Monday 8 September 2008

Guy Ritchie: 'Russell Crowe Isn't Playing Dr. Watson'

Guy Ritchie has denied reports Russell Crowe is set to play Sherlock Holmes' brother Dr Watson in his new film based on the celebrated fictional detective.


It was claimed the Gladiators star had been seamed up to star opposite Robert Downey Jr as Holmes' confidante and narrator in the forthcoming flick.


But Ritchie -- who was accompanied last night by wife Madonna on the red carpet for the premier of his fresh film RocknRolla -- insists the reports couldn't be further from the truth.


He tells British movie cartridge Empire, "I don't receive a Watson. Somebody precisely told me that I have Russell Crowe lined up merely that's news to me.


"I surmise that hasn't happened and I'm inactive looking for my Watson."


Although Ritchie hasn't found unmatched of the film's near essential characters, the moviemaker insists the production is shaping up just fine.


He added, "I'm very happy about it. We've got what I'd like to think ar some of the topper locations in London and with this film I get to show a whole new side to London. I've done modern-day and now I won�t be doing that, obviously."




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Friday 29 August 2008

Susan Lucci, Toni Braxton set for ABC's `Dancing'

NEW YORK �

Susan Lucci, Toni Braxton and Lance Bass will come to the floor on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."


They are among 13 celebrities slated to compete on the new season of the top-rated dance contest, premiering Sept. 22.


The other contestants are Cloris Leachman, Kim Kardashian, Ted McGinley, Brooke Burke, NFL champ Warren Sapp and deuce Olympic athletes: Misty May-Treanor, who north Korean won her second gold palm for beach volleyball at this year's summer games in Beijing, and Maurice Greene, wHO won deuce gold medals in trail at the 2000 games in Sydney.


Rounding out the cast ar chef Rocco DiSpirito, Cody Linley of "Hannah Montana" and comedian Jeffrey Ross.


The names were announced Monday on ABC News' "Good Morning America."


Kardashian, who co-stars with her family on the E! reality series "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," checkered into a New York City hospital Sunday subsequently cutting her foot on a glass table in her hotel room.


"I cut my foot pretty bad. ... It looked like a murder scene with all the descent everywhere," Kardashian said in a telephone call to "GMA."


"I testament be able to dance. I went to the hospital. I'll be fine," she said.


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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.


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On the Net:


http://abc.go.com/


http://www.eonline.com/on/shows/kardashians/index.jsp










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Tuesday 19 August 2008

Mp3 music: Buddy Holly






Buddy Holly
   

Artist: Buddy Holly: mp3 download


   Genre(s): 

Other
Retro

   







Buddy Holly's discography:


Memorial Album (CD 2)
   

 Memorial Album (CD 2)

   Year: 1995   

Tracks: 19
Memorial Album (CD 1)
   

 Memorial Album (CD 1)

   Year: 1995   

Tracks: 20






Buddy Holly is peradventure the most anomalous legend of '50s stone & drift -- he had his contribution of hits, and he achieved major rock & revolve stardom, only his importance transcends any staring sales figures or regular the particulars of whatever one vocal (or group of songs) that he wrote or recorded. Holly was unique, his legendary condition and his impact on democratic music all the more sinful for having been achieved in barely 18 months. Among his rivals, Bill Haley was on that point first and conventional rock candy & roll up music; Elvis Presley objectified the sexuality implicit in the medicine, marketing hundreds of millions of records in the treat, and defined one prospect of the edward Young and personal appeal required for stardom; and Chuck Berry defined the music's roots in vapours along with some of the finer points of its sex, and its pres Young orientation (and, in the work on, intermixed all of these elements). Holly's influence was hardly as far-reaching as these others, if far more insidious and more distinctly musical in nature. In a career haunting from the spring of 1957 until the wintertime of 1958-1959 -- less time than Elvis had at the tiptop before the army took him (and less time, in fact, than Elvis exhausted in the uSA) -- Holly became the single virtually influential originative forcefulness in early rock medicine & roll.


Born in Lubbock, TX, on September 7, 1936, Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holley (he later dropped the "e") was the youngest of foursome children. A natural instrumentalist from a melodious class, he was good on guitar, banjo, and mandolin by eld 15 and was working as part of a duette with his boyhood friend Bob Montgomery, with whom he had likewise started writing songs. By the mid-'50s, Buddy & Bob, as they billed themselves, were playacting what they called "western and boP"; Holly, in particular, was listening to a mess of blues and R&B and finding it compatible with nation music. He was among those young Southern hands world Health Organization heard and saw Elvis perform in the days when the latter was signed to Sam Phillips' Sun Records -- indeed, Buddy & Bob played as an opening move act for Elvis when he played the area around Lubbock in early 1955, and Holly power saw the next direction of his lifetime and calling.


By mid-1955, Buddy & Bob, world Health Organization already worked with an good basso (played by Larry Welborn), had added drummer Jerry Allison to their lineup. They'd likewise hack some sides that would hold certified as rock & roll, though no pronounce was interested at that particular time. Eventually Montgomery, world Health Organization leaned toward more of a traditional nation sound, left the performing partnership, though they continued to compose songs together. Holly unbroken push his music toward a straight-ahead rock & roll sound, on the job with Allison, Welborn, and assorted former local musicians, including guitar player Sonny Curtis and bassist Don Guess. It was with the latter iI that Holly cut his get-go official transcription session in January of 1956 in Nashville for Decca Records. They ground out, however, that there was a slew more to playing and cutting john Rock & vagabond than met the eye; the results of this and a followup session in July were alternately either a trivial overly domesticate and a small too far to the nation side of the integrate or were likewise raw. Some good music and a geminate of dear classics, "Midnight Shift" and "Rock Around With Ollie Vee," did derive out of those Decca sessions, but aught issued at the time went anywhere. At the time, it looked as though Holly had lost his injection at stardom.


Fate intervened in the pretence of Norman Petty, a musician-turned-producer based in Clovis, NM, world Health Organization had an ear for the new music and what made it sound unspoilt, especially o'er the wireless, to the kids. Petty had a studio where he aerated by the song alternatively of by the hour, and Holly and fellowship had already begun working there in the late springiness of 1956. After Decca's rejection, Holly and his band, which now included Niki Sullivan on rhythm guitar, threw themselves into what Petty regarded as the most promising songs they had, until they worked out a mingy, tough version of one of the failed originals that Holly had cut in Nashville, entitled "That'll Be the Day." The statute title and lyrical idiomatic expression, upraised from a line that John Wayne was ever quoting in the John Ford picture show The Searchers, had staying mightiness, and the group reinforced on it. They got the vocal nailed and recorded, and with Petty's help, got it picked up by Murray Deutsch, a publishing associate degree of Petty's wHO, in deform, got it to Bob Thiele, an executive director at Coral Records, wHO liked it. Ironically, Coral was a foot soldier of Decca, the same company to which Holly had antecedently been signed.


Thiele saw the record as potential difference hit, only thither were some major hurdle race to defeat before it could actually get released. For starters, according to writer Philip Norman in his book Rave On, Thiele would receive only the most begrudging documentation from his disc company. Decca had lucked out in 1954 when, at Milt Gabler's prod, they'd signed Bill Haley & His Comets and later proverb his "Rock music Around the Clock" top of the inning the charts, just very few of those in lodge at Decca had a real feel or hold for rock & wind or whatever sense of where it power be heading, or whether the label could (or should) follow it on that point. For some other, although he had been dropped by Decca Records the old year, the contract that Holly had signed tabu him from re-recording anything that he had cut for Decca, regardless of whether it had been released or not, for five age; though Coral Records was a foot soldier of Decca, at that place was every chance that Decca's Nashville power could keep up the discharge and mightiness even haul Holly into court. Amid all of these possibilities, good and forged, Welborn, wHO had played on "That'll Be the Day," was replaced on bass by Joe B. Mauldin.


"That'll Be the Day" was issued in May of 1957 mostly as an indulgence to Thiele, to "humour" him, according to Norman. The record book was put out on the Brunswick label, which was oriented more than toward jazz and R&B, and credited to the Crickets, a grouping name picked as a dodge to forestall whatever of the powers-that-were at Decca -- and specially Decca's Nashville power -- from having excessively easy a clock time calculation out that the vocalist was the same artist that they'd dropped the year before. Petty also became the group's director as well as their producer, sign language the Crickets -- identified as Allison, Sullivan, and Mauldin -- to a concentrate. Holly wasn't listed as a penis in the original document, in fiat to enshroud his participation with "That'll Be the Day," just this omission would later become the source of serious legal and financial problems for him.


When the smoke cleared, the song shot to the top smirch on the national charts that summer. Of course, Decca knew Holly's indistinguishability by then; with Thiele's sentiment and the realness of a grave rack up in their midst, the company in agreement to release Holly from the five-year limitation on his sure-enough constrict, eaving him free to preindication whatsoever recording contract he wanted. In the midst of sorting out the particulars of Holly's effectual situation, Thiele ascertained that he had item-by-item on his custody wHO was potentially a true conduct more than than a one-hit wonder -- at that place were potentially more than and different kinds of potentiality hits to add up from him. When all was aforementioned and through, Holly found himself with two recording contracts, unitary with Brunswick as a member of the Crickets and the other with Coral Records as Buddy Holly, which was part of Thiele's strategy to fetch the nigh out of Holly's talent. By cathartic two tell bodies of march, he could keep the grouping inviolate spell giving room for its obvious leader and "star" to break knocked out on his possess.


On that point was actually little deviation in the iI sets of recordings for most of his calling, in terms of how they were through with or world Health Organization played on them, leave out perchance that the harder, straight-ahead rock & roll songs, and the ones with backing vocals, tended to be credited to the Crickets. The confusion surrounding the Buddy Holly/Crickets twofold identity was nada, however, compared to the slack that constituted the songwriting credits on their work.


It's straight off clear that Petty, acting as their manager and producer, parceled out written material credits at random, gifting Niki Sullivan and Joe B. Mauldin (and himself) the co-authorship of "I'm Gonna Love You Too," while ab initio going Holly's name cancelled of "Peggy Sue." Petty usually added his advert to the credit entry line as well, a common pattern in the fifties for managers and producers wHO wanted a larger piece of the action. In comeliness, it should be aforementioned that Petty did make suggestions, some of them key fruit, in defining certain of Holly's songs, simply he nearly for sure didn't conduce to the extent that the shared out credits would lead one to believe. Some of the public's confusion over songwriting was heightened by complications ensuing from some other of the contracts that Holly had gestural in 1956. Petty had his possess publishing companionship, Nor Va Jak Music, and had a sign with Holly to bring out all of his young songs; just the prior year, Holly had gestural an undivided constrict with some other company -- eventually a colonization and release from the old concentrate power be sorted taboo, but in holy Order to reduce his profile as a songster until that happened, and to convince the former publishing firm that they weren't losing besides much in whatsoever closure, he copyrighted many of his new songs under the pseudonym "Charles Hardin."


The dual recording contracts made it possible for Holly to record an extraordinary number of sides in the line of his 18 months of fame. Meanwhile, the mathematical group -- billed as Buddy Holly & the Crickets -- became one of the top of the inning attractions of john Rock & roll's classic years, putt on shows that were as exciting and advantageously played as any in the Holly was the frontman, vocalizing lead and playing track guitar -- itself an unusual combination -- as well as writing or co-writing many of their songs. But the Crickets were besides a completely enveloping playing unit, generating a big and exciting sound (which, aside from some live recordings from their 1958 British tour of duty, is lost to history). Allison was a very inventive drummer and contributed to the songwriting act more oftentimes than his colleagues, and Joe B. Mauldin and Niki Sullivan provided a solid speech rhythm section.


The fact that the radical relied on originals for their singles made them unique and put them years beforehand of their metre. In 1957-1958, songwriting wasn't considered a science essential to a calling in rock & pluck; the music occupation was still patterned on the lines that it had followed since the '20s, with songwriting a specialised profession organized on the publication incline of the diligence, disunite from acting and recording. Once in a piece, a performing artist might write a song or, much more than rarely, as in the case of a Duke Ellington, count composing among his paint talents, merely in general this was an activity left to the experts. Any rock & roll with the inclination to spell songs would likewise hold to incur past tense the mental image of Elvis, world Health Organization stood to become a millionaire at years 22 and never wrote songs (the few "Elvis Presley" songwriting credits were the result of commercial enterprise arrangements rather than whatsoever creative action on his role).


Sidekick Holly & the Crickets changed that in a serious way by striking numeral one with a song that they'd written and so reaching the Top Ten with originals like "Oh, Boy" and "Peggy Sue," and regularly charging up the charts on behalf of their possess songwriting. This attribute wasn't apprehended by the public at the time, and wouldn't be noticed widely until the 1970s, only thousands of aspiring musicians, including John Lennon and Paul McCartney, took note of the fact, and some of them distinct to essay and emulate Holly.


Less obvious at the clock time, Holly and company besides skint up the constituted record industriousness method of recording, which was to bring the creative person into the label's own studio, operative on a timetable set by corporate policy and union rules. If an creative person were super successful -- à la Sinatra or Elvis, or later on, the Beatles -- they got a blank check in the studio and any union rules were smoothened over, but that was a rarified privilege, available alone to the to the highest degree elite group of musicians. Buddy Holly & the Crickets, by contrast, did their work, first with "That'll Be the Day," in Clovis, NM, at Petty's studio. They took their time, they experimented until they got the sound they wanted, and no trade union told them when to stop or commence their work, and they delivered enceinte records; what's more, they were records that didn't sound like anyone else's, anyplace.


The results were peculiarly notification on the history of rock 'n' roll music. The chemical group worked out a good that gave embodiment to the next wave of stone & roam and, specially, to early British rock & roll and the subsequent British Invasion beat, with the lead and rhythm guitars closely interlocked to create a fuller, harder sound. On songs such as "Not Fade Away,""Everyday," "Take heed to Me," "Oh Boy!," "Peggy Sue," "Peradventure Baby,""Rave On," "Instant," and "It's So Easy," Holly advanced rock & roll's range and sophistication without abandoning its rudimentary joyousness and excitement. Holly and the stripe weren't afraid to experiment regular on their singles, so that "Peggy Sue" made use of the kind of changes in volume and timbre on the guitar that were usually reserved for subservient records; likewise, "Actor's line of Love" was one of the earlier successful examples of double-tracked vocals in tilt & roll, which the Beatles, in particular, would embrace in the ensuing x.


Pal Holly & the Crickets were very popular in America, only in England they were regular bigger, their impact serious rivaling that of Elvis and, in some ways, even olympian it. This was due, in contribution, to the fact that they actually toured England -- they spent a month there in 1958, playing a serial of ows that were restrained being written about 30 years later -- which was something that Elvis ne'er did. But it likewise had to do with their sound and Holly's microscope stage persona. The group's adiposis use of rhythm guitar slotted correct in with the reasoned of skiffle music, a mix of megrims, folk, country, and idle dustup elements that constituted most of British youth's introduction to acting music and their way into rock & roll. Additionally, although he cut an exciting name onstage, Holly looked a destiny less likely a joust & roll star than Elvis -- tall, rangy, and spectacled, he looked wish an ordinary guy rope wHO simply played and american ginseng well, and portion of his appeal as a careen & roll asterisk was stock-still in how improbable he looked in that character. He provided inhalation -- and a path into the music -- for tens of thousands of British teenagers wHO to a fault couldn't conceive of themselves rivals to Elvis or Gene Vincent in the bleached and insecure department.


At least one star British guitar player of the late '50s, Hank Marvin of the Shadows, owed his take care (and the fact that he wore his eyeglasses proudly on stagecoach) to Holly, and his take care potty be seen existence propagated into the 1970s by Elvis Costello. Additionally, although he played several different kinds of guitar, Holly was specifically responsible for for popularizing -- some would say elevating to secret, even magical position -- the Fender Stratocaster, especially in England. For a destiny of would-be rock-and-roll & rollers on the Sceptered Isle, Holly's 1958 tour was the first-class honours degree chance they'd had to envision or hear the cat's-paw in military action, and it quickly became the guitar of alternative for anyone aspirant to stardom as an axeman in England. (Indeed, Marvin, inspired by Holly, later had what is reputed to be the first-class honours degree Stratocaster ever so brought into England.)


The Crickets were rock-bottom to a triad with the departure of Sullivan in late 1957, undermentioned the group's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, merely that was nigh the least of the changes that would ensue over the undermentioned twelvemonth. The mathematical group amalgamated its success with the release of iI LPs, The Chirping Crickets and Sidekick Holly, and did two very successful outside tours as well as more playing in the United States. Holly had already highly-developed aspirations and interests that diverged more or less from those of Allison and Mauldin. The opinion seemingly had never occurred to either of them of giving up Texas as their rest home, and they continued to foundation their lives in that location, spell Holly was more and more drawn to New York, non hardly as a seat to do business, just likewise to hot. His romance with and matrimony to Maria Elena Santiago, a receptionist in Murray Deutsch's power, only made the decision to go to New York easier.


By this time, Holly's music had big in sophistication and complexness to the point where he had relinquished the lead guitar duties in the studio to session actor Tommy Alsup, and he had done a number of recordings in New York utilizing session musicians such as King Curtis. It was during this geological period that his and the group's gross revenue had slackened more or less. The singles such as "Jiffy" didn't trade most as well as the 45s of 1957 had furled forbidden of stores. He power regular have advanced farther than a big clump of the group's audience was prepared to accept in late 1958. "Well...All Right," for example, was age ahead of its time as a song and a recording.


Holly's rip with the mathematical group -- and Petty -- in the strike of 1958 leftfield him free to act on some of those newer sounds, only it too left him short of johnny Cash resources. In the course of conclusion the association, it became authorise to Holly and everyone else that Petty had manipulated the numbers game and likely interpreted an tremendous slash of the group's income for himself, though thither was to try out about no way of establishing this because he never seemed to finish his "account statement" of the moneys due to anyone, and his books were finally found to be in such disorderliness that when he came up with various low five-figure settlements to those involved, they were glad to get what they got.


With a new wife -- wHO was pregnant -- and no closure orgasm in from Petty, Holly decided to earn some ready money by signing to play the Winter Dance Party packet tour of duty of the Midwest. It was on that tour that Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "Expectant Bopper" Richardson were killed in a plane crash, on February 3, 1959.


The doss was considered a piece of dour but not terribly significant news at the time. Most news program organizations, unravel by workforce who'd come of age in the thirties or forties, didn't take rock candy & roll identical seriously, demur to the degree that it could be victimised to sell newspapers or build wake audiences. Holly's clean-cut effigy and scandal-free living, coupled with the news of his recent marriage, did make the account more pathos than it otherwise power have had and believably got him treated more respectfully than would have been the subject with other music stars of the period.


For teenagers of the period, it was the first base populace tragedy of its tolerant. No white rock and roll & roller of any import had ever died ahead, forget trey of them, and the news was devastating. Radio station disc jockeys were too jolted -- for a fate of people involved in rock & roll music on any level, Holly's end may well throw been the number one time that they woke up the adjacent day wishing and hoping that the previous day's news had all been a dream.


The precipitancy and the whole accidental nature of the event, coupled with the ages of Holly and Valens -- 22 and 17, respectively -- made it even harder to take. Hank Williams had died at 29, but with his drinking and drug economic consumption he had ever seemed on the fast track to the grave accent to near anyone world Health Organization knew him and even to a set of fans; Johnny Ace had died in 1954 backstage at a show, simply that was too by his have hand, in a plot of Russian roulette. The emotional resonances of this event was completely different in every agency possible from those tragedies.


A few careers were actually launched in the wake of the tragedy. Bobby Vee leaped to stardom when he and his set took over Holly's spot on the go. In America, notwithstanding, something of a pall fell over rock & roll music -- its sound was muted by Holly's death and Elvis' military service, and this darkness didn't fully airlift for age. In England, the reaction was much more concentrated and marked -- Holly's final individual, "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," rose to number i on the British charts in the awake of his death, and it seemed as though the new generation of English rock & rollers and their audiences wouldn't let Holly's music or spirit die. Two days subsequently the event, producer Joe Meek and singer Mike Berry combined to make "Protection to Buddy Holly," a memorial individual that sounded like the isle of Man himself converted and soundless brings smiles and chills to listeners world Health Organization know it; it is aforesaid that Meek never wholly got over Holly's death, and he did vote down himself on the anniversary. On the less xtreme front, players from Lennon, McCartney, and Keith Richards on down all ground themselves influenced by Holly's music, songs, and playing. Groups like the Searchers -- pickings their list from the care Wayne ary produced by McCartney as a counteractive to the Busey flick, which covered all of the areas neglected by the inaccuracies of the film show and responded to them. There give followed microscope microscope stage musicals and plays, upgraded and audiophile reissues of his act, and testimonial albums, all continuing to flow out at a steady pace more than 40 old age later Holly's demise.





�Valkyrie� Officially Back in the Oscar Race!

Saturday 9 August 2008

Murphy's Law

Murphy's Law   
Artist: Murphy's Law

   Genre(s): 
Other
   



Discography:


The Partys Over   
 The Partys Over

   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 15


Best Of Times   
 Best Of Times

   Year: 2000   
Tracks: 14




 





Acid - Various Artists

Tuesday 1 July 2008

One-handed violinist and Cannes Film festival winner Angel Tavira dies at age 84








MEXICO CITY - Angel Tavira, a one-handed violinist who dedicated his life to Mexican folk music and won a Cannes Film Festival award for his first movie at age 82, has died. He was 84.

Tavira died of kidney problems Monday in a Mexico City hospital, said Eugenia Montiel, a spokeswoman for Camara Carnal Films, the company that co-produced Tavira's 2005 film "The Violin."

Tavira was born on July 3, 1924, into a family of musicians in the southwestern town of Corralfalso, and started playing the violin at age six.

When he was 13, he lost his right hand while setting off fireworks at a fair. He pursued his music career nonetheless, playing the violin with the bow tied to his stump.

"Being a Tavira meant being a musician," said his cousin, Javier Tavira. "It's the family tradition; there were instruments in his grandfather's house.

"His uncles and cousins helped him work out a way to keep playing."

Mexican director Fernando Vargas made a documentary about Tavira in 2002, and two years later cast him in the fictional film "The Violin."

With no previous experience, Tavira won an acting award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival for his role as the patriarch of a family of street musicians who support an armed rebel movement.

In the documentary, Tavira describes the frustrations of learning how to play with one arm, saying he often wanted to hurl his violin to the floor.

"Just seeing myself tied to the bow, I only wanted to cry," he said. "I started practicing again just like I was learning to play."

Tavira was committed to traditional calentana music from his native Pacific coast state of Guerrero. He taught music to school children and led the Hermanos Tavira Banda folk band.

At 60, he enrolled in the Music Conservatory of Morelia in Michoacan state, studying musical scoring in the hopes of preserving calentana for future generations.

"He is a man who fought his whole life to keep the music of his region alive, teaching new generations and doing it with only one hand," Vargas said in a statement released by the National Arts Council.

Tavila is survived by his wife and 12 children from two marriages.










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Tuesday 24 June 2008

LiveDaily Interview: Tom DeLonge of Angels & Airwaves

It's shaping up to be a very busy week for former Blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge. On the upside, he just celebrated the debut of a documentary DVD chronicling his transition from the seminal teen punk act Blink-182 to his current band, Angels & Airwaves [ tickets ].Released earlier this week, the film, entitled "Start the Machine," focuses on the process of producing Angels & Airwaves' first project, "We Don't Need to Whisper." Delonge is also on the cusp of heading out for a summerlong jaunt headlining Van's Warped Tour, which commences June 20 in Pomona, CA.On the down side, DeLonge has reaffirmed news that all Blink fans hated to hear--there will be no reunion. And he's made a few headlines in the UK defending his cohorts in My Chemical Romance after a flurry in the press about a 13-year-old British girl, who was a devotee of MCR and other Emo acts, committed suicide in 2007.In a widely circulated statement in the UK press, the singer is quoted as saying that although band members may tend to blame themselves in situations like this high profile suicide, it's wrong to do so when there is no direct fan-to-band connection."You have no idea who these people are," DeLonge said. "And My Chemical Romance, they spend a lot of time singing about coming together. There's ingredients of rebellion and angst, but what band doesn't have that when they're young?"Switching to his recent comment about a rumored Blink reunion, DeLonge states: "I really cannot see any possible way that Blink would get back together, nor do I have any desire for it. It was a really amazing, magical time for me when I was young, but now I'm older, I'm doing things that reflect my life now. It would be a lie to myself to go and sing about first dates and girls at the rock show."Clearly these are separate but similar sentiments from a man who is fully in touch with not only where he has gone, but where he is going. In advance of his Warped Tour duties, DeLonge sat down with LiveDaily to talk about his own demons; the process behind Angels & Airwaves' second offering, "I, Empire"; and his other entrepreneurial activities, including ModLife.LiveDaily: Your newer material seems to come from a really progressive standpoint. Your Angels & Airwaves material has been compared with Queen, Rush and Yes, and I hope you don't take offense to this, but I hear shades of Flock of Seagulls mixed in there as well. Tom DeLonge: No offense at all, I love Flock of Seagulls. You know, I grew up in the alternative rock scene. I was a little punk rocker listening to new wave and classic rock bands like the ones you mentioned. These were all the great bands we grew up with. As we were putting together the new project we were saying, "Wouldn't it be great if we could get the conceptual depth of a Pink Floyd, or the epic landscapes of U2?" It's funny, every time we crank up the guitar, we end up sounding like we borrowed something from "Tom Sawyer" or some other Rush song. We really wanted Angels & Airwaves to showcase 30 or 40 years of the bands we thought were great. We try and derive our influences from all those bands we liked, and then we put a modern take on it.When it came to writing and producing for the new band, were you consciously drawing from deeper or more classic influences, or was the writing and production process purely organic?When we start the recording of a song, a lot of time we will do it with a muse--a movie, a book, an image or a song. And, more often than not, once it gets rolling, it is a very organic thing that takes shape. We've learned that no matter how you go in to record the song, it will never end up as good as if you let it go in the direction it needs to go. Like, if you go in with the idea that it will have this gigantic roaring guitar sound, but then, once you lay down the track you realize that it's not the best thing for the song. So we end up in a very organic place. Once we start laying down the song, we don't reference the muse anymore. We always want to do songs that will create an appeal, where it can be a foundation of a larger message--the way the band wants to bring people together, with a positive outlook on life.Besides being a bit older, and coming to the project with a totally secure concept of what the band was capable of, what was different about the process of creating "I-Empire" than "We Don't Need to Whisper?"The imagery of the first project was the juxtaposition of war and space. The space was reflecting this infinite realm with infinite possibilities. The war was reflective of the war within one's own life--metaphorically speaking. For me, it was the breakup of my last band, losing my closest friends and starting out on this new life. Largely, the first record was an autobiographical experience. Making the new album was a little more grounded and happy. We still had a few of those ethereal moments, like when the music lifted you off the ground and made you soar. But, we know who we are now, and we're excited to be where we are at instead of searching it out anymore.So you're rooted in reality instead of altered reality?That's totally right.The new album reflects significantly more adventure and diversity in the instrumentation, especially in the rhythms. Was "I-Empire" a lot more fun to do, and did Atom, Dave and Matt play greater roles in what we hear as the finished product?It really was a lot more fun. I know a lot of people out there think this is a Tom DeLonge project, and that I call all the shots. But when I put the band together, it was very much knowing that I wanted this to be one of the greatest bands of all time. I don't write all the drum parts, and I don't write all the bass parts, I don't pick all the album artwork. I consider myself an amateur captain of sorts. I can get the boat to the dock, but there's no way I'm pushing it out in the water myself. These guys are great--they work all the time. The cool thing was when I was getting off painkillers, there were, like, three weeks when I couldn't do anything at all. Well, they were still in the studio doing all the drums and arrangements--they didn't miss a beat. So, when it says all the songs are written and performed by the band--you know it's not my thing anymore.Where does ModLife come into play? This dual life you have between the music business and your entrepreneurial pursuits is pretty intriguing.Before I ever started selling records, right when online stuff was taking off, I pretty much decided to start this thing called LoserKids.com, because I never thought we were going to make it in the music business. Well, we started selling records, and since we were one of the first places to start selling skate fashions, it started taking off, too. Then we came up with a concept called ModLife, which is an operating system that allows people to make money off themselves digitally. It's a series of tools that work cohesively together that allows a band or a person to broadcast themselves in movies or videos, to sell their music through broadcasts, webcams or podcasts. It really helped us spearhead Angels & Airwaves as more of a fine-arts project than a band--doing films, documentaries, coffee table books, and other licensed products. It also helps us get real connectivity with our fans--it helps keep the business alive while pushing it forward, changing expectations about the ways people can showcase their art.You and the band really seem to have set out to make a difference in 2008, and I have to believe one way you can literally help save lives is talking about your experiences related to pain-killer addiction. You know, it's one thing to hear about it from your parents, or teachers, but coming from someone like you, I know any words of warning will actually fall on receptive ears.You know, when you have your life together as a teenager, you never see yourself as a drug addict. You never think you're that guy. You're fine--you hang with your friends, you play your sport. But the one thing that was really enlightening to me was learning no matter how strong you are, and how well your life is put together, these painkillers are a chemical that is exactly like super glue. No matter how strong you are, you can't not glue your fingers together. The chemical has nothing to do with how smart you are, or how happy you are, or how many friends you have. No matter what, once you take it, it starts super gluing your system. It's a massively dangerous drug because it will connect to you in a way that makes it ruin everything it touches. And the saddest thing when I was taking the stuff, is it was clouding my inhibition. You start making really horrible decisions, and you start doing things that bring parts of you out you didn't even know existed. You feel so good all the time, and before you know it, you're in so deep you can't function. It scares me to know there are kids out there that are into it--because once you start taking it, you bump up really quickly. Once you're taking that Oxycontin and stuff, you need some serious, serious help getting off. I mean, it's as strong as any drug that exists on earth. So I think you really need to learn to be happy with yourself and the world around you. I remember being scared that I would never feel as good once I stopped taking the stuff. But that's a total lie--a complete and total lie.

Sunday 15 June 2008

Ivan Fischer/Budapest Festival Orch.

Ivan Fischer/Budapest Festival Orch.   
Artist: Ivan Fischer/Budapest Festival Orch.

   Genre(s): 
Classical
   



Discography:


Brahms - Hungarian Dances   
 Brahms - Hungarian Dances

   Year:    
Tracks: 21




 





New York Dolls

Wednesday 11 June 2008

Grammy Award winner Mark S. Doss to star in a William Walton classical rendition at Opera Theatre of St. Louis

ST. LOUIS, MO, June 5 - Mark S. Doss, international opera
star and Grammy Award winner, is set to perform at the Opera Theatre of St.
Louis in the timeless tragedy, Troilus and Cressida, with performances on
June 19, 21, 25, 27 and 29, 2008.

In St. Louis, Doss takes on the role of Diomede, Greek Prince of Argos,
in a classical rendition of the production, which originally debuted in
1954 at Covent Garden, London. Troilus and Cressida is the first of two
operas composed by William Walton and took approximately seven years to
complete.

New York may witness "first hand" the extraordinary resurgence of Doss'
bass-baritone when he arrives at the Metropolitan Opera in the heart of New
York City this September through mid-October. Doss will cover his
critically acclaimed role of Jochanaan (John the Baptist) in Salome. A
recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinal review applauded his performance in this
role, saying, "Mark S. Doss' potent and steadfast bass-baritone sound and
imposing physical presence made him a worthy foil for (Erika) Sunnegardh.
The opera found its pace and substance in their early duet, in which he
held firm against her seductions and epithets." Last season, Mr. Doss
performed this same role at Milan's legendary Teatro alla Scala (La Scala),
where he has been welcomed for six different roles since 2004.

In December, Doss returns once again to Milan to star as Baron Jaroslav
Prus in the three-act opera The Makropulos Case. This will be Doss' seventh
principal role at La Scala.

This past March, Doss made his Pittsburgh Opera debut as Amonasro in
Verdi's Aida. Mr. Doss is featured in the same role on a recently released
Aida DVD, recorded live at the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels. Reviewers
applauded his work, recognizing "another fine performance...from the
powerful American bass(-baritone), Mark (S.) Doss (Amonasro)," who was able
to "subtly break free of the 'stand and deliver' directions and create a
huge amount of emotion in his face and voice," (Reviewer Ltd., UK).

In other news, Doss has earned high praise for his portrayal of
Mephistopheles in productions around the world. He is featured in the
recently released CD of Mefistofele recorded live with Oper Frankfurt on
the hr-musik.de label. The magazine Opernwelt applauds his performance and
in a 2007 edition said, "Mark S. Doss can exist beside great predecessors
such as Nazzareno de Angeles or Samuel Ramey with luster."

ABOUT MARK S. DOSS:

Mark S. Doss is a celebrated bass-baritone whose accomplishments
include a Grammy Award (1993) for his work on the recording of Semele
(Handel). The Cleveland-born star began his musical studies to aid in his
ambitions to become a Catholic priest, but was seduced by the opera world
and has since emerged as one of the world's leading singers.

CONTACT: AND INTERVIEW REQUESTS: Christine Payne or Amy Aravantinos,
Publicity office for Mark S. Doss, (416) 489-0092, cpayne29@cogeco.ca or
aaravantinos@primorisgroup.com; Mark S. Doss, (847) 826-4530,
MSDoss57@aol.com




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Kiss - The Things They Say 8557


"It's PAUL's fault - he didn't have to marry her... A wife will never ever say how much she will want after a divorce. If she did, no man would marry her." Never-married KISS star GENE SIMMONS has no sympathy for SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY, who was forced to pay ex-wife HEATHER MILLS a hefty settlement in their divorce battle.





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Babyshambles - Babyshambles Deny Guitarist Split


BABYSHAMBLES have dismissed a story which claimed guitarist Mick Whitnall is about to leave the band.

The band are about to begin work on the follow-up to their third album Shotter's Nation, so a media report that the guitarist was about to walk came as a surprise to the band themselves.

A report in the Sun claimed guitarist Mick Whitnall was about to quit BABYSHAMBLES in order to join Amy Winehouse's touring band, after it emerged he has been writing for the singer in his spare time.

NME reports that Babyshambles' drummer Adam Ficek rubbished such reports, however, by branding the story "a load of b******s", adding that "it made me laugh though".

In related news, Pete Doherty has revealed that he is worried about BABYSHAMBLES' financial situation.

He told MTV.co.uk: "We've got a few concerns at the moment over issues with management, where the money has been going and distribution of wealth."




11/06/2008 14:11:43





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Mariza

Mariza   
Artist: Mariza

   Genre(s): 
Folk
   Pop
   Latin
   



Discography:


Transparente                                                              A Pirata (20050427)   
 Transparente A Pirata (20050427)

   Year: 2005   
Tracks: 8


Transparente   
 Transparente

   Year: 2005   
Tracks: 14


Fado em Mim   
 Fado em Mim

   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 13




 






From the Digg files: fun with plane dissection

6465 This seeming geometric paradox is making the rounds on Digg right now.  If you're skeptical about how 64 can equal 65, you need only read the explanation (and use the interactive Applet) here. Wow, I have neither read nor used the word Applet in several years. Takes me back to a simpler but less efficient time.



Click the drawing at left to watch.



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The Coral To Headline Lounge On The Farm Festival

The Coral are the latest band to be confirmed at Canterbury’s Lounge on the Farm festival.


The Scouse folk heroes will headline the event’s third day, on Sunday 13th July, with a special acoustic greatest hits set.


They join other recent additions such as DJ Format, We Smoke Fags and Semifinalists.


Other confirmed acts at the Kent festival include Lightspeed Champion, Mystery Jets and The Shortwave Set.


For more information on this summer's festivals, check out our new look Festival Guide.




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Walt Disney Concert Hall needs to stand tall

» Discuss Article
Chapter 11 in Neal Gabler's 2006 biography of Walt Disney is titled "Slouching Toward Utopia." It begins a couple of years after Disneyland opened in July 1955. So what did Walt do next? "Aglow over Disneyland," Gabler writes, "he was intent on expanding and improving it." Disney called the "city on the hill" his "baby," "a living and breathing thing" that would never be finished. He wanted a 150-foot Matterhorn, a monorail and submarines. He got out his checkbook. All this, Walt said, "gave him endless pleasure." Last Sunday afternoon, the Los Angeles Philharmonic completed its fifth season in the concert hall on the hill that Walt's money, if not Walt himself, built and that, in its own way, is slouching toward utopia. During intermission, audience members strolled in dappled sunlight in the garden. Inside, they cheered Esa-Pekka Salonen’s new Piano Concerto with unbridled enthusiasm.
Not everyone was happy about everything. One conspiracy-minded patron assured me that the drinking fountains on the second level weren't working because of a plot by the Patina Group, which runs the concessions in the hall. But even he agreed that a glorious concert in a glorious hall on a glorious day was worth the bother of $3 bottled water.Simply astonishingIn the five years that the Philharmonic has been playing in Walt Disney Concert Hall, it has become a better and bolder orchestra. The building itself, according to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, has replaced the Hollywood sign as the symbol of Los Angeles. No festivals occurred last month in Disney, just business as usual. But business as usual meant one astonishing concert by the Philharmonic, or under its auspices, after another. Salonen's programs moved from large late-Romantic works by Brahms, Wagner and Mahler through the 20th century of Hindemith, Stravinsky, Debussy, Dutilleux and Bartók to today, with his own concerto. (A new cello concerto by the British composer Oliver Knussen would have been included but was not finished.) The performances had the rich glow of golden-age music-making. The Philharmonic commissioned a new work from Canadian composer Derek Charke for the Kronos Quartet and the startlingly sensual Inuit singer Tanya Tagaq. The orchestra updated its Baroque series with Couperin heard through the ears of the stellar young British composer Thomas Adès, and it also commissioned a major new work for the Green Umbrella series from Adès and a video artist, Tal Rosner.The final recital in the organ series was turned over to the father of all Minimalists, Terry Riley, who bathed the organ, which he named Hurricane Mama, in psychedelic lights and communed with the cosmos, reaching a climax that may still have some molecules wiggling in the far corners of the hall. But the mystical way had been paved a few days earlier by pianist Peter Serkin, who, as a late replacement for the ailing Pierre-Laurent Aimard, began the process of bending space and time with two intense pieces by Messiaen, every note played as if it were a funnel to God.In Frank Gehry's architectural embrace of the future and in his reverence for traditional, illuminating acoustics, Disney made all this not only possible but also popular. Throughout May, the hall was full. Some people were turned away. The Philharmonic's daring did trouble several organ subscribers, who were quick with their e-mails; maybe Riley better belonged among the new music events. On the other hand, I heard from anti-Minimalist audience members who unwittingly found their socks knocked off. And there were at least a few spectators who subscribed to the organ series simply to get good seats for Riley and then discovered the pleasures of Bach and Messiaen. This is the real secret of the Disney and the Philharmonic magic. In some ways, the building may be the most modest, least innovative of all major modern concert venues. Its main job, once you're seduced inside, is to create a direct link between sound and its reception. The orchestra can hear itself. The audience has an immediate tactile connection with music that can be found only in the finest 19th century halls. The modernity of the setting, though, reminds us of the here and now, which makes new music feel right.And it is the depth of the Philharmonic's sense of tradition that has made it the most relevant orchestra in America, and probably anywhere. At Sunday's concert, Salonen bid farewell to three retiring veteran players -- bassoonist David Breidenthal, violist Arthur Royal and horn player Robert Watt -- noting that collectively they represented 124 years of service. Salonen said he had also calculated that he had played close to a thousand concerts with them. Their contribution, he declared, is now part of the Philharmonic DNA.From this foundation, the Philharmonic continues to build. A new viola player, Carrie Dennis, who will join the orchestra at the end of the summer, was on hand Sunday to play a big solo in the first movement of Salonen's concerto, a duet between her and pianist Yefim Bronfman, and she was riveting. Surely I don't need to tell you about Gustavo Dudamel, who will succeed Salonen next year after the conductor finishes his final, and 17th, season as music director.Cheap overseersThe Philharmonic worthily expands, changes, evolves, its work never finished. But while the Music Center is aglow over Disney Hall, it shows no pleasure writing checks. Anything the center can do on the cheap, it does. Disney is not well cared for. Wood on the curved walls of the BP Hall, where the packed pre-concert talks are given, is warping. Walking around the exterior Sunday, I noticed pigeons nesting in the crevices. The steel looked as though it hadn't been cleaned in places for a long time. The garden, originally -- dare I say it? -- a symphony of color, with exciting, exotic blooms each season, is now bland.To save a few million, the Music Center scrimped on the cafe, which is dark, overcrowded and the least inviting space in the building. But the biggest oversight was lighting the exterior of this ravishing structure at night.Gehry specifically chose a steel able to sustain images projected on it. He did not include a marquee. He felt the most exciting way to announce what is happening in the hall would be to project video of the concert on the outside walls, turning the building into a living billboard.Given that Salonen and Dudamel are the two most photogenic of today's great conductors, this could be an amazing way to make Disney the center of street life, especially once the Grand Avenue development across the street -- with its hotel, apartments, shops and restaurants -- is built.Right now, Disney is harshly lighted in a way that Gehry hates, and so do I. During daylight saving time, I find myself tempted to hike up the hill from The Times to concerts simply to enjoy the sight of the hall reflecting the sunset. In the winter, I prefer to drive because the lighting is so annoying.The Music Center has gotten an enormous payback from Disney and now is coasting on the hall's fame. With the fifth anniversary coming up in September, this is the time for the center to listen to Uncle Walt and stop slouching toward utopia. Stand up straight, treat the baby right, sign the bloody checks. Disney's capacity to provide endless pleasure is well proven. But a living, breathing city needs a living, breathing symbol.mark.swed@latimes.com

Ulrich Schnauss and Longview

Ulrich Schnauss and Longview   
Artist: Ulrich Schnauss and Longview

   Genre(s): 
Ambient
   



Discography:


What Happened When Longview And Ulrich Schnauss Converged   
 What Happened When Longview And Ulrich Schnauss Converged

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 4




 






Jack Black - Black My Baby Is Called Thomas - Not Jack


Actor JACK BLACK tricked the media into believing he had named his new baby son JACK.

After the star confirmed at the Cannes Film Festival in France (May08) that his wife Tanya had given birth to their second child "weeks ago", Black revealed the tot was named after him.

But the Kung-Fu Panda star forgot to reveal his real name is Thomas Jack Black - and the newborn baby is also called Thomas.

He explains the confusion, "I said I named the baby after me. I didn't say that my actual name is Thomas."

Black recently explained how the baby - a brother to Samuel, who is two this month (Jun08) - was born without anyone realising: "Nobody cares about my babies. It's all about Angelina's babies."





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