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TODAY'S NEWS

Vote for CMU Daily in the BT Digital Music Awards

Glitter to return to UK tomorrow
50 Cent becomes highest earning rapper
Destiny's Child to reform
Lily punches woman
Chemicals talk Oasis remix
Reverend to quit music
£60,000 worth of Orange Amps stolen
Annie Lennox undergoes spinal surgery
Single review: Future Loop Foundation - Another English Summer EP (Just Music)
Bloc Party album released this week
Gallows release free download
Squarepusher announces new album
De Burgh Iran gig in doubt
Kaiser Chiefs announce UK tour
Rough Trade announce instores
Fucked Up expand tour, give away track
Drowned In Sound and BSkyB part company
Halliwell chose to leave Radio 1
Muxtape closed by RIAA
Groovestar launches 'lite' version
Bacardi announce more music partnerships
More Gut news
Winehouse goes to Oz for new album
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CMU Directory
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TUESDAY 19TH AUGUST

MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD
Michael Franti & Spearhead release their latest album, 'All Rebel Rockers', this week, and bring their live show to The Edge Festival in Edinburgh tomorrow. The album was recorded in Jamaica with legendary producers Sly & Robbie, and takes a deeper and more soulful exploration into both Franti's music and his politics. We spoke to Franti about the new album.

 

Q1 How did you start out making music?
I had a band in high school and I played a drum set made out of a cardboard box. We collected bottles and cans and which we traded in for money to get an electric guitar. We told people we were collecting money for the school music programme – which was partly true because we were in school and we wanted to play music. I still have the guitar – it's a Ventura hollow body guitar.

Q2 What inspired your latest single?
This album is one where the intention is to inspire people through this time of crisis that we see occurring in the world. As far as the single 'Say Hey' goes, it's about traveling the world and the line in the song which says, "The more I see, the less I know" explains how the more I travel around the world, the less I understand – but some things I know. I love my son and I love my community – this I know.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating an album?
I always write tons of songs – way more than I put on the record. As I'm writing, I play on an acoustic guitar first and then I get together with the band or a producer and we start figuring out what the best songs are. Sometimes you think a song sounds great as a ballad turns out being better up-tempo – so we experiment and we always try to make the music the best it can be.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
I'm a fan of great songs, not really specific artists or specific genres. I could be listening Johnny Cash, Run DMC, Bob Marley, Aerosmith or Marvin Gaye - it doesn't matter. I've always loved artists that were able to make music with both musical appeal and a universal message. And people like Bob Marley, John Lennon, and Marvin Gaye have been very successful at that – I love their music because of that!

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
I would say to just listen and enjoy. I would try not to give them too much advance prompting about what to expect. I would hope that people would dance, smile and sing a long, and I hope at the end of the day they're inspired to see the world in a lighter view.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest single, and for the future?
Try to understand to the whole world – how it works, our place in it and how everything is connected – and the intention is to communicate that.

MORE>> www.spearheadvibrations.com and www.myspace.com/spearheadvibrations

 

ORGONE
Former Snap Of The Day and punk funk champion Woolfy played a DJ rare set in London last Friday [15th], right before his appearance at V Festival over the weekend. So impressed were we with his taste that today's recommendation comes in the form of affiliated funk band, Orgone, which also includes members of Breakestra, and who release through the same label, California's Ubiquity. Unsurprisingly, they share similarities to the party-funk masters, with both 'It's What You Do' and their blinding cover of 'Funky Nassau' already dance-floor favourites in certain circles. And having already toured with Pharcyde and performed on Jools Holland, they clearly have the talent to back up any bravado. Your first step is to pay them a visit at the link below.

www.myspace.com/orgonemusic

 

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GLITTER TO RETURN TO UK TOMORROW
Gary Glitter, real name Paul Gadd of course, has been released from the Vietnamese prison where he was serving a three year sentence for child molestation, and boarded a flight to London Heathrow, after he was deported by Vietnamese authorities.

Gadd's lawyers initially attempted to book a flight for the singer on Qatar Airways. However, the company refused to take him. Instead, he will fly by Thai Airlines, via Bangkok, where Thai immigration police said they would ensure he boarded the second leg of the flight. He has also apparently been forced to fly economy class, rather than first or business, as he had requested. He is scheduled to arrive at Heathrow airport at 7.15am tomorrow, where he will be forced to sign the sex offenders register.

Le Thanh Kinh, the singer's lawyer, said: "He is OK but he is worried about his health. He has problems with his hearing and his heart".

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50 CENT BECOMES HIGHEST EARNING RAPPER
Despite losing that much hyped chart battle with Kanye West last year, 50 Cent is still doing rather well thank you very much. Or at least we assume he is given he has just overtaken Jay-Z has the highest earning hip hop star, earning $150 million in the last twelve months, almost twice the earnings of Jay-Z in the same period.

That said, much of the cash came from the deal which saw him sell his stake in drinks company Glacéau to Coca-Cola. In addition to this, Fiddy owns a clothing line, a record label, earns royalties from films and videogames, has just entered an agreement with South African billionare Partrice Motsepe which will see him take an interest in platinum mining in the country and, of course, he records the odd album.

Third on the list was P Diddy, with Kanye West coming in fourth and Timbaland taking fifth place, although none came anywhere close to the earnings of 50 Cent.

Forbes 'Hip-Hop's Cash Kings' 2008:

1. 50 Cent, $150 million
2. Jay-Z, $82 million
3. P. Diddy, $35 million
4. Kanye West, $30 million
5. Timbaland, $22 million
6. Pharrell Williams, $20 million
7. Swizz Beats, $17 million
8. Snoop Dogg, $16 million
9. Dr Dre, $15 million
10. Ludacris, $14 million

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DESTINY'S CHILD TO REFORM
Destiny's Child are set to reform, if they can just find time in their busy schedules to get into the studio. Kelly Rowland said: "We're so looking forward to working with each again and we just need to find a time in our diaries when we can get into the studio together".

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LILY PUNCHES WOMAN
Lily Allen has been photographed apparently punching a woman outside the Groucho Club in London last night. According to photographers, Allen lashed out and hit the unnamed woman three times after she hurled abuse at her. The singer was then driven away in a waiting car.

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CHEMICALS TALK OASIS REMIX
The Chemical Brothers have told BBC Newsbeat that they are "really happy" with their work on the first ever official Oasis remix. The duo have created an alternative version of, 'The Shock Of The Lightning', the first single from Oasis' new album.

Tom Rowlands said: "We're really happy with it, we haven't done a remix for ages and it's very different. It was quite fun to get in the studio and have a strict amount of time and be a bit more cut and thrust with it. It was exciting to do it and I'm glad they like it. We chucked loads of bits out and did it how we would want it to sound".

He added that, despite all the fuss made about the 'first official remix', this is not the first time they've been asked to create a dance version of one of the band's tracks. He said: "They did ask us to remix 'Wonderwall' when that first came out but basically we didn't know how to do it".

I have to say I'm not 100% convinced about this "first official remix" thing anyway, because I'm pretty sure UNKLE did an approved Oasis remix at some point. But perhaps I dreamt that.

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REVEREND TO QUIT MUSIC
Reverend & The Makers frontman Jon McClure has told BBC 6music that he will quit the music industry entirely, after the release of his second album, in a bid to prove how much better than everyone else he is.

McClure said: "I don't want anything to do with this industry, it absolutely stinks. I'm gonna go out having told the truth and with my head held high and having stood for something. I feel like a sore thumb in a piranha pool in this industry. I don't like the way it's all run by rich men in their 50s who went to private school. It's not something I want to be part of. You get these bands who have a few hits, say like the Pigeon Detectives, who come out with another album trying to do the same thing again. I'm going to make a record that's truly artistic, which is the Reverend And The Makers album, that's artistically interesting, then I'm going to retire and become a pedal taxi driver".

He continued: "It's all done for profit and not for any degree of musical feeling or sentiment. And the press distort things to such a degree that you've not got a hope of knowing what the truth is so it's not something that I want to participate in or fuel anymore. It makes me tired and it makes me feel ill and I don't want anything more to do with it".

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£60,000 WORTH OF ORANGE AMPS STOLEN
Prestigious guitar amp manufacturer Orange Amps we targeted by thieves earlier this month, who stole a container load of amps, worth over £60,000, from the company's Borehamwood warehouse.

Part of the first UK shipment of the new Orange Tiny Terror Combo guitar amps, launched at the Frankfurt music exhibition earlier this year, the thieves made off with 141, which sell for £439 each. So far, only 121 have been distributed to shops, making it quite a sought after item (its counterpart, the Tiny Terror, has sold over 30,000 units).

Police have launched a major investigation into the theft and Orange Amps are offering a £5000 reward for information. More information (and serial numbers of all the stolen amps) available from www.orangeamps.com.

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ANNIE LENNOX UNDERGOES SPINAL SURGERY
Annie Lennox has undergone spinal surgery to release an impinged nerve, after injuring her back at last week's International AIDS Conference in Mexico. The surgery was apparently a complete success and now the singer is recuperating at home.

Writing on her blog, Lennox said: "Okay, I came back to the UK and got wheeled off the plane. A first I must say! Felt a bit like Elizabeth Taylor!"

However, the injury does mean that Lennox's retrospective compilation, which was planned for release on 15 Sep, will now be pushed back to spring next year, to allow the singer to recuperate enough to be involved the promotion for the album. She has also had to cancel her appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Of Politics this week, part of the Edinburgh Festival, where she was due to talk about her work supporting children left orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in Southern Africa.

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SINGLE REVIEW: Future Loop Foundation - Another English Summer EP (Just Music)
In recent years Just Music have quietly established themselves as a home for good quality, unpretentious downtempo and chill-out, with fine releases from the likes of Echaskech, Honeyroot and more. Future Loop Foundation are a canny signing - an established name, that will raise the label's profile, but an act that effortlessly fit into the Just ethos. Taken from their recent 'The Fading Room' album, 'Another English Summer' is a lovely slice of pastoral downtempo, with shades of Ultramarine, Bent and even Goldfrapp's more serene moments. Destined for a million chill out compilations, it's by no means original, but is carried off so well you can't help but admire it. With its church bells and birdsong, strings and acoustic guitar all soundtracking nostalgic vocal snippets about walking down a country lane and sitting by the riverside, it's as delightfully English as afternoon tea and, er, rain. MS
Release Date: 1 Sep
Press Contact: Hermana

Buy from iTunes

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BLOC PARTY ALBUM RELEASED THIS WEEK
Bloc Party will release their third album, 'Intimacy', on Thursday. Fans will be able to pre-order the physical release, which will be delivered on 27 Oct, and in doing so have access to a digital version of the long player instantly.

For more info go here: www.blocparty.com

Tracklist:
Ares
Mercury
Halo
Biko
Trojan Horse
Signs
One Month Off
Zephyrus
Better Than Heaven
Ion Square

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GALLOWS RELEASE FREE DOWLOAD
Gallows have released a new track for free via their MySpace page. 'Gold Dust' debuted on the Xfm Rock Show on Sunday, and is a minute-long assault that won't be on the band's second album, but will give you an idea of where their headed.

Download it here

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SQUAREPUSHER ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM
Squarepusher will release a new album, 'Just A Souvenir', on 27 Oct via Warp Records. You can hear a sneak preview of the track, 'Delta V' now at here.

Tracklist:
Star Time 2
The Coathanger
Open Society
A Real Woman
Delta V
Aqueduct
Potential Govaner
Planet Gear
Tensor In Green
The Glass Road
Fluxgate
Duotone Moonbeam
Quadrature
Yes - Sequitur

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DE BURGH IRAN GIG IN DOUBT
As we reported in July, Chris De Burgh was set to play a concert in the Iranian capital Tehran, where the singer apparently has a huge fanbase. De Burgh had announced that he would play alongside Iranian band Arian at the 12,000 capacity Azadi Indoor Stadium in November, marking first time since the 1979 Iranian revolution that a Western star has performed with an Iranian band in the country.

However, a spokesperson for De Burgh told the BBC that permission has not yet been granted for the show. They said: "We have been looking into a concert and been working on it for a while. Permission has not yet been granted but we have also not yet been denied".

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KAISER CHIEFS ANNOUNCE UK TOUR
Kaiser Chiefs have announced some UK tour dates to coincide with the release of their new single, 'Never Miss A Beat' (6 Oct), and album, 'Off With Their Heads' (13 Oct).

Dates:
8 Oct: Leeds, Academy
13 Oct: Manchester, Academy
15 Oct: Southampton, Guildhall
16 Oct: Reading, Rivermead
17 Oct: Glasgow, Barrowlands
19 Oct: Leicester, De Montford Hall
20 Oct: London, Kentish Town Forum
21 Oct: London, Kentish Town Forum

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ROUGH TRADE ANNOUNCE INSTORES
To celebrate its first year in existence, Rough Trade East, in East London, will be putting on a whole stream of free instores over the next week, culminating in no less than four separate performances this Saturday, including CMU favourites Adam Green and Yeasayer.

Here is the line-up:

19 Aug: Lindstrom
20 Aug: Don Letts presents The Punk Rock Movie (screening + Q&A)
21 Aug: The Warlocks
22 Aug: The Smoke Fairies
22 Aug: The Gaslight Anthem
23 Aug: Mary Hampton
23 Aug: Adam Green
23 Aug: Yeasayer
23 Aug: Holy Fuck

Tickets will be provided on a first come, first served basis. More info here.

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FUCKED UP EXPAND TOUR, GIVE AWAY TRACK
Canadian hardcore sextet Fucked Up have announced some more UK and Ireland tour dates. This is good news for everyone. The band's label Matador have also uploaded a free MP3 of a track, 'No Epiphany', from their new album, 'The Chemistry Of Common Life', which is out on 13 Oct.

Download 'No Epiphany' here

Tour dates:
19 Aug: ULU, London
20 Aug: Limelight, Belfast
21 Aug: Whelans, Dublin
23 Aug: Reading Festival (Lock Up Stage)
24 Aug: Leeds Festival (Lock Up Stage)
25 Aug: 1 in 12 Club, Bradford
26 Aug: The Sazerac (formerly Clockwork), London
7 Nov: 93ft East, London (w. Don Caballero)
8 Nov: Freebutt, Brighton
9 Nov: Barfly, Birmingham
10 Nov: Zodiac, Oxford
11 Nov: The Cavern, Exeter
12 Nov: Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
13 Nov: Sugarmill, Stoke
14 Nov: The Bodega, Nottingham
15 Nov: The Kasbah, Coventry
15 Nov: King Tuts, Glasgow
17 Nov: The Corporation, Sheffield
18 Nov: Cockpit, Leeds
19 Nov: The Roadhouse, Manchester

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DROWNED IN SOUND AND BSKYB PART COMPANY
Drowned In Sound and BSkyB have ended their joint partnership, less than a year after the two companies (along with DiS financiers Silentway) formed The Quietus Group to build a number of new websites, The Quietus, Thrash Hits and The Lipster.

In a statement, Drown In Sound founder Sean Adams said: "Following lengthy discussions ... the decision has been made to end the joint venture partnership between Sky and DiS. This decision was based on a change in the online ambitions for both Sky and DiS. Following these changes to both Sky's and DiS' strategic focus, it was felt that the joint venture was not able to deliver the anticipated value to either party".

He added:"DiS will therefore return to being an independently-owned website, which means that we can now refocus on developments to improve DiS' functionality. This is already underway and a more community-focused site is forthcoming".

There has, as yet, been no official announcement on the future of The Quietus Group, or the new websites it launched. However, it is believed that The Quietus music blog will continue to operate.

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HALLIWELL CHOSE TO LEAVE RADIO 1
Eddie Halliwell's show on BBC Radio 1 was dropped from station when the Autumn schedule was announced last week. However, the DJ has told Mixmag that is was his decision, rather than the station's.

He said: "I have decided to finish my Radio 1 weekly commitment to concentrate 100% on my number 1 priority, DJing. The offer of my own Radio 1 show was initially not possible for me to take on due to my DJ diary being so busy, but with the compromise of broadcasting from Manchester it became more feasible. As my show grew, Radio 1's demands did also. Broadcasting from London and additional pressures have made it increasingly difficult to maintain a weekly commitment, leaving me with no other option but to finish the show.Hosting my own Radio 1 show has given me valuable experience and I am grateful for such an amazing opportunity. I've had a fantastic time working with everyone at Radio 1, but it has, and will always be secondary to my sole number one passion, DJing".

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MUXTAPE CLOSED BY RIAA
Online mixtape creator Muxtape has been seemingly shut down by the Recording Industry Association of America.

The frontpage of the website now consists of one sentence: "Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA". Meanwhile, on the site's Tumblr news page, the site's owners add: "No artists or labels have complained. The site is not closed indefinitely. Stay tuned".

Despite this optimism, a site that allows users to upload music to their servers without restriction and then streams those tracks for free isn't going to especially enthuse the RIAA, or their major label members. Presumably the industry association has issued some kind of cease and desist letter leading to the temporary closue. One would assume only licensing deals between Muxtape and the majors would placate the trade body's lawyers.

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GROOVESTAR LAUNCHES 'LITE' VERSION
Music based social network whatnot Grooveshark have launched a new service, Grooveshark Lite, which aims to pull users from both Last.fm and Pandora, by offering improvements on their features. The site plays recommendations based on an initial song selection and allows users to pause, skip, replay tracks played, something not offered by Last.fm or Pandora. Though as I understand it that functionality isn't offered by the others for licensing reasons, so whether that means Grooveshark have negotiated a better deal with the labels I'm not sure.

Check it out here

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BACARDI ANNOUNCE MORE MUSIC PARTNERSHIPS
Following their interesting artist partnership with Groove Armada - where the drinks firm will bankroll Groove Armada's new musical ventures - Bacardi have announced a similar new initiative where they will commission different artists to make individual tracks which will then be distributed for free through a network of MP3 music blogs. The first track comes from Metronomy, and was commissioned by the drinks brand to soundtrack a short film screening as part of a B-Live event in Miami back in April.

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MORE GUT NEWS
Music Week this week confirmed reports last week that independent label Gut Records is experiencing financial difficulties and could as yet fold. However, the trade mag says that as of the weekend the indie had not as yet actually gone into administration. We'll have more when we get it.

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WINEHOUSE GOES TO OZ FOR NEW ALBUM
Amy Winehouse is reported to be heavily sampling the 1939 movie version of 'The Wizard Of Oz' for songs on her new album.

A source told the Sun: "She loves the surreal look, sound and score. One of her new songs heavily samples the theme tune. She loves the surreal look, sound and score. And the soundtrack and score will be a theme running throughout the record".

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