It's been awhile since the Original Funk Soul Brother, JAMES BROWN, has given the world his special kind of Christmas love, but JB is back in the game with James Brown Christmas for the Millennium & Forever, his fourth Christmas album - not counting compilations. In true, high-tech millennium fashion, the album is only available in MP3 format from Emusic.com. Tracks can be sampled, purchased or downloaded from the album, which includes songs with such typically JB-style names as "Spread Love" and "God Gave Me This," "Clean for Christmas" and "Funky Christmas Millennium"...
ELTON JOHN is giving back to the community yet again. The knighted piano man will auction some tickets for the second leg of his North American Solo Piano Tour on www.tickets.com, with proceeds to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation ...
Piano girl PAULA COLE, meanwhile, has been added to THE ROOTS' New Year's Eve gig at New York City nightclub Life. During the course of the night -- which will also feature the inimitable turntable stylings of GRANDMASTER FLASH, FUNKMASTER FLEX and KID CAPRI -- Cole will play two sets. Ticket prices range from $125-$350 and are available via Ticketmaster...
Despite the facts that British fans have proven they are sick of the SPICE GIRLS by naming the quartet the worst group of the year in Smash Hits magazine's year-end poll, British Elle has bucked the trend and decided to put the still-frisky foursome on the cover of its Millennial Issue...
Okay, it was funny when FLEA lost his pants and all, but would the person who stole -- er, found -- BONO's purse -- er, shoulder bag -- please return it so he can finish the new U2 album? The bag contained notebooks and the singer's laptop computer, which contained his lyrics for the new U2 album and other important documents (outlines on saving the world, one assumes, along with carefully drafted memos to presidents and popes and probably a pretty spiffy version of solitaire.) The bag was reportedly lost/misplaced/swiped while Bono was having a drink Monday at Dublin's Clarence Hotel. Bono has offered "a few thousand pounds," for the bag's return . . .
SHANIA TWAIN's blockbuster Come On Over has been singled out as the best-selling album of 1999 in England, where it's currently sitting at No. 1 on the charts. The album has yet to hit the top Stateside, but it's still moving impressive numbers; this week finds it climbing back to No. 10, boosted back up no doubt by holiday shoppers and her primetime special that aired on Thanksgiving after the Dallas Cowboys game . . .
So you've got the best-selling album of the century -- Eagles Greatest Hits, 1971-1975. Where do you go from there? Although they haven't committed to anything after their Dec. 28-29 shows in Las Vegas and New Years Eve gig in Los Angeles, the EAGLES hinted at a press conference Tuesday that the possibility of a new studio album -- the California band's first since 1979's The Long Run -- is not out of the question. The conference, which was held at a Los Angeles rehearsal studio to commemorate the landmark sales of the best-of collection, was capped with a performance of "Tequila Sunrise" . . .
After experiencing a resurgence in his career as the result of his campy appearances on Ally McBeal, soul crooner BARRY WHITE has been forced to cancel concert dates for the second time this year. According Kurt Nishimura, his publicist at Windham Hill, the fifty-five-year-old singer is suffering from exhaustion and bailed on a dozen dates in the U.K. and Ireland, including two arena shows scheduled in London for Dec. 15 and 17. Nishimura says White will undergo a battery of medical tests at the Scripps Institute in San Diego, just as he did last August, after he postponed seven U.S. dates. White has been on an extensive tour to promote his new album, Staying Power, which was just certified gold, as well as his recent autobiography, Love Unlimited...
OZZY OSBOURNE never rests. Just as he's winding up what are supposed to be BLACK SABBATH's final dates ever, the old bat biter has signed on for a role in ADAM SANDLER's new comic horror flick about Satan's strong-willed son, Little Nicky. According to Osbourne's minders, Sandler wrote the part with the musician specifically in mind, so Osbourne couldn't resist. He'll carve out time from working on his solo album next February to film his scenes, along with RODNEY DANGERFIELD, PATRICIA ARQUETTE and the truly evil HARVEY KEITEL, who stars as Satan . . .
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced Tuesday that it is suing the makers of the Napster, an MP3 application that searches for and downloads MP3, claiming that the program contributes to "massive copyright infringement." The RIAA contends that program is primarily used for obtaining pirated recordings. "My music is like my home," said CREED singer SCOTT STAPP, in support of the RIAA's suit. "Napster is sneaking in the back door and robbing me blind" ...
Although his jumpshot may be failing him (he made only nine of his first forty-four shots as a member of the International Basketball League's San Diego Stingrays), MASTER P still has the sweet touch when it comes to making money. The rapper/hooper/mogul's No Limit Films has just inked a five-movie deal with Trimark Pictures, and each film will be accompanied by a soundtrack on No Limit Records and feature No Limit artists ...
NO DOUBT have finally christened their new album. According to guitarist TOM DUMONT, the proto-ska band has dubbed the opus Return to Saturn, and it will be in stores next April. Why that title? According to GWEN STEFANI, quoted in the December issue of Alternative Press, "The whole record was written during that stage of turning twenty-eight to twenty-nine, which is supposedly this 'return of Saturn' thing." Keep you ears pricked for "Simple Kind of Life," the album's first single ...
The best-laid plans of BACKSTREET BOYS seem to have gone awry. The boy band had intended to donate $75,000 to the Columbine College Fund -- a gesture prompted by the recent ticket-scalping scandal during the band's Denver show -- but, according to the Associated Press, that organization's lack of funds is expected to sink it. "They just want to make sure the money gets to the kids of Columbine," said a band spokesperson, who promises that the group will find another Columbine-related charity to donate the $75K to...
The American Music Awards looks to be a three-way diva tug-of-war. SHANIA TWAIN, BRITNEY SPEARS and WHITNEY HOUSTON lead the field with three nominations each, and, to add to the drama, the three will square off in the female artist category. The awards will take place Jan. 17 in Los Angeles and be televised on ABC. And you thought Celebrity Death Match was dicey ...
The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences has announced HARRY BELAFONTE, WOODY GUTHRIE, JOHN LEE HOOKER and WILLIE NELSON as the Lifetime Achievement Award winners for the 42nd annual Grammy Awards, which will be held Feb. 23 in Los Angeles. Arista Records president CLIVE DAVIS, bandleader and composer MITCH MILLER and producer PHIL SPECTOR will each receive the Trustee Award, which honors non-performers...
Producer/former Talking Heads keyboardist/Garageband.com honcho JERRY HARRISON has put his money where his mouth is and has awarded the first $250,000 recording contract to a band on his Web site. Harrison and his panel of experts waded through 5,000 entries and awarded a contract to the BOONDOGS, four musicians from Little Rock, Ark., who described their music as "roots-pop." But garageband.com doesn't plan to stop there, next year the outfit plans to award one contract a month . . .
The RAMONES will be together again on Dec. 17. They're not reuniting, but the four faux brothers will be at CBGB's, that cradle of punk civilization, to kick off their first official Web site (www.officialramones.com). So how will they celebrate this momentous occasion? By performing -- but not with each other. Joey, Johnny, Marky and C.J. will each take the stage with four winners of the Ramones cover band contest that they've been running on their Website since last month. Wannabe punk pioneers like San Francisco's Ramonas, 1-2-3-4, Sedated and Endless Vacation have submitted tapes to the site, and the former band members -- with the help of Ramones webmeister and former Ramones artistic director Arturo Vega -- have whittled down the hundreds of contestants to eight black-leather-wearing finalists. The wacky event will be cybercast on www.collegeradio.com. In addition, Joey Ramone will be DJing downstairs at CBGB's for an hour before the event. And, yes, and all you pinheads are invited. It's open to the public...
According to EDDIE VEDDER, there's not a prayer that this year's PEARL JAM Christmas fan club single will sneak up the charts, like last year's take on J. FRANK WILSON's melodramatic "Last Kiss" did. In a hand-typed missive posted on the Pearl Jam Rumor Pit, Vedder wrote that the upcoming offering will be composed of "two absolutely unlistenable tracks" that the Pearl Jam faithful won't have to share with the world. "You will be exclusive once again," enthused Vedder ...
For their Wednesday night Billboard Music Awards appearance, METALLICA will play on the rooftop of Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena, with MICHAEL KAMEN at the helm of a yet unnamed symphony. The band spent the weekend at Northern California's Plant studio recording the theme song to Mission Impossible II with producer BOB ROCK. But all work and no play makes for dull metallurgists, so, according to insiders, the band spent some studio time hanging with the movie's star, TOM CRUISE ...
Don't look for JAMIROQUAI to be one of the bands cashing in on millennium madness with a New Year's Eve gig. According to London's News of the World tabloid, lead singer JAY KAY has turned down an offer to play a show in the States that would have paid a whopping one million dollars. Instead, Kay plans on spending the holiday with his fiancTe, actress and British TV host DENISE VAN OUTEN in their London home. Ah, the price of love ...
RICKY MARTIN wasn't hitting the tables during his recent Vegas trip. Instead, according to The Las Vegas Review, the high-profile lothario met behind closed doors at Mandalay Bay with writer/producer Ron Moers, who was trying to land Martin for his next film project, Blood Crossing, which is scheduled to be shot in Sin City and Mexico next year ...
For the next month, TOMMY LEE, famous for being a MOTLEY CRUE band member and for his own, er, member, will serve as host of Return of the Rock, MTV's new daily hard rock show. Lee's METHODS OF MAYHEM's self-titled debut album hits stores tomorrow ...
The show did go on. After being cancelled last Tuesday, the benefit show at Seattle's Showbox club for the Institute for Consumer Responsibility, with SPEARHEAD and a special appearance by the "WTO Band" (featuring former DEAD KENNEDY's frontman JELLO BIAFRA, ex-NIRVANA bassist KRIST NOVOSELIC and former SOUNDGARDEN guitarist KIM THAYIL), took place Wednesday. A crowd of five-hundred-plus was there to mix music and politics ...
BILL CRANDALL, JENNY ELISCU, CHRISTINA SARACENO, RICHARD SKANSE, JAAN UHELSZKI
(December 8, 1999)