Music News & Notes

Lost Dreams Reveals New Album, "Wage Of Disgrace"

The cover artwork for the forthcoming album from the Austrian, Tirol-based melodic Death/Dark metal band Lost Dreams can be viewed here. The group has entered the “Rape of Harmonies” studio in Germany for the final Mix and Master. According to guitarist Andreas Maierhofer, "'Wage Of Disgrace' is faster and more aggressive than the previous Albums, and will feature a modern mixture of Melody-, Groove- and Highspeedsongs, peppered with deep Growls, aggressive Screams and catchy Vocallines of our new Singer Stefan 'Schleifi' Traunig."

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Nine Inch Nails has decided to experiment with the release of their latest album “Ghosts.”


Unlike previous albums which were produced and released in the same, tired manner as countless others before it, “Ghosts” will be offered to fans in a variety of formats and pricing options that are certain to please everyone.

Here are the available options :

FREE – get Ghosts Vol. I which is 9 high-quality, DRM-free MP3 files and the complete .PDF of the album notes. This can be downloaded from both the album’s site as well as via BitTorrent tracker sites like The Pirate Bay.

$5 – download all 36 tracks of Ghosts I-IV and a 40-page PDF booklet. These tracks are available in a number of formats.

$10 – get Ghosts I-IV in a 2 CD set. This physical version will be available April 8th, but if you order via the site you can download all the tracks immediately in a variety of digital formats.

$75 – the deluxe edition package including the 2 CDs, 1 data DVD with all the tracks in various formats, and a Blu-ray disc filled with ultra high-quality audio.

$300 – everything in the $75 package plus 4 LP vinyl (!) records and two limited edition Giclee prints. Limited to 2500 pieces, numbered and signed by Trent Rez (CURRENTLY SOLD OUT).

Ghosts is a four volume collection of 36 instrumental tracks “…composed and recorded over an intense ten week period last fall,” reads NIN’s site dedicated to their latest work.

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Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” Coming To Theaters October 30th

The Michael Jackson estate and Sony Pictures Entertainment announced on Monday that "This Is It," a film comprised of rehearsal and behind-the-scenes footage of Jackson preparing for his 50-concert run at London’s O2 Arena, will be released in movie theaters on October 30th. The two sides struck a deal to release the footage, and were only awaiting the approval of a judge overseeing the Jackson estate case.

According to a press release, the majority of the footage for "This Is It" was shot in the weeks before Jackson’s June 25th death, when rehearsals for the London shows were staged at Los Angeles’ Forum and Staples Center. Proceeds the Jackson estate receives from the film will go to the Michael Jackson Family Trust, with 80 percent benefiting Jackson’s children and mother. Randy Phillips and Paul Gongaware of AEG Live, the concert promoter who were producing the "This Is It" concerts, will serve as producers on the "This Is It" film.

In addition to the concert footage, select theaters will include some of the 3-D sequences that Jackson had planned for his "This Is It" concerts. Additionally, the film will also feature interviews from Jackson’s friends and collaborators and a retrospective over the King of Pop’s career.

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Michael Jackson Tribute Concert To Take Place In September
In Vienna...

A special one-off tribute concert to the late Michael Jackson is set to take place Vienna next month, it's been announced.

The news was confirmed by promoters World Awards Media GmbH who have said that "high-profile lineup of international stars", along with Jaskson's family, are set to take to the stage in tribute.

The concert is reportedly due to take place on a crown shaped stage in front of the Austrian capital's Schoenbrunn Palace with room for up to 85,000 fans.

The date is yet to be finalised, according to the Press Association.

"For one incredible night Michael Jackson's unforgettable music will be brought to life again," a statement on the promoter's website said.

"Some of the world's leading artists will perform Michael's greatest hits live in Vienna in front of one of the most fascinating historical sites in Europe and celebrate the life of the 'King of Pop'."

Tickets will go on sale on August 20th.

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End Of The Line For Brooks & Dunn

Country darlings Brooks & Dunn are calling it quits after over 20 years of making top-notch country music, her's what they say on thier website:

To Our Fans:

After 20 years of making music and riding this trail together, we have agreed as a duo that it's time call it a day. This ride has been everything and more than we could ever have dreamed.... We owe it all to you, the fans. If you hear rumors, don't believe them, it's just time.

We will release our #1's and then some" on September 8th and bid you farewell one last time in 2010, with The Last Rodeo Tour...(dates to be announced).

Brooks & Dunn

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Money B Releases New Music

With over 20 years in the music industry, Digital Underground member Money B has successfully made a career spanning from Hip Hop, television, film, and radio. After the release of D.U.'s final album Cuz A D.U. Party Don't Stop [click to read] last year, the Oakland native has continued to make music without the group.

Money B has released four singles on the Mandatory Muzic record label (which he co-founded with fellow D.U. member Cleetis Mack), and will feature guests Crooked I, Ne-Yo, 2Pac, and others. The owners of the label express that they are "dedicated to making sure good music doesn't become extinct."

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Neil Diamond's 'Hot August Night/NYC' Comes To DVD

Veteran music man Neil Diamond stays very busy on tour and writing new material. In fact, a new DVD/CD is due for release this Friday.

"Hot August Night/NYC," which is being sold exclusively at Wal-Mart properties, was filmed and recorded at New York's Madison Square Garden during Diamond's four-night run there a year ago. The DVD features the entire 26-songs performance as well as a documentary, "Welcome Home Neil," in which Diamond visits his childhood haunts in Brooklyn.

CBS is airing a one-hour special culled from the DVD at 8 p.m. ET on Friday.

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Although I am a vinyl music lover, I do understand that it does have limitations so I try and keep you up to speed with the dreaded digital news. Sadly, here it is:

Major labels preparing new digital album format

The four big record companies are to compete with Apple's forthcoming Cocktail project by developing their own format called CMX.

Forget WAV, MP3 and M4A – major labels have something new in mind, and it's called CMX. Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI are reportedly preparing a new digital album format that will include songs, lyrics, videos, liner notes and artwork.

The news comes just weeks after reports of a similar project, Cocktail, being developed by Apple. According to the Times, Apple rejected CMX and instead began work on an in-house alternative. It is not clear how Cocktail and CMX will differ, other than ownership.

"Apple at first told us that they were not interested, but now they have decided to do their own, in case ours catches on," a label rep told the Times. "Ours will be a file that you click on, it opens and it would have a brand new look, with a launch page and all the different options. When you click on it you're not just going to get the 10 tracks, you're going to get the artwork, the video and mobile products."

However, this may be of little interest if CMX isn't compatible with iTunes, the default music software for iPods, iPhones and Apple computers. Whereas labels are eager to resuscitate the album format in an age of singles, Apple is concerned with selling hardware, including a tablet computer rumoured to be launching this fall.

The major labels plan to launch CMX, which is just a working title for the format, in November. It will reportedly be "soft-launched" with a few select releases. "We are not going out in force," the industry source said. "What you are going to see is a couple of releases thrown out there to see what people like. We are working with the retailers now."

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Motley Crue Begins Writing New Material

Glam metal legends Motley Crue will begin work on new material soon after their current "Crue Fest" tour ends. The band predicts that this could mean up to a year off of the road.

"We have about a month left (of this year's Crüe Fest 2) and then we're going to be taking quite a bit of time off," Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx tells Billboard.com. "I feel like we're ending being out for quite a long time, touring and Saints Of Los Angeles and the Carnival Of Sins (tour) and Red, White & Crüe...really going away on a big high to start working on writing a new record and looking forward to the next Crüe Fest, which'll probably be in 2011."

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Austrian Death Machine Reveals "Double Brutal" Details

Metal Blade Records Release:

"The heaviest metal band in the world (by sheer mass) has finished their follow up to Total Brutal - get ready for Double Brutal! Not satisfied with the limitations offered by putting out a single disc album, Ahhnold demanded two full cds full of muscle pumping metal! When asked why they needed two discs and why he thought that was best, he quickly replied, “Two discs made it heavy and brutal enough to crush our enemies, see them driven before us, and to hear the lamentations of their women!!!”

"Double Brutal is packed with more “juice” than a professional athlete. Disc one features soon to be classics See You At The Party Richter, and Let Off Some Steam Bennett. Disc two is crammed full of metal covers, complete with Ahhnold’s take on them, including Metallica’s Trapped Under Ice and Killing Is My Business…and Business Is Good by none other than Megadeth."

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Too Hot To Handle

The Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson shows in Glendale, Arizona on Tuesday and Las Vegas on Wednesday have been canceled due to excessive heat. The tour of outdoor minor league ballparks would have forced the three performers and the crowd to be subjected to temperatures of up to 110 degrees.

Umm, it is the 'Desert Southwest'

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Aerosmith Frontman On The Mend

Aerosmith has officially postponed their tour of Western Canada so that Steven Tyler can recover from his fall last week where he broke his shoulder. Guitarist Joe Perry told an Illinois radio station that he believes it could be four weeks to two months before Tyler will be ready to return to the road.

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Folk-Rocker Donovan Honored

Donovan will be given the BMI Icon Award at this year's annual London Awards, set for Tuesday, October 6 at the Dorchester Hotel. The awards recognize the U.K. and European songwriters and publishers associated with Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) whose songs received the most airplay in the past year in the U.S. The Icon Award is given to those songwriters who have "bestowed a unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers." Donovan had 11 consecutive top forty hits in the late-60's and his music continues to be played regularly.

Here's the BMI press release:

Donovan is a master of poignant simplicity. Capable of evoking passionate idealism and freewheeling emotion in a single word or chord, he transformed popular music in the 1960s and went on to build a legendary career. Donovan enjoyed a three week residency on UK music programme Ready Steady Go without even releasing a single, and then proceeded to generate considerable radio success for the rest of the decade with 11 consecutive Top 40 hits, including Mellow Yellow, Sunshine Superman, Wear Your Love Like Heaven, There Is a Mountain, Lalena, Epistle to Dippy, Atlantis, Hurdy Gurdy Man, and Jennifer Juniper, all of which he wrote alone. While Jennifer Juniper has generated more than 1 million performances, Mellow Yellow has earned more than 2 million and Sunshine Superman has garnered almost 3 million performances.

His compositions have also resurfaced in hit films and television series including Goodfellas, Election, Dumb and Dumber, Rushmore, The Simpsons, Nip/Tuck, Ugly Betty, Clueless, Boys on the Side, Murphy Brown, My Name is Earl and Dancing with the Stars. Donovan’s songs have successfully been included in various advertising campaigns, notably the G.E. commercial for Wind Energy, in which the inclusion of his song Catch the Wind was highly praised.

He was profoundly influential on the Beatles, becoming one of an elite handful of artists who collaborated on songs with the band. In 1965, Catch the Wind earned an Ivor Novello Award for best contemporary folk song, marking the first time the honor was bestowed on an artist’s debut single. Donovan received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from University of Hertfordshire in 2003, and in 2009, he became Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters from the Minister of Culture, France, and garnered the American Visionary Art Museum Baltimore’s prestigious Grand Visionary Award. A man not only of unfathomable talent but of rare conviction as well, he is a well-known proponent and student of Transcendental Meditation and leads the musical wing of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. Hard at work on a new album entitled Ritual Groove, Donovan plans to tour continuously through 2010.