Blink-182 have proven through their latest EP that, while they may not be as angsty or unruly as they were a decade ago, they are still the same musicians, simply growing up and moving forward with their sound.
Some of the world’s biggest names in music were all about Saving Our Selves this weekend. SOS, of course, referring to the campaign being touted Saturday across the globe at the seven-continent, 24-hour Live Earth concert extravaganza, a worldwide shout-out to individuals, political leaders, corporations and every other entity capable of helping put a stop to the environmental scourge that is global warming. In a partnership with Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection and other U.S.-based and international organizations, Live 8 executive producer Kevin Wall put together a bill that included the Police, Madonna, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica,… Read more »
Cleveland – Despite lukewarm sales for highly anticipated reunion album “Astronaut,” the members of Duran Duran aren’t about to give up on the Epic disc. Released late last year, the set has sold 219,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. “I don’t think any of us are satisfied with how that record has done, and that’s really why we’re planning on staying on the road for most of this year,” bassist John Taylor told Billboard. “Because I think it’s an album that is deserved of a bigger audience than what it already has, our job in part… Read more »
Beyonce Knowles may be “Crazy in Love,” but she kept her cool Sunday at one of the more sober Grammy Awards shows in memory. She was the night’s big winner, taking home a record-tying five trophies to join recent Grammy queens Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys and Norah Jones with the most wins in a single year by a female performer. OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below won Album of the Year, giving the eccentric Atlanta funk/rap group three wins, including Best Urban Alternative Performance and Best Rap Album. British band Coldplay took home the prize for Record of the Year for “Clocks,”… Read more »
New York’s finest new rock acts will be anthologized on “YES New York,” a 15-track collection due June 3 from Wolfgang Morden, the soundtrack imprint of Vice Records. The album kicks off with a previously unreleased live version of the Strokes’ “New York City Cops” recorded in Iceland, and concludes with an acoustic version of “Our Time” performed by Unitard, a side project of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. “As transplants to New York, we had spent a decade watching the New York rock scene kinda suck with too many Heartbreaker wannabes and noisy sound-alikes,” executive producers Chris White and Brian… Read more »
The “boogeyman of rap” is busting his gun, pistol-whipping one of his cheating mate’s lovers, contemplating other grisly forms of violence and taking a leak on the White House lawn – and that’s just by the midpoint of The Eminem Show. Yes, ladies and gents, “Shady’s back,” as he proclaims in his first single, “Without Me,” and Eminem still has a lot to vent. As soon as the curtain opens on Em’s third solo album, it’s clear all of the rapper’s frustrations that have been building up over the last two years since The Marshall Mathers LP are going to… Read more »
While Dec. 31, 2001, may not rank up there with the millennium celebrations, there’s still plenty of top-notch live music being presented in the clubs and arenas of the U.S. this New Year’s Eve. So, if you’re planning to get off the couch while Dick Clark rings in 2002 in Times Square, rest assured that there are worthwhile options in most major cities. In New York, band of the moment the Strokes will open for perennial indie favorite Guided By Voices at the famed Apollo Theatre. Further downtown, Phish’s Page McConnell will premiere his new band, Vida Blue, which features… Read more »
musicmusicmusic inc. (Neuer Markt: MU5), one of the world’s premier Music Content Providers, today announced their contract renewal with the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). The newly revised contract boasts some exciting revisions, including a new method of calculating licensing fees. With the new license basing fees on a per-performance basis, musicmusicmusic will no longer pay royalties based on overhead of the division. The revised method of determining license fees owing is calculated specifically on the actual performances of sound recordings and revenue. The previous contract specified license fees based on revenue or overhead and did not consider actual… Read more »
It’s not that you shouldn’t have believed that Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes was dropping a solo album. It’s just that TLC’s most outspoken member has been talking about her record for so many years without delivering, you had to start to wonder if it was going to happen while she was still young enough to perform selections from the LP without using a walker to get onstage. However, it looks like Left Eye is ready to stop selling wolf-tickets and show and prove. Supernova is scheduled to arrive on August 14, and the album’s first single, “The Block Party,” is… Read more »