"Prince announces a triple album set available from Target. Unless he’s going to write a hit song and play in each and every store in the chain, this is a bad deal. We’ve got enough Prince music. We want two CDs and a third of a protege? I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a life. And Prince hasn’t put out a good album in this century. ... How many people are going to tell their friends about Prince’s new album? None. No one has hipped me to a new Prince track in fifteen years. The release of his album is a dead end. He’s abused our trust. When you e-mail me an unsolicited track you abuse my trust. When you add me to your mailing list without asking first, you abuse my trust. When you focus on marketing as opposed to music, you’ve got your head up your ass." - Bob Lefsetz (previously)
posted by Joe Beese on Mar 10, 2009 - 109 comments

Larz Kristerz plays "Purple Rain". For some reason, Prince hasn't sued them. Yet. [more inside]
posted by iviken on Jan 17, 2009 - 25 comments

Apropos on Black Friday, Charles, Prince of Wales addresses the Foreign Press Association with a comprehensive lecture on the dangers of unchecked consumerism and the need for an increasingly holistic worldview in light of the global social, economic and environmental challenges. The credit crisis is a side effect of a throwaway society and consumerism is no cure for depression, he says, and we need to question the concepts of "Modernity" and "Economic Growth" we take for granted.
posted by infini on Nov 28, 2008 - 102 comments

Fifty Norwegian artists (including the national symphony orchestra KORK), who recorded Prince covers in honor of his 50th birthday June 7, have been slapped with a lawsuit by the short-tempered star. For now, all 81 songs can be previewed free on C+C Records' website, and some are also available on MySpace in streamable medley form. Source.
posted by astruc on Jun 28, 2008 - 43 comments

the Prince "Come Together" bootleg ... from Coachella 2008 that's popping up suddenly on many indie mp3 blogs now . ..Incidentally.. the Beatles wrote this as an unofficial Presidential campaign song for Timothy Leary (incarcerated at the time) . A progressively intense audience engagning performance ... if they ever do a career spanning Prince box set they'll put this on.
posted by celerystick on May 26, 2008 - 37 comments

The video of German electrofunkmeister Michael Fakesch's On the Floor (via Daily Motion) might make getting to sleep difficult. But it's awesome, and the guy sounds like a younger, angrier Prince. [more inside]
posted by bwg on May 5, 2008 - 9 comments

The 'bullet magnet' is back. I can't believe that the British press kept a secret for so long (10 weeks is a miniature eternity in journalist time). It was supposed to last six months... I also can't believe that the odious Drudge has broken yet another big story. Was it all just a PR stunt? [more inside]
posted by chuckdarwin on Mar 3, 2008 - 117 comments

On Tuesday, A.V. Club critic Nathan Rabin's reassessment of the rabidly ambitious Perfume: The Story of a Murderer marked the culmination of his Year of Flops project, a reviewing marathon of 104 commercial and critical failures. Here's the index of the films, sorted into Elizabethtown-derived categories of good but luckless movies, ordinary losers, and disasters of mythic proportions. [more inside]
posted by Iridic on Jan 24, 2008 - 38 comments

Justice "live" on Jimmy Kimmel -- An interesting solution to the problem of 'performing' electronic music.
posted by empath on Oct 24, 2007 - 53 comments

Jim Henson's The Frog Prince [more inside]
posted by StopMakingSense on Sep 29, 2007 - 15 comments

The Once and Future Prince [NYTimes link] Although Prince declined to be interviewed about “Planet Earth,” he has been highly visible lately. His career is heading into its third decade, and he could have long since become a nostalgia act. Instead he figured out early how to do what he wants in a 21st-century music business, and clearly what he wants is to make more music. Here's a YouTube celebration of some of man's hits over the years: Black Sweat, Let's Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, Purple Rain, Little Red Corvette, Nothing Compares 2 U (ok, the Sinead version), and finally, Prince's basketball showdown with Charlie Murphy.
posted by psmealey on Jul 22, 2007 - 29 comments

Planet Earth, the new Prince album, to be given away for free as a newspaper insert. Music industry bigwigs splutter, fume.
posted by hermitosis on Jun 29, 2007 - 82 comments

While the Queen was in New Zealand on Christmas Eve 1953 a lahar destroyed a rail bridge in Tangiwai. When the Wellington to Auckland Express tried to cross the bridge, the resulting accident killed 151 people. On behalf of her mother, Prince Andrew is currently in New Zealand, commemorating a hero, and another lahar has errupted, from the same volcano. The death toll is zero.
posted by Samuel Farrow on Mar 18, 2007 - 13 comments

Hacking The Superbowl. John Hargrave spends $40,000 for an elaborate Superbowl prank -- duping the feds, cops, and stadium security in order to pass out thousands of lights to fans, who were told they would spell out "Prince" during the halftime show. Instead, they spell out, uh... well, something. Just what they spell is unclear (though some are having fun "guessing") and Hargrave hasn't said yet (his write-up is up to part 5, hopefully of 6). Can you tell? And was it worth the effort, or is this just an expensive dud?
posted by notmydesk on Feb 14, 2007 - 71 comments

'The Family' Has Reunited. Members of the studio band created in the wake of The Time's disintegration, who never toured and who only released one self-titled album (featuring the beautiful photography of Horst and lavish orchestration by Clare Fischer, like much of Prince's other projects at the time) have reunited. No word yet about any involvement from either Prince (writer of nearly all the band's songs, including their gigantic hit Nothing Compares 2 U - well, at least for Sinead O'Connor) or his Revolution cohorts Wendy (twin sister of Family co-lead vocalist Susannah Melvoin) & Lisa, now a successful scoring team for film and television.
posted by dagarrat on Jan 31, 2007 - 7 comments

While my guitar fiercely weeps Next on YouTubeFilter: Prince shares a stage with Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and George Harrison's son Dhani, at Harrison's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. No, scratch that: Prince ain't sharin' with nobody -- that stage is all his.
posted by Artifice_Eternity on Feb 9, 2006 - 106 comments

Prince wants to sell you the Watchtower and Awake magazines. I am very surprised at this turn of events. What's he gonna do about all his songs that have so much sexual content?
posted by summer1971 on May 28, 2001 - 13 comments

The-Artist-Once-Again-Known-As-Prince debuts his new single on Napster - The Work - Pt. 1, which is the first track from Prince's new album, The Rainbow Children will be available on Friday. Prince has worked without a major label contract since 1994 after a contract dispute with Warner Music.
posted by radio_mookie on Apr 3, 2001 - 10 comments

Start the "formerly known as formerly known as..." jokes now: I find this tremendously disappointing, but the first person to actually adopt an icon as his name has reversed the decision, a scant 7 years into the adventure.

Prince is, once again, Prince. R.I.P.
posted by anildash on May 16, 2000 - 11 comments