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It’s New Year’s Eve in New York and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is headlining the buzziest indie rock bill in town. The eclectic quintet — which has risen to notoriety for selling more than 110,000 copies of its 2005 debut album in the United States without the help of a record label — has plenty to celebrate. The band is using the show at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom to preview a half-dozen tracks from its self-released sophomore set, “Some Loud Thunder,” due January 30. CYHSY’s most rabid fans don’t need much of an introduction to some of the new material.… Read more »

Switchfoot’s new Columbia album “Oh! Gravity” is pulling the band onto the road for an extensive North American tour in February and March. Labelmate Copeland will open. The trek begins Feb. 14 at the House of Blues in Anaheim, Calif., and wraps March 31 in the quintet’s San Diego homebase. Fans might even expect a concert after the concert in some instances. “I often find that after I get off stage I still have more music left in me. Hanging out with our friends in Nickel Creek in Chicago taught me what to do with the leftover music,” Switchfoot frontman… Read more »

Following are previews of albums due out within the next few months from debut acts or under-the-radar artists due for a breakthrough. PAOLO NUTINI Scottish singer/songwriter Paolo Nutini, who turns 20 January 9, was one of the most noteworthy breakout artists of 2006 for Atlantic Records in the United Kingdom. After an appearance at South by Southwest in Austin last March, his debut single, “Last Request,” reached No. 5 in July on the British charts and also became a substantial airplay hit. His debut album, “These Streets,” subsequently opened at No. 3 with out-of-the-box sales of 35,000, according to his… Read more »

One sunny afternoon not long ago, Dick Copaken sat in a booth at Daniel, one of those hushed, exclusive restaurants on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where the waiters glide spectrally fro table to table. He was wearing a starched button-down shirt and a blue blazer. Every strand of his thinning hair was in place, and he spoke calmly and slowly, his large pink Charlie Brow head bobbing along evenly as he did. Copaken spent many years as a partner at the white-shoe Washington, D.C., firm Covington & Burling, and he has a lawyer’s gravitas. One of his bes friends calls… Read more »

In his first speech as head of the Federal Communication Commission, Chairman Kevin Martin strongly suggested on Tuesday that the cable industry clean up its act and shield children from indecent content. But Martin’s speech at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association’s convention in San Francisco was overshadowed by a fiery talk by Wisconsin republican congressman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., who said he’d rather see indecent broadcasters thrown in jail. “When I first arrived at the commission, we received a few hundred complaints per year from parents,” Martin told conventioneers, according to a San Jose Mercury News report. “The next… Read more »

Teens who take abstinence pledges are almost as likely to be infected with sexually transmitted diseases as kids who don’t, according to a new study that found pledgers tend to substitute other risky behavior for regular intercourse. The rates of oral and anal sex among people who planned to stay abstinent until marriage are higher than among other teens who have not had intercourse at all, according to the study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. Researchers found that kids believe engaging in oral and anal sex gets around the rules of abstinence programs by… Read more »

New York – Prince may be a man of many names, but the NAACP likes his image regardless. The “Purple Rain” singer will be honored with the 2005 NAACP Vanguard Award in a Los Angeles ceremony. The presentation will take place during the 36th Annual NAACP Image Awards on March 19, and broadcast on Fox television on March 25. “During the ’80s, Prince emerged as the musical prophet of the era, releasing a series of albums that both define and captured the spirit of the times,” the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in a recent statement.… Read more »

Los Angeles – The 47th Annual Grammys on Sunday were long on tributes and short on controversy thanks to a self-censored performance by punk trio Green Day and Sheryl Crow ‘s peek-a-boo yellow gown, which covered just enough. The Grammys were carried live on CBS, the same network that drew fire and regulatory fines following Janet Jackson ‘s now-infamous “wardrobe malfunction” at last year’s Super Bowl. So Green Day’s performance of the group’s title song from its Grammy-winning and politically charged “American Idiot” was a potential flashpoint for controversy. But in a move apparently aimed to beat network censors, lead… Read more »

Washington – A year after Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl, all the excitement surrounding indecent content this year seems to be taking place in Washington, D.C. Among recent developments: The House is considering indecency legislation that would authorize $500,000 fines for broadcast licensees and performers, as well as license revocation hearings for repeat violators. The bill easily passed the Energy and Commerce Committee Feb. 8 and now goes to the floor for almost certain approval. Phil Lombardo, joint board chairman of the National Assn. of Broadcasters, is charging the Federal Communications Commission with inconsistent and discriminatory indecency… Read more »

Detroit – Karl Haas, who brought classical music to millions of listeners through his syndicated radio program, “Adventures in Good Music,” has died. He was 91. Haas died Sunday at a hospital in Royal Oak, according to WCLV-FM in Cleveland, which produced his program. “Adventures in Good Music,” an hour-long program in which Haas blended music and talk aimed at casual listeners, was syndicated to hundreds of stations in the United States, Australia, Mexico and Panama and was broadcast by Armed Forces Radio. Haas delighted listeners with his vast musical knowledge and his penchant for punny program titles, such as… Read more »