Although Spoon was hoping to finish its next Merge album before the end of the summer, the band has opted to not rush the process and is now working on additional material. “We’ve done a couple of songs already but now I’m working up more tunes,” frontman Britt Daniel tells Billboard.com. “I think we should head back to the studio full-time by fall.”
Daniel previously said he and his bandmates had utilized “electric harpsichord, a bunch of harmonicas and these weird Japanese instruments” for the first batch of material. “We want [the new record] to be wild,” he said. “We want to do something we haven’t done before.”
Meanwhile, Merge will on July 25 reissue Spoon’s 1996 debut, “Telephono” in a single package with the EP “Soft Effects.” Spoon will also play a few west coasts dates next month with Death Cab For Cutie and Mates Of State.
— Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Teenage vocalist Brooke Hogan, the daughter of wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan, will release her debut album, “Undiscovered,” Sept. 26 via SoBe Entertainment. The Scott Storch-produced first single “About Us” features Paul Wall can be streamed from her Myspace.com site.
Hogan co-wrote two of the songs on “Undiscovered” and also plays guitar and keyboards. Late last year, she admitted she was already struggling to maintain her identity as she became a celebrity in the wake of the VH1 reality show “Hogan Knows Best.”
“I have so many people saying, don’t wear heels. You have too much make-up on. You have too little make-up on. You need to go more pop,” she told Billboard.com. “It’s kind of like, I’d rather go down with the ship I believe in than doing something I don’t like that somebody else believes in. If I can’t believe in myself, nobody else is going to believe in me.”
— Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Ciara and Lyfe Jennings will perform at the fourth VH1 Save the Music Hamptons benefit, to be held July 28 at a private home in East Hampton, N.Y. The event is expected raise $300,000 for Save the Music, which works to improve the quality of music education in U.S. public schools.
As previously reported, Jennings’ sophomore album, “The Phoenix,” is due Aug. 15 via Columbia/Sony Urban. Ciara’s new single, “Get Up” featuring Chamillionaire, can be found on the soundtrack for the movie “Step Up.” The album is due Aug. 8 via Jive.
— Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.