NOW! Comp Outsells Prince, Brian Wilson Announces Special Concerts, Eminem Pushes Back LP Prince’s Planet Earth overcame the controversy surrounding its free giveaway and subsequent file-sharing leak to claim the number three spot on the Billboard charts in its U.S. debut week, selling 96,000 copies. The twenty-fifth installment in the NOW! series held onto the top spot for a second straight week, selling 149,000, while the Hairspray soundtrack enjoyed a 41 percent sales increase to rise to number two. Brian Wilson will debut “That Lucky Old Sun (A Narrative),” his new collaboration with Van Dyke Parks, during a six-night run next month at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The concerts will also feature Wilson performing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” to honor the fortieth anniversary of Wilson’s old art rivals’ classic album. Eminem will not be releasing a new album in 2007, despite the appearance of a “bogus” Web site claiming the contrary. Wyclef Jean reiterates Pras’ claims that Lauryn Hill is to blame for the ailing Fugees reunion: “Lauryn is straight up the problem, bro. She wants to be a producer.” EMI Records, home to artists such as the Beatles and Radiohead, was sold to the Terra Firma equity company for roughly £2.4 billion.
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Published: 2007-08-02
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup
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Fugees Reunion: Still “Dead”First Lauryn Hill let down her fans — now she’s letting down her Fugees … again. “We went in the studio and recorded a couple records that were incredible. But, to put it nicely, it’s dead,” Pras says of the group’s struggling reunion in a new interview. In perhaps an attempt to shame Hill into getting back into the studio, he continues, “Me and ‘Clef, we on the same page, but Lauryn is in her zone, and I’m fed up with that shit. Here she is, blessed with a gift, with the opportunity to rock and give and she’s running on some bullshit? I’m a fan of Lauryn’s but I can’t respect that.” Interesting use of reverse psychology, sure. And groups that have bickered publicly sometimes do reunite.
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Published: 2007-07-19
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News
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Bob Marley Widow Makes Deal For Biopic Rita Marley, widow of reggae legend Bob Marley, has inked a deal with film producers the Weinstein Co. to develop, produce and distribute the first ever biopic on Marley. The film will be based on Rita’s own 2004 autobiography, titled No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley. The book is “an intimate and epic account of their relationship, which went from the streets of Trenchtown to the heights of the international music and political worlds.” Screenwriter Lizzie Borden has been recruited to pen the film adaptation, with Rita Marley serving as the movie’s executive producer. While no casting decisions have been made, Rita Marley has already expressed an interest in the Fugees’ Lauryn Hill to portray her. “Lauryn would be ideal,” said Marley. “She sees my life as her life.” Hill is married to Bob Marley’s son from another relationship, Rohan. Rita also lobbied for her grandson Stefan to play Bob Marley because he’s a “spitting image.” The film is being touted as an “epic romance,” and will include the assassination attempt on Bob Marley’s life that resulted in Rita being shot in the head. The news of the biopic comes a month after director Martin Scorsese announced that he would produce a Bob Marley documentary, to be released on what would have been the singer’s sixty-fifth birthday on February 6, 2010. No Woman No Cry is currently scheduled for a late 2009 release. [Photo: Boot/Retna]
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Published: 2008-03-04
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News, Movies, Bob Marley
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Rewind: The Week in Rock DailyPhoto: Moore/Getty We covered all angles of the Democratic National Convention — with the help of guest blogger Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie — from the performances by Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder to Tom Morello and Crosby & Nash to Rage Against the Machine and Kanye West. Plus, John Legend debuted a new song, Opeth won MySpace’s voter registration contest and our own National Affairs site live-blogged Obama’s entire acceptance speech. Kevin Cogill, that blogger who leaked the nine Chinese Democracy-bound tracks, had a rough week as he was arrested two months later for suspicion of violating copyright laws. If convicted, he faces five years in jail, the eternal wrath of Axl Rose and no Dr. Pepper. Still, the judge in the case doesn’t see what all the fuss about. At least Cogill has the long Labor Day weekend to look forward to. On the tenth anniversary of Lauryn Hill’s classic The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, we examined the groundbreaking album with an oral history courtesy of Hill’s collaborators, including John Legend, D’Angelo, Rohan Marley and the Fugees’ Pras. We took a ride with AC/DC on their “Rock N Roll Train,” even though it’s a runaway train running right off the track. The band also revealed their new album Black Ice will come in red, white and yellow (or blue, in the case of the deluxe edition.)
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Published: 2008-08-29
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News
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