Search Results for: Bad Company

Green Day, Bad Religion, and Blink 182 are among the bands that will appear in a forthcoming documentary about the punk rock music scene in the 1990s. Australian independent production company Robot Academy Films is producing the film, One Nine Nine Four, which is slated for a 2008 release. The two filmmakers have been residing in Los Angeles conducting interviews and collecting archival footage of the bands before heading back to Australia next month to complete the editing process, according to PunkNews.org. The film will be narrated by skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, and will also feature bands including Rancid, the… Read more »

Now that the three young women in Candy Hill, a glossy rap and R&B trio, have signed a record contract, they are hoping for stardom. On the schedule: shooting a music video and visiting radio stations to talk up their music. But the women do not have a CD to promote. Universal/Republic Records, their label, signed Candy Hill to record two songs, not a complete album. “If we get two songs out, we get a shot,” said Vatana Shaw, 20, who formed the trio four years ago, “Only true fans are buying full albums. Most people don’t really do that… Read more »

Struggling music company EMI Group PLC, beset by profit warnings and an accounting scandal in Brazil, was thrown a potential lifeline Tuesday with a possible new takeover bid by former suitor Warner Music Group. A tie-up would bring a badly needed infusion of top U.S. artists including Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to London-based EMI – whose Beatles remix album has dropped off Billboard’s top 40 and whose great hope for cross-Atlantic appeal, Robbie Williams, has drawn more publicity for rehab than music. EMI confirmed Tuesday it had been approached by Warner, but that it has received no… Read more »

Late in the afternoon of Jan. 16, a SWAT team from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, backed up by officers from the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office and the local police department, along with a few drug-sniffing dogs, burst into a unmarked recording studio on a short, quiet street in an industrial neighborhood near the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The officers entered with their guns drawn; the local police chief said later that they were “prepared for the worst.” They had come to serve a warrant for the arrest of the studio’s owners on the grounds that they had violated the… Read more »

Britney Spears, who has faced public criticism for her partying ways since divorcing Kevin Federline in November, reportedly entered a rehab clinic earlier this week, only to check out soon after. Although her spokespeople have yet to confirm it, several outlets (initiated by “Extra”) claim that Spears checked into a treatment facility in the Caribbean on Wednesday. People and TMZ.com reported that she checked out a day later. People reported that Spears was treated at the Crossroads Centre, a facility on the Caribbean island of Antigua founded by Eric Clapton. (“Crossroads,” of course, is also the name of Britney’s only… Read more »

In a rare open letter from CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday, Apple urged record companies to abandon digital rights management technologies. The letter, posted on Apple’s Web site and titled “Thoughts on Music,” is a long examination of Apple’s iTunes and what the future may hold for the online distribution of copy-protected music. In the letter, Jobs says Apple was forced to create a DRM system to get the world’s four largest record companies on board with the iTunes Store. But there are alternatives, Jobs wrote. Apple and the rest of the online music distributors could continue down a DRM… Read more »

Avril Lavigne has penciled in an April 17 release for her new RCA album, “The Best Damn Thing.” As previously reported , the first single is “Girlfriend”; it will arrive March 5 at U.S. radio outlets, and its accompanying video will premiere Feb. 26 on MTV. With its handclaps and bad-girl vibe, the track is reminiscent of Toni Basil’s “Mickey,” as Lavigne pushes past rival ladies to demand attention from a new guy: “She’s like, so whatever / you could do so much better,” she sings of her competition. Two other tracks previewed by Billboard.com follow in a similar style:… Read more »

Music company EMI Group PLC, home of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Coldplay, said it is merging its Capitol and Virgin labels in the United States to form the Capitol Music Group. The move continues a reorganization at EMI, which earlier this month announced the departure of two top executives and warned investors that full-year sales will be far below expectations. Jason Flom will lead Capitol Music Group as chairman and chief executive, EMI said in a statement Thursday. Flom joined EMI as chief executive of Virgin Records America in November 2005. “The music business shows exciting growth potential,… Read more »

Around the time Brett Gurewitz was launching Epitaph Records in 1981, his father was lecturing him to take guitar lessons. The Bad Religion guitarist and punk-rock entrepreneur never sat down for courses with a guitar instructor, although he did go to school to learn to be a recording engineer. However, no amount of schooling could have prepared Gurewitz for the next 25 years of his life. Epitaph Records brought a new era of punk rock to the masses in 1994 when the Offspring’s “Smash” turned into one of the biggest rock records of the decade. The success of the label’s… Read more »

A new bill introduced in the US Senate this week would force satellite, digital, and Internet radio providers (but not over-the-air radio) to implement measures designed to restrict the ability of listeners to record audio from the services. Called the “Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act” (PERFORM), the bill is sponsored by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). If the name of the bill sounds familiar, it should. The bill was originally introduced in April 2006 with the support of the RIAA. It died in committee, but the… Read more »