Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Music News & Notes

Usher releases new single "Certified"

Usher has been hard at work with his brand new album and has released the single to prove it. Hooking up with producers The Neptunes, Usher released "Certified", his first single off of his album Monster. The release date for Monster is set for later this year.

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Daughtry, "Leave This Town" (19 Recordings/RCA)

Lead-off single "No Surprise" was co-written with Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger and got a major profile boost in early May when "American Idol" brought them on to play it live. The single made its chart debut at No. 15, Daughtry's highest debut ever on the Billboard Hot 100. The band's first album is the fastest-selling rock debut in Soundscan history, but Daughtry promises more "grit" on this one, once again produced by Howard Benson.

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Hypocrisy reveals details about new album

Melodic death metal band Hypocrisy is nearly finished recording and mixing their new album titled A Taste of Extreme Divinity, according to record label Nuclear Blast. It is set to be released on October 23 in Europe.

Here is what mainman Peter had to say:

"Hey, it's about time for an update now. We have a title for the new album now: A Taste Of Extreme Divinity! I'm at the end of the recording 'n mixing, a few songs left to sing on. The rest are done mixing wise. It's just been too busy with touring and recording bands, and I didn't wanna burn myself out totally. We're happy of the result so far, it's got everything a Hypo album should have in our own point of view. We will release it October 23rd and start touring in the USA November 5th, supporting ENSIFERUM, then in January 2010 we do a headline tour in Europe, after that we'll try to hit rest of the world, stay tuned for more updates in a few weeks!"



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MJ Sales Slowing Overseas

While sales of Michael Jackson product seems to be ebbing a bit overseas, Billboard is reporting that he had his best sales week yet last week. Preliminary figures show he moved 1.1 million albums, up 37% from the previous week. For the third week in a row, Number Ones will be the biggest selling album in the country with 349,000 copies. Thriller sold 264,000 while Essential was at 149,000. Plus, for the first time, Jackson has four albums over the hundred thousand mark ad Off the Wall moves 107,000, more than doubling its previous week's total.

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Shudder to Think to Release Live Album


Fans of yelpy-voiced, painstakingly structured indie-prog, you are having a banner year! And once you get done picking apart Bitte Orca for the billionth time, we've got something new for you: A live album from the recently reunited DC art-punk greats Shudder to Think!

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Sufjan Stevens Comes Out of Hiding With Run Rabbit Run

Long-waiting Sufjan Stevens fans frustrated by the artists’ lack of new material and live performances are getting some payoff for their patience, as Stevens announces both a remix album entitled Run Rabbit Run and an appearance at All Tomorrow’s Parties New York, America’s version of the perennial British music festival.



Run Rabbit Run is due out October 6 on Asthmatic Kitty Records.

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Trent Reznor Explains the State of NIN

"I'd never want to be Gene Simmons, an old man who puts on makeup to entertain kids"

Earlier this year, Trent Reznor revealed that after his current tour with Nine Inch Nails, "it's time to make NIN disappear for a while." And he announced his forthcoming small-club "Wave Goodbye" tour, Reznor made sure to point out that "this is it." But what does it all mean? Are Nine Inch Nails over now or what?

In an email interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Reznor makes things a little less vague. Nine Inch Nails will no longer be a road-dog touring entity. But that doesn't mean we've heard that last of him.

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SAOSIN New LP

Former AP cover stars Saosin have their hotly anticipated sophomore album, In Search Of Solid Ground, dropping Sept. 8 on Virgin. Saosin are currently on the Hurley stage of this summer's Warped Tour.

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