Search Results for: warner bros

Prince wants his music back. Just a month before he releases the first DVD from his New Power Generation Music Club, the club has sent its paid members a list of album rarities Prince would like returned in his continuing struggle to guard against bootlegging and to control his own sonic real estate. In an e-mail sent Wednesday to the NPGMC, fans were asked to “Help the cause!” and look for “anything with a WB logo that was unofficially released during Prince’s tenure at that label.” Among the suggested discs to send in, according to a list provided by the… Read more »

When the record industry announced in June that it would begin filing individual lawsuits against hundreds of illegal file-swappers, it was not just a bad PR move, it was a signal that the music business is more desperate than ever. Halfway through 2003, sales continue to slump, down eight percent from the first six months of last year. Three of the ten best-selling albums so far this year were actually released in 2002, and only three artists – 50 Cent, Norah Jones and Linkin Park – managed to sell more than 2 million copies between January and June. 50 Cent,… Read more »

Members of Glassjaw, the Used, Less Than Jake, Mest and Story of the Year sat down on couches in the New Media lounge of Warner Bros. Records and shot their fans Wednesday morning. The shootings came in plain sight of a roomful of people via the Xbox Live, and the bands’ respective fans shot back. Using headsets to communicate with each other, the band members wound through the cobblestone paths of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, making the occasional open plea for advice, like “How do you survive the rocket blasts? I’ve died three times.” Fans with gamer tags such as… Read more »

Lenny Kravitz has formed Roxie Records, an imprint named for his late mother, Roxie Roker, that will be distributed through Warner Bros. He remains signed to Virgin Records as a recording artist and will release a new studio album, “Funk,” in the fall, according to a spokesperson. “Lenny and I have a long-term relationship,” says Jeff Ayeroff, Warner Bros. “creative czar,” as he refers to himself. Ayeroff worked with Kravitz when he was co-chairman of Virgin Records America. “Lenny and I have always talked about the next phase of his career. This is what I call his Quincy Jones phase,”… Read more »

Veteran modern rock act R.E.M. has made a few changes in its fall North American tour. The group, which kicked off its first world tour in four years June 21 in Utrecht, Holland, has added two dates and altered city and/or venue details for a handful of others on the North American leg of the outing, which will now get underway Aug. 29 in Vancouver. That date and an Aug. 31 show in Missoula, Mont., both with Wilco opening, have been added to the itinerary. Among the other changes: a Sept. 28 show slated for Auburn Hills, Mich., will now… Read more »

When he belted out “Somewhere I Belong,” we’re guessing Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington didn’t mean that somewhere to be a hospital bed. But the alternametal band’s frontman has been confined to a Los Angeles-area hospital since Friday battling a mystery malady, the group’s label has announced. Bennington was admitted to an undisclosed hospital “after an attack of severe back and abdominal pains,” according to a statement from Warner Bros. Records released Tuesday on Linkin Park’s Website (www.linkinpark.com). “Bennington remains hospitalized as doctors are still trying to determine the cause of these ailments.” With Bennington idled in sick bay… Read more »

R.E.M. is in the midst of preparations for its upcoming world tour, and according to a post by frontman Michael Stipe on the group’s official Web site (http://www.remhq.com), the band has already rehearsed 70 songs. The tour starts June 27 at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival and will wrap Oct. 11 in Atlanta, about 70 miles west of the group’s Athens, Ga., homebase. R.E.M. is working with new drummer Bill Rieflin, an industrial/metal stickman who has manned the kit for the likes of Ministry, KMFDM, and Nine Inch Nails. R.E.M.’s three original members – Stipe, bassist Mike Mills, and guitarist Peter… Read more »

Sire Records, the label that introduced the world to Madonna, Talking Heads and the Ramones, is being resurrected and will officially rejoin the Warner Bros. Records family of labels. Label founder Seymour Stein’s first signing under the new deal is the Von Bondies. Also on the Sire roster are Morcheeba, Guster, the Distillers, Hot Hot Heat, Less Than Jake and the Hives (through a joint venture with Burning Heart/Epitaph). When Roger Ames was named chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group in 1999, Ames’ London Records was merged with Sire Records to create London-Sire. That label closed its doors in… Read more »

Just days after trying to turn the tables on illicit song-swappers by flooding the Net with bogus tracks from her American Life, Madonna was on the receiving end of some computerized comeuppance this weekend. An unknown assailant hacked into Madonna’s official site, www.madonna.com, on Saturday and posted the real MP3s of every song from American Life, which is due in stores Tuesday. Last week, the Material One and label Warner Bros. Records tried to thwart would-be pirates by issuing dummy song files to sites like KaZaA and Morpheus. The files appeared to be leaked tracks from American Life, but when… Read more »

“Headstrong,” Trapt’s first single from its self-titled debut, continues to move up the Alternative and Active Rock Radio & Records chart. The song moves up one spot to Number Four on the Alternative chart, and the song reached Number Two last week on the Active Rock chart. Guitarist Simon Ormandy said the song started off to be a proverbial “middle finger” to the law, but it evolved into a tune about the band sticking to its guns in the music industry. “We were a little younger,” Ormandy said. “Myself as well as [vocalist/guitarist] Chris [Brown] were having some troubles with… Read more »