• Singapore bans Janet Jackson's latest album
• Aerosmith's Perry just wants to play
• Ike Turner pins hope on new album
• Lucinda Williams releases new album
• Doubts cast over Napster's MusicNet deal
• Producer Eve Nelson Hot As A Pistol With New Billy Crawford And Willa Ford

Singapore bans Janet Jackson's latest album

SINGAPORE: Strait-laced Singapore is standing firm on its ban on pop star Janet Jackson's latest album All For You, tossing out an appeal to release the album with its sexually explicit ballad Would You Mind.

The steamy lyrics of the song were deemed by the Publications Appeal Committee, made up of academics and professionals, to be "not acceptable to our society."

Jackson's label EMI had filed the appeal after the Films and Publications Department said last month the record had been outlawed because of its "sexually explicit lyrics." In the song, Jackson says: "I just wanna touch you, tease you, lick you, please you, love you, make love to you."

EMI said it was now trying to persuade the singer's management to delete the offending track from the album for sales in Singapore. But, although the record cannot be bought in Singapore, Jackson fans can still access and download Would You Mind from the Internet.

Strictly-regulated Singapore takes a hard line on pornography, banning magazines showing even partial nudity, blocking many Internet sites considered obscene and censoring graphic scenes in movies.

An episode of the popular TV show Ally McBeal was dropped last year because it showed the main character Ally, played by Calista Flockhart, and her colleague Ling, played by Lucy Liu, kissing each other on the lips.

Jackson's last album The Velvet Rope was also banned in the conservative city-state because three of the 20 tracks dealt with homosexuality and other issues considered by authorities to be offensive. Next month, Jackson starts her All For You world tour but Singapore has not been included in the itinerary.

Aerosmith's Perry just wants to play

After spending more than three decades dealing with the business that is rock 'n' roll, Aerosmith co-founder Joe Perry dreams of a time when he can focus on nothing but playing his guitar. Dream on.

With the release of a new album and summer-long US tour that starts Wednesday in Hartford, Perry and the Boston-based quintet have been dizzied by a flurry of videos, movie soundtracks, award ceremonies, sporting event appearances and collaborations with other artists.

"It seems like Aerosmith has turned into a full-time job, which is kind of a drag because I got into this business so I wouldn't have to work," Perry said after a recent recording session at his home in Cohasset, Mass.

"We just want to play our guitars, get out there, get a little instant energy, adrenaline rush and move on to the next show," he said. "But it seems there's so much other stuff that goes along with it now."

He admits the band members including co-founder Steven Tyler have changed, and with them, the music. They still kick out ear-bleeding, riff-based hits, but have found more success in melodic power ballads like Jaded that receive widespread radio play.

"There's only a couple of us that have long hair anymore. You can't stay the same. I think it's boring," said Perry, 50. "But I still like leather pants, I don't think that's going to change anytime soon ... they're just not as tight as they used to be, but they're still leather."(

Ike Turner pins hope on new album

NEW YORK: Ike Turner hopes his new album, Here and Now, will once again popularise the kind of rhythm and blues music he grew up on.

"What you call R&B music of today, that's one kind of R&B, but that's not the R&B of my era," said the musician, who's best known as half of the legendary duo Ike & Tina Turner.

"If you go across the radio real slow, you will not find a station that's playing R&B music unless you find a station that's oldies but goodies. In other words, it's like everything stopped."

Here and Now is Turner's first record in 23 years. Turner said it took him so long to make it because he was afraid to perform solo after Tina Turner left him.

"I had built the total thing around Tina, not around Ike," he said. "When we broke up, man, I was just afraid, which was a mistake. I was afraid to go ahead on my own. I should have done what I'm doing today. I should have if I was afraid of rejection, or scared that they were weren't going to accept me, I should have grabbed another girl, but I didn't."

Lucinda Williams releases new album

NEW YORK: Lucinda Williams' latest album, Essence, is a showcase release for Lost Highway Records, and the singer-songwriter says she's pleased to be on the new alternative country label.

Williams wrote all 11 songs on Essence, which is in record stores this week. It's her first new music since 1998's Grammy-winning Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

The 48-year-old singer-songwriter said she hopes the Lost Highway label will help other artists who tend to get lost amid the dance and rap acts at major labels these days. "It's kind of like a shelter from the storm," she said. Other artists on Lost Highway include Robert Earl Keen, Kim Richey, William Topley, Ryan Adams, Tift Merritt and Billy Bob Thornton.

Doubts cast over Napster's MusicNet deal

Two of Napster's new mainstream partners have repeated their concerns about the file-sharing service.

The distribution deal with MusicNet has linked Napster with three of the 'big five' labels - BMG, EMI and Warner Brothers. But two have issued statements insisting they are not yet ready to share their catalogues online. Warner Music Group said its content would not be available "until we are reasonably satisfied that Napster is operating in a legal, non-infringing manner".

EMI's statement also said that Napster's technology was not quite ready, despite yesterday's announcement. The MusicNet venture promises to pit Warner, BMG and EMI Group against rivals Sony and Vivendi Universal, in the race to offer subscription-based music services on the web.

The project involves the use of RealNetworks technology, to offer a system that offers users access to their recordings while guaranteeing royalty payments to artists. Napster is still being sued by the music industry for copyright infringement, and is compelled to comply with an injunction requiring it to purge all unlicensed content.

Producer Eve Nelson Hot As A Pistol With New Billy Crawford And Willa Ford Cd Releases

 Producer Eve Nelson is one busy lady, and there's no let-up insight.  She produced and co-wrote various tracks on the new Billy Crawford CD (Ride, V2 Records), including the first single "When You're In Love With Someone."  The song, which NELSON co-wrote with Matt Goss, was reviewed in Billboard Magazine: "The glowing love song bubbles with melodious charm, without resorting to the usual tricks of the trade.  It's a grand, mature outing that could easily charm the softer side of pop radio, and it's a natural for AC stations." 

The subject of a feature in the June 9 "Pro Audio" column in Billboard Magazine, NELSON's trademark fine work is evident on the forthcoming Willa Ford debut CD (Lava Records), for which she co-wrote, produced and mixed the tracks "Ooh Ooh" and "Wish."  But she didn't stop there.

 Currently, NELSON is riding the charts in England via the posthumous Eva Cassidy CD, Songbird, which includes the track "I Know You By Heart," a song she co-wrote with Diane Scanlon.  Upcoming are new releases by Heather Nova (V2) on which NELSON produced one song, the forthcoming Emelia Andreen CD (Edel Records Sweden) for which she produced and co-wrote two tracks, and the upcoming second Motorbaby CD for which she produced two tracks.  And just to make sure she keeps occupied, NELSON is presently producing three tracks on the new Laura Branigan CD, two of which she has co-written, and is scoring the soundtrack for the just-completed independent film Crooked Lines, featuring David Johansen, as well as producing and arranging a track on that ST for Buster Poindexter.

Furthermore, NELSON runs two fully equipped recording studios with her partner Bernadette O'Reilly  - one in Manhattan's Chelsea district and the other in the East Hamptons artists' colony called The Springs.  Nicknamed "one of the industry's busiest and most successful well-kept secrets," it's easy to see how that's about to change for NELSON once and for all.