NewsMusic

‘Our role models are Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon,’ says the singer

Updated 2:31 p.m. ET April 27, 2009

NEW YORK - When Pink came up with the circus-themed theatrics for her “Funhouse” tour, she didn’t think she’d be sharing her big-top theme with another pop singer.


She sighs with resignation when a comparison is made to Britney Spears’ latest tour, “The Circus,” which, like Pink’s tour, features high-flying dancers and acrobats, and is a grand spectacle.

Both Pink and Spears based their theme on the title of their latest album (both CDs were released last year; Pink’s came out first). Spears’ tour opened in March. Tickets for the U.S. leg of Pink’s tour, which started in Europe, go on sale Saturday.

“Had I known that certain other people were going to base their latest thing about circus things, I probably would have went into another direction,” the big-voiced, 29-year-old singer says. “I was six months before that and didn’t really understand that it was a trend that was happening. I’m pretty out of the loop.”

Not that anyone would confuse their tours. Spears’ show is a lip-synched, dance-oriented affair, while Pink says her show is all about gritty, emotional rock ’n’ roll — “two hours of group therapy.”

In a recent interview, she talked about channeling her feelings through song, getting back together with her ex-husband and her philosophy on love.

AP: You say this is your first headlining tour in the U.S. What took you so long?

Pink: I don’t know. I’ve put a lot of work in as far as being a touring artist, and I’ve been doing it on a pretty large scale for seven or eight years now (overseas).

AP: Lots of musicians have used the circus for inspiration. Why do you think artists connect with circuses?

Pink: All of us when we were little probably wanted to run away and join the circus because it’s full of what mainstream society considers freakish and the outcasts, and it’s kind of sexy and exciting and big and over the top.

AP: There’s been talk that you and Carey Hart are getting back together and even remarrying. Is that true?

Pink: I don’t know where the remarriage thing came from. That kind of came out of the air. We are definitely back together.

AP: What did you take away from your time apart?

Pink: We try to protect ourselves from being fully in love and fully open and fully vulnerable, and really all we’re doing is protecting ourselves from love and real love and the opportunity to really learn and grow with another person, so it’s actually really detrimental, and you think it’s helping.

AP: So your advice would be ...

Pink: Dive in. Absolutely, it’s not going to kill you.

AP: So would you remarry?

Pink: We never really legally got divorced. Paperwork for both of us is really annoying (laughs). So we’re choosing to be together. Our role models are Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon and Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn — people who just choose to be together every day because they want to be there. And labels have never been our thing, so, we’re just diving into that empty swimming pool, headfirst.

AP: Much of the last record dealt with your split. Is it hard to sing those songs now?

Pink: Aside from a few songs that are completely vulnerable for me, when I’m writing even my angry kind of “So What,” for me, it’s every emotion involved — I’m being sarcastic, I’m being silly, I’m being angry, I’m all of these emotions, all at the same time, so I include them in my songs. So it’s still silly, it’s still funny, I still have anger. It’s really easy to just be right back there. ... I don’t have a hard time transplanting myself straight back to that moment.

April 25, 2009 ET

Fantasies Metric Release Date: no month , Apri Producer(s): Gavin Brown, Jimmy Shaw Genre: ROCK Label/Catalog Number: Metric Music International

Metric's 2005 album, "Live It Out," contained themes of giving up and giving in, but the band's latest effort, "Fantasies," is very much the opposite. In the opener "Help I'm Alive," frontwoman Emily Haines sings, "I get wherever I'm going, I get whatever I need," and that in-control attitude holds true through the rest of the record. With "Fantasies," the first release on the band's own Metric Music International label, the Canadian quartet continues to polish its spacey, new wave-colored sound that's heavy with buzzing synths and echoed vocals. Brisk, dissonant acoustic chords and frenetic shouts accent "Gold Guns Girls," while the adrenaline runs just as strongly in "Front Row." Although Haines asks for just what the title implies on "Gimme Sympathy," her surge in confidence suggests that she doesn't really need it.—LL

April 24, 2009 03:50 PM ET
Mitchell Peters, L.A.
Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp will share the bill during a U.S. summer tour of minor league baseball parks, beginning July 2 at the GCS Ballpark in Sauget, Ill., and wrapping Aug. 15 at the Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton, Calif.



The upcoming 22-date tour marks the second time over the past 24 years that Dylan, Nelson and Mellencamp have shared the staged, according to a news release.

Most of the ballpark concerts will general admission seating, with tickets priced at $67.50. Children under the age of 14 will be given free admittance if accompanied by an adult ticket holder. Tickets go on sale beginning May 2 at select ballpark box offices and through ticketmaster.com.

Dylan is currently touring arenas in the United Kingdom through early May, where he'll will perform back-to-back shows at the O2 in Dublin, Ireland. The artist is also set to perform at the second annual Rothbury festival in Michigan on July 5.

Dylan's upcoming tour plans are in support of his forthcoming album "Together Through Life," due April 28 on Columbia. His 2006 studio set "Modern Times" has sold 992,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

April 24, 2009 09:09 AM ET
The Rev. Timothy Wright, the Grammy-nominated gospel singer and composer known for his up-tempo praise songs and powerful mass choir sound, has died. He was 61.

The Rev. Timothy Wright, the Grammy-nominated gospel singer and composer, died early Thursday at the Bronx Veterans Hospital.

Wright, who was seriously injured in a car crash that killed his wife and grandson, died early Thursday at the Bronx Veterans Hospital, music agent Will Bogle said.

Timothy Wright was the pastor at Grace Tabernacle Christian Center Church of God in Christ, located in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. He released more than a dozen gospel recordings, writing many of the songs. His latest album, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus," came out in 2007.

In 1994, his record "Come Thou Almighty King," with the New York Fellowship Mass Choir, made the Billboard Top 20 charts for gospel albums and was nominated for a Grammy for best traditional soul gospel album.
He got another nomination in that category in 1999 for "Been There Done That," recorded with the B/J Mass Choir and featuring Myrna Summers.

"Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" features the New York Fellowship Mass Choir. The title track, written by Wright and his wife and recorded live at a Church of God in Christ convocation, expresses the plight of a woman displaced during Hurricane Katrina: She encourages herself and others by calling the name of Jesus. Among the other songs on the album was "You Must Come In At the Door."
Click Here!

According to the book "Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Encyclopedia," by Bil Carpenter, the Brooklyn-born Wright began playing piano for his local church at age 12 and also began composing at a young age.

By his early 20s, he was music director at Brooklyn's Washington Temple Church of God in Christ.

He began writing songs for such fellow musicians as Mattie Moss Clark and the Rev. Isaac Douglas, according to Carpenter's book, and in 1976 formed the Timothy Wright Concert Choir. Among the choir's albums were "Who's on the Lord's Side?" and "Do You Know the Light?"

Wright was critically injured July 4 in a three-vehicle crash on Interstate 80 near Loganton, Pa. Another car was going the wrong way when it struck Wright's car.

His wife, Betty Wright, 58, was killed in the crash, and their 14-year-old grandson, D.J. Wright, died later at a hospital.

The driver of the wrong-way car, John Pick, also was killed, while a passenger in a third car was injured.

The Wrights were returning from a Church of God in Christ conference in Detroit, said Leroy Johnson, a trustee at Grace Tabernacle.

Note: Resource from billboard.com

21st Century Breakdown is the upcoming eighth studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day.This will be Green Day’s first album to be produced by renowned producer and Garbage member Butch Vig, though he has had minor production jobs in other Green Day albums such as Dookie.



This album follows 2004’s critically acclaimed American Idiot. Regarding the pressure, Billie Joe Armstrong said, “We could take a sideways step or go back to our roots. We chose to move forward. It’s about reflecting what’s been happening the past three years and putting it to melody with some bold statements.”[2] The band has also stated that “This album is more.. religious,” and it is influenced by Queen, Bruce Springsteen, The Who, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and The Clash. Green Day has been working on the album since 2006, but the band showed no signs of a new album until a video of the band recording in studio was posted on YouTube in October 2008. Wikipedia

Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown

Act I - Heroes and Cons

1. “Song of the Century”
2. “21st Century Breakdown”
3. “Know Your Enemy” - 3:12
4. “Viva la Gloria!”
5. “Before the Lobotomy”
6. “Christian’s Inferno”
7. “Last Night on Mars”

Act II - Charlatans and Saints

8. “East Jesus Nowhere”
9. “Peacemaker”
10. “Last of the American Girls”
11. “Murder City”
12. “Viva la Gloria? (Little Girl)”
13. “Restless Heart Syndrome”

Act III - Horseshoes and Handgrenades

14. “Horseshoes and Handgrenades”
15. “The Static Age”
16. “21 Guns”
17. “American Eulogy”

I. Mass Hysteria
II. Modern World

18. “See the Light”

Non-Album Tracks

1. Lights Out - 2:16
2. Hearts Collide

April 23, 2009 08:37 AM ET
Two of the seven remaining finalists on TV's "American Idol," Lil Rounds and Anoop Desai, were sent home on Wednesday when fans cast the fewest votes for their performances during the hit talent show's disco-themed week.

Lil Rounds and Anoop Desai were eliminated on Wednesday night's "American Idol."

Rounds, who sang "I'm Every Woman," and Desai, who performed "Dim All the Lights," had both faced elimination in recent weeks by repeatedly placing among the bottom vote-getters, and both seemed resigned to their fates.

"I'm still really disappointed," Desai, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said during the program.

"I'm coming home," added Rounds, addressing her husband and three children.

The double elimination followed last week's judges' save of Matt Giraud, who would have been eliminated had the show's four judges not used their once-per-season veto power to keep him singing for at least another week.
Click Here!

Giraud made the most of his opportunity with his performance of "Stayin' Alive."

The judges reserved some of their harshest words for Rounds' Tuesday performance, with Simon Cowell correctly predicting it would spell the end of the competition for the Memphis singer.

Of Desai, Cowell said, "It was a horrible version of that song." He also told the singer, "That was your worst performance by a mile." But some of the other judges disagreed.

Allison Iraheta was the week's other bottom-three finisher. The teenager is the last remaining female contender. The other finalists are Adam Lambert, Danny Gokey and Kris Allen.

"American Idol" pits aspiring singers against one another in a series of competitions that focus on a musical theme each week. It is the most-watched television show in the United States, with more than 24 million viewers per episode broadcast by the Fox network, a unit of News Corp.

Past winners of the competition such as Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, as well as runners-up such as Clay Aiken, have gone on to lucrative careers in music as well as in film and on Broadway.

The winner of the show's eighth season will be announced during a live finale next month.

(Writing by Chris Michaud)

Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy

Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy
Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy

Violence is an energy
Against the enemy
Violence is an energy

Bringing on the fury
The choir infantry
Revolt against the honor to obey
[Know Your Enemy lyrics on http://free-mp3-lyrics.com]

Overthrow the effigy
The vast majority
Burning down the foreman of control

Silence is the enemy
Against your urgency
So rally up the demons of your soul

Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy

Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy

The insurgency will rise
When the bloods been sacrificed
Don’t be blinded by the lies
In your eyes

Violence is an energy
From here to eternity
Violence is an energy
Silence is the enemy
So gimme gimme revolution

Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy

Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy

Overthrow the effigy
The vast majority
Burning down the foreman of control

Silence is the enemy
Against your urgency
So rally up the demons of your soul