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In a slow week for new releases, mellow crooner Jack Johnson remained No. 1 on the U.S. pop album charts Wednesday, while newly minted Grammy winners Amy Winehouse and Herbie Hancock surged into the top five. Johnson’s “Sleep Through the Static” sold 179,545 copies in the week ended February 17, according to Nielsen SoundScan, enough to lead the field for a second week. Canadian rock band Simple Plan’s self-titled album started at No. 14 with 39,000 copies — 100,000 copies short of the No. 3 debut for its previous release, 2004’s “Still Not Getting Any…” Overall sales were down 11.6… Read more »

Posters of scantily clad youths that were seized by police at an Abercrombie & Fitch store in a Virginia mall this weekend may be inappropriate for young children, but they are not obscene, according to legal experts. Virginia Beach police apparently have agreed. On Monday, they dropped charges against the clothing company that markets to prep chic teens through sexually charged imagery. The window displays went up in 363 stores across the country in mid-January, including the Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach. One of the posters showed three shirtless young men, one with his upper buttocks revealed. The second one… Read more »

Britney Spears is no stranger to being photographed, but it’s not often she has her fingerprints taken at the same time. On Monday night, Spears reported to a Los Angeles police station to face charges of hit and run and driving without a valid license, police said. Officer Mike Lopez said Spears turned herself in around 9 p.m. and left about 45 minutes later. Spears was fingerprinted and photographed, he said. “She was fine, cooperative,” Lopez said. “She did her business and came out.” Spears, 25, was wearing large designer sunglasses and a black turtleneck dress and jacket. As she… Read more »

With an emphasis on the visual over the audio, MTV from its inception has never been “about the music.” But after seeing interest in its signature trophy show wane in recent years, the network put the spotlight where it belongs for a music awards show: on the concert stage. The result of this brainstorm, and a few other format changes to its Video Music Awards? The most watchable show in many a Moon Man outing. Even if that isn’t saying much. And this despite opening with an onstage career suicide by Britney Spears. More on that later. The 2007 VMAs… Read more »

Early in July, Rusty Shaffer, the founder of Optek, a small music company in Reno, Nev., visited Salon’s offices to show me his invention, the Fretlight guitar. Though it looks and feels like a standard, rock ‘n’ roll-ready instrument, the Fretlight contains a set of LEDs invisibly embedded inside its fretboard — connect the guitar to a computer and the lights spark up to indicate where to put your fingers in order to play a chord. Shaffer is certain that his guitar is a great leap forward for the normally tech-averse guitar industry; the Fretlight, he says, will transform guitar… Read more »

With their blinged-out video for “Clothes Off” still riding high in the “TRL” top five a year after the group’s latest album was released, you’d think Gym Class Heroes would finally be kicking back and enjoying the charts.But instead, the group is prepping a most unusual remix album for later this year; touring Australia opening for Gwen Stefani for the next week; and then heading to Japan for some headlining shows. The guys will then make their way to Paris on August 21 and London the 22nd for the Decaydance Fest, featuring their pals Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the… Read more »

Some of the world’s biggest names in music were all about Saving Our Selves this weekend. SOS, of course, referring to the campaign being touted Saturday across the globe at the seven-continent, 24-hour Live Earth concert extravaganza, a worldwide shout-out to individuals, political leaders, corporations and every other entity capable of helping put a stop to the environmental scourge that is global warming. In a partnership with Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection and other U.S.-based and international organizations, Live 8 executive producer Kevin Wall put together a bill that included the Police, Madonna, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica,… Read more »

Bon Jovi topped the U.S. album charts for the first time since 1988 on Wednesday, while rock duo the White Stripes scored a personal best with a No. 2 debut for their latest release. Bon Jovi’s “Lost Highway” sold 292,000 copies in the week ended June 24, the rock troupe’s biggest one-week sum since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. The Island/Mercury Nashville set is Bon Jovi’s third No. 1 album, joining 1988’s “New Jersey” and 1987’s “Slippery When Wet.” Sales were fueled in part by the group’s new country fanbase, wrangled in with the Grammy-winning 2006 hit… Read more »

The one thing fans will immediately notice about Ozzy Osbourne’s forthcoming LP Black Rain is that it’s drenched in some of the heaviest riffage to grace one of the Prince of Darkness’ solo outings – thanks, in large part, to Ozzy’s longtime guitarist, the Jack Daniel’s-chugging Zakk Wylde. According to Osbourne, there were times during the tracking of the album when he wondered whether the songs were too abrasive. But you see, Ozzy’s got this personal rule about making music. “If you’re heavy, don’t try to be f—ing light,” he explained. Wise words from a man whose stamp on the… Read more »

The Raconteurs are planning to release their second album next year if things go to plan. Fronted by Jack White of the White Stripes and Brendan Benson, alongside Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler of The Greenhornes, the retro-tinged rockers hit critical acclaim last year with “Broken Boy Soldiers”, which was backed by a year-long tour. Speaking to Billboard this week, Jack White reveals the band aren’t resting on their laurels, and have 12 tracks already written for sessions at Blackbird Studio in Nashville. “We don’t know if were going to finish but we wanted to get everything down before we… Read more »