Search Results for: System of a Down

In a sobering, businesslike, 25-minute speech that aired during prime time Wednesday night (January 10), President Bush announced new plans for the war in Iraq. Those include the much-discussed addition of 21,500 troops, the demand that Iraqi forces take over major combat operations by November and the infusion of $1 billion to help build up the country’s infrastructure. “The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people and it is unacceptable to me,” Bush said during the speech, which had been delayed from late 2006 as he gathered more opinions and shook up his national security team . “Our… Read more »

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 »

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 »

Modern-rock promotion finds itself at a crossroads as a growing number of terrestrial radio broadcasters tune out the ratings-challenged format. Record companies are attempting to adapt to modern rock’s recent marginalization on the airwaves in major markets like Philadelphia, Miami, New York and Washington, D.C. by emphasizing other options for building buzz. In lieu of airplay, touring, blogs, ringtones, downloads, Internet and satellite radio, videogame tie-ins, alliances with brand marketers, film and TV exposure, sponsorships and placements in commercials all are growing in value. The marketing strategies for a number of big-name rock artists with current or upcoming releases show… Read more »

OK, so you know how we’re always telling you not to believe everything the U.K. press tells you? If you haven’t heeded our advice before, it might be time to start now. It seems some of the hacks across the pond had been sounding the death knell for our country’s favourite new wave party punkers, Hot Hot Heat. Not surprising since the Victoria quartet have been showered by U.K. praise since the release of 2002’s Make Up The Breakdown, but it seems the inevitable second phase to the build-em-up-chop-’em-down model started even before the Hot Hots released their much anticipated… Read more »

Washington – Congress is toying with the idea of mandating one standard for all online music platforms. Thanks but no thanks – the industry can figure it out, said music industry and consumer groups at a congressional hearing about the plan Wednesday. During a hearing to discuss mandating interoperability standards between competing music platforms such as Apple’s iTunes and RealNetworks’ Rhapsody, lawmakers sounded off on the lament of some hipsters frustrated by playback snafus when they try to transfer music files from other platforms to their iPods. Although Real and Apple support Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), a compression format defined… Read more »

Los Angeles – Recording industry executive Andy Gershon sees opportunity in the online file-sharing networks that most of his rivals decry as havens for music pirates. As president of V2 Records, home to such established acts as The White Stripes and Moby, Gershon mines such Internet distribution channels for new fans and revenues. “The cat is so far out of the bag and so far gone that it’s pointless to keep fighting it,” Gershon said. “I might as well make as many people fans of our music, whether they illegally download it or not.” A number of mostly independent recording… Read more »

Los Angeles – Snocap, the latest venture of Shawn Fanning, the creator of the original renegade Napster service, on Thursday said it reached deals with various independent labels to facilitate the distribution of their music on peer-to-peer services. Earlier this month, Snocap, a copyright management and filtering system, reached a deal with Sony BMG Music, which was its second major music label deal following a deal in December with Vivendi Universal’s Universal Music. Labels involved in the latest deals are Absolutely Kosher Records, Artemis Records/Sheridan Square Entertainment, Gammon Records, Streetbeat Records/Pandisc/Kriztal Entertainment, Nacional Records, Nettwerk Records, OM Records/Deep Concentration, Reality… Read more »

Los Angeles – Before they made the jump to Atlantic Records in 2004, the members of Death Cab for Cutie thought long and hard about leaving Seattle’s Barsuk Records. But after six years of deliberation, and the ultimate satisfaction the band took in its decision, manager Jordan Kurland grants that there has been a twinge of remorse. “I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that after I saw Bright Eyes debut in the top 10, I didn’t think, ‘Ah, we should have done that…’ But we’re having a great time.” Indeed, the band Bright Eyes bolted to No. 10 on… Read more »

Further proof that even professional businessmen can have the mentality of 13-year-old girls – Applehead Steve Jobs officially bitch-slapped the competition in an e-mail to leading record label execs earlier this week. According to the LA Times, Jobs went junior high on his rival in the downloadable music industry, Napster, directing the recipients of his message to a website with instructions on how to get around the program’s security systems. It basically showed how to convert Napster’s time-limited rental song files into permanent downloads, which can then be copied onto CDs. The site also pointed out that Napster will let… Read more »