Search Results for: Bad Company

Recently, Maureen Callahan wrote a piece for the New York Post about Crush Management, the NYC cadre that shepherds the careers of Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, the Academy Is … , Boys Like Girls and Armor for Sleep (or, as Callahan puts it, “basically any band that a 13-year-old girl with a blog and a Hot Topic habit obsesses over”). Aside from providing readers with some genuinely bananas quotes from songwriter/ rock-and-roll vampire Butch Walker about credibility (especially considering this is on his résumé), the article is excellent primarily because it floats the hypothesis that the artists… Read more »

It was a good, flatulent, slur-filled and sexist-gag-soaked run, but the bad boys of radio appear to be living on borrowed time. On Tuesday (May 15), XM shock duo Opie and Anthony were slapped with a 30-day suspension for last week’s gag involving a homeless character discussing his desire to sexually assault Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, first lady Laura Bush and the Queen of England. “Nobody in radio thinks they’re a shock jock; they’re entertainers. But if [the genre] isn’t dead, it’s certainly had a storm warning,” said Tom Taylor, editor of Inside Radio, citing last month’s firing of… Read more »

Damon Albarn has confirmed he is concluding his animated pop act Gorillaz later this year with a feature-length send off. Rumours had been circulating throughout 2006 as to the band’s demise, particularly with Albarn focused on his musical work with side project The Good, The Bad and the Queen, and his return to the new Blur album, and speaking to BBC Radio last week, the singer/songwriter confirmed an animated film and accompanying film score would be the band’s swan song. “We’re trying to make a film next, starting in September hopefully,” said Albarn, commenting that they had approached famed Monty… Read more »

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 »