INXS singer says broke, homeless after fired from band

SYDNEY — The lead singer of Australian rock band INXS, J.D. Fortune, who was picked to replace the late Michael Hutchence in a contest on a reality TV show, said he has been fired without warning from the band.

Fortune, 35, a Canadian rock singer, was living out of his car when he won the CBS network's 2005 reality TV series "Rock Star:INXS."

He became the frontman for the six-man band, taking the place of 37-year-old Hutchence who was found dead in a Sydney hotel room in November 1997 with a coroner ruling he had committed suicide.

With Fortune, INXS released the album "Switch" and went on a world tour in 2006 and 2007 to promote the album that featured the singles "Pretty Vegas" and "Afterglow."

But Fortune told Entertainment Tonight Canada that INXS fired him literally with a handshake at an airport in Hong Kong, leaving the band without a frontman and with a new album on hold...

Read the rest of the article here.

M.I.A. Wants To Sing At The Oscars Through A Hologram

M.I.A. wants to sing at the Oscars through a hologram. The 31-year-old rapper - who gave birth to her baby son last Wednesday, just days after she performed at the Grammys - is so keen to sing at the upcoming award ceremony she is considering using a computer-generated image of herself.

M.I.A. is up for an award in the best original song category for her collaboration with Ar Rahman on "O Saya" - a song which features on the soundtrack of the Danny Boyle film Slumdog Millionaire.

Speaking about the new mother's possible Oscar performance, Indian composer Rahman said: "She wants to. In fact, she said she'll do it with a hologram. She has all these ideas. I don't know how it's going to be possible, though. Having a baby is such an important thing in your life - more important than winning an Oscar."

Read the rest of the article at icelebz.com.

Santogold is now Santigold

Why? No idea. And her people aren't helping, saying simply:

“She’s not telling you why, that’s just how it is. No unpronounceable symbol, no numbers where they shouldn’t be…just plain…Santigold.”

Doesn't really matter to me. She makes great music. Check her out at her MySpace page.

Free Legal MP3 Premiere - KNAPSACKHEROES! "You Don't Know Sarah"

The KNAPSACKHEROES! EP is now available on iTunes and Amazon.

So how do we celebrate? By giving away one of the three songs from it. Odd, I know.

I'm not even sure if anyone reads my blog any more but if you download this, please comment and let me know you have.

Then, please re-post the "You Don't Know Sarah" MP3 everywhere and let people know about us! Let your favorite music bloggers know especially.

And while you're at it, come see us next Tuesday at Mercy Lounge in Nashville or at any of our other upcoming shows listed here.

NME's Weirdest Voices In Music

Check out the list here. The list includes Antony Hegarty (couldn't agree more and yet there's something so attractive there) and Morrisey.

Fiction Family

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot + Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek = excellence.

Singing isn't necessary any more.

It doesn't matter what Simon Cowell told you. 2008 was the year we learned that it one no longer needs be able to actually sing in order to have a hit single. Kanye proved that again (twice) last night on SNL.

Oh, don't get me wrong; West's "808's and Heartbreaks" is among my favorite albums of the year. It's just, the man can't sing. T.I. and T-Pain are other rappers who don't actually rap any more but don't actually sing either. It's all about the auto-tune.

It should be stated that though these artists are using auto-tune in a totally new way, hip hop is not the industry that most frequently employs the method. That would probably be country. They just don't make it as obvious. Whereas Kanye wants you to know he's using it, it's mostly live performance and the lack of auto-tune where it becomes (painfully) obvious that Taylor Swift depends heavily upon it in the studio.

So, here I am - a guy who can actually sing. And who cares? Then again, maybe it never mattered. Rolling Stone just named Bob Dylan the 7th greatest singer of all time and I'd say that's pretty accurate.

P.S. There was some auto-tuning on my voice for the KNAPSACKHEROES! EP. I wasn't happy about that.

Has Hell Frozen Over?

As I recently mused, there was a time that actual democracy in China looked more realistic than the release of Guns N' Roses' already infamous Chinese Democracy. But GnR really will release their new CD at Best Buy on Sunday. Yes, Sunday, which is strange because the normal release day is Tuesday. Must be a day-late birthday present to me.

You can currently hear the album in its entirety at the GNR MySpace.

Guns N' Roses' last "effort" The Spaghetti Incident? came out in 1993, a full eight years before the iPod was introduced to the world, and at a time when cassette tapes were still on shelves and MTV still played videos.

So, it seems ironic that they're debuting the album on MySpace. It is indeed a sign of the times. I remember the days of riding my bike to buy a record album or cassette and making an event of the album purchase. I would grab headphones and listen intently to every note, poring over every liner note, lyric and image. I think I did that with the cassette of Lies (the one with the song "Patience"). That was probably the only GnR album of which I didn't have a cassette dub from a friend or family member. Those were the days Axl and the boys (mostly different boys) ruled the radio and were in major rotation on MTV.

Those days are gone. Now it's download five albums at once and sort of listen to all of them in random order on your iPod. I've fallen victim to it too. I'm listening to Chinese Democracy even as I carefully choose the words for this blog.

Anyway, as for a bit of a review? It's somewhat what I thought it would be -- a letdown. Then again, fifteen years of waiting builds up to that just about every time.

Some of the album's current-ness leaves one longing for the good old GnR of the late 80s-early 90s. The songs in that vein have guitar solos that lend themselves much more to Tom Morello than to Slash. So, some fans may be let down. Then again, fifteen years of waiting builds up to a letdown just about every time.

But songs like the excellent "Streets of Dreams" should keep fans happy. And I do believe Axl is definitely poised to make a comeback.

Over all -- and I can't believe I'm about to say this -- it really is a great album...a flawed masterpiece and well worth the trip to Best Buy.

Finally!!! - New KNAPSACKHEROES! Music

After what seems like forever (not Chinese Democracy-forever mind you), my band has finally released a new EP.

You can hear the new music all over the net including the KNAPSACKHEROES! MySpace page.

You can also buy it there. It will be a few weeks before it hits iTunes, Amazon.com, Napster, eMusic, etc.

Tune in and let me know what you think.

The Ultimate Halloween Songs Mix

So you're putting together a mix tape for your Halloween party? Here is where to start.

Ever since my teen years I have created a mix of Halloween songs and stuck a speaker out my window to delight/torment the neighbors. It was probably odd hearing some of these songs coming from the church parsonage in the early nineties. Through the years I've added on to my list. I try to keep it clean and un-demonic so to speak. So you won't see any spooooky songs from Marilyn Manson, Ministry or the like. Some of these are just plain obvious but you'll possibly see some you hadn't thought of.

• Michael Jackson - "Thriller"
  
  
• Ray Parker Jr. - "Ghostbusters"
  
  
• Theme - "Halloween"
  
  
• Boris Pickett - "Monster Mash"
  
  
• Rockwell feat Michael Jackson - "Somebody's Watchin' Me"
  
  
• Whodini - "Haunted House of Rock"
  
  
• Warren Zevon - "Werewolves of London"
  
  
• Theme - "The Addams Family"
  
  
• MC Hammer - "Addams Family Groove"
  
  
• Theme - "Jaws"
  
  
• Theme - "Psycho"
  
  
• Concrete Blonde - "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)"
  
  
• DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - "Nightmare On My Street"
  
  
• Theme - "The Munsters"
  
  
• Theme - "Twilight Zone"
  
  
• Theme - "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"
  
  
• Gnarls Barkley - "The Boogie Monster"
  
  
• Rocky Horror Picture Show - "Timewarp"
  
  
• Carl Orff - "Carmina Burana"
  
  
• Sha Na Na - "The Witch Doctor" (the Alvin & The Chipmunks version is cool too)
  
  
• The Who - "Boris The Spider"
  
  
• mewithoutYou - "Yellow Spider"
  
• mewithoutYou - "Orange Spider"
  
• mewithoutYou - "Brownish Spider"
  
  
• The Cure - "Lullaby" (another spider song)
  
  
• The Animals - "I Put A Spell On You" (there are other versions: CCR's is great and the Screamin' Jay Hawkins version is the creepiest--much creepier than Manson's)
  
  
• The Doors - "People Are Strange"
  
  
• Whodini "The Freaks Come Out At Night"
  
  
• Siouxie & The Banshees - "Halloween"
• Siouxie & The Banshees - "Peek A Boo"
  
  
• Paul Whiteman & His Swing Wing - "Jeepers Creepers" (this is the version used so effectively in the crappy horror movie of the same name)
  
  
• Alice Cooper - "Welcome to My Nightmare"
  
  
• Oingo Boingo - "Dead Man's Party"
  
  
• Flyleaf - "What's This"
• Panic At The Disco - "This is Halloween" (these two are from "Nightmare Revisted" - a really cool compilation where various artists reimagine the music from the film A Nightmare Before Christmas)
  
  
• Stevie Wonder - "Superstitious"
  
  
• McFly - "Transylvania" (see post below for MP3)
  

Comment at let me know what I am leaving out.

Seriously?

According to chinesedemocracy.com, Guns N' Roses will FINALLY release it's long, long, long awaited album "Chinese Democracy".

This stinking album has been promised since recording began in 1994! Release dates have come and gone and come and gone and come and gone but supposedly Axl's gift to humanity will drop on November 25 just in time for Thanksgiving. It will be sold exclusively from Best Buy on vinyl, CD, and digitally.

You can pre-order "Chinese Democracy" here but why on earth would you do that? It's never coming out. It it does, it had better be the best album of all time...

Okay, maybe just the best album of the year.

Free Legal MP3(s) - Phil Wickham - "Singalong"

Sign up for Phil Wickham's email list and get his new album. Go here.

Help Obadiah Parker. He's worth it.

kol update

Kings of Leon's latest is the number one album on iTunes. We'll see about Billboard. Still not on the front section at Best Buy in the band's home town.

Free Legal MP3 - Foals - "Balloons"

I saw Foals last night on Jimmy Kimmel. Man, they were great.

As always, I'd like to share the love. Here is an MP3 of "Balloons" by Foals from their album "Antidotes".

I'm going to go ahead and assume they will become indie darlings...at least in the UK.

Here is their performance of "Red Socks Pugie" from last night's show:

Kings of Leon - why doesn't America get it?

Kings of Leon released their latest album "Only By The Night" released Tuesday. It's an excellent rock record.

They were on Saturday Night Live last weekend and Letterman Tuesday night. They are on the cover of this month's Spin Magazine.

They recently headlined one of the three nights of the legendary Glatonbury festival. The other headliners were Jay Z and The Verve. Other artists included Leonard Cohen, Amy Winehouse, Neil Diamond, and John Mayer. Kings of Leon are superstars in the UK.

And yet when I walked into the Mount Juliet Best Buy on the release day for "Only By The Night"? It wasn't even on the featured new release section at the front of the store.

What's so big about that? Their from Mount Juliet! Talk about prophets without honor in their own country.

Free Legal MP3 - Sixpence None the Richer - "Angels We Have Heard on High"

Merry Christmas! More Sixpence music!

Download "Angels We Have Heard on High" from the Sixpence MySpace page.

Their Christmas album "The Dawn of Grace" will drop October 14. Not sure if it will be new recordings or songs they've released in the past on several various artist compilations.

New Sixpence EP!

Yes. And they're using a new website to release it: noisetrade.com. NoiseTrade is revolutionary in that it allows musicians to promote their music in much the same way that artists such as Radiohead, Derek Webb, and Nine Inch Nails have recently. You can pay whatever you would like for a CD or you can allow the site to email three friends about it and get it for free.

I'm quite certain KNAPSACKHEROES! will not be using that technique for our debut EP and while it still seems a risky method for more established artists who have gone independent, it is certainly one way to self promote an album without the marketing muscle major labels offer. It's also a good way for Sixpence to reintroduce themselves to an ever-changing market (their last album was released just one year after the birth of the iPod) before they release a full length album next year.

A lot of really cool artists (mostly Nashville bred) are using it. I was excited enough to find out Sixpence's EP was on the site. Imagine my excitement when I realized there was also new music from Waterdeep and Derek Webb! You can also get great music from the likes of Kate York, Jill Phillips, Andy Gullahorn, Matthew Perryman Jones, Umbrella Tree, Sandra McCracken, and others.

See for yourself:

The Temptations

There's a movie about The Temptations on VH1 right now. It has the rather original title The Temptations. I was flipping through the channels while feeding Jackson and left it on because I liked the song that was playing and thought Jackson would as well. I was right (he has good taste). I've ended up listening to the movie from around the house and I don't think I realized how many unbelievably great songs came from them! I'm going to have to buy some of their music.

As far as the movie goes, well it's your typical rags to riches- band gets big and goes through drug and alcohol addictions, ego problems, band personnel changes, blah blah rockumentary style drama with bad lip syncing. But honestly, even though I'm not technically watching it closely enough to really know the plot, I'd recommend it at least for the music.

The Return of Sixpence

Got to see Sixpence None the Richer for the first time in several years last night at 3rd and Lindsley. They broke up in 2004 and announced their return earlier this year in a blog on Leigh Nash's MySpace.

It was the first time Daphne and I had seen the band as a married couple so it really took us back to the many, many dates we spent at Sixpence shows.

They did several of my favorites including "A Million Parachutes", written by Matt Slocum with Sam Ashworth, who happened to accompany the band on acoustic guitar. I was also happy that Kate York sang background vocals on a couple songs.

There is new music at Sixpence's MySpace and Leigh told me last night their new EP will release next month. Expect to not see me for a few days after it drops as I crawl under something and disappear into the new songs.