Backstage Pass

    Whitney Houston plans to release her first new studio album since 2002's “Just Whitney” on Sept. 1 through Arista Records, the seventh studio album of her career.
    Houston certainly has a lot of personal experience to draw on for the new album. Since her previous release, Houston has divorced Bobby Brown, ending their tumultuous relationship that was even documented for a time by a reality show, and admitted to using cocaine, marijuana and various medications.
    Though the album announcement offered no details on what songwriters and producers Houston had worked with, Clive Davis, Sony Music’s chief creative officer and Houston’s longtime mentor, has previously mentioned collaborations with R. Kelly and David Foster.
    “The same way her debut album took a while to put together, you just don't do it by going into a computer. You wait for the material to justify a new album,” Davis told MTV earlier this year. “Pretty much, it's come in.”

PHOTO: Whitney Houston by Patrick Demarchelier for Arista Records.

   Tomorrow is Record Store Day and, despite the ongoing music industry slide, there's actually a whole lot to celebrate.

    Though it's getting harder and harder to find any retail chain that has a decent inventory of CDs -- especially after the exit of Circuit City and the soon-to-be-closed Virgin Megastores -- independent record stores are starting to make a comeback. (Our pal and boss Kevin Amorim surveys many of Long Island's best record stores here.)

    And across the country, musicians and record stores are banding together tomorrow to celebrate record-store culture, that magical place where fans can interact and get introduced to new music that can change their worlds.

   Aside from musicians' in-store appearances, there's also lots of limited-edition offers tomorrow that will hopefully nudge folks into their local record store.

   Here are some of the best:

• Taking Back Sunday, "Carpathia" b/w "Catholic Knees (Live)" (Warner Bros.): While we wait for June 2 and the release of the full "New Again" album, "Carpathia" offers a pretty great idea of where the band's heading with its harder-but-catchier sound and some nifty three-part harmonies.
• Flaming Lips, "Borderline" b/w Black Keys, "Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles" (Warner Bros.): The Flaming Lips' quiet, electro-poppy take on Madonna's "Borderline" should be reason enough, but the Black Keys' reworking of the Captain Beefheart classic is a stomping thrill.
• Bruce Springsteen, "What Love Can Do" b/w "A Night With the Jersey Devil" (Columbia): The A-side is from "Working on a Dream" and the B-side has been floating around the Internet since Halloween when The Boss offered it up as a free bluesy treat.
• Lykke Li, "After Laughter (Comes Tears)" b/w El Perro Del Mar, "(At Best) You Are Love" (Rhino): Lykke had been doing the Wendy Rene chestnut as part of her recent set -- wouldn't her version of A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It?" been cooler? -- and El Perro Del Mar takes a pretty turn on the Isley Brothers' classic.
• Tom Waits, "Lucinda/Ain't Goin' Down to the Well" b/w "Bottom of the World" (Anti-): Waits teams up with Lucinda Williams for the A-side, recorded live from his "Glitter and Doom" tour. The B-side is another live track from the tour.
  

With iTunes’ introduction of tiered pricing last week, there’s been a lot of talk about how the price hike will affect sales. We’ll get a better idea tomorrow when sales figures are announced, but Billboard has an early analysis that shows a slight, negative effect.

The 53 songs priced at $0.99 rose an average of 1.66 places on the chart; 24 rose on the chart, 18 dropped and 11 remained even. The 47 songs priced at $1.29 lost an average of two chart positions; 11 rose on the chart, 27 dropped and nine remained even.

Of course, record labels aren’t very interested in chart position these days if the overall strategy nets them more cash, so the willingness to trade a few sales for a 30 percent price increase makes sense. What doesn’t make sense, though, is why record labels haven’t dropped the prices of large chunks of their back catalogues to 69 cents a track to drive some sales. Wouldn’t it make more sense to sell more tracks at 69 cents than no tracks at 99 cents?

Indie labels have been using Amie Street for years, with its dynamic pricing system, where songs start out free and then prices raise as the tracks get more popular, with a cap of 99 cents. Shouldn’t major labels try this out on iTunes?

Major labels are testing sales of some tracks at a lower price, with iTunes helping them out with “Great Songs at a Great Price” playlists – including some great bargains like Blue Oyster Cult’s “Godzilla,” The Clash’s “London Calling” and Nine Inch Nails’ “The Perfect Drug” for 69 cents. However, Amazon.com has become the leader in sale-priced downloads, including “Swoon,” the hot new album from Silversun Pickups for $3.99, and “Emo is Awesome/Emo Is Evil 2" a compilation that is currently free.

PHOTO: Silversun Pickups from Dangerbird Records.

    Only the music industry would think pushing through a 30 percent price hike on its most popular items during the worst economic downturn in decades would be a good idea. Maybe that’s because the music industry will likely be able to get away with it.
    Starting today, the price of many of music’s hottest songs – and even some that are not so hot – jumped from 99 cents to $1.29 on iTunes, as Apple’s music download service gave into years of pressure from the music industry to raise its prices.
    That means that if you want to buy the new Black Eyed Peas single “Boom Boom Pow,” currently No. 1 on the iTunes chart, it will cost you $1.29, unless, of course, you go to Amazon.com, where it’s still selling for 99 cents. The same goes for Flo Rida’s “Right Round,” though it’s bargain-priced over at WalMart.com for 74 cents.
    However, most people won’t make that switch, says Russ Crupnick, an analyst covering the entertainment industry for The NPD Group. “The reality is this is not a two-horse race,” he says. “If I don’t like WalMart, I can go to Target... But in this case, Amazon is a very distant No. 2. A lot of people wouldn’t even know you could download music at WalMart.”
    According to NPD, about 87 percent of downloaders use iTunes, while only 16 percent use the No. 2 service from Amazon.com.
    Crupnick says that today’s price hike will have very little impact on download sales at iTunes or on its market share. “I think for most consumers, they see $1.29 for a song they want as a reasonable price,” says Crupnick, adding that since many iTunes customers use gift cards to pay for their purchases – as many as 60 percent of teens’ purchases, according to NPD research – the higher price will not result in customers laying out additional money. “Thirty cents is really not a big incentive for change.”

Continue reading "Boom! Boom! Pow! iTunes prices climb" »

After 20 years of often-contentious in-fighting, Spandau Ballet announced today that they plan to reunite for a world tour this fall.

The new-wave pioneers -- best known for hits “True” and “Gold,” but probably more importantly for leading the New Romantic movement in the early ‘80s with Duran Duran – will start in Dublin on Oct. 13 and make their way through England. Further dates are expected, as well as possible new music.

One of the most underrated bands of the ‘80s, Spandau Ballet never really got credit for the way it incorporated dance music and even hip-hop elements into new wave, not to mention fashion (though considering the crazy kilts and pirate eye patches, that might be a good idea). Hopefully, this time around they may actually get their due.

Spandau Ballet announce reunion [BBC]

PHOTO: Spandau Ballet from The Outside Organisation

Below: The Top 5 Spandau Ballet songs that aren't "True"

Continue reading "Spandau Ballet reunites! (This much is true-ooh-ooh.)" »

    Move over, gold and platinum album awards. Here come the black, silver and white awards for sales of Internet downloads.
    Starting next month, TuneCore – the Brooklyn-based music distribution service that allows independent artists to sell their songs on iTunes, eMusic, Amazon.com and other Internet retailers – will start handing out sales awards of its own to celebrate the successes of the new business model.
    Nine Inch Nails will receive the first black TuneCore award for selling more than 500,000 songs from its “Ghosts I-IV” album set at Internet retailers.
    However, the recipients of the silver awards (for 250,000 download sales) and white awards (for 100,000 sales) are a mix of music veterans and newcomers, who are achieving their sales with little or no outside support. What makes artists so excited about TuneCore distribution is that they simply pay a flat, onetime fee to the company for the access to sell on the Internet retail sites and then all the money that comes in afterwards belongs to them – instead of the previous model where record companies would get a percentage, generally a large one, of every sale.
    The first silver TuneCore award winners include hitmakers Jay-Z, for the re-release of his “Reasonable Doubt” album, and Jason Mraz, for his live album “Jason Mraz Live and Acoustic 2001.” But they also include the unusual soundtrack to “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” and Kelly’s novelty hit and YouTube sensation “Shoes.”
    The first white TuneCore award winners include Public Enemy’s album “How You Sell Soul To a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?” and Secondhand Serenade’s single “Awake.”

Full list below

Continue reading "TuneCore rolls out new awards to compete with RIAA's gold, platinum" »

With U2's new album "No Line on the Horizon" already leaked long before its Mar. 3 release date, the band has put the entire album up on MySpace Music today so everyone can hear it.

"No Line on the Horizon" is the band's 12th studio album, featuring the revved-up single "Get Your Boots On."

U2's "No Line on the Horizon" preview [MySpace Music]

M.I.A., "Sunshowers"

M.I.A. announced yesterday on her MySpace page that she had a baby boy on Wednesday and that her labor began shortly after her Grammys performance last week.

"Sunday nite I came home from The Grammys still in the mood to party," she wrote. "I coulda easily gone out but I went home instead. Lucky I did! Coz my early stage labour kicked in around 2 a.m."

M.I.A. didn't reveal the name of her son, her first child with musician Benjamin Bronfman, and it's also not clear whether she will perform at the Oscars next Sunday, though she is scheduled.

She did reveal some plans, though, writing, "Me and baby are putting our tour dates for 2010 together and making mix tapes and figuring out a way to break out of the hospital."

In response to R&B singer Chris Brown's arrest for an alleged assault reportedly against his longtime girlfriend Rihanna in Los Angeles, WBLI (106.1-FM) plans to pull all of Brown's songs from its rotation Friday and poll listeners on whether they should be reinstated.

"Yes, you are innocent until proven guilty," said Jeremy Rice, WBLI's program director. "But right now, he looks pretty damn guilty. He hasn't given any statement. He hasn't come on BLI or a station in Los Angeles to explain. If it's true, we need him to do an A-Rod. We need a little bit more from him right now."

WBLI joins stations in Cleveland and Indianapolis in pulling Brown's music from their air waves. "It's a big risk for us to pull off an artist that helps us with our ratings," said Rice, adding that the station is currently playing "Forever" and "With You." "I don't think I know everything that happened. But we're going to let listeners decide."

(Currently, the vote is 51 to 49 percent against banning Brown's songs. Rice said his staff was divided on the issue as well.)

The station is also planning a "Shred Your Ex" demonstration at its West Babylon studios on Friday morning, inviting members of Rihanna's fan club to shred Brown's CDs and posters. "Whether you're a Rihanna fan or not, we can all empathize with being with someone who caused love to go wrong," said Nancy Cambino, WBLI's operations manager.

Los Angeles prosecutors have asked police for more evidence before deciding what charges should be brought against Brown regarding the incident early Sunday morning, according to The Associated Press. Brown remains free on $50,000 bail on felony charges of making threats.

After the incident, both Brown and Rihanna canceled their Grammy appearances. Brown has also canceled his appearance at this weekend's NBA All-Star Game, and Rihanna has pulled out of a concert in Malaysia, and her 21st birthday party in New York next week has been canceled.

-Click here to see photos of Chris Brown through the years

-Click here to see photos of Rihanna

-Click here to see 44 photos from the Grammys red carpet

PHOTO: Rihanna and Chris Brown in happier times, performing at Madison Square Garden in December. Photo by Evan Agostini for The Associated Press.

What makes Sunday night’s arrest of singer Chris Brown over a reported domestic dispute in Los Angeles so strange is that the 19-year-old singer is known for his wild dance moves, not a wild lifestyle.

Brown, who was released on $50,000 bail late last night, has previously had a squeaky-clean image, both in his music – best known for tame, lovey-dovey hits like “Kiss Kiss” and “No Air” – and in his personal life, which has mainly been his relationship with 20-year-old singer Rihanna. (Though the Los Angeles Times is reporting that the charge of making felony threats stems from an incident early Sunday morning involving Rihanna, neither the Los Angeles Police Department, nor Rihanna’s spokespeople have confirmed that it does. Police do say in a statement that additional charges may be filed.)

Since his debut in 2005, Brown has built his reputation as a teen phenom in the Michael Jackson vein, making sure strong choreography accompanies his sugary pop hits. He gained attention at the MTV Video Music Awards for leaping from table to table during his performance and for writing his recent hit “Forever” as a reworking of a jingle for Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum, which has been using the song in its recent ad campaign.

His hit duet “No Air,” with Jordin Sparks, was nominated for a Grammy last night, but did not win. Both Brown and Rihanna were scheduled to perform at last night’s ceremonies but abruptly canceled, pressing Al Green and Justin Timberlake into service, performing “Let’s Stay Together” with Boyz II Men and Keith Urban to fill their performance slots.

Brown and Rihanna have been linked for more than a year, though they have been reluctant to discuss their relationship. Early on, Brown reworked Rihanna’s hit “Umbrella” into “Cinderella.”

On Brown’s website, his fans are taking a wait-and-see attitude before making their judgment. On Rihanna’s site, though, some have already made up their minds. “Send the right message to your fans to leave any boy who would hit you,” one poster tells Rihanna. “He does not deserve you. I will never buy another of his CDs regardless.”

UPDATE: Wrigley  announced that it was suspending the campaign after "the serious allegations made against Chris Brown."

-Click here to see photos of Chris Brown through the years

-Click here to see 44 photos from the Grammys red carpet

-Click here to see 26 photos of Grammys performances, and winners

PHOTO: Chris Brown for Jive Records.  

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Phish and the Beastie Boys headline this year’s edition of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, as the Manchester, Tenn., festival continues to move away from its jam band roots.

Tickets for the festival, set for June 11-14, go on sale at noon Saturday through bonnaroo.com.

This year’s Bonnaroo will feature 120 bands and 20 comedians on 13 stages. Also making the cut this year: TV on the Radio, Nine Inch Nails, Snoop Dogg, Wilco, Animal Collective, Lucinda Williams, Al Green, David Byrne and Elvis Costello. Parts of the four-day festival will be covered live by Fuse.

PHOTO: The Beastie Boys by Nathaniel Hornblower for Capitol Records.

The rollout of Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You" couldn't be going better. Tomorrow, she will take over the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 charts, setting a new record by jumping from No. 97 to No. 1 in one week by selling nearly 280,000 copies.

Tonight, she unveiled her video through AT&T, though why the company makes you install new video software just to watch it makes you feel like it's a bit of a bait-and-switch tactic to get more people on that video platform and to drive traffic to Sony BMG's myplay.com site.

Lucky for them the video makes it worth it. We're back to Playful Kelly again, happily destroying stuff in well-appointed apartments a la "Since U Been Gone." PK's got a boyfriend this time, though, and they seem happy chucking stuff out windows and otherwise kidding around, as "My Life" becomes more and more irresistible.

Judging by reaction to the single, Clarkson's "All I Ever Wanted" album, which got its release pushed up to March 10 by RCA execs today, is going to be an all-out smash right out the gate.

PHOTO: Kelly Clarkson from "My Life Would Suck Without You" for RCA Records.

Like nearly every other piece of President Barack Obama’s inauguration, picking Beyonce to sing “At Last” as the First Couple’s first dance was part-logistics, part-symbolism – reinforcing many of the day’s themes.

The song itself is 68 years old, first released on the soundtrack to the Glenn Miller movie “Orchestra Wives” in 1941, though most believe the definitive version belongs to Etta James, who turned it into a hit in 1961. Beyonce covered it last year for “Cadillac Records,” the movie in which she plays James.

Choosing her to sing it, instead of James, plays into Obama’s ongoing theme of giving young people the reins, but making sure they know their history and excel at what they do. It goes hand in hand with Michelle Obama choosing a gown from 26-year-old designer Jason Wu, who many say updates the work of Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera. Or, you know, having a head speechwriter, Jon Favreau, who is 27.

For her part, the normally unflappable Beyonce had to fight to keep it together, holding back the tears as the enormity of the moment -- not to mention watching the Obamas dance in front of her – started to get to her. "I was thinking [about] all of the sacrifices Obama and his wife and his children have made, and at last he's here,” she told ABC News afterward, adding that she was embarrassed by her emotions. "It's probably the most important day of my life, and I'm so grateful."

"America's Song," the Oprah-sanctioned collaboration between will.i.am and David Foster created to celebrate Barack Obama's Inauguration Day, is available for free today at oprah.com. Featuring Bono, Mary J. Blige, Faith Hill and Seal, it's certainly got plenty of star power and it's simple enough to sing along the first time around.

Following their appearance at the Obama-welcoming "We Are One" concert yesterday, U2 rolled out its upcoming single "Get on Your Boots" this morning. "Boots," the first single from "No Line on the Horizon," won't be available from iTunes until Feb. 15, but with U2 chatter high, it seems like a good time to introduce it.

During the verses, "Get on Your Boots" sounds more like Radiohead covering "Ball of Confusion" than the chiming U2 anthems we're used to. Bono's at the upper end of his register, floating over Adam Clayton's fuzzed-out bass and The Edge's oddly retro guitar riffs. By the time the big chorus kicks in, though, it's clear who it is.

Lyrically, though, "Boots" is a bit of a red herring, as Bono claims to be for escapism, singing "I don't want to talk about wars between nations -- not right now" before commenting, "Sexy boots."

In any case, it does explain why the "We Are One" appearance seemed a bit off. There wasn't enough drums and bass in the mix. Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s unassailable rhythms have always given Bono and The Edge the cover to say and play what they want. Without them, U2 seems much more ordinary.

Hear "Get on Your Boots"

"Stars welcome Obama" [Newsday]

The "We Are One" live-blog [NDMusic]

PHOTO: Bono and The Edge from "We Are One" by Kevin Mazur for Getty Images.

Garth Brooks, "We Shall Be Free"

Garth Brooks stole the show with the good-time medley of "American Pie" and "Shout," which might have worked so well because it was so different from all the stately songs that came before it. But it was all a set-up for his own post-racial anthem "We Shall Be Free."

The great Bettye Lavette brings the first amazing moment of "We Are One," as she fills "A Change Is Gonna Come" with fire, dueting with Jon Bon Jovi. They even rewrite the final chorus to say "Change has come." With all the history that's being rewritten, might as well rewrite some lyrics too.

Bruce Springsteen's version of "The Rising," backed with a massive gospel choir was strong, as was Mary J. Blige's "Lean on Me." But she needed more backing singers so she could vamp. You could tell she was just getting started.

PHOTO: Bettye Lavette and Jon Bon Jovi by The Associated Press. 

"We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration" -- featuring Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, James Taylor and more -- starts at the Lincoln Memorial at 2:30 p.m. It's airing on HBO live (you don't even need to be a subscriber) and at 7 p.m. You can also watch it at hbo.com and you can listen to it on WNYC2 on HD radio and at the WNYC website. (We'll be live-blogging it here.)

Springsteen, who was an early supporter of President-Elect Barack Obama, is expected to sing his post 9/11 anthem "The Rising."

After all the issues with her last album “My December,” Kelly Clarkson isn’t taking any chances with her Clive Davis-sanctioned comeback single. “My Life Would Suck Without You” (RCA), which made its debut this morning on Elvis Duran's Z100 show, is everything the last album wasn’t. It’s upbeat and uptempo, coming across a bit like a “Since U Been Gone” remix crossed with a synthesizer surge for the anthemic, sing-along chorus and a bit of Metro Station’s “Shake It.” While “Life” isn’t exactly an artistic step forward for Clarkson, it’s also not the all-out sell-out many feared. It’s a good-natured compromise that doubles as a pretty good time.

Kelly Clarkson World Premiere [Z100]

Can't wait until Sunday to hear Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy"? Of course, you can. You've waited 14 years already, what's a few more days? But Axl Rose ended the suspense this morning, letting his entire magnum opus stream on the GN'R MySpace page.

“Chinese Democracy” is a good effort and it would’ve seemed even better if it came out in a decent amount of time, say, you know, a decade ago. The hard-hitting title track is potent, but whatever shock value it may have had has been diminished by what has come in the meantime, with Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor perfecting that industrial snarl years ago and System of a Down dominating virtuoso metal guitar solos for at least two albums now. “Better” is a stronger song, maybe the album’s best chance for a radio hit with its grand hook and Rose’s impassioned vocals, but even that sounds a little retro.

Sometimes, it sounds like Rose knows he went too far with this album. “It was a long time for you, it was a long time for me,” he sings in the overstuffed “There Was a Time,” with its choirs and elaborate strings parts. “It'd be a long time for anyone, but looks like it's meant to be.”

Tears for Fears, "Memories Fade"

Still making my way through Kanye West's "808s & Heartbreak," which, I must say, is way better than I expected. It can't be dismissed as "The AutoTune Album." And it really does have some grand moments despite the simplicity. The biggest surprise has to be his use of Tears for Fears' "Memories Fade" as the core of "Coldest Winter."

On a sort of related note, 'Ye has teamed with imeem to roll out a bunch of remixes. (Playlist below.)

Continue reading "Kanye West and Tears for Fears, together at last!" »

Like Jay-Z, 50 Cent isn't a businessman. He's a business, man.

And when the set-up for his new "Before I Self Destruct" CD didn't look right, he pushed the whole project back from Dec. 16 into early next year. "I decided to push my record back because I have so much more to offer the public as part of my presentation," he told me backstage at the "TRL" finale. "In hip-hop music, the big bang comes the first week. If you set a strong impression up front, then you can actually win big because people know that it’s good enough to actually go out and get it."

In addition to the album, the early pressings of "Before I Self Destruct" will be bundled with a movie of the same name, starring Fitty, and a documentary about Jam Master Jay that he produced.

"R&B records, they can actually take their time to actually grow -- if the company actually believes in the artist in their system, maybe single four on the album will be the one to make you decide, ‘I’m going to actually go and buy this record,’" Fitty said. "Hip-hop artists don’t make it to single four if they’re project isn’t successful. They have to hit with the first record and be in tune with the audience. Hip-hop has a youth-driven audience, people who determine whether it’s a hit have a short attention span."

However, he's happy with the reaction the album's first single "Get Up" is getting. "‘Get Up’ is actually performing better at radio than ‘I Get Money,’ which I felt was a record that was dead right, so I gotta say I’m in a pretty good space," he said. "I’m not going to hurry to put the record out because I want it to be perfect."

Fitty is also focusing on his new MTV reality show, "The Money and The Power," shrugging off criticism from Donald Trump, who claims it's a rip-off of "The Apprentice."

He said he counts Trump as a friend, adding that his show is currently the No. 1 show on MTV.

"I want to talk to him about selling one of my properties," Fitty added. "We all know we’re in a recession. Real estate isn’t one of the best businesses to be in. I think Donald Trump may want to be 50 Cent."

Fitty then busted into an impression of Trump doing "In Da Club" that was, while disturbing, far better than the real thing would ever be. Let's hope the Trumpster doesn't take that piece of advice.

PHOTO: 50 Cent at the "TRL" finale. Photo by Peter Kramer for Associated Press.

Though industry estimates peg her as a sure-thing No. 1 and run as high as 600,000 for first-week sales of her sophomore album "Fearless," Taylor Swift told me backstage at MTV's "TRL" finale last night that she was worried about its release last week.

"The night before it came out, I stayed up the whole night thinking, ‘Is anyone going to buy it at all?’” she said. "You always have those last-minute jitters."

Nevertheless, she's happy with the way "Fearless" turned out. "If I were to have the No. 1 album next week, I would be so excited," the teen sensation said. "I can’t believe that people have been so wonderful to me and gone out and bought the album. I’ve never been more proud of anything in my life than this album. I wrote every song on it. I co-produced it. So to have people actually go out and buy it? It’s wonderful."

Swift said she isn't sure how she's going to celebrate her first No. 1 album, but "I'm sure it'll involve my mother... or maybe I'll go to dinner with my record label." A good plan considering their massive push for sales.

PHOTO: Taylor Swift by the Associated Press.

    The end of the “TRL” era may have officially come Sunday night, as MTV shutdown production on the countdown show that used to be teenage America’s go-to guide for music, style and fashion. But its influenced started to wane years ago, coinciding with the rise of broadband Internet connections and video-on-demand sites like YouTube, MySpace and MTV.com.
    Carson Daly, longtime host of “TRL” and current host of NBC’s “Last Call With Carson Daly,” said after the show’s finale that no one TV show has that sort of singular power today and there may never be another one like it again.
    Not only has the music mainstream fractured into numerous niches, but it’s getting so that those niches don’t even interact any more. For example, on “TRL,” rockers and popsters and hip-hop heads would check out the show each afternoon to see whose song would come out on top and maybe get introduced to something outside their favorite genre.
    For example, Fall Out Boy singer Patrick Stump said that Blink-182's “All the Small Things” video “single-handedly changed the trajectory of ‘TRL’,” showing rock could hold its own against pop and hip-hop. “It was a totally democratic thing,” Stump said backstage. “People just voted on the videos.”
    So where are teenagers heading to replace the guidance “TRL” once provided?
    “The Internet – a lot of different places, niche sites online,” Daly said. “They’re not going to one central place, which is the whole 2.0 thing. The world is a different place. Ten years ago, we were that place. We were the hub, the destination spot, the place you had to go. Now you can sit in the back of your classroom and find out the Top 10 videos on your cellphone.”

PHOTO: Carson Daly and Damien Fahey at the "TRL" finale Sunday night. Photo by Peter Kramer for Associated Press.

"American Idol" David Cook's debut shows off his considerable promise, even if it does sound a bit uneven, sorta rushed and slightly schizophrenic. Check out the album's impressive middle -- the power ballads “Life on the Moon” and “Mr. Sensitive,” which should prove even more durable than the smash “The Time of My Life,” and the boundary-pushing metallic grinder “Bar-Ba-Sol.”

It's streaming early on ClearChannel's IHeartMusic.com here and is in stores Tuesday.

PHOTO: David Cook by Ron Cadiz for RCA Music Group.

Beyonce unveiled her "I Am... Sasha Fierce" album in its entirety today on her MySpace page, a week before it hits stores, including the songs from the deluxe edition that didn't leak online last week. Guess we can all give up on those Chris Gaines references now.

• See more photos of Beyonce
  
• Watch the "Cadillac Records" trailer

PHOTO: Beyonce/Sasha Fierce from Columbia Records

Kanye West, "Heartless"

Heartless from kwest on Vimeo

Nearly everything about the rollout of Kanye West's "808s and Heartbreaks" album has been unusual. Most albums are finished months before their release so that marketing plans can be developed and media gatekeepers can be wooed. But not Kanye.

His new album was finished early last month, after he unveiled the stark, AutoTuned first single "Love Lockdown," only days after it was completed, on the MTV Video Music Awards in September. The song was essentially released to radio and made available at iTunes simultaneously -- another rarity in music -- and it immediately shot to No. 3 in its first week on the strength of its sales before sliding out of the Top 10 as it waits for radio plays to lift it up again. Though these days it isn't unusual for songs to take months to build a radio presence, West isn't waiting. He's already released a second single "Heartless," which also has a Hype Williams-directed video (above) and is sure to debut high on next week's charts.

West has also moved up the release of "808s and Heartbreak" twice, from Dec. 16 to Nov. 25 and, earlier today, from Nov. 25 to Nov. 24. Though most album releases are on Tuesdays, Island Def Jam announced yesterday that it would move albums from West, The Killers and Ludacris up one day to take advantage of the run-up to the Thanksgiving holiday sales. However, it may also be a way to get an extra day of sales against Guns 'n' Roses' long-awaited "Chinese Democracy" album, which is released exclusively at Best Buy on Nov. 23.

    Before Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was plucked from near-obscurity to become Sen. John McCain’s running mate, indie-rockers Portugal. The Man were the most important pop cultural thing to ever hail from Wasilla, Alaska.
    It’ll take some doing for the quartet – singer/guitarist John Baldwin Gourley, bassist Zachary Scott Carothers, drummer Jason Sechrist, and keyboardist Ryan Neighbors – to catch up again, but their new album “Censored Colors” (Equal Vision) certainly won’t hurt. A mix of Beatlesque indie rock and dreamier soundscapes, “Censored Colors” should hook anyone who might check them out as “the band from that place.”
    Gourley told Newsday’s Glenn Gamboa about the weirdness of that dynamic, as well as growing up in Wasilla, as the band left New Orleans on their current tour, which stops at Bowery Ballroom Friday night.

It’s a weird thing to say, but a lot of people will owe their discovery of you to Sarah Palin. How do you feel about that?

What a bummer! We immediately got associated with her the second she jumped on the scene. We didn’t really have a choice... But I’d rather not be associated with her. It’s crazy, but how many people come from Wasilla? We posted that blog [where Gourley outlines why he’s against Palin] and we got so many emails saying, “Oh, now you’re trying to cash in. Your album comes out in two weeks and you’re playing it up.” We were like, “[Expletive] man, that is the biggest [expletive] coincidence of all time.”

As if you knew she was going to be picked as a VP candidate all along.

Right. I don’t even think McCain knew she was going to be the candidate until it was announced.

Continue reading "Portugal. The Man, Wasilla, Alaska's other breakout stars" »

    Are the days of deep-discounting new music releases coming back?
    It wasn’t that long ago that music fans could count on low, low prices –  sometimes as low as $6.99 – for hot new albums, as retailers tried to use them as ways to draw customers into stores to buy other things. Before that, you could find new cassette singles discounted as much as 85 percent – down to 39 cents, in many cases – so superstars could make big splashes on the charts with big initial sales. (For a while, every Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston single was 39 cents in its first week.)
    As part of the music industry’s ongoing collapse, those sale prices have gone the way of, well, sales. This year’s trend, in fact, has been to try to get fans to pay more, with some hoping that they could raise album sales by curbing the availability of singles.
    But maybe that’s about to change. This week, Snow Patrol’s new album “A Hundred Million Suns” became Amazon.com’s Daily Deal, a deep-discount designation usually reserved for older catalog albums, making the British rockers’ latest release available for $3.99. The move worked, pushing the album into Amazon’s Top 10, which, like the iTunes Top 10, tends to influence new sales, as casual visitors check out the top-sellers.
    Given the country’s current economic state, offering music fans legal bargains – instead of pushing them toward illegal downloading by raising prices – could be the industry’s way to help boost sales.

PHOTO: Snow Patrol for Geffen Records.

Well, well. Apparently, “Saturday Night Live”’s current hot streak isn’t just helping generate publicity for presidential candidates or aiding NBC’s Thursday night’s ratings. (Maybe it’ll even help Tina Fey with “30 Rock”!) This Saturday’s ratings bonanza, thanks to an appearance by Gov. Sarah Palin and a gangsta rap from Amy Poehler, also ended up helping musical guest Adele.

The singer hasn’t matched the success of fellow British newcomers Leona Lewis and Duffy so far, even though her “19" album and live show is just as powerful. But that may be changing thanks to “SNL.” The day after her appearance, Adele’s “19" album rocketed to No. 1 on iTunes and the Top 5 on Amazon.com, while her single “Chasing Pavements” jumped into the Top 25.

It’s almost like the good ol’ days, back in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s when there was always a noticeable “SNL” bump, when even reruns of the show could push an album into the Top 10. The pop culture landscape is more fractured now, but as Adele’s boost shows, it’s still possible to unite it every now and then.

PHOTO: adele.tv

So Aubrey O’Day and D. Woods are out of Danity Kane. Or something.
    Last night’s finale of “Making the Band 4" really didn’t offer a lot of answers beyond confirming what the Internet has been buzzing about for a couple of months.
    But is their exit permanent? Or are they gonna fix it, fix it, fix it?
    After declaring, “I am not the bad guy,” Diddy was a bit noncommittal. “If there was a situation where the Aubrey that I signed ever showed up, I don’t know what the future could hold,” he said in a live interview with MTV’s Sway. “That young lady that was in front of me, that wasn’t really respectful of me and respectful of everybody else, I didn’t have any interest of going forward and working with that person.”
    He went on to say that he had no problem with working with D. Woods again. Um, OK.
    When O’Day arrived (Woods was a no-show), she was styled in the same colors as the rest of the group and mysteriously said, “There is something that is going on with us that y’all will never know.”
    That was after she said she had walked out of the building after hearing what Diddy had to say about her. But then she came back to say, “This isn’t about me. This is about life. We’re all trying our best every day. I know how many people are out there – people are criticizing you at your job, your friends are calling you things, people are telling you you’re something you’re not – and you fight those struggles every day to just prove who you are.”
    Her confrontation (via satellite) with Diddy was also odd, as he told her she was heading to a cold and lonely place because of her attitude, while she complimented his “I Heart Michelle Obama T-shirt.
    It all feels like some sort of WWE stunt. Or at least drama for drama's sake, especially after Sway announced there would be another season of “Making the Band 4,” meaning that this could all just be some sort of manufactured cliffhanger. Or not.
    Diddy said his focus was Levittown’s Donnie Klang. “I love Donnie Klang,” he said. “Donnie Klang is about his business. Y’all need to get that Donnie Klang album. He works hard. He ain’t got no ----  in the game.”

PHOTO: Atlantic Records

Fall Out Boy has pushed back the release of its "Folie a Deux" CD from Nov. 4 to Dec. 16 to steer clear from what the band felt could be seen as an Election Day gimmick.

"Six months ago we thought it would be a fun idea to release our album on Election Day but this is not the election to be cute," the band said on its Web site. "This is the most important election of our time and, as much as the record is a social commentary and the term 'folie a deux' is relevant to the candidates, we felt as though rather than making a commentary we were only riding the wave of the election. This seemed less and less like what we intended to do and more of a gimmick."

Because release dates are packed this year in the run-up to the holidays, Fall Out Boy's decision to move the album's release off its original date resulted in a serious delay. However, the band says it will make up for the switch by playing "extremely small clubs" in November, with shows being announced the same day they take place. The delay may also mean that a rumored Elvis Costello collaboration may make the final album.

"While we have all individually expressed our positions on the candidates that we support we feel that many of the interviews and press for the record have skewed us into a partisan band," the band said. "While it may be obvious where we standm we never intended to be the band that shoved our ideas down peoples throats. We only hope people look at the bigger picture and investigate the issues further on their own."

Fall Out Boy plans to continue its rollout, which has already resulted in a strong first single "I Don't Care" and an even stronger follow-up, "Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet," which is a fantastic collection of rock surprises, from Patrick Stump sounding like Duran Duran's Simon LeBon on verses to unexpected horn sections and a powerful chorus.

"We are extremely sorry but we feel that we are doing this for reasons that suit our ideals and are unselfish," the band said.

PHOTO: Fall Out Boy by Pamela Littky for Island Records

For Danity Kane fans, last week’s cliffhanger on “Making The Band 4" was a doozy. Diddy has a summit with the “Damaged” gals and tells Aubrey O’Day, “I don’t want you in the group no more... Anybody else that want to go with her can go with her.” Then, in the previews for Tuesday’s episode, he says, “She’s not going to be in Danity Kane. There’s nothing else to talk about.”

Did Diddy really ax Aubrey, arguably the group’s most recognizable member? Or is it a stunt for publicity. I’d bet on the latter, but who knows? When I talked to Danity’s Dawn Richard in August – around the same time this meeting went down – the plan was for the group to be on the road in October. They aren’t.

At the time we were talking, I obviously didn’t know about the meeting. But looking back on our conversation, there really weren’t any signs of a breakup. Here are some highlights:

Q: You’ve got some stuff on your own coming up. Is that where you’re heading or will it always be the group first?

A: I always put Danity Kane first. I speak for myself with this, but I will always put Danity Kane first. Danity Kane will be here as long as Danity Kane wants to be here. It’s hard for me and the girls, for everybody, to have the same agenda, but for me, no matter what, it’ll be the group... It’s my baby. There’s so much to conquer in this industry.

Q: What’s up next?

A: We have a tour that we’re supposed to get on in October. We’re working with Dollhouse Jeans. The Danity Kane comic book is coming out. We’ve got a lot going on. Agendas. Between us as a group and individually, Danity Kane as a brand is doing great things.

Q: With all that you’ve accomplished, when Diddy comes around and starts giving you guys grief ...

A: Everybody has a different relationship with Diddy. I don’t really get grief from Diddy. When we talk, we’re cool. He’s like “What’s the next project you’re working on? Do this with this hook or do that.” When I have a conversation with Diddy, it’s always musical. Everybody knows the relationship between him and Aubrey. They have the headbutt-to-headbutt relationship. Everyone’s different. It may be the boss to client. It may be just a faraway kind of thing. Either way, he’s always going to bother us because he’s Puff. (Laughs)

PHOTO: Danity Kane for Bad Boy Records/Atlantic.

Janet Jackson plans to restart her tour on Saturday in Uncasville, Conn., but she has postponed her Madison Square Garden show on Oct. 16 until Nov. 1. Her show on Oct. 17 at the Izod Center is so to go on as scheduled.

Jackson has postponed several dates on the tour due to an unspecified illness. She said in a statement released yesterday that she is excited about getting back on the road and  "being able to share with her fans what she feels is one of her best stage shows ever."

Like Heart before them, the Foo Fighters are calling for Sen. John McCain to stop using their song "My Hero" in his presidential campaign without their permission.

"It's frustrating and infuriating that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property," the band said in a statement. "The saddest thing about this is that 'My Hero' was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song. We hope that the McCain campaign will do the right thing and stop using our song--and start asking artists' permission in general!"

What does it say about McCain's campaign that they have such a hard time finding suitable music from artists who support him that they have to stoop to using songs from artists who are actively against him?

PHOTO: Foo Fighters -- Chris Shiflett, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel -- by Ben Watts.

Considering how overwhelming Beyonce’s lead singles usually are, her new single “If I Were a Boy,” which world premiered this morning on Elvis Duran’s show on Z100, is stunningly understated. (Hear it here.)

Even back to her days with Destiny’s Child, Beyonce has always picked the biggest, brassiest songs to trumpet the arrival of her albums – “Crazy in Love,” “Deja Vu,” “Lose My Breath,” “Independent Women,” “Bills, Bills, Bills.” At the very least, those songs were so distinctive they stuck out in their surroundings, either sonically, lyrically or in production. At their best, they changed the way radio sounded for months at a time.

That’s what makes “If I Were a Boy” so unusual. It’s, well, normal. It’s a midtempo, acoustic number, in the “Irreplaceable” vein, but much smaller-sounding, about how men and women approach relationships differently. “If I were a boy, I think I could understand/How it feels to be a girl, I swear I’d be a better man,” she sings.

It’s pretty and quiet and understated and a perfectly fine little song. Eventually, B stands up for herself, as she always does, but it’s done without the usual sass, without coining new catch phrases and without the usual dominant strutting that generally comes with her lead singles. “Boy” isn’t uniquely B, it could be sung by any number of today’s hitmakers on the pop, R&B or even country charts.

Up to now, Beyonce has kept her new album, still untitled, under wraps, not releasing info on producers or co-writers or guest stars, aside from, possibly, Justin Timberlake. She recently wrote on her website, “I have taken risks here. I am not afraid and my music will explain it all. There is no label or tag on my sound.”

Perhaps the risks will show up on the other lead single, “Single Ladies,” which is scheduled to debut on Oct. 14. (UPDATE: Ryan Seacrest at KIIS (and soon to be of Z100 as well) debuted "Single Ladies" today. He has it here. It's upbeat and dancey, but not exactly risky.) Her album is set to drop on Nov. 18.

PHOTO: Columbia Records

After two decades of being one of the most underappreciated groups around, De La Soul is getting a bit of its due tonight at VH1's Hip-Hop Honors at Hammerstein Ballroom.

"They were poets of that time and were the basis for a lot of other movements," the show's executive producer Lee Rolontz told me earlier this week. "It's long overdue that they be honored."

I'm heading to the show and plan to tweet from the Strong Island celebration, which will feature Chuck D and Flavor Flav and EPMD paying tribute. (You can follow along here if you don't wanna get a Twitter account.) The show will also honor Cypress Hill, Naughty by Nature, Slick Rick and Too $hort.

De La Soul, "A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays"

Robin Thicke’s new album, “Something Else,” hits stores today. (More on that from the Newsday preview here.) But the ardent Barack Obama supporter also had more to say about race in America and how he picks his collaborators, including Glen Cove’s Ashanti.

I read somewhere that you’ve said, “Everything now comes down to race in America.” Is that true?

I think I was talking about the presidential election. The whispers about it are all around. There are still people asking, “Are we ready for an African-American president?” It’s kind of interesting that we’re still asking that question. But, across the country, people are changing their tunes. There are groups like the Hell’s Angels who said they’re going to vote for Obama because they can’t afford things to keep going the way they are... It’s only 45 years since the “I Have a Dream” speech. I think what Americans don’t realize is how electing Obama would change the perception of America in the rest of the world. To go from Bush to a black president? That would show why we are leaders in the world.

Do you feel that race affects you in your career? That because you’re white you can’t sing soul music?

Normally, only white people say that. (Laughs) It’s like Jimi Hendrix playing rock and roll. I think if the artist lets that get in the way, they’ll never accomplish anything. If you keep making great music, that’s what gets into peoples hearts. If you make great music that I want to listen to, then I’ll let all those other bygones be bygones... Depending on the room I walk into I could catch a lot of hater energy or I could catch a lot of “You’re the real thing and people are finally getting to know it.” It depends which corner I turn.

Well, considering all the collaborations you’ve done recently – Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, Jennifer Hudson, Ashanti – you’ve certainly won some respect with artists. How did you come to work with Ashanti?

She came to a listening session that I was having for my album. She came in smiling and looking beautiful and she played me this record that she wanted me to be on and we did it right there. When those things happen organically, it’s great. People always say, “You should do a record with this person because it will help your career.” I never do it for those purposes. I only do it because I’m excited about the artist or I’m inspired.

PHOTO: Robin Thicke from Interscope Records.

File this under: Things I Can't Wait to Hear.

Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger and David Javerbaum, executive producer of "The Daily Show," have written an hour-long musical called "A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All," which will air Nov. 23 on Comedy Central nd be released on DVD.

The eight new songs include: "There Are Much Worse Things To Believe In," a duet between Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello, "Nutmeg," which pairs Colbert with John Legend, "Little Dealer Boy," which teams him with Willie Nelson, and "Hanukkah," where he joins Jon Stewart. Toby Keith will handle "Have I Got a Present for You" and Feist will sing "Please Be Patient."

A portion of the proceeds from the DVD sale will go to Feeding America.

PHOTOS: Elvis Costello by Zach Cordner for THE WORD magazine; Stephen Colbert for Comedy Central. 

Britney Spears and David Cook staked their claim on increasingly scarce fourth-quarter release dates yesterday, with Spears picking out her birthday, Dec. 2, for her album "Circus." The first single "Womanizer" hits radio Monday.

Cook, the current "American Idol," will release his major-label debut Nov. 18 on 19/RCA, with hit-maker Rob Cavallo as the producer. Cook's single, "Time of My Life," has proven surprisingly durable, climbing to No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart this week, after being linked to the Olympics and showing up on "Oprah" last week.

However, Cook will have to battle Beyonce on Nov. 18, when she releases her still-untitled album, which includes a collaboration with Justin Timberlake and features only songs that she co-wrote and co-produced. The first singles, "Single Ladies" and "If I Were a Boy," hit radio Oct. 7.

And will there be another Kanye West vs. 50 Cent battle? Well, at the moment, 50 Cent's new album "Before I Self Destruct" is due Dec. 9 and West's "808s & Heartbreak" arrives Dec. 16, but you never know.

PHOTO: Victorious Britney Spears at the VMAs. MTV Photo.