Search Results for: french

If it hadn’t been for drummer Travis Barker’s near-fatal airplane crash last year, Blink-182 might not be touring this summer. But after a five-year hiatus, the rock trio — Barker, Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge — will embark on a nearly 50-date North American arena and amphitheater tour, beginning July 24th at the Joint in Las Vegas and wrapping October 3rd at the Borgata Events Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The trek will feature support on various dates from Weezer, Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, All-American Rejects, Taking Back Sunday, Asher Roth and Chester French. “My goal… Read more »

PARIS — Alternative act MGMT has beef with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “No time to think of consequences/Take only what you need from it,” sings American psychedelic indie rock band MGMT in its popular anthem “Kids.” This was exactly what French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party did when it used the song without the band’s permission. Now the ruling UMP party, which faced the threat of a lawsuit, has agreed to pay a financial compensation to the band, MGMT’s French lawyer said on Tuesday. Asked if the settlement fee amounted to 30,000 euros ($39,050), a sum cited by France Info… Read more »

NEW YORK —  YouTube and Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, said on Thursday they will launch a premium music video Web site as they bid to increase revenue from YouTube ‘s huge usage. The new site will be called Vevo and is expected to launch in coming months, the companies said. Plans for Vevo come in addition to the renewal and extension of YouTube’s rights deal to feature video content from Universal artists such as U2,  50 Cent and Kanye West Universal Music is owned by French media group Vivendi. Vevo will be a premium online music… Read more »

If you can stomach it, check out the sneak preview of Osbournes: Reloaded, the Osbourne family’s return to television, above. Instead of showing the fascinating inner-workings of rock’s most bizarre family like MTV’s The Osbournes, this time Ozzy, Sharon, Jack and Kelly are the hosts of their own variety show, a mix of pranks, comedy skits and musical performances with hopefully lots and lots of commercials in between. We don’t watch Howie Mandel’s prank show Howie Do It, but we imagine it’s probably similar to this Osbourne debacle. In one sketch, Ozzy Osbourne plays the role of manning the drive-thru… Read more »

Gotta hand it to Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz and company: The hardworking, blue-collar Midwestern pop-punkers-with-an-emo-attitude have gotten ever savvier and, dare I say, more mature with their songwriting and song-arranging. Consequently, “Folie a Deux,” (French for “madness shared by two”) may be one of the year’s most surprising albums. A tactfully produced (Neil Avron/Pharell Williams) affair that steers the Chicago-area band more toward the pop mainstream without sacrificing Fall Out Boy’s anthemic brashness, the band’s fifth album represents the zenith of its seven-year career. Some tracks — “I Don’t Care” with its “Spirit in the Sky” guitars and the zippy… Read more »

He’s photographed Princess Diana in diamonds, Madonna in lingerie and top model Gisele Bundchen in the buff. But celebrated French photographer Patrick Demarchelier says none of the hundreds of pop culture icons he’s immortalized in his more than 30 years behind the lens can compare with his dog, whom he calls “the perfect model.” An exhibition at Paris’ Petit Palais museum brings together more than 400 of Demarchelier’s renowned portraits, including, of course, a ravishing shot of Puffy the long-haired dachshund. Looking sprightly in his uniform of sneakers and a polo shirt, with his trademark shock of salt and pepper… Read more »

The first time Arcade Fire performed in Paris, Mathieu Saura stood outside the venue with his girlfriend, holding up a sign that read, “Please, we want to come to the show.” The band’s bassist, Richard Reed Perry, got them in, and ever since, Saura might as well have not left. Under the name Vincent Moon, he’s gone from a fan begging for tickets to an in-demand filmmaker who has revolutionized music video. His films are stripped down, intimate videotaped performances – shot in one take, often of an act simply strolling down a street or playing in a parking lot.… Read more »

Folksy French-Israeli singer Yael Naim found commercial success after her song “New Soul” played in Apple’s MacBook Air laptop ads, pushing the song to No. 7 on U.S. music chart Billboard’s Hot 100. She already had gained fame for what some saw as a comic choice to cover pop singer Britney Spear’s “Toxic,” singing a soulful, poignant version of the commercial hit while playing piano. But Naim, 29, whose self-titled new album was just released in the United States two months earlier than originally planned following the success of the Apple ad, says she’s not worried about being seen as… Read more »

More than a dozen recording artists, including the estates of Count Basie and Benny Goodman, sued Universal Music on Friday, saying they had been cheated out of more than $6 million in royalties since 1998. The artists, many of whom signed with recording companies that were later bought by Universal, sued the world’s largest music label for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty in a lawsuit filed in New York State Court. In a statement, Universal, which is owned by the French company Vivendi, denied the allegations. “We believe that these claims are baseless, and we are confident… Read more »