Search Results for: half alive

Apple today announced that the 100 millionth iPod has been sold, making the iPod the fastest selling music player in history. The first iPod was sold five and a half years ago, in November 2001, and since then Apple has introduced more than 10 new iPod models, including five generations of iPod, two generations of iPod mini, two generations of iPod nano and two generations of iPod shuffle. Along with iTunes and the iTunes online music store, the iPod has transformed how tens of millions of music lovers acquire, manage and listen to their music. “At this historic milestone, we… Read more »

When Avril Lavigne released album No. 2 in 2004, the spunky teen pop star announced to the world that she was growing up. Gone were the baggy pants and skater-chick image that first earned Lavigne the media-christened nickname of “the anti-Britney.” On that year’s “Under My Skin,” punky anthems like “Sk8er Boi” were replaced largely with grammatically correct, midtempo teen-angst rockers. The album was released a few months shy of Lavigne’s 20th birthday, and the black-and-white Goth imagery made it clear that Lavigne was dealing with some intense late-teen issues. Today, Lavigne is done with all that. On April 17,… Read more »

Now that Brian “Head” Welch has discovered Christianity, and changed his title from “founding Korn guitarist” to “former Korn guitarist,” he feels like there’s nothing left to explain to the band’s fans. But he’s always open to a good conversation. “When it was first announced that I was leaving the band and rededicating my life to Christianity, I thought it was weird that people thought it was weird,” he said. “And rather than maybe giving Christ a chance, people just start trashing my decision, because they’re afraid of taking that chance. If people cared about me, they would sit down,… Read more »

You can’t get the question right. You’re fumbling for the right words but all you can hear are the lyrics to “Age of Consent” over and over and over again in your brain… It’s almost too easy to toss the word “influential” in front of a band to hype up its place in the pop-music pantheon. Few acts deserve it, and the word is so damn relative. But the culture mill spits out thousands of new bands each year and inevitably even the most wanly creative gets the “influential” stamp if it can hang in there long enough. So, then… Read more »

After Interpol ring in the new year, the quartet with a penchant for wearing black will bestow upon its fans a touch of evil. “Evil” is poised to be the next single off Interpol’s latest album, Antics, according to a Matador Records spokesperson. It follows the band’s current single, “Slow Hands.” A video was shot earlier this month, before the group left for its European tour, and is currently being edited. The clip and the radio single are expected to surface in mid-January. Directed by photographer Charlie White, the clip marks the first time the photogenic band won’t star in… Read more »

After a 25-year absence from the #1 album spot, J Records artist Rod Stewart with his album Stardust… The Great American Songbook: Volume III enters the Billboard 200 Album chart at #1 on a first week Soundscan total of 240,043 copies sold. The Songbook albums are a musical and cultural phenomenon, and are now the biggest-selling ongoing series of new music recordings in history. This is also Rod Stewart’s first ever #1 debut on the Billboard Top 200 chart. Stardust is the follow-up to 2002’s It Had To Be You… The Great American Songbook (which spent 85 weeks on the… Read more »

Sometimes, the heaviest rock can coexist with the purest pop. When garage-rock band the Mooney Suzuki started out in 1997, all they wanted to be was an ass-kicking group that paid homage to the Stooges, the Stones, the MC5 and the Nuggets box set. Then, in 2002, they got a taste of success with their roaring sophomore record, Electric Sweat, and suddenly they wanted more – way more. So the New York band hooked up with the Matrix – the production team that has worked with Avril Lavigne, Christina Aguilera and Hilary Duff. The move was a risky one: Diehard… Read more »

Ever since the Vans Warped Tour carved out a spot on the summertime agendas’ of punk kids and skater boys many moons ago, extreme sporting and punk music has become synonymous with one another. Tony Hawk, who is undoubtedly the top dog where half-pipes and skate ramps are concerned, is trying to keep the energy of the Warped Tour alive this fall with an extreme sporting and punk music event called Tony Hawk’s Boom Boom HuckJam. Sounds like a pretty odd name, right? But hold on, it gets weirder. A unique ensemble of musicians called The Anarchy Orchestra will provide… Read more »

Tower Records, the storied 1960s music chain that launched the music megastore and became a cultural retailing icon, strolls into its 43rd holiday shopping season this weekend struggling with debt and on the ropes. The West Sacramento, Calif.-based Tower hopes four weeks of strong sales will reverse a new image as the tottering giant inside a stumbling music industry. Among the chain’s troubles: deep-discounting rivals, changing consumer habits, lack of hits and its own missteps in the 1990s as the music business began a dramatic shift. Tower exemplifies the even deeper woes in a recording industry beset by piracy, computer… Read more »

Napster’s newly altered Web page said it all Wednesday, one day after its remaining 42 employees were fired and the song-swap company’s doors closed for good. After a Delaware bankruptcy judge blocked the sale of the company’s assets to its chief investor, the company prepared to convert its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization filing into a Chapter 7 liquidation proceeding. There was no eulogy for Shawn Fanning’s innovative software application from the recording industry, which helped kill Napster with its lawsuits. The Recording Industry Association of America has made no comment on Napster’s passing. Record labels, artists and copyright holders all… Read more »