Billboard.com has reported that the Jared Leto-fronted modern rock band 30 Seconds To Mars is being sued for $30 million dollars by Virgin Records.

“Virgin is suing the band for alleged breach of contract and damages “in excess of $30,000,000″, according to paperwork filed Friday (Aug. 15) in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Virgin accuses Jared and Shannon Leto of not delivering three of the five albums under the band’s contract, which it entered into in 1999 with Immortal Records. Virgin took over the contract in 2004, according to the suit, which adds that the Letos “repudiated” the 1999 contract “and claimed that they were excused from such performance from and after July 4, 2008, pursuant to California Labor Code Sec. 2855(a). The law governs the ability of entertainers to terminate their contracts after seven years.”

The band has responded via internet postings by Leto. It looks as if they intend to fight the lawsuit.

“So, as you may have heard we are being sued by our former record company for the ridiculously oversized, totally unrealistic and pretty silly (but slightly clever) sum of $30,000,000. Insane? Yea that’s what we said too.” Leto makes various claims in his posting, stating that the band were unhappy that they had sold two million albums yet were “still $1.4 million in debt” and that the “next record we make will be used to pay off that old supposed debt.”

It is interesting to see how this will play out, it seems to be the old major label swindle. Though, it is very possible for the band to walk away unharmed as I have heard about other artists safely ending their contract after 7 years in the state of California. For more info…

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It’s hard to believe that Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails have been around for 20 years. Though the “band” is mainly Trent Reznor (at least on record), it’s still amazing he’s been going strong for such a long time.

Billboard.com has a great retrospective piece titled “20 Years of Nine Inch Nails” that details each important phase of Trent Reznor/NIN’s career. The piece covers everything from Trent Reznor getting his first job working in a studio to the release of his newest album “The Slip” and everything in between. Of particular interest is the period between “The Downward Spiral” and “The Fragile” when Reznor was starting to develop a serious drug problem.

“On July 1, NIN cancelled its London Arena show, purportedly because of the drummer’s stomach flu. Years later, Reznor would reveal the real reason: He had overdosed on heroin, one particular drug he had always denied doing. The tour ended the following week, and Reznor disappeared for five years.”

For any NIN fans, this retrospective is well-worth checking out and also features a NIN Chart History, NIN Essential Videos and NIN Essential Recordings list.

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The band Portishead isn’t usually synonymous with the word “Guitar” but the band is pretty cool in my opinion. Also, the fact that Portishead hasn’t released an album in 10 years is a pretty signifcant reason to cover them now that they’ve released the album “Third”.

I have given the album a preview listen, but I could not even begin to do a proper review at this time as I haven’t listened to it enough. From my first listen, I noticed that it is not much of a trip-hop album. I think this is a good thing, as that style was cool, but has kind of faded from relevance and now sounds a little dated. The album features distorted bass guitar in several places, which could very well be the result of the “OM influence” the band cited in a Billboard.com article (in that article, billboard, obviously not knowing who OM even is, wrote their band name as “ohm”).

I’m interested in giving this album a few more listens, as I think its the type of album that deserves that before fully analyzing it.

-Positive Pitchfork media review of “Third”

-Billboard.com article referenced in this post