Search Results for: the chisel

Holding its festivities for the first time in the city of skin, Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards was sizzling, energetic and colorful – yet tame, by MTV standards. There were no wardrobe malfunctions (sorry TiVo). Britney didn’t kiss Madonna like last year – or anyone else, for that matter (neither were at the blowout affair). The most skin shown was from Usher, who preened in front of the camera barechested as simulated raindrops fell on his chiseled body during the opening performance. Even the Christina Aguilera was classy, dressed sexy yet demurely as she debuted a jazzy number, “Tilt Ya… Read more »

No wonder pop fans are singing the blues. Radio sounds like a broken record. CD prices are heading off the charts. Labels are out of tune with the digital age. New acts fail to strike a chord with listeners. It’s time to face the music. The $14 billion recording industry, struggling through its first sales slump in a decade, faces challenges on several fronts, not the least of which is a tarnished image in the eyes and ears of fans who feel ripped off by greedy, tone-deaf bean counters. In 2001, album sales dropped 2.8% compared with 2000, the first… Read more »

Newport Beach doesn’t raise no quitters. Sugar Ray first presented themselves in 1995 as horn-dog pop funksters with Lemonade and Brownies and were roundly ignored. Floored appeared two years later with a gloss of self-parodying Swingers hip, and the lilting “Fly” took wing, planting band mouthpiece Mark McGrath’s chiseled cheekbones and parti-colored hair in front of every camera or mike that would pause long enough to listen to him joshingly appreciate his group’s success. Having been tagged nobodies and one-hit wonders, Sugar Ray got both mad and even, releasing 14:59 – their position on the clock of fleeting fame –… Read more »