Search Results for: Jay Som

Holding its festivities for the first time in the city of skin, Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards was sizzling, energetic and colorful – yet tame, by MTV standards. There were no wardrobe malfunctions (sorry TiVo). Britney didn’t kiss Madonna like last year – or anyone else, for that matter (neither were at the blowout affair). The most skin shown was from Usher, who preened in front of the camera barechested as simulated raindrops fell on his chiseled body during the opening performance. Even the Christina Aguilera was classy, dressed sexy yet demurely as she debuted a jazzy number, “Tilt Ya… Read more »

With the music industry looking to cut costs amid lower profit margins, record companies see fewer incentives to investing in artist-run label projects. Twelve years ago, Madonna decided to apply the business instincts that made her a superstar toward finding and developing new acts for her own music label. Maverick Records flourished early on. It generated hits by the likes of Alanis Morissette and Prodigy, validating the decision by Warner Music to form a partnership with its biggest star. But Maverick’s good fortunes started to turn during the industrywide sales slump that began in 2000. The label-parent relationship soured, landing… Read more »

Whisps of fake fog spilled from the stage and dissipated into a light breeze rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean as 7,000 satisfied fans shuffled toward Nathan’s Hot Dogs, the Wonder Wheel or the D-train. So ended the beginning of the end for Phish, who performed Thursday and Friday at Coney Island’s baseball stadium beside the sea, KeySpan Park. The shows launched the band’s farewell tour, which will culminate August 14 and 15 at a festival in Phish’s home state of Vermont. But fans didn’t let any sadness show at these gigs: Even when the sky opened up and drenched… Read more »

Guitarist Robert Quine, one of punk rock’s most daring soloists, was found dead Saturday in his New York apartment. He was 61. According to close friend and guitar maker Rick Kelly, who discovered Quine’s body, the musician died of a heroin overdose Memorial Day weekend. He had been despondent over the recent death of his wife. Born in Akron, Ohio, Quine was heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground, whose music he recorded obsessively while living in San Francisco. He moved to New York in 1971 and became the lead guitarist for bassist Richard Hell’s important group the Voidoids, with whom… Read more »

Representatives of the Beatles are in discussions with various online music services about licensing their songs for distribution on the Internet, people familiar with the discussions said on Tuesday. The Beatles have been one of the biggest holdouts in releasing their catalog for sale online, and the lack of such mega-hits as “Let it Be” and “Yesterday” has been cited as a major weakness for fledgling, Web-based music stores. Negotiators for the Beatles have talked with several companies, with a particular emphasis on Microsoft Corp’s MSN, which is expected to open an Internet music store late this summer, people familiar… Read more »

Sometimes, Washington is as hot as Bangkok. OK, I stole that line, but it was baking hot at RFK Stadium Saturday for the HFStival, the annual, all-day, relentlessly eclectic rock extravaganza put on by local radio station WHFS-FM (99.1). An estimated crowd of 60,000 blazed under a pre-summer sun, moseying in and out of the stadium from parking-lot attractions that included a forest of beer trucks, giant inflatable corporate logos, two more bandstands – one for national acts, the other for local acts such as Washington Social Club and Jimmie’s Chicken Shack – and, for the truly adventurous, a Ferris… Read more »

In the punk and indie-rock communities, members of different bands often collaborate on side projects and release them through independent labels. Major labels, however, aren’t so hip to the practice, which is why you won’t be seeing New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert touring with Hazen Street this summer. “He was there during a lot of the writing process, and he played on some stuff, but when it came down to politics and legal issues, there were problems,” said co-vocalist Freddy Cricien, who also plays in the hardcore group Madball. “Unfortunately, he couldn’t be a part of the album as… Read more »

Sony (SNE) aims to take on industry leader Apple (AAPL) starting Tuesday with an online music service whose songs will play only on Sony products. Internet analysts are scratching their heads, especially because the digital download service – called Connect – is geared toward supporting Sony’s MiniDisc, a 13-year-old format that has never hit big. But some retailers say sales of MiniDisc players perked up in the two years since Sony added the ability to record digital music onto them. And Sony will introduce an offshoot of the MiniDisc in June, offering more storage at a lower price than competitors.… Read more »

Music industry insiders don’t hesitate to throw around weighty phrases like “paradigm shift” and “irrevocable change” when they discuss the current state of affairs in the American music business. Industry representatives met Thursday to hash out the latest developments and chart the course for their business as the South by Southwest Music Conference began in Austin. “People talk about how the record industry isn’t doing that well,” said Walter McDonough, a lawyer with Washington-based Future of Music Coalition. Still, he said, the music business is working in an entertainment industry that has recently developed three fast growing mediums: DVDs, digital… Read more »

This copyright showdown isn’t as clear as black and white. Today has been dubbed Grey Tuesday by the music activist group Downhill Battle, which is heading up an effort by some 200 Websites to make available the Grey Album, a controversial new remix disc by hip-hop deejay-producer Danger Mouse. In the spirit of bastard pop bootlegs or “mash-ups,” the L.A.-based Danger Mouse lifted the vocal tracks from Jay-Z’s The Black Album and dropped them over new musical tracks created by reworking the Beatles’ White Album. The resulting disc, The Grey Album, was originally distributed undergound in very limited release but… Read more »