New romance for Girls Aloud singer? & other: 2008

Saturday, 6 September 2008

CD: Classical review: Schoenberg: String Quartet No 2; Webern: Langsamer Satz; Berg: Die Geheime Gesangstimme, Sch�fer/Petersen Quartet

This is a rummy disc in some slipway, even though the Petersen Quartet are a fine young supporting players and soprano Christine Sch�fer is a hugely experienced interpreter of the music of the Second Viennese school. Their performance together of Schoenberg's Second Quartet is a model of musicality, even if the voice is set a bit also far forth in the recorded balance and Sch�fer's delivery of the two settings of Stefan George texts verges on sprechgesang at times. The Petersens also make an first-class job of Webern's early string quartette movement, composed while he was a pupil of Schoenberg, and still peeling the trappings of recent romanticism.

But Alban Berg's contribution to this phonograph record is much more problematical. Die Geheime Gestimme is the title given here to the last movement of Berg's Lyric Suite, whose suppressed text, a setting of George's translation of Baudelaire's poem De Profundis Clamavi, was only discovered half a hundred after the composer's death. It is debatable whether the composer ever envisaged its being sung in a performance of the quartet, or whether its inclusion in one copy of the score was just some other strand in the web of allusions that branch through his works. Whatever the truth, it is hard to believe that he ever so imagined it would be sung as a self-contained piece, as it is here. Including just the final motion of the Lyric Suite makes even less sense when the running time of the disc is under 45 minutes, and the whole work, fifty-fifty the two alternative versions of the finale, could have easily been accommodated. The sleeve notes are shoddy and their English translation is poor - Berg's work becomes the "Lyrical Suit".

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Thursday, 28 August 2008

Katie dips toe into fashion design

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Monday, 18 August 2008

Baywatch - Baywatch Babes Fury At Dress Sale Lie

LATEST: Former BAYWATCH beauty DONNA D'ERRICO has goddamned reports she is selling her wedding party dress on eBay - because she gave it away years ago.

The actress hit out after an online account claimed she had pose mementoes from her marriage to Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx up for auction.

It was claimed the items included a keyring once owned by the rocker, a trinket box containing 11 of his guitar picks, and a personalised Christmas ornament.

But D'Errico, who split from Sixx in April 2006, insists she is not behind the cut-rate sale on eBay - because she cleared out the items ages ago.

She says, "I am not selling anything. The items presently listed on eBay ar things I had tending away some time ago."

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Friday, 8 August 2008

Conor Furlong - Eternal

Anyone can buoy release a record these days. The bedroom-based artist is the biggest success out of advancing engineering over the last decade, and Dubliner Conor Furlong has been keen to take advantage.

Entirely written, arranged performed and produced by the emergent songwriter, Furlong even took the clip to burn the CD-R promo copies of debut album 'Eternal'. In all parts of his career, the hands-on approach has clearly been adopted.

Such allegiance to his cause is commendable, in time such solely performed and produced albums always fix alarm bells ringing. You're either about to hear a work of nonsensical genius, or one which is in need of bringing more cooks to the broth.

And when the final cut from 'Eternal' robert Burns out, you're left leaning towards the latter. Fresh ears could only have got benefited this, a debut which, though pointing to some future potential, operates almost exclusively in one gear.

Air, the folk-electronica of excellent British artist Merz and Moby circa 'Play' are all evident here. Having begun his carer in music as an acoustic guitar-carrying singer-songwriter, Furlong has stirred more toward electronica-based material, bathing his debut in lush, classically influenced delicate beats and synths, all combed over with a tender monotoned vocal.

Like much of Moby's 'Play' (particularly the running 'Porcelain') Furlong's dabbles in electronica receive a spacy, chilled-out, brave new universe quality to them, throwing up images of Ibiza comedowns at dawn.

The difficulty, however, is that many of the songs ('The Astronaut', 'I'm In Love with Girls Aloud') sound foetal and uncompleted. Certainly there's not enough going on to sustain interest and as each track bleeds into the next, the lack of variety grates.

Saying that, Furlong has an ear for melody, and when he meshes his new love for electronica with his folkier roots, he begins to stumble paydirt. Seven songs in, 'So, You Think That You're A Star' is head and shoulders above anything else here; Furlong's vocal sounding more inside the song, more division of the material, rather than working over it.

'World That I Dream Of' too shows a outspoken move forrard, but a lack of imagination to the melodic landscape returns to queer. 'Until the Stars Burn Me Out' rectifies this somewhat, simply by this stage we've heard the same thing seven or eight times.

There's enough here to stylemark Furlong as one to watch over the coming years, just for now he may require a bigger bedroom with some cohorts in tow.

Steve Cummins

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Tuesday, 1 July 2008

Amy Winehouse punches crowd member

It appears the media love Amy Winehouse but for all the wrong reasons. Instead of being praised for her stunning voice, the singer is forever being exposed for her excessive drug use and irresponsible behaviour in public.
The latest incident has occurred at a concert in Somerset where she appeared to throw a punch at a member of the audience at the end of her Glastonbury Festival set, police said.
Winehouse was seen climbing down to the pit in front of the Pyramid stage, to meet fans where she then scuffled with an audience member mid-song.
It was unclear what sparked the altercation at the large music festival in southern England but what was clear was that something definitely roused the singer in front of the 80,000 fans.
But despite the rambling banter between songs about her husband being released from jail in 2 weeks, Winehouse, dressed in a blue sequin dress seemed to show no ill effects from her early week diagnosis of emphysema.
Performing for an hour, she sang all her hits including �Tears Drying On Their Own�, �Back To Black� and �You Know I'm No Good�.
Founder Michael Eavis told the BBC Winehouse had appeared to lash out after being touched by a fan.
No complaints of assault were about the incident and a spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police has stated there would be no investigation.

Thursday, 19 June 2008

Springer Break in Bev Hills

Mr. Chow isn't exactly toothless, crossdressing hick central -- but that doesn't mean the people stuffing their faces inside the ritzy restaurant don't love themselves a little Jerry Springer.
Jerry Springer: Click to watch

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Monday, 9 June 2008

Blossom

Artist: Blossom

   Genre(s):
Techno
   Other

Discography:

Just A Dream (Maxi Single)

Year: 1998
Tracks: 4

Heartbeat

Year: 1996
Tracks: 15

Heart To Heart (Maxi Single)

Year: 1996
Tracks: 3

Aggie is booted off Dancing on Ice

Tuesday, 3 June 2008

Courtney Love

Artist: Courtney Love

   Genre(s):
Rock

Discography:

America's Sweetheart

Year: 2005
Tracks: 12

Love her or execrate her, the opinionated, brutally straightforward, and ostensibly always controversial Courtney Love is one of the almost noteworthy figures in alternative rock candy. Born on July 9, 1964 in San Francisco, CA, Love was raised in Oregon. As a teen, Love began hearing to new wave and punk, musical styles that would influence her band Hole. After traveling to countries like Ireland, Japan, and England, Love touched to Los Angeles, CA. In 1986, Love appeared as Nancy Spungen's best friend in Sid and Nancy, music director Alex Cox's plastic film just about Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his lover Spungen. Love was too cast in Cox's Straight to Hell. Neither photo brought Love the stardom that she desired. Love and then resettled to Minneapolis, MN, and formed the all-female post-punk mathematical group Babes in Toyland with Kat Bjelland. Bjelland eventually tossed her out of the band. After working as a stripper in Alaska, Love returned to Los Angeles and started Hole in 1989 with Eric Erlandson (guitar), Jill Emery (bass voice), and Caroline Rue (drums). Hole released their debut record album, Pretty on the Inside, in 1991. A year later, Love matrimonial Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Rumors of drug function between the two began surfacing in the weight-lift, and a Vanity Press article revealed that Love was exploitation heroin spell she was pregnant with their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. In April 1994, Kurt Cobain committed self-destruction; iI months later on, modern Hole bassist Kristen M. Pfaff died from a heroin overdose. Although it was recorded earlier those personal tragedies, Hole's second album, the ironically titled Live Through This, captured the searing pain sensation and crimson ire of person undergoing a tragical loss. Rumors persisted that Cobain co-wrote a prominent part of the album, a title that Love vehemently denied contempt claims to the perverse by many of Cobain's closest friends. No concrete evidence was ever released to back those claims, and she retained a semipro relationship with his former bandmates by formering a partnership with them called Nirvana L.L.C. The system would control all Nirvana related releases and assay and protect the interests of the three parties, but strife between Love and the pillow of the band developed through nasty weight-lift comments made by both sides. Meanwhile, Hole released Celebrity Skin in 1998, merely the album came nowhere cheeseparing the popularity of her premature elbow grease. Despite the band's best promotional efforts (which Courtney dove headfirst into, as always), sales were discouraging sufficiency for band members to start dropping off, fundamentally dissolution the chemical group spell her playacting career was taking off. In 1999, Love was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in the moving-picture show The People Vs. Larry Flynt. She would stay relatively quiet for a few long time, making a few picture show appearances and line-shooting up diverse projects with Louise Post and Kat Bjelland that never surfaced. But when former Nirvana members Kris Novoselic and Dave Grohl announced a 45 song Nirvana retrospective that would include iI never released tracks, Love immediately brought them to court in an try to wrestle away the rights to the material. Manager/boyfriend Paul Barber well-tried to become the peacekeeper in the state of affairs, even screening up to the studio apartment for the mixdown of one of the unreleased songs. But Love moved to dissolve Nirvana L.L.C. and managed to catch the acquittance of the album until the matter could be brought to court. The box fix was aborted and the ternion individuals began to plug the approaching court hearings like a boxing match, inviting the weigh out and qualification shrill barbs at one some other in interviews. She announced her intentions to spearhead a Nirvana "superlative hits" album a la the Beatles' #1's, and claimed that she had hundreds of family tapes to go through and a journal that she plotted on publication. Love besides began to speak taboo on musician's rights, suing her record ship's company and bringing to light unjust stage business practices on the part of the industriousness. She began qualification her interviews and speeches platforms for her newfound causa, and created quite a stir at the South by Southwest Conference in the springiness of 2002 when she directly announced her intentions of starting a music-industry revolution. All that was approaching, however (beside more case publicity), was a solo album, 2004's America's Sweetheart, released on Virgin.

Wednesday, 28 May 2008

Natalie Portman - The Things They Say 8342

"He is by far one of our finest human beings - an icon to people and still a really good guy. I saw him treat everyone with the utmost respect and love. I can't say enough about him. He's a miracle of a person." NATALIE PORTMAN on her icon, SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY.

See Also

Friday, 23 May 2008

Frost and Maron

Artist: Frost and Maron

   Genre(s):
Trance

Discography:

Mute Your Mind Vinyl

Year: 2006
Tracks: 2

Wednesday, 7 May 2008

Rodney Atkins

Artist: Rodney Atkins

   Genre(s):
Country

Discography:

If You're Going Through Hell

Year: 2006
Tracks: 10

Though country isaac Bashevis Vocalizer Rodney Atkins didn't catch his first guitar until matchless Noel in high school, he took to the legal instrument in a flash and was before long playacting anywhere he could about his Cumberland River Col, TN, home. Spell at college at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, Atkins ill-used the chance to go into Nashville as a great deal as he could, and by the prison term he gradatory he was starting to make himself known as a performing creative person in the country. In 1997, he signed to Bridle Records and was adjust to outlet his debut shortly afterward, merely when he didn't like the finished results and label head Microphone Curbing gave him the go-ahead to magnetic disk danton True Young songs, Atkins spent the future tense 2 days workings with various producers, engineers, and musicians for an record album that would at long finish ne'er envision the skimp of daytime. He resurfaced, however, in 2003 with his honest debut, Satin flower, and trey age later on If You're Departure Through Hell, recorded in his home studio apartment, came kayoed.

Keyshia Cole