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Although his jumpshot may be failing him (he made only nine of his first forty-four shots as a member of the International Basketball League's San Diego Stingrays), Master P still has the sweet touch when it comes to making money. The rapper/hooper/mogul's No Limit Films has just inked a five-movie deal with Trimark Pictures, and each film will be accompanied by a soundtrack on No Limit Records and feature No Limit artists ...
NO DOUBT have finally christened their new album.
According to guitarist TOM DUMONT, the proto-ska
band has dubbed the opus Return to Saturn, and it will be
in stores next April. Why that title? According to GWEN
STEFANI, quoted in the December issue of Alternative
Press, "The whole record was written during that stage of
turning twenty-eight to twenty-nine, which is supposedly this
'return of Saturn' thing." Keep you ears pricked for "Simple Kind
of Life," the album's first single ...
The best-laid plans of BACKSTREET BOYS seem to
have gone awry. The boy band had intended to donate $75,000 to the
Columbine College Fund -- a gesture prompted by the recent
ticket-scalping scandal during the band's Denver show -- but,
according to the Associated Press, that organization's lack of
funds is expected to sink it. "They just want to make sure the
money gets to the kids of Columbine," said a band spokesperson, who
promises that the group will find another Columbine-related charity
to donate the $75K to...
The American Music Awards looks to be a three-way diva tug-of-war.
SHANIA TWAIN, BRITNEY SPEARS and
WHITNEY HOUSTON lead the field with three
nominations each, and, to add to the drama, the three will square
off in the female artist category. The awards will take place Jan.
17 in Los Angeles and be televised on ABC. And you thought
Celebrity Death Match was dicey ...
The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences has announced HARRY BELAFONTE, WOODY GUTHRIE, JOHN LEE HOOKER and WILLIE NELSON as the Lifetime Achievement Award winners for the 42nd annual Grammy Awards, which will be held Feb. 23 in Los Angeles. Arista Records president CLIVE DAVIS, bandleader and composer MITCH MILLER and producer PHIL SPECTOR will each receive the Trustee Award, which honors non-performers...
Producer/former Talking Heads keyboardist/Garageband.com honcho
JERRY HARRISON has put his money where his mouth
is and has awarded the first $250,000 recording contract to a band
on his Web site. Harrison and his panel of experts waded through
5,000 entries and awarded a contract to the
BOONDOGS, four musicians from Little Rock, Ark.,
who described their music as "roots-pop." But garageband.com
doesn't plan to stop there, next year the outfit plans to award one
contract a month . . .
The RAMONES will be together again on Dec. 17.
They're not reuniting, but the four faux brothers will be at
CBGB's, that cradle of punk civilization, to kick off their first
official Web site (www.officialramones.com). So how will they
celebrate this momentous occasion? By performing -- but not with
each other. Joey, Johnny, Marky and C.J. will each take the stage
with four winners of the Ramones cover band contest that they've
been running on their Website since last month. Wannabe punk
pioneers like San Francisco's Ramonas, 1-2-3-4, Sedated and Endless
Vacation have submitted tapes to the site, and the former band
members -- with the help of Ramones webmeister and former Ramones
artistic director Arturo Vega -- have whittled down the hundreds of
contestants to eight black-leather-wearing finalists. The wacky
event will be cybercast on www.collegeradio.com. In addition, Joey
Ramone will be DJing downstairs at CBGB's for an hour before the
event. And, yes, and all you pinheads are invited. It's open to the
public...
According to EDDIE VEDDER, there's not a prayer
that this year's PEARL JAM Christmas fan club
single will sneak up the charts, like last year's take on
J. FRANK WILSON's melodramatic "Last Kiss" did. In
a hand-typed missive posted on the Pearl Jam Rumor Pit, Vedder
wrote that the upcoming offering will be composed of "two
absolutely unlistenable tracks" that the Pearl Jam faithful won't
have to share with the world. "You will be exclusive once again,"
enthused Vedder ...
For their Wednesday night Billboard Music Awards
appearance, METALLICA will play on the rooftop of
Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena, with MICHAEL
KAMEN at the helm of a yet unnamed symphony. The band
spent the weekend at Northern California's Plant studio recording
the theme song to Mission Impossible II with producer
BOB ROCK. But all work and no play makes for dull
metallurgists, so, according to insiders, the band spent some
studio time hanging with the movie's star, TOM
CRUISE ...
Don't look for JAMIROQUAI to be one of the bands
cashing in on millennium madness with a New Year's Eve gig.
According to London's News of the World tabloid, lead
singer JAY KAY has turned down an offer to play a
show in the States that would have paid a whopping one million
dollars. Instead, Kay plans on spending the holiday with his
fiancTe, actress and British TV host DENISE VAN
OUTEN in their London home. Ah, the price of love ...
RICKY MARTIN wasn't hitting the tables during his
recent Vegas trip. Instead, according to The Las Vegas
Review, the high-profile lothario met behind closed doors at
Mandalay Bay with writer/producer Ron Moers, who was trying to land
Martin for his next film project, Blood Crossing, which is
scheduled to be shot in Sin City and Mexico next year ...
For the next month, TOMMY LEE, famous for being a
MOTLEY CRUE band member and for his own, er,
member, will serve as host of Return of the Rock, MTV's
new daily hard rock show. Lee's METHODS OF
MAYHEM's self-titled debut album hits stores tomorrow
...
The show did go on. After being cancelled last Tuesday, the benefit
show at Seattle's Showbox club for the Institute for Consumer
Responsibility, with SPEARHEAD and a special
appearance by the "WTO Band" (featuring former DEAD
KENNEDY's frontman JELLO BIAFRA,
ex-NIRVANA bassist KRIST
NOVOSELIC and former SOUNDGARDEN
guitarist KIM THAYIL), took place Wednesday. A
crowd of five-hundred-plus was there to mix music and politics
...
BILL CRANDALL, CHRISTINA SARACENO, JAAN UHELSZKI
(December 7, 1999)