Re: [Prince-4ever] winnipegfreepress.com: Prince's 3-CD Set Wildly Uneven And Only Online Or At U.S. Target stores

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

PRINCE ANNOUNCES MUCH ANTICIPATED LAUNCH OF NEW LOTUSFLOW3R.COM
WEBSITE ON MARCH 24, 2009 WITH UNPRECEDENTED ACCESS TO
NEW AND OLD CONTENT INCLUDING NEW ALBUMS, CONCERT TICKETS AND CONCERT FOOTAGE

The Site Will Allow Members to Download New Studio Albums LOtUSFLOW3R, MPLSoUND, and
Elixer, a collaboration with his new protégé Bria Valente, as Part of the Annual Membership Fee
Prior to Release in Target Stores

ON THE EVENING OF THE LAUNCH, PRINCE WILL PLAY THREE SEPARATE SHOWS ACROSS THE LOS ANGELES AREA TO SUPPORT THE NEW SITE

Los Angeles, CA…March 16, 2009 – In an unprecedented effort to manage his own content, Prince is proud to announce the official launch of his new, highly anticipated website LotusFlow3r.com on March 24th, 2009. As soon as the site goes live, fans will have access to new content including digital downloads of his new studio albums LOtUSFLOW3r, MPLSoUND and Elixer, a collaboration with his new protégé Bria Valente; concert tickets; sneak peaks at upcoming events; live concert footage; exclusive imagery from past albums and other exclusive photos for an annual membership fee of $77. Throngs of fans have already signed up on the existing beta version of the website for email updates and are waiting in the wings to become members and experience the world of Prince in a whole new way.

On the evening of March 24th, Prince will be performing at three different locations with three different bands throughout the Los Angeles area. How he plans to do this is still a mystery and even his musicians are not sure of all the details, but Prince fans have come to expect the unexpected. In addition, it was previously announced that Prince will play an unprecedented three nights in a row on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 25th, 26th and 27th and will return to help Leno end his reign on the late night show by performing on his next to last show on May 28th.

LotusFlow3r.com is an entire interactive galaxy, conceived by Prince and created by Scott Addison Clay and Anthony Malzone, that takes the Prince fans into three distinctly different worlds emanating the feel of the three new albums in a high-end 3-D style design. Currently, the beta version of the site hosts new tracks "Colonized Mind" from the new LOtUSFLOW3r album, "DiscoJellyfish" from the new MPLSoUND album and "Another Boy" from Elixer with Bria. In addition, the site is slated to release a new music video from each of the three albums on the launch date including "Crimson and Clover" from LOtUSFLOW3r, "Chocolate Box" from MPLSoUND and "Everytime" from Elixer. Prince also plans to give his fans access to tickets to live shows, concert footage from past performances, exclusive imagery from his past albums and other exclusive photos, exclusive information about any private or secret shows, as well as exclusive content that will only be available in the first week of the site launch and may never become available again. Fans who join the site early will also receive a boutique-quality "Founding Member" t-shirt that displays the central image from the galaxy. Over time, Prince will continue to give fans more access to high-end never released photos and video content and much more.

Prince collaborated with Malzone and Clay throughout the design and development of the entire website. In fact, the three often fed off of each other's creative ideas. For instance, Prince wrote the music for the track "DiscoJellyfish," which inspired Malzone, who visualized a design and took to his computer programs to design graphics and artwork to communicate the feel of the song, which then, upon seeing the designs, further inspired Prince to continue to write the song. Everything within this galaxy is a creative portal derived from the brilliant mind of Prince, beautifully executed by Malzone and Clay.

Newsweek.com has exclusively released the new cover art for Bria's Elixer and Prince's MPLSoUND albums: click here for Newsweek story .

Since his debut in 1978, Prince has had numerous hits on the Billboard Charts. In 2004, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has won six GRAMMY® awards, an Academy Award® and a Golden Globe®. From the moment he stepped onto the music scene, he has captivated fans with his continual reinvention as an artist and remains one of the most celebrated performers of all time. In 2006, Prince won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 10th Annual Webby Awards. The founder of the awards called Prince "a visionary, who recognized early on that the web would completely change how we experience music."

Peace, Love & Light [& Stay Funky] ...
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFloridaNPG/
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/PurpleMusicMansion/
NPG Member 4 Life ... [Live 4 Love]

From: Robin Lewis <paisley@rocketmail.com>
To: Prince-4ever@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 1:11:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Prince-4ever] winnipegfreepress.com: Prince's 3-CD Set Wildly Uneven And Only Online Or At U.S. Target stores

Is there going to be a retail store on the site for "Prince "Clothing and more???? I miss that with the NPG club site gone. Always looking for stuff "Prince" to buy

From: kasey b <kaseybreeann@ yahoo.com>
To: "Prince-4ever@ yahoogroups. com" <Prince-4ever@ yahoogroups. com>
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 3:43:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Prince-4ever] winnipegfreepress. com: Prince's 3-CD Set Wildly Uneven And Only Online Or At U.S. Target stores

I wasn't expecting anything from Bria anyway......

On Mar 20, 2009, at 11:15 AM, "~*\[\[PFL\] \]*~" <qaidsharif@yahoo. com> wrote:

Prince's 3-CD set wildly uneven and only online or at U.S. Target stores

Josh L. Dickey, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

11:40 AM |

"LOtUSFLOW3R"

Prince

Of the 31 tracks on Prince's new three-CD fire sale, only a handful will glint in the eyes of loyal fans who still sift his newer material for rare gems. To those awaiting a free sample on the radio, sorry - you aren't going to get one this time around, either.

It's been 15 years since a Prince single cracked the Top 10 ("The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" charted No. 3 in 1994), and nothing from these three discs sounds in danger of breaking that streak.

The rare die-hard who understood "The Rainbow Children," Prince's wildly conceptual Jehovah's Witness manifesto from 2001, may be able to translate the shifting language of "LOtUSFLOW3R, " the central record in this effort. It's heavy and esoteric at times, jaunty and jammy at times, and highly indulgent all the time.

Thing is, if you're going to listen to someone indulge themselves in genre-bending psychedelia, it may as well be this guy.

The best track is "Boom," with its melody that descends like a dazzling meteor shower, ponderous slabs of wet bass crashing all around and light sabre-buzz guitar to slice through it all. The song embodies the dark yet delicate surrealism of the new fan site that Prince helped design, lotusflow3r. com, from which "members" can download all three albums as part of a US$77 annual subscription fee beginning Tuesday.

The deal includes a T-shirt, dibs on concert tickets, access to a vast archive of concert video footage and other digital geek-out goodies. (The three-CD set is being sold in its physical form exclusively at Target, which has no outlets in Canada, for a much more earthly US$11.98.)

On another guitar-heavy highlight, "Dreamer," Prince unabashedly echoes Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" - in fact, the better part of "LOtUSFLOW3R" careens around the edges of the bluesy, spacey trail that Jimi blazed. But its unevenness is its undoing; weird mumbling, random atmospherics, dissonant touches - and an unnecessary cover of "Crimson and Clover" - punch gaping holes in the cosmic seriousness with which the record takes itself.

Thank goodness, then, for "MPLSoUND," much of which may be the artist's greatest gift to fans in many years.

The disc starts out as an old-school romp that sounds as if Prince rolled up the rusted door of a warehouse behind Paisley Park, surveyed the dusty, vintage synth gear, and said to the posse behind him: "Fellas, let's make a funky record today."

The first few tracks could almost be mistaken for "Controversy" outtakes: You'll recognize the dry, flat pop of primitive electronic drums, campy whirl of analog keyboards and wild-eyed vocal stylings that ground an edge on Prince's early stuff. But sure enough, even "MPLSoUND" gets bogged down in throwaway slow-jams and shuffles that suck nearly all the fun energy from a promisingly rowdy start.

A third CD, entirely sung by new protege Bria Valente, is so lifeless and irrelevant as to hardly merit mention here. "Elixer" is a wholly forgettable trudge through generic R&B plodders that would drag down the most dynamic of singers; and Valente is not one. Her breathy whispers - and naughty good looks, for that matter - are more reminiscent of Ashley Alexandra Dupre than Apollonia.

The good news is that at $11.98 for all three, you can afford to rip the good tracks from "LOtUSFLOW3R" and "MPLSoUND" to your iPod, then use "Elixer" as a mirror to work on your air-guitar face. Because you're going to need it.

http://www.winnipeg freepress. com/entertainmen t/breakingnews/ Prince_s- 3-CD-set- wildly-uneven- and-only- online-or- at-U_S_-Target- stores-41576532. html

Peace, Love & Light [& Stay Funky] ...
http://launch. groups.yahoo. com/group/ TheFloridaNPG/
http://launch/. groups.yahoo. com/group/ PurpleMusicMansi on/
NPG Member 4 Life ... [Live 4 Love]