Search Results for: good terms

Lou Pearlman, the hitmaker behind the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync, has been cleared of allegations that he broke child labor laws. The Florida Department of Labor said there was no evidence that Pearlman and his Orlando-based company, Trans Continental Entertainment, violated such rules as making minors work past 11:30 p.m, as alleged by the mother of two of his former entertainers. Kenneth W. Williams, an administrator in the Labor Department’s Office of Compliance and Enforcement, wrote to Pearlman on Thursday and said the allegations are unproven. “Therefore, we are terminating our investigation and closing our files on this case,”… Read more »

Few bands have a résumé as extensive as the one belonging to They Might Be Giants, so it’s no wonder their music should make perfect fodder for a documentary. In their 20 years together, the quirky duo of John Linnell and John Flansburgh have successfully telemarketed themselves into underground celebrity, composed scores and theme music for television and film, and won a Grammy (for “Boss of Me,” the theme to “Malcolm in the Middle”), while recording seven studio LPs and a slew of EPs, live albums and singles. Flansburgh even found time to moonlight as a video director, helming clips… Read more »

Avoiding what was expected to be an intense bidding war over Kurt Cobain’s journals, a New York imprint snapped up the world publishing rights on Monday for a seven-figure sum. Publishers who got an advance look at the diaries were told to submit their bids by 11 a.m. on Monday, but the auction was called off around 10 a.m. after a deal was struck with Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin Putnam. “The journals are an intimate, unadulterated portrait of an artist of great influence,” Riverhead’s Julie Grau, who will be the project’s editor, said in a statement released Tuesday… Read more »

The total number of units shipped by the major record labels sank by more than 10 percent in 2001 – a decline the industry blamed in part on the ballooning growth of Internet piracy, but which others claim may also reflect more fundamental troubles in the business. The five majors, which together represent nearly 90% of all music sold in the U.S., shipped 969 million units last year (net of returns), including CDs, cassettes, LPs and DVD music videos, according to data compiled by the Recording Industry Assn. of America. That’s down from 1.08 billion in 2000. The downturn was… Read more »

For any young band, the idea of performing before thousands on their first arena tour is a daunting proposal. When the heroically titled Saves the Day were tapped as openers for Weezer’s North American tour, which begins February 5, however, they pushed the butterflies aside and focused instead on rising to the occasion. “Every tour that we go on, we hope to be more comfortable as a live band,” bassist Eben D’Amico said. “Just being able to do our thing onstage that much better. We’re always honing and perfecting what we do.” While the Princeton, New Jersey-rooted quintet may come… Read more »

Five artistic legends sat alongside President Bush in Washington’s top theater on Sunday night, and were starry-eyed themselves as political and Hollywood heavyweights paid tribute to their glittering careers. Actress Julie Andrews, pianist Van Cliburn, music maestro Quincy Jones, actor Jack Nicholson and opera singer Luciano Pavarotti received the Kennedy Center Honors for their contributions to American culture. “The recipients for 2001 make quite a collection…. As one newspaper put it in the headline, this year’s honorees can carry a tune and then there’s Jack,” Bush told them at a White House reception before the gala. “Perhaps it’s a nice… Read more »

Rock ‘n’ roll will never die. Unless it is being made by classic rockers like Rolling Stone frontman Mick Jagger and former Beatle Paul McCartney, whose new albums are barely registering a pulse at cash registers in the United States. The very youth culture that propelled these music legends to stardom back in the 1960s is now discarding them in favor of a new generation of fresh-faced youngsters, such as perky teen queen Britney Spears and spiritual rockers Creed. According to sales data issued on Wednesday, Jagger’s new album “Goddess in the Doorway” (Virgin) debuted at No. 39 on the… Read more »

Nearly twenty-five years after the B-52’s formed in Athens, Georgia, the band’s career will get an overview with the January 15th release of the double-disc anthology Nude on the Moon. In addition to B-52’s standards “Rock Lobster,” “Roam” and “Love Shack,” the compilation will contain rarities, including a previously unreleased version of “Queen of Las Vegas” from sessions the group did with David Byrne for the Mesopotamia EP and a live version of “Is That You Mo-Dean?” recorded in the last year. Singer Fred Schneider says the B-52’s are actively involved in the set, pouring through pictures and assembling liner… Read more »

“I never want to say we’re done completely, but we may be,” says Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. “With the length of time since we’ve done something together, it just doesn’t feel like something I’ve missed very much. I don’t want to be touring anymore. I’m fifty-five; it’s a young man’s game.” Gilmour’s revelation comes with the release of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, a lavish and thoughtfully assembled double-CD retrospective tracing the band’s thirty-six-year career – from its apprenticeship in the mid-Sixties London club scene and its psychedelic explorations to its reincarnation as the high priests of Seventies… Read more »

What do Osama bin Laden, Britney Spears, Bert from “Sesame Street” and the heavy metal band Anthrax have in common? They were all among the top searches on Internet Web sites for the last week, proving yet again the Internet is nothing if not a mix of serious news alongside a funhouse of wacky pop culture mania, boy bands and hoaxes. Web searches for anthrax, the deadly bacteria that has been mailed to some government and news offices, led many confused surfers to the Web site of the heavy metal band of the same name. “The boys of ‘the good… Read more »