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L.A. pop past and present collided Tuesday night (Dec. 15) when Brian Wilson and Nancy Sinatra joined local faves the Wondermints (best-known outside the city of angels for composing the theme to Austin Powers), for the band's record-release party at the trendy Silverlake club Spaceland. |
Although the celebrated record, Bali, is currently only
available in Japan, hundreds of fans jammed in to watch as Wilson,
who recently tapped the Wondermints to help back him on his
upcoming U.S. tour, joined the group for a spirited run-through of
the Beach Boys classic "Do It Again." Not to be
outdone, Nancy Sinatra led the 'Mints through a slightly demented
but totally rewarding version of her neo-psychedelic/country-pop
classic "Some Velvet Morning." The Wondermints' own material,
played sans celebs, took the audience to the edge of delirium with
their futuristic, Barbarella-meets-Beach Boys pop . . .
The band once rumored to be completely deaf, the
Scorpions, will make what they hope to be a
million-decibel return to the fold next spring with a new album
called Eye to Eye. Set for release on a yet-unknown label,
Eye to Eye will be the German quintet's first album in
three years and first without original drummer Herman
Rarebell, who was replaced by James
Kottak, of Warrant and
Krunk fame. According to band manager Stuart
Young, the album, which was produced by the "other" Peter Wolf
(Wang Chung, Heart) and recorded
in Austria, will be a major departure from previous material,
relying on "more technology ... more loops ... [and] much more
rhythm-based [material]." The band will tour both in the States and
abroad to support the release, which will actually debut in Germany
on March 8 following the release of the optimistically titled first
single "To Be Number One" . . .
The Artist formerly known as married plans to make
an honest woman of his wife Mayte -- again. His
Purple Majesty announced late last week that he and wife Mayte
Garcia-Nelson will annul their three-year marriage before joining
hands in a spiritual ceremony on Valentine's Day 1999. "We will
return [to Spain] on Feb. 14 to be united in a symbolic manner,
leaving aside legal proceedings that do no more than separate
people," the Artist said during a press conference
last Friday (Dec. 11). "Mayte and I are joined for life, and the
best way to demonstrate it is to do away with the legal bonds that
people demand." Plus, there are no prenups, only spirits in the
material world . . .
Desperate situations call for desperate measures. In a press
conference held Tuesday (Dec. 15), the Recording Industry
Association of America and all five major players in the music
world (Sony, BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner Bros.) announced their
"precedent-setting" initiative to curb pirating and
non-compensatory downloading of digital music on the Web. Coined
the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), the enterprise resolves
to create open specifications to which all digital formats must
adhere in order to be deemed compliant by the industry. Though no
exact methods have yet been proposed, RIAA president and CEO
Hilary Rosen assures that the SDMI will "enable
consumers to conveniently access music in all forms, artists and
recording companies to protect their intellectual property and
technology and music companies to build successful businesses in
their chosen areas." So come Christmas 1999, don't expect to
download Jennifer Lopez's debut album (yikes!)
sans fee -- the industry is only (reluctantly) embracing technology
to reap its profits, not to divvy out its merch to freeloaders . .
.
The RSN Staff (Dec. 16, 1998)