Record-store owners owe Apple iTunes a tremendous debt of gratitude for being an uncaring, scatter-brained, inhuman little jukebox: It’s saving their skin right now.
The running narrative in the music world during the past decade is that the physical album is dead, and file-sharing, downloads and, most notably, Apple’s iTunes killed it. Yes and no.
idobi’s Jamie McGrath sat down with the The Wonder Years at Starland Ballroom Saturday evening during their “Ship of Fools†tour with Streetlight Manifesto.
It doesn’t take much to get the Eminem rumor mill churning, and the rapper did just that on Tuesday with a mysterious post on his Twitter account.
Irish-British alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine released its two full-length albums, “Isn’t Anything” and “Loveless,” digitally Tuesday (August 26). The sets previously had been only partially available online. The newly reunited MBV, which formed in Dublin in 1984, is dusting off the “Tremolo” EP, which is making its debut in the digital format, as well as four vintage short-form videos for the songs “Only Shallow,” “Soon,” “Swallow” and “To Here Knows When.” In June, “Isn’t Anything” and “Loveless” were remastered and reissued on CD in the United Kingdom. After an international summer tour, its first live appearances in 14… Read more »
Maroon 5’s 2007 album, “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long,” will be reissued in expanded form July 8. The A&M/Octone package will include a bonus DVD with four music videos and a full concert shot last year in Montreal. In addition, the original CD is bolstered with five B-sides: “Infatuation,” “Miss You Love You,” “Until You’re Over Me,” “Story” and “Losing My Mind.” Also tacked onto the track list is “If I Never See Your Face Again,” Maroon 5’s new single featuring Rihanna. The original version of “Won’t Be Soon” has sold 1.85 million copies in the United Stated, according… Read more »
With the economy headed for recession and a Clinton running for the White House, it feels like the ’90s all over again. A spate of recent musical happenings in the indie world is supplying an appropriate soundtrack: The Lemonheads just reissued their 1992 album “It’s a Shame About Ray” and played the entire album at New York’s Bowery Ballroom; the Breeders released a new record April 8; and Liz Phair just announced she’ll issue a deluxe edition of her provocative 1993 disc “Exile in Guyville.” As more ’90s acts return and sign to indie labels, a particular set of challenges… Read more »
In a slow week for new releases, mellow crooner Jack Johnson remained No. 1 on the U.S. pop album charts Wednesday, while newly minted Grammy winners Amy Winehouse and Herbie Hancock surged into the top five. Johnson’s “Sleep Through the Static” sold 179,545 copies in the week ended February 17, according to Nielsen SoundScan, enough to lead the field for a second week. Canadian rock band Simple Plan’s self-titled album started at No. 14 with 39,000 copies — 100,000 copies short of the No. 3 debut for its previous release, 2004’s “Still Not Getting Any…” Overall sales were down 11.6… Read more »
The Grinch might be stealing Christmas from music retailers, but thanks to Josh Groban and Oprah, there’s still some singing in Whoville. For the sales week kicked off by Super Tuesday–the release date before Thanksgiving when record labels typically schedule their big guns–the figures were abnormally bad, with only one Top 10 bow and a seven-week-old album topping the charts. Still, that album, Groban’s Noël, can thank last week’s performance on The Oprah Winfrey Show for driving it past Alicia Keys and into the number one spot. Noël crowned the Billboard 200 by selling 405,000 copies for the week ended… Read more »
Sony Music must pay the founder of a small record company $5 million for failing to put his company’s logo on reissues of Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” album, a federal appeals court ruled. Steve Popovich, 65, who started Cleveland International Records in 1977 and soon afterward signed the chubby singer named Marvin Lee Aday, persuaded Epic Records to release the wildly successful album. Epic was owned at the time by CBS. Sony, which bought out CBS Records, paid $6.7 million to Popovich and his former partners in 1998 to settle a lawsuit over royalties from the album. The… Read more »
2007 plans to be a big year for the Cambodian rock band Dengue Fever. A new album is in pre-production, a documentary on the band’s first live shows in Cambodia is currently being submitted to film festivals Internationally and their latest release ESCAPE FROM DRAGON HOUSE is being reissued with bonus tracks in March. Below is a press release announcing that Dengue Fever has signed an administration publishing deal with Bug Music and signed on with booking agency, the Kork Agency for live representation. This month, Dengue Fever takes to the main stage at globalFEST in New York City on… Read more »
