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CHICAGO—A judge has denied a motion from news organizations seeking immediate access to sealed court records and transcripts in the R. Kelly child pornography trial.

Judge Vincent Gaughan (GAWN) also refused to lift a gag order forbidding attorneys to talk about the case.

The judge says he’s not trying to inhibit the press. But he says the time isn’t right to release the information and keeping it secret is the only way to guarantee a fair trial.

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TORONTO—Shania Twain and husband-producer Robert “Mutt” Lange are splitting up after 14 years of marriage. The 42-year-old Canadian country superstar and 59-year-old Lange married in 1993 and have a 6-year-old son named Eja. Her publicist provided no further details Thursday about the couple’s breakup.

Lange and Twain, best known for her hits “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” and “You’re Still the One,” recently opened a hiking trail on their
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NEW YORK—Taylor Hicks is going from “Idol” to “Angel.”

The “American Idol” alum will join the Broadway cast of “Grease” on June 6, playing Teen Angel in the revival of the popular musical.

The gray-haired singer — whose “Idol” fan base was called “The Soul Patrol” — said he plans to add “soulful flavor” to his performance of “Beauty School Dropout.” The flashy role, he said, is “a classic fit for a classic performer.”

“It’s a big
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MANSFIELD — While his peers at the top of the hip-hop heap dedicate themselves to greater and greater heights of entrepreneurship, Kanye West has set his sights on scaling new artistic peaks. With his ‘‘Glow in the Dark’’ tour — which pulled into the Tweeter Center last night — the thinking man’s rapper reimagines the rap concert as a cohesive creative statement.

In the bargain, West accomplishes a feat of unprecedented visual, conceptual, and egotistical proportions.

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This is the kind of stuff that gives the parents of tween girls nightmares. In 2004, teen heartthrob Jesse McCartney was a mainstay on Radio Disney with a sweet little pop song extolling the virtues of a girl’s “beautiful soul.” In the video the most scandalous thing the bleach-blond, fresh-scrubbed Jesse and his friends did was drink some milk from the jug before paying for it.

In 2008, 21-year-old Jesse McCartney is burning up Top 40 radio
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NEW YORK - When he was about 12 years old, Pete Robbins knew he wanted to learn a wind instrument so he could play in his school band. And he worried that his original choice, the clarinet, simply wasn’t cool.

So his father - a nonmusician but an avid jazz listener - sat him down on the living room couch in their suburban Andover, Mass., home and served him a sampler platter of musical dishes to help him make his choice.

“He put on a couple
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In the global village, hearing an utterly unexpected style of music has become an increasingly endangered experience. But it’s still possible to find surprising and strangely beautiful sounds if one knows where to look. In Boston, the search often leads to World Music/CRASHarts, which presents the US concert debut of the Ngqoko Women’s Cultural Group tomorrow night at the Somerville Theatre.

The highly respected 15-member South African ensemble
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If you’re going to skip school, or at least leave early, it’s always beneficial to have a good excuse. When the five young men in Colour Revolt told their teachers at the University of Mississippi that they’d have to miss the last few weeks of classes, they had a dandy: the Jackson-based band was tapped to tour with the Breeders.

“We were fortunate that it worked out,” says Colour Revolt singer-guitarist Jesse Coppenbarger, 23, on the phone from
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If house music with a $20 cover at the Estate (see Page 2) doesn’t appeal to you, a less expensive option is Enrique Florendo and Francesco Spagna’s party Unity at Good Life. The DJs say the evening will be dedicated to the duo’s love of house music, and more specifically, “deep, sexy, uplifting house music to fill the spring air.” In other words, electronic music for allergy season. Opening the night is percussionist/DJ/all-around party guy Joakin
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Night after night, many Boston undergraduates find themselves sitting in their dorm rooms listening to bad ’90s music on 4-inch computer speakers, eating boneless spicy wings from last night’s delivery. But why endure these boring nights when a 40-minute trip to Providence can provide a welcome change of scenery?

Often this scenery is found in unexpected places. In a given week, Providence hosts dozens of house shows, all of which charge affordable
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Yo-Yo Ma is a relentlessly global musician. His travels are wide, his interests even wider.

Yet Ma, a Cambridge resident, is also a local musician, rooted in his hometown and committed to appearing with Boston ensembles as circumstances allow.

His next local gig happens Sunday, a gala concert at Symphony Hall with the Boston Youth Symphony, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Ma will play the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the BYS, which
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PHOENIX—DMX has pleaded not guilty to felony drug possession and misdemeanor animal cruelty charges. A judge entered the plea for the musician-actor (real name: Earl Simmons) at a brief court hearing Thursday. Simmons was late for court.

The 37-year-old rapper was indicted last week on 11 counts, including felony marijuana and paraphernalia possession and seven counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty.

The charges stem from an August raid
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NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Rodney Atkins is still surprised when people recognize him in the grocery store nowadays. But give it time.

With six nominations for Sunday’s Academy of Country Music Awards, including biggies like male vocalist, album of the year and song of the year, his shopping trips are about to get a lot dicier. He’s also scheduled to perform at the show, which airs live from Las Vegas at 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS.

A former repo man
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BERLIN—Peter Mussbach, general manager of Berlin’s famed Staatsoper, is leaving due to differences over programming.

The foundation that oversees Berlin’s three opera houses decided in consultation with Mussbach, 59, to “release him irrevocably with immediate effect,” a statement from the city government said Thursday.

“Both sides were prompted to take this step because they were unable to reach agreement on the future direction of the overall operation and the artistic programming,” the statement said.

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NEW YORK—T-Pain’s status as urban music’s most frequent collaborator helped him nab a leading five BET Award nominations.

Kanye West and Keyshia Cole received three nominations, while Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys and newcomer Flo Rida received a pair each. The nominations were to be announced later Thursday.

While T-Pain has his own hits, including the chart-topper “Buy U a Drank,” the singer and his electronically manipulated voice are
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LILONGWE, Malawi—Madonna won’t know until next week whether a Malawian boy she found in an orphanage in 2006 will become a permanent member of her family, her lawyer said.

Lawyer Alan Chinula had expected the judge to rule on the adoption Wednesday but said the hearing was delayed after a Malawian human rights group presented arguments on “shortcomings” in the southern African nation’s adoption laws.

Chinula said the group was not challenging the adoption and he expected it to be approved next week.

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Buying The Right Drum Cymbals

The basic guidelines for selecting the right drum cymbal for you are as follows.

1. Budget-How much can you afford to pay? All of the major cymbal makers have a wide range of cymbal lines to choose from. Always try to spend as much as you can afford on your cymbals. Unlike drums were you can make even a cheap drum kit sound good with the correct heads and tuning you cannot change the way a cymbal sounds. Cheap cymbals will always sound cheap no matter what you do.
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As local designer Clif Stoltze explained to friends that he was compiling a book of CD covers and music-related art and merchandise from the past five years, they were generally perplexed. Like many music fans, Stoltze’s friends thought the rise of the MP3 and the financial hardships faced by music labels signaled the beginning of the end of album cover art. In the tradition of brick and mortar music stores and Limp Bizkit’s CD sales, such work is on the wane, according to the conventional wisdom, that is.

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May 21 Christopher O’Riley tapes his popular NPR program (Sundays at 6 p.m. on WGBH-FM 89.7) celebrating musical prodigies. The concert features the Grammy-winning violinist Hilary Hahn, plus teen talents such as the Harlow Quartet. 8 p.m. $15-$20. Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston. 617-585-1260. fromthetop.org© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company. more stories like this

May 17 On a new album, “Heart Walk,” the perennially popular New England trio offers songs with folksy melodies and modern attitude, wrapped in harmonies as sweet and fat with life as a May meadow. $15. 8 p.m. Tremedal Concerts, 35 Church St., Watertown. 617-782-8718. tremedalconcerts.org© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company. more stories like this

May 17Gnarls Barkley’s Danger Mouse produced the Black Keys much-buzzed about fifth album, “Attack & Release,” tricking out the Ohio duo’s Delta-blues-based music with soul sophistication and sexed-up garage boogie. 7:30 p.m. $25. Orpheum Theatre, 1 Hamilton Place, Boston. 617-679-0810. livenation.com© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company. more stories like this

May 15 German electronic label Raster-Noton’s flagship group - featuring Carsten Nicolai (a.k.a. Alva Noto), Olaf Bender (a.k.a. Byetone), and Frank Bretschneider - performs uber-industrial post techno set to geometric video. It makes Kraftwerk’s music seem like nursery rhymes. 21+ 10 p.m. $10. Middlesex Lounge, 315 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. 617-868-6739.© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper
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Three days before New Kids on the Block reunite at the Tweeter Center for their first local show in 14 years (insert adolescent screams here), Kanye West and Rihanna take over the venue with N.E.R.D. and Lupe Fiasco for West’s “Glow in the Dark” tour. West (above) will, of course, perform “Gold Digger” and “Stronger.” Rihanna will, of course, do hits like “Umbrella.” According to recent set lists, there will also be a few covers; supposedly, one
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Not so long ago, those crazy Internet success stories were a thrilling peek into the grassroots potential of Web-launched music careers. No longer required to sell their souls to the corporate devil in order to reach a worldwide audience, talented young musicians post their four songs online, generate blog buzz, amass a fan base, and wait for the major-label bidding war to begin. It’s tastemaking from the bottom up, a refreshing inversion of the historical power structure.

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Mp3 Players: Get A Wonderful Music Experience

Music has become an intrinsic part of everyone’s daily life. Most of the people prefer listening to music at their leisure time. Earlier, there were bulky music players which required cassette to play music. They had minimum functions and features. With the passage of time, the demands of people have increased. They want to listen to their choice of music while going to their office,
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The Options Of Car Stereo Systems Available In The Market Today

Car stereo systems are the most important components of any car audio. In the recent days, more and more people are realizing that a car stereo system is not good enough when it does not please your liking. With many upgrades from the first car stereo system in 1930, the options available to choose from today are amazing. You might have a system that is flat and
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Where To Download 80’s Rock Music

If you want to download 80’s rock music online, you’ll have an easy time doing that. The internet has greatly prospered in recent years. With more and more people patronizing online stores, many businesses most especially those within the music industry have begun to offer music sales and downloads online.

Online music stores have a large number of audio CD’s for purchase, shipping
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The Newest Range Of Models Of Guitars Which Is Offered By Ibanez Trademark

Fashion trends affect a lot on guitar models. They develop and modify their sounds, as well as their looks, from generation to generation. Electric guitars are mostly universal with no particular national color. Mostly, but not certainly. The spring 2008 collection of Ibanez guitars doesn’t consider the norms of a global style and gives in a unique ethnic zest.
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Review Of The Jay-z Cd Volume 2 Hard Knock Life

The exceptionally talented Rap artist Jay-Z has released him CD entitled Volume 2 Hard Knock Life. I am very confident and happy to announce that I believe Jay-Z fans, and Rap fans alike will be pleased with this one. With the release of Volume 2 Hard Knock Life Jay-Z’s artistic excellence is on full display as Jay-Z has once again delivered a brilliant collection of tracks that could very well be him best work to date.
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Have Google And Yahoo Left You High And Dry With Your Online Entertainment?

When Searching for your Online Entertainment, Google, Yahoo, MSN and all the top engines give you their ’sponsored links’ first. These links are simply websites who are willing to pay Google, Yahoo, MSN and all the others money upfront just to lead you to their websites in hopes of getting you to buy their product or service. So who is there to protect
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