Quick Hits: Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears, U2, Guns N’ Roses, Mastodon, Justin …
September 12, 2011

Amy Winehouse’s last recording before her death, a duet with Tony Bennett, will be released on what would have been her 28th birthday this Wednesday. The duo recorded the track and video at Abbey Road Studios in London on March 23. A portion of the proceeds will go towards the Amy Winehouse Foundation, a charity created by her father Mitch to help young people struggling with addiction. “We had a beautiful time recording together in the studio and I knew that Amy was very happy with how she performed that day,” Bennett said in a statement. “I thought she was absolutely brilliant and this recording truly captures the essence of her unique artistry. She was a rare talent.” MTV Networks will premiere the video and song on September 14, and radio stations will also debut the track on the day of its release.
Additionally, it was revealed that Winehouse’s death was due to a detox-related seizure. “Everything Amy did, she did to excess,” her father Mitch Winehouse said Friday in a taping of Anderson Cooper‘s new talk show. “She drank to excess and did detox to excess. The periods of abstinence were becoming longer, and the periods of drinking were becoming shorter. It was heading in the right direction.” Winehouse had been suffering seizures and losing consciousness during the process of fighting her alcoholism without medical assistance.
Britney Spears plans to release a remix album next month, as a follow-up to 2005’s B In The Mix. B In The Mix: The Remixes Vol. 2 will drop on October 11 and will feature ten of her tracks, picked from Femme Fatale as well as her previous work. Spears tweet about the new release, “Exciting news people … new remix album is coming out on 10/11! Pumped for you to hear these tracks – I love them.”
U2 frontman Bono has announced a partial lineup for a U2 tribute album honoring the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby. Commissioned by the British music magazine Q, the album features Jack White doing “Love Is Blindness,” Depeche Mode covering “So Cruel,” Patti Smith tackling “Until the End of the World” and Damien Rice doing the classic ”One.” “It’s strange, because when I hear the album, when U2 do it, all I hear is what’s wrong with it. But when I heard all these artists doing it, I thought, ‘It’s really good.’,” Bono said at a press conference for the U2 documentary From the Sky Down at the Toronto International Film Festival. In addition, Bono said that artist Damien Hirst recently completed a video for “Even Better Than The Real Thing.” “He made a very special art work, which has only been shown once and probably won’t be shown again, because [it was for the] Glastonbury festival and it’s an extraordinary work of art.”
Guns N’ Roses is in the process of plotting out a U.S. tour, their first proper one since 2006. So far, the group plans to hit Orlando, Miami and Kansas City, but has a two week gap between the dates to fill. GNR kicks off a 10 date tour of South America and Mexico in early October with frontman Axl Rose as its sole original member. Speculation continues as to whether GNR will release a follow up to 2006’s Chinese Democracy. “We certainly did record a lot of stuff,” bassist Tommy Stinson told Rolling Stone. “We recorded three records worth of material over the course of that 10-year period, but I think that a lot of the unfinished bits were mostly lyrics and mixes and things like that.” Might another record be in the works? “I’m not a liberty to talk about that,” Stinson says. “I don’t get into that aspect. That’s Axl’s business.”
Mastodon has announced a Fall tour in support of their newest album The Hunter, set for release September 27 via Reprise Records. The tour kicks off October 25 in Austin, TX and concludes in Lake Buena Vista, FL on December 1. Included in the tour is a performance at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans on October 29. Dillinger Escape Plan and Red Fang will provide tour support on most dates.
Justin Timberlake won a pair of Emmys on Saturday at the 2011 Creative Arts Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. Timberlake won for Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for hosting this year’s season finale of Saturday Night Live. It was the second for Timberlake in the category. JT was able to capture another Emmy for singing his co-written SNL monologue.
Slash will release his first live solo album entitled Made In Stoke 24/7/11 on November 15 through Eagle Rock Entertainment. Slash made the trip to Stoke on Trent, England, where he was raised, at the end of the 2010-2011 tour in support of his self-titled solo debut. The performance, with cuts from Guns N’ Roses, Velver Revolver, Slash’s Snakepit, and his solo album, was captured at Victoria Hall and features Myles Kennedy of AlterBridge on vocals.
Young The Giant have released a free remix EP available only through their Facebook page. The eight-song collection includes remixes from Two Door Cinema Club, Tokyo Police Club and Ra Ra Riot as well as two fan-made mixes.
Rappers Paul Wall and Baby Bash were arrested Sunday in El Paso, TX for suspicion of marijuana possession following their performance at the Summer Jamm at Buchanan’s EventCenter. Wall posted a picture of the two handcuffed in the back of a police car. The MCs were caught at 1:30 am with less than 2 ounces of marijuana in a drug-free zone and were released after 12 hours on $300 bail, according to the El Paso Times. Wall tweeted, “Fresh out the El Paso County jail wit @BabyBash @BIGGROY in the same tank they held Willie Nelson/Johnny Cash.”
Article source: http://www.fmqb.com/article.asp?id=2283880






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