For Corey Feldman, the show -- and music --- goes on

Corey Feldman -- Michael Jackson’s longtime friend, at least before they were estranged in 2001 -- is grieving over Jackson's death but says he is going ahead as scheduled with an eco-themed concert with his Pink Floyd-esque band Truth Movement at Universal City’s CityWalk at 9 p.m. Saturday.

Feldman, who continues to be a family friend of the Jacksons, appeared on the "Larry King Live" and "Today" shows Thursday and Friday to talk about the singer's passing, and took to his blogto express his thoughts. “As Michael taught me a long time ago, the show must go on,” Feldman wrote. “[Saturday’s show] will be a hard one to get through. But I will brave it and do the only thing I know how to do … perform.”

Jermaine and LaToya Jackson were scheduled to attend, but that now obviously appears unlikely. Feldman and Truth Movement will perform songs from their 2008 CD, “Technology Analogy,” and are pushing to take live music shows “off the grid,” through self-sustainable energy and alternative fuels instead of electricity.

"It’s a good concept and a positive message,” Feldman says. “The problem is we haven’t figured out the technology 100%.”

-- Nicholas White

Photo: Corey Feldman. Credit: Nancy Pastor / For The Times

That's no string orchestra, that's just Stevie Blacke

Times might be tough for the record industry, but they're good for Stevie Blacke. The multi-instrumentalist has appeared on such hit songs as Pink's "Sober," Rihanna's "Rehab" and Hinder's "Without You" -- and tracks from Madonna, Beck and Snoop Dogg -- playing violin, cello, mandolin, lap steel, Dobro or more than a dozen other instruments, including the two-stringed Chinese Erhu.

He's a master, he says, of "all things stringed," and the one-man orchestra has become a go-to guy for music producers of all stripes. "What's great about Stevie is that you give him a copy of your song and two days later he returns with a finished string arrangement," says Grammy-winning producer Steve Lillywhite.

Blacke, 42, was born in London, where his parents, Juilliard  School graduates, were vacationing. He grew up in Ohio on the music of Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd before attending Berklee College of Music to study guitar. He originally hoped to become a singer-songwriter who would surround himself with acoustic instrumentation. "I wanted to be Dave Matthews before he was Dave Matthews," Blacke says.

At Berklee, he fell in love with the music of David Grisman and studied with the mandolin master in Northern California. When Blacke returned to Berklee, his instructor would continue teaching him mandolin only if he would pick up the violin. Eventually, he began learning anything with a string.

Some instruments he added out of desire, others out of necessity. Shortly after moving to Los Angeles from Marin County in 1998, he was creating violin overdubs for a hip-hop artist. "They'd say play lower. I'd try to retune a little bit, but it wouldn't go down low enough," Blacke recalls. "So I went out and rented a cello and, literally, the first day I had it, I was in a session playing low notes. . . . No training."

Blacke generally works alone, accompanied only by his instruments and Pro Tools audio recording software, in his Sherman Oaks home (although he once carted all of his instruments in his pickup truck to a recording studio at Beck's request). Occasionally, an artist makes a house call. "Pink walked in and said, 'I love the violin. Show me something,' so I gave her a little 10-minute lesson."

Blacke records each instrument in his living room, behind the flat screen TV and leather sofa. He sets up four microphones and places a chair on a 4-by-8-foot  carpet. In a trick he learned from Lillywhite, he moves the chair as he switches instruments, replicating where that instrument would line up in a real orchestra: The violin chair is on one end of the carpet; Blacke moves the chair to the other end when he plays cello. He overdubs each instrument up to 25 times to create an orchestral sound.

Blacke won't reveal what he charges but coyly adds "it's definitely cheaper to hire me than to hire 25 people."

-- Melinda Newman

Photo: Blacke plays violin, cello, lap steel and other instruments.  Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times

Utada, Boa set sights on America with dueling English-language discs

Big in Japan just isn’t big enough for at least two Asian singers in 2009. Hikaru Utada (pictured) and Boa, two of Tokyo’s top-selling artists, are releasing English language CDs this month in an attempt to win over American pop and R&B fans. 

For decades, Japanese music managers and American record labels have tried to crack the lucrative stateside market with top-selling artists, including Seiko Matsuda in the 1980s and Toshi Kubota in the 1990s. Each time, the endeavor invariably fails; last year, Universal didn’t even bother releasing an English-language record from one if its rising R&B stars, Ai, despite the fact that the singer was born in L.A., is fluent in English and can belt like Beyoncé.

While Boa and Utada are certainly not the first artists to dream of “making it” in the West, Utada’s “This Is the One” and Boa’s self-titled “The First Album” represent a potential watershed moment for Asian pop stars in America: Both offerings arguably surpass previous crossover attempts from the land of the rising sun. 

Los Angeles-based record producer Joey Carbone, who has worked in Japan with singers such as Yuki Koyanagi and Crystal Kay, stated in an e-mail that "both records are good...Boa is a great dancer and a good singer. Utada is a very good singer and a great songwriter."

Kun Gao, CEO of San Francisco-based anime-centric website Crunchyroll.com, agrees that both are a cut above the usual Japanese exports.

“Both Boa and Utada are very popular, not only with world-wide audiences but also have extremely loyal and rapidly growing U.S. fans,” he said.

But the performers have their work cut out for them. “When Japanese and Korean singers have tried to have a hit in the U.S.," Carbone said, "they have changed their look and sound to try to appeal to the U.S. market, and it hasn't come across as real."

Boa and Utata are stars in Japan and beyond -- Boa is actually Korean and maintains a good-sized fan base in her native country, although her career is more prosperous in Tokyo, where she currently lives. Utada has sold more than 50 million records in Japan, and it looks as if “This Is the One” is yet another hit; she currently has the second top-selling download in Japan, according to iTunes, for her the first single, "Come Back to Me," off her all-English disc, which debuts here digitally March 24 (and physically May 12).

But winning over hearts in the Heartland won’t be easy for Utada; mainstream U.S. pop fans who listen to Top 40 radio stations such as KIIS-FM (102.7) are typically reluctant to embrace foreign stars they aren't used to seeing on Perezhilton.com or in the pages of Us Weekly, with notable English and Canadian exceptions.

However, Utada sees herself as more American than Japanese.

“I grew up in New York,” she said from Island Records’ Manhattan office earlier this week. “In Japan, I’m seen as a bit of a foreigner, but in America, I get comments like ‘Your English is so good.’ So in both places I’m a bit of an outsider, but I think that comes out in my music, and everyone feels like an outsider on some level. If people can connect with me there, that would be great.”

Although Utada’s been down this road before with another English language release aimed at U.S. listeners (2004’s “Exodus,” which sold fewer than 60,000 copies, according to Soundscan), this time the bilingual multi-instrumentalist seems to have found her true voice with a more focused effort.

K-Pop superstar Rain will take the stand

It's hardly the triumphant return to the U.S. that South Korean pop superstar Rain had hoped for -- an appearance that will do little to further his stated intention of becoming an "Asian fusion" answer to Ricky Martin.

Confirming anxious speculation that has lit up K-Pop chatrooms from here to Seoul, Sunwoo Lee, an attorney representing Rain -- the wildly popular singer-actor dubbed "the Justin Timberlake of Asia" -- said that the performer would appear in court in Hawaii next week to face charges stemming from his abruptly cancelled concert there in 2007.

Roth, Rifkind ride 'College' to Top 20

Well, look who just cracked the Top 20. Just six months ago, few outside of hip-hop heads who stumbled across the artist’s MySpace page or blog had heard of the up-and-coming rapper. Now, thanks to a seemingly unstoppable single (“I Love College”), savvy marketing from Scooter Braun and maybe even the fact that the 23-year-old's pals helped take down a madman on an airplane earlier this year, Asher Roth somehow has made music fans forget all about Eminem’s comeback this year.

“I didn’t know 'I Love College' was gonna be ‘the one,’" Roth said, somewhat sheepishly, from Atlanta earlier this month.

The charismatic college dropout (he was an elementary education major at West Chester University in Pennsylvania) is connecting with teens and twentysomethings on campuses nationwide this spring, thanks in no small part to his laid-back, laconic delivery and lightweight lyrical content. (Checked the news lately? It's all about escapism on radio in 2009).

“I was mostly there for the experience,” Roth said of his college years. “Everybody partied there... I didn’t do the fraternity stuff, though.”

Roth got his start rapping over other people’s beats and selling mixtapes for $5 when he was a senior in high school. "We just used to download beats off the Internet and we thought we were cool.” 

This year, his circle of friends aren’t the only ones who think he’s cool: “I Love College” is now one of the most downloaded songs in the country with sales in excess of 350,000 paid downloads. A quick glance at his Myspace page reveals that he is a tireless networker intent on proving himself to other rappers, haters be damned. 

So how did the average-looking, average-sounding white rapper manage to sneak his way into the Top 20 this week?

Swedish DJs take SoCal: John Dahlbäck makes L.A. debut Saturday, other Swedes follow on the 21st

Sweden might be best known in America as the place where stylish and deceptively easy-to-assemble furniture is manufactured. But a handful of DJs from the Scandinavian country are attempting to change the perception -- among music fans, anyway -- about what their country has been producing better than anyone else. (Hint: It's house music.)

Last year, Swedish DJ and producer Axwell turned in one of the most energetic live sets I've seen in years at the Avalon as his countrymen (and women) swarmed the dance floor, where oversized Swedish flags waved  among the house-heads.

This month, the same club on Vine Street hosts no fewer than three spinners from Sweden, including the Swedish House Mafia's Steve Angello & Sebastian Ingrosso. And before the House Mafia hits Hollywood on the 21st, up-and-comer John Dahlbäck twists and tweaks beats at the Avalon this Saturday night in his Los Angeles debut.

Though Sweden's long had a history in the pop world of producing big hits with commanding synth-based hooks, over the last five years or so, a new generation of house-music DJs has left its mark all over Europe and South America (mainstream American music fans, naturally, are the last to get hip to the trend). Eric Prydz, a former member of the Swedish House Mafia, scored a massive club smash (and crossover pop hit, with the tune going to the top of the charts in countries such as England and Germany) in 2004 with "Call on Me." The track still receives play in clubs from Miami to Munich nightly and is based on, of all things, a sample of Steve Winwood's 1982 hit "Valerie." Call it perhaps the most unlikely house hit of the decade -- but it never fails to get bodies on the dance floor every time it's played. 

As we ease into a new decade, it looks as if ascendant DJ and house music producer John Dahlbäck might be the next breakout star out of Stockholm. Tracks such as "Blink" (seen in the video above) and, in particular, "Hustle Up" exemplify the producer's knack for locking down tight grooves and adding just enough unexpected twists to keep fans of intelligent electro-house on their toes. See how Swedish House Mafia members support one another in this clip, which features Ingrosso and Axwell dropping "Hustle Up" during a 2007 appearance.

We fired off a few questions to Dahlbäck by e-mail earlier this week in anticipation of his opening set for Sander Kleinenberg on Saturday at the Avalon. His answers after the jump.

Prince partners with Target, sets release date for 3-disc set

Forget purple -- Prince’s favorite colors are likely to be red and white this spring.

The musician has selected Target as the sole retail outlet for his three-disc album, which is set to be released March 29 at the big box retailer's nearly 1,700 outlets nationwide, and online at target.com.

The offering will come as a three-disc bundle: two original studio albums -- "LOtUSFLOW3R" and "MPLSoUND" -- and a third disc by Prince’s latest protégé, Bria Valente (Prince also contributed music to Valente's debut).

The entire collection will retail for just $11.98.

Prince first revealed he was in talks with a “major retailer” earlier this year during a chat with The Times’ Ann Powers. Some had speculated that he might go with Best Buy for the exclusive, but the “Purple Rain” purveyor must have seen something he liked in Target’s proposal. Both Target and Best Buy share something in common with the multi-instrumentalist: roots in Minnesota. 

Retail exclusives were major news in 2008. Best Buy gained headlines for its exclusive for Guns & Roses’ anticipated “Chinese Democracy” release, and AC/DC had one of the year's top-selling rock albums in "Black Ice," a Wal-Mart exclusive. Not to be left out, Target handled Christina Aguilera’s greatest hits package in 2008.

It’s not yet known if Target will get behind Prince’s triple threat the same way it did with Aguilera last year, when it ran an aggressive television campaign for “Keeps Gettin’ Better: A Decade of Hits."

Regardless, Prince may not need commercials to sell his new material: He appears to be in the mood to gig lately (the artist has played two shows in the last week or so in the Los Angeles area).  Could a tour be in the works?

Expect hints of music from all three discs to possibly leak in the coming weeks at Prince's developing website, Lotusflow3r.com.

-- Charlie Amter

Photo of Prince at Coachella last year by Spencer Weiner/Los Angeles Times

FM talk radio format all talked out? KLSX-FM (97.1) going top 40 Friday [UPDATED]

Good news for local fans of Rihanna, bad news for older talk radio listeners in Los Angeles. 

Beginning Friday at 5 p.m., boosters of urban-skewing artists such as Beyoncé, Pink and Britney Spears will have another top 40/"CHR" (contemporary hit radio) station to sing along to in their cars, as L.A.'s only "all-talk" commercial FM station now appears to be all talked out.

KLSX (97.1 Free FM) will switch formats Feb. 20 to CBS Radio's latest concept, titled AMP Radio (not to be confused with the now-defunct Amp'd Mobile, a company that heavily pushed mobile radio to cellphone users in 2006 but filed for bankruptcy protection in 2007). 

A CBS Radio news release says the new station (its tagline is "all the hits") will "combine the power of its on-air position with myriad online and digital applications creating a full 360 degree audio and visual experience."

Translation? Listeners of KLSX were probably too old.

AMP Radio originally bowed early last year as an online/HD2 station affiliated with KCBS-FM in L.A.  Apparently, the test run was successful enough to convince CBS radio executives that young, texting-and-Twittering teens -- the ones who spend money at malls while listening to music via their cellphones -- just can't get enough of artists such as Kanye West and T.I. This is despite the fact that there is plenty of competition in the space -- see KPWR (105.9), KIIS (102.7) and KDAY (93.5) -- all of which mine similar musical territory in the same market.

"Creating a successful radio station not only means focusing on what you hear over the air -- it's that, yet it's so much more and as evidenced by what we're announcing today, the possibilities are endless," said Kevin Weatherly, senior vice president of programming for CBS Radio, in a news release announcing the format change today.

On-air talent at the new AMP Radio is expected to be announced in coming weeks. "They will be added after the station launches," said Karen Mateo, vice president of communications at CBS Radio in New York.

Jerrie Thill: She's 91 and still rocking (and there's a new YouTube video to prove it)

What do you get when you combine a 91-year-old female drummer on an oxygen tank; an eccentric, Grammy-winning songwriter; and one of L.A.'s funkiest, hyper-local galleries? A party that will likely be unlike any you've ever attended.

The drummer is Jerrie Thill, a spunky phenom from the Jazz Age who still performs at the El Cid in Silver Lake. The songwriter is Allee Willis, who has penned a wildly diverse catalog of tunes including the theme to "Friends," the Pointer Sisters' "Neutron Dance" and "The Color Purple" musical. The gallery is Ghettogloss, the tiny Silver Lake-salon-that-could. The fortunate union of the three is in celebration of the YouTube premiere of a music video called "Hey Jerrie," directed by Willis and starring Thill.

The video features a catchy, jazz-driven number that Willis wrote and animated photos from Thill's life of drumming (featuring almost as many era-defining styles as I have fingers), interspersed with footage of Jerrie, as she is today, swinging her brushes above her head and pleasantly tap, tap, tapping on her kit.

"I generally like very offbeat talent," explains Willis. "But Jerrie is just a fine musician." Willis had already made a number of music videos featuring herself as her alter-ego "Bubbles" when she discovered Thill, who was playing her monthly Sunday gig at El Cid. Willis was immediately bowled over by the spunky nonagenarian. "I adored being around her," she says.

Living Things exclusive music preview: 'Mercedes Marxist'

What will the Living Things do now that George W. Bush is no longer our president? The same thing left-leaning talk show hosts nationwide will surely do -- cry, for lack of source material, then rejoice. 

But don’t think for a second the band's politically minded ringleader, Lillian Berlin, is finished calling out proverbial "Fox & Friends" (or its viewers), or any other like-minded champions of the American dream, which, according to Berlin, is all but dead. A track called “The Kingdom Will Fall,” about the end of the American empire, made the cut on the St. Louis-bred outfit’s forthcoming sophomore effort, "Habeas Corpus."

Or take, for example, “Mercedes Marxist,” off the anticipated full-length. Sample lyric?  How about: “I want a big car / like the kind the gangsters drive / I want the American dream / the backyard, the credit cards.”

The band’s label, Jive, has been kind enough to let us exclusively preview the followup to their single "Let It Rain" (a Floria Sigismondi-directed video of that tune was just released) off “Habeas Corpus,” which is slated to be released next month.

The guitarist wrote "Mercedes Marxist" after a stint in Germany, where the band recorded most of what will be the followup to 2005’s “Ahead of the Lions.”  The Living Things kick off their tour in support of "Habeas Corpus" with two SoCal dates in early Feb. (in Solana Beach Feb. 3 and an L.A. date at the Henry Fonda Feb. 4).

--Charlie Amter

Photo by Floria Sigismondi