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The seductive R&B star, along with fellow musicians Macy Gray, Jill Scott and Zap Mama, served up five hours of sultry, come-hither jams to a 15,000-plus capacity crowd at the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan, Wednesday. “Ladies, women, bitches, hos, hoochie mamas,” Gray addressed the crowd, “we’re here to celebrate one of the most magnificent, most miraculous, things ever created. We want to celebrate the dick!” With many male audience members covering their faces, Gray then led the women in the house in a chant of, “Dick, dick, dick…” Unrestrained sexuality was the theme of the festival, meant… Read more »

John Mellencamp and fiction writer Stephen King expect to complete the musical they’re working on sometime in February. Mellencamp said the two plan to meet in February to finish the musical, which he termed “an American story.” “Steve has written the most beautiful story,” he said. “I’ve written about five songs for this thing and there’s not one rock song anywhere near it.” Mellencamp said he still has about 10 songs to write for the production. “If this works like we think it’s going to, it’ll be great,” he said. The 49-year-old singer and his nine-piece band embarked on their… Read more »

When they were making Celebrity, ‘NSYNC weren’t fretting about how to follow up a sales record – they were too busy staking out a new sound to carry them into a future far beyond first-week figures, says Justin Timberlake. And besides, he said, it’s just the economy that’s to blame if the album’s opening week comes shy of the 2.4 million copies No Strings Attached sold last year in its first week on shelves. “People probably don’t think we think about this kind of stuff, but if you really wanna get technical about it, the whole country, the economy, is… Read more »

It is a visual overload, this PopOdyssey tour starring the reigning champs of the pop music marketplace, ‘N Sync. There are films and explosions and dancers and mechanical bulls and more costumes than songs – it looks exhausting for performer and young viewer alike. It’s a feast of production values, a sign that every dime went into something the audience can see and, taken collectively, the show is a better marketing tool than a dozen videos. PopOdyssey is flat-out a vehicle to expose new songs to their hard-core audience and give a dynamic and visceral association to the bulk of… Read more »

Even as Chuck Leavell watches Mick Jagger for cues or listens to Keith Richards’ riffs, his mind sometimes drifts from rock ‘n’ roll to the trees and seedlings on his 2,200-acre farm in central Georgia. Being part of one of the world’s great rock bands is just one side of Leavell, who tours with the Rolling Stones but always returns to Charlane Plantation eager to get his hands dirty again. “Part of my job is to really keep a close eye on Mick. They look to me for changes, and to signal to let them know the verse or chorus.… Read more »

For the first time in almost four years, one of Australia’s most successful rock bands, INXS, is playing a few shows in North America. But the crowd at their recent Los Angeles stop consisted of about 70 Rhino Records employees and a few reporters, just two of the band’s six members were on stage, and the bespectacled singer looked nothing like Michael Hutchence, the group’s charismatic vocalist. Hutchence committed suicide in November 1997, and his bandmates are having a hard time deciding whether to carry on. In the meantime, they have released a two-CD anthology, “Shine Like It Does,” via… Read more »

Sean “Puffy” Combs won’t mind if critics say his latest album is raw, unpolished and without any real theme. That’s the way he planned it. After a year in which he successfully fought criminal charges and lost his high-profile girlfriend, the hip-hop mogul just wanted to put out something that would make people want to party. “That’s why everything is so carefree, everything is so positive,” he said of his new album, which is being released the same week he makes his acting debut (as a gangster) in the movie “Made.” “I lived in a murky pit – a negative,… Read more »

When the superstar pop vocal group ‘N Sync sat down to pick the songs for its upcoming album, the quintet found itself at odds with its record company. The Florida-based group, which has sold more than 25 million records worldwide since debuting in 1997, wanted to rock the boat with “Celebrity,” which is due in stores July 24. But Jive Records executives worried that too much change might make fans disinclined to buy, buy, buy like they have in the past. “They were like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t like that song. I don’t think you should go there. It’s… Read more »

Hot on the heels of new releases from such established superstars as Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey, Virgin Records America is releasing seven key albums from developing artists the label hopes will follow in those multi-platinum footsteps. Ranging an eclectic musical spectrum from Pop-R&B to Urban-Alternative Rock to World Music, these artists reflect Virgin’s commitment to unique yet accessible music for which the label has become known. Forming the all-star rookie line-up are: Nikka Costa – All ears piqued when Tommy Hilfiger’s slick commercial hit TV screens last year, featuring that funky, rhythmic bassline from Nikka’s debut single “Like A… Read more »

Radiohead’s highly anticipated fifth album posted the strongest first-week sales figures in the group’s history, but the mercurial British band failed to break the cycle of Staind’s album-chart dominance. “Amnesiac” (Capitol), the follow-up to Radiohead’s No. 1 debut “Kid A,” took second place this week, selling more than 231,000 copies, according to SoundScan data. That’s just 13,000 fewer units than Staind’s sophomore album, “Break the Cycle” (Elektra), sold in its third week on the charts. The hard-rock act has shifted nearly 1.3 million discs to date. Coming in just behind Radiohead was the Universal debut of the St. Lunatics, a… Read more »