The FBI took a break from investigating terrorist and criminals to go after a blogger who leaked some songs from the allegedly forthcoming Guns N’ Roses album.
Last week, the Internet was rocked when California blogger Kevin Skwerl posted nine newly leaked Chinese Democracy tracks, including three previously unheard songs allegedly from Guns n’ Roses long-awaited album.
Skwerl — who used to work in the distribution department of Universal Music and is now a Web designer — runs the blog Antiquiet, and says he received the tracks from “an anonymous online source.”
Yesterday Skwerl was surprised to find himself face to face with two FBI agents who paid a visit to his day job.
“It was kind of an ambush,” Skwerl reports. “When I came back from lunch they were waiting in the lobby for me. It’s a little creepy they know where I work.” Two young FBI officers, who Skwerl describes as “Mulder and Scully types,” questioned him for 15 minutes about where he got the tracks and made plans to visit his house at 7:00 a.m. this morning.
Nine tracks from Guns N Roses’ long awaited new album ‘Chinese Democracy’ has made its way onto the internet on Wednesday on a website which quickly received a cease and desist order from the band. With an album 14 years in the making, who would want it leaked? The album was originally supposed to be released in March 2007. Work on the album began back in 1994 but Axl Rose has since gotten rid of his original band members. Of the 9 songs leaked, 6 were previously leaked in unfinished format. But the recent leaks seem to be close to the finished versions. Does this mean we’ll get a new GNR album before the year ends?
Steven Tyler recently issued a statement about his recent stint in rehab. The Aerosmith front man claims that his trademark athletic performances injured his feet, requiring surgery and causing him a bunch of pain. He said “The doctors told me the pain in my feet could be corrected but it would require a few surgeries over time. The ‘foot repair’ pain was intense, greater than I’d anticipated. The months of rehabilitative care and the painful strain of physical therapy were traumatic. I really needed a safe environment to recuperate where I could shut off my phone and get back on my feet. Make no mistake, AEROSMITH has no plans to stop rocking. There’s a new album to record, then another tour.”
Happy Mondays are recording a new album which is set for an early 2009 release.
Shaun Ryder confirmed the follow-up to 2007’s ‘Uncle Dysfunktional’, saying: “It’s sounding good. We had a few tracks left over from the last Mondays’ album, so we thought that we might as well do another one. Knowing us, it’ll probably come out in about two years time. I mean, the other one, we had that in the can for, what, two years before that got released, because of legal problems. It took us eight or nine years to sort out all that. So we’ve now got ourselves a new set of legal problems, which will probably take another few years to sort out and then we can get this one out.”
Drummer Lars Ulrich has claimed that the new Metallica album will contain “nutty-ass” material with “more dynamic within the songs”. That’s just the kind of fighting talk we wanna hear from the metal overlords.
Speaking at a news conference for the Bonnaroo Festival, Lars Ulrich said that the new album - the somewhat belated follow-up to 2003’s ‘St Anger’ - is a “couple of nips and tucks” away from completion and is on target for its mooted September release.
He said: “We sort of promised ourselves that unlike all the records we made in the ’90s, which were just completely stressed-out and just nutty, that we were gonna try and have a little more sane environment — and we’ve actually, surprising mostly to ourselves, been able to keep to that.”
Ulrich further revealed that the band entered the studio with 26 songs which were then cut down to 14 once work had started with producer Rick Rubin. As work progressed, the band further eliminated three songs to a final track listing of eleven tracks though “length issues” may result in yet another cull.
Explained Ulrich: “These are long songs … we’re talking seven-minute, eight-minute, nine-minute nutty-ass songs. We don’t make them long or short on purpose; you just kind of do what feels natural. We’re not really gonna edit them, (so) we’re gonna lose another one at some point in the next month or so and probably end up with ten.”
Enthusing further, Ulrich told fans to expect an album that’s “definitely pretty all over the place. There’s a lot of variation, a lot of fast, slow, melodic … kind of hardcore, nutty super-fast speed stuff. It’s a little more like how some of the earlier records were a little more dynamic within the songs.”
For the first time ever, Greenday’s so-called alter ego band, the Foxboro Hot Tubs, is set to hit the road. Starting next Monday, May 19th, the band is going on tour by kicking off in Little Rock, Arkansas. They will only have an 8 day trek and tickets will only be sold at the venue’s box office on the day of the show. Tickets are worth $20 and it’s cash only. The band’s single ‘Stop Drop and Roll’ from their new album ‘Mother Mary’ has peaked at the #16 spot on the Billboard’s Modern Rock Chart. The single will go on sale on May 20th.
According to reports, we can now own the new Coldplay album ‘Viva La Vida’ for half the usual price. Whatever it takes to publicize and sell albums, right? The band recently announced a buy one get one free offer on internet downloads saying “Buy one get one free, it comes from working in Kwik Save (British budget supermarket), I think. As I said before nobody buys albums any more, certainly no body buys full albums and we’ve made an album that you have to have from start to finish.” Record stores must be fuming about this. Why buy the release in stores when you can get it for half the price online?
Madonna performed at another private showcase to promote her new album ‘Hard Candy’ at the Olympia concert hall stage in Paris, France on Tuesday. In an interview with the Associated Press, the Queen of Pop talked about the collaboration process on her new album saying “I thought of it as a true and equal collaboration. … I like to think that when you listen to the record, you don’t just go, ‘Oh, that is a Timbaland record or that’s Pharrell (of the Neptunes).’ That you hear it and you go, ‘There is something new and different about it’.” And yet it’s pretty obvious which is which’s work.
Other bands may have liked the route they went down on but Thom Yorke isn’t so sure anymore. The Radiohead front man is saying that the “pay as you’d like” deal that his band used to launch their last release ‘In Rainbows’ was just a one-time thing. He says “I think it was a one-off response to a particular situation… I don’t think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again. It was a moment in time.” The band was not pleased with their record label EMI at the time they decided to release their music for free.
U2 are to restart work on their new album ditching a years worth of material.
The band, working on the follow up to 2004 LP How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, said that they are unhappy with the results and have decided to scrap the last 12 months in order to start afresh.
The Edge told us: “We went into this project allowing ourselves the indulgence of making music without thinking about where it was going to end up. We’re starting to get serious now”.
We all look forward to the final results…I hope it’s worth it guys!
Though pre-sales of her single and record have been low and ratings of shows she was a guest on receive low ratings, it’s not true that we’ve developed an allergy to the diva that is Mariah Carey. Based on first day sales, her new ‘E=MC2’, which was released this past Tuesday, is on track to sell over 500,000 copies in its first week. The curvaceous diva and her lambs now have a lot of reason to celebrate besides her losing 20 pounds. Congratulations! Though I’m wondering how long the celebration will last. Madonna’s album release is just around the corner.
Feel free to call on it as crap but according to new reports, Guns n Roses have just delivered a finalized album to their record label Geffen. Well, it only took them 14 years and $13 million to make! It better be good. The record is said to be called ‘Chinese Democracy’ but there’s still no word on when it’s going to be released. Axl Rose and Geffen are still reportedly negotiating over money and rights issues. Also, a reality show with the band is rumored to premiere alongside the record release. Great! That’s just what TV needs – more reality shows!
Mariah Carey arrived at Selfridges in London on Tuesday to promote her single ‘Touch My Body’. She was asked about whether she thought about surpassing the Beatles for the most #1 singles. Mariah responded with “I do, because people bring it up (laughs). But it’s not like I sit around thinking about that type of stuff while I’m creating something. I did write this record in terms of wanting it to be a lot of songs that could potentially be singles, because people like that.” Mariah’s latest album could help her move past music legends in he charts. She’s currently tied at #2 with Elvis Presley for most Hot 100 #1 singles with 17. The Beatles are on top with 20.
Jack White and his other band, The Raconteurs, recently announced that they are going to release their sophomore album on March 25 – that’s less than a week from today! According to the band’s website, they’re foregoing the corporate norms and trying to get the music everywhere from corporate stores to indie stores to online stores – everywhere! They say “We wanted to explore the idea of releasing an album everywhere at once and then marketing and promoting it thereafter. The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by it’s first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it for you before you get to hear it.” Everyone’s doing something different to get their sound out these days.
Madonna debuted her first single ‘4 Minutes (To Save the World)’ from her upcoming album ‘Hard Candy’ in a new Sunsilk commercial on Monday. The Queen of Pop first appeared on the Sunsilk ‘Life Can’t Wait’ Campaign alongside Marilyn Monroe and Shakira. Now, she’s be the sole focus of the brand’s new styling product spot. The commercial traces the diva’s ever-changing look through the years of her career as a means to inspire girls to play around with the current styles with the help of the new Sunsilk styling aids. Of course, the whole spot has the song playing. Talk about major corporate promotion.
If you were asked what the best UK album is, which band would you pick over the other – The Beatles or Oasis? If you answer The Beatles then clearly you’re not a Q magazine reader. The magazine recently did a UK album poll and 11,000 people surveyed ranked Oasis’ ‘Definitely Maybe’ number one and ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory’ number two. The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’ came in at number 4. You have to find it ironic that Oasis actually cited Sir Paul McCartney’s band as one of their major musical influences. That should be a punch in the gut for Paul.
Producer and DJ Mark Ronson is living proof that it’s not just what you know but who you know.
He is clearly a talented chap, but there is no denying his privileged background and web of showbiz friends helped catapult him into the spotlight. Yet somehow he remains utterly credible. In fact, he is widely considered the best pop producer in the business.
Ronson called on some of the biggest names in his BlackBerry to work on his double-platinum covers album, Version. One Grammy later, for Producer of the Year, he is now ready to lay the fairytales about his childhood to rest. Starting with the one about him growing up with Sir Paul McCartney kicking around the house.
He says: “My mum and dad knew him but I don’t remember meeting him. There are these huge myths made up about my childhood.”
Myths or not, Ronson is credited with bringing his magic touch to Amy Winehouse’s hit album Back To Black and Lily Allen’s Alright Still.
Danity Kane will soon have a new album out but in the mean time, the girls like to tease us by releasing the new album out for their album ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse’. What do you think? Shannon Bex, Aundrea Fimbres, Aubrey O’Day, Dawn Richard and D. Woods are sporting some really elegant looks on this one. Wait, I can’t believe I just said that about Aubrey. You better mark your calendars because that wouldn’t happen for another 30,000 years.
The record ‘Welcome to the Dollhuse’ is Danity Kane’s second studio album and is expected for release on March 18.
There have been a couple of delays in the release of her album but now we all know that it will be out on May 20. Then they said that her new single will be out this Tuesday but the day came and went and still nothing. Then it was reported that it will be out next Tuesday but now they’re saying that Mariah Carey’s new single off her new album has been pushed back until mid-February, specifically on February 12th. The first single is said to be a song called ‘Touch My Body’. If the title of the song is anything to go by, the video for that is going to be very interesting.
Maroon 5 front man Adam Levine was spotted grabbing some dinner at Japanese restaurant Katsuya in Hollywood on Wednesday. He was seen with a female friend who was not his girlfriend Rebecca Ginos. He’s not cheating though. She was actually a PR pal that Adam shares with Jake Gyllenhaal.
Maroon 5 is going to be busy in the next couple of weeks. They will be doing a slew of appearances to promote ‘Goodnight Goodnight’, the fourth single released from their album ‘It Won’t Be Soon Before Long’. A video is also in the works for the song and it will be helmed by director Marc Webb.
His last album ‘Rudebox’ was a complete flop, Take That’s reunion is reaching new heights; without him, and former band mates have been quoted saying things like “There is no place for Robbie in Take That anymore.” Some might say Robbie Williams is pretty washed up.
But Rob has other ideas. Reports show that he plans a huge musical comeback in 2008; apparently because he is so jealous of his former band’s success he wants revenge.
A source close to the singer said: “Things haven’t been going that well for Robbie recently and he’s been having a bit of a break from recording. His last album, ‘Rudebox’, was panned by critics, which was made worse by the fact Take That are doing so well, without him. Robbie has now decided enough is enough and it’s time to reclaim his crown. He is working on new material and he reckons this is the best stuff he has ever come up with. There could even be another hit like ‘Angels’.”
Josh Groban is sitting at the top of the US album charts for the fourth week in a row with his holiday album ‘Noel’. That’s insane! What’s even more insane is that, for the fourth week in a row, Josh’s sales have increased for the week prior. His album sold over 666,000 copies this past week!
Come the end of December, not only will Josh have the biggest selling Christmas album of all time, but he is also on track to have the biggest selling album of 2007! Talk about being a clutch player. And with a Christmas album too!
Kylie Minogue performed her single “2 Hearts” this past weekend on Germany’s popular tv show “Wetten Dass”. Kylie’s single and latest album, “2 Hearts” and “X”, stands currently at #11 and #5, respectively on the UK’s charts.
Check it Out!!!
The Sunday Observer magazine recently named one of the best selling international artists of 2007 as their ‘Man of the Year’. The title couldn’t have gone to anyone more questionable, at least when it comes to the ‘man’ part but congratulations goes nonetheless to Mika.
In the accompanying interview, the singer talks about what he’s planning to do for his next album. He says that “I come back I won’t come back apologetically. It’ll be another pop album. And it’ll be a hurricane.”
Do you think that the world is ready for Hurricane Mika? Well, if he says that it’s going to be ‘another’ pop album, I guess we have our answer.
Is it really true that Robbie is getting “old” in our celebrity books. Former manager, Nigel Martin-Smith thinks so. Robbie has just had to pay the man £500,000 in damages after attacking him on his Rudebox album; and if Nigel is to be believed it could all have been fixed with a simple apology. It seems Robbie was just stubborn and refused to meet with the man.And now Nigel speaks out on his opinions; claiming that Robbie is waning and needs to take some time off to “stop loving himself so much”. He also thinks that Take That, who recently reformed without him, are on the rise and that the Angels singer needs to step back and let them have their time in the spotlight.
Maybe he is right. Robbie’s last album was slated by critics and the man himself has admitted to having writers block. Cute as he is maybe a break is just what he needs….
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