Titus Andronicus: Jersey punks with an intellectual streak — their latest LP The Monitor is a concept album about the Civil War.
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Mumford & Sons: Acoustic U.K. folk band whose old-timey folk-rock is inspired by mythology and bluegrass.
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Two Chinese singers have become the first people in the country to fall foul of new rules banning lip-synching nearly two years after widespread criticism of miming at the Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremony.
The two young female singers were spotted lip-synching during a concert in southwestern China’s Chengdu city last year, the official Xinhua news agency said on its website (www.xinhuanet.com).”No signals were received from their microphones while the show was on,” it quoted an official with the local government’s cultural affairs office as saying. The two have been fined 50,000 yuan ($10,270 NZD) each, Xinhua added.
Lip-synching, known as “fake singing” in Chinese, burst into the open during 2008’s Beijing Olympics. China’s Olympic organisers were lambasted by Internet users and in the media after they admitted a nine-year-old girl lip-synched during the opening ceremony, in place of the real singer who was rejected because of her appearance.
In December 2008, China banned lip-synching from the nation’s biggest TV show, held to celebrate Chinese New Year. The broadcasting regulator ordered organisers to pick “real” singers and songs with “healthy” lyrics. The Ministry of Culture said it would revoke the licences of professional performers who are caught lip-synching twice during a two-year period.
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Grace Potter and the Nocturnals: Rowdy blues road warriors fronted by singer-organist Potter, who learned to appreciate the wonders of acid at the tender age of 12.
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Malcolm McLaren, the former manager of the Sex Pistols and the man hailed as the godfather of punk, has died from cancer. He was 64.
McLaren recruited three local kids who frequented his Kings Road boutique — now called “Sex” — Glenn Matlock, Steve Jones and Paul Cook, and dubbed them the “Sex Pistols.” He first tried out Jones on vocals, but soon found a more suitable provocateur. As Charles M. Young wrote in his 1977 RS Sex Pistols cover story, “One of the regulars at Sex was a kid named John Lydon, who was distinguished on three counts: 1) his face had the pallor of death; 2) he went around spitting on poseurs he passed on the street; and 3) he was the first to understand the democratic implications of punk — rather than pay ten pounds for an ugly T-shirt with holes in it, he took a Pink Floyd T-shirt, scratched holes in the eyes and wrote I HATE over the logo. McLaren stood him in front of the jukebox, had him mouth Alice Cooper’s ‘I’m Eighteen’ and declared him their new lead singer. Jones noticed the mung on Lydon’s never-brushed teeth, and christened him Johnny Rotten.”
McLaren amped up the new band’s notoriety with a stunt that featured the Pistols performing “God Save the Queen” on a barge during the same week of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. McLaren was arrested before the stunt was pulled off, but the single immediately topped the British charts. After releasing Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, the band embarked on a tour of the U.S. and ultimately split. For years, McLaren and Lydon fought over the Sex Pistols’ copyright and royalties in a rift that was never healed.
Later in his career, McLaren became a well-known musician in his own right. His 1983 hip-hop-flavored album Duck Rock produced the U.K. Top 10 singles “Buffalo Gals” and “Double Dutch.” A year later, McLaren also had a hit with “Madame Butterfly,” a song inspired the opera of the same name. McLaren’s “About Her,” a remix of the Zombies’ “She’s Not There,” was featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill 2. A punk renaissance man in the truest sense, McLaren was also an author, film producer and reality TV star.
Look back at the Sex Pistols’ career in photos.
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The Dirty Heads: Cali surf bros who revive Sublime-style reggae rock, rapping and harmonizing on their April disc Any Port in a Storm.
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Metal legends Metallica will be playing shows in Australia and New Zealand in November.
At a recent news conference in Bogota, Columbia, when asked what their plans were after their current tour of South America, singer James Hetfield told reporters, “Europe,” then drummer Lars Ulrich added: “We’re staying out and doing dates up till November, in Australia and New Zealand, is where we’re heading in November.
“And then after that we’re gonna take a little bit of chill time, because it’s been a couple of years on the road.”
Ulrich said after that, there will probably be a new record.
Watch the full press conference here. The announcement is eight minutes in.
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Free Energy: Philly power poppers who mine the best of glammy Seventies-style arena jams on their James Murphy-produced debut Stuck on Nothing.
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Crowded House has a new label home, and a new album on the way.
The celebrated antipodean melodic rock act – comprising Neil Finn, Mark Hart, Nick Seymour and Matt Sherrod – will release the new studio album “Intriguer” this June through Universal Music worldwide, outside of North America. An extensive international tour will support the release.
“Intriguer” is the follow-up to “Time on Earth,” which hit No. 1 in Australia and New Zealand, and No. 3 in the U.K. following its release in 2007 through longtime label partner EMI.
The new album will be released through Universal Music companies in the world outside North America. U.S. release details have yet to be announced. “Time on Earth” was released by ATO/Red stateside, while previous albums were issued by Capitol.
In a statement issued today, Finn commented, “I look forward to a long and productive relationship with Universal Music, who are obviously the music company setting the benchmark now. We’re delighted to be in the company of music-loving people who believe in us and are eager to spread the word.”
Produced by Jim Scott and Finn, the 10-track album was recorded in Auckland at Roundhead studios.
Max Hole, COO of Universal Music Group International, added: “Neil Finn has one of those instantly recognizable voices, and is one of the world’s most accomplished songwriters. We are thrilled to be working with Crowded House on ‘Intriguer’ and beyond.”
Crowded House hits the road from March 28 for concerts and festival shows in Australia and New Zealand before turning their attention to European audiences from May. A North American tour will kick off in July, their first since 2008.
The band formed in 1985. The debut, “Crowded House,” followed a year later and the band began a long relationship with EMI.
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Sales of physical albums have steadily decreased over the past half decade, and now one major label is hoping to stem the decline by adopting a daring new strategy: lowering the price of CDs.
Universal Music Group has revealed a plan to reduce the wholesale cost of their albums in order to decrease the retail price of single-disc albums to $10 or less, Billboard.biz reports. Under the new plan, sales of CDs will only boast a 25 percent profit margin, but UMG hopes the increase of CD sales volume will help reinvigorate their revenues.
While some may deem UMG’s strategy as “too little, too late,” the move does put the price of physical discs in line with what digital music services like iTunes charge for full album downloads, making physical discs a more attractive option. “We think it will really bring new life into the physical format,” Universal Music Group Distribution president/CEO Jim Urie said. UMG revealed that they plan on selling more deluxe editions of albums, however those discs will carry a higher price tag.
While retailers are applauding the move, Billboard.biz writes that the other major labels aren’t too pleased with UMG’s price shift. “Why does Universal feel the need to get below $10?,” a distributor at a competing major wondered. However, there is precedent for UMG believing their new strategy will work: When Trans World Entertainment, tested out a $9.99 price plan, CD sales jumped 100 percent.
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