
For the loud-mouthed nature of Aerosmith’s frontman Steven Tyler, the news that he has quit the band is being kept pretty quiet. So quiet even Joe Perry, his bandmate of 40 years, hardly knows what’s going on, according to the Guardian UK.
Perry told the Las Vegas Sun, “Steven quit as far as I can tell.”
The speculation follows a statement from Tyler to Classic Rock Magazine that he is embarking on a new project, that is working on “Brand Tyler.”
There is no news on the band’s website, but Perry took to Twitter to lament the loss of his frontman.
“Hasn’t called me in months. A bit cold. What about fans? The people that also love him and put him where he is. After 40 years? …Last time I phoned him he hung up on me,” Perry wrote.
When Iyaz received a message in his MySpace inbox from Sean Kingston, he initially thought it was a joke and ignored him. But when Kingston didn’t stop pursuing the artist, Iyaz reconsidered.
“I ignored him for like a week,” chuckles Iyaz, 22, during an interview with andPOP. “Come on, that’s like Jay-Z messaging you and telling you that he’s interested. I just thought he was a fake or a knock-off, so I even gave him a bogus number at one point. He was in Japan at the time, and eventually I gave him my real number, and he flew me out to see him.”
The rest was history.
The two soul-infused artists clicked immediately, and within two weeks, Iyaz was subsequently signed to Kingston’s freshly-formed company, Time is Money Entertainment.
J.R. Rotem, the talented songwriter and producer behind most of Iyaz’s tracks, subsequently signed Iyaz through Time Is Money/Beluga Heights, which has a new label partnership with Warner Bros. Records.
In fact, Iyaz doesn’t even consider the label in business terms, rather just with affection. “It’s like being a part of a family. I don’t even consider it a label, I consider it my family. We love producing music together, performing together. It’s an amazing atmosphere, we have a lot of fun.” He even laughs that Kingston’s mom is just like his.
Iyaz, whose actual name is Keidran Jones, was born in the U.S. Virgin Islands but raised in the British Virgin Islands in Tortola. He attributes much of his musical passion and talent to the influence his home and family had on him as he grew up. Son of two extremely musical parents, the talent has apparently passed on to their children. He describes his sound as “reggae infused, with pop, and R&B. You never really know what you’re going to get. There’s that island sound as well.”
So there we are having a nice conversation with the boys from Parachute about their recent success and their debut album Losing Sleep, and guess who crashes the party? Chris Rochon from andPOP Radio decides to sneak up on us and take over the interview. Nevertheless we had a good chat with the Parachute boys about music, being on the road, picking up women, and the TV show Friends.
Beyoncé was the big winner at the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs), held at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany. The global music icon walked away with three of the night’s biggest awards– Best Female, Best Song, (“Halo”) and Best Video, (“Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It).” She had been nominated for four EMAs, including Best Live Act. The win for Best Video repeats her win at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), held in New York last September 13. Beyoncé used the occasion in Berlin to thank her husband, Jay-Z for “putting a ring on it.”
The audience at Berlin’s O2 World was treated to a spectacular performance of “Sweet Dreams,” by Beyoncé and television viewers across Europe tuned in to the live telecast. MTV US channels, mtvU and MTV2, will air a one-hour version of the Awards on Sunday, November 15; 12:00 AM on MTV2 and 8:00 PM on mtvU. MTV Tr3s will also air a one-hour version on Saturday, November 21 at 2:00 PM and the full show will air on Palladia on Saturday, November 28 at 9:00 PM with a repeat at Midnight. All times are Eastern Standard.
Chris Brown opened up about his assault on former girlfriend Rihanna during the MTV News special “Chris Brown: The Interview” on Friday (November 6), elaborating on his destructive behavior, explaining his previous apologies and describing his ongoing therapy sessions.
According to mtvnews.com, Brown told MTV News correspondent Sway that he has finally come to terms with the fact that he was capable of such violence.
“I think you’d be in denial and be totally naive not to,” he said. “And not being able to realize and own up to the fact of your own wrongs. I mean, me, I’ve come to terms with it and I’m working on it. … For that moment or whatever had me at that place, I want to erase that from what my character is. I want to be totally different from now on. I don’t want to be that person.”
“I’m confused right now as far as the public perception [of me],” he said. “Like, I think with my fans, they still love me, they support me, definitely. You have those people who will support you. So it’s kinda like 50/50 for me. I got the people that will come out and support and then the people that don’t wanna see me do anything. They basically want me in jail.”
Remember Evanescence? You know, the one with that goth female lead singer with the haunting voice? Well, they’re back, and with a bang.
Wednesday night the band performed a secret show at the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom in New York, reports rollingstone.com. A little after 9 p.m., the crowd started growing impatient, chanting, “EVAN-ES-SCENTS, EVAN-ES-SCENTS.” And even though the band hasn’t been heard from in years, you wouldn’t know it from their performance.
And as their front woman Amy Lee explained, last night’s intimate show was quite necessary, considering Evanescence will be performing for 40,000 people at the Maquinaria Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Nov. 8. So, Lee said, they needed a little warming up before heading south.
“Thanks for being our guinea pigs,” Lee joked to the predominantly female crowd.
Evanescence hasn’t put out a record since 2006′s The Open Door, but they’re currently hard at work on a follow-up album. Still, it’ll be another year before the band is back performing in New York, making last night’s concert a special treat for their dedicated fans, who sold out the show in just five minutes.
“Inside Hana’s Suitcase” will move anyone and everyone. The film mixes documentary with narrative techniques to tell the true-life story of Hana Brady, a girl who was killed during the Holocaust.
The film was inspired by the 2002 bestselling book Hana’s Suitcase. It retraces a series of coincidences that lead Tokyo school teacher Fumiko Ishioka, to the suitcase that belonged to a Czech Jewish girl, Hana Brady.
Ishioka, who also happens to be the director of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Centre, receives the suitcase with only two bits of information on Hana: her date of birth and the fact that she was an orphan by the time of her wartime capture. It doesn’t take long for the teacher to become emotionally invested in discovering Hana’s story, an investment she shares with her students. After intense research, she discovers that Hana’s brother George, a Holocaust survivor and thriving grandfather who lives in Toronto, is still alive.
Don’t let the documentary aspect turn you away from seeing this movie because it’s anything but dry. Director Larry Weinstein does a fantastic job of combining interviews with George and surviving friends and family with stunning re-enactment footage of Hana and George as kids. The two types of storytelling mesh together so well that sometimes they literally blend (a scene involving Ishioka and a drawing by Hana is simply amazing and unique).
What better way to honor the prince?
“Michael Jackson’s This Is It” made motion picture history as the highest grossing concert film of all time. That’s not all. The two-disc companion to the movie released by Sony Music’s Epic Records makes its first week debut in the #1 spot on Canada’s Nielsen SoundScan Top 200 album chart, the U.S. Billboard Top 200 chart, as well as the Soundtrack album chart in both countries.
Sales totaled 44,441 in Canada and 373,100 units in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, and this figure does not include significant sales from non-traditional retailers. In Canada, “This Is It” is Jackson’s first number one album since the establishment of SoundScan in 1997. With over 40,000 in first week sales, the album claims the third best sales week of 2009, trailing only behind U2 and Eminem’s releases. It’s no surprise that “This Is It” also claimed the #1 spot in 15 other countries, including Japan, France, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Turkey, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the Middle East and Colombia. It was also top-3 in the UK, Australia, Argentina, Austra, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland and Spain. Furthermore, a simultaneous #1 album and #1 documentary film as not happened since 1971 when the Rolling Stones did it with the album “Sticky Fingers” and movie “Gimme Shelter.”
Michael Jackson albums now occupy the top five spots of Billboard catalog album chart at #1, #3 and #4; his Number Ones album is this year’s best-selling overall album year to date. Michael Jackson’s accomplishments continue in Canada with eleven albums charting in Nielsen SoundScan’s Top Catalogue Albums including Thriller (Remastered), Thriller 25th Anniversary Edition, Essential Michael Jackson, and Number Ones. Throughout his career, Michael Jackson has spent a total of 51 weeks at #1 on the Billboard album chart. Only The Beatles and Elvis Presley have spent more weeks at the top.
Not much has been spilled regarding Lady Gagas much-anticipated appearance on the show, Gossip Girl.
According to perezhilton.com, the cast has only confirmed that she will be appearing and eluded that it will be something pretty spectacular. Lady Gaga, on the other hand, has revealed actual details about the upcoming appearance.
Gaga explained hat if she was going to do the show, she not settling for a randomly inserted musical performance.
“I hate TV series performances, because they kind of come in out of nowhere, and everyone’s, like, really into the story, and then all of a sudden somebody breaks into song. And it has nothing to do with the storyline, and then it screws everything up. I really sat down with the writers. I was like, ‘Look, I want to do this, and the reason I want to do this is because I am trying to say something that is not mainstream in a mainstream capacity. So, if I can say it on your show, that would be, like, a real coup d’état for me as a performance artist.’ ”

Oh Scooby what are you searching for?
A trick or a treat?
With Halloween just passed I can’t get enough of scary games. You see last year my friends and I all got together and played Dead Space for the PS3. Sure it was a single player experience but we took turns and only played the game after 1 am every Friday leading up to Halloween. It was an insanely fun experience.
This year I got Scooby-Doo! First frights for the Wii. Now it’s no Dead Space but if you think back to when you were a kid(like 6 to10) I’m sure you wanted a slight chill of Halloween and not the full blown horror we all seek these days. Read more…
