music (280 posts)

Virgin

A couple of former Pumpkins are ripe for courting.

James Iha and D'Arcy Wretzky-Brown, original strummers for alt-rock hitmakers the Smashing Pumpkins, have sued Virgin Records America, claiming the band's former longtime label screwed them out of royalties for ringtones, file downloads and other "electronic transmissions."

According to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Virgin inked an exclusive deal with frontman Billy Corgan in 2005 to license their tunes without Iha's and D'arcy's OKs.

"Such unauthorized commercial exploitation by Virgin constitutes a material breach under a recording agreement" the plaintiffs and Corgan entered into with the label in 1998, which included clauses covering distribution channels and "technology...hereafter developed," the suit states.

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Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com

Sheryl Crow and Fleetwood Mac have stopped thinking about a shared tomorrow.

Just as frontman Lindsey Buckingham was confirming that his band's 2009 tour would proceed without the "All I Wanna Do" songstress, Crow came full circle on the rumor that she started in March, when she told a music website that she and the '70s-era hitmakers "definitely" had plans to collaborate.

"No, that was those Rumours—to quote the album," the singer-songwriter told a group of Nashville college students Wednesday at a Grammys Foundation Q&A session when asked about her future Fleetwood plans.

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Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

The Jonas Brothers just made a little history.

The trio's latest single, "Pushin' Me Away," was (legally) dowloaded 116,000 times for the week ended Sunday, making the group the first act ever to sell more than 100,000 online copies for three straight tracks.

The Jonases previously charted with "Burnin' Up" (183,000 first-week copies) and "Play My Music" (109,000).

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Jeff Frank/ZUMAPress.com

Mindy McCready's hope for a comeback just got pushed back, after a drug and booze binge landed the troubled country songbird first in the emergency room of a Tennessee hospital and then in an Arizona rehab center.

"Mindy McCready did receive emergency care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center," her publicist tells E! News. "Other issues made it prudent for her to seek longer-term and broader-based treatment."

"To her credit," says the singer's publicist, "she has entered into an extended-care facility where she will receive the care needed. And for the moment we ask that everyone respect her privacy."

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AP Photo/Joel Ryan

Madame Tussauds gave us a rare glimpse at what Amy Winehouse might look like if she were to stop using and abusing.

The famed wax museum unveiled this model of the punch happy singer today. Amy couldn't be present for this prestigious honor, because she's most likely too busy mourning the sentencing of her one true love for all eternity, Blake Fielder-Civil.

But that didn't stop her parents from showing up. After all, what's a Winehouse story without a quote from her good ol' pop, Mitch? And the word from Mitch: "Yeah, it’s great. We just said we’re going to take this one home with us and send the real one back."

Well, we can't really blame him.

AP Photo

The ABBA-channeling Meryl Streep apparently doesn't have the same street cred as Nas and Lil Wayne.

Despite a near twofold increase in sales and tons of hype surrounding the film's release, the Mamma Mia! soundtrack failed to dislodge the hip-hop stars from the top of the charts.

Thanks in part to controversy over his album's initial title (it rhymed with Tigger), Nas saw his ninth studio release sell 187,000 to debut at No. 1 for the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen SoundScan, thwarting Lil Wayne's hopes of extending Tha Carter III to a fourth week on top.

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Max Vadukel for Rolling Stone Magazine

The Jonas Brothers are pretty much perfect—they’re adorable, have spectacular heads of hair and wear cool clothes. And that is exactly the reason why their Rolling Stone feature is, um, boring.

At least it is until the end, when the writer insinuates there’s a little somethin’-somethin’ going on between the youngest bro, Nick, and up-and-coming Disney star Selena Gomez. The two are totally touching in a blurry picture taken backstage that a Disney publicist asked to be deleted but, of course, was not.

And now the graphic details of a photo that could devastate legions of fans. Seriously, don't continue reading if you can't take it:

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Mark Sullivan/WireImage.com

Pink has garnered her fair share of headlines over the past year, none of which have been for her music. Until now.

The Grammy-winning songbird announced plans to release a fifth, as-yet-untitled studio album Oct. 28. The debut single, "So What," is due out in early August.

The album represents the singer's first release since splitting from hubby Cary Hart earlier this year and is a return to her hit-making past.

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Ashanti knows how to put on a tour. And she was born on Long Island.

Apparently that's all the R&B star needed to qualify her for appointment as a "tourism ambassador" for Nassau County on Long Island. Ashanti is one of nine people tapped by local officials to hype the New York suburb to the world.

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Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com

Courtney Love has been accused of leaving a hole in the books.

A business management and accounting firm has sued the Celebrity Skin artist for failing to fork over a percentage of the proceeds after selling a portion of Nirvana's publishing rights for $19.5 million.

The Los Angeles-based London & Co. claims its cut should have been $975,000, based on an oral agreement Love made with the firm in which she pledged to hand over 5 percent of her earnings, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in L.A. Superior Court.

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