Search Results for: 2007

The Verve considers its upcoming album, “Forth,” the reunited British group’s first new set in 11 years, to be the beginning of its new era — and the continuation of a career that’s been interrupted by two previous breakups. “This definitely is an ongoing concern; it’s not something that we’re all just gonna chuck away again,” bassist Simon Jones told Billboard.com. “Looking back I don’t think we had to be so blunt and, ‘Alright, we’re splitting up!’ really. We should’ve just chilled out for a bit and taken some time out, to be honest. “But obviously we all had a… Read more »

It’s a big month for Tegan Quin of the Canadian sibling rock duo Tegan and Sara. She and her twin are embarking on the final leg of their tour supporting their 2007 album “The Con,” she’s co-headlining a benefit event in New York with author Augusten Burroughs, and she’s filming a video for her duet with Florida punk outfit Against Me! Also, one day very soon, she will obtain her driver’s license. “In 28 years, I’ve never had a desire to drive,” Quin told Billboard.com from Los Angeles, where she was set to shoot a video for “Borne on the… Read more »

Rolling Stone magazine unveiled plans on Monday for a major design overhaul, scaling down its signature large-format pages to a standard magazine size in a bid to bolster advertising and sagging newsstand sales. The U.S. pop culture magazine will end the oversized look that for more than 30 years has distinguished it from rival publications starting with an issue set to hit newsstands on October 17. “It feels to me just like a natural step for us to take,” said Will Dana, managing editor at Rolling Stone. “It’s always exciting to shake things up a bit and to grow and… Read more »

Bernie Mac, the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor and comedian who worked his way to Hollywood success from an impoverished upbringing on Chicago’s South Side, died Saturday at age 50. “Actor/comedian Bernie Mac passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital,” his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles. She said no other details were available and asked that his family’s privacy be respected. The comedian suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body’s organs, but had said the condition went into… Read more »

DELETED SCENES HAVE been working on their debut album, “Birdseed Shirt,” for a long time – at least in indie-rock years. Having recorded the basic tracks at Magpie Cage studio in Baltimore in September 2007, the D.C.-born quartet spent roughly 10 months mixing, tweaking and re-tweaking the album. In that time, three members of Deleted Scenes relocated to Brooklyn and two of them have come a few hairs away from completing graduate degrees. Luckily, “Birdseed Shirt” was worth the group’s relative struggle to finish it. The songs Deleted Scenes recently posted to their MySpace page are surprisingly ambitious – delicately… Read more »

The now-aged but still-recording New Kids on the Block have some whippersnappers competing for the attention of suburban housewives nationwide by the name of the Backstreet Boys. Brian Littrell, Nick Carter, Howie Dorough and A.J. McLean are looking to give their boy-band brethren a run for their record sales. The quartet has begun working on its sixth studio album, targeted for a late 2008 release, just in time to compete with the latest from NKOTB. The Backstreet Boys (still sans the retired Kevin Richardson) began cranking on the new material while touring Europe last month, according to Billboard. They may… Read more »

Federal regulators formally approved the merger of the nation’s only two satellite radio operators Friday, ending a 16-month-long drama closely watched by Washington and Wall Street. Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.’s $3.3 billion buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. will mean 18 million-plus subscribers will be able to receive programming from both services. Executives say it will mean huge cost savings that will lead to a first-ever profit for the relatively nascent industry. The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to approve the buyout, with the tiebreaker coming Friday night from Republican commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate. Tate had insisted that… Read more »

British pop star George Michael has a tip for U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama — team up with former rival Hillary Clinton. Michael, 45, touring North America for the first time in 17 years, told fans during a concert at New York City’s Madison Square Garden that “I know you guys all need a change.” He admitted he doesn’t know what kind of change Obama would bring if elected, saying that after “months of watching CNN” he still does not know what Obama or Clinton stand for. But he went on to say that the Illinois and New York… Read more »

Among the most notorious on-screen gaffes ever, Janet Jackson’s breast-baring “wardrobe malfunction” on CBS during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show drew a $550,000 indecency fine from the Federal Communications Commission. Now a federal appeals court has thrown it out. A panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the FCC “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in issuing the fine for the fleeting image of nudity, which it noted lasted just over half a second. An estimated 90 million people watching the Super Bowl heard Justin Timberlake sing, “Gonna have you naked by the end of this… Read more »