Billboard mentions that George Clinton and Sheila E. are taking part in Gone Country, a show where celebrities are to come up with a country song in two weeks. It will certainly be interesting to see what Mr Clinton will come up with.
If you have no idea what I am talking about, your next stop is to get hold of the Parliament album Mothership Connection.
And Sheila E., of course, has a Prince connection. If none of this rings a bell, your next film to watch is Sign “☮” the Times.
A song from Darren Hayes’s forthcoming album The Delicate Thing We’ve Made has been made available for listening and viewing at DarrenHayes.com. The track, titled Who Would Have Thought?, sounds relatively much like the artist’s previous album The Tension and the Spark in that it makes use of heavily electronic sounds on top of which Hayes’s smooth and somewhat dark lyrics are laid.
As I really enjoyed the previous CD, I’m really quite looking forward to this one as well. The double-disc album should be out in late August. Actually, knowing that the tracks are more or less finished by now and the release is so far in the future, it will be interesting to see whether Hayes can keep the CD in wraps under his own independent “Powdered Sugar” label, or whether some tracks will be leaked on the Internet, and thus becoming downloadable mp3s, as so often (somewhat unfortunately) happens these days.
A new Michael Jackson track has appeared online. Actually, it is a track by what I assume is a rapper by the name Tempamental, and features Michael Jackson and Pras (of The Fugees). The title is either “No Friend of Mine” or “Gangsta”, depending on who you want to believe. I like the former more.
Michael is said to be working on a new album to be released by the end of this year, so could this track give some idea about the direction that he is taking? I certainly hope not, as it sounds pretty much like something from his previous album Invincible, which I wasn’t too keen on.
The track has of course already leaked out on mp3, and can be downloaded from the usual places. You can apparently even catch it on some radio stations. Alternatively, you can go and see a fan-made video for the song at YouTube, or even head to Tempamental’s MySpace page, but I would rather you don’t as I truly hate MySpace for it is probably the ugliest and least navigable web community that there has ever been.
They say that “No Friend of Mine” was played over 100,000 times from Tempamental’s MySpace during the first five days that it was there. Clearly then, even when considering repeated listeners, Michael Jackson still generates quite some interest. Heck, even I am typing this now while what I should really be doing is watching Barcelona vs. Liverpool.
One of my favourite musicians, Tori Amos, has announced that her forthcoming album titled American Doll Posse will be out on the 1st of May, 2007.
The past year or so has seen a lot of speculation on various online forums regarding the direction Tori will be taking on this album. She has remained rather tight-lipped about details, but has noted that while it will be see a return of the “fighter woman” in her, in terms of music it will not be a return to anything that she has done before.
For some reason (partly based on some cryptic remarks that she has made, and partly based on the type of music she has mentioned to be currently listening and has requested on radio shows), I have this feeling that American Doll Posse will be a rockier album than anything that we have heard from Tori before. And if it is, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear a sound at least vaguely similar to Nine Inch Nails, whose front man Trent Reznor is (or at least used to be) a good friend of Tori’s.
This all is of course complete speculation, and I guess it won’t be until May 1st when we will know what she’s been up to these past months. Unless, of course, downloadable mp3 tracks leak out and the fans get to download American Doll Posse before its official release. Tori has, however, in the past been very careful not to let her babies to be stolen. So much so that she has apparently pissed off some music reviewers with her copy protection methods, which at one point included inventing a completely new type of glue. (Google, and thou shalt find.)
The full official American Doll Posse press release can be read at Tori Amos - Undented, the default source for (unofficial) Tori Amos news. Be sure the check out the picture as well, and preferably in high resolution. The woman is scary as hell.
There are reports that Michael Jackson will make another “come-back” (to follow his “comebacks” in 1987, 1991, 1995 and 2001) in this year’s World Music Awards on November 15th. Even more interestingly, he will apparently be giving a live stage version of his “Thriller” music video. I can’t wait for the Youtube video. 
Arrr. Promotion and hype around the new Pirates of the Caribbean film continues, and one of the most interesting offshoots to have emerged is an album of pirate songs. The double CD, coming out this August, features an impressive range of artists including Nick Cave, Bryan Ferry, Antony (singing a duet with Ferry!), Sting, Bono and Lou Reed.
