Search Results for: Beck

Ticket sales are down, and big tours are scaling back to smaller venues. It looks to be a long, hot summer for the touring industry. On the cusp of the industry’s peak period, a number of high-profile tours and festivals have already hit snags, among them highly touted outings from Mariah Carey, the Field Day Music Festival, Lollapalooza, and Beck and Dashboard Confessional. Faced with a crowded tour market combined with high ticket prices, permit hassles, a sluggish economy and poor buzz, these tours and a handful of others have either had to scale back the size of the venues… Read more »

If you had one shot, one opportunity to own Eminem’s handwritten “Lose Yourself” lyrics, would you capture it or just let it slip? Well, here’s your shot. A framed lithograph of the scribbled lines to the “8 Mile” anthem is being auctioned to raise funds for Los Angeles cancer research and treatment facility City of Hope. The lyrics, which are autographed by Eminem and “Lose Yourself” producers Jeff Bass and Luis Resto, had at press time garnered the Songs of Hope auction’s highest bid, $10,600. Avril Lavigne’s words to “I’m With You,” written on Time Square’s W Hotel stationery, is… Read more »

Officials in Suffolk County, New York, have denied a mass gathering permit for the June 7-8 Field Day Music Festival, but the Beastie Boys, Beck, Radiohead, N.E.R.D. and more than a dozen other acts are hoping last-minute negotiations can save the concert. On Tuesday (May 27), health officials nixed the permit after Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller announced that his department wouldn’t be able to safely patrol the concert, which is expected to draw 50,000 people to Suffolk County’s Calverton Enterprise Park. On Friday, county officials determined they couldn’t authorize additional police for the show because such an act would… Read more »

Metallica, Blur, and Linkin Park will headline the U.K.’s Reading and Leeds festivals this August. The events begin Aug. 22 with Leeds Festival headliner Metallica and Reading headliner Linkin Park. Linkin Park moves over to Leeds on Aug. 23, while Blur takes over headlining duties at Reading. The final day of the event will see Blur at Leeds and Metallica at Reading. Among the other acts confirmed to play the festivals at various points are Blink 182, System Of A Down, the White Stripes, Beck, Sum 41, Courtney Love, Doves, the Streets, the Datsuns, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Last… Read more »

That stunned silence you’re hearing from across the pond might just be the sound of British pop fans’ speechless reaction after turning on their televisions and seeing Justin Timberlake jamming with the Flaming Lips. In another sign of their “anything goes” spirit, the Oklahoma psychedelic rockers invited the ‘NSYNC heartthrob to sit in on bass with them during a “Top of the Pops” performance of the title track from their recent album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. The segment, taped Thursday afternoon and slated to run Friday evening (January 24) in England, came about when Timberlake and Lips leader Wayne… Read more »

Dashboard Confessional and Jack Johnson played acoustic, and Beck and Coldplay celebrated Christmas, but otherwise KROQ-FM’s annual Almost Acoustic Christmas was a two-day, 20-act festival all about rocking. And the sold-out event was certainly crammed with rock and roll moments, particularly the announced live debut of Audioslave (they played a secret club show the night before), and an amusing rendition of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” orchestrated by Beck and the Flaming Lips and featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba, Johnson and a horribly off-key Juliette Lewis. (Click here for photos from the show.) Audioslave were the talk… Read more »

Five men arrested on suspicion of plotting to kidnap singer Victoria Beckham were charged Monday with theft and conspiring to rob Sotheby’s auction house, police said. Scotland Yard said inquiries were continuing into the alleged plan to kidnap Victoria Beckham, the Spice Girl wife of England soccer captain David Beckham, for a reported 5 million pound (US$7.75 million) ransom. Nine people were arrested after a Sunday newspaper said undercover reporters had discovered the kidnap plot. Kosovo-born Azem Krifsha, 30; London-born Joseph Rivas, 24; and Rusu Sorin, 31 and originally from Romania, were charged with theft and handling of a jeweled… Read more »

In an industry that obsesses over first-week album sales, heavy MTV rotation and radio airplay, the Shortlist Music Prize is trying to help offbeat or niche recording artists find a wider audience. Now in its second year, the contest taps successful musicians to champion the work of peers who have yet to make an impact on the charts. Among this year’s “listmakers” are India.Arie, Alanis Morissette (news), U2’s Larry Mullen Jr., and filmmakers Baz Luhrmann (news) and Spike Jonze (news). “Most of the attention that records get as far as awards and all that stuff is based on record sales,… Read more »

Anyone old enough to remember spinning vinyl records also remembers relegating them to the nostalgia pile when CDs became the listening standard more than a decade ago. Now, CDs may be headed for the same fate. Over the last couple of years, manufacturers and record companies have rolled out two new musical formats – DVD-Audio and Super Audio Compact Discsthat they hope will replace the CD. “It’s really getting rolling. The number of titles is increasing rapidly,” says John Trickett, chairman of the 5.1 Entertainment Group, which has produced almost 100 DVD-Audio titles. “If you compare it to the launch… Read more »

The White Stripes will hit the dead leaves and dirty ground of New York’s Union Square on Tuesday to play a free show. The noon performance is the latest in a series of guerilla concerts staged by Nissan. Train played the first gig, in St. Louis on September 17, followed by Pink in Chicago, Eve in Philadelphia, Dashboard Confessional in Boston, Enrique Iglesias in Brooklyn and Cheap Trick in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Additional free shows will continue in other cities, a spokesperson for the concert series said. After Tuesday’s free show, Detroit duo Jack and Meg White only have two… Read more »