Search Results for: seattle

Apple Computer Inc. apparently doesn’t want to sing the same tune as its Internet music rival RealNetworks Inc. Seattle-based RealNetworks said Thursday that Apple chairman Steve Jobs had rebuffed an offer by RealNetworks’ chief executive Rob Glaser to meet and discuss forming an online music alliance involving Apple’s best-selling iPod portable players. “He’s in the neighborhood, but whatever meeting Rob wanted with Steve isn’t happening,” RealNetworks spokesman Greg Chiemingo said Thursday. “Steve just doesn’t want to open the iPod, and we don’t understand that.” Executives at Cupertino-based Apple declined to comment. As first reported in The New York Times, Glaser… Read more »

Police have arrested a man in Seattle for allegedly stalking Avril Lavigne. According to the Associated Press, 30-year-old James Speedy was taken into custody in the Seattle suburb of Lynnwood and was taken to Lynnwood County jail after police searched his home last Wednesday (April 7). Police in Lynnwood have been investigating the case since Canadian police informed them that harassing letters and emails were being sent to Lavigne last year. The exact content of those letters and emails hasn’t been revealed, but police have told the press that they were creepy enough to freak Lavigne out. Coincidentally, the same… Read more »

Kurt Cobain and his band, Nirvana, spent only three years in the public eye, and they released only three studio albums. But what he accomplished before committing suicide 10 years ago Monday at age 27 – deciding it was “better to burn out than fade away,” as he quoted Neil Young in his suicide note – was remarkable. Beneath this bridge above the muddy banks of the Wishkah River, a troubled young Cobain would come to escape his unhappy home and the persistent gray drizzle of the Washington coast. Among the cracking concrete supports, he would smoke pot and drink… Read more »

Britney Spears is getting into that “Leaving Las Vegas” frame of mind. The singer is going to stage her suicide in her new video for “Everytime,” as a way to respond to rumors and reports that she’s teetering on the brink, seeking help, in therapy or otherwise disturbed. Call the clip Britney’s funhouse mirror – it’ll reflect her life, but distort it, too. Spears’ follow-up to “Toxic” – her first #1 single since 2000’s “Oops!… I Did it Again” – will be shot in Los Angeles but set in Sin City, home of her quickie marriage. Though “Everytime” is a… Read more »

Avril Lavigne will visit twenty-one malls nationwide to preview songs from her second album, Under My Skin. Starting tomorrow in Minneapolis, Lavigne and co-writer/guitarist Evan Taubenfeld will play sets that feature three songs from Skin – including the first single, “Don’t Tell Me” – along with material from her hit debut, Let Go. Fans can find out specific locations for the appearances forty-eight hours in advance by signing up at the tour’s Web site (avrillavigne.net). Skin finds Lavigne no longer working with the hitmaking production team the Matrix, who helped shape the multi-platinum Let Go. In the fold this time… Read more »

Prince is taking that little red Corvette out of the garage again. On the heels of his blistering Grammy “Purple Rain” performance, the ’80s funk legend has announced he will hit the road with the New Power Generation for his first major arena tour in six years in support of his new CD, Musicology. To help hype the tour, Prince says the upcoming gigs may be the last time fans get to see him jam out some of the best-known hits live. That presumably means that tunes like “Little Red Corvette,” “1999” “Purple Rain,” When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go… Read more »

No Doubt and Blink 182 will team up for a coheadlining U.S. amphitheater tour beginning June 1 in Indianapolis and wrapping June 26 near Los Angeles. The summer dates will be planned around No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani’s work on an Interscope solo album and her role in the upcoming Martin Scorsese film “The Aviator.” “I was like, ‘Gwen, can you give me three weeks?”‘ No Doubt manager Jim Guerinot told Billboard. “I would have loved to have had a whole summer of this tour.” Added No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal in a statement: “It’s been a while since we’ve… Read more »

Fresh off a stint on the Big Day Out tour of Australia and New Zealand, the Strokes have unveiled plans for a six-week spring outing in the United States, with an excursion to Mexico City. Dates get underway March 9 in Washington, D.C., and are confirmed through April 25 in Minneapolis, although Strokes manager Ryan Gentles told Billboard.com the tour is expected to run through May 19. Support acts have not yet been announced. The New York rock quintet is touring in support of its sophomore RCA album, “Room on Fire,” which debuted in October at No. 5 on The… Read more »

Ben Kweller and producer Ethan Johns took a trip back in time in recording Kweller’s third solo release, On My Way. Johns encouraged the twentysomething pop phenom to cut his latest album in classic garage rock manner: guitars, bass and drums played live in the studio with no headphones and minimal post-production. Johns’ recording of the eleven-song set, due April 6th, captures some live-wire vocals from Kweller as well as his inspired guitar interplay with Mike Stroud (formerly of Dashboard Confessional), which echoes that of Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Danny Whitten circa 1969. Kweller was introduced to the producer… Read more »

Lost Highway recording artist Ryan Adams is set to kick off his nationwide headlining tour in support of his critically acclaimed CD “Rock N Roll,” as well as his two EPs, “Love Is Hell Part 1” and “Love Is Hell Part 2.” The tour will begin March 2 in Columbia, MO, and will include a show at Los Angeles’ Wiltern Theatre on March 13. Released November 4, “Rock N Roll” marks a departure for Adams. The album features 12 electrified songs inspired by some of his musical influences, including The Smiths, U2 and the Replacements. While he continues to heighten… Read more »