Tidbits 5/4

• New York Post - Clay says AI is getting too slick -

  May 4, 2008 -- Clay Aiken doesn't have time to watch "American Idol." But the season two runner-up says that even if he did, it wouldn't be on his must-watch TV list.
  
  "I would never in any way negate the fact that it's put me where I am," says Aiken, who will wrap his Broadway run in "Spamalot" on Sunday and drop his fourth album ("On My Way Here") on Tuesday. "But I miss the innocence of 'Idol' of seasons one, two and three."
  
  That innocence, he says, was expressed in the raw, unpolished look and lack of experience of the kids who were competing.
  
  [...]
  
  Aiken says it bothered him when he heard that one of this year's contestants - Carly Smithson - already had a record deal. And that another, frontrunner David Archuleta, won the junior version of "Star Search." Says Aiken, "After Fantasia left, and after Kelly [Clarkson] won her two Grammys, I feel like it's been a little more polished, not the boy and girl next door that America wanted to help."

• Clay Aiken ready to release new CD -
• Edmonton Journal -

  There's a heap of top-shelf recordings slated to go public in the coming weeks, from Def Leppard and Clay Aiken to Motley Crue and Elvis Costello.
  

• Spectator Online - the face of the music industry is changing:

  “I think in the digital age, the download culture probably has a bigger affect on the popular music world, the Clay Aiken generation,” said Byron Wilson, an employee at Belltown’s punk record store, Singles Going Steady.

• WABC - Clay ends run on Spamalot.
  
• On My Way Here is making a splash everywhere. Take a look at this ad on Pogo.com: