that refer her past year, including her several stints in rehab and family turmoil, Lohan said Thursday night at a photo exhibit at The Atelier in New York, "I'm not sure yet – I don't know if I really want to.
"I think the past is the past and it should be kept there," Lohan added. "It's a new slate for me, and I want to show that in my new record."
But Lohan has already finished a few tracks. "I'm recording here in New York, and in L.A.," she said at Thursday’s party, sponsored by Snapple Antioxidant Water, which included shots from photographers including Gus Freedman and a silent auction with proceeds benefiting the American Red Cross. "I've already done three songs. I'm doing my third song in New York actually."
It wll be difficult for all three of these young ladies to succeed with their albums but one of them might find the right groove. The music business is tough. Jennifer Love Hewitt had some catchy music that people really enjoyed but she still ended up favoring her acting career.
Photo: Lindsay Lohan featured in the magazine Hear the World.
Tina Dico is a singer/songwriter from Denmark who is starting to get some buzz. Below is the music video for "On The Run." Tina's description under the video says it was shot in Joshua Tree National Park.
This is a little video for On The Run which was the first single in Denmark. I was in L.A. in June with an afternoon to kill and me, my manager and his girlfriend drove into the Joshua Tree National Park to play around with her new camera. It was 45 degrees on this particular day and with all the running I was starting to hallucinate strange things towards the end. What do you think?
People has an article about Heroes star Hayden Panettiere's upcoming album that says she is into pop, rock, hip-hop and R&B.
"Like pop, rock - maybe more of an R&B thing," the 18-year-old actress-activist (and now singer) told PEOPLE Thursday at the Stuart Weitzman Oscar suite in West Hollywood. "I have such eclectic tastes in music. I love rock, hip-hop, I like pop. I love Natasha Bedingfield and [singer-songwriter] Anna Nalick."
People says the album is due out this spring from Hollywood Records. There are a few songs already on Hayden's MySpace page. There haven't been any episodes of Heroes lately but Hayden keeps busy - such as appearing in ads for Candie's with a cute little puppy.
Mariah Carey gets visited by a CompuNerd (think Geek Squad) in this new funny and sexy music video. The music video is for Mariah's "Touch My Body" - the first single from her album E=MC2. E=MC2 will be released on April 15, 2008. The L.A. Times Extended Play blog says it was produced by C "Tricky" Stewart and The Dream - they also worked on Rihanna's huge "Umbrella" hit. If the video below doesn't work try this search. There is a higher quality version here at IslandRecords.com. Just Jared has some screen caps.
Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard perform "Falling Slowly" from the film "Once" during the 80th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre. "Falling Slowly" went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song beating out three Disney songs that were nominated. You can see the songs that were nominated here. You can here "Falling Slowly" on YouTube here.
You can see a complete list of all the 2008 Oscar winners here. You can find lots of Oscars links and scoop here.
Singer Kristin Chenoweth: Oscars Prep is Nerve-wracking
Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth is going to be singing "That's How You Know" from the movie Enchanted. She told CNN it is "nerve-racking" to prepare on the big Oscar stage.
Joining them was Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth and singer Marlon Saunders, who are set to perform "That's How You Know" from the movie "Enchanted."
Chenoweth, a Tony Award winner and film and TV star, said it's "nerve-racking" to prepare for the Oscar stage.
"It's the biggest audience I've ever had," the 4-foot, 11-inch performer with the outsized voice told The Associated Press. "I've played many of the famous concert halls in the world but this is something altogether different. I'm just going to try to perform the song and make it about the music and not get too nervous."
Her nerves didn't show during the rehearsal. The diminutive star even warmed up with an operatic aria that drew applause from the orchestra's brass section, which filled half the room. The other half held the strings section and 16 backup singers. Conti wielded his baton from the center as Chenoweth and Saunders donned headphones inside individual glass booths.
"That's How You Know" is one of three songs nominated from the Enchanted film. More on the Oscar-nominated songs can be found here.
Reuters 
George Michael has been on an 80-show European tour over the past year. He will be bringing his 25 LIVE tour to North American Arenas in the summer of 2008 in support of his new retrospective record. This will be Michael's first North American tour in 17 years. Twenty-Five, will be released April 1st and is a 29-song, 2-CD set featuring several new songs (including duets with superstars Paul McCartney and Mary J. Blige) in addition to many of Michael's iconic songs from both his solo and WHAM! career.
Radiohead is looking for cool animated video creators and they have partnered with Aniboom to find someone to create an animated music video for any song on In Rainbows. Storyboards of video ideas need to be uploaded to the aniboom website. You can learn more 
Ashley Alexandra Dupre - the prostitute that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was busted for paying to be with - has a 
The Sun is 
A number of young actresses are ready to release music albums. Scarlett Johansson has an album 
People has an 
Mariah Carey gets visited by a CompuNerd (think Geek Squad) in this new funny and sexy music video. The music video is for Mariah's "Touch My Body" - the first single from her album 
