Highly Anticipated New Studio Album to be Released March 10
Following First Single, “What’s Right Is Right,” digitally on January 27

Platinum-selling singer/songwriter Taylor Hicks will thrill longtime fans, and inspire new audiences, with the release of his anticipated new studio album, The Distance, on March 10. The album will be released on Hicks’ Modern Whomp Records label and distributed through a partnership with independent artist services company Artist To Market (A2M). Debuting January 27 digitally is the first single “What’s Right Is Right,” a mid-tempo song about love and commitment, driven by funky keyboards and sax work.

Produced by Simon Climie (Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Faith Hill), and tapping the talents of guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, bassist Nathan East and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., The Distance includes eleven tracks, some co-written by Hicks: “Wedding Day Blues,” “Seven Mile Breakdown,” “What’s Right is Right,” “Hide Nor Hair,” “Woman Gotta Have It,” “New Found Freedom,” “The Distance,” “Nineteen,” “I Live on a Battlefield,” “Yes We Can,” “Maybe You Should,” “Once Upon a Lover of Mine,” “Keepin It Real” and “Indiscriminate Act of Kindness.”

Since becoming Season 5 winner of “American Idol,” Taylor Hicks has seen his self-titled debut album certified platinum, performed with Willie Nelson, Widespread Panic, The Allman Brothers and Jackson Browne, toured through Asia, penned the Random House memoir Heart Full of Soul, and made his Broadway debut as Teen Angel in Grease. At the beginning of 2009 Taylor has embarked on a national US tour with Grease with stops in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.

Listen to the first single, “What’s Right Is Right,” , and for more information please visit taylorhicks.com.

“What’s Right Is Right” audio streams for your site:

Windows Media:

RISE AGAINST’S ‘AUDIENCE OF ONE’ VIDEO PREMIERS ON MYSPACE MUSIC

NEW SINGLE BEING PLAYED AT SOME OF THE BIGGEST RADIO STATIONS IN THE COUNTRY WITH OFFICIAL ADD DATE STILL TWO WEEKS AWAY

Chicago’s punk rock outfit Rise Against has a new single ready to storm the modern rock radio charts. “Audience Of One” is already being played at some of the biggest radio stations in the country with the official add date still two weeks away. The video for “Audience Of One” makes its debut, today, Thursday, January 15th, on MySpace Music.

Directed by Brett Simon the video for “Audience Of One” was shot in Los Angeles last month and features the band performing in a miniature world on the White House lawn.

Rise Against released their fifth studio album, Appeal To Reason, on DGC/Interscope Records last fall and it debuted at #3 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart as well as spending one week at # 1 on the iTunes album chart. First single, “Re-Education (Through Labor),” was a top 2 hit at modern rock radio.

Rise Against will embark on a European tour starting in early February follow by some dates in Australia and Japan. The band will play the Bamboozle Festival in East Rutherford, NJ on May 3rd with No Doubt. For complete list of tour dates please visit riseagainst.com.

Video:
Rise Against – Audience of One

These Green Eyes have taken time to update us on their latest dirty escapade via their YouTube channel. Watch as the band tries to get themselves out of a muddy mess in the newest webisode.

Relapse To Recovery featuring the single “Paramedic” hits stores March 24th!

YouTube video:

“Get On Your Boots,” the first single from U2’s new album No Line On The Horizon, will be released on January 19th on Interscope Records. The album is currently available for pre-order and will be released on March 3rd.
Produced by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Steve Lillywhite, sessions for No Line On The Horizon began in Fez, Morocco, and continued at the band’s Dublin studio, New York’s Platinum Sound Recording Studios, and Olympic Studios in London.
The album will be released in a standard format with a 24- page booklet and in digipak format. The digipak includes an extended booklet and the album’s companion film “Linear” by Anton Corbijn. A limited edition 64-page magazine will also be available, featuring the band in conversation with artist Catherine Owens, and new Anton Corbijn photographs. No Line On The Horizon will be released on 180gm vinyl.
The cover artwork for the album is an image of the sea meeting the sky by Japanese artist and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto.
The full track listing is as follows:

1. No Line On The Horizon
2. Magnificent
3. Moment of Surrender
4. Unknown Caller
5. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
6. Get On Your Boots
7. Stand Up Comedy
8. Fez – Being Born
9. White As Snow
10. Breathe
11. Cedars Of Lebanon

The recently reunited band has been chosen specifically by the new president to play at his inaugural ball today. It’s probably not surprising since the band has already played two concerts for Obama’s campaign, this probably being the main reason why they reunited. So Obama’s election does something for the rock world too… wouldn’t have seen it coming. Mickey Hart had this to say about the upcoming show: It gave me pause when I had to get a security clearance to play a gig!” He also commented passing the security check without any problems: “Oh, yeah, we don’t look so bad on paper. It’s not as bad as you might think.” Here’s another outstanding example that rockers aren’t really as bad as some may consider them.

If American Idol wannabe Emily Wynne-Hughes, the one who was willing to sell out her band for a chance at the show, manages to stick around for a while, you might get to see the first contestant perform with an alcohol monitoring bracelet. It turns out that the singer is smack in the middle of a DUI fiasco and has been ordered to wear a SCRAM bracelet. She’s also been placed on 3 years probation. The whole thing is over an arrest last summer where cops arrested her for allegedly driving drunk in West Hollywood. She copped a plea to a lesser charge of reckless driving.

Florida alt-rockers The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus have just announced a few unique offers for fans who pre-order their upcoming album Lonely Road which hits stores on April 3rd. The band has teamed up with GoMerch and Virgin Records to launch a series of pre-sale bundles.

These exclusive bundles come in 3 different options at 3 different prices and are only available for a limited time: The Lieutenant Package, The Captain Package and The Major Package. Depending on which one you choose (all come with a physical and digital copy of the album and a limited edition dog tag and chain), you can get your hands on stuff like signed vinyl, silk-screened posters and even an exclusive backpack.

And it doesn’t stop there – once you purchase a bundle you’ll automatically be signed-up to receive email telling you how to take advantage of additional offers, content and prizes, exclusive only to those who purchased a pre-sale bundle.

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus have also uploaded 2 new songs onto their MySpace profile. “Pull Me Back” and “Represent” will be featured on Lonely Road which was produced by Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance, Less Than Jake).

Who knew that Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato were friends? And who knew that either teenager happened to be a hockey fan? The country singing sweetheart and the young actress was spotted last Monday at the LA Kings vs Tampa Bay Lightning game in Los Angeles. I wonder if they talked about the Jonas Brothers. We all know how Taylor is still bitter over Joe and that Demi acted with them. Not to mention that Demi’s best friend Selena Gomez happens to be dating Nick. There’s no way that no gossiping occurred during their little get together. They wouldn’t be teenagers otherwise.

Country star Carrie Underwood previously dated Jessica Simpson’s man Tony Romo but now that Tony is hooked to Jessica for reason beyond normal human understand the singer has now been linked to another ice hockey player.

She has now on a couple of occasions been spotted at an Ottawa Senators ice hockey game and has been seen mingling closely with team’s star Mike Fisher. The rumors sparked off when Underwood was spotted seated with the family members of Fisher’s family in a private box.

Dearest CARRIE…I thought you would have learned a lesson by now, let me tell a thing that hockey players hold their pucks in higher regard than you will ever do. At the very least I am sure you are doing all this so that you have ample material for next album.

But in the meantime you are providing fans with great entertainment of your personal life.

Miley Cyrus wore a white strapless Marchesa gown with gold embroidery as she hit the red carpet at the 2009 Golden Globe Awards this past Sunday. On the red carpet, the singer and actress said “I am so excited, this has been a dream of mine forever. I was like, ‘I really hope I get asked to come to the Golden Globes.’ And then I actually got nominated, so that’s the biggest thing that could happen to a girl, especially as young as I am. It’s out of this world.” Unfortunately, Miley did not win the award for Best Song. Her song ‘I Thought I Lost You’ from the animated movie ‘Bolt’ got nominated.

Lily Allen has gotten another case of her verbal diarrhea as she tells everyone what she looks forward to when it comes to sex. The British singer says that she can’t get down with someone who sucks in the sack. She goes as far as saying that it makes her upset if someone can’t deliver. Lily said “I think, ‘Oh God, this is someone I would like to spend the rest of my life with. But I cannot face having bad sex for the rest of my life’”. For some reason, I think that if you give her a certain price, she might be willing to overlook her bedroom standards.

David Cook, winner of American Idol Season 7 and the newest rock crooner in the block, is finally a free man after he separated with girlfriend Kimberly Caldwell. Caldwell is Cook’s fellow alumni at the American Idol talent search show and they in fact started dating after Cook won in 2008. Sources said the split up happened just before the holidays but the two have remained friends.

The separation came as a surprise to their friends considering that Cook was allegedly scouting for a ring to give his girlfriend. Among the selections included a 2-carat ring made of diamond and platinum which reportedly costs $54,000 at Tiffany’s. Rumor-mongers however claim the split-up was a result of Caldwell’s flirting and making out with handsome bar manager Ryan Der last December. Apparently, the cheating issue was enough for Cook to slam the door on Caldwell. This raunchy news might as well be a good opener for Season 8 of American Idol which will air Tuesday night on FOX.

After many a rough and wicked battles, Amy Winehouse’s husband finally got infuriated enough because of the time she’s been having with another man on her holiday that he filled for divorce. Moreover, he wants half of her fortune and a source had this to say about the negotiations: “There was panic in her team that Blake could get access to Amy’s money. This cannot be allowed to happen. Mitch is leading the way but Amy is fully aware of what is happening.” Nothing like indignation to fire up the flames of resentment, eh? I wonder what happened to the “I love you Amy” stuff.

With their new album Lonely Road finally hitting stores on February 3rd, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus have teamed up with the number one free game on the iPhone, Tap Tap Revenge. All you need to do to play is download the game onto your iPhone or iPod Touch. The band’s current single, “You Better Pray” is featured in the addictive game.

Tap Tap Revenge is a free game that challenges players to keep up with infectious songs by tapping the right spots on the phone’s (or iPod Touch) screen. Since the game debuted in July, it quickly found its way towards the top of the iPhone application store. It has since been downloaded more than 3 million times and is now Apples most popular free game.

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus recorded Lonely Road, at the Valley Village, CA, studio of super-producer Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance, Hoobastank, P.O.D., Less Than Jake, Daughtry, Seether, All-American Rejects). The album follows up Don’t You Fake It, the band’s breakthrough debut, which charted for 62 weeks on Billboard’s Top 200, scanning over a million copies in the U.S. to date, and selling more than 2.1 million copies of its singles.

Check out The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus here: www.myspace.com/RedJumpsuit

Hana Pestle is a self-proclaimed Twilight fanatic. The nineteen year old singer/songwriter from Billings, Montana believes she has the perfect song for the next movie and has started a movement to get “Need” in the forthcoming New Moon. The hauntingly beautiful track was one of her first compositions written at only fifteen years old in 2004. It was produced /co-written for her album by Ben Moody (co-founder of Evanescence) and Michael “Fish” Herring with string arrangements by David Campbell and piano performance by David Hodges (Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry). Check out the “Need for New Moon” page to learn more about the mission and watch a personal video message from Hana.

Hana’s E.P. is available now and her debut, full-length album is due out in July.

Video message

welcome to "need" for new moon!

Leona Lewis has taken to her brand new blog to talk about her last few amazing weeks. The British singing sensation talked about her holidays, performing at Madison Square Garden with Natasha Bedingfield and Rihanna, performing on Letternam and shooting the video for her song ‘I Will Be’. Of the video, she said “I got to shoot again with one of my favorite directors, Melina [Matsoukas] who I luv and I’m really proud of what we’ve created. I also got to work with Chace Crawford, who is one of the nicest people I’ve met, super talented and he’s in one of my new fave series ‘Gossip Girl’.”

Pink is on the cover of the February 2009 issue of Seventeen magazine. In the accompanying interview, the 29-year old singer talks about her song ‘So What’, her ex-hubby Carey Hart and even where her meanness comes from. She talked about how it felt to have her song become the break up anthem of the year and her first number 1 saying “It feels very confusing. It’s bittersweet. It’s funny, it’s empowering, it’s ‘Screw you,’ it’s all of that. It’s amazing to be number one but it’s ironic that it took [Carey Hart and I] breaking-up to get there. It’s a testament to how often people break-up, because everyone can relate to what I’m saying.”

The 32-year old Black Eyed Peas singer Stacey Ferguson or Fergie finally said “I do” to 36-year old Josh Duhamel last Saturday in an apparent fulfillment of their white wedding fantasy complete with thousands of white roses. The two got hitched in the Malibu Church Estates Vineyards. Fergie wore a gown by Dolce & Gabbana and carried a bouquet of crystal-studded white flowers while the ten bridesmaids wore black. The singer’s engagement ring, which was specially designed for her, is made of a 4-carat diamond amid a diamond setting. The set also included a narrowed diamond wedding band for the couple.

The wedding reception followed a dream concept as it was held in decorated tent with light-covered ceilings. Included in the guest list are Mario Lopez, Kid Rock, Stacy Keibler, couple Rebecca Romjin and Jerry O’Connel, Kate Hudson, Slash, the Black Eyed Peas, Molly Sims, James Caan and Vanessa Marcil. Fergi was so excited and busy with the wedding preparations that she lost a lot of weight which made her look more amazing. Among the pre-wedding highlights include the joint bachelor-bachelorette party held at the newly-opened Santa Monica Dakota Lounge.

Katy Perry and her boyfriend, Gym Class Heroes front man Travis McCoy, have reportedly broken up. Travis recently went to his blog to let the world know what he’s going through and he didn’t hold back. He wrote in what appears to be a song form. Here’s the first couple of lines from that blog: “We fight every night, now that’s not kosher/ I reminisce with bliss of when we was closer/ And wake up to be greeted by an argument again/ You act like you’re ten/ So immature, I try to concentrate on a cure/ And keep lookin’ at the front door/ Thinkin’ if I were to evacuate/ You’d probably be straighter than straight.” I wonder what Katy has to say.

The All-American Rejects, hot off their December release of When The World Comes Down, have taken their time in the Yahoo! Music studio to bring a stripped down version of Britney Spears’ hit “Womanizer” to life. Packed with an accordion, clanking beer bottles, and a unison of “whooooos” the cover is described by frontman Tyson Ritter as “better than Britney” and can be seen at Yahoo! Music.

In another stripped down performance, The All-American Rejects’ performed their hit single, “Gives You Hell” acoustically. The band has uploaded the bare-bones version that can be heard at myspace.com/allamericanrejects.

Womanizer Video: