Riverboat Gamblers Featured on SPIN Tribute Album to Prince’s Purple Rain Kick Off Purplish Rain with Amazing Punk Rock Version of “Let’s Go Crazy”

Riverboat Gamblers Featured on SPIN Tribute Album to Prince’s Purple Rain
Kick Off Purplish Rain with Amazing Punk Rock Version of “Let’s Go Crazy”

For this summer’s 25th anniversary of Prince’s classic movie and album Purple Rain, SPIN is excited to announce the release of Purplish Rain, a tribute album made up of nine tracks commissioned by the editors of SPIN.

The entire album will be available as a free download for SPIN magazine readers and subscribers via SPIN.com starting June 23. (Return to the site on that date for instructions about how to get your free download.)

Purplish Rain was produced to accompany the July cover story, an oral history of Purple Rain, for which contributing writer Brian Raftery spoke to most of the key people involved in the creation of the movie and album.

Full tracklist for Purplish Rain:
1. “Let’s Go Crazy” RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS
2. “Take Me With U” SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS
3. “The Beautiful Ones” FOL CHEN
4. “Computer Blue” OF MONTREAL
5. “Darling Nikki” CHAIRLIFT
6. “When Doves Cry” THE TWILIGHT SINGERS
7. “I Would Die 4 U” MARIACHI EL BRONX
8. “Baby I’m a Star” CRAIG WEDREN
9. “Purple Rain” LAVENDER DIAMOND
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Riverboat Gamblers On Tour Now with Rancid and Rise Against!

For more information regarding Riverboat Gamblers, please contact Stunt Company:
Sue Marcus - 718.222.8963 or sue@stuntcompany.com
Sonia Aneja - 718.222.1746 or sonia@stuntcompany.com
Gary Crump - 718.222.1479 or gary@stuntcompany.com

Prince - Lotusflow3r - Album Review

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Prince - Lotusflow3r

“Prince has given away albums with concert tickets and (in the United Kingdom) with Sunday newspapers, but the $11.98 price for this three-CD bundle exclusive to Target compares very favorably to free. One disc, “Elixer,” features newcomer Bria Valente, and it’s about average for albums from Prince protégés. The other two are peak Prince. “Lotusflow3r” has Prince channeling his Hendrix spirit guide on a cover of “Crimson & Clover” shot through with riffs from “Wild Thing”; on “Wall of Berlin” and “Dreamer,” he squeezes the Jimi out of his guitar until you can almost see the hologram. Other strong tracks include the conscious funk of “Colonized Mind,” which evokes Gil Scott-Heron; “Love Like Jazz,” which could be an eroticized Steely Dan tune circa “The Royal Scam”; and “Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful,” with James Brown horns and squealing guitars. “Mplsound” is sometimes stronger still, with the party whoop of “(There’ll Never B) Another Like Me,” the delicious dirty mind of “Chocolate Box” and “Ol’ Skool Company,” which will have you partying like its 1985. —Wayne Robins”

Update: Prince, Keith Urban Vie For No. 1

Update: Prince, Keith Urban Vie For No. 1

New albums from Keith Urban and Prince are on track to debut high on the Billboard 200 chart next week, with each artist’s latest release aiming for a start in the neighborhood of 150,000 copies and a shot at No. 1.

Industry prognosticators suggest Urban’s “Defying Gravity” (Capitol Nashville) may shift somewhere in the range of 150,000-160,000 in its first week, while Prince’s Target-exclusive “LotusFlow3r” (NPG) could sell between 140,000-150,000.

If Urban debuts at No. 1, he’ll earn his first chart-topper on the Billboard 200. He’s hit No. 3 twice previously with 2004’s “Be Here” and 2006’s “Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing.” If Prince reigns atop the list, it’ll be his fifth No. 1.

Prince and Urban respectively lead Nielsen SoundScan’s Building Chart, which was released today (April 1). We’ll have a better gauge on how next week’s official Billboard 200 chart will shake out on April 3, when SoundScan releases its next Building Chart.

Billboard estimates the seven merchants who report to Nielsen SoundScan’s Building chart — Trans World Entertainment, Best Buy, iTunes, Starbucks, Borders, Target and Anderson Merchandisers — comprise about 60% of all U.S. album sales.

Other albums looking good for a top 10 debut on next week’s Billboard 200 chart include UGK’s “UGK For Life” (UGK/Jive/JLG), Diana Krall’s “Quiet Nights” (Verve) and Flo Rida’s “R.O.O.T.S.” (Poe Boy/Atlantic).

Nielsen SoundScan’s sales tracking week, as reflected in the official Billboard 200 chart, runs from Monday through Sunday of each week. The newest Billboard 200 chart, released today — where the “Now 30″ compilation debuted at No. 1 with 146,000 — reflected the week that ended on March 29.

Prince to release latest album at Target

Prince has found an outlet for his latest collection of songs, recorded without a major label, by partnering with Target for a three-disc set, the retail chain said on Monday.

The album will be available at Target stores March 29. The collection has two original studio albums called “LOtUSFLOW3R” and “MPLSoUND” and a third disc titled “Elixer” by his latest protege, the singer Bria Valente.

The three-disc set from Prince, which will sell for $11.98 at Target, is the latest instance of a recording artist partnering with a major retailer to release an album.

Anglo-Australian rock band AC/DC released their chart-topping album “Black Ice” in October exclusively through Wal-Mart stores and rock icon Bruce Springsteen gave the retailer exclusive rights to release an anthology of his greatest hits in January.

Prince in recent months sought to showcase his latest recordings as he worked without a major label, as he premiered songs for a Los Angeles radio station and on the Internet.

Prince has previously tried out alternative ways to distribute his music. Copies of his 2007 CD “Planet Earth” were delivered with British newspaper The Mail on Sunday.

Prince, whose hits include “Purple Rain” and “When Doves Cry,” was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and he has won six Grammy Awards.

Prince Rebuffed In Italian Plagiarism Case

An Italian court has ruled that Prince’s 1994 hit “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” was plagiarized from a song by two Italian writers. However, it could take several years for a definitive ruling in the case, which has already dragged on since the 1990s.

According to a sentence handed down by the Court of Appeal in Rome, the song borrowed heavily from “Takin’ Me to Paradise,” written by Bruno Bergonzi and Michele Vicino.

Under the ruling, Prince must stop distributing the song on Italian territory. He also faces having to pay the royalties he has so far accumulated to Bergonzi and Vicino and their publishers, but only if a final hearing confirms the Italian songwriting duo was plagiarized.

“Our song was first released in 1983, at the height of the Italian dance boom and it appeared on assorted compilations that were distributed internationally,” Bergonzi tells Billboard.com. “When we first heard Prince’s song we immediately took action, but this case has been dragging on for 15 years and it isn’t over yet, such is the slowness of the Italian legal system. We only decided to go public with our story now.”

The ruling is in fact an appeal against the original sentence, which, in 2003, rejected Bergonzi and Vicino’s claim. This latest ruling was actually made in December 2007 and registered on Feb. 11 last year, but Bergonzi and Vicino have only now spoken out.

For a sentence to become definitive in Italy, a “third degree” ruling is necessary and this could take several more years.

When the case began, publishing for both sides in Italy was handled by Warner/Chappell, in the form of Fortissimo (on behalf of Controversy Music) for Prince, and Chappell for Bergonzi and Vicino. However, Controversy Music and Prince are now represented by Universal Music Publishing.

“We are waiting to see the outcome of the third and final sentence,” Universal Music Publishing Italy managing director Claudio Buja tells Billboard.com. “We’re wary of making a comment at this stage, but I can say that plagiarism cases are invariably delicate and difficult.”

Spokespeople for Prince and Warner/Chappell Italy could not be reached for comment.

Prince To Roll Out Three Albums This Year

Prince is planning to release three new albums in 2009 without the assistance of a record label, according to an interview with the Los Angeles Times. A “major retailer” is in talks with the artist to release the music physically, while a new Prince Web site will sell it in digital form.

The two new Prince albums are the tentatively titled “MPLSOUND” and “Lotus Flower.” He was also heavily involved in an album titled “Elixir” from his protege, Bria Valente. “We got sick of waiting for Sade to make a new album,” he said of that project.

As for “MPLSOUND,” recorded at Prince’s Paisley Park compound in Minneapolis, the Times describes at “electro-flavored” and full of “trippy, experimental pop songs.” Q-Tip guests on one track.

“Lotus Flower” is more guitar-driven, an approach Prince says he came to after touring as the guitarist in singer Tamar Davis’ band in 2006. Tracks include “Dreamer,” a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Crimson & Clover,” “Colonized Mind” and “Wall of Berlin.”

Prince’s last studio album, “Planet Earth,” was first released as a free covermount with the U.K. newspaper the Mail on Sunday in July 2007. It was subsequently issued worldwide by Columbia Records.