►On April 1st, Bushspeak Volume 2: Fore More Years arrived in stores everywhere, courtesy of Shout! Factory.ThisCD features sound bites of somecomedic nuggets from the mouth of our current president. America is the home of second chances.So it was with great expectation and optimism that we, the citizens of this great country, ushered in George W. Bush’s second term as President of the United States of America. Alas, the same mind cramps and malapropisms seemed to plague #43 as he mumbled and stumbled his way through four more years of butchering the basic conventions of public speaking. In any case, Mr. Bush’s time is almost up. So we bid thee farewell, George. And though we didn’t always understand you, we could always count on you for a good laugh.

► Annuals are back in action. Vocalist and songwriter Adam Baker, lead guitarist Kenny Florence, bassist Mike Robinson, drummer/guitarist Zack Oden, drummer/percussionist Donzel Radford and keyboard player Anna Spence are getting ready to release their Wet Zoo EP on April 1 (Canvasback Music.)
The five-song EP starts out with three brand new Annuals track and ends with two tracks by the band Sunfold, which features songs written by Annuals' Kenny Florence, in addition to the talents of the other Annuals members.
The entire EP will be streaming next week on AOL Spinner starting on Monday, so check it out. The Annuals tracks are gorgeous, earthy, complex songs, featuring Adam Baker's distinct vocals and a veritable cornucopia of instruments and themes. Sunfold brings in Kenny Florence's guitar-driven compositions, intricate and dynamic and complimented by Kenny's vocals which bring to mind "Grace"-era Jeff Buckley.
Annuals will release a new full-length, also on Canbasback, in early fall.
Click here to watch the video for their gorgeous song "Sore"!

► 2008 sees the release of Keep It Simple, the 35th album which Van Morrison has produced himself. Morrison's first new album of new material since 2005, and the first in several years in which he penned all 11 songs specifically for one album. On this new record, Morrison honours all his varied influences - jazz, folk, blues, Ulster Scots, country, soul and gospel (even making uniquely innovative use of the mighty ukulele) - at times melding them all together at once in his own signature sound.

► Shout! Factory is proud to present In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2 which will be available April 1st. The CD is rising on the World Music radio charts and features brand-new covers of classic U2 songs by Grammy Award-winning and up-and-coming African artists including Angelique Kidjo, Les Nubians and Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars.

► Ministry and Co-Conspirators - "Cover Up" simply is one of the hottest, nastiest rock'n'roll albums ever recorded and sees Jourgensen and Co-Conspirators paying tribute to some of the most memorable PAR-TEE rock songs, mostly from the 8-track era, and to those artists who first laid them down - Deep Purple, T-Rex, ZZ Top, The Doors, Mountain, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and more. Fear Factory front man Burton C. Bell, Revolting Cocks' Josh Bradford, Prong vocalist Thomas Victor, the Hell Paso Mosh Choir, Tony Campos and Wayne Static (Static X), Edu Mussi (Echoes and Shadows), Plastilina Mosh, and the late Paul Raven (Ministry/Killing Joke), were all enlisted for the soiree.

 

Throughout PLACE BETWEEN PLACES--produced by Haydn and Grammy-winning producer- engineer Thom Russo (Johnny Cash, Macy Gray, Audioslave)-she delivers sounds that are inventive and torrid, with compelling lyrics in search of peace and passion in an unsteady world. She shows a new sense of abandonment in her vocals to match the fire and grace of her virtuosic violin playing. The soaring, postmodern pop of PLACE BETWEEN PLACES began life in her home studio amid the hills and trees above Los Angeles. "Lililand" is what she calls this room, where the walls are covered in red and purple velvet, and where the singer-songwriter-violinist spent the last two years working to capture her "most essential, most ecstatic moments" on record. Please be sure to visit Lili Haydn's Official Site

 ►  Australian singer/songwriter Sandrine is set to make her North American debut with Dark Fades Into The Light on Nettwerk Records. Produced by Malcolm Burn (Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris, Rachael Yamagata), Dark Fades Into The Light is an intimate blend of melodies that incorporate elements of classic sixties pop with contemporary neo-soul. The album features Sandrine on various keyboards and guitars, and on most tracks she is backed only by a rhythm section in a just-about-live setting. (More...)

► Last Broadcast Records today is releasing In Flight Radio’s new album The Sound Inside.

► Frank Sinatra was a titan of 20th Century entertainment, with record-breaking successes in both music and film throughout his legendary career. Capitol/EMI celebrates Ol' Blue Eyes' musical contributions to many of Hollywood's most memorable classic films, in several of which he also starred, with the April 15 release of a new 20-track CD and digital collection titled Sinatra At The Movies.

Sinatra At The Movies includes title themes from The Tender Trap, From Here To Eternity, Young At Heart, Three Coins In The Fountain and Not As A Stranger, as well as "Chicago" and "All The Way" from The Joker Is Wild, "I Could Write A Book" and "The Lady Is A Tramp" from Pal Joey, "How Deep Is The Ocean" and "All Of Me" from Meet Danny Wilson, "To Love And Be Loved" from Some Came Running, and more.

►  Black Francis - "Svn Fngrs" "[Black] Francis is writing the best songs he has come up with in many years - on this seven-track mini-album, they have all the wit, odd angles, sharp edges and Franciscan melodies of classic Pixies songs." -- Sunday Times (London) Black Francis says: " The production is sparse in terms of the band, which, by the way, seems to be a kind of 'Black Francis' thing that has been developing ever since I went back to the old stage name, but is much more produced in terms of the vocal layering of my own voice, perhaps along the lines of TEENAGER OF THE YEAR."

► Never shy about their influences and the music they grew up on, multi-platinum rockers EVERCLEAR have long been known for saluting the band's roots by recording and performing a dynamic and eclectic array of covers. Now for the first time, Everclear's best studio and concert recordings have been gathered for a new collection, The Vegas Years, to be released April 15 by Capitol/EMI. Produced by Everclear singer, guitarist and songwriter Art Alexakis, the disc features 14 covers the band recorded between 1994 and this year, including versions of Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl" and Paul Revere & The Raiders' "Kicks," both available exclusively on the new CD and digital album release.

► Ours is coming out with their new album, "Mercy (Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy)" after a 5 year hiatus. The new video for "Worst Things Beautiful" off Ours' album, "Mercy" wraps production in Spain. The album hits streets on April 15, 2008 thru American Recordings/Columbia Records. Rick Rubin signed Oursto his American/Columbia Record label and also produced the record with front man, Jimmy Gnecco. "We are so proud of this record because we finally reached our initial goal. A group of people working together with a unified vision. Check out their official site. Also be sure to visit the band's MySpace page to hear new track "The Worst Things Beautiful", it has definitely been worth the wait! Links: iLike - - Imeem - - purevolume

Fifteen years later, the musical partnership of Hart and Hussain—which began with their groundbreaking 1970s world fusion experiment Diga Rhythm Band—resumes, with a fresh collaboration of tranced-out grooves, elegant electronic programming and hypnotic tuned percussion and again enlists the great partnership of Adepoju and Hidalgo. Elements from Hart’s various world music recordings, including the Kaluli tribespeople of Papua New Guinea’s rainforest, are woven with the live performances into a danceable, multi-textured celebration of rhythm (More...)

► The Naked Brothers Band - It all started when Naked Brother Nat Wolff awoke one morning and didn't feel like going to school. He asked his father if he could stay at home for the day, and his father replied he'd only allow it if Nat wrote a song instead. Thus, "I Don't Want to Go to School" was born. The end result? Nat had to go to school anyway!

► Apocalyptica will release their disc "World's Collide" today. There aren't many rock bands on this planet that wouldn't like to be regarded as unique. Of course, in these times of nostalgia and endlessly recycled ideas, very few actually deserve that description. Finland's Apocalyptica deserve it more than most. Utterly original in every respect, these classically-trained merchants of genre-shattering metal, sound quite unlike anything or anyone else in musical history.
Formed in the early '90s Apocalyptica chose an entirely individual path from day one. A few years earlier, while students at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, these young virtuosos joined a cello band that specialized in playing music by everyone from Bach to Hendrix. However, Eicca Toppinen and his three comrades had something louder in mind. All fans of heavy metal, they decided to form their own band. Toppinen wrote some unique arrangements of songs by Metallica, Slayer and other metallic legends and the group embarked on a series of shows at student balls. As their services became more and more in demand, Apocalyptica took the bold step of playing a gig at a bona fide heavy metal club...

Children of Bodom's much anticipated new release Blooddrunk will be in stores today. The follow up to the band's acclaimed 2005 release, Are You Dead Yet?, Blooddrunk is already being called the band's "strongest and most advanced recording to date" and features a "heavier, darker" take on CHILDREN OF BODOM's enthralling mix of modern thrash metal, melodic hooks and the guitar acrobatics of front man and metal guitar hero Alexi Laiho.

► Introducing the Clique Girlz! Their digital EP will be available exclusively on iTunes today! When you meet the three Clique Girlz-sisters Paris and Destinee Monroe along with best friend Ariel Moore-after hearing them sing, it will shock you to learn that such big voices can come from such petite girls. The pop-rock exuberance of their currently untitled debut album, releasing on Interscope Records, is richly filled with three-part leads and harmonies delivered with a freshness and authority that contradicts their ages.

► Eagle Rock Entertainment is proud to announce the April 29 release of Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon.

John Lennon was a tortured individual when he recorded his 1970 solo debut album, Plastic Ono Band. He had been in therapy with Dr. Arthur Janov whose controversial "primal scream" psychiatric techniques were raising eyebrows within the medical establishment. Lennon took the black hole of his depression and poured it into his music via such personalized mantras as "Mother," "Isolation," "God," "My Mummy's Dead" and nine others. Intense and shocking, Lennon spared no expense in skewering longheld beloved beliefs ("I don't believe in Beatles") while openly seething over his own lost childhood ("Mother, you had me but I never had you"). For its latest "Classic Albums" DVD, Eagle Rock Entertainment has explored the creation of this painful masterpiece via archival footage, detailed analysis and new interviews with Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr and bassist Klaus Voorman, a longtime Lennon friend and confidant.

►The message from World Music artist and peace activist NASSIRI is simple. He states, "The music must be pure for the message to be heard." Aficionados who embrace these positive words NASSIRI delivers through his unique work will be immediate fans to his music. Love Sees No Color - World Peace Collection CD/DVD will be released on April 29, 2008 (Nassiri Music/Koch) and is a compilation like no other.

► Lyfe Jennings new album will be in stores today. Click here to view the video for Lyfe's newest single "Never, Never Land".

► Hear Music announced today that it has signed renowned singer-songwriter Carly Simon to release This Kind of Love, her highly anticipated first album of all-original songs in eight years. She joins the elite roster of Hear Music artists that includes Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. The album will be released at Starbucks Company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada as well as traditional music retail on April 29, 2008.

► Hand Built By Robots, the forthcoming debut album by Newton Faulkner, is out April 29 on Aware/Columbia Records. The platinum-selling album debuted in the top five in the U.K. combined album charts, spent two weeks at Number One and secured the Number One spot on the U.K. iTunes chart for six straight weeks. Additionally, Faulkner has been honored with a 2008 Brit Award nomination in the "British Male Solo Artist" category and has earned support slots for acclaimed artists The Fray, Paolo Nutini and James Morrison plus appearences at Glastonbury, V Festival and the Cambridge Folk Festival. Faulkner is currently touring the U.S. Visit our live events page for a date near you!