By Jonathan Cohen 51 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Billboard) - The video for Gnarls Barkley's new single, "Run," may feature a cameo from Justin Timberlake, but it's still not quite ready to air on MTV.

That's because of its strobe effects, which caused the clip to fail the Harding Test — guidelines established to prevent TV images from triggering epileptic seizures.

However, the video is available on various online outlets, and Gnarls Barkley member Danger Mouse was hopeful the situation could be resolved shortly.

"I don't know exactly what's going on, but we're having issues. I think (the video) is cool. It works for me. But I'm not necessarily that easily seasick," he told Billboard.com. "We can't predict how people are going to interpret it."

"Run" centers around the fictional public access TV show "City Vibin"' and is set in the early '90s. Timberlake appears as the host of the program, on which Danger Mouse and fellow Gnarls Barkley principal Cee-Lo then perform the track.

With its new album, "The Odd Couple," nearing its April 8 release date, Gnarls Barkley are about to shoot a video for the second single, "Who's Gonna Save My Soul."

The group is also rehearsing for summer tour dates, which include a July 27 show at Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl and both U.S. and European festivals.

"We didn't plan last time to do a whole bunch, and we don't plan to do a whole bunch this time, but you just never know how it's going to feel until you go out there," Danger Mouse said.

Reuters/Billboard

16 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Four years after they disbanded, Phish is getting a lifetime achievement awards from the Jammys — but don’t get your hopes up about a reunion.

The annual awards show honors the best in improvisational music. It’s not clear whether all the band members — Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon and Page McConnell — will show up to the May 7 event at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. At this time, there are no plans for them to perform, said Peter Shapiro, the show’s executive producer and co-founder.

He said “a couple” of the Phish members had expressed interest in being part of the show, but would not elaborate.

Phish received numerous Jammys before parting ways in 2004. The Vermont-based jam band had developed a Grateful Dead-like following during their 21-year run, and was among the nation’s top touring acts.

ANTHONY McCARTNEY, Associated Press Writer 46 minutes ago

TAMPA, Fla. - Lou Pearlman, the gregarious mastermind behind boy bands such as ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, is now admitting his role in a different kind of choreography: a Ponzi scheme.

Prosecutors released a 47-page plea agreement Tuesday signed by Pearlman in which he admits to running scams that defrauded investors and major banks out of more than $300 million. He is scheduled to plead guilty in Orlando on Thursday to federal charges of conspiracy, money laundering and making false statements during a bankruptcy proceeding.

He has also pledged to help investigators prosecute his accomplices and try to recoup millions of dollars for his victims.

His attorneys did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday.

A federal judge will decide Pearlman’s punishment, which could be up to 25 years in prison and $1 million in fines. As part of his agreement, Pearlman must make full restitution to his victims and forfeit money and several vehicles, including a 2004 Rolls Royce Phantom.

Pearlman, 53, earned widespread fame in the 1990s for creating successful pop sensations such as the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync. The groups eventually sued him, claiming he was siphoning large amounts of money from them. The cases were later settled. The terms were not disclosed.

Pearlman’s memorabilia from the boy band era was auctioned off last year in a bankruptcy sale.

Even as the groups played to sold-out crowds, Pearlman was soliciting investors for his schemes. To make them seem legitimate, Pearlman acknowledges he and others created a fictitious airline company, a fake German bank and South Florida accounting firm.

But the root of his scam, a company known as Transcontinental Airlines Travel Services, was born in 1981 — the same year that ‘N Sync heart throb Justin Timberlake was born.

For more than 20 years, Pearlman and others sold Transcontinental shares, duping investors into believing that the company was worth millions.

Rather, the plea agreement states Transcontinental “existed only on paper.” And after 1999, it ceased to exist at all — Delaware officials voided its incorporation in 1999, according to the plea agreement.

That didn’t stop Pearlman from wooing investors, which included major banks such as Bank of America, Washington Mutual, Mercantile Bank and others. Pearlman also touted an Employee Investment Savings Account, which he promised would yield higher returns than traditional investments.

None of it was true, according to the plea agreement. “Neither of those investments were legitimate,” the document states. “Instead, they were ‘Ponzi’ schemes by which money raised from later investors would be used to pay off earlier investors.”

Prosecutors say Pearlman accepted $118 million in investments into the employee savings account between January 2003 and December 2006. He returned roughly $43 million to investors, but distributed more than $38 million to himself and an entity called Pearlman Enterprises.

Pearlman created an elaborate network of fake finances. Those included hiring an answering service to pose as a South Florida accounting firm, Cohen & Siegel, which endorsed Transcontinental’s finances. Pearlman also admits in the agreement to providing fake tax returns to banks, and creating a fake branch of a bank in Germany to try to lend credibility.

Pearlman fled the United States in early 2007 and was later captured after he was deported from Indonesia. At the time, he was apparently trying to create a seal and other documents to make the German bank appear legitimate, the plea agreement states.

He was also keeping close tabs on bankruptcy proceedings that were under way in Florida. According to the plea agreement, Pearlman entered false claims and manufactured documents to try to divert or unlock money that had been frozen.

Pearlman has been in an Orlando jail since being returned to Florida in July 2007.

Natalie Finn Tue Mar 4, 12:41 PM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Lou Pearlman is going to quit playing games with the Feds.  

The former music mogul responsible for assembling hitmakers the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy, money laundering and bank fraud charges and aid investigators in exchange for a possible sentence reduction, per court documents released Tuesday. 

"Mr. Pearlman is going to enter a plea," court-appointed Pearlman attorney Fletcher Peacock said Monday. "It's the first step in taking responsibility for what has happened." 

Pearlman is accused of bilking investors out of close to $200 million by selling worthless stock in sham companies that "existed only on paper" and acquiring another $140 million in bank loans with the help of bogus financial statements and tax returns supplied by a nonexistent accounting firm staffed with fictitious colleagues. He's still facing up to 25 years in prison and $1 million in fines. 

But, per the 47-page plea agreement he signed Feb. 26, Pearlman could get a break come sentencing time if he cooperates fully with prosecutors, bankruptcy trustees, FBI, IRS and other federal and state regulators looking to put the squeeze on a number of unnamed coconspirators, helps them track down millions in assets and makes $200 million in restitution to individual investors and banks. 

Also as part of the deal, Pearlman has agreed to forfeit the goodies seized last year by the government after he fled the country, including a 2004 Cadillac Escalade, a 2004 Rolls Royce Phantom, a 2006 Cadillac limousine and a $72,000 check from Bank of America. 

Authorities finally caught up with the boy band impresario on the Indonesian island of Bali, last summer and he was arrested in Guam. He has been behind bars in Orange County, Florida, since July 10. 

"For over 20 years, Louis J. Pearlman was successful in raising millions of dollars based on false representations about two companies affiliated with him," the plea deal states. "One of those companies was Transcontinental Airlines Travel Services Inc. The other was Transcontinental Airlines Inc. 

"Pearlman represented to thousands of investors and several federally insured financial institutions that those two companies were successful companies in the airline business and that Pearlman's ownership interest in those companies was worth millions of dollars. 

"That was not true."

Josh Grossberg Tue Mar 4, 5:38 AM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - San Francisco is the right place for Radiohead.

The alterna-rockers will join Tom Petty and Jack Johnson in headlining the inaugural Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival set to take place in the city's famed Golden Gate Park Aug. 22-24, Billboard reports.

The three-day event is a coproduction of Superfly Productions and Starr Hill Presents—the folks behind Bonnaroo and Vegoose Music Festival—along with Planet Entertainment, which organized the Treasure Island Music Festival.

Outside will sport five stages featuring dozens of rock, blues, jazz, electronic, reggae, DJs, singer-songwriters, hip-hop and world music acts along with a variety of visual artists, eclectic food and other attractions.

Additional acts will be announced in the coming weeks, but organizers are expecting to attract an average of 60,000 attendees each day. Tickets go on sale at the end of March.

Radiohead and Johnson also lead the lineup for the first annual All Points West Festival scheduled for Aug. 8-10 at Liberty State Park near New York. That jamboree is being produced by the people behind Southern California's Coachella Festival.

Johnson, whose last album, Sleep Through the Static, has dominated the pop charts in the past several weeks, is also slated as a headliner at this year's edition of Coachella, being held Apr. 25-27, along with Roger Waters, Kraftwerk, the Verve and the Raconteurs.

Meanwhile, fans of country music have a festival of their own to look forward to.

Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Carrie Underwood, Dwight Yoakam, Sugarland and Jewel are among the country superstars topping the bill of the CMA Music Festival, Nashville's four-day musical extravaganza set for June 5-8.

"What's amazing about this year's lineup is that we have artists who are fan favorites, those who support the event year after year, coming to perform once again, as well as an outstanding list of artists who are making their first appearance or returning to our event after time away," said CMA's CEO, Tammy Genvese, in a statement.

More than 400 artists and celebrities will be on hand for the concerts, which organizers hope will draw upward of 191,000 during those four days in downtown Nashville.

11 minutes ago

ORLANDO, Fla. - The creator of the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync has agreed to plead guilty to charges he laundered money and made false statements during a bankruptcy proceeding.

Lou Pearlman will appear in court Thursday, according to a 47-page plea agreement released Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors accuse Pearlman of lying to investors to raise millions of dollars for fake companies. They say the total loss to investors is estimated at more than $300 million.

The plea deal says Pearlman will help investigators develop cases and testify against others who helped in his schemes.

Federal prosecutors still plan to seek a significant prison sentence for Pearlman.

Gina Serpe Tue Mar 4, 5:16 AM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Conspiracy theories on contestant hairpieces and unearthed, years-old DUI arrests aside, American Idol may finally be breaking its first big scandal of the season.

Just as this time last year saw the uncovering, literally, of racy photos of Idol contestant Antonella Barba, this time around, the reality show's requisite scantily clad photo flap comes courtesy of a male contestant, David Hernandez.

While photos of the 24-year-old Arizona native in various states of shirtlessness—some taken while he worked as a bartender at a gay nightclub known as Burn—popped up on the Idol-undermining website VoteForTheWorst.com last month, quickly drawing speculation that Hernandez's past was less than Sandra Dee-like in its purity, up until now, any Idol chatter on the topic was simply speculation.

However, a no doubt unwelcome blast from Hernandez's past changed all that Monday, when a former boss confirmed that the singer, who sailed through voting last week thanks to a raved-about rendition of "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," once worked as a male stripper at a Phoenix nightclub.

Gordy Bryan, manager of the innuendo-laden Dick's Cabaret, told the Associated Press that Hernandez stripped down fully nude during his performances and also gave lap dances to the club's "mostly male" patrons.

"He had the look and the type that people like, so he made pretty good money here," Gordy said, adding that Hernandez worked at the club for roughly three years, shimmying off the dance floor for good Sept. 30 in anticipation of his TV debut.

Hernandez first auditioned for Randy, Simon and Paula in San Diego exactly two months prior, on July 30 of last year.

Neither Hernandez nor show producers have commented on the stripper revelation. It's unclear whether Hernandez had been forthcoming with producers from the get-go, though history has proven they tend to be more liberal in their forgiveness of contestants' scandalous pasts should they come clean early on.

As it is, no official reference, either on air or online, has been made to Hernandez's disrobing past by the show, though certainly not for lack of opportunity.

In a mini Q&A featured on the official American Idol website, Hernandez is asked what people might be surprised to learn about him. His response included bon mots about being raised by a single mom and living out of his car, but featured bupkes on how he allegedly spent the past three years in the workforce.

It's unclear if such a revelation, if not already known by producers, could signal the end for Hernandez. In 2003, favored contestant Frenchie Davis was dismissed from the competition after it was discovered she once appeared on an adult website.

Last year's scandal-ridden contestant, Barba, continued on in the competition—though thanks to discerning viewer voters, not for too long—after her racy photo past made headlines.

Meanwhile, Hernandez can at least take some comfort in the fact that he isn't this season's first memory-card casualty. Last week, CelebTV.com published slightly risqué photos of 20-year-old female contestant Ramiele Malubay groping a female coworker's breast. In the photos, which allegedly came from her MySpace page, she's featured as both groper and gropee. However, the Filipino spitfire, and everyone else in the photos, is fully clothed.

Rumors also abound that nude photos of contestant Amanda Overmyer are being shopped around to the tabloids, though no evidence that any such photos exist has yet surfaced. For her part, the finalist, whose beyond voluminous skunk-striped hair has drawn criticism from Cowell, also made headlines last week when the National Enquirer discovered she had pleaded guilty to DUI back in October 2006.

Meanwhile, ousted contestant Robbie Carrico, the boybander turned, per Cowell, disingenuous rocker, dealt with his own hair-raising miniscandal last month, when he denied rampant speculation that his long locks were a wig.

As it is, Hernandez is still scheduled to perform as planned with the remaining eight males in the competition on tonight's American Idol.

By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago

TALLADEGA, Ala. - Nearly 70 years later, Jimmy Carter — the last active, original member of the Grammy-winning Blind Boys of Alabama — still gets emotional talking about the day his mother dropped him off at age 7 to live at the state-run school for the deaf and blind.

Sightless since birth, Carter was thrust into a harsh, unfamiliar world far from his home in Birmingham. He was supposed to learn a trade like caning chairs or making brooms, but Carter wanted to sing. So did some of his new friends — and they eventually became the Blind Boys of Alabama.

The acclaimed gospel group is once again getting ready for the road after returning to the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind to perform there for the first time in more than six decades.

The Blind Boys were the headliners at a gala Friday night homecoming that marked the 150th anniversary of the institute, which provides free education, job training, Braille books and other services.

Carter, his expressive tenor voice turned gravelly after decades on stage, said it was good to go back after so long despite those terrifying first days as a student in 1939, when his mother left him, both of them in tears.

“It made me what I am today,” said Carter, speaking during an interview at his home in Montgomery before the show. “When the blind children wanted an education, that’s where they came. That’s how I met with the other singers.”

The president of the Institute for Deaf and Blind, Terry Graham, said the Blind Boys’ journey since leaving the east Alabama campus has been remarkable. They have played all over the world, with an appearance at the White House and a stint on Broadway.

“We are so pleased and honored that they would be with us because they are so well known internationally,” said Graham. “They are coming back as our most famous graduates.”

With about 300 students on its main campus and another 13,000 people served at nine regional centers around the state, the school today provides assistance for everyone from disabled newborns to elderly people who are going deaf or blind.

It was very different during Carter’s days at the school. The campus was segregated by race — like everything else in the Jim Crow South — and separate wasn’t always equal at the Alabama School for Negro Deaf and Blind, as the black division was called.

“The school really wasn’t up to par. It didn’t really seem like a school, it seemed like a reform school because they would lock you up at night, and they wouldn’t feed you,” said Carter.

Carter joined the choir as a boy, and that led to a gospel group modeled after the members’ idols, the Golden Gate Quartet.

“We didn’t have a radio, so we’d have to sneak off the campus to listen to them,” he said. “We decided if they could make a living, why don’t we try to?’”

The group left school and went on the road as The Happy Land Jubliee Singers on a date etched in Carter’s memory: June 10, 1944. Members never returned to the school for a show; they later adopted their current name.

The group that once sang to all-black audiences in the South made it to Broadway with the play “The Gospel at Colonus” in 1983, and they won four straight Grammys for traditional gospel groups. They have recorded more than 50 albums.

A gospel music expert said the Blind Boys have succeeded in opening up the genre to a new audience by working with people like rocker Peter Gabriel, who had them along as an opening act on his international tour a few years ago.

“The really cool thing about the Blind Boys is that they have done something that you could never do on paper: That is making 70-, 80-year-old men exciting to 20- and 30-year-olds,” said Bil Carpenter, author of “Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia.”

The group opens its 2008 tour Friday in Los Angeles. Four nights later they are scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Tonight” show, Carter said. By any measure, that’s a long way from school for the blind in Alabama.

The Blind Boys have had personnel changes through the years, but there has always been a mix of blind singers and seeing musicians. On stage, everyone wears matching suits and the sunglasses favored by the blind members.

The Blind Boys performed nothing but traditional gospel for years, but they moved into the mainstream in 2001 with the release of “Spirit of the Century,” which included the Rolling Stones’ “Just Wanna See His Face” and won the first of the group’s four consecutive Grammys.

Their new CD, “Down in New Orleans,” features musicians including the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The New Orleans groove was new to the Blind Boys, but Carter said members wanted to branch out and lift up the city after Hurricane Katrina.

“We try to bring hope where there is despair. We try to bring peace where there is confusion. We try to bring love where there is despondency,” he said.

___

On the Net:

Blind Boys of Alabama: http://www.blindboys.com

By Barbara Liston 48 minutes ago

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Lou Pearlman, the music mogul who launched the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, has agreed to plead guilty and make restitution to victims swindled out of an estimated $300 million in phony bank and investment schemes, U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Pearlman admitted in a plea agreement that for 20 years he enticed people and banks to invest millions of dollars in two companies that existed only on paper: Transcontinental Airlines Travel Services Inc. and Transcontinental Airlines Inc.

Pearlman is scheduled to enter his plea on Thursday in a U.S. court in Orlando. The charges carry a maximum of 25 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

As part of the deal, Pearlman agreed to help the government identify assets to make restitution, forfeit a 2004 Cadillac, a 2005 Chrysler, a 2004 Rolls Royce Phantom, a 2006 Cadillac limousine and two bank checks totaling $97,000.

Pearlman will plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy, one of money laundering and one of making a false claim in a bankruptcy, according to the deal. Prosecutors said the case involved three different conspiracies and fraud schemes.

One was a "Ponzi" scheme in which money raised from investors was used to pay earlier investors. The second was a bank fraud in which Pearlman got loans based on fake financial statements and income tax returns prepared by a fictitious accounting firm and the third was a bankruptcy fraud scheme.

Prosecutors counted at least 250 individual victims who lost $200 million, plus 10 financial institutions that lost $100 million, according to the plea deal.

The schemes were sustained by a fictitious international accounting firm, Cohen & Siegel, created by Pearlman in 1995, with nothing more than a dedicated telephone line at a Coral Gables, Florida, answering service, the plea deal said.

Pearlman, who guided the career of teen idols 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys in the 1990s, also created a fictitious "German Savings Banks" and company officers, according to the agreement.

Among the banks identified as loaning money or providing a line of credit to Pearlman or his companies are Integra Bank N.A.; Bank of America; American Bank of St. Paul; First International Bank & Trust; MB Financial Bank N.A.; Northside Community Bank; Mercantile; Washington Mutual; First National Bank & Trust; and HSBC Bank.

(Editing by Jim Loney and Bill Trott)

By RONALD BLUM, Associated Press Writer 28 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Giving new attention to living composers, the Metropolitan Opera will stage John Adams’ “Nixon in China” and Thomas Ades’ “The Tempest” for the first time along with the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s “Daedalus.”

“Nixon in China,” which had its world premiere at the Houston Grand Opera in 1987, will be performed in 2010-11 in the original Peters Sellars production. It will be the second Adams opera at the Met, following next season’s “Doctor Atomic.”

The Golijov composition, based on several myths, follows in 2011-12 and will have a libretto by Academy Award winner Anthony Minghella. “The Tempest,” which had its premiere at London’s Royal Opera in 2004, will be given a new production by Robert Lepage in 2012-13.

In announcing the Met’s 125th anniversary season — his third with the company — general manager Peter Gelb said the Met will debut a new production for the first time on a New Year’s Eve, Puccini’s “La Rondine.” Bizet’s “Carmen” will follow on Dec. 31, 2009, with soprano Angela Gheorghiu starring in both.

Next season opens Sept. 22 with a gala featuring Renee Fleming in the second act of Verdi’s “La Traviata,” the third act of Massenet’s “Manon” and the final scene of Strauss’ “Capriccio.” There will be a pre-opening free performance of Verdi’s Requiem on Sept. 18 to mark Luciano Pavarotti’s death last September, and a gala on March 15, 2009, celebrating both the 125th anniversary of the Met and the 40th anniversary of Placido Domingo’s Met debut. The Met’s high-definition theatercasts will expand from eight to 10 and start in October.

“At the time when Peter started, this was a very dangerous moment, because if this art form doesn’t keep pace, then we don’t develop a new audience, we gradually lose the old one,” Met music director James Levine said. “It’s kind of a dream for me, to be in this period collaborating with Peter.”

Valery Gergiev’s tenure as principal guest conductor will conclude at the end of this season, and he will not be replaced. Gergiev, who assumed the Met post in September 1997, will continue to work with the company in future years.

Besides opening night, Fleming will star with Thomas Hampson beginning Dec. 8 in a new production of Massenet’s “Thais,” which hasn’t been performed at the Met since 1978, and a revival of Dvorak’s “Rusalka” beginning March 9, 2009.

“It’s my home house. It’s the place where I’ve sung the most. and it’s where I live,” said Fleming, who has sung 18 roles with the Met since her 1991 debut. “Not everybody has the joy of being welcomed where they live.”

The March 15 gala will include Levine conducting fully staged scenes with projections recreating classic sets of the Met’s past, including the opening-night staging of Gounod’s “Faust” of Oct. 22, 1883; the first presentation of Wagner’s “Parsifal” outside Bayreuth in 1903; the world premiere of Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West” in 1910; Tyrone Guthrie’s staging of Bizet’s “Carmen” in 1952; and Marc Chagall’s set for Mozart’s “Die Zauberfloete” in 1967.

Levine will conduct the Verdi Requiem, leading Barbara Frittoli, Olga Borodina, Marcello Giordani and James Morris.

There are six productions new to the Met next season, with “Thais” joined by “Doctor Atomic” (Oct. 13); Berlioz’s “La Damnation de Faust” with Giordani and Susan Graham (Nov. 7); “La Rondine”; Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” with Salvatore Licitra (Feb. 16, 2009); and Bellini’s “La Sonnambula” with Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez (March 2, 2009).

“La Damnation de Faust,” conducted by Levine and directed by Lepage, is being staged at the Met for the first time since the 1906-07 season.

Conductor Daniel Barenboim makes his Met debut Nov. 28 in a revival of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” starring Katarina Dalayman, Peter Seiffert and Rene Pape. Seiji Ozawa returns to the Met for the first time since 1992, conducting Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades.” Alan Gilbert, who becomes music director of the New York Philharmonic in 2009-10, makes his Met debut in “Doctor Atomic.”

Diana Damrau will take over the title role of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” from Anna Netrebko, who is pregnant and withdrew from fall performances. From March 28 to May 9, 2009, the Met will present its 1986-89 Otto Schenk staging of Wagner’s Ring Cycle three final times. It will be replaced by a Lepage production, which will be given in full for the first time in 2012.

___

On the Net:

http://www.metopera.org