Search Results for: 2003

Rock group Linkin Park are threatening to leave their record label, saying Warner Music has limited resources and is lagging behind in the industry. The band’s management company said in a statement that they doubted Warner’s ability to sufficiently promote the band’s upcoming album due to recent cost-cuttings at the company. Linkin Park claim to be responsible for 10 per cent of Warner’s music sales. However, representatives at Warner are accusing the band of overstatement, saying they have accounted for only about three per cent of American sales over the last five years. “While Linkin Park’s talent is without question,… Read more »

A tormentor from Eminem ‘s past has failed to bully a Michigan appeals court into reinstating a lawsuit against the rapper. DeAngelo Bailey, who attended elementary school with Em in Detroit back in the day, claims the rapper’s 1999 tune “Brain Damage,” which name checks Bailey as a schoolyard terrorizer, trashed his reputation by portraying him in a false light. Bailey, now a sanitation worker, contends the worst he did was “bump” the then wimpy Marshall Mathers III and give him a “little shove.” But a Michigan state appeals court ruled Friday that the track, which appears on Eminem’s breakthrough… Read more »

New York power-pop combo Fountains of Wayne will give fans a musical travelogue of their near-decade together with the release of Out-of-State Plates. Due on June 28, the double-disc set contains a whopping 26 non-album tracks recorded at various stages during the band’s career. Intended to appeal to both die-hard fans and newbies snared by the hit “Stacy’s Mom,” the set is a motherlode of rarities and unreleased tracks; there are also five covers and two brand-new songs. The title might seem to continue the automotive theme that the band used on its last two albums, 1999’s Utopia Parkway and… Read more »

Apple yesterday revealed its iTunes Music Store has now sold more than 350 million songs worldwide since it opened its doors to US consumers in April 2003. The latest figure, mentioned last night during the Mac maker’s Q2 FY2005 earnings conference, represents an increase of 50 million or so songs since the company said it passed the 300 million mark, in March. The increase is in line with The Register’s own predictions, and if Apple continues selling songs at this rate of growth, it’s on its way to passing the billion-song mark before the end of 2005. We reckon that… Read more »

Los Angeles – Don’t tell Hot Hot Heat keyboardist/vocalist Steve Bays that press coverage doesn’t matter: The reviews for “Make Up the Breakdown,” the band’s 2003 effort for Seattle-based Sub Pop Records, had a direct influence on the act’s major-label debut. “People said we sounded like Dexys Midnight Runners, so I went out and bought a Dexys Midnight Runners album,” Bays says. What he heard resulted in the current single “Goodnight Goodnight.” The song, which Bays describes as a cross between OutKast’s Andre 3000 and early Beatles, takes a keyboard-laced dancehall groove into a chorus that downshifts the song. The… Read more »

The First Family Of Metal, the Osbournes have been rife with health concerns as of late. Now eldest daughter, Aimee Osbourne is the latest member of the Osbourne clan to become afflicted with a health ailment. Reportedly, Aimee was scheduled to appear in a West End production of The Vagina Monologues, however, she pulled out Saturday due to “unavoidable personal reasons.” According to a statement by mother Sharon Osbourne, Aimee found a “lump on her breast which she’s had removed.” She also mentioned that the operation went “very well on the whole,” however there were a few “minor complications” and… Read more »

Drummer Derrick Plourde – a founding member of Southern California punk band Lagwagon – and Hideaki Sekiguchi – who slapped the bass for Tokyo garage-punk band Guitar Wolf – both died Wednesday, news that sent shockwaves throughout the underground punk rock world. Plourde was 33, and Sekiguchi was 38. Fat Wreck Chords, which released Lagwagon’s earliest material, confirmed Plourde’s death in a statement posted to the indie label’s Web site, which read, in part, “March 30th was a sad day for the Fat Wreck Chords family, as we learned about the passing of Derrick Plourde. We consider him one of… Read more »

London – Sharon Osbourne and her daughter Aimee have withdrawn from performing in “The Vagina Monologues” because Aimee is ill, a spokeswoman said Friday. Aimee, 21, had been set to begin her run with her mother in the West End production of the show on Tuesday. The spokeswoman, in a statement, said the family was flying to Los Angeles over the weekend so that Aimee could have “further treatment and rest.” There were no details about her illness. “They were both very much looking forward to appearing in the show, but Sharon’s focus now has to be on the family… Read more »

A fire broke out Friday at Ozzy Osbourne’s Buckinghamshire mansion, causing considerable damage to the home. No one was reported injured during the blaze, but Ozzy and his wife, Ozzfest mastermind Sharon Osbourne, were treated for smoke inhalation, as were two of their employees, according to Reuters. Heavy metal’s first couple was stirred from bed when fire alarms started sounding late that evening. Fire officials initially suspected the blaze, which ripped through the family’s living room, may have been due to an electrical problem. But fire investigators have since revised their findings, saying now that heat from a fireplace ignited… Read more »

Los Angeles – Lollapalooza – a marquee touring festival of the 1990s that fell on commercial hard times last year – is returning this year in drastically scaled-down form. Lollapalooza ’05 will run July 23-24 in Chicago’s Grant Park. The band lineup will not be announced until the third week in April. The festival Web site (www.lollapalooza.com) will go live Friday. Lollapalooza began life in 1991 as a major vehicle for the exposure of left-field rock talent. A highly successful summer touring proposition in the early ’90s, it took a five-year hiatus from 1998-2002, as other treks like the Vans… Read more »