Emmanuel Jal Week: Day 3 "Many Rivers to Cross"

As you can see this isn't your everyday hip-hop. Even if you don't like rap you can agree that he has something far more important to say than his contemporaries. You can learn more about Emmanuel's incredible story, preview some tracks from Warchild, find out where to see him live and more at his - Myspace page.

The Police Final Show

antiMusic reports: The Police reunion will come to a smashing conclusion this summer in the city where it all began for the band. The group joined New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a press conference on Tuesday to announce that the band will play their final concert somewhere in NYC sometime this summer.

The only real details released on Tuesday had to do with the charity aspect of the gig and The Police's commitment of $1 million to a tree planting initiative in New York. In a statement on Sting.com they announced, "The Police also announced that their final concert ever will be a fundraiser with proceeds benefiting the production of arts programming for Thirteen/WNET and WLIW New York. Tickets will be available nationally online via Thirteen/WNET and WLIW. More details about the benefit show, including venue and ticket information, will be released at a later date."

"We kicked off our very first American tour at CBGB's in 1978 and this summer, thirty years later, our journey will come full circle as we play our final show here in New York City," said The Police. "We are honored to partner with public television and have a deep respect for their commitment to arts and culture." - Go to Sting.com for more info than you will ever need on the tree planting donation.

Coldplay To Outdo Radiohead?

antiMusic reports: It appears that Coldplay plan to somehow out Radiohead, Radiohead with a new "marketing" plan. Gigwise has the story: Coldplay will announce a new marketing campaign later this month, which their manager says will have "a huge global reach".

Dave Holmes, the band's long time partner, said the idea was "pretty significant" and that he couldn't "afford to have it get out."

Holmes' announcement comes after it was revealed that the band's new single 'Violet Hill' was downloaded 2 million times for free from their website.
- more on this story

My Bloody Valentine Plot US Invasion

idolator reports: My Bloody Valentine announced seven North American shows today, an early autumn jaunt that will have the band hit New York, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

And in an effort to keep their publicist busy, today also brought the announcement that the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that they're curating in upstate New York—which takes place Sept. 19-21—has added Dinosaur Jr, Mercury Rev, Growing, Lilys, Yo La Tengo, and Harmonia to its lineup and released a new batch of tickets.

[They also have a string of shows in the UK in June and July, as well as some appearances at international music festivals in Japan, Denmark, Spain and what appears to be a one off in Paris] - Grab all dates here.

Billy Idol Joins Def Leppard Tour

antiMusic reports: That "Rebel Yell" you just heard was the reaction of some 80s rock fans when they heard the news that Def Leppard have tapped Billy Idol to support them on a string of summer dates.

Def Leppard is in the midst of a world tour and have already crossed North America twice and they return this summer for another leg of the tour. This time in support of their new album "Songs from the Sparkle Lounge".

The good news is that Billy Idol will support them on seven of those dates. The bad news, at least for U.S. fans, is five of those dates are in Canada. But it may give diehards an excuse for a road trip. Support acts for the first two dates of the outing have not been announced yet, so there may still be hope. - more on this story

God Forbid Album Delayed As They Release New DVD

antiMusic reports: There is good news and bad news for God Forbid fans. The good news is the band is releasing a new DVD. The bad news is the new studio album has been delayed. Metal Underground has the story: New Jersey metallers, God Forbid will be releasing a DVD entitled "Beneath the Scars of Glory and Progression," which will be released on June 10th. The DVD features a sold-out perform Fance at the Starland Ballroom in the group's hometown, all of their promotional videos, and an hour documentary.

Doc Coyle issues the following comments regarding the DVD, "Hey, it's Doc checking in from the 4th day of the 'In Thrash We Trust' tour with Death Angel, Soilent Green and Light This City. So far it's been a blast. The first two shows were with Testament, and they were excellent. We are sharing a bus with Death Angel and they are really some of the nicest guys I have ever met. There is a lot of positive energy and enthusiasm that they carry with them. Man, do they destroy live! I wasn't too familiar with them before the tour, but I can see why they are considered legends. Soilent Green and Light This City are kicking ass too. Great people and awesome bands."

"So before the tour started, I'm sure many of you know we've been in the studio working on the new album. The album was supposed to go to mix May 1st, but we ran out of time in the studio, and will have to resume recording once this tour is done. Unfortunately, this means the record probably won't come out until fall now, but the quality of the record is the top priority, and we have to put our all into the final product. - more on this story

McCartney To Give Away Latest CD

antiMusic reports: UK subscribers to the Mail will find something special included in their Sunday paper on May 18th. How does a free Paul McCartney CD grab you?

Macca Central reports: The Mail On Sunday has concluded an attention-grabbing deal with Paul McCartney to give away the former Beatle's most recent studio album Memory Almost Full. The album, originally released in June 2007 by Starbucks' Hear Music label, will come free with the May 18 edition of the paper.

The move represents a spectacular coup for The Mail On Sunday, which has previously given away entire studio albums from artists including Prince, Simply Red and, most recently, UB40, whose new studio set Twentyfourseven was included with yesterday's (Sunday) edition. Memory Almost Full has sold almost 100,000 copies in the UK to date, according to Official Charts Company figures, peaking at number five in the albums chart. - more on this story

Ice-T Returns To His Gansta Ways

PR reports: Hard lessons are taken from a lifetime spent as the premier hustler of rap and Ice-T has brought those lessons into the heart of the first ever "Gangsta Hip Hop" recording as Black Ice with "Urban Legends" (Unlabeled Records), set for release on July 1, 2008.

After years as an in-demand actor on both the small and large screens (Law & Order: SVU, Surviving The Game), rap legend Ice-T, Black Silver and executive producer Babe Ruth have chosen this time, to reintroduce the Original Gangsta of rap to the world of hip-hop. Ice-T's classic pimp swagger is back and all over this surprisingly modern collection of songs, taken to the next level of sound by producer Bionik, and balanced out by the b-boy inspired delivery of Black Silver. It's all there, represented in the free-flowin' cadence of the first track, "Black Ice" to the final, gat-loadin', faux rapper slappin' "Most Uv Tha Time".

Ice-T says he was looking back when he moved ahead with the Black Ice project, "Early rap to me was just absolutely for fun. When I started, no one had even bought a car from rapping. You just did it with your friends, but now, those friends, they're the hottest rappers. This is old style. There were no record companies, no big contracts or money changing hands, I just called up my friends and asked them to come down." - Can't have rap album without a ton of special guests

David Gilmour Sets Live Release

PR reports: David Gilmour has announced the release of Live In Gdansk in September, 2008 on Columbia Records. The album was recorded during the last concert of Gilmour's 2006 summer tour, which was held in front of 50,000 people at the shipyards in Gdansk, Poland.

The concert was the only occasion on which Gilmour performed the tour material with an orchestra, using the 40-strong string section of the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zbigniew Preisner, who was responsible for On An Island album's orchestral arrangements.

Other unique features of the show included the special 6-screen design, created by lightmeister Marc Brickman to allow each band member his own dedicated screen for the edification of the audience; the performance of "A Great Day For Freedom" with the orchestral arrangement of the late Michael Kamen, and a guest appearance by prominent Polish pianist Leszek Mozdzer, who reprised his piano part from On An Island's "A Pocketful Of Stones". - more on this story

Neil Young Going High Def

AP reports: Rocker Neil Young plans to release his entire music archive on Blu-ray discs, a sign that the discs' capabilities are building appeal among musicians as well as movie studios.

Blu-ray discs hold much more data than DVDs, are easily updated over the Internet and offer better picture and sound quality.

Young revealed his plans Tuesday at a Sun Microsystems Inc. conference in San Francisco. Santa Clara-based Sun makes the Java technology that gives Blu-ray discs their interactive menus and ability to accept updates over an Internet connection. - The first installment will be a massive boxset. Grab the details here

Bo Bice Ditches RCA Cheese for Indie Rock and Returns To Idol

antiMusic reports: A lot of fans were disappointed when Bo Bice released his debut album, which was ironically titled "The Real Thing." They expected a southern flavored rock record and instead Bice was put through the Clive Davis cheese factory which resulted in an album of Nickelback-lite songs. But Bo says he is free of the cheese now and giving the fans the album they wanted in the first place. He'll be giving fans a taste of the "real" Bo Bice when he appears on American Idol Wednesday night.

Here is the official word from the Bice camp: Don't worry, that wasn't an imposter who was named "American Idol's" Season 4 runner-up in 2005. But the Bo Bice people saw on the show and heard on the subsequent gold-certified album The Real Thing was just a taste of the broad and deep spectrum of music the Alabama-born singer has a passionate drive to write and sing. On See The Light, the first release on Sugar Money/StratArt Records label, he promises we are getting to hear "the genuine Bo."

"I'm grateful for The Real Thing; that was a fun album. But that wasn't MY album," Bo explains. "This time it was just total freedom. We had no inhibitions about what this was going to be; we just went in and did whatever we wanted to. The freedom shines through." - more on this story

Monterey Music Summit Confirmed

PR reports: The Monterey County Board of Supervisors today overwhelming approved the Monterey Music Summit to proceed with their plans to hold their 3-day music and art event at the Laguna Seca Recreational Area in Monterey at the end May. The focus of the vote and controversy was the addition of international hip-hop music star, Snoop Dogg to the diverse line up.

The festival was in danger of having their permit revoked because of what some thought as Snoop Doggs music being violent, which could incite gang conflicts at the event. Festival promoters are working with anti-gang organizations such as Barrios Unidos and the Salinas Youth Center to help make the festival successful.

Joe Fletcher, the promoter of the event, has presented over 1000 artists such as Ludacris, Clay Aiken, Ani DiFranco, Alison Krauss, Motley Crue, BB King, Hilary Duff, 50 Cent, Eminem, and Black Eyed Peas. He said. "I am very happy that the Board felt the same as I do, that you cannot censor music. I was confident that we would prevail over this controversy. We are moving full speed ahead to continue building a safe and positive festival. " - more on this story

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