Backstage Pass

Hilly Kristal, founder and owner of the influential Lower East Side club CBGB where punk flourished with The Ramones, Blondie and Talking Heads, died yesterday. He was 75.

Kristal died at Cabrini Medical Center, after a long battle with lung cancer, said his son, Mark Dana Kristal. Kristal's cancer battle coincided with his high-profile battle to keep his famous club open after a rent dispute with its landlord. That battle ended last year when CBGB lost its lease and closed after 33 years in the same location on the Bowery. 

" He was the mayor of The Bowery," said Scott Goodstein, a former employee and the coordinator of the Save CBGB campaign. "He knew everybody. He was the guy sitting behind the desk, willing to help everybody out. Tourists from overseas would come in and he would give them tours throughout the day so they could see the club. Most club owners you can't even find in the club. He would always be there, eating a sandwich from Katz’s, talking on the phone and giving a tour at the same time. This guy’s New York, man. They don't make guys like this any more."

MORE CBGB: Full obit / Patti Smith's tribute / AP obituary / CBGB dethroned /

Not only does Chamillionaire’s new single “Hip Hop Police” (Universal) show that hot beats can sound even better when accompanied by hot rhymes, but the song’s video may be the best of the year. In the first half of the spot, directed by Marc Klasfeld, Chamillionaire uses the format of a police drama to poke at the idea of blaming hip-hop for violence and crime that existed long before it started and will continue long after the genre is retired in a museum somewhere. The second half, a video for “Evening News,” another track from the forthcoming “Ultimate Victory” album due on Sept. 18, takes on the media for its portrayal of rappers. (The crawl in the video includes some hilarious “news” – including Flavor Flav’s acceptance into Harvard and Lindsay Lohan’s candidacy for U.S. Senate in California, running on a platform that would “make it illegal to wear panties.” Also keep an eye out for a photoshopped Don Imus wearing a Public Enemy shirt.)

[Click on pic to watch video]

TICKETS BEEN GONE: Kelly Clarkson's shows at the Beacon Theater on Oct. 15 and 16 sold out in 20 minutes over the weekend. Her management quickly added a third show on Oct. 14, which also sold out. With that good news under her belt, Clarkson can now roll out the rest of her fall tour. Smart thinking.

BRING YOUR OWN PEN!: Northern State, our favorite female hip-hop group named after our favorite parkway, will sign copies of their new "Can I Keep This Pen?" (Ipecac) album at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square starting at 6:30. Their record release party is tomorrow night at Luna Lounge. (The whole album is now streaming at AOL's Spinner.)

BO DIDDLEY, BO DIDDLEY: Get well soon. The guitar legend suffered a heart attack on Friday. But after emergency surgery, he was moved out of intensive care this morning and is listed in stable condition.

Bruce Springsteen's next album is said to be a return to form, but The Boss is pursuing a new-fangled marketing plan with his first single, "Radio Nowhere," available today as a free download through iTunes.

Of course it's been leaked -- perhaps officially -- to various places. A station in Youngstown, Ohio, was reportedly the first to air the song last Thursday (Columbia Records immediately told the station to stop) and the tune also made its way onto YouTube. Some YouTube links work fine, like the one below, but at least one link was apparently halted by the RIAA. (Does that mean one link is officially sanctioned, but another wasn't? Or did the RIAA just give up?) In the UK, the newspaper The Guardian is offering it as a free download, but it doesn't work -- you can only stream it.

"Magic," Springsteen's first disc with the E Street Band in five years, is due Oct. 2 on Columbia Records. The group plays Oct. 9-10 at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ, and Oct 17-18 at Madison Square Garden. Tickets go on sale Sept. 10.

Here's the YouTube posting:

For a singer, few things match the first time they hear their song on the radio and American Idol Jordin Sparks was still buzzing after hearing her debut single “Tattoo” on Z100 when I caught up to her backstage at Nassau Coliseum.

“I was sitting on my bed and I was crying,” she says, laughing. “I was like, ‘It’s on the radio! It’s on the radio!’ After it was done, my nana came running down the hall and we were just jumping up and down and hugging each other. I can’t believe I have a song on the radio.”

Sure, Sparks had her “American Idol” coronation song “This Is My Now” released on radio, but “Tattoo” is the first one she truly feels is her own.

“This song was one of the first songs that was pitched to me,” she says. “I didn’t even get through the first chorus and I was like, ‘I have to have this song. I need it. I want to sing it on the album.’ I think I recorded it in less than three hours. I worked with Stargate, they wrote it and produced it, and we just worked really well together. I finished it right when the tour started so I’ve been going, ‘When is it going to come out? When is it going to come out?’ and now it’s here.”

However, her debut album, which is supposed to hit stores before Thanksgiving, is not. After the American Idols Live tour ends and Sparks gets “one really long nap,” she will hit the studio to focus entirely on it. At this point, she only has four songs done, with a deadline looming – a fact she doesn’t want to think about.

“Yeah,” she says, with another laugh. “No pressure.”

Hear "Tattoo" here 

MORE 'IDOL': Nassau Coliseum concert review /  Jordin signs to Jive Records / Winning isn't everything. Ask Melinda 

The "American Idols Live" tour continues at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford tonight and tomorrow night. PHOTO: Fox

Now I’m not a Fanjaya just yet, but after talking to Sanjaya Malakar in person, his appeal becomes immediately clear.

He’s a sweet, soft-spoken 17-year-old who got caught up in a bizarre publicity whirlwind and rode it out with style and grace and nary a hair on his pony-hawked head out of place. After the tour wraps up, he plans to move to Los Angeles and work on his debut album, which he hopes will be released next year. He said he has some offers to consider, but no deal in place yet, though he does plan to work with his sister on writing for the album.

So what’s the album going to sound like?

“Um, I don’t like to say because it sounds like I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I really do,” he says, laughing, backstage at Nassau Coliseum. “It’s going to be R&B based, with kind of jazz emotion and rock energy and world fusion. I don’t know if that makes sense.”

“I’ve always known that I didn’t want to do one straight genre, because if I’m going to express myself through music, I want to express everything about myself and I’m kind of complicated,” he adds. “I’m Indian so I want to incorporate that sound and influence with African and Middle Eastern and all kinds of different sounds.”

He says he’s been listening to a lot of French rap and is looking forward to the new Manu Chao album “La Radiolina” (which is due out next week and actually went up on MTV’s The Leak this morning).

Even better than his desire to make The Hoff cry? Better than the Teletubbies swipe at high-end Simon Cowell? You be the judge.

“In Hollywood Week, we’re all supposed to give our name and why we want to be the next American Idol,” Sligh tells me backstage at Nassau Coliseum last week. “And everybody’s like, ‘Hi, my name is blahblahblah and I just love music. And I say, ‘Hi, my name is Chris Sligh and I’m 28 years old and I’m the next American Idol because I’ve always wanted to make a beach movie and you guys have done really well with that in the past. And who doesn’t want to see me in a bathing suit?’ I don’t think I’ve seen Simon ever sit back and laugh, but he laughed out loud.”

“He totally laughed,” added Phil Stacey. “I can’t believe they didn’t show that.”

Maybe producers are still a bit touchy about the failed “From Justin to Kelly” movie?

The trailer is on the jump ... Could it be they were just ahead of the "High School Musical" curve?

The "American Idols Live" tour continues at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford tonight and tomorrow night. PHOTO: Fox

Yung Joc, like a lot of today's rappers, seems to have put together his new album "Hustlenomics" (Bad Boy South/Atlantic) the way politicians craft their campaign platforms - a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a whole lot of pandering.

Rather than picking a direction, Yung Joc is all over the map, craftily discussing drug sales one minute (the playfully simple first single "Coffee Shop") and proclaiming his love for his mother the next ("Momma"). He's willing to say anything or do anything in order to keep getting paid, which may be sound "hustlenomic" theory, but it also comes off as a bit desperate.

It's too bad, because there is plenty to like on "Hustlenomics." "BYOB" is built on a spare beat, synth-squiggle grooves and a sample of what sounds like someone playing a saw, resulting in a track edgy enough to make it onto M.I.A.'s album. "Brand New" reworks The Stylistics' "You Make Me Feel Brand New" into praise for retail therapy with some help from Rick Ross and Snoop Dogg. And on "Hell Yeah," featuring his Bad Boy boss Diddy, Yung Joc switches up his flow to suit the space-reggae groove.

"Hustlenomics" isn't filler-heavy, but it does have some grating moments, such as the wanna-be Chevrolet commercial "Chevy Smile," and the half-serious tagline at the end of "Coffee Shop" where Joc says, "Hey kids, please don't do drugs." It's about as believable as the whole "If you love yo' momma, clap yo' hands" chorus from "Momma," though maybe that's the real Joc and the whole thuggin' persona is an act. Either way, something isn't right.

So when he closes out the title track saying, " not a campaign for money or attention, this is what I do," the seams of his process show and it all sounds hollow. There's nothing wrong with campaigning for money or attention, man, but fans really do hate feeling hustled. (Grade: B-)

What is it about '80s rock icons and Madison Square Garden? First Morrissey cancels and then reschedules at Hammerstein Ballroom. Now, The Cure have pushed back their Sept. 23 date at The Garden to April or May of next year.

"The schedule as it stands only gives us a couple of weeks to finish our new double album before we hit the road again, and we know this just isn't enough time to complete the project to our genuine satisfaction," the band said in a statement. "We also want to create a new live show for North America, and incorporate new songs... and we need time and focus to do this."

Current tickets will be honored at next year's show or they can be returned to the point of purchase for a refund.

The Cure's new album is set for release in October. The band plans to go through with its appearance at the Download Festival in San Francisco on Oct. 6 and three shows in Mexico City on Oct. 20-22. 

Two of the best whacked-out rock bands around, Britain's Art Brut and Brooklyn's The Hold Steady, are joining forces for a 26-date U.S. tour, starting Oct. 21 in Providence, RI. The tour ends Nov. 21 at the new venue Terminal 5 in Manhattan.

The tour poses a question: Whose head will explode first, Art Brut's Eddie Argos or The Hold Steady's Craig Finn? Both are terrifically spasmodic performers with shouty vocal styles and absolutely no inhibitions, but the smart money is on Argos, an excitable 14-year-old in a grown man's body.

Check out Art Brut's excellent and completely nonsensical toga-themed video for "Direct Hit," from their new album, "It's a Bit Complicated" (Downtown Records), below:



And for your viewing enjoyment, here's The Hold Steady's poignant video for "Chillout Tent," from their recent disc, "Boys and Girls in America" (Vagrant):

    Just so no one's confused, 50 Cent will not lose that bet promising to retire as a solo artist if his new album "Curtis" (Interscope) didn't sell more copies than Kanye West's new album "Graduation" (Roc-a-Fella) in its first week.
    He wouldn't have made it if he wasn't sure.
    "Kanye West is a talented artist, but I in no way see him as competition," 50 Cent told me recently. "He's sold a fraction of the records I've sold. It doesn't even make sense comparing the two of us."
    He adds that all the hype surrounding The Bet is totally media-generated and he would know. After all, that's the way he planned it.
    The Bet is what got him and Kanye on the cover of the next Rolling Stone. It's what got him mentioned on TV, got the Sept. 11 release date for both albums ingrained in the heads of people only passingly interested in music, spawned endless chatter in the hip-hop blogosphere and in countless newspapers, including this one.
    The Bet only goes to show that 50 Cent, like Madonna and pre-crazy Britney Spears, 50 Cent is a master at manipulating the media.

PHOTO: Mick Hutson / Interscope 

Every time The Fiery Furnaces release a new album, I get excited about music again. The Brooklyn-based brother-sister duo of Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger are set to release "Widow City" (Thrill Jockey) on Oct. 9, and to my ears it sounds like an attempt to widen the fanbase with highly accessible and surprisingly hard-rocking tunes. (None of that backwards-tape stuff here.)

Expect to hear some new Furnaces material during their free concert at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, Queens, this Sunday, Aug. 26.

Meantime, Thrill Jockey just gave me permission to post a stream of "Ex-Guru," so there it is. 

Whatever the reason, the jailing of Foxy Brown bothers me more than Paris Hilton's incarceration and the possible sentences of Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan combined.

Maybe it's because I think Foxy's smarter than them, because she's made more of her life than they have. Of course, she's obviously not that much smarter since she got jailed today on a parole violation after getting stopped for talking on her cellphone while driving in New Jersey on a suspended license.

I guess she'll have plenty of time to think about things as she sits in jail until Sept. 5.

In the meantime, let's remember her in all her "Ill Na Na" glory.

Foxy Brown feat. Jay-Z, "I'll Be"

Kiss, "Strutter"

You know the old saying: One man's icon is another man's fan. Bayside proved that during a recent Vans Warped Tour date when the emo heroes got a picture of themselves hanging out with Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Chris Mintz-Plasse of "Superbad." Like true fanboys, they emailed the photo all over the place, so here it is, below:

She basically sings over the original and had super-producer David Foster mix them together. Then, director Tony Kaye (of "American History X" fame) crafted a stunning, spare video that cobbled the two vocals together and threw in lots of alarming footage of babies holding handguns.

The result is a version that both honors the original and moves it forward -- for a good cause, no less. Proceeds from the sale of the song, already available on iTunes, will go to Presley Place, a transitional housing facililty in New Orleans.

"I could've done this ages ago," Lisa Marie tells Spinner.com. "I always find it necessary to make my own path and not ride on his coattails, which I have not done. And the only reason I was OK with doing this [video] is because I've already done a couple of records. People already know who I am on my own. I'm not doing this in a self-centered way. I'm doing this for a bigger cause."

Elvis Presley and Lisa Marie Presley, "In the Ghetto"

In the more conventional pop ballad "Still" or the rock-leaning single "Car Crash," Nathanson still manages to toss enough surprises in to keep things interesting and memorable. The problem with "Some Mad Hope" comes in the average songs - especially the goofy, spastic "To the Beat of Our Noisy Hearts" and the disposable guitar lines of "Detroit Waves" - where things get so close to formulaic that it calls into question the grandeur of the rest of the album. Nathanson has shown himself to have plenty of great songs in him. He hasn't put them all together to build that one great album yet. ("Some Mad Hope," in stores Tuesday; Grade: B-)

For those of you who can't get there in time, or, are, you know, working, please to enjoy his video for "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)"

Mika, "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)"

Not sure why exactly, but, somehow, "Chocolate Rain" has struck a chord, resulting in loads of remixes, answer versions and covers from unexpected artists.

Illdoctrine.com, "Chocolate Rain" vs. Radiohead's "Talk Show Host"

On the jump, Green Day's Tre Cool takes a stab at it and John Mayer mixes it with Nelly Furtado.

The Holloways are the latest snot-rockers to come out of Britain, following Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Art Brut. But their particular type of snot is the kind that runs down your nose after a good cry. They're essentially a fun, funny bad -- they almost sound like they're giggling their way through each bouncy, hopped-up pop tune -- but the lyrics are all laments. Laments for girls, mostly, but also for England, for society and for any sensitive soul living in this cruel, cruel world.

The nominations to get excited about are the ones no one saw coming. Like Backstage Pass fave Justice for Video of the Year? Amazingly hip. (Maybe MTV will even show the video on the air some time.)

Justice, "D.A.N.C.E."