Melody Plant

House of Heroes have just premiered their version of the holiday classic “Silent Night.” The Ohio band, whose most recent album The End Is Not The End was delivered via digital stores, has seen an incredible response with the release making it to the #6 spot on the iTunes rock chart and #42 on the overall chart, with a #1 radio hit single and over 1 million plays on their MySpace page. House of Heroes’ discography includes a 2005 self-titled debut and the re-release Say No More in 2006. Prior to signing a record deal with Mono Vs Stereo/Gotee, the band released an indie project What You Want Is Now (2002) to much critical acclaim and a large grassroots following.

The band’s lush version of “Silent Night” is now available on iTunes
“Silent Night” audio link:

Alicia Keys and the Racounteurs front man Jack White have teamed up for the theme song of the next James Bond film, ‘Quantum of Solace’ and they have already released a video for the song. The song ‘Another Way to Die’ was written by Jack, who also played drums and guitar and produced the track. The single also features Alicia on piano. Their song marks the first duet in Bond history. It’s music and movie history in the making! The soundtrack for the new Bond film hits stores on October 28th with the movie itself opening in theatres on November 7th.

Hilary Duff has recently dropped the first single from her upcoming Greatest Hits album. The song is called ‘Reach Out’ and it features a sizeable sample from Depeche Mode’s ‘Personal Jesus’. I really like it! The song probably won’t get much play in America but it should do quite well for Hilary in Europe and overseas as it has that Euro pop and dance sound. Hey, if you can’t find fame in one side of the world because Miley Cyrus has taken over, go for other places. It’s a smart move if you ask me. Hilary is way better than her anyway.

Alicia Keys says her fame can make you ‘a ghost of yourself.’ The 27-year-old singer says her gruelling tour schedule and long years of musical training have taken their toll on her life.

Despite selling over 23 million albums and winning over 80 major awards – including 11 Grammys – Alicia says her fame has a huge downside.

She said: “Fame can bring a lot of emptiness. You are so driven that you work 20 hours a day, you get four hours of sleep, you do all that for 10 years straight. Then, all of a sudden, you think, I’m a singer and, yes, I’m a songwriter and, yes, I perform, but what else is in my life? Do I have a family? Am I growing inside? Am I always too busy to see my mother and the people I love? You have to numb yourself because you are away so long. It can change you and that is not the type of person I want to be. People always want something from you – you become like a ghost of yourself or of the person you could be.”

Alicia – who is to perform the theme tune to the next James Bond film ‘Quantum of Solace’ with White Stripes singer Jack White – says her soul searching began when she gave up work to look after her dying grandmother last year.

She added: “Losing her made me realise how close I came to the edge. It took a while before I could even say the word ‘grandmother’ because I was so upset.”

Despite vowing to cut back on her workload, Alicia will release her latest single ‘Superwoman’ on September 1.

The reigning queen of the summer jam Rihanna was spotted out and about in New York City on Wednesday. She went over to MTV studios to tape TRL earlier this week where she claimed that her new single ‘Disturbia’ is going to be the song of the summer. Considering that her songs have had that title since 2005 – ‘Pon de Replay’ in 2005, ‘SOS’ in 2006 and ‘Umbrella’ in 2007 – there’s no reason why ‘Disturbia’ can’t rule for 2008. Add to that, the song was written by hit maker, and current boy toy, Chris Brown. It’s pretty much a certified hit.

Amy Winehouse has reportedly branded Pete Doherty’s songs ’s**t’, throwing their duet plans into doubt.

‘Rehab’ singer Amy has been working with the Babyshambles rocker since he left prison last week but has been unimpressed with his musical efforts. A source said: “Pete’s really struggling to get it together. It hasn’t clicked yet. Amy has thrown back every song Pete has written for her. She keeps telling him they’re rubbish, and worse, and she’ll only perform if the song is great. When she’s in the studio she can be ruthless and doesn’t care about hurting people.”

Pete and Amy have been spotted together nearly every day since the former Libertines star got his freedom back. Amy started work on a number of tracks with Pete’s Babyshambles bandmate Mick Whitnall while the ‘Killamangiro’ singer was still in Wormwood Scrubs Prison.

The pair intended to meet up earlier this week for a jam at the Jazz After Dark venue in London’s Soho, but by the time they arrived at the venue, 2am, it had closed.

Miley Cyrus has debuted her latest single ‘7 Things’ on Tuesday morning on the syndicated radio show Elvis Duran and the Morning Zoo. The single comes off Miley’s new album which will hit stores on July 22. The song describes the pain of a recent breakup by listing 7 things that she “hates” about her ex. “You’re vain, your games, you’re insecure/You love me, you like her/You make me laugh you make me cry.” She then sings about 7 things she likes. “Your hair, your eyes, your old Levi’s/And when we kiss, I’m hypnotized/You make me laugh, you make me cry.” I’m still not sure what to think of it. It sounds too much like it could be an Avril Lavigne song and I hate Avril!

Madonna’s new album ‘Hard Candy’ dropped in stores on Tuesday and while her first week sales are still being predicted, the Queen of Pop has already conquered a key area in the new music business machine commonly known as digital sales. Madonna’s first single off the new album ‘4 Minutes (To Save the World) has become the second ever single to have digital sales over one million units in five weeks. Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ was the first. As of Tuesday, the digital sales for her single were at 1,004,482 units. Mariah must be really pissed at that considering she barely broke the top 10 on digital sales.

Check out the latest episode of “Being..Ashlee Simpson” presented by Pepsi Smash on Yahoo! Music. This time around Ashlee makes a stop in Houston on her first ever club tour. The late nights and early mornings might take getting used to, but they don’t stop Ashlee from putting on a good show. See her get the party started as she performs a few tracks from Bittersweet World.

EMBED the webisode:

The album cover for Clay Aiken’s new album ‘On My Way Here’ has just been released. His new studio effort will hit stores on May 6 but that’s not going to stop the singer from performing all new songs on Monday, April 28 at 7PM on QVC. The American Idol alum commented on his album unveiling saying “Starting my career on national, live television, it seems fitting to be unveiling my new album live on QVC. To be able to connect with QVC’s viewers and broadcast my performance to over 93 million households is an amazing opportunity.” Whatever floats your boat.

Kelly Clarkson recently talked about having four of her unfinished songs leaking onto the internet saying that it “sucks”. The four songs – ‘Close Your Eyes’, ‘Ready’, ‘One Day’ and ‘With a Little Bit of Luck’ – all have varying sound quality which indicates that they’re unfinished and at different stages of the recording process. Of the leaks, Kelly says “I write all the time – lots of stuff not meant to ever be released, just working on ideas. The fact that people have heard music that’s not ready yet sucks, but I hope they like it!” For the sake of her career, I hope a lot of people like it too.

I said, in not so many words, that Madonna was going to win over Mariah Carey in their unofficial diva battle. An industry expert explains why that is so. Mariah always gets to go first, with her song being on radio for more than a month while Madonna’s has only been on for a week. Mariah’s album also comes out before Madonna’s. Mariah’s song dropped on iTunes a day before Madonna’s. All that really means is that Mariah will have a strong first week and go down while Madonna’s will gain airplay and get stronger as Mariah drops. In short, Madonna still wins in the end.

Forget having a white Christmas – we’re going to have a Whitney Christmas! According to the head of her label Clive Davis, the diva’s first album of original material since 2002 will be out by the holidays this year. He says that 4 songs have already been completed for the as yet untitled album and 4 more will be put to tape later this month. Songs for the album have been produced or written by the likes of will.i.am, Sean Garrett and Akon who says “The voice is there; I don’t think anyone could ever take that from her. As long as we apply that voice to hit records, she’ll be right back where she left off.”

Rihanna has banned umbrellas from her UK tour.

The 20-year-old star has insisted the item be confiscated from fans, in case they injure themselves trying to copy the dance routine to her hit song ‘Umbrella’.

Andy McDonald, a security guard at the Aberdeen Exhibition Centre, where Rihanna performed on Monday, said: “We were taking precautions over a potential accident. We were told Rihanna’s song features dancing with umbrellas on stage. We didn’t want the crowd following her actions and someone getting their eye poked out.”

The decision follows reports of several injuries caused by umbrella-related incidents during Rihanna’s recent European dates. One fan due to attend one of the singer’s upcoming shows said: “I was really looking forward to whipping out my umbrella during the song. I have been practising the routine for weeks but it has all been for nothing.”

New photos of American Idol alum and recent record label dropout Katharine McPhee with Broadway producer husband Nick Cokas at their February 2 wedding reception at St. Viviana’s in Los Angeles have been released. New information about the wedding has come out as well. The couple had a special candle lighting ceremony and walked down an aisle of ivory and pink rose petals. It was first reported that Kellie Pickler was a guest but she also happened to be a bridesmaid. 43-year old Nick serenaded Kat with his rendition of Billy Joel’s ‘She’s Got a Way’ while 23-year old Kat sang her version of Natalie Cole’s ‘Unforgettable’.

Scarlett Johansson can sing. She’s proven that by singing for the ‘Unexpected Dreams’ charity album back in 2006 and she also made a surprise appearance last April with the Jesus & Mary Chain at Coachella festival. But now, she’s doing her own thing. The actress turned singer’s debut album ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ will officially drop on May 20, a Tuesday. The record will be released via Rhino Entertainment’s Atco Records and will feature 10 Tom Waits covers and 1 original track.

The 23-year old spent 5 weeks last spring recording the album in Louisiana. She also has song collaborations on the album with Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ guitarist Nick Zimmer, Celebration’s Sean Antanaitis and TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, who produced.

I, for one, think that Janet Jackson’s newest single ‘Feedback’ is a great song but it appears that it has failed to connect with the public. The song has failed to get into the top 30s on the singles’ charts. In addition to that, according to Soundscan, the song has dropped from #44 last week to #66 this week. That’s some sad news.

On a brighter note, Rihanna continues to rule as her new single ‘Don’t Stop the Music’ jumps from #15 to #6. Maybe Janet needs to do more stuff like Rihanna’s. It’s obvious it’s what the music fans want.

She had the biggest selling album of 2005 and everyone has been wondering when she would be back. After several delays to her album, we now know when Mariah Carey would officially be back.

There has already been a listening session in London for her new album which pretty much confirmed that her album would be out soon. Billboard now has a few more details and even mentions the release of Mariah’s new record on April 1st, and that’s no joke. They also have more info about specific songs and if that’s anything to go by, it looks like her album is a very promising one.

Janet Jackson’s latest single ‘Feedback’ is getting hotter by the minute. Now that she’s released the video for the song, it’s bound to shoot through the roof. Her video is phenomenal! The video has a very ‘outer space’ feel to it much like her and her brother, Michael’s, ‘Scream’ video.

What makes it completely Janet and completely hot are the dance moves. The girl knows how to move. The choreography, the special effects and the ending make the video pure perfection. Kudos to Gil Duldulao for making the hot moves and Saam Farahmand for his vision. And of course, thanks to Janet for giving men out there something to dream about.