Category: Music

Jackson: Recording Industry Racist
Michael Jackson, already feuding with his record company, charged Saturday that the recording industry was a racist conspiracy that turns profits at the expense of performers ó particularly minority artists.
“The recording companies really, really do conspire against the artists ó they steal, they cheat, they do everything they can,” Jackson said in a rare public appearance. “(Especially) against the black artists.”
Jackson, 43, who began his recording career as a child, spoke at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in Harlem. Sharpton and attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. recently formed a coalition to investigate whether artists are being financially exploited by record labels.
Jackson, who records for Sony Music, also singled out company chairman Tommy Mottola, saying he was “mean, he’s a racist, and he’s very, very, very devilish.” Jackson also accused Mottola of using “the n-word” when speaking about an unidentified black Sony artist.
Sony Music issued a statement calling Jackson’s comments “ludicrous, spiteful and hurtful. It seems particularly bizarre that he has chosen to launch an unwarranted and ugly attack on an executive who has championed his career … for many, many years.”
Jackson’s last album, “Invincible,” has had disappointing sales despite an estimated $25 million in promotion. The singer’s fans say Sony didn’t do enough to launch the album. Others in the industry say sagging sales were indicative of Jackson’s declining appeal.
Jackson mentioned several black artists as victims of the industry, including James Brown, Mariah Carey and Sammy Davis Jr. Jackson alleged that Davis died penniless, although Davis’ attorney said in 1990 that the “Rat Pack” member left an estate worth more than $6 million when he died.
“If you fight for me, you’re fighting for all black people, dead and alive,” Jackson said, adding: “We have to put a stop to this incredible injustice.”
Outside Sony’s Manhattan headquarters, about 150 fans gathered later Saturday, hoisting signs reading “Please Sony, stop killing the music,” “Terminate Tommy Mottola,” and “Invincible is Unbreakable.”
Jackson arrived at the Midtown building on a double-decker city tour bus that twice circled the block. He stood in the open top deck and, raising his fists, joined the crowd in chanting “Down with Tommy Mottola!”
Jackson held up a poster with three boxes marked “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” ó with an image of himself in the “The Good” box and Mottola’s face with devilish horns in “The Bad” box, while Mottola’s real image adorned “The Ugly” box.

Phil Collins’ new CD is a testimony to love
Phil Collins’ first collection of all-new solo material in six years will reflect the veteran singer/songwriter’s newfound contentment with marriage, fatherhood and modern technology.
Testify, scheduled for a Nov. 12 release, features songs inspired by Orianne, Collins’ wife since 1999, and their 14-month-old son, Nicholas. The title track is “the most upfront, direct love song I’ve ever written,” he says, while a lullaby-like tune called Come With Me (Close Your Eyes) combines music originally written when his 13-year-old daughter from an earlier marriage was an infant ó and later adapted for a music box in Nicholas’ bedroom ó with a new lyric “about trying to do the best you possibly can for your kids.”
In writing songs for the new CD, which includes “some harder-edged stuff” as well, Collins worked extensively with computers, a method he also is using for the soundtrack of a new Disney film due in 2004. “I had resisted computers for a long time, but the freedom they give you in composition is amazing,” he says. In addition, Collins plans to write new material for a stage adaptation of his first animated Disney feature, 1999’s Tarzan.
One thing Collins will be doing less of in the near future is touring. A year and a half ago, the singer developed “sudden deafness,” a viral infection that killed cells and affected his aural comprehension in one ear.
“I can hear and write and sing, but loud noises aren’t comfortable,” he says. “So I may do some showcase gigs, but I’ll be concentrating more on writing and recording than live performances.”

STILL THE KING
The remix of Elvis Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation” debuting at number one on the U.S. singles charts. The track, which has been topping the British charts for the past three weeks, will now be added to the upcoming Elv1s 30 #1 Hits collection due in September.

U2’s Bono Would Rather Rock Than Rule
Irish rock star Bono said on Thursday music was his first love and that he had no interest in becoming a politician despite his work as a rights campaigner.
“Nothing comes close to the feeling of waking up with a melody in your head and having a band like U2 to help you capture it,” the singer told Ireland’s Hot Press magazine.
“Politicians don’t turn me on, politics doesn’t turn me on, the way music does. I have a lot more respect for them than I used to. They work a lot harder than I thought…but I don’t want to be one.”
The Dubliner has lobbied world leaders including French President Jacques Chirac to improve aid and debt forgiveness for poor countries and in May went on a high-profile 12-day trip through Africa with U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, dubbed the “odd-couple tour.”
Touted as a possible Irish presidential candidate, Bono said he had no interest in the job, a largely ceremonial position which usually attracts a wide-range of candidates from outside the political mainstream.
“I don’t think I could live with the pay cut or moving to a smaller house,” he said.
A participant in fellow Irishman Bob Geldof’s 1985 Live Aid famine-relief concert, Bono has set up his own group called DATA (Debt, Aid, Trade for Africa), advocating economic aid, lower export tariffs and money to fight AIDS.
Renowned for his forthright personality, the 42-year old father of four said he was not getting mellower with age.
“I’m getting angrier and that’s what makes me believe that with some smart thinking and simple changes to our lives, we can drastically improve the lives of so many other people.”
Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, said U2 had been working on a follow-up album to the Grammy-winning “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” since the end of their “Elevation” tour in December 2001 .
“We set up in a disused bar/nightclub in the South of France. Very punk rock and very like old clubs we used to play. Maybe it was being in that kind of venue, but the music we started to make was very lo-fi high energy.”
“One of these songs might make it onto our new ‘Best Of’ which comes out later this year.”

Duran Duran Seeks Fresh Domination of Planet Earth
British pop legends Duran Duran, which enjoyed a string of hits in the 1980s, wants to convert a new generation of “Duranies” during a worldwide tour announced on Thursday.
Duran Duran’s business manager David Ravden told Reuters the band had almost finished a new album, which it is planning to release early next year and will follow with a worldwide tour.
The band, which has sold more than 60 million albums in the last 20 years and reformed last year, has not signed with a record label, but Ravden said negotiations were under way.
“We are talking to and are in negotiations with a number of major record companies, but I cannot name them,” he said.
The news will be music to the ears of devoted Duranies who kept the flame for the idols of the New Romantic movement burning through hundreds of fan clubs from Moscow to New Zealand to Taipei.
Although often ridiculed for their stylized videos and penchant for eyeliner and pixie boots, more than 50,000 Internet pages are devoted to Duran Duran. Even Britain’s late Princess Diana once gushed that they were her favorite band.
While the original band members — singer Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Andy Taylor, John Taylor and Roger Taylor — once graced the bedroom walls of countless teenage girls, they are not the young bucks they once were.
But Ravden was confident the five, now in their 40s, were in good shape to take on their younger pop rivals in the battle for a new generation of fans.
“Obviously when you are 20 you are invariably slightly slimmer that when you are 40. But the labels we have met have commented on how good everyone looks.”
Duran Duran formed in 1978 but did not achieve great success until after they recruited frontman Simon Le Bon, who is married to model Yasmin Le Bon.
The band shot to fame with albums such as Big Thing, Rio and Arena in the 1980s but a line-up change and changing music tastes saw it fade into relative obscurity in the 1990s.
The original members came together for the first time 15 years in 2001 to record an album.

I Myself Have Been “Spoofed!”
In order to try and stop free downloading the music labels are planting online decoy tracks and mulling over the idea of lawsuits.

‘Powers’ Soundtrack Full of Remixes
The soundtrack for the movie “Austin Powers In Goldmember” will be full of remixed songs.
Dr. Dre remixed the Rolling Stones song “Miss You.” It also includes remixes of “Boys” by Britney Spears and rapper Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life” which has been remade by Dr. Evil. Paul Oakenfold’s “1975” is his loose interpretation of Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band’s “A Fifth of Beethoven” from 1976. Susanna Hoffs does a version of “Alfie.”
Smash Mouth’s “Ain’t No Mystery” was written specifically for the soundtrack and the film’s co-star, Beyonce Knowles of Destiny’s Child, contributes “Work It Out.”
Only one song appears in its original version: “Shining Star” by Earth, Wind & Fire. The film’s producers thought the song was perfect as it is.
The soundtrack is due out July 16.

Nelly Unseats Eminem From No. 1 Spot
It’s getting hot on the album chart for Nelly. The rapper unseated “The Eminem Show,” which has been No. 1 for the past five weeks.
“Nellyville,” which includes the No. 1 single “Hot in Herre,” sold about 717,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to industry figures released Wednesday.
Nelly’s second album topped Eminem’s latest release, which has dominated the album chart since it came out on May 26. “The Eminem Show” dropped to No. 2 this week, selling another 308,000 copies for a total of 3.6 million.
Another rapper didn’t fare nearly so well. Will Smith’s “Born to Reign” debuted at No. 13, selling only about 60,000 copies. The disc features the song “Black Suits Comin'” from Smith’s movie “Men in Black II,” the sequel to the 1997 blockbuster “Men in Black,” which opened Wednesday.

Thank You For The Music!
Well, well, well! It’s Tuesday and that means that new CD’s are invading the shelves at a music store near you!
Today will see the bow of another Greatest Hits disc from Aerosmith (I don’t know why), the soundtrack from the soon to be Summer blockbuster (the film opens tomorrow) MEN IN BLACK II, and the North American release of the debut disc from German babe Sarah Connor (Yes, she is the mother of the leader of the resistance!).
The latter release is also worth mentioning because I really dig the single, and the actual, FRENCH KISSING. It samples the Blackstreet song “No Diggity” and is an awesome summer song!
Plus, she is hot, and the mother of the leader of the resistance! (I include that joke a second time in case you missed it the first time!
So, without any further TERMINATOR references from me, I urge you to read the list of new music releases for Tuesday, July 2, 2002, before its too late!
* AARON TIPPIN I Believed
* ADAM GREGORY Workin’ On It (Epic)
* AEROSMITH O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits (Columbia)
* GRAND FUNK RAILROAD Live: The 1971 Tour
* GREEN DAY Shenanigans (Reprise)
* JARVIS CHURCH Shake It Off (Columbia/RCA)
* LAYO & BUSHWACKA Night Works (XL Recordings/Beggars Group)
* LIKE MIKE Like Mike (Columbia)
* MEN IN BLACK II Men In Black II
* MORCHEEBA Charango (Warner International)
* OASIS Heathen Chemistry (Epic)
* SARAH CONNOR Green Eyed Soul (Epic)
* SILVERCHAIR Diorama (Atlantic)
* SOULFLY 3 (Roadrunner)

New Pearl Jam Album Set For November
Pearl Jam has changed plans surrounding its forthcoming album releases. Eddie Vedder and crew will now release a still-untitled album of all-new original material in November with a B-sides album shelved until sometime early next year.
Adam Kasper produced the new album, and longtime Pearl Jam collaborator Brendan O’Brien mixed the collection. Pearl Jam is currently going over sequencing of the songs, and deciding on artwork and a name for the project.
Vedder’s friend, known only as “Boom,” plays keyboards, organ, and piano on the forthcoming effort.
Pearl Jam’s last studio recording was Binaural. The 2000 release was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of 500,000 copies.