Sweatin' It Out: Veteran soul man Keith Sweat has the top debut outside the top 10 this week. His "Ridin' Solo" (Kedar) moves in at No. 13 with a 24,000-unit first week.
You Again?: Lots of familiar faces placed new albums in the top quarter of the chart this week: Cyndi Lauper (her "Memphis Blues" bows at No. 26 with 14,000 sold), Danzig (their "Deth Red Sabaoth" logs in at No. 35 with a 12,000-unit debut week) and Macy Gray (her "Sellout" arrives at No. 38, shifting 11,000).
One Year Later: The first anniversary of Michael Jackson's death on June 25 sparked sales of his bestselling catalog. "Number Ones" leaped 58 slots to No. 42 (an 86% gain), while "The Essential Michael Jackson" vaulted 104 positions to No. 53 (a 116% boost). "Thriller" (No. 79) and the "This Is It" companion album (No. 96) both return to the chart, with respective jumps of 71% and 64%.
Prince has announced that he will release his new record, '20Ten,' on July 22, reports Rolling Stone. The album — his follow-up to 2009's triple disc 'Lotusflow3er' — will be included as an add-on to a German issue of Rolling Stone, which will also feature an interview with Prince.
Prince has also joined forces with three other European newspapers (England's 'Daily Mirror,' Scotland's 'Daily Record' and Belgium's 'Het Nieuwsblad') to release the album on July 10. This marks the second time Prince has put out new music as a newspaper add-on: in July 2007, the artist released the album 'Planet Earth' with Britain's 'Mail on Sunday.'
No plans for a U.S. release have been announced yet.
What up, Prince? No 'USA Today' release slated? Hook your homelanders up!
You know apl.de.ap as one quarter of the Black Eyed Peas (aka will.i.am's Mini-Me), but now the singer is venturing out on a new project.
He joins in the new production of remixer/producer Benny Benassi's latest track 'Spaceship,' alongside Jean Baptiste and Kelis (famous mostly for her 2003 ode to her 'Milkshake'). Kelis' new album 'Flesh Tone,' featuring 'A Capella' and 'Fourth of July,' is due out July 6.
Grammy winning and multi-platinum producer and songwriter T-Pain (othwrwise known as Faheem Rasheed Najm) is executive producing new female group Sophia Fresh, a 3-girl pop/rock group whose first single, "This Instant," features their exec producer.
The girls will appear on BET's 106 Park this July to unveil their new video and plans to release their first album (which is currently untitled) via the Atlantic Records label group before the end of the year. Kanye West appears on another of their singles:"What it is."
T-Pain had Grammy success earlier this year, winning the trophy for Best R&B performance by a duo or group for his song "Blame It" with Jaime Foxx.
"This Instant" is currently available for download from iTunes, Amazon and Rhapsody and will be featured on the soundtrack of Disney's "Step Up 3D," which is set to hit theaters August 6.
In an email exchange with Variety, Sid Griffin — a founding member of the alt country band the Long Ryders and the Coal Porters — was lamenting the loss of Kinks bass player Pete Quaife.
Griffin, a multi-disciplinarian from Kentucky who relocated to London, called the Quaife obit in the Guardian "very well-written and rather moving" (read here) and noted that Kinks frontman Ray Davies sang "Days" at the just-wrapped Glastonbury Fest after dedicating it to Quaife.
The subject of the Kinks led to the age-old question: who was third most important band in the British Invasion after the Beatles and the Stones?
TMZ has got the goods on a lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles federal court by '60s singer-songwriter Jake Holmes, who alleges -- some might say "finally alleges" -- that Led Zeppelin guitarist-producer-songwriter Jimmy Page infringed on his copyrighted song "Dazed and Confused."
As any headbanger knows, Led Zep recorded a song called "Dazed and Confused" on their self-titled 1969 debut album. The song was credited to Page. According to Holmes' suit, he copyrighted his composition "Dazed and Confused" in 1967 and renewed the copyright in 1995; the tune appeared on his 1967 album "'The Above Ground Sound' of Jake Holmes."
The headline just about says it all: "Sir Lucious Left Foot The Son of Chico Dusty," which hits stores in a week, is available as a free stream on the Outkast maestro's MySpace page.
Free stuff is good. Take a listen. (Note: The album bears a parental advisory, kids.)
EMI has just announced a massive John Lennon reissue campaign for October. The most interesting title of the lot is a new edition of "Double Fantasy," the 1980 album Lennon recorded with his spouse Yoko Ono. Ono and Jack Douglas, who co-produced "Fantasy" with Lennon, have evidently excised some instrumentation from the set -- hence its title, "Double Fantasy Stripped Down."
Ono is a fan of what might be called "raw Lennon": She curated the 1998 boxed set "John Lennon Anthology," which pulled together four CDs worth of demos, alternate takes and home recordings, including several initial versions of "Double Fantasy" material. On this new package, she's taking a page from the campaign for the re-release of the Beatles' famously muddled album "Let It Be."
The 'Harry Potter' star, who's dating George Craig, the lead singer of indie North Yorkshire band One Night Only, stars in the band's video 'Say You Don't Want It.'
Track comes from band's forthcoming album, also titled 'One Night Only,' due out August 23:
Antibalas, the Brooklyn-based Afrobeat unit that has served as the house band for the musical "Fela!" during the Tony-winning show's off-Broadway and Broadway runs, is pulling up stakes for a series of tour dates that will bring the band to the West Coast.
The group will also be issuing a new 12-inch single, "Rat Race"/"Se Chiflo," through its own Exactamundo imprint. In August, New York-based indie Ropeadope Records will re-release Antibalas' 2004 album "Who Is This America?"
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