Search Results for: Japanese

Sitting in the control room at Los Angeles’ Henson Studios earlier this fall listening to mixes for “This Left Feels Right” – a collection of Bon Jovi hits radically revamped by the band – Jon Bon Jovi admitted, “I don’t know if anyone’s gonna buy this.” The album, which came out Nov. 4, features songs revisited in ways that are startling at first: leadoff single “Wanted Dead or Alive” becomes a Led Zeppelin-like stomp, while “It’s My Life” morphs into a wistful ballad. But the tunes quickly show themselves sturdy enough to withstand the upheaval. “The children started to grow… Read more »

Radiohead are more likely to release an EP, or even several EPs, before recording another full-length album. With the release of their sixth studio disc, Hail To The Thief, the band have fulfilled their contract with their record label, and now singer Thom Yorke says they’re looking forward to not having to make another album right away. He told Billboard.com, “It’s always been album, album, album…with things like iTunes and people splitting up tracks, I kind of think that’s good. I listen to music on random all the time.” Yorke stressed the need for Radiohead to “reinvent” their sound again… Read more »

Britney Spears doesn’t have to appear at a hearing next week to seek a permanent order to keep an alleged stalker away, a judge ruled. Superior Court Judge Alan Haber also ruled that Spears can skip a question-and-answer with the lawyer for Japanese businessman Masahiko Shizawa. “I don’t think (ordering her appearance) would add up to anything but additional harassment,” Haber said Monday. The judge also told Shizawa’s attorney, Simon Robert Hiller, that the evidence shows his client “has been stalking and harassing Spears for a considerable amount of time.” But he said he’d keep an open mind for the… Read more »

Summer touring partners Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera each saw their latest solo albums reach the triple-platinum plateau in August. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Timberlake’s “Justified” (Jive) and Aguilera’s “Stripped” (RCA) for U.S. shipments of 3 million copies. Both albums debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The artists recently wrapped their co-headlining Justified & Stripped U.S. summer tour and now have set their sights on Europe. Aguilera will begin her own two-month tour there Sept. 12 in Greece with Japanese and Australian dates to follow. Timberlake will tour the region beginning Nov.… Read more »

Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony Corp. reported a 98 percent decline in profit for the April-June quarter as sales faltered in key businesses such as electronics, video games, movies and music. Sony said Thursday it earned 1.1 billion yen ($9 million) in the first quarter of its fiscal year, down from 57.2 billion yen for the same period last year. Sales for the Tokyo-based company fell 6.9 percent to 1.6 trillion yen ($13.5 billion) from 1.7 trillion yen. Sony set off a plunge in Tokyo share prices in April after it reported a loss in the final quarter of… Read more »

The Donnas have nothing on the Bens. The three members really are named Ben, and you may have heard of them: Ben Folds, Ben Kweller and Ben Lee. The solo singers officially became a group, or at least a side project, when they recorded four songs together in Nashville last month. “There’s some new wave on there, a piano ballad that Folds sings, a countryish song,” Kweller said Saturday backstage at Coachella. “It’s just all three of us writing songs; there’s not any one particular sound. It’s all three of us singing, big harmonies.” After the three-day studio session, the… Read more »

While the World Health Organization said that it believes the worst of severe acute respiratory syndrome is over in Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam – which got a clean bill of health on Monday for being the first nation to contain the virus – SARS is still affecting tour and promotional plans for many artists who were set to visit those regions. The Rolling Stones were the first to pull out of Asian concerts – their first-ever concerts in China – when news of the disease broke in March, though they did play two shows in Singapore. They also… Read more »

The woman who locked horns with Sharon Osbourne in a Los Angeles restaurant last week has fired back with her own version of how the scrap happened. Renee Tab, a talent agent whose war of words with the metal matriarch escalated to violence at the Japanese restaurant Koi, claims Osbourne spat on and kicked her and made threatening and ethnic remarks. Osbourne “started screaming racial slurs,” Tab’s lawyer, Najila Brent, told New York’s Daily News. She called the Iranian-born Tab a “Persian carpet cleaner” and threatened to “send someone to slash [her] face and break [her] leg,” according to the… Read more »

Britney Spears’ request for a restraining order against a Japanese fan will be dismissed as part of an out-of-court agreement between both parties, court officials said Wednesday. Masahiko Shizawa’s attorney had said Spears’ misunderstood his client’s interest in her. “He’s not a stalker,” Simon R. Hiller said during a February hearing. “He’s an avid fan.” In asking for a court order keeping Shizawa at least 1,000 yards from her, the 21-year-old pop star said he had sent hundreds of love letters and photographs and tracked her to her homes in Louisiana and California. She said one photo bore the words,… Read more »

Like Steven Segal in 1991, Sharon Osbourne is out for justice. But unlike Gino Felino, the character portrayed by the karate champ turned actor, she’s not looking to settle the dispute that took place in a West Hollywood, California, restaurant last week with martial arts. Neither is she taking the matter to a court of law. Rather, she’s about to bring the case before the court of public opinion. Osbourne is set to appear on the television show “Celebrity Justice” Tuesday (April 15), according to a network spokesperson, to tell her version of how an altercation with a talent agent… Read more »