Search Results for: Alan Day

Beyonce Knowles may be “Crazy in Love,” but she kept her cool Sunday at one of the more sober Grammy Awards shows in memory. She was the night’s big winner, taking home a record-tying five trophies to join recent Grammy queens Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys and Norah Jones with the most wins in a single year by a female performer. OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below won Album of the Year, giving the eccentric Atlanta funk/rap group three wins, including Best Urban Alternative Performance and Best Rap Album. British band Coldplay took home the prize for Record of the Year for “Clocks,”… Read more »

Fresh off a stint on the Big Day Out tour of Australia and New Zealand, the Strokes have unveiled plans for a six-week spring outing in the United States, with an excursion to Mexico City. Dates get underway March 9 in Washington, D.C., and are confirmed through April 25 in Minneapolis, although Strokes manager Ryan Gentles told Billboard.com the tour is expected to run through May 19. Support acts have not yet been announced. The New York rock quintet is touring in support of its sophomore RCA album, “Room on Fire,” which debuted in October at No. 5 on The… Read more »

If Sting wins a Grammy for Best Pop Male Vocal Performance this year, it will be the fourth time he will have had the honor bestowed upon him since 1992. Eric Clapton didn’t release a studio album in 2003, but if he had, you could wager with confidence that he’d be up for the award too, having won three times since 1992. As usual, most of the Pop Male Vocal playing field this go-round is dominated by old-timers: Sting, Michael McDonald, Warren Zevon, who died of lung cancer last September, and George Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001. One… Read more »

Fans of “The Lord of the Rings” films know him as Frodo Baggins, but in plain technical terms, the cutest hobbit ever to shuffle onto the screen, in the guise of actor Elijah Wood, was essentially a storage transfer medium. Compact, sweet by design and capable of delivering precious goods to far-flung destinations, Frodo is to Middle Earth what Apple’s iPod is to modern-day digital media. Just as Frodo exists basically to transport that precious ring to where it needs to go, “Rings” master Peter Jackson found a way to make Apple’s iPod all about helping him get his digital… Read more »

The stage’s platforms, ramps and angular slabs of metal made it look like a futuristic factory floor, and Linkin Park proved to be the gleaming machine that keeps the warehouse in brisk business. In concert at Nassau Coliseum Sunday night, the band was precise and efficient, the members taking on their roles like theater veterans. They ran from side to side without colliding, waved their arms in tandem, leapt from oversized milk crates and waded into the crowd to spread the Linkin love. And for added flair, they brought out an acrobatic breakdancer during “Nobody’s Listening.” Their musical performance was… Read more »

Members of the Nation of Islam have begun playing a role in Michael Jackson’s affairs, sources close to the Jackson camp tell The Associated Press, although the controversial group denies having any official part in the pop star’s life. Jackson insiders, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that Nation of Islam members have handled security at the singer’s Neverland ranch and have began taking over some of Jackson’s business affairs since he was accused of committing lewd acts on a child. The group, which in the past has been accused of anti-Semitism and inflammatory, separatist rhetoric, issued a… Read more »

After Simple Plan finish their 2004 headlining tour, the French Canadian pop punkers will hit the studio to work on their second record. And they won’t be starting from scratch. They’ve already written the skeletons for 10 to 15 new songs, not including the new track “Crash and Burn,” which was on a bonus three-song audio CD included with their recent “A Big Package for You: 1999-2003” DVD. The song, which balances an insistent punk beat and buzzing guitars with harmonized vocals, is about the difficulties of returning home after being on the road. “Being away from our families and… Read more »

Metallica and Godsmack are gearing up for a 2004 North American arena tour which could stretch as far as 80 dates, Billboard.com has learned. The trek will begin March 2 in Phoenix; other confirmed dates include March 8 in San Francisco and March 28 in Seattle. The first batch of ticket on-sales will begin Saturday (Dec. 20) via Ticketmaster. Metallica has already committed to the Big Day Out tour of Australia and New Zealand after the first of the year, plus European festival dates beginning in late May and stretching into July. The group is touring in support of its… Read more »

Berklee College of Music, the world’s largest independent music college and the premier institution for the study of contemporary music announce the launch of Berklee Shares. This groundbreaking new program provides free music lessons and encourages musicians to share and distribute these music lessons online. The Berklee Shares lessons are available at no charge and are made up of a growing catalog of MP3s, QuickTime movies and PDF files derived from curriculum developed at the college by its world-renowned faculty. The lessons are available today for free download on http://www.berkleeshares.com/ affiliate partner sites and peer-to-peer networks including Limewire and Kazaa.… Read more »

If you can believe it, Britney Spears would like people to focus on her music, not her midriff. But seeing is believing, and since the debut of her music video “I’m a Slave 4 U” two years ago, fans have seen Spears take an increasingly provocative journey into sexual exhibitionism. From her love life to her infamous MTV Video Music Awards kiss with Madonna to her National Football League kickoff concert and her most recent performance in New York’s Times Square, the artist has tested the limits of her sexuality. But now comes the moment of truth. With her new… Read more »