Search Results for: Will Ferri

The surprise wasn’t that Eminem ( news – web sites) has found someone new to take on – namely, Lynne Cheney and the many others who have derided the shock-rapper’s work. The surprise, instead, came near the end of his 70-minute show, which kicked off the Eminem-headlined Anger Management Tour on Thursday. That’s when a visibly discouraged Eminem was left pleading for more from the audience packing Buffalo’s HSBC Arena. “Buffalo!” Eminem yelled out as the set segued from “Drug Ballad” to “Come on Everybody,” with little energy flowing from the crowd. “Buffalo! Don’t die on me yet.” The audience… Read more »

When Ozzy Osbourne was chiefly known in middle America for decapitating winged creatures and urinating on the Alamo, he and his annual hard rock hoedown were greeted with protests, boycotts and prayer meetings. But, oh, what a difference a year makes. The former most-feared man in rock has now become its most beloved father figure, courtesy of the rib-tickling warts-and-all series “The Osbournes.” So as he returns to the road for the first time since becoming the toast of prime time, Ozzy and Ozzfest 2002 are being greeted not with protests but with open arms, and at least a few… Read more »

More than half of almost 2,000 Net-savvy Americans ages 15 to 35 say they plan to purchase a digital music device over the next year, according to a new study conducted by Harris Interactive for Sony Electronics. This is a marked increase from the approximate 21 percent of the U.S. population ages 15 to 35 with Internet access that currently owns at least one digital portable audio product. “Your Musical Taste,” conducted by Harris Interactive, surveyed almost 2,000 men and women to determine how they use the Internet to download music. It also evaluated the use of Internet portable audio… Read more »

The Strokes may be the “it” band of the moment, but don’t expect them to be lining up studio sessions with “it” producers like Glen Ballard or the Neptunes. When the New York garage-rockers begin recording their second album later this summer, Is This It producer Gordon Raphael will again be behind the boards. “It’s not gonna be like, ‘Oh, now that we’re successful, we’re gonna work with all these super-producer guys that are going to make us a top-selling hit,’ ” singer Julian Casablancas said backstage at Saturday’s KROQ Weenie Roast. “That’s never been the goal for us. We… Read more »

Popular music has been upended by every technological advance from electricity and the phonograph to cassette tapes and recordable CDs. The switch from analog to digital accelerated the pace of illicit duplication and distribution, sounding the loudest alarm yet. As Napster struggles to survive, other sites from Gnutella to KaZaa are filling the void. Last week, labels and music publishers sued Audiogalaxy, a booming file-swapping network that lured 3.5 million users in March. The complaint: The Recording Industry Association of America, on behalf of labels, is vigorously seeking to stamp out proliferating Web sites that permit free downloads of music.… Read more »

The pervading feeling between dueling former Van Halen frontmen David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar may never be love, but fans showed a lot of it Wednesday at Blossom Music Center. Vintage Van Halen T-shirts peppered the fiery crowd. Fortysomething women fashioned the Van Halen symbol with their hands as they shook their shoulders to songs such as “5150” and “Panama.” A group of teenage boys wrote with marker “f– Eddie” on their arms, referring, of course, to VH guitarist Eddie Van Halen. The admiration was mutual between the crowd and Roth and Hagar. Mop-haired Hagar opened the show at… Read more »

Eminem may still be on probation for brandishing a gun two years ago in a jealous rage, but the bad-boy rap artist makes clear on his latest album how close he might have come to doing time for murder. In one of the most chilling passages from “The Eminem Show,” his anxiously awaited third release, the Detroit-based rapper recounts pulling an unloaded pistol on his then-wife, Kim Mathers, and a friend he claimed she was kissing outside a suburban Detroit bar. “The smartest (thing) I did was take the bullets out of the gun, ’cause I’d’ve killed ’em/I would’ve shot… Read more »

The people who tried to take away your VCR are at it again. Hollywood has always dreamed of a “well-mannered marketplace” where the only technologies that you can buy are those that do not disrupt its business. Acting through legislators who dance to Hollywood’s tune, the movie studios are racing to lock away the flexible, general-purpose technology that has given us a century of unparalelled prosperity and innovation. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed the “Content Protection Status Report” with the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, laying out its plan to remake the technology world to suit its… Read more »

Veteran rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers has parted ways with its bass player of 20 years, citing his “ongoing personal problems.” Howie Epstein, who got into trouble with the law last year, will be replaced on tour by Ron Blair, the original member he subbed for in 1982, the band said in a statement on Thursday. The group’s management firm declined to comment any further on the personnel shift, the first since drummer Stan Lynch left in 1994 after a blowout with bandleader Petty. The band, which formed in 1975, is best known for such hits as “American… Read more »

Considering their last album was released in 1993, you’d think the Breeders could have come up with an album title in that time. Instead, they named their new release Title TK, which in journalism jargon means “title to come” – used when information is still forthcoming. As coolly detached as she is, frontwoman Kim Deal wasn’t being a slacker. This title was conceived even before this album, due May 21, was. “I always thought Title TK sounded cool. Even when Last Splash didn’t have a name, I thought I’d call it Title TK, but I didn’t use it then. And… Read more »