That’s just music

Sex Pistols are going to release a new concert DVD, which is planned to hit the stores on June 30, says Internet-issue Pitchfork Media.  Julien Temple who had previously produced a legendary film, “The Great Rock And Roll Swindle” is the director of this new DVD.

DVD contains footages that were made in November 2007 at the London’s Brixton Academy club. This place is quite familiar to those who saw AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” video.

Sex Pistols have decided to call this newborn release “There’ll Always Be an England” which incorporates sixteen songs and nearly 100 minutes of all kinds of material including a guide on London’s punk-rock places, archive footages etc. Besides that, viewers shall see a solo act performed by Sex Pistol’s vocalist, “John Lydon curses at inanimate objects”.

This summer will be marked by a Sex Pistol’s reunion, and their touring activity. They should visit numerous European music festivals and for the first time perform in Russia.

The Scottish band Simple Minds is going to reunite in their original line-up in order to record two new songs, says Gigwise.

Brian McGee (drugms), Derek Forbes (bass), Mick MacNeil (keyboards), Charlie Burchill (guitar) and Jim Kerr (vocals) will play together for the first time in twenty seven years. The last record they’ve made was the double album “Sons of Fascination/Sister Feelings Call” in 1981.

Musicians are planning to enter the studio sometime during the next month. As the leader of Simple Minds Jim Kerr has said he always believed that someday they will make a reunion. Kerr is not denying that the band may record more than two songs.

Simple Minds were founded in 1977. During their career musicians have released fifteen studio albums. In current times only two members of the original line-up are participating in the band, and those are Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill.

The new album of the legendary British band The Cure is not going to be released on two disks as it was previously planned, says Aversion.

In the beginning of working with their 13th album the band’s leader Robert Smith was saying that he has enough of musical conent to release the double album. Nevertheless, it’s going to look traditional. A release of the new album, which still has no name should take place on September 13, 2008 (produced by Geffen/Universal). On May 13 The Cure had released the first single (“The Only One”) from the upcoming album. They have promised to keep on releasing singles on every 13th day of the month before their new album is ready to hit the stores.

Also, Robert Smith has told that all the unreleased tracks shall not be lost, and definitely should be heard in the future. Possibly there will be another release before Christmas (2008).  The Cure’s last album was made in 2004.

Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama will take part in recording of the new Q-Tip’s album (a former leader of A Tribe Called Quest), writes The Guardian.

A disk “The Renaissance” which should be released in July 2008 is going to be the first Q-Tip’s album in nine years. Besides Obama there shall be more interesting people who may participate in a recording process.  Those may include D’Angelo, Norah Jones, and a former Q-Tip’s partner Raphael Saadiq.

A rapper who is supporting Obama on the following elections didn’t reveal all the details about this candidate’s participation in his music project. The only thing which is known for sure is that Obama will read some text in one of the songs.

Barak Obama is having big popularity among various show-business representatives. In particular, that sympathy list can look like this: Bruce Springsteen, Rodger Waters, Snoop Doog, Black Eyed Peas, R.E.M and Arcade Fire. Music is pumping from all over the place for him.

As notes Gigwise, recently Obama was backed by the indie-rockers The Decemberists, who have made a joint speech in Portland. This public gathering incorporated seventy five thousand men, outnumbering all the Democratic rallies that took place during this presidential campaign.

The Smashing Pumpkins is planning to make a documentary DVD and play a few concerts around America in dedication to their twentieth anniversary, says Pitchfork.

According to the leader of the band Billy Corgan,  The Smashing Pumpkins shall play in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and in some other cities this autumn. The exact dates are not known yet. Besides that, Corgan has talked about their new single which is going to be released on Christmas this year. Following his words the recording of The Smashing Pumpkins’ new album may start early next year.

The Smashing Pumpkins was founded in 1988 by  Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, bassist-vocals D’arsy Wretzki and a drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The band had released six albums and fell apart in 2000.  After six years of silence Corgan and Chamberlin have decided to reinvent The Smashing Pumpkins. This time the band had created the album “Zeitgeist” that was released in 2007 without any participation of the former two members.

London’s twenty second night of May 2008 was marked with the 53^rd Ivor Novello Awards ceremony – the prize given out by the British Composer’s Academy to the best songwriters.

As it says on the Novello Awards’ website the best song of the year became “Love is a Losing Game” written by Amy Winehouse for the album “Back to Black”.  However, she was a little late, and Amy’s award was received by her father Mitch Winehouse, notes BBC News.

The album of the year prize went to Radiohead’s “In Rainbows”. Musicians did not arrive at the ceremony because of their intensive touring in the US.

The best author-performer of the previous year turned to be a singer Mika. The most popular radio play song now belongs to the band Take That (a song “Shine”). The best selling out song went to “Beautiful Liar” performed by Beyonce and Shakira. The coolest soundtrack was written by Dario Marianelli for a movie “Atonement”.

The most special prizes were awarded to David Gilmour of Pink Floyd for a great contribution done in the world of music (mainly historical contribution), and Phil Collins (Genesis drummer and vocalist) for his great achievement on the foreign scene.

Ivor Novello Awards was founded in 1955 in dedication to an actor, singer and composer Ivor Novello who was one of the most popular singers in Great Britain during the first half of XX century.

Music service Napster began to sell it’s tracks (in mp3 format) according to a new fixed price only, said Associated Press.  Similar business-model is used by Apple iTunes Store and Amazon MP3 who have made numerous agreements with all major record labels.

A new price  is going to be 99 cents per track. At iTunes the same music (without digital protection) is way more expensive. Amazon MP3 is selling music under equal price, but catalogue possessed by Napster contains six million songs. In contrast, Amazon contains only “nearly five”. The whole album at Napster is sold for nine dollars 95 cents.

Napster was created in 1999 as the first file-sharing network. Nevertheless, due to various legal conflicts it was closed. Later, under the brand name Napster 2.0 it had appeared again allowing listeners to download music for a certain price.  As of March 31 (this year) Napster had 760,000 users wordwide.

Red Hot Chili Peppers have decided to make a rest from their career for at least one year. This news was given by the band’s vocalist Anthony Kiedis in his recent interview to Rolling Stone.

If following a musician’s words, their last work with the album “Stadium Arcadium” and the featured tour in support of it had taken too much energy, so they’re going for intermission in order not to be involved with anything what relates to the band.

Also, Kiedis has told Rolling Stone that the bassist Flea is ready to work on his playing techniques, guitarist John Frusciante may try a few solo projects, and a drummer Chad Smith left for Japan with some jazz-band.

Himself Anthony Kiedis  is totally absorbed by rasing his seven months old son, and organizing the New American Music Festival, which is going to take place in Pittsburgh on 8–9 of August this year.  He said that Bob Dylan and The Raconteurs have already agreed to participate.

Sixty seven year old American singer Neil Diamond has crawled to the top of the British music-hits chart with his new album  “Home Before Dark”, said BBC News.  During the previous week this disk went first in the American charts. 

Rock veteran, who has released his  debut album in 1966 went on top of the music charts on both sides of the Atlantic for the first time. This looks like some sort of the running race that took maximum time to reach a certain goal. However, it’s not really known if Diamond was actually trying to go on top.  Possibly he was trying it (?). 

The second place in the British charts is taken by the new band Pendulum with their album “In Silico”. Third “space” is given to a dance/pop artist Scooter with his disk “Jumping All Over The World”.

British “pure pop” hits chart was slightly changed since last week. Madonna’s song “4 Minutes” is being replaced by a group from Manchester Ting Tings with their “That’s Not My Name”. The queen of pop was also brought down by Rihanna with her new single “Take A Bow.”

David Bowie had agreed to allow his music become a source of inspiration and creative material in making of a musical, notes Gigwise. 

Danish director Peter Schaufuss is going to lead this idea into a reality.  A musical’s plot is based on fantasy-like scenario that was followed by the 1976 film “The Man Who Fell To Earth” where Bowie had presented himself in the main act. It looks like an upcoming musical shall recreate musician’s past, and connect it to the present (rhetorically or literally). Later Bowie had used his character’s image in making the album “Station To Station”.

Creators of a musical are planning to use various David Bowie’s songs from his early and recent years. Something creative is on approach that should blend music and theatre. The musical’s premier? is going to take place this autumn in Danmark.