Search Results for: the hives

A rock archive Web site is fighting back against a copyright lawsuit brought by some of music’s most notable classic rock acts, dragging two major record labels into the battle. In December, Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead, Santana and the Doors sued Wolfgang’s Vault claiming that the Bill Sagan-owned Web site violates intellectual property rights by selling merchandise and streaming concert archives belonging to the musicians. In response, Wolfgang’s Vault attorney Michael Elkin recently filed a 40-page counterclaim against the musicians and their labels, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group. “Far from being about bootlegging, consumer confusion or infringement of… Read more »

The meeting between two of the most improbable cultural icons of the 1970s lasted all of 30 minutes, but it has fascinated the nation for years. A photo of a cloaked and bejeweled Elvis Presley solemnly shaking hands with a grim-faced President Nixon remains the No. 1 requested document from the National Archives, nearly four decades after the secret meeting took place on Dec. 21, 1970. Now, on what would be the King’s 72nd birthday, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Birthplace is giving the curious public a good, long look at the relics of the coming together of The… Read more »

Pittsburgh – Behind a record store’s suburban strip mall facade sits a vaultlike storeroom that resembles dimly lit library stacks. Few customers make it behind Record-Rama Sound Archives’ checkout counter to find hundreds of thousands of LPs, CDs and 45s – which represent the last 48 years of Paul Mawhinney’s life. Mawhinney, a 65-year-old grandfather of five, claims to have accumulated nearly 3 million recordings – everything from a radio promotional album by the Rolling Stones to a rare release from Star Trek star Leonard Nimoy. He also created a database of about 700,000 titles that allows users to search… Read more »

New York – The upcoming Nirvana box set, “With the Lights Out,” features 18 previously unreleased audio tracks and four video clips from the archives of venerable indie label Sub Pop, to which the Kurt Cobain-led band was signed early in its career. Included are three Leadbelly covers recorded in August 1989 at Seattle’s Reciprocal Studios, with assistance from Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan and then-Trees drummer Mark Pickerel. Cobain had designs on forming a group around these players, to be named Jury or Lithium, but it never materialized. “When Lanegan was in the studio recording… Read more »

Inside Of Emptiness (Record Collection/Warner) It’s the fourth record in four months and Mr. Happy seems to be showing no signs of letting up any time soon. Inside Of Emptiness continues John Frusciante’s basic approach of stark “I’m climbing out of the darkness but I’m still really messed up” songs blasted out by his two man party system, himself and drummer/handyman Josh Klinghoffer. Klinghoffer once again proves to be a great asset when it comes to constructing Frusicante’s tracks, pulling off some snazzy percussive bits you wouldn’t expect from material that’s so anguish based. Musically, the duo seem to lie… Read more »

Universal Music, the music arm of Vivendi Universal and the world’s largest record company, will decide in coming weeks which of its Web music properties are worth keeping as the French media giant seeks to downsize, sources close to the company said on Thursday. Company representatives declined comment, but people familiar with the company said such a move was in line with Vivendi chairman and chief executive officer Jean-Rene Fourtou’s overall mandate to sell about $12 billion in company assets to reduce debt. “One of the things that will be happening in the next few weeks is that Universal Music… Read more »

Sony/ATV Music Publishing had a lot more country tunes to croon Tuesday after it paid $157 million to acquire the storied Acuff-Rose music publishing catalog fromNashville-based leisure and resort firm Gaylord Entertainment. The purchase adds 55,000 copyrights to the Sony/ATV catalog, including popular work from such country and pop acts as Roy Orbison and Hank Williams, as well as newer stars such as Brooks & Dunn and Tim McGraw. Sony was already far and away the largest country-music publisher in the world, with more than 150,000 titles in its archives before the Acuff-Rose deal. But as songwriters have become increasingly… Read more »

A new book about Jimi Hendrix says that in his early days Hendrix performed gigs with Jayne Mansfield. ‘Black Gold: The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix’ by Steven Roby says that Hendrix played bass and lead for Mansfield in 1965 – one ballad and a bump and grind number. The songs were never released. The two got together because they had the same manager. Mansfield did show up at one of Hendrix’s shows a few years later, but left with Englebert Humperdinck.

Sirius Satellite Radio yesterday began the first phase of its national service rollout in four markets, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, and Jackson, Mississippi. To commemorate the start of its satellite radio service, Sirius broadcast inaugural programming and treated Jackson to a special live concert featuring Randy Travis and a host of country artists. “This is an important day in Sirius’ history and we are thrilled to bring our premier satellite radio service to listeners in Denver, Houston, Phoenix, and Jackson,” said Joseph P. Clayton, Sirius’ president and CEO. “This will be a big year for Sirius as we roll out our… Read more »

Several weeks into shooting one film and with two others lined up after it, Ice Cube continues his gradual transition from rapper/actor to actor/rapper. Cube has just begun shooting Friday After Next, the follow-up to 2000’s Next Friday and third in the ghetto-fabulous series that began with 1995’s Friday. Cube again penned the screenplay and serves as producer. The director is Marcus Raboy, who, in addition to directing a host of Cube’s videos (“Guerillas in the Mist,” “Wicked” “You Know How We Do It”), has shot clips for Santana (“Smooth”) and Staind (“Fade”). Like the first two movies, Friday After… Read more »