Search Results for: 2007

After winning over U.S. hipsters with its critically acclaimed 2005 debut “Silent Alarm,” U.K. rock act Bloc Party is now aiming for mainstream success. The group’s second outing, “A Weekend in the City,” comes out February 6 via Atlantic Records, preceded by two radio singles, “The Prayer” and “I Still Remember.” The group toned down the frenetic feel of its debut, which sold almost one million copies worldwide and drew comparisons to the jerky post-punk of Gang of Four and late-period Blur. “A Weekend in the City,” particularly on its back half, is dominated by slower, richly textured songs that… Read more »

Fall Out Boy will headline the 2007 Honda Civic Tour, which will begin April 18 in Charlotte, N.C. The full routing and support acts will be announced later this month; tickets go on sale to the general public beginning Feb. 17, with pre-sale information to be announced. In honor of the tour, Fall Out Boy has created a custom Honda Civic Hybrid that will be showcased at each performance. At the end of the tour, one lucky fan will win the car, which features Fall Out Boy graphics, hemp upholstery, Alpine Electronics subwoofers and amplifiers and an audio system loaded… Read more »

“Born In the UK” but touring the states Badly Drawn Boy will continue his tour plans into 2007, with news of a major U.S. tour for March. The Manchunian singer/songwriter plans to hit the road for a month in support of his fifth studio set “Born In the UK”, with shows starting March 3rd in Philadelphia. The tour comes to a close in Vancouver on March 27th – the sole Canadian date during a tour which focuses on the west coast of America. The dates are: Mar 3 – Philadelphia PA – Theatre of Living Arts Mar 5 – Somerville… Read more »

LOS ANGELES – U.S. album sales, which include CDs and digital albums, fell 4.9 percent in 2006 as an increasing number of consumers preferred to download individual songs from the Web, Nielsen SoundScan said on Thursday. While data from the music tracking company showed overall music unit sales rose 19.4 percent last year due to digital downloads, the growth momentum of that category also disappointed some market watchers. “Not only did year-end 2006 digital sales fall short of our expectations, more concerning is the deceleration in growth during the fourth quarter,” Richard Greenfield, an analyst with Pali Research, wrote in… Read more »

If you’re ever in some dingy watering hole and a lad wearing a panda costume walks in and sits down at the bar, don’t be alarmed. He might not be just some wacko, and he might not pose any kind of real threat. In fact, there’s a good chance he’s just a bored member of post-hardcore six-piece Chiodos, trying to abolish the ennui that comes with life on the road. “Every single day something ridiculous happens out here,” frontman Craig Owens explained. “We’ll dress someone up to go to a bar in a panda suit, and we’re always playing jokes… Read more »

“Dashboard,” the first single from Modest Mouse’s upcoming Epic album ” We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank ,” will hit U.S. radio outlets Jan. 16, Billboard.com has learned. A poor quality version of the cut, which was roadtested during the band’s fall shows in Los Angeles, New York and London, has already leaked online. Among the other tracks tipped for inclusion on the album, which is due in March and introduces former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr into the Modest Mouse fold, include the more sedate “Fire It Up” (sample lyric: “even if we knew which way to head,… Read more »

If 2006 was the year of user-generated content, 2007 will be the year the music industry learns to generate new revenue from the hugely popular trend. Labels are striking licensing deals with sites like YouTube so that fans can post copyrighted content or include it in videos they make themselves. Additionally, labels are expected to start releasing new types of content — such as unused clips or video montages — specifically created for fans to manipulate in new ways. By doing so, record labels can then share in the advertising revenue these sites collect. Rather than just suing YouTube and… Read more »

You can’t blame U2’s concert promoter for wondering just how big the band’s Vertigo world tour could have been if it had simply kept on playing. After all, not one ticket went unsold for the 131 shows on the trek, which began March 28, 2005, in San Diego and wrapped December 9 in front of 47,000 fans at Honolulu’s Aloha Stadium. Having been on the road in fits and starts since March 2005, U2 was clearly in a celebratory mood in Hawaii, as Bono danced onstage with a woman from the crowd during “Mysterious Ways” and even pulled a lucky… Read more »

With its monster-selling Vertigo world tour complete, U2 may be ready to rock less, according to frontman Bono “Our band has certainly reached the end of where we’ve been at for the last couple of albums,” the newly dubbed honorary knight said during a BBC Radio interview earlier this week. “I want to see what else we can do with it, take it to the next level; I think that’s what we’ve got to do.” Asked if that might mean a move away from rock ‘n’ roll, Bono replied, “We’re gonna continue to be a band, but maybe the rock… Read more »

UNIVERSAL CITY, California – If you’re Panic! at the Disco, how do you end a year in which you went from relative unknowns to one of the hottest bands on the planet? “I might get a tattoo that just says ‘2006,’ ’cause it was such a big year,” bassist Jon Walker said. “Really, just the whole year in general has been amazing to us.” So a tattoo (maybe?) and “a little time off for the holidays,” added drummer Spencer Smith. “Then we’re going to start writing a new record over the winter and hopefully we have something out next fall.”… Read more »