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Appearances / Events > W Hotel – August 19, 2010
Appearances / Events > Christina Aguilera And The Futureheads Visit Sirius XM Studio

The traveling all-women’s music festival returns to the spotlight after being massive crowd pleaser during the summers of 1997 to 1999. The groundbreaking tour consisted solely of female solo artists and female-led bands including Christina Aguilera, The Dixie Chicks, Missy Elliot, The Pretenders, Nelly Furtado, Jewel, Queen Latifah, and many more. In its three years, Lilith Fair raised over $10 million for women’s charities throughout North America.

Lilith Fair has also partnered with Reverb, the Maine-based company founded by Guster’s Adam Gardner and his wife Lauren Sullivan, to make the 2010 tour more eco-friendly.

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Though she dismisses her first stabs at the new album as simply “shitty,” early songwriting sessions introduced her to an eccentric slate of potential collaborators, including Mr. Slave 4 U, Pharrell: “I drove up in my bird-shat-on, banged-up Honda Accord, and I was like, ‘Is that your Ferrari outside?’ ” She jammed with the Roots in New York, and teamed with Weezer at a Los Angeles show (”It was rad, I felt like I joined the band for 4.2 seconds”). She also spent time listening to Phoenix and Kings of Leon, soaking up what she praises as the “bombastic sonic quality” of Only By the Night.

But her most fruitful team-up has been with producer Neal Avron (Fall Out Boy, Say Anything), who has helped her shape the new batch of songs into an uptempo, layered album she describes as “revitalizing,” packed with attitude and sonically darker than her previous work. Bareilles says her hit single “Love Song” was the last track she tossed together for Little Voice, and its equivalent on the upcoming disc is “King of Anything.” “It just poured out of me,” she says, explaining the track — which is brightened with horns — is kind of a pep-talk to herself before critics get their hands on the album. “I think I’m preparing myself for what’s to come.”

“Let the Rain,” one of the two tracks that feature Bareilles on guitar, is “about feeling like you need a rebirth.” She says the odd-metered song includes a chant on the chorus, and was appropriately recorded during one of L.A.’s periods of “gnarly rain.” In addition to the uptempo tracks, “There are some sappy sad songs about being depressed, I know that well,” she says. “But I think it’s a nice mixture of upbeat and the more sentimental side of me.”

Bareilles reports she’s a little past halfway done recording the still-untitled album, which is due this summer. And while she doesn’t have any special guests on the LP yet, there’s a standing invitation for Bono, Chris Martin or Beyoncé to pop into the studio. “Lady Gaga, Sir Elton John, Paul McCartney while we’re at it — we’ll bring all the Sirs,” she jokes. “Ben Kingsley — he can be on my record, too.”

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Weezer’s Sessions@AOL

Yes, you read that correctly.

The unlikely cast of characters assembled in Beverly Hills, Calif. — the setting for both AOL’s West Coast studio and one of the band’s biggest hits — to tape Weezer’s five-song Sessions in support of their new album, ‘Raditude.’

“I don’t know anything about Weezer — nothing,” Kenny G, who’s sold 75 millions albums worldwide, admitted to Spinner. “I’ve heard the name, but I never knew any of their songs [except] some song about a sweater … with the wool coming apart?”

During sound check, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo — who lives down the street from the superstar saxophonist in nearby Malibu but had never met him prior to the taping — instructed Kenny G that he’d have a solo after the second chorus of the new Weezer track ‘I’m Your Daddy.’ “It’s 100 percent winging it,” Kenny G said, while warming up in the green room. “But that’s OK. I’m a professional.”

They nailed it in one take.

Bareilles, best known for her Grammy-nominated 2007 hit ‘Love Song,’ is no stranger to the Weezer clan, having recently filmed a video for the acoustic version of the lead single off ‘Raditude,’ titled ‘(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To.’ “Rivers basically made [the song] into a duet, so we go back and forth on the vocals,” Bareilles said. Meanwhile, she will also join Weezer for a performance of the song on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ Friday night.

But it was the collaboration with Chamillionaire on the ‘Raditude’ track ‘Can’t Stop Partying’ that set the studio ablaze. (The album version of the track boasts Lil Wayne, who pleaded guilty to gun possession charges Thursday.) Chamillionare flew in from Houston that day just for his guest spot. Cuomo, a huge fan of Cham’s hit ‘Ridin” and the subsequent Weird Al parody ‘White and Nerdy,’ had no idea what to expect from the rapper. “We didn’t know if he was going to do Lil Wayne’s verse or something different. He blew us away!” Cuomo said after the taping.

“It happened last minute,” Chamillionaire said. “Do I want to work with Weezer? I was like, ‘Heck yeah!’” Chamillionaire wrote his verse only a couple of hours before the performance.

Cuomo, accompanied for the day by his wife and toddler daughter, changed outfits for each song performance — from the band’s matching gray tracksuits to a candy-striped onesie for the big finale: an acoustic cover of Green Day’s ‘Brain Stew.’

So, why all the oddball extracurriculars? “We need to find a way to keep things interesting,” Cuomo said.

Mission: accomplished.

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30 Rock

Simon G. Jewelry’s “Spring Bling” Benefit For The Lili Claire Foundation