Search Results for: 2003

And then there was one. With the recent departure of drummer Rocky Gray and guitarist John LeCompt, Amy Lee is now the only member of Evanescence left who has been in the band since the release of its smash 2003 breakout album, Fallen. LeCompt was either fired by the band or decided to move on – depending which account you believe – while Gray left of his own accord recently, making them the latest members of the group to fall by the wayside. Original guitarist/ co-founder Ben Moody left in 2003 , and bassist William Boyd quit last June after… Read more »

Iggy Pop marked his 60th birthday on Saturday just like any other respectable senior citizen would. The eerily athletic “Godfather of Punk” stripped down to a tight pair of blue jeans and dived off the stage into the arms of his adoring fans during a concert in San Francisco with his reunited band the Stooges. Towards the end of the 80-minute show, the crowd at the Warfield theater sang along as his bandmates struck up “Happy Birthday,” and Pop was surprised as balloons bearing his image dropped from the ceiling. A fan also handed him a white T-shirt inscribed “Birthday… Read more »

A former manager for the Grateful Dead has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for tax evasion, prosecutors said Tuesday. Ronald Leon Rakow, 69, was ordered to begin his prison term in June for evading payment of $2.2 million in taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Rakow was convicted in July of one count of tax evasion. During his two-week trial, prosecutors presented evidence showing Rakow hid his assets to prevent the IRS from collecting taxes dating back to 1985. Prosecutors said that from 1998 to 2003, Rakow transferred about $5.2 million… Read more »

U.K. rock act Fiction Plane will release its second album, “Left Side of the Brain,” May 22 via Bieler Bros., just before it begins its run as the opening act for the North American leg of the Police’s reunion tour. The album is the follow-up to 2003’s “Everything Will Never Be OK,” Fiction Plane’s lone release for MCA. Since being dropped from Geffen last year, the band has “had tons of tunes swimming about without a home,” frontman Joe Sumner tells Billboard.com. “When we scheduled this album we basically picked our favorite songs from the whole period. Then we took… Read more »

For then 15-year-old Travis McCoy, high school gym class was nothing more than an excuse to chat about music with buddy Matt McGinley. McCoy, who was an aspiring rapper, was the frontman for a local band, and McGinley played drums for another in their native Geneva, N.Y. The summer after sophomore year, McGinley’s band landed a party gig, and McCoy, who happened to be at the same gathering, stepped to the mic and began to rhyme along with it. Thus Gym Class Heroes was born and went on to release three independent albums before signing to Fall Out Boy principal… Read more »

If you’re expecting some huge sob story from New Found Glory’s Chad Gilbert about his band’s recent departure from Geffen Records, well, you can pretty much stop reading right here. Because, as he told MTV News late Wednesday, NFG’s split with the label – the break was announced via a press release earlier this week – was completely mutual, completely painless and, well, completely expected. “It wasn’t a shock to us, because it’s been in the back of our minds for a while. And we were all sort of thinking, ‘What’s going to be our next move?’ ” Gilbert said.… Read more »

LOS ANGELES, CA – Drive-Thru Records recording artist THE EARLY NOVEMBER has announced that upon completion of the current tour dates, the band will go on an indefinite hiatus. In a statement issued by the band, the reasons for the hiatus are not the result of disparity amongst the band members. Simply, “As we grow older, priorities change. We have to be where we haven’t been in the past six years; with our friends, family, and loved ones.” The band members also extended their enormous gratitude to all the fans and music lovers that have supported them over the years.… Read more »

Every day, the roughly one million people who visit the iTunes Store home page are presented with several dozen albums, TV shows and movie downloads to consider buying — out of the four million such goods the Apple site offers. This prime promotion is analogous to a CD being displayed at the checkout stands of all 940 Best Buy stores or featured on the front page of Target’s ad circular. How do bands get these boosts? Who decides whether Arcade Fire is plugged at the top of the iTunes site — or whether Nickelback gets no mention? Apple has jettisoned… Read more »