Search Results for: As it is

Defining Australian rock band Midnight Oil is back with their first album release in the United States in over four years, “Capricornia,” slated to street February 19, 2002. “Capricornia” – the 14th full-length studio recording of the Oils’- is the legendary group’s debut CD for the newly formed, BMG-distributed Liquid 8 Records, to which they were signed earlier this year. Midnight Oil originally conjured up their unmistakable sound in 1976, and ever since, fronted by fiercely passionate lead vocalist Peter Garrett, has been internationally recognized for the take-no-prisoners style of consciousness-raising they bring to their always commanding and often incendiary… Read more »

German media giant Bertelsmann AG has enough cash to buy the shares it does not own in record company Zomba – home of Britney Spears and ‘N Sync – if founder Clive Calder ever decided to sell, the Financial Times reported on Monday. “Not only would we have the money, but I would be very happy since it is one of the most profitable record companies around. It would be a great asset for us,” Bertelsmann Chief Executive Thomas Middelhoff told the paper. “If you consider the kind of valuation on which a company like (British music group) EMI is… Read more »

Music-swapping service Aimster is following its nearly-namesake Napster into the courts with old adversary of P2P fans the RIAA leading the list of plaintiffs. However, the biggest bone of contention so far seems to be how to conduct the trial and where to hold it. Judges have now ruled that all the cases should be heard as one, but with some parties in Florida, some in New York and some in California, geography has thus far proved the biggest problem. In an attempt to keep all parties reasonably happy, the judges have decided upon Chicago, deciding that it is as… Read more »

A group of recording stars led by Don Henley on Tuesday said they recently filed a brief in a San Francisco federal court that may give song-swap service Napster a shot in the arm in its ongoing copyright infringement battle with the recording industry. The artists contended in their brief filed on Nov. 7 that the big recording labels may not indefinitely own some of the sound recording copyrights they are suing over in the landmark suit against Napster, said Jay Rosenthal, a lawyer for the Recording Artists Coalition (RAC). The record giants in October requested summary judgement on the… Read more »

First album together in eight years finds band returning to its roots. For many years over the past two decades, New Order crafted cynical synth-pop that radiated with alternative dancefloor chic. But on Get Ready, the band’s first record together in eight years, New Order have done something they haven’t tried since their pre-Order days. They’ve rocked out. While the album still shimmers and shivers with electronic textures, it’s anchored by organic instrumentation and galvanic grooves. “60 Miles an Hour,” Get Ready’s second single, sounds like a beefier spinoff of the band’s hit “Blue Monday,” and “Rock the Shack” is… Read more »

Sean “Puffy” Combs won’t mind if critics say his latest album is raw, unpolished and without any real theme. That’s the way he planned it. After a year in which he successfully fought criminal charges and lost his high-profile girlfriend, the hip-hop mogul just wanted to put out something that would make people want to party. “That’s why everything is so carefree, everything is so positive,” he said of his new album, which is being released the same week he makes his acting debut (as a gangster) in the movie “Made.” “I lived in a murky pit – a negative,… Read more »

In return, the RIAA withdrew its attempt to have the company removed from the standard Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) rate-setting policy. In a move that ends a complicated series of lawsuits and counter-suits for embattled online music concern Listen.com, the company has withdrawn from a suit filed by Digital Media Association (DiMA) and a group of music sites. In doing so, Listen made a pact with the RIAA to remove some features from its service that record labels find objectionable. Two interactivity features, one that allow listeners to either skip a song entirely, and another that allows users to… Read more »

Atlanta writer Tom Junod has no apologies for making up much of a profile on R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe for Esquire magazine, saying he wanted people to question celebrity journalism. In the profile for the June issue, Junod describes the 41-year-old Stipe eating all the sugar in a dispenser at a Los Angeles restaurant, then licking the top. He also writes about a five-hour limo trip to the Hoover Dam and recounts how Stipe sucks on two pennies and then sticks them on his eyelids. None of these things happened, Junod said. Esquire offers clues that the story is… Read more »

Paul McCartney’s Wingspan project looks to be as much a tribute to his late wife, Linda, as it is to his former band Wings. The Wingspan double-album compilation hits stores Tuesday, and a two-hour special of the same name will air Friday on ABC. “Basically, it’s the story of me and Linda struggling to put a band together and raise a family at the same time,” McCartney told VH1’s Rebecca Rankin of the TV documentary. “The original idea came from Linda putting together a surprise video for our anniversary,” McCartney said. “It was done by Allaster [Donald, McCartney’s son-in-law]. He… Read more »

The New York City Police Department has a message for the city’s hip-hop community: we’re watching you. Based on what it claims is a “culture of violence” in the hip-hop world, the police’s gang intelligence unit has begun watching nightclubs frequented by celebrity musicians. Police are also compiling a dossier on rappers and others in the music industry with criminal histories. “It would be ignorant for us to ignore the fact that there have been violent incidents where the only common denominator is the music industry,” police spokesperson Sgt. Brian Burke said Friday (April 20). “In an effort to ensure… Read more »