Search Results for: THICK

Death Cab for Cutie kicked off its U.S. tour last night with a stop at Philadelphia’s Tower Theater, a converted movie house with acoustics ready-made for frontman Ben Gibbard’s supernaturally clean and earnest whisper. Gibbard, recently engaged to fellow indie icon Zooey Deschanel, took the stage after solid performances from opening acts Cold War Kids and Ra Ra Riot and delivered an intimate solo rendition of “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” to a quiet, seated crowd. The rest of the band emerged and hit their stride with “The New Year,” a cut off of 2003’s “Transatlanticism” that ended… Read more »

“Stand and Deliver,” the first song recorded by the reunited No Doubt, leaked yesterday, nearly a month before the band was due to perform the song on a flashback episode of Gossip Girl. Like No Doubt’s cover of Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life,” Gwen Stefani and her bandmates manage to take Adam & The Ants’ “Prince Charming” hit and skew it both more modern and more new wave. Stefani replaces Ant’s thick British vocals from the original with her own valley girl cadence, befitting of the band’s role as early 1980s Los Angeles rockers on Gossip Girl. That episode, a… Read more »

Four years after a stroke, Dick Clark is relishing the prospect of another New Year’s Eve celebration determined to appear for his 36th year in Times Square And he’s hardly surprised by the current state of the music industry he helped build – he predicted this, after all. Clark, who turned 79 last month and has been in front of the cameras for 61 years, said in a recent interview by e-mail that his involvement in “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2009,” diminished though it may be, is a labor of love and “not really a… Read more »

The Jonas Brothers Taylor Swift and Lionel Richie will ring in 2009 from Times Square on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” They will perform live during the ABC broadcast, joining Clark in New York along with his co-host Ryan Seacrest the network announced. Kellie Pickler also will be on hand in Times Square with live reports on the festivities. As previously announced, Natasha Bedingfield Fall Out Boy Jesse McCartney Ne-Yo Pussycat Dolls Solange and Robin Thicke will perform during the Hollywood Party segments, which will be hosted by Fergie. A New Year’s Eve tradition, the show will begin Dec.… Read more »

Rolling Stone magazine is shrinking with the times. After more than four decades of standing out with a larger format than other magazines, it will step back and look like everyone else starting with the Oct. 30 issue, due out this week. The adoption of a standard format could boost single-copy sales and reduce production costs for advertising inserts such as scent strips and tear-out postcards. The magazine says any cost savings, though, will be offset by the inclusion of more pages and the shift to thicker, glossier paper. Like other devoted readers, Eddie Ward, 35, said he will miss… Read more »

Guys, I know this is going to come as a bit of a shocker, so I hope you’re sitting down before you continue reading. But (deep breath, now)…Clay Aiken has confirmed, in an interview featured on the cover of the upcoming issue of People magazine and first leaked on Perez Hilton’s site, that he is indeed (wait for it), homosexual. All right, all right…so this isn’t the biggest news scoop in tabloid history. This is sort of akin to reporting that Chris Daughtry is bald, or that David Cook uses hair gel, or that Ruben Studdard shops at Big &… Read more »

If it seems like you are listening to music more but enjoying it less, some people in the recording industry say they know why. They blame that iPod that you can’t live without, along with all the compressed MP3 music files you’ve loaded on it. Those who work behind-the-mic in the music industry — producers, engineers, mixers and the like — say they increasingly assume their recordings will be heard as MP3s on an iPod music player. That combination is thus becoming the “reference platform” used as a test of how a track should sound. (Movie makers make much the… Read more »

Justin Timberlake and Beyonce lead the pop parade of nominees for the MTV Video Music Awards with seven nods apiece, it was announced Tuesday. Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” was nominated for video of the year, as was Timberlake’s ambitiously cinematic “What Goes Around … Comes Around,” which co-starred Scarlett Johansson. Also competing in the category are Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab,” Kanye West’s “Stronger,” Rihanna’s “Umbrella” (featuring Jay-Z) and Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” Timberlake was also nominated for male artist of the year and “most earth shattering collaboration” for pairing with Timbaland for “Sexy Back.” Beyonce was nominated for female artist of the year and for… Read more »

Usher’s latest confession: the wedding’s off. While word leaked earlier this week that the Grammy winner and his longtime girlfriend–and soon baby mama–Tameka Foster were due to tie the knot in a Hamptons ceremony Saturday, on the morning of the big day, Usher’s publicist confirmed that wedding bells would not be ringing. “It was announced today that the wedding ceremony for Usher Raymond, IV and Tameka Foster was canceled,” publicist Patti Webster told the Associated Press. “No additional information will be given regarding the circumstances of the cancellation, but we hope the privacy of this matter will be respected.” The… Read more »