Search Results for: devo

A woman who stalked Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison for using her work computer at Sandia National Laboratories to track and harass him and his wife. Devon Townsend has 60 days to surrender to a minimum-security prison in Phoenix, where she is expected to receive mental health care. She had pleaded guilty to stalking and other counts. Townsend, who worked in Sandia’s technology and manufacturing group, used lab computers to illegally access private information about Bennington and his wife, Talinda, in 2006. According to a plea agreement, Townsend said she obtained… Read more »

The integrity of “American Idol” as a contest for raw, undiscovered talent was called into question again after an Irish singer who once had a major-label deal, and solo album that flopped, advanced to the top rung of the competition this week. Dublin native Carly Smithson, who formerly recorded for MCA Records under her maiden name, Carly Hennessy, was one of the 24 “Idol” contestants who made it on Wednesday to the semifinal rounds voted on each week by the show’s home TV audience. Online critics immediately seized on her initial success, and her professional recording background, as further evidence… Read more »

It appears hot tubs can now be powered by green energy. On Dec. 8, newbie garage rockers Foxboro Hot Tubs launched its website with the six-song EP Stop Drop and Roll available as a free download. It didn’t take long for music junkies to realize this new band might not be so new after all. “The internet is ablaze!!!!” proclaimed celeb blogger Perez Hilton last month. “A band called Foxboro Hot Tubs has released an EP of six songs that has people speculating that it’s the Green Day boys experimenting with a new sound.” The songs were pulled a short… Read more »

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced Friday at the World Economic Forum that his foundation would give $306 million to use green technology and farming techniques to boost millions out of hunger and poverty. The announcement by Gates, who is a long-time favorite speaker at the annual meeting of business and government leaders, injected a shot of optimism into the gathering which had been weighed down the first two days by fears of a global economic downturn. Gates, who is stepping down as Microsoft chair later this year and expected to focus more on philanthropy, received a standing ovation at the… Read more »

In the last month, two very different West Coast live music venues have met two very different fates. In Los Angeles, the resolutely DIY noise and punk outpost the Smell celebrated its 10th anniversary with a series of shows featuring scene stalwarts like No Age and Abe Vigoda. In Seattle, however, music fans mourned the sudden closing of the Crocodile Cafe; the 16-year-old space, which was heralded as the “living room of grunge,” closed unexpectedly December 16. In an age where clubs seem to come and go in the blink of an eye, one that remains open into its teens… Read more »

For the typically rowdy rock band on the road, “scoring” might not necessarily have anything to do with film music. Yet over the last couple of decades of making music, a number of rock talents have made the career leap from arenas to scoring stages, and the ranks of today’s A-list composers include many with rock ‘n’ roll pedigrees. Randy Newman had a successful career as a songwriter and solo artist; Mark Mothersbaugh was a founder of Devo; and Danny Elfman started out in Oingo Boingo (a band that also included future composers Steve Bartek and Richard Gibbs). Trevor Rabin… Read more »

Rock band Yellowcard will soon travel to the Persian Gulf and perform for service men and women as part of a USO/MNC-I expeditionary entertainment tour.   This is the first USO tour for Yellowcard, who will hang out with armed forces, sign autographs and treat U.S. troops to a selection of hit songs from all their albums.   Their latest album “Paper Walls” debuted at no. 13 on the Billboard charts and sold more than 40,000 copies in its first week. Recognized for their trademark sound infused with entwined guitar lines, airtight vocal harmonies and flourishes of violin, Yellowcard has… Read more »

Punk poet Patti Smith and Split Enz veteran Tim Finn lead the lineup of musicians performing at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah (January 17-27). Along with such artists as Gavin DeGraw, Pat Monahan, Peter & Gordon, Sea Wolf, Butch Walker, and Missy Higgins, they will perform at the Music Cafe, a daily afternoon showcase for established and emerging acts. Other music events at Sundance include a January 20 “Celebration of Music and Film” concert, which will feature performers connected to movies at the festival, including Smith (“Patti Smith: Dream of Life”), and composer Jean-Michel Bernard and director… Read more »

Just when it seemed erosion of music sales during the holiday season couldn’t get worse, December snowstorms compounded the retail industry’s misery. Album sales for 2007 are now down 15.3% for the year, compared with 2006. But for the four weeks beginning with Thanksgiving week and ending December 26, U.S. album sales were down 20% to 84.2 million units from 105.3 million a year ago, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The last week before Christmas didn’t help matters much, with sales totaling 25.6 million vs. 31.3 million units in the same period last year. The season got off on the wrong… Read more »

Las Vegas lore is littered with many end-of-an-era instances. The dissolution of the Rat Pack. The razing of the Sands Hotel. The annulment of Britney Spears and Jason Alexander’s 57-hour quickie marriage. And on December 15, 2007, Sin City bid yet another bittersweet goodbye: to Celine Dion, who ended her historic five-year, 717-show, $400 million-grossing run at Caesar’s Palace. Yes, apparently not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, as Celine has finally decided to move on after five years. (After all, she does have a new pop album, Taking Chances, to promote.) But it seems like only yesterday… Read more »