Gavin DeGraw: Not that kind of singer-songwriter

Gavin DeGraw describes himself as a singer-songwriter but he says it with a sour expression. That’s because these days that term evokes a sensitive pretty-boy image, while DeGraw’s ideal would have a bit more gravel and gravity, along the lines of Kris Kristofferson.

“That’s exactly how I view it,” said the 31-year-old artist, whose self-titled sophomore album debuted this week at No. 7 on the national sales chart after selling more than 66,00 copies in its first week of release. “Right now there are a lot of young men who are singer-songwriters who have this image that is a little softer than I like. I’m more comfortable with men who act like men and make music that reflects that.”

The rock-inflected “Gavin DeGraw” gives the singer his first trip to the Top 10, and his path has, like so many music stars today, been paved by television more than radio. The South Fallsburg, N.Y., native first cut through when his song “I Don’t Want to Be” was selected as the theme song to “One Tree Hill,” and his songs have popped up repeatedly on “American Idol.”

“The era of a Wolfman Jack picking up a song and making someone’s career by bringing it to a radio audience, that’s just not happening anymore,” DeGraw said. “Now you have to find different routes to your audience, and television and the Internet are the ones that seem to be working.”

That approach is working for veterans as well: Neil Diamond, boosted by his recent visit to “American Idol,” saw his latest album, “Home Before Dark,” sell 146,000 copies to claim the No. 1 spot on the chart — the first time the 67-year-old star has reached that top slot on the tally.

Also debuting this week: Toby Keith’s double-disc “35 Biggest Hits” at No. 2 (103,000 copies sold) and Clay Aiken’s “On My Way Here” at No. 4 (94,000). Josh Groban, Dierks Bentley and Luis Miguel also debuted this week with new albums, taking positions 8 through 10 on the chart.

geoff.boucher@latimes.com

Pete Doherty - Doherty Defends Bizarre Winehouse Video

PETE DOHERTY has spoken out about the bizarre video he appeared in alongside AMY WINEHOUSE where the pair can be seen talking to mice - claiming they are her beloved pets.
The troubled British stars posted the strange clip on video-sharing website YouTube - which saw the Back To Black hitmaker use the rodents to pass on a message to her incarcerated husband Blake Fielder-Civil.
In the 42 second-long footage she seemingly makes reference to recent reports she is set to split from Fielder-Civil, saying, “Please don’t divorce mummy.”
But Doherty denies that there was anything erratic about the video - insisting Winehouse was taking care of the creatures after one had babies.
He tells music website Gigwise.com, “One of the mice gave birth didn’t it? I think it was Jennifer. She (Winehouse) was really fond of them.”

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Antonelli Electr.

Antonelli Electr.   
Artist: Antonelli Electr.
   Genre(s): 
Electronic
   


Discography:

Click   
 Click
   Year: 2000   
Tracks: 8


 

Ron Trent And Chez Damier

Ron Trent And Chez Damier   
Artist: Ron Trent And Chez Damier
   Genre(s): 
Dance
   


Discography:

Morning Factory   
 Morning Factory
   Year: 2005   
Tracks: 1


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Uma Thurman - Uma Thurman Stalker Convicted By New York Jury

Misfits

Misfits   
Artist: Misfits
   Genre(s): 
Punk
   Rock: Punk-Rock
   


Discography:

The Philips Us Open Snowboarding Championships Live [EP]   
 The Philips Us Open Snowboarding Championships Live [EP]
   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 4

Project 1950   
 Project 1950
   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 10

Earth A.D.   
 Earth A.D.
   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 12

Live at DirecTV Music Hall   
 Live at DirecTV Music Hall
   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 33

Cuts From the Crypt   
 Cuts From the Crypt
   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 17

12 Hits From Hell   
 12 Hits From Hell
   Year: 2001   
Tracks: 13

Argentina 2000   
 Argentina 2000
   Year: 2000   
Tracks: 30

Famous Monsters   
 Famous Monsters
   Year: 1999   
Tracks: 18

Psycho in Chile   
 Psycho in Chile
   Year: 1998   
Tracks: 31

Evilive 2   
 Evilive 2
   Year: 1998   
Tracks: 19

American Psycho   
 American Psycho
   Year: 1997   
Tracks: 17

Happy Halloween 05-31-1996   
 Happy Halloween 05-31-1996
   Year: 1996   
Tracks: 31

Boxed Set - Disc 3 - Sessions   
 Boxed Set - Disc 3 - Sessions
   Year: 1996   
Tracks: 30

Box Set: Disk 4 (Static Age)   
 Box Set: Disk 4 (Static Age)
   Year: 1996   
Tracks: 16

Box Set: Cd2   
 Box Set: Cd2
   Year: 1996   
Tracks: 34

1996 - Boxed Set CD1   
 1996 - Boxed Set CD1
   Year: 1996   
Tracks: 26

Static Age   
 Static Age
   Year: 1995   
Tracks: 17

Collection II   
 Collection II
   Year: 1995   
Tracks: 12

Heros Of Danzig   
 Heros Of Danzig
   Year: 1991   
Tracks: 19

Misfits   
 Misfits
   Year: 1986   
Tracks: 20

Walk Among You - Live In NYC   
 Walk Among You - Live In NYC
   Year: 1982   
Tracks: 16

Walk Among Us   
 Walk Among Us
   Year: 1982   
Tracks: 13

1982 - Evilive   
 1982 - Evilive
   Year: 1982   
Tracks: 12

Evilive   
 Evilive
   Year: 1981   
Tracks: 7

Seven boots from hell   
 Seven boots from hell
   Year:    
Tracks: 30

Revenge Will Be Ours - 7 Inch   
 Revenge Will Be Ours - 7 Inch
   Year:    
Tracks: 4

Legacy of Brutality   
 Legacy of Brutality
   Year:    
Tracks: 12


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Madonna - Madonna Stunned By Sexual Cleansing Ritual

Pop superstar MADONNA was left shocked and appalled by a bizarre sex ritual which young widows in Malawi have to go through after their husbands die - because it fuels the spread of Aids in the country.
In her new documentary I Am Because We Are, Madonna chronicles the plight of the people in the African nation, where she adopted her son David in 2006, and she admits some local customs left her feeling sick.
In one segment of the harrowing new film, the star reveals a young widow is forced to have sex three times with a stranger from outside her village as part of a cleansing ritual.
She says, “When this woman’s husband dies of Aids, she is required by the village head tribal chief to go through this sexual cleansing.
“Until she does, basically the village is, like, at a standstill. And, if she refuses to do it, she will be ostracised by everyone.”

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CSS add North American dates to summer jaunt

CSS have added a handful of North American dates to their busy touring schedule this summer.

In addition to performing at several festivals including Lollapalooza, Osheaga and All Points West, the band are set to play club shows in Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Atlantic City, New Jersey in July and August.

Before heading to the States, the band will hit several major UK and European festivals, as previously reported.

The US tour dates are:

Minneapolis, MN First Avenue (July 30)
Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall (31)
Chicago, IL Lollapalooza (August 1)
Montreal Osheago Music Festival (4)
Toronto, ON Koolhaus (5)
Jersey City, NJ All Points West (8)
Worcester, MA Palladium (9)
Atlantic City, NJ House Of Blues (10)

–By our Los Angeles staff.
Find out more about NME.

Indie prison flicks are breakout trend

Allegory for powerlessness or just exploitation?

CANNES — With boxoffice for indie films taking a nose dive and new Cannes market titles seen as tough to market, many North American buyers feel like they’re in a kind of prison, living day to day with little hope, their spirits beaten down again and again.

Perhaps it’s because so many of the films they’ve been seeing lately have characters going to prison, in prison or just out of prison. At a time when distributors are desperately seeking upbeat indie fare after many dark dramas and Iraq War films have failed, what could be bleaker?

Cannes alone featured more than 10 films on the subject, including “Lion’s Den,” about Argentinean women raising their toddlers in jail; “My Life Inside,” a docu about a Mexican woman imprisoned in Texas; and “Wendy and Lucy,” in which Michelle Williams gets arrested for shoplifting dog food. None of these women-in-prison films, however, carries the commercial genre appeal of, say, a tormented Linda Blair in “Born Innocent” or one of Jonathan Demme’s proudest moments, the women’s prison riot flick “Caged Heat.”

Men behind bars can now be found in abundance. In James Toback’s docu “Tyson,” the heavyweight champ recalls fellow inmates throwing “fecal matter” at guards. Adding to the fun, “Four Nights With Anna” centers on a man released from prison for a rape he didn’t commit — only to be arrested for another rape he didn’t commit.

Although most buyers have shied away from the subject matter, IFC Films fearlessly has taken the plunge in Cannes, picking up U.S. rights to the intense IRA prison hunger strike drama “Hunger.” Defamer’s S.T. VanAirsdale thinks there might even be a market for such films. “Millions of Americans have been to prison,” he said. “It’s kind of nostalgic.”

And a few filmmakers are taking a more accessible, lighthearted approach to incarceration. On the heels of the comedies “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay” and “Let’s Go to Prison,” Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor will soon be seen as amorous cellmates in “I Love You Phillip Morris.”

So what is it about prison that’s creating a flood in the theatrical pipeline?

“Filmmakers always position themselves as the underdog,” Movie City News columnist Ray Pride said. “If you’re confined in a prison cell, what more apt allegory for being powerless is there?”

Dustin Smith, a film scholar and director of acquisitions at Roadside Attractions, has another take. “I’d like to think that it’s a collective, worldwide yearning to break free of the constrictive and terrifying times in which we’ve all been living the past few years,” he said. “But my guess is that it’s more just an artistically acceptable way to film poop, nudity and chicks fighting.”

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Anne Murray

Anne Murray   
Artist: Anne Murray
   Genre(s): 
Country
   


Discography:

Anne Murray and Glen Campbell   
 Anne Murray and Glen Campbell
   Year: 1971   
Tracks: 10


Nova Scotia-born Anne Murray reinforced her musical influences from the pop sounds that her parents listened to (Rosmarinus officinalis Clooney, Perry Como) and the Top 40 sounds that AM New York radiocommunication stations of the Cross piped into Canada (Brother Holly, Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee). Originally she intended to work out as a strong-arm education instructor, merely she continued to follow an stake in music. After she was sour down for a spot on a national TV show called Singsong Jubilee, she received a call from the show’s producer deuce years later on. He offered her a chance to establish records, and when she agreed, she found herself with a million-selling crossover single in 1970, “Snowbird.” Murray was frequently at odds with the furnishing of success — she fifty-fifty performed shoeless in Las Vegas — and when she got matrimonial in 1975, she on the face of it dropped kO’d of the business. With her family unit constituted, she started working in 1978 with a new producer, Jim Ed Norman, wHO returned her to prominence with “Walk Right Back” and the million-selling followup, “You Needed Me.” Throughout the late ’70s and former ’80s, Murray successfully walked the communication channel between nation and down with a racy alto voice and a bent for romantic material.

As a baby in Nova Scotia, music was ever one of Murray’s hobbies. While she was enrolled at the University of New Brunswick studying physical education, she auditioned for a patch on the Halifax-based weekly CBC video series, Singalong Jubilee, merely she wasn’t hired because they already had an alto isaac Merrit Singer. Following the rejection, Murray gradatory from college and began commandment physical education at the senior high school layer. Two old age later the initial Singsong Jubilee tryout, the show’s producer, Bill Langstroth, called her with the info that a new television record, Let’s Go, requisite an altoist. After some suasion, Murray in agreement to fall in the programme, although she did non give up her pedagogy caper. For the side by side four-spot years, she panax quinquefolius on Let’s Go, finally striking up a professional human relationship with the program’s musical director, Brian Ahern.

Sir James Augustus Murray began her career as a recording creative person in 1968. Early that Ahern, request her to criminal record for the independent mark Arc. Accepting the tender, Murray recorded and released her debut album, What About Me, that yr. The record was well-received and popular for an independent record album, thereby earning the attention of Capitol Records, whose Canadian division signed her to a long-run contract in 1969. The following class, her debut exclusive for the mark, “Fieldfare,” became an external gain, arrival the Top Ten on both the country and pop charts in America, while arrival the British Top 40. Following the success of “Snowflake,” Murray moved to Los Angeles, where she began to regularly appear on Glen Campbell’s syndicated television show. However, she didn’t like the Californian life style, and she quick returned to Canada.

Over the course of 1971, it looked like “Snowbird” would be Murray’s only handsome hit, since none of her review singles gained much attention; only if “A Stranger in My Place” alligatored the Top 40. A get over of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Cotton wool Jenny” in early 1972 returned her to the higher regions of the country Top 40, peaking at number 11, spell its followup, “Danny’s Song,” became a Top Ten hit on both the pop and land charts in early 1973. Following two minor country hits, she returned to the Top Ten early in 1974 with “Love Song.” The individual was followed by deuce Top Ten country hits — the number one “He Thinks I Still Care” and “Son of a Rotten Gambler.” Following those two success, Murray exhausted a number of years struggling to crack either the start or country Top 40; during this prison term, she saturated on bringing up a family (she married Bill Langstroth and had a son) more than her musical career.

James Augustus Henry Murray entered her period of superlative commercial success in 1978, as a cut through of “Walk Right Back” climbed to figure four-spot on the country charts, followed shortly later on by “You Need Me,” her biggest hit since “Songbird”; the single reached phone number quaternion on the country charts and topped the pour down charts, loss au by the terminal of the year. For the future eight-spot years, she had a virtually uninterrupted string of Top Ten country hits, highlighted by nine-spot figure one hits: “I Just Fall in Love Again” (1979), “Shadows in the Moonlight” (1979), “Broken in Hearted Me” (1979), “Could I Have This Dance” (1980), “Blessed Are the Believers” (1981), “A Little Good News” (1983), “Just Another Woman in Love” (1984), “Cypher Loves Me Like You Do” (1984), and “Straight off and Forever (You and Me)” (1986). Murray prospered during the eRA of urban cowboy, since her music john Drew as much from pop and gentle hearing as it did from land.

Murray’s gross sales began to turn down in the latter half of the ’80s, principally due to the shifting tastes of the area hearing, which was starting time to seek out harder-edged new traditionalist performers. Nevertheless, she maintained a consecrate following during the belated ’80s and ’90s through and through her casual recordings (”Feed This Fire” became a surprisal Top Ten hit in the summer of 1990) and her concerts.

Actor Heath Ledger found dead in New York

Spears is reunited with her mother

Pop singer Britney Spears has reportedly been reunited with her mother Lynne Spears, following a recent fall-out.
According to People magazine, the pair have been photographed together in Los Angeles in recent days.
However, the report suggests that Spears was seen arguing with her mother while on a visit to a car dealership.
An onlooker said: “Lynne and Britney were arguing in the car the whole time. They’re both upset and arguing, not having a good time at all.”
“After she came out, she pulled over to the side of the road to argue with her mom more,” the source said.