antiMUSIC's Day In Rock Weekly Recap

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Another Gay Aiken Controversy - A Top Story This Week

antiMusic reports: Before we get to the reposting for this story a not so quick note. Anytime we run ANYTHING on Clay the nuts come out of the woodwork with propaganda and conspiracy theories either for or against him. Both ask us to print such stories and we reject almost all due to the questionable sources. One fan emailed us about the Green Beret who made the gay accusations later recanting and saying he was paid to make the accusations by some people that have nothing better to do with their lives than hate and spread lies about Clay Aiken. Mixed in with that conspiracy theory with all the related links etc we searched trying to find the real source, is that someone was pretending to be Clay online at gay websites and tricked the accuser (who claimed to have had an actual sexual encounter with Aiken). The fan who emailed us offered up a link to 3rd or 4th generation reposting of what are reported to be screen captures of an online chat where the accuser recanted. This Aiken fan/blogger stated that "screen captures don't lie". However, anyone with minimal photoshop skills can create what was presented and since a source of these captures was not really provided (eg where the chat took place etc etc - may have been on the 1st generation posting but not on the ones provided) and the fact that even if they were actual screen captures anyone can pretend to be anyone online so they do not offer proof. They very well may be legitimate but there is no way to validate them. So digging a little further and trying to find a non-Aiken fan page or blog where this recanting was reported and we could not. A LexisNexis search returned nothing. A google web and news search only returned Aiken fansite and blog reports. That being said if any Aiken fans have a legitimate source for a recanting by the accuser eg a real statement etc., we would be more than happy to report it but what has been sent to us can't be verified for accuracy. And yes, as a few have emailed us, Tabloids are notoriously inaccurate and bias stories for sensational reasons that's why if we do use a tabloid source for a story it is ALWAYS sourced so people know to take the story with not only a gain of salt but a pound. People will believe whatever they want to at the end of the day. On the other hand a tabloid that knowingly prints a false story is open to litigation. If a story seems legitimate and newsworthy we will report it. We have reported on some but by no means all of the gay accusations against Aiken. However we personally could care less if a pop star is gay or not and are not out to get anyone let alone a runner up on a TV show. We are not jealous Jr. High school girls but report on stories in the music world like the following story about a church where some members reportedly had some problems with the gay RUMORS before they would allow Aiken to perform. So you can send us hate mail about the stories but the only good it really does is provide us with entertainment with how hysterical some are. And by all means if you have a positive newsworthy story send it in we will be happy to report on it. (a story about an idiot that has nothing better to do but hate Aiken and his turning up at a concert and Clay ignoring him doesn't really qualify). And for those that emailed us asking what difference would it make to Christians if Clay is gay or not, why are you asking us? Take a few minutes and go talk to a local pastor or priest and ask them why most Christians frown upon homosexuality. That's not for us to answer. Now on with the silly Clay story from this past week:

If he's gay he can't play. That's what some members of a Kansas church have to say about a booking of the American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken. Contact Music has the report (so don't send us hate mail): Aiken is caught up in another gay controversy after parishioners at a church where he is set to perform a Christmas (07) concert demanded assurances the singer isn't a homosexual.

Aiken's sexuality hit the headlines last year (06) when a former Green Beret soldier revealed he had spent a night of passion with the crooner, but Aiken refused to discuss the issue when it came up in interviews. Then, fans threatened to file a class action suit against the singer if it was proven he was gay.

And now, elders at a Wichita, Kansas church want to make sure the singer is heterosexual before green-lighting plans for him to perform for their congregation on 26 November (07). - More on this story including the reported results of the Green Beret's polygraph

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Good Charlotte Injury - A Top Story This Week

Wenn reports: Good Charlotte Bassist Paul Thomas played on through the pain after tumbling from the stage at a performance in Australia on Tuesday (09Oct07).

The group were only two songs into the concert in Brisbane when Thomas fell, spraining an ankle. He then picked himself up, climbed back on stage and carried on playing.

After the concert, Thomas was taken to hospital and X-rayed, but was found not to have broken any bones.- more on this story

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Monday

Lil Wayne Arrest - A Top Story This Week

Contact Music reports: Hip-hop star Lil Wayne has been arrested in Idaho on a felony fugitive charge - after being accused of possessing drugs in the state of Georgia.

The rapper, real name Dwayne Michael Carter Jr, was apprehended by authorities on Friday night (05Oct07) following a gig in Boise, and was booked into Ada County jail. Carter was picked up on a felony warrant out of Fulton County, Georgia, for a felony possession of drugs charge.

Authorities from Georgia contacted Idaho police and gave them the heads up about the warrant. The 25-year-old was not eligible for bond due to the nature of the charge- more on this story

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Springsteen Tops Charts, Legal Horseplay and Angers Fans - A Top Story This Week

antiMusic reports: Tony Danza is not the boss in record stores, that title this week belongs to Bruce Springsteen. But while he is enjoying international success on the charts for his "blue collar rock" some long time fans are wondering if it's time to fire the Boss over issues with his current tour. Did we mention he's been sued over a 850,000 dollar horse for his teenage daughter?

Bruce Springsteen has topped the UK charts for the seventh time in his career with his latest album, Magic, reports the BBC. And Billboard reported on Sunday that the Boss is expected to top the US charts as well, having sold 165,000 copies of the album as of Friday.

While Bruce is enjoying chart success, the "blue collar hero" has been sued for backing out of a $850,000 deal to purchase a horse for their teenage daughter. At least now we know why ticket prices for "the man of the people" are offered at Yuppie prices, and speaking of which his tour is off to a rocky start with many longtime fans angered by the general admission policy on the outing which kicked off last week. You can read Tony Kuzminski special report right
- here

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Rocker Poisoned - A Top Story This Week

antiMusic reports: Playing in a rock band can be hazardous to your health. Bad food, bad groupies, bad drugs can all lead to major health problems but it's the strings on your instrument you really have to look out for. Just ask The Cribs' bassist Gary Jarman. Contact music has the report:

British rocker Gary Jarman has been admitted to hospital after suffering from suspected blood poisoning. The Cribs' bassist is thought to have contracted the condition after accidentally cutting himself with the strings of his bass guitar during a recent gig.

He had complained of pains in his arms on Saturday (06Oct07), but managed to play a scheduled gig in Sheffield, England. Jarman was taken to a local hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning (07Oct07) where it was confirmed he was suffering from blood poisoning.- more on this story

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Tuesday

Police Eye New CD? - A Top Story This Week

Gigwise reports: The Police's guitarist Andy Summers has hinted that the band might consider recording a new album after their reunion world tour finishes.

Originally there had been no plans for the band to record new material, however, Summers has said that he would now consider it a "challenge."

"It's sort of like living with the elephant in the room," Summers told AP. "I would see it as a challenge, to make an absolutely brilliant pop album at this stage of our career, and that would be something quite remarkable"
- more on this story

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Green Day Not Impressed with Scene They Inspired - A Top Story This Week

antiMusic reports: In bitter turn of irony Green Day's Billy Joe Armstrong finds the current scene stagnant making the recording of their new album difficult. The irony comes from the fact that most "emo" groups are built around imitations of Armstrong's nasal vocal style. Gigwise has the report:

Green Day have a huge 45 songs primed and ready to record for their new album � but say they're finding it hard to draw inspiration from the current 'stagnant' music scene.
Peter Pan-esque frontman Billie Joe Armstrong explains that the band are in the midst of a chaotic writing process in studios in Oakland and California, and that they hope to whittle down the songs soon.

"We've been doing this for 20 years now. You want to make sure you're being honest with yourself. I also have to ask myself 'what's real out there?' Right now, it seems stagnant."- more on this story

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NIN Drop Record Co - A Top Story This Week

antiMusic reports: Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor has been very public about his dissatisfaction with some label policies including what he saw as overpricing of the band's latest CD in Australia to which he was told that the label charged that much because the fans would pay it. That didn't sit well with Trent and during a recent concert Down Under he encouraged his fans to steal his music instead of paying inflated prices. Now Reznor won't have to worry about such things as he announced on Monday that Nine Inch Nails are officially free agents having left their record company behind. Here is his message:

Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label.

I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.

Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008. Exciting times, indeed
- more on this story

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Wednesday

Fab Four iTuned - A Top Story This Week

antiMusic reports: George Harrison's solo catalog joined his former Beatles bandmates on iTunes on Tuesday. iTunes publicist informs us that apart from Harrison's entire post Beatles catalog they are also offering some exclusives as well.

With the release Tuesday that means that iTunes now carries all four Beatles members solo efforts and now all that is left is for iTunes to snatch up rights to sell the Beatles songs digitally which so far has eluded everyone that has tried to get the rights. But all signs point to iTunes snagging the deal and being able to offer fans at last legal downloads of the most popular group in rock history. Kind of fitting since it has long been rumored that Steve Jobs took the name Apple from the Beatles famed record and everything else company.

On the other hand there is a long history of litigation over the name Apple between the Jobs lead company and the Beatles empire, some of the legal issues revolved around Apple getting into the music business but hopefully both sides can "let it be" and move forward and give fans the Beatles iTunes they crave.- Check out the George Harrison catalog at iTunes here

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N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton 20th Anniversary and Eazy E Comp - A Top Story This Week

PR reports: It has been 20 years since N.W.A rocketed Straight Outta Compton to double platinum success and worldwide acclaim and notoriety as rap music's most powerful force, redefining forever the trajectory of popular music. On December 4, Capitol/Priority will release an expanded 20th Anniversary Edition of the landmark album in CD, vinyl and digital formats.

The commemorative release adds five bonus tracks, including a live version of "Compton's N The House," covers of Straight Outta Compton tracks by Snoop Dogg and C-Murder, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Mack 10, and WC, and a new package essay by music writer and author Soren Baker.

[also on tap for release] Twelve years after his death at the age of 31, the music world continues to celebrate N.W.A's hardcore rap pioneer Eazy-E. On December 4, Capitol/Priority will release Featuring ... Eazy-E, a new 16-track collection of his best collaborations and rare solo recordings. The compilation includes four previously out of print tracks, which are exclusively available on this release, and collaborations with his N.W.A co-conspirators Ice Cube, MC Ren and Dr. Dre, as well as with Mack 10, Ice-T, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and others.- track info for both

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Radiohead Fans Kick Gift Horse in the Mouth - A Top Story This Week

antiMusic reports: Radiohead made history Wednesday when they allowed fans to buy a digital copy of their new album "In Rainbows" at whatever price they choose. However, some fans are angry now that details about the actual files have been released and are complaining on Radiohead message boards.

Radiohead will be offering the MP3 files at 160 kbps bitrate, which is higher than the standard iTunes bitrate of 128 kbps and some fans are upset that the files are not being offered at a much higher rate complaining that the sound quality won't be good enough.

MP3 files are typically compressed to make them smaller and during compression some of the sound quality is lost. The bitrate is an indication of the amount of compression, thus a 160 kbps will sound better than a 128 kbps file. A "lossless" MP3 file at double the bitrate of the ones Radiohead is offering fans is not compressed or have very little compression. Some fans are angry that they are not getting the "lossless" files and say that the 160 kbps files are not worth downloading.
- Read some of the whining from creeps here

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Thursday

50 Worst Album Covers Of All Time - A Top Story This Week

Gigwise reports: A couple of weeks back we unveiled our favourite album covers. This time, we're unearthing all the nasties from down the years to bring you the 50 worst album covers of all time.

The quite delightful pieces of artwork featured on the list include cross dressing, garish costumes, Eighties disasters, Beastiality, David Bowie parodies, boring bastards, horny grannies and prophetic terrorist acts. The lot.

Not just limited to bands from over the decades, more recent culprits include Razorlight, Hard-Fi and the return of the might MC Hammer.- 50, 35 and 19 are a riot! No. 4 should have been No 1. Truely warped. See the list but be warned do not view on a full stomach

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AC/DC DVD Boxset - A Top Story This Week

PR reports: Columbia Records will release Plug Me In -- the ultimate career-spanning DVD box set of live performances, interviews and more from AC/DC, the world's most electrifying rock & roll band -- on Tuesday, October 16.

The first AC/DC release since the band came to Columbia Records earlier this year, the AC/DC Plug Me In DVD collection brings together for the very first time an astonishing five hours of definitive live concert and television performances -- many of them previously unavailable -- chronicling the on-going career (now in its fourth decade!) of a groundbreaking rock & roll powerhouse whose music transcends the test of time.
- all the details, tracklistings and preorder deal link

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Prodigy Going to Prison - A Top Story This Week

Contact Music reports: MOBB DEEP rapper PRODIGY has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years behind bars after pleading guilty to a weapons charge dating back to 2006.

The G-Unit star - real name Albert Johnson - was indicted on one charge of gun possession at Manhattan Supreme Court in New York on Tuesday (09Oct07).

The charge relates to Johnson's arrest last October (06), when New York cops pulled over his Chevy Suburban Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) for making an illegal u-turn
- more on this story

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Friday

Santa on Viagra with Carol Brady as Ho Puts the X in Xmas - A Top Story This Week

PR reports: Dan Finnerty, the actor/comedian who founded and fronts The Dan Band, made his name performing the anthemic songs from the female point of view will be releasing Ho, an album of original Christmas songs this holiday season.

The Dan Band's live repertoire includes a catalog of songs, heretofore, associated with women from Erykah Badu to Christina Aguilera The idea that was devised by Finnerty in 1999, initially as a karaoke performance, rose to national prominence with their infamous profanity-laced version of Bonnie Tyler's 1983 "Total Eclipse of The Heart" performed in the movie Old School, starring Will Ferrell. The Village Voice has said "Finnerty's performance borders on the genius."

This holiday season, for the first time, The Dan Band presents a collection of original material with the release of Ho on Reincarnate Records, through Dave Matthew's ATO Records label. The album includes the very sentimental track "I Wanna Rock U Hard This Christmas" as well as "Get Drunk and Make Out This Christmas" the ecumenical "Chrismakwanzakah" and Dan's heartfelt plea for peace "Please Don't Bomb Nobody This Holiday" and seven other songs that are destined to become seasonal standards in the tradition of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Silver Bells" and "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town." A video for "I Wanna Rock U Hard This Christmas" features Florence Henderson of Brady Bunch fame in the role of Dan's drunken, randy grandmother, whose relationship with Santa Claus appears fueled by Viagra-infused mistletoe- dates and video link

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Help! is Delayed - A Top Story This Week

PR reports: The DVD release of The Beatles' second feature film 'Help!' has been rescheduled to November 6, 2007, which will be marketed and distributed by EMI Music.

Directed by Richard Lester, who also directed the band's debut feature film 'A Hard Days Night', 'Help!' made its theatrical debut in 1965. The story follows The Beatles as they become passive recipients of an outside plot that revolves around Ringo's possession of a sacrificial ring, which he cannot remove from his finger. As a result, he and his bandmates John, Paul and George are chased from London to the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas by religious cult members, a mad scientist and the London police.

In addition to starring the Beatles, 'Help!' has a witty script, a great cast of British character actors and features 7 classic Beatles tracks, including: 'Help!'
'You're Going To Lose That Girl' 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away' 'Ticket To Ride' 'I Need You' 'The Night Before' 'Another Girl'
- DVD Trailer

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Label Sues Perez Hilton Over Leaky Britney - A Top Story This Week

antiMusic reports: Seems gossip site PerezHilton.com is in a bit of hot water for leaking Britney Spears songs as her label filed a lawsuit against the site and it's operator on Thursday. This news comes a day after the label pushed up the release of Britney's "comeback" album due to leaks. Here if the press release from the label:

Attorneys for Zomba Recording LLC, which owns the copyrights to Britney Spears' recordings, filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles today charging the online gossip website PerezHilton.com and its proprietor Mario Lavandeira with illegally obtaining and posting recordings by Spears.

The suit accuses Lavandeira of infringing Zomba's copyrights by posting at least 10 completed tracks and unfinished demos from Ms. Spears' upcoming album, "Blackout," over the past three months. "Blackout" was originally scheduled to be released on Nov. 13 but because of internet leaks, Ms. Spears' label Jive Records announced yesterday it was moving up the release date to Oct. 30.- more on this story

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Top Reviews

....As Cities Burn - Come Now Sleep

This is easily one of my favorite albums of the year, and it has every possibility of being one of my favorites of the last 10 years. Amazingly written, incredibly musical, and evidently passionate, this is an album not to be missed. (5 stars) - Read the full As Cities Burn - Come Now Sleep review

....Landmark Albums: T. Rex - Electric Warrior and The Slider

Electric Warrior and The Slider are the most enduring albums of the T. Rex catalog. They are also responsible for inspiring artists as divergent as David Bowie, Def Leppard and any other band that relied on greasy riffs and cheap lipstick. - Read the full Landmark Albums: T. Rex - Electric Warrior and The Slider review

....Dethklok - Dethalbum

When Cartoon Network's Adult Swim dropped Dethklok: the Metapocalypse a little over two years ago, I had no idea that one of death metal's most interesting bands would emerge from its weekly 15-minute clips. - Read the full Dethklok - Dethalbum review

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