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Fleetwood Mac to Release New EP

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Concerts / Tours, Rock, New Releases

Fleetwood MacFleetwood Mac will release a new EP later this week. The band will be putting out their first new material since their Say You Will album from 2003, including new track "Sad Angel."

The band - Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks - debuted both that song and another, "Without You," last Thursday at the opening of their 2013 tour in Ohio, US. Lindsey announced news of the new release to the crowd at another show in Philadelphia. "One of the things we thought would be a good idea before we hit the road would be to go into the studio and cut some new material. So last year we did that. It's the best stuff we've done in a long time and in a few days we're going to drop an EP of new stuff," he said.

Ex-band member, Christine McVie - who left the band and retired from music in 1998 - has also said she would like to perform with the band at one of their London dates if they will allow her: "If they wanted me to, I might pop back on stage when they're in London just to do a little duet or something like that."


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David Bowie Single Banned from Charts

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: The Charts, Dance, Electronic, Rock, iTunes, New Releases, Sales

David BowieDavid Bowie's new single has been banned from the UK charts.

The legendary singer released "Where Are We Now?" - his first track in 10 years - on Tuesday to coincide with his 66th birthday and it shot straight to the top of the iTunes downloads chart. But as well as being sold, it is also being given away to fans who pre-order his album, so chart bosses say it cannot be counted.

The Official Charts Company said, "It is not possible to distinguish album sales from track sales from the retail data."

Bowie's album, The Next Day, is out in March but already tops the iTunes chart with advance orders.

Yesterday, it was revealed Bowie wanted his new album cover to be as "minimal and undesigned as possible." The main picture on The Next Day was made by the singer with design company Barnbrook, and features the cover of his 1977 album Heroes in black and white, with the middle part obscured by a white block featuring the album's title.

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Bob Dylan’s Rare Album

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Folk, Rock, New Releases

Bob DylanBob Dylan has produced just 100 copies of his new album.

The 71-year-old singer's record label, Sony, decided to create the super-limited edition four-CD album, entitled The 50th Anniversary Collection, to avoid losing control of the songs under European Union copyright rules. The album features 86 live tracks and studio outtakes recorded by Dylan in 1962-63, including a previously unheard version of his classic "Blowin' In The Wind."

According to sources at Sony, the compilation isn't really meant for mass consumption and is just an attempt to keep the tracks from entering the public domain. "This isn't a scheme to make money. The whole point of copyrighting [this material] is that we intend to do something with it at some point in the future. But it wasn't the right time to do it right after [Dylan] released Tempest," a source explained to Rolling Stone.

The 100 copies have been sent to specialist record collector shops in Britain, Germany, France and Sweden, and the rare item is already being sold for $1,600 on eBay.


Beck Wants Jack White to Cover His Song

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Alternative, Blues, Covers, New Releases

Beck and Jack White

Beck wants to hear Jack White perform one of the tracks from his Song Reader album. The "Devil's Haircut" musician's latest album is only available as sheet music, as he wants to hear other people's interpretations of his tracks before he releases any recordings of his own, and he's particularly interested to hear Jacks' take on the track "I'm Down."

"Initially, I'm curious to hear what other people do with the songs. I don't want to throw my hat in until later. I sent the songs to Jack White and he was very encouraging. He liked 'I'm Down,'" Beck said.

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Rihanna Announces ‘777’ Tour

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Concerts / Tours, Hip-Hop & Rap, Pop, New Releases

RihannaRihanna is to perform seven concerts in seven days in seven different cities.

The "Diamonds" singer has announced her 777 tour which will kick off in London on November 14 and will then stop at Paris, Toronto, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm and New York. Rihanna will travel on a special Boeing 777 jumbo jet for the shows which are being held to mark the release of her seventh album Unapologetic.

The plane will be able to carry 200 people and the 24-year-old pop superstar has invited 150 journalists from 82 countries and a lucky group of Rihanna Navy fans to join her and her entourage on the whistle-stop tour which concludes on November 19. Rihanna has also already ordered a champagne-filled rider for the plane and has promised her fans she will perform mid-air.

"Rihanna has asked for hundreds of bottles of Armand de Brignac champagne. She has pledged to get on the loudspeaker during the trip and perform on the plane. She's also asked for blankets and pillows branded with her logo," a source told The Sun.


Poor Album Sales Don’t Bother Nelly Furtado

Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Artist News, Gossip, The Charts, Pop, New Releases

Nelly FurtadoShe might not be flying like a bird with her latest album sales, but Nelly Furtado won't let that stop her from making music.

Her new album, The Spirit Indestructible, is the follow-up to her 2009 Spanish-language album Mi Plan. Before that was her career-boosting album Loose, which featured her hit single, "Promiscuous." The Spirit Indestructible failed to meet album expectations, selling a mere 6,000 copies (debuting at 79 on Billboard) compared to Loose's 219,000 in its first week (in which it debuted at number one).

"Just like a lot of my albums, actually. I have very few albums that debut high," Furtado said. "I've had kind of everything happen to me commercially and at different levels," she says. "I've had different scenes and I've dabbled in a lot of markets so I see the music world as very global and I'm always looking for new avenues and opportunities, so one chart or anything doesn't necessarily [mean anything]."

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Mumford and Sons’ Babel Success

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: The Charts, Folk, Rock, New Releases

Mumford and Sons

Mumford and Sons' new album Babel has achieved the biggest sales week of 2012 in the US Billboard Chart. The group sold over 600,000 copies of their second LP in America, but Daniel Glass - of their US label Glassnote - says the boys won't be getting over-the-top gifts to celebrate their success: "No new cars. We have something we think is very special... we hug. We're big huggers. We will give them a big hug and compliments on their job."

Daniel says he always knew the band - made up of Marcus Mumford, "Country" Winston Marshall, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane - would be successful as they're so talented and work really hard, especially when on tour. "I can go back to the beginning and I knew we were signing a very talented band to our roster. They delivered incredible music for a second time... and the work that was done, it's very empowering and shows a lot of confidence when a band goes out for almost two months playing new music from the new album for their fans and shares it with them and makes the fan experience so wonderful and inclusive. The attitude of Mumford and Sons is that fans really do come first and word of mouth is important. They've let you in on new music for a long time and it's not a marketing ploy. It has been that unfurling and exposure going on for a year and a half with the new music," he said.

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Marcus Mumford Denies Babel’s Christian Faith Statement

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gossip, Folk, Rock, New Releases

Mumford and Sons' BabelMarcus Mumford denies Babel symbolizes Mumford and Sons' Christian faith. The frontman - whose father was a vicar - insists the album isn't a statement of their religious views and the band are more driven by "spirituality."

"The LP is not a statement of faith. We don't feel evangelical about anything, really, other than music. I don't even call myself a Christian. Spirituality is the word we engage with more. We're fans of faith, no religion," he said.

The "Little Lion Man" singer also clarified his lyrics to "Whisper In The Dark," which reference God. "The lyric, 'I set out to serve the Lord,' no-one realizes it's pluperfect tense. The lyric is 'I had set out to serve the Lord.' It's looking back at a time when that happened," he explained.


Muse Explore Electronica and Funk

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Alternative, Electronic, Rock, New Releases

MuseMuse were inspired by Prince on The 2nd Law.

The British rock legends have embraced electronic music as well as funk on their new album, taking them back to their very earliest influences. "Yep, funk! What are we doing? But 'Panic Station' is a track that reminds me of my youth. Prince, Primus and Michael Jackson all influenced that song," drummer Dominic Howard said.

Frontman Matt Bellamy took a new approach with the track "Unsustainable" and despite many people being skeptical, he is pleased with the end results. "For 'Unsustainable' I wanted to write the idea electronically and when we came to record it, we did it with real, organic instruments and got a real orchestra in. We were trying to see if real instruments could make a sound like electronica. A lot of people were sceptical about it but it works."

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No Doubt: ‘Push and Shove Is Awesome’

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Alternative, Pop, Reggae, Rock, New Releases

No DoubtNo Doubt feel every song on their new album is "pretty awesome."

Guitarist Tom Dumont - who is joined in the band by Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal and Adrian Young - admits the new LP Push and Shove is not the kind of work where you have to skip past filler tracks as he thinks they are all very good: "I love all the songs on the album, and I think for me, personally, I love albums the most where you don't have to forward past filler, and I don't want to presume to make that judgment on our album, but for me, I feel like every song is pretty awesome."

However, he is particularly enamored with the final song on the album because it has a feeling of a "prom" theme. "The last song on the album is called 'Dreaming the Same Dream,' and as we were writing it, we were trying to do this prom song, and there's just something about it that I love. It has this amazing ending that ends the album really powerfully. Right now, that's my jam," he said.


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