The Scoop

July 2009

by Danny Canak
SydneyUnleashed.com

PEAS & JACKSON SPOIL PARTY

The dominance of The Black Eyed Peas and Michael Jackson on the National ARIA Charts over the past month has prevented #1 debut’s by some of Australia’s rising talent. The Black Eyed Peas’ ‘I Gotta Feeling’ has now chalked up five weeks at the top and relegated Short Stack’s ‘Sway, Sway Baby!’ to a #2 debut on the singles chart. Meanwhile, Michael Jackson’s ‘Essential Michael Jackson’ compilation hasn’t moved from the top spot since his untimely demise over a month ago and in turn has consigned Mark Vincent’s ‘My Dream – Mio Visione’ to a #2 peak. Jackson’s phenomeenal run is showing no signs of slowing down with four of his albums still sitting in the Top 10 and a whole host of albums and singles from his back catalogue still charting inside the Top 100. Jackson also contributes six of the top 10 titles on the ARIA Music DVD Chart with “#1’s sitting pretty at the top.

COLDPLAY DIGITAL KINGS

Coldplay have become the first artist to sell more than 1 million full digital albums in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan figures. The band has now sold over 1.358 million digital albums in the USA while sales from around the globe total 2 million. The band’s most recent album ‘Viva La Vida’ played a huge part in this success being the top-selling digital album in SoundScan history while their 2005 release ‘X&Y’ was the first-ever digital album available for pre-order. Meanwhile, the band’s latest single ‘Strawberry Swing’ is available digitally now while the physical version will be available from September 14th.

PEARL JAM’S BACKSPACER

Pearl Jam have taken a step back in time for their forthcoming album by teaming up with old producer Brendan O’Brien. The man who produced four of the band’s early releases is back on deck for the band’s ninth studio album, the appropriately titled ‘Backspacer’. The first single ‘The Fixer’ is currently all over the airwaves while another track off the album, ‘Got Some’, was recently premiered on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. In a sign of the band’s popularity, the show received its largest audience figures in five years and gained an unprecedented amount of views on YouTube. ‘Backspacer’ is scheduled for release on 18 September.

JULIET LEWIS JOINS ROADRUNNER

The multi-talented Juliet Lewis has just signed a worldwide deal with the Roadrunner record label, excluding the US. This will see the label release her long awaited 3rd studio album, ‘Terra Incognita’. Lewis has teamed up with the Grammy award-winning Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta who has taken up production duties. Lewis has also recruited a new backing band for this album which is said to be significantly more diverse than previous efforts. She says, “Because this album is so sonically different than anything I’ve done before and captures many flavours of my emotional life and voice, it needed an entirely new band.� She adds, “’Terra Incognita’ means unknown territory - and that’s where I wanted to go musically. The guitars are more wild and atmospheric. The groove is dark and deep and allow for a lot of sonic contrasts. It took me five years to really cut my teeth both as a performer and as a songwriter and I wanted to break all the habits I’d gotten used to and let songs develop out of a groove or simple piano notes and melody.� ‘Terra Incognita’ hits stores on 31 August.

KATY PERRY NO ONE-HIT-WONDER

Katy Perry has proven that she’s far from a one-hit-wonder after scoring yet another #1 hit from her debut album, ‘One of the Boys’. ‘Waking Up In Vegas’ has become the album’s 3rd #1 single on the US Billboard Singles Chart. In the process, Perry has become only the fourth artist in the history of the chart to achieve such a feat following Ace of Base, Avril Lavigne and Lady Gaga with their debut efforts.

WATCH OUT FOR DEMI LOVATO

A name for local music fans to watch out for over the coming months is Demi Lovato. The Disney star has just scored a #1 debut on the Billboard 200 Chart in the US with her 2nd album, ‘Here We Go Again’. Lovato is best known for her roles on the hit Disney Channel series ‘Sonny With A Chance’ and the highly popular kids film ‘Princess Protection Program’. She wrote or co-wrote much of ‘Here We Go Again’, and collaborated with long time friend Nick Jonas as well as John Mayer and Jon McLaughlin. The album will be released locally on August 14th.

LATE NOVEMBER FOR ARIAS

After months of speculation, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has finally confirmed that the ARIA Awards will indeed be taking place in 2009 and has announced a new free to air television broadcast partnership with the Nine Network. Along with a move away from the Ten Network, the event has also moved away from Sundays in October and will this year take place on a Thursday (26 November) at Acer Arena, Sydney Olympic Park. The stand-alone ARIA Hall Of Fame will also be back and takes place on 27 August at Melbourne’s Forum Theatre. This year’s inductees will be John Paul Young, Kev Carmody, Little Pattie, Mental As Anything and The Dingoes. The event will be televised for the first time on free to air television on the Nine Network nationally. A weekly ARIA Singles Chart Countdown TV program on the Nine Network will also be debuted later this year.

J AWARD NOMINATIONS

In what is looking set to being another successful year for Australian music, triple j have announced the first batch of nominations for the Australian Album of the Year category for the 2009 J Awards. The first three nominees for this year’s prestigious award include: Hilltop Hoods’ ‘State Of The Art’, Bertie Blackman’s ‘Secrets & Lies’, and Karnivool’s ‘Sound Awake’. The two other categories at the awards will include the Australian Music Video of the Year and Unearthed Artist of the Year. Watch out for more announcements over the coming months while the winners will be announced in the first week of December.

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