According to Los Angeles Times he’s planning to release three new albums this year. The first one is the electro-flavored ‘MPLSOUND’ featuring rapper Q-Tip. Next up is ‘Lotus Flower’ and ‘Elixir’.

Back in the 1980’s Prince was one of the three most influential artists along with Madonna and Michael Jackson. Last year they all turned 50. In the 1990’s he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, just to change it back to Prince a few years later.

Though we haven’t seen much of Prince on the charts lately, he has always been very active. The excentric multi-instrumentalist lives and works in his colorful Paisley Park studios in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he records most of his music and performs live.

It’s still uncertain when and where he’s releasing his three upcoming albums, but he’s in final negotiations with “a major retailer” to distribute the music in physical form, L.A. Times’ blogger Ann Powers reports.

Victor Borge was born in 1909 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He grew up in a Jewish home with very musical parents. His dad a violinist, his mother a pianist.

When the Germans invaded Denmark in 1940 he escaped to Sweden then to America, where he got his breakthrough on the Bing Crosby radio show. He didn’t speak English, so during his appearance on the show he read a transcript of one of his Danish acts, translated to English by his wife, Elsie.

He knew he was good at the piano, but he also knew he wasn’t great. Instead he combined his classical performances with satire. Usually he would enter the stage sharp dressed and serious looking. Then he would begin to speak.

The piano was his best friend on stage, though he also conducted symphony orchestras or accompanied sopranos, classical trained soloists and Dean Martin — hardly ever serious.

After the Bing Crosby radio show he continued to TV and toured cities around USA, before he went on to Broadway in 1953 with his ‘Comedy in Music’ one-man show with record breaking 849 performances.

Borge never retired. He was in Denmark just before Christmas in 2000 to promote his Danish autobiography. On December 23 that same year he got up in the morning, took a plane back to his home in Connecticut, went to bed and never woke up again.

He was 91.

No doubt it’s a great song, but there is one problem: The song resembles the instrumental melody ‘If I Could Fly’ by Joe Satriani so much that it could be plagiarism. Satriani believes Coldplay has ripped off his song, and he has filed a lawsuit against Coldplay.

Coldplay rejects it with a statement on the band’s website saying: If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental. But maybe Satriani has a case against Coldplay.

First of all it’s ridiculous to think that Coldplay never heard Satriani’s ‘If I Could Fly’. Satriani’s song is only four years old, and it’s not like Satriani is some strange Serbian street musician.

Satriani is a well-known guitarist and music teacher. He has played with some of the greatest rockers such as Mick Jagger and David Lee Roth, and he has had Metallica’s Kirk Hammett as one of his students.

Secondly, the similarities between the two songs are undeniable. Several users on Youtube has lined the two songs up, but the video below demonstrates the similarities the best.

If Coldplay wins the Grammy on february 8, the British rockers might wanna share it with Satriani.

After Alexandra Burke won the British X Factor with a cover of Jeff Buckley’s version of ‘Hallelujah’, she hit the top of the chart, QTheMusic.com reports.

Jeff Buckley’s own 1994 version of the Leonard Cohen song tops the same chart at No. 2. ‘Hallelujah’ is featured on Buckley’s album, ‘Grace’. He drowned in 1997.

If two of the same song on the chart wasn’t enough, Leonard Cohen’s original recording from his 1984 album ‘Various Positions’ appears at No. 36.

According to QTheMusic.com, this hasn’t happened since 1957 when Tommy Steele and Guy Mitchell held the top two positions with ‘Singin’ The Blues’.

An almost similar thing happened earlier this year when American Idol contestant Jason Castro sang the Jeff Buckley version on the TV show. The week after Jeff Buckley hit the iTunes chart and the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 1.

Rock acts with weird band names have always popped up now and then. The Smashing Pumpkins, Velvet Underground and The The are just a few, but 2008 has been ‘the longer and weirder the better’. A.V. Club has taken stock of this year in band names.

Some of them are ridiculous, others are just long, and some are actually poetically funny like Funk In The Trunk.

A.V. Club lists the band names in several categories. Here’s a pick from the huge list.

In the category ‘Metal (or metal-sounding)’ we find bands such as Waking The Cadaver, Methadone Abortion Clinic and Slaughter The Weak. No doubt what kind of music that is, except that Slaughter The Weak isn’t a metal band.

Another category says it all, ‘Just because it’s long doesn’t make it good’. Magically Delicious Smoking Skunk Monkey, The Hobo Nephews Of Uncle Frank and Perpetual Dusk At Curtsy Caverns aren’t brands that sell many CD’s.

I wouldn’t buy a present for my mom from the ‘Whores, sluts, pussy & bitches, inc.’ category. Insects With Tits, Best Bitch In Show and Menstrual Tramps are just plain gross.

These bands and more could use an advice from a marketing expert if they wanna hit the top of the charts. See the entire list on avclub.com.

It’s one of the most recognizable and famous chords ever, the chang that opens ‘A Hard Days Night’. George Harrison is playing his 12 string Rickenbacker, but actually four instruments make up the chord.

Professor Jason I. Brown from the Dalhousie University in Canada has dissected the chord using computer software. This way he could analyze the sound frequencies bit by bit.

He found that the chord was pieced together with Harrison’s 12 string Rickenbacker, John Lennon’s 6 string guitar, Paul McCartney’s bass and an instrument which wasn’t features elsewhere in the song.

Brown discovered that the fourth instrument is a piano played by the fifth Beatle, producer George Martin.

In his article Mathematics, Physics and A Hard Day’s Night, Brown explains the notes of the famous chord:

George Harrison was playing the notes, a3, d3, d4, g3, g4, c4 and one more c4. Paul McCartney was playing the d3 note on his bass. John Lennon played a c5 note, and George Martin was playing d3, f3, d5, g5 and e6 on his piano.

Noise Addicts has more to the story. Meanwhile, give a listen to the legendary chord and the rest of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’.

But something went terribly wrong between McCain and his candidate for vice-president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and we wanna know the entire story about what happened during the evening of November 4, 2008.

We’ve learned after the election that the relationship between Palin and the campaign staff wasn’t warm.

We also know that Palin wasn’t on stage when John McCain held his final speech on election night.

Obama has already made his private backstage pictures public. We also wanna see yours, McCain.

What were you doing backstage? Were you with your wife alone? Or did you share a moment with Sarah Palin? Were you sad? Angry? Did you watch CNN, Fox News or Comedy Central? Speak up, senator.

Seeing John McCain’s photos - or at least hear his story in details - will make the documentation of the historical election complete.

It’ll help us understand what really went wrong for the McCain-Palin presidential campaign. It’ll help us explain our grand children why a skilled, experienced and widely respected politician failed to become president.

If you haven’t seen Obama’s private photos yet, please do. The look of his face, while the votes were still being counted and his face afterwards, tells it all.

The interview is also McCain’s first appearance on a late night talk show since October 16, where he had to apologize to David Letterman on the ‘Late Show’.

McCain canceled a scheduled interview with Letterman because he suspended his campaign to solve the financial crisis in Washington D.C.

That night McCain didn’t leave New York for Washington, and he didn’t solve the financial crisis. Instead he pissed off Letterman.

I guess the senator is being treated more gently by Leno when he appears on the show on Veterans Day.

She was being taken ill after the concert and brought to a hospital near Naples. She died later Sunday night of a heart attack.

Makeba lived in Italy for several years. She was deeply involved with the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and was forced to exile in 1959. She didn’t return until 1990 after Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

She was the first black African singer to win a Grammy Award and became world-wide famous for her addictive hit ‘Pata Pata’ from 1966.

I remember her for a music career spanning over four decades and this song in particular:

According to some polls, Palin’s ungainly performance might be the reason why John McCain lost to Barack Obama. Is this really the whole truth?

If we look at the history, several American presidents have been without eloquence. Just think about the last eight years with George W. Bush at the helm. He said this on June 26, 2008:

- I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office.

Lots of presidents weren’t smooth talking, so Sarah Palin might have a chance of getting elected if she decides to run for president in 2012 or 2016.

I’ve collected a few videos of presidents - including President Bush’ father - who were linguistically challenged or just not telling the truth.

George Bush Sr. had an interesting sex life when he was President Ronald Reagan’s vice-president in the 1980’s. At least that’s what he says:

- I’m not a crook, claimed President Richard Nixon a few months before he resigned due to the Watergate scandal.

Well, here’s one of many moments with Sarah Palin. On the question of which news papers she reads, she reads all of them, any of them. What a waste of rain forrest, governor Palin.

Barack Obama is not afraid to tell about his experiments with drugs. However, in President Bill Clinton’s days it was harder to admit, along with sexual relations with interns.

I still believe Sarah Palin has a chance of becoming the first female president of the United States of America.

If you don’t know the Missile Dick Chicks, they are three - sometimes four - pissed-off and singing housewives from Crawford, Texas wearing shiny costumes and strap-on missiles. They are supporting president Bush, they say, but listen to the lyrics. Definitely meant ironically:

Shop, in the name of war / You need a whole lot more / Don’t think it over.

So, now what, Missile Dick Chicks? In a few months, Bush is leaving the ovale office for Barack Obama. I have a suggestion: Come to Europe.

We have a few warlike leaders who could use your support before they become unseated by the wussies.

And for all those who haven’t heard of the Missile Dick Chicks, here’s a video: