Categories
Music

Should be another great Record Store Day!!

Record Store Day 2015: Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney, U2 Plan Releases

With Record Store Day a little over a month away, its organizers have released “The List” – a collection of all the rare, curious and limited-edition items that will be available in independent music shops. Foo Fighters, Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, U2, Brian Wilson and Bruce Springsteen are among the artists with notable releases coming out on April 18th.

In celebration of their 20th anniversary (and because Dave Grohl is this year’s Record Store Day Ambassador), Foo Fighters are putting out Songs From the Laundry Room, a 10-inch containing four tracks, including demos of “Big Me” and “Alone + Easy Target,” a cover of Kim Wilde’s peppy new-wave hit “Kids in America” and the previously unreleased “Empty Handed.” FooFightersLive has posted the release’s ostensible artwork, which was featured in the U.K. magazine Kerrang!, and reports the tunes were recorded in Laundry Room Studio by Barrett Jones, who co-produced Foo Fighters’ debut album. If this recording is like the album, Grohl plays all of the instruments himself.

Also notable is Cash’s Koncert v Praze (In Prague—Live), which he recorded in 1983 and will be available on “Soviet red” vinyl since he recorded it behind the Iron Curtain. McCartney is putting out a re-pressing of The Family Way: Original Soundtrack Recording, his long-out-of-print 1967 George Martin–produced score to the Hayley Mills film. U2 have made a Songs of Innocence Deluxe double-LP, which features a white, die-cut gatefold cover. Brian Wilson is putting out a seven-inch of the No Pier Pressure songs “The Right Time” and “Sail Away,” songs that feature appearances by fellow former Beach Boys members Al Jardine, David Marks and Blondie Chaplin (in varying configurations). And Springsteen is putting out limited-edition reissues of a handful of seven of his classic albums, including Born in the U.S.A., Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town and Nebraska.

Several other artists are also reissuing parts of their catalog in interesting formats. The Doors are putting out the mono edition of Strange Days. Bob Dylan is reissuing The Basement Tapes in stereo and mono vinyl editions (signed and numbered by the Band’s Garth Hudson). Jerry Garcia’s 1974 solo album Garcia (Compliments) will come out on translucent green vinyl. And Willie Nelson’s 1998 album Teatro will become a double-LP.

Seven-inches will still occupy a lot of shelf space at this year’s Record Store Day. Jeff Beck has a handful of classic singles that he is reissuing. The Black Keys have a split seven-inch with Junior Kimbrough featuring recordings of “Meet Me in the City.” Reissues of three Kinks seven-inches will celebrate their 50th anniversary. Bob Dylan has one for his Sinatra cover “The Night We Called It a Day.” And a seven-inch of the song “Touch Me I’m Dick” by the faux-grunge band featured in Singles, Citizen Dick (actor Matt Dillon with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament) will also sport the etching of a quote by Dillon’s character about the song on its B side.

Elsewhere, Gregg Allman is putting out a self-titled 10-inch picture disc, and David Bowie has a “Changes” picture-disc seven-inch.

Some artists are putting out rare live recordings on vinyl. Jimi Hendrix’s performances of “Purple Haze” and “Freedom” at the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival will be on a seven-inch. Robert Plant has put together a three-song live EP, More Roar, recorded last year. A 1968 Sly and the Family Stone concert will be available on green and red vinyl. The Stooges’ 1970 Have Some Fun: Live at Ungano’s will come out on black-and-white splattered vinyl. And a box set of Grateful Dead’s Nassau Coliseum shows in 1990 will come out on five LPs.

Finally, Metallica’s No Life ’til Leather demo cassette and the Violent Femmes’ Happy New Year, which features their “Love Love Love Love Love” will both be available. Although it’s not listed on Record Store Day’s website, Jack White is also planning on reissuing Elvis Presley’s 1953 “My Happiness” acetate, for which he paid $300,000 at auction.

Categories
Lawsuits

Of course they did!!

Blurred Lines case: Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams plagiarized Marvin Gaye song, jury finds

A jury awarded Marvin Gaye’s children nearly $7.4 million Tuesday after determining singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams copied their father’s music to create Blurred Lines, the biggest hit song of 2013.

Marvin Gaye’s daughter Nona Gaye wept as the verdict was being read and was hugged by her attorney, Richard Busch.

“Right now, I feel free,” Nona Gaye said after the verdict. “Free from … Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s chains and what they tried to keep on us and the lies that were told.”

The verdict could tarnish the legacy of Williams, a reliable hit-maker who has won Grammy Awards and appears on NBC’s music competition show The Voice.

An attorney for Thicke and Williams has said a decision in favour of Gaye’s heirs could have a chilling effect on musicians who try to emulate an era or another artist’s sound.

The Gayes’ lawyer branded Williams and Thicke liars who went beyond trying to emulate the sound of Gaye’s late-1970s music and copied the R&B legend’s hit Got to Give It Up outright.

“They fought this fight despite every odd being against them,” Busch said of the Gaye family outside court. Thicke told jurors he didn’t write Blurred Lines, which Williams testified he crafted in about an hour in mid-2012.

Williams told jurors that Gaye’s music was part of the soundtrack of his youth. But the seven-time Grammy winner said he didn’t use any of it to create Blurred Lines.

Gaye’s children — Nona, Frankie and Marvin Gaye III — sued the singers in 2013 and were present when the verdict was read.

The verdict may face years of appeals.

Blurred Lines has sold more than 7.3 million copies in the U.S. alone, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures. It earned a Grammy Awards nomination and netted Williams and Thicke millions of dollars.

The case was a struggle between two of music’s biggest names: Williams has sold more than 100 million records worldwide during his career as a singer-producer, and Gaye performed hits such as Sexual Healing and How Sweet It Is (To be Loved by You) remain popular.

During closing arguments, Busch accused Thicke and Williams of lying about how the song was created. He told jurors they could award Gaye’s children millions of dollars if they determined the copyright to Got to Give It Up was infringed.

Howard King, lead attorney for Williams and Thicke, told the panel that a verdict in favour of the Gaye family would have a chilling effect on musicians who were trying to recreate a genre or homage to another artist’s sound.

King denied there were any substantial similarities between Blurred Lines and the sheet music Gaye submitted to obtain copyright protection.

Williams, 41, also signed a document stating he didn’t use any other artists’ work in the music and would be responsible if a successful copyright claim was raised.

Thicke testified he wasn’t present when the song was written, despite receiving credit.

The trial focused on detailed analyses of chords and notes in both Blurred Lines and Got to Give It Up

Jurors repeatedly heard the upbeat song Blurred Lines and saw snippets of its music video, but Gaye’s music was represented during the trial in a less polished form. Jurors did not hear Got to Give It Up as Gaye recorded it, but rather a version created based solely on sheet music submitted to gain copyright protection.

That version lacked many of the elements — including Gaye’s voice — that helped make the song a hit in 1977. Busch derisively called the version used in court a “Frankenstein-like monster” that didn’t accurately represent Gaye’s work.

An expert for the Gaye family said there were eight distinct elements from Got to Give It Up that were used in Blurred Lines, but an expert for Williams and Thicke denied those similarities existed.

Categories
Movies

Oh yes!! Oh, oh, oh yes!!!!! Woooooooooooooooooo!!!

BEN STILLER AND OWEN WILSON JUST ANNOUNCED ‘ZOOLANDER 2’ ON VALENTINO’S RUNWAY

Obviously anyone in the audience of Valentino’s Paris Fashion Week show at the Jardin des Tuileries on Tuesday was into the storied label’s gorgeous gowns. But the show’s real treat came by way of Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson — aka Derek Zoolander and Hansel — who owned the runway in a mix of custom suiting and pieces from Valentino’s fall 2015 collection.

In front of a front row that included Kate Mara, Cara Delevingne and Nicky Hilton, the duo’s runway strut officially signaled that the sequel to their ridiculous if not beloved 2001 fashion-world film is a go, with previous reports stating that Penelope Cruz has already signed on to co-star in the Justin Theroux-penned project. In November, THR reported that the Stiller-directed sequel would begin filming in Rome in February.

Paramount released a statement today saying that the film will hit theaters on Feb. 12, 2016, so we have plenty of time to dust off our best Blue Steel. In the meantime, we’re guessing this news will surpass llamas and white/blue dresses in matters of Internet importance.

Categories
Movies

Interesting…

‘American Sniper’ passes ‘Mockingjay – Part 1’ as 2014’s highest-grossing film

Move over, Katniss Everdeen. There’s a new hero on top of the 2014 box office.

“American Sniper,” director Clint Eastwood’s film about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, passed “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1” as the highest-grossing film released last year, according to the latest weekend U.S. and Canada box office data.

The war drama has pulled in an estimated $337.2 million domestically since its limited release on Christmas Day. The film crossed the $500-million mark worldwide, racking up $163 million internationally.

It edged ahead of the penultimate film in the blockbuster “Hunger Games” franchise, “Mockingjay — Part 1,” which has made an estimated $336.9 million domestically. The Lionsgate film, based on the bestselling young-adult series by Suzanne Collins, finished slightly ahead of Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow’s “Sniper” cost about $58 million to make. It’s adapted from Kyle’s autobiography of the same name and follows the story of a Navy SEAL (Bradley Cooper) known as the most lethal sniper in American history. It co-stars Sienna Miller.

With six Academy Award nominations, including best picture, the film generated buzz among critics and audiences. It had a 72% positive rating from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and an A-plus grade from audience polling firm CinemaScore.

“Who would expect a drama to have this kind of enormous success?” said Jeff Goldstein, executive vice president and general sales manager for Warner Bros. “It shows it doesn’t matter when a movie comes out if it’s extraordinary storytelling and hits the public in a very personal way.”

Since its release, it has shattered several box-office records. And despite the American war hero storyline, the film drew moviegoers across the globe, including in the Middle East.

“You don’t have to be an American to identify with the patriotism of the story,” Goldstein said. “Wherever you live and whatever your ideologies are, there are still pieces of the film you can identify with.”

Originally, Warner Bros. had slated the film for Christmas 2015, Goldstein added. But Eastwood finished the drama early enough to move it up a whole year.

“The fact that we’ve had this remarkable success reaffirms that none of us know anything about our business,” Goldstein said. “We always can get surprised and shocked. … sometimes you can’t just foresee it.”

Categories
Movies

I want to see CHAPPIE, but I’m in no rush.

Box office report: Chappie is No. 1 with $13.3 million

Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie is not having a great weekend: The movie’s been mostly slammed by critics, and it debuted with $13.3 million—just about a quarter of its $49 million budget.

For context, Blomkamp made waves in 2009 when he released District 9, a sci-fi film that went on to gross $115.6 million total and earn a Best Picture Oscar nod. He followed that up with 2013’s Elysium, which grossed $93 million and was widely considered a disappointing follow-up to the impressive District 9. Chappie wasn’t expected to reach District 9 levels of success, but its weak premiere has already guaranteed it won’t even reach Elysium’s lower levels of success. That one at least premiered with a much more promising $29.8 million.

But strong debut or not, Chappie still nabbed the No. 1 spot at the box office above the weekend’s other new releases, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Unfinished Business. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel earned $8.6 million, a couple million more than its predecessor’s $6.4 million wide debut in 2012. Unfinished Business, a comedy headlined by Vince Vaughn, didn’t fare quite as well though: The film barely made the top ten with $4.8 million, finishing behind older movies including Fifty Shades of Grey and The Lazarus Effect.

Focus took the No. 2 spot with $10 million while Kingsman: The Secret Service and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water kept their places in the top five with $8.3 million and $7 million, respectively. Those days will likely be over next weekend though when Cinderella and Liam Neeson action flick Run All Night hit theaters and draw in both fairytale- and action-loving crowds.

1. Chappie — $13.3 million
2. Focus — $10 million
3. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel — $8.6 million
4. Kingsman: The Secret Service — $8.3 million
5. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water — $7 million

After 11 weeks in theaters, American Sniper finally found its way outside of the top 10—but it did reach a huge milestone: It’s now the highest grossing 2014 release. The title last belonged to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1, but Sniper beat it this weekend when its total domestic gross hit an estimated $337.2 million—just a bit more than Mockingjay’s estimated $337 million.

Categories
Rumours

And here’s yet another bad idea from the people who own the rights to the GHOSTBUSTERS franchise!!

Sony looks to ‘expand the Ghostbusters universe’ with new film, production company

Sony is looking to call some more Ghostbusters. The studio, along with Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd, is establishing Ghostcorps, a company that will develop movies, TV, and merchandising around the Ghostbusters.

After the female-led Paul Feig movie, the first task for the company will be a film directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, who recently signed a deal with Sony. The Russos will produce along with Reitman, Reid Carolin, Peter Kiernan, and Channing Tatum, who is being eyed to star.

Deadline first reported on the company and the film. “We want to expand the Ghostbusters universe in ways that will include different films, TV shows, merchandise, all things that are part of modern filmed entertainment,” Reitman said. “This is a branded entertainment, a scary supernatural premise mixed with comedy.”

Russo described the film as “guy-themed,” but a source says that female actors are also being considered.

Categories
Music

I’m so excited for this!!

Unreleased Kurt Cobain Song to Appear on ‘Montage of Heck’ Soundtrack

The HBO documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is already drawing rave reviews on the film festival circuit, including sold-out showings at both Sundance and the True/False fests before its television premiere on May 4th. However, anticipation for the film’s soundtrack is about to hit fever pitch as director Brett Morgen revealed that the accompanying album will feature “a mind-blowing 12-minute acoustic Cobain unheard track,” the filmmaker tweeted (via Loudwire).

Morgen didn’t share any other details regarding the song other than it will feature on the Montage of Heck soundtrack. While an April 7th release date has been scheduled for the film’s companion book, which features “a mixture of animation stills, rare photography and other treasures from Kurt Cobain’s personal archive,” no date or further information has been announced regarding the film’s soundtrack.

Rolling Stone talked to Morgen at the Sundance Film Festival, and the filmmaker revealed that the documentary’s score “is all unreleased Cobain music.” “They don’t have titles. Before people saw the movie, there were these weird press releases focusing on the unreleased music. And it’s like: It’s a movie. We’re not going to stop it and play a song for four minutes,” Morgen said. “But nobody in Kurt’s life — not his management, wife, bandmates — had ever heard his Beatles thing [a snippet of ‘And I Love Her’]. I found it on a random tape. It’s a Paul [McCartney] song. How’s that for shattering the myth?”

Morgen added that he hoped to put out one of the Cobain’s personal cassettes – “Tape 59: Montage of Heck” – as a special release on “Independent Record Store day, like unannounced, but it didn’t happen.”

Categories
People

Very sad news. May he rest in peace.

Sam Simon, Co-Creator of ‘The Simpsons,’ Dies at 59

Nine-time Emmy winner Sam Simon, who wrote episodes of “Taxi,” “Cheers” and “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” before co-creating landmark animated series “The Simpsons” and eventually becoming a philanthropist, died Sunday of colorectal cancer at his home in Los Angeles, his reps confirmed. He was 59 and was diagnosed with terminal cancer in late 2012.

“Simpsons” showrunner Al Jean also confirmed the news with a tweet on Monday.

Simon shared seven Emmy Awards for “The Simpsons” and two for his work on “The Tracey Ullman Show.”

In 1989 he developed “The Simpsons” with Matt Groening and James L. Brooks, and he subsequently co-wrote nearly a dozen “Simpsons” episodes during his tenure on the animated comedy, also serving as co-showrunner, character designer, creative consultant, creative supervisor, developer, and writer. He left the show in 1993 while retaining an exec producer title.

The animated sitcom, he said, gave him more freedom than live action. “You can draw animals and sets but the animated characters also have freedom. The Simpsons sometimes do things that real people wouldn’t do.”

“Sam Simon taught me everything about animation writing, and even more about life,” “The Simpsons” exec producer Al Jean said.

When Simon “turned to writing animation, he helped to give birth to something which changed the landscape of television and has given him a legacy that will live forever,” said Craig Miller, chairman of the Animation Writers Caucus of the Writers Guild of America West, speaking in November 2013 upon the announcement that Simon would receive the AWC’s writing award that month. Al Jean presented the award.

While there is plenty of credit to go around, Ken Levine, a writer on the series, has written, “I’m here to tell you, the real creative force behind ‘The Simpsons’ was Sam Simon. The tone, the storytelling, the level of humor – that was all developed on Sam’s watch.”

Though Simon left “The Simpsons” in 1993 — the early years of the series were internally contentious — he was still credited as an executive producer as the show continued to generate hundreds of episodes over more than two decades, and his severance package ensured that he was a very wealthy man who could spend much of his time on philanthropy and on hobbies outside Hollywood.

Simon was profiled on “60 Minutes” in 2007, after which CBS correspondent Daniel Schorn wrote online that he is “the Renaissance man of the baffling, uncertain age we live in.”

As a writer, Simon also took a stab at the feature arena, penning the 1991 slumlord comedy “The Super,” starring Joe Pesci.

Most recently, he had served as an executive consultant for FX’s Charlie Sheen comedy “Anger Management” in 2012-13 and also directed an episode of the series in 2012.

Fourth-generation Californian Samuel Simon grew up in Beverly Hills and Malibu, then attended Stanford U. While at Stanford he was the cartoonist for the school paper and worked professionally as a sports cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. After graduating in 1977 (he majored in psychology), he worked at animation house Filmation Studios, first as a storyboard artist and then as a writer. He earned his first smallscreen credits there, on “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” and “The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle,” both in 1979. (Decades later, he told Stanford magazine of “The Simpsons”: “It was largely based on what I didn’t like about the Saturday-morning cartoon shows I worked on. ‘The Simpsons’ would have been a great radio show. If you just listen to the sound track, it works.”)

By the mid-’80s he had long since turned his attention to primetime sitcoms, penning an episode of “Barney Miller”; writing and serving as executive story editor for “Taxi,” acting as showrunner in its final season in 1982-83; and writing and producing for “Cheers.” He wrote three episodes of “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” and then served as exec producer of “The Tracy Ullman Show” in the late ’80s.

He was creator, exec producer and a writer on brief runner “The George Carlin Show” in 1994-95, and though he made a conscious decision to move away from television work after “Carlin,” he was consulting producer on “The Drew Carey Show” in 1998-2003 as well as a frequent director on that comedy.

Simon parlayed his very serious devotion to poker into the 2009 Playboy TV reality show “Sam’s Game,” and earlier, he had indulged an interest in boxing to the point of managing Lamon Brewster to the World Boxing Organization Heavyweight Championship in 2004. He was also a frequent contributor to “The Howard Stern Show.”

But Simon was also a devoted philanthropist. An animal lover, he funded the Sam Simon Foundation, which rescued dogs, funded a traveling animal surgery clinic assisting the ailing pets of those who otherwise could not afford medical attention for them and provided vegan food for hungry humans. He also supported PETA, which named its Norfolk, Va., HQ the Sam Simon Center; Save the Children; and global marine conservation organization the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which named one of its vessels after him.

After being diagnosed with colon cancer, Simon started buying zoos and circuses to free animals.

Simon received the WGA’s Valentine Davies Award for his humanitarian work.

Simon was married to actress Jennifer Tilly from 1984-91 and to Playboy Playmate Jami Ferrell from 2000-03.