Potter star Watson parties with Borrell & other: June 2008

Friday 27 June 2008

Lost Tribe

Artist: Lost Tribe

   Genre(s):
Dance
   Jazz
   Rock

Discography:

Gamemaster (Disc Two)

Year: 1999
Tracks: 3

Many Lifetimes

Year: 1998
Tracks: 10

Soulfish

Year: 1994
Tracks: 11

Lost Tribe didn't so much start up out as a band only as a collective of first-class studio musicians working on the side. Like the 1970s British mathematical group Brand X (Phil Collins' jazz spinal fusion alter ego getaway from Genesis), Lost Tribe became a melting potful of the styles popular in the 1990s, mixture rhythmical jazz and rock with regular some rap elements. Saxophonist David Binney's sparse lines and the twin-guitar rape of Adam Rogers and David Gilmore blended above the rhythmic muscle of bassist Fima Ephron and drummer Ben Perowsky on Lost Tribe's self-titled 1993 debut CD. Most of the music was instrumental, just the occasional rap data track ("Letter to the Editor") and chanted vocal ("Mofungo") provided a changeup 'tween dizzying jazz fusion pieces like "Mythology" and "Suit & Effect." The group's 1994 followup, Soulfish, was regular harder-edged without losing whatever rhythmic nidus. Perowsky's earsplitting drumming on "Whodunit" and the guitar interplay on "Minute Story," "Planet Rock," and "Blurred Logic" made for a nouveau coalition of casimir Funk and metal. But barely as a collective from the rap-jazz-opera hybrid the Screaming Headless Torsos (Ephron), jazz coalition guitar player Mike Stern (Perowsky) and African-influenced jazz saxist Steve Coleman (Gilmore) was compulsory for Lost Tribe's elementary sound, the nature of the school term musicians' wolf had to signal an eventual retardation. Binney released solo CDs and Rogers focused on self-employed work while Ephron, Perowsky, and Gilmore (ever-confused with Pink Floyd guitar player David Gilmour) toured and recorded elsewhere over the future four-spot long time. By the time Lost Tribe released Many Lifetimes in 1998, Gilmore had left hand the band, as much to pursue precept as playing. The titles unequaled ("The River," "Kyoto," "Jordan River") signaled a kinder, gentler, and more than melodic Lost Tribe -- just non without igneous moments, specially from Ephron and Perowsky. Adding pleximetry and Fender Rhodes galvanising forte-piano to his regular duties on Many Lifetimes, the regular touring drummer for Stern shows wherefore there's no route -- letdown after the guitarist records with virtuosos like Dennis Chambers or Vinnie Colaiuta. And the salient yet virtually nameless bassist is now a piece of both guitarist David Fiuczynski's vocal (Screaming Headless Torsos) and implemental (Headless Torsos) groups, so there's no tattle when Lost Tribe testament be in session (in the studio or on stage) again.

Sunday 22 June 2008

Coldplay rule U.S. charts

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Coldplay scored its first No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart Thursday, and preliminary sales data indicate the British rock band will claim the top spot on the albums tally next week.

"Viva La Vida," which has been featured prominently in commercials for iTunes, jumped one place to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, spurred by digital sales of 246,000 copies.

The group's fourth album "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," which was released Tuesday, will easily debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 when weeklong data are issued next Wednesday.

A source close to the new album expects the album to sellbetween 700,000 and 750,000 units through Sunday. Coldplay's previous album, 2005's "X&Y," debuted at No. 1 with 737,000 units, and spent three weeks atop the Billboard 200.

If Coldplay's album sells north of 700,000, it will be the first time since 2005 that the chart has housed back-to-back 700,000-plus sales weeks. It last happened when 50 Cent's "The Massacre" cleared more than 700,000 in its first two weeks at No. 1, the first of those clearing the 1 million mark.

At the receiving end of Coldplay's one-two punch is rapper Lil Wayne, whose album "Tha Carter III" currently leads the Billboard 200 after selling more than 1 million units through last Sunday. After five weeks at No. 1, his single "Lollipop" fell to No. 3 on the latest Hot 100. His new single "3 Peat" was the chart's top debut at No. 66.

Elsewhere on the Hot 100, rookie California singer Katy Perry jumped two places to No. 2 with "I Kissed a Girl." British reality-TV champ Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" slipped one to No. 4, while R&B starlet Rihanna's "Take a Bow" held at No. 5.

Reuters/Billboard

Sunday 15 June 2008

Steven Spielberg has $1 billion dream

DreamWorks seeks a deal enabling it to own its films

Steven Spielberg aims to raise more than $1 billion in third-party financing to reinvent DreamWorks as a separate company that once again owns the movies it makes.

As for distribution, Spielberg wants to bolt his roost at Paramount for Universal, which wants to land Spielberg and DreamWorks after losing out to Paramount in that quest a couple years ago. But on recommendation from his advisers, Spielberg has allowed a bidding war to begin among studios for the rights to distribute future DreamWorks movies.

The chief suitors other than Paramount: Universal, Disney and Fox.

Warner Bros. has sat out the competition so far despite previous expectations that the studio would seek a relationship with DreamWorks if Spielberg and company were to leave Paramount. Industry betting runs heavily against Spielberg's staying put at Paramount, with the related question of where he and the DreamWorks film label land considered a simple matter of who will offer sufficiently attractive terms to attract Spielberg, chief Stacey Snider and their brand.

"Stacey is the next generation, and Steven is very committed to her," said one participant in DreamWorks strategy meetings.

Spielberg's contract runs until 2010, but he can terminate it early at year's end. Snider and DreamWorks chairman David Geffen have similar escape clauses in their deals with Par, while about 100 other DreamWorks employees theoretically would be unaffected by departures among the top execs.

Yet Spielberg will wield considerable leverage in any exit negotiations with Par and could insist on taking additional execs with him as he reconstructs DreamWorks elsewhere. Although Par owns "Transformers" and other films produced by DreamWorks while at the studio, Spielberg's rights regarding involvement on sequels could trigger negotiations over which films he brings with him and which would remain under Par's control.

A window in Spielberg's personal contract with Par opened May 1, allowing him to discuss potential offers for his services from rival studios. Since then, Spielberg or such advisers as Geffen and attorney Skip Brittenham have held several meetings with prospective studio suitors and financiers.

Still, there is the argument -- offered a few months back by Par execs amid early handicapping of Spielberg's future -- that early ill-will between DreamWorks brass and their Par overlords has been smoothed over. Par boosted DreamWorks' production funding and even credit on DreamWorks/Par releases during the course of the former's residency on the lot.

But barring a complete revision of his current arrangement at Par, only bolting the studio would allow Spielberg again to stake actual ownership claim to his future films. He participated in just that through the original DreamWorks SKG, but Spielberg at Par essentially is a producer and director of films owned by others, backend deals on individual films notwithstanding.

Even the DreamWorks name is controlled neither by Spielberg nor Par but by Jeffrey Katzenberg's DreamWorks Animation. If Spielberg were to exit Paramount, DWA could withdraw rights to the name from Par and presumably grant them to Spielberg.

DWA's distribution contract with Par runs through 2012.

Meanwhile, it appears that Spielberg's hunt for financing could lead to DreamWorks securing a bank facility to fund production as well as private-equity investment.

Yet this time around, it's likely that the latter would be much more limited than the one-time majority stake in DreamWorks SKG by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. DWA went public in 2004 and DreamWorks $1.6 billion sale to Par a year later both were prompted by Allen's desire to cash out his interest in DeamWorks.

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