Music News: Frankmusik, Rihanna, NKOTB, Beatles iPod

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.

Frankmusik is the electro-music project of 22-year-old London remixer Vincent Frank, an upcoming artist in his own right who recently finished a U.K. tour with Sam Sparro and Alphabeat.

In an interview last month with Click Music, Vincent spoke about working with Stuart Price (who is currently working on the Killers' third set) on his debut Frankmusik album: "Because the album's not coming out until March 2009, I've got Stuart Price working on the record. I could namedrop the fact that, you know, he did Madonna's last album... but I don't need to... sorry. [laughs]. He's very, very, very talented, and very successful, and I think he sees a bit of me in him, when he was younger. He's very inspiring to work with, and there's no ego, and there's no bullshit, like a lot of big producers can have, when you go into their studio, and take up their time - this is very much an us project. He's gone to America to do The Killers' album, when he comes back in July, we'll be working on mine for about three weeks.

In the meantime, a track called "In Step" is available from U.K. iTunes. (Here on the U.S. store, you can download the tracks "Perfect Symmetry" and "Time Keeps Movin'" by Baby Origami and Frankmusik.)

This is the recently released video for "In Step":

Emo poster children Fall Out Boy record a duet with rapper T.I., which bassist Pete Wentz describes as sounding like "something from The Nightmare Before Christmas."

Rihanna to be the face of Gucci's new UNICEF charity campaign. In the meantime, the pop diva appears on the cover of In Style's August issue, where she talks about her own look, and being inspired by Grace Jones: "It has evolved without my even noticing it. Lately I’m obsessed with Thierry Mugler…Grace Jones inspires me…she has extraordinary style and she’s fearless. I love designer Martin Margiela: Kanye West told me about him. I also like Dsquared, Chloé, Zac Posen—he makes flattering lines."

First New Edition and now Michael Jackson: If reports are to be believed—and at this point, nothing's shocking—the onetime King Of Pop is recording a duet with New Kids On The Block. "It's very exciting, says 38-year-old Kid, Donnie Wahlberg. "It's one big party and everyone wants to join us."

Bloomingdales will offer a limited-edition Beatles iPod during the holiday season, stocked with every song from the band's back catalog. Of course, by limited, I mean there will only be 100 available. The Fab Four's songs are still unavailable on iTunes, but Bloomingdales recently acquired the rights to Beatles images from Apple Records.

Any bedroom DJ can become Mariah Carey's top MySpace friend.

After not appearing on television since 1975, legendary rock act Rush to do The Colbert Report. Says Stereogum, "The best part of all this, of course, is that thanks to Stephen's tendency to interview bands post-performance, we'll finally get to stop wondering if Geddy Lee speaks like an ordinary guy."

It's not out stateside till Friday, but Mamma Mia! has already topped the U.K. box office in its opening weekend.

THE WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

The ninth studio album from Nas, Untitled. Somewhat controversially, the set was originally to be called Ni**er.

Madonna's "Give It 2 Me" remix EP.

John Mellencamp's folk rock album, Life, Death, Love And Freedom, available on iTunes and at a Starbucks near you (as it's on the Hear Music label).

Australian diva Delta Goodrem's U.S. debut, Delta.

Former American Idol contestant Ace Young's self-titled set.

Rockin'! It's Foreigner's No End In Sight: The Very Best Of...

New singles from the Jonas Brothers ("Pushin' Me Away"), The Cure ("Down Under"), Pat Green ("Let Me") and Lil Mama ("What It Is").

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Music News: Rihanna To Star In Gay-Themed Mama Black Widow, Plus Yaz, Robyn, Lollapalooza 2008

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.

"One early evening during the first week of February in 1969 I visited Otis Tilson. He was an incredibly comely and tragic homosexual queen with whom I had been acquainted for most of the twenty-five years that I had been a black pimp in Chicago, Illinois."

Thus begins Robert "Iceberg Slim" Beck's classic and long-out-of-print 1969 novel, Mama Black Widow, a fictional memoir of a "black queen adrift with his brothers and sisters in the dark ghetto world of pimpdom and violent crime." In addition to Mos Def and Macy Gray, Rihanna has been cast in the film adaptation, due out in 2009. Mama Black Widow will be her acting debut.

Darren Grant, director of music videos by Destiny's Child ("Bills, Bills, Bills", "Survivor") and Jewel ("Standing Still") is directing the film. As for "comely and tragic" Otis, Brian J. White is cast in that role. White previously played gay in the 2005 Sarah Jessica Parker flick, The Family Stone, and the leader of a step-dancing fraternity in last year's Stomp The Yard.

   Want a second chance at tickets to Yaz's sold-out Reconnected Tour?

   Robyn will be Madonna's opening act for eight of the Material Girl's August and September European dates.

   Coldplay's new album, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, gets its U.S. release today. The set was made available in England last Thursday, and over its three-day sales weekend moved 302,000 copies and easily topped the U.K. chart on Sunday. Meanwhile, minor controversy arised recently when Brooklyn band the Creaky Boards claimed Chris Martin and Co. knicked the melody of one of their songs, claiming the Coldplay frontman was seen grooving in the audience last year at one of their New York shows.

   Duffy apparently left in tears after a run-in with Johnny Rotten. On a more positive note for the Welsh singer, she's rumored to be recording the new James Bond theme.

   Five years after Hotel Paper, Michelle Branch's third solo album to be released by year's end.

   The Lollapalooza 2008 lineup and schedule has been posted.

   TODAY'S NEW RELEASES:

Katy Perry's One Of The Boys. Her single "I Kissed A Girl" is currently the top download at iTunes.

Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace, the eighth studio album from The Offspring.

Remixes for Alanis Morissette's single, "Underneath," featuring turns by Josh Harris, Morgan Page and John Dahlback.

Nostradamus, a concept album revolving around said prophet, by Judas Priest.

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Music News: Coldplay Continue To Give Away Their Music, Plus Madonna, Donna Summer, Clay Aiken

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.

Last week Coldplay offered up "Violet Hill," their first single off forthcoming album Viva La Vida, Or Death And All His Friends, as a free download for seven days on their official site. It was reportedly downloaded by two million people, where "It would have outsold the whole of last week's [UK] top 40 (singles) four times over." The band continue to give the track away this week -- at least in their home country -- as a 7" vinyl single packaged in with British rock journal New Musical Express.

NME usually washes up on these shores in bookstores and newsstands with an inflated import price. The Coldplay issue offers new photos of the band and a brand new look for the mag: "Not only have we launched a brand spanking new-look magazine this week that’s seen us strip everything back to let the words and photography shine through, we’ve also added a whole load of new features to give you even more news, bands and gigs than ever before. Plus, to top it all off, the pièce de résistance is a FREE, 7-inch vinyl copy of Coldplay’s new single, 'Violet Hill.'"

Back here in the States, "Violet Hill" and a "single edit" of new track, "Viva La Vida", were added to iTunes. The latter is being offered for free with pre-orders of the album.

Yee-owch! Here's an interview MTV's John Norris did with Madonna and Justin Timberlake. Madge doesn't seem too jazzed to be talking to Norris, as she gets a tad frosty with him toward the end. (Of course, that might expain why the awful, out-of-key singing moment was then used in the montage.)

Meanwhile, with first-week sales of 280,000, Billboard reports today that Madonna's Hard Candy has topped the album chart, giving her a seventh #1 on that tally. As far as female artists, only Barbra Streisand has had more chart-topping albums, with eight total.

Amongst others, Donna Summer worked with producer Greg Kurstin on Crayons, her first album of original material in 17 years (due out May 20). Kurstin recently produced tracks on Kylie Minogue's X. "Stamp Your Feet," the current single off Crayons, pretty much makes you wanna do just that, though they could have done without the video.

New Stephen King/John Mellencamp musical originally set for a 2009 debut has been delayed.

Last show ever by The Police to benefit New York arts, while the band also donates to Bloomberg's MillionTreesNYC.

In a one-star (out of five) review, the New York Daily News assesses Clay Aiken's new CD, On My Way Here: "From the new songs' lyrics, we discover that Aiken has 'seen the best and the worst' of life. He has walked 'through fire,' 'risen from the ashes' and felt 'the weight of the world' on his shoulders. Along the way, he also discovered that 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger,' which finally led him to realize, 'by the grace of God go I.'
If the universe holds any more survivor cliches, I've never heard them."

What are your iPod habits and desires?

THE WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

"Take A Bow", a new single from Rihanna off the upcoming re-release of Good Girl Gone Bad. (Not a Madonna cover.)

Gavin DeGraw's self-titled third album.

Home Before Dark, Neil Diamond's latest set of original material, produced by Rick Rubin.

Sony's 20th anniversary enhanced CD/DVD version of Midnight Oil's Diesel And Dust.

The always-charming Toby Keith's 35 Biggest Hits.

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Towleroad Guide to the Tube #247: Brit Awards Edition

The Arctic Monkeys and Take That each won two awards last night at the Brit Awards: "The Sheffield band [Arctic Monkeys] won the coveted Best British Group award. They also walked away with the Best British Album award for Favourite Worst Nightmare. Take That won Best British Live Act and Best British Single for "Shine", voted for by commercial radio listeners and The Sun Bizarre column readers. Gary Barlow described it as 'unbelievable'."

Mika and Beth Ditto opened the show with a medley of "Love Today", "Standing in the Way of Control" and "Grace Kelly" (above). Below, Kylie Minogue performs "Wow", Leona Lewis performs "Bleeding Love", Amy Winehouse performs "Love is a Losing Game", and Rihanna trots out "Umbrella" another time with The Klaxons.

A full list of winners AFTER THE JUMP...

Brit Awards 2008

British live act: Take That. (chosen by BBC Radio 2 listeners).
Critics' Choice Award: Adele.
British breakthrough act: Mika. (chosen by BBC Radio 1 listeners).
International male solo artist: Kanye West.
British male solo artist: Mark Ronson.
International female solo artist: Kylie Minogue.
International group: Foo Fighters.
British female solo artist: Kate Nash.
International album: Foo Fighters, “Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.”
British group: Arctic Monkeys.
British single: Take That, “Shine.” (Chosen by live public phone-in.)
British album: Arctic Monkeys, “Favourite Worst Nightmare.”
Outstanding contribution to music: Paul McCartney

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here.

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Music News: Amazon Goes Digital, Plus Duran Duran, Kurt Cobain, Madonna Rihanna, Ne-Yo

Please welcome Robbie Daw, who will be penning occasional music posts for us here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own pop music site called Chart Rigger.

Venison, artichoke tapenade and Doritos? I guess at this point we shouldn't be surprised Amazon.com's got these items for sale. And starting today, one-stop shopping at the online store could be fully realized with the launch of Amazon MP3 Beta, a service offering MP3 files compatible with iTunes and Windows Media Player, free of Digital Rights Management restrictions (meaning you can play the tracks on iPods or any MP3 player, use them on multiple computers and burn them onto CDs as many times as you like). Amazon is offering up a library of more than 2 million songs, with their Top 100 downloads priced at 89 cents, while most others are 99 cents. The Top 100 albums are $8.99, while other albums range from $5.99 to $9.99.

Not all artists and labels are on board, though...especially not ones still requiring the DRM restrictions. A search for Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears, for instance, prompts a disclaimer noting that while Amazon doesn't offer these catalogs as MP3s, "more titles are being added daily". You're then presented with the offer to go back into the ol'-fashioned Amazon music store, where your Justin or Britney tunes are sure enough available on trusty CD. Just don't forget to throw the Doritos in your shopping cart.

Duran Duran's new single "Falling Down," featuring and produced by Justin Timberlake, is available as of today from the U.S. iTunes store. The press release for DD's forthcoming Red Carpet Massacre album is up now on the band's official site, which reveals the writing and production credits for each track.

Kurt Cobain: About A Son, a documentary focusing on the late Nirvana frontman (pictured left), will see its U.S. premiere at the Los Angeles AFI Film Festival in early November. A year before his death in 1994, Cobain was featured in a cover story for The Advocate. Though he often had a penchant for exaggerating and twisting the truth in interviews, he did reveal the following: "I used to pretend I was gay just to fuck with people. I've had the reputation of being a homosexual every since I was 14. It was really cool, because I found a couple of gay friends in Aberdeen [Washington] - which is almost impossible. How I could ever come across a gay person in Aberdeen is amazing! But I had some really good friends that way. I got beat up a lot, of course, because of my association with them."

The New York Post is claiming that Madonna just might embark on a world tour starting late next summer, to coincide with her 50th birthday. This rumor wouldn't be too much of a stretch, given that she'll have no doubt released a new studio album long before that.

Ne-Yo has written songs for some of today's young crop of twentysomething divas: Beyonce, Britney Spears, himself. Below is the classy video for his duet with Rihanna, "Hate That I Love You," in which she flounces about half-naked on a bed and he strolls around town decked out like Cary Grant.

TODAY'S NEW RELEASES:

Foo Fighters' Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, produced by Gil Norton, who worked with the band on their 1997 album, The Colour And The Shape.

Songs About Girls, the first solo album from Black Eyed Pea Will.i.am.

Melissa Etheridge's The Awakening, her ninth studio album, and first post-breast cancer.

Sub Pop act Iron And Wine's The Shepherd's Dog.

"Gimme More," Britney Spears' new single. Originally to be released next week , perhaps Jive thought they'd better capitalize on the wave of publicity -- albeit negative -- while they can.

"Tattoo," the first single from American Idol winner Jordin Sparks' upcoming November release.

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Towleroad Guide to the Tube #163

AS THE WORLD TURNS: Daytime TV's first gay teen kiss.

UGLY BETTY: Behind the scenes of the new season promo.

CHRIS DODD: If you've ever wanted to be a fly on the wall during one of his conversations...

BRITNEY HOUSTON: NYC 'pop princess' offers her rendition of Rihanna's "Umbrella".

Check out our previous guides to the Tube here!

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2007's "It" Accessory: The Umbrella

There's only one 'must have' accessory this season, and it's the umbrella. Celebrities are using them in so many creative ways.

Rihanna, capitalizing on her hit single which recently became the longest-running UK #1 in more than a decade, has produced a line of umbrellas for Totes. You can buy them here.

But it was Britney Spears who started the trend when she used one to beat the crap out of an SUV earlier this year. What foresight. And, guess what? You can buy that too. Along with the SUV she hammered. On eBay of course. Bidding starts at $25,000.

When it rains it pours.

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