Search Results for: Jay Som

The Grinch might be stealing Christmas from music retailers, but thanks to Josh Groban and Oprah, there’s still some singing in Whoville. For the sales week kicked off by Super Tuesday–the release date before Thanksgiving when record labels typically schedule their big guns–the figures were abnormally bad, with only one Top 10 bow and a seven-week-old album topping the charts. Still, that album, Groban’s Noël, can thank last week’s performance on The Oprah Winfrey Show for driving it past Alicia Keys and into the number one spot. Noël crowned the Billboard 200 by selling 405,000 copies for the week ended… Read more »

AJ McLean remembers the conversation well. Kevin Richardson was having doubts about his future in the Backstreet Boys, and one night in the dressing room after a 2005 show, he told his friends in the mega-selling boy band how he was feeling. “There’s some things I need to do first, for me,” McLean recalled Richardson saying. The group had been discussing “when we wanted to start recording again,” McLean said. “Everyone was ready, but that was the first time Kevin put it out in the atmosphere that he wasn’t.” The Boys needed some time to digest Richardson’s news. In June… Read more »

Justin Timberlake and Beyonce lead the pop parade of nominees for the MTV Video Music Awards with seven nods apiece, it was announced Tuesday. Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” was nominated for video of the year, as was Timberlake’s ambitiously cinematic “What Goes Around … Comes Around,” which co-starred Scarlett Johansson. Also competing in the category are Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab,” Kanye West’s “Stronger,” Rihanna’s “Umbrella” (featuring Jay-Z) and Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” Timberlake was also nominated for male artist of the year and “most earth shattering collaboration” for pairing with Timbaland for “Sexy Back.” Beyonce was nominated for female artist of the year and for… Read more »

“Hands Held High,” one of the most powerful songs on Linkin Park’s new album, includes lyrics about bombs blowing up mosques, a bumbling leader, high gas prices and general world confusion – an obvious missive against President Bush and the war in Iraq. Or maybe not. Tell that interpretation to Mike Shinoda, the rapper/musician who writes most of the lyrics for the blockbuster band, and you’ll get an earful on making assumptions about the group’s most adventurous album to date, “Minutes to Midnight.” “We’re not a political band. And I see some of the stuff that you’re referring to …… Read more »

BURBANK, CA–May 3, 2007 — Following on the heels of a triumphant appearance at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival, Jack’s Mannequin, the side project of Something Corporate singer-keyboardist Andrew McMahon, will make the rounds of this summer’s major music festivals, including The Bamboozle in East Rutherford, NJ, on May 6th, Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI, on June 28th, and Lollapalooza in Chicago, IL, on August 3rd. McMahon formed Jack’s Mannequin with guitarist Bobby Anderson, bassist Jonathan Sullivan, and drummer Jay McMillan in Orange County, CA, in 2004. In June 2005, the day the band finished mastering the last… Read more »

What’s up with all the different versions of Avril in her new video? Or, for that matter, Christina, Ciara and Beyoncé? Everywhere you look, it seems some pop diva has replicated herself so she’s the star of her clip several times over. Multiple versions are nothing new – Mariah and Madonna are old pros by now – but the idea has been spreading like a video virus, with Avril and others just the latest to be infected. It got us to thinking – are they copying themselves or someone else? Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” Avril Lavigne gets to have it both… Read more »

Somehow, Sanjaya did it again. This year’s most improbable “American Idol” survivor dodged the elimination bullet once again on Wednesday – maybe it was the “crying girl” who helped him out – on a night when voters sent home one of the season’s most promising singers, Stephanie Edwards. With a reported 30 million votes cast, Edwards, 19, got the boot after her shaky performance of Dusty Springfield’s “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” on Tuesday night’s British Invasion-themed evening of tunes. The end came after singing a song whose lyrics turned out to be ironically prophetic (“You don’t… Read more »

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame swung open its doors Monday night to the latest batch of acts ticketed for music immortality, with the Georgia alt-rock icons and the dysfunctional Pasadena party band leading the way. They were joined by ’70s punk pioneer Patti Smith, ’60s girl group the Ronettes and the first hip-hop act to crash the party, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The 22nd annual induction ceremony–which per tradition was held at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel–felt like an I Love the ’80 special, thanks to its two biggest inductees. R.E.M. received a warm introduction… Read more »

Like a school of starved sharks circling a water-treading man stranded in the middle of the Pacific, the major-label powers that be began besieging Charlotte, North Carolina’s melodic-hardcore quintet Hopesfall soon after the release of their 2002 breakthrough offering, The Satellite Years. At the time, of course, it seemed every underground band with even a slight hint of profit-making potential was wined, dined, wooed and eventually chewed up and spit out by the music-industry machine. Hopesfall were most certainly courted by the majors but never actually ended up inking a deal, deciding instead to stick with longtime label home, New… Read more »

Every day, the roughly one million people who visit the iTunes Store home page are presented with several dozen albums, TV shows and movie downloads to consider buying — out of the four million such goods the Apple site offers. This prime promotion is analogous to a CD being displayed at the checkout stands of all 940 Best Buy stores or featured on the front page of Target’s ad circular. How do bands get these boosts? Who decides whether Arcade Fire is plugged at the top of the iTunes site — or whether Nickelback gets no mention? Apple has jettisoned… Read more »