HOT
Record Dealz for Kidz
Sony is reportedly pulling the equivalent of the NBA signing an eighth-grader to a long-term, big money contract by signing two 13-year-olds and a 12-year-old to a potentially long-term, big money record contract. The kids are in a fairly kick-ass Brooklyn Metal band called Unlocking the Truth, which went from busking in parks to playing Coachella in just over a year. Now reports say the trio has accepted a multi-record deal with Sony that could be worth $1.7 million. They’ll either be the Metal Hanson and sell tons of records or they’ll get a taste of the broken corporate music industry and decide they’d rather just go to high school and play video games after class.
WARM
Thicke’s Pity Party, Now with Flowers
Robin Thicke’s new album is an effort to win back his wife (it even shares a name, Paula, with his estranged spouse), but given early sales reports, maybe the singer ought to be concentrating on winning back his audience. In the States, Paula’s slow sales were still enough for it to debut at No. 9, but in the U.K. it only sold 530 copies in its first week and in Australia it failed to make the Top 500, meaning it sold less than 54 copies. The album could make a comeback, but Thicke isn’t idly waiting for a turnaround. He’s teamed with 1-800-FLOWERS to sell bouquets named after songs from Paula, a copy of which comes free with each purchase. You can get the “Forever Love” bouquet for under $100, but if you’re looking to Thicke for help wooing a lost love (because he’s been so successful?), you’ll probably want to go with the “Get Her Back” bouquet for just $350.
COLD
‘Jimi’: Cracked, Corny?
With André 3000 in the lead role and John Ridley (Academy Award winner for his 12 Years a Slave screenplay) directing, the upcoming biopic Jimi: All Is By My Side seemed promising. But some who knew the rocker are reportedly furious with both the quality of the film and the way the iconic Rock guitarist is portrayed. Though many biographical films take liberties (did you know that Jamie Foxx from the Ray Charles movie Ray is not actually blind?), Hendrix’s pals say the film is largely inaccurate. One of Hendrix’s former girlfriends, Kathy Etchingham, wrote a scathing blog post after seeing the movie, calling the film’s story “awkward and illogical” and objecting to her portrayal, which has her overdosing and being beaten with a phone by Hendrix (both of which she’s says never happened). U.K. paper The Daily Mail reports that she’s considering taking legal action against the film’s distributors over the “lies,” and may even sue the actress who portrayed her for defamation.
