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: So What Do You Think Of Hard Candy? Plus Coldplay, Glastonbury, Amy Winehouse, Robyn, Portishead

Photo courtesy Pud at Madonnalicious.

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

I'm going way out on a limb and assuming there might be some Madonna fans amongst the readers of Towleroad. So in honor of the release today of Madge's 11th studio album, Hard Candy, lets turn it over to you guys -- what are your thoughts of the album? Did you celebrate with a big bag of Jolly Ranchers or wallpaper your bedroom with 100 copies of the vinyl? Wish she woulda been a little more Material Matron and a little less Hooker Of Dorian Gray with the cover art? Let us know what you think!

Live outside the U.S. and not able to jet over to Madonna's gig at New York's Roseland Ballroom tomorrow night? Vodafone is making the show available for free to customers in 14 different countries. Says the company's global chief marketing officer, “Vodafone's strategy is to offer different music flavours and innovative formats allowing customers to experience music on their mobile in any way they wish."

Is Amy Winehouse recording the new Bond theme for November's Quantum Of Solace? "She has been doing some work in the studio, but [the Bond theme] is speculation, basically," says her label's spokesperson. "It would be lovely, but there's nothing to confirm at this stage."

Saturday Night Live alum Cheri Oteri's father, Gaetano Thomas Oteri, was killed over the weekend, and his roommate, country songwriter Richard William Fagan, has been charged with the murder: "...the roommates had an alcohol-infused brawl around 9 p.m. Saturday night and Fagan allegedly cut Oteri, his music associate and publisher, with a 4- to 6-inch long Colt pocketknife. Police spokesman Don Aaron said Oteri died from a significant laceration to the wrist. Fagan is best known for penning the No. 1 songs 'Be My Baby Tonight' and 'Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)' for John Michael Montgomery."

Coldplay have unveiled the cover art (pictured right) for fourth album, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, due out June 18. Today the band's new single, "Violet Hill," was made available as a free download from Coldplay's official site. The track will be free for one week before its official release to online digital music stores.

Mel B. denies rumors the Spice Girls will play Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday party in London this summer, as she's far too busy modeling underwear and recording a solo album.

With Coachella over, all guitars (and Jay-Z) point toward Glastonbury.

In February I interviewed Robyn for Towleroad, and today her full self-titled album finally sees its American release. In a final nod to Madonna, below is the video for Robyn's current U.K. single, "Who's That Girl."

TODAY'S NEW RELEASES:

Third, the long-awaited third album from Bristol trip-hoppers Portishead, who performed at Coachella over the weekend. It's now been 11 years since their last full-length set of original material.

Shine, from 28-year-old London singer Estelle. The album features the single "American Boy," a duet with Kanye West that recently spent a month on top of the U.K. chart.

The Roots' Rising Down, featuring guest appearances by Mos Def, Common and Talib Kweli.

Santogold's self-titled debut. The Philadelphia-based artist topped numerous music mag's "ones to watch" lists last year.

Lyfe Jennings' third album, Lyfe Change.

Nine Lives, a new solo offering from Steve Winwood which also features Eric Clapton on the song "Dirty City." Winwood turns 60 in May.

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Music News: Exclusive Robyn Podcast Interview, Plus Perez Hilton, Goldfrapp, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson

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

Today Andy and I have something a bit different for you in the form of an audio interview with Robyn. Speaking with the Swedish pop singer, who was in Stockholm when she called, was just as I expected it to be: amusing, informative and even a bit surreal; as you'll hear, her godchildren were in the background playing the entire time, and at one point Robyn breaks from our conversation to yell at them in Swedish when they begin fighting! She also goes into great detail on how forming Konichiwa Records three years ago -- her own label to distribute her latest album -- led to the kind of success she never predicted.

The past twelve months alone have seen Robyn blow up online. Here in the States, for instance, she did three shows earlier this month and was taken aback at how her audiences knew all the words to the songs. (Robyn's self-titled album isn't out here till April 29. It'll be her first U.S. release since 1997's Robyn Is Here.)

Currently you can grab Robyn's digital single "With Every Heartbeat" and The Rakamonie EP. As well, she's featured on the "Fyre Department Remix" of Snoop Dogg's current hit, "Sexual Eruption."

As a bit of a side note, toward the end of the interview, I asked Robyn about two particular songs on her forthcoming album. It may seem like like she's being contradictory, since for the first song, "Be Mine!", she says she doesn't write about personal things that happen in her everyday life and for the second, "Bum Like You," she mentions that it was inspired by a relationship she'd had -- but with "Be Mine!" she was referring to a specific scenario in the song's bridge being fictional.

Robbie Daw Interviews Robyn

Maybe the geeks truly shall inherit! Here's a 45-second clip of Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body" video, which co-stars 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer and was directed by Brett Ratner.

Slide over, Clive. Proving that Perez Hilton (aka, Mario Lavandeira) just might be the queen of all media after all, the New York Times reports the following: "Mr. Lavandeira has been negotiating a deal that would provide him with his own imprint at Warner Brothers Records, a division of the music giant Warner Music Group, he said. This was confirmed by several other people associated with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because no deal has been made. The talks are preliminary, and an agreement is not certain, but Mr. Lavandeira could receive $100,000 a year as an advance against 50 percent of any profits generated by artists he discovers and releases through Warner Brothers, these people said."

TODAY'S NEW RELEASES:

Discipline, the tenth studio album from Janet Jackson, and her first since joining the Island Def Jam label after a string of low-selling releases with Virgin.

Seventh Tree from Goldfrapp. It's a bit of a departure from their past up-tempo, dancier releases. Also available on iTunes is a remix EP for the album's first single, "A&E."

Dolly Parton's Backwoods Barbie, the title track of which is set to be used in the score for next year's 9 To 5 Broadway musical.

Erykah Badu's New Amerykah, which hopefully isn't overshadowed by the brouhaha over her latest hairstyle.

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Music News: Kylie Hops Into Robyn's Box, Plus Leona Lewis, R.E.M., Yahoo Music, Cat Power, NKOTB, Shelby Lynne

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

Either these two pop dames are trying to give us déjà vu, or they're both just really into boxes. Kylie Minogue's new video for "In My Arms" (below, left) made its way online yesterday, and it bears more than a passing resemblance to Robyn's video for "Handle Me" (right) from last fall.

Of course, all these years later, it's worth revisiting what might be the silent inspiration for both clips.

While "In My Arms" is Minogue's second single off X throughout most of Europe, the U.K. and Australia will get "Wow" instead. Videos for both "In My Arms" and "Wow" were shot while Kylie was recently in Los Angeles by director Melina Matsoukas. The U.S. version of X is tentatively scheduled for a March release on Capitol Records.

Meanwhile, two EPs from Robyn were made available stateside yesterday -- the five-track Rakomonie EP and the single package for her U.K. chart-topper, "With Every Heartbeat." Robyn's full-length album from Cherrytree/Interscope will drop in April. The singer is doing three sold-out club performances next week in New York, San Francisco and L.A.

Along with Madonna, Mariah and Gnarls Barkley, successful U.K. belter Leona Lewis to throw her hat into the crowded ring of April album releases.

R.E.M. shoots their new video in New York at "the best sex shop [they've] ever been in."

Despite the company's current woes -- or perhaps in spite of them -- Yahoo Music to offer non-digital rights managed (DRM) songs by the end of the year.

Music sales are dismal all over, but Cat Power (pictured right) scores her best week ever with newly-released album Jukebox.

With an updated website boasting past achievements and playing a schmaltzy new ballad, is the latest musical reunion... New Kids On The Block? Group member Danny Wood initially denied it on his MySpace blog, but has since written: "Hi to all the New Kids On The Block fans, I wanted to clarify since my first post this morning regarding the NKOTB reunion. I loved being a part of the group, and have always thought 'maybe someday we'll get back together' – you just never know when your someday will come. I can guarantee all the fans that if this reunion were to happen, they would hear about it first on www.NKOTB.com."

"Glass-smashing garage punk and genre-mashing pop. Weed-infused hip-hop and Ivy League-schooled geek rock." Get to know Spin's Who's Next In '08. (In particular, Duffy and The Wombats already have huge buzz overseas, Santogold seems just crazy enough to crossover and Margot And The Nuclear So And So's really dig cello.)

Girls just wanna have fun: Cyndi Lauper, Natalie Cole, Bonnie Raitt and Bette Midler to be award presenters at the Feb. 10 Grammys.

... and baby makes four for Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale.

THIS WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

Grammy-winner Shelby Lynne's album of Dusty Springfield covers, Just A Little Lovin'.

Stage diva Sarah Brightman's first album in five years, Symphony, which features guest vocalists Fernando Lima, Paul Stanley of KISS (!!) and Andrea Bocelli.

Rent and Wicked star Idina Menzel's foray into pop, I Stand.

A remix EP of the Thom Yorke songs "Atoms For Peace" and "Black Swan."

New singles from Estelle (the slightly electro "American Boy"), Spin artist to watch Santogold ("Creator/L.E.S. Artists") and Making The Band vixens Danity Kane ("Damaged").

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