The Beastie Boys have been uber-busy lately. Therefore, we will forgive them for announcing their L.A. Gala Event a couple days after tix went on sale. If you haven’t heard, the Gala Events are the ones that feature the band as a jazz-funk ensemble playing instrumental music off their new album, The Mix Up. ([More →])

Alicia Keys has postponed her forthcoming album until October, and now has tentatively set a date for release. She wowed a worldwide audience this past weekend at Live Earth, and you can watch her performance of new material from the new album! ([More →])

Just days ago, Live Earth organizers announced the addition of Shanghai to the concert roster, thereby bringing the total number of cities that will host Live Earth Concerts to nine! But today, sadly, that number is back to eight, as Istanbul canceled the concert for their city. Official statements say that local businesses did not want to get involved with the high profile event out of fear of environmental organizations. I guess local Turkish industry is a big contributor to global warming and did not want to end up under the microscope by mis-aligning its brands. The lack of local sponsorship led to the cancellation of a live event, however, the Live Earth organizers will still set up 8 giant screens in Istanbul (one for each concert) to project live footage from other concerts around the globe. Wow! Is that going to be like 8 big drive-in movies? That would be wicked! I think this says a lot about the power and influence that has been achieved by environmental NGO’s in the last decade.

Live Earth website

On the bright side, Shakira and Enrique Iglesias have signed on to perform at the concert in Hamburg. That brings the full Hamburg lineup to this:

CHRIS CORNELL
ENRIQUE IGLESIAS
JAN DELAY
JULI
KATIE MELUA
LOTTO KING KARL
MANÁ
MANDO DIAO
MARIA MENA
MIA
MICHAEL MITTERMEIER
REAMONN
ROGER CICERO
SAMY DELUXE
SASHA
SHAKIRA
SILBERMOND
SNOOP DOGG
STEFAN GWILDIS

Shakira video for “No”:

German portal for Live Earth online

Info about Shakira and Iglesias from the Live Earth press release:

Shakira is a two-time Grammy Award-winning and eight-time Latin Grammy Award-winning Colombian singer, songwriter and producer and has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. Her 2001 English language breakthrough, LAUNDRY SERVICE, sold more than 20 million albums and made her a global sensation. In early 2005, Shakira released the Oral Fixation project: Fijación Oral Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation Vol. 2 have sold a combined 15 million copies worldwide to date and earned five Latin Grammys, including Album of the Year, six Latin Billboard Awards, two Almas Awards, and numerous other awards around the world. She also just completed her Oral Fixation Tour around the world that included 120 sold-out dates. In 1995, Shakira created the Pies Descalso Foundation aimed at helping Colombian children who are victims of violence. She was also instrumental in the creation of Alas, an orgaLEarthnization of the Latin world’s biggest stars who are working to bring awareness to the social and economic conditions of children in Latin America.

Enrique Iglesias, the Madrid-born, Miami-raised singer, has sold more than 40 million albums and has topped the charts and gone platinum with both English and Spanish language works. Iglesias won the Grammy for Best Latin Performer in 1997 and the Latin Grammy for Best Male Pop Album in 2003. His new album, Insomniac, was released last week, and the single “Do You Know? (The Ping Pong Song)” has jumped to the top of the US, UK, Mexico, Sweden, Netherlands and other charts. Iglesias is the most successful Spanish-language singer in the world with 17 #1 Billboard Latin hits, more than any other artist in history. His albums have gone gold or platinum in more than 30 countries.

Today’s theme is charities that benefit from rock merch…

Metallica is the latest addition to London’s Live Earth concert on 07/07/07. Immediately after their performance, an exclusive download of the set will be available for a reasonable fee. All the proceeds from the sale of this download will be donated to the 4 climate charities that Metallica has chosen:
Sierra Club
The Apollo Alliance
WWF
Rainforest Action Network

That last one is one of my fave NGOs. Sierra Club and WWF have some issues and may not be truly charitable. The download will be available on iTunes and Metallica’s own live show download page, livemetallica.com

AND, even though Live Earth has long been sold out, Metallica must have been given some tix when they were added on at a late hour because MetClub members can find out how to purchase a ticket. See the Live Earth news on the Metallica website for more info.

That better be a biodiesel or veggie oil truck they’re riding around in! Knowing this fella, it’s pure ethanol, eh?

More Metallica Links

official website
Metallica live show page

Live Earth website