Mike Milbury joins Hockey Night in Canada
Hockey Night in Canada will welcome a familiar face and opinionated hockey mind next season, with Mike Milbury joining the show as an analyst.
Milbury, who has spent over 30 years in the NHL as a player, coach and general manager, will also be a regular contributor to the Hot Stove segment on HNIC.
“We're very pleased to welcome Mike to our talented broadcast team,” HNIC executive producer Sherali Najak said in a statement. “His experience as an NHL player and executive is reflected in an entertaining on-air style. We look forward to his honest opinions and knowledge on what's happening around the NHL on a weekly basis.”
Milbury played 754 games over 12 seasons as a defenceman for the Boston Bruins, collecting 238 points and 1552 penalty minutes, and reaching the Stanley Cup final twice. He also coached Boston to a Stanley Cup appearance, in 1989-90.
Milbury, 56, then joined the New York Islanders, serving as coach, general manager and vice-president in nearly a dozen years with the organization.
He called it "a privilege" to join the most famous hockey broadcast.
“For more than half a century, CBC has brought hockey into living rooms across Canada with passion, insight and joy,” said Milbury. “Hockey Night in Canada has been a chronicler and caretaker of the game and part of its history."
Coach-player with Big Bad Bruins reunite
Milbury will be reunited on the show with a familiar jousting partner, Don Cherry.
Cherry coached Milbury for three seasons in Boston. In Cherry's autobiography, Grapes, the colourful commentator recounted memorable arguments the pair engaged in en route to the team's practice facility.
Hockey Night in Canada will kick off its North American schedule in 2008-09 with a doubleheader on Thursday, Oct. 9. The Detroit Red Wings will unveil their Stanley Cup banner before taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Calgary Flames will face the Canucks in Vancouver.
Report: Eminem Working on Fifth Album, Label Says
Rapper Eminem is officially back in the studio and working on his new album, a label source tells EW.com. Bishop Lamont, another protégé of Eminem and Dr. Dre, said, “Em is excited. He’s been quiet too long, and he’s got a lot to get off his chest.”
It’s been four years since Slim Shady released his last studio album, Encore. In the time since, one of Eminem’s closest friends, rapper Proof, was shot and killed, leaving Em emotionally devastated. There were also reports late last year that the 8 Mile star suffered a mild heart attack, thought people close to him said he just had the flu.
“He went through what he had to go through, and now he’s been able to take all the pain and stress and put it out in his music,” Lamont added.
No release date for the Marshall Mathers’ fifth album has been announced.
New CD Releases, July 22: Sugarland, Miley Cyrus, U2
Sugarland "Love on the Inside"
The popular country act is set to drop its third full-length effort. "Love on the Inside" follows 2006's multi-platinum-selling "Enjoy the Ride," which featured a pair of No. 1 singles, "Want To" and "Settlin'," as well as the tune "Stay," which scored Sugarland two trophies at the recent Academy of Country Music Awards.
The album's first single, "All I Want to Do," is already a major hit on country music radio. "Love on the Inside" will be offered as a regular 12-song CD as well as in a deluxe edition, which includes five bonus tracks, an expanded CD booklet and access to download exclusive music videos and behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the album.
Sugarland has a heavy tour itinerary coinciding with the release of "Love on the Inside." The band is currently on the road and will remain active on the concert circuit through mid-November.
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Miley Cyrus "Breakout"
The pop vocalist is known to millions of young music fans as TV character Hanna Montana. Her focus as of late, however, has been on establishing her own name in the music business.
She'll continue with that endeavor with the release of "Breakout," which is the star's first CD billed solely to her own name. Her recent live album and last studio release both were released as Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus projects.
The first single from "Breakout' is the tune "7 Things," which has been receiving spins on both Top 40 and Adult Top 40 radio stations.
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U2 "Boy," "October," "War"
Good news for fans of Ireland's biggest band: U2 plans to issue re-mastered versions of its first three albums. The re-mastering was done using the original audio tapes and the end result is available in both digital and physical formats.
Each physical set will be available in three formats: as a standard single CD, a deluxe two-disc version featuring a disc of b-sides, live tracks and rarities, and an LP record pressed on 180gm virgin vinyl. The packaging on all three titles has been restored and expanded with new liner notes, previously unseen photos and full lyrics. The list price for each title is $34.98.
A box set that collects all three offerings is being offered exclusively through Amazon for a list price of $79.98.
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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young "CSNY: Deja Vu Live"
The new music documentary "CSNY: Deja Vu" is scheduled to hit theaters on July 25. The film was directed by Neil Young (who has quite a few movie credits under his hat) and was shot during Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Freedom of Speech 2006" tour of North America.
Fans can get ready for the movie by picking up this soundtrack. "Deja Vu Live" features such well-known songs as "Wooden Ships," "For What It's Worth" and "Teach Your Children."
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Paul Weller "22 Dreams"
The influential British singer/songwriter, who is best known for fronting The Jam, returns with his first new release in three years. "22 Dreams" draws on several different styles of music, including rock, funk, soul, free jazz and electronica. Weller plans to tour the US beginning Sept. 2.
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More new releases:
Black Kids, "Partie Traumatic" (Red Ink)
Black Sabbath, "The Rules of Hell" (Rhino)
David Bowie, "Live in Santa Monica '72" (Virgin)
Candlebox, "Into the Sun" (Silent Majority)
Dr. Dog, "Fate" (Park the Van)
Bob Dylan, "Best of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour Vol. 2" (Video Music)
Noel Gourdin, "After My Time" (Epic)
Buddy Guy, "Skin Deep" (Zomba)
Janis Ian, "Best of Janis Ian--The Autobiography Collection" (Rude Girl)
Danny Tenaglia, "Futurism" (Tommy Boy)
Various Artists, "Video Games Live" (Angel)
Wiggles, "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" (Koch)
Soundtracks and scores:
"Batman: Gotham Knight" (La-La Land)
"X-Files: I Want to Believe" (Decca)
Alanis Morissette samples 'Flavors' on fall tour
Alanis Morissette has announced dates for a substantial fall tour to support her latest studio album, "Flavors of Entanglement," which hit stores last month.
The Canadian singer/songwriter will kick off the lengthy trek Sept. 18 in Charlottesville, VA. The 37-city outing will cover most major North American markets and is scheduled to run through mid-November.
Details regarding pre-sales and other ticketing information will be released soon through Morissette's website. The complete schedule is below.
"Flavors of Entanglement," released June 10 in the US, is Morissette's seventh studio album and first since 2004's "So-Called Chaos." The album is also the singer's first studio effort since her 2006 breakup with her former fiancee, actor Ryan Reynolds.
"I just needed to figure out who I was and step away from pretty much everything, including my career," the singer told LiveDaily earlier this year, explaining the long delay between albums. "So it was good. It was very mandatory and well used."
Morissette worked with producer Guy Sigsworth (Jem, Britney Spears) on the new set, which features the single "Underneath."
"He's so beautifully meticulous and particular and his way of making records is completely different from how I used to do it," Morissette said. "I say very loosely that I used to produce. I definitely produced my records but I don't consider myself a good producer. He's a pro. He's a magician. That's how he is with technology, and the kinds of people he has working with him and around him are all pure technological geniuses, I think."
September 2008
18 - Charlottesville, VA - Charlottesville Pavilion
19 - Upper Darby, PA - Tower Theatre
20 - Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre
22 - Washington, DC - DAR Constitution Hall
23 - Baltimore, MD - Lyric Opera House
24 - Wallingford, CT - Chevrolet Theatre
26 - New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall
27 - Atlantic City, NJ - Borgata Spa and Resort
29 - Providence, RI - Providence Performing Arts Center
October 2008
1 - Cincinnati, OH - Taft Theatre
2 - Chicago, IL - Chicago Theatre
4 - Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum Theatre
5 - Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theatre
7 - Ann Arbor, MI - Michigan Theatre
8 - Toronto, Ontario - Massey Hall
9 - Montreal, Quebec - Place des Arts
11 - Hamilton, Ontario - Hamilton Place Theatre
12 - Ottawa, Ontario - National Arts Centre
14 - Louisville, KY - Louisville Palace Theatre
15 - Atlanta, GA - Cobb Energy Performance Arts Centre
16 - Clearwater, FL - Ruth Eckerd Hall
20 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Broward Center for the Performing Arts
21 - Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live
23 - Bossier City, LA - Horseshoe Casino and Hotel
24 - Houston, TX - Jesse H. Jones Hall
25 - Grand Prairie, TX - Nokia Theater
27 - Tulsa, OK - Brady Theater
28 - Kansas City, MO - Midland Theatre
November 2008
2 - Boise, ID - Morrison Center for the Performing Arts
4 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Orpheum
5 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre
6 - Portland, OR - Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
10 - San Diego, CA - San Diego Civic Center
11 - Phoenix, AZ - Dodge Theatre
13 - Los Angeles, CA - Orpheum Theatre
15 - Las Vegas, NV - The Joint
17 - Oakland, CA - Paramount Theatre
Songwriters devote album to baseball
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dusk is setting on a cool evening at Yankee Stadium, as Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte sets down the San Diego Padres. Steve Wynn and Scott McCaughey, two songwriters behind new band The Baseball Project, are doing what they love: sipping beer and talking baseball and music.
The Baseball Project is celebrating the release of its first album, "Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails," on Yep Roc Records earlier this month. It is a record solely about baseball, which is not a subject people might associate with veteran rockers like McCaughey and Wynn.
The subject turns to "walk-on" music -- music baseball players select to be played on stadium loudspeakers when they come up to bat -- that McCaughey and Wynn might select for themselves if they were ball players.
Wynn says, "Maybe 'Waiting For My Man," a song by the Velvet Underground about a dope addict and his dealer.
Scott McCaughey quips, "All right, I'll pick 'Sister Ray,"' referring to a 17-minute Velvet Underground song consisting primarily of abrasive white noise and off color lyrics.
McCaughey is a founding member of the Young Fresh Fellows and currently a sideman with R.E.M. Wynn is an original member of the Dream Syndicate, who helped pioneer the so-called Paisley Underground sound in Los Angeles in the early 1980s.
Other Baseball Project band members include drummer Linda Pitmon, who also plays with the likes of Freedy Johnston and John Wesley Harding. R.E.M.'s Peter Buck plays guitar throughout the album.
Wynn and McCaughey knew of each other's bands throughout the 1980s, but didn't actually meet until Wynn passed through McCaughey's home town of Seattle.
"According to Steve, we met in a rock club. Probably in the urinal in a rock club where all the great summits occur," McCaughey said. "But I was a fan and had seen him play many times, and we have plenty of mutual friends, so it was just a matter of time."
Wynn recalls, "The funny thing is we didn't talk much about baseball until last year. We were at R.E.M.'s Hall of Fame induction party. And we talked about baseball for hours. Somewhere in that conversation we both mentioned that we wanted to do a record about baseball."
Wynn found himself talking about the album with friends incessantly, until Pitmon said, "You better stop talking about this record and actually make it before someone else does."
McCaughey sent Wynn three songs: "Sometimes I Dream Of Willie Mays," "Past Time," and "Satchel Paige." Three days later, Wynn completed five songs of his own.
Rather than trafficking in sports cliches, the album sets its sights on lesser known stories and players such as pitcher Jack McDowell, who won the Cy Young award in 1993, but who is perhaps better known for making an obscene gesture to a Yankee Stadium crowd after they booed him in 1995.
Wynn believes his songs are as autobiographical as anything he's ever written. In particular, he points to "Gratitude," a paean to Curt Flood, whose legal challenge to the reserve clause helped usher in the age of free agency. The reserve clause bound a player to his team, even after his contract expired, until he was traded or released.
"The song is about how difficult it is to be the sacrificial lamb -- the one that paves the way for something that is not an easy cause. Everybody else benefits from what you did," Wynn said.
"These are things that could be felt as if someone who started in indie rock in 1982, playing in all the punk rock clubs in the 1980s," he added. "I wrote about it from a place I could understand."
Both Wynn and McCaughey already are stockpiling songs for Volume 2. Wynn has a song in the works about Cal Ripken, the Hall of Fame shortstop who holds the record for consecutive games played.
The thrust of the song? "The guy's greatest accomplishment is that he went to work every day," Wynn laughs. "What's so great about that?"
Film critics Ebert, Roeper leaving their TV show
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Influential film critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper are departing the movie-review show that bears their names, the two announced separately, leaving the program's future unclear.
Ebert, 66, who has been sidelined as co-host of "At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper" since 2006 due to health problems, said in a statement posted on Monday on the Web site of the Chicago Sun-Times that he was ending his relationship with the show.
He had no explanation for his departure, but said producers had decided to "take the program in a new direction." Ebert, arguably America's best-known film critic, had remained active behind the scenes despite losing his voice to cancer.
His announcement came a day after Roeper, 48, said his last appearance on the show would be an episode airing August 17. Both Ebert and Roeper are columnists for the Sun-Times.
The show's production company, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, had no immediate comment on the future of the long-running program, which Ebert launched 33 years ago with late Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel.
Ebert said he and Siskel's widow, Marlene Iglitzen, will retain the show's trademarked catch-phrase "two thumbs up" for some future use.
"After 33 years on the air, 23 of them with Disney, the studio has decided to take the program named 'Siskel & Ebert' and then 'Ebert & Roeper' in a new direction. I will no longer be associated with it," Ebert's statement said.
Roeper joined the show eight years ago, after Siskel died of complications from a surgery to remove a brain tumor.
Roeper said in his statement that Disney had offered to extend his contract several months ago, but ultimately he and the company did not come to terms.
"Much transpired after that behind the scenes, but an agreement was never reached, and we are all moving on," Roeper said.
Roeper said he intends to "proceed elsewhere" and co-host another film review show that "honors the standards established by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert more than 30 years ago."
"I will be free to share the details on that program in the near future," he said.
Leno's last 'Tonight' is May 29; O'Brien in June 1
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Conan O'Brien will take over the "Tonight" Show next June — and what happens to deposed host Jay Leno after that is anybody's guess.
Leno's last show will be Friday, May 29, and O'Brien will start the following Monday, June 1, NBC executives told a Television Critics Association meeting Monday.
NBC is angling to keep Leno with the network but the late-night king has indicated he's ready to jump ship. Eager NBC competitors, including other networks and syndicators, are eager to help him make the leap.
Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff, NBC Entertainment co-chairmen, were asked about the specter of Leno being hired by ABC and overpowering O'Brien in the ratings.
"We really believe in the decisions we've made with our partners, including Jay" and are standing by them, Silverman replied.
Jimmy Fallon is poised to take over O'Brien's "Late Night" in March or April of 2009, after honing his approach in brief Internet shows, Silverman and Graboff said.
O'Brien will wrap his "Late Night" run sometime in the first quarter of the year, with exact dates to be determined, the executives said. O'Brien reruns will fill the gap until Fallon takes over.