Search Results for: folk

Due out February 20 on Tooth and Nail, CITIES–the new album by ANBERLIN–marks the group’s third offering and follow-up to their breakthrough album Never Take Friendship Personal (2005), which went on to sell over 140,000 copies.  As a preview to the album release, the new song “Godspeed” as well as the B-side “Haunting” are now available on Itunes as exclusive tracks. ANBERLIN will kick off a headlining U.S. tour February 21 in Charlotte, NC. The coast-to-coast trek will hit New York’s Bowery Ballroom February 27 and the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles March 13 (see itinerary below with more… 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 »

Matt Skiba, lead singer and guitarist for Chicago punk purists Alkaline Trio, feels that there are a lot of misconceptions out there regarding Satanism, and, as a longtime member of Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan, can tell you that it’s not all fire, brimstone and threats of eternal damnation. Really, the faith’s simply about theatrics, how to comport yourself when you’re out and about (for instance, one of the church’s Ten Commandment-like mandates forbids followers from bothering others in open territory, but “if someone bothers you, ask him to stop – if he does not stop, destroy him”) and maintaining… Read more »

Baltimore – If you find yourself surrounded by 40,000 fans, 40 bands, three stages and 85 degrees, you’ve apparently waded chest-deep into the summer concert season. For years, folks east of the Mississippi have welcomed the start of that season at the HFStival, now staged in Baltimore after thriving for 15 years as a Washington, D.C., staple. Quite a bit’s changed since WHFS-FM started ushering in the arrival of summer – most notably the station itself, which disappeared from the dial earlier this year. It has since resurfaced as an online entity and also takes over Baltimore’s Live 105.7 on… Read more »

New York – As U.S. pop radio stations begin to embrace the Backstreet Boys single “Incomplete,” Jive Records has set June 14 as the release date for the vocal group’s fourth studio album, “Never Gone.” The new album features the writing and production talents of Five For Fighting’s John Ondrasik, Savage Garden’s Darren Hayes, Max Martin, Billy Mann (Pink, Sting), Dan Muckala (Jump5, the Afters) and John Fields (Switchfoot), as well as John Shanks, who in February won the Grammy Award as producer of the year for his work on releases by Sheryl Crow, Clarkson, Hilary Duff and Ashlee Simpson.… Read more »

Los Angeles – When Billy Idol hits the stage at Stubb’s at the South by Southwest Music Conference March 16 in Austin, he is sure to show some of those young whippersnappers how it’s done. Idol’s performance is to promote his first album of original material since 1993’s “Cyberpunk.” On March 22, Sanctuary releases “Devil’s Playground.” Its first single, the “Rebel Yell”-sound-alike “Scream,” hit No. 7 on the Billboard Heritage Rock chart. The rest of the album synthesizes Idol’s many styles, ranging from punk to rockabilly to straight-ahead pop. For “Playground,” he reunited with longtime producer Keith Forsey. But he… Read more »

New Found Glory are breaking up the monotony of touring… with more touring. Having already spent the majority of 2004 playing radio festivals, the Warped Tour and club dates in North America, Europe and Australia (not to mention the arenas they graced as an opener on Green Day’s tour), NFG decided that it was time that they had a headlining tour of their own… you know, since their latest album, Catalyst, came out almost one year ago. “We had really started thinking about doing a headlining tour back in the fall, but then Green Day comes knocking and says, ‘Come… Read more »

Patrice Pike, a true woman in rock behind the Rock/Alternative group Sister Seven (from Austin, TX, USA) has won the overall top prize of the 2004 Songwriting Competition. “My Three Wishes” was the winning song written by Patrice Pike, Wayne Sutton, Sean Phillips and Darrell Phillips. Winners came from United Kingdom, United States, Czech Republic, Australia, The Bahamas, Germany, Canada and Denmark. David Francey (of Ontario, CANADA) was a finalist in 2003, won first prize in the Folk category of the 2004 USA Songwriting Competition. Canadians have won the prize in this category three years in a row. In 2002… Read more »

Partial list of winners at Sunday’s 47th Annual Grammy Awards: Engineered Album, Classical – “Higdon – City Scape Concerto for Orchestra,” Jack Renner, engineer – Robert Spano. Producer of the Year, Classical – David Frost. Classical Album – “Adams – On the Transmigration of Souls,” Lorin Maazel, conductor John Adams and Lawrence Rock, producers. Orchestral Performance – “Adams – On the Transmigration of Souls,” Lorin Maazel, conductor John Adams and Lawrence Rock, producers. Opera Recording – “Mozart – Le Nozze di Figaro,” Rene Jacobs, conductor Patrizia Ciofi, Veronique Gens, Simon Keenlyside, Angelika Kirchschlager and Lorenzo Regazzo Martin Sauer, producer –… Read more »

The Apple iTunes store has been selling a million tracks a day, it was announced recently. And no, that is not a misprint: a million a day. This will come as no surprise to readers of this column. Quite why the music industry didn’t spot the opportunity will be the subject of innumerable MBA dissertations in the years to come. But for now the significant thing to note is that it was a computer manufacturer and not a record company that cracked the problem of providing legal music downloads. On a global scale, you might say that the inadequacies of… Read more »