Sound of the Xity showcases China

As international agents and festival organizers meet in Beijing for a showcase festival, many Chinese bands unknown outside of the country will make their sounds heard around the world.

Sound of the Xity - the China Music Conference and Showcase Festival will be held in Beijing from April 3 to 7, with performances by more than 60 bands and two days of conferences on the music industry.

Participants will include Jason Mayall from Japan's Fuji Rock Festival, Annette Tripodi from WOMAD (World of Music, Arts & Dance), and Christoph Borkowsky from WOMEX (the World Music Expo).

"We expect that Chinese bands will get opportunities for overseas tours through Sound of the Xity, and international bookers will get to know more about the Chinese music scene," says Zhang Ran, CEO of SX Music, the festival presenter.

Sound of the Xity was inaugurated last year, when 56 pop, rock and world music acts performed in Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an.

Jung Hun-lee, artistic director of Korea's Ulsan World Music Festival, selected two Chinese bands, Whai and Pet Conspiracy, to perform in Ulsan after seeing them in Beijing.

"Whai is a rock band with Chinese aesthetics, while Pet Conspiracy combines Chinese and Western music styles and is of international caliber," says Lee, who is also coming to this year's festival.

Harrison Ford on a 'Stars Wars' Reunion

Harrison Ford thinks the much-anticipated Star Wars reunion will happen after all, as he explained in a recent interview with Chicago's WGN 9 News. "I think it's almost true. I'm looking forward to it," said the actor who portrayed space cowboy Han Solo in the original trilogy. "It's not in the bag yet, but I think it's happening."

Rumors of a cast reunion have been circulating since Disney purchased Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise last October. With J.J. Abrams attached to direct, the in-progress Episode VII is slated for a 2015 release, with two more installments plus stand-alone films planned for the future. Ford, along with his co-stars Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher (Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, respectively), have all expressed interest in reviving their beloved characters.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, series creator George Lucas mentioned he'd already signed the trio to return before the Disney deal went down. "We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison – or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation," Lucas said. "Maybe I'm not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them."

Spider Man Musical Lawsuit Gets Court Date

U2's Bono and the Edge, director Julie Taymor and the other producers of the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will meet in court on May 28th to settle a legal battle over the infamous show.

Taymor, who co-wrote the script and was the musical's first director, initially filed suit against the show's producers, plus composers Bono and the Edge, in November 2011 after they fired her from the disastrous, injury-prone show in March, the New York Times reports. Taymor filed a copyright suit claiming the producers were making money off her ideas and script and that she was owed $1 million. The producers countersued, claiming she had been fired for breach of contract.

Judge Katherine B. Forrest set the New York court date after four days of closed-door sessions that failed to produce any sort of settlement over copyright control and profits, despite coming to terms in principle in August. What's more, last February, both parties reportedly settled their dispute over Taymor's firing, with the producers withdrawing their breach of contract claim and allotting Taymor full royalty fees for her work.

Academy Award winning composer Tan

Academy Award-winning composer Tan, who heard the duo's arrangement on one of their CDs, says that he was surprised that Chinese songs and the guitar could be a perfect match.

For Wang, the guitar comes to life in a blend of Chinese and Western music elements.

Barrueco also composed a song, a new transcription of composer Chen Yi's China West, which was originally written for two pianos. It will be recorded on Beijing Guitar Duo's third album, which they plan to release this year.

"My father kept telling me that the sound of guitar is the most beautiful sound in the world," recalls Wang, who came from Qingdao, Shandong province.

A turning point for her came one day in March 1992. Her father took her to Beijing Concert Hall, to see a guitar performance by 15-year-old Yang Xuefei and 14-year-old Bai Pu - a magical program of Bach, Paganini and Tarrega.

Afterward, the little girl told her father: "I want to be like them, playing such beautiful sounds."

The Boss plays a note of caution on economic sway

Bruce Springsteen is playing a note of caution about his political influence over Australian economic policies.

Springsteen and his E Street Band opened their Wrecking Ball Tour to enthusiastic reviews in Brisbane, the hometown of Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan, who revealed in a speech last year that The Boss had long been his political inspiration.

Swan said the New Jersey-born working-class hero's musical railings against inequality echoed his own public battle against Australian billionaire mining tycoons who oppose his tax reforms.

When told at a news conference Thursday that Swan had cited his musical idol as an influence on his center-left government's economic policies, Springsteen urged caution.

"Really? You better watch out there," Springsteen joked. "I'm not sure how good I am with my money."

He added, "I hope it's been a positive influence, that's all I can say."

Swan was named by banking magazine Euromoney as the world's finance minister of the year for 2011 for helping steer Australia clear of recession during the global economic meltdown. He is attending the final two-week session of Parliament in Canberra before he releases his annual budget blueprint on May 14 and has revealed that the annual ritual involves him playing Springsteen's hit single "Born to Run."

Modern singers lack stamina

Modern-day singers lack commitment and stamina compared to previous generations of performers, the music director of London's Royal Opera House said Wednesday.

Speaking at the announcement of the company's 2013-2014 season, Antonio Pappano said singers "are either weaker in their bodies or don't care," and need more periods of rest than previous generations.

His comments come in the wake of several high-profile pullouts from Royal Opera House productions this season.

Later, Pappano told the BBC that young singers are "faced with tremendous pressure ... PR pressure, image pressure, but also vocal pressure."

He also said modern productions, which are often filmed for broadcast, demand more rehearsal from performers. Travel and promotion duties also take a toll, he added.

"They are expected to sing more in the rehearsals, the rehearsals are longer, cutting of operas, which used to be a big tradition, is no longer seen in a favorable light," he said. "So they are singing much longer versions of the operas, even the popular ones. Maria Callas never sang a whole 'Traviata' in her life."

Smashing Pumpkins to Play SXSW

Add one more band to the list of big names playing SXSW: the Smashing Pumpkins will hit downtown Austin on Saturday, March 16th, for Red Bull's showcase, Sound Select: 120 Hours. Also on the bill are the Sword and Girl in a Coma. The show will happen in downtown Austin, with the exact location being revealed the morning of the show via the Twitter handle @rbsoundselect. Tickets will be free.

The Pumpkins will kick off their U.S. tour supporting last year's Oceania on April 29th in Melbourne, FL, part of a six-month world trek that hits Japan, Mexico and more.

Green Day, Dave Grohl’s Sound City Players and the Stooges are among the other major acts hitting Austin for SXSW this year.

Old friends turn out for Mindy McCready memorial

Mindy McCready's time in Nashville was filled with music, and her memorial service in Music City reflected that.

Old friends Bryan White, Lorrie Morgan and Bekka Bramlett sang for McCready and family members spoke about her difficulties and triumphs during the hour-long remembrance Wednesday at the Cathedral of the Incarnation.

"She achieved many of her dreams with No. 1 records and fame," said singer Lorrie Morgan, a former label mate of McCready's. "But we all know fame and fortune do not ensure happiness."

The Nashville memorial attended by about 200 comes two weeks after her funeral in her hometown of Fort Myers, Fla.

McCready shot herself last month on the front porch of the home she once shared with her fiance, David Wilson, in Heber Springs, Ark., authorities have said. That's the same spot where Wilson, the father of her second son, committed suicide a month earlier.

Iggy and the Stooges Ignite with New Single

Iggy and the Stooges have released "Burn," the first single from their upcoming record, Ready to Die – a grinding, thumping punk cut that finds Iggy Pop delivering a hypnotic bellow over wire-cutter guitar riffs.

Out April 30th on Fat Possum, Ready to Die is being pegged as the band's follow-up to 1973's seminal Raw Power (though the Stooges released The Weirdness in 2007). The album will feature original members Pop, guitarist James Williamson and drummer Scott Asheton, with Mike Watt taking over bass for Ron Asheton, who passed away in 2009.

The band is set to preview a handful of Ready to Die cuts at the House of Vans Showcase at Mohawk during SXSW on March 13th, after which they'll head overseas for a handful of shows before returning stateside later in the summer.

Berklee College of Music

Imagine Dragons had been building a buzz on the music scene as an independent act before Alex da Kid got hold of them. They released four EPs and toured America. Lead singer Dan Reynolds said the group was "dead set" on being an independent act.

"We had offers from those labels all throughout the years and we turned them down," he said. "It was so important that we built that organic, independent fan base."

Three of the band members met while "playing jazz together a lot" at the Berklee College of Music.

"I just didn't think I'd ever play with them again to be honest. I hoped that I would someday," said guitarist Wayne Sermon (bassist Ben McKee and drummer Dan Platzman round out the group). "I called (Reynolds) and he had eight credits left before he could graduate and get his degree, but apparently he didn't care much about that, so he just actually left and dropped everything and came to Vegas."

Meeting Alex da Kid, born Alexander Grant, changed his perception about staying independent. He says the producer filled a void in the band's sound.

Rogers founder of Motown group The Miracles dies

Bobby Rogers, a founding member of Motown group The Miracles and a songwriting collaborator with Smokey Robinson, died Sunday at his suburban Detroit home. He was 73.

Motown Museum board member Allen Rawls said Rogers died about 6 a.m. in Southfield. Rogers had been ill for several years.

Rogers formed the group in 1956 with cousin Claudette Rogers, Pete Moore, Ronnie White and Robinson. Their hits included "Shop Around," ''You've Really Got a Hold on Me," ''The Tracks of My Tears," ''Going to a Go-Go," ''I Second That Emotion" and "The Tears of a Clown."

"Another soldier in my life has fallen. Bobby Rogers was my brother and a really good friend," Robinson said Sunday in a statement. "He and I were born on the exact same day in the same hospital in Detroit. I am really going to miss him. I loved him very much."

Rapper Ja Rule in NYC jail with July release date

Federal authorities say platinum-selling rapper Ja Rule is in a New York City jail with a July release date.

The 36-year-old rapper left a state prison in central New York last week after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession and went straight into federal custody in a tax evasion case.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons says he has since moved from an upstate jail to Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, which houses prisoners awaiting court dates or having short terms left on their sentences.

The bureau said Thursday his expected release date is July 28.

Ja Rule admits he failed to pay taxes on more than $3 million earned between 2004 and 2006 while he lived in New Jersey.

A call to his attorney hasn't been returned.

Capsule reviews of new movie releases

Jack the Giant Slayer" — A big-budget, 3-D retelling of the Jack and the Beanstalk legend may seem like the unlikeliest pairing yet of director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie, but this ends up being smart, thrilling and a whole lot of fun.

Singer and McQuarrie's collaborations include, most famously, the twisty crime mystery "The Usual Suspects" and the Hitler assassination drama "Valkyrie," featuring an eye patch-wearing Tom Cruise. They've sort of been all over the place together over the past couple decades — why not reinterpret a classic fairy tale? "Jack the Giant Slayer" is cheeky without being cutesy.

While the look is medieval, the vibe seems more current, but it's not so anachronistic as to be subversive along the lines of a "Shrek," for example. It actually ends up being pleasingly old-fashioned. Shot in 3-D — rather than one of those muddled 2-D re-dos — the film looks crisp and clean, much more so than the trailers and ads might suggest.

AEG just made this more risky for Michael

AEG attorney Marvin Putnam said he was pleased with the ruling and reiterated his belief that the case should have never been filed.

The case centers on whether AEG did an appropriate investigation of Conrad Murray, a former cardiologist who is serving his sentence after being convicted of the involuntary manslaughter of the pop singer. The case also involves whether AEG controlled him while Jackson prepared for a series of comeback concerts.

Katherine Jackson's attorney, Kevin Boyle, declined comment after the hearing, saying he wanted to see the final order.

He told Palazuelos that AEG created a division of loyalties for Murray between his care of Jackson and maintaining an arrangement that would have paid him $150,000 a month to care for the singer.

Jackson died before Murray's contract was signed, and AEG argues he was not an employee of the company.

"AEG just made this more risky for Michael," Boyle argued Monday.

Songwriter Diane Lampert Dead at 88

Diane Charlotte Lampert, a songwriter who contributed lyrics to a long catalog of pop and rockabilly hits along with the title songs for more than 20 movies, died on Friday in New York City at the age of 88, the Associated Press reports.

Lampert was born in the Bronx, New York in 1924. She made a career in the 1950s and 1960s co-writing songs that were performed by artists including Brenda Lee, Harry Nilsson, George Jones, the Seekers and the Letterman. Her movie credits include the title songs for the films The Snow Queen, I'll Take Sweden, Billie, and Silent Running, as well as songs for The Wild and the Innocent, and Trees Lounge.

Along with Eddie Fontaine, Cirino Colacrai and John Gluck, Lampert wrote the rockabilly hit, "Nothin' Shakin' (But the Leaves on the Trees)," which the Beatles recorded for a BBC radio show in 1963. The track was released on the 1994 album Live at the BBC.

In the teaser video released last month

It's always fun when you cross over lines, you know, in the show business world. It's always fun to go into somebody else's thing and vice versa. So that in itself is just reason enough to do it. My wife is really into Wale so she's playing the stuff and I'm getting into it so it was all great.

Yeah. I think he asked a few times until I finally decided that it would be a fun thing to do.

Well, his guys were there. And we just went in the studio and just started talking. And they just wanted me to say things, whatever I thought about various things. They would ask me things and I would just tell them what I thought. And then they have to do their thing with it, which takes a while as I understand. But just for me to hang out with guys like that was the coolest, you know? Because I don't hang out with 19-year-old music guys. So it was great.

In the teaser video released last month, you said the lines were blurry between hip-hop and standup comedy.

Frank Ocean in Elaborate Ceremony

Emeli Sandé and Ben Howard were the big winners at the 2013 BRIT Awards, on a night when singer-songwriters trumped rock and pop stars and performers often outshone the award winners.

Sandé picked up the big award, the MasterCard British Album of the Year, at the ceremony, held Wednesday at the O2 Arena in London. Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry presented her with the award for Our Version of Events, the biggest-selling album in the UK in 2012. She also picked up British Female Solo Artist and closed the show with a performance of "Clown," solo at her piano, and "Next to Me," featuring a full band and a gospel-style choir.

I think I'm a very unlikely pop star," she said backstage after her British Album win. "This is an album I made because I didn't have the confidence to say these things in person. So many people connected with this album and it makes me feel incredible."

The court refused to hear Curb's appeal

The Tennessee Supreme Court has put an end to Curb Records' fight to keep Tim McGraw off another label — two weeks after he released his new album with Big Machine Records.

The court refused to hear Curb's appeal of a lower court's ruling that McGraw was free to record with whomever he wished while his legal fight with his longtime label continued through the court system. An appeals court affirmed that ruling last year and Curb sought the Supreme Court's help. The court signed an order last week denying the appeal.

McGraw released "Two Lanes of Freedom" on his new label on Feb. 5. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 all-genre albums chart, selling more than 106,000 copies. It's the first album of his career not to be released on Curb.

McCartney singing Hey Jude

Xu recalls his old friend, the established rock band Tang Dynasty's bassist Zhang Ju, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1995.

"In his diary, he wrote, 'Life is like a tree'. He loved life, loved people around him," he says.

"When you listened to 70-year-old Paul McCartney singing Hey Jude at the Opening Ceremony of London Olympic Games, you felt love, didn't you?"

Recently, Xu also signed a contract with Beijing Gehua Live Nation Co, a leading live-performance organizer, which has brought international artists like Bob Dylan and Irish rock band The Cranberries to China.

Xu will kick off his national tour in May, which he calls the biggest in his career.

"As I am getting older and older, the world becomes bigger and bigger to me. I am still learning," he says. "I want to sing for people who share their lives, their youth with me, through my songs."

Grammy award for best new artist

Presenter Katy Perry holds out the Grammy award for best new artist to Nate Ruess, singer from Fun, at the 55th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, February 10, 2013.

Like Mumford & Sons, Gotye busted up the predictions, taking record of the year for 2012's top-selling single, the haunting "Somebody That I Used To Know," featuring New Zealand's Kimbra, and finished with three awards.

Prince, in hood and sunglasses and carrying a sparkly silver cane, presented him with the record of the year trophy and the Australian paid tribute to The Purple One's influence.

"A little bit lost for words, to receive an award from the man standing behind us with the cane," the Belgian-Australian Gotye said. "Many years listening to this man's music growing up and a big reason I was inspired to make music. Thank you."